Chapter 9
For weeks, I had been sick behind Harmoni going all out for Black on his birthday.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I scrolled on social media and saw that Harmoni had bought that nigga a fuckin’ barbershop.
People were calling my phone and sending me videos, and I just wanted to be left the fuck alone.
The last thing I wanted to see was my girl happy with another dude.
It was sad that I made one mistake, and now I was the worst nigga in the world.
She didn’t give a nigga any grace at all.
Never had I been the one to cry over spilled milk, and I slowly realized that I just needed to give it up.
She was now pregnant and engaged to someone else.
From the looks of things, they were more locked in than we had ever been.
I had stopped at Outback and grabbed Journei some lunch.
Now, I was headed to her job to surprise her.
Lately, I had been more open to the idea of taking her seriously.
Once Moni proved that I wasn’t her baby daddy, I felt the urge to move on.
If anyone was going to get a chance, it would be Journei.
She hadn’t changed up on me, and I could really fuck with that.
Once I arrived at the hospital, I headed straight to labor and delivery, where she worked. She was leaving a patient’s room when she saw me, and she instantly smiled from ear to ear. She directed me to her break room, where I sat at the table and watched her eat her lunch.
She caught me up on her day and how busy things had been at the hospital.
Once her break was over, I kissed her and headed to get my son from his grandmother’s house.
I promised Journei that we could link later once she was off of work.
As I headed to get JJ, Keith called me. I answered and allowed it to blare through my car speakers.
“Yo!” I answered.
“Something ain’t right, J! Amir was supposed to drop something off last night, and I haven’t seen or heard from him. I need you to pull up. I know that nigga wouldn’t take from us, so something has to be wrong,” Keith panicked.
“Say less. I’m on my way,” I said as I made a U-turn in the middle of the street and headed back toward Keith’s direction.
When I made it to Keith’s crib, he was waiting for me out front.
He ran it to me about how Amir was supposed to deliver two bricks to one of our regular customers last night.
Amir was said to have never shown up, and now he was missing.
My first thought was that maybe the customer had knocked him off and taken the work, but after doing business with him for all these years, nothing like this had ever happened.
The customer was also in panic mode and threatened to get a new connect if we couldn’t deliver in a timely manner.
I made several calls to our other workers to see if they had heard or knew anything, and everyone was just as lost as I was.
Amir and Jack were cousins, so I reached out to him and asked about Amir, but he didn’t know anything either.
As I spoke to Jack, he was being pulled over.
I asked him if he had any work on him, and he advised that he did, but it wasn’t much.
Not wanting to get caught up in any shit, I told Jack not to say shit if they searched him and found it.
I told him that I would handle it on my end.
Jack put his phone on speaker and in his console so I could hear what was going on.
Jack was searched and arrested, so I called my lawyer and told him what was going on.
I needed Jack out of jail before he could get interrogated.
When it came to my freedom, I didn’t trust a soul.
No matter how solid a nigga said he was, they would still fold if they were facing time.
Now, I had one more thing on my list of shit to be concerned about.
I left Keith’s crib and went to pick my son up. When I arrived, the two detectives were leaving Eva’s house, and I found that strange. Seeing them leaving my son’s grandma’s house was odd because I had not seen or heard from them in months. Matt, since my son’s mama passed away.
When I saw the detectives get into their car and leave, that’s when I got out of my car and headed to Eva’s house.
“I don’t know where she is. Nobody knows. The detectives just came here saying that she escaped the program with some nigga, and they can’t find her! I need you to fuckin’ help me!” Eva said into the phone as I walked into her house.
“What’s going on? And what did those detectives want?” I asked, startling her.
Eva jumped and clutched her chest. Instead of responding immediately, she seemed to be looking for a lie to tell.
“I didn’t know you were here. Why didn’t you knock? I really don’t want you in my daughter’s business, but we had to put Taylor into rehab after what happened to Diamond, and now she has escaped and is missing. That’s why the detectives were just here,” she said, sounding unsure.
“Damn, I just saw her a few weeks ago. When did she get strung out? I guess you can never really tell, but I’m sorry to hear that. Today has been full of crazy shit. I hope y’all find her soon,” I said.
“She’s been taking it really hard, and she finally just broke. I didn’t want anyone to know about it. This is very heartbreaking,” Eva faked.
It was something about her that seemed phony. She was texting very fast on her phone while I got my son and his things together. I didn’t know what she had going on, but I wasn’t about to stay there longer than I had to. I had a lot of shit on my plate and had no room to pack hers on top of it.
Once JJ was packed up and ready to go, we left the house and headed home. The best thing for me to do was to just stop letting Eva get my son for a while. It was just too much shit going on.
My lawyer called me a few hours later and told me that he was working on getting Jack out and asked if he should be working on getting Amir out as well.
I asked him what the charges were, and he advised that they hadn’t been charged yet and that he was working on getting more information.
Shit was getting weirder by the second. My operation had always been solid, and I never had run ins with the law until now.
I had soldiers who were now in jail and work missing off the streets.
Somebody was about to give me some kind of answers.
I called Keith and let him know what was going on with Amir.
The amount of money I lost by getting those bricks confiscated was insane.
I was really sick to my stomach right now.
I sat on pins and needles, trying to get more information from my lawyer.
When my lawyer called me back, he told me that he had an inside source.
He advised me that a case was being built against me and my operation and that they had two different sources.
When I heard that, it felt as if my walls were caving in on me.
My lawyer set up an appointment for me to come by the next day and talk to him.
I didn’t know what I had done to be going through all of this, but somebody really had it out for me.
I had made so many enemies in so little time that I really didn’t know who the sources could be.
As JJ slept in his bed, I sat up all night stressing and anticipating my meeting tomorrow.
Unable to sleep, I called Journei and asked her to come over.
When she arrived, against my better judgment, I told her everything that was going on.
I was so damn scared of losing everything, especially my son.
I just needed to get the shit off my chest.
“You have to calm down. When you meet with your lawyer tomorrow, you will know exactly where you stand. I will go with you and look out for JJ while you talk with him. They can’t have any real evidence on you.
Just make sure you move your stash spots, just in case them niggas switch on you,” Journei said, making a lot of sense.
During the night, I didn’t sleep at all.
I was so worried about what might happen that I was really stressed out.
I decided not to tell Keith anything yet until I knew what evidence they had on us if any.
Lately, neither of us had really been getting our hands dirty. I would just have to see tomorrow.
The next morning, Journei woke up and got JJ dressed while I got myself together. She cooked us breakfast, and after we ate, we were out the door. When I arrived at my lawyer’s office, I had JJ and Journei wait in the waiting area while I went inside his office and spoke with him.
“Jakari, I’m going to shoot it straight.
This is not looking good at all. I’ve gotten wind that someone has turned on you and your operation, and you all are looking at serious time.
I’m not sure what evidence they have exactly, but what I do know is that they are looking to bring you up on distribution charges, trafficking charges, an attempted murder charge, and a list of other things.
I’ve been trying since last night to get those other two guys a bond, but they can’t be touched right now.
They could be trying to get them to flip on you as we speak.
It’s been over twenty-four hours since they’ve been holding Amir, so I’m going to have the DA grant me permission to get in to see him.
He hasn’t even had a phone call, from what I hear.
I’m going to do everything on my end to make sure they don’t tell them shit!
By the time I’m done, we will have a lawsuit against the state.
Just keep your nose and hands clean until I sort this out,” Davidson said.
It took everything in me not to be full blown crying at that moment.
My son needed me, and I needed him, so I had to keep my freedom.
I had no clue who could have been snitching on me.
My soldiers were all solid and trustworthy; they had no reason to turn on me.
All my people ate good—I made sure of that.
My brother had always told me that if you starved a dog, it would turn on you, but if you kept him fed, he would always be loyal. I lived by that shit.
Once we were back in my car, I called Keith and asked him to meet me at the trap.
I didn’t have time to drop my son and Journei off.
I told her I had some stuff to move around and that we would go back to my crib as soon as I was done.
I had no safe spots where I could move my work to.
As I sat and thought about where to put it, Jashawn came to mind.
I needed to stash my work and money at his crib until this all blew over.
He had an oversized shed in his backyard that they never used.
Unable to talk over the phone, I decided to clear all the work out of the trap now, then head over to Jashawn’s and ask for his help.
Keith and I pulled up at the same time. I told him what the lawyer had just said, and we quickly went into our spot and started packing up everything.
Twenty minutes, several boxes and duffle bags later, we were headed to Jashawn’s spot.
Keith trailed me on the highway as I made sure to do the exact speed limit.
I called my brother and asked him to come outside in the next five minutes because I would be pulling up, and it was urgent.
Since Diamond died, I hadn’t been fucking with him, so I could only hope he wouldn’t turn his back on me.
When I pulled up, Keith and I both jumped out and quickly explained the situation to my brother.
As I looked into my car, I noticed Journei frantically looking around, and I wondered what part of all this had her on edge.
Normally, I wouldn’t have rode dirty like that with anyone else in the car, but my freedom was at stake.
“I told yo’ emotional ass that you were gonna need me again. I would never hold no shit over your head, though, so like a big brother supposed to, I got you! Let’s start unloading this shit into the shed and hurry up,” Jashawn said.
Jashawn, Keith, and I started grabbing duffle bags and boxes out of my car.
I looked at JJ sleeping in his car seat and promised myself that I was done with this shit.
As I made my way to the shed, my phone rang, and it was Wesley calling, so I answered it on speaker while I continued to move shit.
I didn’t want to hear anything about his weird ass auntie or his strung out ass cousin.
Since Diamond had been gone, that whole family had been on some other shit, and I was definitely about to start keeping JJ away.
“What’s up, Wesley? I’m a lil busy,” I answered.
“Jakari, you been my best friend since knee-high, so I can’t let it go down like this.
You need to be real careful because the feds are on their way to get you.
Diamond is not dead. She was in witness protection, building an attempted murder and drug case against y’all.
She escaped the program, and we don’t know where she is.
She has also had our cousin Journei on you to get information and help the case.
Stay the fuck away from her and get out of dodge now if you can! ” Wesley blurted.
Just as he said that, the box I was carrying fell to the ground, and my knees almost gave out on me.
Jashawn and Keith also stopped in their tracks.
Jashawn pulled his strap out and headed toward my car, but before he could make it to Journei, police cars swarmed the whole house.
Detectives Lee and Myers rushed up to us with their guns drawn, forcing us to get on our knees and place our hands behind our heads.
They read us our rights, then cuffed us before they placed us in the back of the police cars, where we were forced to watch them take all our drugs and money.
When Journei looked in my direction, I nodded at her, letting her know I was going to get her ass. There was no way these dirty bitches were gon’ get away with this shit.