Chapter Fifteen
Two Bulls
Kingston
I didn’t need to see. My brain knew what the fuck had happened, even if I couldn’t believe he’d done it.
His recklessness scared the shit out of me. I wasn’t sure if I should brake or give it hell. The area around me flashed red as I did a little of both, in my panic.
The gun sounded again and I twitched hard, laying it down at the end of the sidewalk where I was left sprawled out and staring up at him on the porch.
“Get the fuck inside, dumbass.” He scoffed, like I was wasting everyone’s time with theatrics, and finally lowered his weapon.
I could taste iron, and all I saw was red, as I picked myself up and dusted off.
I wanted to take out my own piece and light up the whole side of that cheap-ass trailer. If my mother hadn’t been so vocal, making me aware of her presence, I probably would have.
Instead, I was forced to clench my teeth and begrudgingly follow the symphony of their domestic bliss.
Her high-pitched screeching and the occasional sound of flesh popping off flesh painted the picture even before I entered.
“I don’t give a fuck what your pipe dreams are, don’t you ever do that again!” she wailed, her body flush against his as they continued their shoving match. Every now and then, her long, slender arms snaked out as she tried to land a decent smack.
“You need to take your ass to bed. You hear me? Get the fuck to bed, woman. This shit don’t concern you.” My father railed, until his east coast accent started to bleed into each word.
“Don’t concern me?” She swung her head back, her eyes big and wild.
She normally didn’t look like that unless she’d had a line or two, but I was pretty sure she was sober. Her house robe was sliding off her shoulders and her ass was flashing at times, but she didn’t give a fuck.
She was trying her best to grab her bull by the horns.
“He came out of my body, you thick headed–” She stopped with the insults, gripped his shoulder and shook with all her might.
“Stop it, you ain’t gonna shake any sense into him.” I snorted.
He reached for her neck, and she brought the other hand up, striking him clean. Her entire palm popped against his unshaven cheek. It sounded vicious, and left an angry, red mark welling across half his face.
He grabbed her hair, and I finally snapped to life.
He let her go before I reached him and bounced off the counter that I shoved him into.
“There you are, you little pussy.” He smiled, laughter trickling from him despite the way my mother was trying to box at him.
“Oh, I’m here. This pussy will give you more fight than your wife, you can count on that. Matter of fact, you’re welcome to try your luck anytime you can find enough balls to,” I calmly invited.
“Stop it. Stop it!” she pleaded, with both of us.
I’d never seen her so ashen. Her hands were trembling.
“Jesus,” Roy scoffed, making me aware of his presence at the kitchen table.
“Go to bed, Kate.” Birdman’s voice was low and full of warning. The unspoken, if you know what’s good for you, hung thick in the air.
“She doesn’t have to go anywhere.” I antagonized. “She’s old enough to make her own choices.”
My mother waved her hands in a plea for me to let her handle it.
“I’ll go, but you better be nice, Robby.”
He snorted, not taking his eyes off me.
“Robert,” she snapped, calling him by his full government name.
His mouth twitched up on one side, before he finally tilted his head and fixed his gaze on her. “Do I need to repeat myself?”
“Just– Don’t hurt him.” She shakily tried to establish a peace, even as she took a hesitant step away from him.
I licked my lips and summoned every ounce of patience I possessed while staring at the water in the sink. It was dingy, only a few suds remained. Half of a lone plate stuck up out of the water.
While she danced on glass, I momentarily lost myself to the mental image of drowning the cocksucker in that dirty, cold water.
“Like you’re any fucking threat. The fuck you gonna do, woman?” He was taunting, when I came back to the conversation at hand.
She stepped forward like she meant to give him a goodnight kiss, her gaze lowering in deference while that shaky hand came up to tenderly rest on the cheek she hadn’t blessed.
“Hurt my son and go to sleep, Robby. You’ll find out.” She smiled, tapped his cheek and stepped back, keeping her gaze locked on him while she gave a passive, little nod. “Everybody goes to sleep sometime. You’re not fucking special. Remember that.”
She huffed under her breath and tore down the hall, leaving her robe to billow behind her.
This motherfucker couldn’t keep his own goddamn family in order. He couldn’t even keep his wife in check, and he thought he was going to lead the Saints.
Really…
I didn’t say a word, I didn’t have to. The judgement and distaste were written on my loosely-pinched face.
“One word–” He stabbed his index and middle finger at me, “You say one fucking word right now, boy.”
He was breathing hard, like he’d went ten rounds with something that actually weighed more than a buck ten and the cocksucker was still issuing threats.
I raised my shoulders, licked my lips, and contemplated just how much damage I wanted my mother’s kitchen to suffer.
His phone went off before I could decide.
He scoffed, snatched it off the counter, and stared, “What the fuck does Forty want this late?”
He started to bring it toward his face but paused when I snuffed a laugh in my throat.
“What the fuck did you do?” he growled, even as he swiped the green and greeted, “Yeah?”
I already knew what time it was, so I jerked the chair out next to Roy and sank down with a satisfied smirk.
“The fuck you mean Kingston was creeping onto your roof, he’s sitting right here in front of me.”
My father’s glare burned into me from across the kitchen.
“N– Listen, Kal, I’m tellin’ ya, brother, I been drinking with my boys for over an hour. When did this shit happen?”
His accent only came out when he was furious, or drinking, I was pretty sure that was what convinced Kal to question himself.
“You need us to come over there, brother? Is everything alright?” Birdman feigned concern, the tension in his face relaxing a bit as the act went on.
I couldn’t hear what Forty was saying, but I assumed he declined, when my dad eventually hung up the phone and sat down at the table with us.
“You were at his fuckin’ house?” he whispered, approval staining his tone.
I stared, unmoved and unwilling to answer.
“Why the fuck didn’t you just say that? You could have said you were handling things for me…”
“He wasn’t handling things for you, he was trying to dip his wick.” Roy laughed, drawing all of Birdman’s ire his way.
“Yeah… and what the fuck were you doing, pencil dick?”
I groaned, and rubbed my temples. It was getting late, and I’d feel like shit if I was up listening to this garbage half the night.
“I know how to make it happen.”
“How to make what happen?” Birdman asked, already holding a finger up to stay me.
He was such a control freak.
“Checkmate.”
“Of course, you do, baby. You’re the mind in this shitshow.” My mother ventured from her favorite hiding space in the shadows of the hall. Her hair was fixed, and her bathrobe perfectly in place. It was as if the ugly scene had never occurred.
The weight of her hand settled on my shoulder where she squeezed, “Listen to him, Robby. We’ve been working on things.”
“We?” Dad grunted.
“He’s been seducing her,” my mother proudly boasted.
The belly laugh that old bastard gave made my fingers curl into a tight fist.
“‘Sedu–‘” The laughter started again. The cocksucker had tears when he side-eyed me. “He still ain’t figured how to convince both his nuts to drop, and you think he’s gonna sweet talk Forty’s fuckin’ daughter into being a willing sacrifice to my cause?
Am– Am I the only one that ain’t huffin’ air duster in this motherfucker? ”
He gave up on both of us and stared imploringly at Roy.
“Be so fuckin’ for real, right now.” He sighed, flopping back in his favorite chair.
Dad looked so defeated, and we hadn’t even started.
My mother’s hand swam down my chest, rubbing a reassuring circle high near my collarbone.
“Did you get her home on time, Kingston?”
I snorted, the sound distorting into another snuffed laugh, “I took her home as late as I could, as loud as I could, and then Forty saw me scaling his house. Dad convinced him it wasn’t me, so my nightly visits are probably shot from here on out.”
The stress melted from my father’s face. He sat there looking like he was waiting on me to announce that I was kidding.
“You ain’t seeing her every night,” he attempted to call my bluff.
“I’ve seen her every night, for the past week. Been in the bedroom, second floor with her for–” I tipped my head left to right, “Three nights at least, but no, I only shared the bed with her once.”
She was unaware of every moment, but that was between us.
I was savoring every moment of his disbelief.
And it was far too sweet to ruin.
“Don’t play with me, boy. You’re fuckin’ serious?”
“She’s letting me take her out again tonight, I need to get some sleep.”
“W–what about Pac?”
I tipped my chin at him and my gaze gravitated toward my brother, “Pacman and I are scheduled to paint a house tonight, but Roy is going to go in my stead. He can do Pac, I’ll do Kennedy…”
“Both in one night?” My mother sounded unsure.
“Crippling.” My father nodded. “Make it happen.”