"Miranda, hi. Did you come here for another manicure? If you wait a moment, I'll get my hedge clippers and be right back with you," Chay greets Miranda as he and Kim walk up to her.
"You... stay away from me!" Miranda's voice is shaking. "You got my finger, my father, and even my Kim. You—you evil!"
"Miranda," Kim sighs, running his fingers through his hair, "I was never yours. I don't know where you got that insane idea that I was, but it's not real—it never was, It's all in your head. And that's where it will stay."
"Miranda, your father wanted to kill both me and my husband. I did what I had to do, that's all." Chay doesn't say that he is sorry because truth be told—he isn't. Mallori was the one playing with fire. Mallori was the one who didn't let them be. If he would stay away from them, Chay wouldn't do what he did. He wouldn't even step a foot in Mallori's direction. Chay barely knew what he was doing when he walked into that cabin, but he did what he had to protect his husband, and he will never be sorry for protecting his husband. Never.
"Sometimes, my father was hard to deal with, but he didn't deserve to die," Miranda shakes her head, hands clenched together on her chest.
"Your father was one of the most merciless mafia leaders around, darling," Kim scoffs. "He did deserve it. All of us in the mafia do. Instead of sobbing on our steps, you should be at home, preparing to take over the family. That empire won't run itself."
"I don't want it," Miranda tips up her chin and sniffs away her tears. "That's why I came here."
"Oh, so you don't want the manicure?" Chay asks sadly.
Miranda doesn't even look at him. She keeps looking only at Kim as if Chay is just dust floating in the air. Fine, at least Chay doesn't have to deal with her much, but she better keep those eyes of hers only on Kim's face because if she goes lower Chay will put her back in her place!
"I have an offer for you, Kimhan," Miranda says.
"Offer?" Kim glances at Chay.
Chay smiles—there was a day when Kim had an offer for him as well...
"What offer?" Kim asks.
"The offer you can't refuse," Miranda replies.
"I'm the one who's gonna decide that, darling. Now, talk!" Kim throws his arm around Chay's shoulders and kisses his temple.
Chay can see Miranda's lips twitch in anger, but she doesn't comment on it. Instead, she just takes a deep breath and starts explaining her offer.
"I don't want to take over the family. I never liked how dangerous it really was. If you give me ten million dollars, I'll leave this country, and you can do whatever you want with the mob family my father left behind. Ten million, and you'll own more than half of the city, Kimhan. No more fighting over the territory with Mallori. It will be all yours."
Take over the Mallori family? They barely had time to talk about everything that happened. Isn't this too big of a decision to be made right now? Chay looks at Kim, watching the muscles on his face tensing as he thinks about Miranda's words, and then, relaxing, becoming almost indifferent as his lips form his next words.
"What if I won't accept the offer? What will you do then, Miranda?"
Chay is watching as Miranda tugs a strand of her hair behind her ear, her hands—Chay notices—are shaking. Is she angry? Is she upset? Nervous? Afraid? Tired? All of it?
"I know that there's also Lucaci family. For a while, they have been lying low, but I'm sure that now, when my father is dead, they will try to get ahold of this free territory. I don't think that you would want Lucaci to get more power, would you, Kimhan? If you won't take the offer, I'll go with the same offer to Lucaci. It's up to you, Kimhan Theerapanyakul."
Well, Chay has to admit that Miranda isn't the naive little daughter of a mob boss. She knows what she is doing if she puts a lot of thought into it... Someone else getting all that territory, money, men, assets... That wouldn't be good for Kim at all... But... the money...
Chay frowns, "let me ask you something, Miranda. Why don't you just take your own money and leave if you want to leave so much?"
"Because I'm selling you the goddamn family, idiot! Even if I don't want it—I won't let anyone have it for free!"
"Watch your tone when you are talking to my husband!" Kim glares at Miranda.
Chay nods, "fine. I'm just making sure that there is still some money left in your family. What if you want to get rid of it because there's nothing left, hmm?"
Kim shakes his head and leans in to whisper in Chay's ear, "no, sweetheart. If Mallori was having problems with money, my informant would let me know."
Chay turns to Kim fully, hand resting on Kim's hip, "are you sure that he would know?"
"Yes," Kim smirks, "my informant is—was Mallori's accountant. The money is no problem at all."
Chay puls away and mouths in surprise, "accountant?"
Kim nods.
Okay, then Chay has nothing else to say. He leaves this decision to Kim.
Kim looks back at Miranda and nods, "fine. Deal. We are taking it. Ten million for Mallori empire sounds reasonable, but I'm not doing anything before we both sign the contract. I don't need you to come back here later and pretend that this conversation never happened."
⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜
So, here's a thing; Chay loves to watch Kim do anything, but he must admit that watching Kim boxing might be one of his favourite activities. Kim's body is a work of art. The way his muscles contract and relax every time he makes a sharp and precise move, the way his skin shines with sweat... Chay has a very concerning urge to lick it, taste it on his tongue, over and over again.
Chay gulps down, "it's really fucking unfair how attractive he is," he mumbles under his breath and crosses his arms on his chest as he keeps watching Kim. He wants to run his fingers through Kim's hair, tug on it and kiss him silly until they both end up naked... he clears his throat, that's not why he is here right now!
It's been a month since Miranda left and the Theerapanyakul mafia family has become twice as big as before. Some members of the Mallori mafia left, but most of them stayed. Accepting the new boss... or actually, two of them didn't seem that hard for most of the men, which Chay more than appreciated. He really didn't want to have trouble inside his own mafia family. Actually, he didn't want to have any trouble at all.
Today, Chay spent his entire morning keeping an eye on the new gun delivery in the warehouse. Boring, but it's one of the safer things that Kim lets Chay do alone. Even though Chay would argue how safe it actually is being around so many guns, but Chay gets it. He doesn't want Kim to send him in the middle of some dangerous mission anyway. Missions like that Chay will do only with Kim by his side. So, now, Chay is back, ready to report to his husband that everything went smoothly, all the guns are accounted for, and now he is free to spend the rest of his day with his husband, but in order to do that, his husband has to stop his boxing training first. Technically, Chay can interrupt him anytime he wants, but he would be a fool to do that.
Kim just looks so goddamn fine.
"Oh, Khun Porchay..." Big, who is turned in Chay's direction, finally notices him.
"Don't mind me, just continue," Chay smiles.
But then Kim turns around, he takes off his gloves, and ruffles his messy hair. His eyes get shiny and happy like a little puppy when it sees its human. He pats Big's shoulder, "leave!"
Big nods and walks past Chay, "khun Porchay, I found Al Capone in my room this morning again."
"Oh, so that's where he was," Chay chuckles, "sorry."
"No problem. I just thought that you would like to know."
"Yes, thank you, Big."
When Big finally leaves, Chay gets pulled into Kim's arms, lips sealed by the lips of his husband.
"Missed my sweetheart. Where have you been for so long?" Kim mumbles, tracing kisses all over Chay's face.
"Where was I? Where you sent me, babe," Chay wraps his arms around Kim's neck.
"That was a bad decision," Kim frowns.
Chay giggles, "well, now I'm here. Wanna know how it went?"
Kim hums, his lips leave Chay's face and start dancing on his neck, ready to continue the hickey he didn't finish in the morning.
"It went... well," Chay leans his head back, giving Kim more access to his neck.
"Well? Anything else to report, sweetheart?"
"You look hot when you are boxing," Chay whispers, tugging on Kim's hair and crashing their lips together.
Now, that's better. Chay moans, letting Kim's mouth explore his mouth. He holds Kim tight, pressing their bodies together, following the movement of Kim's lips... their lips dance together like they always do.
Kim wraps his arms around Chay tightly, lifts him up, and carries him across the gym so that he can sit down on the bench and Chay can straddle him.
Chay pulls away, chasing his breath, "so hot..."
Kim chuckles, his hands roaming around Chay's thighs, "next time you should join me."
"No," Chay shakes his head, "I don't want to hurt you."
"Oh, you think that you could take me down, sweetheart?"
"Of course," Chay shrugs, "anytime."
Kim smiles lovingly, "I love you so much," he presses a kiss on Chay's forehead. "My husband, my, my, my..."
"Yours," Chay grabs Kim's chin and pecks his lips. "I want to ask you something," he says when he pulls away.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Kim hugs Chay tightly, kissing his shoulder and neck.
Chay bites his lips nervously even though he knows that there's no reason to be nervous—Kim will do anything and everything for him.
"I was thinking about my orphanage."
"Yeah? Want to go visit?" Kim looks at Chay.
"Actually, I thought that we could host a charity event... We could get the mafia world together, get some money from them, and have fun. I know that you gave me more than enough money when we met, but—"
"Consider it done, Chay." Kim cups Chay's cheek, "of course we can do it. Although, I would add a little bit of poker in it. Poker always pulls in a lot of money."
"You know how to play?" Chay asks, smiling. His nervousness is long gone."
Kim smirks, "I don't have to."
To be continued...
P.S. next chapter is the last one, guys 😔 this time for real