My man. He loved me and he’d give me anything.

I smiled at him and replied, “Okay.”

His eyes dropped back to my mouth.

“Want that mouth again before you go.”

I gave it to him. His fingers drove into my hair, holding me to him and he plundered it.

Then, after throwing him a smile over my shoulder as I walked away, I went.

* * * * *

“See you later!” I called as I walked down the hall at the top level of my spa.

“Later!” one of the two dudes who were finishing up the steam room shouted back.

I grinned and wandered down the softly lit hall with its dark wood paneling.

Mahleena’s plant people were coming that day. Plants. That meant we were close to opening. Live bamboo, mostly. The feel was clean, rich, warm, expensive with a hint of Oriental. Very little color as Mahleena liked it with touches of warm reds at my demand. Mostly because they reminded me of Knight.

I wandered down the curving staircase and looked across the open area, it’s snug, paneled nail stations, pedicure lounges and open hair stations with the tall mirrors and lights dangling.

“Awesome,” I whispered, got to the bottom and wandered through to the high reception desk that was built out of thin panels of dark wood and set away from but at an angle to the front door.

I moved behind it. The phone had already been installed. The computer system was being installed the next day. If Mahleena or any of the workmen left me non-urgent notes, they put them there. I’d done a walkthrough when I arrived without going back there and had gotten caught up with talking to the boys so I was checking for notes before I left.

Then a trill shivered up my neck and it wasn’t the kind Knight gave me. Like they were guided by unseen forces, my head came up and my eyes moved out the huge, plate glass windows at the front of my place to the street and I sucked in breath.

Nick was walking down the street, looking over his shoulder at something not me but toward my spa. I didn’t like this. This wasn’t the coincidental scenario Knight threw out of me seeing Nick on the street. He was there for a reason. I knew it.

I shrugged my bag off my shoulder to the reception desk in order to grab my phone when the door to my spa opened. My back went straight and my eyes went to the door.

A heavyset man about an inch or two taller than me with a receding hairline, a deep tan and a gold chain tangling with the profuse amount of hair that grew up from his chest was walking in, eyes to me. I didn’t like the look of him. Not at all.

Seedy.

No, sleazy.

“Sorry,” I told him, “we’re not open yet.”

“Anya Gage?” he asked, not faltering a single step in walking to me.

Keeping my gaze on him, I opened the snap on my bag and dug in for my space age phone.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“I’m Drake Nair.”

I knew no Drake Nair and by the look of him, I knew I never wanted to.

I found the phone and pulled it out, lifting up my hand so he could see. His eyes dropped to it then came back to me when I spoke.

“And what can I do for you, Mr. Nair?”

He had stopped four feet away from the desk. “I’m Knight’s ex-partner.”

A surprise and not the good kind.

I held it together and didn’t even blink.

“Yes?” I prompted.

He studied me.

I informed him on a warning, “There are two men working upstairs, Mr. Nair.”

“Not surprised,” he muttered, still studying me and not talking about not being surprised about men working in my place.

“Mr. Nair, I have things to do,” I stated. “Would you like to tell me why you’re here?”

He focused more fully on me and replied, “You asked me to guess ten years ago, I would say you’re exactly what he wanted but I wouldn’t say you’re what he could get.”

I kept my back straight, my eyes on him and my hand curled on my phone. What I didn’t do was speak.

He did.

“Still. Boy was a magnet for pu**y, f**k, they were all over him. You know, they wanted him to drive stock?”

“I assume you’re referring to Knight and since I don’t know you, I’d prefer not to discuss him with you.”

He ignored me. “Girl, stock, that’s the big time. He woulda owned it. Way he looks? He didn’t even have to win. Big time investors and endorsements would be creamin’ their jeans to have their logos on his car, his suit, his face in their magazine ads.”

“Mr. Nair –”

“Live quiet,” he whispered Knight’s words and I shut up. “Minute it started heatin’ up for him ‘cause ‘a the way he looked, the fact he won almost every f**kin’ race he was in, f**kin’ fearless, f**kin’ crazy, he bailed and went into business with me.”

“It would seem you’re determined to say what you have to say but it would be nice if you got down to saying it. Like I told you, I have things to do.”

“Took it all from me,” he said softly and that unhappy trill slid up my neck again. “Turned tail, went to Costa Rica. Does somethin’ to a man when another man makes a fool ‘a him. Not a f**kin’ dollar changed hands and he maneuvered it all right out from under me. Stole the whole f**kin’ thing. The club. The girls.”

My legs locked and my face must have changed because he smiled in a way I did not like.

“Oh yeah,” he said, still talking softly, “Nick guessed it.”

Oh God!

Nick!

Now that Sandrine had calmed her shit, he was going to be the death of me.

“Nick doesn’t know anything,” I snapped.

“Nick knows Knight sells pu**y.”

I stopped breathing.

“Yeah,” he said, his tone eager, enjoying this and I knew I was giving it away. “You didn’t know. Good girl. Just lookin’ at you, I can see you’re sweet, honey. And have no clue your man sells pu**y.”

Oh my God.

I didn’t move. I wanted to. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t.

Drake Nair wasn’t done.

“Took my club, took my stable. Those were,” he leaned in, lost it for a second and hissed, “my girls.” He leaned back, pulling himself together as he kept his eyes locked to me. Then, “Don’t know, have no f**kin’ clue how that boy’s mind works, but I figure he got into all that business with me knowin’ he was gonna steal my stable. He was always about the girls. So he took it all from me. You his woman, a sweet, classy, good girl, what I ‘spect he always wanted but never, knowin’ what that boy is, what he came from, who he’ll always be, would get. You gotta know, it makes me all kinds ‘a happy lookin’ at your face right now, knowin’ this struck deep, knowin’ you know you can get anybody so you don’t have to take a man who sells pu**y.”