Loving Angel (17 page)

The Jamaican
cats were known for being half psychotic. They took their beefs to another level and always left the streets a bloody carcass with the cops swarming it like flies, so I arranged a meeting with Kit to see if we could come to an amicable resolution. I wasn’t scared of a nigga but why start a war if you didn’t have to? I was more about increasing my paper than beefing and putting myself on the radar of them Federals.

We
agreed to a meeting at a Jamaican restaurant he owned in East Harlem. I wasn’t too keen on being on his side of town, but it was one-thirty in the afternoon in a public place and plus I had my boys Biz and John sitting in the car outside the restaurant on standby in case it was a setup.

We were sitting at a corner boot
h having a drink and getting down to business.

“
What’re we gonna do about our problem?” Kit sat across the table from me nursing a bottle of Red Stripe beer. He had an air about him that said he was relaxed, but I knew he was an alert motherfucker. I saw the way he would scan the room from the corners of his eyes and how he always left his right hand empty in case he needed to go for his piece. But I wasn’t mad at him, I was on alert also.

“
I understand your position,” I admitted, after taking a sip of my Appleton rum with coke, “If someone else was selling to my customers I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I paid good money for that list and I’m not about to give up those customers, so we need a resolution that excludes that.”

“
I respect that, and I know it wasn’t your fault that my own cousin jacked my customers and sold them to you, that’s why I even agreed to this meeting, because otherwise I would have just come at you guns blazing.” He did have a reputation for bodying niggas that violated him. I knew his cousin was probably six feet under at the moment. “So I have a proposal for you.”

“
I’m listening.” I relaxed back in my seat. Or at least I pretended to be relaxed.

“
I know my cousin also gave you the idea for the trucking company.” He paused. I neither confirmed nor denied the statement; I just waited for him to go on. “Right now I got me a little problem. One of my trucking companies got hit, so now I’ve got more orders for product than my trucks can handle. In a few months I’ll have some new trucks, but until then I’m in a bind. If you allow me use some of your trucks until my new trucks come in we can call it even; when you aren’t using them of course.”

It sounded like no skin off my back but I wasn
’t going to make any decisions until I checked his story. Sometimes people can have ulterior motives even though you can’t see what those motives might be or why. “I can’t give you an answer right now, but give me a couple of days and I’ll get back to you.”

“
I understand that…” His sentenced trailed off before starting again. “I understand that you’d need some time to think about it.” Something across the room seemed to have captured his attention. I looked in the direction of his focus and saw my little wifey walking towards us from a table where her cousin was sitting. I was more than a little surprised at her presence. What the hell was she doing here and in the middle of a restaurant of a cat I could possibly have beef with?

“
What’re you doing here Sexy?” I got up and gave her a quick kiss. I was getting ready for us to make a quick exit.

“
This is the restaurant I was telling you about that sold the stew peas soup, remember?” I sort of remembered her coming home one day and going on about some restaurant with the best soup in the world, but I wasn’t paying too much attention, at the time I was trying to get some and she was talking too damn much. “Your son has been driving me crazy all day for some of this soup.” She placed her hand over her baby bump and Kitsune’s eyes zeroed in on it. He obviously didn’t realize she was pregnant; Most times people didn’t realize she was although she was halfway through her pregnancy. Today she was wearing a sweater dress with tights and boots; she seemed like she was thick in the waist instead of carrying my Seed.

This guy was learning way too much about my life and I didn
’t know if he and I were gonna be at each other’s throats in the future. It was time to bounce.

“
Kit I’ll get back to you with my answer, I’ve got your number,” I told him taking Angel’s hand and leading her over to her cousins table.

“
What was that about?” she quizzed curiously.

“
Nothing for you to worry about,” I reassured her. “Just grab ya’ll stuff and let’s go.”

“
But we didn’t eat yet,” she protested.

“
We were just about to order when we saw you,” Daisy agreed.

“
Angel get your bag and let’s go,” I snapped. I didn’t like when people in the game knew I had a wifey with a baby on the way, you never knew when your family could become targets because of you.

She gave me a hurt look.
“Let’s go Daisy, I’m riding with you.” I didn’t protest because I had shit I wanted to take care of before I went home.

Her cousin seemed like she wanted to
object having to leave before she ate but thought better of it. I followed them outside and to their car.

“
I’ll fill you in tonight,” I told Angel before she got in the car, giving her a quick kiss that she didn’t return because she was mad at me.

As soon as my wifey and her cousin were gone I jumped in my car and rang up john to let him and Biz know I was heading to NJ so their job for the day was done
. I wanted to run Kitsune’s proposal by Pops. On the drive to my father’s house I realized that I was going to have to start being more open with my wifey when it came to my business. I wasn’t going to get into details with her, because that would only implicate her in anything I did, but I would have to update her on the important basics so she wouldn’t be going around flying blind like she was today.

When I
got to the house I found my brother at the kitchen counter with a huge plate of sandwiches and chips before him. That kid is a beast when it came to eating and could probably eat his own body weight in food. He wasn’t fat though, just real muscular because he played both basketball and football for his school and was pumping iron on the regular.

“
Just the man I wanted to see,” Chance enthused, giving me a fist pound before going to grab a drink from the fridge and going back to his meal.

“
And why is that?” I inquired, sitting on a stool across from him.

“
I’ve got a business proposal for you,” he informed me with his mouth half full. He swallowed and washed it down with some of his coke before continuing. “Just listen to what I have to say before you decide anything. Ok?”

I
t seemed to be my day for receiving proposals; First Kit, now my kid brother. “Ok.” I nodded.

“
I want to join the family business.” He held up his hand to stall my instant protest. “I know you’re gonna say I’m too young, but you weren’t much older when you started and what better way to ensure that I know the streets like the back of my hand than training me when I’m young so that when I’m older and out there on my own I know what I’m doing and not making any stupid moves.”

I understood what he was
saying, but that was my kid brother we were talking about. He was only fifteen years old and yes I did get in the business when I was only a year older, but I didn’t want that type life for him. He should be enjoying his youth: school, parties, girls and sports. I didn’t want to have to worry about him getting killed in the streets now or in the future. I knew it wasn’t my decision to make whether he joined the business or not, because making that decision for him would only cause him to resent me, but if I had a choice he would concentrate on high school, attend college, get a nine to five and a wife and two point five kids and leave the type of life I lived behind.

“
I’ll talk to Pops about it and then I’ll let you know what we decide,” I promised. “Where is he at anyway? I got some business to discuss with him.”

“
He’s in the den with Uncle Elijah.”

I got up and made my way downstairs to the basement. My uncle and m
y father were sitting on the couch talking.

“
I didn’t know you were dropping by,” my father said after we had exchanged greetings.

“
Just had a meeting and wanted your advice.” I updated him on the situation with Kitsune and his proposal.

“
Well you don’t have much choice but to accept his offer do you, not if you don’t want to start a war with him, which would draw attention to us. We already have one war going on with those stick-up boys. Just keep an eye open with this cat and I’m sure you’ll learn his intentions eventually.”

“
What are we going to do about those stick-up boys they’re becoming a real nuisance,” Uncle Elijah interjected. He was the type of nigga who would shoot first and ask questions later so I knew what he really wanted to ask was when we were going to body the entire crew of them. His son, my cousin EJ, was a lot like his father in mentality.

“
I’m about to give EJ the green light on cleaning up the whole crew,” I informed him. There was just so much bullshit I would take before I snapped and those fools had me at my boiling point. “Pops did Chance holler at you about joining the business?”

“
He did,” my father sighed. I guess he wasn’t happy my brother was ready to follow in our shoes. “I told him I wasn’t in charge and he should talk to you.”

“
Do you think he’s ready?”

“
He thinks he’s ready and that’s all that matters, if we don’t allow him in he’ll probably find some other way in on his own and that will lead to nothing but problems. You know how stubborn he is.” He was right, whether we allowed Chance to join us or not he was going to try and get into the business, just so he could prove himself. “At least you can keep an eye on him.”

“
A’ight. I’ll start him off on something small like counting money,” I chuckled. “It will cool his heels for a minute.”

“
I see I thought you well.” Pops shook his head laughing also. It was the same thing he did to me when I wanted to join the business at sixteen.

I went ahead and gave Kit a call and accepted his offer. We ironed out the details of our arrangement and then I said goodbye to my Pops, uncle and brother and bounced.

I picked up some Chinese food on my way home has apology for making my wifey miss her lunch today. I got her Moo shu pork which I knew was her absolute favorite. She was removing dishes from the dishwasher when I got home.

“
I bought dinner,” I announced holding up the bag for her benefit. I gave her a kiss that she returned with equal enthusiasm. I knew she couldn’t stay mad at me for long, especially now that she didn’t have to cook after a long day at school.

We took our plates in front the television for a more relaxed mood.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you today,” I apologized. I was in the need for some pussy tonight and an apology would go a long way in getting me a blowjob also.

“
Why were you so damn abrupt anyway?” She was using those damn chopsticks like an expert, while I looked like an idiot when I tried using them.

“
That cat I was talking to today is a new business associate. I don’t really know him except from what I learnt from other people, so I can’t make any judgments on his character, but I don’t trust him because in this game anything is possible. I’m not saying he’s dangerous, but I’m not saying he isn’t either and I don’t like when dudes are privy to details of my personal life when I don’t know if I can trust them with the info.”

“
Oh,” she replied with understanding in her eyes. “I met him last week at the restaurant.”

That was news to me.
“And you’re just telling me this now!” My voice had an edge to it.

“
I didn’t know you knew him and when I found out that you did I didn’t get the chance to tell you.” She was all righteous in her indignation.

“
Just stay away from that restaurant and that nigga,” I warned her.

She rolled her eyes.
“I wasn’t exactly planning on going back there after you told me he was a business associate of yours.”

“
How did ya’ll meet anyway? It’s not like being in the same restaurant will lead to a meeting.”

“
Daisy and I were having lunch and he came over to our table making small talk,” she explained.

“
And hitting on you,” I theorized. She nodded. I didn’t blame the nigga; after all she was a bad bitch. Just as long as he knew to stay away now that he knew who she belonged to. “And what did you tell him?” I smiled to let her know I was teasing because I already knew she turned his ass down. I may not have trusted her when we got together in the beginning, but she proved herself since then. I never heard her name associated to any other man in the streets and she wasn’t trying to be secretive with me.

“
You already know,” she joked.