Jobe: Alvarez Security Series (25 page)

“You know I went to the doctor today and—”

Before she could continue, he blurted, “Baby, whatever it is, I’ll be here. Whatever is going on, we can face this together.”

Her eyes widened in surprise at his outburst and then slowly understanding filled her expression. “Oh no, honey. I’m not sick.”

His eyes closed in relief as he pulled her in closer, pressing her face into his chest.
Thank God!

“Mmm pena,” she said, her face still held firmly planted against his chest.

He felt her hands move from around his neck to his shoulders where she pushed away. She was smiling as he said, “What did you say? I couldn’t understand you.”

She licked her lips nervously, forcing herself to hold his gaze. “I said that I’m pregnant.”

*

The light from
the full moon beamed down on the bed, illuminating Mackenna’s sleeping form. She was curled on her side with one hand tucked under her cheek and her long’s mane streaming behind her across the pillow. Jobe had rolled to his side facing her, but sleep did not come. The events of the evening filled his thoughts.

He had sat dumbly as the words that had left her mouth slowly managed to penetrate his foggy mind.
Pregnant?
He stupidly said the first thing that came into his head. “How?” he blundered.

“Um, the usual way, I’m sure. You know…sperm, egg, all that stuff we learned a long time ago?”

Then he managed to blurt out, “Are you sure?”

The smile on her face began to drop as she answered, “Yes. The doctor is sure.”

He saw the doubt move over her face, and cursed in regret that he had put that fear in her. “Shit, doll. This is amazing. I know it’s unexpected, but baby…this is everything.” Suddenly realizing that she might not be well, he jumped in, “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”

She giggled as she moved her hands up to cup his face as well. Leaning in she kissed his lips gently. “Yeah, I’m all right. It’s too early to know about the baby, but,” she said with a little shrug, “I’m good.”

After the words she had gifted him with finally sunk in, he pulled her closely once again, holding her right against his chest. Thoughts swirled through his head.
Gotta tell our parents. Gotta turn the spare bedroom into a nursery. Oh fuck, we need to go ahead and get married. And her job—Jesus Christ, I need to get her out of—

His anticipations were interrupted by her cupping his face once again.

“Jobe, I can practically hear those thoughts as they fly through your mind. And I know because they’ve been flying through my mind also. But honey, we can deal with them one at a time.”

With that, he pulled her in for a kiss once again. One that he hoped poured all of his love into her, desperately wanting her to know what she and this child meant to him.
Healing. Hope. New life. Forever.

Now he lay, quietly watching her as she slept. And he vowed once more to keep her safe always.

T
ito, Jazzie, and
Waldo sat around the unfamiliar table in the dimly lit room, trying not to show their excitement…or their nerves. With the police dogging their moves, the meeting had been relocated from the basement of Tito’s uncle’s store to the basement of one of their brother’s houses. Across from them sat the envoy from Florence 10, one of the larger gangs in South Los Angeles that had been making inroads in Virginia. This was what Tito had been leading the Sixers toward—a chance to be recognized by an organization as big as the F10s. This could mean an opportunity to move in the circles that could make some serious money.

Jazzie watched carefully, noting the F10’s seconds that were running the show. Three of them had arrived to negotiate, with five more of them as backup. One, street named Oz, was introduced as the man in charge. Oscar Portillo—a reputation as a slick killer as a teen, now given the command of the envoy. Jazzie licked his lips in anticipation, eager for the negotiations to begin. They waited, respect being given to the larger gang. Finally after several minutes of silence, making the Sixers more nervous, the talking began.

“Not happy having to relocate,” the man sitting next to Oz said.

“Havin’ some trouble with the crabs,” Tito replied, referring to the police.

“You don’t got trouble. You give it.”

Not wanting to appear weak, Tito smoothly said, “Wanna give you the best.”

The silence extended for another minute, the Sixers sweating out the time.

“Done,” Oz announced, and Jazzie found himself releasing the breath he had been holding.

For a while, the session began with an immediate discussion of the drug trade that the Sixers were bringing in. Tito had played it smart—he had his figures written down and spreadsheets of who they traded with, how many runners he had, and their costs vs. profit. Jazzie’s admiration for his leader rose again as he realized that Tito had done his homework.

The F10s were impressed with the management of large shipments of stolen guns, noting that smaller gangs usually just dealt with what they had stolen off of the streets.

As Tito handed over the information, the expressions of the F10 seconds relaxed slightly, seemingly to be satisfied that their time was not being wasted. The meeting continued for another hour, going over the details of a merger negotiation. The Sixers would remain autonomous, but have the F10 as a distributor and supply line for both the drugs and weapons.

Tito had hoped to impress them more with his dealing in bringing the Kings on board, but was unable to hide his surprise that the F10s already knew that.

“We don’t waste our time, so we know all your shit,” Oz said. He stared at Tito for a moment, once again letting the silence of the room unnerve the Sixers.

“Heard you gave them a present?”

Tito smiled as he nodded. “Some bitch needed to return home,” he said with a chuckle.

“From what I hear you got several bitches that need to get home.”

The smile left Tito’s face as a question formed on his lips. Jazzie stepped in, “We’re dealing.”

The F10’s gazes all moved from Tito to Jazzie, holding his stare.

“You can’t take care of your own house, how you gonna take care of our business.”

At the risk of showing disrespect, Jazzie reiterated, “We’re takin’ care of our business.”

Oz shifted his gaze between Tito and Jazzie, silence filling the darkness. Slowly nodding, he said, “We can bring you on board. Drugs, guns…we can deal. But you take care of your house first.”

The F10s stood from their seats, the metal chairs scraping noisily on the concrete floor. One of them bumped the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, causing it to move back and forth shooting shadows across the men. Tito, Jazzie, and Waldo stood as the others left, giving shakes and signals.

The other gang members moved out into the night leaving the three Sixers facing each other, not knowing whether to celebrate or curse.

*

Now that Carla
had graduated from New Beginnings and Jenita was almost ready to move out, Mackenna thought that she needed to step up her efforts to find a new place.
One with more rooms so that we could expand.
Sitting in the small office in the center, she continued her online searches for appropriate housing that the city would continue to fund. Several seemed promising and she took note of those.

Rose wandered in having finished her class. Leaning against the door frame, she watched Mackenna concentrate on the computer screen.

Glancing up, Mackenna smiled, saying, “Hey, what’s up?”

“I’ve had three daughters you know.”

Mackenna’s brow creased in confusion. “Yeah, um, I know.”

“Two of them have given me grandbabies.”

Mackenna cocked her head to the side, still waiting for Rose to continue.

“Something you want to tell me?” Rose asked, her lips curving into a smile.

Eyes widening, she whispered, “How can you tell?”

Throwing her head back in laughter, “Oh honey, it’s just a mom thing.” Settling her gaze once again on Mackenna, she said gently, “And it looks like you’re going to be finding out all about mom things.”

Mackenna rose from her seat and the two women embraced. Tears filled Mackenna’s eyes as she pulled back away from the older woman. “Oh, my goodness. It seems like I keep tearing up.”

“That’s normal,” Rose said, patting her hand. “How’s Jobe?”

Shaking her head, she gushed “I swear, he’s over the moon with excitement. We’ve only known a week and haven’t told our parents yet. I wanted to wait for a bit to make sure that things were going well.” Sitting back down in the chair as Rose settled in the other one, she continued, “In fact, you’re the only one who knows!”

“Then you’d better stay away from your moms because they’ll ferret it out of you as soon as I did. Have you thought about down the road? With this place, I mean?”

“Not really. My first concern right now besides finding a new location is keeping these girls safe.”

The two women looked at the computer screen for a moment together as Mackenna scrolled through the options she found. “There’s actually a house that is currently being used as a battered woman’s shelter and they’re moving. So…I think that it might be perfect. There are five large bedrooms, and with bunks in there, we could house ten women at a time.”

She glanced up at Rose’s smiling face and asked, “Would you come with us?”

“Oh honey, you couldn’t keep me away.”

“I would like to give up the running of the shelter, though,” Mackenna confessed, then seeing the distress on Rose’s face she quickly added, “But I’d like to just focus on the counseling.”

Rose’s face immediately melted into a smile again, as she leaned over and patted Mackenna’s leg. “That’d be perfect for you,” she agreed.

“By the way, don’t tell anyone else, please. At least not now,” she begged.

Standing, Rose moved toward the door looking back over her shoulder and said, “I promise.”

*

“That center bitch
is knocked up,” Jazzie said as he came into the room, out of breath.

Tito looked up sharply, his mind immediately working through the information Jazzie had blurted out. “How’d you find out?”

“I got my ways,” Jazzie said. “And it’s by one of those security guys that was hanging around.”

A slow smile crept across Tito’s face. Jazzie noticed and began grinning as well. “Prez, you thinkin’ what I am?”

Tito nodded, “Fuck yeah. We got us a chance for some payback.”

*