ONE WEEK LATER
I had no idea how much “later” Jabari was talking about when he left me in the parking garage the night of the gala. Something had been off about his attitude after he returned from taking a phone call no sooner than we arrived.
Yet, minutes into the evening, his normal persona had returned.
He had been as attentive and affectionate toward me as usual, and charming with the other ladies.
I noticed that when men were in the vicinity, Jabari could be a bit abrupt, almost bordering on rudeness.
Still, men seemed to flock toward him and devour his attention and his company.
I hadn’t expected him to send me home alone that night.
After getting me all worked up, I knew that he was going to take care of my body the way he normally did.
I was looking forward to a night of kinky sex, but that wasn’t to be had.
Although the elevator excursion could be counted as such.
I hated that he had edged me and sent me alone without having an orgasm.
The only orgasms I’d had were by my toys in the days following the gala, and they were nothing like what Jabari did to me.
They were inefficient and left me hungering for so much more.
The man had power, and that type of power could be scary. I had no idea he owned the building we’d had the gala in. It was a beautiful twenty-three-story building constructed of black glass and steel.
I was afraid that someone would start the elevators again and the doors would open.
Although I hadn’t wanted to be caught, part of me felt like it would be exciting, which was why I hadn’t mentioned the possibility of security watching us on camera.
Learning that he controlled the elevators, too, wasn’t just scary but downright sexy.
I was drawn to the darker parts of Jabari and the authority that he had, all the while knowing that if he learned the truth about what I was after, he could destroy me. The more that I got to know the man, the more I wanted to know, but not to use it against him—just to protect him.
I had paid for the information that his father gave me, but not to use it in my magazine.
Knowing that I was falling in love with Jabari, I knew that I needed to know the truth about him.
After all, how could I protect him if I didn’t know the ghosts that I was protecting him from?
How could I be with him? There was no mistaking that he had ghosts.
Most CEOs that I met wanted to be featured in the magazine.
They looked forward to highlighting their brand and business, if not themselves.
Yet, he shunned every single interview requested of him.
Only a man with secrets did that. It also made sense why Sullivan Investments desperately wanted his story printed.
The things his father, Samuel, told me, while they were shocking, had made sense.
He told me that Jabari came from the streets.
He said that Jabari had been a big-time drug dealer working for a kingpin.
He also said that Jabari had killed his brother, Malik, and a lot of other shady shit he had done.
Samuel stated that Jabari’s mother had died of a broken heart, and that he had turned to alcohol when their firstborn was murdered.
He said that Jabari, whose real name was Jamal, had walked away from everything, including a woman he had vowed to love and protect, Shenobi Quarterman.
That was where the name change had come from, him walking away, but he hadn’t been able to escape his father.
Hearing those things from his father made me realize that I didn’t know Jabari at all. As much as I wanted to believe that I did, the truth was, he had gotten to know me without letting me know him. It made me want to know him even more.
I stepped off the elevator early in the morning and headed to my office suite.
I missed Jabari, but Frankie had said he was out of town on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.
I hated when he left on certain business trips because he was always out of pocket during those times.
I didn’t hear from him at all, and yet I craved his voice, his touch, and the taste of him.
I slid my key into the lock, but it didn’t turn.
I tried it again with the same result. This time I pulled the key out and looked at it, because I wanted to make sure that I had the correct key.
I did; it was the only blue one on my keyring.
I slid it back in and tried one more time with the same result.
This time I headed back to the elevator to take it to the basement where building maintenance was located. When I stepped off the elevator, I headed to the receptionist’s desk.
“Good morning. How can I help you?”
“I’m in suite fourteen-C, and my key isn’t working this morning.”
“One minute. Let me call the maintenance supervisor so that he can determine what is going on.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
I took a seat on the couch opposite her desk and looked at the stack of magazines. Interestingly enough, several of them featured buildings that Jabari owned. Not surprisingly, as I flipped through them, none of them had information about him or pictures of him.
“Ms. Valentine,” a short, light-skinned, heavyset man with glasses greeted me.
“Yes.”
“I’m Chris McIntire, the maintenance supervisor.”
“Yes, Mr. McIntire. I tried inserting my key in the lock this morning. I’m in 14-C, and my key isn’t working. I’m not sure—”
“You have been locked out of your office because your lease was terminated, ma’am.” He casually handed me a slip of paper as he slid his glasses back up onto his nose that was beaded with sweat.
“What do you mean it was terminated?”
“You violated a clause in your lease, so it was terminated.”
“What clause? I haven’t violated anything!”
“It’s right there on your notice.”
My eyes dropped to the paper he’d given me. In bold print it read:
“LEASE VIOLATION”
There were several boxes underneath it, and there was a checkmark beside the box that read “THE TENANT CREATED SITUATIONS THAT JEOPARDIZE THE SAFETY, PRIVACY, SECURITY, AND WELLBEING OF OTHERS.”
“This can’t be right. I haven’t jeopardized anyone’s anything. You can’t do this. I didn’t even receive advance notice.”
“You didn’t read your lease properly then because advance notice is not required for certain violations. The violation that you created happens to be automatic grounds for termination, Ms. Valentine.”
“What did I do?”
“I don’t have the details. You can go upstairs to the twenty-first floor and speak with someone in the leasing office. I’m sure they will have more details than we will,” Chris explained.
My heart stammered in my chest. What was I going to do? What would I tell my staff? They were due at work within an hour. I needed to call everyone immediately and stop them from driving all the way downtown. Knowing most of them, though, they may have already been en route.
Drive time during Atlanta’s rush hour could be anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour and a half depending on where you were traveling from and to.
None of this made sense, but I spun away from Chris and the receptionist before the first tear that blurred my vision had a chance to fall.
I rushed back to the elevator doors and thought about Chris’s comment about contacting the leasing office.
That was the problem; it was on the same floor as Jabari.
I dialed his number once more as soon as I stepped onto the elevator. He could straighten this all out. After all, he owned the building. My calls were going directly to voicemail, which made no sense.
My mind and my heart conflicted with each other as anger, hurt, and fear jockeyed for position within me.
Once I walked into the leasing office, they upheld the decision but could give me no more details than that someone would be in contact with me.
I suspected that Jabari knew that I had discovered something. But how?
I thought about his father, and that was the only thing that made sense; he betrayed me after he’d gotten the money. That left me wondering how much he had told me was the truth.
I dialed my staff one by one and told them to work from home today because there was an issue with the lease that I was working out.
I drove around looking for his father, and I had even gone back to the condo where I had dropped him off, but he wasn’t there.
I stopped a few of his neighbors and asked if they had seen him.
No one had seen him recently, and the last person who saw him mentioned that it had been exactly one week ago when they saw him last.
I realized that was around the time that Jabari had arrived back in town. It was the same time that we’d gone to the gala, and he had started acting strangely.
I got in my car again and received another call from the marketing partner at Sullivan Investments. She was calling to inform me that the company was pushing up the timeline on needing that story, or they would pull the funding.
When I asked why they were changing the deadline, she simply stated that it was in their best interest to have the story come out sooner rather than later.
Nothing made any sense, and as I pulled into my driveway, I tried to calm myself before taking that negative energy into my home. Everything was falling apart around me.
The second time that my phone rang, it was Riann.
“Hey, girl.”
“Hey, have you gotten that leasing issue figured out yet?” Riann asked.
“No. I’m still working on some things.”
I was embarrassed because she had been right all along. I was certain that Riann knew the reason we had been evicted was related to Jabari’s and my relationship.
“Okay, well, I know this isn’t the best time to tell you this, but the attorney called and explained that the rental and leasing negotiations on all of our equipment have been revoked. Something about ‘violation of terms.’”
“What? We didn’t violate anything!”
“That was the same thing that I said.”
“What did they say?”
“They said that in the contract there is a clause that states if there is a transfer of ownership or possession, the contract is automatically nullified.”
“We haven’t transferred anything,” I countered.
“I know, but they stated that they have proof that our equipment is still in the building, and our lease is up. Because we left the equipment on someone else’s property, it’s the same as abandonment or transfer of ownership.
They are asking for the balance due on all the equipment at the close of business. ”
“They can’t do that.”
“Apparently, they can. It’s one of those things that is in the lease’s fine print.”
“I’ll look into it. Give me some time.”
“Okay, honey. If there’s anything that I can do, please let me know.”
“I will.” I ended the call abruptly and had an emotional breakdown in front of my home.
I knew that this was all connected to Jabari, and I wished that he didn’t feel as if I’d crossed him up in the worst way.
He was about to destroy my life. I felt like everything was pushing me toward my father, and the last thing I wanted was to go to that man with my tail tucked between my legs and ask him for anything.