A few seconds passed before she spoke up. “Hendrix, I?—”
I shook my head. “It’s cool, I’ll wait. Don’t trip.”
“No,” she said, grabbing both of my hands. “Don’t say it like that. It’s not that I—I just. I?—”
“Cass, chill. I’m good.”
A frown forged across her face. “Now I feel bad.”
“Don’t stress about it.”
“How can you say that? I feel like I completely ruined the moment.”
“If I said you good, then you good. Just know your heart is safe with me, Cass. You got everything I want. I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” I guaranteed her. “But listen, I gotta go. I’ll call you when my flight lands.”
I left Cass wrapped in an oversized throw blanket and smoking a blunt on her private balcony while watching the sun completely rise. As much as I didn’t want to leave her, I had to get on the road to start the drive up to Atwater to visit my father. U.S. Penitentiary Atwater was one of two high security prisons in the entire state. It was the first time he’d allowed me to be on his visitation list since he’d been locked up. He’d only write or call me, explaining how he didn’t want my image of him to be behind a plexiglass wall.
I looked down at my console and saw a text from Cassidy pop up on the screen.“You do know I care about you, right?”she wrote.
I shook my head before quickly texting her back and turning my music up.“I know,”I wrote back.
She was holding back, but I didn’t press it. Cassidy wasn’t the type of woman who succumbed to pressure. I would much rather have her say it when she meant it, not because it was something she felt obligatedto do. Drake’sFair Trade,blasted through my speakers as I put the thoughts of her to the back of my mind and focused on seeing my father live and in color for the first time in years.
I arrived at 8:30 a.m. to see the entire building perimeter behind electric fences, video surveillance cameras, and multiple armed guards at every turn. Once I filled out the paperwork and was processed by the guards, I was taken to a waiting area. They took me back for my visit forty-five minutes later, and I watched my Pops being escorted over to me by a guard.
I stood to greet him. “Hey, Pops.”
“Prince,” he said with a smile before pulling me into his arms and holding me for a few seconds.
I hadn’t received a hug from my father since I’d left for college. He smelled like a fresh shower, so I knew he’d been diligent about his hygiene. He was in need of a haircut but looked like he’d been eating good and staying out the way.
“They treatin’ you alright in here? You look good. Like you been hittin’ them weights,” I complimented, noticing his large biceps and bulging chest.
“Ain’t shit else to do in here. And you know me, I’m straight. Half the gang in here with me, so I’m always good. Same shit goin’ on out in the streets is going on in here. Murder, violence, and mayhem.”
“You been thinkin’ about what you wanna do when you get out? Last time we talked, you said you had about another ten before you were eligible for parole.”
“They don’t wanna see a nigga like me get out of here. I’ve already came to terms with the fact that I may never feel that warm Cali sun on my face again.”
As depressing as his statement was, he was telling me the truth. He’d gone from being one of the biggest kingpins in Cali to just another inmate with a number on his wrist. “Damn, Pops. You can’t think like that. Just keep doin’ what you been doin’ and you’ll get out.”
“Just in time to meet my grandkids, huh?”
I sucked my well-whitened teeth. “Grandkids? Where the fuck you get that from?”
He cheesed, showing a full grid of teeth. “I’m just sayin’.”
“What you sayin’, Pops?”
He shifted in his seat before changing subjects. “You know, I watch you on TV all the time. Niggas know what time it is when the king’s son is ballin’ on the tube.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell yeah. You’ve been upsettin’ niggas with these ass whoopings you’ve been handing out to these teams already this season. I tell niggas all the time, never go against a Croft man.”
“Never,” I agreed with him.
“You look good though, Prince. Life treating you well?”
