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.”
The door opened, and about six Hispanic men walked in, wearing black suits. They stood at the back, and Uncle Marcus said, “These are my people. I just met them a couple of weeks ago. They said if the government want smoke, they gon’ bring the fire.”
Everybody stood and clapped while Mrs. Sidney dropped her head to her palm. We were gonna end up giving her ass an aneurysm. One of them walked to the front and shook hands with Mr. Shy, then Uncle WJ. He asked to take the mic, and they stepped aside.
“Any family of Marcus’s is family of ours. He said we are covered by Watchful Eyes. I want you to know that we are here if or when needed. I have a feeling you will need us.”
Jericho said, “Vamooooos!”
Ali smiled big, then chuckled and clapped his hands. I realized that he and Jericho both spoke multiple languages. I heard them talking one time, and I didn’t know what fucking language they were speaking. It wasn’t Spanish, and it sure in the hell wasn’t English.
Once everyone quieted down, the man at the mic said, “I’m Diablo. In the back, you have Malvado, Infierno, Reyes, Link, and Gato. We take no prisoners, and they know this. That’s why they’re trying to keep our asses out of here. We are your brothers. Three of us are Afro Latina. We are one. Marcus has my contact information, and he’s free to share it with all of you here. We will be here at this facility of yours.”
He nodded and walked away as Uncle Marcus went to him. They were talking amongst themselves as Uncle WJ went back to the mic to dismiss everyone. Once we were all standing, I saw Royal heading my way. I slapped his hand. “Thanks for getting my shit to my dad.”
“You know I got’chu. I gotta go check on Aaliyah. She went to the clinic because her stomach was hurting.”
“Y’all got the results back yet?”
“No, but I should have them by the beginning of next week. Until then, I’m gonna just be there for her. I would hate not to be and then find out they’re my babies. I don’t want to miss a moment. It’s bad enough she didn’t tell me until she was damn near four or five months.”
“I feel you.”
He frowned at me. “What the fuck you mean, ‘you feel me’? Since when?”
I chuckled.
“You must’ve gotten fucked before you got here. Nigga all sensitive and shit.”
I pushed him. “Nigga shut the fuck up and get out my face. I’ll holla at’chu later.”
He slapped my hand and left as my dad came to me. He slapped my hand. “I honestly think we covered. This shit is crazy. Whoever knew the Hendersons would be associated with the fucking cartel. What kind of bullshit is that? Secondly, Marcus is going to fund so much shit. He plans to buy moresteers and bulls for us to lease and give us a more professional setup. We gon’ have more facilities and shit for the animals and training spaces for those that rodeo. They won’t have to bring their horses to Zayson. He’ll be able to come here.”
“That’s what’s up. I was wondering what all was planned.”
“Yeah. It’s gonna be the Wesley Henderson Training Facility.”
He slid his hand down the top of his head as I nodded.
“He plans to expand the diner too. I can’t believe he’s doing all this, but I can’t wait, especially for the rodeo arena he’s gonna build off the highway between Nome and China.”
“That’s what’s up. You heard anything about when they will start filming for the documentary?”
“Naw, but hopefully they hold off on that. We don’t need people in our business like that.”
I nodded. “A’ight, well I’m finna dig out. I gotta get back to my baby.”
“A’ight.”
I slapped his hand and headed to the door, but before I could walk out, I saw Kingsley, Ryder J, and Kane running to the exit. I looked around, trying to figure out what was going on now, when my dad yelled, “Fuck! Let’s go.”
“What the fuck happen now?”
