Chapter 10
It was mid-July, time was waiting on no one, everything and everyone seemed to be changing.
Cam was confused, Farrah wasn’t calling or texting him anymore, she didn’t even reply when he reached out to her on some bored shit.
Ace said that she was spending the summer at her mother’s house on the other side of town.
Not only was she moving funny, but Diamond wasn’t fucking with him either.
When he saw her, they spoke, and she kept it moving.
He did notice she didn’t look the same, she didn’t walk the same, and her energy wasn’t the same.
She moved like she always had somewhere to be.
“I see you been checking out Rich’s daughter, Diamond,” Stone said as Cam sat at the dining room table scrolling through his phone.
“Where you see that at?” Cam hated how thirsty his father made him sound, so he played it cool.
“I have eyes everywhere, Son. I know who you talk to, who you like, and who you affiliate yourself with. I even know that Farrah kicked you to curb for an out south nigga,” Stone chuckled as Cam frowned.
“Man, I don’t care who Farrah is chilling with.”
“But Diamond…”
Cam shook his head, “She’s sixteen, too young for me.”
“Good, leave that alone. She’s a young bull that’s going to grow into a big shark if she’s anything like her Pop. She got one of the best niggas from the game to teach her the plays.”
“Better than you?”
Stone looked at his son and nodded, “Better than me. That’s a smart hustler, loyal as hell. A dangerous nigga, too, them hands ain’t the only tools he’s good with.”
“Sounds like you miss him.”
“I fasho miss my brother, but this city ain’t big enough for the both of us. I’m glad he chose the highroad. Ever seen two lions in the same cage?”
Stone chuckled and poured a drink, the ice clinked as he softly shook the glass.
“You ever thought about hollering at him?”
“I tried, but it wouldn’t make a difference…
I chose power, he chose pride. He has it in his head that I chose Ace over him and that wasn’t the case.
Them niggas hate one another, and I don’t want to be in the middle of that shit.
I made moves that got me to where I am today, moves that he would’ve never made, but I did it for us. ”
“Is there really an ‘us’ in this game?” Cam asked a real question that made Stone pause for a moment.
“It is when you come in it with real people and solid intentions.”
“I’m coming in by myself, so who do I trust?”
“Yourself. Anyone you have to second guess, cut ‘em off at the head. There’s always someone ready to take your place and if you let ‘em, they will,” Stone said as if he was speaking to himself instead of Cam.
Cameron wasn’t slow, he knew there was a message in his father’s words, there always was. Stone never showed his hand, if he had a problem, he handled it and there was definitely a problem. Cam wasn’t deep enough into the business to know exactly what was going on, but he knew his father.
Cam went to his room to take a much-needed nap, but he woke up to silence being too loud. It wasn’t the normal quiet that their house carried, it was the kind that was heavy, the quiet that showed up when some shit was wrong.
He sat up on the side of his bed and rubbed his eyes. As soon as he opened his door, voices stretched through the long hallway. It was his father’s voice, low and dangerous. Ace’s voice spoke back. Cam moved down the stairs but stayed in the shadows as they went on.
Stone paced the floor with a glass of dark liquor while Ace stood still with his arms folded across his chest.
“Numbers don’t lie. My flow doesn’t drop fifty percent in one fuckin’ week!”
Ace exhaled through his nose, “It’s gotta be something new out there. New and a cheaper price that’s pulling the fiends in. First addict I see, I’m pressin’ up on ‘em and makin’ ‘em talk.”
Stone’s eyes shifted. “Somebody is bold.”
“Duke?”
“Small fish. I let him make money because his father was killed.”
Cam’s expression didn’t move, he knew who his father was, and he knew Stone wasn’t to be fucked with.
“I don’t play about my money, not now, not ever. That’s how niggas end up missing.”
Ace nodded, “You want smoke?”
“I want names.”
Cameron’s chest tighten because somebody was about to feel Stone’s wrath and he was standing ten toes down behind his father. This didn’t sound like normal business talk; it sounded like war.
“So what’s the move?”
“The board gets cleared, anyone not playing for our team needs to be eliminated.”
Cameron felt something crawl up his spine. Whatever had shifted in the streets, his father felt it and that was never a good thing. When Stone felt something, the city usually bled.
Stone grabbed his keys, “Watch everything and everybody,” he demanded as they walked out the door.
Cam slowly backed back up the stairs, but damn near died when he bumped into his mother.
“Eavesdropping is for bitches, Son, next time walk into the room like you belong,” she said before stepping around him and walking down the stairs.
He went to his room and flopped on the bed, before getting dressed.
It was the perfect opportunity to prove to his father that he could move with his soldiers.
Knowing that Duke wasn’t a threat, he had to dig deeper into the streets.
The first person he was going to talk to was Jatara, she knew everything that went on in the hood.
As soon as he pulled on her block, he noticed Diamond and her sisters walking up the block fresh as a bitch. Diamond was Farrah’s fly and he knew she couldn’t afford that shit, but he also knew that she wasn’t in the streets, so he thought nothing of it.
“What’s up, Dime?” he called out as she got closer. She flashed a slight smile and spoke back, but she didn’t stop walking. He didn’t like that shit one bit, but he didn’t press her, he was on a mission.
He walked on Jatara’s porch where she sat with her face frowned.
“What’s wrong with you?” he took a seat on the concrete stairs.
“Them bitches think they all that because they got a little money flowing.”
“I thought you and Kayla was like best friends or some shit.”
“We was but she let Diamond tell her what to do all the time.”
“That ain’t why I’m here.”
Her mood instantly lightened, “Why you here then?”
He frowned a little because he knew damn well she didn’t think he was trying to fuck with her like that.
“Who hustlin’ over here?”
“Duke.”
“Nah, I mean really getting money.”
“Shid, yo daddy.”
From the sound of it, Cam was going to have to work harder than he thought. Whoever it was better had been running an airtight operation because the Stones were on the prowl.
After falling short with Jatara, he remembered what Ace said, the first fiend he saw, press ‘em, and he saw one walking fast. He hopped off the porch and followed behind the woman, she turned in the alley and so did he.
“Aye.” She stopped and turned around.
“Yeah?”
“Comere, lemme ask you something.”
The closer the woman got, the more familiar she looked, she looked like Diamond or Diamond looked like her.
He had never seen her mother, but he was sure that was her.
His words got stuck in his throat because it all started to make sense, that’s why Diamond was so defensive and tough, she had to be.
“Yeah?”
Cam could tell the woman was intelligent, he didn’t understand why she was out there bad.
“Never mind.”
He couldn’t bring himself to press Diamond’s mother, he turned and walked away.
“What you doing around these parts, Daddy’s boy?”
Cam turned around when he heard Duke’s voice, it was no secret that Cam was privileged, he wore that proudly. What niggas like Duke failed to realize was that he was privileged, not pussy. Cameron always had the heart of the biggest lion; he wasn’t afraid of shit, especially not Duke.
“I go where I want, freely, you know that.”
“Since when nigga? You go in the crib when the streetlights come on.” Duke joked but with a mug on his face.
“Yeah ok. Find you something safe to do, Duke.”
“I am. Diamond. I heard you was crushing on her.”
Cam chuckled and shook his head, “I don’t have crushes, nigga, whoever I want, I get.”
“Well, may the best nigga win.”
Duke laughed and walked off with his guys.
“What’s up? They pressin’ you?” Ryan and Chris ran around the corner out of breath.
“Hell naw, fuck that nigga,” Cam replied as they turned the corner and walked into Diamond and her sisters.
He felt like he could never catch her alone, her sisters were always with her.
“What’s up, ladies?” Chris spoke first as Kayla looked dead at Ryan and smiled, but he looked away.
“Hey, y’all,” Kayla and Mia spoke while Diamond gave her normal head nod and tried to keep it moving.
Cam wasn’t letting her walk away that time, so he grabbed her arm, causing her to size him up with a slight frown.
“Damn, can I have a minute?”
“Now you want a minute with me because Farrah left.”
Cam frowned his face because she was coming at him sideways, and he didn’t understand why.
“What you mean? I always fuck with you, even when she was around, so what you talking about?”
“Nothing. What’s up, Cam?”
She had thrown him off with that shit, he honestly didn’t even want to talk to her ass anymore.
“Shit. Come on y’all, let’s slide,” he called out to his friends as she caught up to her sisters.
He watched her walk to the other end of the alley, Duke met her there and threw his arm over her shoulder as she smiled. Duke looked over his shoulder and laughed. Cam couldn’t lie, he felt played like a muthafucka.