Chapter 20
Skai
The wedding was beautiful, and Isabella was a beautiful bride. Shepp gave her daughter a necklace when he gave Isabella her ring and had everyone in attendance in tears. Saint was his best man, and I was his best woman. Of course, our granddad officiated the wedding, and much to all our surprise, he brought his wife with him, and my mom actually talked to her. This world is definitely coming to an end. Once they said I do, we put the kids to bed with the grands and partied like it was 1999! I have never seen my brother happier, and just think he didn’t even want to go to college. And not only did he go and finish, he excelled and took over GP’s empire, with ease and panache. He has grown GP’s brand, and GP has allowed him to create, and offshoot of his own under the Bennet umbrella, and it is doing well. He is a millionaire in his own right and he is only two years older than me. He used to come to me asking for money, but now I go to him. My mom and the other wives gift each other charm bracelets when they marry into the family but we chose personalized cuff bracelets. It was jewelry that even the guys can wear.
I look at my work desk and realize I have not really gotten anything done today at all. I have been reliving the wedding, and I am ready to really begin planning my wedding, too, and even in the midst of the uncertainty and drama I am going to begin planning it. My stomach’s loud grumble lets me know I need to go get lunch. There is a spot all the way in the basement that makes the best tuna melts, and I am not leaving the campus so no need for a chaperone. I grab my keys, cell phone, ear buds, and wallet and head out. I jab the down button on the elevator and wait, but after waiting a long few moments and another stomach grumble, I decide to take the stairs. I take them two at a time, making light work of the flights until I get to the door that will lead me out to the floor. I am past the lunch hour, so it is pretty empty down here.
“Hey, Ms. Doris,” I say to the lady behind the counter. Ms. Doris is retired and picked up the job to have something to do once all of her kids got married and moved away.
“Hi, baby, your usual?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say and grab a Nehi Peach Soda from the cooler as Ms. Dora puts together my sandwich. She makes short work of putting my sandwich together as we talk about life.
“Here you go, Skai,” she says, handing me the large sub. “I swear I don’t know where you put all this food. You’re as skinny as a rail,” she says the same thing every time I come down here to eat.
“Right here, Ms. Doris,” I tell her, patting my stomach. I tap my debit card on the machine and head back to the stairwell. Maybe if I put my calories at a deficit by taking the stairs, it will make up for me getting ready to eat this entire sub and drink this whole soda. I take the steps two at a time. I get to the third floor and run into someone else on the stairs, she’s tall, almost six feet. She puts me instantly on alert. I know this is a school, so people being in the stairwell is a common occurrence but she is like a cactus among roses. She just doesn’t fit. But then again I think to myself she could be a new student or hell even a new staff member. We pass each other, and I continue to the fourth floor. I grab the knob but it won’t turn. And then I feel it someone is coming up behind me.
“It would seem you are locked in here with me,” the woman from earlier says with a think Spanish accent.
“Is that a fact?” I ask her.
“It is, but do not worry, I will make this quick.”
“Oh, I am sure it will be quick because contrary to your earlier statement, I am not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me,” I tell her seconds before swinging the bag with my good ole sandwich in it and hitting her across her temple. I kick her kneecap, smiling in satisfaction at the loud crack and pop sound, and I know I’ve broken it. She drops down screaming, crying, and holding her leg. I grasp the soda, pull back and punch her in the temple before kicking her in her chest. When she falls back, I stomp her throat, crushing her windpipe and killing her instantly. I am breathing heavy when I am done. “Damn, that was my lunch,”I say to myself when my stomach once again growls out her displeasure. I grab my phone, “Call Barbie,” I tell it as I reach down and pull out the one segment that is still in the wrapper, and take a bite waiting for him to answer.
“Hey, baby,” he says into the phone.
“We have a problem,” I say without preamble.
This is a fresh hot mess. I think as I look at my family flip the hell out about the attempt on me today. Jabarri and all his brothers showed up and took care of the body, but now they really want to put me on restriction. My mom is holding me like she’s scared that if she lets me go I will disappear.
“This is the worse time to not have the safety of the compound,” Atlas says.
“Wasn’t too secure when Nabeck came knocking,” DJ says, reminding all of us why they are no longer living under one roof.
“Maybe, but the only reason we walked away from that is because we were there together, had they caught us one by one, I don’t know if all of us would be here to talk about it right now,” Joseph says, making us all nod in agreement.
“I called Doone. He’s on his way. He said he was just getting ready to call us,” Uncle Atlas says. It doesn’t take long for Doone to get there.
“Atlas,” he says as he shakes his hand. “So here’s what I found out. Art is the new leader of Victor’s old organization. He had a few people ahead of him but they either came up dead or missing.
It got to the point where no one was bold enough to challenge him. He is just as crazy and ruthless as Victor was. He even went as far as rebuilding Victor’s house. Under his leadership, Art has expanded the organization to include cocaine, crack, meth, fentanyl, X and any other drug you can think of, and he has included weapons to what he sells. The only thing he doesn’t sell is young girls and boys…yet. I think the woman that showed up was a scout. I am sure there will be more coming.”
“So basically another Victor?” DJ surmises.
“It looks that way, yes.”
“Doone?” Atlas inquires.
“It’s just a feeling. I am going to keep digging,” he tells us. “Watch your back. He’s quite a handful, and if you need cleanup, just give me a call,” he says, shaking Uncle Atlas’ hand before leaving as fast as he came.
“Well, it looks like this time when we take the head of this organization out, we need to dismantle it as well. We are not looking over our shoulder for the rest of our lives,” DJ says and I release a breath. This is manageable, I know they are going to rain hell down on this Art and then everything can go back to normal.
Jabarri
“N?ku Ahi?”
“Huh,” She asks, her face glued to the screen like she hasn’t seen this move a million times.
“Don’t you think it’s time for us to pick a date,” I suggest, gaining all of her attention.
“You think so?”
“Yes, we know where the threat is coming from and we are working on shutting it down soon. Plus there hasn’t been another attack on you and it’s been a few weeks so yeah, let’s get to planning.”
“How about a year from now,”
“How about you try again,”
“Okay, well I don’t want a big wedding, the same size as Shepp’s wedding so I think we can get it done in a few months,” she says, and it was music to my ears.
“Well, if we are going to do that, then let’s put together an engagement party,”
“I think we can do it in a couple of weeks. I can ask Shepp about the hotel ballroom, and get invitations, it’s only a few people coming from out of town so it shouldn’t be a problem. I guess I have to invite my father and wherever he goes his wife has to tag along,” she says rolling her eyes.
“Well, after the ass whooping your mother gave her the last time she was here, I’m sure she’ll think twice before making any stupid ass comments,”
“I hope so because I am sure my mom won’t mind beating her ass again. Okay, Shepp says give him the dates, and he will make it work,” she tells me, tapping away on her phone responding to whatever her brother is saying to her.
“Let’s say a month, the second Saturday, that should give the out of town family time to get here.”
“Okay,” she says, hopping up from the sofa where she was buried in my side, leaving me feeling bereft. A few minutes, she comes back with her laptop, and begins banging away at the keys, movie forgotten. We research invitations, choose some, and input the information once Shepp confirms the date. Skai told me that once he took over the hotel, he took one of the ballrooms off of the books reserving it for family events and only rents it out in extreme emergencies, along with a block of rooms, he also took the second highest floor to remodel all the rooms into suites for us too. So luckily for us there was no emergencies so the room was open. Invitations ordered, we contact the same party planning company we use for all of our events, and they were more than happy to accommodate us. I mean the huge tips we tend to leave and huge bills we rack up probably had something to do with that.
“I think I will call Mercy and see if she can design my engagement and wedding outfits. She did such an amazing job on Megan and Brooklyn’s dresses, and I have to have one of her creations. Hopefully, she can squeeze me in, since she’s blown up,” Skai says once again texting I’m assuming Mercy. “Hot damn, we’re in business. She says she has something she just made she thinks would be perfect for me but if not she will be more than happy to make me something. You better get your clothes together, sir,”
“Don’t worry about me, my wardrobe game is tight,”
“Excuse me!”
“Do you want Jaasiel and Praise to cook?”
“Now you know I want Uncle Jaasiel and Praise to cook, but I also want them to just enjoy themselves, so I guess we’ll have to deal with subpar food.” She is practically pouting.
“I’ll ask Jaasiel for some recommendations, and maybe we can get close to their level of food. You know how picky he is.”
“Yes, true,” Skai agrees, and we spend the rest of the evening planning our party and wedding. She is right, I have to get my clothes together.
“Baby, I know you are sending an invitation to your dad, but don’t you think you should call and let him know before he just gets an invitation in the mail?”
“No,” she says not lifting her eyes from the screen. While we are contacting people for the engagement party we are also booking them for the wedding, too.
“Nalani,” I warn.
“Fine, and I guess I better call my granddad, too. I know he is going to talk trash about just being here,”
“I don’t know why Pastor Errington doesn’t just move here.”
“Well, his wife lived in South Carolina, and as you know, my mom didn’t care for her, but recently, my mom has made an effort to at least be cordial to her. So maybe when he comes up, we can try to convince him and his wife to move here.”
“Why not? What’s the worse that can happen?”
“Exactly,”
I still feel like I need to pinch myself. I am marrying Skai Errington, soon to be Gideon.