Past

I stared at the two people standing at my door. It was meant to just be Sierra. The purpose of today was to exchange private, classified and sensitive information and then follow that up with the food that I had cooking in the oven; a slow cooking lasagne that was supposed to go down well with red wine and sexual tension.

Instead, I saw Sierra with a smile on her face, standing next to another man about our age. He had dark brown curls and honey-brown eyes, a smile also on his face as I continued staring at him and standing in their way.

"Esmond, this is Jake." Sierra spoke, and I nodded slowly. Jake, the one that was her incentive to stay clean. Her old friend. The one I had investigated in secret after she told me about him.

"Nice to meet you." I said, holding my hand out towards him and waiting for him to shake it, which he did.

"Nice to meet you, too." He responded, although the shake was far too strong for his words to be friendly.

"I brought him along because he is a valuable source of information. Having him involved could be extremely beneficial."

I nodded and let go of his hand. "Another criminal then?" I asked, looking into her dark brown eyes, the colour already dragging me into their depths.

"Yes, but even better than that, he is a part of a very influential family in the criminal underworld." She said with a smile, looking down the hallway and back at me. "Are you going to let us in? I would rather talk about all of this with a bit of privacy."

"Right, yes, of course." I took a step backwards to give room in my doorway for them to walk through. Once they were both through, I closed the door and focused back on them again. Jake was taking in the apartment, while Sierra was dropping herself onto my lounge.

"This is a nice fucking apartment..." Jake said, looking at me out the corner of his eye.

"Thanks." I felt like a fucking idiot because what I thought was going to be happening tonight clearly wasn't.

"So, what prestigious family are you a part of?" I asked, like I didn't already know. Like I didn't know his exact time of birth and everything about his education from pre-school to dropping out of high school to go into a life of street racing.

"I'm a Simmons."

I nodded slowly and still acted as if I didn't know. "Your brother is running the um..."

"We just call it the family business. And yes, he is." Jake eyed me carefully. He didn't trust me, which was a fair call. I wouldn't trust me either, not if Sierra would have told me everything about the short past we have together. Which I assume she had done while in the car with him, also assuming that Jake had picked her up from the airport.

"Right, the 'family business' of what, exactly?"

"Whatever you think the mafia does, we do. Or he does, anyway. He usually gives me information when I ask for it. I may not be a part of the business anymore, but he still trusts me. We're still blood." He said. I looked over to Sierra, who watched the both of us carefully.

"Okay, do you have any information for me?" I asked, walking into the lounge room to sit down and continue the conversation. I needed everyone present to feel comfortable, because if we all were, then the words would flow easier. Would flow quicker.

"Not right now, none that Max doesn't have already." He answered, also moving to sit down. We both sat on either side of Sierra, who sighed the proximity of both of us.

"You two, this is not a competition." She said, looking at Jake first before looking at me. "Jake and I have history, yes, but that's where it stays. Staring at him like he's a threat to you doesn't work. And Jake, I trust him and I don't need you acting like my guard. Both of you back off." I shuffled a short distance away from her on the large couch, and so did Jake. She realised neither of us was moving any further than that, so continued on with telling me the information I needed.

We talked for a few hours, getting myself and Jake comfortable around each other as she told me everything that she had found out. That Queen was now planning something big, and that she didn't have specific information just yet. We discussed possible plans that Queen had and I communicated what information I needed her to find out. The biggest thing was that Queen's real identity.

It was what I needed to know to get more background information and figure out what she was doing all of this for.

"I don't think I'm ever going to find out who she really is, Esmond. She's been doing this for years and no one's found out. It's like she didn't exist before she became Queen." Sierra said, and Jake nodded in agreement.

"It's no secret that Queen is the biggest competitor of my family, and even we haven't figured out who she actually is." As Jake spoke, one question kept running through my head.

"If she is the biggest competitor, why did you get Sierra in with Queen instead of your own family?" Sierra shot me a look, a sharp and dangerous one, but I ignored it.

"Because... Micah might trust me, but I never said I trust him. I thought Queen was the lesser of two evils. She had power, yes, but nowhere near as much as she has now. I also didn't know she kept people trapped in her Court through blackmail and dependency. All I knew was that Max wasn't happy working an office job, and she needed money. I thought she would be better protected in a ring than going off by herself again. The last time something went wrong her spine shattered, I couldn't let her race again."

"So you fed her to fucking wolves?"

"I would rather her fight with wolves than try to kill herself."

"Well, your plan failed, because she did-"

"Stop!" Sierra shouted, standing up from the lounge her hands balled into fists at her sides as she turned to stare down both Jake and I. "Will you two stop talking about me like I'm not here and like I don't have the ability to make my own decisions?" She focused directly on me for a moment. "This isn't on Jake. They gave me a choice; join the Court or walk away. I decided to stay." She then turned her dark eyes to Jake. "And I appreciate your concern, but my life isn't in your hands. You aren't responsible for me because I'm not a child."

"Max-"

"Jake, take a leaf from Esmond's book and just shut the fuck up. I don't know what kind of fragile masculinity shit is happening here, but I expected better from both of you. I'm going home, since our conversation here is done. Now, I don't want to be disturbed until tomorrow. Understood?" She said. I nodded my response. "I recommend that you two stay here and talk through your issues so I don't have to deal with them again." She didn't stay long enough for us to even speak a response. Instead, she stormed to the door and picked up her suitcase, which I hadn't even realised she had brought because I had been focused on Jake.

Fuck, she had planned to stay with me tonight.

After she slammed the door shut behind her, I allowed myself to breathe.

"Fragile masculinity? The fuck is she talking about? I'm bi as hell." Jake said, standing up from the lounge and pacing the room.

"I mean, playing back what we said, we were both a little-"

"Shut up." Jake somehow said it with a smile on his face, a playful tone behind it. "She's right. We're both overprotective of her. So we need to get to know each other. She cares about you, probably more than she should, all things considered, so I need to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"She cares about you, too. When I agreed to help her get clean, she told me to use you as an incentive if she got tempted. That she could see you if she stayed clean." There was a look of shock on his face that passed quickly.

"Well, she's not coming back tonight, and I assume whatever's cooking in your oven was for her..."

"You assume right."

"Was it going to be a date?" He asked, his voice playful as he walked into the kitchen.

"Our first proper one, yeah." I said, standing up and following him into the kitchen.

"Well, let's not waste a delicious meal. I am starving and that looks like lasagna, so I propose we do a dinner date in order to appease Max."

"You never know, we could turn out to be best friends."

"That is the kind of optimism I live for."