Reckless

Epic 41

My stomach was touching my spine, there were bags under my eyes, and I was scruffier than usual.... I had been holding on by a thread since Icon told me about Alonzo, tonight I planned on changing that, the moon glowed red... like the color of blood and I thought it was poetic considering what I was about to do. I looked around the room; on one side sat Preacher, Santerìa, and Midnight (trust me, it'll make sense later why he's here), and on the other side of the room stood four men I had just met today, they looked similar to Alonzo in certain ways but none of them had that... that thing that Alonzo had, whatever that thing was it made me almost smile. Their names were Bassett, Logan, and Meraux; they didn't look like much but I've come to stop judging people based on their appearance... the only one I was certain about was the youngest of the four, Eric aka Fat Daddy; he was a child, an infant... he wouldn't be of much use to me so his role was extremely minor and since he lived in the city I wanted to make sure he wasn't seen.... The last thing I wanted was Zyshaun Prater getting involved in my business and I knew that kid was a resident of Devin Cunningham's group home... that would be too much heat coming to my city.

"You should eat something, if we're moving tonight we'll need you at full strength.... even though I would prefer if you didn't come. The last night we need is an emotional dude deviating from the plan." Preacher said and I turned to look him in the eyes.

"Do I look emotional to you Preacher? I'm perfectly calm..... a little anxious but other than that I'm good, but if there was anything that is bothering me it's the fact that you insisted that Midnight be here.... there's a good chance that he'll try to run again, or even worse he'll turn on us." I said turning back to look at the moon.

"Midnight will be on his best behavior... that's why I paired him with Santerìa, Duece is driving Titan down to Houston to your cousin's place and we have a couple of dudes on standby ready to cover our exit.... I still think you should eat something." Preacher said and I could feel him staring at me. "You see that's your problem, people try to give you helpful advice and you ignore them... Epic, eat something." Preacher said.

"Damn, dad... I told you I'm good.... I'll eat something when we're....." MY house phone started ringing cutting me off and I knew it was the lobby. "Excuse me... This better be important." I barked into the phone and when the message was relayed to me I damn near dropped the phone..... "I'll be down in a second. Preacher come with me....." I said heading towards the door.

"You sure you're okay with leaving these dudes in your shyt?" Preacher asked when we reached the elevator. I wasn't worried about them touching shyt, Santerìa was one of the most dangerous men I knew and no matter how much Alonzo hyped his cousins up my money was on Santerìa. We reached the lobby and standing at the front desk with a smile on his face was my brother-in-law, Edmund.

"I was expecting a party, some balloons, maybe some cake... and two bad bitches to keep me company tonight, not all this hostility." Edmund said walking over to me and I noticed my security team ready to move.

"Welcome home, I thought you got out next week.... and you know I got you but right now really isn't the best time." I said looking into his eyes, for the first time since before he got locked up. "If you need a place to stay I can have an apartment ready for you in an hour and we can talk a little bit later but right now......"

"You know me better than that, as for waiting.... I've done enough of that, so are you going to invite me up or should I cause a scene?" Edmund asked, we stood there staring at each other and I knew he meant every word that just left his mouth, on ANY other night we'd be having a much different conversation but tonight was too important to fuck up. I nodded to my security and they backed down.

"Oh shyt....." Santerìa said catching a lot of people off guard since he was usually so quiet, Midnight looked like he had seen a ghost and Alonzo's cousins seemed uninterested in our newest guest.