Page 110 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

“How is the convenience fee different than that other shit?” Titan counters.

“You have a daughter; you can answer that yourself. Now, is that doable?”

My head snaps to Titan again, my ass scooting to the edge of my seat.

He keeps his gaze on YT. “I’ll round it to an even two-hundred.”

My mouth pops open. My gum drops into my lap.

“Done. Now, Miss Snow is completely sober, so please remove all alcoholic beverages from the dressing room and her required section, and please assign one bottle girl and inform her of that. Her set list is forty-five minutes. If you’re requiring her to stay after the set list, that’s an extra twenty.”

“Nah. The performance is all I need. And a couple pictures to commemorate it. This is a surprise, so I will ask that you and your team keep this off social media. I wanna capture the look on Gaia’s face when you come out.”

Finally, something other than intensity flashes on Titan’s face. My lips spread, but I tamper down the smile once the spark is gone and he’s back being a big meanie.

“Of course. Discretion is key. But before we agree to anything, we need fifty percent up front.”

Damn. YT plays no games. She winks at me, and I turn around to see Titan tapping on his phone.

My neck hurts from going back and forth. I’ve never seen a deal happen like this before.

“Here. Put in your banking info.”

On cue, Shad places my phone on the table. I unlock it and bring up my banking information and type it into the Titan’s phone. When I’m done, I hand his phone back to him.

Two taps. And my phone dings.

A hundred thou. In my account.

Wowza.

I stand when Titan does. Something wet bounces off my leg, and I drop down to grab the gum from the carpet before it can get settled.

“Well, I have gum in my hand, or else I would shake it. But, I mean, um, well… yeah.”

Before I can think better of it, I throw my arms around the tops of his arms. I curl half my fingers around the gum, and link my index and middle fingers together. My lids screw closed to keep the tears at bay, and I breathe in the expensive and clean cologne that’s probably his signature scent.

“You don’t know how badly I needed this,” I whisper so only he could hear. I can’t take anymore pitying glances from Shad and YT, and even though I sound pitiful, Titan Farrell doesn’t seem like the type of person who pities anyone.

“Seems like we both got each other out of some shit,” he rumbles lowly.

After he pats me awkwardly on my waist, I let him go. He shakes Shad and YT’s hands, before taking his leave.

As soon as I think he’s on the elevator, I scream.

YT comes and jumps and screams with me, and I push her away when I realize she’s mocking me.

“See, I told you shit would work out. Go throw that gum away. We got hella work to do before tonight.”

I turn to Shad and match his grin, before composing myself. With a salute, I go do as he says.

There’s hope for me yet.

Rico

Palm trees line the quiet street in Mid-city. It’s the middle of the day, right after street cleaning, so I luck up and get a park in front of the orange apartment building that’s our destination.

I don’t turn off the car when I swoop in. I just let it idle in park, and turn toward my nephew.