Goon
“Sexy, they got the jet fueled and ready, right?” Core questioned, as he paced in front of the large floor to ceiling windows.
We were at some massive ass estate in Hudson Valley. Every time I thought this family couldn’t have more money, they turned around and had some more. The Caselli crest on the front of the iron gates let me know that this was another family home.
“Yes. I have the pilot staying at the private airport. Soon as you give me the word, wheels are up.”
He nodded his head as his attention was on his other phone. “Shit.”
I leaned up. “What?”
“They about to be able to turn those lights on soon enough. Me and Grasshopper can’t hold them off any longer.”
Jeffie sighed. “Did he give you a time when they will come back on?”
“Twenty-four hours.”
“Can’t the nigga hold off? He letting you know that he’s about to figure the shit out.”
Core chuckled. “This was him letting me know. It’s an unspoken rule… we don’t get in the way of other’s money. Out of respect, he reached out and told me that he was the one they were working with because he knew this was me.”
“I can’t wait to see you... if that makes you feel better,” Jeffie tried to cheer him up.
It in fact did, and he smiled. “Yeah?”
“Uh huh.”
“Why you can—”
I jumped up off the couch. “Let me get the fuck up out of here.”
The fuck they thought? I was about to sit here and listen to them talking nasty when I hadn’t saw or touched my girl in forever?
Damn house was so big that I didn’t even know where to go. I headed down a hallway, hoping to find the kitchen. The hallway I had headed down was a dead end, but at the end of it, up on the wall was a huge portrait of a man and woman.
The were both staring into each other’s eyes. His hand caressed her face, as her hand rested on his wrist. Their smiles were fucking contagious with the way they stared into each other’s souls.
It didn’t take a genius for me to put the pieces together.
These were their parents, and it was evident by the man.
Menace and Don were the spitting image of the man in the portrait.
Menace inherited his eyebrows, which made him look eviler than he was.
My eyes roamed the portrait, as I looked at their mother and took a few steps back.
Kora resembled her mother heavily. They shared the same dark almond shaped eyes, high cheek bones, and pouty lips. Her hair was pulled up into a big bun, but I was willing to bet that she had curls like Kora.
“You wanna fuck my mother?” I heard Menace’s raspy voice behind me.
One would have been startled by his lack of announcement, but I was starting to embrace the quietness that came with the Caselli’s, specifically Menace.
“They were a beautiful couple. I can feel the love they had for each other in this picture, and I never even met them.”
It was clear that his parents loved each other.
Even if I didn’t know who they were, you could still feel their love radiating from the picture.
His father stared into his wife’s eyes like he would do anything for her.
The same way that Menace stared at Stevie.
As if he would give up the entire world if she asked him to.
He finally came into view, standing beside me with his hands tucked into his pockets.
“They took that picture the day after I was born. Pops said moms delivery with me was so rough. The first thing she asked for when she woke the next morning was to stand outside. She wanted to feel the wind and sun on her skin.”
My stomach turned thinking about Boobie, and the fact that she was pregnant with my baby. It was easy to whisper into a woman’s ear you wanted to give her your seed, but it came with more than that.
Women died from childbirth.
While niggas took it as a joke when they busted nuts in women they knew they had no plans on having a future with, some of those women ended up pregnant.
I’d never judge a woman on her choice to abort a baby or keep one, but some kept their babies.
They had to go through nine months of their bodies and mental changing and then give birth in the end.
It was the reason that I respected women who were selective with their bodies and who they shared it with. As stupid as Boobie was to be with a bum like Sigel, she wasn’t out here giving it away to every nigga that whispered something sweet in her ear.
The minute I asked her to let me make us parents; I knew what that meant. Even if we didn’t work out, she and my child would never go without. I would still be present in my kid’s life, because that was what a father did.
“I heard Inez when she gave birth. We were in the waiting room, and even back then I knew childbirth wasn’t some shit to play with.”
He looked over at me. “He was a crack baby?”
Between him and his sister, they were going to drive me into a mad house. I would have been offended, but this was Menace. I don’t think he even understood what offending someone meant. From the look on his face and the tone of his question, I could tell he was concerned if Melle was a crack baby.
“Nah.”
“Wonder had a rough birth. We prepared and had binders of shit for the birth and couldn’t follow none of that. I already had my answer for when they asked me.”
“What question?”
“Save my wife or our son.”
“And?”
“Save my wife. There’s not another Wonder. I could spend billions and never find a woman that is like her. Plus, I didn’t know that little nigga.” He snorted, as he continued to ball his hands up in his pockets.
I chuckled. “And now?”
“Don’t ask me that.”
I stared at him, realizing that was a hard question for him to answer as a husband and a father. “Couldn’t make one?”
“Nah.” He squeezed his eyes closed tightly and rotated his neck from side to side. His jaw flexed as he continued to squeeze his eyes open and shut.
“Mens, you straight?”
“If something happens to you, I can’t forgive myself. I know what you mean to her… so get on that jet and go to her, Gavin.”
I ignored the fact that he never called me by my right name. “Before Zoya, I was out there doing me… I’m supposed to be family, right?”
“Debatable.”
“Nigga, I know the family’s deep twisted ass secrets… I’m family.” It wasn’t my place to tell him that he was going to be an uncle.
That news should have come from her, and not me. Zoya and Menace had a very complicated relationship. You knew they loved one another, but their relationship wasn’t the best.
I wanted him to hear it from her, so they could have that moment. The one thing they both could agree on was their love for Dennis, and how he made them soft in their own way. It was a prayer that ours would do the same for the both of them.
For my family, too.
Between losing Melle and my mom’s health, it felt like our family had a dark cloud lingering over us. This blessing was going to bring the sun out again and give my mother something to look forward to.
Khaos wasn’t about to make her a grandmother anytime soon, so it was my duty and responsibility to provide the first grandchild.
He sighed. “Heard you.”
“Fuck I look like going to my wife and leaving family behind? Family don’t quit on family… we handle shit, jet, and back into their arms… and your fucking medication. Why the fuck are you staring at me like that, Mens?”
I backed the fuck up and bumped into Don. “Drink this shit.”
Don handed Menace a red ass smoothie and then turned to me. “Blair got the location for that bullshit ass ball tonight.”
“Where?”
“Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan. I’m not surprised that he was able to pull that shit off. Nigga knows a lot of big names with even stronger ties.”
“Stronger than this nigga’s ties?” I looked at Menace as he sipped his smoothie, staring at his parents’ portrait.
Don looked at me offended. “Suck your dick?”
“Nigga, what?”
“You invited me to your dick?”
“The fuck?”
“He did,” Menace cosigned.
I tossed my hands up, stressed and ready to get the fuck on. “Answer the fucking question.”
“They want pussy, but they want it for cheaper and not from someone who could ruin their lives. Every member of Case House knows I can ruin them with a click of this nigga’s mouse.
Those who are too cheap to pay for quality pussy link up with homie to take me out.
” He smirked, amused that they wanted him dead.
“Preston Vance?”
“And Sigel… that food been cool for a minute now. The fuck is the hold up?” Menace questioned.
I screwed my face up. “Nigga, in case you ain’t noticed, that fat bitch of a security guard was handled… he coming next. I’m not in a rush.”
“Heard you.”
“Tonight. I had Capella drive Aimee to Boston last night to catch a flight. She’ll already have landed before tonight. She knows I need eyes on us, so once we’re done, lights on and we’re already in the air.”
Don’s jaw flexed.
“Mens, this is what you wanna do, right?”
He paused and looked his brother in the eye. “Yeah.”
“Heard you.” He walked out the room, leaving me and Menace standing there. We both turned to look at the portrait.
I noticed the hospital band that was on her wrist, and the hospital sticker on his shirt. It was small details like that, that I wouldn’t have noticed had he not explained it to me.
“You casually just have two estates?”
“My father’s estate.” He took a long sip of his smoothie before he spoke again. “He purchased this before he was able to surprise my mom with it. This was going to be her anniversary gift.”
“Damn.”
“She always said she wanted to be further out. Said Staten Island stopped feeling like home… think she felt the disconnect between my father’s family before he did. This was his surprise to her… showing her that he was listening to her needs.”
“Perfect distance away from the noise of the city, but still close enough.”
He nodded his head slowly. “Kora probably would have flipped her shit having to switch schools. She never got the chance to.”
“If it means anything, I think she would have loved it.”
“Me too. When I took over everything, I found out about this estate. I got sick when I pulled up to those gates and the Eaton crest was there.”