The Queen’s Court #2
Xerxes raised a finger grabbing my attention like he had something to interject. “Zat does not mean zat she’s sane, Ori!”
I shrugged because he wasn’t wrong. “Point taken. But again, she’s mine.”
“I’m not gone hold you. I’m not about to waste any more of my precious time worrying behind Ori and his shit.
He seems happy right where he is. That’s good enough for me.
I’m never one to interfere with a man and his wife.
If this is what this nigga is on, let this nigga have it.
Because at the end of the day, if it was somebody going at me about mine I would probably be lashing out way worse than he is. ”
“Thank you, Priest.”
“I don’t zink zat’s his seal of approval. Zat was more a ‘you gone do what you want to anyway so why am I getting involved’ sorta zing.”
I glanced around at all of them trying to discern what I’d said that was wrong. “Same thing.”
The room was filled with stunned silence and I was now the one trying to figure out why they weren’t understanding what was going on.
Asha wasn’t the type of woman they were used to and I got that.
But they weren’t the ones married to her, I was.
I appreciated they wanted to look out but they wouldn’t know how to handle her the way I did.
Shit, I was still learning my damn self but I was enjoying every single lesson she wanted to teach me.
“Yo, she’s rubbing off on you, bruh. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.
” Midas spoke up but I knew he wanted to laugh.
He wasn’t speaking up because his wife was best friends with mine.
He knew how she was for the most part so he hadn’t bothered to be concerned.
His girl, like mine, had to lay somebody down at a real young age so I’m sure they’d bonded over that shit at some point.
“It’s looking real… something-ish.”
“That about sums it up.”
I was ready for them to stop talking about this so I switched my attention to someone else in the room to draw him into the conversation.
“Jada did her thing as usual, Smoke. I know she already collected her bread but my grandfather got an extra chunk for her because he loves how she incorporated everything.”
He dipped his head in appreciation at my compliment. “I’ll let her know.”
“I’m still waiting for the day them two get married.”
Smoke slow blinked as he looked at Angel like he’d just grown a second head. “Nigga, I just started talking in complete sentences but you think I’m finna get married sometime soon?”
We cracked up laughing and Yacouba was the loudest. “That’s true, too. I wanted to shoot this nigga the first time he strung together a paragraph. Had me thinking I’d smoked a laced blunt and I was ready to kill everybody.”
“Out of the family’s Jemma Marie is the last one standing. We’re just waiting on her to get married—”
“And you’ll be holding your breath for a good long while for that, sugah.”
Her deep New Orleans drawl carried from behind me and caused all of us to turn around.
Jemma Marie appeared wearing a fuchsia dress that swept the floor regally.
The color complemented the stormy gray of her eyes and she walked up on our conversation unapologetically.
Her hair was done up in one of those updos and every man in the room stood when she entered out of respect.
One by one those of us that grew up with her gave her hugs before she leaned against the arm of the chair I was sitting on since she refused to take my seat.
“Of course you’re lurking.”
She smiled down at me even though she barely had a height advantage since she wasn’t that tall. “I’m still good at popping up in places that I shouldn’t be. It’s probably how I got stuck in that situation I was in for so long.”
Her face clouded over and I could feel every man in the room getting upset about that situation.
She’d been locked up right under our noses for years and we all felt a way about it.
We were supposed to have power yet our sister had been trapped off the grid for over a decade and none of us had seen what was going on.
It stung our pride and more importantly we felt like we’d failed her.
“You’re talking about that?” Jahmir looked hopeful and I knew it was because he felt the most guilt.
His uncle Cardinal who he’d been raised to believe was his father had aided the people who sent her into the nothingness she’d survived for so long.
He wanted to do everything he could to help her get her lick back but she hadn’t mentioned it.
She smiled softly probably because she realized how eager he was. “Time’s not right yet.”
“Why nae?” Liam’s question was one that was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and we all waited as the queen held court for her answer.
Her smile was sad and she avoided looking at one part of the room in particular before she spoke. “Still one more piece of the puzzle that has to fall in line before I can get to settin’ everything to rights.”
“You’re talking about Angel.”
Her head snapped up as she looked at Priest like she took offense to that name. “I’m talking about Beau.”
“My name is Angel.” He came from where he’d seemingly ducked off toward the back of the room where the bar was. We’d all seen him slip away when she showed up. Avoiding her and his responsibility the way he’d been for over a year.
Her smile was sluggish as she sized him up. Almost as though she was afraid to express too much joy. The sight of him something that she still couldn’t believe was real. He’d been thought dead for so long I could understand why she always reacted as if she were seeing a ghost. To her, she was.
“Well, look at you. I see lurkin’ is a family trait.
Although I can tell you you’re not nearly as good at going unnoticed as you think you are.
I saw you watchin’ me back by the candy table.
You were too focused on who you were watching not realizin’ that I could be watchin’ you.
I can understand since you have that pretty little thang distractin’ you.
Step your game up, baby brother. Can’t have you sullyin’ the family name.
You know, for whenever you decide to claim it. ”
Angel ignored her jab but I knew the rest of us were wondering who the hell he’d been staring at. “Why not say something?”
“Because I needed you to be in here with me. Duh.” She laughed in that tinkling southern heiress way that only Black women who’d endured it all and still come out on top of the mountain could.
It was a laugh of leisure and strength. One of beauty and pain.
The kind that had been earned by the generations before her and she refused to be the weak link or the one who didn’t enjoy every moment of the freedom afforded her.
It was a beautifully set table on a wrap-around porch right before you were served poison on the finest heirloom china.
Yeah, every woman around us was really unstable.
For those two to have been apart for almost twenty-five years, they easily fell into a brother and sister bickering with one another. I could tell that Angel was irritated with how easily he’d slipped into the role and was trying to fight it. But it came too naturally to him for him to ignore it.
They were having a silent standoff and I hated that they were put in this position.
She was trying to stand tough but I could see her restraining herself from throwing her arm around him.
The love she’d had for him had run deep but she’d carried his loss for years.
Angel, on the other hand, had never had attachments to anyone outside of The Order so trying to do so now felt foreign.
There was no way to know how this shit was going to end up with the two of them.
But time was running out for him to keep running from his responsibilities.
They needed one another. Probably more so than either of them thought.
“Are y’all about to hash this shit out right now? At my wedding? Y’all had a whole year to handle this shit but wanna do it now?”
Jahmir spoke up since Angel was still hiding under his duties to the Sutton family to get out of taking his rightful place in his own. “Angel, bruh, we love you but—”
“You don’t have to finish that sentence, I already know. She’s a girl. Y’all thought I was dead. Head of the family. Yada yada yada.” Angel waved Priest off and I knew he had to be in his feelings ‘cause he never would’ve done that before.
“Ain’t no yada yada yada. You just not finna come at your sister wrong over some differences. But I’ll two-piece your ass right now if you need to get some of that aggression out.”
Priest sat forward ready to fight and I knew he probably was. My wedding so far was the easiest going one that we’d had in a minute. I was hoping that lasted but I wasn’t banking on it at all.
“Y’all must think I sat around and forgot everything y’all taught me. Everything my daddy instilled in me. Like I don’t know who the fuck I am. I should be insulted. Especially since I haven’t had anything to do over the last decade but sit around and hone my skills.”
“Your skills?”
She smiled down at me again but damn if she didn’t look sinister doing so. “How else do you think I kept from going crazy?”
“How did you?”
“I reminded myself often of who came before me and what they battled. Who was on the other side rooting for me and who was still here waiting to see me again. With that in my blood, there was no way I was going to break. There’s no part of me that screams weak bitch.
Yacouba, you sat down for a year, was there ever a worry in your mind that you would fold? ”
Cou shook his head slightly, despite his answer being obvious. “Not one.”
“And Ori, you were in the military and have been a happy lil’ war machine. You ever let those people break you?”