Page 40 of Kobalt

“You good, nigga?” EJ asked, setting his glass of rum on the table in front of us.

My eyes were low, and the smoke filled my lungs. The others’ eyes were on me, although they weren’t sitting at the table. My best friend, Nate, and Royal were at the pool table, and Royal’s boy, Revere, was watching their game closely, but they focused their gazes on me when I didn’t respond.

I slowly blew the smoke out before I answered EJ. “I’m good, my nigga. Your sister ain’t, though.”

EJ jumped in his seat and stood up with both hands planted firmly on the table. “The fuck you mean my sister ain’t? What’s wrong with Kai? Where is she? Thought you said you had her handled for the weekend.”

“Yo, young blood. Chill the fuck out with all that hype shit,” Nate stated, walking toward us with a pool stick in hand.

EJ may have been a YN, but Nate was an OG who didn’t give a fuck about appearances, the fact that we were in his and his wife’s establishment, or that his grandma was in the next room. He would take it straight to the streets if that was where EJ wanted to go.

“Fuck that! I need to know what’s going on with my sister. What’s wrong with her?”

“You’re what’s wrong with her. You and your boys so hyped on trying to prove who got the biggest nuts, y’all niggas were seen snatching that boy off the streets,” I replied in an extremely calm voice.

“Told y’all about sending boys to handle grown men business,” Nate muttered.

“Who the fuck you calling a boy? Punk ass,” EJ argued.

Nate spun around so quick and slammed the pool stick on the table and broke it in half. He had one sharp end pointed at EJ. I didn’t move.

“Both of y’all niggas chill the fuck out. EJ, you think I’d be sitting my ass here all chill like if she was in some sort of trouble? Nate, you don’t think I could handle this li’l nigga if I wanted to? If I thought he was truly a threat, his ass never would’ve made it out of his seat,” I stated calmly.

Throughout my speech, I never took my eyes off EJ. Although he didn’t pose a threat to me, I never underestimated any man.

“Then what are you saying?” EJ asked.

“What I just told you. Y’all were caught snatching that nigga off the street. She said that his girlfriend was looking out the window when he pulled up, and she saw the van pull up, and then when it disappeared, so did he.”

“She didn’t actually see anyone, though, did she?” EJ asked.

“Nah.”

“Then we ain’t got shit to worry about. Besides, there wasn’t no license plates on it, so it’s not like she could give them to anyone. We passed his ass off to the hearse around the corner underneath the overpass. He was delivered to y’all from there,” EJ explained.

“Y’all young niggas gon’ learn the hard way that wildin’ shit y’all be doing get you fucked up—either locked behind bars or buried deep down in the grave,” Royal stated with a hard glint in his eyes.

Royal reminded me of his cousin Frost in so many ways. The entire family churned out gangsta-ass niggas who didn’t back down. Royal believed in handling his business like his cousin Frost, and he didn’t believe in leaving loose ends behind or bragging for clout.

“Aye, we do shit our way ’cause that old-school gangsta-nigga shit don’t put fear in them niggas’ hearts,” EJ replied.

Royal chalked his pool cue and kept a close eye on EJ. “Yeah, a’ight. You keep thinking that.”

The only reason I allowed EJ to be involved in the process of handling Jaziel was because his sister was under attack.

“Y’all know them young niggas ain’t got no sense of loyalty. This nigga didn’t give a shit what we just did to his cousin,” Revere replied.

“Nigga, the fuck? I’m as loyal as they come,” EJ disputed.

“He’s loyal. EJ is protective as hell of family, especially his sister and pops. The problem is their cousin didn’t earn nobody’s loyalty,” I spoke.

“That nigga was family in name only. He ain’t no blood of mine. His real daddy ain’t nowhere in the picture, and his daddy adopted him when he married his mama. That nigga will steal, beat, cheat, and murder his own mama if it got him somewhere. He stole from my aunt Cynthia plenty of times, and the nigga jumped on the man who adopted him and gave him a name and a family. He sexually assaulted one of our female cousins, been accused of doing it to several other girls, fucks his boys’ women, and he thinks that shit is cool. Hell nah. I owed him no loyalty,” EJ explained.

“Then why did you get him involved with transporting your sister out of town?” Royal asked.

“He was the only one who was available to get the job done. I had to stay here and avert attention from her absence. Besides, that nigga ain’t ever fucked with me or anything attached to me before. I knew he was trifling, but I didn’t think that nigga was a stupid muthafucka too,” EJ stated.

Nate put the broken pool stick down and went to pour himself another drink at the bar, before he asked if anyone else wanted anything.