21. Dorian
Dorian
Ever since the last time I saw Reiana and I fought her baby daddy, I’ve been in my head.
I loved that girl and for her to tell me we were over didn’t sit right with me.
At first, I told myself she just needed time because Rhyse’s father had come back into the picture, and she was dealing with enough between him and Rhyse.
I gave her a day before I called again… then another.
By the third time she sent me to voicemail, I was pissed as fuck.
What pissed me off more was knowing exactly when things changed.
Before Lennox came back around, Reiana might’ve been distant with me sometimes, but she answered my calls.
She responded when I texted. If she had something to say, she said it.
Now I could send her three messages in a row and watch all of them sit there without a response.
That was all coming to an end today though because I was pulling up to her at her job.
I pulled into the parking lot at RéIA Facility Services and sat there for a second before getting out.
I had already called her twice that morning, and both times the phone rang until the voicemail picked up.
I could’ve left another message, but at that point I was tired of talking to a fucking recording.
When I got to the front desk, her receptionist smiled at me before she greeted me.
“Hey, is Reiana still here?” I asked as I walked toward the counter.
“She left about thirty minutes ago,” the receptionist said.
“Did she say if she was coming back?” I asked.
“No, she didn’t,” she replied as she glanced toward her computer. “Tasha is still here if you needed something business-related.”
“I’m good,” I told her before stepping away from the counter. “Tell Reiana I stopped by.”
“I will,” she said as I headed back toward the door.
By the time I got outside, my patience was thinner than a bitch’s edges. I pulled my phone from my pocket and called her again while I headed toward my truck. The phone rang four times before voicemail picked up.
“Man, fuck this shit,” I muttered as I hung up and got inside my truck.
I sat there with the phone in my hand for another few seconds before opening our messages. My last three texts were still sitting there with no response.
Me: Baby, call me when you get a minute.
Me: Ree, we need to talk.
Me: Reiana, I’m not doing this back-and-forth shit, man… call me.
Nothing. Every last one went without a response. I was about to text her again but decided against it. Chasing after a woman had never been my thing, and I wasn’t about to start begging Reiana to have a conversation with me because her baby daddy had suddenly reappeared.
That didn’t mean I was letting her go.
There was too much between us for her to shut me out like none of it mattered. I had been there before that nigga decided to show his face after all these years, and I wasn’t about to make it easy for him to slide into the place I had been standing in.
I pulled out of the lot and tried to put Reiana out of my head long enough to handle the rest of my day.
I had shit to do and I couldn’t let what I had going on with Reiana to knock me off my square.
My phone rang less than twenty minutes later, and I glanced at the screen expecting to see Reiana, but it was Mello.
“Wassup?” I asked as I answered.
“I need you to come to the warehouse,” Mello said without wasting time. “Now.”
I frowned as I changed lanes. “What happened?”
“Not over the phone,” he replied. “Just get here.”
The line disconnected before I could ask anything else.
I stared at the screen for half a second before turning toward the direction of the warehouse. Mello didn’t call me like that unless something was wrong.
By the time I pulled into the warehouse lot, Mello’s truck was already parked near the side entrance. I got out and headed inside, where I found Mello waiting near the office in the back.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked as I walked in and closed the door behind me.
“Cyrus is putting shit together,” Mello said.
“What shit?” I frowned.
“Too much shit,” he replied as he pushed away from the desk. “One of the boys heard his people asking around about two of the properties we used last month. They’re tracing where the money moved and who had access to the shit,” he revealed.
My jaw tightened. “How close are they?”
“Close enough for me to call you,” Mello said as he reached for the folder sitting on the desk. “They don’t have everything, but if they keep pulling, they’re going to find more.”
I took the folder from him and flipped through the pages before I tossed the folder back onto the desk. “We need to make sure he can’t find shit out,” I stated. I didn’t need this shit right now.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Mello said. “We need to clear out the smaller location first, move everything from there, then switch how the money is moving. If he gets to that property before we do, we’re going to have a bigger problem.”
I rubbed my hand over my jaw while I thought through it. “How long we’re looking at to get this shit done?”
“If we start tonight, we can have the inventory gone before morning. The books are going to take longer.”
“Then start with that frst,” I told him. “Move the product, move the equipment, and strip anything out of there that doesn’t belong. I’ll handle the rest.”
Mello nodded. “Where you want it?”
“Not here,” I said immediately. “If he’s connecting properties, I’m not stacking everything in one place. Split it between the Grove location and the old spot off Briar Glen until I figure out the next move.”
“That’s more people involved.”
“I know,” I replied as I picked up my phone. “Use the ones we already trust. Nobody new.”
We spent the next hour going through every property connected closely enough to us to become a problem.
Some could stay exactly how they were. Others needed to be cleaned out before anybody had time to start digging around.
None of it was impossible, but it was enough to let me know we had gotten too comfortable.
That shit was on me, though. I had built too much around the assumption that nobody would ever have enough information to connect every piece. Cyrus had been around long enough and had enough money behind him to make shit happen.
“I’ll call you when everything starts moving,” Mello announced as he got ready to leave.
“Make sure nothing goes through the same route twice,” I told him as I stood. “And anybody asking questions can wait until I talk to them.”
“Aight,” he said before looking toward the door. “What you about to do?”
“Handle the rest of my day.”
Mello nodded and headed out with me following a few minutes later.
By the time I got to my truck, my head was split between two problems I didn’t have room to lose control of.
Cyrus was getting too close to the shit I thought I had under control, and Reiana was acting like what we had never existed because of her baby daddy.
Neither one sat right with me.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could force her to want me, but I also wasn’t about to stand back while Lennox came into Arbor Point and took over everything because he happened to share a child with her.
Whatever was happening between them could be dealt with once I got her to stop shutting me out long enough to listen.
Cyrus was different. That situation had a clock on it whether I could see it or not.
I started the truck and pulled away from the warehouse with one thing clear in my head. I needed to clean up whatever Cyrus was connecting before it came back on me, and I needed to fix whatever was happening with Reiana before Lennox got too comfortable in a place I had no intention of giving up.
One problem could cost me my life….the other could cost me her, and I wasn’t planning to lose either one.