13. Joston
A SHORT TIME LATER…
“Yes, baby, just like that,” Jacobia moaned.
I was stroking her middle from the back. One of my hands was on her hip and the other massaging her back. It seemed like overnight, her stomach grew, and she started to have back pains. I preferred to fuck her on her side, but my woman loved back shots, knowing her back would hurt afterward.
I angled my stroke to the left to give her the nut that she needed. It took less than four strokes for her to let that nut go. I smacked her ass. “Yeah, let that shit go, Cobia.”
Her muscles tightened around my dick. Oh, she think she’s slick. See, this pregnant pussy thought it was going to get me caught up. Her muscles were already vice grip tight without the pregnancy. Now that she was pregnant, it was like they had spasms. Nope, I was not going to let her… “Fuck!”
Without my permission, my dick spit up. “Man, fuck! You just be letting your pregnant snatch steal my nut.”
Jacobia chortled. “Not my snatch! I haven’t heard that word in years.” After I pulled out, she lay on her side. “I’m sorry my snatch is diabolical and insists on taking your nut. I’ll tell her to behave next time.”
I stood there watching her rub her stomach with a smile and her eyes closed. That was the giveaway that she was about to fall asleep for her dick nap. She was so damn beautiful with her pouty lips. I prayed our daughter was her twin. Wait, do I really want that? I didn’t need to go to jail, because I’d knock somebody’s son out behind my baby girl.
“Cobia, get up. Let’s get in the shower so you can take your nap.” If I didn’t get her up now, she would fall asleep then fuss when she woke up because her inner thighs were sticky. After a little bit of whining, I got her up and in the shower.
She fell asleep before she could unwrap the towel from around her body. All I could do was shake my head while I put moisturizer on her skin. Once I had her fully in bed, I took care of myself, then climbed in bed beside her. Her body adjusted itself to wrap around me as best she could with her big belly. I kissed her forehead and chuckled. As she slept under me, I thought about the tense conversation that I had with the men of her family recently.
* * *
MEETING OF THE MEN…
Since I moved to Charleston, I found out that Jacobia never told her parents who her child’s father was. My baby could be secretive as hell when she had no real reason to be. Apparently, she had been evasive about who I was in terms of being her child’s father. I wish I could be surprised, but hell, she was evasive when it came to telling me she was pregnant. Well, evasive might not be the right word because I had to find out from someone else, but yeah. The baby shower was the first time that the men of the family heard about me being the father. Yes, they knew of me because I’d been around as a friend of Jacobia’s, but as her child’s father, no.
All those factors led to where we were now—sitting on a back deck with an ass of scowl faced men looking at me. The day after the baby shower, I received an invitation to have a beer from Mr. Christianson. In my mind, I thought, “Cool! Finally get to talk to the father.” When I got to his house which sat in the front of Christianson Circle, he answered the door on some cool shit. It wasn’t until we walked onto the back deck that I realized he was on some other shit.
“Welcome to the gathering, lil nigga,” Jacob greeted from his seat on one of the couches.
I side-eyed him for a second. “How am I the lil nigga, but you’re younger than me? That would make you the lil nigga.”
“Oh, shit. We got us an ‘I ain’t never scared’ nigga. Tell you what, though. Your ass not younger than me, lil nigga.”
The last person I expected to see here was Liam Christianson. This man was cold with a football. Word in the streets was that he was considering retiring. Knowing what I knew about the Christianson family from my ears being to the streets and dealing with Jacobia, I knew they were all wealthy without having to ever work. Yes, he got paid handsomely for playing professional football, but he played more for leisure than money.
I tittered at his words. “Alright,” I responded before I took a seat. “How is everyone tonight?”
No one responded to my question. Rude muthafuckas! I took the beer out of Mr. Christianson’s hand that he offered. Jacobia had way too many family members. When you dealt with her, it wasn’t just the Christianson men you had to be concerned with. You also had to worry about those Washington and Smith men. Seeing as everyone was here for the baby shower, there were eighteen men on this porch outside of me right now.
I got the blood family out here, but the in-laws was throwing me. Draco, Brandon, Anthony, Caspian, Lamik, and Harlem were out here like they weren’t in my seat at some time. I guess to get into the Washington-Christianson-Smith faction, it was blood or nut in.
“So, Joston, I wanted to meet with you because I had some questions for you. I would have asked at the baby shower, but I understand the protectiveness of a father. Since your parents were present, I wanted to respect them,” Mr. Christianson said.
I opened my beer and took a sip. “I appreciate that. What questions did you and the crew have for me?”
“Explain to me why I’m just finding out about you being the father of my grandchild when we have had many conversations in the past. The impression that was given to me was that you and my daughter were friends. Color me surprised, you and your people prance in here as the father and family of my granddaughter.” Mr. Christianson’s demeanor was real laid-back, although I could tell that he was upset.
I wondered how he would feel after I revealed what I had to reveal. I looked at all the eyes on me. This would be intimidating if I wasn’t the kind of man that was raised to only fear God. Jacobia never told me how her family and their enterprise got down, but she didn’t have to. If you knew, you knew. Also, we’d been to the gun range together. Her shooting skills was one of someone trained by killers.
“Mr. Christianson, you found out today that I was your granddaughter’s father because I found out that I was my daughter’s father not too long before the baby shower. Yes, your daughter and I are friends who happen to be overly friendly with each other. That friendship resulted in a child.” There was no need to mince words. They wanted honesty, and I didn’t have an issue giving them just that.
There was snickering heard on the left side of the deck. Justin, Jacobia’s older brother, didn’t look happy. “So, my sister was good enough to be your fuckin’ friend, pun intended, but she’s not good enough to be your woman?”
“That absolutely is not the case. I’ve asked your sister to be in an exclusive relationship with me for years now. I can’t force a woman to be with me who claims she isn’t ready. That would be considered wrongful imprisonment.” I was comical when people made assumptions about shit they had no input, insight, or influence on.
The chatter on the deck silenced at my words. Yeah, it wasn’t always the man. Mr. Christianson shifted in his seat. “What are your plans with my daughter and granddaughter?”
“My plans are to take care of my child. I moved from Vegas to be a permanently present father. As far as your daughter, with all due respect, I’m not going to continue chasing her. Yes, I love her, but I love myself more. I refuse to keep hitting my head against a brick wall of unreadiness.” Yeah, I loved the fuck out of Jacobia, but I wouldn’t allow her to play in my face or with my heart.
Her father nodded his head. “I can understand that, and I respect it. My daughter can be a handful like any Christianson, Smith, and Washington woman. What y’all got going on doesn’t really concern me. My purpose is to make sure my granddaughter doesn’t have a fuck boy for a father.”
“That’s something that you will never have to worry about, sir. I haven’t met my daughter yet, but I know that I would die and kill for her as well as her mother.” The conviction was loud in my tone. I meant that from the bottom of my heart.
Mr. Christianson reached his hand out to me from his seat. I clasped mine in his. “Then we won’t have any problems, son.” He stood. “Now, let’s get some meat on the grill, tell the ladies to come out here, and chill.”
I gawked at all the men on the deck. “If this was all it was going to be, why all of y’all here? Didn’t even say shit.” These dudes were just here as nosy ass spectators.
Who I knew as Mont replied to my question. “Shit, we needed to be here just in case you said the wrong thing and we needed to get our story together to tell Jacobia why her baby daddy disappeared. It’s a family affair when it comes to the women in the family. Congratulations on not being a bitch.”
The weak would never make it around these families. It took a special kind of real man to survive them. Like they said, I wasn’t a bitch. Thank God for that.
* * *
A LITTLE TIME LATER…
I had to come out to Vegas to handle some unavoidable business with my club. I hated to have to come because I didn’t want to be too far from my woman. We weren’t too far away from her due date, and I would burn this entire club down if I missed the birth of our daughter.
Someone had brought a hidden camera into my club. There were now issues of attempts of extortion. When you came into our club, all phones were confiscated and placed in coded lock boxes. Once it was placed in the lock box, they were given the code to get it back when they left. Based on the videos that I saw, the camera seemed to have been in a necklace with the angle it was shot from. I put my investigator on it, and it took less than half a day to find out who the culprit was.
“Noelle, explain to me why you thought bringing a hidden camera into my club was a good idea. Are you dumb or just dumb?”
This bitch had me pissed. After I sent her home after Chance and Lark’s reception, we interacted a few more times within a month or so. Her ass was clingy for no reason when she knew what the deal was. When she stole from me, I cut her ass off. Her ass wasn’t a broke bitch, so there was no reason for her to steal. She didn’t take the cut off well initially, but I never thought it would get to this.
We sat in my office with my lawyer and hers. Earlier this week, she was arrested for extortion, which was a category B felony in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were four people that she went after with her scheme. Of the four, two were judges, one was a professional, married football player, and the other a congressman. Two of the men actually paid out to her demands at the tune of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
When I got wind of what was going on, I asked the men if they had evidence. Of course, they did because Noelle was an idiot. She called them from a blocked number, but it was a number that was connected to a secondary line on her cell phone account. The bitch didn’t have the common sense to get a burner phone. It took nothing to track the phone. The account that she gave the men to transfer the money into was in her damn cousin’s name.
“Joston, sorry, I lost my head for a moment when I heard that you moved to Charleston to be with Jacobia. I didn’t understand why her and not me. It should have been me,” she said through her whimpers. Here she goes with this bullshit.
Before I made the commitment to stop fucking with other women to show Jacobia that I could be a faithful man, Noelle and I fucked around heavily. From one of our sexual encounters, she became pregnant because of a broken condom. Instead of getting a Plan B like she claimed she would, she didn’t. When she came to me about the pregnancy, I told her that I wasn’t ready for children; however, I would take care of my child. She thought that because she was pregnant, I would want to explore a relationship with her. I shut that shit down immediately. Long story short, she terminated the pregnancy and blamed me for her decision because I didn’t want to be with her.
“Noelle, at no time did I ever give you the impression that I wanted anything more than sex with you. Furthermore, when that condom broke and you said that you would get a Plan B, I took you at your word. Well, you proved that your word could not be trusted. I asked you if you took the Plan B like you told me that you would. You told me yes, but less than three weeks later, you were in my face crying pregnant. I don’t do conniving, sweetheart. It would never have been you.
“I know that sounds fucked up, but it is what it is. You knew just like everyone else that it was and would always be Jacobia. Now, I take the blame for bringing you back into my life after years of not dealing with you. I can see how that could have caused you to get mixed signals. This shit right here though is unacceptable. If you wanted to get at me, then there were other ways, Instead, your ass brought innocent people into your bullshit.” She was doing too much with too little.
Noelle huffed. “I get it! I was wrong, but this is a bit much, don’t you think? I still have the money, so I can give it back.” Tears that I didn’t give a fuck about streamed down her face. “Can we please just come to an agreement where you convince the men to drop the criminal charges. I can’t go to jail.”
Yeah, she was looking at some time if she was found guilty of her charges. She could get up to ten years of jail time, fines up to ten thousand dollars, and restitution. Her ass was scared because she knew like I did that no judge would take it easy on her since she extorted two other judges. On top of her criminal charges, two of the men and I filed a civil suit against her.
I shook my head. “Noelle, you put yourself in this position. Like every member of the club, you signed the non-disclosure. You knew what the repercussions would be. With all of that, you still chose to do what you did. No, I will not be convincing anyone to drop anything, just like I will not be dropping my civil suit.”
This meeting was a waste of my time. I could have stayed my ass at home with my girl. There was no way that I would take it light on Noelle. The anonymity of my club’s members was the reason I was able to be successful. Things like this had to be shut down. Her actions cost me money since I had to extend waived membership fees for the four men for a year and a private room at no cost. That was four hundred and twenty thousand dollars that I was out because of her bullshit.
Noelle sat there with defeat written on her face. “Joston, if I was Jacobia, would you be doing this?” she asked. She can’t be serious.
My lawyer snickered before he shook his head. Noelle’s lawyer was clearly aggravated. Something told me that he didn’t think this meeting would be about her feelings.
“One, you’re not her. Please stop bringing up my woman like she has anything to do with this. Two, she would never do some dumb shit like this. Stop competing where you don’t compare.” I leaned over to my lawyer, telling him that this meeting was over.
“Ms. Coldwell, this meeting is over, as my client has taken his stance. You know what it is; therefore, there is no more conversation needed,” Mr. Case, my lawyer, said.
I stood from my seat, headed to the door, then opened it. There was nothing left in me for her and this situation. When I got to the lobby, my blood pressure rose. “Jacobia, what the fuck are you doing here? I could have sworn I left your ass at home.”
She sat there, rubbing her belly. When our eyes locked, she gave me those puppy dog eyes that usually made me give into whatever she wanted. This time, that shit would not work. When it came to the safety of her and my baby, all bets were off.
“Um, the baby missed you. I figured we would jump on the jet to come pick you up.” Her voice was soft.
I walked over to her to help her out of the seat. “Baby, your ass shouldn’t be flying. The fuck! What if you went into labor?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Tana and Xena came with me. Both of them are midwives, so I would have been good.”
My head fell back. “God, why is this woman like this? You made her hardheaded. Fix it, Jesus.”
Before either of us could say anything, Noelle came into view. There was a mixture of hurt, anger, and resentment in her eyes. All of it was unwarranted. I prayed she didn’t say anything, but that little petty twinkle in her eye told me that she couldn’t resist. “Well, if it isn’t the precious Jacobia.”
I took a step toward her, but Jacobia grabbed my arm. “Noelle, stop playing with me. This ain’t the problems that you want. You already have criminal and civil issues. Having safety problems on top of that is not what you need.”
Her hand went to her hip. “Are you threatening me? All I wanted to do was tell her she looked nice even with her spread nose.” It was like she wanted to get handled.
“Nah, he doesn’t have to threaten you because I’m here to do his light lifting.” Galiana’s crazy ass came from where, I don’t fucking know. Her ass was like a light-skinned ninja. If you saw her, you would never know that she was bat shit crazy, especially when she was in mommy mode.
Noelle’s eyes bucked. Yeah, she didn’t want any smoke with her. Her hands went up so fast. “No, no, I’m fine. I was just leaving.”
She scurried toward Galiana’s direction to exit the front door of the building behind her. In her true pettiness, Galiana stuck her foot out and tripped the girl. Noelle went tumbling down face first. I cringed when she slid a little bit. “Oh, sweetheart, you have to watch your step,” Galiana said with feigned concern.
All of this shit was crazy as fuck. I turned my attention back to Jacobia. “Bring your hardheaded ass on before my baby be born in Las Vegas.” When she turned around to leave, I smacked her ass. This girl was going to bring me early grays.
I stopped when I stepped in front of Galiana. “You know you can’t just threaten people all openly like that. Someone’s gonna call them people on you.”
She giggled. “Dead people can’t call police.” She sashayed out like what she said was sane. I’d had multiple interactions with her over the years. All those interactions gave off crazy, especially when she wasn’t in front of her children. Let me get my ass back to Charleston.