Page 53 of Breaking the Rules
“Yeah, she had dreams and left us to figure it out. Even when she made it, she never came back, never sent for us. Never told the world she had kids by a convicted felon. So of course Sincere did what he had to do and followed in our father’s footsteps. The way he avoided his gift like the plague was painful to watch. Music was a reminder that we were abandoned.”
“Is that why you have your company?”
Remi nodded. “My babysitters while Sincere was hustling were women he used to run his product. So when I started mycompany, I was dead set on making sure children who look like me had an extra layer of love like I did.”
“That’s beautiful. Not the abandonment, that shit sucks, but the angels amongst us.”
“It is.”
“My grandma was mine. Even though I had her for a very short time and I was so young, I can still remember her perfume, her hugs, and the way she tended to me. Zayden is a great brother, but nothing compared to her warmth. Until recently, I’ve been missing that the most.”
“You have that warmth. I can tell with the way you care for Areli. It’s going to take all of us to give her the love she’ll miss from Kym.”
“They say it takes a village. There’s no truer words.”
“None at all. All I want to know is, are you running or are you staying?”
“He wants to keep me, I’m not above that.”
Remi squealed and hugged her. “I was about to say, I can fight.”
Savanhi chuckled and hugged her back. “Me too. We would’ve been rolling all around this playground.”
“Lookin’ crazy as hell.”
EIGHTEEN
“Glizzy!” Noble’s voice boomed through his shop. “What’s going on, nigga?”
“Ain’t shit. Trying to figure out your girl’s ride,” Glizzy Black spoke up. “You want her riding around in a Monte Carlo every day?”
“Hell nah. That’ll be her Sunday ride. I need her in something else, something bigger and depending on how many scratches I’ll have on my rims when I get home – not as big as the Escalade.”
Glizzy chuckled. “I do not know what about the curbs women are attracted to. Serenity can’t stay away from them shits. Every night I pull her car out of the garage, there’s a scratch, and she can’t tell me where it came from. Pisses me off, but I love her so I ain’t trippin’ over the rims. I know what it is not to have her. Never going through that shit again.”
Noble nodded, enjoying the way Glizzy’s scarred face glowed as he spoke about his wife. Unlike Noble, Glizzy was a part of the LeFleur Mafia. In retrospect, the Mafia controlled the whole West Coast. Elections, sports, casinos, weapons, drugs, and everything in between. The Azul Hearts and Crimson Kings were gangs that fell under that umbrella. There were smaller crews, but the Mafia was the Mecca, and the Azul Hearts and Crimson Kings were the two warring for decades for the top spot.
As of late, everything had been cool. As long as the gangs stayed separate, the streets were quiet. One upset in the rhythm of things, and blocks were going to be hot again.
“Two years of marriage, you still glowing?”
“Twenty years and I’m still going to be grinnin’ from ear to ear. She’s my world. My heart don’t beat without her, and that’s some real shit.”
“Love is some wild shit. I’ve never done none of this before, my ex was riding around in her own shit, and I might’ve paid for some tires here and there. I’m seconds away from sending somemovers to her place and packing the shit up,” Noble admitted. “Like in my head, it don’t make no sense to me. Like who falls in love after a fuck?”
“How long ago you hit that?” Glizzy asked.
“Weeks ago at the birthday party, Sincere said was for me, but it was really for himself,” Noble spoke with a half chuckle. “Even after everything being thrown out of fuckin’ alignment, she ruled my brain. Yeah, it was good, but it was the…”
“The safety net. The soft place we can’t get out here. Not just because of our affiliations but as men.”
“That’s it. She looked at me and saw me and didn’t ask for nothing other than me to leave her the hell alone.”
“We see how that shit went,” Glizzy laughed. “Listen, God got a funny way of rearranging and removing stuff out the way when He needs you in position. When it comes to matters of the heart and soul, our timing don’t matter. Fall in that shit and stay there. There’s something special about a woman who is being loved correctly. That covering is unreal.”
“I hear you.”
“Good, now come look at this shit, I got a date and she will not pop her pregnant ass up here to cuss me out,” Glizzy spoke, walking deeper into his garage. “Everything with the Monte Carlo is good, the engine work is on track. Once we get all of that in, we’ll do the paint and put the custom seating in. Now something for every day. I got a Range Rover Autobiography sprayed with this lavender lush paint. Shit is fire. Black interior and shoes.”
