Page 46 of Mr. Blackwood

“Don’t forget who her daddy is,” Kanaan replied.

“I’ve got her under control. Trust me,” I muttered, lighting my cigar.

The four of us had major secrets to protect, and those secrets bound us together; there wasn’t anything we wouldn’t do to protect them. I just wasn’t willing to go as far as I’d gone in the past to protect mine; not if it meant harming Camilla.

I had met Kanaan when I was a teenager. I had been moving a lot of weight and quickly got my game to a level that caused my name to be well known to the lieutenant over the region.

It wasn’t until some things went down in my life that I had the chance to meet Kanaan, the number one lieutenant of the kingpin, Kelvin Fields, and his only son. It was at a time when I trusted no one, but when I was about to lose everything, Kanaan proved to me that I could trust him.

Meeting Kanaan led to me meeting Jett and eventually Regent. We all had our secrets, and we knew each other’s secrets. If there was no one else in the world we trusted, it was one another. If one of us went down, it could take us all down, which was why they were so vested in the outcome of Camilla and me.

“If you had her under control, would she be running around wild now? Would she be meeting up with Sam?” Kanaan challenged.

“That was before I knew the two of them would run into each other. Truthfully, it’s Sam who was out of control,” I explained.

I wasn’t sure why I was taking up for Camilla when she had betrayed me. I was angry and hurt. The one woman I had allowed into my life in a long time, and she was quick to turn me over for a story. She had no idea how I could have expanded and grown her business had she just remained loyal to me. Now, I intended to decimate her business and destroy her. The plan was to ruin her so completely that even her father could not pull her back from the brink of ruin.

“Then how do you get her back under control and prevent her from causing any more damage?” Kanaan asked as though he could read my mind.

It had always been that way between us.

“I don’t plan to ruin her just financially. Her father could help her recover from that. I plan to ruin her inside out. I’ll fuck up her credibility, her reputation, and then crush her mentally. She won’t ever be the same,” I vowed.

Even as those words dripped from my lips, I knew that I couldn’t completely crush her. Destroying Camilla would mean complete devastation, and I didn’t think that I could survive that type of destruction, not when it was done to the woman I loved.

19 – CAMILLA

THREE DAYS LATER

I nervously twisted the plastic straw in and out of my coffee cup. The noise it made was aggravating, I was sure, but it barely even penetrated my ears. I was praying that my little meeting went well and that this would be the first step in turning things back around for myself.

As angry and as hurt as I was by Jabari’s actions, I could understand why he moved the way that he had. He genuinely thought that I had betrayed him with the hopes of putting his story out there to gain leverage for my expansion.

In addition to putting me out of the building and blocking every opportunity for me to relocate and getting my equipment taken, he had also caused every person I had lined up for my reporters to interview to back out, citing “conflict of interest” as their reason. Each day, I was getting that much closer to breaking down and calling my father for help. I knew that he could squash this little game easily, but besides not wanting to ask for his help, I didn’t want him in my business.

Going to my parents for any assistance was like admitting failure, and I just couldn’t do that. Besides, I also didn’t want Jabari to feel like I had to run to my parents to fight my battles.

I glanced at my watch for the sixth time and blew out a breath. My stomach was a tangled ball of yarn, and I wanted to be past this. As much as I hated rushing my life by, I wished that it was next year this time. At least, I would know the outcome of all this, and my life would be settled in some position one way or another.

By the seventh time I looked at my watch and was jiggling my knee and leg, not out of caffeine jitters but nervousness, I was ready to get up and walk. Just as I balled my straw paper up to discard along with my cup, the bell tinkled over the doorway.

I glanced up, and my shoulders sagged in relief when Mike Sullivan stepped inside and waved a brief hand at me. He pointed to the counter to let me know that he would be placing his order before sitting down and talking with me.

Five minutes later, Mike joined me at the table with a cup of coffee and a bagel.

“Want some?” he asked, shoving his plate in my direction.

I shook my head and held my hand up. I couldn’t eat if I wanted to. The way my nerves were built up over this meeting, I would choke on anything that wasn’t liquid.

“No thanks,” I muttered.

I pinched my bottom lip and folded it while he applied cream cheese to his bagel and chatted about how he hadn’t eaten since this morning.

“Mike. Time is a commodity that I don’t have. Can we please get on with this?” I asked, pointing my fingers between the two of us. I scooted my chair around to his side of the table and sat close to him.

“Sure. What do you want to discuss that we couldn’t talk about over the phone?”

“Did you have a personal ambition against Jabari Blackwood? Did you use me as a tactic to uncover personal issues that you knew he was hiding in your personal vendetta against him?” I asked in a soft and intimate voice.