Chapter 18
Nicholas
I kept my eyes on Jameela until she disappeared into the darkness. I knew she could handle her own, but I still felt responsible for her. My chest tightened as I accepted the fact that I probably would never see her again.
I knew it was for the best, but that didn’t make it any easier.
The woman had just saved my little girl.
She risked her life to save my baby. I sent her away because I wasn’t ready to process anything.
I had too much ahead of me to focus on feelings and emotions and all the shit that almost sent me into this shit blind.
Thankfully, when Antonio Vargas called me in for a meeting, it wasn’t to try to go into business with me.
He was warning me that my cousin Darius had been doing business in my name with the cartel.
Since I pretty much let him be the face of Cashville, he brokered certain things under the guise that he had the right to make the decisions.
Most of the time, it worked for me because I didn’t like dealing with too many people.
In this case, he was going against everything we established when we opened Cashville.
He was laundering money for the Blacks and was working on getting in bed with the Vargas Cartel.
Since we did business together before I went legit, Antonio wanted to meet with me in person.
Darius thought he wanted to put in his bid personally.
Instead, he wanted to know why I didn’t tell him I was back in business since he’d heard from the Blacks that they had been using me to balance their books for the past couple of years.
I didn’t know anything about that. Leave it to my cousin to make sure he had his hands in some dirt at all times.
Thanks to him trying to get in with the Vargases, we ended up being dragged into an ongoing investigation.
Vargas knew that he was being watched, so he had been keeping his nose clean until the heat died down.
My greedy cousin threw himself right into their line of fire.
What I didn’t know was that Darius had been busted two years ago in a narcotics sting. Since then, he was working off his time by trying to give them a bigger fish. I guess he thought he would trade his fate for mine by sucking me back into the streets and getting me caught up.
I had to take care of this as soon as possible. I had my lawyers on the case as soon as I got the news. Little did I know, Jameela was investigating me from the inside. I was completely caught off guard by that.
After Antonio couriered over the files incriminating Darius and even documents where he’d forged my signature, I had all the information I needed. Before I could find him and confront him, Cindy called me screaming her head off about Amira being missing.
“Slow down, Cindy. What do you mean she’s missing?”
“He took her, Nicky. He was supposed to bring her home, and he’s not answering the phone.”
“Who took my baby, Cindy? You’re not making sense,” I said, grabbing my gun and keys off the desk before taking off out of the office.
“Darius. He picked her up, but he hasn’t brought her home yet.”
“What is Darius doing with Amira, Cindy? You’re supposed to have her for the weekend.”
“I know, Nicky. I’m trying to tell you that I sent him to get her, but he never came home. I’ve been calling him for hours, but he’s not answering the phone.”
“What do you mean he never came home, Cindy? He living with you?”
“Only for the past few months, Nicky, but he isn’t answering the phone. He’s been acting funny since I told him I was pregnant. We were supposed to be moving away, but now he wants to stay. I don’t care what he does. I just want my baby, Nicholas.”
I felt like the world was spinning as I hopped in my truck and took off out of my driveway. I didn’t give a damn about who lived where; I wanted to know where the fuck my daughter was.
“You sure he has her?”
“He picked her up from school. I called to make sure.”
“Keep calling him. I’m going to get her.”
An hour later, I pulled up at Grandma Celeste’s house ready to put a bullet in his head, only to find that Jameela had beat me there and saved Amira from those clowns before I could get there. I was conflicted, but more than anything, I was grateful.
“Papi, como estas?” Amira whispered as I slid into the truck with her still in my arms. I couldn’t let her go right now. I was safer than any seat belt.
“Nothing, princesa. You’re safe now. I’m taking you home. OK?”
“Why did you make Miss Jameela leave? I thought she was coming with us.”
“She has to go home to Bella, mija.”
“But she saved me, Daddy. The bad guys were being mean to me after Uncle Darius left me there. I said I’m hungry and I want to go home, but he said sit down and stop crying before I give you something to cry about. Then Miss Jameela came to save me.”
My baby still referred to Darius as her uncle, but as far as I was concerned, he was as good as dead. I wasn’t sure when I could put him in the ground, but the ditch was already being dug.
“Is Miss Jameela coming back?”
“Not tonight, baby.”
“Why not? I thought you liked her. I like her, Daddy.”
“I told you she has to take care of Bella.”
“Why can’t Bella come with her? I want her to come back, Daddy. Call her.”
“Amira!” My voice came out louder and harsher than I meant for it to.
It wasn’t Amira’s fault that I didn’t want to see Jameela.
Amira was a victim in all of this. I never wanted anything connected to me to come back on my baby, but that was exactly what had happened.
Now I had to clean up another one of Darius’s messes. This one would be the last.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you, baby. Jameela’s not coming tonight. How about I call your mom? She was really worried about you.”
“OK.” Amira pouted as she looked out of the window. Her questions still lingered in the air, but thankfully, she stopped voicing them for a while. I turned the radio up to let the music fill the silence, but it didn’t chase away the sound of Jameela’s voice in my head.
I love you.
The sad thing was that I believed her. The hardest part about pushing her away was that I felt the same way.
No matter how far I stuffed it down, I hadn’t lost any love for her.
Jameela saving Amira only showed me that she was exactly who I’d thought she was.
That didn’t mean that I could just forgive her.
Amira was my number one priority. If it were up to Jameela, I would be rotting away in prison instead of raising my daughter.
I picked up my phone and called Cindy on video chat before passing the phone to Amira.
“Hey, my baby. I’m so glad to see you.”
“Hey, Mommy. Uncle Darius said he was taking me with you, but he left me.”
I listened to my girl talk to her mom as I drove the rest of the way to my mom’s house. Amira would be safe there until I took care of what I needed to take care of. No one knew where my mom lived, and her place was gated and equipped with alarms and cameras.
Plus, now that the gig was up, Darius didn’t have any more cards to play.
I just needed to make sure that my name was cleared so that the people who thought I was their next big fish could close their fruitless investigation.
I dropped my daughter off without exchanging any words with my mom. The look on my face was enough for her.
By the time I made it to Cashville, my blood was boiling all over again. I headed straight up to the penthouse on the service elevator. There were only four people with access to it. Two of them were already upstairs.
As the door slid open, I stepped out and crossed the room.
The sound of my boots pounding on the floor caused Darius to shift in his seat and open his eyes.
He sat slumped in a chair, a makeshift bandage wrapped around his thigh, and his hands zip-tied behind his back.
His eyes darted around the room on everything but me.
I could tell that Sawyer had worked him over, but unfortunately, I wasn’t here to finish him.
“Leave us,” I told Sawyer and one of his guys. Saw gave me a nod as they left the room quietly.
“Nick Nick, man, you know that shit didn’t go down how they said it did. I would never hurt Amira. I love that girl.”
“Save that shit, D. You already knew there’s no clearing that one up. Let’s talk about what led to it. You tried to set me up. That’s enough to sign your death certificate right there.”
“They had me backed in a corner, cuz. I wasn’t ever gon’ give them shit. I even let them hear you say you was legit.”
I slammed my fist on the table, causing him to jump. My fist should have been in his mouth, but there was a time and place for everything.
“Cut the bullshit, Darius! You used my name to broker those deals. You laundered cash through the casino ledgers and tried to pin your whole operation on me to save your own ass.”
“Who told you some shit like that? Was it that bitch Jameela? You know that bitch is a cop, right? You can’t trust her.”
“She didn’t have to tell me shit. It was your own sloppiness that gave you away.
Vargas heard some chatter from the people you thought you had in your pocket and came to me personally.
I promised that if I was coming back in the game, he would be the first to know.
Your people told him everything, how you were forging my name on contracts and even how you planned to hand my baby over as a bargaining chip to get me to do business with them when your lies started to catch up with you.
I didn’t even know how much of a hand you played in this until I started pulling back the layers.
Once I found out I was being investigated, I invited the Feds in to comb through my books.
They found the discrepancies in our signatures on their own.
I didn’t have to clear my name. They did it for me. ”
“So, you turned me in?”
“Bitch, I should put a bullet in your head. The only reason I haven’t is because they’re on your ass. I’m sure somebody is watching your every move.”
“Nick, the Feds were closing in. I figured if I switched the focus, they wouldn’t come up with shit and back off.”
“By switching that shit to me?”
“I was trying to protect us. Al-‘a’ila fawq kull shay’, Nick. You know it’s family over everything. Ed-daayra ma’foola li-sabab.”
“Al-‘a’ila fawq kull shay’. You saying family over everything when you had my fucking daughter kidnapped. Fuck family and fuck you!”
“Nick, come on, cuz. You know you can fix all this shit with a couple of phone calls. Don’t leave me out here like this.”
His voice faded as the doors of the elevator closed. Just because I let him breathe for another night didn’t mean he got to live happily ever after. If I couldn’t have a happily ever after, they wouldn’t exist for anyone. I just didn’t know if I was ready to accept that fate.
Thirteen days blurred into a haze of lawyers, paperwork, and endless phone calls. We severed ties with Darius just a couple of days before the Feds swooped in and picked him up. My conversation with Uncle D was brief. He sounded like he knew the day would come.
The headlines were splattered with his name and his undercover involvement with the Blacks and how he had Lieutenant Tremaine Hale, of all people, in his pocket.
Apparently, ever since the big bust that got the lieutenant his promotion, he had been protecting Darius and heading him off when there was danger.
When is Miss Jameela coming, Daddy?
My baby’s voice echoed in my head as I made the inevitable drive. There was only so long that I could keep myself away. Amira missed Jameela and Bella just as much as I did.
It felt symbolic that the rain was back. It pattered against the roof of my truck in steady beat as I parked my truck and hopped out. It was two in the morning, but since Amira wasn’t home, I was even more restless.
I knocked on the door and stood back, letting the rain fall on me as I waited for her. When the door cracked open, it felt like my energy immediately reset.
“Nicholas?” she questioned in a weary voice as if I might not be real. There was something unrecognizable in her eyes. Pain? Hope? I hoped for the latter as I took a step to close the emptiness between us.
“I didn’t know what to think.”
“I should have told you. I didn’t know how or what to do. I just figured I could protect you. You have to understand that, Nicholas. I would never hurt you. I would never hurt Amira like that.”
“I know, habibti. I had to step back so I could figure everything out.”
“I resigned.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Jameela. You being a cop wasn’t the issue. I would never want to stop you from doing what you love. Betraying me was the issue.”
“I know.” She lowered her eyes before looking back up at me. “I saw Darius in the news.”
“I had the proof before I even came to the house. Every forged signature, every transfer, every text where he bragged about ‘handling’ me. Let them handle that. I’ve been cleared.”
“I’m so sorry, Nicholas.”
“Me too, Jameela. I want you to come home. Amira misses you. I’m going crazy without you. I don’t think I’ve slept in weeks.”
“You still want me there?”
“I love you, habibti. You love me, too, or you wouldn’t have risked everything to save Amira. Come home. My family isn’t complete without you, Bella, and the baby there. Al-‘a’ila fawq kull shay’.”
“Family over everything.” She smiled, placing her hand on her stomach before saying. “La familia por encima de todo.”
“Come home, Jameela.”