Giovanni

by Dominique Butler

  “Can I borrow your car keys?" I ask. He pulls them out of his pocket.

  “Where are you going?" he asks.

  “Taking Angel out to buy Tisha something," I tell him, snatching the keys out his hand.

  “Be back by one," he said.

  We walk to the garage but stop when we hear my dad talking. “We need for you to keep her away from Ricci," he said.

  “I'm trying. Your daughter is not interested in me, and her old friend from high school told her something about me," said that other voice.

  “So what your telling me is that the one job you’re supposed to be doing, you can't do, and your gonna let all this money slip through your fingers," dad said. I look out the window.

  "I'm not letting this shit slip through my fingers. I'll just try a little harder, that's all," Devin said.

  “You only have one more day," dad says.

  “Come on, Angel," I say out loud before opening the door. "Hey," I said to them, walking to Chris's car.

  "Where are you going, sweetie," dad asked.

  “Just taking Angel to get Tisha something from the store, " I tell him hopping in the car.

  "Which way are you headed? Maybe Devin could get a ride," dad said. I look over at Angel to see him making a face.

  “I just need Camille's opinion on something. It shouldn't take that long," Angel said.

  “I'll see you at one," I say, pulling out the garage.

  “What's with your family and Devin?” Angel asks.

  “From what I gathered, we use to go to school together. They're using him to pay off the debt they owe Gio to lead me along, but he also wants us to be together in a romantic way," I tell him.

  Angel sucks his teeth. “Well, he's gonna have a hard time with that since Gio wants you, and he doesn't like to share," Angel said. A phone rings; he pulls it out of his pants pocket, looks at it, and then answers right away. “Boss," he said, pause for a minute. "She's right here," Angel said he put his phone on speaker.

  "Camille, who's was the man that you were dancing with last night," Gio asks angrily that his accent comes out.

  "What?" I say, all confused.

  "I was sent a video of you and some man dancing in the bar. Who is he?" Gio demands.

  If he wasn't so mad about Devin being on me, that accent would have me in a pool of water.

  "Devin," I tell him.

  “Why was he on you?" Gio asks.

  "I don't know. I was dancing with Tisha when he started dancing with me. I pushed him off, and we left. Who sent you a video?" I ask.

  “Some private number," Gio said. They stay plotting, I thought as we pull up to my lawyer's office.

  "We're gonna call you back," I tell him before hanging up.

  " What are we doing here," Angel asked.

  " Talking to my lawyer down here before we leave," I tell him. We walk into the office, going to the reception desk.

  " How can I help you?" asked the older lady at the desk.

  "I would like to speak to Brian Young," I say.

  " Let me call him," she said, picking up the office phone.

  " Mr. Young, you have someone wanting to see you," she said to him. "What's your name, sweetie?" she asks.

  "Camille Smith," I tell her. She tells him my name.

  “He'll see you last door down the hall, " she said.

  “Thank you," I tell her before walking away from the desk.

  "Why am I here?" Angel asks while we walk down the hall.

  “Besides using you to help get me out of the house, I need you and Tisha to watch my back since we're about to have this meeting today," I tell him before knocking on the door.

  “Come in," Brian said. Brian is a young dark-skinned man with waves that spin 360 every day and always in the best. If he didn't know my family, we could have been more.

  “Miss. Smith, how are you?" Brian said, giving me a hug.

  " Good, how about you?" I said.

  "Good. Business is doing good," he said.

  " That's good to hear," I said.

  " Angel, this is Brian, my lawyer, and friend," I said. They shake hands, and we take a seat in front of his desk.

  "I thought you were done with the A," Brian said.

  "Just came for my final family reunion, but I need you to take care of my loose ends," I tell him.

  Brian looks at me. “You know I'm a lawyer right, not the mob," he said. I start laughing.

  "I know. I just need for you to take all my investments that are with the family and close them," I tell him. He looks at me.

  "I know you and your family are not on good terms, but you sure that you want to take away from all the investments?" he asks.

  "Yes, I'm sure. Then I want you to take my portion from the joint bank account out and make my own private account," I tell him.

  "If that's what you want Camille, then consider it done. It will take me a week or so to get everything done," he said.

  "Thank you. Just call me when you’re done," I said, getting out of the chair.

  "Don't be a stranger," Brain said, walking us to the door.

  "I won't," I tell him. We walk out the front door.

  "I see you are making money moves around here," Angel said. I just laugh at him. "Where to next boss?" he asks. We get in the car. I look out the rearview mirror to see the white boy across the street on his phone.

  “Insurance policy and then pick up something from the store," I tell him backing out of the parking lot.

  We drive ten minutes to Johnson and Davidson's insurance company. We park in front of the building.

  "You need me to do anything?" Angel asks while we get out of the car.

  "No, just listen," I tell him. Walking into the building seeing Mrs. Pam at the desk, I walk to the desk. “Hey, Mrs. Pam," I say.

  "Hey, honey. How are you?" she asks.

  “Doing good. What about you and Mr. Kevin?" I ask.

  " Good, we're going on vacation next week," she said.

  " I see you, Mrs. Pam," I say, and we laugh.

  “What can I help you with, dear?" she asked.

  "I want to see Mr. Brown," I tell her.

  "Take a seat I'll call him," she said.

  We sit down, and I look at the time on my phone, seeing that we still got over an hour before I need to be back.

  "Camille," Mrs. Pam from the front desk calls my name.

  "Yes," I said, looking up from my phone.

  “Mr. Brown is in room 12," she said.

  "Thank you," I tell her getting out of the chair. We walk past the desk heading two doors down to the conference room. We walk into the room, seeing Mr. Brown sitting at the table with a folder.

  "Miss. Smith nice seeing you again, " he said, getting out of his chair, shaking my hand.

  “Nice to see you too, Mr. Brown. How's the family?" I ask him sitting down. He closes the door then sits back down.

  “Good. So what can I help you with?" he asks.

  "I have noticed that my grandma has put us on another policy," I tell him. He looks through the folder.

  "Yes, she took it out about a year ago," Mr. Brown said, pulling it out. Always plotting, I thought.

  "Explain how it works," I ask him.

  "It's this new thing that we're trying to do by keeping business from going bankrupt. If the business has been running for over a five to ten year period of time with a close to steady cash flow every year., We can have a percentage of their money moved to a savings plan. It's used when the economy is bad to have some kind of cushion. Mrs. Gloria got the biggest policy that she can take out on all the business," he said.

  “The policy just gives us enough wiggle room," I tell him.

  “Yes, she'll be able to distribute the money to which business needs it the most," he says.

  “That's good," I say, nodding my head. "Thanks for clearing this up for me," I say, getting up from the table.

  “Anytime," he said, shaking my hand before we left.

  I look at my phon
e. “We have a half-hour to get home," I tell him, walking out of the building. We walk across the street to the shopping center.

  "What are we getting?" Angel asks.

  “Nothing in particular. Just grab something to take home to Tisha," I tell him, going in Family Dollar. My phone rings I pull it out to see Tisha calling. "Yes," I answer.

  " What's up with your family?" she asks.

  " What happened?" I asked, picking up chips and candy.

  "First Tammy asks me what store did y'all go to then trying to question me on what y'all supposed to be getting me," she said.

  “What you tell her?" I ask.

  " Tampons and candy," she says, and I start laughing.

  " Good one, we're at Family Dollar right now. Want something?" I ask.

  “Chips and some pop," she said.

  "Got you. we should be there in ten or fifteen," I tell her, hanging up the phone.

  I turn to see that Angel had grabbed like five different bags of chips. “We need tampons," I tell him. He scrunches up his face. "Don't do that before your face gets stuck," I tell him, walking to the female hygiene aisle. After grabbing some pop, we get in line with Angel paying for everything. We drive back to the house parking on the curb, each grabbing bags. We walk to the porch to see Chris and Devin sitting down.

  "What took y'all so long?" Chris asks.

  “Made a couple stops," I said, throwing him his keys. We walk in the door seeing everyone in the living room. We walk upstairs, going straight to drop everything off in Angel's room. He opens the door to Tisha, lying down on the bed. We drop the bags on the floor then sit down on the bed. Angel's phone rings. He answers it.

  “Boss," he says, pause for a minute, "she’s right here," he said, handing me the phone.

  " Hey," I said into the phone.

  " It's good to hear your voice," Gio said. I laugh a little, looking up to see Angel and Tisha staring at me. "When are you coming back?" he asks.

  "I'm thinking about getting on a plane tonight," I told him.

  "Why are you leaving this early?" he asks.

  " I'll tell you later," I said.

  " Give Angel the phone," he said.

  " Here you go," I said, giving it back to Angel.

  He starts speaking in Italian, and someone knocks on the door. Tisha puts the bag down. She walks to the door opening it to see Tammy.

  “There you are, Mille. The meeting is in five minutes," she said.

  “I'll be there shortly," I tell her.

  "Okay, Hunny," Tammy said, leaving the room with Tisha closing the door after her.

  "She's acting very weird," Tisha said. I shake my head, taking in the last few minutes of quiet before I leave.

  “I'll see you in a few," I tell Tisha, getting off the bed.

  "Don't kill anyone," she tells me, laughing.

  "Gonna try," I tell her, opening the door.

  I walk down the hall seeing Brandi." B," I call. She turns to me. "What's wrong," I ask her.

  "Nothing. Keisha is just getting on my nerves," she said.

  "I'll deal with it," I tell her walking down the steps.

  I walk through the living room to grandma G's office. I walk into the office to see that it’s Staci, dad, Angelique, grandma G, and me.

  "Good, you're all here," grandma G said, sitting behind the desk. I take a seat in the back next to Angelique. "For this meeting, we have a couple of things to discuss. Rico will talk us through them," grandma G said.

  Dad stands next to grandma. "For starters, most of the business has plummeted in sales in the last six months, which will be covered by the insurance policy that mom and I have in place," dad said.

  "What do you mean?" I ask.

  "The added insurance will help us back to where we were, but what's really needed is the debt to Ricci to be paid off," dad said. I look around to see eyes on me. "We have come up with three different ways that can happen," he says.

  I raise my eyebrows to hear this because the only way for Gio to let the debt go is if I'm involved.

  “So the first would be for Camille to take the money out of the joint bank account, " dad said. I didn't say anything. Dad looks at me. "The second would be for Camille to get married to Ricci, and the third would be to get romantically involved with Devin to pay the debt," he said fast.

  The room fell silent.

  “So you want her to use her money to pay off a debt that doesn't belong to her or marry a mafia leader or a rich asshole," Angelique said, getting mad. No one said anything.

  "Angie, we just need some help. She has a choice not to help," grandma G said.

  "What choice? To be broke or married to a man she doesn't know, to help a family that doesn't want anything to do with her," she said, and the room fell silent again. I get up from my chair, hugging Angelique.

  "I'll talk to you later," I say, leaving the office.

  I walk into the living room seeing Keisha in Brandi's face. "You need to stop eating for you gain even more weight," Keisha said. Brandi says nothing, and I walk over to them.

  "Is there a problem," I asked, standing in front of Brandi.

  "Just trying to help B out," she said.

  "She doesn't need your help, but Keisha, who needs help, is the lining of your walls," I tell her. Everyone starts laughing, and Keisha got so mad she raises her fist to me.

  "You know what happened last time, so put your hand down," I tell her. She puts her hand down to her side, and starts mean mugging me.

  "That's why they’re giving you away like the orphan you are," she said. I just laugh at her.

  "Keisha, no one's giving me a way to no one, but if Brandi ever tells me that you're looking at her a little too hard, I'm beat the shit out of you," I tell her.

  I walk upstairs, knocking on Tisha's door; she opens it instantly. I walk in, taking a seat on the bed.

  "Do you really want to go?" Angel asks.

  " Yes. What time is the flight?" I ask.

  " I can get one in two hours or tonight at eight," he said.

  “Get the one in two hours. I'm getting my stuff now," I tell him, leaving the room. I go into the room. I'm temporarily occupying grabbing all my stuff put them in my bags when someone knocks on the door. I open it to see Chris. " Yes," I say.

  "Walk and talk with me," he says.

  " Yeah, make it quick," I tell him. We walk out the back of the house, not saying a word.

  "Mille, I know you're mad about the way things are going with the family, but we just really need your help," Chris said.

  I didn't say anything for a few minutes as we keep walking past the basketball court.

  "Chris, I love you dearly, but the problem that this family has is what I just said; it’s the family’s problem, not yours or mines. Theirs," I tell him.

  "Camille, can you just help us out this once?" he asks.

  "Chris, you must not know what my options are," I tell him. We stop at the top of the hill before we get to the pond.

  "Yes, you either marry Devin or Ricci. You can also give some of your money that's in the joint account," he said. I look at how little space is between us.

  "So you want me to marry a man that I don't know or give away the money that my mom used to make what we have today," I ask him.

  "What I want you to do is to do what is needed for the family," Chris yells.

  I take a step back, looking at him. "I don't know who you think your fucking yelling at, but you lost your mind," I tell him.

  I start walking back to the house. When my arm was being grabbed as well as the back of my shirt. I was being picked up thrown down the hill.

  Chapter 19

  Giovanni POV

  "Mr. Ricci, for the time being, I'll be your CO," Amy said, sitting across from me at my desk, wearing a short skirt, white dress shirt, and blazer.

  “I couldn’t get anyone else," I ask, looking at her.

  " No one else wanted to take the case being that your name is tied to certain things," Amy said, biting
the end of her pen.

  " Get on with it. I have a meeting in twenty minutes," I tell her clearing my desk off.

  "Every Monday and Friday, we'll meet at 9:30 here or in my office for the next six months," she said then paused for a second. "Mainly, I'm just here to make sure that you stay out of trouble," she said when a phone starts ringing.

  " You gonna answer that," I ask, tapping my fingers on the desk.

  " It can wait if you need to leave the state I'll need to approve it," she said.

  " I'll send my assistant over to you for the meetings that I have coming up," I tell her.

  " It looks that is all for today. I'll see you on Monday," Amy said, getting out the chair turning around, so her ass is facing me. She bends over, picking up her purse off the floor, showing me her ass before leaving the office.

  I turn my computer on going through emails and looking for any new companies that I can invest in.

  " Mr. Ricci, your meeting with Donavon, is in conference room five," Lorrie said.

  " Okay," I say, turning the computer off. I walk out the door going to Lorrie's desk, picking up the files needed for the meeting. I walk down the hall.

  " Gio," Danny said, coming out of the office walking to me.

  " Angel needs to talk to you," he said, handing me his phone.

  " Angel," I said.

  "We'll be getting on the two o'clock flight. We should be there by five," he said.

  " Okay, I'll have Danny come get you," I tell him.

  " Okay," he said. I gave the phone back to Danny, I continue walking to the conference room.

  " Donavon, how has it been?" I asked, walking into the room, shaking his hand. I nod at his assistant Brittney.

  "Good, the wife wants another kid trying to drain my pockets," he said.

  " The problems of a married man," I said, sitting down across from him.

  " I heard you have some black beauty on your arm these days, " he says.

  " She is beautiful. Who told you this?" I ask. Donovan just shrugs his shoulder.

  " Just the word around," he said.

  " Let's get to business," I say, dismissing the conversation.

  " You want to hold 25% of my shares on my construction company," he said.

  " Yes," I tell him.

  " With you being a silent partner, you'll need to give us $250,000. Your investment will be three times that after the first year," Donovan said. Does this man must take me for a fool, I thought.