The Syndicate Read Online Free

Javon try to grab at him again.
    Cory jumped in front of his brother, and spoke something in Tagalog while trying to stop Javon from laying hands on Naveen. Naveen threw his hands up to try to stop whatever Javon was about to do, but Cory had blocked his brother.
    I could tell that Javon was trying to keep his anger in check. He was trying to level out his temper so he could be in control and responsible for what he was about to do. But Naveen’s actions had pushed him to the edge and Javon was struggling not to fall over. Naveen’s chest rose up and down slowly as he bit into his bottom lip, water rapidly leaking from his eyes. Fresh tears rolled down my face as I knew all of this stemmed from the fact that Mama was gone. My sisters and I were used to this. Growing up in a houseful of boys, we’d seen our share of dick measuring contests, but this was different.
    â€œAll he had to do was pick her up, Von,” Naveen pleaded his case while looking up at Javon. Still crying he said, “That was it. That’s all she ever asked him to do and he couldn’t do it.”
    I ran a hand over my eyes to stop the tears. I glanced around the room and it was easy to see that Naveen was right. Most if not all of us had that same thought process at one time or another since Mama’s death. I was guilty of it myself. My first thoughts asked why she was at a bus stop when it was Jojo’s job to pick her up. She’d taken money from her savings to buy him the car he wanted on his sixteenth birthday and all she’d asked was that he pick her up from the juvenile center three days a week. Jojo had been half-assing the job since he’d gotten his whip. But Mama never made a big fuss about it. Jojo was spoiled. Naveen was right about that, too.
    Jojo must have sensed it as well. As gravy and blood slid down his face, he studied all of us. When his eyes landed on me, I dropped my eyes out of guilt. When I looked back at him, he had a pleading look in his eyes as he looked at Javon and Cory. He found no reprieve there either.
    â€œI . . . I was coming. But she said . . . She sent me . . . She texted and . . .” he stammered; but he couldn’t finish whatever it was he was about to say.
    The glass tumbler that I had placed on the mantel of the fireplace fell to the floor with a hard crash, startling all of us. Mama’s picture seemed to be glaring down at us. That calmed down all the anger in the room.
    Jojo pulled away from Lamont and ran up the stairs. Javon ordered Naveen to go outside and cool off before he stormed out of the room himself. Cory and Lamont soon left too, leaving me, Melissa, and Inez alone.

Chapter 2
    Javon
    The woman I felt was my true mother was gone. The only woman who stepped up to the plate in my and my baby brother’s lives was gone. Mama Claudette was gone from me. Fuck! The image of her sweet, warm nut brown face gazing down at all of us in regard as if telling us to pay her attention back in the house flashed in my mind. I could hear her now: “Quit with all that discord and sassing. Y’all are family and this right here is not acceptable at all. It makes no type of sense to waste that type of energy on everyone here, because they love you and would not do harm on ya soul. Not purposely and mean it.”
    Naveen’s words rang true in my mind. I hated that it was there, hated that I agreed. As the eldest of this family, shit, I was supposed to be the logical and clear-thinking one; but I couldn’t see past the pain in my heart. Love him like my own blood I did, but Jojo had made a deadly mistake. Part of me wanted to know what the fuck had kept him from keeping his promise to her and picking her up, but another part of me just didn’t give a damn in the moment. Kid or not, his immaturity in this one thing had assisted in Mama Claudette’s death.
    A numbness spread through me. My rising hurt was mixing into a rage that I might not be able to