Fuck him.
He wants to be an asshole to me—well, I won’t stick around for it.
“Kat, wait. I didn’t mean that.”
I don’t respond, opening the door before slamming it shut behind me. I quick-press the button on the elevator, wanting to get out of here and go home.
Just as the doors slide to let me in, his door opens behind me.
“K,” he says, but I step inside the elevator, giving him an eat shit look before the golden brass cuts us off.
I hear him yell, “Fuck.”
He can yell all he wants. It wasn’t too much of me to ask a few simple questions. I mean, how would he feel if he walked in and a guy was lying on top of me? No doubt, he would flip his shit. Once I hit the bottom floor, I walk across the marble lobby to the revolving doors and in walks Lou.
Shit.
“Kat! Good morning!” She smiles, and I can’t help but give a closed smile in return. I’m not mad at her; I’m mad at her asshole nephew. She defrosts some of the ice forming around my ribcage and insists on a hug.
“I’m so glad to see you.” But then she looks over my face. “Oh boy.” Her eyes bounce up to the ceiling. “What did he do?”
I smirk. I’m not talking to her about our arguments. I don’t know her well enough yet. But it’s cute how she just assumes it’s him. She’s right.
I shake my head. “Nothing. I’ve just got to get home so I can hurry to the shop.”
She looks at me skeptically. “Mmm-hmm. Well, I’m headed up now. I’m sure I’ll find him in a mood. Have a good day, Kat. Glad to see you. That boy’s been a walking disaster.”
This makes me smile enough to show teeth.
Good. He deserves it. I hope he feels like shit now.
“Good to see you. Tell Monnie I said hello.”
“I will. Bye-bye,” she says.
We part ways and I step out onto the street, realizing I have on no coat, have no car, and have no purse.
Fuck me. Claire needs to buy a car already. I cross my arms, trying to warm myself. I could walk to our apartment. It’s only a few blocks, but with this wind chill I’d be a slab of ice by the time I got there.
So, I pull up my Uber app and request one, then step back inside while I wait. Today’s going to be a long day.
Chapter Fifteen
Bryce
“Fuck!” I slam the door shut behind me, pacing back and forth in the apartment. Why the hell does she have to ask so many questions? Why does she need to know all the details about how I make my money?
I stop pacing and rest my elbows on the countertop, scrubbing over my head in frustration, feeling a headache wrap around my skull and squeezing.
A few months after I started up the illegal gambling, I got jumped in the alley beside Red. Some punks who’d been there playing poker decided they wanted a piece of what I was making. They wanted me to actually give them a cut. Like I was just going to hand over my fucking money to some low-life motherfuckers.
But that wasn’t the only time I had that problem, so I hired Ben. I could handle one guy, or two even, but five-on-one wasn’t a fair fucking fight. I got smarter about the business and hired more bodyguards, placing them throughout the casino.
I then found Simon, a retired gangster. He looks like a teddy bear who wears too much gold, but he’s no one to play with.
The man has done some evil shit in his day and he’s loyal as they come. I trust him and Ben with my life. Without the two, I wouldn’t be able to run that place. They get paid well, and both enjoy what they do. They protect my money and me, and they know people who can make you disappear.
Danny O’Brien comes to mind. He and his crew passed through here a few months back and spent some big money in the basement. I had a guy who was cheating while playing with them. They took it upon themselves to solve the problem. For a good chunk of cash, they also took care of Cain, Claire’s ex.
Psycho motherfucker was sneaking into the girls’ apartment, stealing Claire’s underwear and doing God knows what else. He dropped a knife in K’s bedroom.
Danny and his boys got rid of him.
I don’t know the details, but something tells me I don’t want to know either.
It’s risky what I do, but there’s a thrill in it. A rush in knowing you’re doing something illegal and getting away with it. Plus, I make a shit load of money. While Red is very successful, it didn’t make me the billionaire that I am.
K still doesn’t know about the house I have in New Amsterdam or the yacht I own in St. Augustine.
But I guess she will in time.
I exhale as the door opens. My heart leaps, hoping that it’s her, and then it falls to see it’s just my aunt.
I’m not sure Lou being able to come in and out is a great idea anymore. I mean, I love the woman, but if K’s going to move in with me, then we need our privacy.
“Jesus, what happened to your face?” Lou asks, shutting the door behind her.
“Hey to you, too.” I stand up straight as she walks in.
“You need ice on that eye.” She drops her bag onto the counter and walks to the fridge, shoving the same bag of peas at me that Kat did. I take it and place it on my face.
“What happened?” she asks.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” I reply.
She eyeballs me before deciding to drop it. “I saw Kat leaving.” And now I know why. She wanted to know other things.
I nod. “Yeah. I need to go to the hospital and check on Mary.” I toss the bag of peas onto the counter and head toward the steps to change clothes.
I hear Lou sigh. “Okay. I’ll just get my grocery list together and be on my way.”
Stopping at the rail, I turn around. I watch Lou go about looking in the fridge before she makes her way to the pantry. She’s been doing this for God knows how long now. And me being a bachelor I let her. I don’t have time to go grocery shopping and worry about that kind of shit.
It’s been nice, but things are changing now. Kat will move in with me.
Eventually.
And she isn’t the type of woman to let someone do all of this for her. She’ll want to do it herself. I inhale and grip the handrail. “You don’t need to do this anymore, Lou.”
She looks over at me, stopping in her tracks. “Why? Did something happen?”
I sigh and rub the back of my neck. “No. It’s just… I want Kat to move in with me.”
Her eyebrows lift. “Ah.” She looks around. “Have you asked her?”
“Yes, before all that shit went down.”
“And she’s ready for that?”
I tilt my head slightly. “Not exactly, but I’m hoping things have changed between us.”
“Bryson, she just left here upset.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“So, it doesn’t seem things have changed that much.”
I exhale, getting frustrated. I had a workout this morning, and now I need another one. All these women in my life are driving me nuts.
“Lou, I need you to stay out of this. I’ve got to get to work. Finish up if you’d like. If not, don’t.” I turn to leave.
“Now you listen to me, Bryson Grant. You may talk to Mary that way, but you aren’t going to speak to me like that.
“I understand what goes on between you and Kathrine isn’t my business and I get why you want me to stop coming over here, but I’m still your aunt and I’ve been here for you two boys since you stepped into Lee’s house. I deserve a little more respect than what you just gave me.”
Fucking hell.
I turn around. She’s hands on her hips and giving me a stern look. The same one I used to get when I used to sneak into her house because I was too drunk to go all the way out to Grant Ranch.
She’s right, though.
I was a dick.
“I’m sorry, Lou. I was an asshole.”
She nods. “Yes, you were. I just care about you, is all. I see how much you like the girl. I don’t want
you messing this one up. But I’ll stay out of it. As for the helping around the house part…” She exhales. “I should have quit this a long time ago. I just don’t have much else to get into.”
I feel horrible. All this time, I thought Lou was helping me out because she felt like I needed it, but I’m not sure that’s true.
I believe she’s the one who needed it.
“It’s not that I mind, Lou. I just know Kat. She’s stubborn and independent.”
She smirks. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah.”
How alike that girl and I are. I look down at the steps. I was an asshole to her, too. Hell, I’ve been an asshole to her since the day I met her. I think back on the first time Jace and I walked into Mugs & Books. As soon as I walked through the door, I recognized her.
How could I not?
She’d knocked the fucking air from my lungs at Red. Kathrine Harrison wasn’t just another face in the crowd. She was the face in the crowd.
I keep messing up with her, though. How many times is she going to forgive me before she decides I’m not worth the trouble?
“All right.” Lou slices through my thoughts in a hunter green plaid button-up and dark jeans. She bows her head once, releasing air from her lungs. With a wistful smile, she says, “I guess I’ll be seeing you around then.”
“I don’t want you to stop visiting.”
“I won’t be a stranger, but I will give you two your space.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
She laughs, but it’s filled with unshed emotion. “I guess I’ll have to start playing bridge or something.”
I toss my head back in laughter. “Why don’t you get that old man to retire and you two do some traveling?”
“Ah, you know he loves to cook.” She waves her hand.
“He loves you more,” I say.
She smiles, her cheeks turning pink. “I won’t argue with you there.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bryce
“I told you this was going to happen,” Jace says, shaking his head. Stretched pupils and quick sniffs tell me my brother is up to his old ways. This time he was straight for more than a few weeks. My kid brother has a cycle. He’ll jump on the wagon for a bit, but after a while, Jace gets sick of walking a straight line. Some would think he was a lot like our mother, but I believe the playboy troublemaker is a lot like me.
He’s hiding.
Trying to cover up what he feels by using drugs and acting out.
I do it differently.
I fight and work.
“I thought you were done with that shit,” I say, taking a seat as our mom lies in a medically induced coma to try to save her life. She’s had a stroke and her brain went a little too long without oxygen. Who knows what she’ll be like when and if she comes out of this.
“I stayed at the loft last night. Hung out with some old buddies at Red.”
I rub a hand over my face. “I’ve got enough to stress over without having to worry about you, too.”
He kicks my foot. “Don’t worry about me then.”
“Like it’s a switch I can just turn off.” I rest my elbows on my knees and exhale a tired breath, leaning my chin on my linked fingers. The smell of this place burns my nose and gives my anxiety a reason to appear. That and my knee bobbing brother.
Jace sighs and pulls a smashed soft pack out from the front pocket of his coat. “Hell, I’m starting to wonder if I need to worry about you, with your face looking like that.”
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you look fine.” Sarcasm lines his tone. My little brother who isn’t so little anymore pats his cigarette pack and pulls one out with his teeth as a nurse walks in. She looks over at him. “Sir, you can’t smoke in here.”
“Really?” he questions, tilting his head, looking completely shocked, but he’s a fool and I almost chuckle because this is Jace. “When did that happen?” he asks me.
I shake my head and she rolls her eyes, clearly unimpressed with his derisive ass.
He places it between his lips and stands with his playboy smile. “Well, I think we’ve had a good visit, don’t you?” he asks, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. “Let’s go have a fucking drink. Mom, you get some rest now.” He pats her leg and I shake my head.
“Jesus Christ, boy.”
“She did this shit to herself, Bryce.” He adjusts the beanie on his head. “Come on.”
I stand and pop my neck, trying to relieve some stress. “How is she?” I ask the nurse as my brother opens the door.
“I think she’s doing well. But I didn’t go to school for a lifetime, so you’ll have to check with the doctor.” She says it like it’s the most ridiculous thing ever, like she doesn’t know as much, if not more, than the doctor.
“I like a woman who tells it like it is,” Jace says. I dart my eyes over at him and see that look I’ve seen a hundred times when my brother wants his dick wet.
“No,” I warn him before turning back to her. “Thanks for the update. Have the doctor call me.”
She gives me a nod and darts her eyes over to my brother, but unlike most women he takes an interest in, she doesn’t look at him with lust. She looks disgusted, and I think it’s funny as shit.
The charmer walks out laughing, and when I get to the door, I turn back to her. “Sorry about him. He didn’t have much of a mother growing up,” I say, looking over at Mary on the bed. “Doesn’t seem to have too much of one now either.”
Her eyes narrow slightly, and she shrugs. “Well, we’ve all got our shit, right?” she says, after checking the machines and bags hooked up to the woman who gave me life.
I nod. “Yeah…yeah, we do.”
__________
After we leave the hospital, I shoot K a text checking to see how her day’s going. She responds with a middle finger emoji.
I chuckle. Well, she’s clearly still pissed. She finally wrote me back this morning after I freaked out that she left her purse and coat in my car.
“Ben,” I greet as Jace and I walk into my club, spotting my bodyguard sitting at the bar with Bobby the head bartender at Red. The lights are all on and the floor is getting cleaned.
“Grant, good to see you back,” the big, bearded man says, standing from his stool. He looks at my face. “What the fuck happened?”
I wave him off. “Get my brother and me a beer, would you?” I ask Bobby, getting sick of everyone asking about my face. I mean, shit, I got into a few fights. I’ve had a rough couple of days. Leave me the hell alone.
He nods. “Yes, sir.”
“Bryce got into it with some cunt at the gym,” Jace says, grinning. “And from the looks of it, I’d say the guy won.”
“Fuck you,” I say as Bobby places my beer down.
“Need me to take care of it?” Ben asks, lifting his brow.
I look over at him. “Nah. Nothing like that.” I run my thumb over the condensation on the bottle, thinking back on the guy I got into it with. He looked oddly familiar, but I can’t place him. Has he been here before? Has he been in the basement?
“What’s on your mind?” Ben asks.
“I just can’t get that guy out of my head. I swear, I’ve seen him before. He had a thick, dark beard and shaved head.”
“I don’t recall anyone like that,” Ben says.
“Yeah,” I say in thought before having another taste. Cool liquid swims down my throat and relieves a little stress from my day. I pop my neck as my eyes roam, taking in Red.
This place was nothing but a big ass room when I first bought it. I’ve always looked up to Lee, my adopted father, Pops, the man who taught me how to be a man.
I had to grow up quickly, and I had an attitude that I kept inside, because at the house I lived in until thirteen, there was no room for it.
I had to be tough and deal with the shit my parents didn’t want to deal with. But with Lee, I got to be a kid, and that attitude came with it.
He never backed down, though. He made me feel like I was wanted while showing me he wasn’t going to put up with it either.
Discipline.
It takes a real man to raise two broken boys. It takes love and patience, and it also requires a toughness that few have.
Lee Grant is one of those few. Ten times over.
He showed me that I could have anything, and I showed him that he was right.
After I graduated with a business degree, and with some borrowed money from Pops, I purchased this building and turned it into a successful nightclub.
But that wasn’t enough.
I wanted more.
I grew up around horses. I grew up around horse tracks, and I’d seen a lot of gambling going down at those tracks. I listened when people thought I wasn’t. I watched and soaked it all up. I’d seen the money, and I knew of a way to bring that home.
Right in the basement of this building.
It started out small-time. And then I bought the building next door, let Antonio have his restaurant there, and expanded the whole lower half.
What started out with just a little off-track betting became something more and it quickly grew. Now people come from all over. They could gamble where it’s legal, but crooks like the rush of doing something wrong. It’s not fun when you know you can’t get caught.
Jace slaps the bar. “Bobby, my brother and I have had a stressful day.” He looks to me. “Wouldn’t you say, big brother?” His eyes are swimming, and he’s pale from cocaine. It disappoints me that reckless has jumped the wagon.
“I’d say,” I agree, tilting back my beer.
Jace nods. “Let’s take some shots. Bobby, bring that bottle of Johnny Walker over here.”
Bobby does as he asks and Jace takes the bottle by the neck. “I’ve got this,” he says, twisting the top off and pouring each of us a shot.
I reach up and grab mine as the boys do the same, Bobby looking a little unsure.
I shrug. “Club is not open yet. Have a drink, boy.”
“That’s right. Have a fucking drink,” Jace says. I look over at him, not entirely happy with the way he’s behaving, but I’ve really got enough shit going on right now and he’s grown. I scrub a hand over my beard as he lifts his shot glass. “To you, big brother.”
Give Me Perfect Love (Give Me Series Book 2) Page 10