AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then we need to go after her,” I reply, moving to do precisely that when Elias intervenes again.
“Dammit, man!” he snarls. “It’s not going to do anything. We need to figure out what happened first.”
“How the fuck are we gonna do that if we don’t get her to talk to us?” I shoot back.
Kace hisses with frustration, pressing his index fingers against his throbbing temples. “Amaya won’t tell us. That much is clear. We’ll have to figure it out.”
Easier said than done. My whole world is collapsing. The three of us had found peace and love in her arms. Acceptance. Bliss. Ecstasy in its purest form. We were headed somewhere.
How does one put an end to it so swiftly and mercilessly?
What could’ve possibly happened that Amaya didn’t feel like she could talk to us about it? She’d found a home on the estate. Mikey was happy and thriving. He was registered at a nearby private school come fall.
We covered the tuition and all of the expenses. We were going to tell Amaya on her birthday next week. A whole big thing was already planned—we were going to take Amaya and Mikey out and… fucking hell, it doesn’t even matter anymore.
Every plan that we made. Every idea we had. It literally went up in flames in the blink of an eye.
“We need to find out what happened,” I say, mirroring Kace and Elias’s frustration.
“What happened with what?” Derrick says as he walks in with Leon and Ramada.
As soon as Kace sees them, he groans with genuine dismay. “Doesn’t anybody schedule meetings anymore?”
“Oh, we were just on this side of the estate and we wanted to check in with you, guys,” Ramada replies, as bright and as carefree as ever, wholly unable to read the room.
Kace, Elias and I exchange brief glances. When Kace gives us the kind of nod I’ve been waiting for, I decide to use what energy I’ve got left to put on a fake smile and motion toward the conference table. “By all means. Let’s talk,” I say.
Given what just happened, I’m twice as determined to get this ball rolling.
19
Kace
It’s happening a tad sooner than I had envisioned, but with Amaya gone, it seems like we have to resolve this Derrick and Ramada issue faster and harder. The result and the conversation will be the same.
As I subtly text our private investigator to start going through Derrick’s room on the estate, I realize that the universe has a plan for us.
Getting into Derrick’s room without arousing his suspicion was a challenge from the very beginning. Given the time of day and the fact that the estate itself is less crowded at this hour, our PI has a better chance of entering and leaving Derrick, Ramada, and Leon’s rooms unnoticed.
We’ve been waiting for this opportunity and it literally just landed in our laps. We may be the owners of this place, but our clients still have legal rights to privacy. What we’re doing borders on illegal, yet it must be done.
“Have a seat,” I say to our unexpected guests.
“Don’t mind if we do,” Ramada giggles as she positions herself in the one spare seat between Elias and me. “So, are we ready to discuss business and close a deal today?”
Leon chuckles nervously. “Come on, Ramada, you know it doesn’t work like that. The guys need some time to mull over the details before they join us in this venture.” He pauses to look at me with wary eyes. “I hadn’t planned for us to come in here today. I kept telling them to give you room to breathe.”
“Nonsense,” Ramada exclaims. “This is the kind of deal you need to strike while it’s hot!”
“To be fair, the market is at an all-time low this week alone,” Derrick adds with a half-smile. “It would be wise to inject the funds by the end of this weekend and let the crypto currency take off on Monday. I’ve got my boys ready to roll the speculation on Discord. They’re pumped.”
“You might wanna tell them to cool their jets,” I reply flatly.
The three of them stare at me with a look of disbelief. I’ve got so much rage swirling in my chest right now, Ramada is lucky I don’t cuss her out and Derrick is lucky I’m not beating his face into a red pulp.
I’ve got nothing against Leon, the poor sap, but he will be collateral damage in this instance, whether he sees it coming or not.
Ramada looks confused and her nervous laugh confirms it. “What do you mean?” she asks. “I thought we were in agreement.”
