Cross (Dark Kingdom, #4) — Chapter no 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ALEXA

I CAN’T BELIEVE it! How did I not see it? Was I that blind? Or just stupid? A conversation I once had with my brother and April comes to mind when she first found out that Ethan was hiding something from her.

She sits across the bar from me up at Lucky’s.

“Anything you need me to do?” Derek asks. “Want me to talk to him about something? Is it girls?” he asks referring to Ethan.

She shakes her head. “I found a key card of some sort from Kingdom at the shop today. I think it fell out of his jacket pocket.”

“What?” I ask. “How the hell would he get in there?” Her younger brother isn’t even old enough to gamble.

She shrugs. “I’m not sure what the hell he would be doing with that.”

Derek’s dark eyes look around before he leans forward and whispers to her, “Kingdom is bad fucking news, April.”

She waves him off. “It’s just a casino.”

“No. I hear shit in here. Kingdom is into some bad shit.”

“Like what?” She frowns.

“Yeah? Like what?” I ask Derek. How the hell does he know about what goes on there? I’ve never heard talk in here about Kingdom before.

“I hear that the guy, Bones, is in big with the Mafia. Whatever they want, he gets them. Vice versa. And they bury bodies in the desert.”

“Mafia? Really?” She laughs. “Since when do you believe in that shit?

And what could this Bones guy get them?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know exactly. I just know that anything goes there. I guess there’s some sort of black market that the guys run.”

“Illegally?”

He rolls his dark eyes. “That’s what black market stands for.”

“What would Ethan have to do with that?” She wonders, still skeptic.

He shakes his head. “You need to find out. And better hope that it’s not too late to get him out of it.”

Bodies? Isn’t that what Jasmine mentioned to Haven that morning at breakfast? How in the fuck did Derek know about all that? And who did he hear it from? Who is he hanging out with that would have that kind of inside information?

“Alexa?” I hear Jasmine call my name, but I jump onto the elevator.

Before the door can close, she jumps in. “Hey, what happened?”

I spin around on her. “Luca runs the Mafia?”

She sighs, her shoulders sagging.

“Derek was right, and you …”

“It’s none of Derek’s business what others choose to do with their life,” she snaps. “Sometimes it’s either you do what you’re told, or you die.” She turns away from me, all of a sudden regretting getting in the elevator with me. “I don’t expect someone like you or Derek to understand that.”

The elevator dings, and the door opens. She steps out, and I go to reach out for her, but she pulls her arm away just in time to avoid it. “Jasmine?”

Now I’m the one hollering at her, but she’s gone.

I run my hands through my hair, aggravated. What in the fuck just

happened?

“Problem?”

I jump when I hear the man behind me. Spinning around, I come face-to- face with another King—Titan. All the Kings have one thing about them that’s the same—intimidation. They are all covered in ink, have muscles, and a pretty face. It’s truly unfair. Like they were all made in a lab. Titan is by far the largest of them. He has tattoos like Bones that run up and around

his neck.

“Something like that,” I mumble.

He looks over at their private entrance where Jasmine ran out of the double doors. “She’ll come back.”

She can’t run too far. We’re partners now. “Yeah,” I agree.

“There you are, babe.” I hear a woman say and then see Emilee step up next to him. “Thought you were meeting me outside.” She looks at me, smiling. “Hey, Alexa. How are you doing?”

“Good,” I lie. I’m confused as fuck, and I hate that my best friend is away. But even if April was here, I still wouldn’t be able to talk to her about what’s going on. Not with what she’s going through right now. It sucks feeling alone.

Emilee frowns. “Titan, I’ll meet you up in your office,” she says, dismissing him.

“Okay.” He leans down and gives her a quick kiss on the lips, and then he turns, getting back on the elevator.

“Come on. Let’s take a drive.” She links her arm in mine and escorts me out the glass double doors and down the steps to a white Rolls-Royce Phantom coupe parked at the curb. I fall into the passenger seat, and she starts it up. “Talk to me.”

I glance out the blacked-out window, not really looking at anything as she pulls away from the Kings’ private entrance. “About?”

“Whatever it is that’s bothering you,” she says simply.

“It doesn’t matter.” Everything I’ve known is a lie. Or maybe I was just stupid and naïve. Bottom line—I only have myself to blame.

“Of course, it does. Tell me. Maybe I can help you out with it.”

She did grow up with them. She’s married to a King. Why not? I’ll give it a try. “I just found out that Bones is in with the Mafia.”

“Ahh.” She nods, pulling onto the Strip. “I see.”

“And I guess Haven is married to it.”

“Yep. Poor girl never stood a chance.” She chuckles. “She dated Luca while we were in school. She fell for him before she even knew what the Mafia was.”

Not surprised about that part. “Jasmine is mad at me,” I add, seeing where it gets me.

She sighs heavily. “Jasmine is going through something right now.”

“Like what?” I ask, worried for her.

“Her dad.”

I frown. “What about him?” I don’t know much about Jasmine’s family.

She never talks about them.

“Well, he found out about Kink, and he is pissed. Told her to back out.

She refused, of course. Jasmine isn’t one of those women who can be told what to do, ya know? Even by her father.”

That’s why she was snappy with me. I’ve never seen her that way before.

She’s always smiling. Even when I know it’s fake. She’s good at that— making things look okay. “So, what happened?”

“Last she said to me was that she told him to fuck off and to stay out of her business.” Emilee shrugs.

“Why would he care that she opens up a Kink?” I wonder.

“Jasmine’s dad is a big deal … or so he thinks. And he takes his reputation very seriously.” She rolls her eyes so hard her head moves. “He’s a piece of shit. Always has been. Always will be.”

“So, what’s going to happen when she chooses to go against his demands?”

“I’m guessing he’ll cut her off. Who the hell knows? Jasmine has always been very independent. Well, I don’t have to tell you that. You’re her friend.

She’ll figure it out.”

I sit back and let out a sigh. I never stopped to think about what others would think once they see we are opening up Kink. The members that will come in and out. I’m guessing most, if not all, will be high profile. I mean, some average Joe Smith won’t be able to afford fifty grand to join.

_______________

I DIDN’T HAVE much to say to Emilee. We drove around in silence after she informed me of Jasmine’s situation. So, when she took me back to Kingdom, I jumped in my own car and headed to her house. I wasn’t ready to speak to Cross just yet. Not sure what to really say to him anyway. I was afraid I’d just make myself look stupid again.

I stand on the front porch of her mansion and ring the bell. Seconds later, the door opens to Jasmine standing before me. Her eyes drop to the bottle of Fireball in my right hand before they return back to me. “Figured we’d have a drink.”

I half expect her to slam the door in my face, but I’m hopeful when she takes a step back, holding it open for me instead. I notice the boxes sitting in the foyer immediately. Not hard to miss. “Are you moving?” I joke.

“Yes,” she deadpans.

The smile drops off my face, and I go to ask why she hasn’t already told me this but her doorbell rings.

Jasmine yanks it open. “Lauren,” She sighs. “What can I do for you today?”

“Your dog is in your backyard.” The older woman places her hands on her hips.

“Yes. I know this may come as a shock, but dogs have to piss and shit like humans do.”

She pulls her lips back at Jasmine’s choice of words. “She’s barking at me through your fence.”

“Dogs bark. Just like Karen’s bitch,” she states dryly.

The woman gasps.

“Have a nice day, Karen.” Then she slams the door in her face.

“You got a dog?” I ask confused.

“Yeah,” she answers, walking from the foyer.

I quicken my pace behind her as she heads to her kitchen. “Wait. What?”

Let’s go back to her moving. “Are you serious about moving?” How did I

not know this?

“As a heart attack.”

We enter the kitchen, and I place the Fireball bottle on the counter and turn around to face her as she gets two shot glasses out of the cabinet.

“Since when?”

Grabbing the glasses, she turns back around and places them on the white marble counter and unscrews the lid before pouring us both a shot. She stays silent, fills her glass, and then throws it back, not even bothering to wait for me. Once done, she refills it.

Before she can take this one, I reach out and grab it from her hand.

“What the hell is going on, Jasmine?” I demand this time.

Placing her hand on the counter, she bows her head and takes in a deep breath. Then she looks up, her eyes on mine. “I was a Queen.”

I’ve heard of that before.

“Hey, girlie.”

I look up from behind the bar to see Jasmine sit down next to April.

“Hey. What are you doing here?” April asks her.

She shrugs. “Was on my way out for the night and thought I’d stop by and see Alexa. Have to support my friends.” She drops a couple of hundreds in the glass tip jar that sits on the bar. “What are you up to tonight?”

“Nothing,” April answers, taking a sip of her Corona.

“Come out with me. I’m going to a party,” Jasmine offers, fixing the thin shoulder straps to her little black dress.

“Nah—”

“Hey, you work at Kingdom,” I interrupt her, joining their conversation.

I’m not sure exactly what she does, but I’ve heard her mention it. Maybe she can help April out with her Ethan problem. “We have questions.”

“What? You work at Kingdom? What do you do there?” April wonders.

Jasmine chuckles, shaking her head. “Sorry, ladies. I can’t discuss that.”

April frowns as my brother jumps in while he pours a Miller Lite into a frosted mug. “See, told you some bad shit goes down there.”

Jasmine squares her shoulders. “You know nothing about Kingdom. Trust me.”

He tops off the mug and sets it down before placing his forearms on the bar and leaning into her personal space. “I know that Bones is in with the Mafia. I know that a lot of illegal shit goes on there.” He pulls back and looks her up and down the best he can since she’s sitting, and adds, “And I

know you’re a Queen.”

“What’s a Queen?” April whispers to me.

I shrug. No fucking clue.

Jasmine places her hands on the bar and stands, leaning over it. They’re nose to nose. “You seem to know a lot about nothing.”

His eyes drop to her breasts that are poking out of her skintight dress. He licks his lips before his eyes meet hers again. “I know enough.” Reaching out, he takes a piece of her red hair, freeing it from behind her ear. “How much does a Queen go for these days?” he asks her.

Her red-painted lips turn up at the corners before she runs her tongue along her upper lip. “More than you can afford.”

He lets go of her hair, his finger trailing down over her neck. “I don’t know. I’ve heard pussy comes pretty cheap.”

“Not the good ones.”

“Hey, Derek? Where’s my beer?” a guy shouts from the end of the bar.

He ignores him as he looks at her. It’s like they’re in a staring contest.

Whoever looks away first will lose. “Let’s just say our opinions differ on what’s good,” he finally says before pulling away from her and delivering the beer.

“What was that about?” I ask Jasmine, wide-eyed and confused.

“I gotta go,” Jasmine states, picking up her clutch while completely ignoring my question. “We’ll do lunch next week.” Then she walks away

without another word.

“Which is?” I ask again, hoping she fills me in this time. I tried to ask Derek, but he blew me off. Then I just forgot about it. I can’t ask him now.

He won’t even speak to me. And I can’t go to him now that I know about Bones and Luca. I can’t let him know he was right.

She walks over to the bar and sits down at one of the high back stools. I sit down next to her. “Titan runs the Queens at Kingdom. The Queens are high-paid escorts for the worldwide elite.”

“Oh.” Not what I was expecting, but that conversation she had with my brother makes much more sense now.

“I couldn’t talk about it then because it involved an attorney and an NDA. Even now, I’m not supposed to say anything, but … Titan wouldn’t mind me telling you because I know you won’t say anything.” She runs a hand through her hair. “A … friend was in a hard place and needed a job. I knew about the Queens, so I went with her, and Titan hired us both. My father found out and demanded that Titan fire me, but he wouldn’t. My father is a member.” She rolls her eyes. “A man buys you a few tacos from a taco truck, and you’re expected to fuck him in the back seat of his truck.

How dare a woman fuck and actually get paid for it? Anyway, now my dad is threatening to take everything from me if I don’t stop Kink.”

I reach out and place my hand on top of hers. “We can put it on hold.” I shrug. “Do it another time. Lucky’s isn’t going anywhere.”

She shakes her head. “What my father doesn’t know is that the money I put down for Kink didn’t come from him. He has no control over that.

While I was a Queen, I met a guy who paid me a lot of money to just hang out with him. He was newly married, but his wife refused to do anything with him. I was supposed to spend an entire week with him in New York, but something fell through, and he had to head back home early. He found his partner’s son in bed with his wife.”

My eyes widen. Not where I saw that story going.

“She’s a year younger than me, and he’s fifty-five. She didn’t know that she had been caught with her boy toy. So he flew to Vegas, and we spent the rest of that week here in town at an attorney’s office.”

“Doing what exactly?” I ask, trying to keep up. I’m still processing everything I’ve found out in the past hour.

“He sold me several properties he had for really cheap. He was going to wait a few months and then file for a divorce. His parents are dead. He no longer trusted his business partner, especially if he knew his son was fucking his wife. And he didn’t have any kids.”

“That’s where you got the money for Kink?” I start to piece it together.

“Yep.” She nods. “Even though he had a prenup, he still didn’t want to take any chances of her getting anything. After his divorce was final, I offered to sell them back to him at the same price as I bought them, of course, but he told me to keep them. I sold one of them last month when I decided I wanted to open Kink with you. I went to Bones first, explained the situation, and asked him to help us because I knew we weren’t going to

be able to do it on our own.”

“But your dad …?”

“I don’t care about him.” She averts her eyes to her hand on the bar.

“He’s on this house with me. And that’s why I’m moving out and selling it.” Her eyes come back to mine. “He’ll hold it over me for the rest of my life, and I refuse to live like that.”

“You know you can stay with me, right?” I say. “I mean, it’s not a mansion, but I’ve got a spare room.”

She smiles at me. “Thank you, but I’ve got somewhere lined up. And I’ve already made an offer on another house. If I’m lucky, I’ll be moving in shortly.”

I nod my head once, not digging into that. She’s already told me enough about her life tonight. I’m not going to question who she’s sleeping with.

Hell, for all I know, she plans on moving in with Titan and Emilee in the meantime. “Well, if there is anything that I can do, just let me know.” And as I say the words, I already know what I can do for her.

As she’s pouring us both a shot, I send a quick text to Emilee.

CROSS

I’M SITTING BEHIND my desk the following morning when I hear a knock on the door. “Come in,” I growl, hoping it’s not Bones. I’m not in the mood to do shit today.

The door opens, and I look up to see Alexa is back. She softly closes the door behind her and comes to stand in front of my desk. I’m surprised to

see her here. Again. After what was said yesterday. I’ve wanted to call her a hundred times but refrained. Not sure what to say or how to say it. “Have a seat,” I offer at her silence.

She steps forward and sits down in the empty chair across from my desk, crossing one leg over the other and pushing her hair behind her ear. She’s nervous.

“What do you need, Alexa?” I ask, my eyes falling to the manila envelope in her lap. Wonder what’s in it?

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for snapping at you yesterday.” She runs her hands over the envelope. “I heard rumors and figured there were some truths to them. I just hated that Derek was right.”

Derek was right? Just what does her brother know? I already don’t like the guy. He’s a punk-ass bitch if you ask me. But I won’t tell her that because I’m pretty sure she already knows. So, I just stare at her.

“Anyway, I wanted to come up here. I just spoke to Bones and quit Glass.

Do you still have an opening at the club?”

“Of course.” I want to fist pump the air right now but refrain from looking like a jealous bitch. I wasn’t going to let her work at Glass, no matter what she said. But I’m glad she made that decision on her own.

Things would have been awkward when I stepped in to destroy that job for her.

“Lucky’s is going to be open through Sunday and then shut down for the remodel. I’ll start here at Kingdom on Monday if that’s okay with you?”

I nod. “Absolutely.”

She stands, taking the envelope into her hands. “Thank you.” And without another word, she turns, and I let her walk out of my office, knowing that more needed to be said.

My door opens, and I smile, expecting it to be her coming back, but it falls when it’s just Titan. “What?”

He closes my door. “We’ve got a problem.”

Of course, we do. “What is it?”

“The man Bones carved open?” he questions.

“Yeah, what about him?” We didn’t find any more diamonds in his body or in his car parked at Glass. He only had six on him, meaning we are still missing six. We did, however, return the ones we found. The Mason brothers better hurry up and do their job, or we’ll own Kale’s business and

share it with Luca and Nite. If they don’t produce on their end, we won’t hold up ours.

“Well, he worked for Kale.” He sits down in the chair.

I frown, tilting my head. “So, Kale fucked over our client. It wasn’t stolen or anything like that?” I question.

He shrugs. “As far as I know, no. But if that’s the case, why didn’t he have all of them?”

“Maybe they distributed the diamonds out?” I offer. “It’d be harder to find them if they’re scattered.”

“Or maybe that guy had all of them at some point but sold some.” He leans back in the chair, linking his fingers behind his head.

The guy didn’t have a cell phone on him or in his car. We found that odd.

Who doesn’t have a cell these days? Especially if he’s buying and selling product. They have to communicate somehow. “Have you told Bones this?”

“Nope. I wanted to have more concrete evidence before I went to him.”

“Has Luca found the guy’s address?” His wallet was in the center console of his car, but it didn’t have a driver’s license, and the car wasn’t even registered to him. It was another dead end. No surprise there.

“He told me he’s got Nite working on it when I spoke to him an hour ago.”

I sigh. Well, there’s nothing else we can do other than wait and see who gets answers first.

ALEXA

I’M CLOSING DOWN the bar later that night when my door opens, and I see Jasmine enter. “Don’t you ever sleep?” I ask her.

“Sleep is for the weak. Only those willing to sacrifice will ever make it.”

She sits down across from me. “I’ve always preferred the night over the day.”

“Well …” I slap the bar. “I’m actually glad you’re here because I have something for you.” Walking to the other end of the bar, I pull my purse out of the cubby and remove the paperwork that I picked up on the way to work earlier this evening. Bones and Cross weren’t the only two Kings I spoke to while at Kingdom this morning. I had messaged Emilee yesterday when I went to Jasmine’s house, asking her if Titan could help me out with

something. Jasmine mentioning an NDA and an attorney gave me the little information I needed. I don’t know any attorneys, but Titan does. After I explained to Emilee what I needed one for, she told me Titan would meet with me this morning. “Here you go.” I slap it down in front of her.

“What’s this?”

“This is me paying you back.” I say the same thing she said to me when she showed up here with the papers for Kink.

True to his word, Titan called his attorney while I was sitting in his office this morning, I explained what I wanted, and he had the papers drawn up within an hour.

She frowns but opens it up and pulls out the contents. Her green eyes scan over it quickly. Then they snap up to glare at me. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” I shake my head with a smirk on my face. “One hundred percent. All in.”

She sets it down and sighs. “This is not what I meant …”

“I know. This is what I want to do.”

“Alexa …”

“You and me, Jasmine. I trusted you. Now you trust me.”

She drops her head, running her hand through her hair. Then she flips it back and stands with a big smile on her face. I added her to Lucky’s as a partner. I want her to know that I have as much faith in her as she does me.