by Brick
“Backlash that I’m prepared for, but the threat of it isn’t going to stop me.”
I was sure my face carried the angst I felt. God knew I didn’t want anything to happen to this boy, but if he was willing to put his damn life on the line just so he could prove to the Syndicate how big his dick was then so be it. Mama would kick my ass once I got to wherever she was one day, but as long as she knew I tried to keep him from signing his own death warrant then I’d take it.
Chapter 9
Shanelle
Lucky wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought some smooth Italian dude was going to open the door to the condo to meet us. I mean, Lucky was Italian, he was just Italian and black. Tall, maybe an inch or so taller than Javon. The suit he had on had been tailored to fit his broad shoulders and athletic physique. I couldn’t see his eyes that well in the morning dawn until he flipped on a light switch, but the way the man moved reminded me of the alpha in Javon. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I was tired and hadn’t slept.
The fight between Inez and me once I had gotten to Mama’s house still weighed on me. The girl had a bruise on the left of her face the size of Texas. I’d walked in the house to her on the phone apologizing to some nigga. She was begging him to come see her and apologized for making him hit her. I’d never been so angry in my life. Inez could never seem to find a man who didn’t like putting his foot in her ass. I didn’t know why she always attracted the worst of the worst kind of man.
“You okay?” Javon asked me for the second time since we had left the house.
I knew he was looking down at me, but I was staring straight ahead. I nodded. “Yeah, just tired,” I said.
“You sure?”
I glanced over at him. “Yes, I’m sure.”
I didn’t want to bog him down with female bullshit. I still couldn’t help but think back on what had gone down. Melissa had walked in on Inez and me about to come to blows.
“Don’t fucking act like you care now, Nelle, don’t,” Inez barked at me.
“What? Act like I care? I do care! Why do you think I’m in your face now?” I shouted at her.
“Because you like to be in control of shit. That’s why. You come in here now acting like you care about what’s happening with me when all you do is sniff up behind Javon’s ass. You and Javon, Mr. and Mrs. Perfect. Well forgive the fuck out of me for loving a flawed nigga, okay? Not everybody can be as perfect as Javon.”
I frowned and swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat. Where was all of this coming from? “What are you talking about?” I asked her.
She had on biker shorts with a red sports bra. Her light brown skin had ruddy undertones while her kinky natural hair swayed about her shoulders anytime she moved. “I’m saying that you don’t give a shit about nothing unless you can be in control of it or unless Javon approves. Since he’s been in charge of this newfangled shit, you been his fucking shadow. Where he goes, you go. Lucky us got to go to one damn thing and that’s when he went to get Melissa and Jojo back. Everything else we get the back end of it.”
I was confused as fuck. “How did we go from talking about a nigga beating your ass to you talking about Javon and me at meetings? For your information, that was the only meeting that I got to be a part of as well,” I defended.
Inez closed her eyes tight and shook her head as she paced the kitchen floor. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was on drugs. She screamed a bit as she pulled at her hair. She was about to say something else until Melissa walked in.
“Oh gotdamn, Inez, what happened to your face?” she asked.
“None of your damn business. Leave me alone. Both of you just leave me alone,” Inez said.
She tried to walk from the kitchen, but I blocked her. “No, not until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Ain’t nothing to tell. I got into a fight with my boyfriend. End of story.”
Melissa walked over. “Looks like you were the only one in the fight, Inez. We’re doing this again? Shanelle is just trying to help. We don’t want to see you go down this road again.”
“Oh here you go,” Inez said. “I guess since you’re going to be running the club, Shanelle is your best friend now?”
Melissa’s face turned red, which made me question what wasn’t being said. “What?” Melissa asked.
“Guess you ain’t so pissed she snatched Javon from your fingertips no more?”
“Oh my God, Inez. Cut it out,” Melissa said. “What I said . . . That was a long time ago.”
“What was a long time ago? What the hell are you two talking about?” I asked.
“The fact that you knew Melissa liked Javon, but didn’t give a shit and got into a relationship with him anyway,” Inez answered.
“What?”
“Whatever, Shanelle. Play dumb and be the perfect daughter Mama thought you were. Run off, marry Javon, and you and he be the king and queen of the underworld. The rest of us be damned,” she declared sarcastically then shoved past me out of the kitchen.
I was so confused, it was frightening. Apparently there had been conversations going on that Javon and I didn’t know about. Was that what they all thought of me and Javon? They thought we were perfect? Did Inez and Melissa feel Mama thought I was better than they were? When Javon and I made it known we were a couple, Mama was happy about it and nobody else had made a big deal about it, or so we thought.
I turned to Melissa, who walked back over to the counter and started putting the groceries away she had brought in. “What is she talking about?” I asked her.
She turned to me and smiled a bit. “Don’t worry about it, big sis. Stuff I said awhile ago is all.”
“Yeah, but tell me. I want to know.”
Melissa huffed then placed down the bag of rice she had. She rubbed her forehead for a bit then sighed deeply like what she was about to say would hurt her, and me for that matter.
“Wasn’t no secret I liked Javon back then, Shanelle. Everybody knew it and could see it, but I guess you didn’t care or whatever. I didn’t think you two liked each other anyhow with the way y’all was always fighting and shit,” she explained as she shrugged then turned to keep putting the food away. “Anyway, I wasn’t surprised he would pick you. You weren’t the neighborhood’s white whore.”
“Oh, Melissa,” I said softly.
I could hear the hurt in her voice. “Don’t do that, Shanelle, don’t pity me.”
“I’m not,” I said quickly.
“You’re lying. We both know the reason most of the black boys at school and in the neighborhood claimed to like me was because they knew I would fuck when you wouldn’t. They knew I’d suck dick and you wouldn’t. We both know Javon didn’t see me the way I saw him.”
“That’s because you were his—”
“Don’t give me that shit about being his little sister either. I’m not stupid. You were his little sister too, but he saw something in you he didn’t see in me.”
“Remember he beat the shit out of Oscar and his brothers for calling you a whore?”
“Wasn’t because he liked me. It was because he’s protective of all of his siblings and as my big brother he had to handle anybody causing harm to me. I was so angry with you, Nelle. Like why did you have to be so damn perfect? Like you’re smart and black and beautiful and not a whore.”
I walked over to Melissa and laid a hand on her shoulder. She had a lot of insecurities because of her addiction to sex. Not to mention, she was technically the minority in our family. She was the odd man out in a house of people of color.
She laid a hand on my mine and smiled. “I remember one time he and I were in my room. He had asked to talk to me so I chose my room so I could shut the door. He placed his lips on mine and I was elated because in my head, I just knew that meant he had always liked me, but that wasn’t the case. He pulled back and asked me how I felt. I told him in no uncertain terms that I felt him stir something in my soul. He said that saddened him because wh
at I felt when I kissed him is what he feels when he kisses you. He explained that, in his heart, I’d always be loved as his sister. That was the day I finally accepted you two as an item,” she said after placing the last can of corn in the cabinet. She turned to me with tears rolling down her face. “Hey, if you kiss Javon and make him feel the way he made me feel that day, then there was no way I could compete with that.”
I knew about that kiss because Javon had told me. That didn’t mean I wanted to see Melissa hurt. “I’m sorry,” I said to her.
“Don’t be. I’m not mad, Shanelle. Inez was just saying shit to deflect attention off herself. It’s what she does. You know that.”
As Melissa and I hugged, I felt love in my heart for both my sisters. We may have been of all different races and ethnicities, but they were my sisters and I knew without doubt that we loved one another.
Still, the fact that Inez had effectively used manipulation to get the heat off her bothered me, not to mention all the other shit she had said. I couldn’t wait to get her alone so we could talk again. She was going to tell me who the motherfucker was who had hit her and there would be no way around it. I wouldn’t stand for one of my sisters allowing a man to beat her down. I just wouldn’t.
I had to focus on that later though. As Lucky ushered us in, my eyes widened a bit. Brother man was fine. Black Italian leather dress shoes that looked fresh from the cobbler clacked against the marble flooring. He had a half-crested gold ring on his finger, which drew my attention. He was the color of raw honey that heat hadn’t touched yet. His close-cropped silky black hair was tapered to perfection. His face was free of any hair and diamond studs were in his left and right earlobes.
He smiled and extended his big hand. “Nice to meet you, Javon.”
Javon smiled and grasped Lucky’s hand in a firm handshake. “Glad you could get out here on such short notice,” Javon responded.
Lucky turned his eyes to me and I glanced away before looking back at him.
“This is my fiancée, Shanelle,” Javon introduced me with a hand on the small of my back.
Lucky extended his hand, but for some reason I hesitated to shake it. I didn’t know why. Just something in my gut clenched like a fist around my insides and wouldn’t let go. But for the sake of decorum, I smiled and shook the man’s hand. “Hello, Lucky. Nice to meet you,” I greeted him.
The smile on Lucky’s face was a lascivious one and he turned my hand and kissed the back of it. “The pleasure is all mine of course,” he said.
My hand started to tingle. I cleared my throat then removed my hand from his. I glanced at the floor as I used my left hand to push my hair behind my ear. I felt when Javon’s hand tensed a bit on my back. I would have chuckled and rolled my eyes if I didn’t know any better. But I did know better. I also knew Javon’s temper. So I kept it cute and stayed in my place for the time being.
We all made our way to the front room where staff had already placed out refreshments. Javon ushered me to the sofa to sit while he and Lucky took the two wingback Tudor-style chairs across from one another. After we had been served drinks of our choice, Javon got right down to business.
“I don’t want to pussyfoot around or waste time,” he said to Lucky. “I called you here because I want to offer you a seat at the table of the Syndicate. Lots of things are about to change around here and Mama spoke highly of you. You’re already running a fine enterprise up North and you get your product through us already. Getting a seat in the Syndicate would mean you wouldn’t have to deal with day-to-day details. You could turn that over to a general and deal with only the logistics, money, and distribution. Not to mention we each take our cut off the top when new product comes in. You could focus on other things like your overseas enterprises.”
Lucky took a sip of his drink, crossed his ankle over his left leg, and studied Javon. “Lots of talk about you going on in the circuits. Is it true? Did you really off Cormac?” he asked.
“Whether I answer yes or no, the question will still remain if you want the seat at the table. But to answer honestly, yes, I did. He said he wanted my attention so I gave it to him. May not have been the attention he had in mind, but he got it nonetheless.”
“You comfortable with cutting the Irish from the table like that?”
Javon nodded. “I have to be because I’ve done it now. They want to speak with me as well.”
“And you plan to?”
Javon nodded once. “I’ll give them time to speak their piece. We don’t really need the Irish if you want me to be honest. We got the Mexicans, Africans, Jews, Italians, and once I make this change, I have Natives I can bring in as well. The reservations have potential to bring in a lot of money for us.”
Lucky clicked his tongue a few times then chuckled. “That’s some old-world shit you up against right now. Starting a war with them could potentially crumble the Syndicate.”
“I’m aware. But they are not our only worries, especially since I plan to eliminate six chairs at the Syndicate anyway and replace the remaining six with new and younger people.”
I looked at Javon. That was something new he hadn’t told me. I mean I knew he didn’t have to tell me everything, but I assumed with a move that calculating he would have run it by me. “Baby, how is that going to work?” I asked. “These are dangerous people.”
He looked at me. I could tell he knew what I was thinking, which was why he nodded and answered, “I have the plans all laid out, but the first order of business is to see if Lucky is going to take the seat I’m offering. Bringing him on will start the process. The six chairs I eliminate altogether will have no dealings with Syndicate business. The six chairs I replace will form something like a council of elders. They will retire and I will allow them to have a hand in who they choose from their families to take their seats.”
“Trying to ease the sting of being ousted,” Lucky added with a nod and a smile. “Makes sense.”
“Yes. So the question remains, are you in or are you out?”
“I’m in. Anybody crazy enough to carry through with a plan like this is crazy enough to head the Syndicate. The shit kind of reminds me of the story told about a great, great, great-grand of mine.”
Javon smiled the first genuine smile he’d given Lucky all night. “Which is why I sought you out first to sit at the table.”
Both men stood and shook hands like they were warriors readying for battle. I couldn’t fight the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach though. So many emotions had overtaken me in the last few hours. Maybe I just needed to sleep to shake off the feeling that when Javon made his announcement to the Syndicate bloodshed would be the end result.
Chapter 10
Cory
“Oh, shit,” escaped my lips after I hung up with my brother telling him where I was, followed by a deep, satisfying smile.
This underworld shit had turned into something I hadn’t expected of it, one that was reaping many specific benefits such as I was experiencing right now. Being Von’s right-hand man, next to Uncle Snap, it was my responsibility to wine and dine our current supplier, Gemini, while keeping them entertained. I planned on being that dude for my brother. Planned on making sure these women stayed interested in what we got, which I did . . . well, was doing.
A quick glance down had me thinking about football and touch points as twin one, Aurelia, kneeled in nothing but her heels and a thong in front me as she swallowed my dick whole. Gotdamn! Mami was sublime with it. Tracing me from that sensitive spot between my nuts on up to the rim of my head, she didn’t even blink when she swallowed my swelling dick whole. Never in my life had I had a female throat me without gagging like she was. The fact that I was still growing in her throat didn’t seemed to bother her either. On my word, that move alone made me want to wife her.
Too bad that I wasn’t the marrying type.
Sweet and musky scents mingled with the smoke of Mist in the air of the W hotel we chilled in. The sun was rising and I lay on my back, arm s
tretched out with my fingers curling to motion to the other twin, Arielle, who sat naked on her knees doing a line of molly she had finely chopped from several candy-looking tablets next to my bottle of Cîroc.
When she looked my way, I licked my lips and let my eyes drink up her sexy. Both twins had the same body type. Petite, thin but thick with the shape of a Coke bottle. Arielle’s perky milk and tea–toned breasts made me want to suck the curved line of stars that ran against the contour of them. Gaze dropping farther, I dug how she had slight abs but only barely due to the softness of her stomach. However, what I liked even more was that sandy brown strip of hair that held a septum-like ring that hung on her clit. Damn, these two were bad.
Lifting a blunt to her lips, Arielle took a hit then walked my way in a sultry runway type of walk. Every word exchange between us was in French at this point. I commanded that Arielle give me a hit, as I combed my fingers through her sister’s cotton soft fro. My eyes rolled in my head while mama worked my dick to perfection. When I drew in hit of that blunt, then took a hit of the Mist, I gave a slow grin while I reached for Arielle’s hips and lifted her on my face.
Nothing but moist pussy was in my face and I enjoyed it all. Especially when mama worked that pussy in a circle against my stretched-out tongue. Sweet nectar coated my mouth and throat as I said, “Ahhhh!” then gave a throaty laugh with a, “Yeah,” making her even more moist. A nigga was high. A nigga was in bliss, and I had to give my little brother props for creating a drug like he did. However, I never would. There was no way that I’d let him know that I took a hit of this shit. See, in all my constant work in being an activist lawyer then moving to into criminal law, I ended up developing several vices along the way.
Really, that shit started way before that when I was a teen. Drinking, weed, pussy, and the occasional light partaking of molly was my thing. Now Mist might become my next joy, but only in moderation. A nigga wasn’t too stupid. Sure, I had a couple of females I used to get me what I needed on the low, fellow aspiring lawyers who gained a habit as a means of coping through the rigorous hours and work we all went through. I even used Inez’s connection in the hospital as a means to get me a little something-something, once I found out she was a little junkie for her nigga. But, now everything was different.