CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Another man was with him, a smaller guy, but Toya was focused on the man she was certain was Grayson’s half-brother. Because he was already talking even as he made his way towards them. “You look good for a motherfucker that just been in an ambush.”
Grayson smiled. Despite everything, he was always happy to see his big brother. “Actually I wasn’t there,” he said as he and his brother did a half-hug-with-a-handshake greeting.
But his response caused Vinnie to pull back from him. “What are you talking you wasn’t there? Was it or was it not that Porsche of yours that got creamed by two vehicles in this sleepy-ass town?”
Grayson was always amazed by the reach of his brother’s informants. But he nodded toward his brother’s underboss before responding. “How you doing, Pauly?”
“After what I seen of that Porsche, I’m doing better than you.”
Grayson knew Pauly didn’t like him just because his mother gave Vincent up for adoption and his parents, to this day, refused to acknowledge him as a member of the family. He wasn’t even born when all that shit went down, but Pauly always behaved as if he had a hand in the disownment too.
But that was Pauly. Always looking out for Vince. He and Pauly were the only true family Vincent had. So Pauly’s devotion was a good thing to Grayson.
Then Grayson looked at his brother. “I didn’t tell you anything about what happened or where it happened or any of that. How would you know that much already?”
“It’s my job to know that much already,” Vinnie fired back. “Now answer my question.”
Toya wasn’t accustomed to somebody talking to Grayson that way.
She knew he was his big brother, but only by a couple years.
But he was talking to him like he was his daddy!
And he was even more forceful up close. Even more in your face.
Like a force of nature. And, she also noticed, he had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
“You heard me,” Vinnie said when Grayson didn’t respond fast enough. “Were you or were you not that driver?”
“I wasn’t there,” Grayson said again. “My lady was driving my car.”
Vinnie frowned. “What lady? Since when you let that dingbat Charlotte drive any car of yours?”
Toya’s heart dropped. Was he still involved with that Charlotte lady she met at the country club? He said it was over between them. But was it?
Grayson quickly put her fears to rest. “I don’t have anything to do with Charlotte anymore.”
“Good,” said Vinnie. “I couldn’t stand that bitch. Gonna ask me if I was in the mob and then she gonna tee-tee with her little constipated-looking girlfriends like that shit was funny.”
It wasn’t funny to Toya because she was thinking the exact same thing!
Although he dressed like a businessman with expensive tastes in suits and shoes, even down to his conservative haircut, he didn’t come across as any businessman to her.
If this man standing in front of them wasn’t mob, she thought, nobody was!
“So if it ain’t that asshole anymore,” asked Vinnie, “then who is it? And you better not say your ass banging Dena again.”
Toya looked at Grayson. Dena? Dena Allen? He was sleeping around with her too?
But Grayson saw when she looked at him, and he could feel her distress. He quickly disabused her of any such thought. “I took Dena on a few charity events over ten years ago, and haven’t fooled around with her since. And you know that.”
“I don’t know shit the way you run through girls. So who was driving?”
“She was driving,” Grayson said as he placed his hand on Toya’s lower back. “Vincent, Pauly, I would like you to meet Jameesha Latoya Morgan. My lady.”
Toya could see the shock in Vinnie’s eyes as he seemed to be assessing her. “Now that’s a first,” he said. “Lots of firsts right here.”
Toya found that an odd response. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked him.
Pauly and Vinnie both were taken aback by her brashness in the way she spoke to him. Even Grayson was surprised that she wasn’t intimidated by his brother whatsoever. He was pleasantly surprised.
But Vinnie wasn’t the kind of man that sugarcoated his words either. And he was blunt. “You’re the first chick my brother has dated that isn’t eighteen years old.”
“Bullshit!” Grayson said.
“Bullshit my ass. You date all these young girls so you don’t have to invest anything into them but a little money. Which you have boatloads of.”
“And you don’t?”
“I’m talking to the little lady right here,” Vinnie said.
Then he looked at Toya again. “And you’re also the first black chick I’ve seen him with.
Not that he’s never been with any. He has.
But he has a type. And his type is usually these anorexic little white girls that look like the brides of Frankenstein. ”
Toya couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter. “I’m sorry,” she said to Grayson, who didn’t find it funny at all.
“Very funny,” Grayson said.
But Pauly was laughing too. And Vinnie smiled. “I like you already,” he said to Toya. “You get my jokes. Oh yeah. I like you. Now what’s your name again?”
“Her name is Jameesha Latoya Morgan,” Grayson said.
“That’s a lot of name for a little lady like yourself. What do people call you? Meesha?”
“Toya.”
Vinnie seemed to be weighing his options, as if he had any. “I like Meesha better. You’re Meesha in my book.”
Grayson rolled his eyes. “You don’t have a book when it comes to her.”
“And the third first for this arrogant-ass brother of mine,” said Vinnie, ignoring his brother, “is that he claimed you.”
Toya liked the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
“He says you’re his lady. He’ll bite my head off if I ever say any of those brides he dated before was his lady or his girlfriend or anything of the sort other than his fuck partner.”
Toya loved his frankness. But Grayson took exception to it. “Watch your language,” he said to his brother.
“It’s the truth!” Vinnie said. “But fuck it. Sit down and tell me exactly what happened.”
Toya smiled, and Grayson shook his head. But they both sat down on the sofa. Vinnie and Pauly sat down in separate chairs around the sofa.
But instead of Grayson asking Toya to re-live that nightmare again, he told Vinnie everything that happened to her.
“And you’re sure the dead guy in that flipped car was Eddie Hudgens?”
“That’s what the police officer said,” said Grayson.
“And of course everybody believes the police,” said Vinnie sarcastically.
Which caused Toya to smile again. “But that’s Eddie for you,” Vinnie added.
“Going after a female like the punk he is. Although it’s my understanding they thought you were driving your car since you never before let anybody else drive it. ”
Grayson nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking too.”
“What Eddie Hudgens got against you?” Pauly asked.
“Nothing,” Grayson responded. “I only knew his name because he was associated with that girl’s father. Or brother. Or both,” he said.
“Both,” said Vinnie.
“What girl?” Toya asked them.
Vinnie and Grayson glanced at each other. Then the intercom buzzed and Vincent pressed the button on the side table. “Yes James?”
“Your father has entered the gate and is coming around to your private residence.”
Vinnie stood up. “What’s his ass doing here?”
“Thanks James,” Grayson said and released the button. “Sit down, Vince.”
Vinnie hesitated, but then he sat back down. But Toya understood his reaction. She wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the man who encouraged his wife to first abort him, and then to give him away when that didn’t work, like he was secondhand clothes.
“What’s he doing here?” Vinnie asked again.
“There’s another issue.”
“What other issue?”
“Latoya’s in trouble.”
Vinnie was surprised. “What kind of trouble?”
“Let me explain it, Gracie,” she said to Grayson, and Vinnie and Pauly laughed.
“Gracie,” said Pauly. “I like that name!”
“You use it and you’re dead,” said a very serious Grayson.
Pauly threw up his hands. “I’m just saying.”
Toya told her side of the story. “I got arrested for aiding and abetting a gas station robbery where the clerk was killed.”
“I heard about that,” said Vinnie. “That was you?”
“That was my sister’s boyfriend Bam. I gave him a ride to the store. He put a gun to my head and forced me to get into a high-speed chase with the police.”
“Shit, you’re going down,” said Pauly. “And that clerk was shot and killed too? That’s some deep shit you got yourself into.”
But to Toya’s surprise, Vinnie seemed more concerned. “So what can I do to help?”
“I promised the state’s attorney that Father will endorse her if she drop all charges against Latoya.”
“I hate your old man,” said Pauly, “but this backwards-ass state loves him. His endorsement will ensure a victory for her.”
“So I take it she dropped the charges?” Vinnie asked.
Grayson nodded. “She did, yes. But Father says no way. He’s holding a press conference this afternoon at four where he’s going to put his full support behind her opponent.”
“Which would send Meesha back to jail?”
Grayson nodded. Toya moved closer to him. “That’s correct,” he said.
“What you want me to do? Your old man’s not going to listen to me.”
Grayson got blunt. “You know where the bodies are buried. Figuratively and literally.”
Toya looked at him. Literally? Did he say literally? That would mean that Vincent actually did know where the bodies were buried!
“You can bring him down,” Grayson said to Vinnie. “And you know it. I need you to remind him that you know it.”
Vinnie smiled. Until he heard the doorbell rang. Then he looked at Grayson. “What’s his problem? I have the code to get into your house, but you’re telling me your old man don’t?”
“And he never will,” Grayson said firmly as he stood up and went to the door.
Vinnie looked at Toya. “Don’t worry, Meesha. Your ass ain’t going back to nobody’s jail. Gray don’t put his name on the line for anybody. He put his name on the line for you. That’s all I need to know.”
Toya smiled. “Thanks.” He was the first person in Grayson’s circle to ever treat her with respect. She liked him already!
But her pleasure ended abruptly when Sebastian Carrington walked through that door.