Chapter 12 Goon #2
She quickly cleaned up the mess she made, and scooped the mixed paint into a jar, capping it. Once she was done, she washed her hands, discarded what she didn’t need and went over to her husband.
“See… messes are meant to be cleaned up. Dennis is younger now, but he will make messes, and you have to be alright with that.” She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek.
“Turn around.”
Me and Corleon looked at each other. “Nigga, you are not the damn King… kiss your wife and let’s fucking go.”
Menace snorted, while looking at Corleon. I looked at him and Stevie and shook my head, while walking past them towards his office. What I didn’t need was for them to hear that I wanted to rob their house and kill them.
Apparently, these niggas heard shit that nobody said. I plopped down in one of the free chairs, and Corleon sat across from me with his drink. Menace returned to the office a few minutes later.
His shirt sleeves were pulled up and the smell of bleach and cleaning supplies waffled in behind him. “You use bleach as a cologne?”
“I had to clean the kitchen after her… saw paint.”
“You mentally saw paint… wasn’t no fucking paint on the counter,” Corleon called him out.
Meance looked at him. “When’s visitation to visit your parents?”
“Fuck you, Mens,” Corleon laughed, like this nigga didn’t make a joke about him being adopted.
“You cannot control everything. Not with kids.” It seemed like this was something he had to keep reminding him.
Like a snap of a finger, his attitude changed. “Is this the meeting?”
I laughed, thinking about when I called him while I was locked up. “Why the fuck your sister so fucking rude?”
“What she do and how much?”
“She told me to shut the fuck up.” I purposely ignored his question about how much.
Corleon laughed while Menace looked clueless as to what the problem was. “Well, did you?”
“The fuck?”
“He doesn’t see a problem with it because he said the same shit to Stevie.”
“’Cause she was talking during quiet hours… we’ve moved past that shit, so don’t bring up shit before she catches an attitude again.”
I realized I wasn’t going to get through to Menace, cause that nigga didn’t see shit wrong with his rude ass sister. The shit explained everything about Zoya’s ass.
I leaned back in the chair, realizing that I wasn’t going to get nowhere with him. “Thun is a fucking undercover.”
“This we know.” Menace replied.
“And a serial killer.”
“He’s not.”
“The fuck you mean he’s not… saw the shit with my own eyes. Had a picture of Kora.”
Menace laughed, and for the first time, he wasn’t rubbing his hands together. “That weak bitch ain’t catching bodies around the city… he could barely get Zoya to crack.”
“He almost did,” Corleon added.
Menace nodded. “Wouldn’t say almost… had her considering though. Wanting to do family shit and meet us which isn’t Bean at all… she was getting weak. As for Kora, she has more than just me keeping her secure.”
I could understand why Zoya struggled the way that she did. It was hard for her to let down her walls, mainly because her brother considered it as being weak. He expected more from her, so she was stuck between being considered weak, or allowing love in.
“Not weak… vulnerable. You know she’s not considered weak because she’s vulnerable, right? We eventually gotta leave the hardness at the door and let our walls down.”
“He talk all that shit and be soft as shit when it comes to Stevie,” Corleon pointed out.
“That nigga wasn’t her person, and I told her that shit. She and Landon both love to do shit their way… him trying to fucking wife a professional whore, and then Zoya trying to have kids with a fucking undercover pussy.”
I laughed, because that was exactly what Sigel’s ass was.
“They’re not Kora,” Corleon reminded him.
He picked up his cup that had some red smoothie shit mixed in it and looked over at Core. “She knew better… I warned her about him, and she wanted to test me.”
“Can’t change the past now… the fuck we gonna do about it?”
Menace smirked. “I remember you calling me a while back and spoke about eating a nigga’s food.”
“I did.”
“Would never take away another man’s ability to eat... so you can handle him. He’s hot right now.”
Corleon leaned forward. “Since when we gave a fuck about hot food?”
Menace looked at me, then at Core before this creepy ass smirk appeared across his face. “If you don’t care… then I don’t care.”
I sighed and leaned back. “Fuck.”
Corleon looked over at me. “You need to talk to Forty.”
“Respect, Core… I gave him my word, so I need to hit him up so he’s not in the dark about shit.”
“His ass is always in the fucking dark about something… maybe if he wasn’t fucking on that damn news reporter, he would know some shit.” Menace replied.
I laughed. “Might be true, but if I give somebody my word, I’m standing on that shit… kind of like I told you that we would have this conversation.”
Menace leaned back further in his chair and looked at me. “Why?”
“Fuck you mean why?”
He sighed. “He’s slow, Bruster.”
“I’m not fucking slow… the fuck you mean why?”
When people met Menace, they were almost always scared. Mainly because if you met him, your days were numbered anyway. When it came to being around him, I was never nervous.
I’ve heard of Menace through other people, but it wasn’t until we were in Monaco that I got to meet the legend. The nigga wasn’t down to earth in the least, but he had certain parts of him that I could relate to.
He was a big brother who cared deeply for his siblings. Even with his funny ass way of showing it, he only wanted the best for them.
Did he have weird ass quirks with him?
Hell fucking yeah.
I could deal with that and the rhetorical questions, because he had respect. If he respected you, he would put his neck out on the line every time. His ass was a family man in a weird ass way.
Khaos wasn’t easy when we were coming up. He wanted to be his own man and do everything I advised him not to do. The reason he was blood, when I didn’t want him gang banging in the first place.
So, when it came to Zoya, I understood he wanted his baby sister to be taken care of. It came off as him being controlling because he didn’t sugarcoat shit, and Zoya was just as stubborn as he was.
If you told her no, she was going to show you how small your no was to her, by doing the complete opposite of what you said.
“Why her?”
Corleon looked between us both and stood up. “I’m about to go find sexy… where she at?”
Me and Menace were in a stare down, and he never broke eye contact. “In her office upstairs.”
“Only time he holds eye contact… when it comes to those Caselli brats,” he snickered, and left us to speak.
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Menace removed himself from behind his desk. He sat where Core had been sitting, and sat leaned forward, his hands clasped together.
There was a shift in his body language. Like this conversation scared him, but he knew he had to have it. “Easier when she running around disobeying my wishes, G.”
I leaned forward. “You want my why?”
“Yeah.”
Looking up from my hands, our eyes met.
“’Cause I’m in love with your sister. I don’t even know her whole story, but I know pain when I see it. She’s been without love for so long, she doesn’t even recognize it when it’s standing right in front of her. She pushes me away because she believes she safe without it.”
Menace was listening. I was never sure if this nigga listened to half the shit anyone said, but in this moment, he was locked in on every word that left my mouth.
This was less about him, but this was about his sister. Someone that he loved and only wanted the best for.
I leaned forward, my voice calm and steady.
“I wanna love the shit out of her, Mens. Show her that all that weak shit she used to settle for was beneath her. I wanna put her so high up, niggas gotta break their necks just to look at her. To me, she’s untouchable.
Unreachable. I want to give her the world, nigga.
Spoil her, protect her, and let her know I’m not one of those from her past. Difference between them and me, I’m not allowing her to run me off because of fear.
At the end of this, I wanna see you walk her down the aisle to me. ”
Menace stared at me for a long minute; his jaw was tight. I could see him fighting with himself. He was studying me, to see if I was just chatting or I meant every word.
“She’s been in love before, G.” His voice was low, controlled, as he started to rub his hands together. “A nigga claimed to love her, swore he would treat her right, and he tried to snake her in the worst way… ruin her.”
I didn’t need to say anything. Like he allowed me to speak, I gave him that same respect. This wasn’t easy for him, and I could tell because he had gone through every emotion.
It wasn’t just the emotions of a big brother. These were emotions that a father went through, knowing he had to let his little girl go out into the world. Handing her into a world full of wolves that would take advantage of her.
He took a deep breath, running his hand down his face, then looked me dead in the eye.
“She don’t need no more broken promises, G.
So, if you gon’ step to her, make sure you ready to stay.
” He finally released his hands from each other and leaned back.
“We’re used to people leaving… counting us out. We’re not easy, I can tell you that.”
“I’m already knowing.”
Menace screwed his face up. “You said we don’t deserve love, Greg?”
I ignored him and stared at him. “Chill the fuck out… I’m already knowing the challenge that I have ahead of me.” I shook my head.
“If you hurt her, I’m not talking… I never do when my mind is made up.”
A smirk tugged at my lips. “That’s fair.”
We both sat across from each other with an understanding. We both knew what it meant to protect the same woman, just in different ways.