Page 122 of Lau Ahi
“Yo you trippin’ off twenty bands?” Theo was trying to laugh it off like it was no big deal but it was all bravado.
“You not paying them twenty bands so you clearly trippin’ off of it too, my nigga.”
“You want my spot, take it.”
I’d already laid my guns on the desk not bothering to remove the harness from across my back. It was mildly constraining but nothing that I wasn’t already used to working around. I’d been taught to fight with my hands chained behind my back with twenty pounds of dead weight attached to them. The only thing the harness would do would prevent me from killing him. Which I guess was a good thing.
Theo laughed nervously looking back at his muscle who wasn’t about to do shit but stand there and watch him get his ass beat. I guess he felt like he was good since it was two of them against me and maybe Hakeem but I knew better.
“Nah, you wanting to fight when you got a shooter on the roof waiting to take me out. That shit ain’t fair.”
“If you pussy say that. But one thing about me is that I don’t lie. I’ve told them to stand down and they will. You think they’re going to disobey one of my orders when they work for me? One thing I’m not is afraid of death. I’ve faced it far more times than you could fathom and it never fazed me because it’s the inevitable end for everyone. But getting my ass beat? That’s some shit I can control and I ain’t ever let somebody ho me.”
Hakeem was laughing behind me probably stunned by what I was saying. I rarely spoke during meetings so this was definitely a change.
I saw Thick Neck make a move and my gun was in my hand and aimed before he could decide to carry out whatever bullshit he was going to do. My bullet entered his head a second before Hakeem’s did. I didn’t even need to know he was the one who’d taken the shot and not Smoke because I hadn’t heard glass shattering. I glanced at Hakeem and he was tucking his piece behind his back with a scowl on his face.
“The fuck y’all do that for? Gone shoot my mans like I ain’t gone feel a way about it?” Theo’s face was covered in sweat and I knew he was worried he was going to be next.
Theo was puffing his chest out but I knew his ass was afraid. He never handled any of his own dirty work and got one of his many minions to do it for him. That was stupid in and of itself, since that was just more collateral someone had over you if they flipped on you or came for what you had. He hadn’t been smart enough to surround himself with family or to foster any loyalty. Plenty of his women had run off with some of his men either to start their own shit or to just escape him. This was the main reason he would suck as the head of the family. He tried to rule through fear and intimidation when he was too pussy to ever back any of it up. Theo was looking at his man before glaring at Hakeem like he’d done something wrong.
“I don’t allow guns in this bitch for a reason. It’s clear your man broke protocol. There’s a price for disobedience.”
“But you let him stay strapped?” He pointed at me like the spoiled bitch he was and it had me itching to end him too. Two bodies weren’t any harder to clean than one.
“I told you, him I trust. And he volunteered a pat-down. You were let in on the honor system and showed you had none. Well, reaffirmed that shit. You bring a snake into my house I’ll kill thatbitch without a second thought. You got anything else or are you done? It’s clear I need someone to come clean my fucking carpet because of you now.”
Theo swallowed down whatever he was going to say, glaring at me before he looked back at Hakeem. “I was here on some team-up shit. Have the girls working across both—”
“My girls don’t sell pussy.Explicitis the closest we get to that and even then it’s just a glorified playroom. Soliciting brings far more problems than I want right now.” Hakeem sat back down but I stood guard in front of him in case Theo felt something about his muscle being killed.
“This nigga must not be on his job if he can’t keep vice off your ass.” Theo was bitter as hell and I let him dig his grave another foot deep.
“I don’t need him to do shit for me because all of my business moves are legal.”
“You sure about that?”
“You got something you need to get off your chest, cuz? Speak your peace or rest in it like that bitch nigga you brought in my office.” He pointed to the corpse on the floor as proof of our mutual impatience.
“Nah, nothing to say. I see where your loyalties lie.”
“With the family, as always. Fuck you thought?”
Theo’s foot was tapping angrily but he kept his hands in his pockets. “Kissing ass for this nigga again.”
“Don’t make me break protocol and put a bullet in your head like I did your muscle. Since you think I’m on cuz like that I’m sure he’ll give me a pardon for killing you.” Hakeem was smirking from his seat and I had to laugh at how easily he spoke about me.
I huffed cause he had me fucked up. “Nah, I’ll probably beat your ass since I didn’t get the chance to do it myself.”
“Just ungrateful as fuck.” Hakeem was grinning. Back to being his playful self despite the body bleeding out.
“I’ll remember this Keem.” Theo was speaking like he held weight but none of that was true. Whatever he’d come for he didn’t get it, which meant he was probably out of options. That made men desperate and stupid.
Hakeem sat forward angrily and I wondered if he was going to leap over his desk and beat Theo’s ass. “You want a cookie, fuck nigga? I don’t get why yo ass is so happy to rock the boat and try to bite off more when you can’t handle what you got now. Perfect pimping before you try to do something else? It shouldn’t be that hard to sell pussy in a city like this. Fuck I look like linking up with dead weight. Now, I've got a body to bury and you gotta go tell his next of kin they're never gone find this nigga cause you wanted to play paper gangsta. Get the fuck out my office while you still can.”
Damn. I felt something akin to pride listening to him threaten Theo’s life like this. Shit was hilarious but the look on his face showed he meant every word.
Theo only nodded as he turned and left the office without even looking at his muscle.
