Chapter 14
Cole
“What the fuck do you mean they’re all dead? I just talked to Mama the other morning.”
“Listen, Cole. I got a call from the detective earlier today and just remembered to call you. Mama, JoJo, Justin, and Didi are all dead. They were killed at a gas station two days ago. I told everybody going over there would be an issue.”
“It wasn’t an issue for me. I came down here because I had to pick up my car, plus I knew some bullshit was going to happen with that case, because I know how Hawk and Proctor operate.
Word about them niggas travel far and wide, shit all the way to Memphis.
I planned on robbing them niggas for a little get back but who the fuck told JoJo to shoot that nigga Hawk anyway?
” I asked my sister as she sat on the phone, weeping like a widow.
I know she was hurting bad about mama nem.
Shit, I felt this shit deep down in my chest too right now.
I wasn’t a nigga who would cry much about death because I never had to grieve any other family members dying, because I didn’t know much of my biological family.
Being a foster kid who was bounced around a lot of my early life left me emotionless.
Pained with not much sympathy for those who lost their lives.
I always felt like life is harder than death anyway.
“Rochelle, let me call you back. I can’t believe you're telling me Mama is dead. I need to process this shit.”
I hung up in Roshelle's face before she could say another word.
I sat in the middle of the living room while Nina slept in the back bedroom of her house after a long night. I couldn’t believe the call I’d just gotten. My mama, not biological, but the woman I looked to as my mother, was gone.
I still remember the day Anne adopted me from that home. She came and got me out of the system and made me her child, even though at first, no one else wanted me because I wasn’t a cute newborn baby with a button fuckin nose at that time.
My mind was so corrupt back then that I convinced myself I was just a money grab for anyone who got me because I was in the system to eleven.
My biological parents overdosed in a car with me and left me with no one else to depend on.
I was too hard-headed to realize I was finally in a loving family when I moved in with Anne, because we were still poor and didn’t have much.
Then on top of that, I hated my brothers, and the only one I could stand even slightly was Roshelle because she was the only one not reminding me that I was adopted every chance she got.
At the age of sixteen, I ran away and ended up in Memphis. Out there is where I became a man and started fending for myself because I felt I deserved more than what Anne could give me.
Though I left her, I still kept in touch with her later on in life.
I appreciated the time she gave me, and I always let her know I left because of me and not because of her.
I cared about her because she cared about me when nobody else did, and her biggest fault was not telling her children when they were wrong and babying their asses to be immature. Them sorry ass niggas got mama killed.
This shit had me heated and made me want to do worse to those niggas because I knew they had something to do with it.
I heard a lot about Hawk years ago when I visited Vegas and started smashing one of his bottle girls.
She was telling me everything about that nigga when I thought about robbing him back in the day, but that was before I knew he had that watchdog standing over him at all times. His pops, Proctor.
When Mama Anne said they were coming to Vegas for the trial, I knew I still wasn’t showing up at that courthouse, showing my hand in the city.
I didn’t want them to know who I was or who I have ties to because I was around for dirt.
At the time, it had nothing to do with revenge for my mother.
I wanted to get my car and rob them niggas blind while I was here.
The whole trial being this weekend was honestly a coincidence.
Instead of rushing Hawk randomly as I planned, I spotted Ari there and decided to go through her instead to get more inside scoop on these niggas.
I sent flowers, hoping that my chain and my money would talk.
After all, she didn’t know me, and I only knew her because mama and Roshelle had sent pics dogging out her name because of what happened to Josiah and her connection to the nigga accused of killing him.
Ari was the kind of fine you could spot in a crowd.
Shit, I still don't know how Josiah got her in the first place.
Only, that night, I couldn’t get to her because Proctor big ass shut that shit down. Knocked the bottle out of her hand as soon as she picked it up.
But then, after Ari shut me down, another bitch fell right into my lap that I knew could help me too. Nina.
I recognized her from pictures and background work I’d already done around the city. At first, I didn’t plan on using her for anything but info on Hawk and Proctor, like I was going to do with Ari, but then I realized she could be a real asset.
The bitch had money, and combined with mine, we could build something serious in this city, just like I had back home in Memphis.
But she was still hooked on that nigga because how the fuck are you mad at his wife and not mad at him for dropping you and taking half your money?
She must really think I’m dumb. I can tell she just wants me to kill her competition, but what she didn’t know is that now, I plan on killing him too.
Once I get his routine. His back ways. His schedule, he will be dead right along with his bitch in a matter of time because, unlike Jojo's dumb ass, I was going for the kill shot.
I grabbed a blunt from the ashtray and sparked it just as Rochelle called me back.
“Why did you hang up on me like that? I’m over here hurting, and I don’t have anybody anymore. Nobody.”
“Shut that shit up, Rochelle. You got all those fuckin kids you have to live for, and you got me, and you know that. Mama is not going to die in vain, and trust me, I’m going to get my get back.”
“She better not. My mama didn’t deserve that.
It pisses me off that Josiah and his bullshit with that slut got her into this.
I've been telling her to let all of them be, but she was always trying to protect them.
Shit, spray up the car and kill Ari too while you're at it! My mama, man, my mama. What am I going to do without her!”
Rochelle was heated. Talking like she was really about that life, but I knew better.
“Cole, I have to bury four people now, and I don’t know how I am going to get this shit done.”
“I’ll handle the funerals and the cost, but it’s going to take a minute to get the bodies back to D.C., so we have to be patient.”
“Alright, I understand.”
“Alright, peace out. I'll call you back later. Keep your head up.”
I hung up just as the bedroom door cracked open.
Nina walked into the room wearing nothing but a thong and a bra, and I shook that look off my face to not give away the pain I was in right now.
“How did you sleep, baby?”
I grabbed around her waist and pulled her into my lap.
“I was sleeping good until that loud ass weed smoke woke me up. You okay?”
“Yeah, I'm good now. I got my baby in my arms, a little buzz from the blunt. Life fuckin good even with the little bullshit thrown my way.”
“That’s good. Who were you on the phone with just now?”
“That nigga Carlos. I was checking in on my car.”
“Oh, what did he say? Are you going to have to put a gun to his head again?” She joked like I wouldn’t.
“Nah, everything straight, plus, I don’t think I’m going to be leaving Vegas any time soon now anyway.”
“Oh, really? Why is that?”
“I just want to be around you. I need to be around you, actually.”
I kissed her on her chest, and she held me tightly. She just didn’t know that I needed this fuckin hug just as much as I needed money in my pockets.
“You for real?”
“Of course, I am. I’m falling for you, and I told you, I’m willing to do whatever to prove that.”
I replied, before she kissed me on my lips, continuing to my neck, and I laid back because some head and a few more pulls of my blunt is just what I need before I go to war with these rich crooked mutha fuckas who killed my mama.
They just don’t know what the fuck they did.