Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Creed

Jada wasn’t in shock anymore.

I still didn’t know what I was going to do with her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jada.” Maybe it was better to play dumb for the time being.

“Why did you waltz into my shop and pretend like you didn’t know who I was?”

“I didn’t know you. We hadn’t met before.”

She quirked her eyebrow. “We may have never met before, but you obviously knew of me since your friend Murphy is dating my best friend. And I had heard of you before from Tatum. You acted like we were strangers.”

I shrugged. “We pretty much were strangers.”

She tapped her fingers on the counter. She wasn’t buying any of that.

“Finish eating.”

She shook her head. “Not until you tell me why you came into the bookstore, Creed.”

I wasn’t going to be able to get anything past Jada. She wasn’t going to be pacified by some lame reason easily. “How much has Tatum told you about the Banachis?” I asked.

“As much as she should have,” she hemmed. “Just the basics.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You know about the whole kidnapping, right?” I had been around Greer for long enough to know that even though Leo didn’t want Apollo telling her what we were doing, she always knew, but she knew to keep it to herself.

She rolled her eyes. “Uh, yeah. Seeing that made me scramble for two weeks and have to deal with someone Murphy sent to help out at the store; I know about that.”

“You didn’t like Denis?” I laughed.

Jada flitted her hand. “He was just fine. Got the job done. I just like having Tatum around because she helped make the day go by fast. Denis was all work and barely any talk. I got bored.”

“That’s because Denis works for Leo. Leo doesn’t deal well with all talk and no work.” Leo was known as a good and kind boss, but that didn’t mean people walked all over him. They knew if they worked hard, Leo would compensate them well.

Jada scoffed. “And that is why Leo Banachi will never have a job at Happily Ever After. I need someone to chat with and have a good time with while selling books.”

“I’m sure he’ll be heartbroken when I tell him his hopes of working at Happily Ever After are dashed.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure he will never financially recover,” she joked.

“What else has Tatum told you? Or what you already knew about us?”

She flattened her lips. “Am I supposed to be truthful right now, or just tell you what you want to hear?” she asked.

“Truth, gorgeous. Always the truth when it comes to me.”

She quirked her lips. “Well, you can’t live in Chicago without knowing the Banachi name, so I know what everyone else thinks. You guys are the mafia, and no one should mess with you unless they want the wrath of Leo raining down on them. You guys are his minions that do his bidding, but everyone is just as afraid of you guys.”

“No one needs to be afraid of us.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Unless they mess with you.”

I shrugged. “I won’t argue with that.”

“So you are the mafia?”

“We don’t like names, Jada. Leo is a businessman, and as you said, Apollo, Murphy, Princeton, and I are his minions. Everything we do is on the up and up as far as people know.” The only people who knew the not-so-legal things we did were the people who also weren’t on the up and up.

“Are your eyes brown because you are so full of shit?” she asked sweetly.

“You sure your hair isn’t red because you’re so feisty?” I countered.

She smoothed her hand down her pitch-black hair. “I will have you know, this is my natural hair color. Thank you very much.”

“Right,” I drawled.

“Is my hair really what you want to talk about right now?” she asked.

“As long as it’s distracting you, yes.”

She wrinkled her nose and glowered at me. “What were you doing at the bookstore the other day?”

“You already asked me that, and I’m trying to figure out if I can tell you why.” Honestly, I didn’t know. Telling her about my plan seemed like the best idea, but I wasn’t sure she would so easily play along. I needed her to act like she had fallen in love with me, including acting like it in public.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re infuriating, Creed?” she snapped.

“Same question right back at ya, gorgeous,” I countered. Why couldn’t Jada have been some soft-spoken woman who easily went along with the flow?

“I’m opinionated and not afraid to say what I’m thinking. If you don’t like that, maybe this date or whatever it is needs to be over now.” She glared at me and didn’t blink.

“This might sound crazy to you, Jada, but that’s the type of quality I like to find in someone. I wasn’t kidding when I said I always want the truth, even if the truth isn’t what I want to hear.” I turned toward her, and my knee pressed against hers. “And this date is far from over.”

She pursed her lips, and I could tell she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do. “Is this a date?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied simply.

“So you came into the bookstore to ask me out?”

I tipped my head to the side. “Yes.”

“Why?”

I turned back to my food.

“Creed,” she called. “I don’t think that is a very hard question.”

It wasn’t if the answer wasn’t the one I had. “Your dinner is getting cold, Jada.”

“Your nonanswer to my question is making me start to think some crazy things,” she muttered.

“I’m sure what you’re thinking isn’t at all as crazy as my answer to your why.”

“Maybe I should be the judge of that after you tell me,” she countered.

“Eat your dinner, and then I’ll tell you.”

She picked up her burger and took a large bite. “You’re awfully concerned about me eating.”

“I’m not a fan of waste.”

She wiped the corner of her mouth. “That’s not really something you hear from a person who lives in a penthouse and also has a condo just for funsies.”

I glanced at her. “Yes, most people would think that without really knowing me.” This life I lived now was not one I ever took for granted. “You may think I’ve always had a golden spoon in my mouth, Jada, but you would be very wrong.”

“You do know I’m going to Google you when I get home now, right?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Go right ahead. The world knows only what I want them to know.”

“Then maybe you could tell me what the world doesn’t know.”

“Finish your food, and then we’ll talk.”

“Promise?” she asked softly.

I glanced at her and nodded.

We finished our food in silence as the sunset over the skyline of Chicago.

The room would have felt uncomfortable with anyone else, but with Jada, it wasn’t.

I didn’t know what it was about her, but even when we were arguing, I didn’t want her to leave. She was feisty and really did say what was on her mind, but I liked it. I wasn’t into people blowing smoke up my ass, and most people did that as soon as they found out who I was.

Jada couldn’t have given six shits that I was a Banachi.

“Another Coke?” I asked when we had both finished.

Jada shook her head. “I limit myself to one a day. Otherwise, I’d drink a six-pack.”

I chuckled and gathered the garbage. I tossed it in the trash and pulled two bottles of water out of the fridge. “Then water it is.”

“Time to talk?” she asked.

I nodded to the patio. “I figure we can sit out there.”

She grabbed a bottle of water and almost pranced to the patio. “As long as you promise not to toss me over when you get annoyed with me.”

I followed her out but kept the door open. “Careful,” I called as she leaned over the railing.

She glanced back at me over her shoulder. “Please tell me you’re not afraid of heights and live in the penthouse.”

“Not afraid, just aware of how high up we are,” I shrugged.

She turned and leaned against the railing. “The big bad mafia man is afraid of heights. Now I have heard it all,” she teased.

“Why don’t we sit?” I offered. I sat in the chair closest to the door, while Jada folded her arms over her chest and stayed put. “Or you can stay right there,” I muttered. I wasn’t going to force Jada to sit down, but it sure as hell would help me breathe easier if she got away from the railing.

“I am good right here.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. “It’s amazing that we’re in the heart of the city, but I can’t even tell when we’re up here.”

“Another reason why the penthouse appealed to me. I have to be in the city, but sometimes I don’t want to be.”

She looked at me and smiled. “Tatum said you guys have some big ass mansion in Wisconsin.”

I nodded. “Wyndemere. Leo bought the property when his sister hooked up with one of the bikers in Rockton. We’re out there about half of the year.”

“Nice.” She sighed and looked to the side. “Family should be important.”

The breeze blew through her hair, and sadness settled over her.

Jada’s natural beauty is shown in the setting sun.

She pasted a smile on her face and pushed off the railing. She plopped in the chair across from me and tucked her legs under her. “So, it’s time for you to spill the beans on why you came into the bookstore.”

“I told you I wanted to ask you out.”

She pursed her lips. “Am I going to have to coax this out of you?”

I shook my head. I might as well just get it out, and then Jada could decide what she wanted to do. “Has Tatum told you about Candace?” I asked.

Jada nodded. “Some crazy woman who used to work for you guys, but you found out she’s been playing you for a crap ton of years.”

That was putting it frankly. “Yes.”

“Tatum really did tell me everything.” Jada winked.

That at least meant I didn’t need to go back to the beginning and tell Jada everything. “Candace seems to want to torture us. She took Tatum to mess with Murphy, and a while back, her brother messed with Kitty and her dad.”

“Kitty is with Apollo, right?”

I shook my head. “Greer is with Apollo. Princeton belongs to Kitty. Candace wouldn’t mess with Greer. Candace is crazy, but not that crazy.”

Jada clicked her tongue. “Got it, and I also like how you said Princeton belongs to Kitty and not the other way around.”

“I’m not dumb, Jada. Princeton fell hard for Kitty, just like Murphy did for Tatum.” I had learned from the Devil’s Knights that it was just better to accept the fact that when a man fell for a woman, he just went with it. It made life a hell of a lot easier.

“So what does all of this have to do with you wandering into the bookstore?” she asked.

“Well,” here we go; this was going to be the point where Jada punched me in the face or said yes. “Since Candace seems to go after the people we care about, Leo figured I was up next.”

She tipped her head to the side. “And I was your target?”

“That obvious?” I asked.

“I just put two and two together and got four, Creed,” she drawled.

I watched her closely as she turned to watch the sun dip. I didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t seem pissed, but I wasn’t sure what she was thinking.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Uh, well, as of right now, the plan hasn’t changed. Candace has proven time and again to go after the people in our lives to get to us. If we get her to think you and I are together, she’ll hopefully come out of hiding, but this time, we’ll know she’s coming.”

“You guys are the Banachis. Can’t you just find her yourselves and just kill her if she’s such a bad person?”

“We’ve exhausted all of our connections to find Candace. We did catch her on camera a couple of weeks ago by the bookstore, but nothing since then.”

Jada sat up straight. “She was at the bookstore?” she gasped.

I shrugged. “She could have been, but I find it hard to believe. At the time, Tatum wasn’t even in the state. We haven’t seen her since.”

Jada nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Makes sense, I guess. Kind of scary she was at the bookstore.”

“I’m sure Candace didn’t want anything to do with you then,” I reassured her. “She very well was just taunting us.”

Jada pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah, no, of course not. I’m no one to you guys.”

“At least back then, you weren’t.”

Her eyes connected with mine. “You guys really think you can trick this woman into thinking that you and I are together? We literally just met two days ago, and now we’re supposed to be in love?” Jada shook her head. “Not going to work.”

“I think we might know better what is going to work,” I grunted.

“How is she going to know you and I are together?” she asked

“Because Candace seems always to be watching, even though we don’t know how. We’d go out. Be seen together.” I cleared my throat. “Be affectionate. Like a couple in love.”

“And what do I get out of this other than being the likely target of being kidnapped or killed?” I asked. “I mean, I’m sure kissing you and whatnot is great, but if it’s not real…” she trailed off.

“Name your price.” I hadn’t expected Jada to agree to this without something in return. I could give her pretty much whatever she wanted.

“The penthouse next door.”

That was not what I thought she was going to ask for. “Uh, I’ll see what I can do, but I know there is a pretty lengthy waitlist because Apollo is on it, and they told him by 2028 he could be in.”

Jada’s jaw dropped. “The fact that many people could afford this place absolutely blows my mind,” she laughed. “And, I was joking. I’m not the penthouse type of girl. I love the city for work, but living in the heart of the city isn’t my thing.”

“Then what do you want?” I asked again.

“I don’t even know if I want to do this, Creed, let alone what I would want in payment.” She shook her head. “I can’t even wrap my head around this right now.”

“What’s holding you back?”

“Uh, it probably has to do with the fact that I could very well end up dead,” she laughed. “Yeah, that is making me hesitate.” She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head again. “You’re insane.”

“Nothing will happen to you,” I promised.

“Besides a crazed woman coming after me to hurt you. Yeah, that’s nothing.” She stood and smoothed her hands down her shirt. “I need some time to think this over.”

“Just tell me what you need, Jada,” I prodded.

“Time,” she repeated. “I need time to think when I’m not in your fancy penthouse with amazing views.” She motioned to the lake and then at me. “The views are… distracting.”

I stood and stepped toward her. “Okay, I’ll take you down.”

She shook her head. “I think I’ll just get a taxi to take me home.”

“Nonsense, Jada. Jax will take you home. I’ll just ride down with you to the garage.”

“No, no. Then you’ll have to put shoes on, and I just really want to leave.” She paused. “Please.”

I held up my hands. “Of course. I don’t want you to feel like I’m holding you here.” I pulled out my phone. “I’ll just let Jax know you are on the way down.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. Things seemed fine between us, and then suddenly, she was on edge. I knew I wasn’t asking something small; if she needed time to think about it, that was fine.

I sent off a message to Jax to let him know Jada was on the way down.

“At least let me walk you to the elevator,” I offered. I ushered Jada off the patio and out the front door.

I pressed the button for the elevator and knew I had to say one more thing before Jada left. “I know I’m asking a lot of you, Jada, but I promise you’ll stay safe, and nothing will happen to you.”

Jada nodded. “I know, Creed. I’ve seen the way Murphy takes care of Tatum. I know you guys mean business.”

Then what was making her so upset?

The doors slid open, and Jada moved to step in, but I caught her hand. “Tell me what’s wrong,” I pleaded gently. “I’ll fix whatever it is.”

She smiled softly and pulled out of my grasp. “I just need time, Creed.” She stepped into the elevator and stood facing me. “I’ll call you later.”

The doors slid shut, and my shoulders slumped.

Jada needed time, and all I could do was wait.

Jada

The doors slid shut, and I finally was able to draw in a deep breath.

I wasn’t hung up on being in danger.

I was hung up on the fact that I didn’t know who I should lie to.

Candace or Creed?