Page 128 of Steel

Pops knocked on the back of the truck with the combination we told Quaid. The gate opened, and he stepped inside to retrieve the payment he promised Pollock.

“Our business here is done,” he said, handing it over. “Don’t spend that all in one place.”

I stepped into the truck and closed the gate. The engine came alive, and we pulled away from the docks, back to home, . . . back to my babies.

All three of them.

It was Sunday,and that meant family dinner.

My girls and my boy were here with me, so a nigga was feeling good. I hadn’t bothered telling Neha what I’d done to her father. She hadn’t mentioned it to me either, so I assumed his body hadn’t been found yet. There would have been something on the local news, and I was sure her mother would have called her by now. With the amount of dust settled in the storage room, I could tell no one ever went down there. He was probably rotting away, as he should.

Currently, we were sitting outside with the rest of the family. Nayelli was running around with her cousins while I sat on the outside sectional with Neha next to me, tossing KJ in the air. His squeals brought a smile to my face as she pretended to eat his fat cheeks.

“He’s gonna throw up on your ass,” Deuce warned her.

“It won’t be the first time,” Neha said, finally putting him down. KJ pressed his face against hers and looked at me with a gummy grin.

“You getting too cozy with my woman, Fat Man,” I told him.

Smoke laughed. “Nah, I think he’s already stolen her. Look at his lil’ ass. Cupcaking hard.”

Neha giggled as she kissed his cheeks. “It’s enough of me to share.”

She leaned over to kiss me, but before our lips could connect, I felt KJ’s hand on my face, smacking the shit out of me with a squeal.

Shar laughed. “I guess it’s not.”

“Fat Man, you for real?” I asked, snatching my son up.

He screamed and reached for Neha again. When she took him, he rested his head on her breasts and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

“Wooow!” I exclaimed. “That’s how you do your daddy?”

“I mean, I’d wanna lay up on them titties too,” Shar commented.

Deuce gave her a look. “Sometimes you make me question if Kaylynn is the only lesbian in the family.”

She laughed. “What! I love women, and I appreciate a good set of titties and a fat ass, just like the rest of you. I’m a girl’s girl, Deucy.”

“Yeah, okay.”

I looked over their heads to see a few familiar faces coming through the back door. A laugh fell from my lips as I realized it was our mothers. They hadn’t made it to Sunday dinner like they promised my father the other week, but they were here now, and I knew they were about to get on his ass.

“Aw shit,” I said, motioning for everybody to look.

They walked in this bitch like Charlie’s Angels, searching the yard for my father.

“Ayo, Pop!” I yelled, catching his attention.

He was sitting with my uncles. When he looked up, I pointed at our mothers. A grin spread across his face as he saw his baby mamas. He stood and walked toward them. As he got closer, they whipped out those dish towels and took off after him. I’d never seen his old ass run so fast.

“Stop playing!” he yelled, trying to dodge them.

“Didn’t we tell you to keep that same energy?” Mama Steph yelled.

“You thought you were safe ’cause we didn’t show up the other week,” my mama said.

“Don’t run from this ass whupping, Stanley!” Mama Allison added.