The Black Woman #Wattys2016

The middle.

10 months before (2 months later)
"You have a lovely home, Mrs. Kelly." Alani said with a bright smile on her face. She made sure to always do this whenever she met new people so that it would leave a great impression on her behalf. Blake took off his jacket and reached over to assist Alani in taking hers off as well. "Thank you, Alani and you may call me Katherine since we'll be working together from now on. All of my top associates call me by my first name." Alani was speechless. Not only was she being nice to her, but she also called her one of her top most designers.

"Where's dad?" Blake asked his mother as he put their jackets on one of the hooks beside the door. Katherine merely shrugged. "I don't know, he said that he'll be home for dinner but you know how that goes." Alani chuckled and followed behind the two to the living room area. It was a nicely designed room, of course, with modern features and just a pop of color with the pillows on the sofas. "And Declan?"

There was a long silence shared between the two. After five minutes or so, his mother spoke up. "He'll be attending this dinner as well. He's been busy with his new job in Paris, as you know." Alani looked at her friend. "Who's Declan?" Blake shifted in his seat a little and pulled on his tie uncomfortably. "Declan is my older brother. He's a model or something in England so he's not home as much as he used to be. I'm not complaining though-"

Katherine glared at her son. "Stop it, Blake." Just as she said this, the doorbell rang throughout the house and echoed in the living room. His mother stood up with a smile and adjusted her long, flowing skirt. "That must be him." Katherine disappeared down the hallway and returned with a man on her heels. He was much too focused on the phone in his hand to notice anybody else in the room.

Blake cleared his throat and stood up. "Nice to know you're still alive, Dec." The man, or Declan, shoved his iPhone in his pocket and looked his brother up and down. Then, he gave a wicked smile. One that instantly attracted Alani. She looked on as both men hugged and shared small talk.

"Oh, Dec, this is my friend Alani. She works for the company now and mom loves her designs. She has a true eye for style." Blake said and motioned for Alani to come over to them, which she did without hesitation. Declan grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah, my mom told me some stuff about her. She would make a great model if you asked me." Just as Alani was about to reply, Katherine interrupted with a snarl. "Well, I'm glad no one asked you, my son. I love Alani in the designing department. She'll put all of the others to shame in this year's fashion show."

Declan rubbed his stubble on his chin and looked in her eyes. If Alani wasn't standing next to the arm of the chair, she was sure that she would've already fallen over because of her weak knees. He seemed to be studying her every motion. From the tiny gulps she would take whenever he snuck a glance at her to the slow, steady breaths that causes her chest to rise and fall rapidly. Whatever it was, it intrigued Declan.

"Enough fashion talk for right now. I would much rather get to know Alani better." He said, never taking his eyes off of her. Blake sighed. "No can do, Dec. I was going to take Alani down to the warehouse to show her where we keep all of the designs that they make." Declan shrugged. "I'll go too. I haven't been in awhile anyways."

Jason
   "You did what?!" Za screamed and climbed out of the pool. Alfredo sat up from the beach chair and shook his head at me. "You fucked her in the house while we were still in there? That's just nasty. I knew I wasn't dreaming when I heard her screaming." Alfredo laughed and nodded his head, agreeing with Za. "I'm saying! I thought I was dreaming too, man. But clearly both of us weren't."

I rolled my eyes and continued my phone call with an important business option. "And how many of them are there?" I said into the speaker. The man cleared his throat and all of us listened closely. "There's 4 of them in all. Mr. Kelly has three sons and a daughter who lives in Seattle. The youngest son is still living here and attends college. The other two sons are almost never home so this could be your only opportunity-" I cleared my throat. "We try not to get into personal business with people, sir. They'll be gone by next week."

I hung up the phone and looked at my boys. "Where are they at?" Khalil asked with his arms crossed over his chest. I sucked my teeth and chuckled. "His daughter is in Seattle. She lives, for now. As for the others, there's nothing really to be said about them. We're getting a hell of a lot of money to kill Mr. Kelly and his family and I'll be damned if I fuck it up. Two of the sons are visiting their mother here. The other is nowhere to be found as of right now."

The rest of the squad started piling outside with us and listened to me closely. "Okay, y'all, we have less than a week to track down and execute four men that have been embezzling money from other companies and selling them to make more money. They owe a lot of people a lot of money and when we kill them, we each get a cut in it. Damned near a million each. The problem? They're the fucking biggest fashion company in the world. One of the sons also has a gang of his own."

Za and Alfredo looked at me with the same expression. We would have to play this one safe. Oliver, our man that provided all of the weapons, spread a black tablecloth on the ground and opened it, revealing guns and everything that we needed. All of them crowded around him and I saw Sarah walk out in her bathing suit with a towel wrapped around her waist. She straightened her hair and had on my sunglasses and gold chains.

"Give me a second, y'all." I told them and they all looked at Sarah. Majority of them were probably drooling. I jogged around the pool to where she was sitting and grabbed her hands in mine. "How was your nap, beautiful?" She smiled and ran her hands down my abs. "It would've been better if you were there, Jason."

I shrugged. "Business." We said in unison. I motioned my head over to the weapons of choice on the ground. "I have some stuff to take care of so don't bother waiting up for me." She sighed and looked over my shoulder at all of the guns splattered all over the grass. "Just be careful." She pecked me on the lips softly and I walked back over to my crew. Oliver handed me a Magnum Research Desert Eagle XIX .50 in gold. "For the boss."

I cocked it back and pointed in front of me. "Find me Declan Kelly."

-and this my friends, is when shit starts to get real. Declan is portrayed by Stephen James. Or WHOISELIJAH on instagram😍