'Morto' That was the only word the person said on the phone before hanging up, I knew what it meant in Portuguese and I felt a huge weight being lifted off my chest. Did I feel bad that Julius was dead? Hell no..... that dude cause my family too many problem to care about him or his pathetic life, but I did feel bad because I wasn't this person. When did I become the person who could easily end someone's life? Hopefully now it was the last time I ever had to do something like that because now I had two peoples blood on my hands Vic and Julius....... I walked down stairs and went to get me something to drink I needed a vacation, after we dealt with the last two problems on our list; Linda and Iman, I was going to take my family away for at least a month. It was almost time for Noah to go to school and I decided to wake him up to see if he wanted to work out, I walked down to the basement and heard 'Take You Down' by Chris Brown coming from Noah's room. I guess he was up, I walked to the door and opened it and quickly closed it...... I'm going to beat his ass.
"MARCUS WAKE UP!!!!" I said storming into our room, Marcus looked at up at me and I tried not to laugh at the little bit of drool coming form his lips. "Go deal with that boy before I kill him." I said shaking my head, Marcus rolled his eyes, got out of bed and walked downstairs while I tried to calm down. Thank God I only saw their heads because I never wanted to see my son doing........ that........ Once I was mad but not pissed I walked downstairs to find Noah standing in the living room with Marcus and Jade.
"Dad it's not like y'all don't know we do it......" Noah said quietly. I had to put my hands in my shorts to keep from strangling him. "I....." Noah started to say but Marcus cut him off with a look. They stood there quietly until there was a knock on the door and I opened it for Jade's mom Isabelle.
"You said you were staying over Monique's!" Isabelle said pissed. "I'm sorry about this Marcus and Khalil....... bring your ass Jade." Isabelle said pulling her daughter out the house leaving us alone with Noah.
"Noah...... you're a good kid, you do damn near everything that we ask of you without question. We know you're out there having sex and even though we don't agree with it, there's nothing we can do to stop it.......... but for you to sneak Jade into the house at 4 in the morning and do...... what y'all were doing is beyond disrespectful." Marcus said much nicer than I would've.
"I'm sorry dad....... she came over because we were going to ride to school together and stuff just happened and well....... I can't help it I'm horny all the time." Noah said and if I wasn't so pissed I would've laughed, because I was a teenager once so I knew exactly what he was going through.
"We'll talk about this more when you get out of school, which you really need to go get ready for." I said looking in his eyes, Noah quickly left the room and I looked at Marcus. "I'm really considering not letting him go to that damn dance." I said sitting next to Marcus.
"Khalil....... it could be a lot worse, look at Toussaint. At least he's not smoking and sneaking off without permission. We'll deal with this like we do everything else....... together." Marcus said kissing me.
"Y'all need to get that boy neutered." Mama Angela said scaring the fuck out of me and Marcus.
"When did you get her mom? Better yet how did you get in?" Marcus asked looking at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Boy you already know I have a key to you and Marsean's house and I got here last night because I wanted to spend some time over here with my favorite son........ and Marcus." She said winking at me, I smiled and turned on a movie to get the image of Noah out of my head.
The rest of the morning went by peacefully, my anger had subsided a little but I was still pissed which wasn't a good thing considering who I was meeting in a few hours. But Cori and Marquise made my morning a little better until Mama Angela mentioned that me and Marcus was going to have to go through this two more times.
"Khalil what are you and Zyshaun up to? Y'all have been really secretive since the phone call." Marcus said speaking in code.
"We're meeting with Nico." I said picking at my food, avoiding his eyes. "Marcus we're just going to talk, I want to look in his eyes and see if what the detective said is true. Don't worry I'll keep Zyshaun from doing anything stupid and you know I can control my anger so don't worry." I said kissing him.
"And what if he did?" Marcus asked sadly. "I don't want to think Nico would do something like that, but what if he did Khalil then what are you going to do?" Marcus asked.
"I know Nico wouldn't do anything like that so I'm not sweating it. I'll call you when we leave, now if you excuse me I have some work to do." I said walking down to the basement, once I got finished with my little project Noah won't think twice before sneaking someone else in this house. By noon I was completely done and smile because I knew it was only a matter of time before Noah sprang my little trap. I got dressed and went to meet Zyshaun, before going to see Nico.
"Man what is it with you Cunningham men attracting crazy ass people into y'alls lives. I'm starting to think y'all got USDA, Grade-A, Gods of Egypt type dick....... and I'm slightly jealous where's my stalker, where's my crazy person feenin' for my dick at all hours of the day and night." Zyshaun asked and I looked at him like he was crazy.
"What are you talking about Zyshaun?" I asked confused.
"Think about it you've had; Roseline, Vic, Brian, that one bitch from college that kept leaving her panties under your door........ Panties Patty. Devin has had Nico and Ant willing to kill each other over his dick and Nico is still going crazy over it, as we can tell by the fact that he tried to kill my little bro Blaze. Hell you can just look at Liberty and tell she's going crazy over Cam's dick...... jut watch next time you see her I bet she mentions Cam's dick at least twice.......... Sa'vion must not have gotten that gene and I'm willing to bet anything your other brother Dominique got all the bitches at Ole Miss going insane......... so tell me Lil' what's y'alls secret?" Zyshaun said laughing.
"Zy you need a hobby bro, because you've got too much time on your hands. But look Nico isn't the type of person that would do some shyt like that....... he's family and besides why would Steph shoot him if they were working together?" I asked.
"That's what I want to know." Nico said walking over to the table, he sat down and looked at us remorse written all over his face. "Devin is my best friend, I would die for him....... I've already gotten shot for him what else do I need to do to prove my loyalty?" Nico asked and Zyshaun chuckled quietly.
"You can start by getting rid of Iman......." Zyshaun said looking at Nico. "I've tried giving him a pass and at Devin's request I haven't snapped on him yet when I could've especially after that shyt he said about my nephews. Then that shyt he said to Cam..........."
"Iman is just scared of how close I've gotten to you all, he feels like y'all want to come between us." Nico said. "But I'll tell him to back off, now to the matter at hand....... I would never hurt Devin or Blaze, I got a lot of love for them. This must be Julius's doing...... he's trying to turn y'all against me." Nico said.
"Oh you didn't hear? Julius had a horrible accident...... such a sad story, he'll be greatly missed. But here's a business proposition for you; pick anywhere in the world you wanna go, move there, any place you wanna work let me know and I'll get you that job, and I'm willing to fork out a million a year every year as long as you and Iman leave and never come back." Zyshaun said.
"Do you expect me to just pack up and leave my home?" Nico said.
"It's better than the alternative Nico, we're willing to stop looking into this Steph thing if you just leave." I said. "I got a lot of love for you, you're like my little brother and just like Devin I just want you to be happy and I don't think you'll ever be truly happy here." I said looking in his eyes.
"I'm sorry but I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to stay and help find out who did this. Have y'all ever thought about Blaze? Dude is just too perfect, it's like he doesn't have any drama or anything it could've been him." Nico said and I heard something in his voice that I missed.
"Just think a on it a few days and talk to Iman about it. We'll be in touch." I said getting up, as we walked away Zyshaun looked at me and nodded. I knew I wasn't trippin, Nico hated Blaze and he was trying to divert our focus off of him and onto Blaze but we were smarter than that and I felt a hallow pit in my stomach because it killed me that Nico would try to hurt Devin.
"So what are we going to do?" Zyshaun asked walking to his car.
"We'll give him a few days to think it over and if he still refuses our offer than we'll up the money....... Nico is like family and I don't want to go to extreme lengths with him. But if he still refuses..........." I didn't want to think about it. "Let's just go home, I have to deal with Noah's bullshyt and I need to mentally prepare myself." We got to the car and Smoke was standing there smoking a Black & Mild.
"I caught a rat....." He said and Zyshaun started smiling like a maniac, I knew exactly what that meant Smoke had tracked down Linda which meant there was only one more person we had to worry about then we could go back to a life of peace....................................