Chapter 23 #2
“As a matter of fact, I can’t,” Ezio acknowledged.
“I can’t see fuckin’ shit outta this thing. It’s these hot-ass masks!” Nel shouted.
Before the masks, I couldn’t see shit. I don’t think these niggas understood that I was blind as fuck riding this camel.
“Hol’ up, lemme fix the hole.” I heard a ripping sound, and Nel groaned. “I made the bullshit worse! Fuuuuck!”
“Who made this shit? Don got too much money to be giving us homemade KKK masks!” Metavello announced as if he wanted Don to hear him talking shit.
“Scarlett made this bullshit,” Nel’s shit-starting ass remarked.
Matteo kissed his teeth. “You niggas outta be glad my wife did anything for you ungrateful muthafuckas. Fuck y’all gone complain for? Do I see anybody else’s bitch contributing to the cause?”
“I can’t breathe in this shit, and I can’t ride in this shit! I’m riding blind!” Nel screamed.
“Aye, it’s hot as fuck, so they’re protecting us from the sun. The bags were a good idea. Fall back off Scarlett. You niggas either wear ’em or you don’t,” Ezio expressed, hating when anyone had anything to say about his favorite cousin, Scarlett.
“Ion need you taking up for my bitch, junkie!” Matteo barked. “I keep tellin’ you weird-ass niggas that she’s a Rinaldi now. I’m ’bout sick of you incestual-ass niggas.”
“Nigga, you only saying that incest shit because of me and Pia. Shit gettin' old. Everybody knows we ain’t related!”
“Look, are we wearing the masks or not?”
Matteo sighed, ignoring my question. “Fuck all y’all. I be watching my wife get thrown into these bullshit-ass seminars to help you ungrateful sons of bitches, and all she get is criticized! I’ll be so happy when y’all die! Hopefully, it’s today.”
“Aye, Django…” Ezio called out, causing all of us to laugh.
Matteo didn’t respond, and that made the twins start up with nonstop jokes before Matteo threatened to shoot everybody’s camel if they didn’t shut the fuck up.
I’d already stopped laughing after the first two jokes because something was wrong.
“Yo’, Matteo…” I uttered loud enough for them to hear me without yelling.
“Nigga, what?”
Licking my lips, I felt sweat drip down my back. “I can’t see with or without the mask.”
“Aye! Who the fuck is that up straight ahead? Is that another camel?” Vello asked before anyone could respond to what I’d just said. Hearing that someone else had been placed out here had my ears perking up.
“Is that Tunan?” Ezio asked.
Tunan.
My brother had been tossed in here too. I hadn’t had the chance to explain the trainings and missions part of this with him in depth, but I did tell him that joining this shit was strenuous.
We hadn’t talked since he revealed he’d been married to Glow, and it wasn’t because I was avoiding him, but so much was going on in my own house that I hadn’t had the chance to chop it up about his new relationship status.
“Describe to me what y’all seeing,” I yelled to whomever would answer.
“Take off the fuckin’ mask, G,” Metavello urged.
“I can’t fuckin’ see even without the mask. Did y’all muthafuckas hear me?”
I was getting tired of these niggas. This camel was uncomfortable as hell.
I heard trotting and then felt an object in front of my face. Ezio chuckled. “Shit, he deadass can’t see.”
“Ah, damn, cousin. Don done blinded ya ass.” I could hear Nel smirking through his words.
Instead of responding to that nigga and getting him started back up, I skipped him and responded to Ezio. “No. I can’t see. Now, explain the surroundings. I know we on camels, and we in the desert.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. We can only see sand, stretched for miles and on all sides,” Ezio replied.
“And Tunan dressed like one of the Disciples, like the rest of us, standing next to his camel, looking confused as fuck. You ain’t warn him about this shit?”
“Nel…” I exhaled.
I was hot and frustrated, and this nigga would not let up.
You could tell he was probably bored as hell living in the Mansion of Dicks, as he called it.
I wasn’t in the mood for twenty-one questions right now.
I’d rather be at the crib trying to find out as much as I could on the Rodríguezes.
I’d been in the streets long enough to know that I’d not only embarrassed that nigga but wounded his ego.
He’d be back to Jagoda Bay soon. My plan was to get at that nigga first, though.
I wasn’t trying to bring a war to my turf, where my people lived and thrived.
And even though Don had gotten me into this shit, I still didn’t want to bring a war to the mob.
I was far from scared of any of them Mexican cartels.
Ines feared the niggas; I didn’t. I’d end the Rodríguezes and deal with the repercussions later.
“Aye, what the fuck is this, and why we gotta wear this mask? I can’t see shit,” Tunan groaned as our camels stopped.
Nel barked out a laugh. “Take that bullshit off. Ezio and Shio the only ones still got it on. Matteo not even wearing it.”
“Where we at? How the fuck that nigga put us in Egypt? Is this shit really Egypt?” Tunan asked, but didn’t wait for us to respond. “Last thing I remember is checking into the Westin, then I woke up halfway buried in the sand, and Don talking from the sky.”
“We in Preston’s sick-ass games. Don teams up with niggas that own whole-ass ecosystems and send us on fight-or-flight missions every now and again.” I imagined Nel shrugging his shoulders after explaining.
“Hol’ up… Who the fuck is Preston? And fight or flight? How the hell he expect me to do anything if he kidnapping niggas and dumping them with no preparation?” My brother sucked his teeth. “Never mind, never mind… Just tell me what the fuck I gotta do to get the fuck up outta this ecosystem.”
“See… niggas be wanting to be down so bad and don’t even know what the fuck they gotta do once they get in.
You better be glad yo’ ass even here because married or not, you missed the deadline, nigga.
But I’m sure Don got something real sweet for yo’ ass.
You was better off playin’ with them niggas on the prison yard. Welcome to hell, nigga.”
Matteo taunted Tunan, but Tunan was more like me than he was like my cousins. I knew he wasn’t going to respond. My brother didn’t care about shit but money.
“Sweet…? Man, you said that shit too cute like, Django. You been hanging around Don Mecanio, ain’t it?” Vello said before he, Nel, and Ezio were clowning again, followed by Matteo cursing them out.
“Aye,” I spoke in the direction of Tunan. “Get on yo’ camel. They gone lead us where we gotta go.”
“Nigga, have you seen this shit? I can’t ride no fuckin’ camel! I got sand all in my fuckin’ balls and shit!”
“You just asked what you gotta do to get outta here. Get on the fuckin’ camel, Tunan, damn! The quicker we get through this shit, the quicker I can get from ’round you niggas.” Matteo roared, causing the Three Stooges to laugh harder.
Don had to have put something else in their drugs or drink to transport their asses.
These niggas had the fucking giggles out here as if we weren’t waterless, foodless, and shelterless in the blazing artificial sun.
I could hear Tunan try to get on the camel, and after a few attempts, I knew he’d done it because Vello’s dumb ass started clapping.
I could hear Tunan yell as his camel stood and began walking.
I would’ve yelled too if I could actually see.
“How the fuck this nigga get me out here?” Tunan asked.
“No telling. He got his ways. He probably drugged our food or laced our weed. I stopped tryna guess. Now, I just focus on getting through these dumb-ass lessons,” Metavello grumbled.
His mood had switched again that quickly, as if he were the one going through hormonal changes from pushing two babies out.
I hadn’t figured out Don’s methods either, and I wouldn’t try to wreck my brain figuring it out.
Don had been able to drag grown-ass men from their home’s multiple times.
If I did try to figure that shit out, it would force me to wonder who dressed us.
More than likely, Don had gotten the ladies to do his bidding, but I was a single man.
If this nigga had gotten the First Lady to dress me, I was on his ass the next time I saw him.
“It’s so fuckin’ hot out here, this shit don’t make no sense,” Tunan complained.
“On foe ’nem. Don so fuckin’ dramatic. Why he leave you twenty minutes away?” Nel said.
Matteo snapped, sounding tired as hell. I knew his big ass was probably the sweatiest. “Don’t fuckin’ worry ’bout what the fuck my family did. You niggas just focus on completing the damn mission.”
Ezio spoke up, sounding aggravated like me. “Aite, grumpy bitch.”
The men all continued to bicker for the next thirty minutes, but by the time we reached nearly an hour of being on these camels, it wasn’t shit funny anymore.
Everyone was thirsty, soaked in sweat, and starting to see shit.
Nel had hopped off his camel, thinking he’d seen a lake, and Ezio swore up and down he’d seen Jisei.
I tried explaining to these niggas that it was a mirage, but they thought they knew every fucking thing.
“Aite, I know I’m not imaginin’ this shit. Y’all see that building up ahead? Please tell me y’all do.”
Since I still couldn’t see, I stayed silent.
“Yeah, I see it…” Tunan croaked out, mouth probably dry as hell.
“Me too.”
“I see it, Twin.”
“What it look like?” I asked.
“Wait. You can’t see it?” Tunan queered, and I damn near screamed.
“I can’t see nuttin’ but black, and it’s not the mask.” I was sick of these niggas, my brother included.
“It’s a pyramid, Shio. Looks just like those ones we used to watch on the Discovery Channel. But it’s biggerI’m talking colossal.”