Chapter 14
KASTIAN
Three days after Ryder crashed out at the lounge, I sat in my office staring at the wall.
I had a meeting with Morgan coming up, but for the past fifteen minutes or so, my mind had been on Persia.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to her since we had mind blowing sex that night.
It was always good, but that night was something different.
I felt like I was trying to prove a point and let her know that she didn’t need any other niggas but the harder I went, she matched my energy.
The sex was some shit that I couldn’t even put into words.
Being jealous of a woman talking to another man was foreign as hell to me.
It was the first indicator that I might be feeling some shit for Persia that I’d never felt for any other female.
For more than one reason, that revelation was disturbing to me.
No matter how much I believed that David was a lame and never deserved her anyway, she was married to him.
They exchanged vows. Maybe she was talking a good game but would end up going back to him.
Who knew? Even if she didn’t go back to him, I could understand her desire to be single for a bit.
That was why I was annoyed as hell that out of all the women who’d chased me and pretty much begged me to deal with them on a serious level, I fell for one that was adamant about not being in a relationship.
She seemed like the perfect match because we were on the same page.
The fact that her talking to ole boy in the lounge ruffled my feathers, I knew I was getting in too deep.
The whole time I stared off into space, I’d been rotating my stress ball in my left hand.
I’d been squeezing it so hard and for so long that my hand was tired.
A knock on the door let me know that Morgan had arrived.
“Come in.”
She eased into my office with a bright smile on her face. “Hi.”
I gave a head nod but also stood up to shake her hand. When it came to business, I handled myself as professionally as possible. My connections got me a lot of business when I first started out. It was my actions and hustle that kept the clients coming. “How are you doing?”
Morgan was dressed in a beige knee length skirt that accentuated the curve of her hips and the roundness of her ass. Her white shirt hung off one shoulder, and she wore gold jewelry to accessorize the outfit.
“I’m pretty good. I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked to meet with you.”
“It crossed my mind.”
“I’m interested in switching firms. I’ve been with Sunburst for two years.
When I started there were two other black agents both of them men.
They’ve since left, and I can see why. The owner’s kids work for him and the other agents that aren’t related to him by blood are his skin folks.
No matter how hard I work or what I accomplish, it’s never acknowledged or appreciated in the same capacity as them.
I said all that to say, if you’re looking for new agents, I’d love to join the team. ”
I had agents all over the city vying to work for my firm.
It was no secret, that I gave black agents favor over others, but I did have an Indian agent and a Korean agent.
“I haven’t really accepted any new agents since last year.
I have a pretty big team and while business is good and Diamond Cove is a large city, it’s not like there are thousands of people wanting to buy houses daily.
I have some leads that I’m too busy to take sometimes, and I pass them along to others, but my team has to be very good about finding their own clients.
The people don’t always come to you. You have to go to them.
And simply working for my firm doesn’t guarantee success and multimillion dollar listings. ”
Morgan gave a curt nod. “Absolutely. I’m very determined and at Sunburst, I did pretty good. Despite them giving the more expensive houses to everyone but me. I have no problem with working hard.”
I had the ability to give shorty a chance, so I was going to do so.
The great thing about being a boss was that I could decide who to hire and who to fire.
Being a real estate broker wasn’t like most jobs.
Working for a firm came with fees. It was generally a one time fee of $300 to become one of my agents, and there was a $200 a month office fee.
Even if agents did ninety percent of their work from home and only came to the office a few times a month, they still had to pay the office fee.
The fee also included having their own back office on my website, so they didn’t have to pay for and create their own.
My agents had access to three different meeting rooms, their own office complete with furniture and a computer, printer, etc. There was also a dope ass break room that stayed stocked with snacks and beverages.
“I’ll get the paperwork for you to complete. Welcome to the team.”
“Thank you so much, Kastian.” Morgan’s smile could have lit up the sky at night.
It was no secret that Morgan had a little crush on me.
The flirting was subtle, but I still picked up on it.
One time I had slipped up and had sex with one of my agents.
The situation lasted about five months before I had to dead it.
Shorty was getting attached and starting to get on my nerves.
Thankfully, she met another man that she ended up getting married to, and I didn’t have to fire her ass.
She still worked for the agency, but her husband took care of her, so she didn’t hustle like she did before marriage.
In fact, I hadn’t seen her in the office in months, but I didn’t care as long as the fee was paid on time every month.
Lessons had been learned, and I didn’t see myself crossing the line with anyone that worked for me again.
Morgan completed her paperwork as I read over a text message from Ryder.
The moment Morgan left my office, I shut my computer down and left for the day as well.
I wanted to swing by the house and take my slacks and dress shirt off, but I headed to my destination exactly the way I was because time wasn’t of the essence.
I pulled up at the old farmhouse that Ryder was renovating. My body tensed from anger the moment I stepped over the threshold of the home. Ray Ray was on an old couch barely conscious and barely recognizable. It looked like someone had run over his face with a car.
“Fuck happened?” I asked jaw muscles flexing.
“Niggas that used to work the trap on Slaughter caught his ass out and fucked him up. They’re mad that money is on pause.
Dumped his ass in the middle of the street.
Boogie called me while they were on his ass and when I got there, it was this.
If there were eyes on him, they damn sure didn’t try to get their informant help.
Just needed to see if you want him in the hospital or if we should dump the muhfucka back in the street. ”
It was bad enough that I didn’t know how much he may have told the police. All my traps were on pause. My runners weren’t happy, but I didn’t give a fuck. I did in fact say they could beat his ass, but I also specified not to kill him. From what I could tell, the nigga was half dead.
“Take that nigga to the hospital.”
Ryder had Brock and a guy named Loso with him, and they lifted Ray Ray off the couch and carried him out the door. “Niggas are fucking hardheaded,” I seethed.
“Well, you did say they could beat his ass, and that ass is beat.” Ryder scratched the back of his neck.
“Whatever. I got Lox sitting still right now. Get Veronica to run that work out to Golden Waters tomorrow.”
Veronica was a female runner that we used from time to time.
Her father was a police officer that died in the line of duty a few years back.
In the event that she did get stopped, the police wouldn’t fuck with her.
Her pops was a good man, and their family was highly respected.
Veronica was about her paper, however. Once her father’s life insurance money ran out, her job as a receptionist wasn’t paying the bills.
She proved herself, and I paid her $10,000 to do a drop for me.
After that, she begged me at least once a month to do a drop.
“Gotcha,” Ryder nodded.
“You good?”
He kissed his teeth. “Yeah, I’m good. I can admit I was fucked up for a minute over Tesha, but it is what it is. If she’s already giving that pussy away, I don’t want the shit back. I got hoes begging me to fuck. Qua can have that.” Ryders scowl was intense.
The crazy thing was, as much as I knew he loved Tesha I knew seeing her with Qua would do it for him.
The way pride worked was crazy. He had cheated on her time and time again, but he couldn’t take seeing her with another man.
Qua was a businessman. He wasn’t a slouch, and Ryder knew that.
But we also knew that Qua didn’t have nearly as much money as him.
Ryder was immature enough to think that meant Tesha downgraded.
The man wasn’t a bum, and if he treated her well then Qua damn sure didn’t qualify as a downgrade.
Whatever helped Ryder sleep at night though.
“Aight I’m out. I’m ready to move the last of this work and leave this shit to the youngins. I’m tired of these reckless ass young niggas always doing some shit,” I fussed.
“I feel you on that,” Ryder co-signed.
After years in the game, my time was finally winding down, and I was looking forward to it.