Tiara ran past the men to a bloody Vincent and stood with her arms spread wide. “You can’t hurt him anymore!” she screamed. “I won’t let you!”
Blake stood there in pure shock and pulled his pistol from his waist. The murderous stare that had once been on Vincent was now targeted to Diablo.
“Is this true?”
Diablo’s voice betrayed him when he tried to answer, and nothing came out. His plan had just unfolded right before his eyes, and he knew that the cat was out of the bag. He didn’t know what to say.
“Boss, I—” he started, but Blake silenced that with one shot to his knee.
Diablo dropped instantly to the ground crying in agony. The pain from the bullet and the impact from the fall knocked the wind out of him, and he rolled over onto his back trying to nurse his knee.
“So you would have me kill my own blood in rage?” Blake’s voice was lethal. “Behind your treacherous acts of betrayal?”
Blake shot Diablo’s other knee, and his screams caused Tiara to jump. Seeing this, Blake went to Diablo and kicked him in his face.
“Shut the fuck up,” he said. “You are scaring my daughter. Get this son of a bitch out of here. Hog-tie him to the heaviest weight you can find and throw him into a river.”
“And his family, boss?”
“Fuck his family,” Blake said. “Make sure they are removed from my property and my neighborhood by morning.”
Blake looked back at Tiara, who was touching Vincent’s caramel cheek gently. She removed the tape from his mouth as softly as her delicate nine-year-old fingers could, but it still stung.
“Sorry, Cousin,” she whispered when he jumped slightly.
“Thank you,” Vincent’s voice was barely audible and was drenched with pain. “Thank you so much.”
“Daddy,” Tiara told her father, “he needs to go to the hospital. You messed him up pretty good.”
Blake walked over to his favorite cousin with regret and sorrow weighing heavily on his chest. He took his cousin’s bloody hand, but before he could speak, he felt Vincent squeeze.
“N—no apology needed,” Vincent smiled awkwardly up at Blake through bloody, busted lips. “A boss first. J—just get me to the hospital.”
“I will make this up to you,” Blake promised. “You will have every dime of what you were accused of stealing waiting for you in your bank account when you recover from this.”
He wasn’t sure if Vincent had heard him or not because he chose that moment to pass out. But it didn’t matter because Blake would make good on his word. Blake’s men cut Vincent free and gently carried him out of the garage. Blake would pay whatever the cost to get Vincent back in shape. He should have known that he would never cross him like that. Diablo was closest to Vincent when it came to work. He had access to almost as much knowledge on Blake’s operation as Vincent; therefore, he must have hacked into some information to steal the money, and it must have been going on for years. Blake made a mental note to open up all new accounts and change the combinations to all of his locks.
“You almost killed him, Daddy!” Tiara’s voice interrupted Blake’s thoughts. “You almost killed Vincent!”
Blake gripped Tiara’s shoulders and knelt down so that they were at eye level. He sighed. “My child, I never wanted you to see any of this, but since you have, I want to be all the way honest with you. This may or may not be the last time you see such an act. One day you will understand, just as Vincent understands what has happened here. Sometimes you have to cut off your fingers to save your hand for the greater good of business. But I will forever be thankful that you intervened tonight. I love you, Princess.”
His words that night would stay with her forever. She blinked back the tears and allowed her father to kiss her forehead. Blake stood up, grabbing his only child’s small hand, and the two exited the now-empty garage and headed back into the warmth of their home. Tiara looked back at the chair that Vincent was once strapped to and all the blood surrounding it, knowing that it was an image that she might need to get used to seeing.
Chapter 2
As Tiara grew up, she became a very difficult child. She stopped listening to her mother and father’s discipline the day she turned thirteen, but she didn’t let her parents know that. To their faces, she made it seem like their word was law, but as soon as they were out of eye and earshot, she became the real her. She was the only child, and most days, it was just her and the housekeepers at home. When her father was out handling business in the streets, her mother Cat, short for Catera, was trying to find her purpose. Being the wife of a kingpin was not one of the things that she had on her bucket list; it’s just the way things ended up playing out. She wasn’t even ready to have a child, and that was why Tiara was her first, and only, one. She made small attempts to have some sort of relationship with Tiara, but truth be told, she never really cared about it. She was one of those “for show” parents. On her social media profiles, it seemed like she was Mom of the Year. But if only those people could see beyond the flawless makeup and designer bags, they would see that Cat hadn’t taken Tiara on a trip alone since she was twelve, but she had gone on at least three by herself every year since.
Sometimes she would ask Tiara if she wanted to go to the movies or to dinner, and Tiara
