25. Four
Four
“Six and One are having girl time again,” Nine announced as he walked into my apartment. He barely looked in my direction as he went into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, then slammed the door. “I called to talk business, and One hung up in my damn face.”
“One always hangs up on you,” I reminded him. I didn’t stop doing my workout because he was here. Nine came and went like this was his apartment. “Why are you surprised?”
“I’m not,” he chuckled.
“Then why are you complaining?”
“Complaining?” his face twisted in confusion. “Who said I was complaining? I was just telling you what was happening with your cousins.”
“Why are they always mine when one of them is ignoring you?” I did a few more push-ups then stood.
“Because I’m bored,” he answered.
I wiped my face with my towel. “Cross must be out of town again,” I said, and he nodded. They’d been dating for months, and I still hadn’t told Nine my connection with Cross. It sounded like survivor’s guilt to me.
“Yeah, her cousin is pregnant-“
“Which cousin?” I cut him off and asked.
“Corinthians,” he answered, then downed half his water.
My heart slammed against my chest, and my watch started to beep.
I didn’t even give a fuck. Corinthians was pregnant?
By who? Who was she dating? None of the reports I got back on her said she was dating or anything.
They all said the same thing: her business was thriving, and she spent too much time there.
She bought a new house a few weeks ago, and I’d sent flowers anonymously through Psalms’ shop.
“Yo, Four!” Nine grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
“Nigga what the fuck is going on with you?” he looked me over, then pushed me to sit on the couch.
“Breathe, nigga, so this fucking alarm will stop going off.” He slapped my chest. “Fucking breathe nigga!” I took a deep breath then coughed.
“There you go. Here, drink this.” He handed me a new bottle of water.
I opened it and drank some. “There you go. Now what the fuck was that?”
“I don’t know,” I lied. “My shit just stopped for a second.”
“I see,” he said, nodding. “That ever happened before?”
I shook my head, then drank some more water. “Nah,” I finally said. “Never.”
“You sure?” he lifted his brow. “When’s the last time you been checked out?”
“I did a physical last week,” I told him and tried to get up, but he pushed me back down. “I’m good.”
“Nah man stay sitting down,” he said. He went to the dining room, got the extra laptop he kept here, and came back with it.
I watched as he sat down, opened it, and after it was up and running, the bracelet on my wrist started flashing colors. “What are you doing?”
“Checking your stats,” he answered.
“I said I’m good,” I told him.
“You say that shit, but that don’t mean it’s true,” he replied. “That’s the reason I designed that damn thing for you and Unc. Y’all niggas be lying and don’t even realize it.” He was wrong; I knew when I was lying. I didn’t want to hear his mouth about it.
“Man, whatever,” I chuckled, then drank the last of my water. I stood, and Nine looked up at me and glared. “I’m throwing the bottle in the recycle.” I held it up. He was big on recycling and preaching about saving the earth like he didn’t run a damn tech company.
“After you do that, come back and sit down.” He went back to typing into the laptop, and I went into the kitchen. My mind was racing. I needed to see Corinthians, the nigga that she loved enough to carry his child. He had to be the best nigga alive because no other nigga would do.
“How long Cross been gone?” I asked him as I walked back into the living room and sat on the couch.
I got updates on Corinthians by asking about Cross.
We’d been around each other a few times, and most of the time she was quiet.
She reminded me of Cori. Not in appearance, even though they did look alike; it was more how she acted.
She wasn’t shy, but she was quiet, always watching, waiting for something to happen.
“She left this morning,” he answered. “She said she would be back Monday. This is a quick trip. Just going to see her people, go to church and come back.”
“Church?” I played dumb.
“I know I told you her granddaddy was a big-time pastor,” he replied. “Street nigga turned pastor.”
“Oh, he on the up and up?”
“Fuck no,” Nine laughed. His attention was still on the program that monitored my vitals. “He a killer, raised some killer grandkids.”
“All of them killers?”
“Capable of killing, yes, but no, not all of them kill. Corinthians, the one that’s pregnant?
She doesn’t kill. Cross said something about she got bullied when she was younger because she didn’t talk or something like that.
She’s quiet, not shy, just quiet. So, everyone was surprised when she turned up pregnant. ”
“I bet,” I said, nodding. “I meant to tell you; I’m going out of town next week.”
“Work or looking into something for Unc?”
“Both,” I told him.
“You need some help?” he asked, looking up from the laptop.
“Nah, I got this one.”
“Alright.”
***
She’d cut her hair. Gone were the mid-back-length big curls that she didn’t try to tame.
Now she wore a short cut; I want to say they called it a Pixie cut, but I wasn’t sure.
But it didn’t matter because she was beautiful.
I stepped back when she turned her client in her chair and moved around him.
She couldn’t see me from across the street, but I was still cautious.
I took my phone from my pocket and looked over my email.
There was no man in her life. Who the father of her baby was, was unknown.
I looked up again; she didn’t have a baby bump either.
My report said she was close to four months.
She’d gotten pregnant around the time we found Six.
I let out a deep breath. Six; that was a fucked-up situation that I still couldn’t wrap my head around.
But she was home, safe, still a little shaken up but getting better.
I’d spent so much time looking for her and then dealing with the aftermath that I let Corinthians slip into the back of my mind.
That’d never happened before. And by doing so I’d missed something major.
She was about to become some lucky ass kids’ parent.
I licked my lips and continued to watch her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my brother sit down next to me.
I didn’t tell Nine that we spoke. That Trey reached out to me after we got Six back home and explained everything.
He was my brother; I would always answer the phone for him, no matter what.
We shared a history that contained too much pain to ever turn my back on him.
“I guess you heard,” he said.
“Yeah,” I answered. There was no reason for me to pretend that he didn’t know I still looked after Cori. He’d always known. “Do you know who the daddy is?”
I looked over at him to see his jaw twitch as he bit down. “Nah,” he finally answered. “No clue.”
“You sure?” I asked, and he nodded. I wiped my hand over my mouth. “She alright?”
“Pregnancy probably whoopin’ her ass,” he replied.
I turned back to watch her. Cori was beautiful.
Her skin glowed; when she smiled, it was infectious, and if I was ever lucky enough to hear her laugh, it made me smile.
But her eyes always gave her away, no matter what her outward appearance showed.
And they were doing it right now. She was sad. Something was wrong.
“Robert been around?” I asked, looking around.
“Nah, he sends me,” Trey answered. “He asks for weekly reports.”
“You told him she’s pregnant?”
“No,” he quickly said, shaking his head. “I’m going to keep that from him as long as I can.”
“Good,” I replied, resting my elbows on my thighs and watching her.
I wondered what her baby would look like.
Would it be a little girl? And have her mama's pretty eyes and stubborn attitude. Or a boy and be the best man in the world? Respectful and polite, but didn’t play about the women in his life?
I knew she would be a good mama; she’d do everything she wanted her mama and daddy to do.
She’d protect her baby at all costs. They would never question if she loved them.
It would be the easiest thing she ever did because it would be natural.
We sat in silence.
“How is Six?” Trey finally asked. He looked over at me, and I could see the regret in his eyes. “She, okay?”
“She’s getting there,” I told him, nodding. “She’s moving.”
“Unc okay with that?”
“He doesn’t have a choice,” I chuckled. “December said either she comes with him or he moves in with Unc.”
Trey smirked then laughed. “I know he wasn’t going for that,” he said, shaking his head.
“Not at all,” I said. “So, Nine is going to tell her December needs help with managing his companies and is sending her to help.”
“Which house?”
“Alaska,” I told him, and he whistled. “I know. That nigga wasn’t playing; he said he was moving her away.”
“I’ll keep my ear to the ground with Robert and Logan to make sure they don’t mention shit about going after her again.”
“I appreciate it,” I replied. We fell into another comfortable silence. “You good?”
“I’m surviving,” he said, nodding. “Some days are harder than others, but my head is above water.”
“Treading so the current doesn’t take you under.”
“I’ve drowned before; I didn’t like the feeling,” he said, then stood.
“At least you can feel,” I said, standing. We dapped each other up then stepped back. “Be careful, Trey.”
“I got you,” he said, then walked away.
I turned back to Cori’s shop to see her cousins and sister pull up.
Ex, Judge, and Krude went inside while Psalms got something from her car.
She grabbed whatever she was looking for, shut the door, then looked right at me.
I expected her to be upset; instead, she looked back at the building, sighed, then came to where I was standing.
“I figured you would show up again,” she said, standing in front of me. She crossed her arms, then shook her head. “You can’t help it, can you?” She gave me a sad smile, then looked back at her sister’s shop. “I already know you can't, so you don’t have to answer.”
“She’s okay?”
“Honestly,” she looked over at me and shrugged. “I don’t know. She says she is but…”
“Her eyes,” I said, finishing her sentence, and Psalms nodded.
“Yeah.”
“I just came to see her for myself; I’m leaving again.”
“Stay gone this time,” she said softly. “If you don’t, I’ll kill you.” She walked back to the shop. She didn’t even turn around to see if I was still standing there. She knew I would be.
I couldn’t stay away.