20. Turk #2
Then Autumn sends me this long cryptic message in a code we ain’t used in I don’t know how long, that basically tells me Shad is down for the count for the foreseeable future, but as soon as she’s done with her hours she’ll take care of it.
When I replied, my messages turned green.
So I just focus on our business, that Nut has completely checked out of.
I don’t blame my bro. My best bro, his cousin, is in the ICU. Brina sends me updates, but that’s only once a day, and I’m not tryna box with Nut every time I see him. Nah, I need to come with facts. Get my one fade, then show him Pay isn’t the cause of all this.
Which is why at eight in the morning, two hours before anyone’s due at Paradise, I’m meeting with Apache Beverly.
I haven’t seen the man since I poured my heart out to him and he gave me the deed to Paradise for fifty grand and a signed NDA.
Since I never had to pay protection, the only time I saw First Nation niggas was when they were paying customers, and he never graced my fine establishment.
I thought I would have had to go with him, but since there’s an open investigation on the shooting, and this is a covert meeting, he told me he was coming to me.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” he says as we walk back to my office.
“Thank you. It’s my money maker fasho.”
“Good to hear, son.”
I smirk where he can’t see me as I round my desk and take a seat. I damn near wanna call him Pops, but this is serious.
“Thank you for meeting with me. You’ve gotta know we didn’t–”
“I know you didn’t shoot my son, Royce. Just like you know we didn’t shoot your friend. No one in our camp misses… that’s not why I’m here.”
I rub my eyebrow once before folding my hands together. “Aight. Let’s go on to the next thing.”
“I’ve recently learned my daughter Foxtail has been in a relationship with the mother of your child, and now she’s pregnant with yours. Is that correct?”
I don’t wanna just tell the old nigga I be knocking his daughter’s shit out the frame regularly, so I just nod. “It’s a bit more complicated, but yeah that’s the gist.”
“Well, it’s going to have to get uncomplicated.
Foxtail is a First Nation princess, my only legitimate daughter, which means her choices are limited to high ranking members of the First Nations.
When she finds a suitor, or one is arranged, they enter Covenant, which is basically an engagement.
Fox entered Covenant with Grimey when they were seventeen, and once they went before the Council to claim each other, it’s binded by our laws, and can only be broken if the union is heinously disrespected, like irrefutable proof of infidelity. ”
“I’m sure my seed growing in her belly is all the proof you need, Mr. Beverly. No offense.”
The nigga’s jaw tightens, but he continues. “Not until the child is born, and the next Council meeting is way before Fox would give birth. As soon as she entered East Kenton, the Covenant was activated in the eyes of the Council, and she’ll have to go on trial for her crimes.”
These niggas and they rules. “Aight, what’s the punishment for this?”
“If she’s found guilty of abandoning Covenant, punishment is deferred to her partner, so it would be up to Grimey. He could make her marry him, or he could kill her. It would be totally up to him.”
“The fuck?” I sit up. “You her fucking daddy and the head chief in charge. Can’t you void all this shit?”
“I’m Chief, yes, but I’m not above the laws.
No one is. And the Covenant is one of the oldest and most revered practices of our people.
It was a way to keep families together, to keep the numbers of illegitimate children low, and the sanctity of partnership valid.
Fox entered this off her own volition; she and Grimey had been childhood sweethearts.
“Something happened when she was nineteen. She never told me what, only told me she couldn’t be with him anymore, and that she was leaving.
I gave her some money and told her not to set foot in East Kenton again.
Imagine my surprise when her friends tell me she’s been here and is pregnant by you, and that the woman you told me about is her other partner. ”
Once again, I can’t help but smile at the mention of my cinnamon apple, and her and my honey crisp together. The only thing keeping me from bricking up is my honey crisp’s daddy is in front of me.
“Yeah, Autumn ended up having my son a couple years after, and her and Pay–I mean Fox, they’ve been raising him. To be honest, I feel like us all coming together is as natural as breathing.”
Apache narrows his eyes at me and rubs his hands together. “You love my daughter?”
“All due respect, sir, I don’t wanna have this conversation with you before I have it with Pay. Is there any way to get her out of this Covenant shit?”
“No, not without Grimey’s consent, and he wouldn’t do that. The contract is clear as day; a Beverly Daughter is promised and must join with a Grimes son–”
Nigga looks like he’s having a stroke, blinking and shit. I’m just about to stand when he locks in on my gaze and grins.
A goofy ass grin, too.
“I got something on my face?” I ask.
He just chuckles, before evolving into full-blown laughter.
“The spirits, they play cruel jokes… I feel like this is my Odina’s doing.”
Who the fuck is Odina?
“You speaking in tongues?”
He leans back and chuckles again. “Can I tell you a story, Royce?”
Old ass nigga gotta be senile. My honey crisp is being sold to a lunatic and he wanna have a pow-wow.
“Sure, Mr. Beverly.”
“I had a best friend once. Grimey’s father, TayBone.
OG G$, his father was the one that started it.
Geronimo Street, named after the original family name.
Anyway, the nigga was wild. He was the second son, so he had all the Grimes lunacy and no responsibility to rein it in.
You know this nigga robbed a bank just because he saw Set It Off in the theaters and figured he could pull it off? He did, too.
“Anyway, he gets popped on an unrelated charge. Got pulled over for speeding and had a warrant. He had Grime with him, so I went to pick him up and got to chop it up with him for a little while he waited for arraignment. I asked the nigga, ‘why are you in South Kenton anyway?’ You know what he said?”