Chapter 1
Damn. I need to get my nails done , I thought, seeing the nails starting to separate from my cuticles.
I had been neglecting my days for self-care for over two weeks now. So much had been happening that I knew I needed to book an appointment with Esa as soon as possible. My eyes perused the spacious and nicely decorated office until they landed back on the person standing in front of me.
Do I feel like killing today?
That was a loaded question, but it was what I was here to do if this mythomaniac didn’t pay me my money.
“I’m going to get it to you, AP… I promise. You didn’t have to come to my office. I just need another week. I promise,” Corina pleaded as I sat in her office chair, glaring at her.
I wonder if I took those clothes out of the washer? Mooney always says I forget to do shit when I say I’m going to do it. Welp. I’ll find out once I get home.
Shaking myself from the corner of my mind that I escape to when trying to be rational, my eyes bore into Corina. I was trying to figure out if I should use my knife to sever her fingers or put a bullet in her kneecaps.
To everyone except the three ladies watching me, trying to gauge my energy, I appeared calm. I was everything but. This parasite standing in my face, playing in it, didn’t know me. Well, she didn’t know me until recently.
I may have owned one of the most exclusive VIP nightclubs in the city, played chauffeur sometimes, and hosted events on the surface, but beneath all of that, I was the woman people contacted to make their problems disappear.
Human problems, that is.
My ability to murder was legitimate, and I cared less about anyone who liked to get in the field but didn’t know how to play. Corina here was one of them.
She contacted me to get rid of a problem for her and paid me half upfront, but three weeks had gone by, and she had yet to pay me the other half.
I closed my eyes, trying to talk myself out of blowing this broad’s head off. I gave her three weeks.
Three.
That was me being generous after telling her the job was complete. I only gave grace periods to people I actually liked; Corina was one of them—until now.
Did I feed the girls before I left? Shit, that’s going to be another thing Mooney’s ass is going to blab about.
“I just had to pay?—”
Fuck this.
Pew! Pew!
I sent a silent bullet to each of her kneecaps, and she fell to the floor in agony.
“Ahhhh! Shiiiiittt!” she screamed as I slowly stood and walked over to her. My arm lifted, pointing my nine millimeter with a silencer attached to her head.
Her hand came up as she continued to beg for her life. “P-please! I’m going to get it. You don’t have to do this.”
I placed my finger to my lips to silence her. I hated it when my kills begged. It made no sense to do so when they knew the reason behind their demise. I just knocked off someone for her. What made her think she was exempt?
“I’d like to think I’m a pretty dope chick, Corina.
I don’t do what I do because I’m heartless.
I do it because money has always been the motivation behind it.
I extend grace when I shouldn’t, and I give back to my community.
But by doing so, people like you think I’m soft.
” I stared at her as she lay whimpering and bleeding out.
“The fact that you’re telling me that you had to pay someone else before you paid me... that doesn’t sit well with me, Corina. Last time I checked, when someone puts in work, they get paid at the end of the job… no?” I pressed the barrel of the gun to her forehead.
Everything inside of me wanted to end this woman’s life because I never let anyone get over on me without them seeing darkness forever.
The only reason I was hesitating on ending Corina was because she had a disabled daughter, and she was all little Leah had.
She had no other family and no real friends who could take care of her if I killed her.
I liked kids, but I didn’t like them enough to be their caregiver.
“Where’s my money?” I asked.
“I-I?—”
“Ah, ah. Before you lie, think about Leah and how she’d have to go to foster care… How those people will take advantage of her because of her disability. Think about that long and hard before you lie to me, sweetie.”
“It’s in the safe! Twelve-Thirteen-Fourteen!” I looked to Mayani, who sauntered over to the safe, put the code in, and popped it open. Stacks on stacks of cash sat inside as I shook my head.
“Why do you have to be so fucking stupid, Coco? Now, you’re going to need a wheelchair just like your baby because you couldn’t just pay me my fucking money.
Damn! Why do people always have to make me irrational!
” I seethed, drawing my hand back, delivering a blow to her face.
She grabbed her face as teeth and blood sprayed from her mouth.
I stood upright and stepped over her stupid ass.
“Call Doc to come stitch this bitch up. Leave ten percent of the money and take the rest.” I looked down at Corina.
“Once he chooses you as his successor, I want the building on Lafayette… down the street from the casino. I hear it’s available.
I want to turn those lofts into Airbnb’s.
You’ve got until the end of next month..
. Wait, make it the middle of next month to make that happen, or Leah’s going to a foster home. Understood?”
She nodded eagerly as I walked out of her office.
Mayani and Megan stayed behind to clean up, while Paige, my best friend and right-hand, followed me out of Corina’s real estate office.
The smell of the afternoon air made me take a deep breath and revel in it for a second.
I appreciated being able to inhale because not many people made it out of bed this morning.
Like Oliver Green.
Corina wanted Oliver’s, her direct superior, position.
Being one of the top real estate companies in Michigan, he oversaw all employees and made the biggest commissions.
Corina was stuck selling residential properties in low-income neighborhoods, so her commissions weren’t as large.
She hated being Oliver’s subordinate. She claimed that he stayed gloating and antagonizing her about how much money and sales he was making, which in turn made her jealous.
So jealous, she wanted the man dead.
She assumed that with him out of the way, she would be next in line to be the head of the company since the owner was getting ready to retire. He had children who would own the business, but he needed a partner to oversee the day-to-day operations, and he chose Oliver for that role.
The CEO began grooming Oliver to take over.
However, once Corina got hold of the news, she contacted me to get rid of him.
She wanted to be a boss, but was moving very wrong about it, in my opinion.
I didn’t think the man set to retire even had her ass in mind to be his partner, so how was she going to make that happen?
I didn’t know. All I knew was that I’d better get what I wanted, or her ass was going to meet Moses and them in the afterlife.
Paige got inside the driver’s seat of the SUV as I got into the passenger’s seat, leaving the scene. My phone vibrated with an incoming call from my mom.
I cringed. I’d totally forgotten that she needed me to help her with her Mother’s Day setup since it was a few days away.
I swear, every holiday that was invented, Sabrina Logan was going to celebrate it.
She even celebrated people coming out of a surgery successfully, completing a task, getting a new job, house, car; whatever the hell the accomplishment was, she was going to celebrate it.
I never questioned why she did it, and a part of me already knew why.
It was therapeutic for her to quell her loneliness.
“Yes, Sabrina. I know, I know… I got tied up,” I said before she could unleash her wrath on me.
“I don’t ask for much, Amour?—”
“I know, Mother. I just have a lot going on right now.”
“You know... just get here.” She hung up in my face, and I sighed from exhaustion.
I knew when she hung up on me, it was a clear sign that she was upset.
I loved my mother. She was all I had aside from Paige, my uncle Lamont, and my cousin Lena, but I needed her to understand that I had a busy life.
Nonetheless, no matter what I had going on, I’d always show up for my favorite girl.
“Sabrina’s?” Paige questioned, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Sabrina’s,” I confirmed.
Paige chuckled. “I’m going to just drop you off. I don’t want none of that smoke she’s about to blow your way.”
“Oh no, sissy pooh. Your ass is coming right inside with me. I’m not going to be the only one getting cussed out. It was you who told me I needed to move on Corina’s ass today, anyway. I could have waited until tomorrow.”
“Fucking lies! Your ass got me out of my sleep to run down on that ho.”
“I mean, it’s your money she was playing with, too, sooo... ” I shrugged.
“Whatever, Paris Amour.”
I cut my eyes at her. “You must want to get matching wheelchairs with your girl, Corina.”
She burst out laughing as we got on the expressway.
“AP, I rarely say this to you, but you have got to calm down, sis. One shot to the knee would have been cool. But both knees? How the fuck is she supposed to go make deals, not being able to walk, with a fucked up face, and being out of commission?”
“Calm down? That was me being calm. And I don’t give a fuck how she does it, as long as the shit gets done.”
“You’re very irrational at times. You don’t always have to kill or hurt people to get your point across.”
“P, you of all people should know me. You know I don’t do anything without probable cause.
A lot of these scums don’t take me seriously until I pop off.
They don’t hear me until I make this gun talk.
Hence why your little friend back there almost got her head blown off because she thought she could play with me.