“Jiselle?”
“Yeah. I’m dating Jiselle and just really wanted to talk to you. So come on. Let’s talk.” I watched him look from me to his door. “If you make a run for it, I’m going to clip you. Don’t try to call my bluff because I prepared to kill you before I even left my house this morning,” I warned.
“Kill me?” He scoffed. “I haven’t seen you in damn near a decade. Why the fuck would you date my sister, break into my spot, and kill me?”
“I’m not going to kill you. I just wanted to make sure you knew I could drive out here and put hands on you whenever I feel like it. So I’d recommend you watch how you talk to your sister in the future, okay?”
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t stutter and you aren’t stupid. Watch how the fuck you talk to my future wife or your parents will be identifying your body by your dental records. That’s not a threat. It’s a plain statement and you can act hard if you want but I didn’t call out of work, drive four hours, and break into this raggedy mothafucka for fun.”
Even though Jiselle had stood her ground, she’d been visibly upset about Rene calling and talking crazy. I didn’t like that. At all. I meant it when I said Jiselle’s happiness was my top priority and I wouldn’t let anyone upset her, whether it was her family or not.
Rene swallowed and shifted his feet.
“It was siblings arguing. It’s not that deep, man.”
“It was that deep when my girl looked like she wanted to cry.” I clicked the safety off my gun and Rene’s eyes drifted toward it. “You’re her sibling. You know what to say to get under her skin and you did that shit on purpose because you don’t agree with her choices. But let me make something clear, she’s a grown ass woman and you can’t stop her from doing whatever she wants.” Iclimbed to my feet. “And if you ever call yourself trying that shit out, we’re going to have some problems.”
“So what? You’re cool with her being butt ass naked online for any random man to see, Kiano? That’s what you’re saying?”
“What I said is what I meant. She’s a grown woman and can do whatever she wants. I know who she is in real life, so that cyber stuff is just that.” I closed the space between us. “You can respect Jiselle because she’s a human and deserves that or because she’s a woman, or shit, just because she’s a member of your family. Honestly, I don’t care what reason you give yourself for respecting her but not respecting her is an option that will get you fucked up.” I looked down at him and he met my gaze, his face schooled into a hard scowl that let me know he was both pissed off and thinking about his next move.
I didn’t care. I could take him, and if I couldn’t, I’d shoot him. I’d woken up ready to kill him anyway. Luckily for him, I’d calmed down a lot during my four-hour drive.
“I respect Jiselle. I just want her to respect herself too.”
I nodded and took a step back. I exhaled.
“Jiselle loves you. I’ve only ever heard good shit about you come out of her mouth,” I offered. “I think y’all should talk, but when I say talk, I mean a conversation. I don’t think you should talk over her or preach to her. I think you should open up a conversation where you don’t get to tell her what parts of her feelings or beliefs are valid just because they aren’t yours.”
“Man, I love my sister too and I didn’t need the nigga she’s fucking to break into my spot to tell me we need to have a conversation.”
I lifted my gun and got ready to knock his head back because I didn’t like his tone. I took a deep breath to center myself and let my arm fall back to my side.
“Instead of worrying about why I’m here, think about why I needed to defend Jiselle. How about that? If anything, you needto unpack why what grown men say about your sister has you so up in arms. Those men were obviously scrolling the site if they found her. She’s providing a service and they’re buying. That’s it. You can’t dictate what Jiselle does with her body or life. If you don’t support her, fine, but going out of your way to bully or hurt her isn’t going down as long as breath is in my body. Know that.”
“Yeah, alright.”
“Yeah, alright,” I repeated.
Rene clenched his jaw. I pushed my gun against his head.
“This was a courtesy because I know that despite you being a bitch on her phone last night Jiselle would be upset if you were found dead somewhere out here. But there won’t be a second.”
“So, what? Me and my sister can never argue again?” Rene forced a small laugh. “You’re not going to shoot me for arguing with Jiselle.”
“Believe that if you want.” I fired a shot and Rene let out a quick scream and jumped. “Loaded and with the safety off. You still don’t think I’m serious?” I waited but Rene was standing strangely still, his hands up and eyes slammed shut. “I don’t care if you apologize to your sister or not honestly, but if you fuck up again, you better hope I never hear about it. Because I’m down to go from here to that lil building on Bertrand to where your girlfriend lays her head looking for you. You hear me?”
He swallowed and nodded.
“I hear you, Kiano.”
“Good.” I clicked the safety on my gun. “Nice seeing you, brother-in-law. We need to get together as a family soon.” I hit him lightly on the back and headed out of his apartment with a smile on my face.
The drive back home was chill and I would have been concerned about Jiselle reaching out about me running up on her brother if I didn’t know Rene was too proud to ever tellher that not only had I caught him slipping but he hadn’t done anything about it.
As soon as I got back to the office, I locked in, already knowing I’d have to work later than expected.