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“Always, and I’m here for whatever you need.”
“Thank you, Cas. I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon, baby girl.”
After disconnecting the call, Denali relaxed more in her seat and began to eat her grapes. This might not have been the reality she expected to return to, but she’d make it work… like she always did.
thirteen
Elite
It hadn’t takenSupreme long to use his connections to find their father. Unfortunately, Supreme would be in Atlanta the week they were set to meet. When the brothers went legit, Supreme’s interest turned toward importing and exporting. He had warehouses on every coast, and he was about to open the second down south. At the moment, Supreme used his warehouses to export only legal items across the world, but since he’d recently had a meeting with Naima Cassidy, Elite believed his brother was about to make his way back into some illegal shit.
While Elite hoped his brother would let him know if he switched gears, Supreme would probably keep him out of it for his safety. He hadn’t wanted Elite in the streets to begin with, so there was no chance Supreme would invite him back into the fold. At the moment, Supreme would be in Atlanta every other week for the next two months. Elite was sure his brother had set the meeting up with Greg for when he would be out of town, but he hadn’t felt the need to call him out on it.
Elite sat outside the old building of his jewelry store. He hadn’t worked up the courage to reopen it yet. Even though Jacintha had recanted her story for his innocence, the damage had already been done. Elite couldn’t believe the amount of people who swore they were solid and down for him that turned because of Jacintha’s lies. At this point, his ability to trust people and desire for closeness was even smaller than it was before everything went down. Plus, he was embarrassed.
With the headspace he was in, Elite didn’t even care to lose himself in the brightness of jewelry and the way it made him feel. He didn’t want to think about his dad and how Greg was the reason for his love of jewelry to begin with. Though he wanted to see and talk to his father for his own healing, Elite didn’t see it going beyond that onetime meeting. It didn’t matter how much empathy Elite had, it felt disloyal toward his mom to have a relationship with his father.
Besides, Elite was struggling with his own self-image after what he’d done to his ex-wife. A part of him needed to see his father to remind himself of what could have happened if he wouldn’t have had the little control that he did. He needed that motivation to work on his temper. Saying he was able to keep calm until he snapped no longer felt like a good thing. He needed to learn how to keep himself from snapping altogether.
As he pulled out of the parking lot, a sharp pain shot through his heart. Leaving that building felt like he was breaking up with yet another love of his life. It didn’t help that he was missing the twins like crazy. Even with their smart-ass mouths because of their father and ability to annoy the hell out of him at times, Elite called them a few times out of the week just to hear their voices. That also helped him feel connected to Jacintha.
Checking his phone, Elite stared at the sight of Baxter’s missed call as he abruptly stopped in the parking lot. His first thought was that something had happened to Jacintha, forcing him to quickly call Baxter back as he put his car in park.
“Hello?” Baxter answered, and the calmness that laced his tone immediately soothed Elite’s nerves.
“What’s up, Baxter?”
“Have you talked to Jah lately?”
“Not since she first went in. Why?”
“She doesn’t want me doing this, but I felt the need to.” Baxter paused and exhaled deeply. “Jacintha loves you, Elite. She made a terrible mistake, but she’s owned up to it and is…”
“Hol’ up.” Elite chuckled as his leg shook. “You called me to try to convince me to give her another chance?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t want to ask herself. She’s waiting for you to come to her, but I don’t want to risk her waiting too long and you moving on to someone else.”
Elite ran his hand down his face. “Baxter…”
“I take responsibility for a lot of what has transpired in my daughter’s life. We shielded her and made it difficult for her to live for herself or even know herself. Now I will never condone what she did, and I don’t even blame you for divorcing her, but I was hoping the two of you could start fresh and try again.”
Elite didn’t reply right away, giving Baxter time to add anything else he needed to. When he remained silent, Elite spoke.
“I’m glad you can admit that you fucked up her childhood and teenaged years, but at some point, it’s up to us as adults to fix our shit. Hell, I’m doing the same damn thing. Jacintha doesn’t need a husband right now. She needs to work on herself. The last time we talked, that was her focus, so I hope you aren’t unintentionally changing that.”
“You don’t know my daughter. She does need a husband…”
“No…” Elite chuckled, trying to maintain his temper. “Youdon’t know your daughter. She doesn’t need a man to take care of her and give her kids. She needs to learn how to live for herself. Until she does that, she’s never going to be happy. Leave her alone, Bax. The time she needed you to protect and do what was best for her, you punished her and made her feel bad about her natural desires. She’s a grown ass woman now. Let her live.”
“What right do you think you have to tell me what’s best for my daughter? If you truly wanted what was best for her, you would have done everything you could to keep her out of jail.”
“You think I didn’t try!” he yelled, body jerking in his seat. “I could have testified and made sure her ass got the max for defaming my character and fucking up my brand. Even with her pleading guilty to avoid a trial, Istillspoke to the prosecutor on her behalf and tried to get her the smallest amount of time. Now I’ve been real fucking patient with how you tried to have a place in our marriage that was reserved for me, but we ain’t married no more, and I will not tolerate your disrespect.”
After disconnecting the call, Elite resisted the urge to punch something. Instead, he called Bianca. All that not talking to Jacintha shit was over at that point. Wife or not, he still cared about her and was willing to do whatever it took to protect her… even if and when that meant from her parents.
“Elite?” Bianca answered.
