Chapter 11
This morning I woke up to the sound of my gate buzzing.
I looked on my camera and let the DoorDash driver through.
Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night to Kyla on top of me, rubbing my dick across her clit until she was dripping wet and I was rock solid.
We went another round, and one more after that.
For someone who ain’t had sex in years, she was acting a fool like she was damn near addicted to my shit.
I couldn’t lie like I ain’t want it too.
Feelings aside, I still felt like Bri was the best I’d had, but Kyla was a close ass second.
I hated to even compare the two, but I couldn’t help it.
With Kyla, I felt something different though.
A connection like I’d never had with anybody else for real.
Like a good ass friend who I’m very much attracted to.
Things with her are easy and not complicated.
She makes it clear that she wants me the same way that I want her.
I was happy is hell to grab those pills from the driver, I tipped his ass fifty dollars for saving my life like that.
When I made it back to my room, Kyla was already in the bathroom handing her hygiene.
When she saw me come back in, she smiled and looked at me with those eyes that let me know that she was infatuated with a nigga. I couldn’t help but to smile back.
I joined her in the bathroom and brushed my teeth and washed my face too.
I was behind her in the mirror, rubbing on her and admiring how good we looked together.
Kyla was everything a man could want. All I could do is hope that I never saw that other side of her that she mentioned.
I passed her the CVS bag and she went into my room, grabbed her Stanley cup off the nightstand and wasted no time popping that pill.
I can’t lie like I wasn’t relieved to see it.
I called her a car, we sat down and had fruit for breakfast while we waited.
“I hope you have a good and productive day today. Try not to miss me too much.” She joked.
“It’s too late for all that. I miss you already and you ain’t even left yet. After last night and this morning, you gone have me sprung.” I smirked in her direction at the same time my gate buzzed.
“Then my job is well done,” she smiled before walking over to hug me, then walking out the door.
I stood there and watched her get into the car while thoughts of our time together replayed in my head.
All that I could do is shake my head. She was something else.
I now had less than an hour to get dressed and head to Legal.
—
Legal’s office was on the fourteenth floor of a building downtown that always smelled like mahogany and old money as soon as you stepped off the elevator. I had been coming here my whole life and it still felt like a different world every time I walked through those doors.
The kind of world my father never got to be a part of. I knew that he would have been proud of Legal. I know I am.
I got there at eight fifty and Mazi was already in the waiting area when I walked in. He stood up when he saw me, we dapped up and I looked at him the way I always did when I was trying to feel him out. I needed to know how he really was underneath what he was showing.
He looked tired. Not regular tired. The kind that came from carrying something heavy for too long without being able to let it go. I peeped that and didn’t say anything about it yet.
“How you feel baby boy? How that arm feeling?” I asked while searching his face for the truth.
“I’ve been better, but my arm is good. I’m almost back to new.”
“You better hope so. You can’t afford to not shine this upcoming season. Yo life is depending on it and you gotta take that seriously if you don’t do shit else.”
“Zay please! Man, I already know I messed up, that don’t take away all the good and right that I did before that one lil mistake.
I won’t fuck up again, and I hope you know that.
” my brother pleased with me. He was the only person who called me Zay, and I let him because that was our thing. I nodded and dropped the subject.
I knew how it felt to be judge off one mistake and I never wanted to make my brothers feel like that.
—
Legal’s assistant walked us back at nine on the dot.
Legal was standing behind his desk when we came in and he looked at both of us.
Something flashed across his face that I couldn’t read immediately.
He gestured to the two chairs across from his desk and waited until we both sat down before he sat.
He didn’t greet us with a hug or none of that good shit like normal. Nah, today he read about business.
He looked at Mazi first.
Then at me.
Then back at Mazi.
“I’m going to ask both of you something and I need the truth,” he said. “No protecting each other, no leaving things out. The truth only. Can you two respect me enough to do that?” Legal asked.
I looked at Mazi.
Mazi looked at me.
“Yeah, fa sho.” I said.
Legal folded his hands on the desk.
“Have you two been trying to get revenge for father’s death on your own?
” Legal asked. Now, I was confused. How could I get revenge when I had no idea who did it.
I put my ear to the streets since I was a teenager and never got any solid leads.
It was a million niggas in Dallas named Bj.
That was a lost mission and I accepted long ago that I’d probably never get justice.
Although I knew it was a stretch, I just had a gut feeling Marcus was connected to that same Bj, but even so, I didn’t go looking for that nigga either, he just popped up with Bri.
“Nah. Why would you even think that? You know when it comes to my brothers, I don’t play that. If that was the time that I was on, that’s something I would handle alone or with Gutta. Never the twins.” I answered honestly while Mazi sat there looking caught up.
Legal sat a folder down in front of us.
“Marcus Jennings, that’s Brielle’s boyfriend that you overheard at the hospital,” Legal said. “His father is Bernard James Jennings. BJ.”
He let that land.
I looked up from the folder.
“BJ is the same man who walked up to your father twenty two years ago and told him to throw that fight,” Legal said.
“When Hood refused BJ went to Veteran and Veteran gave the order since that’s who was really in charge of those betting rings amongst other things. Your father was dead two days later after thinking he was meeting with them for another offer.”
He paused. “Marcus is his son.”
The room went silent.
I sat back in my chair and stared at the ceiling for a second because if I looked at anything else in that room right now I was going to lose it completely. I felt my jaw twitching uncontrollably, then my left eye started to do the same.
BJ’s son had been in Brielle’s house. In her bed. At her dinner table. For years. Did he purposely do this because of my connection to her? Who was this nigga? He killed my father, then hooked his son up with the love of my life all these years later.
“Do you think he could have placed Marcus in her life because of her connection to me,” I said.
“It’s possible that BJ knew about your history with Brielle. Having his son close to her meant having eyes on you without you ever knowing they were there. That’s how he knew so much about your fights, he was planted there.”
“So Marcus has been reporting back to his father this whole time?”
“That is what the evidence suggests. From what it seems, he has a problem with your family and it didn’t stop when your father died.
I’ve been gathering evidence to take this pussy down since my best friend died and I just keep coming up short.
He was a coward who feared how great Hood would before.
Now, I fear that it’s the same thing with you and your career. That’s why Marcus was planted.”
I stood up.
Legal stood up with me.
“Xavier—”
“I just need a minute to process this bullshit,” I walked to the window and stood there with my back to both of them.
BJ’s son had been sitting in that hospital waiting room the night Mazi got shot.
Acting concerned. Asking questions. Holding Brielle’s hand.
And his father’s people had put that bullet in my brother’s arm.
Now I’m hearing it may be because of me and my career, the same reason my father got killed because of his.
I turned back around.
“Mazi.” I looked at my brother straight.
“Now is your time to come clean about everything. Who were you working for? And how? I’m not playing with you no more.
This shit ain’t adding up, and I need answers.
Marcus knew exactly who you were and that you’d been shot before anyone told him anything.
You working for this BJ nigga?” I asked, trying to make sense of everything.
Mazi went still.
Then he stood up and walked to the other side of the office and put both hands on the wall and dropped his head. I could hear him breathing from where I was standing.
“I messed up bad. I thought that I was playing them, but they played me the whole time. I found some info that Veteran and the nigga BJ may have had pops killed, I couldn’t get to either of them, so I got up with Tavarus and he gave me work about three months ago.
He played me into thinking that he had love for you and the family, but if all this is true, then he let me in so that they could get to you and possibly kill me too.
All I wanted was to find who killed pops and make em pay.
Our lives was robbed and niggas still walking around here free and breathing.
I needed the family to cry just like my momma had to. ” Mazi expressed.
I looked at him and felt like a failure. I had no idea my baby brother was carrying all of this or that he was trying to handle this on his own.
“Mazi! You are a kid, you had no business— he cut me off.
“That’s the problem. I’m a grown man Street and you act like you can’t respect or recognize that.
All my life it’s been you that had to carry the weight of everything and that’s not fair!
You took care of momma. You took care of us but who pose to look out for you?
The shit you seen at five years old, no child should witness.
We were robbed and I’m tired of playing like I’m cool with it.
Them niggas gotta bleed. And now that I know Tavarus was playing with me this whole time and had a hand in me getting shot, I’ll start with him.
Then them other niggas will get the message. ”
I looked at my baby brother and saw nothing but hate in his eyes. He wanted to avenge his father‘s death while also protecting me. That wasn’t his job, and I’d never allow him to move like that.
“When have I ever not handled business? When have I ever not looked out for you? You should have came to me with the information you had instead of moving reckless. I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to you.
Do you understand that? You have too much ahead of you to be trying to murder anybody.
Put it in my hands, and I can promise you it’s going to get handled.
Don’t ever do no stupid shit like this again.
You could’ve lost your life, you could’ve lost your chance, you could’ve lost it all and for what?
I’m so disappointed I don’t know what to do.
You had the right idea, but you went about this all wrong. ”
I walked over and put my hand on his back and we stood there and didn’t say anything because there was nothing to say that was going to fix what he was carrying right now.
When he turned around his jaw was set.
“BJ gotta go. You know who he’s connected to now. Marcus ain’t hard to find.” he said.
“We will handle it,” Legal said. “But we do it right. BJ is our way to Veteran. We find BJ first and through him we find out who Veteran really is. But nobody moves or does anything without my say. Let me keep working on my end. I promise we do this the right way. Taking them out their misery ain’t making them pay.
Stripping everything away from them is what’s going to hurt the most. I’m begging you, just chill for now.
Street, you have a fight coming up, and Mazi, this is you and Melo’s most important year. Please, listen to me.”
I looked at Mazi.
“You’re done inside that operation. You don’t need to be doing shit but staying away from them people and that trap.”
“Street, if I go missing, it’s going to look suspicious.”
“You owe them anything? For any work you’ve been fronted”
“Nah. I got off all of it already. I was gonna re-up this week.”
“Yeah. That’s dead! Let me handle the rest from here. Ima pay Tavarus a visit myself.”
“Xavier, please don’t do nothing crazy! You gave me your word.” Legal pleaded.
“I’m not. He just needs to know that my brother is off-limits. My family is off-limits. Then, I’ll have to talk to Brielle. I gotta see how much she knows. And if she even cares that she might be sleeping with the enemy.”