The Genesis Group

by Mike Dagons

  Melvin turned in his seat and glared at him. He couldn’t believe the condescension he was hearing in his tone, and after seeing how bad Melvina looked, his righteous indignation vexed the hell out of him. “You’re right. It ain’t your muthafuckin’ business,” he answered coldly.

  “Melvina is a good kid, and I just want to make sure she’s not mistreated.”

  His temper flared. “Mistreated?!” he shouted in a whisper. “That girl has holes in her tennis shoes, and you got the nerve to talk to me about mistreating her?” He wanted to pull his big ass out the car and beat him to death. “You keep blaming me for her misfortune, and I’m sick of hearing it. I pay Janie’s salary, so don’t tell me she couldn’t afford to buy the kid shoes without my help!” he sneered. He was trying to keep his voice low, but it was loud enough to cause Melvina to stir.

  “Get out the car so we can talk,” Jamil ordered, and then he eased Melvina’s head off his lap. He got out the car, lumbered around it, and then walked a few feet away and waited for Melvin to follow.

  “You need my help, man?” Valow asked because Jamil looked and sounded real angry, and he didn’t think Melvin wanted to shoot him.

  “Nah, I got this. Stay with the kid.”

  “Money ain’t the problem,” Jamil started speaking while Melvin was still approaching him, because he didn’t look like he was planning to talk when he reached him.

  “Oh no, then what is the problem…me?”

  “In a way you are, yeah. Janie is punishing her for being your kid. If I bought her shoes, she wouldn’t let her keep them. I swear,” he said when Melvin looked at him in disbelief. “You think you know her, but you don’t. When my brother made a fuss about how Mel looks, Janie stopped him from seeing her. The only reason she lets me near her is because she thinks I hate her as much as she does.”

  “Hate her? What the fuck you talking about?” he looked puzzled. He had known Janie Delores intimately. He had considered her a friend, until today. He didn’t want to believe she could be so heartless with any child, certainly not her own.

  “Man, you don’t know the half of it. Jamal called the man on her for leaving the kid home alone, and the next week, he was hauled off to some holding cell and threatened with a trip to Quantico if he didn’t back off. It proved we didn’t have a fighting chance against her in the legal system. Now, he’s not allowed to see Mel at all. When I saw that, I said fuck the shoes, and the clothes. As long as I can see her when I want, I can make sure she eats because you better believe her mama don’t give a fuck if she don’t. What Jamal did stopped Janie from leaving her home alone, but it didn’t make things better for Mel. To teach him a lesson, Janie started paying some crackhead a few dollars to keep her while she worked. When I asked her why, she said, ‘since Jamal can’t stand me leaving her alone, I decided to pay somebody to keep her. I hope that he’s happy now.’ Man, please don’t say she can afford daycare,” he interjected before Melvin could present that argument. “You need to understand what it’s really all about. She don’t show the kid love, and she don’t care about her safety. She was getting ready to leave without her when your man showed up at her door. She all the time telling Mel how she, and her no good daddy, ruined her life. My brother started dating the dope fiend, so he could watch over Mel without Janie knowing it. The bitch didn’t know he was her uncle. He told her he was into kids, and gave her money to buy her silence and time alone with Mel everyday. Suppose he was telling the truth about being a sick kid loving fuck? Jamal put his life on hold and spent everyday sitting up in that filthy house, pretending to like that lowdown bitch, so he could watch over our niece to keep her babysitter from selling her for real.”

  “If what you’re telling me is true, then how do you explain the nanny, Lisa? The place wasn’t great, but it was clean.”

  “Lisa is my girl. We go way back. We all got together and came up with a plan to get Mel out that place before somebody hurt her for real. I asked Lisa to quit her job, and let me pay her salary for watching my niece. She agreed after I told her what was going down. Then I told Janie that Lisa loss her job at the VA for coming to work intoxicated, and she offered to keep Mel for free while she was off work. I played it up like it would save her some money. Janie put on a front like she had to see her place first to make sure it was nice. So, we dropped in on Lisa unexpectedly and found her passed out drunk on the couch. Janie was happy to let her keep Mel after she saw that.”

  “You’re kidding, right? Her nanny, Lisa, is a drunk?”

  “Nah…she knew I was bringing Janie by to see her, so she poured alcohol on her clothes, and pretended to be drunk to fool Janie. My sister wouldn’t let Mel stay with Lisa if she knew Lisa was decent. Lisa plays along because she’s good people. She knows she can’t comb Mel’s hair, or buy her new clothes, but she feeds her good, keeps her safe, and makes sure she gets good healthcare. You know the things you can’t see by just looking at her. Mel is not a complainer, and she’s real obedient. She was crying about that funny looking doll because it’s the only one she’s ever had. She keeps it hid at Lisa’s house. It’s special to her because it came from you. Maybe I was wrong for playing you up in her mind, but I did it to give her some hope. I thought I was lying to her about you being a great father, but I didn’t give a fuck. The kid needed something to hold onto. You know what I mean?”

  The sadness Melvin felt was overwhelming. “I do know.” He shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

  He had been the victim of abuse when he was about Melvina’s age. Ethan Cole had come into his life unexpectedly, and gave him hope. He rescued him from the man who was hurting him, and the attention he gave him repaired his damaged self-esteem. It changed him and his mother’s life for the better.

  “I’m not trying to guilt trip you, man. I thought you were that lowlife muthafucka Janie made you out to be. Believing her helped to make some sense of it all, but after you dropped everything and went to get Mel… I knew Janie had been lying about you.”

  “If Janie is so bad, then why you help her kill Steven?”

  “She told Jamal that she was going to sell Mel if he didn’t help her kill the dude, and get his computer. My brother is big like me, but he ain’t got the heart for bogus shit. I had to help him. It’s the only reason we caught up in this. We thought you ordered the kill, and told Janie to use us because we own the liquor store in his building. Hell, she didn’t even mention no Russians to me until she was getting ready to split.”

  As bizarre as it sounded, Melvin believed him. He saw how the kid reacted to seeing him. She loved the man, and he was the reason she didn’t hate him. “I’m sorry that Melvina has been made to suffer. It’s my problem, now, and I’ll take care of it. Come with me.”

  Melvin walked into the big house, and he found his family in the library anxiously waiting for him. “Jamil, I want you to meet my family.”

  “Your family is black?” he exclaimed in surprise. “I’m sorry; I don’t mean no disrespect, but you a white dude with blonde hair and blue eyes.” He pointed it out like Melvin didn’t know it.

  “Oh damn! A black man with a lily white sister is surprised that my family is black,” he mocked him in a friendly way. “Now, that’s classic.”

  Everybody laughed, and Jamil flushed in embarrassment. “A’ight, man, you got me. I thought we were special but I see we ain’t,” he chuckled. “You got black blood?”

  Melvin laughed because he enjoyed the reaction he got when people learned his family was African American.

  “I’m Ethan Cole,” his father stood up and shook Jamil’s hand. “I adopted Melvin when he was a child, but he is in every way that matters my blood, so yeah he’s got black blood.”

  “Man, you look too young to be his father.”

  “Do I look too young to be his mother? And you had better say yes,” Isabel stood up and shook his hand.

  “Yes, ma’am, you do,” he laughed.

  “ADA Samantha Jawlins…the too young wife,” she exten
ded her hand, and Jamil shook it.

  Melvin draped his arm over Sam’s shoulder, and kissed her temple. “Where’s Kendall?” he asked.

  “He’s in the kitchen with Monique. She’s letting him help her bake cookies,” his mother answered. “You want me to get them?”

  “No, I have to talk to you guys about something, first.”

  “If it’s about the job, you don’t have to worry. I’ve already doubled the security on the house, and the family is going to be staying here until it’s finished,” Ethan reported.

  His father, Ethan Cole, was the best assassin that ever passed through Charter 6. His brother, Ice, was the second best. Melvin was confident his family could handle any dangerous situation, but he didn’t know if they could handle the news about his other child, and how badly she’d been treated.

  “This is about something that I learned today. It’s going to affect all of us. Jamil has first hand information, and I want you to hear it from him. Then we’ll talk. Jamil, please tell my family what you told me.”

  “All of it?”

  “Yeah, all of it, man. Start at the beginning.”

  They all sat down, and listened to Jamil. He told them of Melvina’s existence, and how he got involved in the card job. Nobody interrupted, or asked him any questions while he was speaking. And when he was finished with the story, everybody looked at Melvin with interest.

  “Thank you, Jamil. Can you wait for me in the car? I’ll be out to get Melvina in a minute.”

  “Okay, it was nice meeting you folks,” he backed out the room.

  Melvin rested his elbows on his knees, and exchanged gazes with his family for a full minute before anyone said anything. He knew they were all mentally calculating the timeline, and realizing he had made a baby right before, or right after, he married Sam.

  “EXPLAIN the parts he left out!” his father demanded after the minute of silence stretched into two.

  The look of disgust on Sam’s face told him she didn’t want to hear his explanation, even before she got up and slapped him so hard, his jaw ached.

  “Sam, it didn’t happen the way you think,” he took the hand she had slapped him with and pulled it to his lips and kissed it. “There is an explanation for how it happened.”

  “You think I don’t know how making babies happens?” she snatched her hand away.

  “Let me try to explain it,” he repeated.

  “What’s to explain, Melvin? You cheated! You fucked that lowlife wicked bitch, and now you have a daughter to show for it. Why you think I want to hear you try to explain it?”

  “Why didn’t you know about the child? You worked with her mother,” Ethan asked, because unlike Sam, he wanted an explanation. Melvin was not an unfaithful man, like his brother, Ice, so he knew there had to be more to the story.

  “Please, Sam, sit down and let me explain. Please,” he repeated when she just glared at him.

  “Explain it, son,” Ethan interjected, after Sam refused to sit.

  “I transferred to the Chicago location after my bachelor party weekend. I didn’t see her again until I recruited her for Genesis. She never mentioned the kid to me until she played her like a poker chip during her interrogation this morning.” He lifted his eyes to Sam’s. “I dated her before I met you, Sam. After we got serious, I broke it off. I was not sleeping with her when I asked you to marry me.”

  “The daughter you have with her says differently,” she hissed.

  “I woke up in her bed the morning after my bachelor party. I’d been so wasted I didn’t even remember going home with her. Blue told me that she talked him into letting her drive me home. She told me that we hadn’t done anything…said I’d been too drunk. I believed her, and why not? We were friends, more than friends actually. She was FBI, like me, and we looked after each other. It’s why Blue trusted her to take me home in that condition. I have never consciously cheated on you Samantha.”

  “So you don’t know if she’s really your kid?” she asked, her expression softening.

  “She looks like Kendall, but no, I don’t have any solid proof. I’m going to have our DNA tested as soon as I get back to headquarters. The thing is, even if she’s not, I want to take responsibility for her.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?!” she sneered.

  “Sam, the kid believes that I’m her father, and she needs a father. I know that you’re hurt, and it is understandable. I’m asking you to consider the mitigating circumstances, and give me your support. It is no way I can deal with this without it.”

  “What are you asking me to do, Melvin? Allow you to bring proof of your infidelity home with you?”

  “Yeah, that is exactly what I’m asking. I fucked up, and if I could give you time to come to terms with it, I would. But the truth is I don’t have the time to give. I don’t have time to worry about losing you because of it either. This job is getting away from me, and every second I spend doing something other than working on it is putting my team in danger. I can’t allow myself to be distracted with worry about Melvina’s welfare. I have to concentrate on this job, and nothing else. In order to do that, I need you to push pass your hurt feelings, and see how much this child needs us.”

  “Don’t you dare try to make me feel guilty about what I’m feeling,” she hissed. “I just found out you got a kid outside our marriage. At least you could give me a few damn minutes to digest the information.”

  “I’m already behind schedule, and I don’t have a minute to spare. Will you accept my child, or do I have to make other arrangements?”

  “We can take her until you decide, Sam,” his mother volunteered. “Let her stay here with us until y’all have time to sit down and discuss it.”

  Suddenly Sam felt ashamed. She was forcing him to choose between his child’s safety, and his marriage. “I’ll accept your child, Melvin, but I will not accept her mother. If she doesn’t want the child like you’re telling me, then I don’t want her in the picture disrupting things by pretending that she does when it’s convenient.”

  “I’m going to send her away, and tell Melvina that she’s dead.”

  “You expect a woman who has no scruples about using her child as a bargaining chip, to just pack up and leave us alone?” Sam frowned. “Are you saying this shit to appease me, or are you just plain stupid?!”

  “I don’t have it all figured out, yet, Sam, but I guarantee Janie will not be a problem.”

  “Fine, c’mon Isabel, let’s go tell Kendall that he has a sister, and let your son go back to what’s important. His fucking job,” she strutted out the room.

  “She is a good woman, and she is going to adjust,” Isabel kissed him, and then followed Sam out the room.

  “Adjusting to a new family is going to be hard enough for the child, so I don’t think you should tell her that her mother is dead. The girl is use to being neglected, so just tell her that her mama went away.”

  “I won’t tell Melvina she’s dead if you don’t think I should, but I am going to make her mama disappear…for good, and that’s a fact.”

  Chapter 13

  When I woke up, I was at headquarters in medical. The infirmary was two adjoining wards, one male, one female, each housing three beds separated by curtains with thick plastic linings. The curtain separating me from the other patients was drawn, and I was dressed in a gown, and hooked up to an IV line. I pressed the call button for Dr. Andrew Green.

  Doc Green, a stately black gentleman of indeterminate age, is a gifted surgeon. My guess is he’s in his early fifties, but he refuses to confirm or deny it. In my humble opinion, he takes himself and his job way too seriously, but I still like him a lot.

  “Why am I hooked up, Doc?” I asked when he magically appeared at my bedside.

  “Ah, Severe, you are awake,” he spoke in his James Earl Jones voice.

  He held my eyelid open and shined his tiny flashlight in my eye, and then he did the same to the other. “You drank too much of Lake Michigan, and I’m dosing you
with an experimental antibiotic to treat you for a strange parasite infection. Hopefully, I will be able to keep you from dying a horribly painful death,” he grinned when my eyes widened in panic. “I’m only kidding. I’m hydrating you with a saline drip.”

  “You scared me to death,” I smiled. Joking was completely out of character for him, and I knew my persistent playfulness was finally breaking through his hard exterior. “How long I been here?”

  “About two hours. You were tired when you arrived, so I urged Blue to let you sleep. I was told to inform you that there will be a meeting in the war room if Melvin and Valow ever return.”

  “You know what the meeting is about?”

  He hitched a thumb at the curtain, indicating he didn’t want to speak in front of whoever was in the next bed.

  “I know where Melvin went, so you don’t have to whisper, Doc,” Janie spoke from the other side of the curtain. “You people are so ridiculously clandestine.”

  Doc snatched the curtain back and glared at her angrily. “And you are despicable,” he barked. “You betrayed us for a couple pieces of silver.”

  “Whatever,” she droned. The head of her bed was elevated, so she was sitting upright. One wrist was fastened to the bed railing with a steel cord cuff. It was unbreakable. She was wearing examination shorts and a tee shirt, and I could see that her upper thigh was bandaged.

  “Severe, I want you to keep getting the fluids for now, and I want you to eat something. I can send Maggie in with a sandwich if you like?”

  “No thanks, Doc. I’ll get something when I leave. Where are my clothes?” I tore my eyes away from Janie and looked up at him.

  “Don’t let her bother you,” he smiled. “I had Maggie throw your clothes in the garbage. I’ll bring some new ones up when I come back to remove your IV. You rest until then.”

  “Thanks Doc,” I smiled, and then waited until he was out the door before I turned over on my side so that I was facing Janie. I just stared at her for a moment. She was a very attractive woman who was also very smart. She was snarling at me like I was the one who had betrayed the team, and it pissed me off. “You’ve got the nerve to be angry?”