He didn’t even bother lingering in the house. He needed distance, so he headed straight for the garage, grabbed his toolbox and the new camera he purchased for a blind spot he had noticed in the front yard. He grabbed one of his step ladders and headed out the door.
It was raining hard, but he didn’t let it stop him from getting to work on setting up the camera. Once he began, he realized he didn’t need the step ladder to reach the installation area. Setting it aside, he got to work.
Cannon was annoyed beyond belief. He loved Nahla more than a little bit, but he didn’t like the way her continuous probing of him about his past made him feel.
In his mind, it was simple. That was a tough subject for him. His family didn’t even press him for details about his discharge. What happened overseas had nothing to do with the relationship he was building with Nahla, so why couldn’t she just leave that alone? Cannon wiped rain out of his eyes and kept working.
Just as he was about to drill his first hole, he heard the door open. Refusing to look toward the door, he started to drill. He saw Nahla in his peripheral vision, opening the step ladder. She stepped up to the highest rung on the small ladder, and seconds later, there was no more rain pouring down on Cannon’s head.
He looked up to see a large umbrella covering both of their heads then looked at her. Her expression was full of emotionthat he couldn’t quite decipher, but he could see by the red in her eyes that she had at least shed a few tears.
Fuck.
Sighing, he said, “I don’t want you getting sick out here, La. Go inside.”
She shook her head. With a shaky voice, she said, “Not without you.”
Cannon glanced at the hole he had just drilled in the front of the house. Knowing he had no business trying to install a camera in the rain anyway, he said, “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”
He used his free hand to help Nahla off the ladder then took the umbrella from her. Cannon left the umbrella in the garage, and they went inside quietly. He set the tools and camera box on the counter inside and focused on Nahla. She had walked to the kitchen door that led to the bedrooms, but was standing there, waiting for him.
Cannon approached her, grasped her hand, and they went to his bedroom. They didn’t have any more dialogue, but Nahla joined him in his shower, and when they were finally in bed, he pulled her body close to his and kissed her forehead. It didn’t take her long to doze off.
If nothing else, that whole ordeal solidified one truth: He was, in fact, in love as hell. The second he looked into her eyes outside, his own feelings about their argument dissipated. In an instant, he didn’t care about anything more than he cared about her smiling again. He was in deep, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Cannon was still awake, staring at the television, when his phone buzzed. He saw that it was Mace, so he answered.
“Yo.” He glanced at a sleeping Nahla. She was out cold.
“Aye, guess who the hell is sittin’ in their car outside my house right now?”
Cannon chuckled. “Not Ox?”
“Hell yeah.”
After Mace went by Ox’s business, he called Cannon to say that Ox started acting shifty the second Mace mentioned that he had started working for Cannon. Cannon half expected Ox to start following Mace then, but Mace hadn’t noticed anyone tailing him.
If Cannon had to guess, Ox had used some of his contacts to find Mace’s location. Cannon still wasn’t sure about Ox’s specific involvement, but he was clearly in deep and worried. He was following Mace to try to get to Cannon, and Cannon was going to give him exactly what he was asking for.
“Aye, if you ain’t too tired, . . . you feel like makin’ a trip?”
“You know I’m down,” Mace said, sounding excited.
“Come to the address I’m about to send you. He’ll follow, I’m sure.”
“Bet,” Mace said before hanging up.
Cannon slowly and gently slid Nahla off his chest before brushing a kiss on her shoulder.
“Please stay asleep, baby.”
Cannon pulled up a few meters away from the location and waited. The reason he invested in a safe house in that area was that he used to spend his summers out there with hisgrandmother. Once Cannon’s parents died, their grandmother moved into the city so that they didn’t have to switch schools or adjust to a totally different life, but she still owned her home on the outskirts of town.
That was the address Cannon gave Mace. He would never lure an opp to the place Nahla rested her head, but the old house was only ten minutes away from the safe house, and no one had stayed there in quite some time. Cannon was done beating around the bush with this whole situation. He wanted answers so they could close this chapter of their lives and focus on their developing relationship.
Ox didn’t know it yet, but he was about to help him do just that.
About twenty minutes after Cannon got there, he noticed Mace’s car pull into the house slowly. Sure enough, another car came down the road several seconds later. Ox didn’t pull into the driveway, but it didn’t matter. As soon as his vehicle was stagnant, Mace backed his car up quickly so that it was directly in front of Ox’s car, and Cannon pulled up and blocked him from the back.
