CHAPTER FIFTEEN SEVEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SEVEN
Ishook hands with Uncle WJ and Uncle Marcus, then had a seat.
I didn’t know what all would be discussed tonight, but everyone was here, even Malachi and his family.
They’d recently moved back to the area from Houston.
I was assuming he was wanting to get involved in the family business, since he’d long retired from bull riding.
His dad, brother, and sister were here with their families as well. From what I understood, their dad, who was also Grandpa’s brother, used to be involved in the business back in the day when Grandpa was first starting out. Uncle Thomas was the mechanic until Grandpa started pimping out Uncle WJ.
Maui sat next to me, rubbing her belly. I put my arm around her, and asked, “Why you here?”
When I started rubbing her stomach, she stared at me over her glasses.
I was rarely tender, but Iesha had a nigga soft as fuck.
Besides, I was gonna have a nephew. I hated that Indigo didn’t make it.
I was more sorrowful than anyone knew. I had even bought a couple of outfits for my niece that I’d since dropped in a Goodwill receptacle.
I was looking forward to spoiling her rotten.
Now there were gonna be three of those muthafuckas at once.
“I need to know what’s going on too.”
“Mythic could have relayed that to you. He told me y’all was naming the baby Majestic. What the hell?”
She giggled. “It was the closest I could get to Mythic without making him Mythic Junior. Neither of us wanted that. Mythic is a one-of-a-kind name.”
“You got that shit right. Majestic will be too. Y’all on that bullshit.”
“Shut up, Seven.”
Maui was glowing. Even with all the bullshit going on, she didn’t look stressed.
I supposed since Mythic was on the somewhat legal side of things this go round, she wasn’t as worried.
It helped that she was on the right medication as well.
I was glad Bali did what she did. When Dad told me she called that hit, I was proud of her.
I knew she was gangsta, but I never would have thought she would have gone there.
When Mrs. Sidney, Mr. Shy, and a few guys from Watchful Eyes walked in, I knew it was time to get down to business.
I was anxious to know what all they had found out.
For the entire family to be here, I knew it was about more than just me.
When she spoke to PJ, I walked out. I didn’t want to be a witness to all the bullshit in his hospital room.
That way if I had to get loud, I wouldn’t get thrown out of the damn building.
I knew he had some good shit to tell her.
Otherwise, those bitches wouldn’t have tried to kill him.
They were almost successful. We didn’t even get to talk about how he even was able to get to the hospital.
I was pretty sure Watchful Eyes had something to do with that though.
They didn’t dare have him out there by himself, just in case something like that happened.
I just wished he would have been wearing a vest. He typically did.
Mrs. Sidney went to the mic, and said, “Hey, family.”
Everybody laughed and applauded. She continued, completely dropping her professionalism. “Shit, I’m around y’all asses more than I’m with my husband. I’m just gon’ start bringing him with me. He’s a lot like Jasper. He just doesn’t smoke nearly as much.”
“Bring that nigga then! He gon’ end up being a full-blown smoker if he hang around here enough,” Uncle Jasper said, then laughed.
Mrs. Sidney chuckled, then her face turned serious. She frowned and glanced at Mr. Shy as he rubbed down the top of his head, clearly trying to contain himself.
“So, Seven. The FBI is trying to charge you with murder, but since you’re here, you obviously know that didn’t stick.
Your dad provided camera footage of your whereabouts for when PJ was attacked.
Which he shouldn’t have had to. The burden of proof is on their asses.
They were making bogus ass accusations without proof to back any of it up. ”
“Muthafuckas,” Mr. Shy said in a low voice.
“Seven, you were drugged. There was Xanax, Valium, and a general anesthetic in your system. During which you confessed to being there when all those people got killed. That confession is getting thrown out because of our findings. Y’all can’t just go fuck shit up.
One day, that shit gon’ catch up with y’all.
Rowdy asses. They gon’ pay for that shit though. Dearly.”
She smirked as everyone chuckled.
“PJ was able to give us a lot of information we will be able to use. The FBI called his hit. The ‘undercover agent’ ain’t undercover at all. They all knew he was FBI. They were funding their activities, because they could be more inconspicuous than them. I’m gon’ pass it to Shy for the rest.”
He snatched the mic from the stand. “Chad, wave your hand.”
Once Chad did, Mr. Shy said, “Y’all already know that’s my brother. We fought those muthafuckas about five or six years ago and won. We finna do that shit again. They gon’ have to shell out even more money this time. I’m finna break down all the reasons why we all finna be ballin’.”
He pulled an iPad from his bag and did some shit on it.
“Number one. Y’all were all under illegal surveillance.
There was no probable cause for there to be hidden cameras at the diner and all the rest of your businesses.
Jericho found that shit at the diner, then we started checking the rest of your businesses.
You know they don’t like when Black folks winning.
I’m surprised they ain’t tried to come burn y’all shit down. ”
He shook his head and continued. “Number two. Seven, you were a pawn. They originally wanted Mythic so they could get at Adrian, and then the big fish. Secondly, they wanted more intel about Marcus, his whereabouts, and his connections. All this shit boils down to money, but I’m sure y’all knew that shit already. ”
He slid his hand down his face. “They started working with those muthafuckas in Liberty to get at y’all, especially Ace.
If they could get through to Ace, they could get to Marcus.
Nobody would suspect they had anything to do with those thugs out there.
Seven, you ain’t the only one they fucked with though.
Ace, you remember Tonieka. That was the bitch that disclosed Marcus’s location.
She gave them info about you, too, before Watchful Eyes got to her ass. ”
Everybody turned to Ace as he frowned. “How the fuck you know her?” Uncle Marcus asked him. He slowly shook his head. “Don’t even answer that shit. You done dipped yo’ dick in the devil’s pussy. You definitely a fucking Henderson.”
Jacob and Christian both lowered their heads. “Ace, hold your head up, dude. The rest of y’all too. You didn’t know. All us men know that a fat ass will definitely cloud your judgment,” Mr. Shy said.
Uncle WJ stood. “The point is, we gon’ have to all work together to get the FBI off our asses. Their main agenda is Marcus. They are trying to use all of us to get to him.”
“That’s right, big dawg,” Mr. Shy said. “Seven, they figured if they gave you a deal and they told you they wouldn’t go after Marcus, we would all let our guards down.
They forgot that we’re Black and our guards are never down .
. . especially in Texas. I don’t give a fuck what these people talking about that Texas ain’t the ‘deep south’.
Texas is fucking everything! We the deep south, the mid-west, the west, allat shit!
Juneteenth originated in Galveston! The fuck!
We right here, less than an hour from the Texas/Louisiana border and less than an hour from the Gulf. ”
“Calm down, Shy,” Mrs. Sidney said, causing everybody to laugh.
“My bad. That shit runs me hot. Like a man wasn’t beat and dragged to death in Jasper in the fucking nineties.
Anyway. Sorry, family. What I was saying is that they have been using illegal means to try to get what they want.
They were trying to intercept that exchange between Marcus and the cartel.
They failed, and our boy is sitting here a fucking tycoon and shit. ”
Everybody laughed. “But just like they don’t know when to stop, we don’t either.
They won’t get away with this, especially with drugging Seven to try to get a confession.
They gotta be idiots. I mean . . . technically, they are.
I can’t believe these people voted his ass in there.
Most of ’em trailer trash and thinking he give a damn about them.
Racism so deep, they’ll hurt themselves to make sure we don’t get ahead.
We got them beat though. I’m going to present my findings in two weeks.
I’ll let y’all know if we get a day to squabble up. ”
I slowly shook my head. This nigga was crazy as fuck. My dad stood and clapped, prompting everybody else to do the same. Uncle WJ went back to the mic.
“So, with that being said, Marcus has plans. He doesn’t know that we have plans as well.
” He turned to Uncle Marcus and said, “After knowing what all our family did to your grandmother, we have all agreed to give up some of our percentage in the company to you. We have all dropped to twelve percent and you will have sixteen percent. You deserve so much more though.”
Uncle Marcus stood while shaking his head.
“No. Put it back. I got more money than I know what to do with. Honestly, y’all can take me down to two percent.
I didn’t know about that past shit. What I do know is that y’all my family.
We gon’ leave all that triflin’ bullshit in our past where it belongs.
Secondly, we won’t ever be unprotected, and Watchful Eyes won’t be stretched to their fucking limits. ”