Page 105 of Smoke

“Look at you smiling like a woman in love,” Danielle said. “Let me find out you’re taking another Dillinger out of rotation. I need to put my bid in for the last brother.”

I giggled. “I hate to break it to you, but that man loves him a BBW.”

Danielle clutched her invisible pearls. “I guess I’m out then. I’m not mad at it. I hope he finds the baddest BBW.”

“Me too, girl. I’m gonna let you get back to work. I’m gonna go speak to the girls, and then I need to grab a few things from my office before I leave.”

“Okay, boo. It was good to see you.”

We shared another hug before I headed back to the suites. I took my time greeting my team and catching up with them. All of them had been checking up on me in our group chat, hereand there, but it was good to see their faces. Finally in my office, I grabbed what I needed. As I was about to leave out, the door opened, and Danielle poked her head in.

“Before you go, there’s someone here to see you.”

“Oh?”

I noticed the look on her face as she stepped aside, and in walked the last person I expected to see… Derrick Mathis. I swallowed hard as I stepped back.

“Ms. Mitchell,” he said, staring at me with a blank expression. “A moment of your time.”

Danielle closed the door before I could protest.

“What do you want?” I whispered.

“How about you have a seat.”

“I’m fine standing,” I said, reaching into the crossbody around my neck. The moment my hand touched the cold metal piece, I relaxed a little. That was until he took a step closer to me. I pulled the gun from my purse and aimed it at him.

“Stop,” I said, firmly.

He chuckled. “No need for all of that. I just came to chat.” He raised his hand in surrender as he took a seat. “It’s about my son.”

“I have nothing to say about your son. Whatever happened to him was on him.”

“Is it now? I have thoughts on that. I assume my son told you what we wanted since you seem so hostile.”

“What would he have told me?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Let’s cut the bullshit. You know what I want. I’ll be more than generous in buying you out.”

“It’s not for sale.”

“Doesn’t have to be. I mean, think of what you could do with the money. The facts are you now have two children with no father… one of them being my granddaughter. I’m sure you could use the money.”

I scoffed. “Your son isn’t even in the ground yet, and you’re worried about what you can get from me? You’re disgusting.”

“I’m a businessman. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll comply.”

“You know what’s funny? Your son told me that same thing, and look where he is. Seems to me you need to be careful about who you threaten.”

He chuckled. “Well, Ms. Mitchell. That sounds like a confession to me. If I were to pass that information along to the police, what do you think they would do? Imagine coming up the lead suspect in a murder case. Business would suffer. You might even be held without bail until you go to trial. That could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Who knows? Meanwhile, bills aren’t being paid. You fall behind in taxes, and the bank takes possession of the property, and guess whostillends up with it? Me.”

A smirk spread across his face. I wanted so badly to pull the trigger right now.

“You wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?” he asked, standing. “Personally, I’d choose the easy way. Nobody gets hurt. Nobody loses their freedom. Your children get to keep at least one parent. Everyone gets paid. If we do it the hard way, not only will you suffer the most, but so will your children. Well… not my granddaughter. I’ll make sure she gets placed with me and my family. After all, we can give her the best of the best.”

I cocked the gun. “If you ever come near my daughter, I will fucking kill you. You understand that? You can rot right next to your abusive bastard of a son. Get the fuck out.”

“I’ll let you think about it. You have until after my son’s funeral on Saturday to make your decision. Good day, Ms. Mitchell.”

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