Page 16 of Saint Baptiste 2

Blaise’s smile grew and he laughed. “Ay, what the fuck she do to you?”

What did she do? I didn’t know exactly. What I did know was that she made me lose me. In her I lost myself in a way that was like being found. Found and then... lost again once I lost her. How in the fuck? How was that even possible?

“Listen,” He paused, snorted and moved up to stand beside me. Through the mirror we made eye contact. “You moving stupid, bro. I don’t give a fuck what you got goin on. Don’t give a fuck if the broads pussy is wetter than water. Don’t give a fuck if she suck yo dick from the back and make you speak in tongues, nigga. Get. Your. Shit. Together. Or I will be callin’ da-da, Baby Saint.” I raised a brow, and he raised his. “What, nigga? Are you not acting like a lil’ ass boy? Last night you said what? That wasn’t business. It was personal.” He smiled. “So, really... calling him won’t be involving him in the business. Now will it?”

I softened my expression and shook my head.

Checkmate.

“You a ho.”

“Yeah, I’ll be that,” He laughed. “You in position. Act like it.” He turned and extended his hand to me. “Nigga just had a whole ass meeting about being a fuckin’ boss and he out here acting like a got damn worker. What the fuck you doin? Leave that street shit to the street niggas.” He smirked and we slapped hands. “You corporate, my baby.”

It was, and always would be love.

Despite the issues we had, we were brothers with an unbreakable bond. Nothing came between us. We were raised that way. Disagreements had to be settled before we left a room. The shit we had with Jah, that was a little division. Nothing crazy. If the nigga called today and said he needed us on some murder shit with him, guess what we would do? Jump in the whip, ride out with ‘em, do what needed to be done, and ask why after. The same way Blaise had done with me. It was like that.

“With that being said… you know how this shit goes right? You gotta chill on shorty for a minute. Stay away from her and Pandora’s?—

I nodded. “I hear you, B. Aye, look?—”

“You heard me. That’s all I needed to hear, baby bro.”

He didn’t need to know the details. He didn’t scold me. Didn’t bitch about putting his life on the line. Just wanted me to do better because if I failed, we failed. I knew how important that was. Last night, I lost sight of what was important. He had to remind me. Every now and then, even the niggas with their heads screwed on right, needed a little tightening.

“You know Emerald about to nut up on yo ass right, nigga?” Blaise asked with a laugh.

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Man I’m already hip.”

As if she knew we were talking about her, my phone vibrated, and her name showed up on the screen. That was the third call this morning. Instead of picking up, I shot her a text and told her I would meet her at Vault later.

I parked in my designated spot at Vault and killed the engine. Shifting my eyes to the dash, I checked the time. I was purposely twenty minutes late for my meeting with Emerald. We were meeting on my terms. She called and texted too many times today. Told me when and where to meet her. I moved when I wanted to move. I didn’t like the way she tried to handle me. Shit made me feel a way. I didn’t have the right to feel any type of way, considering what I’d done—but I did. Muthafuckas needed to relax. Them niggas weren’t going to be missed and there would be no fallout behind what the fuck I did. I was good. We were good.

After grabbing the burning blunt from the ashtray, I reclined my seat and pulled from it. It wasn’t that I didn’t respect Emerald. I did. I had a lot of respect for her. But, somewhere along the line, she thought the dynamic of our relationship flipped. The scales had tipped a little and balanced more in her favor than mine. I had to tip them back into place.

Pandora’s might’ve been hers. She might’ve been the boss. But without me, Pandora’s would crumble. I was her only investor. We made a ton of money together, but it wasn’t pulling the money that would make things hard for Emerald—it was losing her affiliation with the family.

Couple weeks ago, she talked about me throwing my power around. Shit was laughable. I hadn’t exercised my power nearly as much as I could have. I could’ve forced Emerald to ban Naoki. But, see... I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t like to move that way. Today wasn’t about that. The whole thing with making her wait... it was just a subtle reminder. A light tap on the shoulder. A whisper. Just needed her to remember. That’s it. Nothing too crazy.

Hopefully she heard me.

My phone vibrated and I opened my eyes to look over at it. Lovelie, my cousin’s face lit up the screen. Dragging my hands down over my face with a grunt I let it go to voicemail. The same way I did the last two times she called. Since Emerald showed up, she’d called me three fuckin’ times. Emerald had a certain type of quiet intimidation that made people nervous. I could just imagine how agitated Lovelie must’ve been, keeping her entertained.

Deciding that I’d let my cousin suffer enough, I put the blunt out, grabbed my shit and got out of the car to head inside. I thought about creeping up on Emerald by taking the back entrance but decided not to. It had been a nice little minute since I walked through the front door and crossed over the threshold to take it all in.

Vault was my baby. It was the hottest nightclub in Royal Oak, MI, up against a lot of heavy competition. It wasn’t easy to thrive out here—especially not as a black man in a white dominated city— but we were doing well. Very fuckin’ well. I didn’t know if it was the Caribbean ambiance, the authentic creole menu, or the bad ass waitresses, but we hadn’t had a bad night yet, and we’d been in business for over five years.

Vault was the first business I acquired on my own. Samuel wasn’t happy about it. Hated that my first business was a nightclub. He thought I’d fuck it up. Expected me to fail. So what I do? Go crazy. First year open, I turned over a profit. That was huge, considering, I was just starting out. Think I got a congratulations or a well done from Samuel? Hell naw. Didn’t get acknowledged at all. He didn’t even show up to the grand opening.

The minute I put the security code in and walked through the towering black metal French doors, I fished my phone from the pocket of my jacket to set a reminder to make it a priority to stop in twice a month. Had to. Walking into Vault did something to me. Felt good to cross over the threshold and walk across the dark mahogany hardwood floors. Walking into my own crib didn’t even feel as good.

“Cuz!” Yelled Lovelie, from the bar with a bright smile. “Sak pase!”

I chucked my chin with a subtle grin. “N’ap boule cousin. You smooth?” I casually spoke, as if I hadn’t left her with the wicked witch of the west for twenty minutes past our scheduled meeting time.

I was surprised Emerald didn’t leave. She was extra pissed though. I could feel the anger coming off her back as she sat at the bar with Deuce to her left and Seven to her right. Her security. Pandora’s security, whether. Seven was head of security and gained his name from his height. He stood at a towering 7’3. Big nigga, had to be around three fifty. Deuce, his twin brother, wasn’t far off, a little shorter, carrying about the same amount of weight on ‘em. Intimidation came easy when these niggas entered a room. Rooms full of regular niggas, yeah. But... I wasn’t that. I was built different.

I couldn’t be intimidated. Em knew that shit though. I grew up scrapping with family the same size as them niggas. Uncles and cousins. Fought until my knuckles were busted and there was barely any breath left in my lungs. Had to learn how to use my fists as weapons before I was taught how to use a real one. That separated Baptiste men from a lot of niggas. Why she felt she needed them at a meeting with me didn’t make sense to me though. She knew I didn’t give a fuck about the shit that most people did. Besides, them niggas already knew what time it was. Hell, if it weren’t for them, what happened last night wouldn’t have happened. I mean… them niggas would’ve gotten it somehow someway but not in the way they did. Em had no idea her people helped me with the very shit she was pissed about. If she did, she definitely would have fired them, low key.

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