“For what exactly?” She glanced over at Pacino and then did a double take.
Sliding a napkin over to him, she motioned to her mouth. “Wipe your mouth. You’re drooling.” That wink sent my boy blushing. What in the hell was going on here?
“Your intel. Since you know who we are then I know you are aware of what we do, and we’d like to continue under the radar but at the same time expand our business.”
Noelani had brains and beauty. A high IQ that would intimidate the quirkiest nerd. She used that as her weapon and managed to break codes that only a collective people living managed to do. She was a valuable asset. Someone that the government kept on lock like Fort Knox, only not bringing much attention to her by letting her live a normal everyday life.
She not only broke codes, but she was a genius at mapping and coordinates.
Leaning on her elbows resting her chin on her hands, she held eye contact. I liked that. She wasn’t intimidated like most people I came across. “What type of numbers are we talking? I find all of this amusing, truly I do. For months you’ve been following me trying to track my whereabouts and who I associate with, understand what I give is only face value. I knew about you coming for me once you started speaking to Randy.” She winked. Randy was the dude she counseled in prison that told me about her.
“Going into business with you won’t be a one-time thing. It will be however long we manage to stay doing what we’re doing. Nothing will ever be traced back to you. Once you agree to assist, I’ll come up with a way for us to communicate that can’t be tracked or, if you have a better suggestion, I’m open to that as well. Just as you have everything to lose so do, we.”
The longer we sat there going over business I realized that Noelani was more excited than us. She asked questions that had everything to do with the products, place of distribution, annual gross, etc. By the time we left the table nothing had been left untouched. Mitch would have come instead of Pacino, but he said that his presence wasn’t necessary if I was going. In a couple of years, he planned on retiring and making me the head of all operations.
That type of responsibility required a different mindset than the one I had now. While I was focused on making sure that we were the best in everything we did in Florida I still had two teenage boys to worry about. Mitch and I agreed that I wouldn’t take his place until Atlas graduated high school.
We came too far for me to slack up on my responsibilities.
“Where are you heading?” We were back at the main warehouse in Dania Beach. After Noelani kindly turned down Pacino’s advances, he pouted until I dropped him off to his car.
“Oh, you done sulking now?” I lifted a brow, chuckling at how he took being rejected.
Waving me off, he smiled looking off in the distance. “Come on, Amell.
You know that shit she was spitting was sexy as hell. A woman that’s involved in the life we live but a boss too. Man, I was ready to ask for her hand in marriage.” Now that made me laugh.
Marriage and Pacino in the same sentence was funny.
No, he wasn’t out here sexing everything with legs like that hormonal brother of mine, but he was damn near close.
“She’s aight but what you need to remember is that you don’t piss where you lay, Rico Suave. Keep it flirty but don’t try nothing with ole’ girl and I mean it.” I made sure that the mug on my face sent the right message and from the way he blinked rapidly and swallowed, he got the message loud and clear.
“Man, I’m not even going to bother that girl.” He hopped in his car. “Stay black, fool.” Throwing up the peace sign he burned rubber.
My phone vibrated again making me sigh. When I asked the private investigator to keep tabs on my mother the last thing, I expected him to do was call me every time she breathed. Once I read the email and saw where her current location was, I got in the car and headed that way. I still felt apprehensive about confronting her. At this point what would it serve?
But what really got me agitated was her need to continue snooping in my life and now my brothers. I saw her last week by the gate at Cassian’s football game.
He had no idea she was there, but I did and that pissed me off. What if he saw her? What if Atlas saw her?
A messy situation that I needed to be handled quickly because something in the back of my mind kept telling me that she was going to show face real soon.
Feeling my phone vibrate again I almost ignore it. “Hey.”
Silence greeted me. “I’m surprised you answered.”
“Ah, yeah? Why wouldn’t I answer your call?”
Mahogany giggled with shyness. “We haven’t seen each other since that morning. Plus, you don’t seem like the type to turn back around after being done with someone.”
I wasn’t.
After she told me that her feelings had become deeper than I’d ever feel for her, I did us both the favor by releasing her and cutting the cord. There were times when I missed her. Thought about her and if she was with another man that could give her what I couldn’t. Nothing too extreme that had me regretting any decisions I made when it came to us.
“I don’t, so if you know that then why did you call? And before you lie and say something other than the truth…I missed you too, Mahogany. Missed your company and waking up with your feet all in my face.” The giggle I got this time was one without nervousness. I broke the ice without being coldhearted.
“I had a long talk with my feelings. We agreed that they’ll stay hidden while I give my body what she wants and that’s you, for however long you’ll have me.” “Mahogany…”
“Wait. Before you tell me that I’m setting myself up for heartbreak, I’m a big girl, Amell. When the time comes for us to really part ways, I’ll just have to suck it up. I tried to move on with another guy, but he simply wasn’t you and I know others won’t be either. Never in my life have I met a man who pays so much attention to my needs and body like you. That’s hard to come by. Hard to walk away from.”
My hands tugged on my beard that I had every intention of cutting come the morning. I knew women. Clover schooled me a long time ago and I knew the emotional danger she was putting herself in by wanting to continue having sex with me. Part of it was indeed my fault. I sexed Mahogany like I had something to prove. Make a bold statement that I had the power to make you lose your mind without being spiritually connected to you.
Selfish reasons but it stroked my ego.
Mahogany risked being hurt and let her hormones place her in the dangerous grip of my hands. Lowered her standards and pushed her needs to the side just to get as much of me as I allowed, which wasn’t much.
“I’ll tell the front desk to let you up.”
“Thank you, Amell. I’ll see you soon.”
She thanked me today, but something told me that she’d be hating later on down the line.
Chapter 4
Krishna, Junior Year
They had no idea who I was. They had no idea where I came from. Not even the familiar dimple in my left cheek or black mole on my chin made them think twice. I was a stranger. A potential threat to the people who lived beyond the safety of the gate. These men cared nothing that my heart was seconds away from beating out of my chest. How, at the age of twenty-one, I was on the verge of going into cardiac arrest. Never would the recognition of who taught me how to keep a poker face in the line of danger amuse them, not in this moment.