“I don’t,” she admitted somberly. “I can’t express this to anyone, it would ruin Jovanis. But it gets tiring having to keep all of my thoughts inside because no one knows the truth about my life.”
Holding out his hand, he ordered, “Give me your phone.”
This was a violation. Noble was cognizant of that, but Irish was lowkey suffering in silence. He didn’t know what propelled him to save his number in her phone. Maybe it was that part of his mind that was engrossed with her. Noble’s interest could have been on the many women that threw themselves in his direction, yet it wasn’t. It lied with this ginger-haired beauty who seemed to have so much weight on her shoulders that it virtually cast her down.
“Whenever you need to talk, hit my line.” He passed the phone back to her.
Reluctantly, she took it back, staring at the new contact on her screen.
“Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest? You know? Us talking?”
Yeah, it would be… but I’ll put the ball in your court…
“Not if you make it a conflict of interest.”
The two locked gazes as Fabolous rapped lowly in the background. Damn, Noble couldn’t get enough of staring at her. This was so unlike him. Beautiful women didn’t move him. It was just a regular day when he did encounter one but never did he stumble on a woman that looked like Irish.
Without saying another word, Noble drove back to the hotel and pulled in front. Unlocking the doors, he looked at her.
“Um,” she hesitated. “You sure you’re not going to go back telling what our conversation consisted of?”
“You got my word, Irish.”
She had to know that he wasn’t a hoe-ass nigga that would run, telling the next man’s business.
“Okay.”
Slowly, she got out the car, giving him a view of her ass propped up in her denim jeans. She wasn’t the thickest he’d seen but she had enough back there to entice him. Before she closed the door, she gave him a small smile before ending their impromptu night.
Business always took precedence over everything, and Noble was crazy enough to be head of two of them. He sat at the table, checking his messages while his cousin, Nuke, stood in the corner.
“I forgot to tell you, your mama called earlier. She said come by the office.”
Noble nodded without giving Nuke any eye contact. Seconds passed and Rio entered the room. He walked over, dappin’ Nuke up before doing the same with Noble.
“What’s the word?” he asked, taking a seat.
“Shit, just making sure that deal went as planned.”
Rio bobbed his head, leaning back in his chair. The Legacy Mafia was constructed of two different groups. There was the side where they sold pills to the upper class, then there was the side that had gotten into arms dealing. Rio was the distributor for their pills. He’d make deals with the wealthy and famous. NFL executives, corporate America, politicians, and a host of the high-class were their number one customer. What they couldn’t get through doctors at a high volume, they could obtain with TLM.
Jovanis entered the room, pulling up his pants. He shook hands with everyone before taking a seat on the opposite side of Rio. Noble’s younger brother, Zayd, trailed in minutes after, making sure to greet him before taking a seat. They had gone from eight lieutenants down to four. Before Tuck got locked up, he had several of them that weren’t qualified to hold it down. It jarred Noble witnessing the organization that he had helped him build crumble like sand. There was no order amongst the members. Everybody acted as if they were in charge and made terrible decisions. Noble had to take a few out due to them being a liability and turning into witnesses. Needless to say, Tuck hadn’t done a very good job leading TLM, which made Noble’s mess dirtier to clean up.
“You handle that?” Noble asked Jovanis.
“Yeah, the shipment came in last night. Everything is all there.”
Noble sighed. “Y’all gotta handle those lil’ niggas. All that posted up in the hood shit is dead. Give them niggas something to do or cut ‘em off.”
“I told them.” Zayd shook his head. “They like putting on a show, and I blame Tuck’s flashy ass.”
“Man, I tried to tell them, too,” Jovanis stressed. “And they fucked up the shipment and delivered it to the wrong people.”
“So, they’re useless?” Noble’s eyes narrowed.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that.” Jovanis stalled. “…Those niggas just need some guidance. Tuck let they ass do whatever.”
“I don’t give a fuck what Tuck let them do. We don’t operate like that no more.”
