The Cartel - Ashley Antoinette Snell [77]
Chapter Sixteen
“Just do your job and be my fucking bulletproof. That’s what being a rich, spoiled, dumb little bitch gets you—a mu’fucka like you to take bullets for me.”
—Breeze
“Hi, you’ve reached Miamor. Unfortunately I’m unavailable right now. Leave me a message, and I’ll return your call.”
Carter hung up his phone and sighed deeply from frustration. Miamor refused to take any of his calls. Each time he attempted to contact her, she gave him the fuck-you button and sent him straight to voice mail. He knew that his mind needed to be on his paper chase, but the feelings that he had begun to develop for her was unlike anything he’d ever experienced with a woman. He had never found any one who held his interest in the way that she did, and now he was kicking himself for being so stupid. He knew what it must have looked like, but he never intended on taking the girl from the club home with him. She was just someone to entertain him and his boys for the time being. He knew that it didn’t make his actions any less hurtful in Miamor’s eyes, and he hoped that she gave him the chance to make things right with her before she decided to write him off completely.
Carter maneuvered his car in front of Ace and Zyir’s building then called upstairs to let them know he was outside. It was time for him to get focused. With his own team in town, money was sure to flow. The sooner he got paid, the sooner he could avenge his brother’s murder and move on with his life. He was on a three-year hustle plan for Miami. He wanted to flip and re-flip his money into the hundred-million-dollar range, and he knew that it was entirely possible, considering Miami’s lucrative drug trade, and his father’s real estate company, to which he was now the acting CEO.
Ace and Zyir hopped into Carter’s truck, and he pulled away from the curb.
“Yo, fam, what was that shit that happened with you and that chick in the club last night?” Ace asked. He had noticed his friend’s demeanor change drastically, but was too wrapped up in his female acquaintance to address it.
“Man, some ol’ crazy shit. The chick Miamor that Zyir brought over to the table, I been kicking it with her since I’ve been down here. I didn’t know she was in the building. My actions would’ve been a whole lot different, nah mean?” he stated with a smirk.
Zyir laughed from the backseat. “Shorty was tight. I could see that shit all on her face. I ain’t mean to throw salt in your game, fam.”
“It’s all good,” Carter said. “I’m about to introduce the two of you to my family. This is serious, and all jokes aside, whenever they are around, it has to be about protecting them. I’m not trying to see anything else happen to them. They’ve been through enough, and I’m all they have left right now, at least until Mecca comes home.”
Carter pulled up to the gated home and greeted some of the security he had hired to post up around the premises. He parked his truck directly in front of the magnificent house.
“Damn, yo’ people’s paid, fam.” Zyir got out and admired the massive estate.
Carter walked into the house and was immediately greeted by Taryn.
“Carter, it’s so good to see you, sweetheart,” she said as she hugged him. “Have you eaten? I can fix you something if you’d like.”
“No, I’m fine, Taryn. Thanks. I came by to introduce you to my friends from Up Top. They are in town because of everything that’s been going on with this war.”
“Well, if they can help, then I am certainly pleased to meet them.”
Ace stepped up first and held out his hand. “Hello, ma’am. I’m Ace,” he said politely.
Taryn smiled graciously and accepted his hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ace, but please call me Taryn.”
“And this is Zyir,” Carter said, making the introduction for his second partner.
“I’m glad to have you both here,” Taryn said with