Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
KENDRALL
“ M an, hurry up! They got Jacob hemmed up! You ain’t gon’ believe this shit.”
I hung up the phone in Ryder J’s face and ran out of the house and down the street to Jacob’s house. I expected to see the cops, but it looked like he was getting jumped. When I heard the gunshot, I froze. When the fucking roaches scattered, I saw Uncle Storm standing there with his hunting rifle. SS had caught one of those niggas and was working his ass over.
I was gon’ grab the first one that got close to me. When I saw Jameka’s brother, I went straight to his ass and clotheslined him. There was no way those muthafuckas would get away with jumping my cousin. I looked down the road to see Christian had another guy on the ground, and even Rylan was fucking somebody up.
I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, other than Jameka’s people thought they would fuck Jacob up. I didn’t know what led to this shit though. Jacob didn’t look too bad. Just blood coming from his nose and mouth. When I got closer, I noticed he had swelling around his eye too. There had to be at least ten niggas out here. Somebody must have intervened quickly for him not to be completely fucked up.
When I got closer to him, Uncle Storm, and Uncle Marcus, he collapsed. I immediately called my dad to come get him. Jacob’s breathing was somewhat labored. I got on the ground next to him and asked, “What the fuck happened?”
“Jameka… committed… suicide.”
My eyebrows lifted. I was stunned. Uncle Storm said, “She left a note saying it was Jacob’s fault for not accepting her as his and not accepting his baby. They want to do a DNA test on the fetus. If Jacob is a match, this family is going for the fucking gusto. He’s pretty sure that it wasn’t his baby though. I wanna resurrect her ass and blow her back to hell. That gotta be where she went.”
“You ain’t supposed to speak ill of the dead, Storm,” Uncle Marcus said.
“If you don’t get yo’ hail Mary chanting ass away from me with that shit. Fuck that girl. It wasn’t Jacob’s responsibility to see to her crazy ass. Her family should have intervened on her behalf and got her the help she needed. Stupid bitch. Between her and Courtney, I don’t know which one of those muthafuckas worse.”
I couldn’t believe the shit I was hearing. “Jacob had a restraining order against her, so that should count for something. He didn’t want to be bothered with her ass. That shit wasn’t a crime,” I said.
“Naw, it ain’t. But SS wasn’t found guilty of a crime either, but guess where we will be in three months, although those muthafuckas keep pushing the date back?”
“They doing that shit because they don’t have a fucking case. They think their white privilege gon’ get them what they want. They gon’ find out though,” Uncle Marcus added.
I slowly shook my head. This shit was out of hand. It was like everybody was out for Henderson blood. Christian almost got caught up with the law fucking with Courtney’s ass. My phone vibrated with a text. I knew it was probably Cassie. I didn’t say a word when I bolted out of the house. She had already fallen asleep, and I was just about to come out of my clothes.
We’d had a great day at church and had talked to my parents about us getting married. Mr. Price and Mrs. Kendall had come over, and the ladies started planning for our wedding while Mr. Price and Dad prepared to “write checks” for everything. I tried to tell them that I could pay for everything, but they wouldn’t hear of it.
Mr. Price said he longed for the day his daughter would get married to a man that loved her like I did. He’d been saving money specifically for that for the past ten years. After that explanation, I left them to it and chose to watch my beautiful wife-to-be the entire time. The way she blushed when I stared at her too long always made me smile.
When I heard Dad’s siren, I knew he had probably turned into Henderson Village. This was proof that they needed to get that fucking gate up and running. We thought it would be fine if it just stayed open, but this was proof that things had changed. Niggas didn’t give a fuck these days, and the Hendersons were gonna have to go full throttle and not give a fuck either.
Dad stopped that ambulance on a dime and hopped out and ran to Jacob. His breathing was still labored, and that shit was making me nervous. Aunt Jen and Uncle Carter’s car came to a screeching halt, and Aunt Jen hopped out of it before it completely stopped. I moved out of the way so she could get to Jacob.
The tears streaming down her face made me want to just go hug my mama. I needed to talk to the younger Henderson men. They were going to have to make better decisions about who they slid their dicks into, because this shit was senseless. Jacob should have never gotten involved with that bitch. God, forgive me.
“He has a broken rib. It may have punctured a lung, so I need to get him to the hospital right away.”
Dad went and got his gurney and threw an oxygen tank on top of it, then came back to us. Everyone pitched in to help him get Jacob on the gurney. He seemed to be in a lot of pain now, and I knew that was attributed to his adrenaline slowing down. They loaded him up quickly, and Dad, Uncle Storm, and Aunt Jen hopped in the ambulance and took off with him.
I took a deep breath and checked the time to see it was midnight. I never responded to Cassie’s text, but I may as well have just waited until I got home now. I knew she hated that she was related to those people. Jameka’s mother and her mom were first cousins. When I turned to leave, Christian and Rylan were standing there, looking as worried as I did.
“I hate this, man. Jacob don’t bother nobody,” Rylan said.
“I know. I just wished he would be more selective about where he put his dick. She has been fucking with him about not wanting her for almost a year. What the fuck? I gotta talk to my lil brothers and make sure they ain’t fucking around with nobody in this damn family.”
“Well, hopefully, they’ll all be moving soon,” Christian said.
“What you mean?”
“The sewer treatment plant got shut down today. Unless they can all afford aerobics systems, they gon’ have to get out of here, or the environmental people gon’ be crawling up their ass. The water will probably get shut down tomorrow. They knew this shit was coming for over six months. They should have been preparing for it,” Christian said.
“They were expecting us to rescind our decision and fix shit. Uncle WJ was firm as fuck. We were already only giving them the minimum because of some other bullshit. They were in for a rude awakening this time,” Rylan said.
“Congratulations on your engagement, nigga. You could have told us,” Christian said.
“It just happened yesterday. We been busy as fuck because, like you, we ain’t wasting time. We already got our marriage license and shit. We tryna do this as soon as the parentals can get shit together. So I’m thinking it may happen right before I leave for the next competition or right after I come back.”
“Damn, that’s quick. Y’all having a wedding?”
“Yeah. Cassie wants one. So I need y’all to be groomsmen, along with my brothers. Hopefully, Jacob will be able to be in it.”
“Yeah. Let me go let Mya know that I’m going to the hospital.”
“Yeah, I gotta go tell Angel. Pick me up on your way out, bruh.”
“I got’chu.”
We all slapped hands and went our prospective ways. There was no way I would be leaving Cassie at home alone after this shit. As I walked home, I saw all the women standing outside talking. Cassie came running to me and hugged me tightly. “It’s gon’ be okay, baby. You wanna go get dressed so we can go to the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
She kissed my lips and disappeared back inside the house. Karima was hugging Milana, and they headed inside Karima’s house. I wasn’t sure if they were going to the hospital or not, but I was going to call the cops to patrol. Uncle WJ had supposedly done that, but those muthafuckas were slacking big time.
I went inside my house and made sure my gun was loaded. Those muthafuckas wouldn’t catch me slipping.
“When I got there, there were about ten men fighting Jacob. One of my other cousins had stepped in, trying to help, then a couple more of us arrived at the same time to run them off. This was all because their cousin left a misleading letter before killing herself. He has a restraining order in place, so there is no confusion about whether he wanted to be with her or not. I also think there’s record of her destroying his truck some months back, her showing up at his mother’s place of business, and breaking a window at his house.”
The cop listened intently as I gave details of what I saw when I arrived on the scene. They wanted to cut up? We could cut up too. Jacob was pressing charges. While we didn’t know all of them, we were absolutely sure that one of them was Jameka’s brother, Traylon. If he was as much of a punk as I thought he was, he would be dropping other names as well.
The cop shook my hand and walked off. We sat in the waiting area, waiting to see Jacob. They’d taken him in surgery to reset some bones and make sure everything else was okay. Cassie sat quietly on one side of me, holding my hand, and Karima was on my other side. A lot of my cousins were pacing back and forth, especially the hotheaded younger ones.
Ryder J came in on one, ready to go find those niggas. To say he was Uncle Ryder and Aunt Tiffany’s son, he acted a lot like Uncle Ryder’s brother, Philly. Philly was the type to shoot now and ask questions later. He’d calmed down a lot after he started a family with Mrs. Kema.
Kane, King, Ace, Royal, Crew, and SS were pacing just as much as he was and were trying to leave to go find those niggas. Uncle Storm had to step up and be a voice of reason at this point. He knew now wasn’t the time to be hotheaded, because those lil niggas were reckless at times. The police had already been called. So if they went back to Nome fucking shit up, the cops would automatically know it was in response to what happened to Jacob.
I relaxed as best I could while rubbing Cassie’s hand between mine. Before we even saw her, we definitely heard her. Jess was coming down the hall in a rampage, as if those niggas were up here at the hospital with us. Aunt Jen stood, trying to calm her down. “Jess, please. Not now, baby. Save that for when we get home.”
“Yeah. I’m gon’ fuck somebody up too. That’s my baby in there. You know how I move when it concerns him.”
“I do. But this ain’t the place. This is a hospital. Nobody here is responsible for what happened. And please don’t get your cousins all fired up again. When we get back to Nome, you still can’t go being reckless, baby. Jacob is going to be fine. Unfortunately, some of this is his fault. He knew that girl was crazy, and he chose to sleep with her anyway. Now she’s dead, and he’s in a hospital.”
Jess rubbed her hand over her face as Tyeis and Nesha grabbed her hands, leading her to a corner to talk. I slowly shook my head as the doctor came to the waiting area. When everyone stood, he looked a little intimidated. I would be too. There was damn near thirty of us here.
“Hello. I’m Doctor Banks. Are you the family of Jacob Monroe?”
“Yes, I’m his mother,” Aunt Jen said.
He nodded at her and began explaining. “Everything went well. He didn’t have a lung puncture, thank goodness. There was a broken rib, and he has a really bad ankle sprain. He also has some tearing in his ACL, but it’s minor. We got him all fixed up, and you’ll be able to see him shortly. Well… not all of you, but his immediate family… spouse, parents, siblings.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Aunt Jen said.
“A nurse will come to get you in a little bit.”
I stood from my seat, ready to get home and sleep. Cassie had a class in the morning. It was her last week of the semester, and I was grateful. She would have a test on Thursday and another on Friday, then she would be done until fall, if she chose to go back.
We kissed everyone goodbye, and I promised to come check on Jacob in the morning. I also needed to get home to check on the women. Nearly every Henderson man was here except Uncle Jasper. Royal and Crew had said he told them to report back to him on how Jacob was doing. Aunt Chas was sick with COVID, and Ashanni had gotten it too. I could imagine how tired he probably was from taking care of the two of them.
When we walked out, Cassie said, “I would hate to get on the Hendersons bad side. Jess looks like she could kill somebody with her bare hands.”
“I wouldn’t doubt that shit. Her, Aunt Tiff, and those twins rowdy as fuck. I’ve never seen the twins in action, but Jess and Aunt Tiff? Shiiiid, I wouldn’t wanna take them blows. Jess beat that chick’s ass about eight months ago for fucking with Jacob. Apparently, she still didn’t catch the hint that she was playing with danger.”
“Well, she ain’t here to play no more.”
“No, but with all this bullshit she stirred up, it sure in the hell feels like she is.”
I kissed her hand, and before we could get to the car, I saw her biological mother. I did my best to block her view of Cassie, but she smiled and walked right over anyway. “Hello, Cassie.”
I looked at her like she was crazy. She approached her like all was well in their world. The last time they’d seen one another, Cassie knocked the shit out of her. Cassie didn’t respond to her. She kept walking until Shayla said, “So your new family got my cousin in a pine box. That’s the kind of people you want to be associated with?”
She turned to her. “Don’t talk shit you don’t know. Your entire family is some crazy ass, drug-addicted shit starters. Y’all hate to see someone doing better than you. If you can’t figure out how to get a piece of what they have, you do your best to discredit them and ruin their reputations. You aren’t fooling me by far. My family is ten times better than yours, and I’m thankful Daddy didn’t leave me to you to raise. I would have turned out just as messed up as all of y’all.”
I could see Shayla’s lip twitching like she wanted to say or do something. The anger looked like it was seeping from her pores. Cassie was ready for her ass too. She was no longer holding my hand, and she had slightly widened her stance, making sure her feet were planted. Cassie tilted her head as if silently taunting her.
Shayla finally said, “Fuck you, girl. I don’t know why I try to continue to talk to yo’ ass. From this moment, you are dead to me.”
“Good. Make sure you don’t resurrect me. You’ve been dead to me. I have a mother. You should remember since you signed away your parental rights and gave her permission to adopt me. Get the fuck outta here.”
Shayla was as red as a fire truck. She was light complexioned like me, so it wasn’t hard to notice. She turned and walked away as she shot her the middle finger and mumbled, “Bitch.”
I grabbed Cassie’s hand because she looked like she wanted to go get her. Just as we were about to walk away, though, we saw Shayla meeting a man. She kissed his lips then looked back at us. Cassie’s breathing had gotten out of control, and I literally had to wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up to keep her from going to fuck Shayla up.
We watched her grab Mesani’s hand and walk inside the hospital.