Chapter 29 #2
I cut my eyes at him. The more time I spent with Bryant, the less I wanted to be around him.
He never knew how to read the fucking room, and he didn’t have a fucking filter.
We knew each other from the very last foster home I stayed in.
We weren’t the tightest, but we looked out for each other whenever it came time to.
We lost touch once I got adopted. He always talked about how he had this older brother he was separated from when people found out their mother up and left them.
His brother was sent to New York, while he remained in Jersey.
Once he aged out of foster care, he managed to track down his brother, who made a name for himself out in the streets.
Keenan was more of a stepper than Bryant would ever be, and he knew that.
Bryant wasn’t cut for the street life, but Keenan kept him underneath his wing.
When I made the move from New Jersey to New York, I didn’t really know anyone besides Priest and Jazzlyn, who wanted nothing to do with me, and Bryant.
We connected again over Facebook, and he started bringing me around Keenan and his folks.
I knew Bryant was feening to get into my pants, so I strung him along so he would trust me and keep me around.
The more I was around, the more open conversation I was able to sit in on.
When the names Silas, Ahkeem, Priest and Jazzlyn began floating around, I decided to test the temperature and not make any hasty moves.
I wanted to see if things would work out smoothly with Priest and Jazzlyn first before I let Keenan and Bryant know I was their sibling.
After the meeting we had with our lawyers, I knew we would never come together as family, and they made it very clear that they wouldn’t be giving me the money I was owed.
I deliberated with myself for weeks before telling Keenan and Bryant.
The look on Keenan’s face when I told him I was Jazzlyn and Priest’s sister looked like he struck gold.
Immediately, he hooked me up with Silas, who deemed me a valuable asset to his operation.
Despite us being blood, I didn’t owe Jazzlyn and Priest any loyalty, so I had to do whatever was in my best interest. The $25,000 Silas offered me if I brought him Jazzlyn alive was going to be the jumpstart to my new life.
We spent weeks plotting and keeping tabs on Jazzlyn.
She went ghost for a while, and we soon found out it was because she and Ahkeem were on the outs and she was ducked off over at Priest’s house.
Unlike Jazzlyn, who lived in a popular building in the city, Priest lived like a fucking president in a gated community.
The security that guarded it was so tight that they wouldn’t let shit slide.
We played the waiting game, and eventually, she was back at the penthouse.
Sometime later, Bryant got a call from Silas letting us know that Keenan died while holding it down for him with Roc in Miami.
They went out there for business, and Keenan never returned.
Bryant was devastated. His brother dying only fueled him to help me end Jazzlyn more.
For me, it was all about the money. Bryant, though? He was out for blood.
“She didn’t beat my ass. I just want to know so I can prepare myself.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“Silas keeps stressing how he wants her alive. If he didn’t, I would’ve been put a bullet between that hoe’s eyes. That nigga killed my brother. I should be the one to take his bitch’s life.”
“Fuck do we do now? Sit and wait?”
He finally unglued his eyes from Jazzlyn’s phone and shifted them onto me. “You asking hella questions for somebody in need of some paper. Just let Silas figure out how he going to get back to the city. Homie fucked up right now.”
“We don’t have fucking time, Bryant!” I stressed. “You heard what the fuck the bitch was saying about Ahkeem and Priest.”
Waving off my concerns, he smacked his lips. “No one knows where the fuck she’s at. All we gotta do is keep her alive until Silas gives us the green light to knock her off.”
There was a knock on the door that sent my heart plummeting to the pit of my stomach. My eyes widened as I snapped my head toward Bryant.
“Chill your paranoid ass the fuck out,” he told me as he stood up from the couch and slipped Jazzlyn’s phone into his pocket. He marched toward the door, checking through the dusty blinds before opening the door.
“We gotta move.” Beanie stormed through the house with a scowl on his face.
“What? Why?” I jolted up from my seat.
Now that Roc had been knocked off, Beanie was Silas’ new second in command. I never liked him. He was rude as fuck and always looked like he had a stick stuck up his ass.
“‘Cause I said so, bitch. Now move,” he ordered.
He pulled Bryant to the side, and they went off to the kitchen to chop it up. I was an ear hustler at heart, so of course, I eavesdropped into their conversation.
“Ahkeem and his crew just hit three of our traps. They onto us. Put that bitch in the car and drive to Maryland.”
“Silas said－” Bryant started, but Beanie quickly cut him off.
“I don’t give a fuck what Silas said! The nigga in a fucking hospital bed and can’t even get up to go piss. I’m telling you to move the bitch to Maryland. You lose her, and you gone end up with Keenan.”
Bryant was too much of a pussy to hold his own against Beanie, so he didn’t object. “We got into her phone. Got Ahk’s number.”
I heard a venomous chuckle exalt out of Beanie. “Imma make the call. Throw his ass off a little to buy us some time to get to Maryland. If that bitch start feeling bad for her sister at any point, knock her the fuck out. We not hosting a family fucking reunion.”
“Bet.” They slapped hands, and I quickly tiptoed to the back room where I kept a few things and began packing.
“We got fifteen minutes to get the fuck out of here. I’m gone carry her out through the back. If you not out by then, you getting left,” Bryant popped his head into the room and said.
“You can’t fucking leave me. I made this shit happen.”
“Like hell I can’t. She almost killed your ass down there. If I ain’t come down, you would’ve been dead. Just let me take the lead.”
“Fuck you, Bryant.”
“Whenever your sexy ass ready. Probably could do a threesome with your sister. Y’all look like twins,” he smugly replied while wading toward the stairs that led to the basement.
This shit was turning into more than I fucking bargained for. Bryant was getting beside himself, and now Beanie was running shit. Something told me this shit wasn’t going to end well.