Chapter One
SEVYN ‘LAW’ CRAWFORD
I was sitting down on the edge of the bed, waiting for Yaya to come out of the bathroom. I was calm. Angry, but calm. It was in everyone’s best interest that calm was the way that I remained because if I experienced any other feeling than calm, I would get in full crash out mode and destroy this entire hotel room.
The bounce in my leg was constant. I was talking to myself, telling myself to breathe, and remain still, but it wasn’t working. I felt tried. I felt like I was disrespected by my own sons. I give those lil niggas anything. When it came to my boys, they had no understanding of what the word ‘no’ meant. They had no kinds of fuckin struggle. I work my ass off, sometimes running off four hours of sleep, but I made sure that my kids didn’t get a slack father, or what’s left of me after putting everything and everyone first.
For them to sneak out of the house late at night like this, and for Creed’s dumb ass to be laid up with that white bitch from school, knowing the blood on our history, knowing the racist kind of person her pops was, that shit was fuckin crazy to me. Legend was supposed to be the one with the common sense, that was supposed to talk Creed out of that dumb shit, or threw hisbrother under the bus, telling me what he planned on doing, but he didn’t, and that’s where he fucked up at.
At the end of the day, I understood that kids were going to be kids. If all they did was sneak out of the house, and go to a party, I probably would have only been mad about it to a certain extent. This was different though. Too many fucked up consequences were on the line. All because Creed was thinking with his dick, it got his ass busted, and now he was sitting in the back of a police car, in handcuffs. There’s this part of me that’s so angry, that just wants to let his ass sit, but I couldn’t do that. For one, Yaya would wild the fuck out, and I wasn’t trying to deal with that. Secondly, I didn’t trust Edward Sterling’s ass. I didn’t know what he would have them cops do to my sons, and that’s the reason why we were getting ready to hop back on this jet, so that I could fly back, and get Creed out of this mess that he’d gotten himself into.
A minute later, the bathroom door opened, and Yaya walked out, adjusting the hoodie that she came here in. She was back in her crème-coloredFear of God Essentialsset that she wore on the flight over. Her socks were on, and herAsicssneakers were sitting by the door, and that’s all she had to do was throw them on because everything else was packed up, and ready to go.
She’d pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and she had been crying since she woke up out of her sleep, and overheard my conversation with Legend, so her eyes were still red, and so was her nose. I knew how Yaya felt about the system. She knew the system because of me being in it, so she was aware of the shit that was out here happening with our black boys, and men. That fuckin system will chew our kind up and spit them the fuck out. We used to lay up together, and she would express to me how one of her biggest fears is one of the boys getting locked up or having a bad encounter with an officer.
“Come here,” I said, wanting to talk to her before we walked out of the door. She stood where she was, and just shook her head no.
“Sevyn, we gotta go,” her tone was low, and it was sad.
“I just got clearance from the pilot, but it’s still going to be another thirty-to-forty-five-minute wait because it’s other final checks that they have to go through. Come here,” I said it again, and she walked over to me.
My legs were parted a little bit, and originally, she’d chosen to stand in the middle of my legs, but I reached my hands out, putting them on her hips, and I lowered her down onto my lap. She sat on my right thigh, sitting on me sideways, and the moment she sat down, it was like I could feel all of her heavy weight that she was carrying from this shit.
“Law, what if?—”
“Don’t start doing that. I already know where you getting ready to go with this, so don’t do it. Like I just told you ten minutes ago, we know the kind of boy that we raised. Creed ain’t rape that girl. I just hope that his ass wasn’t stupid enough to have sex with her though. We going to get out there, and I’m going to handle it. I get shit handled every day, so imagine what I’m going to do with my sons. Come on. You crying, and that make me feel like you doubting me,” I said, tugging on the arm of her hoodie. She turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were still red, and they’d watered up. When she blinked, the tear fell, but she used the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe it away.
“I don’t doubt you. I’ve never doubted you when it comes to you doing your job. Sevyn, I’m scared though. You know the kind of shit that’s going through my mind right now. How many times have we seen cases like this before? You know the kind of cases that I’m referring to. The ones where you’ll have a young black boy with a promising future, and he gets caught up behind the hands of a white girl. They can be innocent, and it’s like the shitstill wouldn’t fuckin matter. You know Sterling. He can twist this shit, have his daughter twist it, and they paint my baby out to be a monster,” her voice cracked the entire time that she was saying this to me, and the tears started flowing again.
“Then, he only fifteen- years old, and they got my son in cuffs. He wasn’t the only one at the party. Why is he the only one that’s in cuffs?” she asked me.
“He was in that girl room, Yaya. Even still, it’s not enough for them to put cuffs on him. Legend said he was wilding, so that’s why they did that shit. Ima get it handled. The world not about to be screaming ‘free Creed’ because I’m not going to even let it get that far. Stop crying. I thought you trusted me,” I said to her.
She calmed down eventually, and while she was sitting there, I was stealing glances at her, wanting to ask her something, but I didn’t want to set her off. I knew Yaya, and I knew her ass could go from 0 to 100 fast as hell, plus her emotions were already all over the place, but I still wanted to know the answer. I might regret this shit the second that I asked it, but I was still going to test the waters.
“Don’t get mad at me when I ask you this. You knew about him talking to Vivian?” I asked and the second that I asked her that question, she immediately grew offended because she sucked her teeth, shoved me, and she tried to remove herself from my lap, but I was quick with my movements, putting a hand on her waist, and I pulled her back down quickly, not letting her go.
“You know fuckin well I didn’t know that he was talking to that girl! I would have told you. If I even had a suspicion, I would have told you. All this time, I’m thinking that Creed was only into black girls. Move, Law for real because you just pissed me off with that question,” she spat, putting her hand on my hand, so that I could move it off her waist. I didn’t even fight her ass on it. I just sat back, allowing her to stand up.
“Why you always gotta talk to a nigga all fuckin crazy?” I asked, with a half-smile on my face, as I stood up.
I was smiling, because even though I was getting on her about the way she talked to me, a nigga loved that shit. That feisty shit. Then, when she starts going off, speaking in Spanish, mannnnn, I’m a straight simp over it.
“You couldn’t just say, ‘No papi, I wasn’t aware he was talking to her’?” I asked, and I didn’t get a response from her. Just her rolling her eyes.
She went over to where her sneakers were, and she stepped inside them. I went ahead, and grabbed her luggage, along with mine, and while I did that, she finished with her shoes, grabbed her purse, and her phones. I allowed her to lead the way, and right when we made it to the door, she turned around so that she could look at me.
“Our kids come first, but I feel bad that we aren’t going to make the funeral,” she said.
“Creed not about to sit in jail, Soraya. I’m going to wherever the fuck they got him, and I’m bringing my son home. That shouldn’t take long. After that, we hopping back on a flight to come back out here, so that we can pay our respects to Marissa’s family. Come on,” I said, and she nodded.
I reached over her, so that I could open the door, and she stepped back, allowing it to open, and she walked out. I was right behind her.
I was one of those people that paid close attention to everything, so while Yaya was walking ahead of me, I was feeling her out, noticing the change in her walk. She was limping. A few hours ago, when we checked into this hotel, she hadn’t been walking like that. I did my big one in here tonight, fuckin her like the old times, and her walk was telling on her.
We made it to the elevators, and she pressed the down button. She walked in first, and I went in right after her. Whilewe took the elevator down, she had her back against the railing, standing on one side, and I was standing on the other. I had my back posted against the railing as well, not even being discreet about how I was looking at her. Her arms were folded, and she looked so beautiful, even with how stressed out she was.
“What?” she asked me.
