Had I felt like my pops wouldn’t say anything about me going next door and not stopping by to speak, I would have gone straight to Cordova’s house. I wouldn’t say we had a healthy father-son relationship by any means, but we had a good working relationship, until I retired. As long as I was his shooter, he treated me like I was the apple of his eye.
When I retired six months ago, he started treating me like I was an outsider again. Seeing as I’d gone my entire twenty-nine years of life without having a real relationship with him, it didn’t fuck with me too much. We made small talk when I came around, but that was about it. A part of me wished I’d been born into a different family, but my grandfather taught me at a young age not to waste time dwelling on things I couldn’t control.
“Pops is on one,” my youngest brother, Keem, warned me.
Though we didn’t have the same mother, I didn’t play that half-brother shit. He and Nathan were my whole heart, but theirbrother Clover? I couldn’t stand that bitch ass nigga. They were the only good thing that came from moving in with my pops and his family after my grandma died years ago. Being with them and getting to know them for two years before Mona’s spiteful ass put me out had been worth it. Let her tell it, she put me out because I was eighteen and able to take care of myself… Never mind the fact that she let her sons stay until they were ready to leave in their twenties.
“What’s his problem now?” I asked, declining the blunt he sparked and offered me. I didn’t want to be smelling like weed when Cordova clung to me.
“Nathan told him he wants out of the business like you, so of course he’s blaming you for that.”
Sucking my teeth, I shook my head. “Nathan is a grown ass man. He can do what he wants to do.”
“That’s what Nathan told him, but Clover said he wouldn’t be considering it if it wasn’t for you.”
Clover.
Of course.
Just the mention of his name had me gritting my teeth in irritation.
I thanked Keem for the heads up, then made my way inside. The quicker I spoke, the quicker I could leave. I made my way toward the living room, where I found Pops skimming through Netflix movies on the TV in a black suit. It didn’t cross my mind as a possibility that he was going to the funeral, so I asked, “Where you going?”
He looked at me briefly, chuckling softly, before returning his attention to the TV. “To the funeral. We all going, except Mona.”
My shoulders relaxed, and a bit of my aggression released. “I appreciate that, and I’m sure Cordova will too.”
“She’s a sweet girl. Not sure why she deals with yo’ ass, but I sympathize with what she’s going through.”
As we shared a rare light moment, it was ruined at the sound of Clover saying, “The stray is here. I guess it’s time for us to head out.”
Pops sighed and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. Clover had been calling me a stray ever since I moved in with them. That had been the cause of numerous fights over the years. True, my mama did abandon me, but still. Some shit you just didn’t say and joke about, and that was one of them.
“The only reason I’m not bustin’ ya lip and nose now is because you won’t have time to change into something else after I make you bleed,” I told him, turning to face him as he entered the living room.
“Relax, bruh. I’m just playing with your sensitive ass.”
“I’m not ya brother, and I ain’t the nigga to play with.”
“Aight, aight. Y’allpleasedon’t start,” Pops said, cutting the TV off. “Draco, go get ya girl. We’ll follow y’all out.”
As always, I was the one dismissed instead of him checking his disrespectful son. That was nothing new. With a shake of my head, I left the living room, bumping into Clover in the process. I dared him to swing, but like the bitch he was, he did nothing. I didn’t blame him, though, seeing as he’d spent more than a decade getting his ass beat by his younger brother,…the stray.
I made my way outside and next door. The door was unlocked, as always, so I rang the bell and made my way inside. Quiet sniffles filled the hallway, and my heart broke for my girl. She’d been taking this shit hard as hell, and I wanted to do everything I could to make the load easier for her to carry. I knew from experience this pain would never go away, but with time, she’d learned how to live with it.
When I walked in her room and saw her wiping her eyes, mine watered. I wasted no time walking over and pulling her into my arms. She melted against me, crying harder.
“Get it all out,” I urged, holding her close and rocking her gently from side to side. “Let that shit out, boo.”
Cordova was usually so happy, friendly, and positive. Anytime I saw her sad or angry, it made me want to go to war. I held her until she was all cried out, and once she was composed, she mumbled, “Thanks for coming, pooh.”
“Where else would I be?” She smiled as I tilted her head and wiped her eyes with my handkerchief. “I won’t ask if you’re ready, but are you stable enough for us to go say goodbye?”
Her eyes watered all over again as she released a shaky breath, but she nodded. “Yeah. Let’s just get it over with. Lily is saving us a seat.”
With that, she grabbed her purse, and we headed out. It didn’t surprise me to hear that Lily was saving us a seat. She was the only one of her cousins that had sense. Lily distanced herself from her siblings when she left for college, which I understood and respected. I think it was harder for Cordova to let them go because, to her, they were all she had. That was why she’d still been living with her aunt and Megan, even though Megan still treated her like shit. After a heart attack took Brenda’s life, Megan moved in with her boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, but being in this house alone had been driving Cordova crazy, so I was glad she agreed to come to my home tonight.
Outside, I opened the door of my Corvette ZR1 and helped Cordova inside. I could have selected a less flashy car for the occasion, but since they didn’t let my girl ride with them, I decided to stunt on ’em. There had been static between me and her male cousins from day one, and the more money I made and power I gained in the streets, the more hypnotized by hate Cam and Brandon became. If I did nothing else, I tried my hardest to make them feel as insignificant as possible for the hell they put my girl through while they were kids.
