Chapter 374: Hands Off

Kace stormed into President Lee's building, and although he was unaware, from the moment he arrived, Ian had instructed all of his people to let him in unrestricted. Ian had been waiting for Lisa's brother to pay him a visit since his doctor found out that she had been taking high doses of birth control.

With everything that was going on now, and with Lisa in the dark about what Ian was doing and why; Ian understood that he would be the main suspect. He had been waiting for Kace to confront him, but he did not think the man would make a personal trip during business hours. He assumed he would have had a late-night visitor at his door, or an intimidating phone call, but Kace Ander's was a bold man and perhaps he had motives of his own.

Ian's office door swung open roughly. He was already standing with his hands in his pockets. He had removed his blazer and loosened his tie. If a fight broke out, Ian did not want to have any clothing that could be grabbed on his body.

"What the f*ck did you do to my sister?" Kace asked.

"I took her to the doctor, and in time to. I was told that in the amounts she was taking, she had about another month before the damage became irreversible."

"If you don't want to have children with Lisa, keep your hands off of her." Ian scoffed at Kace's words.

"I'll say this once, and not because I have to, but because you seem to be misinformed. Of all the time that I have known your sister. We have kissed twice, and while we have come extremely close, I have not touched your sister in that way since." Kace narrowed his eyes. He did not know why, but he believed the man in front of him.

"Then that woman who is staying with you-"

"You will leave her out of this. Do you know that she sacrificed herself for Lisa? Did your sister tell you that if Mina hadn't gone back-"

"Enough," Kace shouted. He had been the one to hire those men, and he later found out that they planned to sell at least one of the women. His heart ached every night thinking of what could have happened to his sister because of him; no, because of President Lee.

"Kace, you and I have never gotten along, but don't go accusing people blindly. I have given you the time you said you needed to handle your sister with no results. How many other men do you think would wait an extra minute in my position?"

"Lisa is more stubborn than I thought," Kace admitted.

"Which is why I am being patient." Kace stared at President Lee vowing to himself that he would not allow the man to live happily ever after. Just the way that he planned to destroy the man in the eyes of his sister, he planned to destroy him in the eyes of the woman he wanted as well.

----

Mina watched Emma sulk on the living room sofa. She had told Mina about what happened with James, but Mina could not see what the man had done wrong. From Emma's own words they had only met once at that time, and while Emma found James attractive, she was not interested in him.

"I know it sounds like I am defending James, but I am not. I just do not like to see you so depressed. I think you are taking things too personally." In her typically shy and soft voice, Emma responded.

"What would you do if you were me?" It was not a question Mina was used to being asked. It was usually the other way around.

"First you and James need to slow all the way down. You obviously don't know him well enough to trust him."

"How can I trust him? He should have told me." That was something Mina was used to hearing. First from her parents, then from Dom, and now from President Lee.

"Emma, sometimes the truth can hurt more than help. When you asked about it, he did not lie. That is more important to me. He could have denied it, he could have tried to convince you not to believe the other person, but he did not."

"Then why did he just leave when I asked him? Why didn't he try to explain it better?"

"Because he is dumb, but he respects you. You asked him to leave and he did. I bet if I call him now, he will say he is giving you time and space." Emma pouted knowing that James would say just that.

"I have an idea. Should we mess with him a bit? Make him feel the way you felt?" Emma shifted in the upright position.

"How?"

"There is a guy named Chris…"

----

Mina introduced Willow to Emma, and as she expected, the two women were able to hold a casual conversation without her.

Willow was like a chameleon, she could shift and fit herself into different roles when needed, and right now she was in big sister mode.

"I agree with Mina on this one. I have lived in both pan and The Fours Cities for equal amounts of time and what I found was that the only difference was that people in Pan tend to lie about their past, while people in The Four Cities own it." Mina was surprised that she had given good advice and wondered if all her time reading romance novels had paid off.

The women rambled for a long time, and at the end of their conversation, Emma looked less confused. She decided not to go along with Mina's plan, which Willow bashed as vengeful, but she wanted to talk to her sister before she made a solid decision. They were interrupted by a knock at the door; it was Mina's dress.

Mina opened the plain brown box and stared at the black dress. It was folded neatly and looked too plain for the type of event she was attending. Mina looked up at Emma and Willow, wondering if she should try and borrow something with a little more detail.

Not wanting to offend Madam Rue, Mina lifted the dress up and saw that it was oddly shaped. She kept repositioning it, trying to get it to make sense but it looked more like an open jacket.

"I think it has a belt," Willow said. She dug through the stuffing in the box and pulled out a black band that was embellished with crystals of a uniform size. "Sh!t Mina, this alone must have cost a ton. Who did you say got you this again?"

"I told you it was my boss. Hurry help me get ready before my ride is here." Mina had already asked Emma to keep her employer a secret from Willow for a while.

"Oh my gosh," Emma squealed from behind them. She had opened the shoe box that came with the dress and pulled out a pair of high platform heels that matched the belt of the gown. Willow's eyes widened.

"Those are limited edition shoes! Mina, did President Lee get you this stuff?" Willow received a glare in response. "Fine, I will drop it for now, but I will figure it out." Mina smiled internally.

'This weekend,' Mina thought to herself.