Pawns & Kings

by D D Bridges

  Chapter XXXI- Natalie

  The ride back to my townhouse was a long and quiet one. I was glad that Mike was the one who was driving me back because I knew that he wouldn’t make me talk about what happened. My confrontation with Darius was all that I could think about as I fought back the tears that threatened to expose themselves. I wished that things didn’t have to be this way, but he had left me no other choice. I was going to miss him, but honestly I could do without all of the drama.

  I was going to have to live with the fact that Darius and I just weren’t meant to be. A part of me thought that if I had only been stronger and been willing to stand by him and help him become the man that he can be, then we could have had something special. But how much is a woman supposed to take before enough is enough? I was still young and I needed to worry about my own life instead of being wrapped up in someone else’s. At least that’s what I was trying to tell my broken heart.

  “Turn left,” I told Mike as we turned into my neighborhood. We eased slowly down the street and I pointed out which house was mine. He pulled into the driveway and put the Denali in park.

  “I’m sorry that things had to be this way,” he told me. “I hope that you will someday stop being mad at me for telling him.”

  “I’m not mad you, Mike,” I told him. “This isn’t your fault. Me and Darius just weren’t meant to be.”

  We both got out of the SUV and Mike helped me grab the suitcase and duffle bag that I had.

  “Thanks,” I said as he handed me the suitcase. “Listen, once everything blows over I know that Darius might try to get me back. And if he does, I need you to talk him out of it.”

  “Why?” he asked. “I thought you loved him.”

  “I do,” I said. “But this will never work. And I don’t have any more time to waste with the wrong man. So don’t let him come here or try to find me.”

  Without saying anything else, I walked up to my front porch. I fished my keys out of my purse and then unlocked the door. I drug the suitcase and duffle inside and then closed the door behind me. I instantly felt a sense of comfort being in my own house again. I hadn’t been here in almost a month and I was looking forward to showering in my own shower and sleeping in my own bed.

  I left all of my things in the living room and began moving throughout the house. As I got near the kitchen I noticed a strange odor. It smelled like spoiled milk. I opened the refrigerator and saw my now lumpy half-gallon of milk. I took the milk out and threw it into the trash can. After spraying Febreeze throughout the house, I headed for my bathroom. Just then, there was a knock at the door. I stopped, turned around and looked at the door. I wondered who that could be. The knock came through again, but this time it was more forceful.

  I took small, steady steps toward the door. I waited a few seconds to see if the person was going to knock again, but they didn’t.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “It’s me, baby.”

  I frowned at the familiar deep voice. I thought that my mind was playing tricks on me because there was no way that the person on the other side of the door was who I thought he was.

  I opened the door and was instantly greeted with his handsome, yet sinister smile.

  “Did you miss me? Because I missed you,” he said.

  “KaRon… What are you doing here?”

  Chapter XXXII- Darius

  It was Monday morning and I was sitting in my office waiting for my father to arrive. When we landed in Atlanta on Saturday, he left the private airport and headed to Savannah to take care of some business. I didn’t know what business he had in Savannah, but I sure was curious. He wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked him. He avoided the question by telling me that I had more important things to worry about. We talked about a lot of things while we were on the plane, mostly about his plan. He seemed to be so sure of himself, which baffled me. How could somebody who’s been off the grid for five years think that he can come back and do the damage that he was talking about doing?

  There was still a lot of things that I didn’t understand. Even after my father had explained it to me over and over, I still was confused. It sounded like my father had plans to try and take down The Syndicate. If that organization had as much power as he made it sound, then taking them down was going to be virtually impossible. But my father said that was the only way that he would be able to live the way he wanted to in this world. And because I was his son, I had no other choice than to get on board with his plan.

  Today he was supposed to be making a surprise visit to the office so that he could meet with Walter, Jeff, Jai and I. I hadn’t told anybody about my father yet, not even my boys. I would have told my mom but she had been upset with me ever since I let Natalie leave the mansion. My mother grilled me about how stupid I was for bringing another woman home. She even had the nerve to give me an ultimatum, telling me that if I didn’t get Natalie to move back in then she was going to move out of the mansion. When I asked her where she was going to go she said that she was going to move in with her new man, Detective Willis. I exploded.

  “Your new man!?” I asked, shouting at her. “Ma’, I can’t believe you’ve been fucking that nigga in my house while I was gone!”

  “You watch your mouth!” she said, looking like she wanted to slap the black off of me. “I am still your mother, which means that what I do and where I do it is none of your business.”

  “Oh really,” I said, folding my arms. “This is my house, and I don’t want that nigga in here.”

  “Well I don’t want her in here,” my mom said, nodding her head in the direction of the door. I looked over and saw that Janelle was there watching us. I had forgotten that she was in the nook having coffee. She looked like she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so I told Kenny to take her to the Ritz-Carlton.

  Janelle knew that she wouldn’t be received with open arms, but she handled it well. She told me that she understood why everyone was treating her the way that they were, but she still only had one goal and that was to get away from Francisco. She didn’t know what she was going to do yet but I told her that it was in her best interest to just lay low until we figured something out. The truth was that I wanted to keep her close because I knew that keeping her in my possession meant that I had Francisco by the balls and could put him in a vulnerable position if I needed to.

  I knew that continuing to use Janelle wasn’t right, but I didn’t have any other choice. I had already played all my cards against Francisco, but nothing worked. Janelle didn’t know anyone else in the States so she had no choice but to trust me. And in due time she was going to be very, very valuable.

  Jeff knocked on my door and then came into my office. I was in there alone since my boys were waiting out in the hallway. Because of how things went down with Derek, they were still mad at me too. I stood and came around my desk as Jeff entered. We slapped hands then embraced briefly.

  “It’s good to see you, boss.”

  “Good to see you too,” I replied.

  “I been trying to hit you up for the past couple of days,” he said, obviously concerned. “What the hell has been going on?”

  “Some bullshit, that’s what,” I told him with disgust in my voice.

  “Walter said something about a meeting with a very important person. You got any idea who that could be?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t tell you,” I said. “You’ll find out in a few minutes.” Just then my phone rang.

  “Yes,” I said after I answered it. It was Walter.

  “He’s on his way up now,” he told me. “Jai and I are already in the conference room.”

  “Okay, Jeff and I are on our way.” I hung up the phone and we headed for the conference room. My boys followed closely behind, but once again they waited in the hallway.

  We all sat down around the large table and I left the seat at the head of the table open for my father. A few minutes later I heard the door open and close. I stood and turned around to see him. He w
as clad in a tailored suit and looked slightly different since he had cut his hair to a low fade and had trimmed his beard to just a 5 o’clock shadow. He had a guy with him. Dude was huge, at least 6’6”, 300 pounds, and he was wearing all black and had an earpiece in his ear.

  My father walked up to me and shook my hand, showing me respect. I looked around at everyone else and they all looked shocked at what they were seeing, everyone except Walter since he had known that my father was alive along. Jai, who was sitting on the other side of the table beside Walter, looked like he had just seen a ghost. Jeff was sitting beside me and he looked shocked and confused, but then a broad smile came across his face. They all stood as my father dropped his suitcase beside the chair at the head of the table.

  He took a moment and looked at each one of us before saying, “Gentlemen, I know that you are surprised to see me, but I just want to say that it’s good to be back.”

  With that, we all took our seats and prepared to hear what he had to say. He began pulling out his MacBook from his suitcase and setting it up.

  “For what it’s worth, it’s good to see you again, Daniel,” Jeff said.

  My father smiled and said, “Likewise, Jeff. It’s good to see all of you again too. And the icing on the cake is that I get to sit here with my son by my side. And I want to thank all of you for taking care of him.”

  “Daniel, I don’t want to make it seem like I’m not glad to see you, because I am,” Jai said. “But… how are you here?”

  My father laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Jai. It will all make sense soon.”

  Just then, I heard the door open again. I turned around and saw the last person that I wanted to see. D.J. walked into the room and immediately his eyes went straight to our father. He seemed as if any doubt that he had before walking into the room had went away in an instant. But he didn’t look happy to see him. He looked angry and hurt.

  My father stood and they stared each other down for a few moments before D.J. began walking toward him. I noticed that he was limping a little, but I didn’t give a damn if something was wrong with him. Even dressed in a simple button down and a pair of denim jeans, he still looked like his normal polished, clean-cut, over-privileged self. But he was lacking the vigor and swag that he normally had. He looked disheartened and downright tired, and now that he was here I didn’t know what to expect.

  The two of them embraced for a long moment before releasing each other.

  “It is so good to see you, son,” my father said sincerely as he held D.J. at arm’s length. D.J. didn’t say anything. He took a step back and then looked at me before walking around our father. Walter stood and let D.J. have his seat which allowed him to be sitting right across from me. We glared at each other from across the table. It seemed that our father’s presence had taken our animosity toward each other to a whole ‘nother level. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to beat his ass, and I’m sure that he wanted to do the same to me. But what we really wanted was answers and to know where we were going from here.

  Once Walter had assumed the seat on the other side of Jai, my father cleared his throat and said, “Now that we’re all here we can get started. First things first. I want us to all be clear on one thing,” he said. “Darius is still the CEO of this company. That hasn’t changed now that I’m back.”

  D.J. cut his fiery eyes at our father before refocusing them on me. I couldn’t help but smirk. To have our father verbally reaffirm my position in the company right in D.J.’s face was a sweet piece of revenge. D.J. already hated me, but now he utterly despised me, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him or had any remorse.

  “For the past five years, I have been working behind the scenes making sure that the company ran as smoothly as possible. But I’ve also been searching out our enemies,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “The bottom line is that Francisco is our number one enemy and he has The Syndicate on his side.”

  “He has people working for him all over the world,” Walter added. “That’s why no one has taken him down yet.”

  “So what do we do?” Jeff asked. “If we go at him then we gotta get in the ring with the entire Syndicate. How can we stand against them?”

  “Confidence is key, my friend,” my father said. “Once word gets out that I’m back from the dead, I expect The Syndicate to lend all of their resources in order to bring me down once and for all.”

  “Do you think the members of the organization will come at you, or will they continue to let Francisco do their dirty work?” Jai said.

  “Most of those guy will want to continue to keep their hands clean, so they’ll keep letting Francisco do the dirty work,” Walter said. “Besides, no one has heard from or seen the key members of the Syndicate ever since Daniel went into hiding.”

  “Yeah. It’s no secret that they considered me to be their biggest threat,” my father said. “With me out of the picture, they probably expected Darius to fail and my company to crumble. But thanks to Walter and Marcia holding things down, my empire has grown by leaps and bounds. It’s no surprise that The Syndicate has reared its ugly head again and that they tried to come after my son. They probably figured that the only way to completely destroy me is to diminish my legacy.”

  “So, how do we get to them? Do we even know where they are?” Jeff asked. “I hope we all realize that the only solution is to get rid of The Syndicate.”

  “What exactly do you mean by get rid of?” Jai voiced.

  “What do you think I mean?” Jeff said. “Those motherfuckers aren’t going to stop anytime soon.”

  “You’re exactly right,” my father said. “Luckily for us, we already know where three of the five members of The Syndicate are. We haven’t been able to locate two of them yet, but it’s only a matter of time before we do. And those bastards won’t even see me coming. They fucked with the wrong man.”

  I hated to admit it, but I was beginning to like this guy. He had a presence about him that was undeniable and I didn’t understand how anybody could ever think that they could come for him and not be dealt with eventually. He was a boss in every sense of the word. He epitomized authority, and for the first time since meeting him in person I was excited about being on his team.

  Hearing him articulate his plan so confidently made us all smile; everybody except D.J. It was easy to see that the rest of the men were glad that my father was back after all this time, but it was obvious that D.J. still had a score to settle. The scowl on his face was deadly as he glared at me from across the table. I was pretty sure that he hadn’t heard anything that had been said. There was no telling what was on that nigga’s mind. But if he knew what was good for him then he would pay attention, especially if he wanted to survive this war that we were in.

  My father noticed the tension between the two of us, and I guess he decided that he couldn’t ignore it any longer.

  “Let me speak to my sons in private,” my father said while looking at Walter, Jeff and Jai. The three of them stood and headed for the door. As Walter walked by, my father waved him over and then whispered something in his ear. Walter nodded his headed and then left the room. It was cool to see how connected they were even after being apart for five years.

  Now that it was just the three of us, my father closed his Mac and gave us his full attention. I could see the disappointment in his eyes, but even more than that I could see that he was regretful. It was because of the choices that he made that me and D.J. would forever be at odds with one another. But at the same time, the past didn’t matter. D.J. and I were both grown men now. We needed to realize that harboring bitterness about the past wasn’t going to benefit us, and it wasn’t going to help us get out of this predicament that we were in.

  My father sighed as he held his hands in a steeple position, and rested his chin in the crevice between his thumbs and forefingers. The more time that I spent around him the more I realized that he and I were very similar. We had the same dark-chocolate complexion, the same build even t
hough he was taller and more muscular, and some of the same signature mannerisms. It blew my mind that I was exactly like this man even though I had never met him until a few days ago. Our resemblance was obvious, but I wouldn’t admit it out loud no matter how much people tried to tell me that I looked just like him. I wanted it to be clear that I was nothing like him. I would never disappear and lie to my family for years while they were left to fend for themselves. And not only that, but I would never abandon my son.

  “I am very disappointed in both of you.” He spoke calmly, almost as if he was afraid of our reaction. Now that he was alone with us I could see glimpses of his uneasiness and it caused me to shift awkwardly in my chair.

  “I know that things aren’t the way that they’re supposed to be, but I gave you both specific instructions when I went away,” he said.

  “Went away?” D.J. said with disgust, practically cutting him off as he glared at him sharply. “I thought you were dead,” he said choking on the last word as tears of anger and hurt welled up in his eyes. “All this time I thought you were dead.”

  “Son, I know, but…”

  “I don’t want to hear anything that you have to say!” D.J. shouted vehemently as he slammed his fist down on the table, causing it to shake. “Not until you tell me why you left him the company and not me!”

  My father paused while he and D.J. stared at one another. It looked like we weren’t going to be able to beat around the bush and I was relieved that the cat was out of the bag. It looked like me and D.J. were going to get an answer to the one question that neither of us understood.

  “I gave Darius the company because he was born first,” my father said simply. “And I gave him the company because I didn’t feel that you were ready, D.J.”

  “And he was?” D.J. said as a tear rolled down his face. “I’m your son. You raised me and I bare your name. All my life I thought that this company was going to be mine.”