Chapter 10

"George? Who's George?" Rossalyn asked struggling to get out from under Josiah and look around. The SUV was still moving a little erratically but seemed to at least be slowing down a little.

"Sir, we've lost them. What do you want us to do?" The driver asked after the black window was put down.

"I think it'll be best at this point to take us directly to the club as originally planned. We have more men there and I don't see any reason to ruin the entire night." Josiah said finally releasing Rossalyn and sitting back into the leather seat.

"Who is George?" Rossalyn demanded after she reclaimed her seat and looked over at him.

"George has been, how do I put it nicely.....a pain in my side for some years now. He wants to expand his businesses and I won't work with him." Josiah answered after taking a moment to think on how to phrase his response.

"Well if that is how he handles his business I can see why." Rossalyn huffed straightening her hair and dress from being shoved into the cramped floor of the vehicle.

Josiah laughed at her response, of all the things she could have said that was among the last he'd expected. He expected her to be completely freaked out and he fully expected tears at least. He wasn't sure once the adrenaline wore off there wouldn't be, but he was relieved that she didn't completely fall apart in the event of a stressful interaction.

"To be fair, there was a time that I handled business in a rough way. I didn't inherit this empire. I built it myself. So there was, and in honestly still is, a lot of ruthlessness that I am capable of. But I rarely snuck up on a rival and tried to assassinate them in public and unprovoked." Josiah said.

"What are you going to do about what happened tonight?" She asked sounding torn between fear and the wish for relatiation.

"What are you hoping to hear?" Josiah asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know. I don't even think I want you to answer that." She said not meeting his eye. "In fact, don't answer that."

"In future, if you do not want the answer to a question, do not ask the question. I won't hide things from you. I'll let you choose how involved and knowledgeable you want to be, but I'll never lie to you. Nor will I hide the fact that some aspects of my business are less savory than others." Josiah warned her.

"Warning taken." She said then fell quiet for the rest of the ride to the night club.

Josiah left her to her thoughts in order to contemplate how to handle the situation. He'd only had James and Brad with them that night since he hadn't been expecting trouble. He doubted that word hadn't spread about the fact that he was planning a wedding. He was confident word had spread through the circles he traveled in and no doubt had reached George. Unfortunately George had taken advantage of the fact that Josiah's guard was a little lax. If Brad hadn't noticed the men approaching when he had, things probably would have worked out much less in his favor than they had.

Though the guard with him tonight was less than normal, the club he'd planned on taking Rossalyn to was crawling with his men. He'd planned on taking her there to introduce her to most of them and their wives. It seemed like it would turn more into a strategy meeting than a family get together. He took his phone from his pocket and sent off a text to one of the men at the club. He'd expect the club to be cleared out of everyone except his men and their wives by the time they arrived. The benefit of owning the establishment was that he could shut it down any time he wanted.

"Are you okay?" Josiah asked Rossalyn when he'd noticed she had been quiet for a while and seemed to be chewing her lipstick off.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you?" She asked and glanced over at him.

"Yes, I'm fine." He took her hand and laced their fingers together, hoping to reassure her.

She didn't pull away from him, though she didn't say anything else. They didn't have much further of a drive for her to regain composure so Josiah left her to her thoughts. He was receiving texts from his men asking what had happened and confirming the club was empty except for family. The SUV pulled up to the door of the club a few minutes after that text came through.

"Boss, just stay in the vehicle for a minute. I just want to check things out before you get out." Brad said then opened the door and got out of the vehicle.

A couple minutes later both rear doors of the SUV were opened and Rossalyn and Josiah got out of the vehicle. They were immediately ushered into the club with James and Brad close on their heels. A roar of applause met them once they went through the second set of doors that opened up into the main floor of the club and Rossalyn jumped, her hand gripping Josiah's forearm tightly.

"Its okay. They're just relieved we got here in one piece." Josiah reassured her gently removing her hand from his arm to wrap it around her shoulders and pull her close to him.

She went willingly enough. There were somewhere around fifty people in the club and Josiah was the only person she knew by name. They were all approaching them and talking at once. She'd never been extremely comfortable in a crowd of people when she didn't know anyone. Josiah seemed to sense her discomfort and pulled her through the crowd to the bar and let her have a seat.

"Thank you everyone for your welcome. This was meant to be more of a celebration than a meeting, but its going to turn into a little of both. But first, I want to introduce Rossalyn to you guys. She has graciously agreed to marry me." Josiah called out to the group of people once they had settled down a little.

Rossalyn was approached by several men and women in a line to greet her and welcome her to their 'family'. She lost track of all the names and by the time the last person moved away she'd even lost the ability to separate faces. He seemed to have a lot of people in his family, though she knew there wasn't one that was blood related. But she guessed that these were the men and their wives that he was in charge of. She'd do well to remember that she would be closely watched by too many people to have any chance of hiding anything. If she ever felt lonely before, she had a feeling she'd long for solitude in her future. But she was surprised at how warm everyone was to her. Though there were several people there, to a man and woman, they all seemed genuinely happy to meet her and that she was to marry their boss. If the heirarchy was to be compared to the royal family, she was being promoted from serf to queen seemingly out of no where. She wouldn't have been surprised to find at least someone involved to have a problem with that.

Rossalyn found herself in a group of women in the all too common getting to know you talk when she realized that Josiah was missing, along with a large number of the men that had previously been in attendance.

"Where'd everyone go?" Rossalyn asked looking around the room confused.

"They probably went to the office to talk about what happened on the way here. I know that had to be really scary for you. How are you handling it?" Jessica asked putting a consoling hand on Rossalyn's bicep.

"I'm okay. It was scary but thankfully they weren't a good shot." Rossalyn said, trying to joke it off. She feared if she really thought about what could have happened she'd really freak out.

"Thank goodness for that!" Jessica said then laughed and a few other women joined in the laughter.

"Are you excited about the wedding?" Chelsea asked moving to stand next to Jessica in front of Rossalyn.

"I think I'm more nervous than anything else. From what I can tell its going to be a really big affair. There are more people in this room than I even know personally. Its just a little overwhelming. But Josiah and I have agreed on almost everything after some back and forth." Rossalyn said, aiming for honesty but not wanting to tell them they'd spent most of the day bickering about almost every detail before coming to agreements.

"How about the honeymoon? Where are you guys going on honeymoon?" Jessica asked excitedly.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I haven't even thought about that." Rossalyn said, struck that the thought hadn't even occured to her to talk to Josiah about that.

"I'm sure that Josiah has something up his sleeve." Chelsea said confidently.

"I think I should remember to ask him that." Rossalyn said with a nervous laugh. She honestly didn't care where they went on honeymoon. Noting Josiah's preferred surroundings, she was sure that wherever they went would be far better than anywhere she would have had the option to go if she married anyone but him. She was less concerned about where they were going on honeymoon than nervous about the things she'd be expected to do on the honeymoon. After all, she had just promised him to try to make their marriage a fulfilling one. That seemed to indicate that once they were married, she'd have to at least try to be a willing wife and everything that was implied with that.