As we walked to my car, I couldn’t ignore the sadness in my father’s expression. He would never tell me straight up that he didn’t want me to become an enforcer full time, and I respected him more for that. He and Mama Neo guided me to the best of their abilities, but at the end of the day, it was my life and my choices to make. I was the one who would have to deal with the consequences of the choices I made, but I also knew they could potentially affect them too.
“I trust your intuition, but I don’t trust this Iman nigga. Don’t be so blinded by the opportunity to work for his organization that you ignore the red flags. If anything feels off, leave. I retired, but you know I’ll turn this whole city red behind my boy.”
“Yes, sir. I know,” I agreed, giving him a hug.
“I ain’t burying you, and I ain’t making your mamas visit you behind no fucking glass. If you gon’ do this shit... stay dangerous.”
Gritting my teeth, I inhaled a shaky breath as he released me. “I will.”
His eyes watered as he squeezed my shoulder for a few seconds before he brushed his nose, nodded his head, and walked away. I couldn’t imagine how hard this was for him, but it meant a lot to me that he’d finally accepted what I wanted to do.
Chapter
Two
Heir Robinson
I should have knownwhen I didn’t text my daddy back that he would call me. If I didn’t answer, his next move was going to be pulling up to my job. That was one of the bad things about still living with my parents. Though I made more than enough money to pay my own bills, they wanted me to stay home until I was married. I took advantage and stayed home because it allowed me to spend my money on what I wanted. But on days like today, when work was crazy and I stayed behind later than anyone else, my daddy was the one who called me out on that shit.
He didn’t want me working such a stressful job to begin with, so anytime I worked late, expressed my grievances with the position, or worked with a difficult client, Jeremy Robinson was ready to quit my job for me.
Sitting back in my seat, I massaged my temple and pulled in a deep breath before answering Daddy’s call.
“Hey, Daddy,” I said, closing my eyes as my head throbbed. I’d taken Tylenol a couple of hours ago and still hadn’t been able to shake this headache. I was starting to think it was a slight migraine, because the throbbing was getting worse and the bright lighting in my office was painful. As long as I didn’t start to feel nauseous, I’d be fine.
“I know you ain’t still at that office.”
Smiling, I lowered my head. “Yes, but I won’t be here much longer. If I can’t figure it out today, I’ll start back on it tomorrow.”
He sighed before asking, “Have you eaten today, Heir?”
“No, sir. Maybe that’s why my head is killing me. I planned to go out for lunch but this account?—”
“I’m on my way up there.”
“Daddy, I?—”
Not bothering to hear me out, he ended the call. All I could do was laugh. I knew there was no point in me trying to call him back and convince him that he didn’t have to come to my office. He wouldn’t be able to settle down this evening until I was home, and he knew if he came up here, that was the quickest way to get me to shut down.
I checked the time on my phone, noticing it was almost seven in the evening. All of my coworkers had left around two or three this afternoon because we closed early on Fridays. Typically I would be right behind them, but this particular account was working me five times as hard as my usual ones. A lot of numbers, expenses, and deposits weren’t adding up. I’d been trying not to think the worst and assume he was into something illegal, but the deeper I dove into his old CPA’s notes and files, the more I realized that may have been the only explanation.
Iman had quite a few transactional red flags, and though that was enough cause for concern, that was something he could easily explain away if questioned. What I was most concernedabout was what looked like money laundering and tax evasion. If I couldn’t make the structuring of his deposits make sense, figure out why he was making so many large wire transfers to untraceable accounts, and verify a lot of the organizations he claimed to be donating to, I would have to flag his account and report it for internal escalation.
I wasn’t sure how long had passed of me looking over the broken down transactions before Daddy arrived, but my nausea had picked up as he made his way into my office. He rushed over to me as I gagged and tried not to throw up, though honestly, I didn’t have anything to throw up because I hadn’t eaten.
Grumbling under his breath, Daddy quickly pulled the large fry from McDonald’s out of the bag and handed it to me. I shook my head but forced a fry down as he shoved a straw into the small Coke. As I took small sips of the drink, he cut the lights and my TV off in the office, then leaned against my desk. He watched as I ate one fry after another until they all were gone. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I had already started to feel a little better. My eyes weren’t as sensitive to light, and the throbbing, though still there, had subsided a bit.
“Why do you subject yourself to this, Princess?” he asked softly.
“It’s my job, Daddy. I have to make sure things are on the up and up.”
“At the expense of your health?”
My head shook as I ran my fingers down my neck and looked at Iman’s papers that were scattered across my desk. “It’s not always like this. I’ve gone through this file three times now, and I think that’s why I had a migraine. Headache. Whatever. And I hadn’t eaten. I feel better now.”
His breath came out hard as he stood and cut the light back on. “How long are you going to be here, Heir?”
“I want to look over the file one last time, just to make sure I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing.”