by Briann Danae
Seeing his grandson had him emotional and caused him to blink his eyes rapidly. The room cooed, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room when he removed a gold cross necklace from his pocket and handed it to Meechi. The piece of jewelry would have meant nothing much to any other family but, for them, it meant Kamille’s life would never be forgotten. As long as he had breath in him, BM would make sure she was forever remembered.
“Bruh, the atmosphere is too serious right now,” Sen voiced, ruining the moment.
“Shut up Sen!” the women all yelled out.
Daiya looked up with wide eyes at the bad words and looked toward her big cousin. “Aww, you in trouble Senny.”
Chuckling, he swooped her up from the bed and tickled her belly. “We both in trouble Dai. You still haven’t told your mama that you colored on your walls.”
Daiya’s eyes went wide and she looked over at Meechi to save her. “Daddy! Senny needs stiches!”
The room fell out in laughter, and Meechi shook his head with a grin on his face. These were the moments he cherished. Family. There wasn’t anything like his, and he was already planning to knock Erica up after they walked down the aisle. He loved her pregnant and watching her grow as a damn good mother. Looking her way, she smiled, and he leaned over and kissed her lips.
“Don’t whoop my baby,” he whispered, saving Daiya.
Erica chuckled. “You better paint her wall over, then.”
“Fasho. Thank you for my Junior, baby. I love yo lil’ ass”
Smiling, Erica tugged at his beard and made him give her another kiss. “You’re welcome daddy.”
Chapter Six
“You sure you gone be good?” Meechi asked Erica for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“Meechi,” she breathed heavily. “Get out my face and go hang with your boys. I am fine.”
Licking his lips, Meechi pulled her into him by her waist. “Shit, you are finer than a mufucka. Snapped back quick as hell. You sure you just gave birth, girl?”
Erica giggled shyly, appreciating his compliment. With Lil Meechi against her chest sleeping, she was at the sink washing a few of his bottles out. Daiya was in her room taking a nap and she had learned long ago that with both kids sleep, that was the only way she was going to get any work done. Though a nap sounded good, it wasn’t going to happen, especially not with Meechi in her face every second of the day. If he wasn’t in her face, he was in Lil Meechi’s face. It was cute for the first week or so, but Erica needed him to try and stop being so clingy. Lil Meechi was going on four weeks, and Meechi had only left her side to handle business, and he hardly wanted to do that.
“I’m positive. Do you see my hair?”
Running his hands through her curly mane, Meechi made a mental reminder to get his baby a spa day when she was ready. She was in mommy mode and wasn’t thinking about her hair or anything else at the moment. But, with the wedding in less than two months, she needed to be.
Kissing her temple, Meechi smacked her on the ass and headed out the kitchen. “You look good, bae. I’ma slide to Juvie’s lounge. He called Sen spazzing out about something.”
Erica grinned. “Between those two, I don’t know how you do it.”
“They’re just like Neicey and Anika, shit. I don’t see how we do it,” Meechi laughed, grabbing Erica’s keys to her brand-new black 2017 Infiniti QX80. Like her other truck before he traded it in for the newer version, Meechi found himself driving her whip more than her. Erica didn’t mine, but she did hint at him getting his own truck.
“Aren’t you parked behind me?” Erica questioned, drying the bottles.
Meechi smirked. “Nope. I parked in the garage last night. Love you!”
“Mhm. Love you too,” Erica replied. Meechi knew what he was doing when he parked in the garage last night. He had plans to drive her truck before today.
While Meechi was headed to the lounge to meet up with the guys, Juvie was going off on Solai. Inside his office, Solai stood with a smile on her face. Had Juvie not been ‘accidentally’ being nosey, snooping through her stuff, he wouldn’t have found out what they were having. He told Solai he didn’t want to know the sex of their child until the baby shower, but he got curious and thought he saw the gender on a folded piece of paper and needed her to confirm his suspicions.
“I don’t know why you smiling, man. This shit ain’t right,” Juvie spat, removing the small cake from the box.
To shut him up, Solai brought a cake with the color of what they were having on the inside to surprise him. “No one told you to go through my shit. That’s what you get. Go ahead and cut into it.”
“Nah,” Sen voiced, “Just wait Juvie. You gone be pissed for the rest of her pregnancy if it’s the wrong color.”
“He gone get whatever damn color this cake is and leave me the hell alone. That’s what he and the rest of you niggas are going to do. Okay?” Solai snapped, looking back and forth between Juvie, Sen, and Lano, who hadn’t even said anything.
“Calm down, with yo feisty ass,” Lano chuckled.
“Nah, nigga, you chill out talking to her like that,” Juvie replied, making Lano and Sen shake their heads. “You want me to cut the cake baby?”
“Yes, before I cut you. I swear, you been working my nerves for the last eight months.”
Juvie frowned. “You only seven months, though.”
“Exactly nigga. Come on, so I can go.”
Smiling, Juvie kissed her cheek and grabbed one of the plates she brought from downstairs. Juvie didn’t care about getting on her nerves. He had been doing that since the first day she met him and hadn’t anything changed. Solai didn’t have any room to talk though. In the first few months of her pregnancy, she had Juvie ready to skip town on her ass. He couldn’t say anything to her without Solai crying or throwing something at him.
What made it worse when Juvie tried to make up for whatever he had done by giving her some dick, Solai was so turned off by the thought of penetration, Juvie had turned into a pussy-eating monster. Thankfully, Solai came quick or Juvie would have caught lock jaw. And, she would have him up at the crack of dawn searching for hot wings and a crunchy jar of pickles to cure her cravings. Juvie had better not complain, though. For all the shit he had given Solai about having his child, his ass should have been waiting on her hand and foot.
Just as he cut into the cake, Meechi walked through the door. “Ah! Welcome to the club,” he congratulated.
Dramatically, Juvie dropped to the ground and placed his head in the palms of his hands. “God. My nigga, pleeease! I’m begging you to change the color of this cake. Straight up, there ain’t no way she having twins’, dawg. There ain’t no mufucking way!”
Solai smiled. She had purposely gotten a marble cake with pink and blue to mess with Juvie’s head. She wasn’t about to tell him the sex of the baby just because he had asked. Nope! He was going to have to wait like they planned.
“Get up, with your dramatic ass. You asked for this, so deal with.”
Juvie tilted his head and looked at her round belly. “Bruuuh! Fuck! I feel like crying, straight up. This for real? You having twins, Sol? If you lying, I’m cancelling the order for that Gucci diaper bag right the fuck now.”
Solai’s eyes got big and her jaw slightly dropped. Juvie had placed an order for a customized Gucci bag Solai told him she wanted. He remembered Meechi mentioning something about a push gift and hadn’t told Solai he was getting it for her, but he had no choice now.
“I’ll really cut you. Don’t play with me,” she hissed.
“Aye,” Juvie said, without looking at his niggas. “Get out real quick.”
Juvie’s gaze riveted on her face for a few seconds, then moved over her body slowly, seductively. Seeing the look in his eyes, Solai felt a tingle in the pit of her stomach and the seat of her panties become moist. The image of her getting dicked down in his office sent her spirits soaring, and that’s exactly what was about to happen.
“Shit,” Sen said, movi
ng toward the door. “You ain’t gotta tell me twice.” Meechi and Lano followed behind him, closing the door in their exit.
Standing to his feet, Juvie went to lock the door, and Solai stood frozen in place. “Solai. Baby. I’ma ask you one more time. That’s it. Ain’t no third time. If you don’t give me the correct answer, you already know what’s about to happen.”
Gulping loudly, Solai licked her lips. “What’s about to happen?”
Devilishly, Juvie grinned. Since she didn’t want to play by the rules when he asked, he was about to fuck them up out of here. Walking up on her, he rubbed her stomach, apologizing to his baby, whom he still didn’t know the gender of, in advance for the hurting he was about to put on its mama and slapped Solai’s ass. She had the nerve to have on some Nike capri joggers, showing off the dangerous curves of her hips and slim waistline.
“Bend that ass over on this couch and, if you run or scream too loud, I’m putting you on a dick diet.”
“Bae,” Solai whined, tugging on his shirt as he spun her around.
“Nah. Shut that shit up.”
Sliding in her gushy walls, Juvie looked up and said a silent prayer for Solai to be playing. One child, he could handle. But, twins? Twins would surely be his karma for the fuck shit he had been on their entire relationship.
Downstairs at the bar, Sen, Lano, and Meechi were chilling and discussing business as usual. As businessmen, they didn’t always have to clock each other’s moves, and that’s the way it was supposed to be. BM had taught Meechi to keep nothing but solid, loyal niggas who were humble enough to be taught around him. A nigga who couldn’t learn shit from the next man would never make it anywhere. A man who thinks he knows everything knows nothing at all.
“I been thinking about retiring for good,” Meechi voiced, making Lano look up from his phone.
Anika had just texted him about the trip they were supposed to be taking to California to visit his family over the summer. After meeting his mama, Lina, Anika knew she had to meet the rest of his family. Plus, she had saw a picture of his daddy, and the man was fine as hell. Lano was a younger, slimmer version of him with hair. His pops had a head full of curly hair that was cut low to his head. Anika knew for a fact his cousins, uncles, and nephews looked as fine as he did and she was planning to play matchmaker with Amiya and Maliya. Specifically, Maliya. She was the quiet one who needed a little California thug lovin’ in her life.
“Word?” Lano responded.
Meechi nodded his head. “Yeah. I got enough money for my kids’ kids. My presence, or lack thereof, isn’t really needed anymore. Plus, I got a family who needs me. I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to me, and E was left trying to explain to our kids why their daddy was absent from their lives. That shit would kill me.”
Lano nodded his head, understanding completely. His mindset was the same. Only thing was, he didn’t have kids or a family, so the pressure to exit the streets weren’t nearly as heavy. Sen understood as well, but he had never thought about getting out of the streets. After doing business with his New York connect, his clientele had increased and he was raking in more money than he and Meechi had together back in the day. It wasn’t always about the money, but shit… majority of the time it was.
“Something like what? You ain’t out here in the streets to lose your life,” Sen voiced.
“You don’t gotta die to lose your life. A nigga ain’t looking to do no jail time, ever. You hear me? This shit ain’t even worth it anymore.”
Sen looked at him like he had grown two heads. He didn’t know where all this talk about going legit was coming from, but he wasn’t down with the movement. In his eyes, Sen was going to hustle until he was dead or in jail. He didn’t see it another way, and the prime example of making it out unscathed was sitting directly across from him.
Chuckling, Sen shook his head. “Where all this shit coming from?”
“I been feeling this way. Leaving the house earlier just made it even more real. A nigga is a family man now. What used to be me waking up checking my burner phone, is now me getting up in the middle of the night and making sure my house is secured. Peeping on my growing six-year-old daughter, who loves a nigga to death. Heating up a bottle for my junior who is going to follow in my footsteps, and I’ll be damned if he loses his life to the streets. Whether that’s in jail or six feet deep. This street shit ain’t even worth it.”
Taking his family to school one time, Meechi knew he was making the right choice. Not once had Erica ever complained about him being in the streets, but she worried. She didn’t have to tell him she worried, he just knew. After all these years of being with her, Meechi would bet his last that it was because of his praying fiancée that he had made it out of the game alive, same with BM and any nigga who had made it out. Meechi wasn’t going to take anything God had blessed him with for granted. He’d be a foolish man to.
“Aye. That’s real shit. See, if I had kids and all that, I might be on the same page. Pushing dope is all a nigga know,” Sen bluffed, with a light chuckle.
“Nah. It’s all you think you know,” Meechi replied, matter of fact.
“Whatever the case, I ain’t throwing in the towel yet. A few more years and-”
“The fuck these niggas want?” Lano hissed, looking toward the door. Jaw clenched and mug on his face, the cops that had just walked through the front door were the least bit fazed by his glare.
Juvie and Solai had gotten cleaned up and were walking down the stairs, when the tallest cop of the two asked for the owner. “Is a Roderick Kent available?”
“You looking at him. What’s up?” Juvie questioned, holding Solai’s sweaty hand. She didn’t know why they were questioning him, nor why they were in his establishment when the lounge wasn’t even open for business, but she could feel it in the pit of her stomach that something wasn’t right.
The cop with the badge that displayed Charles on it chuckled. “Nice little establishment you got here. Got it with drug money?”
His partner, Smith, slapped him on the shoulder and cackled. “Of course, he did. How else do you think he keeps it up and running?”
Lano’s trigger finger was itching so damn badly, it was ridiculous. Looking toward Meechi, he was silently asking for the go ahead to off these crooked ass cops. In the business he was in, he could dispose of their bodies and have the city in an uproar behind two cops coming up missing. The people who called themselves serving justice could trip over their own getting mistreated, but weren’t doing shit about the women or kids who had gone missing mysteriously or lost their life. The system was fucked up, and Lano didn’t care about causing an uproar if shit got out of hand behind his niggas. Meechi shook his head no, and Lano popped his knuckles.
Like the hothead he was, Juvie got straight to the point. Whatever joke they were trying to get off wasn’t as humorous as they thought. “Now that that’s out the way, fuck ya’ll want?”
“Watch your mouth mufucka. We’ll have this piece of shit shut down before your pretty little girlfriend drops her load. If it is yours?” he snickered.
Juvie released Solai’s hand and Sen hopped up. “Juvie!”
“Babe, no!” Solai shouted hysterically.
Stopping in his tracks, Juvie was yanked back by Solai, who was on the verge of having a panic attack. Had either cop drawn their gun, she’d have to explain to her unborn why they were a fatherless child. Taking a deep breath, Juvie stepped behind Solai and she placed his hands on her belly. As long as he felt his child and her touch, he wasn’t going to make a dumb move.
Smith looked toward Sen and gave him a smirk. “Ah, so he does talk. We’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Sensay Giordano. You mind taking a ride with us downtown?”
“In fact, I do, pussy,” Sen spat, with the meanest, deadliest scowl he could muster up.
Charles laughed and pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket. “See, I knew you would give us a hard time, so we came prepared. We have a warrant for
your arrest, so whether you want to take this ride or not, you are puss. Now, let’s go.”
Smiling, Sen licked his lips with his head tilted back and gave them a head nod. “A warrant, huh? That’s real cute mufuckas. Let’s slide, and don’t touch me. I can walk out of here just like you hoes walked up in here uninvited.”
Stepping forward, Lano and Meechi stood up from the table. They were waiting for one of them to place their hands on Sen, and it was going to be on.
“Call my woman and tell her to call our lawyer,” Sen looked at Solai and said. She nodded her head and pulled her phone from her purse and dialed Neicey up.
Once Sen made it to the front of the building and at the door, Charles pushed him out of it, and it took everything in Sen not to turn around and knock him on his back. A pissed Lano banged his fist on the table, scaring the shit out of an already shaken up Solai.
Stone-faced, Meechi stood with his jaw tight, eyes in slits, and blood boiling. That exact reason was why he was getting out of the game for good. It didn’t matter if you had a few cops on payroll, the judge, hell, even the damn mayor of the city, the system never worked in a black man’s favor. While Solai was on the phone with Neicey telling her exactly what Sen asked her to do, Juvie was waiting to see what moves Meechi were trying to make.
“I know we ain’t just about to sit here,” he said, more than questioned.
Releasing a heavy breath, Meechi looked at Sen’s young prodigy and nodded his head. Juvie was hot tempered and just as reckless as Sen was. So, yes, they were definitely just about to sit there. No one on their team had ever been arrested besides Juvie, for the murder of Tesh’s ex-boyfriend, and Meechi wasn’t about to jump to conclusions. Sen was a grown ass man who, for the most part, could handle himself. In the case that he couldn’t, that’s when Meechi would make his move. Plus, Neicey was loyal to the soil and about to handle her business as his woman.
“Yeah. We don’t need to make no moves yet. Until Neicey or Sen calls either of us, we need to be under the radar. Especially you,” Meechi said, nodding toward Solai, who had just gotten off the phone with Neicey. She was breathing hard and was more nervous about what had just gone down than when she was when killing Oriana.