Page 6 of Still Forever
Me: Nah, you won’t KD. I’ll be there soon, baby.
I put the phone back into my pocket as I pulled into the back of the building and went inside using the private entrance.
Walking the hall, I passed the men lined in the hallway who all seemed to stand up straighter when they saw me arrive. Typing the code into the keypad, the door opened, and the room lit up, as they all took their respective seats at the meeting table. Aside from the underbosses and Trouble, sit-downs normally took place with twenty-four members. Their positions ranged from soldiers to elites. But today it was different; we were down a suit, and that was exactly the reason for the meeting.
“What’s up, G?” Judah asked as he walked in last, and I stood to dap him up. He took the chair nearest to me and waited for me to start the meeting.
Sitting at the head of the table felt different. As the negotiator, I had always handled power plays, but my first call at a sit-down was a little heavier. But I didn’t waste any time. I needed to make it home to my girl, so I was going to do this as quickly as possible.
“I called the meeting because we need to discuss what’s going on within the organization. Keys’ locations have been consistently short, too many times to be a coincidence. At first, we thought it was one of his men, but after we put a checks and balances system in place, we realized that he was skimming money after he collected.” I could see the surprise on some of their faces; others never reacted. Then I continued.
“Trouble left the decision up to me to make a call on how we resolve it. His entire family runs deep within the organization, and I don’t want to risk starting a war inside our own family. So, I’m ordering a blackout. Quick, clean, and quietly…tonight. Each of the soldiers will have a target.” Judah let out a low whistle. It was a tough call, and I knew it was cold, but it had to be done.
Every time we thought we cut off the heads of the snakes, the tails somehow came back to bite us in the ass. It wouldn’t happen this time. After I was done speaking, I looked around the table at the men who were sitting there. Their faces held no visible emotions.
“Does anybody have anything they want to say? Seems like hidden animosity is a trend around this muhfucka.” I asked as I looked each of them in the eye, waiting for them to speak their piece. No one spoke up.
“No, Boss.” Each of them said lowly before I nodded and dismissed them.
They filed out of the room one by one, leaving Judah and me to talk.
“Damn, a blackout?” He questioned.
“That’s my call. Trouble said handle it how I see fit. All I’m trying to do is eliminate any future problems. We haven’t had any issues in the years since we got rid of all the old heads, I’m just trying to keep that same momentum.” I reasoned.
“Look at you, conscious thinking ass nigga. Always got a solution.” He chuckled. My brothers had always said that I was the most level-headed of the three of us. And they were right. Trouble? He would shoot without a damn clue what was going on. Judah? His temper was like rolling the dice. Me? If I pulled the trigger, it was with full understanding. Then I emptied the clip. Although we moved differently, even the Jennings blood running through our veins couldn’t make us any closer.
“Fuck you,” I gritted as I rose from my position at the table. He did the same. “I’m going home, I got something to handle with KD,” I said as I dapped him up.
“Ay, she’s supposed to make my banana pudding this weekend. I already shot her a text earlier this week. Make yourself useful and remind her,” he said as he pulled away from the table.
I decided against responding and walked out of the meeting room shaking my head. If I didn’t think that our mother had already done it, I’d drop his clown ass on his neck.
Back in the truck, I hopped on the interstate and called Trouble. He was out of the country, in Italy. He had been away for about three weeks at the annual summit, meeting with the elites and the other mafia leaders from around the world.
“What’s up, Jax?” He answered on the first ring. I could hear talking in the background that sounded like negotiations were being made. But that was always Trouble. When I called, he answered, and I did the same.
“I had the sit-down, I made a call.”
“Aight, what’s the move?” He asked.
“I ordered a blackout on Keys and the rest of his family. It should be taking place right now. We ain’t giving nobody the opportunity to come eat off our plates with hate in their hearts.” I informed him.
“Damn, that’s a good call. Shit, I need to leave more often.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I laughed.
“I appreciate you for standing in the gap. Keep me updated and be easy.” He said.
“Bet.” We disconnected the call.
I reached down to the floor of the passenger seat, picked up the jewelry bag, and opened the box to look at it again, as if the design had changed in forty-five minutes. As the light hit the diamonds again, I blew out a deep breath. But it wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I wanted to spend forever with KD.
I drove, lost in my thoughts. Night had fallen by now; I was three minutes away from home, and I was just able to see the lights from my estate in the distance. I already had a speech forming in my head. Then Judah called and brought me back to reality.
“What?” I snapped.
“We got an issue, nigga,” he said, causing me to grip the steering wheel. Having an “issue” while I was on call wasn’t some shit that I wanted to hear. Especially not now.
