17. Turk
Turk
“What the FUCK was that shit, Dub?”
I’m barely inside the hospital lobby before Nut’s in my face. I push his ass back, into Ty’s arms, but he lets go and gets back in my grill.
“You guys need to leave or I’m calling security!” a scared nurse stammers.
“Be at the fuckin’ spot in twenty minutes.” Nut shoulder checks me before walking out the hospital, blood still on him.
My ace’s blood.
I don’t know how I make it to the warehouse. My mind’s everywhere. It won’t slow down. So much information is flashing through my consciousness and it won’t slow down. So many dots not connecting, puzzle pieces scattered.
I don’t know what the fist step is, not to this. By the time we made it to Saint John’s, the closest hospital, Set’s white tee looked like they tye dyed it pink. Before Nut locked in on me, he looked lost as fuck, grabbing at hair he been cut off.
My other bros weren’t any better.
Reem’s in the warehouse when I walk in. He’s rocking a carseat on one of the tables.
“Who baby is that?” I ask, coming closer.
The pink blanket she’s swaddled in lets me know it’s a girl, but she’s so brand new I can’t tell much else. Like, lil shorty looks like how Deuce looked right out the womb.
The door bursts open and Nut is walking toward me with a purpose.
“Ain’t no nurses here to save you, Dub. Now what the fuck is going on?”
“Nut, chill–”
Ty and Rico file in, grabbing Nut up from out my face, but he just shrugs them off. Behind all that anger is pain and confusion.
It already feels like we got pieces missing.
“We not gone get answers if we all fighting. So is we fighting or getting answers?” Reem asks, still rocking the carrier.
Nut palms the top of his head and takes some deep breaths while I wipe my face and try to organize my mind as best I can. But seeing Set laid out like that… it’s haunting me.
Just like Pay choosing them over us. Over me.
“You brought her here?” Ty asks.
Reem shrugs. “Kept crying, and OG wanted a break.”
The little baby starts wailing on cue, and Reem whole face transforms as he unwraps the baby burrito and picks her up and settles her into his arms.
“Y’all cutting into skin-to-skin time. The fuck happened at the game?”
“Nigga, who baby is that?”
Reem scowls at Rico. “Mine. Now answer my question.”
When the fuck he have a baby?
Nut cocks his head to the side before shaking it and leveling those twitchy eyes at me.
“Grimey acting like Turk took his bitch, Turk pressing him and them Get Money Niggas, shots fired, and my lil cousin is fighting for his fucking life while Patience pregnant ass leaves with them Indian niggas. You told me she ain’t know them niggas, Dub. ”
I sigh. “At the time, I ain’t know–”
“Bullshit. That bitch–”
I take a step toward Nut before Rico holds me back. “Watch yo fuckin’ mouth, nigga.”
Nutty smirks and chuckles, closing his eyes.
“Of fucking course.” When his gaze is back on me, he bares his teeth.
“Of fucking course you fucked her ass. Pussy is clouding yo fucking judgment AGAIN, TURKEY! Pussy got you hiding shit from yo bros afuckinggain. Ten years later you still ain’t learn shit I see. ”
“Fuck you, Nut. This ain’t that. Patience shit got nothing to do–”
“SET IS FIGHTING FOR HIS FUCKING LIFE RIGHT NOW!” he roars, pushing Ty to the side. Rico lets go of me to drag him back. “On my mama if my cousin dies I’m lighting you up!”
The baby starts wailing louder, cutting off his tirade.
“Let ‘em go, Rico. They need to fight it out.”
I take off my jacket as Nut pushes Rico off him and takes off his blazer.
As soon as my jacket touches the ground Nut rushes me. We’re evenly matched, and both of our hits are connecting. Soon we’re both bloody, tired, and waning down.
But Nut catches me with a knee to my stomach and I drop.
He backs up as we both try to catch our breath. Fuck, I ain’t fought in years, and fasho haven’t fought Nut like this even longer than that.
After what feels like forever, I finally get back on my feet, but I can’t stand up straight. I meander over to where Reem is and sit on a chair.
“Y’all good now?” Reem asks.
Nut and I both nod, and right there I see why Set made Reem his second when he pushed Nut and me out. Nigga the most levelheaded nigga in our group.
He sets the baby down and sheds his shirt before taking her out her onesie. He places her on his chest and rubs her back, and baby girl quiets immediately.
“Nigga, who is the mama?” Nut blurts.
“Not important. Turk, how does Patience know them Get Money niggas?”
I sigh. “All she told me was she grew up with them. It wasn’t until the nigga Cochise is laid out bleeding that she says that’s her brother.”
“Blood brother?” Rico asks, and I nod. Gotta be, for her not to be right here with us.
“So she’s Apache Beverly’s daughter? Do he even have daughters?”
“Shit, I don’t know. East Kenton might as well be another world,” Ty says.
“I know he had one from–” Nut cuts himself off before groaning. “You and fucking Autumn man… Y’all are fucking idiots.”
“What, Nut?” Ty asks, but Rico’s spaced out before locking eyes with me.
“Yeah, Apache Beverly got one daughter he claims. His oldest one. Foxtail, who was Grimey’s fucking fiancee last time that nigga was in the halls with me!” Spittle flies out his mouth as his light bright ass turns red from shouting.
“You and Autumn go and get his bitch pregnant!”
“Watch yo fucking mouth before I don’t pull my punches this time.”
“Wait, wait… is that why she been staying with you? How long have you known she knew them niggas? Is that why Cochise and Shad beefing?”
“Where’s Shad?” Ty says more to himself than us.
“Aight, aight. Let me start from the beginning.”
As I recount the events starting with Pay freaking out over seeing Cochise in her and Autumn’s crib to my niggas, more and more dots start connecting, especially after Nut’s revelations.
He’d been in and out of juvie so much, as a youngin, that the older niggas respected him for having heart.
One of them being Grimey. They weren’t exactly homies, but there was a mutual respect that most niggas knew about.
It even came in handy years ago when we were taking over the BBs, and again when Brina went missing a couple months back.
If Pay and Autumn were into our politics, we’d have probably made the connection before now.
“Shad ain’t been answering for a little while.”
“I seen him recently, he not doing too good.”
“Yeah, he really finna be off the deep end when he find out about Set, dumbass. Why the fuck you ain’t come to us immediately, Dub?”
“Pay ain’t mention Grimey not once. Made it seem like it was all about Cochise. Shit, me and Shad pulled her background when she first started coming around, and nothing about East Kenton or the First Nations ever came up.”
“We don’t even know if they who shot at us. We ain’t shoot at them, and Cochise ass was laid out, too,” Rico mutters.
“So we bystanders in they beef?! They still wouldn’t have even came over if they ain’t know Patience!”
“Nigga Grimey came to see yo yellow ass, shut the fuck up,” I seethe.
Nut grins. “Yeah, and I’m finna go see about him and all them other Indian niggas.”
I read between his lines. I know this nigga. He fuck with Pay, no doubt. But just like I thought, she’s an opp immediately. He nor Set take any hints of betrayal. You breathe wrong and you die.
I hop out my seat. “You touch a hair on her head you’ll be seeing me.”
Hurt flashes in his eyes before his scowl deepens. “You’d choose her over yo family?”
I hold his glare, not needing to speak. Not needing to confirm what’s already true.
Over Patience and Autumn? I’d burn it all to the ground and not regret shit.
“Aight y’all. We need to get up with Shad and search the cameras to see who got at Set. If no one shot at Cochise, then it could have been on some wrong place, wrong time for us or for them. Ty, take Nut.”
Ty nods and reaches for Nut but he snatches away and grabs his blazer off the floor. “It’s on sight with me every time I see yo bitch ass until my cousin’s good.” With that, they both leave.
Reem turns to me, and rests his lips on the top of the baby’s beanie. “You said Patience went with them… you know they not giving her up that easily? Pregnant or not.”
“And how you know?”
Reem smirks and starts putting the baby’s onesie back on. “Because, Big Turk, my baby girl shows up after however long, the only way I’m letting her go again is if you pry my dead, cold, hands off her. If I were you, I’d cut my losses, and pray the homie makes it through the night.”
He settles her in her seat and leaves me and Rico alone.
“You still here?” I ask, rubbing my eyebrow hair off.
Rico just shrugs. “Wouldn’t be the first time I followed you blindly into battle.”
I smirk at him and as we dap each other up.
“What’s first on the list?” Rico asks as we get into my whip.
“We need to know just who the fuck Patience Fox is.”