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Jupiter looked at her, tracking her as she sat on Truck’s lap, handing him the cup. “Who the fuck is this?” She blurted, gesturing to the girl on Truck’s lap.
It was easy to see the start of a bond between those two already. I could tell they would be thick as thieves. Literally.
“Be nice,” Truck warned. “This is my friend tonight.”
“Don’t worry, Ju. He’ll probably just play Uno with her all night,” Pretty Boy laughed.
“Yo, why the fuck is she here?” Sumo said, standing slowly to his feet.
“Because she is,” I said, breaking my silence.
“I need to talk to you, King,” Sumo said, lowering his voice. The discipline he caught earlier humbled him.
I watched Ju fuss with Pretty Boy about something while giving Truck’s girl a hard time, and smiled a little bit. She was already fitting in with my brothers. “Hey, don’t shoot anybody, Juju,” I called before heading back to Sumo’s room.
“No promises,” she called back. I laughed a little and stepped into the darkness that was Sumo’s bedroom. Dark red covered the walls and different stylings of playing cards hung as art. We were the four kings and Sumo was the King of Clubs. He was our way of getting shit done. The muscle. The clover.
Black curtains hung over his window, blocking out all the light. A picture of NWA hung over his bed. On the dresser were blunt wrappers and ashtrays and hundred-dollar bills.
“What’s up, Sumo?” I sighed, sitting on his bed.
“So, is she in now? We’re not going to finish the observation? What’s going on, King? All the rules, the codes we built…just going out the window.” He sat beside me and I stared straight ahead. Listening. That’s what a leader did.
“I get it.” I folded my hands together. “This shit is crazy, Sumo. I’m not excusing it. Juju is being brought in differently.”
“She shouldn’t be brought in at all. If you like her, cool. You wanna be her man, then go for it, bro. I don’t want that bitch in our crew. You’re setting her up like she’s one of us. One of the four.” He thumped his chest.
“I’m not making her one of the four and I’m not her man. Not planning on being her man,” I told Sumo honestly. “She’s a good fit. She put me on and told me we needed to start infiltrating the tellers at the banks we want to hit instead of walking in there with guns. She got you taken care of at the hospital. She had a fucking doctor come here and patch you up.
Come on, Sumo. I want the Legion of Kings to go to the next level. She’s the next level. She can get the cops in our pocket and we’ve been trying to do that shit for the past year. You gotta see what I’m trying to do, bro.”
“I see you being open for her and letting her in,” he said.
“I’m not open. I am letting her in though. She made her kill. I’ve observed her. Pretty Boy has observed her. Truck thinks she’s the fucking Queen of England and shit. You’re the only roadblock in the way of us going to the next level and being bigger than Inglewood.” I made my voice even and steady so he could hopefully see how serious I was.
“We are bigger than Inglewood. We’re the Legion of Kings. We got these motherfuckers in the street shook They’re scared. We have lower-level kings all around LA. Why do we need her to move up?” He frowned.
“Because she sees things differently. She can bring us things that we need like cop protection and finesse. Plus, she knows how it feels to be alone, man. She grew up in Ocean View too. She got there when she was fucking two years old. Never been adopted. Had to make her own family. Her sister that fixed your stupid ass today? That’s her group home sister. She was a Jane Doe baby.” I stood to my feet, feeling the familiar buzz of energy. I needed to move. “Come on, Sumo. You have to see how she’s the female version of us.”
“Ofyou, King!” He boomed. “She’s the female version of you. Not us.”
“I am us! We all came from that place. We’re all angry enough to kill and hungry enough to steal to get what we want.” The veins in my neck strained as my voice rose. “That’s us.She’sus and we’re her and everyone else like her.”
“You said no women in the Kings, man. I’m following your rules. That’s what I do. I follow you.”
“Then follow this decision, Sumo. She’s good. She’s solid,” I said.
“You don’t know her. She could be setting us up,” he barked back.
“Then observe her. See what the fuck she’s about. Take as long as you want, bro. I swear to god, nothing will move until you observe her yourself.” I wanted to make him comfortable however I could. He was my brother despite the disagreements. If Jupiter was going to be fully accepted into the Legion of Kings, all four of the kings had to accept her. Sumo too.
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” he said quietly, staring down at his hands instead of my eyes like he knew I preferred. “I’m not observing her. I’ll take the discipline.”
“You have to, Sumo. It’s the fucking foundation of how we bring in new kings. I’m not having a lower-level observe her.”
“You’re going to have to because I’m not condoning her in the Legion of Kings. I’ll never vote her in. Never observe her. Never accept her.” He still couldn’t meet my eyes. He studied the carpet instead.
Wild, black rage smothered me.
