Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
RHODES
“H e stole their turf. So that nigga thinks that money is his. If he found you, he’s not gon’ stop until he has you, just like your people. I hate that for you, man.”
I rolled my eyes as I listened to Percy explain shit to me. He was a childhood friend of mine that I’d somewhat reconnected with when my parents got killed. I hadn’t talked to him but two or three times since their double funeral, but I needed to know what I was up against. If anyone knew, I figured it would be him. If by chance he didn’t know, he could surely find out a lot quicker than the Hendersons could.
When I dropped Karima off last night, she wouldn’t even look at me. She wanted me to keep her around, but I couldn’t do that. I was gonna have to tell her people what I knew, and that shit was gon’ knock me back to square one. It would be my first time meeting a lot of them. My first impression would be all fucked up.
Mr. Kenny had called last night. He knew something was up with Karima, because she wouldn’t answer his phone call, but he didn’t probe. He only asked if she was safe. I held the phone to her face and let her tell him for herself that she was okay… physically. Mentally and emotionally, she was a mess. I was pretty sure they talked sometime last night about what happened.
Those niggas were after me. There was nothing I could have done that would have prevented this. I inherited my father’s dynasty. I gave that shit to my cousin. I wanted no parts of that street shit. I kept the money, though, at least most of it. Everything that was in their home and accounts all over the place were mine. Any money that may have been at other locations was left to my cousin.
I hadn’t spoken to Karima since I dropped her off. When she was angry, she went silent. I knew that. If she could only understand why I was doing this, we would be okay. Maybe with time, she would understand that this was what was best.
“A’ight, bruh. I’ll holla at’chu later.”
I ended the call, not even waiting for him to respond. My nerves were all over the fucking place. When I got to their family barn, a ton of cars were already here. I checked the time to make sure I wasn’t late. I was ten minutes early. Hopping out of my truck, I made my way to the entrance to find it locked. I frowned slightly, then rang the bell.
A tall, medium-brown-skinned man approached the door. The nigga from the diner, that day I popped up on Karima, was behind him. He had tatts everywhere, and I could tell he used to be about that life… He may have still been. When he opened the door, he seemed to know who I was. He extended his hand, and I shook it as he said, “I’m one of Karima’s uncles, WJ. That’s her uncle too, Marcus.”
He gave me a head nod. “I’m Rhodes.”
They turned and walked away, so I followed behind them to see a bunch of men gathered. They were all eating. I guess I wasn’t invited to break bread with them. That was cool. Thankfully, I’d eaten before I got here. I sat off toward the end of a table by myself until Mr. Jasper sat with me.
“What’s up, nephew?”
He looked pretty sober, so maybe he was just this way all the time. “What’s up, Unc?”
He chuckled. “That sounded all comfortable and shit falling off yo’ lips. I heard baby girl ain’t even fucking wit’chu right now.”
I slightly rolled my eyes. “Yeah. She hardheaded, man.”
“Yeah. She get it honest. We Hendersons can be a lot of things, but we good people. Unfortunately, me and WJ may be the only halfway friendly ones you’ll meet tonight.”
“Aww shit. Thanks for the warning.”
He chuckled and nodded, then pulled a blunt from his pocket. When he sparked up, I was dying for a pull. Apparently, he could read my mind, because he passed it to me. I took a long ass pull as he chuckled. “You gon’ need every bit of that shit too.”
Mr. WJ went to the front of the room and said, “A’ight, let’s get started. The only person here that most have not met is Karima’s boyfriend, Rhodes Woods.”
Everyone turned and looked at me. I gave a head nod to no one in particular. Uncle Jasper was right. No one smiled or even looked like they wanted to speak, not even Mr. Kenny. One man stood and walked toward us and sat next to me. He had the swag of a hustler, just like Marcus. While Mr. WJ said some things to an older man away from the mic, he said, “I’m Philly. My gut never steers me wrong, and it’s saying you finna bring some shit to this meeting that I’m gon’ have to dip back in the streets to fix.”
My eyebrows lifted slightly. I knew I recognized the swag. I didn’t respond to him. He took the blunt from Jasper and took a pull. When Mr. WJ went back to the mic, everyone quieted down.
“So the nigga that shot at Rima and Rhodes is from California. I’ll let Shy and Ali educate y’all.”
I swallowed hard as Mr. Kenny stared at me like I knew this would happen. When the man with the suit on went to the mic, he said, “So Ali and Dinalee were able to dig up quite a bit in a short amount of time. The nigga that shot at them is from Oakland… the same place Rhodes is from. Rhodes’s dad was a kingpin and was killed three years ago. Rhodes was basically shipped off here by his parents to get him away from the life. He didn’t go back until he was burying them.”
Everyone’s eyes were on me. The guy referred to as Ali took the mic. “His dad was expanding… kind of how you did back in the day, Philly. Niggas didn’t like that. One particular territory, he snatched from a nigga referred to as Trouble. Well, that was exactly what he brought to J Woods… fucking trouble. It took him almost ten years, but he caught him slipping. Now he’s after Rhodes. Unbeknownst to Rhodes, that nigga thinks J owed him money from the business he ‘stole’ from him.”
“So what you saying is this nigga brought bullshit to our doorstep,” the super tall one from the diner said as he stood.
“Naw, Mayor. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know. He wasn’t involved in none of that shit. Trouble just wants what Rhodes has… money,” Ali said as ‘Mayor’ took his seat.
The man I assumed was Shy went back to the mic. “Now that we know who we dealing with, what y’all wanna do about it?”
Several of them looked at me. I stood from my seat. “Y’all don’t have to do nothing. I’ll stay away from Nome until it’s handled… whether that means I take them down or they take me down. Karima is here and pissed. I don’t want her around me anymore until this is handled. I need her and my baby to be safe. I love her, and I want what’s best for her. Right now, being around me can get her killed. That shit would destroy me.”
They were all frowning at me, so I excused myself. I wasn’t wanted here. This was something I was going to have to handle by myself. As I headed to my truck, two guys stepped in front of me. I left my heat in the truck like a fucking fool.
“Ali said to go back inside.”
I frowned slightly. “Naw. I’m cool.”
I walked around them and went to my truck. I hopped in and peeled out of there, heading home. Being a loner wasn’t anything new to me. I couldn’t be mad at the Hendersons. They didn’t know me. Everything they knew about me was fuck shit. They hadn’t heard a positive thing about me since before I got here. Grabbing my phone from the console, I called Karima.
I listened to the phone ring, and when it went to voicemail, I dropped it back to the console. This was bullshit. Although it was my decision to temporarily leave her, I expected her to understand what I was up against. We would end up just like my parents. They would use my love for her to swindle every penny out of me then kill us both.
Glancing in my rearview mirror, I noticed a vehicle that was behind me in Nome was still behind me. If they turned off when I did, I’d pay closer attention. I turned my radio up to try to take my mind off things, and of course, that fucking song by Dave Hollister was on. My phone must have been on the playlist I’d created for Karima and me. I quickly grabbed my phone to change the playlist and somehow ended on “Come and Get Me” by Lecrae. I was so damn frustrated, I just left it there. He was basically saying what I wanted to say without curse words.
Leaving Karima was so fucking hard. When I wasn’t thinking about the dilemma I was in, I was thinking about her and my baby. She was at home alone. Hopefully, she’d had someone to spend time with her by now. I hated that she was alone. She needed me, but most importantly, I needed her.
I turned off the highway and waited to see if the vehicle behind me would do the same. When I saw it keep straight, I let out a sigh of relief. I came out here to get away from all of that, and I could kick myself in the ass for not following my dad’s instructions about not returning to California.
Under no circumstances are you to come back. If we don’t make it through this war, someone here can bury us. We want you to be safe and stay safe. Once we’re gone, nothing else will matter. The most important thing is you. We love you, son.
I supposed I had better get ready to meet them, because I didn’t know how I would fight this shit by myself. I talked big noise in that meeting, because I wasn’t the type of nigga to ask anybody to do anything for me. Nobody alive could say they did me any favors, not even my aunt. My parents paid her handsomely for taking me in.
After pulling in my garage, I pulled my gun from my console. Just my luck, a muthafucka could be lurking around my house ready to take me out at any moment. After sliding my phone in my pocket, I aimed my gun at the door. I swung it open and took a step back. When a man stepped in the doorway, I nearly fired my weapon without paying attention to who it was.
When I saw Mr. Kenny and Ali standing there, I lowered my gun. Ali had a smirk on his lips. “He’s not as much of an amateur as you thought,” Ali said.
“I guess not.”
When I stepped out of the garage, I saw a few other guys. Two of them were the ones trying to get me to go back inside at the barn. I didn’t know how they all got here before I did. I went to the back door and unlocked the house, allowing them all to follow me inside. Once I turned on the lights, they were all looking around.
“Damn. This shit is nice. Pops must have been that dude in Cali. I’m Jungle. My pops was a kingpin too. I took over and ran shit for about ten years out in H-Tine.”
We shook hands. He was one of the ones outside the barn. The other guy that was with him extended his hand. “Vegas.”
I nodded then was introduced to Jericho, Seneca, and Chad. I could clearly tell Seneca was a former thug, but I wasn’t sure about the others. “Y’all have a seat. I’m not sure why y’all are here though. I said I would do this on my own. I don’t need nobody saying I got them caught up in no bullshit.”
Ali chuckled. I didn’t know what that was about, but whatever. “Y’all want something to drink?”
“Naw. Come sit and talk,” Mr. Kenny said.
I huffed slightly and made my way to where they were. When I did, Ali said, “Let me give you a brief introduction so you know who you can have on your team. I’m Ali. It’s God, then me, nigga. I know everything. What I don’t know, I find out. I used to be on Jungle’s street team, along with Seneca. Vegas was his right hand. That nigga Jericho is trained. His pops was a kingpin in Miami.”
So it seemed Watchful Eyes was a bunch of reformed thugs. When he said Jericho was trained, I knew exactly what he meant. That nigga was a professional killer. I glanced over at Chad, and everyone chuckled. He shot them the finger.
“That’s Shy’s brother. He used to work for the federal prison system. So he got a lil training and know the law. Shy is the brains of Watchful Eyes. He’s an attorney, but he have plenty of street sense too. This company is my baby. Most times, we stay on the right side of the law, because we got tired of living on the other side of it. We all have wives and kids now. However, we will step back to the other side if need be. When it comes to the Hendersons, we do that shit with gusto. They family… except the mayor’s grouchy ass.”
Everybody laughed as Ali continued. “I’m just kidding. Even his salty ass is family. Kenny said you’re his daughter’s boyfriend. So I suppose those family privileges fall over to you too. We have a couple of other primary team members that I forgot to mention. Rondo stayed back with Shy. He’s a hunter and good in rural areas, which benefits y’all. His wife, Dinalee, is military. She gets a lot of the intel we need. She’s also my cousin. So you have a team. We ain’t taking no for an answer.”
Just as I was about to say something, he cut me off. “Plus, I don’t normally talk this fucking much. I don’t reveal half of what I did to just anybody. The reason I gave you so much info is because I knew your pops. So did Jungle. Well, we knew of him.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What? How y’all country niggas knew my dad?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Ain’t shit country about me. I lived in Miami, New Orleans, Beaumont, and Houston. The only person on our team that’s country like them Hendersons is Rondo. Jungle’s dad had business with your dad. The Pattersons were nationwide.”
“Ice Patterson?” I asked.
“Hell yeah. What’chu know about him?” Jungle asked.
“Shit, nothing. I was like ten years old when I met him. I don’t remember anything but his name.”
I slid my hand down my face then slowly shook my head. “So, y’all here to help me. What if I said Karima don’t want shit to do with me? You still wanna help me, Mister Kenny?”
“She just needs to calm down. She ain’t going nowhere, not if I can help it. I can tell how much you love her.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes while nodding. Things had taken a turn, and I could almost see myself coming out of this shit unscathed. “So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“Nigga, it took you long enough to ask. But before we go that far, let’s discuss payment.”
I frowned. “What’s your number?”
“It ain’t a number. You work for Watchful Eyes on the side, like Philly,” Ali said.
I gave him a one-sided smile and nodded. “Bet.”