Joker
Everything was happening too fucking fast. My head was spinning. Soon as I got the phone call, I knew that I needed to rush down to the restaurant to defuse the situation. Bronx and I fucked up. We never told anyone that we were twins. Had Halo have been paying more attention to detail, she would’ve known that wasn’t me. For one, Bronx and I didn’t have the same tattoos. We did that so that people were able to tell us apart. That’s one of the reasons why I adapted another name. Growing up, I was sick and tired of people confusing us. Though Bronx grew up on the East side of town and went to private schools all his life, somehow, people still managed to get us confused.
At birth, Ma and Kenneth decided to take a child. Kenneth took Bronx and Ma kept me. Bronx was spoon fed, meanwhile, I had to get it out the mud. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the hell out of my brother, but he was nothing like me.
“What the fuck,”
left Halo’s lips.
I fucked up bad. She was still angry at me for not giving her the chance to choose this life and now she was gon’ feel like I was keeping something else from her.
Tossing my hands up in surrender, I neared her. “I know. I should’ve told you.”
“You’re full of nothing but secrets,”
was her response.
“It’s nothing like that. It just never crossed my mind to tell you.”
“That sounds so stupid,”
Krissy said.
“Nice to meet you too, Kris.”
My eyes cut in her direction, and then I turned my attention back to Halo.
“Y’all playing games with people’s lives. It’s not funny,”
Halo replied.
“I promise it’s nothing like that. Bronx and I haven’t switched lives since we were teenagers.”
“Wait, y’all really be doing that? I thought that shit only happened on TV,”
Krissy added.
“This just too much for me.”
Halo went to walk off, but I caught her by the wrist.
“I know it is, and I apologize for it.”
“I need some time to think.”
“Ain’t shit to think ’bout. I ain’t did nothing wrong but lied to you ’bout who I was.”
“That’s more than enough. I gotta go, Knox,”
Halo said and yanked away from me.
Just because she had a lot on her right now was the only reason I allowed her to climb into that car and back out her parking space. Other than that, I would’ve yanked the steering wheel off that bitch before I let her pull off. My eyes shifted to Bronx who stood there with a smirk on his face.
“The fuck you smiling for?”
I frowned.
“I just never thought I’d see the day that yo’ ass was pussy whipped.”
“Shut the fuck up,”
I said and hopped back into the truck with Dough.
“You straight?”
he questioned me and pulled out the parking lot.
“I will be for now. Just get me to Kenneth’s ass,”
I told him and rested my head against the head rest. My mind was going a million miles per minute. I didn’t know what the fuck I was ’bout to do ’bout anything. I still had shawty back at my warehouse and the shit she just told me ’bout Kenneth was bouncing ’round in my head. On top of that, I was so close to losing my girl. I’on know why she thinks that she’s ’bout to walk out my life like that. They ass gon’ be burying both our asses fucking with me. We were gon’ be sitting in matching caskets. This shit was ’til death, and I didn’t mind being the reaper if need be.
Dough pulled up to Kenneth’s house. I jumped out the truck and trekked up to the front door. Balling my right hand into a fist, I pounded on the door as if I was the police ready to break the mufucka down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A few moments later, the door pulled open and I saw Karlie’s ass standing there. There was no one I hated more in this world than that skinny evil bitch. She made Kenneth look like a saint.
“Where the fuck is Kenneth?”
She frowned as she glared up at me. “Maybe you should ask your mama.”
“The fuck that’s supposed to mean?”
“Nothing…”
Folding her arms over her chest, she continued, “He’s not here,” with a neck roll.
“Where the fuck is he?”
“I don’t know. Do I look like that nigga’s keeper? He left a couple hours ago for the airport. He don’t tell me shit. Maybe you should try calling him,”
she said and pushed the door closed in my face. My hands balled into fists. I stepped down off the porch before I caved that bitch in and removed my phone from my pocket to call Kenneth, when a black Escalade rolled into the gate. I stepped to the back bumper of the truck and waited to see who was ’bout to get out.
The truck came to a halt directly beside me and the back door opened. Kenneth’s suede Armani loafer touched the ground. “I can’t believe I forgot my shit,”
he said as he shut the door. His eyes landed on me, and he asked, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.”
“I ain’t got time for this right now. Schedule something with me in a couple days. I got a flight to catch,”
he said, stepping ’round me. Imagine yo’ fucking father never having time for you unless it benefited him.
“I know why you wanted me to kill her,”
I tossed at his back, and his strides halted. “You’ve been embezzling money all over the city.”
Turning to face me, his eyes narrowed, and he replied, “So what?... Don’t stand there and act like you’re fucking squeaky clean.”
“Not only that. She told me your deepest, darkest secret. That’s really why you want her dead.”
The vein in the center of his forehead pulsated. “Does Karlie know?”
“No, and I’d rather it stays that way. Did you take care of her like I asked you to?”
“You don’t have shit to worry ’bout. Your secret is safe with me. Consider this to be your last time cashing in on a favor with me. You owe me for life, nigga,”
I told him and marched back to the truck. Taking one last look at Kenneth, I yanked the door open and hopped inside. “Take me back to the warehouse,” I told Dough. It’s time that I finished this once and for all and be done with it. I would’ve taken her ass out before I left there, but I just wanted to know if what she said was true or not.
Dough zoomed in and out of traffic ’til we made it to the warehouse. He pulled up to the front entrance and I hopped out the truck. Trotting to the door, I pressed my thumb against the pad and watched as the green laser moved up and down and the door clicked. Pulling the door open, I entered and went straight to the room where shawty was being held.
I pushed the door in and she sat up, resting her knees up to her chest and folding her arms over her legs. Her watery eyes pierced mine. “Just get it over with,”
left her lips. Even she knew that with the secret she held, Kenneth wasn’t gon’ ever let her live.
All I saw was Halo’s face pop up in my head. How disappointed in me she’d be if she knew that I’d taken this girl’s life over some bullshit. Gripping her by the forearm, I yanked her to her feet and dragged her out of the room. We kept trekking ’til we made it to my office. I stuck the key in the hole and unlocked the door and then pushed it in. Releasing her, I went over to my closet door, pulled it open, exposing the safe. Pressing my thumb against it, I waited ’til I heard the air seep from it when it popped open and swung the door open.
Grabbing three stacks, I shut the door and turned back to her. “Here,”
I said, shoving the cash into her chest. Her moist eyes searched mine.
“I-I don’t understand.”
“Take this shit and leave town. Leave and don’t ever come back. If I ever catch you anywhere near here, I’ll drop you within a blink of an eye. You understand me?”
Fuck, Halo was making Joker soft as pudding.
“Ye-yes.”
“If you ever open your mouth and tell what you know, I’ll drop you for that too,”
I told her and gripped her by the arm and then dragged her toward the back entrance. Removing my gun from my waist, I aimed it and fired it.
Pow!
“We are ’bout to leave. Once we pull out the parking lot, make sure to take yo’ ass in the opposite direction and don’t ever come back. Don’t reach out to yo’ family. Everyone has to think that you’re dead. If you make me regret this shit, I’ll take it out on yo’ family before I hunt yo’ ass down.”
I pushed her on the opposite side of the door and shut it in her face.
Trotting back to the front door, I exited the building and found Dough sitting in the driver’s seat with a blunt dangling from his lips. “You want me to go in there and take care of that?”
“Nah. I already reached out to the clean-up crew. They on the way.”
My phone rang. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled it out and saw it was an unknown number. Swiping the screen, I placed the phone to my ear and answered, “What?”
“Is this Knox?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
I asked the woman.
“I’m a nurse at Baptist East. I was calling because we have your mother here. She was brought in with multiple gunshot wounds.”
My hand wrapped firmly ’round the phone.
“Is she dead?”
“She’s in critical condition. I think you need to get here as soon as possible.”
“I’m on my way.”
I could feel Dough’s eyes burning a hole in my face.
“The hell going on?”
he asked soon as I took the phone from my ear.
“Someone shot Ma. I’m ’bout to burn the fucking city to the ground.”