Jovan
When I made it up the steps, India opened the door up for me to slide through. "Damn, momma wasn't playin'
She had slit marks on her throat, and even on her chest. I knew my mother was violent, but not this violent.
"Jovan you lucky she's your mother. I really would've ended her life with the way she had that knife pointed at me."
I shook my head slowly, seeing the sharp utensils sitting on top of a counter. Knowing India, she really would've beat mommas ass. "Where's Dove and nem'?"
"He's waiting in the office for you," She informed me, referring to the golden doors that were wide open.
I patted my hand on her back and made my way into his office with my gun close beside me. For a moment I heard banging against the door, but ignored it.
"So you work with Powell now?" I asked, leaning against the wall to see my mother come in and sit on his lap.
That shit disgusted me.
Dove cuffed his hands together, taking a glimpse at my appearance. "Rumor has it that you tryna take us both down, that you was doing it for Ram."
I shook my head and stood up straighter. "Ram is dead aight? Fuck him and the niggas he worked with. I ain't even working against you. Matter fact, my visit here don't have shit to do with you but a lot to do with her." I pointed my finger at momma, who instantly stiffened up at my look.
I prepared myself to speak until another bang smacked against the door. We all turned our heads into that direction, but simply ignored it.
"What do you want from me Jovan?"
"FUCKING DIE, HOE!" a loud voice screamed from behind, running into the room and shooting off a gun.
When I noticed it was Athena I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back, but she continued to shoot in the direction that momma and Dove sat in.
India and Sierra rushed into the room to see what was going on while Athena struggled to get out of my arms.
"FUCK YOU!" She shouted, still scrambling from my wrap around her.
"ATHENA?" Momma gasped dramatically before taking a step foward to see if she was right, "Oh my sweet, sweet baby." When she got closer to us Athena kicked her in the face.
"YOU MADE ME DO IT," She screamed with tears overflowing her eyes and she continued to scramble and shift in my hands.
"Lock the doors," I heard Dove mumble from the side, and his men went along and started locking everything.
Something about his words weren't sitting right with me.
"What the fuck is going on?" I asked seeing how intent she was towards mommas approach. "Why the fuck we need to lock the doors for?"
"Nothings going on. I'm locking the doors so your hooligan of a sister doesn't do anything stupid," Dove answered for her. His voice seemed to catch Athenas attention because the moment she saw his face, she tried forcing herself out my arms harder.
"BITCH, YOURE THE HOOLIGAN. YOU HEARTLESS FUCK? WHY'D YOU MAKE ME DO IT? HUH?" She reached back for the gun to shoot Dove, but I wouldn't let her until I knew what was going on.
"Athena, what are you talking about? What did he make you do?" I asked just when the sounds of bullets echoed outside of the gilding.
"OH MY GAWD!" Mama went off when she threw her head down so she wouldn't get hit by the bullets spearing through the window.
"HE MADE ME KILL HIM. I DIDN'T WANT TO KILL HIM B-BECAUSE I LOVED HIM." Her eyes were growing red for the tears that just grew every time she spoke.
"He made you kill WHO?" India asked before Dove took his gun out and pointed it at her.
"HE MADE ME KILL SALOMON!"
I let go of her and stared deeply at Dove, as so everyone else. He had spent years searching for his son, and even made others do the same just to end up being the perpetrator behind his death.
"You made her do .. WHAT?" Sierra asked before tackling his father across the table.
Mama went over and pulled a gun out on Sierra while India tried pushing her out of the way. They ended up rolling around on the floor, trying to control where the shots were going.
After a bullet flew loose into the air, the window busted open and Nessa fell through with Tino panting for air, behind her.
"DAMN, YOU HEAVY," Tino wheezed, trying to catch his breath.
Dove yelled out for security and people were running in and out of the room, simply attacking us.
Mama shot India in the leg then turned the gun in Athenas direction. "YOU GONNA WISH YOU KEPT YOUR MOUTH SHUT LIL' BITCH!"
She pulled down on the trigger a few times, but her shot missed when Nessa picked up a bat from the corner and smacked it straight across her face.
Tino ran over to India, wrapping whatever he could around her leg as blood soaked out onto the wooden floor.
I got up, closing off any entrance into the room so no one else could come in, before heading back to Athena, who was breaking down into tears.
"Athena imma need you to tell us every fucking thing that happened," I spoke to her before a loud shot rung loose in the corner.
"NO!" Mama shouted, slithering herself up, "NOT MY BABY. NO!"
Sierra peered above his dad with his gun still pointed down at his chest. He stood frozen in his place until momma stood up and pushed him out the way so she could see Dove.
"OH GOD NO," She cried when she noticed that he was dead and laying in a pool of his own blood.
India forced herself up and pulled on Sierra's arm, allowing him to snap out of the trance he was in. "We gotta go. We ALL gotta go before someone down the street realizes what's going on."
We nodded our heads and dragged ourselves out of his building. I made sure to check on Sierra because I knew he was hurt about the whole situation, and right now both him and I needed explanations as to what was going on.
"Tell us everything, right now," I ordered Athena as we circled her, outside the parking way with blood and sweat plastered on our shirts.
"Okay," She mumbled, breaking eye contact with us, "Well... me and Salomon really loved each other, but Dove didn't accept the relationship. I found out I was pregnant with Lovell and Salomon decided that he didn't want to be in the industry anymore because it wouldn't be safe for our family..."
"It pissed Dove off because he wanted Sal to take his place since he found out that he knows Bernie had a hit on his head and his time was running out, fast. He knew he was going to die and needed one of his sons to take over, but now that Salomon was leaving the game it would mean that there would be no one to take his place. He knew that Sierra wouldn't take his place because India wouldn't let it happen."
We nodded our heads following along with her story.
"He figured me and Lovell were the problem so momma sent someone out to kill me. At that time I was only seven months pregnant and they left me for dead outside of Belview, but Ebony took me to the hospital the moment she saw what happened."
"I went into premature labor and had Lovell. Ebony told Salomon what happened and we both decided for the safety of our son that Lovell would stay with her until we were able to come back for him, but we ended up not coming back..."
"Sal was pissed. He was fucking mad, so he had Dove meet up with us so he could confront him about the situation, but it only seemed to make things worse. Dove just kept attacking us left and right. It was getting so bad that people on the streets were starting to do the same thing on Doves behalf. We weren't safe and neither was our son. He started sending people out on a search for us and Lovell and said he'd pay thousands of dollars for anyone who killed us..."
"Sal and I ended up meeting with Dove again at Belview Avenue road to basically come up with a deal so we could all be at peace.
Momma handed me a gun then handed Sal a gun and we were both confused because we weren't there to fight, we were there to come to a conclusion. That's when Dove said if Salomon shoots me, he won't send people out to kill him anymore. Then he said if I said shoot Salomon then he won't send people out to kill Lovell. Mind you, Sal couldn't get any help or backup from KingPin society because he was no longer apart of it."
"We could've easily pointed our guns at Dove and Momma, but we'd both end up dead. I dropped my gun because I wasn't going to kill the man I loved, but Salomon put the gun back up, dropping his own.
I was confused about what he was doing until I realized that he wanted me to kill him. I told him I wasn't going to do it and I tried to stay by my word, but he wasn't taking no for an answer..."
Athena rubbed her fingers across her eyes before finishing up with her last few words, "And then he told me that Lovell doesn't deserve to live a life without his mother. I couldn't believe the words that were coming out his mouth, but he told me it was okay and that even if i'll never see him again, he'll always be apart of our son... I told him I couldn't do it and that i'd rather us die together.."
"What made the situation worse was the fact that momma held her gun against my face. It's like she wouldn't let me live if I didn't kill him and he knew that was the case.
He wrapped the gun around my fingers and pointed it at himself before telling me it was okay... so, I shot him. In front of half of the people who lived in Belview.."
Everyone's eyes were wide and we all stood speechless. For a moment I thought Sierra was going to slap the shit out of her since that was his brother and they extremely close,but instead, he pulled her into a tight hug.
"Wow," I mumbled to myself before turning the opposite way, throwing my hands above my head, "I can't believe this shit."
"I can't either," Nessa second my thoughts watching Athena hug him back even tighter. It was hard because he lost a brother and it was harder because she lost her future.
"I can't believe Momma was apart of this shit. She was so down bad for Dove, even years ago when her daughter needed her most." I shook off the thoughts.
Nessa wrapped her arms around me, tightly, just laying her head on my chest. "At least it's over now."
•••
We were on the way to the house, ready to tell everyone else what the fuck happened.
"My friends ain't gone believe this shit when I go back to school Monday," Tino stated with a half smile.
"They really won't," Nessa gushed as we pulled up to the front of the house.
I stepped out the car, ready to say something more until I realized there were cops surrounding the area. Specially, my home.
I had gotten so caught up in my conversation that I didn't notice they were blocking the upper part of our neighborhood.
The were scattered all over the premises and every door, window, and entrance way were opened for them to look through.
When a few officers took notice of me, I instantly dashed across the street, with them following in my lead. I had a feeling what was going to go down, so I did what I knew best: Ran
It didn't take long for them to tackle me onto the street and place cuffs around my wrist.
One of them spoke into his Walkie Talkie, addressing information to, who I assumed to be the chief or other officials. "We have Jovany Lovell Brown here."
They picked me up to my feet and walked me over to the car to check if I had any possessions on me. While they did that, I was searching for Nessa and stopped when I found her.
"DAD?" She snapped from a corner. It took me a moment to realize who she was speaking to until an officer appeared in front of her.
It's dawning because when his face came to view, I realized that i've seen him before. He was the same officer who arrested me four years ago when when that Anonymous tip was placed in.
"We got his notebook that you took. Baby you might not feel like you were helping me with this case, but you really have. I don't think you understand how much we needed that to put this evil man behind jail," He told her with a smile on his face.
I lifted my head off the car and just stared at her with a foul expression on my face. I didn't know how to feel or how to take the fact that this whole time Nessa had been playing me. "YOU GAVE HIM MY NOTEBOOK?" I shouted before an officer slammed my head against the car.
She tried running over to me to explain herself to me but her father pulled her back.
I didn't even want to see her face because honestly, that shit really hurt. It was pissing me off knowing she was the one who took my shit, and then tried to give me another journal in return for it.
What made me mad the most was the fact that I wrote in it every single day just thinking about her and how grateful I was to actually find someone who fucking cared.
She doesn't care.
She never did.
•••