3. Cambrie Rhodes
Cambrie Rhodes
“ I can’t be here right now, Sol.” Running my fingers through my hair and pacing the driveway, I realized I didn’t have anything with me when I just stormed out. Not my purse or phone. I gripped the keys to the BMW in my hand paused with my arms tucked across my chest.
“Okay. Tell me what you need.” She didn’t budge, just stood there, letting me come unglued.
“I need to rewind what I just heard so I can stop feeling like my heart just got ripped out of my chest!” I screamed.
Staring down at myself in just my pajamas, I didn’t know where the hell I thought I was going.
Suddenly, I felt out of place, like I didn’t belong here as I took in the grand house and well-manicured lawn and hedges.
I had started to consider this place home in just the last week, and now the only thing I wanted was to get as far away as possible.
I wasn’t even sure I could trust her, and she caught the hesitance when I looked her up and down.
“Nope. Don’t do that.” She held up a finger.
“I didn’t know any of that, OK. I am your friend.
At least I thought that’s what we were becoming here.
So, don’t shut me out. Yes, Staten is my nephew, and Rossi is my sister and I love them, but I care about you too, Cam,” she assured me as more tears gathered in my eyes and my throat tightened.
I knew exactly where I needed to go.
“Take me back to my place.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s go.”
It was late, but Plum worked crazy hours anyway.
I didn’t even text her to let her know I was on the way since I still had my key.
She said to keep it for emergencies, and right now I needed a safe space.
I was immediately hit with a cloud of smoke and the illumination of the TV bouncing off the living room walls.
With her bonnet over her head, Plum sat up with a bowl of chips in her lap as her face shifted into a frown.
She was watching Mean Girls , which was one of her favorite throwbacks.
“Brie? What you doing here?”
“Do you mind if I chill for a minute?” I checked with her, lingering in the doorway with Sol behind me.
“Girl, you don’t even have to ask. Who is that with you?” She peeked past me.
“This is Sol, Staten’s auntie,” I introduced them. “She knew I was upset, and I didn’t want to drive.”
“Uh-oh.” My bestie tossed her covers to the side and stood. “Sounds like we need a few shots and another blunt.”
“I’ll match you,” Sol offered with a shrug.
“You come right on in then, Sol.” Plum strut over to the station in the corner where she set up our little bar equipped with a Bartesian on top.
Wine glasses and different bottles of our favorite wines and hard liquor were arranged at the bottom.
Neither of us were heavy drinkers, but when we had our girls’ nights or went out, we usually pre-gamed.
It was nothing for us to grab a bottle just because it was on sale so we could have it on deck.
“What y’all in the mood for?”
“Whiskey,” Sol and I voiced together as we settled around on the sofas.
“Brie, since when are you a whiskey drinker?” Plum questioned as she grabbed a few glasses and the whiskey sour capsules for the Bartesian.
Immediately, Staten came to mind, and I grabbed one of the throw pillows and hugged it against my chest. Sol went into her purse and pulled out her own sack of weed and blunts.
“I’m guessing since Staten introduced her to that Marek Reserve,” Sol simpered.
Cutting my eyes at her, my mind immediately drifted to the events of tonight.
Plum brought a glass over to me, which I gladly took and gulped down quickly.
I’d been trying not to think of that man and all the ways he made me tingle, and here she was speaking his name.
I didn’t see malice in his eyes tonight when I looked at him.
He knew he fucked up. That didn’t mean I could just walk back in there like shit was sweet. I didn’t like that he kept it from me.
“Oh, damn. So you had a night,” Plum observed.
“You remember how we talked about my mama and the accident and me finding out what happened that night?” I lowered the glass from my lips and twirled it against the pillow.
“Yeah.” Plum prepared another drink and glanced my way.
“Well, now I know.” I tipped the rest of my beverage into my mouth.
“What are you talking about?” Plum half turned with a hand on her hip.
I locked eyes with Sol before clearing my throat and holding my glass up as Plum came back. She handed the fresh drink to Sol and gripped my glass by the rim when she took it.
“The other car. It was Staten and his mother.”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Plum shrieked. “Did he know?”
“He said not at first, but he suspected after overhearing me with Daddy the night he came to check on me at the facility.”
“You believe him?” Plum queried, facing me from the bar.
“I don’t think that he would lie to me about that,” I said, swallowing slowly. “I just couldn’t stay there right now on top of everything else.”
“What is everything else?” Plum brought my refilled glass back over to me.
“You might as well get it all of your chest.” Sol shrugged. “I’m not biased because he’s my nephew.”
“Staten’s baby mama is in town.” I gripped the glass tighter, thinking about Nadia and her immediate impact.
It was easy to feel like an outsider between two people with history.
Everything with Staten was new, and I was honestly still reeling from things with Sayer.
I couldn’t say I was on a rebound because honestly, I’d never felt for anyone what I felt for Staten.
Not even Sayer. We’d been together for years and never shared the kind of connection I had with this man.
Staten took one look at me and just knew how to handle me.
I was fresh off a breakup and used to the bare minimum from Sayer though, so did that make me the best judge of character? Maybe not.
Staten was just a different breed. I admired the fact that he took his kids and walked away when his life wasn’t what he wanted it to be at the time.
That took strength. Now to come back and try to rebuild his relationships with his family and contribute to his legacy, it was sexy.
The way he was with his kids was what stuck.
He didn’t handle them with gloves or coddle them, although he was a little softer with the girls than Rogue and Saga.
I saw a man who genuinely loved his kids and would do anything for them to make sure they were safe.
“Did he ask you to leave?” Plum pried into my thoughts.
“No.”
“Did you give him a chance to explain anything?” Plum brought her own glass to her lips as Sol licked her blunt closed.
“Plum, no. I left. I came here, and right now I just need a lot of alcohol and my friend.”
“Fine. Alexa, play ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ by Whitney Houston!” Plum yelled, dropping down into the sofa with me.
Sol’s phone rang just as the music came on, and she picked up. With her phone between her shoulder and ear, she finished rolling her blunt. She spoke low, so I wasn’t sure who she was talking to, and she hung up quickly.
“Was that Staten?”
“It was.”
“What did he say?”
“He’s dealing with Brick and this whole Six situation.” Sol brought her blunt to her lips and sparked it.
“What’s going on with Brick and Six?” I asked, forehead wrinkling in a frown.
“There was some drama at that event she went to with him tonight. Six got snatched up by her mama’s boyfriend, who’s been looking for her. Brick, Ivo, and Staten are out trying to find her. Apparently, this dude is connected to some heavy hitters.”
“Oh my God! What are they going to do?”
“If I know my nephews, whatever they have to do to get Six back.” Sol inhaled from the blunt and held the smoke in her lungs. “I’m sure it’ll make the news in the morning.”
“So, it’s dangerous?” I wondered, reaching for the blunt when she passed it in my direction.
I wasn’t na?ve about Staten or his family.
He and his brothers all carried this ‘fuck with me if you want to’ demeanor.
The tattoos and that dark glint in their eyes was all very telling about each of them.
Staten didn’t discuss that part of his life with me, and I was OK with that.
There were a few nights where he came home looking like he had gone to war with the world, but I would never press him.
I just made sure that the house and the kids were good to alleviate the obvious stress absorbing him.
When he walked through the door, I wanted him to be able to leave that behind and focus on what was going on under his roof.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine. It’s better to not think about what could go wrong and let them do what they do. I’ve watched them all come out of some of the stickiest situations. It comes with the territory from time to time.”
“Do you know what happened that night? The accident?” I took another pull from the blunt before passing to Plum.
Sol took a sip of her drink before leaning forward with the glass between both hands. She studied the brown liquid for a minute before speaking again.
“Staten picked Rossi up because she caught a flat in her car. It was late, and she didn’t want to wait for a car service.
There was already some alleged beef between Staten and this dude, Dame.
Damien Carruthers. He and Staten went to school together.
He was basically a nobody who always wanted to be down with Staten and his brothers.
He was lame. Grew up, got plugged in to one of the other families and moving a little weight.
He made the mistake of disrespecting and trying to move in on Marek territory, so Staten had to check him in front of a lot of people.
Dame didn’t take it so well, especially when Staten pistol whipped him. ”