Page 35 of Caden the CEO
“He has to be one of Galloway’s men,” Niko said. “We ain’t got no issues with nobody else for him to be staring you down like that.”
“How you wanna handle it?” Lorenzo asked, because he’d always been that way. Always less concerned with the facts and ready for action.
“If he’s one of Galloway’s men, he might be our way in. One of y’all can bribe the valet and see what car is his. Take a pictureof him. We need to track his car. If he leaves here and goes to Galloway, we’ll know exactly where he is.”
“Aye, you know I keep them airtags on me,” Lorenzo said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world. Well, it was . . . in his world.
Caden chuckled as Niko said, “Aight, bet. I’ma distract him while you go talk to the valet. Bro, you stay casual. I don’t put it past him to try and follow you if you move.”
“Bae!” Dru yelled cheerfully, scurrying over to him. “I just won ten thousand dollars!”
“Word?” Caden asked, taking her into his arms. “Playing what?”
“Blackjack!”
That made him laugh. “How the hell you win that playing blackjack?”
She shrugged innocently. “I don’t know. I guess I just got lucky. I was just moving my hand like I saw them do on YouTube, trying not to go past seventeen, and it must’ve worked.”
Laughing harder, Caden led her back toward the card tables. “Okay. I have to see this for myself.”
As he suspected, the older man’s eyes followed them in the crowd. He moved closer, but he didn’t approach. Caden’s eyes shifted toward the exit as Niko and Lorenzo went outside. All he could do was chuckle. While Galloway’s old-school taunting tactics may have worked on other enemies, it wasn’t going to work on Caden. All it did was give him an opening that he hoped would lead him straight to Galloway’s compound.
Anger surged through Caden as he listened to Cezar explain how his team had completely fucked up the mission. As Caden suspected, as soon as the older man left the casino last night, he went straight to Galloway. Not to his compound, but to his home. In the early hours of the morning, Caden ordered Cezar and his team to go in and kill Galloway, and anyone else who got in their way. Somehow, Cezar’s team had killed everyone in the house . . . except Galloway. Not only was he not seriously injured, but the shot to the head was only a fucking graze. He had been released from the hospital already.
“How many times did you shoot him?” Caden asked.
“How many times?” Cezar repeated, as if he hadn’t heard the question correctly. Caden’s head bobbed once. “Only once. I thought it was a clean shot, boss. To the head. I-I guess he turned and . . . my attention shifted. His people were firing, and I started shooting at another target. I fucked up.”
More than anything, Caden was filled with disappointment. “I guess that saying is true,” he mumbled, pulling his Glock from his waist. “When you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
“Boss, ple—” Cezar’s words were silenced by the bullet Caden sent between his eyes. Looking at Cezar’s team, he said, “That’show you do a kill shot.” Their eyes went from Cezar’s lifeless body to Caden. “If you ain’t capable of doing that . . .” He lowered the gun and sent several bullets into Cezar’s body and face. “Two to the face, or three to the chest. Why is that so hard to understand?” He stepped toward them, anger surging through his system. Because this wasn’t just a failed assassination. Thiswas a failed assassination of the man who had a target on his woman’s back. “Do y’all need another fucking example?” Caden checked, lifting the gun in their direction. While some vocally answered no, the others shook their head. “Get the fuck outta my sight.”
An irritated sigh escaped him as he turned to face Niko and Lorenzo.
“How bad is it?” Caden asked Niko, who always had his ear to the streets.
“I haven’t heard a lot. Just that he’s pissed and planning to retaliate. We have his right hand, and before we killed him, he said Galloway made it clear that it’s beef, and it’s personal now. He didn’t think he even cares about Dru anymore. His focus is solely on you.”
That made a slow smile spread Caden’s lips. “Good. Send him a message that we have his right hand, and I’m more than willing to give him back so he can give him a proper funeral.”
Several WeeksLater
“I’m so glad we finally found the perfect dress,” Dru said as she and Dreya walked out of the mall. “That powder blue was so cute on you.”
“I know, right? I didn’t think it was going to look nice, but it was super cute. Now I just need to make sure I can book a hair appointment since Nya told me she’s booked, but I think Tina told her not to do my hair anymore. And that’s pretty messed up seeing as homecoming is tomorrow.”
Nya was their cousin, and Dru was sure Tina had told her not to do Dreya’s hair. When Dru tried to text her about scheduling an appointment for a retwist, her text didn’t go through. Therewas no other reason for Nya to block her beyond Tina’s urging. It amused Dru that Nya was so willing to take Tina’s side and do what she said when she had no idea just how fucked up her cousin was. That was cool. Their family would find out soon enough when she was stripped of her parental rights.
“Don’t worry about Nya. I’ll take you to the new salon I’ve been going to. It’s called The Beauty Bar.”
“Oh, wait! I’ve heard about that. That’s Venus’s salon, right? It went viral on TikTok when someone from her team posted clips of their anniversary party.”
“Yep, that’s the one. She’s the one who did my retwist,” Dru said, absently running her fingers over her locs.
“Hmm, that makes sense. Your locs look so much better than they usually do.”
The sisters laughed as they headed outside, but Dru’s laughter fizzled when she looked around and noticed Ian wasn’t parked in the front. She’d texted him and let him know when they were leaving the last store. Her eyes landed on a black-on-black Lexus convertible that looked just like the custom-colored blue one Caden had. His looked like it belonged in a superhero movie, but the black one? The black one looked like it belonged in a street race. When the door opened and Caden stepped out, a gasp escaped Dru’s mouth before she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth.
