Chapter Five - Mr. Murray.

Outlaw

Damn.

It felt good as hell to be me these days. I was on top of the world.

Imagine that shit. A young, wild nigga like me ain’t never had a thing for following rules, and now, I was a man who was making my own. Your boy is all grown up, and I’m runnin’ shit now. The way I always imagined I would be.

Looking out the window, I took a moment from my phone to look outside as my private helicopter landed outside my home. Or my ‘kingdom’, as I liked to call it. I read somewhere that Jay Z referred to his spot as his ‘estate’, so I had to go bigger. I couldn’t have a single motherfucka on Earth thinking he could outdo me. Sorry, Jay.

“What time are you thinking about pulling out this evening? Tim said he could have the jet ready by six.”

I nodded my head and turned my attention to Legend sitting across from me.

“Then six it is. I want to land in enough time to get to work as soon as we hit the west coast.”

Legend picked up his phone.

“I’ll let him know,” he said, doing just that.

A younger version of myself, Legend was all business. Eyes focused on the goal and nothing else. He had the focus of a lion stalking its prey. He was the obvious choice when it came to taking over me because he was a shark. He was ruthless and didn’t let anything get in his way. It was a gift. But sometimes, I wondered if that gift would end up with him living life all alone.

“Janelle is planning a big dinner tonight before we leave. It’s to wish us luck…welcome us home, or something I don’t really know the details. All I know is she ain’t cooking, so the food gon’ be good, and I’m eatin’.”

Legend chuckled.

“True shit. But nah, I need to unwind and then check on some things while we are back home. You know niggas start slacking the second they think you ain’t watching them.”

“She probably ordering from Doc’s,” I added, like the icing on the cake.

“Oh yeah?” He looked up from his phone and shrugged. “I might swing by to grab a plate. “

I almost laughed.

This nigga is just like me, I thought.

When it came down to a good ass meal, it was ‘fuck everything’. I ain’t even believe in that vegan bullshit, but Doc’s had a nigga eating that plant shit so much back in the day that my shit looked like little plant-based pellets.

It was back in the day before Janelle and I could afford a private chef, and her ass was trying to cook. I was skinny as a motherfucka pretending to eat all that nasty ass shit she was making. The only thing that kept me alive was Yolo sneaking me over some meal preps to the office so I wouldn’t waste away. It’s been almost twenty years eating that way, and I don't wanna brag, but a nigga lookin' young as shit these days. Chicks half my age stay all over the 'Gram posting my pics and calling me 'Zaddy', whatever that means. I ain’t too fond of them tree-hugging, anti-meat-eatin’ motherfuckas, but there was something to that vegan shit.

We landed a few minutes later, and I made my exit, my eyes on the prize. And I already had it in sight.

Damn, bae, I thought, my eyes lifted.

I saw Janelle's silhouette in the distance, up on the private balcony coming from our bedroom. From the look of it, she was doing yoga under the sunlight, the sun glistening all over her mocha-brown skin and...

The slicing sound interrupted my thoughts, and I whipped around, coming face-to-face with a young nigga acting like his ass was clipping some hedges.

“Oh, hell nah,” I muttered, walking over to him. “Man, what the fuck you doing back here?”

“Oh, hi, Mr. Murray!” Joshua's nerdy ass grinned, showing off a mouthful of crooked ass teeth covered with braces.

“How was your business trip?”

“Listen, young man, don’t ‘how was your business trip’ me. The fuck is your li'l skinny ass doing over here? I told you the last time I caught you over here pretendin’ to cut the hedges so you could look at my wife that I was going to kick your motherfuckin’ ass. What are you doing back over here?”

Joshua turned to me, holding the clippers to his side with one hand. Using his other hand, he took a moment to push his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose.

“Well...I was cutting hedges for Ms. Carmella, but the last time they were in town, Mr. Cree told me they no longer needed my services. I don’t know why.”

“Probably because he saw your ass peeking at his fuckin’ wife.”

The wide-eyed look on his face said it all.

“You were, weren’t you?” I asked, raising a brow.

Joshua gave a sheepish look and then drooped his head in shame.

“Yes, sir,” he mumbled.

I scratched my jaw in surprise. I had to give him some credit. Had it been me, I would’ve lied.

“My wife already paid you to do these hedges?”

He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Finish that last bush and get yo’ ass out my yard. And I bet not catch yo’ ass lookin’ at my damn wife,” I said, speaking with a straight face.

“Yes, sir,” Joshua repeated.

Turning around, I waited until I had turned the corner to let the grin spread across my face. I knew damn well that Joshua’s nerdy, white ass ain’t waste no time making sure I was out of sight before he went right back to peeking at Janelle.

Better get yo’ last look, I thought as I ascended the stairs to the front entrance of my home.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Murray.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Rolley,” I replied, speaking to my homeboy.

“Man, here you go with this ‘Mr. Rolley’ shit,” he said, sucking his teeth.

“Because you on that ‘Mr. Murray’ shit,” I replied before smacking hands with him. “Just matching energy, bruh.”

Jamar was one of my homeboys from when I was in the trenches, and I trusted that nigga with my life. We went a while without talking before we reconnected, but once we did, I hooked him up with a job immediately.

“What’s been going down since I've been gone?” I asked him as I walked into the grand foyer, stopping in the center.

“Not too much. You know Janelle has one of her yoga retreat to plan for, so everyone has been focused on that.”

“Sounds good,” I said, nodding my head.

“I’m about to head to the room and see what she’s up to.”

“Indeed,” Jamar said, already catching my drift.

“Oh yeah,” I began, then stopped.

“If you see Joshua’s ass 'round here, send his ass back to his house.”

Jamar chuckled. “You caught him looking at Janelle again?”

“Hell yeah.” I frowned.

“His ass better be happy he's only fourteen. A few more years and I would’ve been looking for the oozie.”

“I know it,” he said, still laughing.

“Deadass.”