“From this moment on, you are my inner circle. Alongside Raya and Beau, and one or two other women that I will assign roles to eventually. But you will fill the slots of those my daddy trusted with every inch of our organization and be my right-hand men.” I was as blunt as I could. “Beau is my second withgang stuff, and the CFO overall, but consider yourselves my second-adjacent and as kings of my castle, too.”
They all blinked at me, a little confused, either struggling to understand the depths of what I said, or perhaps not truly believing it. But that was fine, they could figure things out later on, and I carried on speaking, wanting to get everything out before they interrupted.
“My daddy knew what he was doing when he selected you to help me, and though I wish more than anything you did not have to pay the consequences of being near me, I am more grateful than you will ever know for being here. And though I know you do not seek payment, I will give it anyway – you will get the money, power, and respect that you deserve from everyone in Diamond Grove and then beyond. And you will be given the tools you need to go on and do anything you want in life. If there is a dream you have, then you will get it; I will make sure of that.”
Money – billions of it. Power beyond their wildest dreams. The ability to do anything and everything their hearts could desire… God, I was giving them anything they wanted – everything they could ever dream of. They had what was mine, that was for sure, but I wanted them to have the options to have their own things, too. Their own jobs, businesses, ideas.
Misha could finally build the app he had been working on for years. Price could go pro with his fighting. Lincoln could race in more professional settings around the world. Logan could buy planes and boats and anything delightful he wanted to have a tinker with. And Kody could even start the restaurant that I knew he secretly thought of when he allowed himself to pretend he would be more than a sniper. They could do anything they dreamed of and I would not stop them – I would help them.
Not one of them had issues with my words when they eventually sunk in, even if they were a little shocked and thanked me far too much.
“Okay, gorgeous. If you want us by your side, then we will do it.” Price bobbed his head eventually. “What’s our first job for you? What do you need us to do?”
I glanced out of the window at one of the many groups of Red Diamonds gangsters that was roaming my property, armed and ready to battle any moment. I thought about Henley, Delilah, and all the other girls in my home and the scars they wore in their brains and on their skin. I pictured all the other people I cared for as friends or more, who had their lives ruined or partly tainted by everything going on, and I knew what I wanted.
What I had wanted from the minute the light had lined up on my daddy’s head and he had promised that he loved me and I was his daughter, no matter what else I came to learn.
“We need to ready the troops,mi amor.” I grinned for real for the first time in a while. “We are going to war, and I don’t want survivors except for us.”
Chapter Nineteen
Being outside my home was a new thing to me. Even when Logan’s birthday had passed a week ago, we had not gone outside because I had not been ready and he had refused to rush me. And yet for the first time in weeks, I wasn’t exactly… scared. I was amused and nervous, but most of it was nothing to do with being somewhere that not so long ago I had never thought I would see again. No, it was specifically the reason why I was outside today that made me unsure and wary.
It was the first big step in our master plan, crafted between me and my five men until it was perfect, and not shared with a single soul beyond Ruby, Rika, and Henley. Three women who each played a role in my final game. Even Beau didn’t know the full extent of things; there were two steps that had been hidden even from him. Perhaps an odd choice, considering I had entrusted the three women so much. But it made sense to me and it was what would work.
It would all make sense in the end – it would all work out for us.
It had to.
“I look like a cake.” My hands clenched into fists by my side, yanking parts of the opulent silver gown that drowned my body. “I know I said I had no fussiness for a gown, but this is beyond what I can tolerate.”
The bridal store’s choice of an engagement party dress that adorned me made me look like I was a cross between a three-tiered cake with gems and someone who had fallen into a pit of shiny fabric and had somehow wound up stuck.
Rika burst into laughter, snapping a picture of me on her phone as she leaned back on the couch, pink hair spreading across the cushions.
“I think you make a pretty cake. I would do you in that dress.” She could barely hold her face straight as she lied through her teeth. “Okay, okay. No, I would not. That dress is so silly.” She found it more funny when I bent down and threw one of the bedazzled cushions at her from the couch nearest to me.
Dress shopping was insanely difficult, and I had never dreamed I was going to have done it with three girls I had rescued, another whose life I had inadvertently ruined when her family were slaughtered, a mayor’s daughter I’d rescued and decided to keep, my boyfriend’s cousin, and my uncles… friend? Or whatever the hell Ruby was. Yeah, we were a rag-tag group.
I would have liked to have had relatives with me – either my father, my mama or Beau. But two of those were dead, and the other was busy organising the security for my impromptu engagement party I was throwing as part of our stalker capturing plan. Keeping me and my future husband alive was far more important than having someone I loved with me and so I had asked the group of girls who mostly carried my surname now.
Delilah, Yumi, and the others were great. I really liked all of them, but I wanted someone… I wanted…
I wished I had my mama. I needed her. I wanted a hug from her as she told me everything was okay.
I wanted her to tell me that I looked like an idiot in the dress I wore and to help me pick out something better.
Ruby shook her head and interrupted my darker thoughts about all the many things I had lost as she caught my attention with her bemused stare.
“Baby, I don’t mean this in no rude way, but you look like you’ve been pulled through a knothole backwards… that dress is not it for you. Not at all.”
She wasn’t wrong. Not even a little, even if I wasn’t sure what a knothole was.
“All I wanted was a big party and to wear a pretty dress. They were my only conditions.” I sighed a little dramatically as I fell back onto the blue velvet couch, wrapping my hands over my face.
My wedding may have been a ruse for us to bait my stalker out once more, but it was still a real wedding if we got to that stage. And sure, we were hoping that Cassie made a move at the engagement party and finally revealed her face to us. But on the off chance she called my bluff, then I really was going through with the wedding too. I was marrying my boyfriend – Price specifically, seeing as he had won the little game to decide who was my fiancé, much to his amusement - and I was doing all the legal stuff required to gain a husband.
But the engagement party, the wedding, and all the rest of the things we had planned were all still happening because we wanted to draw out Cassie O’Malley and finally put a face to one of her many names. Sure, I had been with her and ought to have seen something useful. But aside from her love of masksand voice changers, I couldn’t remember a lot of what happened, beyond the pain and hallucinations, thanks to the drugs.
