Chapter 28 #2
“No,” she said under her breath. “That don’t even make sense. Yunique been callin’ to check on me every day.”
“I’m tellin’ you what I heard,” her friend pressed, her voice real serious now. “He wasn’t just sayin’ your name, ‘Nelle. He was talkin’ about what happened in yo’ apartment like he was there, girl.”
Sha’Nelle’s eyes flickered up to me before she forced herself to keep listenin’.
“He said you got hit when you was tryna run,” the girl continued. “He said you ain’t even make it all the way out the door before they shot you, and he was laughin’ about that shit like it was funny.”
Sha’Nelle’s lips parted, and I saw shock hit her all over again.
“And then he said somethin’ about the safe,” her friend went on. “He said it was in yo’ closet.
Sha’Nelle’s hand came up slow to cover her mouth.
“He even said how much they got,” the girl added, her voice droppin’ lower. “He said it was twenty thousand, ‘Nelle.“
I watched this shit hit her. It wasn’t all at once, but piece by piece. Her eyes dropped, and you could tell her mind started goin’ back, runnin’ through every moment she had brushed off before.
“Kwest had been to my apartment that night,” she said slow, like she was realizin’ it out loud. “He picked Yunique up from there…”
Her voice started trailin’ off, but she kept goin’.
The room got quiet after that, and all you could hear was her breathin’ while she tried to hold it together.
“Yunique really been callin’ me,” she said, lookin’ down at the bed, still tryna process this shit. “Checkin’ on me… cryin’ and shit… and this whole time…”
She couldn’t even finish it. Her friend’s voice softened on the other end.
“I’m just sayin’ be careful,” she said. “That nigga know too much. I ain’t wanna just go to the police, but I did wanna tell you, and let you decide how you wanna handle it.”
Sha’Nelle nodded like she could see her.
“A’ight,” she replied low. “I hear you.”
She ended the call and just sat here while she stared down at her phone like she ain’t even know what to do with herself.
Then she looked up at me, and that look on her face told me she was fucked by the betrayal.
“That’s my best friend baby daddy,” she said, her voice low but heavy. “Yunique was somebody I trusted.”
She shook her head slow, still tryna make of it make sense, but it wasn’t comin’ together the way she needed it to.
“How you even process some shit like that?” she asked, more to herself than me.
I ain’t answer her right away. I had already heard everything I needed to hear, and in my head, that shit was up and stuck.
I leaned forward, restin’ my elbows on my knees for a second while I looked at the floor, then I sat back up, my mind movin’ somewhere else completely.
I wasn’t thinkin’ about what happened no more. I was thinkin’ about what was comin’ next.
I was ready to get active.
I spent the next few hours makin’ sure Sha’Nelle was straight while waitin’ on the jet to land.
I made sure she ate, even if she only picked at it. I made sure she took her meds on time. I kept an eye on how she was movin’, how she was breathin’ and how that shoulder was holdin’ up, ’cause I already knew she was the type to act like she was good when she really wasn’t.
I watched the way she stayed quiet as her mind kept goin’ back to that call. She kept lookin’ at her phone like she wanted to call Yunique, then stop herself before she did it..
This type of shit wasn’t no regular hurt. This was somebody close to ‘Nelle bein’ tied into some foul shit, and her tryna figure out how it even got here in the first place.
I ain’t keep askin’ her about it either, ’cause I already knew what I needed to do with what I had.
“Make sure you answer that bitch when she call,” I told her, sittin’ across from her while she held her phone in her hand.
She looked up at me, and I could see she ain’t like that. “I don’t even know if I can talk to her without givin’ my tone away… I can’t even… I don’t even know—"
“All that’s cool, but you can’t switch up on that fake ass bitch right now,” I continued. “You gotta answer the same way you always answer. Just talk the same, and don’t say nothin’ about what you know. She wanna play games, then we gon’ play games.”
She let out a slow breath and leaned back on the couch, rubbin’ her hand over her face.
“This is so fuckin’ crazy,” she said. “I was just with her. I was just laughin’ with her, smokin’, eatin’… all that shit. She been checkin’ on me, and just…”
“And now you know what you know,” I replied, plain and simple.
She shook her head like she still wasn’t fully acceptin’ it, but she nodded anyway.
After we talked about it, I moved how I needed to move. I stepped off for a minute, made a couple calls, locked in what I already had in motion and by the time I came back in the house everything was lined up on my end.
Sha’Nelle watched me while I moved around, and was quiet for the most part, but I could feel her eyes on me.
“You leavin’ tonight?” she finally asked.
“Yeah,” I said, not lookin’ up right away while I checked what I had in my hand. “The already on the way.”
She sat there for a second, then nodded like she expected that answer.
“How long?” she asked.
“I ain’t gon’ be gone long,” I told her, finally lookin’ at her. “I’ll be back before you even have time to start overthinkin’ shit.”
She tried to smirk at that, but it ain’t fully land.
I reached inside my bag and pulled one of my guns out, holdin’ it for a second before I walked over to her and held it out.
“Keep this on you,” I said.
She looked at it, then back at me.
“You serious?” she asked.
“I ain’t gon’ hand you nothin’ I ain’t serious about, ‘Nelle,” I replied.
She took it slow, her fingers curlin’ around it while she adjusted her grip like she was gettin’ used to the weight of it.
“Don’t nobody know you here, but I wanna leave you with somethin’ that make you feel safe. I’ll be back in a few hours.
She nodded, and this time it was different.
“Okay,” she said.
I stood there for a second, lookin’ at her, and even with everything goin’ on, she was still holdin’ herself together better than most would.
I grabbed my shit and headed for the door, takin’ one last look around the place before steppin’ out. The rental stayed parked in the driveway, but I was comin’ back for it. Instead, I had Blaqson order me a ride even though he was still in Trill-Land.
The ride to the airstrip was quick, and I spent that whole time goin’ over everything in my head.
By the time I got there, the jet was already waitin’. I stepped on without sayin’ much, took my seat and leaned back while the door closed behind me.
Soon as we lifted off, I leaned back in my seat and stared ahead, but my mind wasn’t on the flight or how long it was gon’ take to touch back down.
Then that name Kwest and them the two niggas that was with him was on my mind.
I sat here for a minute, rubbin’ my hand over my beard while I let all this shit settle in my head.
I was locked in on all three of them niggas, and what I was gon’ do when I got in front of ’em…