Arranged love

HAVEN

I EXIT THE shower and hear him enter the bedroom. After wrapping the towel under my arms, I step into the bedroom.

“Are your bags still packed?” Luca asks, storming to his closet.

“Yes,” I answer, following him.

“Where are they?” he demands.

“In my closet,” I say, entering his. He’s throwing shit into a suitcase. “What’s going on?”

“Here.” He reaches into his pocket and tosses me my phone. I catch it in the air. “Get dressed. We’re leaving in twenty.”

Leaving? “Where are we going?” I ask.

“To Kingdom.” Then he storms out of his closet and into mine. I run after him. He grabs a couple of my bags and sets them in the middle of the bedroom.

I frown. “Why do I need bags to go to Kingdom?” I ask confused. “Are we staying there?”

“No,” he snaps as his cell begins to ring. He looks down at it and hits answer. “Titan …” He pauses, then exits the room, shutting the door behind him.

I look down at my phone in my hand. He hasn’t been charging it, so the battery shows eight percent. Biting my bottom lip, I go to my call log and pull up Jasmine’s number. Before I can second-guess what is happening, I press call.

She picks up on the third ring. “What up, ho?”

“I don’t have much time,” I say in greeting. Staring at the closed bedroom door, I wait for Luca to return. He wouldn’t have given me my phone back if I wasn’t allowed to use it, right? “Whatever you’re doing, stop. And meet me at Kingdom in twenty minutes.”

_______________

I sit inside Empire, the steakhouse that sits on the twentieth floor of Kingdom. My knees bounce, and I chew on my bottom lip nervously. I have no clue what is going on. I hurried to get ready after Jasmine agreed to meet me. And when Luca returned to the bedroom, he was off his phone and telling me it was time to go. Nite brought us here. But the moment we arrived, Luca told me to mind Nite and left me. Just as I had hoped he would. For some reason, I knew we were coming here for him to meet Titan. And Luca wasn’t gonna allow me to be involved in whatever they wanted to discuss. I figured that out earlier in his office when he was having a meeting with Bones. He may be forcing me to marry him, but he wants to keep me in the dark when it comes to business. A part of me is okay with that because nothing involving the Dark Kings is good.

I look up from the booth and see Jasmine enter. I jump up and run to her. She wraps her arms around me and picks me up off my feet like she hasn’t seen me in years.

“Oh my God,” she shrieks, putting me down. She looks the same as she did when I saw her a few weeks ago. She’s been dying her hair red for the past couple of years. She wears it up in a high ponytail today with a Neffex T-shirt on and holey jeans with a pair of Converse. You wouldn’t think her dad is a millionaire. I’ve always loved that about her.

We sit down, and her eyes slide over to the entrance. “Is that Oliver Nite?”

I sigh. “Yeah. He’s my babysitter.”

She lifts her chin to him. “Hey, Nite?” she calls out. “Do you charge by the hour? How much for an overnight?”

“Jasmine …”

“I’m serious.” She whistles looking him up and down. “Damn, he’s hotter than he was in college.”

He doesn’t acknowledge her in any way. With his arms crossed over his chest, he stares straight ahead.

She laughs, giving me her attention. “I’m pretty sure he’s gay.”

“What? No …”

“Yep.” She nods. “You never saw him with a girl back in school. Never heard of him with a woman. Then he took that vow of silence.” She looks back over at him. “You can be my bitch, Nite. If that’s what you’re into.”

I choke on air as his eyes slam to hers at her words. She blows him a kiss. “I have a strap-on. No judgement.” She throws her hands up in the air. “I’ve experimented with girls before. I know how to use it.”

He looks at her like he’s about to body slam her ass into the ground. And not in a good way.

I run a hand down my face. “When was the last time you got laid?”

“Well, my hoodie got caught on the doorknob as I was leaving the house yesterday and the collar choked me. My nipples got hard and my cunt wet. It was the most action I’ve had in three weeks.”

Same ole Jasmine. I smile at her. I miss her. I miss both my best friends. “Have you spoken to Emilee lately?”

“She was in town a couple of weeks ago.”

I look down at my cell that sits on the table. It has officially died. “What? She didn’t tell me.”

She nods. “I gave her a call, and she sounded out of breath. I asked her if she was fucking. She went silent for a second and then explained she was boarding a plane back to Chicago.”

I sit back in the booth. “Why didn’t she call and tell me?”

“She was just in town for the day. It’s her mom … She’s sick.”

My chest tightens. “Sick how?”

“Lymphoma. Stage four.”

I gasp.

“Gave her six months to live. She was heading back to Chicago to pack up her things and place her apartment on the market so she can move back here and help her father take care of her.”

“Why …?” I swallow. Gripping my phone, I wish I could call her and tell her I’m sorry. That I love her, and that I’m here for her. “Why hasn’t she told me this?”

She shrugs. “You know how Emilee deals with things. I’ve tried calling her since, but she never answers.”

“How did we get here?” I ask.

“Celibate?”

It makes me laugh at how she deflects. “No. So distant. We used to be inseparable.”

She shrugs again. “Life happens. We get older, and everything goes to shit.” She reaches for a piece of calamari off the plate I ordered in the middle of the table and shoves it in her mouth. “You should see my tits. Time has not been nice to them.”

I doubt that. They’re fake. But instead of reminding her of that, I say. “I’m getting married.”

She looks up at me through her dark lashes. Her hands pause with more calamari. “My hearing must be going to shit as well ’cause it sounded like you just said you’re getting married.”

I hold up my left hand to show her my ring.

Her eyes widen. “You’re gonna be a …”

“Bianchi,” I finish for her.

Sitting back in her seat she releases a heavy sigh. “What? How …? When did you get back together?”

Tears sting my eyes, and I lick my lips. Taking in a deep breath, I fill her in.

___