Page 4 of About the Green

I just went with it because the money was good, but after a while I started managing other men underneath me who also were keeping the men safe. Now I’m managing all of them—the scheduling, the assignments, you name it.

So when my King said that he needed a secured area in Atlanta after our family discovered there was unrest under our Queen’s ascension, I hopped at the chance.

And though I hate people, I respect the hell out of my King, and I want to do anything I can to protect his best interest and anyone who falls underneath him as well.

I’ve had a good life because of his aspirations, so I’m there when he needs me. Loyalty is nothing when you know who to be loyal to. It’s simple and easy.

I had been working with Geno for as long as I had been with Dupont. He’d been the man that had been closest to me in rank, and someone I considered a friend, even.

It’s been a little over a month since we found out about his betrayal. It might be hard for some to wrap their head around why you would care about there being someone like Geno in the family, but Dupont isn’t just one member. The pain of disloyalty runs deep. If you’re disloyal to one of us, you’re disloyal to all of us. You put everyone in jeopardy when you start thinking solely about yourself and what you could stand to gain from being so shitty.

For me, finding out about what had happened to not just Geno, but what he tried to do to Redd, it hurt me in a way I couldn’t fathom.

To think that I had misjudged him so thoroughly.

To think that he had been a rat under our nose for so long.

It hurt not only my heart, but my pride too.

Dupont had suffered its number of losses in the time that we had a change in partnership. First, it was when the Lafayette family decided to change its leadership, from Terrell Lafayette Senior running the show to his son, Terrell Lafayette Junior. I understand wanting to retire, because Lord knows Senior needed it, Junior was in no way fit to rule the business, especially when Senior wasn’t all that great in the first place.

Blue had made the decision to cut ties with Lafayette, to end any work with them, and everyone in the family agreed that it was the best thing for us. Not only did they stand for nothing, but Junior was a real piece of work.

Everything after that was sort of a landslide.

Now Lafayette is being run by Senior’s daughter, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. Not only that, but it seems that there are people who are threatened by Racquelle coming into power too.

I couldn’t have imagined that it would have been Geno. I’ve seen the tapes, I’ve heard what he had to say.

And Colton… working ahead of security, it feels like more times than not I’m having to deal with his shit, really, or I’m hearing about his shit.

A partnership between Colton and Geno was not one I would have been able to call, and though I was willing to take the job in Atlanta before I knew about how Geno had done us all so dirty, I feel it more so now.

It wasn’t just those two acting alone. There is someone else who is behind whatever they had been planning to achieve with their schemes.

We can’t afford to have unrest like this in the family, and we definitely cannot afford it when someone is trying to stir up shit about Racquelle taking over.

I don’t have any two feelings about her rise, because our money looks better, our numbers have dwindled, but that’s for any number of reasons. You don’t go into this line of work expecting to live forever, but you do expect to have to watch your back. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

More than that, I see that having Racquelle running Lafayette and partnering with Dupont has made my King happy as hell. I’ve never seen the man smitten in my life before, but whatever she’s doing, it’s trickling down its positive effects to us. Not only is it benefiting us to have a happy King and Queen, but it's made the money even greener, and we don't get into business to make less money.

My job has been a little bit more difficult, especially because I am naturally suspicious of most people. Oftentimes it's unfounded, but my suspicions hadn't failed me before.

Geno and I had known each other for years. He had been a part of Dupont for years, and though I didn't know him before he started working with us, I had spent any number of hours with him. He was a friend to me. The betrayal to the family was distinct from the betrayal to me, because all of this was such a shock.

So, in a situation like this, where the only friends you can really have are ones that are connected to this lifestyle, it makes you even more hesitant to form any sort of alliances when there is no honor amongst thieves.

My ex had always been hesitant to allow that part of my life to affect her, because she was none the wiser when we got pregnant. I had kept those things very separate. Even now, with our child only six years old, I do my best to keep Dupont as separate as possible. though some people have slipped through the cracks, like Redd.

As he stands outside of my house right now, waiting for his opportunity to come and play Barbies with my daughter and his new fiancée, I find myself still being a little hesitant in allowing him to have the closeness that I once had with Geno as well. I can only have old coworkers going on work trips that last a while so often. Redd just got back from his, considering he was in a prison cell for over a year, something I didn't want to have to explain to my daughter, much to Marissa's displeasure.

I can't blame her for not wanting to have this part of my life bleed over into the one that our daughter lives in, but unfortunately I am who I am. The choices I've made have led me to where I am. Nothing that I've done has put her in any danger, but it has put her in a nice-ass house where her mother doesn't have to work a single day because everything that she needs is taken care of.

I still have to respect her displeasure with bringing my hood-rat friends around, though I would say Redd is more clown than villain.

He’s Graciella’s favorite uncle and no one can tell Redd shit about it.

I nod towards the large man with red hair as he comes in, immediately looking around for Gracie, and hold out my hand for Stephanie to shake.