“That’s the thing, Mina. I don’t give a fuck about their thoughts. What we have going on ain’t got shit to do with them.”
“It does when the bitch you fucked and got pregnant is the daughter of one of them! Fuck, Emil! I didn’t expect you to fall in love with me overnight, but the least you could have done was respect our shit! It’s been almost nine years. Hell, you could have done this with a random. But Paisley St. Claire? The fuck?”
I shook my head, trying my hardest not to step in and strangle my fucking brother. This nigga was fucking reckless as shit.
“She agrees to get rid of it. I don’t understand why you’re so up in arms about some shit that’s an easy fix.”
“Easy for who? You? I don’t know why you insist on humiliating me. I don’t even give a fuck if you don’t love me, but you will fucking respect me, or I will ruin you, nigga.”
That was my cue to step in. “What’s good, family?” They both turned to look at me before Mina walked away from Mill, heading out of the room.
“I suggest you talk to your brother before he loses everything, including his fucking family. Even though I don’t think he gives a fuck anyway.” She glided out of the room as I looked at my brother. He walked behind his bar, pouring himself a drink and tossing it back, then pouring another.
“What you on, bro?”
“Not right now, Em.”
“After what I just heard, now is the perfect time.”
He tossed the shot back and dropped his head. “Shit ain’t what it seems, bro. Paisley was on some bullshit when we hooked up. I honestly didn’t want to fuck her, but I swear, I think she drugged me.”
“Ah, the famous ‘drugged me’ line.” I chuckled.
“Yo, fuck you, Em. I ain’t fucked around on Mina in months. I know I used to do her bad when we first got married. Shit, I even slowed down some since she had Hassan, but I’ve been doing better. Paisley was a mistake?—”
“She wasn’t. Paisley was who you preferred to marry in the first place, but Isa had already been assigned to her. For you to fuck and get her pregnant while you’re married is crazy. But I’m not one to judge. Just get ya shit together. You didn’t come up in a broken home, so don’t make my nephews do the shit.”
Emil shook his head. “Why are you here anyway? The Disney store is closed.”
I pulled the paper from my suit pocket and walked over to him. “You know this clown?”
He picked up the paper from the bar and shook his head. “Nah. Face doesn’t ring any bells. What about him?”
“He sent Yumi a threatening letter to harm her if she doesn’t drop the case. Just trying to figure out if it’s an enemy of y’all’s or Yumi’s.”
“Nah, but what we gon’ do about him? I can’t have niggas out here threatening my sis-in-law and especially threatening our freedom.”
“I’ma handle it. In the meantime, you and Mook just do what I said and stay out of the way. The sooner this trial is over, the sooner we can move on.” I thought to tell him that I was retiring in the next nineteen days but decided against it.
As much as my brother defied me half the time, I knew his ass wasn’t ready to take on such a big responsibility like mine.Also, Poppa wouldn’t even put him in the position to oversee the entire operation because of his hotheadedness.
He moved off emotion the majority of the time, which in turn makes him not think clearly. But I figured if I didn’t give them much time to put someone else in place, the Aldana family would have no choice but to drop all this shit and fucking retire.
As far as I knew, we were all good. We didn’t need this shit anymore, and it would benefit us greatly to bow out rather than to continue to go through shit like what we were going through now.
“You’re right. It’s just hard to stay out of the way when it’s what we’ve been doing all our lives.”
“I get that, but it’s more out there, Mill. Better. To avoid what you’re going through right now, I suggest you start becoming a legal businessman and a family man. Mina loves you, bro. She just plays the role because you set the tone from the beginning for how this shit was going to go. She ain’t ugly, she stays fit, and wears your money quite well if you ask me, so what is the issue with loving your wife?”
“I do love her, but . . . we married too young, man. I wasn’t ready, but Poppa coerced me because we needed them for the gun shit. I love her. I just don’t know how to love her the way she wants, but I’m figuring the shit out.”
I nodded and took the paper from the bar top, placing it back in my pocket. “Figure it out quickly. You’re going to lose a good woman, chasing these hos, and the way Mina’s talking, I don’t doubt she gon’ have your ass lying in bed and hugging ya knees with an empty ass house and bank account. Tighten up, nigga.” With that, I left his ass to his thoughts and headed home to love on my lady and then figure out which part of Orlando’s body I wanted to sever first.
Chapter
Thirteen
YUMI
