Black Sheep

Black Sheep 10

BlackSheep 10

"I want you to liquidate the company and send me all my assets."

"Have you lost your complete mind?"

"Marcella. I understand you might be upset that you are losing your job but I'd expect you to have a little bit more respect."

"Respect? You are selling everything WE worked on to do what? Build a club for a family who can't even stand to be around you?"

I have Marcella on the phone at that moment. I was at the Marchioness. I had just made the announcement that I would be financing the remodeling and reopening of the Marchioness personally. I figured that Marcella would take this news badly. I just didn't figure out how badly she would actually take it.

"I've made my decision."

"It's the wrong decision."

"You're more than welcome to come out here and help," I tell Marcella, "I am going to rent an apartment in my brother's building..."

"In the hood? You want me to move in the hood with your drug dealer brother to rebuild a piece of shit club?"

Marcella has never spoken to me like this before. I know she is mad though. I completely get it. I don't understand why I am making this choice either. I was successful. I was doing great. My consultant business was booming.

Why would I liquidate everything I had to start a club in South Central Los Angeles? What was I looking to gain from this? What could I possibly gain from this?

As I'm talking on the phone I see Keon.

He's looking over at me. His eyes stare back at me the entire time I'm on the phone. He believes in me. He always did.

"I'm going to do this Marcella. I'd love your help. I wouldn't be able to pay you your old salary right off the bat but there's no one else that I'd trust more..."

"FUCK off..."

With that Marcella hangs up the phone.

"How'd it go?" Joyous asks me.

Joyous isn't the only one waiting on me. I had announced to everyone what my plans were. They were all waiting. I shrug. I can still hear the rattling of the phone as Marcella's nerves were kicking in. She could hardly hold the phone let alone have this conversation with me.

"She'll get it done," I state, "We'll have the money shortly."

I was sure about it. Marcella may not have been the nicest person in the world and she may be more upset with me then she's ever been but my assistant was thorough. She would definitely get it done and she would get it done promptly.

"So what's next?" Jamison asks, "Should I get the guy who I know who can start with the remodeling?"

"I want to see his designs first," I tell Jamison.

"You don't trust me."

"Not with my money I don't."

"I am still partial owner of this club. You do know that right?" he asks.

"Can you two stop arguing for a fucking minute?" Joyous steps in, "Jamison call your guy. Joshua if you have some ideas of how you'd want the club to look like then bring those over as well. We'll meet at Big Mama's house at the end of the week."

With that Joyous literally pushes both of us out of his way and storms off making his executive decision. Jamison looks back over at Keon.

"Keon, you coming?"

With that Jamison storms off. He probably says it because he knows it is going to get under my skin. Jamison is completely right. It literally hurts when he says that to Keon. It is a physical pain. I turn towards Keon and notice that he walks up to me instead of following directly behind Jamison.

I watch as everyone starts leaving. The thugs leave. Lady Lucille and her girls pick up and leave. DJ Battery leaves. They all are making plans. They all have jobs. I know that deep inside this is what Big Mama would want. She would want people in the neighborhood to have jobs.

I think I'm alone but I realize that one person had stuck behind.

It's Keon.

"What they mean to say is thank you," Keon explains to me, "That's what all of us are meaning to say. Thank you for putting your money up to help the Marchioness and giving us a future in this."

I wasn't expecting to hear a thanks from anyone. The fact that I get it from Keon does make me feel better. I can't feel too good about it though. The truth here is that I volunteered to put the money up. It was my risk but that didn't give me any more control over what happened with the Marchioness than my siblings.

"I appreciate it," I respond, "You should get back to Jamison though. You know he doesn't like waiting..."

"About that..."

"You don't have to explain," I tell him.

"You just told me you were in love with me earlier," he states.

"I did. I am. Does that make a difference?" I ask.

"It makes all the difference," he responds, "I thought after what happened at Kim's club that you were going to leave town for sure. I mean you were already saying that you were. I just assumed that I lost you again."

"So you jumped right back into Jamison's bed."

It isn't a question. It is a realization. Keon turns his head down as though he's hurt. Maybe he is hurt. No matter how hurt Keon is though I'm just a little bit more hurt. I opened myself up to him just a little bit and this is how he returns it by letting me know he was right back with my brother.

"Look, first off," he states, "Jamison isn't a jump off for me. We been messing around for years. You know that. Stop making it seem like there is no emotion there between me and Jamison."

"Isn't there emotion between me and you?" I ask.

Keon pauses.

He sighs a little bit.

"Of course there is something. I just wish you would have stuck around long enough for me to figure out exactly what that was," he explains.

"Anything it is would be better than what Jamison is offering you," I state, "I can promise that. How many guys is he fucking?"

"Regardless of what you say about Jamison I can say that at least he's there. He doesn't threaten to leave every minute. Can you say the same?"

"I just put my entire livelihood into this club..."

"And I thank you for that," he explains to me, "But can you say that means you're here. Can you say that means that you will stay? What if the club fails?"

I had no links to this city. I had no links to the neighborhood. My family fucking hated me. It wasn't like I'd be staying around to be close to them or something.

"I don't know," I respond.

"Exactly," he responds, "Listen. I love you. You love me. Maybe sometimes that isn't enough though. I don't want to lose you even if that means as friends..."

I know he's being nice. Him saying this hurts though because I had just realized that maybe I really was in love with him. I had just realized that maybe everything that I ever wanted was in this boy. It was there the whole time. Fatty. My Fatty.

"That sounds like you saying you're choosing my brother over me," I come to the realization.

He is heading towards the door but stops, "How can I choose your brother over you when you never offered yourself up as a real choice?"

With that he leaves and I feel a little piece of me leave with him.

As he leaves I see someone standing at the door. I look over at the door at that moment and see that it's my father. I'm surprised that he is actually here. Ever since he told us about this place he hadn't step foot in here.

"You just know how to piss everyone off don't you?"

He's talking about Keon. Keon had stormed past my dad without saying a word. It's clear Keon is upset with me. I know why and I understand it. I'm surprised that today he is talking to me. I'm surprised that today he is actually acknowledging I exist. I have to admit that I'm surprised he showed up.

"You're late...everyone left already."

"Clearly," he states.

There is an awkward silence.

"I asked Joyous to invite you," I state, "I didn't know for sure that you were going to come."

I told Joyous to invite my father almost knowing for sure that he wouldn't come. I don't know why it came to my mind to invite him. Now that he was here I was kind of happy. I watch his face as he circles the room staring at the walls. He's really late but it's better late than never. He showed up. He finally showed up.

"This place smells like sin," he states.

The pastor would say that.

"Keon actually cleaned it up really well. He demo'd it out. We are going to plan on cleaning it up and ya' know, rebuilding it from scratch."

My father raises his eyebrow, "With what money?"

"I'm putting my own money in it."

My father gives me a look. I'm focusing on his expression. I don't know why it matters to me. I don't know why it has always mattered to me. I don't want it to fucking matter but for some reason I'm studying his face trying to see if I can get even a glimpse of some sort of approval that I was taking this step.

"Hmph," is all my father says.

"That's it?" I ask.

I'm trying not to get upset. I don't want to go off. Usually I go off on him and he shuts down. I'm trying to be mature and calm and talk to him like he talks to me. I want to be emotionless like my father is. I can't do it as well as him though. He looks around the room and he doesn't seem impressed. I guess a pastor doesn't really see good in a place like this.

"What you want me to say?" he asks.

I take a deep breath. In my head though I'm doing whatever it takes not to go the fuck off right now.

"Maybe Uncle Regis and you can set up some prayer meetings here on Sundays when we get it together. Maybe we can have a gospel night."

"What you know about the gospel?" my father asks me, "When was the last time you been to church, lil' boy?"

The way he call me lil' boy gets underneath my skin. It's so demeaning.

"I'm trying here."

He grunts, "Regis saw this place. He's not impressed. I don't get why his kids are doing so well and my kids are worried about this sin factory."

"I'm sorry we aren't Sheila and Lionel. Sorry none of us have successful jobs or successful marriages."

My father shakes my head.

"I don't know how I messed up. I don't know where I went wrong and Regis went right."

"I'm sorry to disappoint. But we can make this a success. As a family. If you want to. We can make this club a success Pops," I tell him, "Think about it."

My father turns his back on me.

"You can't walk with God holding hands with the devil."

I was pretty sure my father had just called me the devil. I was pretty sure I was putting myself out on the line for Big Mama's sake. Not too long ago he was all about us re-building the Marchioness and now this was some huge sin to him? What changed?

"Fuck you old man!" I respond running after him all the way into the parking lot, "You hear me? You fucking here me you bitter piece of shit! FUCK YOU! I don't motherfucking need you. I don't motherfucking need your acceptance."

My father turns before he gets into his car, "I run this family. I allow them to speak to you. Keep talking how you do and no one will recognize you exist."

With his threat he slams the door and drives away before I can say anything else.

~

A few days pass and I get my new apartment. I don't let my father's words get to me. I try not to at least. I move often and Joyous damn near begs me not to leave his place. I think he only is saying that because I actually cook and clean. I would have considered staying with Joyous too. I wanted to take care of my older brother. He desperately needed a woman in his life or at least a loving soul to help him along which I doubt wouldn't happen anytime soon. I would have stayed with him but he just had way too much illegal traffic going in and out of his house. It was traffic I didn't want to mess with.

I end up in the same complex. I get a room. It's not the nicest place I've been to but I get nice furniture and I'm close to Joyous in case he actually does need me. It's nice to have someone in my family that actually wants to be around me. I'm realizing that maybe if my relationship builds with Joyous that I'd be able to convince Keon that I had a reason to stay in the area.

Maybe I could convince Keon that he could be that other reason.

But right now he wasn't having it.

He wanted to be 'friends'.

He actually is trying to. He's calling me. He's texting me. He's pretending like we were just friends from back in the day. I ignore most of the times he reaches out though unless it had to do with his new management position. I don't know if I can just be friends with him.

I can't get him out of my head. It's almost the end of the week. I have no ideas or concepts for the Marchioness remodeling and the only thing I can see remodeling is my love life to be more with Keon. I can imagine him laying down right now with Jamison. I know I need to get him off of my mind and almost just at the moment that I am thinking that I get a knock on my door.

I'm hoping it's my sister. It's not.

"Hey..."

I open the door to see someone I'm not expecting. It's AK.

AK looks like a straight up thug. There is no denying it with him. He is walking around in a tank top, showing off all his tattoos. His pants are underneath his ass. He has a blue gang bandana hanging from his pockets. He is also strapped with a gun in his back that I can see poking out from the tank top from the front.

"What's good nigga?" he asks.

"How'd you find me?"

"Your cousin Sheila..."

I roll my eyes. Of course it would be big mouth fucking Sheila who would tell people where I'd live. I definitely needed a conversation with this girl and it was going to have to be soon.

I shake my head, "Are you joking right now? Do you have any idea what neighborhood you're in?"

"I got some idea..."

"My brother's people are all around this area," I state, "You must have really fucking lost it coming out here like this?"

I look around. Joyous doesn't live too far away from me. All it took was someone to see AK and give Joyous a call. I knew Joyous wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet or two into AK's dome especially after what went down last time.

"That's why I'm hoping I can come in," AK responds.

I grab AK and pull him in as quick as possible. There is no time to waste. When he gets in I notice just how sexy AK really is even with his over the top gangster disposition. Maybe it's that disposition that makes him seem even sexier. AK doesn't care about being nice. He doesn't care about any of that. He lives by the code of the streets. When he walks in he smells like straight up marijuana. He turns over to me and leans up against the bar as though he feels out of place.

"What are you doing here?"

AK doesn't beat around the bush, "Man I need a place to crash."

"Are you serious?"

"I ain't welcome back after what I pulled for you."

"You didn't do it for me."

"I didn't?" he asks, "You don't remember looking at me and literally asking for my help? Because I remember that very clearly."

AK had a point. I hated his point, but he had one. AK saved me. There was no beating around the bush or denying that fact. I probably wouldn't be alive if AK didn't at least stall his brother. I knew AK's brother Sosa was a murderer.

"You can stay here..." I respond.

"Good because my stuff is out in my car."

He is ready to head out to his car but I grab him, "Wait. You need to stay low at least until I talk to my brother and make sure you're good in this hood."

"I'm never going to be good out here."

"Is the beef that serious?"

"You had guns at your head last time you were around my brother. You tell me if it's that serious."

AK had a point. He was just making a lot of those lately.

"OK. Listen. There was a peace before. Maybe there will be a peace again. You saved me and my sister. I'll talk to my brother. Until then. Don't leave the house. I'll bring your stuff in."

AK gives me a long look.

He smiles and sits on the couch.

"I can get used to watching you move my things around..."

"Don't get too used to it. Once I talk to my brother you can do your own thing."

"I can get used to you caring about me too," AK responds with a smile.

~

It's late that night, and I'm laying in bed. I hear a knock on my bedroom door. I turn over to see AK standing there. He has no shirt on. He's wearing nothing but basketball shorts. I can see the silhouette of his body.

"You sleep?" he asks.

"No what's up?" I ask him.

"Kind of cold out there man."

"Think the heater's broke," I respond.

He laughs a little bit, "You got extra blankets?"

"Naw Unfortunately not."

"I see some right there."

He points at the blankets that I'm using. I look over at the blankets and then I look over at him. It's not hard to see what he is referring to.

"If you want to sleep in here just say it?"

"I never said that but don't act like you don't want me to," he responds.

I laugh at that moment, "Oh I do?"

"You ran to the bathroom three times tonight wearing nothing but some tight underwear showing off that ass. So yeah. I think you want me to."

"You talking about these?"

I throw the blankets off me and show him my underwear. He turns on the light to get a closer view. I can see almost immediately a tent start forming in those basketball shorts of his. AK licks his lips and walks closer to me. He grabs his tent, gives it a hard squeeze and squirms at the feeling that it sends through his body. It's clear that he likes it.

"I REALLY don't like you," he states.

He says that as he climbs into the bed. He says that as he takes off his basketball shorts. He says that I as I can see his hard dick saluting me.

"I can't tell," I respond looking at his dick.

"I risked everything for you and I don't even know you," He responds, "My gang is like my family. My family hates me now. I'm not welcome back. I have nothing and no one. I sacrificed all that for you."

I look him in his eyes and I can tell that even though he is kind of joking and being silly, he really means what he is saying. He really did lose everything. I couldn't imagine him having risked his life to come out here if he had anywhere else to go.

"From one black sheep to another...how about I properly thank you for saving me?"

I don't wait until he answers. I get on my hands and knees on the bed. I face him. I put his dick in his mouth and slob down the head. I let it slide down my throat. His cock barrels into the back of my esophagus sending up long strings of saliva as it slides out my mouth. He moans when I deep throat him for the first time. I feel him immediately grabbing onto the sheets on the bed.

He squirms.

He pulls onto the sheets on my bed. I'm sliding my mouth up and down his dick. I'm slurping it up. I taste the precum first but I'm needing more of it.

"Feels so good. You're so good at that? God damn..."

He slaps me hard on my ass a few times squeezing it and staring at it as I suck his dick. I can feel the slapping and start to get into more. He parts my underwear with his fingers and slowly creeps down. His fingers play with my hole patting it a few times. He smells his fingers afterwards taking a long deep whiff of my asshole. Then he puts it in his mouth, sucks on it and puts his fingers back in my asshole.

I moan as he does it.

I suck him off and he begins to finger me. I back up into his finger the whole time though, pretending as if AK was in me. You would think he was in me as well by how he begins to moan.

"AH....I have to make that ass mine," he keeps saying, "I want it just for me man. Damn. I want you..."

If I ever doubted how he felt about me that went away. He was definitely showing me exactly how he felt about me now. I begin backing my ass up against his finger harder and harder. I slob his dick for almost half an hour until he finally starts to tense up.

"Where do you want me to nut?" he asks.

I don't answer his question.

Instead I show him. I keep sucking until his dick gets so hard that I know it is coming. I can literally feel it building up at the top of his shaft. I can feel it shooting out in long streams of his cock and into the back of my mouth.

I swallow every bit of nut from AK.

I open my mouth afterward to show him I swallowed everything.

"Thank you."

He collapses onto my bed at that moment, "Man... you are more than welcome."

~

We head over to my family's house at the end of the week to discuss plans. I don't have any. I had it on my calendar the entire time and I show up empty handed to the meeting. Between stress about my father and AK sort of coming into my life all of a sudden distracting me, I didn't have time to do much of anything.

I walk into the house and see my mother. She reaches out to hug me.

"Everyone's in the study already. It's so nice to see you baby. How have you been?" my mother states as soon as I walk in the house.

"Dad must not be home," I state.

My mother gives a nervous smile. She doesn't respond.

I roll my eyes at that moment.

"I didn't think so."

Like my father said he ran everything. He ran everyone in the family. He was the patriarch. When he said jump the only question that came into mind for everyone was how high. I loved Big Mama but she followed his rules too for the most part. Everyone did. No one was there when he kicked me out. No one was there to help me or take me in. I was homeless. I had nothing. My family just ignored me. It started with my mother. What kind of mother just ignores her child for a man?

I shake my head and walk away. I can't deal with her. Looking at her would make me only madder. I was here for the club and the club only. That was my goal. That was my reason for being in this stupid fucking city in the first place.

Sure enough everyone is in the study.

"You're late," Jamison states.

He is sitting down next to Keon. Keon doesn't look over at me when I walk in the room. He avoids eye-contact. I know it can't be a coincidence that Keon is sitting next to Jamison. I don't let it bother me though.

I ignore Jamison, "Did Jamila make it?"

"She came in..." Joyous states.

"Where is she?"

"We sent her the fuck away," Joyous states, "No thieves allowed. She backstabbed us. Fuck that bitch."

"That bitch is your sister!" I state, "I can't believe you just turned her away."

I turn away from them and try to call Jamila. Jamila isn't picking up. Fuck! I can't believe they turned her away when she actually tried to show up for one of our meetings. I can't believe Joyous would let some shit like that go down.

"Relax..." Joyous states.

"FUCK RELAXING!" I respond, "You don't know she stole the money. I can't believe this. Everything is already starting off as a mess."

"You need to watch your tone before I knock you the fuck out."

"Do it," I tell Joyous.

Joyous gives me a hard look. I really think he's about to do it but he stops. Instead of punching me he just puts his hand on my forehead.

"I'll let that slide. You acting funny. Everything OK with you?" Joyous states, "I tried to come over yesterday and you didn't answer."

I didn't answer because AK was living with me and the last thing I wanted to do was drop the fact that an enemy of his was staying in my house. I could only imagine how crazy Joyous would act if he knew that AK and I have been getting physical with each other. He'd go crazy.

"I'm fine. I was just working on some ideas."

"What ideas do you have?" Jamison asks, "I don't see any papers."

Jamison is being a smart ass. Lady Lucille, DJ Battery and Joyous all look at me at the same time. It's clear they all want to know the answer to that question as well. I feel dumb at that moment. I feel ill-prepared. I had more than enough time. Mentally I wasn't in the right place.

"You go first."

Jamison rolls his eyes, "I had my contact draft up some sketches of what I was thinking for the re-modeling. It'll cost about 500k."

I look at the papers. Jamison was really going nuts at that moment. He knew this was my money. The money that we had for the club had been stolen. No one knew who stole it. Now he was coming at me trying to give up all this money.

"500k?" I ask, "You do realize we are on a budget right? First DJ Battery and now this?"

Jamison rolls his eyes, "You always getting the fuck down on me man. I'm fucking trying..."

"Jamison calm down," Keon tries to make the peace, "Your brother is just probably trying to see if there is a way we can save some money."

"I don't need you to speak for me."

Keon gives me a long hard stare.

His voice is stern, deep and full of intention when he responds to me, "You really don't like help do you?"

I don't want to do this with Keon. Not in front of everyone in the room. I hate that we are at this place right now. The tension between us is so high and I would do whatever it took for that to just end.

"So where's your plans, Joshua?" Joyous asks.

I hesitate, "Um..."

This is embarrassing. I was always prepared. ALWAYS. What the fuck was going on with my life? Why the fuck was I so ill-prepared?

"He doesn't have any," Jamison laughs.

Keon looks away. Lady Lucille rolls her eyes. DJ Battery smirks. Joyous shakes his head almost like he is disappointed.

"Yes he does," a voice says walking in the room.

My mother walks in Marcella! Of all fucking people! My heart jumps as I see her. I don't know how she knew about the meeting until I remember she has access to my calendar. I could almost rush over to Marcella and hug her but I know she isn't much of a hugger. Marcella isn't alone. She brings in several men who have displays lined up for her.

"What is all this?" Jamison asks.

"This is a detailed plan where we are going to use local, community labor to remodel the Marchioness."

"For how much?"

"150."

"Impossible."

The others rush over to see Marcella's plans and designs. She has broken down the prices of everything from chandeliers to furniture. She has sample pieces, websites, links and sources all written out. Her assistants have little concept videos playing on IPod.

"I told you we'd get this done," I tell Jamison.

Marcella gives me a look as though annoyed I'm jumping in like this. I know she is going to probably give me a hard time about it and probably going to want a good amount of money for her effort. I don't care though. It is worth it to see Jamison's face drop to the floor when he sees the plans.

"This is impressive..." Keon states, "Good job, Marcella. You too...Joshua. You always come through when we need you."

Keon stares at me when he says that. I don't know why my heart gets heavy. I don't know why I let him have that impact.

Marcella shakes her head, "Not only that. I hired a private investigator to do some digging to find out who could have taken the missing money. I've found the culprit."

"You're joking," Joyous states, "Where'd you find this girl?"

At this point I was just as impressed as everyone else. I watch at that moment as Marcella blushes at Joyous.

"It's nothing. Just a little detective work."

"Well I think you're amazing," Joyous responds.

"Joyous can we quit playing," Jamison interrupts, "It doesn't take amazing detective work to know that Jamila took the money."

"Well these are the photos I found," Marcella states.

She drops photos on the table. We are seeing familiar people in expensive cars with expensive watches and all these new things. I look at the photos and I'm shocked when I see the people in the actual fucking photos.

"Uncle Regis, Cousin Sheila and Cousin Lionel."

Joyous is pacing back and forth. My heart is in my chest. I can't believe this but there is no way they came up with this kind of money out of nowhere. This was the money that Big Mama had left us to rebuild the Marchioness. Why the fuck did my Uncle and his kids have this money?

Jamison shakes his head, "I don't believe this. How would they have gotten the code?"

"Jamila..." Joyous states.

I pick up the photos. I examine them. I notice something in the photos. Something that I didn't notice before. Uncle Regis has a car. It's not just him in it.

"Did any of you give the code to someone else? Someone outside of this room?"

"No one would give the code to Uncle Regis," Jamison asks.

"Not Uncle Regis."

There is silence.

Jamison responds immediately, "I mean I told Dad... but I mean that's just Dad. He wouldn't have...he wouldn't have...oh my god...would he?"

Jamison was a fucking idiot. This whole time he failed to mention that he shared the code with Dad. Was he really that trusting of the old man? Joyous slapping Jamison on the back of the head at that moment answers the question for Jamison.

I point at the picture at that moment at the person who is in the passenger seat of our uncle's brand new car, "Dad stole the money."

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