5. Quasim
Quasim
I lifted my head from my prayers and kissed her on the forehead as I left the room. The minute they rushed her into the hospital, I felt numb. They had her hooked up to IV’s and oxygen machines.
My house was burned to the ground, and I didn’t give a fuck about none of that. It was the woman in this bed that had my heart about to burn in my chest.
My woman.
It was morning and I hadn’t slept since we came in. I remained on my knees, praying for her to open those beautiful eyes and say Simmy. I needed her to be alright and I wasn’t going to be good until she was.
As I turned the corner, I saw the Gods posted in the waiting area. Yasin, Kincaid, Kiki, and Hassan all stood up when they saw me.
“Is she straight, Quasim?” Yasin was the first to speak as I posted up, leaning my head back onto the wall.
I closed my eyes as I took a breath. “I don’t know… they got her doing some oxygen treatment shit.”
I just needed God to toss me out a lifeline or something for her. She had been through so fucking much, and this was the reason I was hesitant on loving her. I didn’t want to bring more pain into her life. Blair didn’t deserve to be in that bed. It was me who brought her to my home, because it was safe and had always been safe. There had never been any problems at my home.
“The fuck happened?” My eyes opened when I saw my brother running down the hall. I could see shit wasn’t good in his face, but he was more concerned with me.
I leaned up off the wall as he stood there and pulled me into his arms. “Blaze, you straight?”
One look in his face and I could tell that something happened. Blaze had never been good with concealing his feelings, and just by staring into his eyes, I knew there was a reason he didn’t come when I called.
“You straight? Where’s, B? Elijah?” He ignored my question, looking behind me like he was going to see her sitting in the waiting area.
The Gods sat back down as I stared at my brother. “She’s in the room… they got her hooked to a bunch of shit because of the smoke… Elijah is at the Lakehouse. I had the Gods and Reapers escort Havoc.”
Blaze paced the small space between us. He checked his pockets and then gave up once he realized he didn’t have a spliff on him. “They broke into my crib, Sim… fucking shot Peach’s bed up.”
My fucking heart dropped, and he held my forearms as he stared into my eyes. “Where’s my niece, Blaze?”
I could feel my blood singe my insides with how hot I became hearing that something could be wrong with Ryder. When he didn’t respond to my text, I assumed he was asleep and would get back to me when he woke up.
“I got them all out the house before they could do some shit… Pops came and got the girls and he’s bringing them to the lake house. He stayed at his condo, so he was close by, thank God.” He took a breath and then leaned on the wall. “Cops had their fucking guns pointed at me and Wylie.” He was saying a bunch of shit and none of it made sense.
I allowed him to reel, because he was trying to process everything that had happened. Eventually, he would fill me in on the missing pieces, and it would all come together and make sense.
“Sug don’t fucking listen, but I’m glad she didn’t listen this time… she had to stand in front of me and protect me. I’m her protector and my baby put her fucking body in front of mine with all those cops aiming guns at me… fuck.” He kneeled down and I watched him, knowing my brother.
He didn’t need me to swoop in and hug him. Meer never been like that and always needed his space when figuring out his shit. “Capri would fucking die for you, Blaze. That woman is in love with you and would put her life on the line when it comes to you. Just like you would do the same for her.”
I heard shoes squeaking on the floor and we turned our heads to see Cappadonna, Capone, and Capella coming down the hallway. As serious as this moment was, I couldn’t help but shake my head.
Cappadonna had on a pair of pajama pants with his kids’ faces on them, timbs, and his motorcycle vest. Capone still had his durag on and wore a pair of Ugg slippers as they rushed down the hallway. Capella was the only one dressed, wearing a pair of sweats and a hoodie. His hands were in the front pocket of his hoodie, so I already knew he was gripped up.
“Papa dropped Cherry and Peach off to my mom’s crib… the fuck happened?” Cappadonna asked, as he looked down at Blaze.
“Niggas burned your crib down, Sim?” Capone questioned, both of them looking between me and Blaze to find out what happened.
I leaned back on the wall while folding my arms. “Blair and Elijah was caught in that shit. She got him out before herself, and now she’s been unconscious.”
Capone shook his head and paced. “Who the fuck would set your crib on fire?”
His guess was as good as mine. “Tookie little short ass.” Capp was the first to answer, as he posted on the wall next to Blaze, who was still in his own world. “Where’s my sister?”
“They ran in my fucking crib with my wife and daughters… had I not fucking heard the sound of the alarm tripping…. Peach could have been fucking dead.” He was speaking out loud, but I knew he wasn’t talking to anyone in particular.
Blaze showed up alone, so I was wondering the same thing. “My fucking daughter is gonna be traumatized seeing police aiming guns at her father… I ain’t never wanted her to see that shit. I fucking froze and couldn’t even do what they were screaming at me.”
Cappadonna leaned down next to Blaze and looked at him. “Ryder knows that her father would do anything to protect her, and so does Baby Doll. This ain’t on you… but we gonna make sure we get that shit back in blood, though.”
The sound of heels coming down the hall had us all turn our heads. Capri came walking down the hall wearing a pair of sweats, heels, and a police wind breaker, with her phone to her ear.
All the Gods, including her brother and husband, stood to their feet when she approached us. “I don’t give a fuck who he is and what his father is to the city. He pointed a gun at my husband, threatening to pull the trigger while my daughter screamed for her father.” She paused. “Oh, his bodycam doesn’t work… oh, perfect because my home security cameras and my neighbors’ do… yeah, do that because had I not been there, they would have fucking shot a man that was defending his home…. Get me the fucking police commissioner now! His fucking granddaughter could have been murdered, yank his janky ass out that fucking bed!” she hollered into the phone and ended the call.
The minute she ended the call; she looked at Blaze and rushed into his arms. “Meer,” was all she said as she held him tight while tears fell from her eyes.
“You don’t fucking listen, Sug,” he kissed her face as he held her tighter and continued to kiss her.
“Good thing she didn’t listen… would have blown the tri-state up if they would have killed you.” I spoke.
“When the fuck we got beef with those devils,” I turned to see Wylie’s cool ass walking down the hallway while dumping the remains of a bag of combos into his mouth.
“We don’t.”
“That’s who was in my crib, Sim…niggas was in my shit.”
My jaw flexed as me and Wylie hit the IG shake, and he settled beside me. “Tell me who to get, and I’m on go,” he told me.
“You already know.”
Wylie looked at Cappadonna. “The fuck up with the pants?”
“Nigga, my wife got me these for father’s day last year. I’m sorry I was in a rush and couldn’t toss on my three-piece suit.” Cappadonna replied and hit the IG shake with Wylie, who chuckled.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes for a second, then started laughing. When I opened my eyes, everybody was staring at me like my head had spun around several times. Even Wylie moved over a few spaces.
“Taking his Granny was too easy. I’ve done that before with Harry… I want his mama, and I want him to watch that shit.”
“Before doing him in?” Wylie questioned.
“Eventually… I’m gonna need Core. Nigga bout to live stream his mama’s death.” I closed my eyes. “I want his baby moms, too.”
“That nigga got a baby moms?”
“He got some strag pregnant before he got locked up… shorty walk around like she got pregnant and had the prophet’s seed. I want his son to grow the fuck up without his pops and moms around… I want that fucking blood line to self-destruct and it starts with his son. I’m a patient man, so I’ll wait until his son grows up before I send him with his parents… fuck innocent.”
“Welcome, Diablo,” Wylie muttered.
“I got the word back that Red didn’t know that shit was going down. Some of the Devils linked with the Chrome Vipers.” My father walked into the waiting room.
From his eyes, I could tell he hadn’t gotten any sleep. “Not trying to hear none of that shit… Infernos and Devils have always had an agreement… no fucking beef. They broke that.”
“Mutual grounds… you know the rules. We go and speak to Red and see what the fuck is up.”
Red was my uncle, my father’s half-brother. They had the same mother, but different fathers. Where my grandfather was in my father’s life, the opposite happened when it came to my uncle. He was a product of my grandmother’s affair, and my grandfather refused to raise a child that wasn’t his. My pops and uncle weren’t close at all, and they both claimed their states and stayed there. There had always been tension, but the real tension happened when my uncle tried to claim my mom as his girl, and my pops wasn’t hearing none of that shit.
When the Inferno Gods was established, he told my uncle he could either leave or be removed from the state. He willingly left and moved to Delaware, where the Del Devils were born. Although it was tension between the two, neither of them ever came at the other that way. At the end of the day, we were family, and although we were dysfunctional, we ain’t let the outside see that shit.
“Reggie, I don’t care that you were snatched out of bed. Your granddaughter nearly witnessed her father being killed tonight… I don’t care that it’s out of jurisdiction… you make fucking calls and get me whoever works this jurisdiction. Yeah, I thought you would sing a different tune… Ryder could have been killed.” Capri paused. “Uh huh… unfortunately, I have to do a fucking press conference because it’s all over… do that.”
“What the bitch say?” I questioned.
Capri took a deep breath. “I know that we will handle the others, but the police? This is where I legally fuck that whole department up. You don’t do no shit like that and think I’m not going to have anything to say about it… all the good I’ve been doing, trying to change things and it shows right up at my front door. That one cop wanted to pull that trigger so bad.” She ran her hand through her hair and took a deep breath.
Cappadonna kissed her temple. “You’re good, Baby Doll. That shit don’t take away how much you’ve been doing for the city. They crossed the line and put your husband and kids in harm’s way… fuck em up the legal way and flex the power you possess as a black woman district attorney.”
“Facts, Pri… we gonna handle shit on that other side.” Capone added.
I looked at my sister. “We been on our best behavior because you asked us to. Pri, I can’t sit back and allow shit to sizzle… it gotta get handled.”
She looked over at me. “Never expected none of you to. Do what needs to be done and I’ll hold down my part… me and Forty both.”
My father pulled Capri into him and kissed her head. “You’re okay… the girls are safe, and your father is on his way.”
Blaze looked at me and leaned forward, extending his hand, and we hit the IG shake. “Gods burn the faces of their enemies.”
My father looked at both of us before putting his hand in while still holding Capri close to him. “The flames burn slow because the Gods are Inferno.”
This meeting with my uncle could go either one or two ways, and I was trying to figure out how it would go. He was my uncle, but I didn’t trust his ass because of the shit he was into. It was one of the main reasons why I was strict on Yasin when he opened his strip club.
The moment he started selling pussy out that shit was the minute his jaw would have been cracked.
I never played those games.
“Mr. Inferno, she is awake, and she wants to see you,” the nurse came around the corner and I leaned away from the wall, quickly following behind her.
When I entered the room, there was another nurse trying to get Anjo from pulling out the IVs in her arms. It was when her eyes landed on mine that the tears immediately fell as she reached for me.
“Chill… she good,” I told the nurse holding her down like she was a fucking patient in a mental institution. She wasn’t even worried about the IV anymore once she saw me.
The way she clung to me as I held her as best as I could was something that would remain etched in my skin. She removed her hands and snatched the oxygen from her nose and looked up into my eyes before she started coughing.
“Simmy, your home… I tried to get everything… I wanted to make sure everyth?—”
I quieted her with a kiss on the lips as I sat on the edge of the bed. She crawled into my lap as I held her so fucking tight, I was scared I would crack a bone. “You can’t be replaced, Anjo… if I would have lost you…”
She settled into my arms as we held each other, and then she ripped away from me like she was about to bolt from this bed and out the room. “God, Elijah… where is he?” she panicked as she looked at me for the answers she needed.
“He’s safe. Havoc got him to the lake house. He’s safe because you saved his life, Anjo… always fucking thinking about everyone before yourself.” I pulled her back toward me and kissed her face a million times. “Fuck, Blair.” I rested my lips against her forehead as she held onto me.
The knock at the door caused us both to pull our eyes away from each other. Capri came rushing into the room with those damn heels on and hugged Anjo. “I swear I think you want to kill me, Blair.”
Blaze took place in the doorway. “Sug, I know shit was serious, but why the fuck did you grab those shoes out of all the shoes?”
She turned and faced her husband. “I panicked and these are my comfort shoes.”
Blair looked down at her best friend’s choice of shoes and laughed before hugging her again. I grabbed the oxygen and wrapped it back around her so she could keep it in her nose. “I promise, I’m not.”
“Why in the hell wouldn’t you get out that damn house with Elijah? I fucking need you her… here,” Capri’s voice cracked as she hugged her friend tighter, then pulled away to look into her face.
“I couldn’t just leave,” Anjo’s voice cracked as she held onto Capri.
I could tell from Capri’s face that she had so much to say and decided to table it because Blair was in front of her and breathing. “You good, Sim?”
My brother called from the doorway, and I looked over at him. “Nah.”
Capri and Blair looked at me, and she hugged me. “Lemme talk to you real quick.” Blaze nodded with his head and left the room.
I kissed Anjo on the head and left the room behind my brother. Capri had taken my place and was holding her hand while she watched me leave the room. Blaze was standing down the hall, leaning on the wall when I joined him.
I could tell his nerves were frazzled and he needed to smoke.
“Not your fault, Quasim.” He started, and I already knew where the conversation was going. Here he had experienced some scary shit, and he was worried about me.
“How the fuck you figure? She was in my house because I brought her there. Blaze, I told you that niggas live to take the people I love. When I kept her at an arm’s distance, shit like this didn’t happen to her. The minute I let her in and look what happened to her… I love her too much to bring pain to her.”
Blaze looked over at me. “Distancing yourself is going to do what? They gonna leave shit alone because you let her go? You keep saying that you never want to bring pain to her, but did you fucking think of the pain she’ll feel if you shut her out?”
“Blaze…”
He let out a low sigh.
I could tell in his eyes that he was tired, worried, and stressed about everything that happened. Blaze was a protector, and he fixed shit that came his way. His girls were his entire world, and he took pride in being their protector. This wasn’t something that he could fix. This was Capri’s realm, and he had to take the back seat and allow her to protect him.
“No disrespect, Sim, but fuck whatever you about to say. B is my best friend, like a sister to me. I know she loves the fuck out of you and has proven that shit. Check your shit and whatever you feeling and realize that you deserve the good shit happening to and around you. She could have fucking died, and she still here with us. Sim, you deserve happiness and love. You’ve spent so many years punishing yourself and asking God for forgiveness that you can’t even see when he’s actually blessing you.”
I leaned on the wall opposite of him and looked at my little brother as he scolded me. “The fuck you talking to, Blaze?”
“You, nigga. Keep pushing her away and you gonna push her out your life… then you gonna wanna kill her new nigga cause you fucked up. I’m forever riding with you, but I ain’t picking sides when it comes to that woman having happiness, even if it’s not with you. I get you scared… shit is scary to give your heart after losing love, but the shit is worth it. If you gonna love her, then do it, Pop… if not, leave her alone and don’t do that back-and-forth shit.” he pushed up from the wall he was leaning on. “You, King Inferno, show em what fucking with Queen Inferno do… we riding behind you.” I watched as he walked down the opposite end of the hallway, turning the corner.
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the wall. “You know he’s not wrong.”
I turned and saw Cappadonna near the vending machine. “I knew this shit would happen… I’m supposed to protect her.”
Cappadonna cracked open the bottle of water he purchased and guzzled it. I was starting to think I didn’t speak with the way he was guzzling that damn water without answering my question. “That shit isn’t on you. You left because you had Havoc coming right behind you to stay with them. How long have you lived in your crib and some shit like that never happened… how the fuck were you supposed to know.”
“I know every fucking thing.”
“May be true, but this shit was something that none of us could prepare for. You’ll give your life for Michael, just like I would for my wife. Stop beating yourself for shit that you couldn’t control… just like you was there when niggas came for my wife, I’m here and we gonna fuck em up in the worst way.”
When we heard heels clacking, we both knew it was Capri’s ass. Running down the hall in those shoes took fucking talent. The heels she had on wasn’t some short shits, either. “She was white!” Capri hollered, as the white nurse looked at her, offended. “See what not minding your business gets you.” she snorted, as she continued down the hallway.
“Who was white, Baby Doll?”
“Blair says that as she was trying to open the window, she saw a white woman throwing a cocktail through it.”
I bypassed Capri and went back down the hall into Anjo’s room where she was anxiously sitting up in the bed. “Tell me everything you told Capri, my love.”
She explained everything that happened, stopping to cough, and then continued telling me. When she mentioned wild blonde hair, I already knew who she was referring to. There was only one bitch that always had wild hair, and it happened to be blonde.
“As I’m screaming, she tossed it and scurried away. Simmy, she didn’t look right, either… sick or cracked out or something.”
I kissed her head. “Elijah’s mother.”
Blair gasped so hard that she broke into a fit of coughs. It was so bad the nurse ran into the room and made sure to turn her oxygen up and forced her to rest. “Why would she do that to her own child? Elijah’s room was where they threw the first one… he came out the room screaming.”
I couldn’t answer her because I didn’t have the answers as to why Thea would want to kill her son. She had to have seen when we returned to the house, because before that, my house was good. It wasn’t a coincidence that the first night we stayed there since I packed our shit and headed to the lake, the house was set on fire.
There was always shit that I found weird when it came to Thea as a mother, even before she found herself heading down the junkie brick road. She never seemed like she was connected to Elijah as a mother from the small interactions I had with them before I started taking care of him. If anything, she acted like he was a burden.
I mean, shit, sometimes parents could feel like their child was a burden because life got rough. No parent actually acted that way or told their child that. Thea was the exception to the rule. Elijah didn’t matter to her, so when she started to really neglect him, I knew all hope was lost with her. She treated him like he had ruined her life, and she resented him for it.
He was always quiet and almost cowered every time I came around, like he was afraid of men. The few times he was outside and I happened to be in the yard, chasing the male cats away from Pyro’s hoe ass, or in my garage, he would watch and stay far away but have conversations with me.
As we became closer, and I learned that he pissed the bed, the shit had me looking at his mother differently. Like Capone said, something happened to him, and it was easy to ignore because deep down, I wasn’t ready for the pain I knew I would feel and the wrath that I would go on when I found out exactly what happened to him.
Like this uncle or friend that she had in Phoenix. Thea never made sense to me when she went to rambling, however, maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention to what she was actually saying.
“I don’t know, my love.” I continued to kiss the top of her head as she was taking hits of the oxygen like it was a blunt. “I’m sorry, Anjo.”
She nearly snapped her neck to look my way. “What do you mean?”
“The reason you in here is because of me.”
She paused and turned her attention straight ahead. “No, Quasim.”
“Fuck you mean, Anjo?”
“I’m saying no… if you’re going to distance yourself, then do it now. I’m not doing the back and forth with you… I refuse.”
The knock on the door pulled us both from our conversation. “Yo… Havoc told me that the same few cars keep driving past the entrance of the lake house… security on it, but I’m about to make my way back up there with Kincaid.” Capella told me.
“You straight?”
“I’m good… my wife and seed is there… niggas not getting through them gates.” He dapped me up, then headed out the room.
For a while, I worried about Chubs and if he was going to pull his shit together. He had that Delgato flowing through him, so he had no choice but to step into that power that his father, uncles, aunt, and grandfather possessed.
“You can go with him.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
She looked away from me. “Can you just go with him, Quasim. I want to be alone, please.”
I paused and looked at the TV before gently grabbing her face. “Why you beefing with me, Angel?”
I watched as she reached for my phone and scrolled before she came across a song. She let the song play out loud as she stared at me. I sat on the edge of the bed and listened to the song. My chest felt tight because it was everything she told me in Bali. How she would walk through the fire because she knew I would never let her get burned.
When the song ended, she handed me back my phone and stared at me. “If you can listen to that song and still think walking away is the best decision, then go.”
“Blair…”
She held her hand up. “You’re letting them win, Quasim. I told you that I will walk through the fire with you… yeah, I didn’t think it’d be an actual fire, but I am here. If you’re going to become distant, I would rather you do it now. God and everyone else knows how much I love you.” She started coughing as she removed the rosary from around her neck. “Take this and go if that’s what you plan on doing. I’m not chasing you this time… I deserve to have someone choose me like I have been choosing you. Go with Capella and make sure Elijah and everyone is safe.” She held the rosary out for me to take and I didn’t move from where I was planted.
“You think you run shit?”
“When it comes to my heart, I do. If you can’t handle it, then leave me the fuck alon?—”
Her words were cut off when I softly grabbed her chin and kissed her lips, inserting my tongue into her mouth as she stared into my eyes. When I was done, I sealed it with a soft peck on her lips. “I own your heart, Anjo. That shit beats for me.”
I paused and grabbed her hand, as she stared at me. “I can?—”
“And mine beats for you because you own this shit.” I realized that I was the reason for her fear. I’ve made shit so inconsistent when it came to us trying to love each other that she knew my pattern. I’m not going to front and say the thought of stepping away from her didn’t cross my mind.
Allowing her to find a love that wouldn’t have her hurt was something that made sense. Except, I couldn’t do that because I loved this woman with everything. Not having Anjo in my life would be like tossing dirt onto a coffin, although she was alive.
I couldn’t picture my life without her, and all the guilt I was carrying was hard to push to the side. A nigga felt like a bitch for allowing someone to touch my woman.
My Anjo.