9. Jeovanni
CHAPTER 9
JEOVANNI
I was so focused on coming up with a plan to get my hands on PJ that I was barely listening to what my grandmother was saying. “If I have to repeat myself one more time,” she growled with a cigarette dangling from her lips. Her tone was thick with irritation, and it snapped me back to the present.
“I’m sorry. I have a lot on my mind.”
“Like what? Does it have to do with Jovani? He came by here yesterday pouting. I know you two aren’t into it.”
“We’re good, Grams.” I didn’t lie to my grandmother often. There was no need. It was like she knew everything anyway. When we were growing up, Jovani and I swore she had eyes in the back of her head. We couldn’t get shit past her.
“Ummhmm,” she twisted her lips, and gave me a look that let me know she wasn’t buying it. She didn’t press the issue, however.
“When are you going to introduce my little angels to Ms. Soprano? I’m surprised I met them before she did. Seeing as how she’s your favorite and all.” My grandmother’s eyes narrowed as she pulled from the cigarette.
“You know you’re just a little bit too old to be so childish. She’s not my favorite, and I didn’t pick her over you. I don’t even have to tell you why I started doing what I did. Look at my home, my condo, my cars, this pool hall.”
“Yeah, look at this pool hall. At first, I didn’t want shit from that cracker bitch, but seeing as how she’s the reason my son is dead, I sure did get my place renovated off her blood money. Crypt Keeper looking ass hoe.”
There was no need to ask my grandmother if she was ever going to let the vendetta go because I knew the answer was no. She hated my mother, and she would hate her until the day she took her last breath. I tried to stay out of the shit. I could understand that my grandmother would forever be traumatized from losing her only child, but if he loved my mother and wanted to be with her, it wasn’t her fault for what her father did. She walked away from her family and chose my father. They should have let them be. Instead, they killed him in front of my mother, and dumped him at my grandmother’s door like he was trash.
My grandmother was tough. She was one of the toughest people that I knew, but there was no way seeing her son in such a state didn’t traumatize her in every way imaginable. Taking my brother and I in, was probably the only thing that kept her sane. Even while she was deep in her grief, she took care of us to the best of her ability. There was never a doubt in either of our minds that our grandmother would go to war with the entire world behind us. When her boyfriend got arrested for drugs, my grandmother got some cocaine, used his clientele, and sold drugs out of her pool hall to ensure that she made enough money to give me and Jovani a comfortable life.
When my brother and I graduated from high school, our grandmother turned us on to the money. We began hustling for her on a small scale, and that was the reason Rainah walked out of my life. When Melissa came around and offered to put Jovani and I on, our grandmother was livid. But we didn’t have to think twice about saying yes. Jovani didn’t really care for Melissa either, but even he knew it was too good of an offer to turn down. Things had gone smoothly over the years, but since talking with my mother I had an unsettled feeling that just wouldn’t leave.
“I’m done,” my grandmother tossed her hands in the air in exasperation. “I’m talking my heart out, and your ass is sitting there like you slow or something.”
My eyes flitted toward my grandmother. I eyed her for a bit before replying because even though she could be annoying as hell at times, getting even halfway slick with her might get the taste slapped out of my mouth.
“You want me to reach out to Myles to see if he can check the pipes because the plumber you contacted is trying to rip you off,” I repeated in a flat tone to assure her that I’d indeed heard her.
“Well praise the Lord. You aren’t slow.” She shook her head pitifully and stood up. “I have things to do.”
The door of the bar opened, and our heads swiveled to see who it was.
“Oh look, it’s silicone Barbie,” my grandmother mumbled before walking away. She didn’t even bother to speak to Celine. Needless to say, Jovani wasn’t the only one that didn’t care for her.
Celine approached the bar that I was standing behind apprehensively. “I think we’ve both calmed down enough so that maybe we can have a conversation.” Her voice was nothing like the confident borderline cocky tone that I was used to from her. Celine had the good sense to tread very carefully when speaking to me.
“I’m trying to understand what the fuck I have to talk to you about? You stood in my face pretty much the entire time that I knew you, knowing you slept with my identical twin brother, and you think I have anything to say to you? Get out, Celine.” The last sentence I spoke held a hint of warning in my tone.
“Baby, please,” tears filled her eyes, as she stared at me pitifully.
The door opened again before I had the chance to curse her out. My entire demeanor changed when I saw who it was. “Deuce, my man. You have perfect timing. I need you to toss shorty out for me.”
Deuce didn’t ask me questions. When I told him to do something, he did it. He had no clue that Celine was no longer my girlfriend, but the specifics didn’t matter. If I told him to toss her ass out the door, that was what he was supposed to do.
Celine’s eyes bulged out of the sockets as her mouth gaped open. By the time her head snapped in Deuce’s direction, his enormous frame was already looming over her. “You better not touch me,” she hissed. Celine had wasted five words. A small yelp left her throat as Deuce picked her up off her feet with almost no effort. He wrapped one arm around her body and walked to the door as easily as if she weighed nothing.
“How could you do this to me?” she cried as Deuce opened the door.
I was done with Celine prior to the confession she made about having sex with and allegedly being pregnant by my brother. But once she revealed that information, she was dead to me. If she thought she could come back after that, then she was even dumber than I thought.
I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and unlocked it. After hitting Rainah’s name in my phone, I waited while her line trilled.
“Hello?”
I hated that her soft, angelic tone made my manhood stiffen. I was supposed to hate Rainah for keeping my sons from me. However, my mother’s words swirled around in my head causing me to understand that Rainah did what she did not out of hate for me but love for our sons. Every single time I thought about the fact that someone had the gall to send my mother a picture of a dead monkey, it made my blood boil.
“Hey. I’m just calling to see if you and the boys need anything.”
I wasn’t sure how long Rainah was going to be at my condo, but it didn’t matter to me. I had way too much shit going on for PJ to be my main concern, but I was gon’ see his ass if it was the last thing I did.
“Oh no, we’re good, Jeovanni. But thank you for asking.”
“Bet. I’ll come by later this evening to see them.”
“Okay.”
“You looking real good tonight. Don’t get one of these niggas in here fucked up.” I spoke into Rainah’s ear before pulling back to get a good look at her face, and shorty was blushing.
“I don’t think anybody in here is checking for me.”
“Shiittt. Ain’t no way you that na?ve, Lil’ Mama. But they don’t matter. As long as I’m here checking for you that’s all that matters.”
“Is that so?”
“It is. Come to me and Jovani’s section.” I jerked my head toward the area that had been designated for us, and Rainah and Ashton followed. I poured them drinks, and the turn up continued.
A Meek Mill song began to play, and Jovani stood on the couch in our section and started rapping word for word. We were alive, healthy, and free. We were too blessed to be standing around looking uptight with the stank face on trying to appear cool. It was a celebration. The bottle girl checked on us to see if we needed anything, and I ordered wings and fries. I also told Rainah and Ashton to get what they wanted. My third drink gave me the courage needed to wrap my arm around Rainah’s neck and pull her into me. It was now or never.
“You chilling with me when we leave here, or you going home?”
Rainah’s brow cocked. “Chill with you where?”
“I can get a hotel room.” There was no need to pretend that I didn’t want to have sex with her because I did.
She studied me for a bit before answering. “Yeah, we can do that.”
The night I made a move on Rainah would forever be embedded in my mind. The scene had replayed in my head at least a hundred times.
“Did I just see Deuce on the security cameras dragging plastic pussy out the door by her malnourished waist?” my grandmother’s amused tone brought me back to the present.
I eyed her with a frown on my face. “Are you ever ashamed of the way you talk about people?”
“Hell nah,” she drew back. “Why would I be? Fuck people.”
“I’m out, Grams. I have moves to make.” Placing a kiss on her forehead, I chuckled and walked toward the door.
“She was a lying ass wench for keeping those kids from you, but I think your baby mama is a way better fit for you than P-Valley.”
“Bye, Grams. I love you,” I called out.
Deuce was posted up by the Escalade that Jovani and I had purchased him last Christmas as an appreciation gift. “I’m about to head to Jonah’s. I’m good. You can go check on the traps. Make sure those youngins ain’t on no bullshit.”
Deuce gave a curt nod. “I noticed a black car parked across the street. A black man was driving. It wasn’t the usual detail that I think your mom put on you. When he realized that I saw him, he drove off. He was a middle-aged cat. Didn’t look like a regular corner-boy.”
I ran a hand over my braids. “Good looking out. I’m going to hit Melissa tomorrow and see what’s up with her pops and what she found out. I’m good ‘til then. You be safe.”
“No doubt.”
I needed to know what the fuck was going on and fast.
* * *
I knocked on the door of Melissa’s condo and waited patiently for her to answer. We weren’t meeting at Jonah’s because I wanted a more private location. The great thing about condos was the secure buildings. The snooty people that resided in those kinds of buildings studied every face and memorized every resident. They were quick to speak up when they felt someone didn’t belong. My mother answered the door with a small smile on her face.
“Hi, Jeovanni. Come in.”
The condo that I lived in ran me a cool million, and I spent a few hundred thousand decorating it, but Melissa’s condo screamed old money. Every piece of furniture and the décor were more than likely all imported, or custom-made. I sat down on her plush oversized couch. She joined me with a glass of wine in hand.
“You want something to drink?”
I sat back and turned my head in her direction. “No. I want to cut to the chase. Did you talk to your father?”
Melissa sighed. “I did, and he says it wasn’t him. My father is ruthless, bold, and arrogant. If he had anything to do with it, I doubt he’d lie about it. He’d love to rub it in my face. He did tell me that he went up on his prices, and one of his buyers isn’t too happy about it. He tried to reach out to Augello directly to personally buy from him, and Augello refused the meeting. If I had to guess, I’d say this person is pissed because you and your brother have access to something he doesn’t. He knows it would be suicide to go against my father.”
“And it’s the same fuckin’ thing going against me,” I spat. “So, it’s some disgruntled mob nigga?” I frowned.
“I know who it is, Jeovanni, and I’m going to handle it.”
“Who is it? What’s his name?”
“Titan Caselli. His family owns a few resorts.”
“His family is going to be attending a funeral,” I gritted.
“Jeovan”
“I don’t want to hear anything that’s not about me turning up on that muhfucka. Are you certain it was him though? Some black guy was sitting in a car across from my grandmother’s pool hall yesterday.”
“He would absolutely use a black guy. He wouldn’t send a white guy to that side of town to do his dirty work.”
I was practically foaming at the mouth. Not only was there an officer of the law that I had to get at, but I had to go at it with a mob affiliate. There were sick ass lawyers into sex trafficking. Life had become a shit show at the worst possible time. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. With a kiss of my teeth, I pulled it out. Seeing my grandmother’s name on the screen alarmed me because it was late. She rarely called me late. Jovani and I had finally succeeded in talking our grandmother into letting her other employees close the pool hall, so she could go home at a decent hour.
Most nights, she was in bed by ten. It was damn near midnight. “Hey, Grams.”
“Those linguini eating mother fuckers burned down my pool hall! Everything I’ve worked for all these years is in literal ashes!”
My heart slammed into my ribcage. “Grams where are you?”
“I just got down here. I got an alert from the security company. Someone did this on purpose. I know it. I’ve had this pool hall for more than twenty years. Why would someone just randomly set it on fire? It has to be some shit your bitch of a mother has gotten you mixed up in. I told you that lady was the devil!”
My grandmother was shouting so loud that I knew my mother could hear her through the phone. She gulped her wine down and sat straight up.
“Are you down there alone? I’m on my way.”
“Jovani just pulled up.”
“Okay.” I ended the call and shot up off the couch. “Fuck!”
“I will have Titan personally delivered to you. I promise. Jeovanni, let me be the face of this. I don’t want you and Jovani to actively go after anyone mob affiliated. I couldn’t care less what they think about me. If he’s still in Ausnor Beach, my men will find him.”
“They better.”
I didn’t have anything else to say. I walked toward the door and when I reached it, I snatched it open and stormed out. The moment I got in my car, I hit the steering wheel. “Fuck!” I roared from the bottom of my gut.
I placed my gun on my lap and damn near prayed that someone would try me. Call me a coward, but I couldn’t go to my grandmother’s pool hall. Seeing her baby burned to the ground would have me acting real reckless and emotional. Titan was a dead man walking. I put that on my sons. My sons. “Fuck!” That was the only word that I could manage.
There was no way I could leave Rainah and my sons to be sitting ducks, but as soon as I told her about what was happening, I could guarantee that she’d freak out. If she did, I couldn’t even blame her. My grandmother didn’t even like my mother. She had nothing to do with the liquid cocaine business. However, since Titan’s bitch ass couldn’t touch Melissa, they’d touched my grandmother, and that was the wrong thing to do.
I drove to my condo with the weight of the world on my shoulders and murder on my mind. When I entered the condo, it was quiet, which I expected it to be. To my surprise, Rainah was curled up on the couch watching television.
“Hey,” she sat up.
I walked into the kitchen and opened the cabinet door in search of a bottle of Azul. After grabbing a glass, I poured a healthy amount and immediately took a large swallow. It only took two large gulps for the glass to be emptied, and I poured more. Rainah padded into the kitchen as I tried hard to gain some liquid courage. The tequila was smooth but didn’t have the most pleasant taste. Ignoring the burning sensation in my throat, I peered at the mother of my children. The way she was studying me, I knew she knew something was wrong. I was being a big ass pussy by dragging out the inevitable.
“Jeovanni, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
“I haven’t even said anything.” I finished off glass number two.
“You don’t have to. I can tell. The look in your eyes…” her voice trailed off.
I set the glass down and shook my head while grinding my teeth together. “I fucked up.” The fact that I had tears in my eyes fucked me up even more. Fuck was I crying for? Crying wouldn’t solve anything. “I messed up, and if you take the boys away, I couldn’t even blame you.” I swallowed hard and clenched my teeth together harder.
“What did you do?” Rainah’d voice was almost a whisper.
“There’s a mob affiliate that’s basically upset at the connections me and Jovani have and the fact that we’re making so much money from it. He sent my mother a picture of a dead monkey and tonight, my grandmother’s pool hall was set on fire. I think it was him.”
Rainah gasped. “Oh my God, Jeovanni. Was anybody hurt?”
I shook my head while looking off to the side because that was how afraid I was to see the regret in her eyes. “I’m ready to do some real foul shit for niggas coming at my grandmother. I need you and my sons safe in case shit gets ugly. Had I known this was going to go down, I never would have insisted on meeting them.”
No tears had fallen, but they were swimming in my eyes. To say I was caught off guard would be an understatement for how I felt when Rainah closed the distance between us. She gazed up into my eyes and pressed her body into mine. “I just want you safe. Promise you’ll be safe.”
The desperation in her tone made my dick swell. It may not have been the right time for me to be aroused, but the compassion that Rainah was showing me wasn’t something I would have ever guessed she’d be capable of. Biting her bottom lip as she stood on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around my neck, we had a brief stare off until something flickered in her orbs. Rainah’s lips parted slightly, and she took a step back.
“I’m so sorry.” She looked truly apologetic. “I forgot you have a girlfriend. Shit,” she hissed and swallowed hard. “I’d never disrespect your relationship. I’m the one that dropped the ball.”
I didn’t respond with words. Instead, I gently gripped her chin before lowering my head and gently suckling her bottom lip. Rainah’s body relaxed, and she parted my lips with her tongue. Our kiss consisted of five years’ worth of apologies. Our kiss was so passionate and deep that Rainah moaned into my mouth. Cupping her ass cheeks, I dragged my mouth across her cheek and French kissed her neck. I couldn’t get enough of her. Rainah was dressed in a pink, silk gown. I removed one of the straps from her shoulder and exposed her breast.
I devoured her hungrily while she stifled moans of pleasure. The erection straining against my boxer briefs was borderline uncomfortable. Picking Rainah up, I carried her to the bedroom with her legs wrapped around my body. Since I wasn’t sure if the kids might wake up and find their way into the bedroom, I closed and locked the door behind me. Rainah’s back had barely touched the mattress before I had her panties pulled to the side and her bud in my mouth. Soft whimpers filled the room as I ate Rainah like she was my last meal. The anger that once festered in me because she kept my kids from me was no more. It had been absolutely forgotten as her back arched, and she grinded against my face.
The smell and taste of her essence had me moaning into her peach while she bucked against my face.
“I’m about to cum,” she cried.
“Let that shit go,” I rumbled into her pussy. Rainah came instantly wetting my beard.
“I fuckin’ missed you,” she confessed as her body continued to tremble, and she pulled at her hair with both hands.
I moved upward and kissed her deeply, allowing her to taste herself. “Repeat that shit,” I spoke against her lips as I pushed into her.
Rainah gasped, and her chest heaved up and down. “Oh my God, I missed you.” A tear spilled over her eyelid, and I kissed it away.
I sexed Rainah like a man possessed. As much as I wanted to savior the moment, I stroked her with animalistic passion that had her nails sinking into my back, and her moans becoming louder. When her pussy got tighter, I knew she was on the verge of an orgasm, and the way her walls were gripping my manhood, had me moaning my damn self. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer. Rainah felt so good, I didn’t even want to pull out to switch positions.
“Fuck,” I growled between clenched teeth as her vagina contracted violently on my dick causing my seeds to spill into her waiting womb.
My forehead rested on hers as I attempted to catch my breath. Neither one of us spoke as we collected ourselves. Finally, I placed a kiss on the corner of her mouth before removing myself from inside her and going to the bathroom. When I went back into the bedroom, she was still in the same position. I laid back down and pulled her onto my chest.
“I didn’t expect this.”
“I spent enough years questioning myself, hating my choices, and wondering what if. I won’t act like I’m the victim, but please know that life wasn’t easy for me. Lately, I’ve realized that life isn’t black and white. Everything going on with PJ and Tony has shown me that. You can think you’re doing the right thing and still be dealing with the devil. I’m just tired of trying to figure the shit out. I want genuine people around me and my sons. Genuine people with genuine intentions.”
I placed a kiss on her forehead. “And for the record, I’m not with Celine. We broke up. If I still wanted to be with her, I wouldn’t have slept with you. I’m not a cheater or a fuck nigga.”
“So, what does this mean?”
“It means that I love you today the same way I did five years ago. I’ll die protecting the people that I love.”
I saw the fear in Rainah’s eyes. She was worried about me. She was probably triggered, but it was up to me to eliminate the bullshit and get her to a point where she could be comfortable. Nothing else mattered.