Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
STORM
“ S o, what’s your plan? Hostile takeover?
” Axel says this while leaning back in the computer chair, throwing a MetLife stress ball in the air.
He’s been at it for ten minutes and he hasn’t dropped the ball, which is impressive, seeing as he’s catching it one-handed while his other hand taps on the keyboard perched on his lap.
I shrug, an agitated movement.
We’re in my condo, where I’ve disassembled the telescope and left it at the front desk for someone else to pick up.
But I’m most agitated because almost as soon as I left Shae’s apartment, I got a message from Lakeland for an early morning meeting.
There’s only one rational reason for it: He expected an update on Keystone by now, primarily news that all the roadblocks have been cleared and the deal’s moving forward.
He needs Keystone for something. I don’t know if it’s about laundering, leverage, or locking down Chicago, but he’s pressing harder than ever.
Who knows what the fuck’s happening now.
“Don’t know,” I bite out. Axel chuckles in response.
We’re in the sitting-area-turned-security-room-slash-meeting-room on the far side of my condo. Axel’s screens take up an entire wall, spanning a stretch of space at least twenty feet long. His convertible standing desk centers the screens like a maestro in front of an orchestra.
Now, he reclines with his feet on top of the lowered desk.
“You could always abduct her. Throw her in a safe house and forge some succession docs,” Axel says, still throwing the ball.
I give him a hard look, which he misses as he taps on his tablet at rapid speed.
“ Or we can focus on the most important thing: bringing Lakeland and his enterprise down quickly with as much focus and dedication as possible. We’ve waited eight years for this, Storm.”
This comes from Riale, who sits across the room wearing a bored expression. I dead-eye him.
“Eight years, ” he repeats.
“I know , Riale. The most important thing is we bring Lakeland down so Shae remains unharmed.”
Riale stands, wearing a strange look. For what may be the first time, I feel the need to keep something close to my chest when it comes to him.
‘Cause this nigga is hiding something.
Riale’s been in a shit mood for the few days we’ve been in Chicago, and I’m about sick of it.
“What’s up with you? You’ve been acting like someone pissed in your Cheerios since we got here,” I say.
Riale grunts but doesn’t back away from my gaze.
“Yeah, Riale,” Axel draws out. “What’s crawled up your ass? You seem on edge.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Riale snaps at Axel, and I stare my best friend down.
I don’t say anything more because the separate line—Lakeland’s line—rings on the desk.
“Here we fucking go,” Axel grumbles.
Here we fucking go, indeed.
“Lakeland,” I say, going for a neutral tone.
There’s silence on the other end of the line, not even the ever-present sound of waves hitting the shore that would alert me to his surroundings.
“Nephew,” he finally says. “It’s been an eventful week, has it not?”
I look at Riale and Axel.
“Indeed, it has. Listen, about Keystone. I’m still working on it. I made good headway with Kenyon Braxton, but there’s probably one more conversation I need to have before all the roadblocks are clear,” I say.
“There’s something about going home that just…fills the soul,” Lakeland says, sounding wistful and ignoring my statement. “I haven’t gone there in many years. Eight, at least.”
My face goes numb, cold, catching his implications. He hasn’t been back to Chicago since he killed my parents.
Rage slices through my vision, blurring my sight as I stare at the phone.
Not yet. Not fucking yet.
“Hm,” I say, proud that my voice remains neutral.
More silence from Lakeland, then….
“Why don’t you explain to me why I’ve just received notice that the Keystone deal is on ice indefinitely ?”
I cast a look in Axel and Riale’s direction. Both wear stony expressions.
“Oh? That’s news to me,” I say, trying to figure out how to buy time.
“Is it news?” Lakeland says. “Or did you tell your bitch to stop the purchase?” All of the blood in my face leaks down my body as I try to make sense of things.
Shae.
I need to get to Shae—Shae’s not safe right now and I?—
“Right,” Lakeland says. Then, he sighs. “You have no idea what type of position this puts me in, Storm. And it’s clear that the problem is your ex-girlfriend.”
I shake my head, looking at Axel when he hands me a note:
She called for an audit, effectively pushing the close date back three months.
Shit. She did it. She actually listened to me.
Now I have to make sure she doesn’t suffer any blowback for this.
“Orisun has called for an audit. That’s completely reasonable?—”
“Cut the shit, Storm.” His voice sharpens, the unaffected tone gone now.
“Liv Rivers. She’s impressive, I’ll give her that. Bold. Calculated. Sexy as fuck, too. But you know that. Don’t you, Storm?”
I grind my teeth, debating if this is the end of the road for this eight-year charade.
“But you knew her as ‘Shae,’ right? Back when she was sucking your dick all over the Asheford campus.”
I lose my mind. It’s the only way to describe the enraged rasp accompanying my words.
“If you fucking touch a hair on her head, I will kill you so slowly and so painfully, our ancestors will weep.”
I have enough power in my muscles to snap the phone in two, but when I look back at my friends, Riale’s jaw is set tight, his arms crossed over his chest, looking away from the trainwreck happening in front of him.
Axel looks…pleased? Maybe even a bit giddy. But the energy on the other end of the line is palpable. I’ve just wrecked the operation, shown all my vulnerabilities, and aired out my dissent against Lakeland. He knows I’m not loyal.
And I’ll pay for that.
“Hm. You’re awfully emotional about this one,” Lakeland says, then he laughs—an evil sound.
“Thank you for making this easy, Storm.”
Click.
I stand, walking away from the speakerphone to the far end of the room and back.
“Well, that was a fucking good time,” Axel grouses.
“Man, shut up. We don’t have time for your bullshit,” Riale shouts.
“Yo, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to!” Axel yells back, standing to get chest to chest with Riale.
Riale shoves Axel, who pushes back just as hard, so I yell, “Shut this shit down! Nobody has time for you to get into a pissing contest.”
Riale grunts and takes a step back, his jaw working as he stares Axel down.
“Let’s go,” I bark, spinning on my heel.
Shae. I need to get to Shae, make her understand what’s happening, and why playtime is over. I need her with me so I can protect her.
I don’t even know what protecting her looks like, but?—
I hit the doorjamb and pause. Axel’s two steps behind me, but Riale’s rooted in the same spot.
“Riale, we don’t have time for this.”
My gut clenches when I’m assaulted with the vision of masked men raiding Shae’s apartment, abducting her, harming her….
“Storm,” Riale says, sighing. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s best you stop meddling and leave her the hell alone.”
I can’t even make sense of what the fuck he’s saying.
“Listen, Storm. I’m trying to be the reasonable one here. The reality is, we’re not ready to take the next step in our plan. That means you have to hold out a little bit longer. If you go running off after Shae, you’re gonna end up in the ground. All of us will.”
I shake my head. I understand what he’s saying, but I also don’t understand what he’s saying. At all.
If it ever came down to my life or Shae’s, I’d choose her.
Every time.
“It’s too fucking late for that, Riale,” I grind out.
“Storm, stop thinking with your dick and get some perspective!” he shouts, and that causes me to snap.
“Nigga, what is your problem ?” I rush toward Riale when he doesn’t answer, but as soon as I’m a foot away from him, he explodes.
“My problem? It’s you , nigga!” He marches over to Axel’s vacated desk. “I knew this was a fucking bad idea. I knew you couldn’t handle it. And now, you just blew everything we’ve worked for, all the sacrifices, over some old pussy.”
It’s not until Axel’s pointed, “What the actual fucking fuck!” that I realize that I’ve got a gun pointed directly at Riale’s head.
“You gonna pull your gun on me?” Riale says, his voice frigid.
My eyes flick down to where the Glock straps to his upper thigh over his tactical pants, and I also note he’s not reaching for his gun.
“Say some stupid shit again, Riale. I dare you.”
I deliver the words with ice in my veins because Riale knows better than to talk stupid about Shae Olivya Rivers.
I lower the gun but don’t put it away.
Another long moment of silence. Axel steals the rolling chair away from Riale’s vicinity and begins swaying in it from side to side, moving the seat from facing left to right.
“I would never betray you, Storm. My goal has been to keep you safe and keep you alive,” Riale says. “You’re like a brother to me, but you know that shit already.”
“Do I?” I ask.
“Yes,” Riale snaps, his voice hard. “You do.”
I call on all my instincts to assess him, to try to read through the bullshit.
We don’t have time for this. Shae is in danger.
“Tell me. Now,” I say through gritted teeth. The vein in my forehead starts to pulse, and goddamn it, I want to start shooting shit.
Riale and Axel share a look, and Axel rolls away a foot with his hands held up.
“This ain’t about me. You made this decision. Remember that,” Axel says to Riale. I shift, my grip tightening on the piece.
“All right,” Riale says, then sucks in a hard breath. “Shae is in France right now. Her family is over there on vacation.”
What the fuck is he talking about? And why didn’t he tell me that Shae was leaving the country?
“ She’s out of the country? ” I practically scream. “And you didn’t tell me?” I move on autopilot, heading to the forward hall closet to grab my go-bag.
“Wait, that’s the thing, Storm. Shit—I fuckin’ hate this emotional ass shit!”
I pause with my hand on the closet doorknob, looking at him over my shoulder.
“What?” I grind out.
Riale, looking uncomfortable, rubs the back of his neck before folding his arms across his chest, widening his stance.
“She’s in France for the week. With her mother.”
A pause.
“And her kids.”
I blink.
“Twins.”
The statement lands in the room like an atom bomb, shocking and splintering me on impact.
“What?” I say, trying to wrap my head around his statement. Trying to breathe around his statement. I shake my head.
“Shae has two kids. Boy and girl twins,” Riale says. My hands start to shake.
“Why didn’t you—” I start.
“You told me not to! I’ve been sitting on this information for eight fuckin’ years, man. Eight! And I’d thought you’d let her go and we could move on, but now we gotta unpack this shit.”
Fire burns up my chest, engulfing my head in flames as I compute the timeframe.
Eight. Years. That means….
“My girl had two babies by me…and you thought I wouldn’t want to know?” The words are venomous, strained, and there isn’t a flash of surprise in his expression when I rush up on him.
Instead, he anticipates my punch to the face before I deliver it. I swing on him again, taking a cheap shot to his side. The lightest touch of satisfaction lands when he groans and drops to the floor.
After a deep breath, he says, “That’s exactly the thing, bruh. They ain’t yours.”
I lurch to a halt, a hand going to my chest as if I’d been shot through the heart. It kinda fucking feels like it. Sucking in a breath, I stand tall, looking down at Riale as he jumps to a crouch and stands as if I didn’t just bruise his kidney.
In this moment, I’m a man possessed, rage and confusion choking me out.
“Don’t even try to insinuate she was with someone else.”
Riale wipes at his nose, looking at the streak of blood on his hand after he does so.
“She didn’t put anybody on the birth certificate.
If they were yours, wouldn’t she have run to get that Sandoval money?
You were sitting on a shitton of money, everything your parents left you.
You think she’d choose to do the single mom thing rather than have you take care of her?
Think about it. If she didn’t think you were the father, why the fuck would I drag your emotional ass through that drama again? ”
I whirl around, launching a lamp next to the front entrance into the wall.
“That wasn’t your call to make!” I shout.
“It’s what you asked me to do!” he roars. “Fuck!”
The words land between us, and not even Axel moves. Riale takes a deep breath.
“If you want to blame someone, blame yourself,” he hisses.
There’s immediate silence following Riale’s statement, and I look from the man who I thought was my best friend to Axel, who sits frozen in the chair.
“Did you know this shit, too?” I ask him. Axel grimaces.
“I wasn’t looking because I knew Riale was on it,” he says, glancing at Riale. “But when this Keystone shit started to get hot and her name came across my screens….”
He lifts his hands and shrugs in a what-can-you-do gesture.
I take that in, take in the fact that Shae has children…my children.
A deep, elemental feeling settles in my gut, vibrating my whole body. I turn to Riale.
I pause. “They’re mine. I know they’re mine.”
There’s more silence.
“I guess it’s possible,” he says, but doubt is written all over his face.
I’ll be the judge of that.
“Axel, where is she staying?” I ask, still staring at Riale.
You should blame yourself.
I fucking hate that he’s right. My brain, my body, my soul knows those kids are mine. What are their names? What do they look like? What are they into?
I missed so much. Eight goddamn years.
It’s like I’m standing in the middle of a fuckin’ hurricane, the broken parts of my brain and body battering against my goddamn soul.
“She landed at Paris-Saclay-Versailles,” Axel says.
I nod and march toward the door.
“Get me ten guards, Axel,” I command over my shoulder.
“Where are you going?” Riale asks. “We’ve got more to discuss.”
With one hand on the doorknob, I look over my shoulder, pinning the two of them with a hard look.
“The only thing I need to do right now is get to Shae and clear this shit up. Immediately.”
I sneer, feeling so much rage and grief combining inside my body to the point it almost feels like a black hole.
“And if those kids are mine?” I let a slow, unhinged smile spread across my face, feeling light and murderous at the same time.
Keeping my eyes fixed on Riale, I don’t answer my question. Instead, I walk out the door toward my future.
God help anyone who stands in my way.