Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Adonis.
“Ay,” I stuck my head in AP’s room. He was on his bed reading a book that Jru’s dad had recommended he read, You Owe You by Eric Thomas.
He glanced up at me and said, “what’s up?”
“I gotta peel for a minute,” I let him know. “Jru’s asleep. Don’t leave this house, Apollo.”
“I’m not,” he replied.
“Aight, she cooked so eat and shower before I get back.”
“Where you goin’?” he asked, looking over my attire.
“Just got a move to make. I won’t be gone long.”
He nodded and went back to reading his book, so I closed his door and headed out. I had Greg grab me a lil’ throw away whip, an old ass Toyota Camry, that had a scrubbed VIN and duped plates since I needed to be incognito for the night.
I ducked out of my apartment the back way before going to scoop Zig and Deek from the dock where we kept the trucks. They had a shipment come in, so they were getting that put away before we did our thing for the night.
Once they were in the car, I called Vado to let him know I was on the way. I’d gotten all the bread back from Brock’s offshore account, so I was taking the shit to him. We needed to chop it up anyway.
I spoke to G and some of the other niggas that were inside the shop before making my way to the back. When I entered his office, I sat the bag on his desk.
“What’s this?” he asked, eyeing the bag.
“Bread that Brock took,” I answered. “You were in the game when he did the shit, so it’s yours.” I pushed it toward him. “It’s a lil’ under half a mil.”
Demetri found another account he’d been depositing money in from one of Vado’s other businesses, so I had him wipe that one too.
“I see.” He unzipped the bag and scanned its contents then pushed it back toward me. “You keep it.”
My brows furrowed. “What? Naw, man,” I shook my head. “This yo’ bread.”
“I didn’t even know he was taking it,” he chuckled humorlessly. “You figured it out, so you keep it.”
“Vado…”
“Keep it, Adonis,” he reinforced. “I got caught slipping, you figured it out. It’s yours.”
“You got a soft spot for the nigga.” I sighed.
“Maybe, but that’s not what happened with this,” he pointed to the bag. “I’ve been going to see a doctor for about a year now because I’ve been struggling to remember things, or hell, make clear decisions.” He chuckled humorlessly. “I found out sometime last year that I had Early-onset dementia—”
“What?” I frowned and nodded.
“I’ve been struggling with it for a while now, Brock knew,” he confessed.
“It was getting harder and harder for me to remember things. I had more good days than bad, but it’s progressing quicker than I thought it would, which is again, why I was in such a hurry to get everything over to you.
He was there for a few appointments when the doctor came by, so he was privy to the extent of my condition and when they told me that I only had about four more years if that…
” he shook his head. “He must’ve taken advantage of that.
Gino or my accountant are usually good at catching any slip ups, but hell, we’re all getting old. ”
“That’s why I’m gon’ murder that nigga,” I spat. “I can’t lie, I’m sick of him V, and after hearing this shit,” I shook my head, “he gotta go.”
“Don’t do it on my behalf,” he replied. “I’ve been in the game for a while, so I’m not missing this.” He pointed to the bag.
“It’s the principle, Vado,” I tried reasoning. “You’ve been taking care of that nigga damn near his whole life. The nigga took advantage of you at your fuckin’ lowest,” I griped.
I was heated. Vado was like a pop to all of us who grew up fatherless and had looked out for every fuckin’ body. Brock didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as us, and I was gon’ make sure he wasn’t able to do that shit another day.
“Well,” he stood and rounded the desk, stopping to lean back into it.
“It seems like your mind is made up, so I’ll have to accept and respect that, as you have for me all these years.
All I ask is that you leave a body for his mother to bury,” he requested.
“She doesn’t understand the streets and how they work, and hell Brock doesn’t either half the time, but just do me that one solid so she at least has some kind of closure. ”
“Aight,” I nodded and stood. “I got you.”
I embraced Vado for a long ass time. I didn’t think he’d be gone tomorrow or no shit, but it was hard as shit to stomach the fact that there was a chance he wouldn’t be here one day.
I knew we all had expiration dates, especially with the shit we did, I just didn’t expect his shit to be as soon as the doctors were anticipating.
I gave him one last look before I grabbed the bag and bounced. I was supposed to go grab Zig and Deek before making a move on Brock, but I’d let them know I was gon’ be dolo. I didn’t feel like being around anyone, and I really wanted to handle the shit with Brock on my own.
I pulled up in Northwood, parking in my old driveway, making sure I had both of my guns tucked in my back, before climbing out of the car and walking through the cut in the backyard that would lead to the street behind the house I knew Brock was in.
Deek took care of all the cameras in the vicinity for me, so I was good.
I crept up on the porch of the house and the light was off as requested, so I shot a text to E-Man, one of the niggas on the inside, from my burner phone to let him know I was outside. I waited until he opened the door before I entered.
“It’s him, Grady and Serg in there,” he let me know. “They already know they on cleanup.”
Nodding, I bypassed him and journeyed down the hall. Brock was doing what he did best, running his fuckin’ mouth. When I entered, Grady glanced up at me. I subtly shook my head. I didn’t want Brock to know I was there just yet.
“I wonder when that lil’ nigga goin’ back to school. Damn. It’s impossible to get close to him when his lil’ ass locked up in his brother’s spot,” Brock complained. “I told you niggas to find out where he stays anyway.”
“How the fuck we supposed to do that?” Serg asked. “It ain’t like he share locations with us or no shit.”
“Y’all around the nigga when y’all workin’,” Brock snapped. “I even asked where he holdin’ at and you niggas have brought me nothin’!”
“Nigga, we don’t know,” Grady barked back. “We meet Zig or Deek at a random location for reup, or they come to us.”
“Y’all can’t follow them?”
“Naw,” they said in unison and shook their heads. “We gotta uRide there and wait for them to leave before another one they order themselves pulls up.”
They weren’t lying. When they copped, we had our own drivers that worked for uRide that would scoop them and take them back to their spots. I wasn’t taking no chances on any of them following one of us.
“That bitch ass, paranoid ass nigga,” Brock growled, punching his hand.
“What’s your issue with the nigga?” Grady asked. “Didn’t you used to be at the nigga’s mom’s crib and shit when we were jits?”
“Fuck his mama!” he snapped. “Bitch thought she was better than everyone else just like her mothafuckin’ son. That’s why she got that ass beat to death.”
My trigger finger started to itch hearing the nigga talk about my mother. When she was alive, she loved his ass like he was her own just like his fucking mother did me. Brock was just sick in the fucking head.
“It’s aight though,” he nodded, leaning forward to grab his blunt then lighting it. “Just how I’m smokin’ on that bitch now,” he took a pull. “I’m gon’ be smokin’ on her son’s ashes soon.”
I was over listening to his ass talk, so I finally entered the room. It would have been easy to blow the nigga’s brains out from behind, or to even catch the nigga by surprise, but I wanted my face to be the last one he saw before he went on to eternity.
“Damn, that’s how you talk about the nigga that raised you and spared you all this time?” I asked, rounding the recliner that he was sitting in.
He quickly sat up, trying to grab the lil’ .22 his weak ass had on the table in front of him, but Grady was quicker.
“Yo, G, what the fuck nigga?”
“Sorry, B,” he shrugged. “Nigga’s the reason I get money.”
“Damn, it’s like that.” He looked at Grady in disbelief then faced Serg. “You too?”
“I fuck with you, Brock, but I got six kids nigga.”
“Fuck y’all!” he spat. “I don’t need y’all!”
Neither of them replied, they just got up and left the room, leaving only me and Brock.
“Niggas ain’t loyal anyway,” he mumbled, sitting back in the chair and lighting his blunt again.
“Naw nigga, yo’ ass the one ain’t loyal,” I replied, the disgust in my voice very evident. “You treat everybody in ya life like they fucking disposable, and you got issues when mothafucka’s give you that energy back?”
“Y’all niggas were disposable.” He chuckled. “You ain’t benefitin’ me then get the fuck on.”
When he went to take a pull from the blunt, I pulled back and hit him in his shit. The chair fell on its back, and he leaned to the side holding his face. There was no way he thought he was gon’ smoke that shit in front of me after saying he was smoking on my mothafuckin’ mama.
“Get yo’ bitch ass up,” I barked. I was gon’ give him a fair chance to stand toe to toe and face me.
He rolled over, getting on his knees with his back facing me.
“Damn, I think my fuckin’ nose broke,” I heard him mumble. “That’s the last time you gon’ hit me, nigga.”
He must’ve been dazed because he leaned forward and began to crawl toward the closet. I glanced that way and peeped the AR that was leaning against the door, so I quickly grabbed a random cord that was on the table and wrapped it around his throat, holding it tight as fuck around his neck.
He started to flail like a hoe, clawing at my hands and shit, but it was no use.
I wasn’t going to let him die like this, but he was gon’ be on the verge of that shit.
I thought about the shit he’d said about my mother, the way he did Vado, him stealing my money, how he treated my girl; him pulling up to her job, scratching her arm and shit.
The fact that he was my closest homeboy at one point but crossed me in the worst way.
The more shit I thought about, the tighter my grip got.
When he started to go limp, I released him. He fell forward, gasping for air and coughing. Using my foot, I roughly nudged him until he was on his back. I reached for both of my guns and pointed them at him.
“Y-you ain’t g-gon’ kill m-me nigga,” he coughed, rubbing his neck, then smiling. “You promised Vado, and he swore to my mama.”
“What you say?” I smirked, angling my head to the side. “Fuck yo’ mama.”
I emptied both clips, watching his body jump and flinch as my bullets penetrated his torso, neck, and face. I smiled at my work then stepped over his body before heading out. E-Man, Grady, and Serg were all waiting in the living room, so I nodded for them to do their thing before I left.
I had to drive to the docks to ditch the car. Greg already knew to come through and get it. Zig and Deek were both there, so we smoked while Deek restored everyone’s camera feed back to normal then I had them take me back to the crib.
When I got there, Jru was still asleep, and AP had taken his ass to bed too. I went to take a shower and shit before I went to eat. I didn’t really have an appetite like that, but since I’d smoked, I could eat.
I went out on the patio to smoke again after I was done. I needed to face a blunt because the shit with Vado was heavy on my mind. I knew he said that he had some years to go, but that shit wasn’t sitting right with me. While I was out there, I started to look up his condition.
I found a little comfort in knowing that the four-year shit wasn’t definitive.
Some people lived a long ass time with the shit, but some didn’t.
I looked some doctors up too but I didn’t know who the fuck was who and what they did.
I just felt inclined to do something because he’d given me a chance to live, so I wanted to do the same shit for him.
“I woke up twice and you weren’t in bed with me.” Jru’s voice sounded, jarring me from my thoughts and research.
I glanced back and saw her standing in the doorway in one of my t-shirts.
I licked my lips, enjoying the sight of her fine ass.
I locked my phone and dropped it in my lap before reaching for her.
She took my hand and allowed me to pull her down.
My arms circled her waist, and I kissed the side of her neck.
“I had some shit to handle.”
“You’re in for the night?”
I nodded. “You got me for the rest of the night.”
“Good.” She turned to straddle me then pressed her lips into mine. “I took a long nap just so I’d have some energy for you.”
“Yeah?” I smiled against her lips, and she nodded.
“I feel bad about having to tell you no the last time, so I need to make up for that.”
She leaned in to kiss me again, but I pulled back.
“You don’t owe me an apology or no makeup pussy for that, Jru. I ain’t no bitch or some adolescent ass little boy that gotta fuck just because my dick hard,” I informed her.
“I know, but—”
I wasn’t done talking, so I cut her off.
“And you ain’t gotta worry about me goin’ out to get none from another bitch either, so don’t feel pressured.
I know what we dealin’ with, and I’m cool with it.
I know that fuck nigga played in ya face like that, but that ain’t what this is.
I’m with you because I love you. That ain’t gon’ change because I can’t get the pussy sometimes. ”
“Okay,” she simpered. “So, you don’t want to?”
“Of course I do.” I smirked. “Whenever you’re up to it.”
“Good.” She fished my dick from my boxers, then slowly lowered herself down onto it.
We both released a low hiss when she was fully down on it. I leaned forward and kissed her pretty ass when she started to move up and down at her own pace. She was just what I needed to get my mind off of the events that ended my day.