Page 5 of Still Forever

“Trouble left the decision up to me to make a call on how we resolve it. His entire family runs deep within the organization, and I don’t want to risk starting a war inside our own family.

So, I’m ordering a blackout. Quick, clean, and quietly…

tonight. Each of the soldiers will have a target.

” Judah let out a low whistle. It was a tough call, and I knew it was cold, but it had to be done.

Every time we thought we cut off the heads of the snakes, the tails somehow came back to bite us in the ass. It wouldn’t happen this time. After I was done speaking, I looked around the table at the men who were sitting there. Their faces held no visible emotions.

“Does anybody have anything they want to say? Seems like hidden animosity is a trend around this muhfucka.” I asked as I looked each of them in the eye, waiting for them to speak their piece. No one spoke up.

“No, Boss.” Each of them said lowly before I nodded and dismissed them.

They filed out of the room one by one, leaving Judah and me to talk.

“Damn, a blackout?” He questioned.

“That’s my call. Trouble said handle it how I see fit. All I’m trying to do is eliminate any future problems. We haven’t had any issues in the years since we got rid of all the old heads, I’m just trying to keep that same momentum.” I reasoned.

“Look at you, conscious thinking ass nigga. Always got a solution.” He chuckled.

My brothers had always said that I was the most level-headed of the three of us.

And they were right. Trouble? He would shoot without a damn clue what was going on.

Judah? His temper was like rolling the dice.

Me? If I pulled the trigger, it was with full understanding.

Then I emptied the clip. Although we moved differently, even the Jennings blood running through our veins couldn’t make us any closer.

“Fuck you,” I gritted as I rose from my position at the table. He did the same. “I’m going home, I got something to handle with KD,” I said as I dapped him up.

“Ay, she’s supposed to make my banana pudding this weekend. I already shot her a text earlier this week. Make yourself useful and remind her,” he said as he pulled away from the table.

I decided against responding and walked out of the meeting room shaking my head. If I didn’t think that our mother had already done it, I’d drop his clown ass on his neck.

Back in the truck, I hopped on the interstate and called Trouble. He was out of the country, in Italy. He had been away for about three weeks at the annual summit, meeting with the elites and the other mafia leaders from around the world.

“What’s up, Jax?” He answered on the first ring. I could hear talking in the background that sounded like negotiations were being made. But that was always Trouble. When I called, he answered, and I did the same.

“I had the sit-down, I made a call.”

“Aight, what’s the move?” He asked.

“I ordered a blackout on Keys and the rest of his family. It should be taking place right now. We ain’t giving nobody the opportunity to come eat off our plates with hate in their hearts.” I informed him.

“Damn, that’s a good call. Shit, I need to leave more often.”

“Yeah, whatever.” I laughed.

“I appreciate you for standing in the gap. Keep me updated and be easy.” He said.

“Bet.” We disconnected the call.

I reached down to the floor of the passenger seat, picked up the jewelry bag, and opened the box to look at it again, as if the design had changed in forty-five minutes.

As the light hit the diamonds again, I blew out a deep breath.

But it wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I wanted to spend forever with KD.

I drove, lost in my thoughts. Night had fallen by now; I was three minutes away from home, and I was just able to see the lights from my estate in the distance. I already had a speech forming in my head. Then Judah called and brought me back to reality.

“What?” I snapped.

“We got an issue, nigga,” he said, causing me to grip the steering wheel. Having an “issue” while I was on call wasn’t some shit that I wanted to hear. Especially not now.

“What’s the issue?”

“I’m tracking Jones on the GPS, and the nigga went off grid. His last known location was the spot that Keys oversees. Who did you assign to him?”

“He was assigned a different target. He’s supposed to be on the east side of New York, not there.” I gritted. This is exactly the type of snake shit that I had tried to avoid by ordering the blackout in the first place.

“He probably went there to give Keys a heads up, or that nigga is dead and they left him there. Either way, we need to lay eyes on him now. Having any bodies lying around attached to the organization is a no-go.” He said that, as if it was something I had to be told.

“Yeah, you go there. I’m almost home.” I said, exhausted.

“I can’t, I got drops. Mine and yours. You forgot that?” I hit the steering wheel. I had forgotten that I had asked him earlier to take over my drops because I had planned on spending the night with KD.

I was right up the street from my estate when I hit a U-turn in the road. I knew that KD was going to kill me, but I had to make sure we didn’t leave any loose ends. Especially on a call that I made. A mistake like that would have us all dead before I could blink.

“Damn! Send me the damn coordinates.”

“Nigga you need to fucking relax before I send you anything.” He said back. His clown ass made me laugh when I hadn’t intended to before I hung up on him.

Once the message from Judah came through to my phone, I sped up so hopefully I could handle this shit and get back home to KD.

My phone vibrated in my lap as one after the other, soldiers sent me a green check mark letting me know that their missions were complete.

Once I arrived at the location Judah had sent me, I parked on the next street and got out to get a closer view.

I could see through the pathway between the houses that there was a van parked outside of Keys’ stash house.

He and Jones were outside loading suitcases of what I assumed to be our product into the back of the car.

Stupid ass niggas. Not only were they snakes and thieves, but they were drawing unnecessary attention to the business by being in the middle of an upper-class community, loading suitcases.

I sat and watched for over thirty minutes until they loaded the last one, closed the back door of the van, and ran back into the house.

I made my move. Opening the app that only Judah, Trouble, and I had access to, I disabled the locks on the door. It was a feature that all the properties we owned had in common. I removed the Kel-Tec from my waistband and eased into the house.

I could hear drawers opening and closing as I made my way deeper inside.

The safe inside the house that we collected from weekly was open and empty.

Standing in the doorway, I watched as they put more product into duffle bags.

Keys didn’t feel me entering the room until I was already close behind him.

He turned in surprise as I sent a bullet through his neck.

Blood sprayed everywhere, soaking my white dress shirt. He fell back onto the bed.

Jones tried to pull his gun, but I was too quick.

I sent a shot through his chest before giving him a head shot before he could even hit the floor.

Then I stood over both of them and made sure that the job was finished.

Looking at the niggas sprawled on the floor, I shook my head at what happens when you let greed cloud your loyalty and judgment.

Putting my gun back in my waistband, I grabbed my phone and called clean up.

“What’s up, boss?” The head of the cleanup crew answered.

“Dispatch a crew to Keys’ stash house.”

“Uhhh, they kind of tied up right now, boss.” He said, causing me to look in confusion.

“Tied up with what?” I asked, frustrated.

“We got thirteen houses tonight.”

“Make this one next,” I said as I hung up the phone, leaving no room for him to refuse, and walked out the front door.

There was no way that I could go back home with a van full of drugs parked in the driveway of a home we own and two dead bodies inside.

I walked back to the truck parked on the next street with my eyes trained on the house, trying to get my mind right.

The ring was still sitting on the passenger seat of my truck.

I had just told KD that she wasn’t going to spend the night alone, and now this.

I called her. When I dialed her number, her contact picture flashed across the screen.

A picture that she took in Panama City while we were on vacation.

Her caramel skin, dark brown eyes, and pretty ass smile all reminded me of a few of the reasons why I was rushing home.

The phone rang until it went to her voicemail, so I sent her a text message.

Me: I’m sorry, baby. Something came up, I’ll be there soon, I love you.

I waited for a response, and when it never came, I checked to see if she had opened the message.

It was still unread. It was just after 10 p.m. and KD was never in bed this early.

I know she was just ignoring my ass. Then hour after hour passed before cleanup finally arrived, just after two a.m. I already knew she was going to be pissed.

This was just something else that would push back the plans I had to propose.

I should have done it two years ago, but I listened to her when she told me that she didn’t know if she was ready.

Now I’m sitting in a parked car with a blood-stained shirt, a mad girl at home ignoring my ass, and forever on the seat.