Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
EMERY
Later That Day…
After getting Yumi settled, I left her and Carmen to it and went to go have the staff meeting at LaBella’s.
Since Mill and Mook had been on bullshit to get them in this situation, I had been stressed.
My father was right when he got in Mills’ ass about the way he was moving. Aldanas didn’t move this way.
I had no clue what was going on with my brother to make him be so reckless, but I was going to get to the bottom of it.
Now that Layken and Leyla weren’t a factor anymore, I knew for sure the prosecution didn’t have anything to pin against them.
The measures I had to take to ensure they didn’t spend any time behind bars were the reason I was about to back away from this shit.
The stress, the murders, the paying motherfuckas I couldn’t trust were all too much for me.
I didn’t want the position anymore, and I was going to be sure to make that known real soon.
Before Yumi waltzed back into my life, I was already thinking of a way to move away from this life.
Seeing her again and imagining life with her only gave me the motivation to actually put my plan in motion.
She deserved to have a life that didn’t require her to worry about whether her nigga was going to make it back to her. A life of receiving nothing but good love and relaxation, I wanted to give her that. I needed to show her how life with me would guarantee all of that and much more.
After leaving the restaurant, I headed to meet up with Amari. I had to get to the bottom of who sent that letter and broke into Yumi’s home. Something was telling me that the person behind it was close.
We had enemies, but none of them were bold enough to step to us.
The snakes always lurked in the grass. They wouldn’t show their hand until it was time to strike.
What them motherfuckas had to know was that I always kept my grass low, and they would never be able to strike because I would always have the ups on them before they could.
Juno pulled up to Amari’s home fifteen minutes later, and I got out to head up the walkway. Amari came to the door and greeted me before allowing me entry.
“What’s good, Em?” he asked, showing me into his home office.
“Shit much. I need you to run the prints on this.”
Amari chuckled. “What happened to your buddies at the DPD?”
“Them motherfuckas ain’t too trustworthy right now. You want this money or not?”
“Of course I do. Was just curious.”
I didn’t respond as I pulled the paper from my pocket.
He put on some latex gloves then took the paper from me.
I watched as he set up some scanning device, hooking it up to his computer.
While he did his thing, I looked around his office, noticing he had all types of gadgets around this motherfucka.
I wanted to ask him what impelled him to get into the hacking business, but I didn’t.
As long as he could make sure things ran smoothly for me, I didn’t care how the hell he did it.
He placed the paper on the scanner to begin the process.
“Who the fuck still sends threatening letters to people?” he queried.
“Apparently people who thinks not sending a text message is the better option. They don’t want to be traced.”
He chuckled. “Well, this letter shit usually ain’t the move either.”
“That’s what I’m hoping.”
“Got something. Come check it out.”
I stood, moved around the desk, and leaned slightly to look at the screen.
“A’ight, so there’s several prints on this paper.
I’m going to run it through the database, and it will be able to tell me who the prints belong to.
” He hit a button, and pictures began populating at a rapid speed.
A few seconds later, the pictures stopped and landed on some gruff-looking ass nigga.
Orlando Hardaway, age thirty-six, known for arson, was arrested two years ago for breaking and entering, attempted murder, and, of course, arson. He just recently got released six months ago, and this is his last known address. You know this nigga?”
“Nah, but print that shit. I’m going to run it by Yumi to see if she knows him. This nigga is clearly stupid as fuck to come for me or my lady.”
“Something tells me this may not be about you and your family for real. Why come for their lawyer instead of the people you got beef with?”
“That’s true, but we gon’ see. I’m about to pay his ass a visit to find out.”
Amari clicked a button and printed his information. I gave him the envelope filled with cash, then bid him a good day before heading to Mill’s house.
Juno pulled into Mill’s circular driveway twenty minutes later then let me out. William, his guard, nodded to me and opened the door for me to go inside. As soon as I walked in, my nephew Hassan rushed down the hall toward me.
“Uncle Em!” he yelled in excitement before jumping into my arms.
“Has! What’s up, nephew?” I asked after setting him on his feet. He was six, but he was tall as hell for his age. He and his older brother, Emil Junior, inherited their height from us and were sure to be towering over everybody soon.
“Nothing much! Are we going to the Disney store now?”
“I’m sorry, nephew. I got caught up, but I promise to take y’all tomorrow.”
He lowered his head in solemnity. “Aww man, okay.”
“Aye. What’s your last name?”
He lifted his head and poked his little chest out. “Aldana.”
“Do we get sad about shit that can be changed?”
“No.”
“A’ight then. Where’s your brother?”
“In the game room, playing the game. I was playing with him until I saw you on camera.”
I nodded. “Where’s your pops?”
“In the family room with Ma.”
“Okay. Here.” I handed him the bag I held in my hand. “That’s for you and your brother. I promise I’ll take y’all to the Disney store tomorrow.”
He looked in the bag and smiled widely at the Gameboys I gave them. “Thanks, Uncle Em!” He rushed off as I headed in the direction of their family room. Before I could enter, I heard their hushed voices that didn’t sound too pleasant.
“You can’t be serious, Emil!”
“Listen, the shit just happened. I wasn’t trying to disrespect you, Mina.”
“But you did! We have a family together. What if the other families find out about this? How the fuck do you think this is going to make you look? Us look?”
“That’s the thing, Mina. I don’t give a fuck about their thoughts. What we have going on ain’t got shit to do with them.”
“It does when the bitch you fucked and got pregnant is the daughter of one of them! Fuck, Emil! I didn’t expect you to fall in love with me overnight, but the least you could have done was respect our shit!
It’s been almost nine years. Hell, you could have done this with a random. But Paisley St. Claire? The fuck?”
I shook my head, trying my hardest not to step in and strangle my fucking brother. This nigga was fucking reckless as shit.
“She agrees to get rid of it. I don’t understand why you’re so up in arms about some shit that’s an easy fix.”
“Easy for who? You? I don’t know why you insist on humiliating me. I don’t even give a fuck if you don’t love me, but you will fucking respect me, or I will ruin you, nigga.”
That was my cue to step in. “What’s good, family?” They both turned to look at me before Mina walked away from Mill, heading out of the room.
“I suggest you talk to your brother before he loses everything, including his fucking family. Even though I don’t think he gives a fuck anyway.” She glided out of the room as I looked at my brother. He walked behind his bar, pouring himself a drink and tossing it back, then pouring another.
“What you on, bro?”
“Not right now, Em.”
“After what I just heard, now is the perfect time.”
He tossed the shot back and dropped his head. “Shit ain’t what it seems, bro. Paisley was on some bullshit when we hooked up. I honestly didn’t want to fuck her, but I swear, I think she drugged me.”
“Ah, the famous ‘drugged me’ line.” I chuckled.
“Yo, fuck you, Em. I ain’t fucked around on Mina in months. I know I used to do her bad when we first got married. Shit, I even slowed down some since she had Hassan, but I’ve been doing better. Paisley was a mistake—”
“She wasn’t. Paisley was who you preferred to marry in the first place, but Isa had already been assigned to her.
For you to fuck and get her pregnant while you’re married is crazy.
But I’m not one to judge. Just get ya shit together.
You didn’t come up in a broken home, so don’t make my nephews do the shit. ”
Emil shook his head. “Why are you here anyway? The Disney store is closed.”
I pulled the paper from my suit pocket and walked over to him. “You know this clown?”
He picked up the paper from the bar and shook his head. “Nah. Face doesn’t ring any bells. What about him?”
“He sent Yumi a threatening letter to harm her if she doesn’t drop the case. Just trying to figure out if it’s an enemy of y’all’s or Yumi’s.”
“Nah, but what we gon’ do about him? I can’t have niggas out here threatening my sis-in-law and especially threatening our freedom.”
“I’ma handle it. In the meantime, you and Mook just do what I said and stay out of the way. The sooner this trial is over, the sooner we can move on.” I thought to tell him that I was retiring in the next nineteen days but decided against it.
As much as my brother defied me half the time, I knew his ass wasn’t ready to take on such a big responsibility like mine. Also, Poppa wouldn’t even put him in the position to oversee the entire operation because of his hotheadedness.
He moved off emotion the majority of the time, which in turn makes him not think clearly. But I figured if I didn’t give them much time to put someone else in place, the Aldana family would have no choice but to drop all this shit and fucking retire.
As far as I knew, we were all good. We didn’t need this shit anymore, and it would benefit us greatly to bow out rather than to continue to go through shit like what we were going through now.
“You’re right. It’s just hard to stay out of the way when it’s what we’ve been doing all our lives.”
“I get that, but it’s more out there, Mill.
Better. To avoid what you’re going through right now, I suggest you start becoming a legal businessman and a family man.
Mina loves you, bro. She just plays the role because you set the tone from the beginning for how this shit was going to go.
She ain’t ugly, she stays fit, and wears your money quite well if you ask me, so what is the issue with loving your wife? ”
“I do love her, but . . . we married too young, man. I wasn’t ready, but Poppa coerced me because we needed them for the gun shit. I love her. I just don’t know how to love her the way she wants, but I’m figuring the shit out.”
I nodded and took the paper from the bar top, placing it back in my pocket.
“Figure it out quickly. You’re going to lose a good woman, chasing these hos, and the way Mina’s talking, I don’t doubt she gon’ have your ass lying in bed and hugging ya knees with an empty ass house and bank account.
Tighten up, nigga.” With that, I left his ass to his thoughts and headed home to love on my lady and then figure out which part of Orlando’s body I wanted to sever first.