Beauty & The Crime Boss (Foster Family Book 1) Read online

  Beauty & The Crime Boss

  (Foster Family #1)

  Zavi James

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty One

  Chapter Forty Two

  Chapter Forty Three

  Chapter Forty Four

  Chapter Forty Five

  Chapter Forty Six

  Chapter Forty Seven

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Chapter Forty Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty One

  Chapter Fifty Two

  Chapter Fifty Three

  Chapter Fifty Four

  Chapter Fifty Five

  Chapter Fifty Six

  Chapter Fifty Seven

  Chapter Fifty Eight

  Chapter Fifty Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty One

  Chapter Sixty Two

  Chapter Sixty Three

  Chapter Sixty Four

  Chapter Sixty Five

  Chapter Sixty Six

  Join The Family

  About The Author

  Acknowledgement

  Chapter One

  Lucas

  “I can’t pay you.”

  From the floor below I could hear the muffled, excited chatter of guests and the automated ringing of machines. This casino and the four others in the cluster used to belong to my father, Charlie, but since his passing four years ago they’d fallen to me. I was twenty-one when that happened and there was a momentary uncertainty that I’d fail him. Charming yet ruthless, my father had run things smoothly until his untimely death. But I liked to believe I’d settled into the role.

  The man in front of me, Hector Griffin, looked at his wit’s end and it was an expression I’d become all too familiar with. Hector had borrowed a considerable large amount of cash from me and now he had the audacity to sit in front of me and tell me he couldn’t repay his debt. I didn’t care what his excuse was. He knew the terms when he came to me.

  Leaning back in my chair, I surveyed Hector properly. The man looked stressed and tired. There were dark circles under his eyes and several broken capillaries around his nose, and, teamed with his haphazard fair hair, Hector looked like some bedraggled scarecrow. If I had a more caring disposition, I might have felt sorry for him, but I honestly couldn’t care less. If the current situation he found himself in caused him anguish, then he should have thought twice before agreeing to business with me.

  “That wasn’t our arrangement,” I reminded him. My voice remained calm. There was no need to scare him just yet.

  “I know,” Hector started, and I could hear the panic in his words. “But I don’t have the money.”

  Behind me, Michael and Theo both took a step forward and I raised a hand to signal them to stop. I appreciated the loyalty, but I called the shots here and I was not ready to cut this meeting short just yet. I’d humor him and hear what he had to say. Surely, he knew better than to think I’d let him walk away from all of this without consequence.

  “What can you offer me?” I asked him, inspecting the fingernails on my left hand. The skin was slightly puckered in places from old scar tissue and I could barely push my two thick, silver rings past the bumps on my knuckles.

  “I can pay you in installments?” Hector suggested. “I’ll work for you?”

  Both of the offers Hector had placed on the table caused me to scoff. He was an old man with a fondness for drink and a gambling problem. He’d be no use in my line of work. If anything, he would be a liability. I didn’t expect to babysit those who were in my employment. I already had a hard enough time making sure Dante stayed in line.

  “You can pay in installments,” I said, contemplating his first offer. “If there is something you can offer as a guarantee. I’m sure you can understand why I’m having trouble trusting your word.” I was not willing to have this man make a fool of me for the second time.

  “I don’t have anything to offer,” Hector scrambled.

  That was the default statement people reached for. An impulsive response when they felt cornered, but I kept important details close to hand. It was in my best interest to know more about the people I did business with than they would feel comfortable with.

  Leaning forward, I propped my elbows on the dark, wooden desk that sat between us and steepled my fingers together.

  There was nothing extraordinary about Hector. Construction worker. Widower. One daughter.

  How did you hit a man who didn’t have a lot to give in the first place?

  You took the only thing that made his life worth living.

  “Now,” I said to him, narrowing my eyes. “That’s not quite true.”

  He gave me a bewildered look and I couldn’t help the wicked smile that graced my face.

  Chapter Two

  Mia

  I let myself into the house after a long day at work. Working in a care home, even as an administrative assistant, is demanding and the extra shifts had left me with aching feet and a feeling of fatigue that was hard to shake. No two days were ever the same, and despite how difficult it could be some of the residents had managed to make their way into my heart. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It also helped that the pay was decent enough that I could contribute towards the bills and keep the house running.

  It felt like more effort than it should to shower and change before I could finally drop onto my bed. Burying my face into the pillow, I let the faint scent of lavender take the edge off my tense mood. It would be so easy to just stay like this and let sleep consume me, but considering I didn’t get a lot of free time I hated to feel like it’d been wasted.

  Lifting my head, I looked at the stacks of books that took over every inch of free space in my room in an attempt to decide on something to read. Many of them had been gifts from Dad over the years. He’d done his best to raise me ever since Mom passed away. I was so young when cancer took her that I couldn’t remember what she was like. The only way I could familiarize myself with her was through the photographs that Dad kept. The older I’d gotten the more I realized that I was her double in every way.

  My Dad was by no means perfect. He had a temper and he was partial to one drink too many, but how could I begrudge the man who picked up the pieces when he lost the love of his life, to raise me? I’m not sure I would have the courage to carry on if I had gone through what Dad
had.

  “AH!”

  A scream followed by the sound of a door slamming shut hard enough to shake the house caused me to jump. My heart thumped against my breastbone as I tiptoed to the top of the stairs to see Dad muttering to himself as he paced the floor. Initial panic fading, I made my way to join him.

  “Dad?” I asked as he whirled around to look at me. His eyes were wide, the whites of them bloodshot and my heart sank as I caught the vague scent of alcohol. “Dad, what’s wrong?”

  “Mia?” he said, taking me in. “Mia! Mia, pack a bag. We need to go. We need to leave!” He grabbed my upper arm and started to pull me back towards the stairs.

  “Ow!” I attempted to pull my arm away. “Dad, you’re hurting me. What’s going on?” It was strange to see him in such a panic. Why was he talking about leaving?

  He let go of my arm and I rubbed the spot, which was sore from the way he’d sunk his fingers into my flesh. It wasn’t like Dad to be so rough. I’d been raised in a relatively gentle environment. Even now, I couldn’t remember a time he’d raised his voice at me. I’m not sure he could allow himself to when I was the spitting image of my mother.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But please listen to me. We need to go.”

  Again, he spoke about leaving. He said it with such desperation that my stomach knotted, and I felt the anxiety start to claw up my chest at the thought that we might have lost the house. In a life where we didn’t have much, Dad and I had done everything in our power to keep the house. If nothing else, we would have a roof over our heads.

  “Why, Dad?” I asked him. “What happened?”

  Turning away from me, he walked upstairs, and I trailed behind him trying to get an answer. “Dad, please!”

  He spun around on me as we reached my bedroom door, and I thought he was about to answer my question. Instead, his face crumpled as a tear rolled down his cheek. My heart ached at the sight of him so upset and I pulled him into a hug. Keeping an eye on the floor, I carefully walked us into the room and sat us on the bed. I’d seen Dad cry, but it was usually only when we went to visit my mother. Silent moments at a graveside punctuated with mournful sobs.

  “Dad,” I said gently, taking his hand in mine as his tears subsided. “You need to tell me what’s happened.”

  “I’ve made such a mess of things.” His voice was thick from the tears and he sniffed.

  “How? What’s happened?”

  “I’m in debt, Mia.”

  That’s what he was worried about? We’d never been the best with money. We’d lived paycheck to paycheck for as long as I could remember but we’d always managed to make it through.

  “It’s fine,” I assured him with a smile. “We’ll figure out a way to pay it back. I’ll take on some more shifts.”

  The feasibility of that was uncertain, considering just how many times my name appeared on the roster at work. They were looking for a cleaner to work during nights and if I could arrange it properly perhaps I’d be able to balance both. When I graduated from high school I’d walked straight into this job. College had been the goal but there was no way we would have been able to afford it, so I kissed that dream goodbye and started working instead.

  There were times when I ached for a life that had more than this, but I quickly pushed down those feelings in fear they would spiral into resentment. If Dad needed my help, then I was as ready to step up as I had always been.

  “No, Mia. You don’t understand. I owe thousands,” he whispered.

  Thousands? I paled at the thought. I had assumed a few hundred dollars. How had he managed to accumulate that much debt? The room around me spun and I took in a deep breath to try and regain some composure. “How?” I asked him, dreading the answer.

  “I… I have a gambling problem.”

  He looked away from me, taking his hand from mine and leaving it cold. I could see the shame written all over his face, and a heavy weight settled in my chest and stomach. How had I not caught it? How had I not seen it? I had believed every extra job he took on was for a reason but now I was beginning to piece it all together. There were nights he would come home late and in a bad mood. There were times when I couldn’t figure out why we were still barely scraping together the rent when he had done extra hours. I had trusted my Dad unconditionally, because what reason had he ever given me not to?

  “What can I do, Dad?” I asked him quietly. As hurt as I was by his actions, we were a team and I wouldn’t abandon him now. Whatever we needed to do, we’d do it together to get out of this situation. The lies and betrayal could be discussed afterwards.

  “You don’t understand,” he said, looking back up at me. The smell of alcohol was stronger now that we were next to each other. “He’ll kill me. We need to leave.”

  My heart stopped in my chest when I heard those words. “Who?”

  “Lucas Foster.”

  “Lucas Foster,” I repeated the name. He wasn’t a man that needed much introduction. “As in Lucas Foster who was in school with me?”

  That wasn’t who. It was his younger brother that was in the same grade as me but I’d forgotten his name. I vaguely remembered Lucas waiting for him on his motorcycle when school let out. He always looked so angry, but it’d been years since I’d seen either of them.

  “I’ll speak to him,” I told my Dad. There had to be a way to strike an agreement, a compromise. Maybe Dad had misunderstood.

  “NO!” he shouted, and I jumped at how aggressive the word was. “No, Mia you can’t. You need to stay away from him.” He started to panic.

  “Dad, I’ll just…”

  He cut me off. “He wants you.”

  “I’m sorry?” I asked him, confused.

  “I borrowed money from him. I visited his casinos and I borrowed money from him,” Dad explained frantically. “It was a stupid, stupid thing to do but I just thought… Mia, if I could win big then I could pay off the house. I could get you to college.” He ran his hands over his face. “I told him I couldn’t pay him. I can’t do it. I don’t have that kind of money. He said he would let me pay him back if I gave you to him.”

  My head reeled from the confession, room spinning around me again. What did he mean if he gave me to Lucas? What would Lucas Foster want with me? We’d never spoken. We didn’t know each other, and now this?

  “But I won’t let it happen, Mia,” Dad continued, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. “I won’t, so we’ll go. I’d rather die than hand my baby over to scum like him.”

  The Fosters were seen as a respectable family with wealth beyond measure in town but there were whispers. Wealth like that wasn’t earned through legitimate business. There was plenty of gossip that followed the Foster name and murder was just one of the words that cropped up regularly. I’d never paid much attention to what had been said. After all, we moved in completely different circles. Now it looked like we were about to collide. I needed to make sure that my Dad didn’t get himself into any more trouble.

  “I need to speak to him.”

  “Mia, I’m begging you.” Dad looked at me desperately. We’d only ever had each other to rely upon. I needed to try and work something out that didn’t include me being taken by Lucas Foster, whatever that entailed.

  “Pack and we can leave tomorrow,” he ordered me. “I’ll get everything in order.”

  He hadn’t thought this through. Where were we meant to go? What money did we have to start fresh somewhere? Dad’s plan was dead in the water before we even started it.

  I hated lying to my Dad, but it was necessary before we found ourselves in deeper trouble. “Okay, Dad. Whatever you say. Why don’t you go downstairs? I’ll be there soon and cook us some dinner.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief, pulling me towards him before placing a kiss on my forehead. “I’m sorry I let you down, Mia.”

  My heart lurched at the words. He had gotten into this mess trying to give me a better life. “You’ve never let me down.”

  He got up from the bed and left
me alone, where the weight of the situation weighed heavy on my mind. A wave of nausea hit me as I watched his back retreat down the stairs. I fought against it and lay back down, staring at the mottled white of my ceiling. I had no clue what was going on or how I was meant to talk Lucas out of the ridiculous bind that he had Dad in. If the rumors were true, if the Foster’s shady reputation wasn’t just gossip, it wouldn’t matter what I said because he’d do as he pleased.

  The anxiety coiled in my stomach and seeped through my limbs, paralyzing me momentarily. I couldn’t lose Dad. I couldn’t lose him because he was all I had. He was the single thread that tied me to anyone in life, because we had no other family to depend on. The two of us against the world.

  I grabbed my phone from the bedside table where I had placed it earlier and Googled Lucas Foster and our town. The first few links were the websites to the casinos the Foster family owned, and I saved the addresses into my notes. Continuing to scroll through the results, there wasn’t a lot to be found. A few articles seemed to be the extent of it. When I clicked on one of the links I was greeted by a face, and I felt the hairs on my arms stand on end.

  The article was from a few years ago and reported on the opening of the latest casino. Lucas was pictured in a suit beside an older man. His beard was trimmed neat and his dark hair was slicked back, but it was the dead look in his eyes that made me nervous about my impending visit.

  I hoped Lucas was a man that would listen to reason.

  ∞∞∞

  I knew Dad didn’t want me to speak to Lucas, but I couldn’t let it rest. Stuck in my thoughts for the evening and most of the day, I only cemented the decision that I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to him. There had to be a way to rectify this without separating us.

  “Hi, I need to see Lucas Foster. I’m wondering if he’s here,” I said to a security guard who stood just inside the opulent casino. I’d already tried two of the others and I hoped that third time would be the charm. It was early afternoon but there were plenty of people around and the ringing and talking was overwhelmingly loud.

  He ignored me and I sighed. “Lucas Foster?” I asked him again. “You know, his family owns this place? Where can I find him? Or do I need to make an appointment?”