Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Uh, Mace, why don’t you step into my office for a bit?” What the hell?
Mace winked at me with a grin and followed him out of the room, leaving me to wonder if I’d fallen and hit my head.
For one, Xavier never likes anyone Nat and I date, and to be fair, with good reason, but I’ve never seen him be so accepting of anyone at first sight. I picked up the folder he’d left on my desk and opened it with a racing heart. “Hell on a stick!” I didn’t know Mace was worth that much.
Aside from the nightclub and restaurants, he had a very extensive portfolio. He owned stock in some very interesting places, most of them startups from a few years ago, places I’m sure not many people had faith in at the time but which had proven to be very lucrative once up and running.
Now I felt nervous as hell. Not because of the money, I have my own, not as much as he does, for sure, but still, I can hold my own. But with this kind of money and clout, he could have any woman he wanted; why would he want me?
I grabbed the phone to call Nat and give her the rundown. “So? Big deal!”
“Wait, you knew?” I know her tones well enough to catch that.
“Of course, Jaxxon told me.”
“You two seem to spend a lot of time talking about Mace and me.”
“We do, yes, that’s what friends are for.”
“Doesn’t it worry you? For me, I mean.”
“Why should it? I don’t understand the question.” She sounded genuinely perplexed.
“I mean, since he has all that money and a kickass portfolio, why would he want to be with me?”
“I’m going to kick your ex’s ass into next year. He’s the one who has you thinking like this.”
Any excuse: she and her brother would look for any excuse to kick my ex’s ass. I’m not even allowed to mention him by name, not even when the two of them aren’t around, because they seem to think that gives him some kind of power, something they learned from their grandmother, I’m sure because she has a lot of said ideas which she never loses an opportunity to share with me and all the young ones as she calls us.
“It’s not him this time; it’s me. None of this makes any sense. And guess what.” I told her about Mace overhearing our conversation, which took my mind off of other things as we both scrambled to remember what other embarrassing things had been said that night.
“You know, I felt like a horrible friend for leaving you there, but something told me it was the right thing to do. Now I’m glad I listened to my gut and followed my instincts. As to why he’s with you, the man knows what he likes. Don’t you go doing anything stupid to mess this up. At least I can rest knowing Xavier is on the job; he won’t let you screw this up.”
Why does everyone think I need looking after? And what in the world is Mace and Xavier talking about for so long?
MACE
“I’m happy to see you here, brother.” Those were the first words he said as soon as we entered his office.
“Yeah? Why is that?”
“Because I knew if you were as good as you appear on paper that you’d know that someone had looked into you. It didn’t even take you that long; that’s boss. Thanks, by the way.”
“For what?” I like this guy; he’s just like his sister, just maybe a bit more levelheaded. The fact that he loves my woman is all the more reason for me to like him. When I got the alert that someone had been digging into my past and where the call came from, I knew it was someone in her building, but I didn’t know who. I knew that Nat had a brother who worked for Steph since I made it a point to know everything through my pipeline, Jaxx, but I didn’t know that he was such a standup guy.
“For the smackdown, you put on Haggie and her spawn, I wish I was there to see it, but from what I heard, it was a beauty and a long time coming if you ask me.”
“I’m not done yet.”
“My man!” He slapped my hand in that age-old way of men.
We shot the shit for a few minutes more while he filled me in on why he hated her ex-family and some of the things they’d done to her that I hadn’t even heard about. “My wife and Steph stopped me from putting my foot in his ass more than once, but I promised myself that if he got out of pocket again, I’d take him down, but now you’re here so….”
“Thanks for looking out for her for me. I guess I can tell you now; I messed with the phones here; I put a block on the ex and the old woman.”