3. Chapter 3
Queen Adanna
I sat back in the leather chair behind my desk, completely still. I twirled my weapon between my fingers.
Flip. Spin. Catch.
Flip. Spin. Catch.
Flip. Spin. Catch.
The rhythmic metallic clicking of my butterfly knife flipping between my fingers was the only thing stabilizing me from riding out to the Aiken tribal lands and slaughtering every single living soul on that territory.
Brooklyn loved her tribe. She boasted about her royalty and her upbringing like it made her untouchable. It would be nothing for me to drop a bomb on her family's compound, erase her lineage, and burn the soil to ash. However, my hate wasn’t for them.
My mind was mapping out every single method to cut up the woman who dared to lay her hands on what was mine.
Skin her from the collarbone down?
Remove her tendons one by one?
Flay her until she begs for the iron?
For the first time in my entire fucking life, I felt human. And I hated every single second of it.
I was supposed to be smarter than this. Better than this.
I had spent my existence looking down on average women; the normies who let their messy little feelings, mushy hearts, and desperate desires for sisterhood dictate how they move.
They were so damn slow to realize when the race is already over.
They were too trusting, too open, handing out access to their lives like it has zero value, completely blind to the snake slithering right beside them until the venom is already in their blood.
I thought I was immune to that weak-ass shit. Yet there I was, making the most basic, pathetic mistake imaginable.
It blows my fucking mind how willfully blind women get when we want a sisterhood to work.
We see the shade. We catch the micro-aggressions.
We feel that weird, heavy shift in the energy every time we win, every time our man treats us right, or every time we step into a room looking better than them.
The truth sits right there, staring us dead in our fucking faces, plain as day.
But instead of cutting the wire right then and there, women will sit up and make excuses for a envious bitch just to keep the illusion of a friend.
We tell ourselves 'Oh, she's just going through something' or 'She didn't mean it like that.
' We hand out second, third, and fourth chances to fake-ass women who are actively preying on our downfall in secret.
Women will share their space, their secrets, and their light with bitches who are low-key suffocating from envy—all because women are taught to value 'friendship' over their own fucking intuition.
I didn't catch it because I wasn't built like her.
I don't worry about what another woman has; if I want it, I go and get it myself.
So I made the fatal error of assuming she had a fraction of my integrity.
I opened my door, let her breathe my air, and gave her a seat at my table, forgetting that a starving bitch will always try to steal the plate off your lap.
I should've known better, I thought, my chest burning with a bitter, toxic taste. I shouldn't have allowed a woman who lacked my morals, my values, and my discipline to even breathe the same air as me.
I let out a long, heavy sigh, forcing the cold air deep into my lungs just to keep the red glare from swamping my vision again.
And then, in the quiet darkness of my study, a nunfamiliar ache settled back over my chest. That hot, humiliating sting rose up in my throat, threatening to make me shed another tear.
Damini hadn't done a single thing wrong. He had been completely innocent in this and he was paying for it because he was connected to me. He was bearing the weight of my chaotic world, standing tall while I spazzed out and held a loaded barrel to his forehead.
I understood debt, honor, and devotion better than I understood guilt.
He was my King. He had stood in front of my barrel, looked past my anger, and loved me through the fire anyway.
I would honor him with my fucking life. He deserved my absolute, uncompromising protection—and I was going to shield him with everything I had.
My hand stopped twirling the blade. The steel clicked shut in my palm.
The sound of footsteps echoed down the grand hallway outside my office.
It wasn't just two sets of feet, but my whole squad.
I wiped my face again. Then, I sat upright, resting my hands over the dark surface. My eyes turned back to ice as the door swung open.
The doors swung open. Nana stepped in first, followed closely by Chief Idris. But behind them marched Nyah and Kandi.
Nana broke the ice, "Well, I learned my lesson the first time, so I brought back up in case I needed somebody to protect me... because you must’ve lost your goddamn mind."
I rolled my eyes. "Nana, I really don't need this shit right now."
"I don't give a fuck what you need!" Nana snapped, taking two aggressive steps toward my desk. "When you took this position as Queen, you said you was gonna take it serious! You said you was gonna handle your shit! You said you was gonna oversee everything! And what do you do at my son’s funeral?! You start letting bullets fly like this is the fucking mob! Are you out of your fucking mind?! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pistol-whip the fuck out of your ass right now! "
Chief Idris cleared her throat. "Ma, please—"
Nana spun on her heel so fast her gold chains clinked together. "Don't even get me started on you! 'Cause if you hadn't let that wicked witch of the west slide back into my extraction crew under your watch, this wouldn't even be an issue!"
I leaned over my desk. "It’s not your fucking crew, Nana. It’s mine."
"Well, I am the oldest bitch up in this mothafucka! Don’t think just becuase you blood I won’t knock your damn head off for threatening that man. If you was gonna fuck it up with him, you should’ve just gave him to me!"
“I know you not talking about my man.”
“I am!” Nana barked right back, stepping right up to my desk and squinting her eyes at me without an ounce of fear.
"Everything up in this bitch is mine! The soil, the air, the money! If I wanted your fucking palace, bitch, I would take that shit! If I wanted some Wendy’s right now, I’d order a private jet to go get it and make you pay the fuel bill! "
A sudden, unexpected twitch pulled at the corner of my mouth.
“Nana, please.”
“Girl, hush! Damn, got my blood pressure up and shit.” I fought my lip twitching as I shook my head. I heard Kandi try to hide her giggle while Nyah got on her for laughing. Nana was the only person who could talk to me like that and live to see tomorrow.
Chief threw her hands up in exhaustion. "Mother, please! Just stop."
Nana mumbled, “I’ll stop when I want to.”
Chief took a deep breath and turned her eyes back to me.
"It’s very clear that Brooklyn is not to be trusted.
She is officially exiled from our grounds.
I’ve already authorized full sweep searches around her Aiken tribe, and I’ve got Jade tracking all her digital movements on the island.
Nobody can find her right now…She went dark the second her SUV cleared the main gates. "
The room settled into silence as everyone took their positions.
Kandi sat off to the side, leaning her thick frame against the sofa. Her sweet face was replaced by those sharp killer eyes. Nyah stood right by the reinforced door, running a hand over her low fade before pulling out a tablet.
The screen flickered to life, displaying Jade’s glowing setup. She was sitting in front of her massive wall of monitors back at her house, wearing oversized headphones, typing at blinding speed.
"Chief is right. She ain't on the grid, Danni," Jade’s voice piped through the speakers. "Somebody with high-level military clearance wiped her trail."
I looked around the room at all of them. Nana, Chief, Kandi, Nyah, and Jade. They weren't here to reprimand me anymore; they were literally standing in my office ready to go to war for me and their King.
My throat felt tight as I tried to force the actual words out of my mouth.
"Thank you... for helping me," I muttered.
Nana froze. Her head cocked to the side so fast I heard her neck pop. "What the hell did you just say? I think you just..." She squinted at me.
I rolled my eyes hard. "Yes. And I just apologized to my husband as well."
The entire room went dead silent. Kandi’s jaw dropped slightly, Nyah froze, Jade stopped typing and Chief just stared at me in disbelief.
"Well, damn!" Nana gasped, throwing her hands up. "First you apologizing to us, then you apologizing to a man?! Oh, I forgive you, baby. My son was a bastard anyway."
Chief snapped. "Don't talk about my brother like that."
“He came out of my coochie!" Nana countered, waving her hand dismissively. "I do whatever I wanna do! If I want to buy this nice palace, guess what’s gone happen?”
Her daughter shrugged her off, annoyed with her mother.
Nana kept going, waving her gold-ringed fingers wildly in the air. "If I wanted to have your job, bitch, I would have your job! If I wanted some Wendy’s—"
"For the love of God, I will build you a damn Wendy’s right on the compound!" I snapped, cutting her off.
Nana stopped mid-sentence. She blinked twice through her oversized black shades.
"What? " Nana asked. "That’s all you had to say? Shit, we cool then."
She smoothed down the front of her suit coat, stepped right around the edge of my mahogany desk, and walked up to my chair. She reached out, gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and grabbed both sides of my face.
Leaning down, she planted a loud, wet kiss on my forehead, leaving a faint stain of dark red lipstick behind.
"Don't you ever point a gun at my grandson again, you crazy little bitch," she whispered sweetly into my face. "Now make sure my frosty got extra chocolate on the menu, too."
She patted my cheek twice, turned right around on her designer heels, and marched over to the leather armchair in the corner—leaving Chief Idris staring at her in silence.
A twitch hit the corner of my upper lip. I caught myself, rolled my eyes, and wiped the expression off my face.
"Anyways," I said. "I think Brooklyn found a way to sneak into my home and drug my husband."
Chief’s eyes widened in shock. Kandi’s face darkened into a look that said she was ready to murder someone with her bare hands, and Nana looked disgusted.
I kept going, pointing down the line. "Jade, I need you to track every private and commercial plane registered on this island. Kandi, I need you to go put GPS trackers on the aircrafts and boats docked at the harbors. Chief, I need you to order a sit down meeting with the Elders."
Chief looked at me with caution. "I will definitely do my best. And you have the full support of the military arm on whatever you choose to do, as long as it’s to fix this."
Nana leaned back, crossing her arms. "Well... is my grandson-in-law all right?"
I rolled my eyes. "I think so. But don't you worry about him, I'm gonna take care of him."
Nana’s eyes bulged out of her head. "You gonna kill him?! Oh hell—"
"No," I interjected sharply, cutting her off before she could start again. "I'm going to care for him."
Nyah looked at me from the corner of the room, raising an eyebrow. "Okay..."
I turned my head back to Chief Idris. "I need you to do me a personal favor. I need a master spreadsheet of every single tribal guard we’ve employed within the past two years.
I also need the duty schedule of all the guards within the past month.
Include their bloodline history and which specific tribe they’re connected to. "
I turned my gaze to Nana. "And I need you to go cuddle up with that good old Elder you like to sneak off and see, and get him to give you a copy of all the financial records of every king from the past two years."
Jade’s voice crackled through Nyah’s phone screen as she squinted at her monitors, her fingers typing at lightspeed again. "I’m gonna see if I can pull the financial servers from my end too... but why the past two years, Danni?"
"Because that bitch is treacherous as fuck," I answered. "She calculates her moves months before she makes them. You have to study your enemy's pattern before you strike."
Chief Idris let out a quiet smirk, looking at me with pride. "You remembered your training."
"Yes. And I’m going to find a way to make this right so everything can go back to normal. But first... I hope you guys respect the fact that I’ve gotta shake some shit up."
Every single woman in that room nodded in understanding
I paused, thinking long and hard about the next step.
Chief noticed the look on my face. "What are you thinking about?"
I looked directly at her. "Auntie... I need you to give me access to one of your unregistered safe rooms."
Chief didn't hesitate. "I’ll have it ready by the end of the day."