How To Own A Mafia Boss

9.

Simone and the twins look at me with wide eyes and open mouths as I tell them the summary of my meeting with Jason when they come in the next day.

"Goliath can talk?" DeBraun asks in awe.
Simone looks at me dubiously. "You haven't gone to see him all this while, and the one time you do, he speaks that long?"

"Surprising," I deadpan.

She clutches her heart in mock hurt. "Then why doesn't he talk to us?" She eyes me from head to toe. "He likes grumpy bakery owners without a sense of humor or fashion?"

It isn't funny, but the boys will take any chance they can to laugh at my expense. They let out boisterous bouts of unwarranted laughter, and I roll my eyes.

"Go to him. And don't call him Goliath anymore. He's Jason till we find out his real name."

They all frown in confusion. "Jason?"

I shrug. "You were the one who asked me to name him."

This doesn't do anything to ease the identical furrow between their foreheads. In fact, it deepens them. "But. . .that's normal human name." DeBraun points out, and his twin nods in agreement.

"It must come as a shocker to both of you, but he's normal. And human."

"No, no," Simone calls out. "They're on to something." She turns to the boys, eyes wide and excited. "What do you know? What have you seen?"

"His dangly—"

"DeAndre, complete that statement and you're fired."

His face scrunches up.

I glare at him.

He glares back. "Well have you seen him? Does that man look human?"

"What in God's name are you on about?"
His voice lowers. "My Ma tells the story of Vikings that pillaged the earth and ruled with terror. They were the strongest, tallest human beings ever to exist, like eight feet, and they were mean."

I look at him, unimpressed. "Jason is six and half feet." I can see how he would be mean, but he hasn't been mean to me. Yet, at least.

"And huge as the devil."

I resist the urge to slam my forehead on my hand.

"No, really. DeBraun and I wouldn't be able to lift him if he didn't assist us with his weight himself. And DeBraun and I are strappin'. He would crush my body like a twig if I ever tried to lift him on my own."

"I assisted him out of the creek, cousin mine, with no detriment to my person."

DeBraun eyes me. "You're not like other girls. You're strong."

I lean in, right into his face with a scowl. "Go and assist Jason with his bath."

They both lean back and begin to trudge up the stairs. "No sense of humor."

"She and Jason will get along so well," DeAndre says, sounding very bitter about having to call him Jason.

Simone bursts into laughter at that. "He does look like a Viking, blond and tall and steel-eyed. You just haven't noticed it because you haven't seen him naked." She leans in, her voice a whisper. "The truth—"

"Don't."

"—is in the dangly bits."

I ignore her and go into the kitchen, loud laughter following me.
**
DeAndre bursts into the kitchens few hours later, face a crumbling mess. His brother and I rush to him. "What happened? Is something wrong with Jason?" I ask, fear beating in my chest.
"No. Montgomery is outside. He asked me to fetch you."

The Montgomerys run Beachbay. They are the unofficial mayors and sheriffs and head of events, and have been long before I was born. There are currently about thirty of them in residence right now, because they never leave Beachbay.

But I don't need to ask which of the Montgomerys is outside my bakery. Jackson Montgomery, popularly known by his black-sheep-of-the-family alias, Spade, is the bane of my entire existence.
And I know why he's here. I look to Simone who was helping me mix batter but is now looking at us with shared apprehension, and shake my head. "Please don't come outside. I'll handle it."

She nods, thankfully without asking questions. I pass the sitting area, give a distracted nod to my regulars, and walk outside. It's a shitshow. About twenty motorcycles are parked at the door, flanked by a Jaguar, in full view of anyone who wants to come in or go out.
Intimidation 101. He's letting the entire population of Beachbay know that he's on to me. It doesn't help matters that he steps out of the car, in a three-piece suit that would probably pay my taxes for a year, and walks up to me.

I want to say something rude about how this flashy show is useless in Beachbay, but he reaches and pulls me into a incense-ridden hug. I resist the urge to cough up a cloud of smoke. 

"Glow-in-the-dark. You get more stunning everytime I see you."

I keep quiet. If I wait him out, he'll get to the reason why he's here faster instead of starting with this act. We attended the same primary and secondary school. I know all the ways he can be a snake.

Still holding me, he leans in to whisper, "Would you happen to know where your runaway twin is?"

He can probably hear the way my heartbeat accelerates, but I keep my head straight. "No."

"No?" He whispers and releases me. "He owes me £150,000. Where am I going to find him to get my money?"

I stare straight at him. "I don't know. Was I there during your negotiations? Why are you here, harassing me?"

He doesn't deny the fact that he's harassing me. "You're right. You weren't. But neither was Simone, but she's going to have to pay on his behalf, won't she?"
I freeze solid. Is he threatening her? How does he even know about her? Fucking hell, of course, he knows about the pregnant woman from nowhere. This is Beachbay. "I don't know what you're saying."

His hands come to my forehead, and he gently straightens out the frown. "That you should find Quentin before I have to do something I don't want to. And that you shouldn't frown so much. You don't deserve wrinkles so early into your life, Gorgeous."

He walks back to his car with a two-fingered salute that I instinctively know isn't meant for me. The motorcycles rev and disappear behind the Jag, deliberately louder than they were when pulling up, because I'd have definitely heard them from the kitchen the first time if they'd made this noise.
I don't need to look to know the people in Deónne's must have looked out to see what the ruckus is about.

But I look up to see Jason watching me from the window. And I know he didn't just get there because he was the recipient of Spade's parting salute.