As I was exiting, Ayzjohnna was coming inside. She gave me a tight smile. “I was just coming to check on you. You okay?”
She was always the thoughtful one. She tended to stay out of my business, too, which ironically made me more comfortable talking to her about my personal life. “I’m okay. Thanks.”
She put her arms around me and hugged me, giving me the support I desperately needed. I knew that rowdy ass nigga was going to show up anyway. He just had to mouth off.
When she released me, she said, “Quincy is gonna chill with me and the kids for a couple of days. Handle your business.”
I closed my eyes for a moment and nodded. This was confirmation that Seven and I needed to talk and quit all this back-and-forth foolishness.
CHAPTER FIVE
SEVEN
“So what are you gonna do, man?” Crew asked Royal.
Crew seemed to have more sense than Royal these days, and he was a good four years younger than him. Royal was a little younger than Maui but older than me. He’d already gotten his money and was building a house in Henderson Village next to Maui. I couldn’t wait until I got my money. I planned to act as bougie as those white people. Every-fucking-body would get the look . . . like they didn’t deserve to be in my presence. Some of their asses got the look now.
I had money, since I worked for the family business and since I was getting money from the FBI, but I wasn’t a millionaire yet. Next year, they were gonna fuck around and find out. From here to Beaumont and to Houston, nobody was gonna be able to tell me a fucking thing. It was practically that way now. I was going to be at my highest levels of ‘fuck around and find out’ and ‘I don’t give a fuck’.
“We gon’ get a paternity test done, and I’m gon’ be a father to my children.”
“Nigga, children?” I asked.
“She’s having twins. I feel like they’re mine, but I just want to be sure. She does too.”
I turned my lip up. Royal’s and Aaliyah’s nasty asses had gotten caught up, and now their asses were going to bring children into their perverted ass lifestyles. I swore they fucked around so much, they both should be fucking tested for AIDS. Every time we were about to hang out, Royal was MIA. The nigga was always in pussy. He should be tired of looking at the shit. He had to be an addict.
“Damn. So y’all gon’ be a couple or some shit?” Ace asked.
He was quiet, which really set off alarms in my head. “Canyou be with one woman is a better question. You seem to be considering that shit.”
“Iamconsidering it. She just as freaky as me. She’s the only woman I frequently dip in. I strapped up every time, but there were a couple of times over the past year that muthafucka broke.”
I slowly shook my head and huffed. He wasn’t having one kid. The nigga was finna have a fucking family. “Well, I hope you know what you doing. Can she be faithful to just you? I heard she was bi.”
Royal rolled his eyes. “She’s bisexual, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be faithful. Shit, I wouldn’t mind her bringing other women into the bedroom.”
“Nasty muthafucka. I’m fucking jealous,” Kane added.
We all laughed as Kingsley came into the diner. He was on the phone when he sat so no one said a word. We remained quiet so we could hear what he was saying.
“It’s okay, baby. We don’t have to go . . . You know I understand . . . I’ll talk to you later, okay . . .? I’ll come over when I leave the diner . . . A’ight. Bye.”
He glanced around the table with a smirk on his lips. “What y’all nosy asses up to?”
“Yo’ ass sit at a table with all of us in a full conversation with somebody else and think we not gon’ listen? You the one with the problem, nigga, if you think otherwise,” I said.
Everybody chuckled as he slapped hands with all of us. “Treasure and I were supposed to be going to the crawfish festival in Beaumont, but she got cold feet about being around that many people.”
We all nodded. I hated what happened to her. I hated that Watchful Eyes didn’t get to her in time. When I found out what they were planning to do, I called Ali to get to her, but it was too late. The niggas in Liberty weren’t as trusting of me when it came to the Semiens, so they didn’t typically talk about them around me. I felt like they only said that in front of me because they knew I wouldn’t have time to do anything about it. That was also how I knew Mythic’s ex-bitch was involved.
Aunt Chrissy set a plate of stuffed chicken in the middle of the table, and Aunt Jen came with some of our preferred meals. When she set the crawfish étouffée in front of me, I licked my lips, ready to get to it. I didn’t have a lot of time to spare anyway. I had to meet with Mr. Berotte and Mrs. Taylor. She said he had expertise when dealing with the government. The nigga sued them and won. After knowing that, I had extreme confidence in him handling their asses.
He was just as rowdy as we were in that courtroom. The way that nigga damn near cursed that judge out when they were trying to get me for murder made me proud as fuck. He didn’t give a fuck, but he had the law to back him up. These days, it didn’t seem the law mattered. Muthafuckas were doing whatever the fuck they wanted . . . the rich ones anyway. Niggas were still getting arrested for the smallest infractions.
I hated I couldn’t talk to my boys about this bullshit. I couldn’t talk to anyone other than my lawyers and my parents. I limited what I told my mama, because I didn’t want her to worry.She always seemed to be worried about something lately. Her anxiety was on another level. I refused to add to what she was already feeling . . . if I could help it anyway.
“You ever talk to Iesha?”
