choose.”
“I’m sorry, Mecca,” Desiree offered.
Had it been a month ago, she would have been in full agreement with me because we had both been unlucky in the man department. I continued my venting, knowing my cousin would listen and not judge.
“He had the nerve to ask me what he was supposed to do for sex if he couldn’t have other women, and I wasn’t giving it to him. I told him to use his fucking hands until I was ready.”
“No, you didn’t,” she choked out between a laugh. “And he listened?”
“Damn right, he listened. After I dragged his bitch down those stairs, I think he knows damn well not to bring another woman around my crazy ass. I promised him that he was next if he tested me.”
Desiree’s laughter was so loud, I had to move the phone away from my ear for a few seconds.
“Are you guys going to be okay? Seriously, do we need to come over?”
The loud orgasmic growl coming from the bathroom had me shaking my head. I was married to a fucking teenager.
“No. Let me worry about my husband. He’s not used to being handled. Apparently, women don’t tell him no enough. He will be all right.”
Her girlish giggle sounded again. Desiree had never sounded that gleeful and happy.
“I can tell by the spark of glee in your voice that ‘the Kannibal’ is over there eating you up any way you want it.”
Her low moan was all the answer I needed. The shower was running in our bathroom now, so Arjen was washing up after his little sex deprivation tantrum.
“I’m happy for you guys. You deserve to be happy, Des.”
“Thank you, but I know that you and Arjen will be happy together. The way he kissed you at the wedding. The way he kept staring at you at the reception. It might take a while, but I believe you’ll figure each other out.”
“I’m glad you think so. I, on the other hand, pray we last long enough for me to take over the world, so I can drop his ass.”
We went on about the new men in our lives until Desiree brought up work.
“I want to help you, Mecca. I know my father left things a mess, and you shouldn’t have to clean it up alone.”
The last thing I wanted was her getting tangled up in the den of sin that was our family business. She, as far as I was concerned, was all I had, and there was no way in hell I was dragging her in any further than she already was into this life of crime.
The Vallins weren’t saints, but she was better off living on that mountain with her big wolverine, than near the mess swirling around in the underbelly of the Vallin-Evans tornado. Knowing she was safe with Khane, was all the help I needed. Besides, Desiree and Raymond were close, so I couldn’t break her heart by telling her of my plan to kill his ass on sight.
She told me that Khane had figured out that she was the Bookkeeper, the codename she had used for the job she had meticulously maintained as advisor to a drug kingpin. She and I had already had two strategy sessions, where she had proven how she had earned the role. She thought out certain strategies as she would her art, painting openings where others wouldn’t. There was stuff in Desiree’s head that I didn’t even want to know.
The knowledge she possessed, and the dangerous information she held inside her head, could get her and any member of the Black Saints killed. It could even be leveraged by someone with enough power to take control of our organization. Raymond had allowed her secret to come out. It was one of the main reasons I had stripped him of the uncle title and was whipping his ass on sight, before I shot him if he showed his face again.
With a few calls, Desiree had people who had been blackmailed handing me updates that would have taken weeks of investigative work to figure out. Her efforts had also freed up another two million dollars.
“I’ll let you know when I need you. For now, relax and keep it low key. We don’t know what other bombs Raymond may have set in motion.”
“I’m serious, Mecca. If you need me, please let me know. I remember all the self-defense stuff you taught me. Khane has been teaching me some stuff too, so I can do more than just