His words were angry, his voice was calm.
“You chose to stop speaking to the people who care about you, Legend, because you were in prison and angry about it. You were blaming the world, including your brothers. Me and Caspian. You lashed out at us, and I’ll be damned if I’m somebody’s punchin’ bag, verbally or physically. We didn’t have shit to do with the choices you made. Sounds like you have some pent-up resentment towards me even before all of that went down.”
“Like you give a shit.”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. The liquor is talkin’… You never told me you felt this way about me. Not in all the years we have been down, man. Regardless of the raw deal you got in life, I thought we was better than this.”
Legend shrugged as if he didn’t give a shit. Axel knew better. The man was on the brink of falling apart. His dead eyes said it all.
“Legend, want to talk about blame? It goes both ways. I don’t let anyone get close to me anymore, because of you and Caspian.” Legend rolled his eyes. “I have no friends, just a bunch of employees and associates, and that’s exactly how I like it. The way you acted was fucked up. We were all we had, and both of y’all flaked out on me. You kept going to prison and then wouldn’t accept my calls, as if I’d put you there myself. You put your own self there.”
“Shut up.”
“Make me shut up, motherfucker.” They glared at one another for a long while, until Legend turned away. “And Caspian put his career before everyone else, wanted to pretend like he was different from us. It broke my heart, man, but I didn’t have a temper tantrum about it like some baby… like you! I realized the only one true friend I got in this world is myself. Nobody knows anything about loyalty anymore. Friends nowadays will shoot you dead, then hug your mama at the funeral. And furthermore, asshole, I didn’t come over here to mess with you. I just—”
“Why are you here then?” Legend cut him off, his lips pursed and a hateful, dark rage in his eyes. “To judge me? To think you’re better than me, then rub it in my face?”
“I’m here because you’re my brother.”
Legend shook his head, and averted his gaze. The other two dogs sounded like they were eating in a nearby room, while the Rottweiler lay down on a dirty rug, clearly tired.
“I’m not leaving you alone until you tell me why you’re living in squalor, Legend. This ain’t you. This ain’t where you belong! You’re one of the Brother Disciples, man! You, me, and Caspian. We were kings, if only in our own minds! Are you working? What’s happening with you? Melanie said that—”
“Who the fuck is gonna hire someone wit’ no college degree, no experience, a short-lived stint in the army that didn’t give me no credentials or skills? I got a long ass record for sellin’ drugs for the majority of my adult life. I got two felonies, man.” He held up two fingers. “I’m a killa. They got me on paper for one, not the rest. I ain’t no upstanding citizen. Rebellious and disorderly fuckin’ conduct. Violent tendencies. No conscience. A problem. A half-breed that most people mistake as 100% White, so I get called a Wigger, and dumb shit like that because of how I dress and the music I listen to. I’m a misfit. A bad seed. A nightmare.”
“Your mama loves you. Ms. Paula is worried sick about you, Legend.”
“Aww, man!” He waved his hand at him and rolled his eyes. “My mama doesn’t know what it’s like for me out here in these streets, and she ain’t never try to find out. She’s just a White lady who is impracticable, unreliable, gullible, and silly. You know how messed up my relationship with her was, so don’t even go there. And as far as Melanie, she don’t know nothin’, either. She’s a woman.”
“So what? What’s that got to do with anything, Legend?”
“She can bat her eyes and pop her pussy to get what she needs, that’s what the hell it has to do with it. Women can literally walk out of their house, man, stand on the corner, and give a quick blowjob for ten minutes, walk back in the gotdamn house, and pay their phone bill. I ain’t gay, and female clients aren’t runnin’ amuck out here tryna buy dick or get their back blown out on a consistent basis. But every block, I bet you there’s at least twenty guys who will pay to get their dick sucked. My sister has never had to put her neck on the line like me. Mel been fuckin’ over boys with her feminine wiles since Kindergarten. Had sugar daddies since she was fifteen damn years old. Besides, I don’t want no woman takin’ care of me, no how. That’s some bitch shit. We played by our own rules. Wasn’t no man in the house. She knows the game. I can’t roll like that.”