12. Getting Ready
Getting Ready
Katie finally gave me the green light and told me that she could keep Amir for me. That same day, after dropping Amir off at her crib, I was getting a rental and letting Sammy know I was on the way to him.
Keith was steady callin’ my phone, but I didn’t have time to talk, and to be honest, anything else we needed to talk about didn’t need to be said over the phone.
Sammy had his shop closed, but the door was unlocked. I walked straight in and headed to the back.
“’Bout time you got here,” he said low.
I smirked. “I had to get the rental.”
I walked over to the table he was standing at, and he had a few guns pulled out.
“Damn, which one for me?” I asked.
“Which one you need?”
“Shiiidd…I like the way that ARP did last time.”
He nodded and picked it up off the table.
“Take it. Anything else?”
I looked over his lil’ room and grabbed some extra bullets.
“Nah, I’m straight with this.”
He dapped me up before walking me to the door.
“Be careful out there nigga, bring ya girl home.”
I nodded my head as I walked out. “By any means.”
I hopped back in the rental, made my way home, and ran inside.
I needed to pack my bag and grab something I thought Islah might have wanted. I was in the middle of making sure the house was locked up when I heard a knock at the door.
I finished up checking the rooms upstairs, then ran down the steps to see Keith, Kenya, Deja, Renee, and Sammy standing at the door.
“What the fuck are y’all doing here?” I asked as I opened the door.
They all walked in.
“Listen, I don’t give a fuck what you say, as your niggas, we can’t let you do this mission dolo,” Keith said.
“And we want to be there for our girl,” Kenya expressed.
I shook my head. “Kenya, this ain’t gonna be no calm shit, and Keith, Sammy, I told y’all niggas I was good.”
Everybody nodded their heads.
“So the truck unlocked?” Kenya asked.
“Yeah, let’s go check that,” Keith added.
They all ignored what the fuck I said.
I shook my head and finished checking the house before I walked back out to them.
“We are not stopping anywhere. Since all y’all going, all y’all gonna drive,” I let them know as I hopped in the driver’s seat.
“Let’s do it, it’s time for Islah to come home,” Deja added.
They all hopped in, and I pulled outta my driveway. Before we hit the interstate, we stopped at the corner store. I grabbed some blunts while the girls got some snacks.
As I drove, we all talked about how much of a clown Gio was, but then that shifted to how much we missed Islah and wondered how she was holding up physically and mentally.
“I just hope she knows I’m coming for her,” I expressed in the middle of their conversation. “I don’t want her to think I’m not coming for her.”
“I feel that,” Sammy said. “Islah’s smart. She knows how you move about her.”
Everybody in the car agreed.
After about seven hours of driving, I passed it off to Sammy so I could try to get some sleep.
I don’t know the last time I slept all night. Every time I closed my eyes, I was seeing Islah.
More time passed, and Kenya took the wheel, and that bitch drove like a bat outta hell, rocking us side to side.
“Well damn, Kenya, we should let you drive the rest of the way,” I said, laughing.
“Listen, it should take us two days, maybe three, to get there. I will do the rest of today, and then we can go from there?” Kenya offered.
I looked around the car, and everybody agreed.
“Iight, speed demon, go ahead.”
Kenya nodded at me, then focused on the road while me and my niggas smoked and her girls talked and ate.
After a while, we stopped for food. I checked on Amir, telling him goodnight, and then we hopped back on the road.
Throughout the whole night, I was in and out of sleep. Tossing side to side, dreaming about weird shit, waking up to stare at the road, then falling back to sleep to dream some more.
None of the shit was good.
Dreams about Islah crying my name, calling out to me for help, of that nigga taking his anger out about me on her. The possibility of my baby not being okay because of that nigga was all started to fill my head the closer we were getting to her.
I jumped up outta my sleep just as we were passing a mile marker. The miles to California were getting smaller and smaller.
I checked the time on my phone, and it was about six in the morning. I looked around the car, and everybody was still sleeping.
“You want to pull over and let me drive some?” I asked Kenya.
“Nah, I am good right now.”
I nodded and focused back on my phone.
“You know that you call Islah’s name while you sleep?” she asked me.
“I do?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Yup, you have said her name at least five times.”
I laughed. “Damn, my bad. I really do miss my girl.”
She nodded. “I see that you do. You know, she is lucky to have a man that loves her the way that you do. Me and my girls talk about it all the time… All women dream about a man treating her like you do; it’s just… it’s beautiful to see.”
I smiled. “I am the lucky one.”
Kenya looked at me, and I continued.
“I know I was with her while she was healing, but at the same time, I think that she healed me. After my BM played me, I didn’t think I would trust a female again, and then I saw her.
She didn’t even speak to me yet, didn’t even look my direction, and I saw her and knew I needed to marry her… that I was going to marry her.”
“I am glad that I have her as a friend, and I am glad my friend has real love. Teach your niggas so I can get one.”
We laughed and continued talking about random shit until everybody else got up, and then we took a stop to stretch.
Kenya was nothing to play with on the interstate. Because of her and her heavy ass foot, we were halfway there.
We stopped, went into some diner, and sat down to eat. While we were waiting for our food to come, Renee asked, “How are you gonna find where she’s at?”
I took a sip of my orange juice. “We are gonna go out Crenshaw. He’s a known nigga out there from what Islah said. Somebody out there is going to know something.”
They all nodded.
“I like that plan,” Keith added.
I looked around at all of them.
“I am doing this alone. Keith and Sammy, if you want to be on standby, then get a rental when we touch down, but I’ma be in them streets looking for him alone.”
“Can I ask why you don’t want help?” Deja asked.
“Because this is a fight between me and him. Having my niggas with me is cool and all, but I can take him and any nigga that pull up with him alone.”
My niggas told them I wasn’t joking.
After breakfast, we hopped back in the car, and Sammy drove. I rolled up, checked on work, and talked with Katie to see if Amir was okay.
I had a lot on my plate, but I was holding it all together. My calm demeanor was a front for the way I was gonna let shit off when I saw Gio, and I couldn’t wait.