Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
MAKARI “HAVOC” SANCHEZ
Ilooked down at my phone at the unknown number calling me yet again. It had been two weeks since the calls started, and I hadn’t answered one, hoping that would make them stop. But it hadn’t. And although I didn’t have the number stored, I knew exactly who it was.
“Damn, you can’t keep your bitches in check?” Orlando walked in the room and asked, minding my black ass business!
I didn’t even answer him. He looked at me, chuckled, and shook his head. Hell walked into the room next and laughed at me.
“Boy, if you don’t answer that phone and go give that crazy hoe some dick,” my brother kidded. I flipped him off and turned my attention to my phone. Another call.
I noticed Orlando looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. I slowly stood to my feet.
“You need me to do anything?”
He was having a meeting with our dad and chose to bring me along with him. I had no idea why, but if he didn’t want me to do anything except breathe the same air as that nigga, I would rather do something else.
“Nah, you can go ahead and handle that while I talk to Pops.”
My brother was always trying to include me in everything he did, but sometimes, like now, I wished that he would just leave me out of it. I always left in a fucked-up mood after being around Orlando for too long.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” I told him. I drove him to this meeting, so I wasn’t gonna just leave him because I didn’t like his damn dad.
Hell nodded to agree. We bumped fists, and I left the room, not even acknowledging Orlando. The less we interacted with each other, the better.
As soon as I climbed into my car, I knew exactly where I needed to go. Sometime later, I pulled up outside a large ass gate. One of the guards stood there holding an assault rifle as he slowly approached my car. I let my tinted window down a little so that he could see my face.
“You lost?” he snarled. I laughed. Another guard appeared beside him and looked at me.
“Let him in,” the second guard said and signaled for them to open the gates. I drove past them and pulled up outside the mansion. The shit was nice as hell!
Two more guards appeared before me and told me to get out of the car.
I complied and lifted my arms so that they could check me for a weapon.
This was unknown territory, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to come up in here with a gun.
If they wanted to kill me, they would do that easily, whether I was strapped or not, but I damn sure wasn’t trying to give them a reason to kill me.
“Go in,” one of the guards instructed me. I stepped through the door he opened for me.
“Mr. Sanchez, this way please,” a housekeeper directed me. I followed behind him, and he led me through this big ass house. It felt like a maze. I was impressed, and it took a lot to impress me.
I knew if any niggas tried to run up in here, they would get lost!
Finally, we made it to where Sincere was. He turned to look at me when I stepped through the door and laughed.
“Damn, I gotta call you like a groupie hoe just to get you to come see me?” he asked, brows knitted as his eyes focused on me. He then took a seat behind his desk and continued to look at me. I sighed, took a seat in front of him, and flicked my eyes up at him.
“I only came here to tell you face-to-face to stop calling me, Sincere. I don’t even know why or how you got my number to begin with, but I want no parts of it,” I let him know.
It was only because he was Sincere that I even came here to tell him that shit, but I meant it. Whatever he had planned and thought he could include me in, he better think again.
I watched the way he leaned his finger up against the side of his face. The guard behind me murmured something, making me briefly look his way. He had his eyes on me and a hand on his gun. I switched my attention back to Sincere, who was still staring in my face.
I swallowed hard but maintained eye contact.
Sincere frowned at me and asked, “You ain’t even gonna ask me why?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t want to know why, I just want you to stop.”
Whatever it was wasn’t worth me bringing more shit in my life—I already had enough.
Sincere suddenly laughed.
“Most niggas would do anything for me to be calling them,” he said. I hunched my shoulders.
“I ain’t like most niggas.”
I kept to myself for a reason and wanted people to leave me the fuck alone. I didn’t care what everyone else was trying to do. That was them, and I was me.
“And that’s exactly why I’ve been calling you, Havoc.”
I stood to my feet because I was ready to go. I’d come to say what I did, and there was no other reason for me to stay.
“Like I said, I’m not interested. Stop calling me.”
We locked eyes.
Just like last time, I could pick up on the fire in his eyes that was withering. He looked a little thinner, too, from the last time I saw him, further proving my thoughts that he was sick.
“I can see you’re reading me, Havoc. You read me that night too. I know you know—”
“And that is your business, Sincere.”
He frowned again, sighed, and leaned back in his throne-like chair.
“We good?” I asked just to make sure that he really heard what I was saying and that he wouldn’t try to kill me once I stepped a foot outside.
I looked back at that guard who was still holding his gun at his side.
I looked back at Sincere, waiting to see what would happen.
The room was growing eerily silent with each passing moment.
Then Sincere nodded. “Yeah.”
I hit him with a half smile and walked out the door.
By the time I drove out of Sincere’s compound, Hell was calling me, asking me to come back.
Nigga couldn’t even last less than an hour without me!
When I made it back to this meeting, they were drinking and shit like they were celebrating something.
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked. They both looked at me. Hell was up on his feet and tried to offer me a drink, but I declined.
“We gonna have a party!” Kelechi yelled and laughed. I didn’t. I frowned because what the fuck was he talking about.
“A party for what?”
“To celebrate him, of course,” Orlando said, standing to his feet.
I was all for enjoying yourself and shit, especially if it was an occasion like your birthday or something, but my brother done had his birthday and wedding, so I knew it wasn’t because of that. And that shit didn’t make sense to me.
“So, you gonna throw a party, just because?” I asked, looking at them both. Right now wasn’t the time to be doing this shit. Orlando scoffed.
“I told you that nigga wouldn’t understand,” he flapped his hand at me.
“No, I understand, I just think it’s a stupid ass idea,” I let them know.
For weeks, my brother had been showing his ass, drawing attention to himself, and I allowed it, but this was going too far.
“It’s stupid because you didn’t think of it?” Orlando asked.
I looked at this dumb ass nigga, wondering what my mother ever saw in him enough to make me. I often wondered why Hell ended up doing a lot of stupid shit, but now, I understood.
“Nah, because there’s no fucking reason to do some shit like that! Y’all asking for trouble.”
The way Hell had been moving lately, I was surprised that some niggas hadn’t tried their luck yet, but I knew, without a doubt, that if anyone had any plans to, this party was gonna be the perfect opportunity.
Orlando sucked his teeth at me.
“And this is exactly why I don’t even want you involved,” he said, peering at me.
“Now, you definitely done lost your fucking mind. It’s not happening!” I let him know.
Orlando stepped toward me like he could intimidate me, but I closed the gap between us to show him that he didn’t put any fear in my heart. I would gladly rock on his ass and not give a fuck about it either.
“Okay, y’all chill,” Hell said. He stepped between us and pulled me away with him. I kept my eyes on Orlando.
“Bro, chill. It’s not that deep,” Kelechi said. I looked at my brother.
“This isn’t a good idea, especially because he doesn’t want me involved. There’s no telling what niggas will show up to this thing, Kelechi. I have a bad feeling about this,” I let him know.
“Hell—”
“Havoc, can you just trust me? Pops thinks this will get Sincere’s attention, and I believe so. People have already been whispering my name about me being the one to take over—”
“And that’s what I’m worrying about!” I cut him off.
Besides, I knew Sincere, he wasn’t going to pick a flashy ass guy like my brother.
I loved my brother more than anything in this world because he loved me.
Even when Orlando constantly gave me his ass to kiss, Kelechi cherished me.
I would take a fucking bullet for my brother without hesitating—that was how much I loved him.
But I knew in my heart that Sincere didn’t have his eyes on him.
He was doing all of this shit because Orlando wanted him to, and in the end, I knew it was only going to bring him trouble and not the throne.
People didn’t pay attention to shit. If they did, they would have seen that Sincere hadn’t even contacted my brother.
If he had plans on making him take over, wouldn’t they have met up by now?
But all they saw was the show Hell and Orlando were putting on, and that was enough to put eyes on him—but for the wrong reason.
If I was a hating ass nigga, would I really sit back and watch another nigga climb to the top! My brother had done nothing except put a target on his back, and he couldn’t even see it.
If Orlando really cared, he would be shielding him, not putting him out there for the world to see.
Hell sighed heavily, planted both hands on my shoulders, and looked me in the eyes.
“Makari, this is my chance. I can feel it. I just need you to trust me.”
“I trust you, brother, but this isn’t it. Remember what happened at that club,” I said.
My brother waved me off. It was stressing me out that he wasn’t taking me seriously.
“That was just some out of town niggas trying their luck. They probably saw my big ass chains and thought they’d get lucky that night,” Hell said. I shook my head because I didn’t agree. Those niggas felt like they knew my brother. They’d gone there just for him!
“Please, trust me,” Kelechi said again. I opened my mouth to reject again but wondered if I was just overreacting because my brother must know what he was doing.
My eyes moved to Orlando, and I felt like I was starting to behave like him, trying to control what Hell did. That was the last thing I wanted.
“I trust you,” I whispered because no matter what, I did trust him wholeheartedly.
“It’s settled!” Orlando said, coming over to us. “I will handle everything, including security,” he added. I shook my head. I wouldn’t even trust this mothafucker to guard my food, let alone my brother.
“You don’t have to worry or even—”
“You must be out of your mind if you think I’m not about to come,” I said, cutting Orlando off. I already knew he was going to fix his lips to tell me not to come, but that wasn’t happening.
He opened his mouth to probably object, but Hell beat him to it.
“Hell no, I’m not going without you,” he said, making Orlando close his mouth.
This party wasn’t sitting right with me, but hopefully, I was wrong!