“This is the first church that’s been held since our brother, Chaos, has returned. So, we had a party, which was our unofficial welcome home, but this is our official welcome home to Chaos. Nigga, get up here,” Priest calls out as he claps his hands together.
Everyone claps and cheers me as I make my way to the front of the room. Priest daps me up and hugs me.
“You got something you wanna say to the brothers?”
“I missed y’all ugly asses. Don’t know why, but I did.”
Everyone laughs and teases me.
“It’s good to have you home again, bro. Crazy ass nigga,” Sunny states, standing on the other side of me.
I dap him up and pull him close as we give each other a one-armed, side arm hug. “Sorry ’bout that the other day, nigga.”
“I know you are. Next time ya punk ass throw a boot at me, I’m putting a bullet in you.”
I pull back and mug him. “Try me, nigga.”
“Yep! He’s back!” I hear someone in the crowd shout, causing everyone to laugh and Sunny and Priest to shake their heads.
“All right, brothers. The reason I called church today is because we’ve got some shit going on that impacts us directly and indirectly. Some of you have met Chaos’s li’l jit and his girl.”
I glare at Priest because I never gave her that title. He smirks and keeps talking.
“What you may not know is that someone is after them, specifically . . . his girl. There have been some inquiries into her whereabouts around the car washes and motorcycle dealerships so far. I don’t know if they’ll be rolling up on the restaurants and other businesses or not, but keep your noses clean and your eyes open. Keep your ears to the ground for anything we might find useful in cracking this bitch open and hanging the niggas out to dry who are after her. Report any and everything back to us.”
“We can’t afford for our businesses to be shut down!” Blue shouts from the crowd.
“Nigga, nobody said anything about shutting businesses down,” Ox hollers back.
“How we supposed to operate business as usual if we gotta keep our noses clean?” Blue asks.
“You shouldn’t be doing shit at the restaurant but serving food, my nigga,” Priest states and frowns.
Blue used to have a habit back in the days, one that I thought he kicked long before I left. Maybe he hasn’t. I’m not up to speed on what’s been going on in most of their lives in my absence, but I’ll find out everything I need to know in time. For now, I’m only concerned about two people: Charisma and CJ.
“I’m serving up food, Priest,” Blue responds.
“A’ight, let’s keep it that way.”
“What the fuck does her whereabouts have to do with the MC though?” Blue asks.
“We’ve been having too many eyes on the dealership lately. That shit didn’t end with me telling the cops to fuck off and acting like I didn’t know who they were talking about. We’ve had some cars rolling by and some parked on the opposite side of the street. In other words, we’ve got eyes on us,” Chainz shares.
“We’ll put eyes back on their asses. All I know is that I’ve been through their records. They ain’t got shit to pull a warrant, so for now, it’s all talk and intimidation tactics,” Geek states.
“That shit’s easy for you to say. You ain’t out there dealing with it. Hiding ya bitch ass behind the computer, you can always ignore the real heat,” Charmz, an older member who works at the dealership, states.
“Fuck you!” Geek states.
“Bend ya li’l prissy ass over and you might get some takers. Sho’ is hell won’t be me,” Charmz replies, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.
Geek, who was always picked on when I was here before, flies out of his chair and jumps over a row of chairs to land his fist into Charmz’s mouth. It surprises the hell out of me, but I guess he’s tired of that shit. The two men turn their all-out argument into a brawl. With a blink, Blue has jumped in on Charmz’s side, and Digger, Geek’s brother, jumps in on his side.
Priest whistles, and just like that, the fight is over.
“Feel how the fuck you wanna feel. If this shit shakes out to be something bigger than what we expect, be prepared to go wherever this road leads us, straight pipes rattling, guns blazing, and kicking in doors. We ain’t making no apologies for shit. We have to take care of family, and we must be mindful that this is somehow connected to one of our own. I don’t know if this shitis about Chaos or not, but until we figure it out, we close ranks, and we keep our ears to the ground. We’re brothers, and we’ve got our brother’s back. The rest of that shit stays right here in church. Got it?”
“Got it!”
