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“Somewhere minding her fucking business. Call her.”
“You know what? I can’t stand yo’ ass!” she said while chuckling.
I chuckled too and said, “Yeah, yeah. I love you too.”
She ended the call just as Jericho turned in the parking lot for Watchful Eyes. As we drove to the back, I noticed Seneca’s car wasn’t here yet. Hopefully, he wasn’t here just yet so we could talk to Ali. His vehicle was here and so was Chad and Shy’s. When we walked in, I shook hands with the fellas and sat as Ali said, “Van is done. Took care of his ass late last night. You talked to Rondo yet?”
“Naw. I called him, but he didn’t answer. Then he called me, and I couldn’t answer. It’s on him now, because I done called twice. Hopefully, he calls back soon. We need to handle this shit with Kennedy and Darlena and get to the bottom of all that shit.”
“Yeah. I feel like Vegas knows what the fuck he talkin’ ’bout though,” Shy said.
“Just so y’all know, before Seneca gets here, he about to get dealt with for that bullshit he pulled in court. He lied to Kaysyn and that was what led to all this shit. He broke code, and Chelsea had to tell the truth about what happened to her. If the judge so chooses, he can turn that shit over to the feds. That would put us all at risk, especially Jericho,” Ali said.
I hadn’t even thought about that shit. Seneca had fucked up royally, but I would do my best to leave his ass whupping to Jericho. Watchful Eyes as a whole could be at risk. Ali slowly shook his head as he probably thought that shit over. “They could go looking for Jules and try to make him answer for his crimes. He stole Jericka and forged documents to have her sent here,” Shy added.
“Sounds like he deserves to get fucked up,” Chad said. “I ain’t goin’ down because of his ass.”
“Y’all ain’t got shit to worry about. I would take the heat before I let y’all take it,” Ali said.
“Hopefully none of that shit happens. We all have something to lose now. We all have women and children depending on us. Whitney’s pregnant, Riley’s pregnant, I just got Jericka and Chelsea,” I said.
“My babies ain’t a year old yet, and Chad’s son ain’t two yet,” Shy added.
When we all heard a car door close, we moved to the other side of the room to give Jericho room. His face had hardened, and I knew we would have to intervene so he didn’t kill him. Ali verbalized my thoughts by saying, “We may have to intervene. That nigga ain’t said shit since he been sitting there. His frame of mind is probably in a deadly space.”
We nodded in acceptance of what Ali said just as the door opened. When Seneca walked in, he nodded, knowing exactly what the fuck was about to happen. Jericho walked up on him, nearly looking like he did that night in Pilar’s and hit that nigga so hard I swore I saw a tooth fly from his mouth. Seneca fell to the floor and balled up in a fetal position as Jericho swung, repeatedly hitting him in the head and body.
When he straddled him and started delivering blow after blow to his head, I was about to stop him, but he stopped himself. His face was twitching something fierce, but when I saw the tear fall from his eye, I realized this was deeper than what was on the surface.
“You my fucking, brother. You supposed to have my back. You supposed to have Jungle’s back. I thought that courtesy would extend to my sister, especially after I gave you my word that I would make her honor her promise. I was irritated and somewhat pissed that y’all said no, but that was something we would just have had to get over. But you took it a step further and tried to take my sister to court, based on lies.”
Jericho never expressed himself like this to another nigga. That let me know that he loved Seneca. He wasn’t just angry. What Seneca had done had hurt him deep. “I trusted you, man. That was why I came to you first about what she’d told me. It was like you told me to kiss your ass. Mwen te vle touye ou. You only get one more time to fuck up, family or not. I’m gon’ put a fucking bullet in your head. They’ll never find your body.”
Jericho stood and walked away as he continuously swung his fists. He’d practiced restraint, and it was evident by his behavior. When I stood over Seneca, his face was bloody, and it looked like his nose was broken. Ali, Shy, and Chad walked over to help get him from the floor and to a chair. Ali walked away and came back with a towel.
It was quiet for a while until Seneca said, “I’m sorry, y’all. If some shit comes out of this, I’ll take the wrap. I ain’t got no family. Kaysyn left me, and I feel like I’m dying anyway. This shit was wrong. I betrayed y’all, and I betrayed her, knowing that she would believe whatever I said about the situation. I fucked up bad. I just hope that y’all can eventually forgive me. I’m not making excuses, but I talked to Isaiah, and he recommended me to a psychiatrist. I apparently have deep-seated issues that are above his pay grade and level of expertise. I hope to one day earn your trust again. Until then, I’m going to take a leave of absence from Watchful Eyes.”
No one said a word. He was indeed missing a tooth on the side. We would have to take him to the hospital. Not only was his nose broken, but he sounded winded like he did that night he got in a fight when we rescued Chelsea and Manman at Jericho’s place. Actually, he sounded worse. “We can talk about business shit later. Let’s get you to a hospital. Sounds like you may have a broken rib. You winded as fuck,” Ali said.
As we were helping him from the chair, Jericho reappeared. His intense stare had halted all of us. Seneca couldn’t look at him for a minute. I’d never seen that nigga so humble. I hoped this was the shit that woke him up. Just the fact that he was going to see a psychiatrist was saying a lot. When Jericho stood directly in front of him, I widened my stance to be sure I was ready to get in between them.
Instead, Jericho pulled Seneca to him and hugged him like a big brother would hug his little brother. That caught me off guard. I expected him to knock another one of that nigga’s teeth out. “I’m sorry… Jericho. When I can… I’d like to… apologize to Chelsea too.”
“Get him to the hospital,” Jericho said.
I helped Seneca to Ali’s ride as everyone else got in their vehicles to go home and get ready to go to Sunday dinner. When I helped him in the front seat, Seneca said, “I’m gon’ eventually make this right. I promise.”
I nodded as I patted his shoulder. Once Ali locked up and said a few words to Jericho, he hopped in the vehicle to get Seneca to the hospital. Going to Jericho’s ride, I got in the passenger seat and turned to him. “What made you stop?”
“I thought about what you said. Had Seneca really wanted to just be a shady muthafucka, he could have given the authorities all sorts of info and took us all down. From the shit that happened at Pilar’s to the shit at my place. He did that shit because he had my back. I’m starting to truly believe that something in him snapped. That shit don’t mean I’ll trust him again, because I probably never will, but I can forgive him for that stupid ass judgment call.”
“What did you say in Creole?”
“That I wanted to kill him. I could literally smell his blood before I hit him. It was like I craved it. I don’t even know how I was able to stop, but I’m glad I did.”
I nodded then stuck out my fist for him to give me a pound. That was what I loved about this brotherhood, and it was also what I knew had rubbed off on us just from being around the Berottes. There was no way Seneca should have made it out of there alive, but here we were, all thinking about the families we had to go home to. Despite my thug mentality, my heart was saying that Seneca would be okay, and it would be because none of us would turn our backs on him.
* * *
