Cazmir #2
“As you know already, my father is Chief of Police and has a lot of officers that report to him. Officers Jacobs and Mitchell were two of them. Marius paid my father off for two of his best officers and he sent them, which is how you and Kayla ended up getting arrested in the first place. At the time, my father thought he was helping an old friend clean up a problem before it became something bigger. What he didn’t realize was that Marius was already ten steps ahead of everybody. ”
Neither one of them said anything, so I continued.
“But after that plan backfired and those men turned up...well, y’all already know what happened after that.
” I shook my head, refusing to be the one to say it out loud.
“Once those officers disappeared, everything changed. My father started panicking once Internal Affairs got involved, the mayor was asking questions, and people were starting to look too close at things that had stayed buried for years.” I looked between both of them before continuing.
“Marius showed up before Emory ever got the chance to make a decision. Afterward, Emory received a note in his chambers telling him to throw the case and let Marius walk, but instead of folding, he ignored him. Acted like he didn’t even know who the fuck he was and ruled the way he felt the law required him to.
That’s what set everything ablaze. It's where the threats started, where Sera got dragged into it, and all this shit really went left.”
“Wait a minute.” Yayo held up his hand, pacing. “So Marius got a judge and the Chief of Police in his fucking pocket?”
“Not exactly.” I rubbed my jaw.
“That’s the sticky part. Emory isn’t in his pocket the way my father was. Emory’s problem is loyalty. My father’s problem is participation. There’s a difference.” The room got quiet, you know, the kind that comes when something finally starts making sense.
“Yeah, him, Emory, and my father got a history I wasn’t completely privy to growing up, but I didn’t start understanding how deep it ran until that dinner at my parents’ house.
Once my father received the heads of two of his most highly decorated officers, that nigga started spiraling.
That’s when everything clicked for me. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just about Marius anymore.
It was about all the people who had been helping him, covering for him, protecting him, or looking the other way while he continued to do whatever the fuck he wanted. ”
Kade folded his arms across his chest. “So why make Bree keep it a secret if you trying to be on the side of right?”
I sighed because I knew exactly how bad that looked.
“Because, man, y’all know how women are when they think they know right but don’t know the full picture.
The second Bree found out, she wanted to run straight to Ysis and tell her everything.
The problem was we didn’t have everything.
We had pieces. Suspicions. Connections. But not enough to blow up everybody’s life with certainty. ”
Kade looked unconvinced as hell. “I needed time. Time to figure out not only how to lay this shit out but how to put an end to it for good. Not just for Ysis. Not just for Majesty. For everybody involved. Because once this came out, there wasn’t gone be no putting it back.” Yayo stopped pacing.
“Today’s meeting?”
“Today’s meeting was us trying to figure out a way to mitigate the damage.
Me, my father and Emory, were trying to figure out how much of this could still be salvaged before Marius takes everybody down with him.
Because make no mistake about it, that old nigga knows where every body is buried.
If he decides to talk, he ain’t going down by himself. ”
Kade’s expression darkened. “Salvaged?”
“Yeah.”
“Nah, fuck all that salvaging shit.” He shook his head. “You telling me my wife spent her whole life getting bounced around the system while these old niggas sat around playing golf and keeping secrets?” I could already see where this was going.
“Kade—”
“No.” He pointed at me. “Because now I got questions. A whole lot of motherfucking questions. Starting with why the fuck Ysis had to find out who her father was on her wedding day.” The room fell silent again. Because that was the question nobody had a good answer for.
I was trying to prevent a war from taking place between my father and the Myles family.
While I knew what my father and Majeston were capable of, I didn’t want any bloodshed.
There had been enough of that to last several lifetimes already, and with the power, influence, and resources all of them had at their disposal, there was no such thing as a small conflict between men like this.
If things went left, bodies would drop, families would suffer, and the city would feel the ripple effects long after the dust settled.
“Kade, on some real shit, I did not know Majeston was gone crash your wedding, let alone with Yuki. I should’ve told you about him being her father and for that, it’s my fault.
” The admission tasted bitter coming out, but it was the truth.
Looking back, I should’ve handled it differently. I could see that now.
Kade eyed me for a long moment, contemplating what he wanted to do next. His expression was unreadable, which somehow felt worse than him yelling. At least when Kade was pissed you knew where you stood. When he got quiet, that’s when a nigga needed to be concerned.
“And what’s his role in all this?” Kade finally asked, walking toward the bar. The tension in the room eased slightly as he poured himself a drink, but not enough for anybody to relax.
“Who?”
“Majesty, nigga. You said them niggas grew up in the sandbox together and we were purposely kept away from each other. So where does Majeston play into that?”
“Man, his beef with Marius goes back decades. They crossed paths over the years but never did business directly. At least not from what I’ve been told. Pops always said he never trusted Marius, and honestly, look what happened between him and Yuki. The nigga had good instincts.”
“Nigga, birds of a feather flock together.” Yayo immediately called bullshit.
“Believe what you want.” I shrugged. “I’m telling y’all what I know. Majeston wants that nigga’s head on a spike and he won’t stop until he gets it. That much I know for sure.”
“Well tell that nigga to pick a number because we got dibs on that senior citizen ass nigga.” Yayo muttered, causing Kade to snort into his drink.
“This could actually work in our favor though.” Kade swirled the liquor around in his glass, thinking it through. The wheels were turning now. The anger was still there, but strategy was starting to take over.
“If he beat me to him, he can have him.” Yayo waved a hand dismissively before pointing at me. “In the meantime, what we gone do about this nigga?”
Kade looked over the rim of his glass.
“I was in the middle of something when y’all called me and I’m itching to get back to it.” Yayo's eyes drifted toward the kitchen where the women were now laughing, proving they had apparently worked through more in fifteen minutes than men could in fifteen years.
“I’ma let the nigga make it for now,” Kade said, locking eyes with me. “But lie to me again and I’ma do you the way I should’ve done Sera.”
I held his stare without blinking because I ain’t never been nobody’s bitch. Not with the family I came from. Not with the principles that had been drilled into me since I was old enough to understand them.
“Respectfully Kade, I hear you. But this is the first and last time you’ll ever threaten my life.
She is my god sister and I now have an obligation to protect her just like you niggas do.
So either move something and stop all this talking or...
gentlemen, I would say it sounds like our business here is done. ”
At the end of the day I was a grown-ass man, and while I could’ve gone about some things differently, I refused to let any nigga think he could prove me pussy.
I understood why Kade was angry. Hell, if the roles were reversed I’d probably be angry too.
But understanding his anger and accepting disrespect were two completely different things.
For a moment nobody said anything. Then Yayo broke the silence. “See, that’s the problem right there.”
“What?”
“You actually fit in with us.”
Kade laughed. I laughed. Even Yayo laughed.
And somehow that realization was probably more dangerous than anything we’d discussed all night.
“This nigga got balls the size of Goliath. Nigga can’t do nothing but respect it.
Kade, I’ll be in touch about our plan in light of all this...
new information.” Yayo said before hollering for Kayla so they could leave.
“Y’all bitches is sisters so act like it. Bree, no more damn secrets and Ysis stop trying to cut everybody off.” Kayla said, pulling both women into a hug before rolling her eyes at me on the way out.
“I said all I had to say. Knowing what you know, I just hope when it comes time to get this nigga, you ready to get in the field.”
“Seeing is believing. I trust that I will be at work as normal tomorrow...seeing I’m still employed?”
“Yeah nigga, same for you Bree. Now get out my house. Y’all done upset my wife enough.”