Chapter 21
Things had hit the fan sooner than I expected.
One minute, I was staring in the face of the first woman I fell in love with, and the next, I was getting calls about dead bodies dropping.
I tried to call off the hit on Arie’s uncle, but before the day could end, he was already going up yonder, and Arie had been ghost. It’s been six days since I’ve seen her.
She hadn’t answered my calls or texts, but I was sure I’d be getting a visit from her real soon.
Currently, we were at the hideout trying to figure out how we were going to stop hurricane Arie from tearing shit up.
“Bro, you need to find her before she does some more crazy shit,” Mo stated, rolling up a blunt.
I pulled from my pre-roll in deep thought. I heard my brother. I’d gotten a call from my father saying the same shit, but in all honesty, I wanted her to do whatever she was going to do to get her shit off.
I knew the risk. I took the chance and made the decision, so this was on me.
I sent my moms, sisters, and son to our safe house with my pops, while Mo, Mike, and I tried to find Arie.
“Y’all should head to the safe house with Ma and Papi. I’ll find her on my own.”
“Nah, bruh. We in this shit with you,” Mike countered.
“Listen, I don’t want to hear that shit right now. Just go!”
I was agitated. I knew I shouldn’t have been taking my aggression out on them, but this shit was fucked up. I needed to find her. She needed to know that this situation was out of my control. She knew the rules of the game. I just loathed the fact that both of us got caught up in our family’s shit.
“Yeah, a’ight, Si. I’ma let you make it, but watch your fucking back. Clearly, shorty is moving like a ghost. You never know when her ass is going to strike. Come on, Mo.”
They both stood as I watched them leave.
My head fell back on the couch as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
This was stressful. All my years, I’d never had to deal with anything like this.
Falling in love was never on my bucket list, but I was never opposed to it.
I just preferred to stay single because of situations like this.
Arie was hurting, and it was only a matter of time before she did something else to show that pain.
My mom began calling me back-to-back, but I ignored her. I didn’t want to talk to anyone but Arieana. I needed her to know that this situation was out of my hands and that my back was against the wall.
Forty boxes that held two thousand bottles of prescription drugs in each box had gone missing, and her uncle was the cause of it. We lost six point five million dollars because of that reckless nigga, so there was no way Papi was going to let this just roll off his shoulders.
Something had to be done.
It was just too bad I had to be the one involved.
My phone vibrated again on the table in front of me as I sighed heavily and lifted to grab it. The number was unknown, but I knew who it was. I connected the FaceTime call as her pretty face popped up. Her eyes were red and sad, but held a look of anger before it transformed, and she smiled at me.
“Hi, Messiah.”
“Arie, baby. What are you doing, mama?” I asked, trying to figure out her angle.
“What I should have done before you were able to get to my heart and my uncle.”
“Listen—”
“Shhh.” She placed her finger to her lips. “You don’t want to wake baby boy now, do you?” Her camera toggled, and MJ came into view, appearing to be sleeping in the back of her car.
Instantly, anger and fear gripped me as I stood abruptly, moving around to find my keys. “Arie, don’t do this shit. Leave him out of this. This is on me. You can do whatever you want to me, but leave my son out of it.” Finding my keys, I rushed out of the house and got inside my truck, pulling out.
“Aww, baby. Didn’t your mama ever teach you not to play with women? Specifically, a bitch like me. I’m not going to kill him. I actually like him. However, I did give him some special candy. That’s why he’s asleep. Didn’t want to scare him when I called you to let you know I’m going to kill you.”
“Where are you? Just… tell me where you are so I can grab him. We can do an exchange. Me for him,” I told her, looking between the phone and the road.
“Nan… I think I’m going to kick it with him for a while. But check this out…” She switched the camera around as I looked to see that she was at the safe house. She was backed into a driveway across the street with a sniper’s rifle, aiming toward the house.
My chest grew tight as I swerved a little, almost driving into a ditch.
“I’m about to light that house up with all of your family in it. Let’s see how you feel to lose the people you love.”
“Arie—”
The line disconnected as I pounded my fist on the steering wheel. “Fuck!” I quickly sped in the direction of the safe house while dialing my mother’s number repeatedly. When she didn’t answer, I called my brothers until Mike picked up.
“You must need us now, huh? Did you find that crazy broad?”
“Mike, she’s at the safe house. She got MJ and is about to do something to them.”
“Shit! We like five minutes away!”
“Get my son, bro. Get my son.”
I hung up and disregarded all traffic laws. I was certain that if she hurt my family, the love I had for her wasn’t going to save her from what I was going to do to her.
I whipped into the driveway of the safe house and hurried up to the door. I saw they had the house secured with the metal security windows and doors. I typed in the code as the metal door slid up and the locks disengaged.
“Ma! Papi!” I yelled once I entered.
“In here, Messiah!” I heard Madisyn yell.
I hurried to the back of the house to the den, seeing everyone standing or sitting around. My eyes landed on my son as I hurried over to him, pulling him into my arms. I held on to him tightly for almost five minutes, kissing his head.
“You okay, man?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” MJ answered, almost puzzled at my anxiousness.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Where did Arie take you? Do you remember?”
“She took me to a baseball game and to get ice cream, but we didn’t stay at the baseball game that long. She said she had an emergency. Is everything okay, Pop?”
I sighed. “Yeah… everything’s cool, man. Go upstairs while I talk to the adults.”
“Okay.” He left the room as I looked at my moms.
“How was she able to get my son, Ma?”
“He was out back, playing with his drone, and the next thing I knew, he was gone. I called you repeatedly.”
The drone. That’s how she was able to find the safe house. Shit. She was good.
“I gotta go. Nobody leaves the house unless I say so,” I commanded as I moved toward the door.
“Since when did you become the parent around here?” Papi asked.
“Since my father decided to do childish shit.”
“You better watch who you’re talking to! I am your father. You don’t fucking talk to me like that!”
“Pop, rarely have I ever disrespected you, but right now, it’s fuck that parent/child shit.
You put all of us in danger since the moment you started venturing off into that street bullshit.
Your greed caused my fucking son to be touched.
She could have killed him. If my brother didn’t warn y’all, this whole fucking house would have gotten lit up. ”
“No one told you to go fall in love with the damn enemy! You knew what she was capable of, but you allowed your dick to think for you!”
“Daddy, please, stop!” Piper cried.
“No one told your old ass to try to play Scarface! Or use your fucking sons as peons!”
He pushed me, and I stumbled but caught my balance.
He pointed a shaking finger at me. “I put your black ass in a position to have longevity—a legacy. I busted my ass day in and day out so my sons and daughters could live comfortably long after I’m gone.
I didn’t have to do that shit. I could have been a selfish motherfucka and let you niggas fend for yourselves.
But I didn’t because my heart wasn’t built that way.
“I wanted y’all to have the life my mother and father gave to me and my brother. I may not have gotten everything right, but I sacrificed a lot for y’all to live like kings and queens. I fucked up, but you will not disrespect me!”
“You are our father. But we didn’t ask you to pop Moms and have kids with her. We definitely didn’t ask to be pulled into a beef and have to sacrifice our lives and freedom so that you wouldn’t be getting buried tomorrow!”
“Yo’ ass didn’t even pull the trigger!” he yelled.
I matched his volume and tone. “What the fuck I look like pulling it when we got shooters for that. You just proved my point that you don’t give a fuck about sending your sons out to get murked. As long as it ain’t you, right?”
“Hey! Y’all stop this shit right now. What’s done is done. Ryan, you are wrong?—”
“Been wrong,” I countered.
“Shut up, Messiah.” Ma scolded. “I have been telling you for years to stop the street activity, so yes, Ry, this is on you. I should have spoken up a long time ago when you first started dabbling in the streets. You let Raylon convince you to do that shit because business wasn’t moving the way you wanted it to.
“Like with any seed you plant, you have to nurture it and allow it to grow. You have to have patience, and you were so damn impatient, and you let that impatience pull you into some shit you became addicted to, thus pulling my sons along with you!”
“I said I fucked up, Ash?—”
“Well, I need to double remind ya ass that you did. Now, I don’t want to hear you talk no more tonight. Messiah, go find that girl. Do whatever you have to do to convince her to leave us alone, or I’m going to step in, and it ain’t gon’ be shit she can do to stop me from putting her ass down.”
My father and I stared at each other before I turned and headed toward the door.
“Aht, Aht!” she said behind me as I turned. “Moses, Michael… go with him.”
“Ma—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Si. From the information I’ve gathered about her, I know that she’s dangerous… You will have backup on this.”
“She’s right, bro. We riding, nigga,” Moses said.
“Whatever. Just fall back unless I need y’all.”
“Say less. Let’s roll,” Mike replied, and they followed me out of the house.
“I need to stop by the house before I head to see her moms, so follow me over there.”
“We taking Moms out or what?”
“Nah. Just scare her enough to bring Arie out of hiding.”
“Got you. Lead the way.”
We exited the house through the back, got inside the bulletproof van, and then headed to my crib.
Twenty minutes later, I walked inside my house, shut off the alarm, and checked that the safety was off on my gun.
I looked around, making sure no one was inside, then headed to my study to load up on weapons.
Although in my heart I knew Arie wouldn’t kill me, I still wanted to be on the safe side.
It was going to murder me to hurt her, but there was no way I could allow her to do me in first.
While typing in the code to my vault, I heard the sound of a gun click and paused. I closed my eyes and released a breath. I turned to find the beautiful, scarred shooter pointing her gun at me.
“Arie…”
“Shut up. Step out and away from the closet, or I’m going to light your ass up.”
I did as she asked, taking a seat on the couch across from me. I looked into her eyes and wanted to plead with her, but my pride wouldn’t allow me to do it. If this was the end for me, I wasn’t going out on my knees.