by Nikki Brown
“Krista and her fucking mama.”
“Don’t let that bitch ruin our day.” She pointed her freshly manicured nail at my face and I pretended to bite it.
“I ain’t, I just wish the bitch would go away, before I make her.”
“Jaako!”
“My bad.” I laughed, she hated when I said stuff like that because she was my lawyer and she didn’t want to hear anything that would jeopardize her defending us if she needed to. Sometimes I just did shit to get on her nerves.
The drive to the restaurant was full of laughs and jokes. All it took was for me to be around her to get all that negativity out of my head. I just hoped Krista didn’t try and start shit when we got there. Pulling up to the restaurant I noticed Unc’s car immediately.
“What the fuck he doing here?” I said under my breath.
We got out of the car and walked hand in hand in the restaurant, and the first thing I see is Unc arguing with Krista and her bitch ass mom. My first thought was to go in the opposite direction, but I wanted to know what the hell he was doing here with them of all people. I walked in his direction just as he was walking off from the table. He ran right into me.
“Unc, what the fuck you doing here and with them?”
“That little bitch called me talking about she needed to talk to me and it was about you.”
“The fuck?”
“Exactly and I get here, and she was on some straight up bullshit talking about she was my daughter and shit. What they didn’t know is I had my shit clipped right after Kayson.” Well damn this bitch just didn’t know when to quit did she. “So, I just cussed the both of them out and now I’m going to find me some pussy—” he stopped mid-sentence when he noticed that Yameka was standing here. “You got to be fucking kidding me.”
“What the hell is going on here?” I heard Tate, our connect with the police, say from behind me.
“Hey, Daddy.” Yameka went up and hugged him and I stood there looking stupid. I never knew who her father was. I just knew that he worked in the criminal justice system and I didn’t ask too many questions. “This is the man that I was telling you about, his name is Jaako and Jaako this is my dad.”
“I know who the fuck he is.” Tate hissed and then looked in the direction of me and Unc. “What the fuck are you doing with my daughter?”
“Wait, you know each other?”
“Yes!” We all said in unison.
“In my defense, I didn’t know that she was your daughter, I mean not that it would change anything because I love her.”
“This is not gonna work for me.” Tate shook his head and then looked at Unc. “You knew about this?”
“No I didn’t, I don’t get in my nephews’ business because they are grown, but I can tell you now that Jaako is a good man, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t want to hear that shit, you know what he does for a fucking living.” He said loud enough for people to hear. Well this wasn’t going how I expected it to go.
“Tate, no disrespect, but we do the same shit.” I gritted through my teeth. I was getting pissed the fuck off.
“Daddy?” Yameka screeched. She looked back and forth between me and her daddy and then ran out the door with Tate following behind her. I headed for the exit to go and see what the fuck was the problem.
When I got outside Yameka was standing there crying her eyes out. Tate was standing there with his hands folded across his chest. I could hear him saying something about me to her and I didn’t like that shit, we were grown and Yameka was 32 years old.
“Do you know what this could do for your career?”
“Daddy, do you know what it could do to your career?” She came back. “And you, why didn’t you tell me?” She looked in my direction.
“Baby, I didn’t know he was your father and I don’t talk about my business with you remember.”
She didn’t say anything, she just looked around and continued to cry. I didn’t know what I could say to make it any better, but I knew that she was hurting and whether I agreed with it or not I was a part of it. I walked over and enclosed her in my arms.
“This is some bullshit, my daughter the successful lawyer is fucking with my business associate, a fucking drug dealer.”
“Yo, I may be a drug dealer Tate, but I can fucking promise you that there is no one out here that could protect her like I can. Ain’t a damn soul gonna be there for her like me. It doesn’t matter what I do, as long as I don’t bring that shit home to my woman.” I laid it all out there. I’m over all his smart-ass comments like his crooked ass wasn’t in the same business as me.
“I just need to go.” Yameka said.
“I can take you to the house.” I volunteered.
“No, I'll take her,” Tate interjected, and I gave him a look that said don’t fuck with me.
“I need to talk to my dad.” Yameka placed her hands on my chest.
“Don’t let this come in between us; we worked too hard for this.” She stood on her toes and kissed me on the lips. She gave me a half smile that wasn’t convincing at all, but it would have to do. I would give her time to get things together with her dad, but I wasn’t going anywhere and the sooner the both of them get that through their thick heads the better.
I watched as they climbed into Tate’s SUV and pulled out of the parking lot and sped off down the street. I don’t like to get into family drama, but I swear if he tried to come in between me and Yameka he is gonna have fight on his hands and I bet my life on that.
“Ain’t this some bullshit?” Unc said from behind me.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was Tate’s daughter?”
“I didn’t think she would ever fall for your shit and that shit wouldn’t have even mattered to you anyway, now would it?”
“Hell no.” I laughed.
“Exactly but I wished I would have known though so I could’ve given that nigga a heads up or something.”
“That muthafucka will be alright, the only reason I let that nigga slide with all that slick shit was because of you, you know that, right?” He nodded his head. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that again.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“Good!”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Kayson
“Jenacia, listen to me.”
“No Kayson, you listen to me.” she fussed. I was sitting in the warehouse waiting on my brothers to get here.
“Go ahead, I’m listening.”
“I can’t do this anymore; I can’t trust you to be here for me. Every time you get mad what you gonna do put your hands on me and then leave? No, I’m not going for that. The only thing I want from you is for you to take care of your kids.” She yelled out in one breath.
“Shut the hell up.”
“No, you shut up I’m sick of your shit. You so caught up in the shit you got going on that you think everyone is disloyal like you.”
“Don’t do that, don’t go drudging up the past because you mad, Jenacia.”
“I’ll do what I want to do.”
“I’ma let all this slick talking slide because I know ya hormones out of whack from the twins, but I’ll be home later, and we will talk about this face to face. It sounds like yo’ ass need some dick or something ‘cause I swear you doing the most.” I laughed but she didn’t see anything funny.
“I changed the locks.”
“If you changed the locks, I’m fucking you up.” I sat up on the edge of the chair, she was starting to piss me off I ain’t been gone but three damn days. “Jenacia.”
“What!”
“Did you change them locks?”
“Sure the hell did.” She sassed, and I ran my hands through my dreads. “Go lay with the bitch you been with for the last three days Kayson, fuck you. I knew you were gonna do this.”
“I wasn’t with no bitch, I told you I ain’t on that shit no more, so stop.”
“I can’t tell, ‘cause you still being the self
ish, childish asshole that I remember.”
“Is that why you killed my baby?” I don’t know why I asked that but I did, and I needed an answer from her, but she didn’t say anything. I could hear sniffling, but she wasn’t saying anything. “Jenacia?”
“I did what was best for me; I wasn’t in a position to be a single parent.”
“I would’ve been there.”
“When you wanted to Kayson and you know it. You were too busy trying to move up the ladder that the only thing that mattered to you was your money and your dick and you know it.”
She wasn’t lying, if you would have told me a year ago that I would be trying to settle down and raise a family I would have laughed in your face. I didn’t have time for that I just wanted to do me and get money.
“I get it, but that shit still don’t make it right.”
“I never said it did.”
“Can we talk about this later?”
“Whatever, Kayson.”
“For real I’m sorry for leaving and not coming home. I just needed time to process shit.”
“Well, I need time to process shit too.”
“Aight cool, I’m giving yo’ ass three hours and I’ll be home.”
“Call before you come so I can open the door.”
“Stop fucking playing with me, you better not had changed the locks.”
“Okay.” Was all she said before she hung up the phone.
I really needed to work on my patience and shit like that. I can’t run away from shit when it gets bad with her. I needed to get my feelings in check and learn to work shit out. I had kids coming and she needed me, they needed me.
I did a little bit of work while I was waiting on everybody to get here. Numbers were still fucked up and the shit was baffling. I asked around and of course no one knew anything. What they didn’t know is that I put in cameras that I planned on watching later to see who the fuck was fucking up, so we could dead them niggas.
I heard the door to the warehouse chime and it was Denari which was weird because his ass was never on time for shit. I was against inviting him to this, but Unc thought enough time had passed and we needed to talk to him and see where his head was at. Plus, we needed to find a way to flush Ortiz out, and him and Heaven knew more about him than anybody.
I was about to get up and go holla at him until he headed to the back of the warehouse. I watched on the monitors as he went to holla at Joker who was looking around like he was guilty and shit. They exchanged a few words and Denari handed him a wad of money that Joker accepted and put in his back pocket. I wondered what the fuck that was about. Something was telling me that I just found out who was fucking up the count. I was gonna try my best to remain cool, but I swear I wanted to fuck his ass up. He was never gonna learn.
To be able to keep my cool long enough for everyone to get there I just stayed up in my office and watched from the monitors. I decided to come down to see what everybody was up to. I noticed Jaako looking all crazy.
“Jaa the fuck wrong with you.”
“You’ll never guess who Yameka’s daddy is.”
“Who, nigga?”
“Tate!” Shit that ain’t good at all, can’t be fucking the police’s daughter. I didn’t even know what to say so I just looked at him and I could tell that the shit was eating his ass alive. He loved Yameka and had for some time and to think that this may be the end of their relationship.
“What the fuck you gonna do about it?”
“I’ma let her work that shit out with her pops, but I ain’t about to let her go. She it for me.” He shrugged, and I understood where he was coming from.
“Well since we sharing and shit, I got some good news.” I couldn’t contain my smile. “Y’all niggas gonna be uncles.”
“Bullshit.” Omari said as he came over and dapped me up. “Congrats bro.”
“Thanks man, check it though, we are having twins.”
“Got damn super sperm.” Omari laughed.
I dapped up everybody else except Denari who kept his distance. I wasn’t tripping because I was cool with that. I didn’t even want him here, but I was about to bust his fucking ass in just a little minute.
“And I got a sister, but that’s a story for a different time.”
They continued to congratulate me on the twins and then we got down to business. Unc told us about the move he made with Ortiz’s people.
“So, I need y’all to keep an eye out cause I’m sure that nigga gonna clap back.” He said once he was done telling us how it went down.
“I’m ready for him for ass this time, and I promise I’m not the one that’s gonna end up with the hole in my chest.” Omari rubbed the place where he had gotten shot just a little while ago.
“Ortiz gonna get his, know that.” I assured. “But I just wanted to talk to y’all about the way the fucking count been coming up all fucked up.” I looked at Denari and he was staring straight at me. “I put cameras in so I could find out what the fuck been going on and—”
“Cut the bullshit, it was me.” Denari blurted out.
“The fuck you mean it was you?” Unc said and I just stood back waiting for him to say something stupid so I could swing on his ass.
“Y’all cut me out and I needed to do what I needed to do to keep my name in the streets too.” He said like the shit made sense.
“We cut you out because you were fucking up, nigga.” Jaako said.
“Like you ain’t ever fucked up,” Denari waved Jaako off. “Nobody said nothing when yo' ass shot Jizzy.”
“Jizzy was a fucking snake, dumb ass, how the fuck you think the niggas that hit the spot knew about everything?” He didn’t say anything. “That’s what the fuck I thought, yo’ ignorant ass ain’t built for this life.”
“Fuck you, I’m just as good as you muthafuckas.”
“Who you been selling my shit to, man?” I asked calmly because I was two seconds from whooping his ass.
“My nigga, Perry,” was all he said.
“Perry who?” Unc interjected.
“Man, I don’t know all that I just know he doing big things in South Carolina, and the shit he was working with was watered down as fuck and he was paying way too much for it. So, I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
“You really are a dumb muthafucka.” Unc said shaking his head. “How the fuck are you wheeling and dealing, and you don’t know shit about the nigga?” Unc spread his arms and waited for Denari to say something, when he got nothing he continued. “Where he live? Who his people? Who work for him? Is that nigga the middle man? Does he work for somebody else? You got to have some kind of fucking answers.”
“If that nigga was the Feds, don’t you think they would have got me by now?”
“Muthafucka, no!” Jaako yelled. “They watch until they got enough to put you and everybody around you behind fucking bars! A couple of sales don’t hold no weight in the court system.”
Denari didn’t say anything, he just stood there looking around. This nigga just didn’t care about nothing, he damn sure didn’t give a fuck about the fact that he may just put us all at risk of getting locked the fuck up.
“Who helped you?”
“That shit don’t matter.”
“Yeah it does, because they had strict instructions not to deal with you at all. So whoever did it not only stole from me, but they were disloyal as fuck.”
“Nah, that nigga didn’t have a choice.”
“Did you pay him?”
“Yeah for his troubles.”
“That makes it voluntary because even if you threatened him he could have still come to me.” I walked to the back and called for Joker and he walked out already knowing what it was. He looked at Denari like he wanted to fuck his ass up. “So, you know I told y’all not to deal with his ass for any reason, right?”
“Yeah I know.”
“This nigga said he threatened you is that true?”
“True or not, I knew better. Just take care of my baby gir
l and my girl, that’s all I ask.”
The nigga had heart and I didn’t want to kill him, but I didn’t have a choice. If I let him get away with this shit, then other muthafuckas would think that it’s okay for them to do it. If I fired his ass, he might wanna get froggy and clap back and I couldn’t risk it. I pulled out my heat and dropped him where he stood.
“You didn’t have to do that shit yo.”
“Yeah, I did, it’s called being a fucking boss and yo’ ass ain’t ready. Stay the fuck out my warehouse, Denari. I ain’t fucking playing. Enough is enough and I ain’t doing time for you. I don’t know where you gonna supply this nigga from now, but it won’t be from here and if anybody try that shit again they will meet the same got damn fate.”
“Unc, man, don’t let him do this shit.”
“You did this; you went about all this shit the wrong way. This is your fault.”
“Man fuck this and fuck y’all.” Denari stormed out the door and for once Omari didn’t follow him. I think he was starting to understand all our frustrations.
“Shit should be smooth sailing now, right?” Unc asked and we all nodded. “Well I’m going to jump in some pussy, a nigga need it with y’all drama filled asses.” We laughed, and he dapped us all up and headed out the door.
“Denari just don’t know when to quit, so now we got to switch shit around. We need to find a new warehouse and everything. I don’t trust this Perry shit I’m getting a bad vibe—”
BOOM!
We all dived to the floor as debris and glass fell on top of us. I tried my best to shield my face, but I could feel the small pieces of glass in my arms. I looked around and I saw Jaako moving around and Omari was peeking out from under his arms. I knew that they were okay; we were the only ones here besides… Fuck!
“Oh shit, Unc!” I could see the flames from the widows, and I jumped up and ran to the door. As soon as I got to the fucking door, there was Unc’s car engulfed in flames and he was nowhere in sight.
Chapter Forty-Eight