Rob leading the gang while his brother owned a central neutral zone had been a bad idea from the start. How neutral could you be when it came to your blood brother?
“If I have to give up some territory or something to make this work, I will,” Rob said after a while.
“What?” I looked over at him.
“I’m not going to lead in with it, but I’m letting you know brother to brother that I’m going to make some sacrifices to make sure this shit works out for you.”
“I appreciate that.” I exhaled.
Rob nodded and we sat in silence for the rest of the drive out. He threw the car in park and looked over at me.
“You know I love you, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. I know. I love you too.”
I exhaled but a smile forced its way across my face.
“The fuck you over there smiling for?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this nervous,” I admitted.
“Man, doing this shit is the regular, but doing it with my baby brother next to me is some whole other shit. I’m not going to lie. It’s me, you and pops over everything. Y’all are all I have left and I’ll be damned if I watch something happen to you.”
“Man, I’m go be good,” I assured him.
“You better be or that lil house fire will be the least of their motha’fuckin problems.”
I shifted in my seat, looked off for a beat then back at my brother.
“Rob,” I said his name and met his gaze. “If shit went all the way left, which it won’t,” I assured him. “Take care of Novi. Make sure she wants for nothing, alright?”
“Nigga, I’ll make you sit in this car while I go to the meeting by myself if you keep this stupid ass talk up.”
“Fuck you, bitch. You couldn’t make me stay in this car if I had a hand tied behind my back.”
We both chortled but our laughs died short when a bright light blinked in our face twice. Rob cut the engine. We didn’t exchange words. I double checked my gun and that the safety was off. We climbed out together. There were several men already standing in the dark dead end circle in front of us. I looked back at our backup car. One of the guys hopped out while the rest stayed in.
I was quiet. I fell into the background and let Rob and his guy lead while we followed the men in front of us to a small square table in the center of darkness and tall grass.
“Rob,” Jimmy nodded once as Rob sat at the table across from him.
“Jimmy,” he responded.
Me and Rob’s guy each took up a side beside him. Jimmy’s men followed suit. The light from both of our vehicles were shining in on us. I resisted the urge I had to look in that direction. I kept my eyes on Jimmy and his hands.
“You never call so what do you want? To talk about the two men you killed?”
“Who said I killed your men? He asked.
Jimmy chuckled. “So, you’re denying you did it and what? You’re here to plead your case?”
“Nah. Never that. One of our spots got burned down tonight though and word on the street is that y’all had a spot lit up too.”
“Word on the street, huh?” Jimmy grinned.
“Yeah and that’s the fucking problem.” Rob leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “When I heard about your spot being lit, I’d just found out that ours was lit too. I called this meeting because it sounds like someone is trying to make some shit seem like our fault when it ain’t. We’ve had issues and killed people on both sides, but it ain’t been all out declared war and I’m not trying to make it go that way.”
“You want me to believe you didn’t burn my spot down in retaliation for yours?”
