Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Adonis.
Baby Bro: You talked to Jru yet?
I smirked reading his text. He’d been concerned about her since the reunion last week. Shit had me hot that the nigga Brock not only had Jru feeling a way, but my brother too. He was just making the laundry list of reasons for me to murk him even longer.
Me: Naw not yet.
Me: Fuck you doin’ on the phone in class?
It was his first day back to school and the lil’ nigga was already on bullshit.
Baby Bro: I’m at lunch, Donny, relax.
Me: Yeah, aight. I’m gon’ holla at her today though. I was tryna give her a lil’ space and shit.
True to my word, I hit her up that night, but she didn’t answer.
Instead, she sent me a text letting me know that she wasn’t in the headspace to talk and that she needed time.
As much as I wanted to fight her on that, I fell back.
She’d been with that fuck nigga for a minute, so I respected her wishes.
Today, however, time was up. I needed to lay eyes on her and see that she was good.
I understood that she needed some time to get through what she was dealing with, so I was going to give her that, but only after I was able to lay eyes on her and only for a few weeks.
I waited too mothafuckin’ long to get at her, and I was done letting Brock’s hoe ass be the reason that I wasn’t applying pressure.
I pushed the thoughts of her to the back of my mind, temporarily, so I could handle business.
After having a sit down with Vado, we convinced him to allow us to use Ziggy’s trucking company to grab his mass shipment.
He was skeptical in the beginning due to the size of the shipment and the money that had been spent, but after showing him our plans, we were able to convince him.
Ziggy and I had invested in a few trucks that he had some modifications on. There were false walls inside the trailers, decoy floors with extra insulation, as well as hidden fuel tanks and other faux auto parts that appeared to be a part of the truck’s mechanics.
We were aware that even with the modifications, the risks were there, but if done correctly, it was fool proof.
Zig had gotten in good with some of the officers that worked for the Department of Transportation, so with those connections as well as the ones that Vado had with ACPD, we were good.
If shit went left, we had the best defense attorney’s that money could buy on retainer too.
The shipment was pretty big, so it required all three of the trucks that we had. After they docked, we had a team there to unload everything and take it inside so that we could separate for distribution.
Our team was small in numbers, as I preferred it to be because it worked.
When Zig decided to get his CDL, he took Mano and Kirby to get theirs too.
They were the two niggas on our seven man team, that worked the closest with him so we didn’t have to worry about finding other people we’d have to learn to trust with our product.
Plus, on delivery day we’d all be there to store and distribute what we needed to.
“Don, a word.” Vado said then walked toward the exit of the storage room.
I told Zig to keep an eye on everything while I went to holla at Vado.
“What’s good, V?”
“You and Ziggy did good today.” He nodded and pointed toward the room we’d just exited. “We’ll do a few more runs like this to make sure things run smoothly before we make it permanent.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I appreciate you taking a chance on us.”
“You haven’t failed me yet,” he smiled. “But I wanted to talk to you about Brock…”
“Vado, bro, I don’t mean no disrespect, but you don’t even gotta waste ya breath with that. I ain’t fuckin’ with bro period.”
“Adonis,” he stepped up, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t have children,” he began. “You’re the closest thing I have to that, which is why I’m handing all of this over to you. I know you’ll handle business, but I can’t ignore the fact that Derrick is my stepson legally.”
“Which makes that your problem, V.” I sighed heavily. “I stopped doing business with him before for a reason. I ain’t tryna go back down that route.”
“Let me talk to him first,” he suggested. “I promised his mother that he’d be okay out here, but there was no way I was leaving my whole legacy to him.”
Everything in me wanted to tell the nigga that shit was his fucking problem too, but I didn’t. Vado had really done me a solid back in the day when he helped me get my shit together to get AP, so I owed him a favor.
“Aight,” I shook my head. “But my people still running the South. He just gon’ have to work under them.”
Vado smirked before taking a pull from his cigar.
“He’ll have a problem with that…”
“He know I’m the best problem solver, so…” I shrugged. “But since you damn near making me do this shit, I’m warning you to be ready to help ya wife grieve her son’s death. I know for a fact I’m gon’ end up killin’ the nigga, so this is my warning.”
“We’ll pray it doesn’t get to that point.”
I just shook my head instead of offering a verbal response before heading back to the storage room.
I’d done my part and warned him. Vado knew me.
He knew I wasn’t one to make idle threats.
If I said the shit, I meant it. I was going to kill Brock.
I didn’t know if the shit was gon’ be behind business or Jru, I just knew that his days were numbered.
I helped get all the product put up then Zig and I distributed.
Once that was done, we had a brief conversation with Vado about his retirement.
He was making the shit official in a month, so we had to start to making preparations.
He wanted an official party on some boss shit, so we were gon’ make that shit happen.
Neither of us knew shit about planning a party, but there were plenty of hoes from around the way that could hook us up.
When we were done, I hopped in my whip and headed back toward the city.
North Ave Freight and Logistics was located on the outskirts of town for obvious reasons; I wanted to remain low key.
If shit was to go south, I’d know who to murk first because there were only a few people that knew where the shit was.
As soon as I made it back to my side of town, I went to grab my brother.
I had another move to make, but I needed to get him squared away before I dipped.
I took him to get wings and pizza before dropping him off at the crib then swinging by The Cutting Edge to check on things.
During the week I’d take walk-ins, but the majority of my appointments were scheduled on the weekends when I had more time to be present.
I’d finally decided to give one of the barbers, Spazz, a key to the spot because realistically I knew I wasn’t going to be able to shoot back to the shop in time for closing every night. He got a trigger warning along with that key though. One thing goes wrong, and it was curtains for his ass.
After checking on things I made my way to my last destination but decided to hit Jru up on my way.
“Yes, Don?” Her sexy ass voice flowed through the speakers of my ride.
“You know I hate when you call me that.”
“Why?” I could hear the smile in her voice. “Literally everyone calls you Don G.”
“You ain’t ever called me that shit, and you not everyone else. You my baby, and that’s what I want you to call me.”
“Adonis, please.” We both laughed although I was serious as shit.
“That’s better.” I smiled like some hoe ass nigga. “What you on though?”
“Packing,” she answered and my brows dipped at her response.
“For what? Where we goin’?”
“We’re not going anywhere.” She laughed again. “I’m going on a solo cruise.”
“Solo?” I frowned. “Naw, I don’t like that. You owe me a date, so I’m going with you.”
“I owe you?” she chuckled. “I do not recall agreeing to a date with you, Adonis.”
“You didn’t have to agree. I said we goin’ so come on.”
“W-what?” she stammered. “What do you mean come on?”
“I’m outside ya people’s spot.” I threw my car in park. “Come out.”
Her parents had been staying in the same spot since they moved to AC, so after her sister told me that she wasn’t staying with her, I knew this was where I needed to push up in order to see her.
“Adonis, I-I can’t.” Her little ass sounded like she was panicking. “I don’t really feel good, so…”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s just that time of month for me. I don’t really like going out and doing anything around this time.”
“Aight, I’m gon’ come in and chill with you then.” I killed the engine to my car and climbed out. “Come to the door.”
“Adonis…”
“Ya people home?” I asked. “Because I can knock and tell ya fine ass mama to let me in.”
“First of all, eww. Secondly, you wouldn’t…”
I didn’t bother responding, I just rang the doorbell when I made it to the front door.
“Ugh, I cannot stand you. I’m coming,” she said before disconnecting the call.
She called herself trying to scowl at a nigga when she yanked the door open. I chuckled and pulled her petite frame into mine and hugged her tightly. She felt good as fuck pressed against me too.
Like she was meant to be there.
When I pulled back, I noticed she was looking past me out the door, so I asked, “you good? You expecting somebody?”
“If I were, it wouldn’t matter. Your intrusive ass is here.”
“Quit frontin’ like you ain’t happy to see a nigga.” I chuckled.
“Anyway, I was making sure Derrick or his minions weren’t out there. He’s been blowing me up.”
“Nigga not out there, and he better be glad. I’m gon’ do him somethin’ dirty if he push up here.”
“Not at my parents’ house.” She shook her head, pulling me inside before she shut the door.
“Don’t matter where we at. I’ll buss his ass and just apologize to your people later.”
“Anyway,” she playfully rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Wanted to see you.” I smirked. “Fuck you in here doin’?”
“Packing,” she answered then started for the steps. “Come on.”