Page 101 of Into the Blue
Do I feel it?
Fuck. Yes.
Months. Weeks over weeks I went to her for comfort and it was her who had been causing everything that was going wrong in my empire. She was right. I was down on product and losing money every day just to maintain what was left.
I want to know how.
I need to know why.
How could she align with the very men who hurt her?
“These men—Racquelle, they left you broken and bloody on my doorstep as a message to me.”
She tuts, “A small faction of my men. They followed Junior without question. It is a problem we’re resolving on this end. Everyone who matters supports this next chapter for the family.”
“What is this?” The ground has opened up and swallowed me whole. Everything I thought I knew about this woman... Raw emotion suffuses my next question. “Who are you?”
“None of that is important. While I have you on the phone, I’d like to discuss a time to go over our next steps.” She says with no inflection to give me any indication that she is feeling or understands how deeply she’s cutting me.
“Next steps?” I scoff. “You think I’m gonna work with someone who smiled in my face and laid in my bed ALL WHILE THEY WERE GUTTIN’ ME?” My voice rises to a level I’ve never used with her.
I’ve never yelled or screamed at her.
It’s not within my character to do it either.
I’m spiraling as my mind tries to make sense of all the signs I missed. How I couldn’t see that she was somehow responsible for all the bad things that have happened in the past six months.
Despite my yelling, Racquelle’s voice is reasonable, like she’s giving me an option as innocent as left or right. “What choice do you have?”
My hand rests on my knife as I fight to keep my voice at a reasonable level. “Between workin’ with an enemy or bettin’ on me? The choice is simple.”
“Don’t do this,” she seems to stumble over the “M” consonant in my name before correcting to, “Blue. I don’t have to be an enemy if you can be reasonable.”
“Reasonable?” The laugh that rises from my chest tastes just like venom as it poisons the air around me.
Making this call in the privacy of my office was a smart idea. I don’t know how my men would react to seeing me like this. Appearance iseverything. This woman has made me look like a fool in more ways than I can even begin to process right now. “Oh, is itreasonableto do business with someone who tricked you and lied to you?”
Her slow exhale sits heavy on my shoulders. “For one second, I need you to think.Think rationally.Consider that I am the other player in this game. Not the woman who you brought to your home and kept there. Before you, the plan was always the same. Then you took me. I did the best with what I had and when you stop to think about it, I’ve done better than most.
“I can help you succeed and do even better numbers than you were doing before. It doesn’t have to be hard, but it will be different. That is a promise.”
She might as well stop wasting her breath. This is a betrayal that cuts deeper than any I’ve had to deal with in the past. No one has ever hurt me like she just has. Icaredfor this woman. I went against all my better judgments to do right by her. To keep her safe and protected while I settled things. “What you’re saying means nothin’ to me. Just like none of your words meant anythin’ in the past six months.”
“You’re thinking emotionally—”
“Damn right I am! I claimed you. I protected you. I stood by you even when I knew you were lying to me.” I drop into my office seat, the weight of all that has come to light, hitting me like a freight train. I put my face in my hands, defeated.Fuck. She played me.“How could I have known you kept all this from me? What more could you want from me?”
“Blue—” The sound of my name on her lips is a siren’s call. Noise meant to lure me to my demise. This woman used me and brought about the destruction of everything I built. I lost good men and women. She stole from me.
“Fuck. That.” I seethe.
She attempts to gentle me with her tone. That sultry pull present at my eardrums. “I never wanted it to be this way.”
“Bullshit. If I see you again, it’s on sight. I’ve got a knife with your name on it. Come find out what it means to cross me.”
I end the call with half a mind to go end every Faye life in the building right now. The thought scratches my mind and leaves just as quickly.
This is not the kind of boss I am.
