Chapter 26
When I got the call that Jela had been attacked, my blood instantly ran cold as I suited Scottie up and hurried to the hospital.
Once I made it through the ER, I spotted Mrs. Draya, Mr. Alex, Jas, and her friends sitting in the waiting room.
I hurried over to them, and Mrs. Draya stood and took Chunks from my arms.
“What happened?” I asked, turning to Jas.
“There were about four girls. They attacked her in the bathroom at the restaurant. If she hadn’t screamed for help, we probably wouldn’t have made it to her in time,” she explained.
My eyes went to Sosa and Benji, who stood by the vending machines. I walked over to them and delivered a blow to each of their jaws.
“Where the fuck were y’all?” I roared. “Huh? Answer me, motherfuckas!”
“Sir… We were outside waiting. Per her orders,” Sosa replied, holding his face.
“You were to follow my fucking orders!” I sent a fist flying into his stomach.
“Hey! We’re going to have to ask you to leave!” one of the security officers said, approaching me.
“I ain’t going nowhere! I dare you to get me outta here!”
“Truce, please, calm down!” Mrs. Draya said, walking over to me. My eyes stayed glued to Sosa and Benji. “Hey! Look at me. You’re not going to be able to see her if you continue this rant. Calm down, baby. Please.”
I was breathing like a raging bull and only seeing red.
“You have to leave,” another officer said.
“Just let me talk to him. I’m a doctor here. Let me calm him down because he is not leaving,” Mrs. Draya told him.
“Get the fuck out of here. Go back to the house and wait for me,” I told Sosa and Benji. They hurriedly moved toward the exit as I looked down at Mrs. Draya. “I need to see her.”
“You have to calm down first, Truce. They aren’t going to let you back there if you’re acting this way. I know you’re angry, but please… don’t fly off the handle here and get yourself locked up.”
I stepped away and headed outside to get some air. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see a message from Dame. I opened it to see what this bitch had to say.
Dame:
Me:
Pussy ass nigga. Ya ass is done for when I catch you.
Dame:
I’ll be waiting. I hope she was worth all of this.
He sent me his location, and I saw him heading back to Muskegon.
I was going to hurt this nigga worse than I did his daddy back then.
He was going to be eating through a fucking tube once I got done with him.
He’d better start praying that I would be able to stop myself so I didn’t send him to meet his daddy in hell.
I counted down from one hundred in my head before Jas came out of the revolving doors. “She wants to see you.”
I hurried back inside and followed Jas down the hall to where Jela was.
When I made it inside the room, I bit my bottom lip so hard that I drew blood.
The whole left side of her face was purple, black, and swollen.
She had a bandage on her forehead, her top lip was swollen, and I could see a red ring around her neck.
I moved to the side of her bed when she reached for me and took her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said, voice raspy.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, bae. I should have taken care of this shit a long time ago.”
“I’m okay, Truce. It’s just a little damage, but I’m still alive.”
“Only because of your sister and your friends. Sosa and Benji were supposed to be with you at all times. They should have been standing by the fucking bathroom door protecting you.”
“It’s not their fault, Truce. I told them not to.”
“And they shouldn’t have listened, J. My whole reason for hiring them was to keep you safe.”
“It’s okay, baby. I’m okay.”
“And I’m going to make sure you stay that way.”
“Come back to me, please,” she said. I kissed her forehead, then headed back out the door, passing by Jas on the way out.
“I hope y’all fucked them up.”
“Them hoes are busted and disgusted. I wasn’t letting them get away without doing damage.”
“Where are they?”
“As far as I know, they have been arrested. Jela’s going to press charges once she’s out of here.”
I nodded. “If I don’t come back, make sure you let her know I love her, and if fate brings me back to her, I’m putting a ring on her finger.”
She gave me a subtle smile and hugged me. “Take care of yourself, Truce.”
Without another word, I walked down the hall, bypassing her family in the waiting room, and out the door.
It was time to end this shit.
I arrived back in Muskegon around seven that evening. Checking his location on my phone, I saw that he was at his bar, which he hadn’t opened yet, and was double-parked in front of it. I got out and hurried toward the door, kicking that bitch open.
“Damien!” I yelled.
When I walked past the wall and into the bar area, his goons were standing around him as he sat at the table with a drink in one hand and a blunt in the other.
“I heard you was looking for me. Here I go…” He laughed.
“Tell ya bitches to stand down, Dame. This is between me and you.”
“Between me and you, huh?” He stood, taking his shot to the head. “You're right. This shit is between me and you. Cain and Abel.” He waved to his crew, and they put their guns down. “Y’all niggas beat it. I need to kill my brother in peace.”
They all filed out of the bar and left Dame and me alone.
“I didn’t want this shit for us, D. I always wanted to keep you protected from the shit ya pops was putting in ya head. I never even knew you had a mental condition until now. He played on that and had you slowly beginning to hate me.”
“I always hated you! I was just good at hiding it because I wanted to convince myself that Senior was wrong about you. You always had the better life, the better pops, the most money, all the cars and bitches at your disposal… I had to follow in my pops' footsteps to get a portion of the shit you got so effortlessly handed to you. It wasn’t enough that you had every-fucking-thing. You had to take my bitch and my daughter too!”
He walked up on me as we stood toe to toe. His glare was menacing while a slow smirk lifted on my face. “And I’m hitting that shit so good, I got both of your girls calling me Daddy,” I said, taunting him.
“Fuck you!” he roared, ramming against me until we both fell to the floor.
I was the first to gain my footing and began delivering blows to his face. “How’s it feel to be helpless?”
“Fuck you!” he repeated, trying to punch me as I hovered over him.
“No, fuck you! You weak-ass coward. Come on, Dame. Beat my ass like you beat on Jela… like you beat on our fuckin’ mother!” I yelled, lifting him to his feet.
I wanted him to have a fair chance to fight me back, although I knew he wouldn’t win anyway.
He swung at me, but I grabbed his arm, chopped him in the neck, and kicked him in the stomach.
He flew back into the bar, and I grabbed the glass from it, smashing it over his head.
Blood leaked from the new wound as he pulled a switchblade from his pocket.
I saw it coming and dodged it. He kept swinging the knife at me as I moved around the tables, trying to find the right angle to grab it from him.
“I’ma kill you, then that bitch, and bury y’all asses right next to each other!” he shouted, his eyes unfamiliar to me. My brother was gone.
He came at me with full force, catching me on the shoulder with the blade.
I could feel my skin split open, but I couldn’t think about the pain because I had to be quick on my feet.
He lifted his arm and tried to aim for my chest, but I was able to grab his hand and twist his wrist, hearing his bones crack.
He dropped the knife as I pushed him back.
I picked it up just as he tried to attack me again.
When he made it to me, I tried to move, but ended up plunging the knife deep in his chest while wrapping my other arm around him.
I could hear him cry out and feel his body becoming weak. Tears came to my eyes as I gave it one final thrust, ending my brother’s life. I dropped to the floor with him, holding him in my arms, and pulled the knife from his chest. Blood spilled from his body and head, and my chest grew tight.
“Fuuuuck!” I bellowed. An audible cry left my being as I pulled him closer to my chest. “Fuck, Dame! Fuck!”
I held my brother’s lifeless body in my arms and rocked back and forth while tears continued to pour down my face.
I hate that it had to come to this. My brother—my first best friend—was gone, and his blood was on my hands.
As I sat and wept over his dead body, I could hear hurried feet come over to us.
“Tru.”
It was Law. From my peripheral vision, I could see him kneel beside me.
“Fuck, man,” he mumbled. “Tru, we gotta go. Brick and Simuel will take care of him.”
I slowly nodded my head, using my fingers to close Dame’s eyes, and kissed his forehead. I allowed myself to release him and stood to my feet.
“Don’t leave him in the streets,” I told Law, placing my hands on his shoulders. “Take care of my brother. Okay?” I told Simuel and Brick.
They nodded. “We got you, Tru.”
I took a few steps before I stumbled a bit, and my vision became blurry.
“Truce!” was all I heard before I went crashing to the floor, and everything faded to black.
I woke up in a bedroom that didn’t belong to me. As my eyes focused, I saw Neveah sitting in a chair beside the bed, asleep. I groaned, grabbing at my shoulder and feeling the effects of where Dame had caught me with the knife.
The realization that I had just killed my brother settled in, and tears flooded my face.
Neveah came into my view and climbed into bed with me. She hugged me tightly and cried with me.
“What the fuck did I do, Nev?” I asked through my tears.
“You protected yourself. That’s all you did.”
“I-I could have gotten him locked away. I could have chosen the better route.”
Neveah lifted from me and looked into my eyes.
“Listen to me… You did what you had to do, Tucci. Damien was off the handle. There was no way he would have stopped coming for you or Jela as long as he was alive. I’m sad about what you had to do, but I’m not sad that he’s gone.
Now you and Jela can live happily ever after. ”
I tightened my arm around her and kissed her forehead.
“If y’all weren’t cousins, I would have shot you.” I heard the jest in Law’s tone as he stood in the doorway.
“And why the fuck would you shoot anybody for lying in the bed with my cousin?”
“Because that’s mine.”
“Law,” Neveah warned, sitting up.
“It’s cool, baby,” he assured.
I looked from Law to Neveah. “What’s going on, Nev?”
She looked down at me and took my hand. “Since your friend insists on not waiting—”
Law cut her off. “Been waiting four years, Heaven.”
“Hold up. Let me sit up,” I said, swinging my feet to the floor. I groaned, feeling the pain in my left shoulder. “Now, what’s going on?”
“Laurent and I are getting married, Truce. We’ve been dating for four years. Our anniversary is coming up—your birthday, actually—and we want to get married on that day.”
“I know I should have asked for your blessing since I am your best friend, but I fell in love with her spicy ass, and now I want to love her for life. I know this ain’t a good time right now, so I’ll hold off on asking you if it’s cool that I make her mine forever.”
I frowned. “Why are y’all acting like I didn’t know y’all were fucking around already?”
They both looked at me in confusion.
“You knew?” Neveah asked.
“Been knew. You could never keep shit from me. I knew something was going on two years ago when y’all surprised me with the birthday shindig in Detroit.
The way this nigga kept watching you from across the room, and yo’ ass kept blushing every time he looked at you, I saw all that shit.
I just didn’t say shit because I was waiting on y’all to stop being scary and say something.
” I winced and rubbed my shoulder. “Since you had ya doctor stitch me up, did he leave something for the pain?”
“Yeah, let me go grab it. I appreciate you for not being mad at me, bro,” Law said.
“Oh, I am mad. Mad that you were being a little punk bitch for not stepping to me sooner.”
He chuckled and left the room.
“Thank you, Truce. I know it’s short notice, but he saved you a spot to be his best man.” She smiled at me as I smiled back before thinking of my Jela.
“He had her beat up bad, Nev. I gotta get back to her.”
“I heard… which is all the more reason for you to put this behind you and move forward. I love you, Tucci. You’ll get through this and so will the family.”
I nodded. “Where’s my phone?”
“On the nightstand.”
I leaned over and grabbed it, quickly going to Jela’s number and hitting FaceTime. The phone rang a couple of times before Iyana’s face came on the screen.
“Hey, Truce.”
“What’s up? Where’s Jela?”
“She's right here. Hold on.”
She walked a little way before she gave the phone to Jela. Even all battered and bruised, she was still the most beautiful girl in the world to me.
“I’ll give you all a minute,” Neveah said, leaving the room.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Hi, my love. Everything okay?”
I shook my head. “But it will be. You don’t have to worry about him anymore. You and Chunks can live in perfect peace. No bodyguards, no stress, no more monsters in your closet.”
Tears came to her eyes as she sniffled. “No more you?”
“Always more of me, baby. I have to settle shit here, but I’m coming back to you. You hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I love you, Empress. Get well, and I’ll see you soon.”
“I love you more, my Tru Bear.”
I stared at her for a moment, then ended the call. I sat back on the bed and allowed myself to mourn the loss of my brother.