Chapter 10 Jaseon Jr
“It’s about time your ass showed up! If I had to listen to Amir try to sweet-talk Mo into having another baby, I was going to knock his ass out with a steel pipe.”
Chuckling, I walked into the small warehouse my dad purchased on the outskirts of Milly Grove.
We used this place to hold small meetings with his team and stash away a problem when necessary.
Tonight, we were finally meeting to discuss the issues that my dad and his crew were having.
A few days ago, when Uncle Mitch called, my dad told him it was family day, and whatever problems we were having would still be there the next day—so here we were.
“What’s up, Slash?” Uncle Mitch walked over and slapped hands with me. “Every time I see you, I wonder why you never went into the league with your brother. You’re big as shit, man.”
“He’d kill any nigga that tackled him.” Uncle Amir walked over, placing me in a headlock. At times, it was hard for him to see me as a grown man and not his six-year-old nephew, but I let him rock. “You remember what happened your freshman year in high school?”
Walking over to embrace my dad, Marshall, and baby brother, Jamir, I shook my head and listened to the guys take a trip down memory lane.
During my first year of high school, I was the man on the football field.
As the star quarterback and the best at my position in the area, I knew I would be a target for many players.
Everybody wanted to be the one who took down JJ McKnight.
During our homecoming game, I was sacked too many times by the opposing linemen for my liking.
After each hit, they would try their best to break my arm or leg.
Having had enough, right before the end of the third quarter, I lost my shit and started swinging on all those niggas.
Not just my opponents, but my teammates too.
They were always jealous of my brother and me, and I knew that played a part in their failure to protect me from the other team.
The field went into pandemonium, and they called the game.
I let a few days go by before my brother and I went to a few cities over to find the guys who tried to end my career.
We masked up and beat one of them niggas’ ass.
He never played ball again, and my message was made to all who would attempt to mimic that behavior.
“What the hell you doing here, Marshall?” We slapped hands, as we embraced. “I didn’t know your ass was coming through.”
“It was some last-minute shit,” he replied in that gruff-ass voice of his.
Blowing smoke from one of his funky cigars, he leaned against the far wall and just stood out of everyone’s way.
“I just wanted to sit and peep the scene. You know, make sure y’all had shit handled and didn’t need reinforcement. ”
“You know I ain’t no rookie to this shit, but I appreciate you.” I nodded as we slapped hands once more. “Anyway…”
I walked over, pulling up a chair, and sat off to the side of my uncles.
We were in the middle of the front room, which we kept relatively empty.
With them still dabbling in the drug game back in Willow Springs, they kept their work here.
You’d have a hard time finding it due to the secret rooms placed throughout the building, and anyone who entered would deem the place vacant.
“What we doing here tonight?” I continued talking. “If y’all called me here to reminisce about old shit, I’ma be pissed. I could’ve taken my ass home.”
Pulling my vibrating phone from my pocket, I wasn’t surprised to see it was Sheena.
I hadn’t spent time with her since the night I left John’s house.
While at work today, she made it clear on several occasions that she missed me and wanted some of my time.
My dick wasn’t opposed and welcomed the thought of sliding up inside of her.
She was too clingy for my liking, though, so to keep from causing bodily harm to the girl, I tried to keep my distance.
“Is that your girl?” My father smirked, leaning against one of the metal tables.
“Your mama said if you bring her back around, she’s going to hang her upside down on one of the oak trees in the backyard.
” We all laughed at that, but we all knew she would make it happen. “She really hates that broad.”
“Don’t I know it.” I silenced the phone before putting it back in my pocket.
“Before we get started on whatever this is.” I motioned between him and Uncle Amir.
“I need y’all to be straight up with me.
I never asked anything about the past, because I felt like it wasn’t my business.
But that nigga, Detective Hines…” I saw my father’s eye twitch at the sound of his nephew’s name.
“The animosity is about to get that nigga killed.”
“I’m sure it’s because of what happened to his father,” my Uncle Amir said as my dad continued to clench his jaw.
“What happened to his father?” I shrugged because it was obvious the nigga was dead, but I didn’t know the parameters and why it had anything to do with me.
At an early age, I’d figured out the casinos and restaurants weren’t the only things my family owned.
My father never really hid anything from my brothers and me, but he never willingly involved us.
It was later in life when I helped Marshall with an issue that he saw what I could do with a body and asked if I wanted to have a small part in his operations.
While it wasn’t ideal, I happily indulged because of my own passions with death and human anatomy.
“His daddy was a bitch nigga and found out the hard way that Jay McKnight ain’t shit to fuck with.
” My father shrugged, lighting his blunt.
“I took his woman and then his life.” He eyed me before pulling from his smoke.
“If the nigga wants to spend quality time with his pappy, let me know. I can make it to where that lil’ nigga is fish food too.
You know I’m not having anybody fucking with my kids.
I don’t give a fuck how grown y’all niggas are. ”
One thing I could attest to was that no matter how old my siblings and I got, my parents didn’t play about any of us. Here I was, a grown man who could hold his own, and my dad was ready to fuck up anybody who ruined my day.
“I appreciate you, old man.” I crossed my arms and smirked. “But you know as well as I do, if there’s a problem, I have no issues solving that shit. TJ must know you had something to do with his dad being gone, and he ain’t gone stop trying me until I slice his ass in half.”
Pushing that non-factor-ass nigga to the back of my mind, I got back to the reason for being here tonight. “So what’s up, Pops? Does this meeting have anything to do with the Cummings case?”
The day I did the autopsy on Jamal Cummings; I knew exactly who he was.
He and a few of his boys worked for my dad over in Willow Springs, so I was kind of shocked to see his body end up over here in Milly Grove.
Whoever killed him wanted it to look like a suicide but did a piss-poor job.
While I could have very well ruled it as one, I didn’t see the need.
My people didn’t have anything to do with it, plus I wasn’t going to make the job any easier for the fuck-ass cops in this city.
“Come on.” Uncle Amir patted my shoulder and nodded toward the back room. “Let’s see if our guest has any insight that could help.”
As we made our way down the hallway, I listened to the guys speak about my girl cousins.
After all of them graduated from college, they decided to go into business together.
With Karlie being the oldest, everyone wanted to follow in her footsteps.
My sister always had a thing for helping people, women especially, and after finding out later in life that her birth mother died from an overdose, she decided to open a rehabilitation center to help those in need.
Uncle Amir’s and Uncle Mitch’s daughters decided to work with her as counselors.
The girls were doing well for themselves, and everyone was really proud.
“This nigga funky as fuck!” I frowned and covered my nose as we entered the dimly lit room. Stepping inside, the half-dead nigga strapped to a metal slab in the middle of the room came into view. “Who the fuck is he?”
“Jamal’s brother, Chris.” Uncle Mitch folded his arms and mugged him.
“Word is, he and his brother have been working with some niggas out of town and aiding them with information about us. They were on the team, but were doing a piss-poor job, so we let them leave with their lives. Our bad.” He patted Chris’s chest, and Jamir cringed.
I’m sure he was disgusted that Uncle Mitch didn’t care that this nigga had been sweating, pissing, and shitting on himself.
“He thought it would be a good idea to run into my stash house and kill a couple of our men,” Uncle Mitch continued. “Not only that, but they stole my shit. I was hoping you could get some intel out of him before killing him. You know niggas would give up their own mamas to save themselves.”
Walking over, I did a quick assessment of his barely clothed body. He was stripped down to only his boxer briefs, and he had bruises everywhere. “What happened to him?”
“I beat his ass,” my Pops answered with a smile. Jamir and I simpered at the pride in his voice. “You should take note of that. The next time you and your brother think you’re the Hardy Boys and try to play with me, remember I still got it in me.”
Not bothering to respond to him, I continued to circle Chris. His eyes were slightly swollen, but he was still able to follow my every move. Glancing over to the table on the left side of the room, I walked over and put on a pair of latex gloves before picking up the scalpel.