10. Kingsley #3
I took off, heading to Nome. The entire way there, I thought about things Treasure and I could do if I could convince her to get out of the house.
I truly believed if she had gotten out more before the PJ incident, it would have helped with her mental recovery.
Somehow, I would have to get her to face her fears. We couldn’t stay indoors forever.
When I got to Nome and had turned in my parents’ driveway, I could see them at the back near the barn.
Rhodes was here too. That was Karima’s husband.
He and my dad had gotten extremely close over the past couple of years.
After parking, I grabbed my phone and got out.
As I got closer, I could see the frown on Rhodes’s face.
My dad was frowning as well. KJ and Kane were toward the back of the pasture, so they were probably oblivious to whatever was going on.
I saw a vehicle on the other side of the barn, and once I cleared the corner, I saw a white man standing there with a slight smirk on his lips.
I frowned as he looked my way. The crazy part was that he was out here alone. People typically didn’t come out here alone anymore because they knew how deep we ran. We didn’t fuck around when it came to family.
“What’s up, y’all?” I said when I reached them.
I shook my dad’s hand and Rhodes’s hand, then turned my attention to the white man standing there, still adorning the frown I had when I first saw him.
I supposed he was waiting for an introduction.
When he didn’t get one, he chuckled. He extended his hand, and said, “I’m Special Agent Peyton Cochran. ”
I stood here staring at him, not offering my hand or a single word to confirm that I gave a fuck. He chuckled. “You Hendersons run a strict program.” After pulling a card from his wallet, he dropped it at my dad’s feet. “I hope to hear from you soon.”
He walked off, and we all watched him get into his vehicle and drive away. My dad slid his hand down his face.
“What the fuck he want?” I asked.
“He’s trying to blackmail me into talking. There’s a recording of the night Reggie was killed. My voice is on it, saying that he had a slow pulse, but he should be done now. I don’t know where that recording was, because when I got his body, there was nothing on him.”
“Fuck!” I yelled. “He’s been holding that shit all this time? Why didn’t he turn that in?”
“I don’t think he had it all this time. I feel like someone gave it to him. My face isn’t on it, no one’s is, but it’s clearly my voice.”
“So what’s his shady ass asking for?” Rhodes asked.
“Money. What else?”
“Are you gonna give it to him?” I asked.
“Hell fucking no. He gon’ have to turn that shit in. He ain’t getting a fucking dime of my money.”
I slid my hand down my face.
“Giving him money to make it go away would be proving my guilt. Why would I need to pay him unless I was guilty?”
I nodded slightly. “I get it, but man, I don’t wanna see you get locked up. That shit will kill all of us, Dad.”
“If I do, we will find a way out of it. I promise. I’m about to text Shy and Sidney. We definitely have to have that meeting tonight. There’s no way we can postpone it any longer.”
When I saw Uncle Storm pull up with Uncle Jasper in tow, I knew word had gotten out. Glancing toward the pasture, I saw KJ and Kane heading our way as well. They probably eventually saw that white man out here and called our uncles.
“Who the fuck was here? Was it that same muthafucka?” Uncle Storm asked when he got close.
“Yeah. We were outside so I couldn’t close a door in his face,” my dad responded.
“What did he say, Kenny?” Uncle Jasper asked.
“He played a recording from the night Reggie was killed. My voice, Marcus’s voice, and the niggas’ voices we were talking to that night are all over it. What I said, insinuated that I made sure he was gone.”
Uncle Jasper started pacing. “Fuck! Why the fuck he waited so long? This muthafucka been waiting on a fucking opportunity or some shit? Fuck! We got enough fucking bullshit going on around this bitch!”
I frowned slightly. It seemed he was angry about more than what was going on with my dad. We were all staring at him as Uncle Storm said, “Hey, you cool?”
“Naw. I need to talk to Kane. I got some shit from Watchful Eyes that I need to talk to him about.”
I practically broke out in a fucking sweat as my dad frowned. “What kind of shit?”
“He was going to Liberty with Crew. He and Crew were fucking Kambel together.”
“Nigga, what the fuck you said?” my dad said right as Kane and KJ finally met up with us.
I slid my hand down my face as the two of them looked on with confused expressions on their faces. My dad went in immediately, and asked, “You knew about Crew beforehand?”
Kane turned red as shit. I interjected before he could answer. “It’s more to that than y’all even know. He and I talked about it a couple of days ago. It’s been hella hard for him. Uncle Jasper, I know Crew was your son, but there’s some shit you didn’t know about him.”
He nodded. “You damn right. He was stealing money from us and was trying to steal our land. He was gonna sell our shit right from under us. So whatever was going on won’t surprise me.”
I took a deep breath and put my arm around my brother. “Thanks, King,” he said in a low voice.
“I got’chu. Always.”