Chapter 19
Bullshit
While Islah was picking out her dress and shit, I dropped Amir at my cousin’s house and went to the barber shop to hold a meet.
I walked in. Sammy had a few niggas in there. I let him finish what he and his niggas were doing, then after that I had that nigga close shop and had Keith call then niggas to the shop.
“Some shit pop off?” Sammy asked.
I sat in one of the barber chairs and rolled up.
“This shit got worse. That nigga really want to try me when I gave him a chance to live.”
Sammy shook his head and went on cleaning his shop while I sat there and smoked
It took about fifteen minutes, but then my niggas cars were pullin up—Keith made sure he called my heavy hitters, my niggas that will catch a nigga and hold him for me, or do the job for me.
After them niggas came in, dapped me up, they took a seat. I took another pull, slow, letting the smoke sit in the air before I finally spoke.
“This ain’t nothing new,” I said. “It’s just the same situation with a different level to it.”
One of my niggas shifted in his seat. I didn’t even look at him fully, just clocked the movement.
I continued.
“That nigga Gio…I gave him a pass and threw him outta the city, but he’s trying to come back. I don’t know when, I don’t know if he is here already. All I know is I need to get him before he gets to Islah. That nigga is obsessed with her.”
I checked my phone real quick and saw Islah was still out and locked my screen back, and exhaled.
“I want eyes everywhere. I want to know if you if he’s in the city, or when he touched down, I want to know where he’s stayin’, who the nigga is with, I want to know it all…that nigga talked to me like he was putting somethin together. We don’t need none of that. We already ready.”
“So you want us to buss the nigga if we see him?” Kenny asked.
“Nahh…I still want my face to be the last face that nigga sees, but… if you catch that nigga anywhere close to my lady or her job, let the Choppas sing.”
“Shit, say less than boss, you know we got you,” Tiny said.
All them niggas stood up at the same time and dapped me up like they were clocking in. They all left the shop going in different directions, and I just sat there finishing my blunt.
Sammy came and sat in the chair beside me.
“Nigga you look tired,” he said low.
I smirked. “I’m not tired, I’m fed up. I don’t want my girl dealing with this shit. She’s planning the wedding, working, shit at home, I don’t want this to be a worry to her.”
“She don’t know the nigga background?”
“Nah, I want to get this shit taken care of and for her to think that he isn’t an issue anymore.”
“I feel that,” Sammy expressed. “What about the house?”
I pulled my phone back out, checking her location again, seeing if she was on the move or not.
“I’ma move us in there faster than what I thought.”
Once I finished my blunt, I stood up and stretched. “Let me go get this boy and get back home. I got some moves to make.”
After leaving Sammy’s, I went and picked Amir up, and we headed home, and the whole drive, I was in planning mode.
Amir was talking as normal, but I was zoned out, thinking about shit with Gio, the wedding, the surprise move I’m finna try to pull off. I didn’t want Islah to worry. I didn’t want Amir to worry. I had to protect my family from whatever was coming.
I grabbed some flowers and a few other lil’ things, and we made it to the crib before Islah. I sat in the living room looking around, thinking about what I needed to get out of the crib, what could stay, and how I was gonna move us with Islah, thinking something was up.
My mind was moving in all different directions when Amir interrupted my thoughts, asking to play 2K.
I nodded. That nigga must have been able to tell I was in my head.
I rolled up while Amir got the game ready. That shit was a good distraction and helped me organize my thoughts.
We were halfway through the game when Islah walked through the door, and we heard her voice. Amir paused the game before I could, and we stood up. Once I turned around and looked at her, I could tell something was wrong, but she was trying to hide it.
I greeted my girl with a hug and a kiss, not asking her no questions about what was wrong, but suggested dinner, cause I damn sure didn’t feel like cooking.
She looked like she didn’t want to, but she agreed.
Dinner went smooth, but I picked up on Islah’s vibe, and I think her ass is pregnant, whether she knew it or not yet.
She ordered lemonade with her dinner. She ate her food, and even at night, her skin was glowing, even though she looked tired as hell.
After we got home, I got her comfortable, then we passed out with me holding her.
When I woke the next morning to the sound of my alarm, she was already getting ready for work.
“Damn, baby,” I said, sitting up. “You wasn’t gonna wake me?”
She stopped gathering her things.
“I am sorry, baby. I forgot to set my alarm last night, and I am running late.”
She was racing around the room, picking things up she thought she needed, then placing it back down, then picking something else up, and putting that back down. I got outta bed and placed my hands on her shoulders, trying to ground her.
“Are you okay, mamas?”
She let out a deep breath with a slight smile.
“I am okay baby,” she said softly. “I just need to go right now.”
I grabbed her bag for her. “Come on, I’ma walk out with you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”
I laughed. “Yeah girl, I didn’t get to spend the morning with you like normal, so I’ma walk you to your car and get a lil’ one-on-one with you.”
She laughed and walked outta the door.
On the way down to her car, she talked about what else she needed to finish for the wedding and letting me know her mother loved the dress.
She sounded like she was just blurting out random shit, but I let her talk and didn’t question it.
Once we got to her car, she hopped in, and I closed the door behind her, and she rolled the window down.
“Are you sure you are good?” I asked one more time.
She nodded. “Yes, baby, just tired, and my mind running a mile a minute, but I am good.”
I nodded, letting it go. “Well, call me if you need me, and I will see you when you get off.”
We kissed, and I watched her pull off, then my whole mood changed.
I got back to my crib, went to the room, and grabbed my phone, making a call to some nigga I knew that was always down to make some money.
“Aye,” I said as soon as Omar picked up. “I need you to come to my crib with a U-Haul truck.
“Give me two hours, and bring some boxes,” the nigga said.
I laughed. “Nigga you have forty-five minutes.”
I hung up the phone and looked around the crib. I had an idea. I didn’t know if it would work, but I was gonna try whatever I needed to make my family safe and make sure Gio couldn’t find Islah.
I made sure my nigga was in motion, riding through the city, and eyes on her job. At the same time, I was trying to figure out how to move everything without making it look like I was moving everything.
I got back inside and was texting and checking in on other shit when Amir came out of his room.
“Dad, don’t I have school today?”
“Nah,” I said, not even looking up from my phone. “We are moving today.”
I placed my phone on the counter and looked up at him to see him looking around the penthouse, confused, then back at me.
“We moving today?” he asked.
“Yes,” I responded like the shit I was doing was normal.
Amir nodded slow like he was trying to process it, but he didn’t ask a bunch of questions. That was one thing about Amir. He trusted his dad. Ten years on this earth and that nigga already knew if we were doing something random, it was for a reason.
Before he could say anything else, my phone rang.
It was Keith.
“Wussup?” I said as I answered.
“You coming into the store today?”
“Nah,” I said, walking around. “But I do need you to do something for me.”
“What you need, boss?”
“I need to sit ninety to the side.
There was a pause.
“Ninety…K nigga?”
“Yeah, I will be through to grab it when I start making moves.”
“Iight,” Keith said low. “I got you.”
I took me a mental break and sat by the window and rolled up.
It was like the two sides of me were battling—the nigga I used to be and the nigga I had become over the years.
I knew the way I wanted to handle shit, but a nigga was worth too much money now, and had way more shit on my plate than back then.
I had to move smarter and think about the people around me that I wanted to keep safe.
Forty-five minutes later, Omar was beating on my door like he was the police.
When I opened it, he had two nigga with him with boxes in all of their hands.
“Damn,” I said. “You actually made it.”
‘You told me forty-five minutes.”
I laughed and stepped aside.
“Take all the TVs down, every mount, every dresser, everything I bring out.”
Omar and his people nodded and got to work. The sound of drills, tape, and boxes filled the penthouse in minutes.
I grabbed a stack of the boxes and took them down the hall to Amir.
“Pack up what you want first.”
He looked at me like he wanted to question me so damn bad, but didn’t. He hopped off the game and got to packing.
I left his room and went into mine.
The first was the closet. That alone was enough to piss me off. Half of that shit belonged to Islah.
I left the clothes on hangers, putting a trash bag around them, then packed up everything else around. The bathroom shit, jewelry, her handbags, and our shoes.
By the time I was finished in there, Omar and his people had half the penthouse stripped down.
The walls looked naked without the TVs.
The living room looked empty without the pictures on the walls. The kitchen looked crazy, with no pots sitting on the stove.
An hour later, everything was loaded with boxes, bags, and furniture that I hadn’t already ordered.
Me and Amir took one more look around, grabbed the last lil’ things we could walk out with, and closed the door behind us.
When we got outside, Omar was sitting on the tail of the U-Haul truck, waiting for the next move.