When Von went there, Janita gave her baby brother a harsh look. Although at twenty-two he was six years younger than she was, he was old enough to know the golden ruleof security work: never ever discuss your client’s personal life. “That ain’t your business,” she said firmly.
“Ah come on, Neet! It’s a well-known fact all up and down Brackenridge that William Webster has mistresses. That ain’t no secret. His white daughter that’s getting married didn’t come from his black wife. Where she come from? One of his mistresses that’s where! And you wanna know what else I heard?”
“No, Von, I sure don’t.”
“I also heard Mrs. Webster looks way better than all of her husband’s side pieces, even though she’s older than all of them. Which is just baffling to me. Why would a gorgeous sister like her put up with his mean white ass anyway? She can do so much better than him.”
But Janita was shaking her head. “You don’t know nothing, Von. You think you do, but you don’t.”
“Oh yeah?” Von grabbed his long, neat braids and shoved them out of his handsome face. Then he folded his arms and turned toward his big sister. “Why don’t you enlighten me then, sis. Why don’t you tell me what I don’t know like you know what I don’t know.”
Janita had no problem schooling her baby brother, although she wasn’t really thinking about their conversation. She was too busy praying that that woman would come on out of that house so that they could drive her to where she was supposed to already be. “When you get to be a woman of a particular age like Mrs. Webster,” she said, “and married to a man as long as she’s been married to her husband, there’s no way that sister is going anywhere. Where she going? That’s what you don’t get. And he’s good looking too? And got those coins too? He got that bag? Women will put up with far worse for the kind of money that man throws around.”
“I wish he would throw more of it around to us then,” said Von, “because he’s paying us pennies on the dollar.”
“Because he knew he could get us for pennies on the dollar. But that’s okay. Being the security detail for the wife of the richest man in Tennessee will put Cooper Security on the map. It’ll be worth it in the end.”
Von knew it too, but it still stung. They were struggling. Two years in and they were still barely keeping their heads above water. And his handsome face couldn’t hide his fears. “But when is the end? When we gonna see those returns on our investment? Because we got bills to pay, Neet. What are we gonna do?”
“We’re gonna do our jobs, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
“You know what I mean! It’s still the only major contract we got. Everything else is event stuff, which don’t pay no bills on no consistent basis. There hasn’t been any high-dollar contracts rolling in like we thought they would once we got this contract. How we gonna pay our bills if we can’t even catch a break? How are we--”
“Stop worrying about all that, Von, dang! Just stop.” Janita leaned her head back and squeezed the bridge of her nose. To say she wasn’t stressed would be a lie. She was stressed out. But she tried hard not to feed into her baby brother’s outsized worrying.
That was the main reason why she never wanted him to get caught up in her dream. It was her dream to own a security company, not his. It was her dream to be her own boss and make her own money and incur all the risks that entailed. But he told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t about to let her go it alone. They were all each other had. They were in it together.
But that only added to her burdens. Not only was the business her responsibility, but her baby brother was her responsibility too! And he was a load all by himself. “You gotto be patient, Von. How many times I got to tell you that? You have got to be patient. We just got this contract three months ago. Time takes time. Three months is no time at all. It’ll turn around for us eventually.”
“But we quit our jobs to do this security stuff, Neet. We quit our jobs.”
“That’s what you do to make your dreams come true. You wanted to spend the rest of your life working at that factory? You have to step out on faith. We stepped out on faith and put our heart and soul into this business. Now, after just four years in business, Cooper Security has a contract to protect the wife of one of the richest men in America. That’s saying something.”
“It’s saying we’re the fools because he’s only willing to pay us peanuts on the dollar.”
“We’re just getting started, dang, Von! Time takes time. You got to give it some time.”
Von looked at his older sister. She was the smartest, the kindest person he’d ever known, although the world treated her like she was nothing. He’d walk through fire for her and her dreams. But that was what was worrying him. She had a lousy track record in everything she tried. Nothing ever worked out for her. Not any of her other “dreams” of great returns on her previous investments. And not even any of those various guys in her life that promised to take her to the moon, but as soon as her heart got involved, they wouldn’t even take her to the store. And they always had an excuse: Even though she was on the slender side, she still had boobs and curves and an ass. But she wasn’t big enough for them. Or she was too big for them because of her boobs and curves and ass. Or she was too cute for them. Or she wasn’t cute enough for them. Or she was too black for them. Or she wasn’t black enough for them. She was never enough for any of those uptown brothers she liked. It was like she couldn’t win!
Which reminded him. “Cork told me about your blind date.”
“Oh yeah?”
“He said you were very rude to him.”
“I was not rude to him. I just wasn’t gonna waste my time. That boy is not my type and you know it.”
“But your type keeps breaking your heart, Nita. I figured you needed to go against type for a change. But Cork said the reason you didn’t like him was because he wasn’t uppity enough for you.”
“Oh that was the reason?”
“What else could it be?”
“Did Cork tell you his preferred woman needs to weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of six hundred pounds?”
“Whaaat?” Von looked at her as if she was suddenly nuts.
“He never told you?”
