Black Diamond 2 Read online

  “I love you,” he whispered gently, almost like sweet poetry.

  With just the sound of those two words my body began to shake and my juices were running down his fingers and forming a puddle in the palm of his hand. I wanted to return the favor but he didn’t allow me to. He got on his knees and slowly pushed his dick inside of me. He wasn’t fucking me like he had any other time. He was making love to me and I was making love to him. I could lie in that position forever, with him inside of me.

  “I love you more,” I finally whispered back after a few minutes of his slow lovemaking. With a slow lick of his ear and the tightening of my pussy walls he erupted inside of me. His sweat was dripping all over my face and I didn’t even budge to wipe it off. I let it dry into my skin. I wanted all of him, even the perspiration from our lovemaking. After lying next to each other quietly for a few minutes the thoughts of my earlier encounter crossed my mind. I didn’t want to fuck up the mood but I had to know what was on his mind and what his plan was. Shit, I could have been killed so I had every reason to be nervous.

  “What are we going to do, Black? I mean, if he’s really alive we’re as good as dead.” I was still lying next to him with my head nestled in his chest. I could hear his heart beating and surprisingly it hadn’t skipped a beat.

  “I told you I would take care of it. Kemp doesn’t scare me—he never has—but it can’t be him, we both know that he’s dead. I’m just focused on who the hell else knows what happened.”

  In a way I believed that what Black said was true, but hell, everyone was afraid of Kemp—or at least I thought that they were. Black was strong and it was one of the things that I loved most about him. I mean, who wanted to be with a wimp? Every woman wanted a man that could protect her. I wasn’t crazy and I wanted to know who the culprit was just as much if not even more than Black.

  “I know you told me Black, but we aren’t together twenty-four hours a day. How can you protect me when you’re not around? You saw what just happened.”

  “I know we’re not together all the time but I have eyes everywhere. You have to trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ve got you now and I’m not letting you go. You just can’t put yourself out there like that again, babe. You have to work with me until I figure out what the hell is going on here.”

  Listen to him getting all sentimental, I thought. I smiled inside because for once I believed that it was true. I’d finally found a man that told me he loved me and meant it. Some would say that Kemp was in love with me and there were even some crazy people that would say Davey was too. I knew the truth and the fact of the matter is neither one of them really loved me. I was just something they could show off and be proud of. They could say they made me and yes, I admit it, they did make me. I didn’t have shit before I met Davey and after my stint in prison I didn’t have shit when I met Kemp either, so it wasn’t a lie that I still wouldn’t have shit if it weren’t for them.

  See, with Davey I was young and dumb. I fell for every word that he said and it didn’t matter how many times he cheated or did me wrong, making up was always so good. He’d spoil me; he’d give me anything I wanted and I couldn’t turn any of that away. I was living the good life—shit, much better than that raggedy-ass row home in North Philly. I had a huge apartment, a nice car, and a walk-in closet full of designer clothes and shoes. Yeah, it sounds foolish but when you come from my background you cling on to things that feel better even though there are bumps along the way. I remember feeling like there was no other man for me and begged Davey to stay when he’d threaten to leave. Because of all of the drama in my life, the nine months I spent in prison for Davey came to mind. That was the turning point in my life. Some would say that it wasn’t in a good direction but I felt that it did. If you can emerge from a situation so devastating and come out on top it has to count for something. The days that I sat in my jail cell I had a lot of time to think. I thought about the time that he gave me a STD and defended the chick that he had locked in his bedroom, nearly choking me to death. I thought about the time that he talked me into having a threesome, which later ended up sold on DVD in the streets. If that wasn’t bad enough, I learned that the woman I had sex with—for him, might I add—was the mother of his child—a child that I never knew he’d fathered. Then there was the straw that broke the camel’s back, after doing a drop-off for him I was arrested when it turned out to be a setup. So there I was in the detention center serving time and he didn’t bother to answer my calls, letters, send me a penny, or pay me a visit. It was almost as if he’d forgotten about me the day that they took me in. I was distraught. What the hell was I supposed to do? When I came home, I was broke as a bum on the corner. I had no place, no money, clothes or transportation. If it weren’t for Kiki, I would have either landed in a shelter or back in North Philly with my hating-ass Aunt Cicely and all of her damn kids! I had to do something—something to survive. So any critic that thought I was wrong for searching out a man like Kemp in order to get to the top, could pucker up and kiss my ass because they weren’t in my shoes to say what I should or shouldn’t have done. But hey, if I wouldn’t have met Kemp, I wouldn’t have met Black and that’s the wonderful thing—the thing that kept me smiling.

  Black got off the sofa and I knew that it was time for work. Damn, I wanted to enjoy this moment. Being the head of an empire had its downfalls too. You never really get too much quality time. He walked upstairs to the bathroom as I lay there watering at the mouth. His body was a masterpiece. The muscles in his back were sculpted to perfection. His skin was smooth as melted chocolate and the sweat from our lovemaking gave his body just the right amount of shine. His ass was perfect too. I’d never seen an ass like his on a man. I just wanted to lie next to it all day long. Within a few seconds I heard the shower running and following that I smelled his Sean John body wash filling the air. I inhaled and got chills. I wanted to go meet him in the shower for round two but I knew he had to go to work. I rolled over and closed my eyes. I wasn’t sleepy but my mind was exhausted. I knew that I would drive myself crazy trying to figure out how the hell I had gotten myself into this mess. I was so careful—well, at least I thought that I was. Black emerged from the bathroom about fifteen minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist. By then I was sitting on the edge of the bed in the bedroom.

  “Are you gonna be okay? If not, I’ll get JB to send someone over here. Matter fact, I will have him do that anyway. I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

  Though I wasn’t really comfortable having the workers in my house, it was the best thing to do. I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to rest anyway, wondering if someone would creep in here while I was asleep and kill me. It may sound silly, but it was the truth—I was scared shitless.

  “That’s fine, I’d feel better with someone here anyway,” I agreed. Black walked toward the closet and began to get dressed. I just sat there admiring him. I wondered how I’d gotten so lucky and found a man like him. I wished that I had found him a long time ago. Maybe then I wouldn’t be sitting here fearing for my life. After he’d finished getting dressed he walked over to my side of the bed and kissed me good-bye.

  I fell asleep and woke up around seven A.M. to a ringing cell phone. Who the hell was calling me so early? I fumbled through my bag lying on the bedside table to find it.

  “Hello,” I said in a low tone. I hadn’t even fully opened my eyes yet. There were specks of light peeping in through the blinds, which nearly gave me a headache—probably from my lack of sleep.

  “Babe, you won’t believe this shit!” Black’s loud voice woke me up instantly.

  “What? What happened?” I was nervous. I didn’t really want to hear the answer as I sat up in bed and fought with the sun to fully open my eyes.

  “The fucking store on Hunting Park is burning down! I need to know what muthafucker had something to do with this. When I find his ass it’s going to be a war for real.”

  “The store is burning down?” I couldn’
t believe it. I mean, it wasn’t as if it was a big money spot but, shit, it did make money. What the hell were they trying to prove? This is definitely not what I wanted to wake up to. I knew things could only get worse from that point on. I was second-guessing myself again. Who else but Kemp would have something to gain by terrorizing us? That night flashed in front of me like a film on television. I walked into my house as I did on any other day but when I pulled up in the driveway and noticed the car we’d let Mica use while she was working on getting back on her feet. It was strange because we hadn’t seen each other in five years but in a few short weeks we’d become closer than we were before. In a way, I still felt bad about the fact that her brother murdered their father but I knew as well as she that I had no part of that. I loved her brother, and there was no way I’d want him to land in prison for the rest of his life. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted that our relationship could get back on track. Maybe I was a fool for thinking a woman couldn’t possibly be interested in the person that murdered her man right in front of her. There I was, walking up the stairs with my heart beating a hundred beats a minute. I felt in my heart that something was wrong. Okay, yes, I planned to get rid of Kemp but I never thought I’d get betrayed by her.

  As I made my way down the hall I could see the flickering of a candle and could hear the faint sounds of moaning. I walked slowly to avoid being heard. I almost burst when I saw her straddled on top of him. I instantly wanted to speak, yell, scream or do something other than what I was doing. I was standing there like a statue. My body was doing something totally different than my mind. In my mind I was moving in on them, letting my presence be known but my feet weren’t budging. Instead, I stuck my hand into my bag and pulled out my handgun—a handgun that I carried for protection. This protective tool was now a weapon and before I knew it, blood was spraying all over the bed, walls, and pretty much every surface in the room. I didn’t know what to do next. My first thought was to throw things around and make the house appear to have been robbed. I didn’t bother to check and make sure they were both dead, all I could think about was getting out of the house without being seen. I hurried out of the house and returned just in enough time to find the police and ambulance scattered all around the driveway and lawn. I put on the performance of the grieving wife and was picked up by Kiki, who took me over to her apartment for the night. By the note and the recent incidents, I was sure someone knew what I’d done—but whom? But then, I was so disoriented I didn’t even notice Black in his car watching me run into the car in a sweat suit carting a handful of trash bags. I could have missed someone else—hell, he could have missed someone else.

  I was becoming angrier by the minute and the conversation with Black wasn’t going that great either. I wanted to know what the hell was going on as I snapped back to reality.

  “Yeah, I’ll talk to you about it when I get home. I’m trying to wrap shit up with the cops now.”

  “Black—”

  “I’ll talk to you when I get home, I have to go.”

  Click!

  I sat there and stared at the phone. I was tempted to call him back. I wanted to know what the hell was going on with my store. It just didn’t make sense to me and Black’s attitude wasn’t making things any better. Yes, he ran the businesses but shit, I owned everything, so technically he worked for me. So the fact that he was being so brief was really pissing me off. I got up out of bed and rummaged through my closet for something to wear. I had to go down to the store and see it for myself. Black would be pissed but hell, I was pissed right now so he’d just have to deal with me being there. I put on a Juicy Couture sweat suit and headed out of the door. I still had to look the part since there’d probably be cameras and shit at the scene. I couldn’t be caught slipping, not even on a bad day. I sped down to the store in the Mercedes-Benz Black bought me last month, which was a good thing since my Jaguar was sitting on two flats. I immediately noticed the yellow tape and police officers blocking off the scene. I could only get within a two-block radius. I parked and got out to walk over. Black smoke filled the air and you could see the three fire trucks pouring water onto the building. People were crowding around, trying to get a glimpse of the building. I heard a few old ladies talking as I walked by.

  “There she goes, right there. I’m glad that fucking store is burning.”

  “Yes, keep the drugs off of our block!”

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t even turn around to see who said what. It didn’t matter. I knew how they felt—I felt that way once. I lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and crackheads, and I hated it. So I’m sure people would wonder how I could grow up and fall into the same line of work. Well, the answer is pretty simple: money. Money was my motivation and after all that I’d been through there wasn’t any other job out there for me. I saw Black, JB, and a few other workers in a huddle near the corner. I walked over.

  “What are you doing here?” he yelled.

  “I had to see the store for myself.”

  “You don’t need to be here.” He grabbed me by the arm so we could walk away from the workers.

  “Yes, I do, Black, it’s my store.”

  “Okay, now that you’ve seen it, you can go home.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Why do you have to be so stubborn? Just go home and I’ll take care of it.”

  I stood there silent. I wanted to believe that he could but I wasn’t so sure looking at the building burning to the ground. Whoever it was definitely wasn’t going to stop until we were both out of the picture. I wasn’t going to stand out there in front of everyone and argue with him so I agreed to leave and quietly headed toward my car. I was angry. Not at Kemp or Black but at myself for letting this happen. I got in the car and looked around to see if I saw anyone suspicious. Who the hell was I looking for? For some reason, I still hoped I’d see Kemp. At least that way we’d know who to look for. I didn’t really think they’d be stupid enough to hang around the scene but shit, that could be cockiness too. If it were Kemp, he knew we’d never turn him into the cops after what I’d done to him and Mica and if it wasn’t him we wouldn’t know where to start pointing the finger anyway. I was paranoid. I started the car to drive home. I had to clear my head. I couldn’t live the rest of my life looking over my shoulders wondering when someone was going to kill me. I had to focus on something else so that I could move on with my life. Black wouldn’t let anything happen to me. He promised me that and I had to believe him. I had to obtain that thug mentality that men have, the one that sheds all of the fear. I had to learn the tricks of the trade if I wanted to make it in this business.

  Chapter 2

  Black

  Mind over Matter

  “So what’s the next move?” JB stared at me, waiting to hear something. I didn’t know what the next move was. How can I know what to do to a nigga that’s supposed to be dead? And then, what if it wasn’t him after all? I’d be wasting time looking for him and someone else could catch me off guard. I wasn’t trying to get caught slipping. I had to figure this shit out.

  “Let’s go to the house, I don’t want to stand out here and talk,” I replied before turning to walk toward the car. I honestly wanted some time to think. Being alone on the drive would hopefully help me decide what I was supposed to do next.

  “Cool, meet you there in twenty minutes.”

  I got in my car and headed toward the safe house. I didn’t even turn the music on. I was too deep in thought. I had to either figure out what their next move was or wait for them to slip up and reveal their identity. I knew Kemp like the back of my hand and with enough thought I knew I could figure him out. But an unknown assailant wouldn’t be that easy. Shit was just going as planned. I had snagged the woman I wanted. Diamond was the perfect woman with the business and respect to go along with it. I was turning into the king that I worked hard to become. I’d be damned if I was going to let a muthafucker come in and snatch it away from me. The ride seemed longer than normal sin
ce my mind was completely occupied. Everything was moving in slow motion. Diamond kept calling my cell but each time it rang, I sent it to voicemail. I couldn’t talk to her right at that moment—shit, I didn’t know what to say. I had promised her that I would protect her and now it didn’t look like I could. She was always so dramatic so I knew that it would turn into a long, drawn-out episode and I wasn’t in the mood for the soap opera shit right then.

  JB, Tommy, and Kenyon were waiting outside when I pulled up at the safe house. Like three soldiers they stood waiting for orders. With three totally different personalities and all from different backgrounds, they made the perfect army. JB was from uptown, an only child whose only parent was the TV. Most times he’d steal from the corner stores to eat. His mother had been locked up for armed robbery since he was seven and at ten he moved in with his drug-addicted aunt. Getting high was her main concern so her children were forced to grow up long before their time. JB refused to go back to foster care so he struggled to keep things in order when the social workers would come to visit. He met Kemp when he was seventeen while trying to get into the drug game. Kemp noticed his potential and quickly took him under his wing. Tommy was from West Philly and what I’d call a loose cannon. Tommy came from a two-parent middle-class home but stayed in so much trouble he was put in the youth study center at fifteen. He was released after his eighteenth birthday right into the arms of Kemp. Tommy didn’t know any other way to survive since he had a criminal record. The fast life grabbed ahold of him and hadn’t let him go ever since.