Page 15 of Heart of a Savage
“Wouldn’t you do the same for your sisters?” Papi asked.
“Not if they’re out here opening their legs for every bum they meet and popping out thirty damn kids with no help!” I seethed.
I didn’t judge people based on their situations, but a woman with six kids by niggas who couldn’t care less if they had a roof over their kids’ heads was a problem for me. Maybe if Malea were a little nicer, I’d help her out. But, nope. Her ass wasn’t getting a pot to piss in from me.
“Set her up in the house on Greenview—” Papi started, but I cut him off.
“No… No way.”
“Listen, that wasn’t a request, Messiah. I don’t give a damn if you don’t want to help her. This is about those children.”
“They don’t respect shit, Papi. If you let them stay there, that house will be destroyed in a month. Then, what? We have to pay our contractors to fix whatever they fuck up?”
“Just get it done. We’ll figure out the logistics later. It’s almost Mother’s Day. Now, if you don’t want Ashlyn involved, then you better take heed to what I’m saying,” he warned. “I have a wife to get home to. You gentlemen enjoy the rest of your day.” Papi stood and left the conference room as I looked at my brothers’ smirking faces.
“I’m glad y’all think this is funny.”
“Aye, you’re the one who had a kid with her. We were smart enough to strap up.” Mike chuckled.
“Shut the fuck up! I did strap up. The broad trapped me because she knows I was the better brother out of you both. You niggas would have ghosted her as soon as she told y’all she was pregnant.”
“And you didn’t? Could have sworn you denied my nephew for a whole year before you finally came to your senses,” Moses recalled.
“I may have denied him, but I didn’t run, so fuck you! Mike, you better let me know the next time you want to steal some shit. If something else disappears, I’m coming straight for yo’ ass.”
He waved me off. “Whatever, nigga. Are we still going to Club Lucid tonight? Harvey’s back in town. It’s his birthday, and he says he has something to tell us.”
Harvey was our best friend, but he and I were closer since we were older than Moses and Mike. We all grew up together when his mother and father, Mrs. Linda and Mr. Louis, used to live on our block. Once we graduated high school, they moved to South Carolina, and he’s been living there ever since. We kept in touch, and he would fly out a couple of times a year for occasional purposes or we’d go to him, but that bum didn’t even tell me he was coming to town, so fuck him.
“I’m straight. I don’t go places I’m not invited to.”
“Nigga, he told us to tell you. Get out ya funky-ass feelings. And I’ll pick up my neph; I gotta go that way anyway,” Mike said as they stood.
We all headed out of the conference room while I made my way back to my office to start this long-ass day.
“Si!” Moses called after me.
“’Sup?”
“You should really come out tonight, bruh. I know this shit is stressing you, and you ain’t been out in almost a year. It’s Harvey’s birthday, man. Let’s go out and have some fun. We miss you on the scene.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“You do that, but if you say no, I’m coming over and putting my feet all over that nice-ass Italian furniture with my Cheetos and breadsticks, watching Marvel with neph.” He smirked.
“And be carried out in a body bag. Leave me alone, nigga. I said I’ll think about it.”
He chuckled as we slapped palms and departed. I pulled out my cell and dialed Jalea’s line. She picked up on the first ring.
“What, Messiah?”
“Aye, chill with the pissy attitude, a’ight?”
“You do me so wrong, Messiah. I try to be nice to you, but all you do is give me your ass to kiss. I’m over it. I’ll be moving out soon. We can work on arrangements for MJ after I find me a place.”
I sighed deeply. “You don’t listen, nor do you respect my space, Lea. The same sister you riding so hard for was the same sister that was begging to neck me from the back. But if that’s what you want to do, by all means, go for it. As a matter of fact, you can stay at one of our properties, and y’all can live there in misery. Call the realty company and drop my name. They’ll take care of you from there.”
“Are you serious?”
