Get at Me #3
“Aye, we aren’t doing that. The last person you’re gone talk shit about in my presence is Faith.
She sacrificed too much for the fucking family for you to have anything bad to say about her.
Whatever beef y’all niggas got, keep it between the two of you but that one you're not about to disrespect.” I glanced back at Hakeem and noticed he had his gun trained on Theo’s muscle.
Theo threw his hands up laughing like everything was just jokes his words only a test. “And that’s how I know you ain’t Black. Nobody could say shit about my mama without me putting them on their ass.”
My eyes narrowed as I watched him feeling the predator in me rise. “Look at your chest.”
He did what I said his eyes growing wide. “The fuck—”
“That dot is a reminder that you might think you’re untouchable but you have no clue who is lurking at any time to end you.
You can take all that entitlement your mama’s people have embedded in your DNA and get the fuck outta my face.
Whatever business you had with Hakeem can be conducted some other time. The adults are having a conversation.”
“It’s like that, Keem?” Theo was looking at Hakeem like they had some type of bond that should outweigh the business we had.
“Nigga, you waltzed your ass in here I ain’t invite you. The fuck I look like stopping what I’m doing to accommodate you?” Hakeem was angry. Not the normal kind, but the kind I felt whenever I had to deal with Theo and his daddy. He was disgusted.
“Oh, so you putting on for this nigga?” Theo’s hands went into his pockets but his muscle came closer, which made a second dot appear in the room. He didn’t notice it but his life was on borrowed time.
“Ain’t got a reason to put on. He and I had business today and he asked to come through.
Not you. You do too fucking much and you always have.
I’m not understanding why you keep wanting to make your life hard but that’s on you.
This man ain’t ever done shit to me so I have no reason to feel any kinda way toward him. ”
Theo sucked his teeth waving off Hakeem’s logic like it was communicable.
“You a bitch sucking up to this nigga just cause. Sitting here thinking that a woman should have a seat at the table when it’s clear she couldn’t handle the pressure.
That’s how this outside muthafucka got his chance.
It should’ve went to one of us.” He pounded his chest angrily and I found his performance amusing.
“You still on that? Your daddy fucked you up in the head but that’s cool.
You can keep tempting fate by fucking with him if you want.
My conscience is clear because I warned you. Play with your life if you want.”
“So that’s what this is about? You want my seat at the table.” I stroked my chin with my now free hand as he looked at me with hatred-filled eyes.
“It’s my birthright.”
I smirked at the entitlement he displayed. He couldn’t even run the piece of business he had without my help but he thought he was the one who needed to run things. “And it ain’t mine?”
“Your mama was too fucking weak to secure this shit on her own—”
“Nah, good ol’ Grandpa James’ ass was too fucking stupid to secure his family’s future on his own.
He got bitter instead of reinventing himself or taking advice.
How long did he think counterfeiting and scamming were going to last the family?
Ain’t but so many Nigerian Prince scams you can run before folks catch on.
Instead of being a man and standing on his own two feet he used his daughter to secure his future.
And your punk ass daddy stood by and let him because he saw it as a way to make an easy come up.
Ain’t no bitch in my blood but it’s plenty in yours.
I would never use my family to eat while I sat on my ass but that’s exactly what your father did.
And bitched moaned and complained the entire time while collecting handouts.
It’s clear that entitlement was ingrained in you from both sides of your bloodline. ”
“Real big talk from a muhfucka who got back up.”
I motioned in the air so fast I knew neither caught the symbol I made. Immediately the red dot was gone from his chest and I started to remove my jacket.
“Damn cuz you let this nigga walk up in here with an arsenal but I gotta check my shit at the door?” He was worried now seeing that I was ready to get my hands dirty. Pleading to Hakeem wasn’t gone do shit because I’d beat his ass too if he tried to stop me.
“Him I trust. You, on the other hand, are grimy as fuck. You act like I forgot the twenty thousand dollar tab you ran up and then dipped out on. You owe me a grip this nigga don’t owe me shit.
So who is the real enemy here?” Hakeem’s arms folded across his chest and I knew the past wasn’t the only reason why he couldn’t stand Theo.
“Yo you trippin’ off twenty bands?” Theo was trying to laugh it off like it was no big deal but it was all bravado.
“You not paying them twenty bands so you clearly trippin’ off of it too, my nigga.”
“You want my spot, take it.”
I’d already laid my guns on the desk not bothering to remove the harness from across my back.
It was mildly constraining but nothing that I wasn’t already used to working around.
I’d been taught to fight with my hands chained behind my back with twenty pounds of dead weight attached to them.
The only thing the harness would do would prevent me from killing him. Which I guess was a good thing.
Theo laughed nervously looking back at his muscle who wasn’t about to do shit but stand there and watch him get his ass beat. I guess he felt like he was good since it was two of them against me and maybe Hakeem but I knew better.
“Nah, you wanting to fight when you got a shooter on the roof waiting to take me out. That shit ain’t fair.”
“If you pussy say that. But one thing about me is that I don’t lie.
I’ve told them to stand down and they will.
You think they’re going to disobey one of my orders when they work for me?
One thing I’m not is afraid of death. I’ve faced it far more times than you could fathom and it never fazed me because it’s the inevitable end for everyone.
But getting my ass beat? That’s some shit I can control and I ain’t ever let somebody ho me. ”
Hakeem was laughing behind me probably stunned by what I was saying. I rarely spoke during meetings so this was definitely a change.
I saw Thick Neck make a move and my gun was in my hand and aimed before he could decide to carry out whatever bullshit he was going to do.
My bullet entered his head a second before Hakeem’s did.
I didn’t even need to know he was the one who’d taken the shot and not Smoke because I hadn’t heard glass shattering.
I glanced at Hakeem and he was tucking his piece behind his back with a scowl on his face.
“The fuck y’all do that for? Gone shoot my mans like I ain’t gone feel a way about it?” Theo’s face was covered in sweat and I knew he was worried he was going to be next.
Theo was puffing his chest out but I knew his ass was afraid.
He never handled any of his own dirty work and got one of his many minions to do it for him.
That was stupid in and of itself, since that was just more collateral someone had over you if they flipped on you or came for what you had.
He hadn’t been smart enough to surround himself with family or to foster any loyalty.
Plenty of his women had run off with some of his men either to start their own shit or to just escape him.
This was the main reason he would suck as the head of the family.
He tried to rule through fear and intimidation when he was too pussy to ever back any of it up.
Theo was looking at his man before glaring at Hakeem like he’d done something wrong.
“I don’t allow guns in this bitch for a reason. It’s clear your man broke protocol. There’s a price for disobedience.”
“But you let him stay strapped?” He pointed at me like the spoiled bitch he was and it had me itching to end him too. Two bodies weren’t any harder to clean than one.
“I told you, him I trust. And he volunteered a pat-down. You were let in on the honor system and showed you had none. Well, reaffirmed that shit. You bring a snake into my house I’ll kill that bitch without a second thought.
You got anything else or are you done? It’s clear I need someone to come clean my fucking carpet because of you now. ”
Theo swallowed down whatever he was going to say, glaring at me before he looked back at Hakeem. “I was here on some team-up shit. Have the girls working across both—”
“My girls don’t sell pussy. Explicit is the closest we get to that and even then it’s just a glorified playroom. Soliciting brings far more problems than I want right now.” Hakeem sat back down but I stood guard in front of him in case Theo felt something about his muscle being killed.
“This nigga must not be on his job if he can’t keep vice off your ass.” Theo was bitter as hell and I let him dig his grave another foot deep.
“I don’t need him to do shit for me because all of my business moves are legal.”
“You sure about that?”
“You got something you need to get off your chest, cuz? Speak your peace or rest in it like that bitch nigga you brought in my office.” He pointed to the corpse on the floor as proof of our mutual impatience.
“Nah, nothing to say. I see where your loyalties lie.”
“With the family, as always. Fuck you thought?”
Theo’s foot was tapping angrily but he kept his hands in his pockets. “Kissing ass for this nigga again.”
“Don’t make me break protocol and put a bullet in your head like I did your muscle. Since you think I’m on cuz like that I’m sure he’ll give me a pardon for killing you.” Hakeem was smirking from his seat and I had to laugh at how easily he spoke about me.