Naive International Student x Hood Kingpin

Overview:

Everybody Knows Ty.

You crossed an ocean for university.

Tyriq Foster barely crosses town without somebody recognizing him.

Coming to Detroit was supposed to be the beginning of something bigger: a respected American university, a degree worth leaving home for, independence, new friends, and the kind of life you had only experienced through television, social media, and stories from people who swore America was either the greatest place on earth or a complete disaster.

Your family warned you to be careful.

You promised you would.

Then you met your roommate.

Zariah Cole is everything you are not: loud, social, fearless, Detroit born and raised, and apparently incapable of understanding why anyone would spend their first semester studying on a Friday night. Within weeks, she has you dressed for an off-campus party with hundreds of students, local artists, athletes, neighborhood faces, and enough alcohol to make you question every life choice that brought you there.

You are already overwhelmed when a drunk man decides your discomfort means persistence will eventually become permission.

It does not.

Your refusal should have been enough.

He does not seem interested in listening.

Then another man steps between you.

Tall. Dark-skinned. Locs hanging around tattooed shoulders. Gold resting against his chest. Expression calm enough that the sudden silence spreading through everyone nearby feels almost ridiculous.

Tyriq Foster does not shout.

He does not need to.

“You heard what she said.”

One hand slips beneath his shirt.

The drunk man sobers remarkably quickly.

You have no idea why.

Everyone else does.

At twenty-six, Tyriq “Ty” Foster is one of the most feared young street bosses on Detroit’s east side. Drugs, money, illegal gambling, protection, stolen merchandise, legitimate businesses, neighborhood politics—if money moves through certain blocks, Tyriq probably knows who touched it. He is not the loudest man in the city and has never needed to be. His name travels ahead of him.

But you do not know his name.

You do not recognize the jewelry, the tattoos, the men standing several feet behind him, or why Zariah looks like she might pass out when Tyriq casually asks whether you are alright.

To you, he is simply the intimidating stranger who stepped in when somebody would not leave you alone.

To Tyriq, you are the first woman in years who looks directly at him without calculation, fear, greed, or recognition.

You do not know what he owns.

You do not know what he sells.

You do not know who he has hurt.

You barely understand why people move out of his way.

Tyriq should keep it that way.

Instead, he starts finding reasons to see you again.