“Someone’s walking out of the building.”
Cannon turned around and grabbed the camera he brought. Zooming in, he flashed several pictures of the people leaving the building. There were two men there, and they were laughing as they dapped up and continued down the street, out of Cannon’s view.
He felt his chest tighten as he reviewed the photos. He wasn’t too close, so he didn’t have the best view of either of the men with his naked eye. Still, though, he was pretty sure he recognized one of them.
When he flipped to his first clear picture, it was confirmed: Maddox Barrett was connected. He took a minute to compose himself before turning to face his woman. When he finally did, he leaned over and kissed her lips lightly.
“Let me see the pictures,” she said once he pulled away.
“I will, but I want you to let me follow up on this Barrett lead, aight? We uncovered hella things today, and you can’t focus on it all on your own. Let me take this one off your hands, aight?” he asked, hoping it would be that easy.
Surprisingly, it was.
“Okay. I trust you.”
Cannon was relieved but tried not to show it. He was also pissed that Ox was back on his radar.
Nahla caressed Cannon’s cheek. “You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m straight.”
Nahla leaned over and kissed him again. It was light at first but deepened when she slid her hand behind his head, and his hand found the front of her neck. She pulled him closer as he devoured her tongue with his. Just as she let a moan escape, her phone rang. At first, she ignored it, but after the fourth ring, Cannon pulled away.
“Answer it, baby.”
Nahla checked the screen and rolled her eyes. “My sister,” she said, answering then placing it on speaker.
“Hey,” Nahla answered.
“Hey? Tell me why I had dinner with our father tonight, and he told me you have aboyfriend. What the hell, Nahla? That’s the kind of stuff you tell your sister.”
Nahla slapped a hand over her eyes, and Cannon chuckled. “Nia, I cannot do this right now. I’m busy.”
“Busy with what? Work or this man you’re hiding? I wanna know everything!”
Nia continued ranting as Cannon started the car. He was wearing one of his rare smiles as he pulled off from the curb.
Nahla placed the call on mute and turned the volume down, since her sister hadn’t stopped going off yet.
“This is funny?” she asked.
Cannon winked at her. “As hell.”
“Nahla! Nahla? I know you heard me. Answer the question.”
Cannon nodded toward her phone. “You better unmute your sister and tell her about your man. I ain’t nobody’s secret.”
That made Nahla burst into laughter as she unmuted the call. Cannon half-heartedly listened to their conversation as he drove, but what was really fighting for his attention was the fact that he’d just seen Ox exit that building.
It didn’t surprise Cannon that he was in this shady situation, because Maddox was a shady nigga. He had betrayed Cannon in the worst way. It was a situation that took Cannon a long time to recover from.
Now that he knew Ox was attached to this, he could only hope that Mace wasn’t in it with him. If he were, Cannon would handle them both.
The next day,Cannon pulled up atThe Citizen’s Eyeto pick up Nahla. It had been her fourth time going into work this month, but the first time he hadn’t stuck around. He told her that it was all a part of their plan to keep things low and routine so that they could lull Lyle PD into complacency. Really, he wanted to use their time apart to check into Mace.
His story—about leaving the Marines, his father passing away, and his mother being sick—checked out. After confirming those details, he followed his old friend around for the rest of the day. Mace hadn’t done much more than chill at his mother’s house and pick up food. He, of course, couldn’t be sure after one day that Mace and Ox weren’t working together, but the fact thathe hadn’t been nearBarett Performance Solutionsat all that day eased Cannon’s suspicions a bit.
Now, he was about to pick up his girl and head toPorter Protectsso that they could finish going through the files. To his surprise, Nahla was walking out of the building as he was pulling up to the curb. Cannon parked the car and exited it.
