by A'zayler
Angel closed his eyes and groaned as if he was in pain. “Come back upstairs real quick. I just want to taste it.”
“I can’t, babe. I have to get to work.”
“Fuck work.” He held on to her by her butt.
“Nah, fuck me . . . later.” Snow smiled when Angel smiled. “I love you.”
“Love you too, beautiful. Call me when you get a free minute.”
Snow told him she would before walking out of the kitchen and continuing on her way. As bad as she wanted to stay with Angel and lie in bed all day, they both had work to do, and sexing until their bodies were sore wasn’t going to get it done.
* * *
Angel and Snow had him fucked up if they thought they were about to pull that happily-ever-after bullshit and take what should have been rightfully his. He could see it happening already. They were about to link up and make the business look sweet. Maybe if Snow hadn’t had a hand in it, he wouldn’t be so mad, but she hated his ass. There was no way she would ever allow him to work with or for her.
At first, he’d dreamt it would be him and her, but after hearing them up fucking all night and all over each other again in the kitchen, that shit was long gone. Fuck Snow, fuck Angel, and fuck his parents. D’Angelo was fire hot as he sped down the highway in his car.
“I see everybody thinks I’m somebody to play with. I’ll show them.” D’Angelo reached for his phone and dialed his partner in crime.
He too wasn’t very fond of the knockoff Bonnie and Clyde. He answered on the first ring. “What’s good?”
“Ay, we got to speed this shit up. I’m tired of fucking around,” D’Angelo said.
A low chuckle came over the phone. “Say no more. I have one of my people about to meet up with Snow now. He can take her with him or leave her. The choice is yours.”
D’Angelo rubbed his chin. He didn’t want her gone just yet. He only wanted her gone when she was running around town playing house with his brother. If Angel was out of the picture, then maybe she would act better. As long as she was lonely, he could move in on the pussy, like he’d tried to do last time. Only this time he would be successful.
“Nah, let her stay. If you get a clean shot on my punk-ass brother, though, you can take his ass out of there.”
Heavy laughter came from the other end of the phone. “Okay. I’ll put somebody on that. Did you get the shipment?”
D’Angelo’s anger flared again. “Hell nah. They found out and sent that shit back.”
“What!” he yelled.
“It’s cool, though. We’re about to have more than we can deal if we just play our cards right. Once Angel is gone, that only leaves my sick-ass daddy and my mama. Neither of them will be able to stop me, so just be patient.”
The phone went silent for a little too long for D’Angelo’s liking. Just when he was about to get nervous, his partner came back over the line.
“Don’t fuck this up,” he told D’Angelo sternly.
Although D’Angelo didn’t really care for his tone, he bit the bullet because he needed the nigga. “Just do your part, and I’ll handle the rest.”
“I’m on it.”
They ended the call after that. D’Angelo’s mind traveled from one place to the other as he put what he was doing into perspective. He’d been doing a lot of shit, and hopefully it wouldn’t be in vain.
Chapter Twenty
What went wrong?
Snow had just pulled up to her normal meeting point to get the money when her phone rang. It was her father. Since she was still seated in her car, she hit the Answer button and it picked up on her Bluetooth. “Hey, Papa.”
“Hello, darling. How are you today?”
“Fine. What about you?”
“Could be better. When will you be back home?”
Snow leaned her head to the side and thought about it a little. It was the same thing she’d been wondering for a while now. Being in South Carolina had been planned to be temporary, but since being with Angel, it felt more permanent.
“Not sure yet, Papa. Do you need me for something? You know I’ll be there if you do.”
“No, my darling. I just miss you.”
She could hear the smile in his voice, and it made her happy. On top of that, he was right. When she was home, she visited her parents at least once a month. It was nothing for her to travel to them at any given minute. But being in South Carolina was different.
“Well, I’ll try to be back there soon. I just need to finish helping out here first.”
“Sure, you do, darling. Family first. How’s business? Angel informed me that you two chose not to do the deal with Juan.”
Snow’s eyes rolled at the mention of her ex’s name. “He’s a liar, Papa. I’d never do business with a person I can’t trust.”
Mack was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “I trust your judgment. Just be safe, my darling. You know he’s a real prideful one.”
“I’ll kill him.” She spoke with no hesitation.
Laughter resonated through the phone. “I know you will. That’s the careful part I was speaking of.”
Snow laughed and talked business with her father until she saw the black pickup truck pulling up. After ending the call, she made sure her gun was secured in the holster at the small of her back and got out. The man in the black coat was the same man she’d met on many occasions since doing business for Vinny.
He was a trustee of one of their largest distributors and had never tried anything funny with her before, but for some reason, she wasn’t too sure of his presence today. Something about the way he kept switching the bag from one hand to the other was off with her, so she moved a little slower toward him.
Snow’s eyes shifted around quickly, surveying her surroundings, and though she saw nothing out of place, she trusted her gut feeling. When he noticed her approaching, he smiled and nodded.
“Good morning, Ms. East, how are you today?”
Ms. East?
Snow noted that he was calling her something different. No one in the streets of South Carolina knew her by anything other than Snow. That was all she’d ever given and all she ever would give. So for him to be using her government, something was definitely off.
“Excuse me, who?” she asked for clarification. “What did you just call me?”
His eyes shifted from right to left quickly before he ran his hand over his bald head. “I’m sorry, Snow. I just thought a woman of your caliber deserved some respect.”
Snow squinted her eyes at him. “Is that so?”
He nodded quickly while extending the bag out toward her. “Your cash.”
“Did you count it?”
“I didn’t have any time.”
Snow raised her eyebrow at him. “Since when do you not have time to do your job?”
The sweat beads on his eyebrow proved her suspicions. He and she had exchanged money numerous times, and he’d always been calm and collected. Today, he looked like he could barely stand still.
“I, uh, I just had to stop and check . . . check on my, um, daughter.” He stammered over his words while Snow stood patiently watching.
“Since you normally do good business, I’m going to go sit back in my car and give you time to get your shit together. Twenty minutes, that’s all you have.” Snow turned on her heels and walked as calmly as she could back to her.
She could hear him behind her fumbling with the bag as she counted to ten in her head. Once back in the safety of her own car, she locked the doors and cranked up the engine. A heavy sigh of relief came seconds later. She’d been so nervous about what the man had going on that she could hardly think straight.
Fully aware of what she wanted to do but unsure if it was the right thing to do, Snow called Angel. She needed him to make this decision for her. She had many connections on the West Coast, but South Carolina was a totally different ball game, and she didn’t want to do anything that would cause the DeLucas more trouble than they were able to get out of.
“Hey, gorgeous, what’s going on?”
“It’s some weird shit going on with the nigga I just met. He’s real shifty today.”
“What nigga? Where you at? Leave right now.” Angel’s voice changed drastically as he fired off one question after the other.
“It’s the same guy I always meet from the Santorini family, but today he just seems off. He called me by my last name, and nobody even knows me like that here.”
“Snow, get out of there right now.”
“I want to kill him.”
“No!” Angel yelled. “Don’t kill him. He could be wearing a camera for the feds or anything. You don’t want to get yourself into that kind of trouble.”
Snow sighed and held her forehead in her head. “I know. That’s why I called you. I didn’t know if Vinny had pull that could get me off for murder.”
“I’m sure he does, but you and I both know he’s in no position to make that happen right now.”
Snow watched the man rise back to his feet and wave at her.
“Are you still there?” Angel asked her.
“Yeah.”
“Why? Leave now.”
Even with her trigger finger itching something crazy, Snow put her car in reverse and pulled out of her parking spot. She could see the man waving her down in her rearview mirror, but she kept her pace anyway. There was no need to go back and end up getting herself into something that would take forever to get out of.
“I just left,” she advised Angel.
“Bet. Meet me at the bank.”
Snow told him she would before ending their call and heading to their bank downtown. She’d been there plenty of times before with Angel and Empress since being in South Carolina. It was where they kept their safe and all of their important assets. She had no idea why Angel would want to meet there right then, but she was going.
It was a good distance away from where she’d just been, so it took her a little while to get there. When she pulled into the parking space along the street, she saw Angel’s truck pulling in behind her. Snow checked her face and hair before getting out and meeting him at the trunk of her car.
He was dressed immaculately in another tailored suit, with his hair waved to the back. His face looked fresh and he smelled just as good as he always did.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of you and these suits,” she told him with hearts in her eyes.
Angel smiled at her before kissing her mouth sensually. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of you, period.” His hand laced with hers as he led them to the door.
Once they walked in, a few of the tellers greeted them enthusiastically. They were valued customers and it showed every time they went there. Along their walk upstairs to where Vinny’s personal banker was, they were offered water, muffins, and a host of other things to make their visit comfortable.
They both turned it all down, and continued on their way. The office of their family’s banker was located at the far end of the long hallway. They were approaching it when his secretary stopped them.
“Hello, Mr. DeLuca, Ms. Snow.” She smiled brightly. “He’s with some people right now. Can you two wait for him out here until he’s ready?”
Snow and Angel both looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. One thing they never did anywhere was wait. They were treated like royalty because that was who they were. So for his secretary to be standing there treating them as if they were ordinary didn’t sit well with either of them. Snow was about to say something, but Angel beat her to it.
“You want us to wait?” He paused and pointed at the chairs placed along the wall. “Out here?”
She smiled nervously. “Yes, sir. If you don’t mind.”
“We mind,” Snow informed her.
Her lips twitched a little as she tried to maintain her smile. “I’m really sorry for the inconvenience, but he’s with a few others at the moment.”
Angel stepped forward and the lady jumped. “With who?”
It was clear she was just the pawn. Her fear was loud and clear. “Please don’t hurt me, Mr. DeLuca, sir.”
Snow frowned at her comment, as did Angel. When he turned and looked at Snow over his shoulder, he raised his eyebrow at her in question. Clearly, he was just as shocked by the secretary’s comment as Snow was.
“Why would you assume I’m going to hurt you?” Angel interrogated her.
Her hands went up in mock surrender. “I didn’t, I just . . .” She sighed and held her head down.
“Angel, let me holla at you really quick,” Snow called him to him.
She was getting tired of the secretary’s foolishness. There was something going on, and for it to all be coming out of nowhere was what alarmed Snow the most. She could continue sitting back and waiting for things to unfold, or she and Angel could take matters into their own hands.
Snow took a few steps away from the nerve-wracked secretary and pulled Angel along with her. When he was standing in front of her and leaning down so that he could hear her, she whispered her thoughts.
“This is some bullshit. Something is up, and I think we need to get out of here until we figure out what it is.”
Angel nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.” He rubbed his chin as his eyes wandered off into the distance.
He was thinking, and Snow envied how calm he was right then, because she was all over the place. His calming aura was helping her keep it together, but the itching in her trigger finger was getting out of control. She didn’t normally take the kind of ignorant behavior they’d been encountering all day without dropping bodies behind it.
“After hearing that shit about that nigga you met earlier, it made me think. There’s no telling who he’s working with, and I really need to check on the cartel’s money and shit. I would hate for him to have been the feds for real and they start seizing all of our shit before we’ve had a chance to move it.” The muscle in his jaw jumped as he continued rubbing his chin.
Snow wanted to stand still and allow him time to think, but her street instincts were kicking in. They needed to do that shit another time. Somewhere safe from the outside world.
“Angel, let’s go. We’ll think it through at home.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the stairway they’d used to get up there.
He followed willingly. They were at the top of the stairs when the door to his banker’s office opened. Out walked two men in black suits. Not the sexy tailored kind that men with money, like Angel, wore but the basic kind they’d probably gotten for church on Sundays. His banker followed close behind wearing a nervous expression.
Snow and Angel both were halted by the men’s presence, but Snow was the only one who saw the danger and acted quickly. Before she could stop herself, she had her gun out and pointed at the men.
“Angel, get down!” she yelled as she posted up to shoot.
Angel was in the middle of turning around to face her but reversed his actions the moment he saw the large black guns being aimed at them. Had they been anywhere else, Snow would have had to commend him on his quick thinking.
The two massive long slide guns that she’d seen him shoot at the range too many times to count were out and being fired immediately. To say things went from bad to worse within seconds was an understatement. The loud booming and heavy clouds of gun smoke took over everything around them.
BOOM! BOOM!
The sounds of the various guns ripped through the air like cannons. Shattering glass and bullets were flying everywhere as Snow, Angel, and the two men fired at one another. The backfire from Snow’s gun shook her arms, but she continued pulling her trigger like the professional that she was.
The vibrations from the guns shook not only her body but the floor as well. With a rapidly beating heart and sweaty palms, Snow took steps forward so that she could get c
loser to the men. Though the bullets were still flying, she was doing her best to dodge them and the shattered pieces of furniture and Sheetrock.
“Snow!” Angel looked over his shoulder at her while backpedaling toward the staircase. “Let’s go!” he yelled to her.
“Don’t run now!” Snow heard one of the men say just as a few bullets came ripping past her head.
She could hear the air and feel the heat from each bullet sent her way. Screams and the sounds of alarms were sounding off in the distance, but all that mattered to her was Angel yelling for her to get out of there.
“Shit!” She ducked behind the secretary’s desk to take cover.
More bullets were being fired toward Angel, but he was sending them back just as fast as they were coming. Then out of nowhere, the gunfire stopped.
“Teno! Get up!” The second voice caught Snow’s attention.
It was thick and filled with a native tongue that she could recognize. When she looked over at Angel, who was hiding behind the bullet-riddled wall, he didn’t look fazed at all. Instead, he was looking at her, motioning for her to come to him.
Snow knew that the moment she stood from behind the desk, the shooting would probably start right back up, but Angel was just going to have to cover for her. They needed to get out of there and fast. They’d been shooting for a few minutes. There was no telling how many police were on their way.
“Fuck it.” Snow jumped up and immediately aimed her gun.
She and Angel both resumed their fire, as did the other man. Snow was almost to Angel when she felt the hot metal collide with the bone in her leg.
“Ahhhh!” she belted out as she tried to hurry to Angel.
The bullet had wounded her leg terribly, so she was falling to the ground before she had the chance to take another step.
“SNOW!” Angel’s deep voice sounded strained as he rushed to her.
“No, Angel! Keep shooting,” she yelled.
He’d completely dropped both of his guns and was about to head her way until she reminded him that they were still being targeted. His guns went right back to blazing. Snow was writhing in pain as her leg burned unbearably from the gunshot.
Although she was in more physical pain than she’d ever been in before, she couldn’t give up. Angel needed her. She ducked and crawled to him the best she could as he continued to fire at the man who was now ducking behind the other side of the secretary’s desk.
