Page 31 of Tap In

I gawked at all the men on the deck. “If this was all it was going to be, why all of y’all here? Didn’t even say shit.” These dudes were just here as nosy ass spectators.

Who I knew as Mont replied to my question. “Shit, we needed to be here just in case you said the wrong thing and we needed to get our story together to tell Jacobia why her baby daddy disappeared. It’s a family affair when it comes to the women in the family. Congratulations on not being a bitch.”

The weak would never make it around these families. It took a special kind of real man to survive them. Like they said, I wasn’t a bitch. Thank God for that.

* * *

A LITTLE TIME LATER…

I had to come out to Vegas to handle some unavoidable business with my club. I hated to have to come because I didn’t want to be too far from my woman. We weren’t too far away from her due date, and I would burn this entire club down if I missed the birth of our daughter.

Someone had brought a hidden camera into my club. There were now issues of attempts of extortion. When you came into our club, all phones were confiscated and placed in coded lock boxes. Once it was placed in the lock box, they were given the code to get it back when they left. Based on the videos that I saw, the camera seemed to have been in a necklace with the angle it was shot from. I put my investigator on it, and it took less than half a day to find out who the culprit was.

“Noelle, explain to me why you thought bringing a hidden camera into my club was a good idea. Are you dumb or just dumb?”

This bitch had me pissed. After I sent her home after Chance and Lark’s reception, we interacted a few more times within a month or so. Her ass was clingy for no reason when she knew what the deal was. When she stole from me, I cut her ass off. Her ass wasn’t a broke bitch, so there was no reason for her to steal. She didn’t take the cut off well initially, but I never thought it would get to this.

We sat in my office with my lawyer and hers. Earlier this week, she was arrested for extortion, which was a category B felony in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were four people that she went after with her scheme. Of the four, two were judges, one was a professional, married football player, and the other a congressman. Two of the men actually paid out to her demands at the tune of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

When I got wind of what was going on, I asked the men if they had evidence. Of course, they did because Noelle was an idiot. She called them from a blocked number, but it was a number that was connected to a secondary line on her cell phone account. The bitch didn’t have the common sense to get a burner phone. It took nothing to track the phone. The account that she gave the men to transfer the money into was in her damn cousin’s name.

“Joston, sorry, I lost my head for a moment when I heard that you moved to Charleston to be with Jacobia. I didn’t understand why her and not me. It should have been me,” she said through her whimpers.Here she goes with this bullshit.

Before I made the commitment to stop fucking with other women to show Jacobia that I could be a faithful man, Noelle and I fucked around heavily. From one of our sexual encounters, she became pregnant because of a broken condom. Instead of getting a Plan B like she claimed she would, she didn’t. When she came to me about the pregnancy, I told her that I wasn’t ready for children; however, I would take care of my child. She thought that because she was pregnant, I would want to explore a relationship with her. I shut that shit down immediately. Long story short, she terminated the pregnancy and blamed me for her decision because I didn’t want to be with her.

“Noelle, at no time did I ever give you the impression that I wanted anything more than sex with you. Furthermore, when that condom broke and you said that you would get a Plan B, I took you at your word. Well, you proved that your word could not be trusted. I asked you if you took the Plan B like you told me that you would. You told me yes, but less than three weeks later, you were in my face crying pregnant. I don’t do conniving, sweetheart. It would never have been you.

“I know that sounds fucked up, but it is what it is. You knew just like everyone else that it was and would always be Jacobia. Now, I take the blame for bringing you back into my life after years of not dealing with you. I can see how that could have caused you to get mixed signals. This shit right here though is unacceptable. If you wanted to get at me, then there were other ways, Instead, your ass brought innocent people into your bullshit.” She was doing too much with too little.

Noelle huffed. “I get it! I was wrong, but this is a bit much, don’t you think? I still have the money, so I can give it back.” Tears that I didn’t give a fuck about streamed down her face. “Can we please just come to an agreement where you convince the men to drop the criminal charges. I can’t go to jail.”

Yeah, she was looking at some time if she was found guilty of her charges. She could get up to ten years of jail time, fines up to ten thousand dollars, and restitution. Her ass was scared because she knew like I did that no judge would take it easy on her since she extorted two other judges. On top of her criminal charges, two of the men and I filed a civil suit against her.

I shook my head. “Noelle, you put yourself in this position. Like every member of the club, you signed the non-disclosure. You knew what the repercussions would be. With all of that, you still chose to do what you did. No, I will not be convincing anyone to drop anything, just like I will not be dropping my civil suit.”

This meeting was a waste of my time. I could have stayed my ass at home with my girl. There was no way that I would take it light on Noelle. The anonymity of my club’s members was the reason I was able to be successful. Things like this had to be shut down. Her actions cost me money since I had to extend waived membership fees for the four men for a year and a private room at no cost. That was four hundred and twenty thousand dollars that I was out because of her bullshit.

Noelle sat there with defeat written on her face. “Joston, if I was Jacobia, would you be doing this?” she asked.She can’t be serious.

My lawyer snickered before he shook his head. Noelle’s lawyer was clearly aggravated. Something told me that he didn’t think this meeting would be about her feelings.

“One, you’re not her. Please stop bringing up my woman like she has anything to do with this. Two, she would never do some dumb shit like this. Stop competing where you don’t compare.” I leaned over to my lawyer, telling him that this meeting was over.

“Ms. Coldwell, this meeting is over, as my client has taken his stance. You know what it is; therefore, there is no more conversation needed,” Mr. Case, my lawyer, said.

I stood from my seat, headed to the door, then opened it. There was nothing left in me for her and this situation. When I got to the lobby, my blood pressure rose. “Jacobia, what the fuck are you doing here? I could have sworn I left your ass at home.”

She sat there, rubbing her belly. When our eyes locked, she gave me those puppy dog eyes that usually made me give into whatever she wanted. This time, that shit would not work. When it came to the safety of her and my baby, all bets were off.

“Um, the baby missed you. I figured we would jump on the jet to come pick you up.” Her voice was soft.

I walked over to her to help her out of the seat. “Baby, your ass shouldn’t be flying. The fuck! What if you went into labor?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Tana and Xena came with me. Both of them are midwives, so I would have been good.”

My head fell back. “God, why is this woman like this? You made her hardheaded. Fix it, Jesus.”

Before either of us could say anything, Noelle came into view. There was a mixture of hurt, anger, and resentment in her eyes. All of it was unwarranted. I prayed she didn’t say anything, but that little petty twinkle in her eye told me that she couldn’t resist. “Well, if it isn’t the precious Jacobia.”

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