Page 5 of Do You Understand?

Mauri had already been to work in the short time that everyone rewatched the footage. She used conversations with Taelyn as her compass. “Kevin has a baby with this chick in West Ashley.”

Fiona pulled a gun from her holster. “Well, looks like we got a collateral damage ho that’s about to get handled. Men, you can sit this one out. The girls got it.”

“Khiajah, see if Khialee is available for an assist?” Mauri asked before she stood, then stepped over to her parents.

Khialee was more of a contractor than an employee with Christianson Enterprises. Like her sister, Khiajah, she was a beast with it on all angles. Galiana was checking her guns ready to put in work.

“Alright, I’m going to lead tech tonight with Reece on the assist,” Zaakiyah said. When she sat in the seat, she tapped on the keys a few times before she grabbed three tablets from the table, then handed them to Mauri. With a smirk, Zaakiyah placed her eyes on each of the women. “It’s ladies’ night. Let’s get it going.”

The men in the house glanced at each other. They all knew what it was. Yeah, the men were with the shits, but the women were the shit. Between Fiona’s psychotic ass and Galiana’s trigger-happy ass, you would think that would be enough. What many didn’t realize was that Mauri was also a beast, but she preferred to be behind the screen. Khiajah was a woman that could kill a grown man with her bare hands. The same went for her baby sister, Khialee.

Khiajah ended the call she was on with her sister. “Khialee said she’ll be here in twenty.”

Khialee still lived on Sullivan’s Island with her husband Harlem Jr. and their two kids, Harlem III and Phy. When Phy was born and her name was revealed, Khialee’s father Khiaere was undone. Everyone missed Phy more than anyone could say. There were days that Khiajah would go sit with Tae and have conversations with her auntie as if she was her mother, Phy. There was no longer a demarcation line between Khiajah and Phy in Tae’s mind. Tae’s mother Jocelyn and her husband Joseph moved back to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina a few years ago. A house was built for them in Washington Circle.

Jocelyn was beneficial with the care of her daughter. She may have missed the beginning part of Tae’s life, but she had not missed a day since she reentered her life. Some days Tae did not recognize her mother either and referred to her as the nice lady that looked like her.

Somewhere In Hanahan…

When Kevin baked this plan in his crack pipe, he knew he had to be meticulous about who he wanted to help execute this plan with. He had friends and associates that were within and outside of Christianson Enterprises, but that would have been too much risk. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them because he did. He trusted them to value their own lives over his plan. There was no way he could risk them becoming turncoats. One day during his class, the idea popped into his head to use students that he mentored in a sense. Afterall, he was the cool, hype, lit professor with the street edge.

There were male students in his freshman economics class that idolized him. Even with that, he needed to ensure he picked boys who were susceptible to being his do-boys. He didn’t want anyone that was from this region of the United States. That lessened the likelihood of them having heard of the organization. There were many projects that Christianson Enterprises did that were in the media’s eye as well as the millions in scholarships they granted to mainly students from this region. The five boys that he selected were from New York, New Jersey, and the DMV.

It started with the mentorship of the boys because they were failing his course. It progressed into a friendship where he would allow them to come to his child’s mother’s home and chill. They would smoke and drink which made him more relatable to these boys that he knew came from the hoods of their cities. All it took was a sob story about getting jacked by Taelyn and her people with an idea of how to make thousands to get them onboard. There was no way that these young, impressionable idiots would let a bitch play Professor K!

“So, you sure they’re going to give you the money for her, man?”

Brandon was not feeling good about this plan because something wasn’t adding up for him. First, when they got to the house, he had the code to get inside. If this girl jacked him, why would he have open access to her home? Next, as the crew moved through the house, Brandon noticed a picture on a side table of Professor K and this female that supposedly robbed him. If that wasn’t bad enough, near the door in the line of shoes, there was a pair of sneakers that he remembered the professor wearing. They were a custom, rare pair of Jordans.

They entered the house through the garage where Brandon also noticed that Kevin’s motorcycle was there. In the warmer months, Kevin rode his motorcycle to campus almost every day. The more Brandon scoped out the house inconspicuously, he noticed more and more factors that suggested Kevin lived, or at the least, spent a lot of time there.

Kevin’s annoyance rose at the continuous questions from Brandon in particular. He could tell that the questions were putting a seed of doubt in the minds of the others. They were in a house that Kevin had one of his side bitches rent in her name. He didn’t think that Taelyn knew about this side bitch. They had Taelyn handcuffed to a bed in one of the bedrooms.

“Yes, Brandon, I told you we would. I’m about to make the call now. One of y’all can come with me. I need to go somewhere else to make the call,” Kevin told them. When they questioned why he couldn’t make the call from the house since he had a burner, his response was laced with frustration. “Because they have a smart bitch that might track the phone even though it’s a burner. Come on, Chris, let’s go.”

The second he walked out the door, Brandon stood to check on the girl. Kevin made sure not to mention her name. When he walked into the room, his stomach clenched at the sight of her on the bed. After they got to the house, he beat her more. What stood out about it was that at no time did she cry out for help or appear to show weakness. It seemed to Brandon that Kevin wanted her to beg him to stop, but she refused.

“You know that he sentenced you all to death, right? If I were you, I would get out while I still have a chance. You look too young to have an obituary because of some dumb shit you did because you followed a dummy.”

He thought she was asleep. Taelyn’s voice startled Brandon and her words frightened him. “Um, what do you mean? H-he said that you and his people robbed him. He wants to get his money back.”

The laugh that escaped her gut was unexpected. “You’ve been in my condo. I assume you came through the garage, so you saw what I drive. Why the hell would I need to rob that fuck boy? He’s mad because he can’t get where he wants in my family’s company or with me. Like I said, death is coming, and he called them to you.”

Brandon didn’t know what to think. He may not have known what to think, but he knew what he was about to do. His grandmother who raised him always told him to trust his gut. There was no guarantee of this supposed money. It wasn’t worth dying for some shit that wasn’t his. He closed the door back to walk out into the living room where his three friends were.

“Aye, man, I’m gone. Something ain’t right, and I’m not about to get caught up in this bullshit.”

Craig and Sam jumped up while Eric stayed seated, too stunned to stand. Eric kissed his teeth. “What the fuck you mean you’re gone? Man, you just going to bitch out like a pussy?”

“You can call me what you want, but you won’t be able to call me shit if you’re dead. The shit don’t seem right. There were pictures of this man and that girl in the house. His fuckin’ Js were near the door and his bike in the garage! Connect the fuckin’ dots, man! My grandma didn’t send me all the way down here to get caught up in jail or a grave.”

While Brandon gathered his things to leave out of the back door of the house, Craig and Sam thought about the things that they had noticed as they walked through Taelyn’s home. Some things didn’t add up to them as well, but they wanted to give Professor K the benefit of the doubt. By the time Brandon reached the back door, both Sam and Craig were on his heels.

“Y’all some fuckin’ pussies! That’s more money for me, Chris, and Professor K!” Eric had been a mischief since he was a young kid. When he decided that he would go to college, it wasn’t for the education. It was simply newer grounds to cover in his failing drug business. He planned to bring that good shit from Jersey down to South Carolina.

Brandon didn’t dignify Eric with a response as the three boys walked out of the back door. The plan was to walk several houses down and order an Uber. The sun had already risen, so this would be nothing more than ordering an Uber to go to work in Sam’s mind. They would walk past the house they were in instead of toward the entrance of the neighborhood. Relief set in Brandon’s chest to see that the Uber was only five minutes away. They were going to get the fuck out of the area while they still could, just like Taelyn instructed. Brandon’s grandma didn’t raise a fool.

Kevin madethe call to the person he felt had the power to get him the money that he wanted. There was no need to waste time with anyone that didn’t possess the power or authority to make decisions. Mont naturally picked up on the first ring.

---