“No.”
“I’ll be your assistant. I’ll do whatever the fuck you need.”
“I said no!” I growled, throwing the bottle of Jack over her head and smashing it into the wall behind her.
I slammed my fists down on the bar, and she flinched. I was breathing hard, and the sound filled the now deadly quiet space.
“Fine,” she said coldly. “You said no.” She crossed her arms. “You didn’t need to waste an entire bottle of Jack, though.”
My lips twitched as her sullen words managed to melt my anger. I held back my smile. I could have strangled her if I wasn’t so busy trying to shake the guilt of her words away.
It was true.
Clive would be kicking my ass if he knew I was wasting away his legacy.
Legacy.
The word left a bad taste in my mouth. I was tired of saying it, of thinking it. Clive wasn’t thinking when he left everything to me. He was wrong about me. He was so fucking wrong about me.
“Let’s go,” I said, standing from my barstool.
“What? Where?” Panic moved across her expression.
“Upstairs. There’s an apartment up there where I stay. I’m beat, and I’m assuming you have no place to crash tonight. No place warm anyway.”
“I don’t need your pity. You left me a long time ago, and I’ve been doing just fine.”
“You call selling your ass just fine? You and I have a different definition of the meaning just fine then.”
“Fuck you, Sebastian.”
“I’m not in the mood to argue. Follow me or don’t, but I’m locking up, and you’re either staying or getting lost.”
“You’re a dick now.”
“Wrong; I’ve always been a dick.”
“Not to me, you weren’t.” She looked hurt.
“I’m going.”
I made my way up the stairs to the apartment. Seconds later, I heard her footsteps creeping up the old wood stairs.
It would be weird to share the small space with someone after so long. After Clive died, I was so hell-bent on keeping myself in an alcohol-induced state that I hadn’t bothered bringing anyone into my space.
“So this is your place,” she said, leaning into the door and looking around.
I went around, picking up old food containers, dirty laundry, and cups.
“You’re welcome to stay somewhere else if it’s not good enough for you.”
“Oh, shut it. I’m just giving you shit. It’s better than the streets.”
“You can sleep in the room in the back. Just let me get it ready.”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind taking the couch.”
“Nope. That’s my bed.”
“You have a room in the back, but you sleep on the couch? Why?”
“Why do you have to question everything? That shit’s annoying. It’s a bed. When’s the last time you slept in a bed?”
“True. Fine. I’ll take the bed.”
“There are drinks in the fridge, and I’m sure there’s something edible in the kitchen. I’ll be back.”
I made my way to the back room and stood in front of Clive’s bedroom door.
It was closed.
I’d closed it the day I left David’s office, and I hadn’t opened it since. Taking a deep breath, I turned the knob and pushed it open.
The room was dark, cold, and empty. Not that I had gotten rid of anything of Clive’s, but he just never had anything to fill the room. He wasn’t big on material things, and that showed in the way he lived.
It wasn’t until after I came around that he decided to make the place more of a home. I didn’t need all that stuff. It was already more of a home than I had ever had.
Pulling Clive’s blankets off, I stripped the bed and put a new sheet on that I’d found in the hall closet. I dropped a folded blanket on the bed and shook out the pillows. I didn’t like being in his space, so I turned to leave, letting Vick know her bed was ready.
“Okay, I got some blankets. The bathroom’s down the hall if you need it … Shit, are you fucking kidding me?” I cursed. “You couldn’t wait five minutes?”
There was no reply.
She was passed out on my bed … the couch. Walking over to her, I draped my blanket over her, and she snuggled under the warmth. I hit the light switch on the wall and made my way back to Clive’s room.
I had no choice.
I wasn’t about to cuddle up with Vick on the small ass couch.
In the room, I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. It was one night. I could sleep in his room for one night.
Standing, I moved to walk around the bed, and that was when I saw it.
The envelope David Spencer had given me.
Clive’s familiar handwriting had scribbled my name across the front, and my heart ached from missing him so much.
I hadn’t opened the envelope.
I couldn’t.
Instead, I tucked it away in Clive’s room with the rest of the paperwork I had gotten from David, hoping to forget.
I sat on the edge of the bed again and stared down at the envelope. Until then, I hadn’t been one bit curious about what he had written to me, but at that moment, my fingertips burned to tear at the seal and hear from Clive once more.
His final words to me could either make it worse or make it better. Either way, I needed to hear from him.
Turning the envelope over, I slid my finger under the flap and tore it open, pulling out a yellow piece of paper.
My fingers stung from the cold as I unfolded the paper and stared down at more of Clive’s handwriting, without comprehending the words.
Finally, I settled on the first sentence …
To my one and only son,
You brought purpose to my lonely life. I know you think you’re a black spot on this Earth, but what you don’t realize is you shined a lot of light on all the dark places in my life. Thank you for giving me something to smile about before I left this world.
Now, don’t you be a stubborn ass like me and turn this opportunity down. I firmly believe you came into my life for a reason, and it was so that I could have someone to remember me when I’m gone. So I could have someone to leave my legacy to.
Take it. Enjoy it. And when you find your Shelby Mustang, you hold on for dear life and spoil the hell out of her.
I love you, son.
LIVE.
My breath rushed from my body, leaving me breathless and weak.
For the past year, I had convinced myself that Clive had made the biggest mistake of his life by leaving everything to me. Clearly, he hadn’t been in the right frame of mind because if he had, he would have known better.
But after reading his words, I felt like I could do it. For the first time since he left me, I felt like it was possible. From the very beginning, Clive had seen something in me that I hadn’t, and it was time I proved him right.
I would build what he left behind and make it everything he ever dreamed I would and more. But first, there would be some changes.
For starters, I was no longer the boy I had once been. I had been groomed by the darkness of life—changed and formed by evil—landing in the shadows of a past I never wanted to look back on.
Sebastian Stephens would always live there … in the shadows.
But I couldn’t be him anymore.
I needed to get away from that name—that life—those memories.
Sebastian Stephens was no more. The darkness had taken him completely, leaving everything black.
Sebastian Black.
THIRTY-ONE
Two Years Later
SCHEDULED TO OPEN IN UNDER A MONTH, I stood staring up at my nightclub’s building and its unique architecture, taking a minute to grasp what I had accomplished in the past eight months.
Construction inside was nearing an end; all employees had been hired, thanks to Vick, and I’d finally chosen a head chef and bar manager.
Vick handled all my employee communication. She had be
come my right hand in all things since the night I had found her selling her ass on the streets, and honestly, I couldn’t imagine the club opening and running smoothly without her.
I would never tell her that, though.
So much had changed in my life over the past three years, and finally taking it all in left me feeling proud of what I was able to create.
It was more than what I built—more than the money I had managed to triple—it was the changes in myself. I was no longer lost—no longer visibly broken. I was no longer a nothing.
I was molded and changed thanks to my past and thanks to Clive. The power I held was addicting, and I held strong to it—making myself someone—making myself irreplaceable to a lot of people.
There wasn’t a soul in the city who didn’t seek my respect, and that kind of power was raw and inviting … consuming. I instilled fear in the hearts of people, making sure no one ever tried to mark me, and so the name Black spread, and Sebastian Stephens ceased to exist.
“What are you doing standing out here?” Vick asked, coming up behind me.
She had changed as well. Becoming colder and stronger—only allowing me inside her brain—she broke the bones and hearts of many a man.
“I’m admiring the sign.”
She stood next to me, her shoulder bumping into mine. “It looks good.”
“Yes, it does.” I shoved my hands in the pockets of my expensive suit.
It had been cut specifically for me as were all my clothes.
“Clive’s is going to be the hottest club in the city, just you wait.”
Her words were true.
I would make it so.
“I have no doubt.”
And I didn’t.
Clive’s, the club I was opening, was much more than my accomplishment. It was Clive’s dream, his legacy. If it weren’t for him, I would have nothing … be nothing. I would make the club a success if it was the last thing I did.
“Are you coming in any time soon?” Vick asked.
“No. I have something to do first.”
“Are you going to tell me what that is?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so. I’ll see you later, then?”
I nodded, rocking back on the heels of my expensive leather shoes.
“Yes. Make sure to send that envelope to David’s office, okay?”
“You never said what’s in it.”
“And I don’t plan to. Send it,” I demanded.
“Whatever you want, boss.”
“I’ll be back. Have Martin bring the car around?”
“Will do.”
“One more thing … make sure the movers deliver those boxes from the old apartment to here. All except the one box marked office stuff can go into the new apartment.”
“I’ll send them over there now. They’ll be here by the time you get back.”
And then she was gone, her heeled boots clicking into the night.
Minutes later, Martin pulled the car in front of me and got out to open my door. I disappeared behind the tinted windows and watched the city go by as he drove to my destination.
Thirty minutes later, we were across the city in another time, another life. We pulled through the gates of the cemetery and alongside the grave I hadn’t visited in a long time. The guilt never fully went away, but I could keep it under control when I paid my respects.
Getting out of the car, I made my way toward their headstone. They were side by side, together in life as well as in death. Wilted flowers dotted the top of their plot, and judging by their state of decay, I knew it had been a while since she had been there, too.
Thinking about her—about them, the children I had left orphaned—tugged at the knot in the pit of my stomach that I knew would forever grow and fester.
I didn’t show emotion anymore, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, tucked just behind the beating organ that metaphorically felt all things.
Kneeling, I plucked the dead flowers from the grass and set them down next to my feet. The fresh wildflowers I had brought with me fell from my fingers and filled the metal vase at the base of their headstone.
Visiting them always reminded me I would never fully be rid of my past sins. No matter how much success I had or how big Clive’s would become, I could never really be completely happy.
I didn’t deserve it.
Their daughter and son would never know happiness because of me. It was only fair, since I had made my bed all those years ago, that destroying their family would haunt me until I died.
Being around Vick only stirred those feelings. I wasn’t even sure being around her was something I would be able to do and still look at myself in the mirror the next day, but seeing her and what had become of her, I knew I couldn’t turn my back on her.
Part of me felt like if I could save her … I could save them. As idiotic as it sounded.
Vick was my responsibility now. As long as I kept my eye on her, she could never hurt anyone again. As long as I knew where she was and what she was into, I was keeping her and everyone in her path safe.
If her hands were clean, then so were mine.
Just because there was no fixing me didn’t mean I couldn’t at least try to fix her.
I stared long and hard at the graves, knowing it would be the last time I would come and visit for a long while. She was getting older, and the risk of running into her was too great. I would have no way to explain why I was there or how I knew her parents. Part of me wondered if I would be able to hold in the truth about what I had done if I ever did see her and look her in the eyes.
Thankfully, I had only seen her from afar.
I turned when I heard the vehicles approaching behind me. My heart gave a hard pound against my chest, but I could breathe easy when I realized it was a procession for another funeral. Car after car passed, blocking me in as they made their way to say their final goodbye to their loved one.
It would be a while before I was able to get out of there, but that was fine. I had one more stop.
I walked across the cemetery until I was standing in front of Clive’s grave. I hadn’t been to see him in a while, but I knew he wouldn’t be upset with me. It was with good reason.
“It’s almost finished, Clive,” I said, kneeling over his marble headstone. “I think you’d like it.” I smirked. “No, I think you’d love it. It’s … our legacy, old man.”
Once the procession cleared, I went back to the car and gave Martin directions.
The club.
When I arrived, the box I had been waiting for was in my office perched on top of my desk. Pulling it open, I sifted through to make sure everything was there. Pulling out a stack of folders, I watched as two things fell from the pile. One landed on my desk, the other at my feet.
Picking up the piece of paper on my desk, I recognized a date scribbled on the back in Clive’s handwriting. Flipping it around, I stared down at the picture. It was old and worn, the corners bent and torn. Faded lines splintered out, distorting the picture some but not enough that I couldn’t make it out.
Clive stood in front of Mike’s with a smile plastered on his face. By the looks of the place, Mike’s had just opened. Seeing this picture was bittersweet, knowing that Mike’s was no more. I had sold it to a lady who planned on turning the place into a yoga studio. A place like that wouldn’t do well in that kind of neighborhood, but a sale was a sale.
Bending over, I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and put the picture inside. Shutting the drawer, I saw my little black book on the floor. A smile tugged at my lips as I bent to pick it up. Sitting in my chair, I flipped through the pages. I had only begun to fill it before Clive got sick.
A light tap sounded on my door before the door opened and Vick walked in. She sat on the other side of my desk.
“I see you got the box.”
“Yes, I did.”
She leaned forward in the chair, and her brows pulled together as she eyed my fingers.
“What
the hell is that?”
“My little black book,” I said simply.
“Your little black what?”
I flipped the book across the desk, and it slid before she caught it. She opened it to the first page, and her eyes moved over the words. She flipped through the empty pages before stopping on the last one. She stared at the name I knew was written there before closing it and tossing it back at me.
“So it’s a fuck book?”
I smirked. “More or less.”
“Cartoon characters? Isn’t that a little childish?”
I shrugged. “It’s my thing. Fuck off.”
“So who’s Jessica Rabbit?”
I stared at her for a moment before getting up and standing in front of the window that looked down over my new nightclub.
“I don’t know yet, but maybe someday I’ll find her. Until then, I think it’s time I start filling up the rest of those pages.”
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Tabatha Vargo & Melissa Andrea
HEARTBREAK FOR HIRE
Copyright © 2018 by Tabatha Vargo & Melissa Andrea
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events or real people are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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HEARTBREAK FOR HIRE
I turn trusted housewives into adulterous whores.
Let’s face it, nothing lasts forever. She may have started out as your wet dream, but now, she’s your ball and chain. Let me set you free.
Little Black Box Set (The Black Trilogy) Page 65