Chapter 10 #3
I observed the exterior camera watching Antonio and AC arrive alone like they were instructed.
“I’ll be back,” I notified Milani before planting a kiss on her lips. She offered me a faint smile, and I placed my finger underneath her chin. “I already told you, nothing and nobody.”
“I know,” she nodded.
I exited the office, and Terrel pulled the reinforced steel door closed.
Once we heard the click from the automatic locks, the three of us moved towards the center of the warehouse.
I was positioned in the middle, Terrel on the left, and Levi on my right.
Like the pompous asshole he was, AC entered the warehouse talking shit.
“First, we had a shipment go missing—”
“Which you were compensated for,” I cut him off.
“And your shipping container reached its destination this morning. The driver had a medical emergency and was in the hospital. Sometimes shit happens,” Terrel added.
“Either way it goes, the shipment didn’t go smoothly,” AC rebutted.
“Forget the shipment, we have bigger issues. My daughter is missing, and the Black family is playing a role in breaching two arrangements at once. AC’s home security showed you three breaking into my son’s home and removing his fiancée from the property.
What type of shit is that? Milani was promised to a male heir in my family.
I’ve already emailed the contracts to your father.
They are dated from May 2017. Years before the dementia diagnosis, so it’s a very valid agreement.
Plus, we were working out the arrangement between Deja and Sneaux. ”
I rolled my eyes and pursed my lips together. “Best we can do is offer to try to help AC find a new wife.”
“AC only has a few weeks before his birthday!” Antonio argued.
“That’s not our problem,” I shrugged.
“Where the fuck is your father? Why are you the mouthpiece for the Black family?”
Levi stepped forward, but I placed my hand on his chest to keep him at bay.
“Sneaux is the mouthpiece for this family, Grandpa. Unless you want me to knock your mouthpiece on the fucking floor, you better take some of that bass out of your voice,” Terrel snarled.
“Aye nigga, don’t—” AC started, but was cut off by the sound of the doors opening again.
Mikel entered the warehouse with his father, Mitchel, trailing behind him.
“Where is my niece? You’ve been hiding her for all these years?
” Mitchel fumed, storming across the space.
“And just like the law says, ignorance is not a defense! My parents died wishing they could find their only granddaughter! You might not have known nine years ago when you first took on the job, but you eventually knew. The word went out to every family on the East Coast!”
“We operate on anonymity, and you know that. We couldn’t break that and ruin our reputation. False documents are our bread and butter,” Antonio argued, glancing over his shoulder, realizing he had multiple problems on his hands.
As Antonio turned around to face Mitchel and Mikel, AC didn’t move.
His stare remained on me. Jaw set so tight a muscle ticked beneath his skin.
His nostrils flared momentarily, like he had to steady his breathing just to stand in the same space with me.
The hatred in his eyes was unmistakable.
I couldn’t tell you if it was me disrespecting his home and taking Milani, or our last run-in, where I attacked his ribs, that was behind the hatred oozing off of AC.
Either way, I pulled my gun out of my hoodie pocket and let two off in AC’s head in a matter of seconds.
The room froze at the unexpected sound of gunshots, but Terrel was up on Antonio with his gun pressed against his head before he could shout his son’s name.
POW! POW!
Terrel sent two through the side of his forehead, and his body plopped down on the floor like a sack of potatoes.
“What the fuck?” Levi groaned.
“AC wasn’t going to let it go. I could see it in his eyes. Don’t act like you’re an angel now,” I bickered.
“I was going to kill them on my turf anyways,” Mitchel announced before spitting on Antonio’s lifeless body.
“I thought they were married into y’all family somehow?” Levi pried as Cameron and a few other men got to work disposing of AC and Antonio.
We walked deeper into the warehouse, approaching the long executive table and chairs in the back of the space.
“Deja was married to one of my distant cousins, but he died from an allergic reaction to peanuts while he was home alone. They were only married for six months, and she had just found out she was pregnant with her daughter Ariel when that happened.”
“What the fuck are we going to do with her?” I queried.
“Oh my God,” Terrel gasped, garnering everyone’s attention. “Thick shit definitely ain’t going to let me fuck if she knows I killed her pops,” Terrel noted. “Levi, take the gun. You can take the rap for it. She already hates you.”
Terrel shoved the gun into Levi’s chest, and he slapped him upside the head.
Everyone quickly moved on from Terrel’s antics.
“Anyways,” I started. “Deja was under the impression that we had beef with her family, and that’s why we were holding her hostage.
We were just going to use her as leverage if things didn’t go well with her people.
Now that they are dead, we don’t have use for her. ”
“Deja’s daughter is related to us and needs her mother, so I can’t let you do anything to her,” Mitchel advised.
“I never planned to,” I shrugged.
“We’ll make sure she gets home safe after we handle a separate matter,” Levi assured them.
“How could you find Milani and not tell me?” Mikel questioned.
“Mikel, the last time we saw you, we were about to rip each other’s heads off, throwing out accusations about each other’s families and their involvement in Milani’s disappearance. You were the last thing on my mind. I hadn’t told anyone. They only knew because Levi’s always in my business.”
“I’m only doing what needs to be done to keep our family safe,” Levi chimed in.
“And we love you for it.”
I wrapped my arms around him, and he kissed the top of my head, then whispered in my ear. “Stop being sentimental in front of other motha fuckas.”
I laughed and broke the embrace. “So where is Milani?” Mitchel inquired.
“In the office with my pops. He’s getting stitched up,” I nodded towards the closed door. “I’ll let them out when they finish cleaning the blood off the floor. I don’t want her to see that.”
“Nine years later, and the feelings are still there, huh?” Mikel smiled, leaning up against the empty table Terrel sat on top of.
“They are still there and realer than ever. So real that I’m not wasting any time. I want to marry her. Since y’all are the closest thing to her father, I want to ask for her hand in marriage. I’m going to marry Milani and step out of the way for a while to support her dreams,” I informed everyone.
“Just like we told your father nine years ago. We want whatever Milani wants,” Mitchel attested. “You found her before we could and brought her back home to us before the Claytons could get a real hold on her. I’ll forever appreciate you for that.”
Mitchel pulled me into a brief hug, and I nodded, grateful for his blessing.
“What do you mean, step out of the way though?” Levi sputtered.
“Yeah man, my little big cousins got this shit,” I explained, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Mikel, you know how much Milani loved to travel. She said she hasn’t been on a vacation since she left. I want to take her anywhere she wants to go and do whatever she wants to do.”
“Where the fuck were they?” Mitchel inquired.
“Albuquerque.”
“Where the fuck is Janice’s scandalous ass?”
“She has dementia. Like I already told my father, I know everybody wants her dead, but she’s on her way out naturally. That’s hard enough for Milani, so let’s allow her to go out peacefully, please.”
Mitchel’s nostrils flared at the thought. “Why did y’all always hate Janice so much? Y’all know Milani feels like she was always treated different from her cousins.”
“It wasn’t just Janice that we didn’t like.
She was just always the one crying about it.
When y’all were in middle school, they were seriously considering sending Milani to a boarding school to get her away from you.
Zechariah knew he couldn’t just cold turkey stop y’all from being friends because that would’ve pissed Luis off.
So his solution to separate y’all was to send Milani away.
There was a big blow up about it, and me and Zechariah came to blows.
That’s when the distance in the family grew.
My father put his foot down and threatened to cut Zechariah out if he sent his granddaughter away; they, in return, distanced themselves from the family. ”
“Damn, their disdain for me ran deep,” I said, perplexed.
“Y’all making it all somber and shit in here,” Terrel noted, lighting a blunt. “We haven’t done this in what? Five years?” He asked Mikel.
“Maybe.”
“It’s a celebration. Our families can stop side-eyeing each other for some shit none of us did.
I can invite y’all to my strip club now.
Everything is on me when y’all come down to Premier.
Bring all the Harris men, and I can bring the Black men, and we can have a family reunion like we used to do. ”
We finished the blunt while they continued cleaning the middle of the floor.
When they were done, we were finally finished smoking the blunt.
The shuffling behind us dissipated, and I turned around to confirm the floor was clear before walking over to the office door to open it.
There weren’t cameras on the interior of the warehouse, so we would fill my dad in later.
However, I knew the heavy smell of bleach wafting through the air informed him that things didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped for.
“Uncle Mitch,” Milani teared up, rushing out of the office.
“My princess. I’m so sorry I couldn’t find you,” Mitchel murmured, sprinting to meet her midway. Milani leaped into his arms, and he caught her like she weighed nothing.
With everything everyone had gone through while Milani was missing, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room as she reunited with her cousin and uncle. Both families exhausted all resources searching for Milani over the last nine years, and she was finally home.