Pawns & Kings Read online

  “Who says that I even have a heart anymore,” I said.

  “Maybe, you don’t. But whether you can forgive me or not, I want a fresh start with you,” he told me. “You are my son and the thing I want the most is to get to know you. I’ve been watching you your whole life, and I’m proud of the man that you’ve become. And I know that we’ve lost a lot of time, but I want you to get to know me as well. But before we can do that, we’ve got to take care of Francisco.”

  “I don’t understand why Francisco felt the need to kill Ziegler in this whole plan to destroy our empire,” I said. “He told me that the FBI was investigating him and Ziegler and that you got caught in the middle. Something about money laundering. Are you telling me that none of that is true?”

  “No, it’s all true,” my father said. “Ziegler was laundering money, but what Francisco was doing is even worse. Even though a lot of time has passed, he and The Syndicate have not given up on their plan to bring down me and everything that is connected to me, including you. I didn’t think that he had the balls to come after you. It took him five years to do it, but he’s hot on your trail now. And if we don’t do something soon, then you, my wife, and my other kids will all be in the grave, and I’m not having that.”

  “I’ve been handling this situation just fine without you, a’ight.” I still hadn’t determined how I felt about this whole situation, but I definitely didn’t like the fact that he was acting like I needed him to “fix” things.

  “Oh really. You call going all the way to Paris handling it,” he said. “Then you go to his card game by yourself thinking that you would surprise him.” He chuckled as he shook his head at me. “You got a lot to learn, son. Francisco hasn’t even shown all of his cards yet. He’s a very dangerous man, there’s no mistaking that. And now that his son is dead, that only adds fuel to the fire.”

  “You know about that too?” I said.

  “Yeah. I told you that I know about everything,” he replied. “And I know that D.J. pulled the trigger. But in all honesty, things would be going a lot smoother if you and D.J. would work together instead of fighting each other.”

  “Yeah, well tell him that.”

  “Don’t worry. I will.”

  “How? You’re dead, remember.” He gave me a knowing look and then took another swig from his glass.

  “I’m coming out of hiding,” he said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because its time,” he told me. “I gotta clean up this mess.”

  “Oh really,” I said glaring at him from across the room. “All this time you been in hiding and now…” I stopped myself because I could feel the rage rising in me. I didn’t want to blow up at this man, but then I decided to throw caution to the wind. “You know what, fuck you! While you been on a five year vacation, I been out here in these streets fighting for my life. I’m out here trying to fix the mess that you weren’t man enough to handle yourself. And now you want to come in like a fucking hero and save the day? My mother was right about you. You really are a piece of shit.”

  I had crossed the room and was now right in his face. He could see that I wasn’t intimidated by him and he obviously didn’t like that one bit. He pushed me, causing me to stumble backwards a couple of steps before regaining my balance.

  “Who you talking to, boy?” he uttered, stepping towards me and getting right back in my face. He stood there, daring me to respond.

  “I-I’m talking to you,” I stuttered and then cursed myself inwardly for letting him get to me.

  “Nah, you can’t be talking to me,” he said shaking his head slightly and shooting me a deadly glare. “You must have forgotten; I’m your father. And you got the audacity to act like you’ve done something because you’ve survived a couple of gunfights and shit. Everything that you have and everything that you are is because of me. It’s because of my hard work and my sacrifice.”

  “Everything that I am?” I rebutted. “It’s because of you that I don’t even know who I am. You were never there for me. You scorned my mother and that made her feel like she had to keep us apart. But I’m grown now and it’s too late for you to fix that shit.”

  His expression changed a bit when I said that. The fascinating thing about this conversation was that neither of us were in a power struggle, but we both had something to prove. He was trying to prove his worth while I was trying to prove my independence. But when it came down to it, there was one thing that we both wanted from one another, and that was respect.

  He took a few steps back from me, resting his hands on his hips while he dropped his head. I wondered what he was thinking, but my ego wouldn’t allow me to ask him. If something was troubling him, then that was a good thing as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t fully buying this whole rap about him being so heartbroken over not being in my life. And I had no sympathy for him. He needed to feel some of my pain so that he could understand me.

  Finally he turned to me again and stepped toward me.

  “Darius, who you are has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with your mother and it has nothing to do with my wife and kids either. Who you are is all about this,” he said, tapping me on the chest. “What’s in here is what matters. What’s in here is what makes you who you are. I’ve been watching you your whole life, and you have something special that none of my other children have. There’s no name for it, but it’s the thing that makes you the unique person that you are. And I am so damn proud of you. If for nothing else, I brought you here so that I could tell you that.”

  I stared at him and tried to show no emotion. His words had gotten to me. In a lot of ways it was everything that I’d always wanted to hear him say. I was beginning to think that he was actually sincere and meant what he was saying. He didn’t have to bring me there. He didn’t have to give me his company. But he did, and that was worth something.

  He paused for a second and went behind the desk. He opened a drawer and pulled out a Berretta. That particular gun wasn’t really my style, but it fit my father perfectly. With his gun tucked at his waist he came back over to me.

  “To show you how much I respect you, I’m asking your permission,” he said as we now stood face to face. “Let me go to war with you, Darius. Let’s take down Francisco and his clan together.”

  I pretended to be contemplating my response, but I already knew what I was going to do. I might be upset with this man, but I was no fool. I needed him. I needed his wisdom and his experience, not to mention his expertise. He knew things about this whole dilemma with Francisco and The Syndicate that I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if I could trust my father, but I was going to extend the benefit of the doubt to him. I needed someone like him in my corner, and in a perfect world, that person would be someone that I knew I could trust completely. But this obviously wasn’t a perfect world

  “What about D.J.?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about him, I’ll handle it,” he assured me. “He was never a threat to you anyway. That damn boy was never good at just doing what he was told. But I want to thank you for not killing him. I know that you could have by now.”

  I didn’t respond to that because we both knew that was the truth. But I still had more questions.

  “Who else knows that you’re alive?”

  “Only Walter and Marcia,” he told me. “And I don’t want you to be upset with Walter for keeping things from you. He told me how you reacted when you found out about D.J. and he wanted to tell you everything then, but I told him not to. At the end of the day, his loyalty lies with me, not with you. That’s just the way it is and you’re going to have to accept it.”

  Even though I was still a little salty about Walter keeping things from me, I understood where my father was coming from. Every general had his own troops, and it was no different than me and my boys.

  “So what do you say?” my father asked me. “Are you going to let me help you or not?”

  “If I choose not to, you’re still going to do what you want anyway,
right?”

  He smiled and I figured that it was because he knew that I was being difficult on purpose.

  “Let’s shake on it,” he said extending his hand.

  I glared at his hand before shaking it unenthusiastically.

  “So, what are we doing first?” I asked.

  “I’m gonna fly back to Atlanta with you and your… friend,” he said. “Once we get back, I have to go to Savannah to take care of something and to get some things that we’ll need. Then when I come back, the first thing I want to do is meet with Walter, Jeff, and Jai. It’s time that Jeff and Jai are filled in on what has been going on because we’re going to need them. We gotta rally our troops so that we can present a strong front when we go at Francisco.”

  The more I listened to my father, the more questions I had. I was willing to bet that as soon as word got back to Francisco that my father wasn’t dead he was going to come at us first. As a matter of fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t roll up on us the same way that he did on the first night that I met him.

  “And another thing,” he said. “Don’t let that woman who you brought here mess up a good thing.” I guess this was his idea of fatherly advice. “Do you trust her?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I do,” I said. “She wants Francisco’s head just as bad as I do.”

  “Well, all I’m going to tell you is to keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your enemy’s enemies even closer than that.”

  Part 5

  The Bishop Takes The Queen

  Chapter XXIX- Natalie

  4:38 AM. That’s what time it was and I still couldn’t fall asleep. I had been lying in my bed since 11:30 but I couldn’t make myself fall asleep. I was still holding on to the hope that I was going to be able to close my eyes and at least get a few hours of sleep, but who was I fooling? There was too much on my mind.

  We still hadn’t heard from Darius and we had no idea where he was. He was supposed to be back already. I knew that it was always better to think positive, but I couldn’t help but fear the worst. I prayed that nothing bad happened to him. I don’t think that my heart could take it if he had been harmed in anyway. This is the very reason that none of us wanted him to go to Miami alone. But that was a decision that couldn’t be changed now.

  I was tempted to get up and go across the hall to Derek’s room. I was worried as well as lonely, and I just wanted to be comforted. Besides, Derek and I hadn’t talked to one another since we kissed the other night. I felt that we needed to talk about it before Darius came back, but he seemed to be more comfortable with just pretending as if it didn’t happen. I was just hoping that it wouldn’t come back to haunt us. I also was curious to know if Derek had any updates on Darius and when he would be home. But I was no fool. I knew that going to Derek’s room could lead to other things. Even though kissing him was a mistake, I couldn’t deny the fact that I was attracted to Derek. There was definitely a spark between us, but I was in love with Darius. I knew that eventually I would have to get my emotions sorted out, but I was more worried about Darius making it home safely at the moment. All I could do was go to sleep and hope that when I woke up my man would be there.

  I closed my eyes for a few minutes and thought that I was actually going to fall asleep until I heard a loud boom outside. I thought that maybe I was hearing things until I opened my eyes and looked at my window. I got out of bed and slipped into my robe. When I went over to the window and peeked through the blinds, all I saw was smoke and a huge ball of fire. I watched until the smoke cleared and from what I could see it looked like there was a car on fire in the drive way. I saw security running toward the blaze and one of them had a fire extinguisher in his hand. Suddenly there was a knock on my door and Terry burst in without waiting to be invited.

  “Yo Nat, you a’ight?” he said.

  “Yeah,” I said as I tied my robe. “What’s going on?”

  “We don’t know yet, but Mike wants everyone to go down into the basement.” Without hesitation I left the room with Terry and we began to make our way down the hallway. By the time we were coming down the stairs that led to the foyer I could see that everyone else, including a few surprise visitors, were already down there and heading for the basement entrance which was in the kitchen. Terry and I caught up to the rest of them. I wasn’t that surprised to see Leah since we all knew that she and Terry were seeing each other, but I was surprised to see Detective Willis. I knew that he wasn’t there on police business since he was only wearing a wife-beater and black dress slacks with no belt. I smiled to myself since it was obvious that Ms. Donna had been having some fun of her own.

  Mike led us all down into the basement while Detective Willis stood at the door and made sure that everyone made it in safely. We all had questions and concerns about what was going on and no one seemed to have any answers. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched as Detective Willis had a conversation with one of the security guards as they stood at the top of the stairs. Once they finished, Detective Willis closed the door and came down with the rest of us. Everyone was talking at once as they all tried to figure out what was going on.

  “Detective, is everything okay? Was that an explosion that I heard?” Phillip asked.

  “Yes it was,” Detective Willis replied, though he seemed unsure. “Listen everyone, security wants everybody to stay down here until they make sure that the house and the grounds are secure. They think that someone got over the wall.”

  We all looked at one another with confused expressions on our faces.

  “But what was the explosion?” Kenny asked.

  “Yeah. It looked like a car was on fire when I looked out of my window,” I said.

  “It was a car… My car,” Detective Willis told us.

  “What?” Donna said in a panicked voice.

  “It’s okay, baby. Don’t worry about it,” he tried to reassure her.

  “Baby?” we all heard Kenny say. Detective Willis simply glared at him before shifting his gaze back to Donna. I was sure that Darius’s boys felt the same way that he did about Detective Willis dating his mom, but I thought that they made a cute couple.

  “I’m going to go up stairs and help them put that fire out, but I’ll be back,” he told Donna. She simply nodded her head and then watched as he climbed the stairs.

  After that we all broke off into our own groups. I was by the stairs with Phillip and Donna while Terry, Leah, Derek, and Kenny were off to the side having their own conversation. Strangely, Mike was standing on the other side of the stairs in the corner by himself. I guess Kenny noticed his strange behavior as well and decided to go talk to him.

  “What’s up, man? You straight?” I overheard Kenny ask Mike. I kept my back to them and pretended to be listening to Donna and Phillip.

  “Yeah. I’m just worried about D, man,” Mike replied.

  “Yeah, I feel you. I hope he comes back soon.”

  “When he does come back he’s gonna have a lot to deal with.”

  “What’chu mean?” Kenny asked.

  “Look around,” Mike said. “Leah is here with Terry, his momma is laying up in his house with the Detective, and Derek…”

  “What about Derek?” Kenny asked when Mike halted his sentence. You better believe I was listening very closely now.

  “Nothing,” Mike said dismissively but Kenny wasn’t letting it go.

  “Nah, bruh. Whatever you know, I want you to tell me.”

  Mike sighed and said, “I saw Derek and Natalie kissing in the hallway the other night.”

  I put my hand over my face. I couldn’t believe that Mike had just ratted me out. I had no idea that he saw me and Derek, and now I was worried. If he was willing to tell Kenny that easily, then I knew that he was probably already planning to tell Darius.

  “What?!” Kenny said, completely thrown. “Please tell me you playing.”

  “I wish that I was,” Mike said and I could hear the disappointment in his voice. “Darius loves that girl and I c
an’t believe that she would do him like that. But I’m more surprised that Derek would do that. I mean, we all go way back to elementary school. Darius hooked us up with jobs and let us live in his house, and this is how he gets repaid.”

  “Yeah, this is fucked up,” Kenny said after delaying his response. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “I don’t have a choice,” Mike said. “You know how D is. He expects us to be upfront with him at all times.”

  And there was my answer. Mike was going to tell Darius about me and Derek which meant that I had to figure out what I was going to do as far as damage control. My first thought was to deny everything and to tell Derek to do the same. But I knew that wouldn’t solve anything or make anything better. Not to mention the fact that we both already felt bad about what we did, so if we tried to lie Darius would see right through us. And Mike was right. If there was one thing Darius despised, it was disloyalty.

  My only other options were to either tell Darius before Mike did so that I could explain things, or to convince Mike not to tell Darius at all. I figured that the latter was in the best interest of everyone involved.

  I waited until Kenny walked away and then I went over to Mike.

  “What’s up, Nat?” he said, greeting me the same way that he always did and not giving away the fact that anything was wrong.

  “Nothing much,” I said. “It’s just that I heard what you and Kenny were talking about.”

  “Yeah. What about it?” he said maintaining a calm demeanor.

  “Look Mike,” I said as I looked up at him since he was much taller than me. “I know that you’re a loyal friend to Darius. But I’m asking you not to tell him. Just think about what it will do to him if you do.”

  “Why did it even happen in the first place, Natalie?” His tone was more forceful now and I could tell that he didn’t like being in this position anymore than I did.

  “It was a mistake, okay,” I told him, hoping that I sounded convincing. “Neither one of us planned to do it. It just happened.”