The test of perc, p.1
The Test of Perc, page 1
Test of Perc
The Savage Kings Series, Book 5
Jade Royal
Copyright © 2022 by Jade Royal
www.authorjaderoyal.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Playlist Turner’s War
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
Meanwhile…
O’ He Have Slain
The Compromise
Savage Kings Empire
Acknowledgments
About the Author
New Releases
Also by Jade Royal
I always use music to fuel my stories. Because the list keeps growing, I’m going to give you the link to my Spotify playlist to listen to. Usually, I list the titles of the songs in a playlist but thought that giving you the direct link would be better. Don’t worry about whether you have Spotify or not. They’ll still let you listen to the tunes at no cost as long as you follow the link.
You can always send me a email at jaderoyalnews@gmail.com to let me know what you think. Enjoy the playlist as you read, I know I have a few times.
Cheers,
Jade Royal
He’s a Savage…
Perc
I agreed to marry the first lady’s sister because she needed a green card. Since she was going away to college immediately, I wouldn’t have to deal with her. When the immigration official on payroll dies unexpectedly, our case shifts to someone who takes their job seriously. We have less than thirty days to rectify the holes in our relationship. I have pressing matters to address, and this marriage isn’t one of them. Stacey will have to find another solution because I’m not it.
*
Stacey
Finally, away from the reach of my father’s sins, I’m willing to do whatever it takes not to go back. A marriage in name only allows me to explore my new world freely. Tragedy shatters my dreams and puts me at the mercy of one man. My husband. He’d send me back before he would help. When the roles reverse, he needs me and is willing to negotiate. Will my terms be too much? Or will we both get what we need?
*
This is the fifth book in the Savage Kings Series, a Mafia Family Romance. It is a Marriage of Convenience Bad Boy Billionaire Mafia Romance.
Stacey
It wasn’t like Domino to call an emergency meeting where we needed to use video call. The six other brothers were there in Los Santos-Rosa, California, and I was in Las Vegas, Nevada. I figured it was something extremely important. So I paced, waiting for everybody to get to the meeting room.
“You’re going to ruin the floor with all that back and forth that you’re doing.” Domino sat sipping his coffee like a king on his throne. Guess it was appropriate.
“What does she have you drinking now?”
Domino is different now that he’s married. He’s calmer. The decisions that he makes are even more strategically planned than before. What gets under my skin is how everything seems more Zen. Fuck all the candles and shit he burns, the therapeutic routines he now has, and even more so, fuck the fact that he walks around with that silly ass grin on his face.
No amount of pussy from one woman makes a man that damn happy. I’m waiting for the honeymoon period in his life to end. I guess I’m too used to him being grumpy and no-nonsense. With all this married shit, it has him humming and living his best fucking life. We didn’t have time for Zen.
We’re in this to make money and take over the fucking world piece by piece. California took longer than I wanted. While we’re operating in other places, shit isn’t moving quick enough. Call me greedy, but I don’t have time for meetings and coffee. I’m ready to get back to business.
“Columbian. She added some kind of amaretto-something to it. Best fucking thing on earth. Don’t tell her, though.” Domino smiled just before he took another sip. Whipped motherfucka.
“Trust me. I won’t.” Yasmine, his wife, my sister-in-law, is a wonderful woman. I love her to death, but she won’t keep me from handling business.
“How are you and St–,” Domino cuts his words short when my other five brothers file into the room.
I can see them sitting at the long oval-shaped table. My seat is empty, as it should be, and Abigail’s seat is as well. Guess this meeting is above her paygrade. But then the door opens, and Yasmine waddles in with Abigail assisting the very pregnant woman. Even I had to smile at how round her belly was.
She’s carrying Domino’s second set of twins, and none of us can wait until they’re born. Their six uncles and godmother, Abigail, spoil the first set rotten. Having another two babies will give us another reason to compete against each other for best uncle. I can’t wait.
Domino stands up to give Yasmine his seat. We didn’t allow her in here, so something major had to be up, and it probably affected the whole family.
“Bro, let her sit in mine. She’s carrying my babies, anyway.” I lean into the screen.
Domino raises his eyebrows. “Don’t get yourself hurt, Perc.”
“Look at her stomach! Those babies are going to love me more than any of y’all fools. If she sits in my seat, they’ll know Uncle Perc has their back!”
All my brothers talk at once, but I don’t miss that Yasmine is easing into my chair. Abigail rolls her over to sit next to Domino, and I can’t stop the shit-eating grin on my face. How in the fuck does she do that to us?
All the alpha male energy in the room quiets when my brothers realize she is sitting in my chair. I know my big ass smile gave it away.
“Fuck you, Perc!” Saint yells out.
The entire room laughs in response. True, Saint and Turner are the biological uncles, but that means jack shit to us. Nobody is going to protect our family more than the seven of us. That trumps blood references. All the men present are brothers. Don’t question it.
Abigail shakes her head, laughing as she goes to her seat at the other end of the table. She pulls out her tablet and leans back, ready for business.
I take a second to look at my family. When I question if what I do is enough, I think back to moments like this. Yeah, we may fight, disagree, and even power struggle over different topics. But the reason we work so well is that we aren’t afraid to challenge each other respectfully. We’re also not afraid of change. If we’re wrong, we adjust. I grind hard for them. Us. Our future.
“Time to get to business,” Domino spoke, and quiet reigned louder than our voices ever could. “We have problems.” He sat his cup down and leaned into folded hands. “Someone is trying to bring attention to us in a bad way. Dead fiends, fucked up shipments, and now we have a dead USCIS officer. They’ve already called me about an interview with Yasmine and me. Looks like they’re reviewing all of Stewart’s cases.” He paused and looked at me. “You’ll need to tighten things up with Stacey.”
A rock lodged in my throat. I’d forgotten about that girl. She’s Yasmine’s sister and my wife. When we talked to the old officer, Stewart, he’d explained that trying to grant Stacey citizenship through kinship to Yasmine would be difficult when we didn’t have proof. She’d left everything back in Morocco, and when we’d put her on that plane to get her away from the shit happening there, we’d broken more than a few laws to do it. The easiest way was to have her marry someone quickly.
I was the scapegoat. I didn’t care at the time because the agreement was easy. Stewart approved the paperwork, and she could go away to school in Nevada, just outside of Vegas. I’d gotten her enrolled for school and stumbled upon the information to open a casino while I was here. After signing whatever they needed me to at the school, I hadn’t seen Stacey since she started.
“Define, tighten.” I flexed the muscles in my jaws, hating where this conversation was going. I needed to worry about the casino and the new restaurants we were working on opening.
“You’re going to be interviewed. It would help if y’all had the questions and answers part together. You’ll need photos to act like you’re a genuine couple. Abigail is working on adding some feminine touches to your house and the condo in your name, some clothes to your closet, and things she’d have there. You’ll need to do the same for the place you’re staying at out there. Stacey will need to do it, though. Since she’s in school there, it should be easy. Use cash so they can’t trace all the new purchases.”
“Perc, you’ll need to walk her through this. She’s not like me. I grew up around everything my father touched. I kept Sabbi away from this lifestyle.”
“Sabbi?” Who in the fuck was that?
“Sabbi is her given name. She goes by Stacey here.” Yasmine explained.
Guess there’s a lot I don’t know. I sighed, overwhelmed by this clusterfuck. I’d only agreed to this because they promised it wouldn’t touch me. The moment that Stewart’s heart stopped, it changed the plan.
“We can text basic information to one another. Can you send me her contact info?” I asked Yasmine.
The room became stone still.
“You don’t h ave her number?” Domino’s assessing stare watched me.
“So what?” I asked, unsure of the issue. “We had a deal.” It was my turn to return the look.
“Part of that deal was that you needed to be prepared if something happened. When’s the last time you saw her?”
“When we finished the paperwork at her school. They said everything was fine, so I left.” Why was he giving me shit about something that wasn’t supposed to be an issue?
“If this shit falls through the floor, it’s your ass on the line.” Domino stood up and walked over to the screen with one finger pointed my way. I’d never seen him as furious as he was right now. “Fix this shit. If you fail this interview, you’ll have more than just jail time to worry about.”
Everything in Nevada had happened because of me. It would all crumble if I didn’t get it in line, exposing us in a way I couldn’t take back. We’d blackmailed people, hid bodies, and had a different way of operating in Nevada. If I went to jail for something as stupid as green card scamming, everybody and everything could go down once they investigated.
“Nah,” I shook my head. “Consider it handled.”
“It better be.”
Just like that, the line went dead. A few seconds later, I received a text with a phone number. I didn’t bother texting Domino back. I knew he was furious, and there was only one way to fix it.
The phone line rang twice before a thickly accented feminine voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Do you know who this is?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t be a pain in my ass.
“Yes.”
“We’ve got a problem. I’ll meet you outside your dorm in forty minutes. Pack enough clothes for the weekend.” I hung up the phone, picked up the paperweight on my desk, and threw it at the far wall, making the glass shatter into pieces, flying in different directions. Karma made one shard come back my way, slicing the top of my cheek far too close to my eye.
The stinging pain fueled my anger. Inside the bathroom, I looked at the small gash, but couldn’t see anything. Rinsing didn’t help either, but I could feel something was in it. I wasted fifteen minutes trying to rinse it out. To no luck, I dried my face and put on my shades. Maybe it just stung from the cut.
Regardless, I needed to pick Stacey up and get back here before the casino opened. There was a medic downstairs. I’d just have her look at it. As cute as she was, there were a few other things she could look at, too.
Stacey
I sat on top of my luggage, waiting impatiently for Percy to arrive. He was about twenty minutes late and hadn’t bothered to call. When thirty minutes ticked by, I rolled my suitcase back inside and went into my room. I knew he was arrogant and full of himself, but I didn’t think it was this bad.
I pulled off my sweatshirt and laid down on my bed, exhausted from the day. There were two midterms I’d taken today after finishing two yesterday and studying for two weeks straight. My brain was tired, and I just wanted a minute to enjoy the silence. I closed my eyes for a moment and then never reopened them.
A loud pounding on my door yanked me from my sleep. I gasped for air as if someone had just let go of my neck after strangling me half to death. The noise sounded again, and I caught my bearings, then rushed to the door, pissed off and ready to bitch.
“What could you possibly want while banging on my door like a crazy person?” I shouted as I opened the door.
“I want my wife to do as she’s told.” Percy stormed past me into my room as if he owned it.
“Excuse me?” After closing the door, I turned his way. “I stood outside for thirty minutes waiting for you.” I looked over at the wall clock and scoffed. “And that was an hour ago.”
“There was traffic.”
“Then you should have called.” I put my hand on my hip, waiting for the arrogant bastard to apologize. Thank goodness I didn’t hold my breath.
“Well, we need to leave. I’m already late getting back, so we need to move.” Percy looked around my room and then down at my clothes. “What are you wearing?”
“A tank top and jeans. I originally had on a sweatshirt. But since I was asleep when you rudely knocked, I wasn’t wearing that.”
“Why are you dressed like a homeless person, though?” He lowered his head to look at me over the top of his glasses.
“I’m not!” There had to be a reason Yasmine chose this man for me to marry. Were all the other brothers taken? Was there not a friend?
“Where’d you get those clothes?”
“The discount store.”
“What discount store?”
“It’s a thrifty store.” I was proud of my clothes, no matter what he had to say.
“That’s exactly what you look like. Just so you know, it’s a thrift store.”
“Are we leaving, or are you going to continue to make fun of me?”
“No need to take your suitcase if it just has more shit in it like that. Put something over your arms and let’s go.” He walked back to the door to exit. “Come on.”
I sat on the bed and waited for him to get a grip. I wasn’t going anywhere with this man.
“What are you waiting on?”
“You to stop being an asshole.”
“Good luck. I’ll meet you in the car.”
“Take my bag with you.” I insisted.
“No. I just told you–”
“It goes, or I stay.”
“I don’t have time for this, Stacey.”
“Neither do I. I’m tired. I’ve already carried it down and back once. The faster you grab that bag, the quicker we can go. I’m not doing it again.” I huffed.
“It’s your residency at stake. I’m going to the car with or without you. If you want those ratty clothes to go with you, then you’ll bring them down yourself.” Percy walked out of my apartment, slamming the door. Ten minutes later, he still didn’t return.
Not used to not having my way, I stomped my feet before pulling my bag back downstairs. He was nowhere in sight. Tired of his games already, I phoned him to see where he’d disappeared to. Besides, I needed to know what he meant about my residency being an issue. I thought we’d fixed this already.
“I said with or without. I’m on the highway. What I say is what I always mean. You’ll learn that quickly. I’ll circle around this once, but there won’t be a next time.” He hung up, but was back in ten minutes.
He was decent enough to put my luggage in the car while I buckled in, but he was angry.
I was tired.
Then it was a long way to Las Vegas.
I slept in an office upstairs, away from the patrons. But I felt the bass of the music everywhere. I wanted to go downstairs, but hadn’t dressed for the occasion.
I sat at his desk and leaned back in the thickly padded leather seat. Curious, I opened his drawers, looking inside to see what kind of man that he really was. Everything was nice and neat, in specific places. When I opened the middle drawer, that’s when I hit the jackpot. A Black Card. American Express.
He wanted to complain about my clothes… I took the card and left the casino, walking to the shops I’d seen nearby. There was a long white dress that caught my attention from the window. Going to the door, the woman was locking it from inside. I’d learned while being here that money talked a lot louder than words. I pressed the card to the window for her to see, and she froze.
“I want that dress in the window,” I shouted.
She unlocked the door and opened it. “That dress is $6000.”
I walked inside and closed the door behind me. “I’ll take it.”
Percy was going to be pissed.
Perc
I watched the dancefloor. People were loving the DJ we’d hired on. Elle is amazing at what she does, not to mention beautiful. That was probably why her men, Jeremy and Miguel, were lurking nearby. They also managed this casino and did a hell of a job. They packed the place with patrons both inside the club area and over on the gambling side.
Scanning the room, I tried to keep my mind off all the fine-ass women in here. They barely wore clothing, showing off everything they had. Easy bait. The women that you lose your aggression in. I had plenty of it to lose, too.
Stacey had used most of my patience today, and I used the rest on my damn face. The pain in my cheek was annoying, and the medic was busy when I went down there. I opted for my shades and drowned my pain in bourbon.
