Page 32 of Rhodes to Love

When I dropped Karima off last night, she wouldn’t even look at me. She wanted me to keep her around, but I couldn’t do that. I was gonna have to tell her people what I knew, and that shit was gon’ knock me back to square one. It would be my first time meeting a lot of them. My first impression would be all fucked up.

Mr. Kenny had called last night. He knew something was up with Karima, because she wouldn’t answer his phone call, but he didn’t probe. He only asked if she was safe. I held the phone to her face and let her tell him for herself that she was okay… physically. Mentally and emotionally, she was a mess. I was pretty sure they talked sometime last night about what happened.

Those niggas were after me. There was nothing I could have done that would have prevented this. I inherited my father’s dynasty. I gave that shit to my cousin. I wanted no parts of that street shit. I kept the money, though, at least most of it. Everything that was in their home and accounts all over the place were mine. Any money that may have been at other locations was left to my cousin.

I hadn’t spoken to Karima since I dropped her off. When she was angry, she went silent. I knew that. If she could only understand why I was doing this, we would be okay. Maybe with time, she would understand that this was what was best.

“A’ight, bruh. I’ll holla at’chu later.”

I ended the call, not even waiting for him to respond. My nerves were all over the fucking place. When I got to their family barn, a ton of cars were already here. I checked the time to make sure I wasn’t late. I was ten minutes early. Hopping out of my truck, I made my way to the entrance to find it locked. I frowned slightly, then rang the bell.

A tall, medium-brown-skinned man approached the door. The nigga from the diner, that day I popped up on Karima, was behind him. He had tatts everywhere, and I could tell he used to be about that life… He may have still been. When he opened the door, he seemed to know who I was. He extended his hand, and I shook it as he said, “I’m one of Karima’s uncles, WJ. That’s her uncle too, Marcus.”

He gave me a head nod. “I’m Rhodes.”

They turned and walked away, so I followed behind them to see a bunch of men gathered. They were all eating. I guess I wasn’t invited to break bread with them. That was cool. Thankfully, I’d eaten before I got here. I sat off toward the end of a table by myself until Mr. Jasper sat with me.

“What’s up, nephew?”

He looked pretty sober, so maybe he was just this way all the time. “What’s up, Unc?”

He chuckled. “That sounded all comfortable and shit falling off yo’ lips. I heard baby girl ain’t even fucking wit’chu right now.”

I slightly rolled my eyes. “Yeah. She hardheaded, man.”

“Yeah. She get it honest. We Hendersons can be a lot of things, but we good people. Unfortunately, me and WJ may be the only halfway friendly ones you’ll meet tonight.”

“Aww shit. Thanks for the warning.”

He chuckled and nodded, then pulled a blunt from his pocket. When he sparked up, I was dying for a pull. Apparently, he could read my mind, because he passed it to me. I took a long ass pull as he chuckled. “You gon’ need every bit of that shit too.”

Mr. WJ went to the front of the room and said, “A’ight, let’s get started. The only person here that most have not met is Karima’s boyfriend, Rhodes Woods.”

Everyone turned and looked at me. I gave a head nod to no one in particular. Uncle Jasper was right. No one smiled or even looked like they wanted to speak, not even Mr. Kenny. One man stood and walked toward us and sat next to me. He had the swag of a hustler, just like Marcus. While Mr. WJ said some things to an older man away from the mic, he said, “I’m Philly. My gut never steers me wrong, and it’s saying you finna bring some shit to this meeting that I’m gon’ have to dip back in the streets to fix.”

My eyebrows lifted slightly. I knew I recognized the swag. I didn’t respond to him. He took the blunt from Jasper and took a pull. When Mr. WJ went back to the mic, everyone quieted down.

“So the nigga that shot at Rima and Rhodes is from California. I’ll let Shy and Ali educate y’all.”

I swallowed hard as Mr. Kenny stared at me like I knew this would happen. When the man with the suit on went to the mic, he said, “So Ali and Dinalee were able to dig up quite a bit in a short amount of time. The nigga that shot at them is from Oakland… the same place Rhodes is from. Rhodes’s dad was a kingpin and was killed three years ago. Rhodes was basically shipped off here by his parents to get him away from the life. He didn’t go back until he was burying them.”

Everyone’s eyes were on me. The guy referred to as Ali took the mic. “His dad was expanding… kind of how you did back in the day, Philly. Niggas didn’t like that. One particular territory, he snatched from a nigga referred to as Trouble. Well, that was exactly what he brought to J Woods… fucking trouble. It took him almost ten years, but he caught him slipping. Now he’s after Rhodes. Unbeknownst to Rhodes, that nigga thinks J owed him money from the business he ‘stole’ from him.”

“So what you saying is this nigga brought bullshit to our doorstep,” the super tall one from the diner said as he stood.

“Naw, Mayor. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know. He wasn’t involved in none of that shit. Trouble just wants what Rhodes has… money,” Ali said as ‘Mayor’ took his seat.

The man I assumed was Shy went back to the mic. “Now that we know who we dealing with, what y’all wanna do about it?”

Several of them looked at me. I stood from my seat. “Y’all don’t have to do nothing. I’ll stay away from Nome until it’s handled… whether that means I take them down or they take me down. Karima is here and pissed. I don’t want her around me anymore until this is handled. I need her and my baby to be safe. I love her, and I want what’s best for her. Right now, being around me can get her killed. That shit would destroy me.”

They were all frowning at me, so I excused myself. I wasn’t wanted here. This was something I was going to have to handle by myself. As I headed to my truck, two guys stepped in front of me. I left my heat in the truck like a fucking fool.

“Ali said to go back inside.”

I frowned slightly. “Naw. I’m cool.”

I walked around them and went to my truck. I hopped in and peeled out of there, heading home. Being a loner wasn’t anything new to me. I couldn’t be mad at the Hendersons. They didn’t know me. Everything they knew about me was fuck shit. They hadn’t heard a positive thing about me since before I got here. Grabbing my phone from the console, I called Karima.

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