The Deed to a Gangsta’s Heart

Chapter 16

16

A rmor

Since Remedy and I didn’t send out our own payments, I stopped by the office to sign off on the maintenance service fees he was racking up today. I respected and appreciated him taking the initiative to personally handle the influx of calls we were getting in today because of the storm since our maintenance team was swamped. I added an extra bonus just out of appreciation since he was going above and beyond his broker duties to keep our tenants happy and safe.

As I signed off on everything for him, my phone vibrated on my desk. I didn’t bother answering. Not long after, the office phone rang, and Amy’s voice buzzed through the speakerphone to say, “Mr. Mitchell, your mom is on line one.”

“Thanks, Amy. ”

I rolled my chair over to the corner of the L shaped desk and accepted Mama’s call.

“Hey, Mama. Everything good?”

“No. That damn brother of yours is trying to send me into an early grave.”

I chuckled. “Ma, you’re what? Fifty-two? You’re too young to be talking like that.”

“Whatever.” She groaned. “Adam is driving me crazy ! First, he randomly decides he doesn’t want to finish his residency a couple of weeks ago, and now he’s talking about leaving Memphis and moving to Atlanta. You’ll never guess what he wants to do with his life now.”

“Based on your tone, I’m not sure I want to know. Go ahead and tell me though.”

“He wants to start an OnlyFans page, Armor. The fuck? I don’t know what I did wrong. How did I go from having a future doctor as a son to a porn star?”

I was so caught off guard I couldn’t respond right away. If Adam was having an identity crisis, I got that. Mama was heavily influential in who we were to become. That was a lot of the reason why I rebelled as hard as I did.

I started selling drugs to help out with bills, but eventually, I stayed in the streets longer because she wanted me to pursue a life I didn’t want. She wanted him to be a doctor and me a lawyer. Her logic was I was aggressive and combative, which would have made me a good defense attorney. And she said Adam was caring and calm as a child and would have made a good physician.

Regardless of how much we tried to tell her that wasn’t what we wanted to be, she didn’t want to hear it. Let her tell it, she brought us into this world and would guide us until she left. Eventually, Adam accepted her plan for his life, though it was clear he didn’t really want to. I was proud that he decided not to go into medicine if he didn’t really want to. But a porn star? That seemed a bit extreme.

“Are you sure he said OnlyFans, Mama?”

“Positive. I asked him did he mean something else, and he said no, so I said that’s the site they be making them pornos on ain’t it, and he said yes. He said he knows a couple who recently moved to Miami, and they’ve made millions. Now he wants to move to Atlanta so he can, and I quote, enjoy his life and make money doing what he loves.” She scoffed and I rubbed my temples, feeling a migraine coming on.

“Well, he’s a grown man, Ma. If that’s what he wants to do, we can’t stop him.”

“Can you try? I can’t tell people my son is a porn star. I already have to tell them about you.”

My brows wrinkled as I sat back in my seat. Nibbling my cheek, I took in a deep breath. She had a habit of saying offensive shit and not seeing just how offensive it was. I’d long since stopped caring about what her or anyone else thought about me, but it still irritated me to hear her suggest I was someone she couldn’t be proud of.

“What do you mean you have to tell them about me?” She sighed. “You had no problem telling them about me when I bought you a house. You had no problem telling them about me when I made my first million dollar commission and gave you half of that profit.”

“Yes, Armor. I get to say my oldest son is a millionaire. A millionaire and a murderer who did ten years in prison instead of the twenty five years he originally received. That’s a lot to be proud of.”

Chuckling, I stood and rolled my tongue over my cheek. My palm rested against the desk as I said, “I’m sick of you acting like what I did wasn’t justified. Clearly it was, or they wouldn’t have reduced my sentence. And let’s not act like the nigga I killed wasn’t beating you.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t the only person you hurt or killed. He was just the only one you did time behind. And you didn’t have to beat him to death!” she yelled, and the crack in her voice shifted my anger into hurt.

“So that’s what this is really about? You’re not ashamed that I killed him. You’re ashamed that I killed the man you called yourself loving. Never mind the fact that he was abusing you.”

She sniffled. “I didn’t call you for this. I called to see if you’d talk to your brother.”

“You know what, Mama? I’m done. I did what I did to him to protect you, and I will never apologize for that. I’m not in the streets anymore, and I’m tired of you making me feel bad about shit from my past. I think we need to take some time apart.”

Silence filled the line for several seconds before she quietly mumbled, “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying unless it’s an emergency, don’t call me. Don’t call me about Adam. Don’t call me about what you need, because it’s clear you don’t appreciate who I am and what I do for you anyway.”

“Armor, that’s—I…”

“I gotta go.”

I slammed the phone down before plopping down into the seat. My head was throbbing, and I knew it was the stress. Before it could turn into a piercing migraine, I headed outside to grab a blunt, but that turned into me driving away. I didn’t even know if Luci would be busy or not, but I needed to see her. Even though I didn’t want to call Adam, I did. As pissed as Mama made me, I still wanted to check in and see where his head was at .

He answered the call with more joy in his voice than he’d had for our last few calls, and I wondered if that was because he had finally decided to take control of his life.

“Wassup?”

“You a porn star now?”

Adam laughed. “Your mama is extra, bruh. I didn’t tell her I was doing porn. I said I was moving to Atlanta and was considering doing OnlyFans with my lil shorty. We’ve been fucking for about a year now. One of her girls saw a video of us in her phone and uploaded it on some jealousy shit but it went viral. She is a social media influencer, and she already makes good bank, but she’s looking for a partner for her videos. Since that video went viral, she made some good money off it before it was taken down and wants us to do it regularly. I told her I’d think about it since I was moving out that way.”

“Well, if you don’t plan on doing that, how are you going to make money?”

“I don’t know yet. That’s the fucking problem. I’ve revolved my future around the life Mama wanted me to live and now I don’t know what to do. That’s why I’m going to Atlanta. I need a fresh start.”

“I feel you, and I’m proud of you for taking control of your life.”

“Thank you. For real. I know I give you hell at times, but I appreciate that.”

“It’s all love. If you need anything while you’re out there, just let me know.”

“I will. Thank you, Armor.”

“You’re welcome.”

After disconnecting the call, I felt lighter, and my head wasn’t throbbing. That wasn’t how I expected our conversation to go, but I was glad I called. I stopped by the market to get Luci a bouquet of roses before taking the short ten minute drive to her job. It was easier than I liked for it to be to bypass security and reception to get to her office. All they did was ask my name before giving me her office number, and anyone could come in here and lie about their name. I didn’t like that at all.

Luci’s eyes bulged as they settled on me through the glass door. She smiled and stood before sitting back down. With a low laugh, I ran my fingers down the corners of my mouth. It made me feel good to know she was happy to see me. She walked over to the door and opened it, holding her phone to her ear.

“I can wait if you need to finish your call.”

“Oh.” She looked at the phone, then put it in the pocket of her trousers. “She hung up. I was just so surprised to see you I hadn’t bothered to put it down. Hi.”

I used my free arm to pull her close for a hug. After placing a kiss on her neck, I released her and handed her the roses.

“I wanted to apologize for not reaching out sooner.”

Her smile was small as she pushed her locs onto her back. “Yeah, I was just telling my best friend that I hadn’t heard from you.”

I wouldn’t go into why, but after spending fifteen minutes or less on the phone for a decade, I learned to keep my phone calls brief. To me, that wasn’t the way to get to know someone. I preferred face to face conversations.

“Truth is, I don’t talk on the phone much. Brief exchanges of pertinent information in less than fifteen minutes are all I got in me.”

“You don’t text either?”

“Not a lot. I can send you a good morning or check in text, but I prefer face to face interaction. ”

“Hmm…” She leaned against the doorframe and smelled the roses. “Does that mean if this goes beyond hotel rooms, I can expect to see you consistently since you don’t like talking on the phone?”

“You can. We can start this evening if you’re available. I’d love to take you out.”

Her smile returned as I closed the space between us and took her hand into mine. “This evening? That’s short notice, Mr. Mitchell.”

“I don’t wait to go after what and who I want.” Her head hung briefly as she blushed and tugged her lip between her teeth. “You have to eat right? How about a late dinner?”

As she scratched her eyebrow, Luci nodded her agreement. “I would love to have dinner with you.”

“Good. I’ll text you later to confirm the time and get your address.”

“Sounds good.”

“Aight, I’ma get out of here. Unless I can steal you away for lunch.”

“Uh…” She pulled her phone out and checked the time. “Actually, if you can wait about thirty minutes, I can leave for lunch. I just have to wrap a few things up.”

“Yeah, I can wait.”

“Okay. I’ll be down in a few.”

I made my way down to the lobby to wait for her. While I did, I checked my notifications to see if Amy or Pam had emailed me since I left abruptly. I saw a text from Mama that made me grit my teeth and sigh.

Queen: I’m sorry. I thought about it and you were right. Call me so we can talk.

I didn’t want anything she said to ruin my mood before lunch, so I acknowledged her text and told her I’d call her later this evening. I just hoped she was serious and we could have a real conversation that would lead to a change in our relationship and the way she talked to me. If not, I didn’t mind cutting her off temporarily and standing on it this time.