Chapter 8 Family Matters #6
He’d wanted to stay behind and did so after he saw his mother off.
I had to admit I was curious about what he wanted so I offered him a drink.
A glass of Liam and Bhal’s top-level private reserve and he took it without hesitation.
I wasn’t sure if he trusted me enough or was just that sure I wouldn’t kill him but he didn’t hesitate in taking a sip.
Pappy’s advice about me needing someone else besides myself was still ringing in my ears.
I could’ve done like Auntie Safi did and have my wife be my second.
It wasn’t like Asha hadn’t shown she had the mind for it.
But something held me back from wanting her to get involved on this level.
Deuce was protecting his wife when he took risks she couldn’t.
There was no way I would have any woman, especially not my fucking wife, sticking her neck out for me like I was a bitch.
It didn’t matter if this shit was arranged or not. My morals didn’t work that way.
He was tall, a testament that I couldn’t owe my height strictly to the mixed heritage of my Nakoa lineage.
His hair was faded and he was what most people would consider a pretty boy.
I could see the features that we’d received from a previous common ancestor.
He was brown-skinned but with hazel eyes like mine that leant more to being amber instead of my bronze.
He’d shown up dressed for the occasion, which I assumed meant that he was here to handle his business and then go about it.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t on bullshit though.
Although his face didn’t hold any guile, I still didn’t immediately give him the benefit of the doubt. I’d long learned better. Especially from that side of the family.
“And why are you telling me this?”
His face cracked a smile, one that was more annoyance than joy, as he slipped a hand in his pocket. A tell to either channel his frustration or mask how angry he really was. “Are you naturally suspicious of everybody or is it just us?”
“Both as a matter of fact.” I had no issue with him answering my question with a question because his intentions would be made clear all too soon. People who spoke up either had nothing to hide or wanted to appear like they held all the cards. Time would tell which category he fell into.
“I’m not your enemy. There’s no part of me that gives a fuck about any of this shit.
” He waved the hand that held his glass around the room, showing the power seat of the Franklin family.
We’d moved further north to Chocolate City back in the seventies and this became our family’s base of operations.
When the Nakoa side joined it was a good spot because it gave us access to the ports our ships would use in Baltimore, the Chesapeake and was quick access to New York.
“You don’t care about the family business?”
His statement intrigued me but I wasn’t buying it.
You had a choice in participating in this life or not.
Even if the generation before you was in it, you could walk away as long as you stayed loyal and stayed silent.
Allowing the branches of our family to live normal lives was key to what we had going on.
Everyone wasn’t cut out for this life and it was better for people to realize it before they got in too deep.
Those types became liabilities and that was something else we couldn’t have.
He chuckled before taking a sip of his drink. His movements were either a great performance or indicative of how he was truly feeling.
“This isn’t the family business. This is the last gasp of a desperate man fighting to hold on to something that he couldn’t.
And he sold his only daughter out to get it.
The shit that we were doing all these years?
The chickens are just now coming home to roost.” Hakeem’s face had frowned up morphing into something akin to disgust when he spoke about the former patriarch’s actions but relaxing when he spoke about us getting what we’d deserved.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I rested my arm on the bar waiting for him to elaborate, because I didn’t doubt he would.
He stayed for a reason and now I wanted to know what it was.
The bar was in the corner of the meeting room, one that had large windows that were limo-tinted so no one could see in but we could see out.
The glass was bullet and ballistics proof with weapons strategically placed and multiple extraction points.
His brows dipped slightly and his head tilted like he were now the one studying me. “You don’t know?”
“Know what? Don’t start something and not finish it.
” I hated when people moved that way. As though they wanted you to beg them for information.
I wasn’t about to get on my knees and beg for a fucking thing, especially from the side of the family that had turned their back on me.
I’d rather kill his ass and then figure it out on my own.
His brows rose as though he were remembering something that eased his irritation at my words. “Seeing as you’ve been kept in the dark about so much—”
“If I’m in the dark then enlighten me.”
He held his hands up in surrender, which only aggravated me more. “Bruh, I don’t have a problem with you—”
“You’re about to if you keep speaking in riddles when that shit ain’t necessary.
” I didn’t move at all but I wasn’t joking.
He was about to have a problem if he kept on because none of this was on my list of things to do today.
My time was too valuable for somebody to be fucking with it for their own agenda.
Especially if I wasn’t going to benefit from it.
Hakeem had the nerve to grin like something was funny and only nodded his head, knowing he was tap dancing on my last fucking nerve.
“Family history lesson in short. The Franklins hadn’t been doing what they needed to with the Consortium for years.”
My head was spinning because I hadn’t heard anything about this.
I knew about the beef between the Cannons and the Suttons because Cardinal’s ass got caught up and wanted to have someone to throw under the bus.
Instead of coming to us, he tried to gain more power for himself by putting the Feds onto Xerxes’ family dealings.
Thankfully, all that shit was cut off before it took hold but that didn’t mean that the damage to the relationship wasn’t still done.
Although Xerx and Priest were good, Auntie Babette took extra pleasure in watching Priest kill his daddy.
Well, his uncle. And I knew she took flights to gloat over his mama in the asylum where we had her ass locked up.
“Years?” Nobody had given me any insight to the Franklin family being on probation or on thin ice. I wasn’t sure if my grandfather had done something that smoothed all that over but clearly it was a question I needed to ask him.
“Why do you think the Consortium was eager to let your daddy’s people move in when they did? It had nothing to do with it only being a good business opportunity, which it was; don’t get me wrong. They needed a powerful family that was going to handle this shit.”
My arms went across my chest as my mind raced, trying to figure out where this was going. “I’m not following.”
Hakeem shook his head like he was annoyed with me before he sat his glass down on the bar top. “This is the reason you need to talk to your mama.”
I sat up dropping my arms and standing to my full height. “What the fuck does she have to do with anything?”
“Bruh, cousin Faith ain’t as bad as you make her seem.” Hakeem was unfazed by my actions not bothering to take a defensive posture as he kept leaning against the bar. He either underestimated me or didn’t value his life.
“Oh, you're using monikers and shit for her. It seems she’s been more involved in your life than she was in mine.”
It wasn’t a big deal for me to speak my disdain for the woman who birthed me.
She was a sore spot they all ensured didn’t heal.
It would’ve been one thing for my mother to leave and for her parents or siblings to step in.
But they didn’t. I got tossed aside by them the same way she’d done me and I wasn’t going to let them feel better about the shit they’d done.
While my cousin wasn’t a part of their bullshit he was guilty by association and I couldn’t help how I felt.
He looked offended as hell for how I was speaking and I knew it was because he actually had feelings for Faith and respect for his own mother. “That’s your mama—”
I scoffed as I shook my head. “She hasn’t been that in a long fucking time.”
Hakeem sighed probably from the realization that this was a battle he wasn’t about to win.
“Look, nigga. I know you're bitter and shit because of what went down with your family. Trust, I don’t blame you cause that shit was all fucked up. But you need to understand that the vast majority of the fuck shit that happened had nothing to do with her. You try to be a woman who is soft as shit because that’s the nicest way to put it, being surrounded by sharks.
Faith was raised to be gullible and easy to manipulate because that’s how her daddy wanted her.
She was always a useful tool that he couldn’t ignore simply because she was to be his heir.
He had every desire to pass her over but he couldn’t without good reason.
The one who was supposed to be the heir died fucking another man’s wife so she was automatically next in line.
He couldn’t skip her without cause and he didn’t have that shit so he was stuck. ”
I shrugged not bothering to say anything, because this was information I’d been able to gather on my own. “You know far more about her than I do.”
He nodded, his face filled with irritation and something akin to disgust. “Shit, I probably do. But only because I give a fuck enough to listen. Can you say the same?”