Chapter 13 #2
“My expertise has been requested,” Moose declared, eyes syncing with his brothers and father around the table. “There are a few very exclusive and expensive art pieces coming through. I reached out to Ash. It’s a fifty-fifty split; and I’m looking at a milli payout.”
Mozzi whistled and shook his head. They weren’t strangers to getting money.
Audiemar always warned them to live modestly and within their means, though.
To Ree Heights and the rest of the world, they ran a trucking company that contracted with different department stores, furniture outlets, and basically anything that needed to be shipped throughout the state of Kansas and a few border states.
Underneath that ran a lucrative gun, heroin, and pharmaceutical ring that brought in enough money to last them a couple of lifetimes.
Blackmoor Industries was legit on paper, with Desiree as the CFO.
Most of the responsibilities still fell on Audiemar and Kong at the end of the day, but Desiree had power when it came to voting, being one of the majority shareholders.
It was why she was able to travel as freely as she wanted without having to worry about the state of the business.
She trusted her son and grandsons to keep the generational wealth going.
“What you need from us?” Kong queried.
“Just Moz on this one.” Moose nodded across the table to his little brother. “I’m supposed to get an address at nine pm. I need you to roll with me, so we can tap into the security system. I need those cameras down.”
“Fuck it. I’m wit it.” Mozzi stroked his beard and shrugged.
“Be careful,” Audiemar warned. “What I always tell y’all?”
“If something don’t feel right, abort,” Moose recited.
“Just hit me up.” Mozzi pushed himself away from the table and rose with his plate.
He walked it over to the counter and dropped it in the sink.
When he turned to grab the to-go container for Coast, Audiemar met him at the island.
Mozzi paused, bracing himself for some kind of lecture.
It wasn’t that his father was disappointed in him; he knew firsthand that Mozzi and his impulsiveness could sometimes be disastrous.
He was also the first to acknowledge the true potential the boy had.
It was organic, something that had to be predestined for him.
With Mozzi he understood how someone so smart could be so reckless. There had to be a balance.
“I’d like to meet Coast,” he proposed, cupping his chin and stroking his salt and pepper shadow beard.
Mozzi kept his life compartmentalized. Family.
Business. Bitches. His world with Lin, Gill, and Roni was disconnected from everything else, probably because he knew it was dysfunctional as hell.
Not everybody could invade his private life.
If there was such a thing, being a part of the Blackmoor family was his safe space in the world.
The most solace he’d found in anything since he was a child.
When it came to those boundaries overlapping, he’d purposely kept them all separate.
“Don’t look at me like that. I talked to Desiree, and she speaks highly of her already. Said she’s Bee’s niece. Bee is pretty much family.” Audiemar reminded him.
“I know that.”
“From the way it sounds, she’s not just some girl. If she was, you wouldn’t be putting in this kind of effort. I’m interested to meet the woman that has somehow captivated your womanizing ass. She’s already met your brothers and my mother.”
“Aight. I’ll bring her by,” Mozzi agreed.
“Dinner. Friday night,” Audiemar concluded.
Mozzi knew his curiosity about Coast wasn’t just because she was related to Bee.
Audiemar remained cautious over the years about who they let into their lives and why.
Unfortunately, life taught them that everyone had an agenda, and no one knew that better than the Blackmoor men.
He and Phoebe had a history, being around her also made him feel closer to Jane since they grew up together.
Now he’d grown comfortable with her in other ways and gotten to know the woman underneath all the cosmetic surgery.
She wasn’t nearly as bad as people thought, he’d told her constantly she came off that way because of the defensive shield she’d built around herself.
Most women were out here in survival mode, waiting on some hero to swoop in and carry them into that soft life.
“Hey, what you up to?” Inari sipped her strawberry-kiwi smoothie and leaned back in her chair.
Ayla was on Facetime, and it was clear that she was laid up in bed, feeling some kind of way with weary eyes. The illumination from the TV bounced off her face every now and then.
“Nothing. Watching Beat Bobby Flay,” Ayla answered.
“Without me?” Inari gasped, faking hurt.
“Yeah. I’ve fulfilled my duties for the day.” She sighed, but Inari caught the trouble in her tone.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, I officially broke our pact to keep my distance from said Blackmoor man.”
“What happened?” Inari leaned forward nosily at her desk.
“I kind of straddled and kissed him in the back of the car last night. On some real hoe shit.”
Inari almost choked on her smoothie and had to swallow slowly.
Ayla didn’t curse a lot. She was usually sunshine and rainbows despite any hardship, so Inari couldn’t hide her amusement.
She knew her baby sister better than anyone.
Sure, she was calm, levelheaded, and seemingly sweet, but there was something strong about her that Ayla had no clue she embodied.
The girl was far more capable than she let on, and Inari had seen it up close.
“It’s not funny, Nari!” Her sister’s adorable face bunched up.
Clearly, she was bothered.
“Well, you wanna know what is?” she asked, easing back in her chair. “I’ll see your kiss and straddle and raise you some straight up hunching.”
Ayla paused and processed what Inari was saying before her eyes stretched, and she covered the gasp that slipped through her lips.
“You fucked Moose?” she whispered, bringing her face closer to the camera.
“All over that tattoo suite, girl!” Inari fell over laughing and slapping her thigh. “At least you kept your V card. Meanwhile, Coast is practically living with Mozzi, so it’s safe to say we’re all failing, epically at this.”
“Nah, there is nothing between me and Kong.” Ayla shook her head. “He made that clear last night. I’m just the chef.” She brought a pillow into her lap and sighed.
“Hmm.” Inari squinted, not quite convinced.
Ayla was still reeling from her breakup with Qassen, and Kong was older, wiser, and more patient. He was a man in every sense of the word, and she watched how he handled her most of the night. The eldest Blackmoor brother was definitely feeling her baby sister.
“Look, you heard him last night during hot seat. The man is still scared.” Inari waved her cup in front of her. “He lost the mother of his children.”
“He has no problem engaging in sex with other women. Just not me.” Ayla pouted.
“Now, don’t let me find out you thinking about popping that thang open for him!”
“Shut up!” Ayla hissed. “And it gotta be something wrong with me. I damn sure can’t seem to pick a man interested in me.”
“Listen, don’t do that! I saw him with you.
While he might be having a physical connection with somebody else, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want something of some substance with somebody else,” she pointed out.
“Give yourself some credit. You’re beautiful, single, and can cook.
Whatever Kong is going through is on him.
You can’t let it rule your life, and you better not be sitting around, waiting for the nigga to pick you!
We are Jacobs women.” She sat up straight in her chair.
“Yeah, so what’s up with you and Moose? You know he’s a few years younger than you.”
“I’m not thinking about him like that. We had fun.” Inari shrugged.
“Fun? Or fun?” Her sister teased.
“I mean… I would be open to it again, but I’m not taking him seriously.” She denied, even though hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since leaving the shop that morning. There was no renouncing the impression he’d left on her and her walls.
“Why not?”
“Trust me, a man like Moose is nothing but heartbreak. You can’t give a nigga with dick that good any kind of access to your heart.”
“You are crazy!” Ayla snickered.
“I’m serious!” Inari’s eyes stretched wider. “It’s better if whatever it is remains casual. I can’t go falling in love with somebody like that.”
“You deserve some happiness, Nari. If it’s with Moose, then that’s all that matters.”
“See, you talking crazy. I gotta go.” She waved her off the camera. “I’ll be here doing inventory until late tonight. It’s some ridiculously priced pieces coming in tonight, and Mrs. Vernon wants me to triple check everything.”
“Okay. Call me later. Love you.”
“Love you too, Lala.”
Inari glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost nine pm.
The shipment she was expecting would be arriving at any time now.
She finished her smoothie and decided to head downstairs and wait.
The auction house could be creepy at night when she was inside alone.
She swore up and down some of the pieces they acquired were haunted too.
Sliding behind the computer at the counter near the entrance, she signed in and waited for the home screen to load.
She peered out a nearby storefront window, watching the gray clouds shift as thunder rumbled the ground under her feet.
“Great,” Inari grumbled, watching a set of headlights flicker over the windows as the delivery truck wheeled around to the back door.