Legacy: Book Two of the Chronicles of the Nubian Underworld (11 page)

“Yes, Sir, the trip was safe, and nadia made sure everything was attended to in a proper manner.” I insisted on keeping my poker face obvious, not wanting to give myself away. Seti had a habit of reading body language in the past, so I prepared against his attempt to study me to find something that might spawn a question I had no intention of answering.

“Good, considering she volunteered to pick You up from the airport, I wasn’t sure if she would have broken protocol because
of her affinity for You,” Seti admitted, which caused a small smile from me, but not wide enough to give myself away. “Now, to business, youngster, I understand You have been putting together some rather aggressive plans down in Atlanta. What brings You here?”

“Well, Master Seti, I would like to duplicate the plans I have for NEBU in Atlanta here in the DMV.” I explained the first part of my proposal, studying his body language. He seemed intrigued by what I had to present. “I have the plans for three such compounds in the initial plans, with expansion plans if the first three become viable.”

“Okay, where did You have in mind for the compound You are proposing here, Ramesses?” Seti leaned forward in his chair as he inquired. “I’m assuming You’re not trying to have the compound in Maryland, I hope?”

I pulled an aerial of the location I’d had in mind, showing a 300-acre tract about an hour away from his home. “I was looking at Fredericksburg, Sir. If we can get things implemented within the month, we can be up and running within six months. It’s secluded, completely away from everyone and everything, which makes it a perfect location to be self-sufficient.”

I studied Seti’s face to gauge his thoughts, but he gave no clues as to whether he thought it was a good idea or not. He kept looking over the property, its location and reference point to I-95, as if his wheels were turning in overdrive.

Finally, after what seemed like a few hours of waiting for me, but what only amounted to a few minutes, Seti finally said, “All right, I think it’s possible, but I don’t think that it can be executed in the time frame You are thinking it can be done.”

“I beg to differ, Sir,” I protested, expecting this particular argument. “The business plan is solid, and I have already gotten confirmation
from the Elders in Vegas. The plans are a go out there and should be coming to fruition before the Christmas holidays, in time to begin operations in the New Year.”

“Ramesses, this ain’t Vegas. Those jokers out there seem to think they can do anything they please without at least stopping to think about things,” Seti countered, obviously not thrilled I had mentioned the Vegas contingent because of one person in particular.

Master Osiris.

Seti and Osiris were blood-related, and Osiris was Seti’s older brother.

The disdain Seti showed for the Las Vegas BDSM community stemmed back from a personal grudge and old wounds that had yet to be healed from nearly a decade ago. Those wounds included a certain slave who served Master Osiris to this day, slave keket.

“Master Seti, if You would like confirmation, You are welcome to speak with Lady Hatshepsut, with whom You have no grudge to bear against Her,” I compromised with him. “I assure You, this is legit, and not some scheme to something else You may have in Your mind. As long as You have known Me, have I ever led anyone with false pretenses?”

That direct question seemed to calm him down for the moment. In the next moment, he was on the phone with Lady Hatshepsut, having a very intense speaker phone conversation regarding the
Temples of Deshret
project.

Once the pleasantries were out of the way, I listened intently as Seti began his assault, trying to find as many roadblocks as could be had. Each one was met with a resounding “that’s already been taken care of, Seti” coming from the other end of the conversation.

Finally, after all of the concerns and roadblocks had been abated, Seti and Hatshepsut spoke their farewells, with a special goodbye
for me, with the confirmation both she and her boi would be coming down to Atlanta for sajira’s collaring.

Seti stared me down the minute the call ended.

He forgot I wasn’t as young as I once was, and that stare-down didn’t work on me anymore.

His glare was returned by one of my own, and while the respect was still there, it was accompanied by an intensity that let him know I was a force to be reckoned with, and things had changed in the last ten years since I was last in his presence.

This time, I was well prepared for the confrontation.

Earlier in my journey, I will admit, I was in awe of Master Seti. Sure, I’d been active in the scene in Atlanta for a long time with Amenhotep, but I had rarely ventured outside of the state much, except for business purposes, which left very little room to attend the scenes when I ventured into Chicago, L.A., Philadelphia, or any of the other cities my business took me to.

The first time I came to Virginia with Amenhotep to meet Seti, I was on edge, scared to say the wrong thing to him during our interactions. After all, I was a rookie for the most part, and I was still trying to keep from embarrassing my mentor.

Not anymore.

The guard was changing.

His body language changed, relenting to the fact he would not be getting his way this time. A smile spread across his face, and he extended his hand toward me.

“So, what did You have in mind for this particular location, Sir?” Seti asked me without another shred of disgust or contempt in his voice. “I want all of the details to take to the persons I know will make this work in this part of the country better than on the West Coast.”

From there, for the next six hours, we hashed out the same details, with some changes Seti wanted different from
Deshret
, which I suspected he wanted mainly to keep from copying his brother completely.

All that was needed was a name.

After the discourse we’d just gone through, I didn’t dare try to presume anything else, and I wanted this to continue as smoothly as possible.

“Do You have any ideas, Sir?” I asked, more feeling the effects of the jet lag than anything. My creative juices were completely shot, although I had jotted a few ideas down, but I saved this conversation for a strategic purpose, to stroke his ego.

I waited for his wheels to grind a bit, and Seti didn’t disappoint, taking his index finger and stroking it along the side of his temple.

Out of the blue, the name of the compound seemed to come to him. “Thebes.”

This, of course, is in correlation to the former capital city of ancient Egypt. It was a fitting parallel, considering the location of the compound was near the U.S. capital.

“I believe that will work, Sir,” I concurred with the name choice.

“You think so, Ramesses?”

“Master Seti, I couldn’t have come up with a better name for this particular location, and I am honored You would be involved with this endeavor. I thank You, and Master Amenhotep thanks You as well.”

“Speaking of Amenhotep, I suspect He will be in attendance to the collaring ceremony?” he queried.

“Yes, Sir, Neferterri has probably gotten in touch with Him to make Him aware. If I know Him, He will be back in Atlanta in a couple weeks,” I answered. “Would You and the girls like to attend, Sir?”

“Consider it an honor, Ramesses,” Seti responded after taking my extended hand back to him to shake.

nadia entered the room and assumed her kneeling position near her Master’s presence. “Master, dinner is ready, Master.”

I tried to take my eyes off nadia, but she looked better without clothing than with the outfit she’d had on escorting me to the limousine.

Seti noticed this, and without missing a beat, commanded, “slave nadia, you may escort our guest to the dining room, as reward for following protocol in escorting Him home.”

nadia nodded, adjusting her position toward me. “It would be my honor to escort You to Your place in the dining room, m’Lord. If it pleases You, i can prepare the plate for You also.”

“Thank you, My dear, and thank You, Sir, for Your accepting the proposal.” nadia took my arm to lead me to the dining area. “I believe that You won’t be disappointed with the end result and the possibilities.”

THIRTEEN
SAJIRA

“I’m home, baby.”

I stepped through the door, shouting throughout the house. shamise was a step behind me, taking the surroundings in for a bit.

We started in the kitchen in search of my husband, then moving to the living room, following the faint noises coming from the basement of our home. Considering it was the midst of basketball season, the “man cave” became the logical spot Ice would be.

I blew out some air. In passing the kitchen, I saw the dishes hadn’t been done, which meant he had been down there the entire day. It irritated me to no end. I didn’t ask much of him on his off-days except some minor chores around the house, and he’d been increasingly neglecting those chores the past few weeks.

That was about to come to an abrupt halt.

As we walked downstairs, the smell of hot wings and beer filled my nostrils, and I could hear the sounds of the commentators coming into audible focus. I could nearly predict what I was about to see when we finally found him.

Sure enough, lying in his recliner, passed out and smelling of Coronas, was Ice. He wasn’t quite snoring, but from the sounds I knew all too well, he was about twenty minutes from reaching that pitch.

I shook him awake, the frustration evident in my voice. “Ice, wake up. I need to talk to you.”

He woke up with a start, trying hard to focus his eyes on the source of his sudden abrupt awakening. “What the…oh, it’s you. I thought you were out with your
family.”

shamise sized up my husband, regarding his demeanor before she greeted him. “It’s good to see you, too, Ice. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” I could tell she was trying to diffuse the tension building between us.

“It’s damn good to see
you
, Scarlett. So, when you gonna stick around for good? I thought you were out in L.A. with your
husband?
I can’t believe Kane let you marry that punk ass.” Ice was slurring all over his words, which added to my embarrassment.

“I thought you were supposed to be cleaning up the house while I was gone?” I asked him, trying to avoid the stench on his breath from the beer.

“Well, I didn’t feel like it at the time,” Ice gruffly answered, glancing sideways at shamise and giving a sly smile. For a minute, I felt like he was trying to show out for her benefit, and I was not about to have that.

I composed myself a bit. I was not about to have this get ugly, especially when I wanted shamise to stay with us. The last thing I needed was to see the tension and decide she really didn’t want to be caught up in some madness.

Ice kept it up. “So, what are you doing here anyway? I thought you weren’t going to be home for at least another few hours because you had some tasks to complete or whatnot?”

“We got done with our tasks early, and I need to ask you something,” I knew he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to hear this, but at that point I really didn’t care. “shamise is back in town, but she’s needing a place to stay until she closes on the house she’s buying in a month or two. I was thinking she could stay here with us; would that be all right?”

Now, let me tell you something about Ice: He was very territorial when it came to the house. Friends and family didn’t do overnight stays because he was difficult to deal with and because of the rules he expected people to abide by while in “his house.” Our nieces and nephews hated staying with Uncle Ice as the rules were too strict

So, imagine my complete surprise when my husband looked shamise up and down like she was the next dessert after dinner was over and said without hesitation, “Sure, she’s welcome to stay as long as she needs to. Mistress always says we should help our own whenever we can.”

I reached my boiling point.

“What the fuck?” I completely lost it. “So you mean to tell me all these damn years you’ve been giving people…not people, family…grief about staying one night here, and because your
Mistress
said so, now all of a sudden, we’re the goddamn Holiday Inn?”

Ice didn’t bat an eyelash, and I noticed he wasn’t as drunk as he was before. I didn’t know if that was going to worry me or anger me more. “I don’t think you heard me, woman. If shamise wants to stay, she’s welcome to stay for as long as she wants.”

I felt my hand ball into a fist; he had one more snap remark to make before he found himself holding his jaw on the couch. I met his eyes, coming within breathing space of where he stood, daring him to say something else.

A hand across my shoulder slowed me down.

“sajira…sajira, let it go, sis,” I heard shamise calling from behind me, and I felt her presence surround me. “He’s a little lit right now, but we have the answer you wanted, so, help me with the bags in the car, please?”

I poked Ice in the chest with my fingers a few times before I told him, “You better be lucky she was here to keep me sane, Ice. I can’t believe what’s gotten into you lately.”

“Naw, baby, I see things much more clearly than I have in a long time,” Ice shot back, taking another swig of his Corona. “Some things will be changing around here soon; I can promise you that.”