Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
SAVIOR
I looked at the sweaty-faced nigga in front of me, and I couldn’t help but smirk.
Luke had come up on a goldmine when he found out that the business across the street from Hawks had a surveillance camera.
It was even better that the owner was willing to let them see it.
The camera gave the perfect view of some young dumbass nigga who just wanted to be down with some dumb shit.
In fact, he was so dumb that he was willing to be the only dumbass not wearing a mask when they went in the business.
I uncuffed my cufflinks and pulled my suit jacket off before I set it on the chair, where I should’ve been sitting, but I wasn’t feeling that.
Usually, I’d let the boys work a nigga over, but this wasn’t that.
These weren’t normal times. A nigga was trying me and expected me to be fine with the okey-doke.
“You wanna tell me who sent you to burn down my shit?” I questioned.
“And why would I do that? It’s more of a—” I ended his sentence for him the moment my fist connected with his jaw.
“Don’t even finish that. Lemme tell you what you’re up against. If I don’t hear what I wanna hear before I kill you, then you just took your whole family and everybody you love with you.
Now, if you tell me all that I wanna know, then you’ll die quick and fast, none of that extra shit that I find enjoyment in.
This is all up to you, lil’ nigga.” I slowly paced the floor in front of him while rolling my sleeves up as I spoke.
It had been a while since I worked a nigga over the way I planned for him.
Finally, I stopped directly in front of him and just stared at him.
Now was the time for him to make that choice.
I wasn’t really a patient man when it came to my shit.
He looked up at me, and I swear I could see the hate in this man’s eyes, but he knew he had a decision to make, and I didn’t have all day.
This was probably a tough choice for him, considering in both scenarios he died, but it came down to what type of nigga he was.
If he cared about his loved ones, then he’d talk, but if he was selfish, he’d keep a hush on it and allow people to die behind his flawed ass decision.
“It must be a fucked-up feeling for the king of this shit to be home, and y’all niggas are still chasing y’all’s tails tryna figure out what’s going on,” he spewed venomously.
I could tell by his eyes he didn’t stand by his shit.
His eyes told me he was pretty fucking terrified but had to put up a front.
I laughed. “Luke, get the bucket. This bitch is still going to tell me what the fuck I wanna know.”
Luke laughed, but he did as I asked.
“You know what happens to smart-mouthed niggas with no hands to play? They die painfully and leave nobody to morn them because they got everybody killed with them.”
Once Luke set the bucket in front of him, I looked toward Reggie.
“Reggie, get me the pliers, and Luke hold his head back.” I had found in my days coming up in the streets that the way to get a nigga talking was to make him hear his own torture.
From just looking at him, I could tell he wasn’t as solid as he led on.
So I was gonna yank as many of his damn teeth out as it took for him to talk.
My guess was I wouldn’t even get to the second, but I never knew.
Some of these young niggas were psychopaths so they so they didn’t feel pain at all.
I didn’t even get to pull a tooth out before this nigga started squirming and yelling like somebody had already touched his goofy ass. “Alright, alright, man! I’ll tell you everything!”
Luke laughed. “Now if you wasn’t dying tonight, I’d remind yo’ ass that you should never be picked up by those folks. Yeen no real street nigga. You a bitch.”
Reggie snickered, and I stood back, looking at him. They were right about that one.
“Duce and DJ. They’re working with Camen to put this thing together for them to take over your territories.”
I knew DJ was Duce’s brother, but I didn’t know of a nigga named Camen. “Who is Camen?” Luke asked.
“Some white boy that Duce gets down with. I think the nigga is a fed. He runs with two others white boys from over east. Gerald and Evan. They all seem like feds to me.”
“And why do you think that?” I asked. I was actually glad this lil’ nigga had gotten diarrhea at the mouth. It was less work for as much as he knew.
“Because he’s only around when Duce wanna spit that good shit, and he’s always on feet.
That means the nigga has a Crown Vic or transformer parked in the cut somewhere.
Then he tries to play like he has an addiction, wiping his nose every few seconds or whatever, but he’s bad at the act.
He tries too fucking hard. He’s also the one who had Duce and DJ ride down and blast at you and Taurus. ”
“What about the other two? You said Evan and Gerald, right?”
“They’re like his foot soldiers.”
“Thank you for that.” I turned on my feet to grab my jacket.
“One of y’all make that shit quick and drop him off at the funeral home.
” Before either of them could respond, I was walking out of the doors and getting into my car.
I was going to see this nigga Taurus before I went home to Regancy.
I had been gone since six this morning, and it was five in the afternoon, so I knew she probably wasn’t feeling my ass right now.
My day started off early with her making me breakfast, then a meeting with Mike, then another with my accountant, and then this shit.
Now I was finally getting the time to wind down.
“Where to, boss?” Beck questioned. If he wasn’t with me, then Manuel was. Then if one of them wasn’t with me, then they were with Regancy and Kale.
“Taurus’s house.” The moment I finished speaking, I looked up, and Kale was calling me. I made it a point of her having her own phone because she’d be in school and we never knew when she’d need to call me or her mother.
“Yeah, baby girl,” I answered.
“Can you bring home burgers? Mom isn’t feeling well.”
That alarmed me because she was fine this morning before I left. Then that made me think about it. I damn sure hadn’t heard from her today. “Beck, take me home instead,” I instructed before focusing my attention back on Kale. “Where is your mom?”
“In the bed. She keeps saying she’s gonna get up so we can go downstairs and I can play with my toys, but every time I ask, she says fifteen more minutes.”
“I’m on my way there. We’ll figure that out when I get there.
” After I hung up from Kale, the ride to the house wasn’t that long.
The way Beck drove, it only took us fifteen minutes before he was pulling up in front of the lobby and I was asking him to pick up the usual from the burger joint up the street.
I stepped onto the elevator and held my key card out for the scan before pressing my floor number and standing back to watch the numbers of the floors we passed show up.
Once I reached the top floor, I stepped off and walked to my door, where Manuel was walking out with Kale’s dog.
I laughed. “Thank you for that.”
He nodded.
I walked in the door, and Kale sat in the middle of my sectional with her legs and arms crossed staring at the TV. Whatever the fuck she was watching was colorful as fuck. I could tell just by the way the colors bounced off of her face.
I set my jacket down and walked over to her. For somebody who had just called me, she was damn sure preoccupied.
“Dad, you’re here.” She smiled.
I smiled. I couldn’t front. Ever since we had that conversation on the boat, all she did was call me dad, and it brought a big ass smile to my face and warmed my heart every single time.
I made sure she was good and promised her that the food would be here soon before I made my way back to my room where Regancy was.
The room was pitch black, but I could hear the light music she had playing in the background.
It was just like Regancy to have rain and shit playing in the background while she slept.
She claimed the shit had healing properties.
I cut the lights on and looked at her frame as she lay on her side asleep with her hand propped under her head. “Baby, you good?” I put my hand to her head, and she didn’t have a fever or anything.
“Mhmm. How long have you been here?” she mumbled. Her eyes opened, and she glanced up at me. Her eyes were bloodshot red.
“How long have you been sleep, Re?” I quizzed.
“Since after you left. Out of nowhere, my head started hurting, and I was exhausted.” She sat up and looked around.
I nodded. “How does it feel now, Re?” I was concerned because she never slept all day. It wasn’t in her, but then again, she was pregnant. I heard that pregnant women slept and inhaled food; however, with Regancy, one out of the two of those things were accurate.
She shrugged. “It feels better now. I’m just so sleepy, and—” She wasn’t able to finish her sentence, because she cut to the washroom in a hurry.
I was in the middle of emptying my pockets when I followed her.
I found her on her knees with her face hovering over the toilet.
The sound of her throwing up filled the space.
A nigga didn’t know whether to rub her back or step back.
I felt so helpless in that moment that I walked up closer to her and began to rub her back.
She was having my child, so I guess I was part to blame for her being sick like this.
Now she had a nigga feeling all bad and shit.
Once she was finished, she stood and grabbed the towel that I held out for her.
She didn’t speak. Instead, she stepped in front of the mirror and grabbed her toothbrush from the silver basket.
I watched her the entire time she squeezed the charcoal toothpaste onto the brush, then I watched her stuff the brush into her mouth.