Chapter 14
V Saint
“Everything around me was solid… I just needed my head to match it.”
Ipulled up on CK early morning at our warehouse for business. He was already inside, handling something when I walked in, phone to his ear, pacing like he had been there for a minute. He looked up, finished what he was saying, and then came over.
“What’s good, bro,” he said, dapping me up.
“What we got going on?” I replied as he handed me the clipboard.
He started running it down while I moved through the floor, looking over everything without making it obvious I was checking it. Materials stacked like they were supposed to be, orders already separated, nothing out of place. That’s how I liked it.
“Two developers coming through, one contractor, and a bulk order somebody trying to lock in,” CK said, walking with me.
“Approve it,” I told him, not slowing down.
“I already did. That ain’t the one I was talking about,” he said.
I stopped and looked at him. “What else?”
“Randy Jewel is trying to buy in.”
I stared at him for a second, then looked away.
“Fuck no.”
CK exhaled low, already knowing how this was about to go. “That’s a big order, bro.”
“I heard you the first time.”
“He’s paying good money.”
I turned back to him. “Ion do business with my competition or whites… now which one is Randy again?”
CK let out a short laugh, shaking his head. “You funny. He Black, and he ain’t your competition, he just move different.”
“Exactly,” I said. “He move different. Not like us.”
“He still got money.”
“And I still said no.”
CK stepped a little closer, lowering his voice. “That’s not a small no. Niggas watch what you do with deals like this. You turn that down; it can look a way. It can cause problems.”
I looked at him, calm, not raising my voice. “Let it.”
“You serious?”
“I said no, didn’t I?”
He studied me for a second, then nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t feeling it. Randy worked with people I ain’t rock with.
I walked off, checking on a shipment that had just come in, flipping through a couple of numbers in my head while I talked to one of the workers. Everything lined up how it was supposed to, but I still went over it again, asking questions I already knew the answers to.
That wasn’t like me, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
CK called something out from behind me, asking about a delivery window. I answered him, but I had to think about what he said for a second before I responded, and that alone had me slightly irritated.
I grabbed a water, took a sip, and set it down without even remembering where I put it.
Brain fog, I thought. That was always a red flag for my mental health.
Everything was running how it should.
Everything was in place.
Still ain’t sit right.
I pulled my phone out, scrolling through messages I hadn’t touched.
Alana. Nia.
I stared at both names for a second, thumb hovering like I was really about to make a decision off it.
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” I muttered under my breath, shaking my head at myself.
I locked the phone and slid it back in my pocket.
“I’m about to slide,” I told CK, walking back toward the front.
He looked at me. “You good?”
“I’m straight.”
He nodded, but I could tell he clocked something. He just wasn’t about to press it.
I stepped outside, pulled my keys out, and got in the truck, sitting there for a second before starting it.
My jaw tightened, head still not slowing down.
“I need to bust a nut,” I said low, more to myself than anything.
No thought behind it. Just needed something easy that didn’t require anything from me.
I pulled my phone back out, opened the thread, and typed.
Me: You free?
I sent it and pulled off.