Chapter 2 #2
I laughed at her. “Nah, boo, that’s all you.”
She walked out, and I slammed the door behind her, sat back down, and ordered Islah her lunch along with some flowers.
Then I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my beard while staring at the CAD design sitting in front of me.
I reached over and grabbed some diamonds from my shelf and scattered them across my desk.
But I couldn’t focus.
Every few seconds, my mind went right back to that motel room.
The picture he left for me to find.
That nigga was obsessed.
Not heartbroken, not hurt, damn near past obsessed with my girl.
I was deep in my thoughts about all the shit on my plate. Islah, my son, my money-hungry BM, when I heard a soft knock on the door. Keith opened it and walked in.
“I put the word out,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah, just thinkin’ about how this nigga is movin’.”
“What you mean?”
“The nigga is obsessed. He’s not thinking rationally, and he’s moving off emotions, pride, and delusion, and that’s dangerous.”
Keith nodded, agreeing with me.
My phone started to ring against the desk, I turned slightly and looked down at it, thinking my niggas were fast on that nigga, but it was an unknown number.
I picked the phone up and showed Keith the screen before I slid to answer.
“Talk,” I said, putting the call on speaker.
The line was staticky as hell for a second, then I heard breathing, then laughter.
I already knew who it was.
“Damn, you should have stuck around the motel. I would have came back.”
The second I heard that nigga’s voice, my whole body relaxed in the most dangerous way.
I smiled, leaning back in my chair. “You must have a death wish callin’ my line.”
Gio laughed again. “Nah, I just wanted to see how far you would go for somethin’ that wasn’t yours.”
I looked at Keith. “Nigga, what the fuck is wrong with you? Shorty is not a thing, my nigga. But I’ma show you that you should have listened when she told you y’all were done.”
“You’re not gonna show me shit!” he yelled into the phone.
I smirked again. I ruffled that nigga’s feathers.
“Runnin’ looks good on you,” I said, pushing his buttons even more.
“Ain’t nobody runnin’ from you, nigga!”
“Then drop your lo, let’s meet up like men, then I wouldn’t have to put the whole city on you.”
Silence hit the line for a second after I said that.
I could hear breathing on his end, heavy as hell, like that nigga was pacing or something.
He laughed again, like I was playing with him, but this time, that laugh had less confidence and sounded forced.
“You got the whole city lookin’ for me?” he asked.
“Nigga, this is Atlanta, you think I’ma let you come into my city and stalk my girl, and I’m not gonna put my dogs on you?!”
Keith was grinning hard as hell while we waited for Gio to respond, but he didn’t, and I continued to talk my shit.
“That’s the difference between me and you. You’re moving around my city, dolo, paranoid, sleeping in dirty-ass motels. I got real roots out here, real steppers behind me—”
“Ain’t nobody worried about you!” Gio shot back.
“But you called my line.”
That shut him up instantly.
I smirked to myself while picking up some diamonds off my desk and rolling them in my hand like dice.
“You know what I think?” I said calmly. “I think you realizing you not in Cali. You decided to step to a nigga and didn’t know how I moved—”
“I know how you move, nigga,” he said, cutting me off.
I shook my head. “Nah, nigga, you didn’t do your research. I am not the nigga to fuck with around here… And even if you went back to Cali, I still have hitters ready to step if I say so.”
“You think money makes you untouchable?” he asked.
I laughed this time. “Nah,” I corrected him. “Respect do, something you don’t have.”
Keith nodded slowly, like he agreed with every word coming out of my mouth.
Gio got quiet again before laughing under his breath. “That bitch must not have told you about me.”
The second he called Islah outta her name, my expression changed.
Keith moved closer to me, noticing my change immediately.
“Watch your mouth, an emotional ass nigga don’t need to be speaking on my woman,” I said as calmly as I could.
“She’s not your woman!” he snapped. “She was with me first, and she will come back to me.”
I laughed coldly. “She is with me, with my ring on her finger, and hopefully my seed in her stomach. You need to accept the fact that she is not coming back, nigga, she’s gone.”
I heard something slam on his end. Probably punched a wall or some goofy ass shit like that.
“You heard what the fuck I said!” he said close to the phone.
“Listen, Gio, I’m not finna go back and forth with you. Unlike you, I have a business to take care of and a woman to make sure is protected. Like I said, drop the lo, and I can handle this shit.”
The line went silent. “Fuck you, nigga, catch me!”
He hung up the phone, and I looked at Keith laughing while responding to a text from my son.
“Mannn, we bout to make a game outta this shit. Tell the streets each time they spot him and send me a picture, I’ll add fifty to the money on his head. The money goes to the nigga that gives me the drop, and I do that nigga in!”
Keith nodded. “You’re a crazy ass nigga!”
“It’s not the return of the Mac, baby! It’s the return of Lo!”