Page 8 of A Boy is a Gun: Part I
I have no way of knowing if a customer coming in wants fresh coffee or if that person is reporting back to Cameron on what I’m doing. It’s a fine line between protecting someone and containing the threat.I’m considered to be both.
“I need to go,” I stand up and gather Mia. “I’ll call for a Lyft and head home.”
“You can always stay here, child,” Granny says without a smile. It would be the last effort on both of our parts and not something either wants. “I have plenty of room for you and the baby.”
“I’ll come back when I have to,” I reply with a hard swallow, “but I still need to talk to Cameron. I still need to know what’s going on.”
“You already know what’s going on, child!” Granny’s voice is harder, and I’m shook. She’s no longer biting her tongue now. “How many more clues does that man need to give to you? Your entire world was turned upside down, and he’s the cause. Your parents are dead. Alicia is dead. And who knows how many more bodies he has on his watch?” She stands up and looks me directly in the eye. “You think I’ll be okay with him being near my family and me?”
“I leave Cameron, and then what?” My voice remains calm, but I want to scream. “Then what? You say Cameron is too dangerous for Mia and me, and you honestly think he’ll leave us alone? Will we be that small paragraph in his biography with no other detail? I’m not afraid of violence; I’m afraid of hispower. His father is even more powerful. I can’t play the ‘you can’t see your daughter’ game with them without all of them wrecking holy hell on all of us!”
“And you don’t think they haven’t already?” Granny’s voice is low, but the anger is high. “He saved the coffee shop, but what did it costyou? He wanted the territory more than he wanted you to have sanity. Your mother and father are gone, and please don’t tell me that wasn’t his intention.”
“You think things would’ve been better if Cameron had left the coffee shop alone?” I put Mia in her car seat. “That’s what he did, Granny! He left it alone! He had no choice but to act when Daddy was murdered! Jacqueline was going to kill whoever took over that shop, and I was next on her list.” I strap Mia in. “He saved my life.”
“Stockholm Syndrome is real.” Granny’s words cut through me, and I blink back tears. “If you must go, go. Please don’t think his arrest with whatever trumped-up charges Atlanta P.D. put on him will be the last.” She glances outside the window and sees three SUVs pulled up to the curb. She stares long and hard before she speaks. “I won’t even entertain how he got my address.”
Cameron steps outside the middle SUV and walks up to the front door while his security stays back. This is my life now, regardless of whether I want it. “Did you want at least want to say hi?”
Granny continues to stare at the SUVs and closes her blinds shut. She then walks to the back of the house and closes the bedroom door behind her.
Five
Taylor
It was like arriving back home at the White House or Buckingham Palace.
All the staff awaited us on the steps and along the foyer inside the home. They ‘ooh’d and ‘ahh’d’ over Mia, and I couldn’t blame them. She’s the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen in my life. And she’s mine.
Cameron helped me upstairs and got Mia settled into her nursery. He quickly went downstairs to meet with the staff and discuss what happened with Tesh. Meanwhile, I was alone with Mia in the nursery, full of my father’s influence and looking down at my daughter.
I’m barely out of college. I run a small franchise of a coffee shop and thinking about expanding the menu to be more hip-hop flavored. I have money, excellent credit, and a beautiful baby girl who perfectly combines her father and me.
I’m an unwilling participant in being connected to a drug lord. Cameron is out of the street game, but his hands aren’t immaculate. I see a lot of that money is washed through various businesses, and he has bank accounts on top of bank accounts.
I’m also not a fool. Whatever happened today was not by accident. Cameron didn’t want to tell me the details about everything in the car and just wanted to enjoy our first car ride home as a family. Now that we’re home, I don’t have to worry about Cameron being locked up.
My next thought is Cameron’s revenge. He will not let this go until he finds out who set him up.
My eyes squeeze tight to blink back tears. I know it’s not me being emotional because I just had a baby; it’s the unpredictable nature of the street game. Cameron hasn’t been a part of it in a whole year, yet he’s somebody’s target. Somebody is sending a message to him.
But why? Everyone knows he’s out of the game. There was a truce, and Cameron was rarely seen in town. The only thing that’s changed is the…
I steady myself on Mia’s crib as I gasp for air. The most significant difference between when Cameron was still running everything and now is more drug-related deaths. Dealers have been mixing Fentanyl with drugs, and more people are dying than ever.
Cameron is being targeted because somebody doesn’t just want his spot; they want a war. I don’t have to wonder if Cameron will give them one. He’ll give everyone the end of times if he’s pushed far enough.
~~~~~
An hour later, Cameron enters the bedroom with a food tray and sets it on my bedside table. It’s filled with a small glass of beer for breastfeeding and other foods such as avocado, filet mignon, balsamic green beans, and some artisan cheeses. There is also another bottle of just plain, ice-cold water.
Throughout my pregnancy, I never had a bad meal here or elsewhere. Tesh and Cameron made sure I got the best nutrition and paid to make sure I would get it. Of course, I indulged, and I had a crazy ice cream fixation the moment I realized I wasn’t gaining that much weight.
Cameron helps me sit up, and he sits beside me. He grabs my hand and kisses it before he leans over to kiss me. It’s not a sensual kiss like he’s used to giving. He doesn’t want to send the wrong message, and I applaud him for respecting me.
He sighs and grips my hand tighter. Our first full day as a family wasn’t one, and I know there’s nothing he can say or do that would make it right. We both will remember it forever, and we seriously doubt it’s a story Mia will ever learn.
The question is, where do we go from here?
