Page 1 of Love & Vendettas
1 – ZAIRE – ESSENCE
“On another note, we have the name of the other player who’s put their hat in the ring for mayor,” Kim Bridges, my special undercover operator, informs me.
“Let me guess, Jessi Franklin?”
“Actually, she changed her mind about running for mayor. I haven’t gotten the inside scoop on that yet, but as soon as I do, Z, you’ll be the first one to know.”
Smiling at her, I tap the long, oval glass conference table and reply. “You’re slipping, Kimmie baby. Are you losing your touch?”
Rolling her eyes, she sucks her teeth and replies with sass. “Never that, baby. You’re trying the wrong bitch.”
“Okay, then, why don’t you know what’s going on with Jessi Franklin?”
“Because she hasn’t shared it with anyone yet,” Kim remarks, leaning back in her chair at the other end of the table.
I watch as she plucks imaginary lint from her pink Chanel suit.
“Go ahead, girl. Humor us. How do you know?” Aris Waters, my data analyst, asks.
“Let’s just say her husband’s head game is tight. By the time his face left my twat last night, he was ready to tell me all her secrets.”
“Bitch.” Janel Howard, one of three assassins that I have on my payroll, remarks as she leans in to give Kim five.
Shaking my head, I don’t say a word, but I’m called on that subtle movement anyway.
“What?” Kim asks.
“I said nothing.” I plead my case, biting back a smirk.
“But you wanted to.”
“Since when have you ever known me to bite my tongue?” I ask.
“Never. But look, you’re the one who said do whatever it takes to get the job done short of getting locked up or killed. Why not have a little fun along the way?” Kim asks, laughing.
“You have to put a bitch on game,” Janel comments.
I glance at Aris, who is shaking her head and staring at her laptop. But I also see the tiny smile dancing around her lips.
I glance around at the men in the room, and they look as if they want to cry. All of them, except Parker Jones, my VP of Operations of The Knight Group, would give their left leg to get in Kim’s pants, but she says she sees them all like brothers.
I appreciate that because they all know how I feel about fraternization. They can fuck anyone else anywhere else in my business, but not amongst this team. I don’t have time or the space for negative energy or relationship blues in my core elite circle. That bullshit impacts business.
“So, who is running against Martin Brassard if not Jessi Franklin? She was the only one who I could see taking him down,” Hakeem Steele, my accountant, points out.
Kim brushes her fingers over her lapel. “So, ask me how I got this information before I tell you who it is.”
“Damn, is it that good?” Malik Edwards, my other assassin, asks.
“Even better than that good.”
“I don’t give a damn who you fucked to get the information, Kim. I just want to know who it is,” Parker, who is also my right-hand man, speaks up, sharing my precise thoughts.
Perhaps because he’s been by my side since my early days in the streets, he always seems to know just what I’m thinking. I seldom need to speak up and say a word because he’s always got his finger on the pulse of my thoughts.
I sit back in my chair, crossing my arms, and stare at Kim.
“Aww, Parkie Pooh. You take all the fun out of everything. So, I’m going to tell you anyway, although you might not want to hear it. I was at the nightclub the other night with this person’s best friend. She’d had one too many drinks, and her tongue got a little loose. She started talking shit about what’s going on in city hall because she works down there. I told her that’s where all the gossip seems to happen. Then she told me that there was one conversation that hadn’t seen the light of day at City Hall yet. I asked her what, and she said her best friend was going to announce Monday morning that she was running for mayor.”
