by K'wan
Jonas stood there for a while, watching her walk down the aisle to the casket. He had to admit that she was looking good. He loved Alex but had to admit that if the opportunity ever arose for him to sleep with Jewels again, he wasn’t so sure he would turn it down. With a smirk on his face, he turned around to find Alex standing in the doorway watching him.
Chapter Thirty-seven
“What was that all about?” Alex asked.
“What was what about?” Jonas faked ignorance. He knew she had seen the exchange between Jewels and him.
“Don’t play stupid,” Alex said. She knew what Jewels represented in his life.
“Alex, don’t start that. Not today. Me and Jewels are ancient history.” Jonas fished a cigarette from his pack and fired it up.
“So long as history isn’t trying to repeat itself,” she warned.
As they were standing there talking, a car pulled up. Jonas’s eyes immediately went to it. Though they were at a funeral, he was still strapped. It wasn’t the most respectful thing, but Jonas believed in being prepared at all times. It wasn’t like he had never shot up a funeral before. He continued to watch the car as it double-parked and the driver got out. His jaw clinched when he realized that it was Ace. He was wearing a black suit and dark sunglasses. He had also let his facial hair grow out into a thin beard so that he wasn’t so easy to recognize. Jonas kept his eyes locked on him as he approached.
“Hey, Alex,” Ace greeted her.
“How you doing, Ace? Sorry for your loss.” She hugged him.
“Thank you. They took one of the greatest ever to do it,” Ace said, recalling some of Mula’s exploits. His eyes then went to Jonas. “Sup, Wrath?”
Jonas just frowned and walked over to where Sweets was standing.
“That was foul,” Sweets told him. She had seen the exchange.
“I ain’t fucking with him,” Jonas said.
“Jonas, after all you and Ace have been through, you at least owe him a conversation,” Sweets told him.
“I let him keep his life. I don’t owe him shit beyond that.”
“Boy, you sure do know how to hold a grudge.” Sweets shook her head. “Was that Jewels I saw walk in.”
“Yeah, that was her.”
“She’s looking good these days.” Sweets gave him a mischievous smirk.
“Knock it off. You know I only got eyes for Alex,” Jonas assured her.
“I know. I just always hoped you and Jewels would end up together. We all did.”
“And you talk about me knowing how to hold a grudge. Are you going to accept Alex as your future sister-in-law?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Don’t get me wrong. I think Alex is a nice girl who has a lot going for herself. I just don’t trust her to be there for you when the chips are down,” Sweets said honestly. “Did you get a chance to talk to Anette?”
“Yeah, we talked,” Jonas confirmed.
“So, how do you feel about it?”
Jonas shrugged. “I’m okay with it, I guess.”
“I think California will be good for Jo-Jo. I was doing some research, and they’ve made some serious strides in cancer treatments on the West Coast. I read about clinical trials they’re conducting at the University of California San Francisco. If we move on it soon, Jo-Jo stands a good chance of getting in. Besides, ain’t shit out here for her now that Mom is gone.”
“Yeah, she was the glue that held us all together. Now that she’s gone, it’s like we’re all going our separate ways.”
“Well, none of y’all ain’t babies anymore. It’s time to grow up and start living life, while we can,” Sweets said.
“What about you? You going with them?” Jonas asked.
“Nah. There’s nothing for me in California. I’m going to stay my ass right here.”
“Probably so you can keep tabs on me,” Jonas joked.
“You don’t need me chasing you down anymore, Jonas. You’re a grown man. The only thing I want for you is to get out of these streets. That deal you and Prince got going is going to put you in a position to where you don’t have to hustle anymore. I don’t want to see you end up like Mula.”
“That ain’t gonna happen to me,” Jonas assured her.
“I’m sure he said the same thing, and now we’re laying him to rest. Life is too short to spend it fucking off, Jonas. Don’t wait until it’s too late. If you’ve got dreams, now is the time to start chasing them,” Sweets said.
“Like you did?” Jonas asked sarcastically. “Whatever happened to you going back to school?”
“That’s a long story. One that I’ll tell you at another time,” Sweets said. She looked like she was about to say something else, but suddenly she turned pale. She wobbled a bit and had to lean on a car to steady herself.
“You okay?” Jonas asked, seeing that she didn’t look well at all.
“I’m fine. I’ve just been a little under the weather.”
“Seems like you’ve been sick a lot lately. I hope you ain’t pregnant,” he joked.
“Now, that’s something you don’t have to worry about. I’ve spent so many years of my life raising y’all troublesome asses that I have no desire to have kids of my own.”
“Well, when me and Alex have babies, you can help us with ours. I know their Auntie Sweets is going to spoil them to death, same as she did their daddy.”
“Lord willing, Jonas . . . Lord willing.”
They stood around talking for a while longer. Ace reemerged from the funeral home. He had removed his shades, and you could see that his eyes were red from crying. He and Mula had been very close, and Jonas knew that he was taking it hard. A part of Jonas wanted to go to him and comfort him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Ace noticed Jonas watching him and came over.
“You okay?” Sweets asked him.
“No, but I will be,” Ace sighed. “Wrath, can I talk to you for a second?”
“Let me give you boys some privacy.” Sweets excused herself.
The two of them stood there for a time without saying anything. It was Ace who would break the silence. “How long are we going to do this?”
“Do what?” Jonas asked as if he had no idea what Ace was talking about.
“This.” Ace motioned to the space between them. “Me and you are supposed to be brothers. We look out for our own, remember?”
“You mean like you looked out for Mula?” Jonas asked angrily.
“Jonas, you don’t have to keep reminding me. I’m going to have to carry that boy’s death with me for the rest of my life. I loved him.”
“Ace, miss me with that shit. You don’t love anybody but yourself. Since we were kids, all you’ve done was look out for number one—you!” Jonas pointed at him.
“You act like I’m the only one who was trying to secure his future. I know all about the deal you and Prince got going. The deal you didn’t want me to be a part of.”
“Man, don’t try to use that shit to absolve yourself of this.”
“I’m not. All I’m saying is we’re all out there trying to get it by any means necessary. You can’t blame me for doing the same shit you did, which was try to come up.”
“I ain’t got time for this shit.” Jonas tried to walk away, but Ace grabbed him by the arm.
“You’re going to stop giving me your back like I’m your bitch!” Ace shouted.
“Ace, you better get your hand off me before we have a problem,” Jonas warned.
“What you gonna do, Wrath? Don’t forget, it was me who used to watch your back when you was a punk kid, running around, afraid of your own shadow!”
That was the last straw. Jonas socked Ace in the jaw. It staggered him but didn’t drop him. Ace followed up with a combination to the face, busting Jonas’s lip. The mourners watched in horror as two men who were once friends were outside beating the hell out of each other.
“Isn’t anyone going to stop this?” Sweets made to break it up, but Tavion stopped her.
“Th
is is long overdue. Let them get it out of their system,” he said, watching the fight.
Ace held his own down for a while, but eventually, Jonas started getting the better of him. For every punch Ace landed, Jonas landed two. Ace went down to one knee, and that’s when Jonas really started raining on him. He was in a blind rage. “You killed him, you bastard! You killed him!” Jonas raged as he pummeled Ace. Ace just lay on the ground while Jonas choked him. It was as if all the fight were drained from him. It was then that Jonas realized what was happening. He wanted to die.
“Don’t stop now,” Ace said when Jonas stopped hitting him. “Kill me. I deserve it!”
Jonas pushed himself off Ace and looked down at the ruin he had made of his face. His nose was gushing blood, and one of his eyes was closed. It was then that all the memories he had shared with his childhood friend came rushing back. Jonas wanted to hate Ace, but he couldn’t. Ace had been his best friend and sometimes protector for as long as he could remember. There was bad blood between them, but Jonas still loved him.
“Kill me, Wrath.” Ace got to his feet. He grabbed the front of Jonas’s shirt and tugged while sobbing uncontrollably. “I know you hate me, but not more than I hate myself for what I let happen to Mula.”
“I don’t hate you, Ace,” Jonas was choked up. “I could never hate you.” He pulled Ace close and hugged him. Standing there in front of mourners, friends, and strangers, Jonas released the tears he had been trying so desperately to hold back. He wasn’t just crying for Ace; he cried for Doug, Mula, his mother, and every other soul that he had pushed from the world. He was tired.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Things had finally started to get back to normal, if that were a word you would choose to describe a thriving drug organization. It took some time, but eventually, Ace and Jonas were able to bury the hatchet. Their fight had been a brutal one but a necessary evil. It was blood which their relationship had always been built on, and blood that would reinforce their bond.
Of everyone, Stacey was probably the happiest that Ace and Jonas had squashed their beef. She and Jonas were like brother and sister, but Ace was her big homie. He’d sometimes get on her nerves, but she had love for him and didn’t wish him harm, which was what Jonas was planning. Aside from Alex, Jonas spent more time with Stacey than any other woman. They had been working closely on his legitimate investments. Stacey found herself the keeper of a lot of his secrets, with the darkest being his plan to kill Ace. She breathed a deep sigh of relief when she heard that he had called it off. Stacey was glad to have him back. The same couldn’t be said for Tavion.
With Mula off on his secret excursion down south with Ace, and Jonas focusing on his social club and the London deal, Tavion found himself shouldering a good deal of new responsibilities that came with running their drug business. When Jonas was away, Tavion was his voice on the streets. If Jonas was the king, then Tavion was the prince, and it was a role he had taken to. With Ace back in the fold, he was stripped of some of his power. Tavion still held sway over the territories they had conquered in Grant, but Ace was once again Jonas’s number two man in the organization. For a while, he had suffered in silence, but the tension between them came to a head a few weeks after Mula’s funeral.
By that time, Jonas had let the rest of them in on the fact that he had assumed ownership of Juan’s old spot and what he was building in its place. Tavion was to spearhead the grand opening. He had become quite the social butterfly over the years, becoming a regular in all the happening spots around the city. He had a unique insight into what it would take to get Jonas’s spot up and running, starting with a name, which they didn’t have yet. That was the gist of the conversation they were having that day in the shadow of their new trap house.
When Cal turned rat, Jonas immediately shut down Paula’s apartment and moved everything into an apartment two blocks away. This one didn’t belong to a fiend but a young dude who had inherited the apartment from his grandmother when she passed and needed a way to earn some extra cash to keep on with the rent. Sure enough, two weeks after they moved, the police kicked in Paula’s door. They had moved all the drugs out of the crib, but the cops did find a gun in the toilet tank that Mula had stashed in there in case it ever went down while he was in the bathroom. He believed in being prepared for any and all occasions. Even from beyond the grave, he was still playing twisted pranks on the team. Paula would have to sit down on the gun charge, and to her credit, she wore it like a G and never mentioned Jonas or anybody else in the crew. For her silence, Jonas made sure that she lived like a queen while she did her time.
The weather was fair that evening. Not too hot and not too cold. It was just the right temperature to sit outside and enjoy the company you were in. They were all out in front of the new trap house building, smoking and drinking liquor in five-cent plastic cups. There were no drugs in the house at present, only money, which is why Jonas had been willing to bend on his rule about loitering where they hustled. There was a folding table erected on the sidewalk, where an intense game of Spades was being played. Jonas and Ace had beaten Stacey and Tavion two games in a row, and frustrations were starting to mount.
“How many times do I have to tell you young muthafuckas?” Ace threw down a Queen of Hearts, trumping the weak Jack Tavion had just played. “You gotta watch the board, so you’ll know what was played.”
“Man, stop bumping your gums and play cards,” Tavion fumed.
“Spoken like a nigga who knows he’s about to get ran.” Ace slapped the little Joker on the table. That too was boss. “Wrath, how much is the little fella and his girlfriend into us for so far?”
Jonas peeked at the score sheet, which Stacey was keeping. “About five hundred.”
“Oh, that ain’t shit. I can’t even start to get excited until we in they asses for at least a grand!” Ace played the big Joker he had been holding.
“Fuck!” Tavion slammed his Ace of Spades on the table, losing it to Ace’s big Joker. He hit the table with so much force that Ace’s cup waddled, but it didn’t fall. That had been the story of Tavion’s life since Ace was back . . . always movement but never follow through.
“So, you figure out what you’re going to call this place yet?” Stacey asked Jonas. She was trying to deflect from some of the tension building between Ace and Tavion.
“Not yet.” Jonas collected the cards so that he could shuffle them. It was his turn to deal.
“You the only dude I know that will build a whole club and not give it a name,” Ace teased Jonas.
“Whatever I decide to call it, it has to be a name that means something. A name that’s impactful. C’mon, I’m about to be the only dude from our neighborhood that actually owns something in the neighborhood,” Jonas pointed out.
“I say we call it A. J.’s,” Ace suggested. “How many years me and you been running up credit in Juan’s or stealing when we couldn’t get it on the arm?”
“Word! Yo, do you remember that time Mula dipped out of there with two cases of Coors?” Jonas recalled.
“Yooooo, that shit was hilarious! His little ass was in flight with those two boxes under his arms,” Ace laughed. It was the funniest thing they had seen in a while. “I really miss my li’l man.”
“Me too, Ace . . . me too. But everything we do from here on out will be for Mula,” Jonas declared, raising his Hennessey-filled plastic cup.
“Straight like that.” Ace raised his cup in salute. “We lost our brother, so now we’re two the hard way, but the goal hasn’t changed. We gonna take this city one block at a time, my nigga, and sit as kings of this bitch. Me and you against every-fucking-body else, Wrath!”
“What about the rest of us?” Tavion spoke up. He was tired of hearing Ace’s mouth.
“What about you?” Ace shot back. Tavion was pissing on his moment, and he wasn’t feeling it.
“I’m saying, I know you and Wrath started this shit but don’t forget the little people when you’re accepting your award,”
Tavion said.
“C’mon, fresh fish. I know you’ve put in work in your short time here, but watch how you talking when speaking to one of the founding fathers. I was putting food on the table when Wrath was sending you on weed runs,” Ace checked him.
“And I was holding down the fort when you were inviting snitches to the table,” Tavion shot back.
“Y’all be easy.” Jonas sipped from his cup. He was feeling good and didn’t feel like dealing with the bullshit.
“Nah, Wrath. He’s acting like he’s got something on his chest. Let him get it off. You got something you need to say to me, shorty?” Ace challenged Tavion.
“First of all, my name ain’t shorty. It’s Tavion, and you’re the only one here acting like he doesn’t know it,” Tavion told him.
“Maybe I know it and just don’t give a fuck,” Ace replied. “Who you shot, stabbed, or fought in the last forty-eight hours that makes you even feel like you can hold a hostile conversation with a nigga like me?” He let his hand drop to his lap where his gun was tucked in his jeans.
Tavion peeped his move and responded in kind. Only he wasn’t as subtle as Ace. “You act like yours was the only one manufactured.” He placed his pistol on the table. This was unlike Tavion, and had he not been tipsy, it may not have played out that way. Tavion looked at Jonas, whose face was unreadable. All it would have taken was a certain look from Jonas, and Tavion would’ve ended Ace.
“Show some respect in front of the lady,” Jonas finally spoke up. “Y’all wanna kill each other? I’m okay with that, just not in front of civilians.”
With just a word from Jonas, the tension faded just as quickly as it had gathered.
In the distance was the sound of gunfire. Tavion was the first to his feet, with Ace a beat behind. They formed a protective wall in front of Stacey and Jonas, who hadn’t moved. He continued sipping from his cup as if he hadn’t heard a thing. After a few seconds, they realized that the shots had been coming from a few blocks away and posed no immediate threat to their benefactor.
“These niggas always out here tripping,” Stacey said in frustration. It was getting to the point where not a night went by that they didn’t hear gunshots.