Ruben had just started explaining to his daughter about the strange call he’d received on his cell, a call that was placed from her number. Only minutes into telling Jakki that School Boy had apparently spoken to the caller, who had her cell phone, and informed him Jakki Crayton under the instructions of the Crayton Clan had not only robbed one of his drug houses this week, but had crashed a stolen truck into the rear of his building causing thousands of dollars in damages, they were interrupted.
“Yes, excuse me.” Maino came through the doorway as his partner stood outside. “Is this Ruben Crayton’s room?”
“Yeah.” Jakki looked over at the two men recognizing not only their faces from the pill robbery but shockingly their voices as well from last night’s botched lick. “Oh wow!” she mumbled under breath. It’d been dark in the boutique when the owners came in and she was not able to make out their faces.
“Gentlemen, hello, please come in and close the door.” Ruben used the hand controller to slightly raise his hospital bed. “You must be Maino correct? And if so, I believe we need some privacy.”
Jakki, overly suspicious of the two visitors as well as protective of her father, moved to the other side of the room so she could watch. Having tasted the empowering feeling of sending a man on his way, the loyal daughter was prepared to do battle once more for the day if need been, twice if they pushed her hand. “What do y’all want with my father?”
“Naw.” Maino had no problem bringing his issues straight to the table. “The question is what does your father and you want with us? We ain’t never stepped out of line with you or yours. We let you do your thing and we do ours.”
“Let?” Jakki started to feel some sort of way at the tone Maino was using and his choice of words. “What you mean let? You better pump your brakes, ol’ man, nobody lets the Craytons do shit; we just do it!”
“Slow down, it’s okay, Jakki. Let’s hear them out,” Ruben suggested still not feeling a 100 percent after School Boy’s surprise attack on him in the middle of the night.
Maino and his partner heard Jakki’s name and both looked at one another.
“So you’re Jakki huh?” Maino squinted trying to imagine her with a bandana covering half of her face. “I guess you do look like the one who held a gun on me and my partner the other night and stole all our stuff and money.”
“Gentlemen, what exactly can we do for you?” Ruben felt the tension growing but still tried to keep the peace. That’s what he felt a good leader did if at all possible: maintained order. “Per our conversation you said it was vital you spoke to me face to face. Now as you see, I’m at somewhat of a disadvantage being under the weather and all, but I’m here to listen to your concerns over what harm you claim my child brought to you.”
After beating around the bush, the reason for the call placed from Jakki’s lost cell, and then the visit was revealed. Not only asking for the street value of their stolen pills and cough syrup to be returned, but also the total cost of repairing the gaping hole in his building, Maino had the nerve to ask Ruben for the possibility of blessing him and his partner with permission to open up another spot on their side of town. “I think that seems fair considering, don’t you?”
Before Ruben could take the opportunity to respond to Maino’s outlandish demands masquerading as simple requests, Jakki, fuming, stepped in. “Okay, listen up, Maino, or what the hell ever your name is. I don’t know who you think you talking to or what piece of courage cookie you took a bite off of this morning, but as long as you alive, and that might not be that long, don’t you ever speak to my damn father like that again. You not on his level to address him like that, so fall back!”
“Hold up, wait a minute.” Seeing the young girl was up in arms, Maino tried to rephrase his statement but she wasn’t done yet.
“Naw, you two pussy made Negros need to hold up. Y’all got the game and my family all the way twisted.” Jakki tried keeping her voice down the best she could, but was losing the battle to do so. “How dare y’all stroll into my father’s hospital room like some kinda official OGs in the streets talking that la la mess! Like y’all doing us some huge favor allowing us to make shit up to y’all. Fuck y’all! How about that?”
Ruben wanted to intervene and get Jakki to stand down, but she was on a roll representing the Crayton name and he was glad of it considering his weakened state.
Maino’s partner had yet to mutter a single word, more than happy to fall back as he was asked in the hallway.
“Listen, do you really think it’s okay that we take such a loss just like that? Do you think you dealing with men with no options, no pride or dignity?” Maino was indeed feeling intimidated by Jakki and the infamous Crayton Clan that stood behind her, but made up in his mind he’d die first before becoming some man’s bitch. “Just like your father wouldn’t just suck that up and move on, I’m not willing to either.”
Having been focused on both visitors, Jakki finally looked over at her father. For the first time in a week he seemed to be getting his color back. Assuming it was him feeling like he was back in the game, even only having a bedside front-row seat, she grinned letting him know she had this. “Just for the principle of it, why don’t you tell me what you plan on doing? Because point blank you not getting them pills or none of that cough syrup back!”
“So about that young lady.” Maino finally played his ace in hopes of getting Ruben and Jakki to at least negotiate and return some of what was rightfully his.
“Young lady?” Ruben finally spoke wanting more details.
“Yeah, Mr. Crayton, the young lady your daughter left dead inside my store.” Maino watched Jakki’s facial expression change and knew she hadn’t told her father the entire story of what had gone down the night before. Seizing the opportunity to bring the young girl down a few notches in her father’s eyesight, if at all possible, he started explaining from start to finish.
When it was all said and done, Ruben was speechless; however, Jakki on the other hand was not. “Okay, guy, you had your say. And guess what, half if not all of what you say went down this week probably did. But that’s part of the game. You and this other old man ain’t new to any of this life. You know like I know when you spin the wheel sometimes you don’t hit. Well this week your luck ran out.” Jakki was not at all moved by him bringing up the fact that Lena’s dead body was still slumped over underneath the clothing rack in his boutique and he was willing to not call the police and implicate the Craytons if they didn’t meet his demands. “This week you got hit hard and instead of trying to keep it street you come in here, at my father’s bedside like some little scorned female attempting to extort my family.”
Maino, like his partner as well as Ruben, was now speechless after shooting his load.
“Well I got good news and bad news for you. The bad news is those pills and bottles of syrup me and my homegirls took from you is over. Not only are you not getting a dime in return, you need to get together a few more bottles just because and wait for my people to pick them up. That’s the street life you chose to walk in.” Jakki stood tall as she laid down the new law of the land where Maino and his partner were concerned. “Now the good news is the family is gonna step up and pay for the hole in the wall of the building. That’s on us because your business is clean and we don’t operate like that. Now as far as you even mentioning the police, that talk will get you killed on the spot. But since we about to be doing business together on a regular basis I’m gonna chalk that threat up as you temporarily losing your mind.”
“Business?” Maino finally spoke as Ruben also curious as to what his daughter was going to say next looked on with pride of the true boss she’d become.
“Yes, business. You mentioned wanting to open an additional spot correct?”
“Well yes.”
“Well don’t worry, I’m gonna make that happen,” Jakki promised staring a stunned face Maino dead in his eyes. “But for now I think it’d be in your best interest to go back to the boutique
and wait for my people to show up and help you with that little problem.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Listen, old man, you ain’t the only one who done suffered through a bad week, so please just do like I asked before things get real hectic for you real quick.”
“What?”
“You heard me and before y’all bounce, run me my damn phone!” Jakki held out her hand and twisted her lips.
Glancing over at Ruben, Maino could tell he was in a no-win situation as he gave the bossy female back her cell. Deciding to cut his losses he and his still silent partner conceded leaving to do as Jakki had requested as far as Lena’s corpse went. Each hoped that after the head of the Crayton family was released from the hospital he’d be able to speak for himself and make things right in their eyes.
Chapter 18
Walking by two men that’d obviously left from Ruben’s room, Jakki’s uncle hurried his pace not knowing what had taken place. Only seconds away from possibly having to break the bad news about their out-of-control nephew’s untimely but much needed demise, he turned into the open door of the room. Finding his niece sitting in a chair pushed all the way up near the bed’s safety guard rail, he felt all was well. She’d not only proven herself to be a true hardcore hustler over the past week, but a delegator, negotiator, and strangely enough a cold and heartless assassin if need be who had no issue with taking out a weak link, even if that link was blood. If there was any doubt where her family loyalty was at, she’d stepped up to the plate and he respected her, now to the fullest.
“Hello, brother,” Ruben, although feeling exhausted considering, happily greeted his family member.
“Hey, man, how you doing?” he replied with a raised eyebrow. Glancing at Jakki, he saw her wink then shake her head. Easily he took that to mean she’d yet to tell her father about School Boy.
“We good, Uncle. We just had a meeting with few new dudes we about to do business with. I’ll fill you in on the details later.” Jakki grinned hoping she’d made her father proud with the way she handled a potentially bad situation from exploding.
“Well, Jakki, I wanted you to know I took care of those things you needed me to take care of for you.”
“What things?” Ruben inquired.
“Oh nothing much, Daddy, just some stuff that went on back in the neighborhood.”
Ruben sat up reminding his daughter as well as his brother even though he was bedridden he was still very much in control and head of the family. “Look, don’t hide anything from me. I might look weak here in this bed, but I’m not. My body may not be operating fully, but my mind is perfect.”
“I’m glad you said that.” Jakki got up shutting the room door. “Because I need to talk to you about something.”
“What else have you been up to, Jakki? It’s bad enough I had to meet with those assholes just now.”
“Naw, it’s not her, Ruben; it’s that wild child School Boy again,” his brother spoke up. “That’s the one we was both wrong about.”
“What about that disrespectful, disloyal animal? Has anyone in the family seen him?” Ruben’s blood pressure started to rise. “I can’t believe that fool and what he tried!”
Jakki lovingly stood on the side of her father’s bed as her uncle stood at the foot. Realizing her old man was beyond salty with her cousin for the botched attempt he’d made on his life she still knew Ruben’s blood could never, for whatever reasons, run cold for School Boy. Throughout the years he’d done more than enough outrageous things to get him exiled from the family; of course, none were as crazy as the acts he’d tried to commit within the last twenty-four hours, but Ruben would intervene making excuses for his bad behavior. This time, however, School Boy’s awful sins would and could not be pardoned by her father. This time her cousin had gone too far and it was up to her to break the tragic but much needed news to him.
“What, at my house?” Jakki used both hands to push down on her father’s shoulders to stop him from getting out of the bed. “Are you telling me he was in my house and cut my damn wife? Where is she? I wanna talk to her right now, I mean it!”
“Dad, she’s okay; if she wasn’t you think I’d be here? I’d be with Mom!”
“Yeah, Ruben, don’t worry, I swear she’s good. Luckily it was only a small cut.”
“Well I want y’all to find that ignorant nigga and bring him to me! He’s gonna pay for what he tried to do!”
“Pop.” Jakki paused looking dumbfounded.
“And what’s the rest? It’s something, I can tell by the way you two are looking at one another!” Reaching for the phone to call his wife, Jakki, ready to be a soldier in every sense of the word, stopped her father telling him he was correct there was more to the story.
Ruben knew eventually it had to be done. There was no stopping or changing the inevitable from jumping off. Having been the head of the Crayton Clan for so long, he was no fool and considering School Boy’s unforgivable renegade actions—robbing people in the neighborhood, committing blatant high profile crimes, setting Jakki up to get knocked or worse than that killed, not to mention the callous attempts out of the blue he’d made on his and his wife’s lives—it was only a matter of time. School Boy was and had been for a long time a ticking bomb on the verge of exploding. But nevertheless, even in the thick midst of thinking about all the heinous things he’d done since childhood, Ruben was outwardly in pain of his nephew’s demise.
Seeing her father visibly shaken by the news that she knew he’d have mixed feelings about was almost more than she could stand. Walking away from his bedside, she stared out the seventh-floor window overlooking the hospital’s parking lot. Always cold and in total control, Jakki was shook, refusing to look directly in his face for fear of breaking down not only over the fact she’d never see her troublemaking cousin again, but the gut-wrenching fact that she was the one who sent him on his way.
“Did anyone get in touch with his mother yet?” Ruben sorrowfully inquired of Jakki and her uncle.
“No, not yet. I didn’t know how or if you wanted to handle it,” his brother responded shrugging his shoulders. “I can go by the house and tell her if you want me to.”
Quick to reply, Ruben reached for the glass of ice water that was sitting on his nightstand and took a sip through the straw. “Naw, do me a solid and go pick her up.”
“And then?”
“And then bring her to see me. This is the type of thing I need to tell her face to face. I owe her that much.”
As her uncle left out the room to do as he was asked, Jakki continued to stare out the window somewhat confused why even in death School Boy was still such an important factor in her father’s life; after all, the lunatic did try to kill the entire family.
Chapter 19
“Yes, nurse, who do I talk to in order to get a special list for my father’s visitors?”
“You mean like a restriction list?”
“Yes, after what happened last night, they promised us they’d put that in place.” Annoyed, that Maino and his boy were allowed to just get on an elevator and casually stroll into her father’s room was not okay with her. As she stood at the desk patiently waiting for a form to fill out stating who exactly was to be placed on the list, the elevators door slid open. She saw her stone-faced uncle return with School Boy’s mother, obviously confused as to why Ruben had summoned her to his bedside. Jakki spoke to her aunt, seldom seen and mentally unstable at times, knowing in a matter of seconds her heart was going to be shattered in a million pieces.
Five short minutes later while adding the last name to the soon-to-be completed list, the elevator doors slid open once more. “Hey, Mom, what you doing here so soon? I thought you were gonna get some rest.”
“I was, Jakki, but I know after your father found out about what that nutcase tried to do, he was gonna practically raise the dead until he saw me and knew I was okay.”
Jakki laughed knowing after all the years her parents had been dating then married, no one
in the world knew her pops like her mother did. “You right, he did keep asking how you were. Anyway, how is your arm?”
“It’s good. It was nothing, just a little cut. It’s gonna take more than something like that from that bastard School Boy to stop me!” she proudly announced. “And good riddance to his dead ass!”
Jakki moved over from the nurses’ station and looked down the hallway at her father’s doorway. “Shhh, Mom, chill a little before she hear you.”
“She who?”
“Auntie Sheila is in there with Pops. He’s telling her about School Boy and what happened.”
“In where?” Jakki had never seen her light-skinned mother turn this red so quickly. “In your father’s room?”
Practically running to keep up with her normally calm mother, Jakki was confused as to why she had gotten so heated.
“Ruben have you lost your complete mind in this damn hospital?” she shouted finding School Boy’s mother sobbing in her husband’s arms.
“Whoa, slow down.” He pushed Sheila’s tear-soaked face away from his chest. “You don’t understand. I just told her about, well you know. School Boy.”
Jakki’s mother was not in the mood to have sympathy for her aunt’s loss and let her feeling be known for all to hear. “Listen, Ruben, I done put up with this deception for years. I have stood by your side and put my feelings on the back burner and sucked it up,” she raged as her voiced bounced off the serene colored walls. “But no more, it’s finally over and I’m happy about it. I swallowed my pride and practically raised that no-good monster and what did he do in return but try to kill me, our daughter, and you!” The rant continued as Jakki’s uncle tried unsuccessfully to get her to please be quiet. “Naw, I’m not gonna be quiet. I’m tired of all these secrets and skeletons piled up in the closets! Your brother and this half-crazy home wrecker messed around behind me and her husband’s back and created that demented bloodline baby, so let them deal with the consequences!”
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