Chapter 15
Exhausted couldn’t even begin to explain what today felt like. I was hit with bomb after bomb, and this feeling wasn’t something I was used to carrying. Yeah, I asked for this life, but damn. This much shit ain’t ever popped off when my parents was running things.
I stood under that shower and for the first time in a long time, my wife wasn’t there invading my space. She wasn’t there washing my back for me and the shit felt weird.
When I got out and climbed into bed, it felt big. Empty in a way I ain’t never noticed before. Hell, I couldn’t even roll over on most nights because she was always right underneath me.
I laid there and let what Zaire said replay in my head over and over.
No, I ain’t know her eight years ago. But it wasn’t even about that.
Why would she keep secrets from me that she knew I needed to have?
I ain’t never let women get this close to me in my life, but with her, I let her in on every part of it.
I kept my promises to her, stayed faithful even though I didn’t think that was some shit that I could actually do, and right now, a nigga felt betrayed down to the bone.
Then my mind drifted to my mother. To what she’d done to tear this whole family apart. My mind just wouldn’t believe it although I knew the truth for sure now.
I worried about my father, the look still stuck in my head that he had on his face when we left that house.
Demon being my brother still felt too far from real to fully believe, even with everything laid out plain in front of me.
And on top of all that, he’d had Tattiana first. That thought alone made me sick to my stomach.
That thought alone made me eager to kill that bitch ass nigga and I didn’t give a fuck who he was related to.
My only brothers were Zaire and Namier and that’s all it could ever be.
After an hour of thinking and stressing, I finally fell asleep somewhere under the weight of all of it.
When I woke up, it was six in the morning, and I was already on a mission. Didn’t have time to lay around feeling anything other than wanting and needing revenge.
I brushed my teeth, washed my face, got dressed, called both my brothers on FaceTime while I moved around still getting ready.
Zaire was still laid up in bed, hair everywhere, looking like death. Namier was crashed out on Zaire’s couch. Guess they’d both stayed up late talking to moms half the night.
I couldn’t face her right now either, if I was being real with myself. I prayed that I could find forgiveness in my heart for her, but she really disappointed a nigga.
“Get up,” I said. “Be ready in thirty minutes. Ain’t time to lay around this morning.”
“Who the fuck you supposed to be?” Namier groaned, rubbing his face. “You taking this head of family title way too serious, brotha. It’s six in the morning. My breath still stank and shit.”
“You know who I am,” I said. “That mean get yo hot breath ass up and handle it. Thirty minutes.” I hung up on him.
Zaire was so tired he ain’t even bother saying nothing back.
—
I was outside right on time.
When Namier and Zaire finally came outside to the truck, they looked halfway refreshed, ready enough for whatever the day had in store. Soon as Zaire climbed in the front seat, he started right back up about moms.
“The way pops was acting last night,” Zaire said, “he wanted her gone for real. I’m scared to leave her at my crib too long, I don’t want them crossing paths and getting into some shit while we out here handling business.
I tried talking to her a little last night, but she still stuck on saving her bastard ass son.
I can’t even really talk to her right now. She know she wrong.”
Hearing that come out Zaire’s mouth, of all people, told me exactly how deep this had cut him too. Momma could do no wrong in this nigga eyes, that was until now.
I picked my phone up and called Sam, told him to keep eyes on Zaire’s house, made sure the rest of the team knew our parents needed to stay separated for now, no crossing paths till things cooled down some.
This whole situation was crazy. The two people I’d looked up to my whole entire life, at odds like this, it ain’t make no sense.
“First stop, we handling yo hoe Mallory, right?” Namier said from the back seat.
“She can lead us straight to Demon. And real talk, we probably should’ve brought Tatti with us for this one.
I love watching her beat that bitch head like a punching bag.
Tattiana Carter don’t play.” Namier laughed a little too loud at his own jokes.
“She really be beating her ass like that for real?” Zaire turned around in his seat, looking at Namier with eyebrows raised.
“Like a muthafucka,” Namier said, already pulling his phone out. “Hold on, let me show you the footage from Tatti’s first night in the crib. She whooped a concussion up on that hoe, I swear. If a bitch ever play with you out here, just call Tatti.”
He passed the phone up to Zaire, and Zaire’s hand went straight up to his mouth.
“You ain’t lying,” Zaire said, laughing now. “She beat her like she stole something.”
“Alright! That’s enough, that’s my wife,” I said, but I couldn’t help the small smile creeping up before I caught myself and shut it down.
“Bump all that down. But no lie, her hands is definitely heavy. I don’t know where she learned that from, as bougie as she act sometimes. But she good with them hands for real.”
I let myself sit in that thought for one second, thinking about her, before I remembered I was supposed to still be mad at her ass, and I pushed it back down where it belonged.
We pulled up near Mallory’s address and circled the block twice, slow, checking all the angles. On the second pass, a car pulled out that driveway and was headed halfway down the road before we lost sight of it. I ain’t think too much about it.
We parked a street over, got out the car and cut through a trail that led us around to the back of Mallory house, moving quiet, and careful.
I signaled for my brothers to stay low and real quiet behind me. I tried the patio door, and the muthafucka was unlocked. I couldn’t for the life of me understand how people who knew they lived wrong could be so careless. The door should have been secured. I slid it open slow, no sound.
We stepped inside and heard Mallory’s voice coming from somewhere in the back of her house, she was talking soft, fake and sweet in a way I ain’t never heard from her before.
“He should be back soon,” she was saying, “then we’re going on a little trip. Once he gets you clothes and everything else you need.”
“He said he was taking me to Tatti,” a child’s voice said. “When am I going with her?”
My whole chest tightened up hearing that.
That was Demon’s car we’d just watched pull off. And that was Tatti’s daughter’s voice coming from that back room. It was clear now that the nigga came here to hide out, and he’d just left for a few minutes.
Today was about to be my lucky muthafuckin day. Yesterday his other baby momma wasn’t home when we tried to get to her. Today we’d walked straight into his accomplice, and my wife daughter, both in the same house.
We heard a door close somewhere back there, then footsteps coming our way. Soon as Mallory rounded that corner into the kitchen, she was face to face with my gun and my two brothers standing quiet behind me.
Fear flooded her whole face instantly. I watched her think about running for a half second before her body caught up to how bad of an idea that really was.
“Be smart,” I whispered, “or be dead. You already knew I was coming for you eventually. Move slow to that kitchen table. Sit down. We need to talk.” I glanced back and spoke to my baby brother. “Namier, stand in that hall, guard it. Don’t let that little girl come out that room.”
Namier nodded. Walked past me and posted up.
Zaire stood off to the side, quiet, watching, while I pulled a chair out and sat down across from Mallory at that table. She was shaking so bad she looked about two seconds from pissing herself.
“Where was you going?” I asked. “Who are you waiting on to come back here? And do you know whose child you got kidnapped in this house right now? I expected better from you, for real. You repay me by trying to snake me?”
“Please, Kaseem.” Tears started streaming down her face fast. “Don’t do this. I’m carrying your baby.”
“Bitch! Don’t insult my fuckin intelligence.
Especially while I’m sitting here with my gun pointed at yo fuckin face,” I said, my voice flat, cold.
“Yo own sister already told me everything. From you working with Demon, to you faking that whole pregnancy. My question for you is simple. How did you manage that when I personally watched you piss on the stick?”
“My sister wouldn’t have told you that,” she said, shaking her head fast.
“How the fuck would I know this if she didn’t tell me?” I said. “Keep playing with me and I’m about to send yo ass to heaven early. I know it all, from you working with the enemy to you lying to me about being pregnant. So, be careful of what comes out of your mouth next.”
“Okay, okay.” She held her hands up, breathing fast. “I ordered fake test off . They read positive no matter what, every single time you pee on it. And as far as Demon go, I ain’t never had no real intentions of helping him at first. Me and you had been messing around for years, and I always used to mention your name around him and my sister, just talking, and I ain’t think nothing of it.
About seven months back, he started asking more and more questions about you, getting real obsessed with it.
Then about a month or two ago, he threatened me.
Said help him take everything from you and your family, or he’d kill me himself.
I know that nigga, Kaseem. I knew he meant it.
So I let him pay me to set you up. But I swear to you, I was looking for a way out the whole time.
I was never gonna go through with the shit. ”