Page 119 of Don Caselli

“This some get back for Kennedy marrying Alison?”

I paused. “His name is fucking Alex, Menace.”

Unfazed, he continued to stare at me for an answer. “This has to do with her?”

“Nah.”

“You don’t feel shit for Kennedy? Not too long ago you were ready to break rules and try to kill me to be head of this family.”

I stepped back, leaning on the elevator wall and stared at my brother. We may have shared the same face, but this nigga’s way of thinking was on another level. “When in the fuck have I ever said I wanted to kill you, Maverick?”

“Landon, keep the shit up.”

“Cameras are off… hit them before we even stepped in the building,” I assured him, as we exited the elevator.

“Answer the question.”

“I don’t feel shit for her because she lied in my face. I can get down with a lot of shit, but she sat in my face and lied to me.”

“When was she in your face, Landon?”

I realized I said too much for his ass. “In passing conversations, Mens.”

“She Moss’s cousin, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t go fucking with that girl if you not ready for what comes with her,” he answered his vibrating phone, ‘cause he hated to hear his phone ring. “Wonder, I’m on my way to you now… uh huh… why? He needed a new car, the fuck?”

“You bought the baby a car?” I shook my head, exiting out the elevator and toward our trucks.

Jeffie and Duke exited from the other elevator, and all of them fell in line with Menace, as he made sure he held the door opened for Jeffie, making sure she got into the truck first. Even with them both being in different relationships and never looking at each other in that way, Jeffie was his soulmate.

Menace couldn’t do life without her, and it was clear that she couldn’t do it without him. She didn’t have a relationship with her own mother because of Menace, and I was still trying to figure out what was the reason for her cutting her mother off. I could almost bet it was the same reason Angie ended up leaving.

He nodded at me before he got in, and his truck pulled away. I felt proud because the Caselli family now owned a basketball team, and my baby was co-owner of that shit.

“Why in thehell are we here, Landon?” Zoya questioned, as she followed behind me. We bypassed dozens of barking dogs, some laying on their cots and others trying to jump up on the gate to get some love, or bite you.

Either way, it was a shit ton of them, and I was becoming overstimulated with all this damn barking. However, I was on a mission, and I was looking for one particular dog.

“Navy always wanted a dog, and there’s a particular dog that she wanted.”

Zoya sighed. “I would shoot a nigga if he bought me a dog… that’s like giving her a baby. Responsibilities that she has to deal with, not you.”

“She pregnant right now, too,” I nonchalantly revealed, and Zoya held onto one of the dog gates, then backed up once she realized there was an actual dog standing there.

He was calm and chill, as he looked up at her. It was like he was admiring her, as he stood there. “Landon… shit. Let me lean here… sit down,” she searched for his name. “Bando…sit.”

“Who the fuck named that dog Bando?”

When he sat down, Zoya clapped her hands. “Good boy.” Slowly, she stuck her hand near the gate and put his face in her hand. “Oh, he’s so damn big, but cute. You wanna come live with me? Protect Mommy?”

“Zoya, you getting a damn dog?”

She shrugged. “I live alone with no man or kids, so it would be nice to have a little companion. I can hire a dog walker when I’m working and board him when I travel.” She was trying toconvince herself, and from what I knew about my sister, she wasn’t impulsive.

“He been here for a minute too… just like Mink-Mink.” I looked at the girl Pitbull that rested on the cot in the back of the cage.

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