Page 2 of His Aries Heiress
She shook her head and straightened out her wrinkled blue T-shirt. Nobody could ease her pain, but especially not him, so she didn’t justify that with a response. She simply held her head high, even though she felt as though the dam would break at any moment, and walked out of the bar. Her skin crawled because she could feel Austin’s eyes on her as she walked away. There was something about him that really didn’t sit right with her.
Once the cool afternoon air hit her, she inhaled a staggered breath and rushed toward her beat up car. It was maroon with rust in random spots and old as dirt, but it was the same car her parents bought her when she was sixteen. She adored the car and appreciated that it always got her from point A to B. One day, she planned to buy a new one, but as she got into the car, her already dark mood got even darker. Without her master’s in public relations, she wasn’t confident that she could own her own public relations firm one day. She already had her bachelor’s in strategic communications, but her master’s meant so much to her. Cassydie was used to being the best at what she did, and she’d been working hard toward her degree for a long time now. She felt like a failure, which caused a rainfall of thoughts to swarm her mind, one being that she would never be able to afford a new car.
“Guess it’s just me and you, Marlon,” she whispered to her car as she rubbed the dash and then started it up.
On the drive home, she opted for complete silence, outside of the sound of her sniffles and blowing her nose with napkins she found in the glove compartment. Misery had found her and wrapped her in its embrace, but she always thought misery loved company. God must have missed that memo when it came to her, because she was completely alone.
When she pulled up to her apartment, she parked and then wiped her tears before she grabbed the piece of paper from the middle console. The walk toward her first floor apartment was slow as she looked down at the paper. There were only a few sentences typed on it. The name of her mother and father:
Gregory ‘Grim’ Malone
Addison Malone
Cassydie wondered what Grim meant. Surely that couldn’t be his middle name. The next line was the city they resided, which she already knew:
Ellwood
And under that was the name of a hospital:
United Hospital located downtown Ellwood
She let out a heavy breath, and then her stomach dropped when she looked up as she approached her apartment door. Heat filled her body, which caused her toffee colored skin to turn red from embarrassment as she read the note attached to her door.
Evictionwas written in bright red letters. She snatched the paper down and hurried to unlock her door. Once inside the cramped apartment, she let the two pieces of paper slip from her grasp as she slid to the floor along with them.
This time, she allowed her tears to flow freely as she sobbed into her hands. Her life was so fucked up, and she wasn’t surehow she would pick herself up from the depths of despair. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
After what felt like an hour, all her tears had dried, and her puffy eyes landed on the piece of paper just in front of her feet. The word Ellwood peered back at her, and she realized she had nothing else to lose and nothing more keeping her in Philadelphia.
Slowly, as her mind accepted what she was about to do, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked her bank account. She had just under three hundred dollars left to her name. She wondered if that would be enough to get her to Ellwood before she decided she would make it enough.
Impulsiveness had always been in her nature, so it felt normal for her to slowly rise to her feet and look around the apartment. Most of the things there would be left behind, but there were some things she would pack to make living out of her car easier. She would also pack up everything that reminded her of her parents and best friend. Those things she would never part with, but everything else . . . She sighed. It was officially time to say goodbye to her old life. She didn’t even know if a new life existed for her, but she did know she had just enough energy and hope to at least try.
Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac, which means he never follows. He always leads.
Marcellus never caredfor these meetings. He was a man of action and less about strategizing, but he knew one day that would have to change.
He watched as Grim gave his report of the last month as the other men and women attending the meeting listened closely. Marcellus’s mind drifted as he fought not to doze off, while his hand stroked his beard. He felt someone nudge him, and he frowned as he glanced at the man beside him.
“You good, Cell?” Peso whispered. The nigga was a cool dude, so Marcellus let it rock. They’d been knowing each other sincethe sandbox, anyway, so he knew Peso ain’t mean no harm by nudging him. If it had been anyone else, he would have pulled his gun out and popped him right between the eyes. The issue with that was Peso’s twin brother, Pop, wouldn’t have given Marcellus one second to think about his impulsive actions before he avenged his brother’s death.
All that filtered through his mind before he gave Peso a slow nod. Peso nodded back and focused his attention on Grim once again.
Marcellus did his best to focus on his mentor, but he almost immediately zoned out. He knew these council meetings were necessary. Most people didn’t know that Ellwood was the hub for anything illegal moving within the country. The council, which consisted of all the major players in the operation, made sure to keep their own city pretty clean. Not to say they didn’t have illegal happenings there, too, but they preferred to spread their dirt in other places so they could sleep easily and have a sense of peace.
Marcellus had been lucky. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. His life started out pretty shitty. Same old sad story that a lot of niggas from the hood had. Absent father and dope head mother who eventually died from an overdose. When his mother was alive, she didn’t care much about him. If it wasn’t for the old heads in the Ellway Projects, he would have likely died from starvation. His luck turned around when he was eight years old and he met Grim.
The name had always been a myth on the streets. Even as a kid, Marcellus had heard whispers of the street legend. It wasn’t until the man himself pulled up on him and stopped him from eating out of the trash can that he learned Grim was anything but a myth. He was real, and not only that, he was the realest nigga Marcellus would ever get the pleasure of meeting.
Grim, though his name might suggest otherwise, had a kind heart, especially when it came to kids. He gave Marcellus an extravagant roof over his head, the most expensive threads, and most importantly, the game. He taught Marcellus how to be a man and how to run the streets. Not in the sense of slangin’ dope and kickin’ it with knuckleheads heading straight to jail or an early grave. Nah, Marcellus was given much more than that. He was given access to the elite niggas. The people who woke up and put on the most expensive threads, owned mansions, and drove the top of the line cars. The men and women who ruled with iron fists and were both feared and loved. The people who were whispered about across the country but never seen. Marcellus grew up calling street legends auntie and uncle. He spent holidays with them and knew their children, who were now taking over one by one. He had access to generational wealth and knowledge, and understood how blessed he was.
The problem was Marcellus had a simmering rage inside him that would never really go away. He was a live wire, and he knew that was the only reason Grim hadn’t stepped down yet and handed all his responsibilities over to Marcellus. As he looked at the older man, a small part of him felt bad. Grim was definitely getting older, and he deserved to retire. He’d left a huge mark in the hood. He survived and hadn’t ended up under the prison or in a grave. Marcellus was the only one holding the man back from retiring peacefully. Grim had given him most of the responsibility and showed him the ropes, but Marcellus’s hot head prevented the man from stepping back completely.
Grim had finished giving his report and sat down next to Marcellus, who tried to focus on King Ro, who now paced the length of the opulent room as he spoke. As the plug of their entire operation, people might argue that he was the most powerful person there. Marcellus would definitely argue that. He didn’t care what his title was or who he sat next to. Hewas the most powerful nigga in any room he stepped into. As an Aries, he was a natural born leader, and as far as he was concerned, niggas needed to bow down to him. He didn’t call it cocky. He called it facts.
Still, nothing moved without King Ro.Nothing.And King Ro’s name didn’t ring bells in the streets because nobody knew who he was. The same was true for his father and his grandfather who had run the shit before him.
“Pay attention, youngblood. I need you on your toes,” Grim muttered. His eyes never left King Ro as he spoke to the man he raised as a son.
