Cazmir #3
Walking out the door, I felt like I could finally breathe.
I had just spent the better part of an hour standing inside the lion’s den explaining why I sat on information that could’ve changed all their lives.
Truthfully, I was shocked I made it out with only a busted lip.
Kade had every reason to be angry and Yayo was one bad joke away from pistol-whipping a nigga just because he could.
But deep down I believed Kade saw my intentions for what they were.
I wasn’t trying to go against him. I wasn’t trying to betray Ysis.
I was trying to bridge a gap that had existed for decades before any of us were even born.
If he truly believed otherwise, we would’ve done far more than scuffle in that living room.
As far as Bree was concerned, I was still deciding exactly what I wanted to do with her.
I was so pissed she had forced my hand and outed the situation before I was ready that her ass was absolutely headed to the doghouse.
Not because she wanted Ysis to know the truth.
I understood that. Hell, part of me respected it.
What bothered me was the principle of the thing.
We had a conversation. She told me she trusted me to handle it.
Then the moment she got scared things might blow back on her, she changed course without saying a word and put all our business on front street.
The more I thought about it, the more irritated I became.
Trust was trust. Either you had it or you didn’t.
One minute she was telling me to take care of it, the next she was threatening to do it herself.
That wasn’t how partnerships worked. That wasn’t how relationships worked.
And for somebody as smart as Bree, she should’ve known better.
The ride to her house was quiet. She tried talking to me twice before giving up.
Every now and then I could feel her looking over at me from the passenger seat, but I kept my eyes on the road.
The situation had already spiraled enough for one night and anything I had to say wasn’t gone come out nice.
When I finally pulled into her driveway, she didn’t move right away. “Caz...” I kept looking straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge her.
“Baby, please talk to me.” The frustration and hurt in her voice would’ve gotten to me on any other day. Tonight it only reminded me of the mess we had just walked out of.
“You done?” I asked and her face fell.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you acting like this?”
I finally looked at her. “Because being sorry don’t mean I ain’t still pissed.” Tears filled her eyes. Fuck. With women and tears, a nigga never stood a chance.
“I did what I thought was right.”
“And that’s the problem.”
“You did what you thought was right without talking to me first.” She opened her mouth to argue before closing it again. Because she knew.
“Go inside, Bree.”
“Cazm—”
“Go inside.” For a second I thought she would keep fighting me on it. Instead, she climbed out the truck and stood there looking back at me.
“I love you.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter. The woman really knew how to make shit difficult. “Goodnight, Bree.”
“CAZMIR!” Her face crumbled. I dropped her ass off and didn’t offer any further words.
Not even as she screamed my name when I drove off.
She was very much still my woman. Just one I had to teach a hard lesson.
These women were gone learn to stay the fuck out of grown men business.
Bree’s heart had been in the right place, but good intentions didn’t mean shit when people started moving without communicating.
The road to hell was paved with them muthafuckas and tonight proved why.
As I drove through Memphis, my mind kept replaying everything that happened at Kade’s house.
The truth was finally out. Ysis knew about Majeston, Kade knew how I found out, and the walls that had been holding all this shit together were finally starting to crack.
The problem was I wasn’t convinced they were done cracking.
Not with Marius still breathing, my father still trying to keep Internal Affairs off his ass, and Judge Emory still caught somewhere between loyalty and doing what was right.
Everybody was acting like tonight was the end of something when in reality it felt more like the beginning.
The house quiet when I pulled up. After dropping Bree off, all I wanted was a drink and a shower before calling it a night. I let myself in through the side door, tossed my keys onto the counter, and reached for the light switch out of habit more than thought.
The lights came up, and my whole body went still.
Yuki sat on my couch like she paid the mortgage, one leg crossed over the other, a crystal tumbler dangling lazily between her fingers.
My best bottle of Macallan sat open on the coffee table beside her, nearly half gone.
Across the room, Chen Wu stood so still in the corner he could’ve passed for furniture, if not for the pair of dead eyes locked directly on me.
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever make it home.”
“Yuki?” My eyes flicked to Chen Wu before landing back on her. “How the hell did you get into my house?” She took another slow sip, ignoring the question.
“Cazmir, I believe the better question is why you’ve been out here running your mouth about things that don’t concern you.
” She thumbed back the hammer of the pistol resting in her lap, the click echoing through the room without her ever taking her eyes off me.
Every instinct I had screamed not to move.
“You wouldn’t shoot me.” I forced out with a confidence I didn’t feel. “You know better than anybody Majeston would kill you for it.”
“You think Majeston scares me?” She set the glass down with deliberate care and rose to her feet. The room felt smaller with every step she took toward me.
“Well he doesn't.” She stopped inches away. “The least of your worries should be my husband Cazmir. You should be however, be far more concerned with what I’ll do to you the next you volunteer information that has nothing to do with you.”
“Does Maj know you’re here?”
“No.” Her smile vanished. “And if he finds out, I can assure you’ll find out what it’s like to try to eat without a tongue.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I already have what I want.” She leaned in close enough that only I could hear her.
“I wanted you to understand that the walls protecting you are imaginary.” She glanced toward Chen Wu.
Without a word, he stepped forward and dropped something on my hardwood floor, allowing it slide to a stop at my feet.
My spare house key, the one I’d hidden inside the fake rock beneath the flower bed out front.
Yuki smiled. “You should probably find a new hiding place.” She brushed an invisible speck of lint from my shoulder.
“And Cazmir.” Her voice dropped lower. “Keep my fucking name out of your mouth.” With that, she walked toward the front door without another glance in my direction.
Chen Wu followed. Neither of them looked back, and the deadbolt clicked shut behind them.
I stood there listening to the silence, realizing the most terrifying part wasn’t that they’d broken into my house.
It was that they wanted me to know how easily they had.
This was growing to become alot. One thing was for certain though.
Whether Kade liked me or not after tonight didn’t matter.
Whether Yayo trusted me didn’t matter either.
What mattered was that the truth was finally moving in the direction it should’ve been moving all along.
The only question now was how much damage it was gone do before all of this was over.
***
The next day I woke up and went to work like nothing happened.
Since stepping in for Kade, the ship had been sailing smoothly and his call centers were doing extremely well.
Grossing over eight figures, the numbers continued proving exactly why that nigga was sitting comfortably in Forbes Top 100.
Whether people liked him or not, nobody could deny Kade Myles was a genius when it came to business.
He’d recently given the go-ahead to begin the hiring process in Atlanta and had already broken ground on an entirely new building in Los Angeles.
The company wasn’t slowing down anytime soon.
If anything, it seemed to be growing faster now than it had before.
Every week brought new opportunities, new contracts, and new responsibilities that needed attention.
When Kade first announced he was stepping back, me and Marcus were both in shock.
Especially given the new expansions and everything the company had going on.
The timing didn’t make sense to either of us.
Then again, neither did marriage, twins, and family drama showing up all at once.
Looking back now, I understood why he did it.
Kade had spent years building an empire.
At some point, a man had to decide whether he wanted more money or more time. Apparently, he’d chosen time.
Still, nothing prepared us for when he named us as his successors.
Me and Marcus looked at each other like he had lost his damn mind.
The crazy part was it worked. With me and Marcus together, we ran shit with an iron fist. He handled security, compliance, and making sure nobody got stupid.
I handled personnel, operations, hiring, and keeping everything else moving.
Between the two of us, the company barely skipped a beat.
Most employees acted as if Kade never left in the first place.
Though if I was being honest, I was almost positive that nigga secretly checked in from time to time.
Kade was too controlling to completely let go. Even if he pretended otherwise.