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 coolwith 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 themost. 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.”
