Uncomplicated(27)

"We heard about Jude," Yan grunted his disapproval.

Yup. They knew already. Shit. "Yes, Jude is in the hospital."

Yan smirked. "That's not what we were referring to."

"I know."

Antonio rolled his eyes and reached out a hand to stroke Alexander's  cheek. Alexander latched onto his finger, wrapping his small fingers  around Antonio's big one.

Antonio smiled.

"You have kids?" I asked, watching the interaction between them.

Antonio met my gaze, a smug smile forming on his face. "No, but my  sister does and a woman loves a man who is good with kids. Definitely a  way to her pussy."

I covered Alexander's ears. "Language." That's right, folks. I, Mathis Verlinden, was growing a vagina.

"What?" Antonio feigned shock. "You don't want this little man having  his first word be pussy? How fucking epic would that shit be?"

Really? "If we bring this boy back to his mom and the P word pops out of his mouth, my wife will fuck...er … fudging kill me."

Yan laughed. "I think he's too young yet, brother."

Was he? He was six months or so. When did babies say their first word?  Yes, I knew enough to take care of them, but I didn't actually know as  much as I let on. That's it. Jennifer was going to kill me.

Alexander giggled and cooed in my lap, slamming the spoon against the  table. Onlookers noticed, but fuck ‘em, it was my club. Let ‘em  complain.

"So, I assume no business talk today?" Yan asked, leaning back in the chair.

"Why have business talk when we can have baby talk?" Antonio crooned, pulling Alexander from my arms.

"Really? And you actually get women like that?" I teased.

"Every time, lover boy," Antonio shot back.

I laughed and shook my head.

"Seriously, though. Listen, my man, I was an ass-"

I shot him a look.

"Um … butt … hole the last time we met, and I wanted to say I'm sorry," Antonio said, bouncing the boy on his knee.

A couple women walked by and giggled as they saw Antonio interacting with the little boy.

"See? What did I say?" He laughed as they walked away.

I shook my head and grabbed Alexander back from him.

"Now, I know you don't want to discuss business, but..." Yan looked at Antonio.

Oh shit. I knew that look. The look of shit is about to hit the fucking fan. "Tell me."

Yan nodded.

Antonio took a breath. "Cliff Morello is back in town and needs-"

"I'll take it from here, boys."

My heart jumped at the deep smooth voice that boomed into my ear. I turned to meet Cliff's dark amber stare.

His eyes were so bright, he had women throwing themselves at his feet  just to get him to look their way. But he didn't often take them up on  those offers. He was a loner, didn't need their company or the company  of anyone for that matter. It was scary, but he worked perfectly for the  arrangement we had.

Cliff smirked. "Been awhile."

I rose to my feet while Alexander was grabbed from my arms. "It has." I  still couldn't fucking believe that he was standing in front of me.

"Yours?" he asked, indicating Alexander.

"No. Babysitting."

Cliff motioned to one of the empty booths near us. "Can we talk?"

I looked at my brother, Antonio, and then at Alexander.

"We got this, brother," Yan offered.

I took a breath and headed to the booth, making sure I could still see  Lori's son. Call me protective, but with the shit she'd been going  through, if anything happened to her son, I would never forgive myself.  Hell, Jenny would never forgive me.

"It's good to see you, Mathis."

"Why are you here?" I asked, keeping my voice calm and even when really I was rattled to the bone inside.

Cliff smiled and rubbed his chin.

It had been a year since I'd seen the guy. Why was he here now? It couldn't be good, that was for sure. It never really was.

"I have a job-"

"No," I said, my voice firm.         

     



 

Cliff raised an eyebrow? "You don't want to hear what the job is?"

I shook my head. "I'm out."

Cliff scoffed. "Mathis Verlinden doesn't get out. Ever. You fucking own this shit."

"No, I don't," I bit out through clenched teeth.

"Mathis, you started this business..."

"Yes and now..." A thought came to me. Why the hell didn't I think of it before? "It's yours."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

I leaned back and crossed my arms under my chest. "Why haven't you contacted me for a year?"

Cliff huffed and ran a hand through his short brown hair, his piercing  eyes looking away. "I got caught up in shit. Couldn't bring anyone else  in without causing backlash for them, and for us. It was protection."

I shook my head. "I respect that, but there is no us anymore. We were  one, working as a team and you fucked up and left me to clean up your  shit. The FBI has been all over my ass, but luckily the clubs have  deterred them...for now."

"I didn't know things would go down like that. I'm sorry," he whispered.

I searched his face. "Look at me."

Cliff met my gaze, his jaw clenching.

"Did you fuck me over?"

"No," he said, keeping his eyes on me.

"Did you use this business for your own personal gain? Because so help  me, Cliff, I don't care if I loved you like a brother, I will make it so  you disappear."

The corners of his lips tugged up into a slow grin. "I missed you, partner."

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. I'm only into pussy."

A deep booming laugh escaped his lips and like that, the cold ice of  what I thought was betrayal between us, cracked. Slowly, mind you, but  it was a start.

"So you're really out of the business?"

"Yup. I don't need it anymore."

He nodded in understanding.

"And Cliff? Whatever problems you have, use your own people. Leave Dean out of this."

"Understood."

"Good. ‘Cause now that you're back, I'd really hate to have to kill you," I said casually.

He laughed, but knew I wasn't kidding.

Now that I had a family, although we weren't all blood, they were mine  and I would fucking do anything to protect them and myself. My business  dealings were now legal, unless you counted the private rooms in the  back of my club, but that was a whole other story. A story that soon  would involve my own wife and her budding business.





Chapter Twenty-Nine

As the Time Flies

Jennifer





Today marked one month since Jude almost killed himself and Lori in a  car accident. It also marked the day Lori was finally being released  from the hospital. In the past two weeks, I moved all of her belongings  out of the sketchy apartment she was living in with Alexander, and into a  small penthouse on the same floor of our building. She was having  trouble walking, so I knew it would be a long haul before she was able  to actually go back to work.

I didn't want to think about putting her back to work, though. I could  only think about the mess her life had become. Through our long chats in  the hospital, I learned a lot about her situation, and everything that  lead her to the streets of Vegas. I would never let her live that life  again. Neither would Jude.

With Lori by my side, we interviewed several nannies who would help her  around the house. With Alexander getting so mobile, crawling and  starting to pull up on any piece of furniture in sight, I knew she would  have a hard time keeping up with him right now. As much as I would love  to be there helping her every step of the way, my budding business was  taking off. The clientele list had nearly doubled through word of mouth  and I had to hire more girls and an actual staff to help me.

Never did I imagine I would have been here a month ago.

Then there was Jude.

Fucking Jude. I could kill him. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to wrap  my pale white hands around his throat and squeeze. Since the first day I  visited him in the hospital, I hadn't been back. He had tried to call,  but I would send him to voicemail. I knew that Mathis had been to see  him a couple times, but that was between them. I wanted nothing to do  with it, and after Mathis had come home and told me about his visit, I  told him that.

He respected me. He respected my way of dealing with this all. He respected me. Which was why we worked.

Business with his clubs boomed. The hotel deal had been finalized last  week despite Jude still being laid up in the hospital. Work compromised  our days, but we always came home to each other, sharing our days over  dinner before spending the evening alone in bed. Of course, Alexander  had disrupted us a number of times from the guest bedroom down the hall  while he was with us, but it was something we would have to work on  getting used to. Our dream of a family was still in the works.         

     



 

In between our appointments and business, I had seen my obstetrician and  had a checkup, talking about our plans for children and my impromptu  choice to throw my birth control all over the floor. I was so fuckin'  dramatic!