Chapter 6
Knowledge
Chevy had turned her phone off. She wasn’t fucking with me at all.
Pacing the floor of the hospital room, I tried the house phone while staring at Kitana still unconscious in bed.
I don’t know how the fuck I got here. You couldn’t have told me that I would be in the middle of this ratchet ass shit.
The fact was, I didn’t have anyone to blame but myself.
I was tempted to smother this bitch with a pillow so that one problem was eliminated.
Pausing at the foot of the bed, I watched her and listened to the machines as they steadily beeped.
“Fuck!” I grumbled, getting Chevy’s voicemail for the third fucking time.
I tucked the phone into my pocket. Gripping the footboard of the hospital cot, I growled in frustration before I brought my head back up. This shit wasn’t cutting it. I had to get the fuck out of here. I got this bitch to safety. There wasn’t shit else that I was required to do.
Stirring with an anguished expression darkening her face, Kitana didn’t open her eyes at first. Slowly her head rolled from one side of the pillow to the other. Still her eyes were shut. Low groans came from her. Finally, her eyes fluttered open. When they landed on me, fear struck them.
“Where am I? What are you doing here?” She asked, panic in her voice.
“Calm the fuck down. I brought you here. I was making sure you were straight.”
“Oh, you mean after your ratchet ass baby mama put her hands on me?” She sneered and shifted painfully into a sitting position.
I watched her reach for the phone, and before she could pull it into her lap, I snatched that shit away from her.
“The fuck you think you doing?” I held the phone out of her reach and got in her face.
She reared her head away from me.
“Calling the police so that I can press assault charges.” She countered.
“Nah, that’s what you’re not going to do.” I growled, yanking the communication line out of the wall and tossing her phone behind me.
Getting in her face, I needed to be sure she felt me.
“I’m going to take care of your bill here and make sure you good wherever the fuck you staying. After that, if you want to keep walking around this mothafucka, Kitana, you better stay far the fuck away from Chevy. You feel me?”
She didn’t answer, and her crazy ass barely blinked as her jaw locked tight.
“You think you can just get over treating me this way, Ledge? I’ve been with you for years. The entire fucking time damn near that you’ve been with her. We have a relationship—”
“What fucking relationship?” I glowered, taking a few steps back.
“We fuck, you crash at my spot when I ain’t there.
What the fuck you talking about, Tana! Yo deranged ass need some fucking help!
” I pointed at my temple and growled. “When you check out of this room tell ’em to take you upstairs to psych and have you evaluated. ”
Her eyes got glossy as fuck and she sniffled to avoid crying in front of me. I was struggling to even scrounge up some fucking sympathy for her. She had this shit all wrong. It was my fault for allowing her access like that in the first place.
“Ledge, please don’t go!” she pleaded weakly, but I was already at the door.
This shit was for the birds. My life had never been the best, and now it felt like the shit was crumbling around me, and I was about to go under with it.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not being around Chevy or my kids was taking its toll on a nigga.
And she had my daughter with her today when all this shit hit the fan.
That wasn’t cool, and it was my fault too.
“Stay the fuck away from me, Kitana. I’ll have your shit sitting outside my place and I’m changing the fucking locks!” I bolted out that mothafucka with some other shit on my mind.
By the time I left the hospital, the sun was setting.
I hopped into my Audi truck and took off.
Sparking the blunt waiting for me in the ashtray, I let the music from Nipsey Hussle take me away while I hit the highway, putting some distance between me and everyone else.
I had to get my head right. Chevy was turnt the fuck up and there was no way she was ready to hear me out.
I had to make this right with her, that’s all it was. I had to regroup first though.
About an hour later…
The Call room at Club Dragon was for private parties and dances.
It was also exclusive as fuck. Parked in a booth, I tossed back some Deleon and watched the dancers around me do their thing.
A nigga was faded, but I wasn’t feeling X-rated.
Malice rested on my chest. The more alcohol I drank, the more a nigga wanted to murk some shit.
My hand was perched on my waistband while I scanned all the warm bodies in the room.
Something was off. The music was slapping, the bitches were on point, but a nigga was tingling like something else was moving.
Just as I had the thought, some bitch that was fine as a mothafucka came blocking my view of the entrance to the secluded suite.
She was barely dressed, just a two-piece bikini type thing on and a sheer skirt wrapped her cupcake soft looking ass.
She carried a tray with two glasses and a bottle of Spade on it while strutting toward me.
Shorty definitely had a nigga’s attention.
Biting into my lower lip, I tilted my head to look her up and down, but something just past her caught my eye.
There was a sudden gleam that hit the ceiling and before a nigga even knew what was what, I was pulling my piece out and aiming it toward the door.
Shots were fired in my direction, and I squeezed back before I ducked, tipping the table over and using it as my shield. The fuck was going on?
These mothafuckas was shooting rounds at me, and I had to move fast to avoid being hit.
I kept low and grabbed the nearest body, which just so happened to be the fine as waitress, and used her ass to cover me.
She screamed and I finally tossed her to the side when the firing ceased.
I lined the shooter up from about eight feet away and hit him with one to the dome, leaving his noodles exploding behind him.
Chaos ensued, and I threw everybody out the fucking way to get out of there.
Fuck them. Somebody had me lined up as their target, and now I had to fucking know why.
Racing out to the parking lot, I went against my pride and hit Free up.
The cool air against my sweat felt good, but I was eager to get in my car so I could get the fuck out of dodge. Homie’s phone rang a couple of times, but finally he answered.
“What’s good?” He greeted me.
“Yo, Free. I know shit is staticky with us right now, but… somebody just tried to have my fucking head in the Call. I need to know what the fuck that’s about.”
Silence on his end.
“Meet me at the compound,” he said before he hung up.
Not too much later I was rolling onto the fenced property and parking my car. When I got out, Free was posted in his car, which he had backed in so that he could see everything coming toward him. I slammed my car door shut and leaned against the side of it.
“What happened?” He asked, frowning.
“I don’t know. I was chilling. Some shit didn’t feel right. When I looked up, they was heating shit up. I barely got out that mothafucka,” I explained.
“Did you hit anybody?” Free queried, index finger resting on his upper lip while he studied me.
“Yeah, and I didn’t stick around to get a look at the nigga. It was dark—”
“Aight. Just… chill. Go get cleaned up and burn them fucking clothes. Stay here for the night. I’ll check on shit and get back with you in the morning.” He was always playing the big brother role.
Nigga had saved my ass plenty of times before, and here I was needing his help again. When a mothafucka was on your head, it made you humble. I ran my hand down my face, frustrated and uneasy as fuck while I stared at the building behind him. He was right.
“Hit me asap.”
Frequency looked at me like he had something else to say. He shifted his car into drive and I held a hand out to stop him.
“Free, thanks bruh. I know I been all over the place. I been fucking up. You didn’t have to check on me either, but I appreciate it.”
“Keep your phone on.” He didn’t respond in the way that I hoped, but that was just Free.
He didn’t do all that extra shit. I watched him pull away and went to the hidden door to get inside.
I used my palm print on the access panel and the mantrap was revealed.
Ducking off inside, I watched the door close behind me.
After I changed and slipped into a t-shirt and some grey Puma joggers, I padded around the cold concrete space and went to the station to boot up the system.
I knew a little something about technology and could navigate through the system that our private sector used.
I fired up another blunt and watched everything load while falling back in my chair.
Picking up my cell off the desk, I tried Chevy once again.
When she didn’t answer, I shot her a 9-1-1 text and she called me back almost instantly.
She knew the code. If I sent her this, nothing else that we were going through mattered.
“What.” She picked up.
“Listen, I know you hate a nigga right now. I just need to be sure you and the kids are straight. Somebody came at me tonight, and I don’t know what the fuck is going on. I just need to make sure that y’all are safe.”
“We’re fine. Are you okay?” She asked, trying to hide the concern in her tone.
That’s why I loved her ass for real.
“Yeah. I’m good. I wasn’t hit or no shit like that.” I was glad that she was worried about me, it meant she still cared. She got quiet though, and I knew she was thinking. I loved Chevy with the best parts of me. I was starting to see that hurting her hurt me, and us.
“Good.” She finally spoke up.
“Chevy—”