Chapter 7 Jakari
Icalled Eva for the hundredth time in the past two weeks.
I hadn’t heard anything from her in a while.
She wouldn’t take my calls, nor would she bring my son to see me.
Shit was all fucked up, and I could only blame myself.
My lawyer was coming to see me today because he had some news for me.
All I could do was hope it was good news.
The last time I spoke to him, Diamond and Journei’s funky asses had disappeared into thin air, and I was told that was making the case they had against us weak.
The first thing I would do when I got free was get my son back.
This was the longest I had gone without him, and I didn’t know how much more I could take.
Since I had been locked up, I had no contact with Jashawn or Keith, but I knew they would keep it solid.
As bad as I had handled my brother, he could have easily said that I was the one in charge of the whole operation and gotten himself a lighter sentence.
We weren’t built like that, though. Diamond had caused so much havoc in my life, and now I wished that bullet had actually killed her ass.
I went above and beyond for Diamond. All I did was make sure that her and my son were straight, and she did all this shit to me because I didn’t want her ass.
The even more fucked up part was that right when I was finally ready to move on from Harmoni, the bitch I had fallen for was setting me up from jump.
Journei just didn’t know who she had fucked with.
One thing I didn’t play about was my feelings.
I had really started letting her in, and it was all a set up.
I never imagined being a tender ass nigga, but the more I replayed the events that got me there, I realized that I was really a sucka.
While I was on the yard, getting some air, the guards called me in to see my lawyer. Once they led me into the room and uncuffed me. I sat down across from my lawyer and jumped straight into it.
“What’s going on? You said you got some news for me. Please tell me you can get me out of here,” I blurted.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about.
Diamond and her cousin won’t be testifying against you.
It seems that they’ve skipped town and are nowhere to be found.
No other witnesses have come forward to say that they know anything.
Now, this is where it gets sticky. You all were caught red handed with drugs and money, so someone will have to eat the charges.
Keith spoke to me and told me that he wanted to take the fall.
He is willing to say that you all knew nothing about what was in the boxes, and he just asked you all to help him move some things.
Jashawn agreed to let him use his storage, thinking he was moving out of his house and needed somewhere to store his personal items. Now, if he does that, you guys will get a conspiracy charge, but I’m sure that I can get it dropped or have you doing as little as just probation,” Davidson said.
“I can’t let Keith do that. Hell nah! Man, I need to talk to him. You gotta send a kite for me. I need to tell him to just sit still and let this shit play out,” I retorted.
“That’s not smart. If you do that, you will be facing up to twenty-five years if found guilty.
I’m telling you that with this plan, you are only looking at probation, and that’s not even guaranteed.
You’ll be a fool not to take it. What I can do for you is this, call my cell phone in twenty minutes.
I’m going to head to the other side to visit Keith, and I will let him speak to you briefly. ”
I wrapped up my visit with Davidson and went back to the dorms to wait until it was time to call and speak to Keith.
I was pacing the floor, trying to understand why Keith wanted to do some shit like that.
I was a man before anything, and I would take my charge on the head before I let him do it for me.
When I finally called Davison, he answered and gave Keith the phone.
“Don’t do no stupid shit, Keith. I’m gon’ get us out this shit. You just gotta be patient. Diamond and Journei done ran, so shit ain’t looking too bad. Just chill and wait it out,” I told Keith.
“Look, bruh, I didn’t want to tell you this cause I don’t want you worried.
I’ve been sick as fuck since I been in here, and I found out it’s cancer, and it’s progressing.
It doesn’t matter if I’m in here or out there, I don’t have long.
Let me do this one solid to make up for all the shit you’ve done for me. Just let me handle this,” Keith said.
I was lost for words and couldn’t form a complete sentence.
It felt like a ton of bricks had just fallen on me.
My best friend in the world was telling me that he was about to leave here, and it wasn’t shit that I could do about it.
I promised Keith that I would look out for him and make sure he was good no matter what.
When I ended that call, I went back into my cell and lay down.
Mentally drained and stressed out was all that I could use to describe what I felt.
With everything happening to and around me, you would think that I was just some bad ass person.
Karma had my ass in a chokehold, and I didn’t even know what I had done wrong.
I never led Diamond on; I always kept it a buck with her.
The beef I had with Black was strictly because of him moving wrong.
Other than those things, I was a good dude.
I took care of the people I loved, and I was a good ass father.
When I got out, I was gonna focus on my son, living right, and putting that street shit behind me.
Losing everything I cared about was a big wake up call.
Keith and Davidson were men of their words.
Almost a month after our visit, Jashawn and I were free men.
I stood on what I told Keith and I put money on his books and on the phones, and I answered every call that I received from him.
The first thing I did as a free man was look for my son and Eva relentlessly.
She had also taken him and ran off. I had to file a missing person’s report on my son because, by law, he could not be taken away from me.
Jashawn and I had slowly started rebuilding our relationship, and I had given the streets up.
I was in the process of cleaning all my money and looking for investments.
The only thing I was missing now was Moni and JJ.
I didn’t care how crazy it sounded, I knew that Moni was my soulmate.
Shit like that wasn’t something you could just get over and move on from.
I knew that word hadn’t hit the streets that I was free yet, so I used that to my advantage and rode past her shop every chance I got.
She was never there, and I assumed it was because she was taking time off to spend with her baby.
After going on her social media, I knew for sure that her baby wasn’t mine.
To see her in mommy mode with another man’s seed was like a blow to the gut.
Now I understood firsthand how she must have felt when she found out about JJ.
She was supposed to have been mine, and our kids should have been together, not by these outside muthafuckas who don’t mean shit.
Deep down, I felt like Harmoni just wanted to keep her image.
I felt like she wanted us to be together, but she just didn’t want to look like a fool.
If I had a chance to right my wrongs, I would never do anything else to lose her trust. The only thing on my mind was coming up with a plan to get my woman back.
I was riding past the salon when I saw Black walking to his shop next door.
I parked my car in the lot and debated on going inside to holla at him.
One thing about me, I didn’t mind fighting for what I loved, and the more time passed, the more I knew that I needed to make my move.
This second chance at freedom wasn’t by mistake. I had to get my woman back.
After twenty minutes of rubbing my hands together and contemplating, I decided to get out of my car and go on inside. As I walked past the salon, I caught a glimpse of Carmen’s hating ass, and her eyes followed me until I was out of her view.
When I walked inside the barbershop, Black was laughing while cutting his client’s hair and chopping it up with some of the customers.
His smile instantly faded when he saw me come inside.
I was greeted by one of the other barbers, and he asked if he could hook me up with a fade, but I told him that I would wait for Black to cut me.
Dude told me that the owner didn’t accept walk-ins and that I needed to book an appointment online.
When I glanced in his direction, Black told me to grab a seat, and he would get to me shortly.
I took a seat in the waiting room and grabbed a magazine to look at.
Looking around, I noticed that the place was decorated nicely, and it gave the same vibe as Harmoni’s salon.
My blood started to boil, and I felt something that I never really experienced, jealousy.
Not knowing how I would approach the situation, I sat and waited for Black to finish his client so we could have a one on one.
Twenty minutes later, he motioned for me to have a seat in his chair. As soon as I sat down, he greeted me like he wasn’t the nigga who had stolen my girl.
“You a free man, I see. I’m glad that bullshit Diamond pulled on you ain’t stick. I made sure my people didn’t fuck off on your turf while you was gone either. My word is bond, nigga. You looking crispy already. Want me to just give you an edge up?” Black said as he placed the cape around me.