𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 {𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙚𝙡 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣}

3~{𝒯𝒽ℯ ℰ𝓃𝓉ℯ𝓇𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓈ℯ}

"Sometimes you gotta play the role of the fool to fool the fool who thinks they are fooling you."

~~~

Saturday, May 22nd

Afternoon

~Michael~

I knew it was wrong, but something in me made me do it. I can't tell what it was, but it made itself very clear.

I should've taken her out the moment she came over. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. For some odd reason, I let her stay and listen. I'd fuck with her a little.

I bet she thought she was so slick. I bet she thought she had some valuable intel on us. I didn't know who she was working for, but I'd find out eventually.

The girl blew her own cover. She jingled her keys and ran away with the sound of her clicking heels.

Kilo turned around while I didn't even flinch.

"Yo, someone's listening." Kilo said.

I chuckled. "You just noticed her?" I said.

His eyes widened. "You knew she was there?"

"Hell yeah, I did."

"Why didn't you kill her? We don't know who she is, or who she works for. She could be scheming on us!"

I rolled my eyes. "Calm down, Kilo. I'll deal with Princess on my own time." I said.

"You're just a stupid idea machine today, aren't you?" He said.

I ignored him and diverted my attention back to Arrow and his soldiers. "Dump the bag in the trunk. We'll have Ryker take care of it." I said. "We got to get back fast. I got to meet with the capos."

~~

I walked into my office where all of the capos sat, waiting for me.

"Late to your own meeting, Mike?" Messiah joked.

I stared at him blankly. I wasn't having it with him today.

"Anyway," I started as I sat down with a huff. "I'm sure you're all aware of what's happening, correct?"

I looked around at all of them and they nodded.

"Great." I said. "Now we call it 'The Enterprise,' got that? We don't need to get specific about what it is. The people who are supposed to know what The Enterprise is know what it is."

"Didn't Kilo say this was a bad idea?" Ace mentioned.

I raised a brow. "Remind me of when Kilo became the boss, will you?"

There was no response from him.

"Exactly. I'm not going to fucking sit here and let the Italian mafia take our territory. We're stronger and smarter than they are. We should be able to take 'em all out like that." I said with a snap of my fingers.

"As long as you guys do as you're all told, and follow the commandments," I gave Messiah a firm glare. "then we should be good. Arrow's guys kicked it off today and it went smoothly. As long as it stays that way we'll be fine." I said.

"What's the next phase of 'The Enterprise?" Blaze asked.

I raised my brows. "I'm glad you asked." I said. "I'm feeling confident after how smoothly we took out the collectors, so I think we should bring it up a few notches and take out one of their capos. If that doesn't throw them off, then I don't know what will."

"Okay, which capo?" Ryker asked.

"Marco." I answered shortly.

Zeke's furrowed his brows. "The most powerful one?"

"Yes, Marco." I said again.

"How are you going to carry that out?" Messiah asked.

I crossed my arms. "Kilo, Mordecai, and I haven't talked about that yet. I'll have Arrow send out some spies to get information on him for us. I'll get back to you guys once I have a plan." I said. "Until then, go live your lives as normally as possible. No one in New York knows about the Jackson mafia, and it should stay that way."

"Will do, Mike." Messiah said.

~~

Evening

~Destiny~

"She turned down my article." I said.

Simone gave me a sorry look through the screen. "Girl, I could've told you that article wouldn't make the cut." She said.

"What? But you told me it was good!"

"I know I did, I just didn't want to hurt your feelings. Climate change is talked about so much now, that there's no need for an article about it."

I sighed. "Well, if you would've told me that I wouldn't have brought it to my boss." I said. "I'm the only person on the team that hasn't gotten one of their articles published on the website! Thats all I want."

"Des, you're stressing way too much. We should go out tonight to get your mind off of it. A few drinks is all you need." She said.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm down for that." I said. "Can I ask Dylan if he wants to come?"

She raised a brow. "Sure, I guess." She said almost in confusion. "You seem to have Dylan on your mind a lot lately."

I shrugged. "Not really. I just figured I'd see if he wanted to go."

"Or maybe you just want him to go because you like him." She cooed.

I scoffed. "Not true."

"Destiny, I know you. I can tell when you like someone." She said.

"I'm twenty-six. I'm too old for crushes now. If I liked him, I would just ask him out."

"Yeah. Exactly! You're asking him out to the club right now."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what Simone, I'll see you later. I'll pick you up in an hour."

She laughed. "Whatever, girl."

I ended our FaceTime call and opened the message app. I typed, deleted, and retyped my message to Dylan multiple times.

Truth be told, I did have feelings for Dylan. It wasn't always like that. In college we were just really close friends. He, Simone and I were the ultimate trio.

Now, my feelings have developed into more than that. I kept it a secret from Simone because I was embarrassed. I didn't know how long I'd keep it, but I had no plans to tell her anytime soon.

I finally sent Dylan the text after retyping it seven times, and about ten minutes of overthinking.

Me: Hey, Dill. Simone and I are going to the bar later. You wanna come with?

Dylan: Hey, Des. I can't today. Sorry.

I set my phone down without responding. He was always busy. It'd been months since he and I seen each other, and I was starting to miss him a lot.

I took a deep breath and shook it off. Tonight I was only going to focus on having fun. I wasn't going to worry about my rejection, or even the new story.

I just wanted to clear my mind of all the shit.

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