The Family Business 3(39)

Oh, Lord, I thought, rolling my eyes. There’s nothing more fierce than a mother protecting her son.

She went on, insisting, “Your father would want you to keep a cool head right now.”

“No, he wouldn’t.” I stood up. “I’m gonna go get some air. I’m sure you want to spend some time alone with Daddy.” I left, knowing I was incapable of saying what she wanted to hear.

Entering the waiting area, I found Orlando, Vegas, and Sasha. Orlando and Vegas were deep in conversation, but Sasha spoke up when she saw me enter the room.

“Paris, how’s Uncle LC?” she asked loudly, glancing at my brothers. They stopped their conversation as soon as they heard my name.

“How do you think he’s doing?” I snapped. “While y’all are sitting here talking about nothing, my father is in there fighting for his life, and there is not a damn thing any of you are willing to do about it.”

“It’s not that simple,” Vegas jumped in. As happy as I’d been to see him when he first came home from prison, I was growing sick of his “Let’s wait and see” attitude. It seemed like instead of prison making him hard, it had turned him into a punk. Even Rio would have been tougher than this.

“Yes, it is that simple. We should just kill these motherf*ckers. Not like we don’t know who they are or why they’re doing this,” I reminded them.

“Why I got to be the motherf*cking voice of reason?” he said, sounding thoroughly fed up with me. “You need to calm the f*ck down, Paris. Don’t nobody know where Junior is.”

“And?” I challenged. “Who gives a f*ck where he is? This is all his fault anyway.”

“And what if they got him?” Vegas asked. “If we act without thinking this through, they will not hesitate to kill him. And if you think Ma is upset about Dad, just imagine what Junior’s death would do to her.”

I was struck speechless for a second. I hadn’t thought about that possibility.

“Vegas is right.” Sasha had the nerve to open her big fat mouth.

“If I were you, I’d shut the f*ck up. This don’t have nothing to do with you. That’s our father in there, not yours,” I snapped.

“Fuck you, Paris,” she shot back. “Did you forget that I already lost my father to the family business? So don’t try and tell me this has nothing to do with me. I have as much right to be here and to give my opinion as any of you,” she shouted before storming out of the room.

“See, you always got to say something stupid. I thought that motherhood would have calmed you the f*ck down and given you some maturity, but I see I was wrong,” Vegas said.

To hear him coming to annoying-ass Sasha’s defense like that had me seeing red. What the f*ck was wrong with my family these days?

“Oh, please!” I yelled. “You the one who got your ass sent to prison, so don’t call me stupid unless you looking in a mirror.”

Orlando finally stepped in to the fray. “Well, I agree with Paris.” He stood up and moved closer to me. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Orlando and I were never—and I mean never—on the same side.

“Then you’re both stupid asses.” Vegas stood his ground.

Orlando reminded him what was up. “Look, I’m the head of this family, and at the end of the day, it’s going to be my call what course of action we take. Not yours.”

“Yeah, okay, little brother. We’ll take your course of action—if you want to get all of us killed. If you haven’t noticed, they’re cherry-picking our top soldiers. As fast as I’m training them, they’re getting killed or injured. This is not some half-ass game, in case you’ve forgotten.” Vegas got up in Orlando’s face.

“Man, f*ck you!” Orlando balled up his fists. My brothers were about two seconds away from tearing each other apart.

“Stop it! Stop it right now! You two are supposed to be our leaders and you’re fighting like dogs in heat. What would your father say?” Mom stood in the doorway, dropping the ultimate bomb and silencing us all.





Vegas





25


There was a time when Uncle Lou was alive that I would have turned to him for advice, but with Pop out of commission and Uncle Lou dead, I had to turn to another elder outside of the family. I sought out Minister Farah to ask for his opinion about how best to utilize Johnny’s information. While we both wanted the same thing, Orlando was letting his need for revenge overrule common sense about our predicament. He wanted us to go in guns blazing, like a bunch of street corner thugs, and take out X and his people. Not that I didn’t want to put Bonnie and Clyde to use myself, but we weren’t built for that type of warfare. The Duncans were more like ninjas than samurai. That was why we’d survived when others couldn’t.

“So you think my plan is solid?” I glanced over at Minister Farah, who was sitting on about five pillows so that he could see over the dashboard of his SUV as he drove. We’d just come from staking out X’s little hideaway in Rosedale.

“Very solid. It’ll keep the body count down and give you some breathing room to negotiate. I’m proud of you. It’s a well thought out plan,” he said as he maneuvered the car to the curb. “You know, Vegas, this may not be coming at the most ideal time, with your father being in the hospital, but I have always considered you to be the son I never had,” he said sincerely.