45. Four #2
“Does your mama know?” I laughed. The last time Krude was in charge of the kids' choir, they’d done a full selection from Kirk Franklin.
The DeCortes were stressed the entire time, while the church had fallen in love with the performance.
Afterward, Madea cussed Krude out and banned him from directing the kids' choir.
“Or better yet, do Madea and Granddaddy know?”
“Nope,” he laughed and smiled. “Krude said it was our secret.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure his mama wasn’t coming.
“You gonna come, right? I been practicing a lot with Krude. He’s going to let me sing a solo.
” He drank his milk from his bowl. “I know you have to go out of town for work today. You coming back soon?”
“Yeah,” I answered. My work trips were typically quick. I didn’t like being away from Cori or Judah, and knowing what I know now amplified that feeling. “I’ll be gone less than a day. More than likely, I’ll be back before church.”
Judah got down from his seat, took his bowl to the sink, rinsed it out, then put it in the dishwasher. “Okay,” he said, coming back to his seat. He grabbed his iPad, then pushed his chair in. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why?” I replied as I ate.
“You keep looking at me funny,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m just making sure you’re okay.” He grabbed my wrist and looked at my bracelet.
“What are you looking for?”
“Mama told me about your bracelet,” he answered as he continued to look at it. “She told me when your color isn’t green that something is wrong. I’m just making sure that everything is green.”
“Everything is green,” I chuckled and nodded. “But I appreciate you checking. It means a lot.”
“No worries,” he said, letting my wrist go. “Family is supposed to look out for each other, right?”
“Right.”
Judah left the kitchen and went to his room. Once I heard the door close, I got up from the island and went to the back porch and sat down. I called my brother.
“Hello?” Trey answered.
“I need some information,” I told him. I was facing the house and watched as Cori came out of the room.
She was dressed in jeans, a fitted T-shirt, and Nikes.
Her eyes were still swollen from all the crying she had done.
She walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bowl of fruit from the fridge, and sat at the island.
“What do you need?”
“In a few hours I’m going to call you back and give you four names. I want everything you can find out about them, and I mean every little detail, Trey.” I wiped my hand over my mouth. “Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Now do I want to know why you are calling me and not asking Nine to get you the information?”
“Because I’m asking my brother for help,” I told him. “Cori told me about the night she got pregnant.”
“Four-“
“Look, I know you’re busy working your case.
I get it, you’re working double time right now.
I wouldn’t be asking you for shit if it wasn’t important.
This is Cori, man.” I wiped my hand over my mouth.
“I’m not in denial about the fact that I've been in love with her my entire life. I know that shit. I thought staying back would keep Robert away, but it didn’t.
I left her to fend for herself and that nigga…
he…” I stopped talking and shook my head.
I wasn’t mad at anyone but myself right now.
I failed Cori. I left her to protect herself knowing the type of nigga Robert was.
That was my biggest regret. “I’m going to find out the names of every nigga who was in the room and kill them.
I’m not asking you to be my eyes and ears no more.
You want out, right? Pull the fucking plug on that shit and get away.
Take Eight with you. Start making moves. I’m good with it.”
“It ain’t that simple,” he chuckled. “If it were, then I’d be gone. I got too much at stake now. Robert has his hands in all kinds of shit. With all kinds of people. It ain’t even safe for me to think about making a move right now.”
“Trey-“
“I got as much to lose as you do, Four,” he cut me off. “I ain’t just doing this shit to help you. As selfish as it sounds, I’m doing it for me too. Right now I’m knee deep into shit I can't find my way out of.”
“What do you need me to do?” I wasn’t going to leave my brother out to dry.
“When shit hits the fan, don’t think I didn’t have your back,” he answered. “I did what I thought was right. Every fucking time.”
“Trey-“
“You asked, so I told you what I needed,” he quickly said. “As my brother, I’m asking you to believe me. Over everybody else. No questions asked.”
I paused, then leaned back in my chair. Trey never asked me for shit, not since we were kids.
He asked me to pick his health over Cori’s.
He asked me to fight her, to win so he wouldn’t be punished, and I didn’t.
I picked her, and I remembered how hurt he was.
Not just physically but mentally. He was crushed, and I said I would never let him feel like he wasn’t worth fighting for.
Now he was asking me for the same thing.
He needed me, and I wasn’t about to let him down.
“Alright,” I finally said. “No matter what, I got your back.”
He sighed in relief. “Get the names, and I’ll get you the information.”
***
I got off the plane and walked to the waiting car.
Having to leave Cori and Judah was fucking with me.
After I got off the phone with Trey, I went into the house.
Cori wouldn’t even look at me; she stayed with her head down, eyes focused on anything and everything but me.
Shit fucked with me heavy. I ended up sitting in the corner of every room she went to.
I wasn’t going to crowd her, but I wasn’t giving her space either.
I needed her to realize that I was locked in for life and that Robert was going to be taken care of. There was no way around it.
“Just a heads up, this nigga is dramatic,” Uncle Bradon said before we got to the car. “Don’t take shit he says personally.”
“If he pisses me off, I’m going to kill him,” I told him. “I don’t care how much history y’all got.”
“Kill him after we get the information we need,” he chuckled.
The sun was shining bright, damn near blinding. I put my hand over my face to block it and looked around. The driver opened the car's back door, and I got in.
“It’s hot as fuck out there, why you ain’t sweating?” Tulane Forrester asked. He sat across from me, eyes locked on me, curiosity evident. A gun sat on his lap, resting on his thigh. “Neither of you niggas.”
“Can't feel it,” Uncle Bradon told him. He took off his sunglasses then set them in his lap. “You know that.”
“I forgot,” Tulane chuckled and shook his head. He adjusted in his seat then wiped his hand over his shirt. “You look just like that nigga, you know that?” My brow went up, and Tulane smirked. “Not Robert, yo ass look like Bradon. Shit, even a little bit of Denzel.”
“Family genes are strong,” I said, shrugging. “Yo daughter looks like you.”
“I heard they act like me too.”
“I only know one,” I told him, shaking my head. “The rest I can't vouch for.”
“Two.” He held up two fingers. “Berkeley and Yale.”
“Yale?” I questioned him, and he nodded. “As in Amethyst's best friend Yale? The one married to-“
“Don’t remind me who she’s married to,” Tulane cut me off. “That shit still pisses me off. I can’t believe I let that shit get past me.” He moved his gun from his lap and set it next to him in the seat. “Nobody can tell me that Robert didn’t have something to do with that shit.”
“I thought you had eyes on her at all times,” Uncle Bradon said. “On all of them.”
“Just like you had eyes on Six?” he replied. Uncle Bradon leaned forward, and Tulane put his gun back on his lap. “Let’s not. This is supposed to be a peaceful meeting.”
“My daughter ain’t a topic you want to discuss,” Uncle Bradon told Tulane. “Not if you want to live much longer.”
“I ain’t ever been scared of you, Bradon, and you know it,” Tulane chuckled. “Not when we young niggas running the streets and not now, which is why you keep me close.” He shrugged, then turned his attention back to me. “Yo daddy-”
“Robert ain’t my daddy, just the nigga who nutted in a woman that carried me for nine months,” I corrected him. “Don’t give him a title he didn’t earn.”
“That wasn’t a grown woman,” Tulane said, shaking his head.
“But anyway, Robert has been busy. I have a few men looking for him; he only started showing his face the past few months. I’m going to assume it’s because you finally started showing up with Corinthians.
” He leaned back in his seat. “You should’ve known that was going to cause some problems.”
“I don’t care,” I told him. “Cori doesn’t belong to him.”
“We know that,” he replied. “Robert doesn’t, nor does he care. When he found out you were sniffing behind Corinthians, he was pissed.”
“You not telling me shit I don’t know,” I told him, then looked over at Uncle Bradon. “Why waste my time with this shit? He ain’t useful.”
“I wish that were true,” Uncle Bradon sighed. “Stop playing games with him and tell him what you know, Tulane.”
“When Bradon put me in charge of the Cali office, we put a few things into play. Nothing too major, just some back door tools to be able to keep an eye on Logan and Robert.”
“Okay, and?” I replied.
“This is his private landing strip,” Uncle Bradon answered. “It’s connected to one of his houses.”
“You’ve known where he was the entire time?” I asked him.
“No, this account was just activated a few days ago. I put eyes on it, a few young niggas that people wouldn’t even look twice at.
Robert only came once, hasn’t been back, so I had my boys go inside to check it out.
They called me when they saw some shit that didn’t sit right with them.
” Tulane knocked on the window, and the car started moving.
“I called your uncle when I saw it and told him. He came here, checked it out himself, then called you.”