King of Devon

by Naleighna Kai

  Sandy placed her fleshy hands on his, keeping him from trekking across the street. “No, Chief. Let me handle this. And I won’t even need Roscoe.”

  “Who is Roscoe,” he asked, mystified.

  “Let’s just say he’s not the family dog,” she answered.

  Jai didn’t know what she had in mind, but he certainly understood that his new house manager was packing some serious steel. Seemed like most of the “queens’ did as well. Vikkas’ mate, Milan, and Daron’s mate, Cameron were both gunslingers. Jai had to wonder, what was it with Black women and heavy metal. And he didn’t mean the musical kind.

  After the garage floors had dried, Jai placed everything back inside, and Sandy said, “Can you drive me to Home Depot for a hot minute?”

  “Am I going to like what you plan to do?”

  “Trust me,” she said, smiling to put him at ease.

  And he did. His mother practically loved the woman and they talked on a daily basis—as did he, since he wasn’t allowed to set foot in the family home. His father, still angered at his choice of profession, could hold a grudge like no other person Jai knew.

  She purchased a For Sale sign, and he had to fight to pay for it with his own money.

  “Sandy, what are you about to do?” he asked when they stood in the parking lot at the store.

  “You’ll see,” she said with another wide smile.

  That For Sale sign went up in front of his home, though he had no intention of selling his place any time soon. She stuck it in the grass and witnessed the moment his neighbors came out and nearly cheered.

  “Sandy?” He looked to her for clarification.

  Aside from another mischievous grin, all she added was, “Didn’t I say to trust me, Chief?”

  The next day, Sandy took a black marker and wrote Sold across the sign, and then a ridiculously low amount.

  That afternoon when he made it home, Jai aimed one question at his house manager. “Sandy, isn’t it illegal to put the price on the sign?”

  “Maybe unethical, but not illegal,” she answered, peering out on the front lawn. “Trust me.”

  And he did.

  That sign stayed outside for an entire month. Prominently displayed all through the open houses his neighbors held. Even through real estate agents pleading with Jai to take the sign down. And definitely through the neighbors finally getting over whatever it was they had against him and showing up on his doorstep, tuning up their lips to ask him to please, please, please, please, please take the sign down.

  “Sandy,” he said, laughing one day over an awesome dinner she had prepared after yet another neighbor had come calling.

  “Trust me, Chief.” She slid a warm slice of sweet potato pie in front of him. “You’re going to laugh so hard you can’t see straight.”

  Then the sign started coming up missing and Sandy called the police out several times because Jai’s house cameras caught the thieves in action. Several of those neighbors, and even their real estate agents were given misdemeanor thefts against their squeaky-clean records that could impact their business or jobs since it had happened several times. They were even forced to pay a fine, make restitution to Jai, and replace each of the items they stole. Then Sandy would start the process all over again.

  Finally, the phone stopped ringing with requests. The neighbors and real estate agents gave up. The sale price of their houses went so far down below the amount Sandy had written on his Sold sign.

  Jai laughed so hard he was in tears.

  When they lowered yet again, he was the one to put the offer on the table to buy six houses on his block, and three others a few blocks over for a steal.

  “Always play the long game,” Sandy advised, giving him a high five. “You didn’t hurt nothing but their pockets. And you showed them you were better at the game than they ever were.”

  That Christmas, he gifted Sandy with the house directly across from his so she had a place for her daughters and grandchildren. Three of the others, he sold for nearly three times what he’d paid for them. Five others were now rental properties.

  “Things will sort themselves out,” he answered Sandy, realizing that he had learned so much in that six-month experience. “I don’t know what life lessons are coming my way, but right now they’re putting me through some serious hell.”

  “Yes,” Sandy agreed. “But you already know how to play the long game.”

  Indeed, he did.

  CHAPTER 17

  “Somehow, the DNA samples sent to the crime lab became contaminated,” Jai said to the Knights sitting around the make-shift boardroom table at a temporary location situated in the heart of Jeffrey Manor. He’d put the area in place for them to do an investigation of their own. “And the police crime lab has to repeat the process.”

  Groans and murmurs of dissent echoed from all nine men. Some of them rose from the wooden table.

  “Contaminated?” Hiram snapped, tossing the Sun-Times on the table. “Somebody’s playing games.”

  Andre pushed back, anger marring his rugged features. “I didn’t sign up for nothing like this.”

  “Right now,” Jai said, waving them back into the seats. “Another set of specimens are on the way to a facility of my choosing, thanks to your lawyers and my brother, Shaz.”

  “How much you wanna bet Big Red will be on the tube talking about this,” Falcon said.

  “When the truth comes out, they need to be just as public about our innocence as they were about our guilt,” Hiram said, which brought on a round of agreement.

  Falcon’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed to slits, he slid a set of files to the middle of the table. “Now you know that’s not happening. They like things the way they are.”

  “Where’s DeMarco?” Jai asked.

  “His grandmother’s has stage four breast cancer,” Hiram answered. “They’re not expecting her to live much longer. We told him we’ll cover for him. He’s going to be out for a minute.”

  “Thanks for letting me know,” Jai said, making a mental note to have Kelly keep tabs on him and see if there’s anything they could do.

  “Hey, I’m going to pick up that Italian Fiesta order,” Ryan said, slipping into his Chicago Bulls jacket.

  Hiram checked his watch. “You could have had them deliver it here.”

  “Have you seen those Facebook videos of delivery guys, who do all kinds of stuff to people’s food?” Ryan shook his head. “Not happening today.”

  “Could happen directly in the restaurant, too.”

  “Doubtful,” Michael said, moving to stand next to Ryan. “They don’t get pissed off about tips—drivers do.”

  “Word,” Kevin said. “I’m rolling with him and can scoop up my kids on the way. Baby’s working overtime and my mom’s gonna keep them.”

  He gathered his jacket and they made their way to the threshold.

  “Hey, don’t forget the red pepper and those cheese packets,” Falcon reminded them.

  “Knowing good and hell well you don’t need no extra cheese,” Hiram taunted, chuckling. “Especially with your little—um—issues.”

  “See, why you have to bring up old shit?” Falcon grumbled as his golden face turned ashen.

  “Because the old shit is affecting new shit. Particularly our noses.” Andre playfully waved a hand in front of his face.

  The group burst into laughter as Michael and Ryan scowled.

  Jai tried to keep a neutral expression, but failed as Ryan gave them the evil eye and reached for the door.

  “Ha ha. We have a sit-down comedian,” Chuck said.

  Chris frowned. “You mean, stand-up comedian.”

  “Nah, it’s only stand up if he’s actually telling jokes,” Jai said. “He’s just being a smart-ass.”

  “Ooooooh, you just got clowned,” Falcon said, doubling over with laughter.

  The humor faded when Chris said, “All jokes aside, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I thought you should know. Folks are giving us some serious grie
f.” His forlorn expression told the story more than his words. “My boys are being bullied in school. They’re calling me a dead-lady rapist.”

  “My wife keeps asking me if I did it and if it’s why we haven’t done that thang for a minute.” Falcon scowled and his keen features pulled in, causing his eyes to nearly disappear.

  “Whoa.” Hiram’s thick eyebrows shot upward. “What the hell?”

  Everyone’s gaze snapped to Falcon, who ran a hand through his locs and sighed. “I mean, she’s seven months pregnant. The doctor can put his fingers up there and feel the baby’s head and what not. Just think what—”

  The room instantly filled with cackles, guffaws, and full-on laughter.

  “Bruh, that’s not how it works,” Hiram said, nearly falling off the chair because he was laughing so hard.

  “So, what happens?” Falcon questioned, lips lifting in a sheepish grin. “The baby shifts to make room or something?”

  Chris popped him upside his head. “You’re a straight-up fool.”

  “Ouch.” Falcon rubbed the affected area, giving Chris a hard glare.

  “But on the real, my mother asked me that same question,” Andre admitted. “It pisses me off that there’s even room for doubt. Just ‘cause I slipped up back in the day, doesn’t mean that I’d do something like that. Ever.”

  “My family’s been acting kind of strange,” Chuck admitted, rubbing his bald head. “Soon as I walk into the house, they make my nieces and any other little girls go into another room. Or they’ll just kind of pull ‘em close.” He gestured as though he was clutching a child. “You know, like I’m the Big Bad Wolf out to take a bite out of Little Red Riding Hood.”

  “Same thing at my spot.” Chuck shook his head.

  “Kinda think maybe we should’ve done what our lawyers wanted and got this over and done.” Falcon shrugged. “Then people wouldn’t be treating us like we’ve got some type of disease.”

  “Nope,” Hiram said, and all gazes shifted to him. “We should look at it as a gift. This separates the fakers from the shakers.”

  Chris slid a chart to the side and studied another. “How do you mean?”

  “I know who’s in my corner now.” Hiram held out his fist for a pound, and Falcon tapped his own to Hiram’s much lighter hand. “Those who kicked me while I was down don’t have nothing coming when I get up.”

  “Facts,” Andre agreed.

  Jai observed each of the men he had hired. In his heart of hearts, he couldn’t believe a single one of them had done that vile thing to Temple. They all took this second chance at life seriously and were the main reason Chetan had been so successful. They believed in what he was trying to accomplish and for such a pall to be over their lives was unbearable.

  “You never even asked us if we did it,” Hiram said, snapping Jai back to the present.

  Jai tapped the area above his heart. “I know in here, that none of you could do something like this.” He glanced at the piles of paperwork and stacks of surveillance discs in the center of the table. The answer was there and they just had to find it. “You all have come too far to let your dick make a decision to dismantle your entire life, and everyone else’s.” He gestured to the screen. “There is something we’re not seeing. We need to figure out how it was done. Who had the opportunity? Check every one of the logs and cross reference them with the camera recordings. Focus on that timeline for the month of February.”

  “I said it before, but we need to circle back to it. What about the nurses?” Hiram asked, half-swiveling in the executive chair so he faced Jai. “And the doctors?”

  “That’s a whole other beast,” Jai admitted, knowing that Kelly had already asked Daron Kincaid, one of his Castle brothers who was a technical genius and gadget guru, to look into their backgrounds and finances. So far, he hadn’t turned up anything that pointed to a payoff. People who were doing dirt always tended to think they were slick, sly and wicked. “I’m having someone check into them.”

  “Will we get in trouble for going so deep into this?” Falcon asked with a sweeping gesture that encompassed all the items Kelly had managed to compile in such a short period of time. “Police don’t like it when civilians cross into their territory.”

  “They don’t care about clearing our names.” Hiram glared at his co-worker. “We care about that.” He held up a photo of Temple’s fiancée and her mother. “We also should check out the family. There’s something not quite right about them.”

  Andre slid a folder to Jai. “Maybe we look at their social media pages and see what they’re saying about what’s happened. People love to talk, especially if they think a million-dollar lawsuit is a sure thing.”

  Jai put another set of documents aside, then paused the footage on the screen, forcing everyone to pay attention to him.

  “That fiancée dude never did sit right with me,” Hiram confessed. “Too arrogant. Dismissed us like we were something on the bottom of his shoe.”

  “Being an asshole isn’t a crime.” Jai flipped to another page containing employee schedules.

  “Yeah, but he seemed intent on keeping us away from Temple for some reason,” Falcon said, pointing to the nurse notes he held. “No other family had that kind of thing going on.”

  Hiram peered at the image of a clean-cut, Wall Street type with green eyes and platinum blond hair that was the result of someone’s bottle. “From what’s mentioned in this file, the mother gave him Power of Attorney. Right after that, he demanded that the cameras come out of Temple’s room.”

  Jai jerked forward, squinting at Hiram. “And who gave them permission to do that when I expressly …”

  “Kelly wouldn’t have any choice if that request was put in,” Hiram said, attempting to defuse Jai’s concerns. “She wouldn’t go for that any other way.”

  “This is the exact reason cameras were installed. To protect us.” Jai ran a hand through his hair, scanning the expectant faces of the men who trusted him enough that they had forgone a critical step that was in their own best interest. At the moment, on hearing everything they were going through, regret filled his mind. “My apologies, guys. We could’ve been done with this if you had let the lawyers have their way.”

  “Nah man, that would’ve put Temple and the baby at risk,” Hiram said, clasping a reassuring hand on Jai’s shoulder as the others gave a verbal agreement. “We can wait for the DNA test to be done. If it ever gets done.”

  “It will, and I thank you for that,” Jai said.

  “You believed in me from day one,” Hiram said and the admiration in his voice warmed Jai’s heart. “That’s love right there. I speak for everybody here when I say we wouldn’t break that trust.”

  Jai pressed his fist to Hiram’s, but noticed that Jared averted his gaze. The man was shorter and always much quieter than the others so sometimes he was hard to read. “And I’m counting on that.”

  As his gaze went back to Chris, Andre, and Chuck, who spent more of their time viewing recordings, but also tended to remain kind of quiet during the process and discussions; Jai made a mental note to keep a careful watch to figure out if they had an agenda of their own.

  “We need to wrap this up in about an hour. I have to get home,” Jai said, checking his watch. “Sandy’s going to her granddaughter’s graduation and I’d like to be there when India has her evening feedings.”

  “Look at you, aiming for single father of the year,” Hiram teased.

  Something about that statement didn’t sit too right with Jai. Nothing about his arrangement with Temple made him feel as though this wasn’t a family unit. Every day he woke up in time to make her breakfast and talk with her before he left for work. Each night he came home to have dinner and spend time with Temple and India. They discussed so many things—current affairs, a little about his life, then ventured into talking about her dreams, goals, and desires, the online courses she was taking so she could return to teaching, but this time a different subject.

  Sometimes he g
ave Sandy the evening off as he prepared Temple’s favorite dishes while listening to whatever she felt like sharing that day. Her therapy sessions with Sesvalah were helping a great deal in her coming to terms with the violation, and to process her feelings regarding India. Now, if only the counselor could help Jai sort out his feelings for Temple. What started as admiration had transformed into full-on attraction, and he struggled each day to keep those feelings in check. The situation was already complicated and his attraction to her added more layers to an already complex scenario.