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When Jackie left her house that night on her way to J.R.’s to meet Carter and Baby Chris, she was mad. Mad because there were a lot of things going on in her world and none of them were going the way that she needed or wanted them to.
As she stomped to her car, Jackie hit the alarm and unlocked the door to get in. Once inside, she started the car and then pounded the steering wheel before she drove off.
In addition to cleaning up after Rona’s proxy war, Jackie was trying to rebuild her decimated crew. What was once Ed Weather’s crew and Jelly’s were now hers and she now had to start all over.
Jackie had gone to great lengths to whip her old crew into shape before all of her earners, with the exception of Baby Chris, were murdered. Sure she still had soldiers and associates; men and women who were putting in work and earning, but without Chet Bright, Jerry Demet, Gene Hazelton and Irving Spencer, her money wasn’t right.
Losing Spence was literally losing her right hand. Sure Baby Chris was stepping up big time trying to fill that huge void, but that would take time.
And he just isn’t Spence.
He was the first one to stand up and have her back in more than just words when Black first made her a captain. For a while, she was skeptical about whether his loyalty to her was based solely on his loyalty to Black.
“Does it matter as long as it means he’s loyal to you?” Black asked her when Jackie address the matter with him. And she had to think about that. “Of course his loyalty to me is why he’s loyal to you, but that’s what you need from him, and all the rest of them, is their respect and loyalty to me. Now, do you know why?”
“Because I respect you, and I’m loyal to you.”
“Right.” Black pointed to himself. “I command this family, so as far as they’re concerned, you are me. Your orders are my orders, like they came straight out of my mouth.”
“I understand.”
“Remember, loyalty is a two-way street. Their respect and loyalty to me will only last so long. You’re gonna have to earn their respect and loyalty by respecting and being loyal to them. And that takes time and opportunity.”
“Opportunity?”
“Somebody is gonna try you. And when that opportunity presents itself, you crush them. And you make sure that everybody knows that you crushed them because this is your house and you wasn’t havin’ that shit. Understand?”
“I understand.”
And she did understand. Jackie had Ike Potter killed her first week as captain for talking like he was thinking about being disloyal. She earned respect when she personally killed Earl Jones, Nuck, Cribs and Little Larry for selling drugs in Mike Black’s house. But then her opportunity presented itself in the form of Bevaun Ramello.
Bottom line is that Jackie Washington is a paper captain.
As she drove, Jackie remembered how the words paper captain enraged her to the point that it led to her having a, what would Mike Black do moment.
“It’s about keeping your fucking mouth shut and remembering who runs this house,” Jackie said calmly, raised her weapon and shot Ramello in the face at point-blank range.
Her public execution of Ramello in front of her entire crew at Avonte’s birthday party was her defining moment. At that moment, respect for Mike Black became respect for Jackie Washington and the paper captain became the new killing captain.
But all that was over.
Now, it was time to rebuild.
“And that’s why I need you out there with me,” Jackie said to Travis.
“And you know that as much as I want to, I can’t be out there.”
“Yeah, I know, if you get arrested for any new crimes, they reinstate the cyber bank fraud charge and you get thirty years plus the new charges.”
“Right.”
“But you’re still committing cyber fraud, Travis,” Jackie said louder than she needed to and paused to catch herself. “Okay, you’re not the million dollar bandit anymore, but you’re still out there.”
“No, babe, I’m in here committing cyber fraud. Not out in the streets guns blazing,” Travis said louder than he needed to and then he paused to calm himself. “I don’t understand why you don’t
understand that I don’t want either of us to go to jail and I don’t want either of us to die.”
“I don’t either!”