Pawns & Kings

by D D Bridges

  “Everything that I have is yours,” my father replied compassionately. “You’ve had your own share in this company since you were thirteen years old, and that’s not going anywhere. But the position of CEO belongs to Darius, and it’s going to remain that way until the day that he dies.”

  My father spoke with such finality that D.J. realized that he had no other choice but to back down from the conversation. My father’s decision was final and D.J. would have to live with it.

  “So you’re going to screw over your family and give everything to your mistake?” D.J. uttered angrily.

  “Mistake?” I spat.

  “Yeah, that’s right nigga, mistake!”

  “You better watch your tone, motherfucker,” I said as I reached for my glock which was tucked away in my suit. I rose to my feet and so did D.J. I had already peeped the gun that he had tucked at his waist so I wasn’t surprised when he reached for it. My father on the other hand seemed to be taken aback when we both stood, ready to pull out our firearms.

  “Whoa! Wait a damn minute!” My father shot to his feet as he spoke. I was sure that he was strapped too, but he wasn’t expecting it to come to this. “Put those away,” he instructed us and we obeyed. Once we were at ease my father seemed to relax too.

  “Darius, let me talk to D.J. alone, please.”

  “Gladly,” I said before turning and walking out of the conference room and into the hallway. My boys were still posted up waiting on me and so was my father’s bodyguard. My boys surrounded me as soon I shut the door.

  “Yo, who is that tall-ass nigga in the suit who went up in there?” Terry asked first.

  “Yeah. Is y’all related or something because y’all look just alike,” Kenny said.

  “And we was about to come up in there when we heard all that yelling,” Mike said. “Everything straight?”

  “Yeah it’s cool,” I said. “My dad is handling it.”

  “Your dad?” Kenny said, making a face like he had eaten something nasty.

  “Yeah, my dad,” I said becoming irritated. “That tall-ass nigga in the suit is my damn daddy,” I said before walking away, leaving the three of them there with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

  Chapter XXXIII- D.J.

  “I can’t fucking believe you,” I said to my dad as we now stood face-to-face.

  “You know not to you use that language with me, young man,” he said as he took a threatening step closer to me. “I am still your father.”

  “Yeah, and you’re a liar too,” I told him even though my voice had lost some of its boldness. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t like how this conversation was going one bit, but I didn’t care. I loved my father more than anything in the world, and to know that I had endured five years of pain, suffering, and abandonment all because of his lies was cutting me deep. I had been through so much just in the past few days, and now to be facing my father who I thought was dead was about to push me over the edge.

  “I know you’re upset, and hurt, and downright mad. And you have every right to be,” he told me as he placed his hand on my shoulders. “But I need you to pull yourself together, son. I can’t afford to have you unravel. Not now. There’s too much at stake and I need you to be level-headed so that we can get through this.”

  “Mom told me why you left and went into hiding,” I said, abruptly changing the subject. “She tried to explain to me why you lied to all of us and allowed us to think that you were dead, but I want to hear it from you.”

  He sighed as he let his hands drop to his sides. I was hoping that he would realize that I wasn’t a little boy anymore. I was now a man and I could handle the truth. It was his lies that had torn our family apart and I didn’t know how he didn’t expect us all to resent him for that. But no matter how mad I was, I would never stop loving my father. He used to be my best friend which is why him choosing Darius over me to run the company was something that I would probably never forgive. This man had betrayed me in more ways than one, and now he was back but I didn’t understand why.

  “I had no other choice. They would have killed me and the family,” he explained weakly. “And they still want to kill me. They want to kill you and Darius too. They won’t stop until me and everyone connected to me is dead. That is why you and your brother need to stick together. Squash this beef that’s between you two so that we can stand united.”

  “No,” I said defiantly. “I will never call him my brother. He’s nothing more than your bastard son and you’re allowing him to ruin everything. He’s taken everything from me, things that he doesn’t even deserve. He’s not like us, dad. He’s nothing but a thug. He doesn’t deserve this life.”

  “He’s my son,” my dad spoke. “And whether you like it or not, that makes him just as much apart of me as you are. And that also makes him your brother. You have the same blood running through your veins that he does. He didn’t have the opportunity to grow up like you did. Things were hard for them. I tried to help him and his mother… but I didn’t try hard enough. At the end of the day I owe him all that I have, and that’s what he deserves.”

  “Well, don’t expect me to cry a damn river for him,” I spat. “If his mother hadn’t been such a whore then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

  Having heard enough of my ranting, my father jacked me up and threw me back into the chair that I had been sitting in previously. The momentum of my body caused the chair to roll backwards until it stopped in the middle of the floor half way between the table and the windows. My father came over, grabbed the arms of the chair and then got right up in my face.

  “Don’t you ever talk about that woman in that way ever again,” he told me, his voice low and intense. “If you do, I swear to god that I will hurt you.”

  “What?” I said appalled. Him running to Darius’s mother’s defense so aggressively could only mean one thing. “Dad, I know that you don’t still love that woman,” I said. “Have you been in love with her all along? Did you love her more than my mother?”

  He thought about my questions for a second and then stood up straight. “That’s neither here nor there, nor is it any of your concern.”

  I shook my head, even more disappointed now than I had been when I first walked into the room. How had my life fallen apart like this?

  “You are so caught up in your emotions that you’re not thinking rationally, son.” He was now leaning up against the table and it seemed as if I was exhausting him. “You don’t even realize how badly you need Darius. But mark my words, the day will come when he will have to save your life, especially if you don’t start making better decisions. Now give me your phone,” he told me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my iPhone, unlocked it, and tossed it to him. He played around with it for a bit and then tossed it back to me.

  “I put my number in there so that you can call me when you’re ready to have a sensible conversation,” he said. “In the meantime, I want you to go back to your condo and lay low until I let you know what our next move is going to be. Francisco and Conrad are already in Atlanta so it’s not safe for any of us. But lucky for you, they think that you’re dead.”

  He redirected his gaze to my abdomen. It was then that I was reminded of the physical pain that I was in. I needed to see a doctor so that I could insure that my stab wound was healing properly and to get a prescription for a pain killer.

  “Are you okay?” my dad asked me. I was already aware of the fact that he knew all about my activities in Miami. Seeing the concern that was on his face actually made me glad to see him for the first time that day.

  “I’m fine, dad. I’m gonna be okay,” I said, trying to sound strong. He nodded his head proudly and that was all the affirmation that I needed.

  He stood and waited for me to do the same. When I did, we embraced tightly again.

  “I love you, son. Go home and get well.”

  ********

  A couple of hours later I left the office and went to see Dr. Ja
cobs. I had to wait about an hour to see him since he was with other patients, but he took me as soon as he got a chance. He had been our family doctor ever since I was a little boy so he always made us a priority no matter what time of day or night.

  He changed my dressings and checked to make sure that my stitches were healing properly. He didn’t ask any questions and I was grateful for that. Dr. Jacobs had always been cool that way. He just did his job and didn’t get involved in personal matters. He wrote my prescription and then advised me to rest as much as possible so that I could have a speedy recovery. What Dr. Jacobs didn’t know was that it was going to be hard for me to rest, especially now. There was so much shit going on and even more shit that I had to do.

  On my way home I stopped by a liquor store and got enough liquor and wine to keep me drunk for days. Once I was in the car, I opened a bottle of Jack Daniels and took a big gulp. All I wanted to do for the rest of the night was wallow in my pain and drink the whole 40 ounces of Jack Daniels before falling asleep.

  By the time I stuck my key in the door of my condo, my Jack Daniels was already half finished. I opened the door and went into the kitchen to put away the rest of the liquor, storing it in the freezer. Just as I walked out of the kitchen I heard laughter coming from my bedroom. I headed in that direction and the closer I got I could hear music. I was about to pull my gun until I heard the high-pitched moans of a female. Those moans sounded all too familiar.

  When I opened the door I found Allen in bed with Marissa and Mandy. The three of them were in the bed fucking each other as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They obviously didn’t give a damn that they were in my house and none of them had permission to be there. I watched as the twins allowed Allen to do some nasty things to them, and they even did a few nasty things to each other. They were so busy having a good time that they didn’t even notice me standing at the door.

  I at least allowed Allen to finish before I decided to react. He was still kneeling on the bed and by the time he turned around, I had already thrown my bottle of Jack Daniels toward his head.

  “Oh shit!” he yelped as he ducked and allowed the bottle to shatter against the headboard. “What the fuck is going on?!” Marissa screeched as she rolled off of her sister. All three of them were now looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces. They actually seemed to be more upset that I had ruined their fuck session.

  “D.J.? What are you doing here?” Mandy asked.

  “I live here, bitch! What the fuck are y’all doing here?!”

  “Uh…” Allen began to stutter as the three of them climbed out of the bed and began searching for their clothes.

  “How the hell did you get in my house?” I asked him.

  “I found your spare key and let myself in,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I waited here for you since we got that business thing to take care of. Then these two hoes showed up and I let them in.”

  “Hoes!?” Mandy shot back.

  “We are not hoes,” Marissa added.

  “Come on, baby, you know I didn’t mean it like that,” Allen said, obviously humored.

  “Whatever. Let’s get out of here,” Mandy told her sister.

  “We will right after we take a shower,” Marissa stated. They gathered their clothes and went into the bathroom.

  I looked at Allen who was zipping up his pants and said, “You can get your shit and get out too!”

  “Get out!” he said as he followed me out of the room. I was heading for the surveillance room and he was right on my heels. Once I was inside I flipped the switch on my power strip and all of my equipment came to life.

  “How you gon’ kick me out when you know we got business to handle,” Allen said. “You gon’ get all bent outta shape about them bitches. Don’t start acting like a punk, man.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” I told him. “I’m not in the mood.”

  “Get your panties out yo’ ass an get yo’ game face on because we got a problem,” he said.

  “What now?” I said as I sat down in a chair.

  “Well, I’ll give you the good news first,” he said as he sat in another chair. “I was able to destroy all of the evidence that they had at the police department. But while I was there stealing it, Leah was there and she saw me. I think that bitch is gonna be a problem.”

  “I thought you had that under control,” I said.

  “I do, but she put a restraining order against me so I can’t get to her as easily as I used to. So if she starts running her damn mouth, there’s no way that I can get to her in enough time to shut her up and do some damage control.”

  I sighed because I knew that we still weren’t in the clear with this murder case. Leah’s hatred for Allen could very well push her to tell the police everything. Besides, Leah really wasn’t cut out for this life. Keeping secrets of this magnitude wasn’t in her and I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t tell on us sooner rather than later. I thought about possibly talking to her myself, but I knew that would do no good. At this point I was sure that Leah didn’t trust me any more than she trusted Allen.

  “And that ain’t all,” Allen continued. “I went ahead and set a plan in place to have that cop handled. I hired somebody to do the hit but it fell through. Let’s just say that things didn’t go as planned.”

  “How the hell did that happen?” I asked even though the subject of killing a cop still made me feel uncomfortable.

  “I don’t know, but a failed hit on a cop are grounds for termination in my book, if you know what I mean,” he said with a cold stare. “Anyway, I got another guy who said he can do it for cheap, but this isn’t something that I really want to leave up to anyone else. That cop knows that somebody is trying to kill him now, and we can’t afford to let him live much longer.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that we do the hit ourselves. That’s the only way that we can assure that it gets done the right way.”

  “Killing a cop ain’t my style,” I said.

  “Well you better make it your style unless you want to be spending life in prison.”

  Just then we heard movement over by the door. We both jumped to our feet. We had stupidly left the door open and now Marissa and Mandy were standing there watching us. Allen and I looked at each other nervously. We could tell by the expressions on the twins’ faces that we were busted.

  “What the hell are you two doing?” I asked them.

  “We were just coming to let you know that we were leaving,” Mandy replied innocently, but Allen and I both knew that they were both far from innocent and knowing Allen, he’d want to kill them to keep them from talking.

  “How much did you hear?” he asked them.

  “Enough,” Marissa said, shrugging nonchalantly. “Enough to know that we can help you with your little plan.”

  Chapter XXXIV- Darius

  For the past few days I had been under more pressure and stress than I had ever experienced in my life. My mansion had turned into a madhouse, and that description was fitting since everyone living there seemed to be mad at me. Thank God for Phillip and Martha being there to mediate all of the bullshit because I was sick and tired of all of them.

  My mother was still giving me a hard time about Natalie leaving and she still wasn’t buying my story about there being nothing going on between me and Janelle. I had only talked to Janelle once since having her sent to the hotel. Sure we had sex in Miami, but that was none of my mother’s business. I also hadn’t told her about my father and I told my boys not to tell her either. At the right time I was going to let her in on the secret, but now was not that time.

  My boys were working my nerves too. It seemed like we just couldn’t get along ever since I kicked Derek out. Every night we would end up in heated arguments. Me and Terry had almost come to blows, but Mike was standing between us to keep that from happening. My life was nothing but chaos and I didn’t know what to do. This was not the type of shit that I needed to hav
e going on when I was in the midst of a war. It seemed as if all of my soldiers had forsaken me and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel vulnerable.

  For me, forgiving Derek was out of the question, but I did miss Natalie a lot. A piece of my heart walked out of that door when she did and I felt incomplete without her. We had hurt each other, but I couldn’t blame her for our issues. I was running around fighting for everything else when I should’ve been fighting for our love. I still cared about her deeply, but I was afraid. I was afraid that she didn’t love me anymore and that she wouldn’t be willing to forgive me for cheating on her. I was a flawed man with many issues, but I couldn’t help how I felt about Natalie. I wanted her back but I didn’t even know where to start.

  I was sitting in the study that was attached to my bedroom with Terry and Mike. Mike was reading a book while sitting in a chair. Terry was laying across the sofa with his Beats headphones on his ears while he listened to music. I sat behind the desk trying to focus on some paperwork that I brought home from the office. Kenny had been out running an errand when he texted us all 911 and told us to meet him here at 10:30. It was now 10:40 and that nigga still hadn’t showed up.

  Finally, the door opened and he came in.

  “Bad news, boss,” he said as Mike put his book away and Terry took his headphones off while sitting up. I sat up straighter in my chair as I prepared for what he was about to say. I knew that he had been out in the streets which was kinda his thing. One of the reasons that I kept Kenny around was because I knew that he always knew what was going on in the streets and every now and then that could prove to be very valuable.

  “What is it, bruh? You look like you seen a ghost,” Terry noted as we all stared at Kenny.

  “KaRon is back,” he blurted out. Mike and I rose to our feet.

  Terry sucked his teeth and said, “Man you crazy. Mike and D killed that nigga.”