1 Chapter One: The Family Business

Chapter One: The Family Business

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POV:*Jude*

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I’m unsure I could pinpoint when I realized I hated Reign Royal. It wasn’t the hate she would have controlled or purposefully fed. It wasn’t exactly fair to her to give her all the blame, but I didn’t usually concern myself with being considerate of her feelings.

That wasn’t what they hired me to do. Although, saying they hired me for this role in Reign’s life implies that I had applied. All I had done was show up for the first day of school, sporting my natural hair color.

Nineteen years later, I would meet her for our daily coffee. I should have mentioned that she believed what her father and I had led her to, that we were best friends. That only made me hate her more.

It sure the hell didn’t earn her any of my respect. Not real respect. She ate the faked kind I spoon-fed her every day. The walls, Murin Royal, had built around her were almost flawless. I was only another brick.

I was there for the flaws that didn’t get caught before they worked their way back to her. I was his reassurance that she had zero idea what the family business was. She thought her father owned a diner franchise.

“Extra large, extra hot, almond milk caramel Latte!” the fresh-faced kid yelled from behind the counter.

Reign had ordered a chai latte, but she would never have asked the barista to remake it. She believed it made a difference if she was the only customer to be nice to them that day. She was the embodiment of the tooth fairy.

I drank my black coffee and kept my thoughts to myself. All we had to do was make it to the outside curb. Finish our drinks while talking about something mind-numbing, and I could go back to the best part of my job, monitoring Reign from a distance.

I didn’t expect some jack*ss with balls the size of Texas to reach out and grab her butt as she walked by. She turned around on him before I could grab his collar. His arm snaked around her waist, and he pulled her halfway on top of him. A mistake that might have just cost him his life.

“It is too d*mn early in the morning for sexual harassment,” she protested as she tried to push off of him.

I wait a moment longer. Unsure if my hesitation was out of spite or the hope this man had learned his lesson enough to let her go. He hadn’t.

He let out a filthy chuckle and jerked his collar back, choking him just enough that he let her go to pull his collar from his neck.

“He let me go, Jude. Let’s just leave,” she tried to save him, but even if I could have been reasoned with, he wouldn’t have it.

“He could just leave. You could stay, and I could tell you how lucky you are to have met me over breakfast,” The slur to his words answered his brazen behavior.

It was ten on a Tuesday morning, and this jerk was wasted. What a keeper.

I jerked the shirt back one last time, sending him backward just hard enough that it rocked the chair back on two legs. Keeping the momentum, I stepped aside and punched him in the face sending him to the ground.

The coffee shop stopped all movement. All sound stopped long enough for the man to spit blood onto the ceramic floor. I stood over him and waited for him to decide if he would get back up and swing back or if he would lay there until I finally walked away.

My phone rang in my pocket before I got my answer.

“Everything ok? Marnie at the produce stand said Reign just stormed out of the coffee shop?” Alec asked, unflustered.

It wasn’t uncommon for me to anger her at least once a week to the point she stormed off. I just hadn’t been focused on if she had stuck around. The man on the ground didn’t budge.

“Yeah, I am taking care of it,” I answered as I snapped my fingers at the man crouched at my feet. “License now,” I order the man on the ground.

He hurriedly fished his wallet from the back pocket of his blue jeans. I balanced my phone between my shoulder and ear and held the card close enough to read the name and number.

“Look up all your information on him and get back to me. Reign should get to your office in about twenty minutes unless I can’t catch up with her,” I instructed before listing off the information on his license, and then I got off the phone.

“Whatever led you to be drunk on a weekday is going to look like child’s play for this mistake, my guy,” I said before I stepped over him and jogged out the door toward Reigns’ workplace.

I watched her location move from my phone as I weaved through the crowds to cut her off a couple of blocks ahead of the big brick building. I would lose her for ten hours if I didn’t make this right before she clocked in.

My phone chimed as I went to place it back into my pocket. A summons to the office of Murin Royal. It was an already long day. All I had to do was grovel at her feet and meet with her father for whatever nightmare he held for me. Just a regular Tuesday in this job.

I saw her eyes on the pavement before her as she walked in my direction. She had been crying. Her flushed cheeks and puffy bottom lip were a dead giveaway. Seeing her like that used to make me smile. It had been harder and harder to find enjoyment in it anymore. It was like I was growing numb.

I stopped just before she ran into me and caught her by the shoulders, making her jump.

“Jeez, Jude! Killing someone this morning is not enough for you?” she snapped.

If only she knew how ironic that choice of words had been. This drunk stranger signed his death warrant, not that I could have convinced her of that. I was just doing the job her father paid me to do.

“He shouldn’t have touched you like that,” I said more a fact than a defense, and she scoffed at my statement. I wasn’t wrong.

“I know, and I was handling it. Just because I don’t have a big brother doesn’t mean I need one,” this time, her snide remark had a lot less venom.

She couldn’t ever stay mad at me. No matter how much I wish, she would have. I was never that lucky. I reminded myself this time; it was a good thing.

I already seemed to be in some hot water with her father. It wasn’t a good place to be. However, I found myself at his mercy at least once a week. Usually, I was in trouble for something she did before I stopped it.

“I just needed to find you and beg for your forgiveness. You know the norm. I have to get back to work. Duty calls,” I said before putting my hands in my pocket and turning around.

My phone had been buzzing in my pocket the whole time. I knew the moment Reign’s eyes softened, I no longer had to worry about our relationship. The better phrase there would be: I no longer needed to worry Murin would add this morning to my list of flags in my folder.

She stopped me and hugged me tight. I kept my hands in their rightful place.

“Try and have another coffee before you meet with clients today. People who are not as smart as you don’t like to be told they are stupid,” she giggled and wiped her eyes.

I hated how she knew me a little too well. It used to make me angry that she would just assume, but the more she was right, the more guilt it brought to my surface. One of those comments a few months back reminded me that our relationship was natural for her.

She cared about me; she knew my habits, music, and favorite foods. I also knew those things about her but had learned them to survive.

I nodded, swallowing my displeasure. If Reign only knew how many times I had wanted to tell her exactly what my role had been over the years. A mistake that would have cost me my life.

I hadn’t returned to the office before her name lit my screen.

***

Princess: Any more casualties?

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I cursed myself for smiling at the message. Reminding myself that finding Reign’s humor wouldn’t lessen my hate for her. It didn’t mean I liked her. I just occasionally wanted the things she said. I forced myself to close my phone to restore that distance.

Mr. Royal’s assistant cleared her throat and brought me back to reality. I had walked into the building while staring at my phone, debating messaging her back. Thank god for Alice.

“I’ll tell him you are here,” she said sweetly.

She was cute when she blushed. It wasn’t something she had always done, but then it was happening more often. I would get the poor girl fired if I wasn’t careful.

I stood in the waiting area. I felt too anxious to sit, and everything else felt like an overreaction. At least an overreaction for waiting to be told why Murin needed to see me.

My phone buzzed with a new text message from Reign.

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Princess: Ok, you have read the message, so I think you skipped jail this time, but I am keeping my ears open for a new missing person report, Mr.

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I typed her a response and hit send just in time for one of the two substantial hand-carved doors to open, and Alice stood from her chair. I watched her nervously adjust her skirt into place before her big blue eyes looked up at me.

“Mr. Klien,” She called and crossed to the open door and the beast of a man who stood in the doorway.

“Hey, Jude,” Mr. Royal said like he always did.

He had been a Beatles fan, and my name always made for an easy reference. Well, my name and his favorite tool, the blackbird.

The same tool on his desk mounted like it had been a work of art. I stood by the chair and tried not to stare at the piece. Murin took his leather-bound throne.

“She is a beauty, isn’t she?” he asked me when he caught me glancing up at the antique-style syringe.

He must have just polished it because it gleamed in the warm lamplight in the otherwise darkened room. Everything about this office fit, but that thing. It was like it gave off this foreboding energy that pulled your stare away from the worn but dusty books lined the walls. The silver contrasted against the dark cherry-stained furniture.

“It is a powerful piece,” I answered, unsettled.

He only had it polished after he had to use it. Someone must have thrown one too many red flags. Oddly enough, I relaxed at that knowledge. Not relieved someone died, but I didn’t fear he would use it on me because he wouldn’t have cleaned it before doing so.

“That is why you are here. I think it is time for you to learn how to wield it,” Murin started, and my entire world stopped. Once again, I was in a position where no matter how badly I wanted to do anything else, the only choice I had was to adapt and survive.

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