CHAPTER FIVE

“Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear.”

- William Shakespeare

 

Leaf and Noel strolled into a bar, grabbed two stools and sat down. Their presence said power, marked by the six men who hung in the background to protect them with their lives. After ordering drinks from the bartender, they checked out the football game on the huge TV screen on the wall, the Dallas Cowboys versus the Washington Redskins.

“I appreciate you going with me to order my tux, man,” Noel said glancing at the Cowboys making a run for a touchdown. “I’m not going to lie, unless I’m at a Prophet business meeting with Nine, I don’t do the dress up thing much. So I appreciate your help. Your wife doesn’t allow the casual dress type of outfit.”

Leaf laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, my wife can get a little extra when it comes to her rules. She grew up on them Roman books and shit. Royalty and honor is all she talks about. But she means well.”

When his phone buzzed and he saw a text message from Nine, he rolled his eyes when he saw its contents. The Coliseum is having a press conference for us tomorrow to discuss the venture. Wear your suit and tie. I’m so excited!

Irritated, Leaf stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

“You aight?” Noel asked placing a hand on Leaf’s back.

“As right as rain.”

Noel nodded. “I ain’t got no problem with dressing up, by the way,” he said as he tossed his cognac back. “My wardrobe has gotten refined since she took over the business.” He flagged the bartender for two more drinks. “So have you given any more thought to being in my wedding?”

Leaf shook his head in slight irritation because they’d had this conversation before. He dug in his pocket, took out his cell phone and looked at the screen. He was expecting an important text any minute now. “Come on, man. I fucks with you but I can’t get down with the Prophet politics. I already told you that.”

Noel frowned. “Fuck that ‘sposed to mean?”

“Sisters marrying brothers and shit.” He laughed. “No offense, man, but that’s ya’ll thing not mine.”

“Says the man who’s married to his cousin,” he chuckled.

“It isn’t the same thing.”

“Keep it real, Leaf, you a Prophet too. The worst job you can do in life is making a profession of shunning your own people. Fucked up or not, at the end of the day, we’re all you got.”

“I’m not a Prophet,” Leaf said pointing to himself. “My last name’s Lincoln and when I met my wife, I didn’t know she was my cousin. My father, who I don’t fuck with no more, didn’t tell me. By the time I found out, I was already in love.”

“So why didn’t you end the relationship?”

Leaf shook his head, unwilling to recognize the similarities. “Like I said, it ain’t the same thing.”

Noel laughed. “When are you going to realize that there’s something in the Prophet blood that makes us favor our own? Whether your last name is Lincoln or not, if you came from Kerrick and Victoria you’re a Prophet. Look at your complexion. Yellow skin and curly hair. Intelligence. All Prophet traits.”

“Drop it,” Leaf said, uneasy with the topic of discussion.

“What’s up with your father?” Noel asked, only having met his uncle briefly when Kerrick was alive.

Leaf moved uneasily. “He hasn’t talked to me since me and Nine got together.”

“Damn, that’s fucked up.” He scratched his jaw.

“I tried to kick it with him but he made his position clear so what could I do?” he shrugged. “Anyway, I got too much on my mind to be thinking about that type shit.”

“Wouldn’t happen to be about Gates would it?”

Leaf’s eyebrows rose. “How you know?”

“Because his old ass is always hanging around. Don’t make no sense if you ask me. The nobles already said she should keep him at a distance.”

“I understand that she’s playing the nigga close to get Baltimore out from up under him, but the way she going about it is foul. Inviting him outside of our crib and shit like that.”

“He be in your house?”

Leaf laughed him out. “Come on, Noel, the nigga not crazy enough to come in my house.”

“So why don’t you tell her to stop seeing him?” He paused. “On second thought, she probably wouldn’t listen anyway. How do you control a woman with power?”

Leaf positioned himself so that he could clearly see his cousin’s eyes. “I don’t know what you got going on with your sister-slash-wife on that side of town, but anything I ask my wife to do, she does.” He pointed a stiff finger into the bar. “No questions asked.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I don’t activate that type of power unless I must. I want her to do what’s right because she wants to, not because I told her. On the block ya’ll salute her but at home I’m king.”

Noel nodded. “Fair enough, King, but I will say this, never allow a man with affluence to spend too much time around your wife. You don’t ever want to test that type situation. You may lose.”

 

****

Galileo and Banker

 

Galileo lay face down on his bed as he pumped into Banker’s mouth as if it were a pussy. As he rose in and out of her throat, he pawed one side of her head like a basketball. There was no sense of how his girlfriend felt or even if she could breathe. He was going to reach his orgasm. That was the bottom line.

Banker lay face up, naked, with her knees pointed to the ceiling as she tried to remain calm and not die. Thick lines of vomit rested on the sides of her cheeks and mixed into her hair. On several occasions, she couldn’t breathe and choked and not one time did he stop.

After a few more pumps, when she felt a thick salty substance run down her throat, instead of being disgusted she was relieved.

It was finally over.

“Go wipe your face and bring me a washcloth,” he said as he lay on his back, grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. He placed one hand behind his head, crossed his legs and was glued into the football game. He had already forgotten about how good she made him feel even though he was still sore.

When she came back into the room, she handed him the rag and looked over at him. She was horny and her clitoris throbbed and she wanted him to offer her relief. “So you not gonna hook me up?” She sat on the bed, with her bare ass on his pillow and back against the headboard. She covered her body with the damp sheet.

Galileo wiped his dick and tossed the washcloth on the floor. “I’ll fuck you later,” he said preferring to see men in tight pants play football instead of his naked girlfriend.

In a weak voice, she said, “Come on, baby, I want you to kiss it for me.”

He frowned. “Nah, shawty.” He paused. “I don’t feel like all that shit right now.”

Defeated, Banker sighed and rolled a blunt to ease her mind. If she couldn’t cum, at least she could get high. When she ran the fire over the edge of the blunt, and it was good and hard, she handed it to him. He snatched it without saying thank you. “Nine is in my business too much lately,” he said as he lit the weed and inhaled before handing it to her. “I can’t take it no more.”

“So what you want to do?”

“First, are you sure you can do that thing you was talking about?” he asked looking over at her seriously.

“With getting into her bank accounts?”

“Yeah.”

“I know I can,” she said confidently. “Why?”

“Because we gonna need money if we kill her like we talked about.”

“That’s kinda what I wanted to tell you. I know the plan was to kill her but I may have an even better way. One that can give us even more money if the plan goes through.”

“How much more?”

“About one hundred thousand dollars.”

Suddenly she had his undivided attention. With wide eyes, he asked, “So what’s the plan?”

Banker told him everything Alice wanted done, down to the last detail. When she was finished, something miraculous occurred. He was inspired to ease between her legs, to lick her clean. As her eyes rolled to the back of her head, she thought about Nine, and the feel of her breasts.