Chapter 15
Crew
One week later
After searching high and low across New York, Pernelle and I still couldn’t find a place we both agreed on.
We had walked through a glassy high-rise in Midtown, where the windows were wide and open, allowing too many eyes to see inside.
Then we checked out a brownstone tucked deep in Harlem that she liked until she realized how far it was from Ciara.
She didn’t even give it much of a chance after that and kept moving to the next spot.
After that, we looked at a condo in Brooklyn with fresh paint, new appliances, and a doorman downstairs.
It looked good on the surface, but the lobby stayed busy, and I didn’t like the thought of my daughter and P having to pass by faces they didn’t recognize every day.
To me, she wouldn’t be able to keep track of who was safe to be around and who wasn’t, and right now, the main priority for both of us is somewhere safe.
We had baby girl strapped in the backseat of my car, calm for the most part today and only crying when she got hungry.
She gets that shit straight from me because being hungry probably could bring me to tears if I was hungry for too long.
Pernelle was trying to breastfeed her sometimes, hoping to give her the nutrients we read about.
I can’t say enough how proud I am of P and the mother she is to our daughter.
I hit the jackpot on this one, and that was making me care about her even more.
We turned onto the street Ciara lived on, and Pernelle started to do that sigh I noticed she did when shit was bothering her, but she didn’t want to say anything.
“Don’t worry, Pretty P. We are going to find somewhere soon. Just give me a chance to figure this shit out.”
“Yeah, I know we are. I’m just getting antsy more or so for my daughter and her stability.
Though I am appreciative of our space at Hov’s, I am ready to get her a nursery set up with decorations and her clothes in her own spacious closet.
I’ve been seeing some cute butterfly themes and stuff that I would love to use for her. ”
“Butterflies sounds fitting for her since I get them every time I look at her ass.”
“I can tell. I see it every time you look at her.”
“Yeah, well, she’s not the only one who’s been giving them to me.”
Pernelle smiled, and we met eyes long enough for me to see that gleam in them that I got the first day I met her. Underneath all that raw shit, P was a sweetheart. She took care of me mentally too. Something I didn't expect from her at first.
The closer we got to Hov’s spot, I spotted ambulance lights flashing, and I think it caught both of our attention at the same time.
“What the fuck is going on up here?”
“I don’t know. That looks like Ciara and Hov standing out right there.” Pernelle pointed them out quicker than I had seen them.
That immediately made me wonder if Hov had to pop someone trying to fuck with them. He let it be known that anyone he thought was coming to harm his family would die in his yard.
I swooped into the driveway and hopped out of the car quickly, while Pernelle went into the backseat to get our baby.
“Ay, what’s going on, nigga?”
“They're saying Mr. Frank has Vertigo and keeps falling.”
“What does the color of his skin have to do with him falling?”
Hov laughed at my response.
“Nigga that’s Vitiligo. He has Vertigo, which is a condition where you get the sensation of your head spinning and shit.
His daughter came over here and said it may be time for him to go to a nursing home because it’s getting bad.
She says she is about to lose her job because she keeps having to leave work.
Ciara found him a couple of weeks ago at the mailbox coming home from work. ”
“Damn. That’s fucked up. I guess that shit is like being on a roller-coaster, walking around your house.”
“That’s exactly what it’s like.” We all stared across the way.
“Damn, I hope my daughter doesn’t send me or her mama to a nursing home once we start falling and shit.”
“I’m sure my Mir Mir will do it only if it’s in yours and her best interest.” Ciara laughed.
“But his daughter Vivian says she is a manager at a bank in Harlem and has two preteen kids to look after, so I do get her reasoning. She probably has no time to look after her family, her household, and his.”
“You're right, baby.” Hov followed
“I bet she sells that house as soon as he checks into that home. Especially being outside the city, a little bit. Y’all two should go ahead and put in a bid on that mutha fucka before she puts it on the market and pastor Davis crooked ass hears about it.
Even though he will probably never want to do business around here again after dealing with me. ”
“I don’t know Hov. Putting a bid in for that old house sounds crazy, doesn’t it?” Pernelle turned her nose up at the worn-down wood and overgrown grass across the street.
“P, it could look good with some work. My grandma's house didn’t always look like this, but with work, we made it look like something. Properties in New York are expensive, and renovation is the best way to get your bang for your buck these days.”
Hov replied to P, and I must agree, he was making a lot more sense than I wanted to admit.
“I can see what his daughter is asking for the house once she lists it P, and if it does sound like a good offer, then putting in work into a spot and making it ours doesn’t sound bad. Shit, we haven’t found shit else on our journey today anyway.” Pernelle twisted her lips but agreed with me.
“Plus, I’m sure your best friend wouldn’t mind her goddaughter staying a little longer during renovations if that’s the case, right, Ci?”
“Of course not.” Ciara smiled.
“And then after you do move friend, we would be neighbors and be able to meet up and gossip at the mailboxes like two bored housewives.”
“That does sound like life, doesn’t it?” They laughed with one another, slapping hands.
We all stood around shooting the shit some more until I noticed that Pernelle had got fixated on her phone. I watched her stare at her screen until she eventually walked over to me and handed me the phone.
“What’s this?”
“It’s him. Amir. He said he wants you to call him.”
I looked down at the phone and saw that he had sent a phone number to reach him at. I walked straight over to Hov and flashed the screen in his face.
“Yo, this is old dude, Amir. He hit her back. He says he wants to talk.”
“Alright, bet. Let’s go use one of the burners in my office and make that call then.”
Hov replied, and we walked into the house, leaving the girls out at the street still being nosey.
When we reached Hov’s office, he handed me a burner phone from one of the drawers in his desk.
Hov sat on the top of the table while I took a seat in one of the chairs across from him.
I dialed the number on speaker and let it ring a few times before the line picked up, and for a few seconds, nobody said anything.
“Who is this?” His voice finally came across the line.
“It’s Crew and Hov, who is this?”
“Oh, cool. It’s Amir,” a
“Alright, so what’s up? You told my lady that you wanted to talk.”
“Yeah, I did,” he started coughing.
I heard steady beeping in the background from what sounded like Hospital equipment.
“I need to know what your plans are for my family.”
“What the fuck do you mean, what our plans are? We are going to do to them what they did to us, but worse. Any and everybody can get it too nigga.”
I was hostile, true enough, but I couldn’t help myself. Just thinking about the shape P was in always made me hotter than fuckin fish grease.
“Well, let me start off by saying that I don’t blame you. I would want my payback for that, too. They cutthroat for what they did and even worse for what they did to me. Or tried to do before I had to kill my little brother.”
He replied, and Hov and I both looked at one another.
“Why did you kill your brother, and why does it sound like you are in the hospital right now?”
“Because I got shot in the process and came here for help. The hospital staff doesn’t know who I am. I didn’t tell them my real name, and I gave them an alias. Malcome Gregory when some lady found me behind a building.”
“Word.”
“Yeah, and I can’t let my father find me before I handle the rest of them because they are guaranteed to finish me off after I killed Abraham.”
“So, you plan on taking out your own family? That’s what you're saying?” Hov made his presence known on the phone.
“What made you turn on them in the first place?”
“The same thing that makes a lot of niggas turn on their gangs, families, and organizations. Distrust and selfishness.”
He cleared his throat before continuing.
“So just like y’all, I can’t live, sleep, or breathe safe knowing they're after me. Blood doesn’t make you loyal, and they made sure I knew that.
So now it’s time for me to show them they should’ve treated me better.
Because now I’m just as ruthless as they like to pretend, they are.
I’m the realest nigga in the bunch, but that’s probably because I’m half nigga to begin with. ”
He dropped a gem on me that made me think. Blood doesn’t build loyalty, and that’s what had me questioning Gio. I ordered a home kit for a DNA test, but the results won't change my questions about that nigga loyalty.
“Alright, nigga. We can put together a plot to get them niggas, and it will only work if you tell us everything you know. Every spot they frequent and how they move. All of it.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” he replied, clearing his throat again.
“I think I know where they will all be in a few days due to family traditions?”
“Where?”
“My brother has to be buried eventually and the Quatar family all rest in the same place.”
“Alright, give us the information, and it’s as good as handled.”
Hov replied before I could, and I could see the hunger in his eyes for street justice that I saw every time I looked in the mirror. I never thought it would come so easily, but then again, nothing about taking out an entire family is easy.
You just have to be cutthroat and angry enough to do it, and I’m both.
Let’s just hope that this Amir nigga doesn’t have a change of heart because then he will be an enemy just like the rest of his family, and we are going to get them with or without his help.
He can be on the winning team or the one that's all dead.