Page 41 of Welcome to the Table

I looked to the side of me, and Grove had blown Nino’s shit back. That nigga flew into the fucking wall like some shit off a movie. I turned the nigga’s head forward, and it was a frown.

“Even dead, this nigga ugly.” I shook my head, walked over to my walk-in freezer, and placed his head on the shelf to preserve it.

This was going to be a hellified meeting tomorrow night. Only Grove and I knew the code to the door, so I wasn’t worried. I walked back over to where Nino’s body was, but his head was across the room.

I looked at Grove. “Nigga, was that necessary?” I shook my head.

“Yeah, that nigga couldn’t be trusted. I called the cleanup crew already,” he said, then we both heard a loud noise and turned around.

There stood Jaci with a blade in her right hand and Thiago’s head in the left, with a smile on her face that didn’t meet her eyes.

Her hands were trembling, her eyes bloodshot red, and she was walking slow as hell like she was caught in a trance.

I didn’t have any words to say because shit had gone from bad to worse in seconds. I met her eyes.

“Who is this nigga? I found him trying to run outside because y’all had twenty minutes, and time was up,” she said, putting her weight to one side.

“Do you know what the fuck you just did!?” I was trying to hold my composure, but I couldn’t. She’d just started a fucking war. And Melph? That nigga was in the middle of it and didn’t know.

“You just killed Fanucci’s son. What the fuck were you thinking?” I kept going. “Where is the rest of his fucking body, Jaci?” I asked her, and she laughed like the shit was funny.

“Right by the back door. That nigga’s body was heavy, so I grabbed the lightest thing. Now, can we go to the fucking mall?” She rolled her fucking eyes at me like this shit was a joke.

Calliope was gonna be pissed.

Jaci was too calm for me. She had me fucking scared.

I looked at Grove, and he shrugged. Jaci’s pupils were black.

This was her first kill. I knew she would be fucked up after the adrenaline wore off.

I ran my hand through my hair, trying to figure out how the fuck I would tell this shit to Athena and Calliope.

They would blame me for the shit, but this wasn’t my fault.

As if reading my thoughts, I heard Jaci say, “This is not on y’all.

I saw that nigga run around the building and knew something was off, and your twenty minutes were up, so I did what I had to do.

He didn’t see me coming, so it was an easy kill.

I will tell them about my part in this to soften the blow,” she said, but the faraway look in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed.

I didn’t want this shit for her, but it was too late.

Grove and I went to the back door and opened it. There was the rest of Thiago’s body. We dragged it in and pulled it to the freezer. Grove put in the code, and we put the body in. Jaci walked over slow as hell and handed me the head to put in the freezer.

“This shit stays between us until they start looking for the nigga,” I told them, and they agreed.

“Welcome home, Jaci,” I said as we walked out the back and got in the car.

She laughed, but I didn’t find shit funny. She didn’t know what the fuck she had just started.

I wasn’t trying to go against my sister, but I knew about Thiago. He was the quiet brother who didn’t do shit but take orders from his father. Then, a fucking light bulb went off in my head. I looked at Grove as he drove.

“This shit was a fucking setup,” I said.

Grove took his eyes off the road to look at me. “Nigga, what wheels spinning in yo’ head right now? What was a fucking setup?” he asked.

Jaci sat up between the seats to be nosy.

“Just think about it. Melph gets a fucking call that he is on the radar. Nigga, we had the feds in our pockets for years. Then, Melph agrees to go into hiding with the nigga and calls Wisdom to take over. That nigga came out of thin air and ain’t did shit since he been here but stay in the house with Athena.

” The more I put the fucking pieces together, the more I wanted to kill something.

“Now, Fanucci's son is coming out of timbuck-fucking-tu, thinking they can’t just do what the fuck they wanna do. This shit was fake from the fucking beginning, and Melph fell for it,” I told him.

“You think Wisdom had something to do with this?” Jaci asked in a childlike voice. She had snapped out of her trance.

“Don’t start that kiddie shit because that’s your godfather. That nigga ain’t to be trusted either. I just don’t have shit on him yet, but I will get it. It’s a lot that you don’t know, Jaci, and I keep shit that way for a reason,” I told her, and she sat back.

If I didn’t stop her, then her mouth would have started defending his ass, and that would have pissed me off. I saw a strip mall and knew I needed a shirt because my shit was bloody. I looked back at Jaci, and she didn’t have shit on her.

“No splash back, nigga. You are getting sloppy.”

I heard Grove’s low laugh and looked at him. “Man, fuck both of y’all. I was pissed. Pull over at this strip and go to Neiman Marcus and get me a shirt.” I pulled out my Black card and gave it to Jaci.

Big mistake, but I knew she would get me a shirt. She wasn’t buying shit for herself because she didn’t want to shop in the city. She hopped out of the car and went into the store.

I noticed Hollygrove watching her every move as she went in. I cocked my head to the side, giving him a look.

“Nigga, why you looking at my fucking sister like that?” I asked.

“Like what, nigga? I’m just making sure she's straight walking in that bitch, that’s all,” he answered.

I wasn’t buying that shit. I had known this nigga damn near all my fucking life, and he ain’t never looked at a female like that before. We even fucked a few bitches together, but I knew that look when the fuck I saw it, and he wanted her. I decided to fuck with him to see where his brain was.

“Like you want to devour her. Like she a piece of fucking meat on a slab, nigga. Like you in love with her or some shit. What’s up with that?” I asked.

He smirked while rubbing his beard before he spoke. “Nah, it ain’t like that. I look at her like a lil sister. Nigga, why you watching me so hard?” he said as Jaci walked out of the store, bopping toward the car with a bag in her hand.

Grove didn’t say shit as she watched her with a goofy ass look on his face.

I knew he liked Jaci, but probably didn’t know how I would feel.

I would honestly feel better if Jaci was with Grove because I knew the nigga like I knew myself.

She was safe with him. I didn’t agree that he looked at her in that way, but that’s my nigga.

If he didn’t want his shit pushed back, he better not break her fucking heart.

I got out of the car and opened the door for Jaci to get back in.

“What if I did want her, nigga? Then what?” he said before we drove off.

I thought about what he was asking and his tone. He wasn’t on no flaky shit. It was a genuine question.

“Who y’all talking about?” Jaci asked from the back seat and threw the bag in my face.

“We gon’ revisit this conversation at another time, and none of your fucking business,” I told them both as I changed my shirt.

We hit the highway.

After an hour of driving, we ended up at the Mall of Louisiana. We headed inside, and I already knew where she was headed: the fucking Apple Store.

“Come on. Y’all taking too long, and I need some stuff,” she said and skipped to the store.

Jaci walked into the store like she owned it.

The rep walked up to her like he knew she was about to spend hella fucking money.

She was on my fucking dime. Jaci pointed at a watch she wanted, a MacBook, a pink iMac, and the new iPhone 16 Pro Max.

She even picked up the AirPods and the big headphones.

She was doing too fucking much, but I ain’t say shit.

“She is raping your pockets, nigga,” Grove said as we followed her around the store.

“Fuck it. She’s the princess who gives all the fucking orders, anyway, so let her have it.” I laughed as we walked up to the counter. I paid for the shit, and we left.

We went to every fucking store in the mall, and she grabbed clothes, purses, shoes, anything she thought she would need to keep her occupied.

The last store we went to before the food court was Pandora.

She loved that shit. She walked around that small ass store, looking and picking out every charm she wanted to go on her bracelet.

She picked out a necklace and a ring as well.

By the time we got to the counter, she had every fucking charm in the showcase.

I went to pull out my card, but Jaci stopped me.

“No, not you, Hellcat. I want Hollygrove to buy this for me.” She looked at Grove and blushed. That’s when I knew she felt the same fucking way.

I kept my mouth closed, put my card away, and watched as he pulled his shit out without hesitation and gave it to Jaci. I stood back and watched the interaction. The shit seemed natural, a little too natural to me, but I fell back in the gap and let them have that.

If they liked each other, I would let them be, but Hollygrove would have to see me if he hurt her in any way.

Jaci had better talk to Calliope before even touching this nigga.

Calliope wouldn’t hesitate to fuck shit up when it came to Jaci.

This shit was about to be more than we all could have bargained for.