Page 36 of This is Law

“I wasn’t merged onto the call when the recruiter called because….”

Shit was starting off on the wrong foot already.

“Them niggas randomly hit me. Me and the boys were at the gym, getting a workout in, when they hit me. His coach calledme, and he had the recruiter on the line. I didn’t merge you onto the call because everything that they said to me, I was going to come back, and repeat it back to you,” I let her know.

“That’s not the point though, Sevyn. I have questions. You knew that I would have questions, so I could have been merged onto the call, so that I could ask them. Not some half ass shit that your trying to do right now, and throw it on me, after the shit already happened!” she snapped, removing her reading glasses from her face, and she tossed them on the couch, as she stood up.

“Man, you going about the shit like I did that intentionally. Since when the fuck I ever go out of my way to leave you out of something that involves the boys? It was a quick, five-minute phone call, and I made sure that I came in the house tonight, so that I could tell you what the fuck happened. If I was a green ass nigga, I would have taken the offer that he was giving Creed right on the spot because Creed is thirsty to go to the camp this summer. I didn’t do that though. I told Creed that we had to hold off on our decision until we talked to you about it, and until we all went out there to see the camp together. You be so ready to spazz out over some bullshit, man,” I shot back, standing up as well because I was about to get the fuck on. I’ll do a lot of things tonight, but I wasn’t about to sit here, and argue with Yaya’s ass about shit, especially not while we had the boys upstairs.

“Okay. Next time something big happens with the boys, whether it’s school, practice, any fuckin thing, I’m going to make sure that I don’t include your ass in shit. I don’t like that, Sevyn. Then, from the looks of things, it sounds like ya’ll already have your mind made up. We’re only a couple of months away from summer break. With everything that I have going on, now I have to wrap my mind around, and accept the fact that our son is getting ready to go away for a training camp for two months. I don’t like that,” her voice cracked, as if she was about to startcrying. I expected this reaction from her. I expected her to be more emotional than angry. I said before that Yaya was the kind of parent that didn’t like her kids to be away from her, so I knew that it was going to be heavy on her to have to accept Creed going away for summer break.

“A decision hasn’t been made yet, Ya. We still gotta go to Los Angeles, just to see if we’re even going to like it. Chill out. You about to do the most when nothing is even set in stone yet. On some real shit though, if we go out there, and if we all like the camp, the coaches, and if we feel like it’ll be a great benefit for Creed, and his future, Ima be real with you, that’s not going to be up to us to make that decision. We going to let Creed make it. You know how badly that boy want to make it to the MLB. He’s been putting in work and practicing his ass off since we put a bat in his hand when he was a little boy. I know that shit going to hurt you when he goes off but let it be a taste of what it’s going to feel like when both of them go off for college. You gotta stop babying them. A nigga hate when you do that shit,” I was just a few feet away from her, as I was talking to her.

Yaya had this look in her eyes like she wanted to tackle a nigga, but she wasn’t going to act on it. Last time her ass jumped on me, feeling herself, I had to jack her lil ass up, and hem her to the front of the car. I knew that she hated everything about that shit, which is why she’d chosen to keep her hands to herself. She wasn’t feeling anything that I was saying to her right now because it was the harsh truth.

She ended up just walking away from me, leaving it at that. I stood here, watching her. She went over to the sink, and she walked over to the kitchen cabinet, pulling the door open, and she took out a glass up.

That was my cue to get the fuck up out of here, so after running my hand down my face, sighing, I walked out of thefamily room, but before walking over to the door, I made a stop at the kitchen.

“Regular schedule this weekend. I’ll get the boys from school on Friday,” I let her know, and like she didn’t even hear a nigga, she ignored me, pulling out a carton of juice from the fridge that she was going to add to her glass.

“I hope you have a marvelous night tonight, love,” I responded, getting ready to walk away.

“Fuck you,” was all she said, and that made me laugh, while shaking my head.

“Fuckin you is the reason your ass so fuckin crazy now. I ain’t touching your ass no more. Use your rose to take care of that tonight,” I was sarcastic in my response.

Yaya was one of those people that got off on getting the last word. She always felt like she had to finish a nigga off, but the fact that she didn’t, and she kept quiet, only let me know that she was more than likely still in her feelings about Creed, and the training camp. I wasn’t about to stand here, and kiss her ass about it, so after I said what I had to say, I left out of the kitchen, getting the fuck on. I had a good day today, and I wasn’t about to let her drive me the fuck crazy.

I left the house, locking the door behind me from the inside. I made it over to my car, unlocked the doors, and I quickly got in. Music immediately started playing from the cars speakers, since my phone was automatically connected to the Bluetooth. I turned the music down though because it was loud.

I pulled out of the driveway, and the second I made it out of the community, my gas light came on, indicating that I was low on gas. I was tired as fuck, and I wanted to be lazy and decide to gas up in the morning, or push one of my other cars, but I was pushing my Mercedes, and this was the car that I mainly liked driving during the week. With a shake of my head, I decided that I would stop at the gas station that was near my house.

I pulled up to the gas station about ten minutes later. Because it was a little late out, it really wasn’t that busy. Besides my car pulling up, there was just one other car that were gassing up, but a few cars were parked in front of the gas station, as if they were inside, probably purchasing something.

I stepped out, and I used my phone to pay, just usingApplePay,and once that was done, I started filling my car up with gas. I let it do its thing automatically, not having to hold onto the pump, and while that did that, I leaned with my back against the car, contemplating on if I should go inside, and grab me some snacks. Every time I pulled up to the gas station, it’s like I had to make my way inside to grab something. By the time my car was filled with gas, I took the pump out, placed it back inside, and I decided on walking into the store to grab a few things. I needed to re- up on some gum in my car, so I grabbed that, and a few snacks for the crib. I purchased everything, and as I as walking out, there was a piece of me that felt like my mind might have been playing tricks on me when I saw that my driver’s side door was opened. I knew damn well that I’d closed that door before I’d stepped out to put gas inside of it.

Before I could question whether my mind was playing tricks on me or not, I could see what looked like a man leaned into my car, and from the way his body was leaned in, it’s almost like he was moving his hand around, trying to see what he could take. See, I was the kind of nigga that got off on bullshit. I loved for a nigga to make himself have a problem with me, so that I could handle it. One thing about me, I didn’t play that shit when it came to disrespecting me and stealing from me. Do either one, and I’ll be ready to kill a nigga.

I quickly walked over to the car, but at the same time, I wasn’t making too much noise because I didn’t want this nigga to get a warning that I was onto him. I held the bag in one of my hands, and with my other hand, I put it on the top of the driver’sside door, and I slammed that shit, making the door crush onto his body, locking him in, and the nigga screamed out in pure agony. The way I slammed the door shut on him, I know for a fact that I had to break something on his body, which is what I’d intended on doing. As if doing it one time wasn’t enough, I opened the door back, only to slam that shit down again, and he screamed even louder this time.

“Fuckkkkkk! What… what the fuck are you doing, man?” he groaned, turning his head around to face me. The second he gave me access to his face, I picked my fist up, and I punched that nigga right in his mouth, doing my best to knock teeth out of his mouth.

“You looking for something in this bitch, nigga? Were you with me at the car lot a year ago, when I went and purchased this motha fucka? Huh? Your name on this motha fuckin title? I don’t think it was. If that’s the case, that can only mean that your stealing from me, right? That’s what the fuck that mean, nigga?” I roared, putting my hand on his shoulder, dragging him out, and he fell on his back. I tossed the bag inside of the car that I was holding in my hands, and I went over to him, towering over him, hitting him with a quick two piece.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry man. I was just being stupid. My… my bad man,” he was pleading, mouth leaking from me punching him in it. If I had to guess his age, I would say that he was in his middle twenties. Something about another man searching around my property, on the hunt to take something that didn’t belong to him, that infuriated me. I swear, I wanted to kill this nigga, but I didn’t.

I didn’t even let my temper get the best of me like that. I did fuck the nigga up a little bit more, and I backed up. Because of the state that he was in, he damn near had to crawl away from me, and when he eventually found some kind of strength, he stood up, only to fall, get himself back up again, and he took offrunning. He crossed the street, taking off to the other side. He had to have been watching me as I pulled up, and then when I went inside of the gas station. I was the last nigga to be an easy lick. I didn’t leave shit inside of my car because I knew that there were niggas out there like him that couldn’t wait to catch me slipping.

I needed a motha fuckin vacation. Work had me stressed out. It felt like people were in competition with each other these days to see who could break the law the worst. I was taking on some of the biggest cases right now in my career. I’m beefing with Yaya’s ass just about every fuckin day. I had this weird ass shit going on with Dutch. I needed a fuckin vacation. I didn’t care if I had to take that vacation by myself, either. I just needed one. I knew I was on edge when I had this nigga down on his back, and there was voices in my head, telling me to kill his ass. When I got this worked up, and this violent, I knew that I could use a reset on life.

Chapter Seventeen

DUTCH THORNE

“Hoe ass nigga, what’s good?” my voice was cold, as I stood at the cemetery, looking down at the headstone, that was custom for Knox.

Just like any other headstone though, his name was carved in stone, along with his birthdate, and his death date. The custom part came in with the images of him that were on the headstone. Knox has been gone for over thirty years, and before Solace lost her fuckin mind, she sent the nigga away in style, and the custom headstone was evidence of that.

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