“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Citrine yelled as he stood. “You had Corinthians DeCorte reach out to the Kimores, and you didn’t think to tell us?” Citrine put his hands on his head and started pacing. “Ain’t no way you thought that shit was a good idea.”
“It was my only option,” I argued, and Citrine mugged me. “What else could I do, Citrine? I've been looking for that niggafor six damn months. Every fucking time I thought I was close, I ran into a brick damn wall! She was my last resort!”
“She was never a resort!” he yelled, dropping his arms. “From the start of this shit with you and Yale, I’ve been holding my got-damn tongue, but I’m not now.” Citrine moved to get in my face, but Pyrite jumped up and blocked him. “Move, Pyrite.”
“Big bro, he ain’t ready for that conversation right now. Let him breathe,” Pyrite said, shaking his head.
“Nah, let me tell this nigga a thing or two because obviously nobody else has.” Citrine stepped around Pyrite and got in my face. “You've been moving like a little ass boy for years, Amethyst. I get you were young when all this shit started, but you never listened to anyone who had anything to say. All you heard was your own voice yelling ‘protect Yale,’ and yeah, we get that shit, but you never fucking stopped to check the temp of the situation. That fucking race was a set-up, yeah, you could blame us for telling you to do it, but it was before we knew it was because you needed the money. If you’d come to us, we would’ve fronted you that shit, but you didn’t. Instead, you made a fucking deal with Quincy and then got yourself locked in for eight damn years. The woman you loved married a nigga that wasn’t you. And when you decided enough was enough, you started moving again, not asking questions, not figuring shit out. Just fucking moving! Killing niggas, not getting answers, never one fucking step ahead. If anything, you’ve been behind this entire time!” He grabbed my shirt and pulled me to him. “You’re not thinking, Amethyst! What the fuck is wrong with you? You were taught better than this! You’ve never been alone in any of this, but you move like you are.”
“Let me go, Citrine,” I said, looking my brother square in the eyes. The only reason I hadn’t started going off was because this was my big brother I was staring down. Any other nigga wouldbe dead right now, but I loved and respected my brother too much.
“Or what, lil nigga?” He smirked, and I watched as his eyes went cold. “You going to swing?” He smirked. “Do it, Amethyst. Make another dumb fucking decision because you’re moving without thinking.”
“Let him go, Citrine,” Pyrite said, shaking his head. “Yeah, he made some dumb ass decisions, but he wasn’t the only one.”
“This ain’t about you right now, Pyrite,” Citrine said, shaking his head. “This is about this nigga. And the dumb shit he’s been doing. It got our friends, people we consider family, shot. We don’t know if Four, Yamari, or Destyn will survive. walked away with a flesh wound, and Purpose? Nigga do you realize how much hell is about to be raised?” He laughed and shook his head. “All because you couldn’t fucking listen. Nigga, the fucking FBI is involved now because Purpose was hit.”
“It ain’t just on him, Citrine!” Pyrite yelled and pulled his hands from my shirt. “You on this nigga head about not listening, and now you following in his fucking footsteps!” He pushed Citrine back. “Fucking listen for a second.”
“It’s alright, Pyrite,” I said, shaking my head, then mugged Citrine. “I hear that nigga loud and clear. I fucked up, all this shit is on me.”
“Nigga, shut the fuck up!” Pyrite yelled as he grilled me. “We don’t have time for that, woah is me bullshit you’re about to start up with. Yeah, you fucked up, yeah, you didn’t listen. All that bullshit Citrine said was true, but it ain’t all on you. I wanted to talk to y’all about the shit that Javien Jr. said to me and Xoey a few days ago.”
“What about it?” Citrine asked him as he continued to mug me.
“Javien Jr. said that he has a kid, about one,” Pyrite answered, and I turned and looked at him. I couldn’t stand Javien Jr., andwhen Pyrite signed him, I’d been confused as fuck about why until he explained that his father, Javien Sr., owed a debt. To collect on it, he initially offered up Javien Jr., a decent basketball player with a few brand deals. Pyrite agreed, and even though Javien Jr. signed an agreement with the KC Kings, he didn’t make a dime. He paid everything to Pyrite to pay off his father’s debt. To make up for his loss of income, Javien Jr. started gambling, which made him turn to Pyrite for money. It was a never-ending cycle of my brother collecting money from the father-son duo until Javien Jr. began to get into trouble, and the bad press was brought to the Kings. Pyrite was a businessman first and decided to cut ties with him, and in a last-ditch effort, Javien Jr. offered up his sister, Fable, as the person who could handle their debt. Pyrite went to collect his payment from Fable, and instead of money, he took Fable as well. For the next few months, Javien Jr. hung out in the warehouse, refusing to answer questions about his father’s location and trying to get information about the back-door deals he was part of with his father.
“That nigga is a deadbeat?” I asked, and Pyrite nodded. “Who is his baby mama?”
“We think it’s Diara,” Pyrite answered, and the room went cold.
“Diara?” I repeated, and he nodded. “How the fuck did that happen?” I wiped my hands over my face and shook my head. “Nah, pick somebody else, man. Not Ara. That means that Destyn is his son?” My stomach twisted at the thought. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Pyrite sighed, then sat in the chair next to Citrine’s desk. “All the shit makes sense now that I have that bit of information. Diara had been offered the assistant coach position with Mare’s. Theo had just been sentenced, her divorce was final, and she’d gone out to celebrate. We talked that morning,and she was excited for a change. I hadn’t heard her laugh like that in a long ass time, and then the next phone call I got was from Xoey. She was Diara’s emergency contact.”
“Because Xoey’s everybody’s damn emergency contact,” I grunted as I leaned against the wall.
“Right,” Pyrite nodded. “I remember Xoey being so mad that she was calm. She was straight business from the moment we met at the airport until we got Diara back here. She didn’t crack a joke, didn’t say anything smart. She listened, made moves, phone calls, demanded answers, and she got them. Then, when Diara was back here, she took care of her, no questions asked, no answers needed. She nursed her back to health through Diara’s entire pregnancy.”
“She was the damn birthing coach,” Citrine said with a chuckle. “I mean, sis was right in the damn fold making sure Diara didn’t want for shit. After Destyn was born, she slept on Diara’s couch during post-partum. She made sure that Diara got the help she needed and got better.”
“You can’t tell Xoey this shit, Pyrite,” Citrine said, shaking his head. “Not if you want answers from Javien.”
“Xoey already knows. She was with me when Javien Jr. told me before I put a bullet between his eyes. That’s the reason I called a meeting at the party. I needed to tell everybody what I found out.”
“It’s too many fucking secrets floating around,” Citrine said.
“There’s more,” Pyrite said. He looked at Citrine and me, then dropped his head.
“Just say the shit, Pyrite, damn,” I said, standing.
“Theo Franklin is out of jail.” He looked at Citrine. “And the address he has listed to be released to is Lavender’s.”
Chapter forty
Yale
“Hello?” I answered the phone without looking at it. My hands were shaking so badly that I felt like if I did anything more than swipe the screen, I would drop the phone.
