14. Touch Down
Touch Down
We finally made it to Cali, and it was hot as hell with no breeze in sight.
I had the girls find us a hotel while I drove around getting a feel for the city, thinking about how Islah looked like she fit in perfectly there, but it was time for her to come home.
When Kenya found a hotel that was good enough for me, we pulled up there and everybody checked into a room.
The girls shared a room, Keith and Sammy shared a room, then I got a presidential suite for me and Islah.
We all went off to our different floors, with all of them saying they would meet me at my room in a lil’ bit.
The room was everything I expected it to be, but it still needed my final touch. I was on my phone Googling shit when they all popped back up on me.
“You ’bout to hit the streets now?” Keith asked.
I shook my head. “Nah, first I have to get the room ready for her.”
“Well, while you do that, we are going to sleep,” Deja added.
“And we gonna slide and get a rental,” Sammy expressed.
“Cool, I will holla at y’all in a lil’ bit.”
They left my room, and I put in some pickup orders for a few different stores on Melrose. That Cali heat wasn’t for me to be shopping in.
Once everything was almost ready, I headed in that direction, easing through traffic while watching my surroundings.
I finally made it to Melrose and stopped at Gucci, Chanel, Prada, and Fendi. After that, I went to Ulta and picked out Islah’s face masks along with her cleansing shit and that Beyoncé line for her hair.
After that, I found a Target, and I got her a back massager, some pajamas, and her favorite ice cream.
I also grabbed some rose petals. Then I took everything back to the room and got it all set up the way I wanted it, so when she walked in, she knew ain’t shit changed.
Once it was to my liking, I left back out to hit the streets.
I made my way out Crenshaw and Slauson and drove around in circles looking for Islah or Gio. I turned down one block near some apartments, and I saw some niggas standing on the corner.
“Aye, y’all know a nigga name Gio?” I asked them.
Most of them didn’t want to speak, but one did after he realized I wasn’t movin’.
“I know of him, but the nigga you should ask lives in them apartments over there; his name is Bully.”
I smiled to myself. I remembered Islah saying that name before.
“What apartment does he live in?”
“Left side, last one on the top.”
I nodded. “Good lookin’.”
I pulled into the apartment complex, looking around. I guessed that’s where she was living with him.
I parked my car and hopped out, almost getting beaten back in the car by the heat, but I continued up the steps and banged on the door.
A few seconds passed, and the door opened quick. A big nigga stood there looking like he was holding something under his stomach.
“Yeah,” he said, looking me up and down.
“Wussup, nigga?” I responded.
The nigga was still looking me up and down until it clicked.
“Love! You’re Love, right?” he asked.
“Yeah, do you know where Gio is?”
That nigga’s face lit up.
“Hell yeah, let me write the address down for you.”
He walked into his house, and I stepped in behind him.
“Have you seen Islah?” I asked
“Nah, I haven’t, but I’ve talked to people that have. They tried to help her leave, but that nigga mind is fucked up. I told that nigga a few days ago to let her go. They said she’s at the house with him.”
I took the paper from Bully.
“Good look, is anybody with him?” I asked, not scared, just wanting to know what I was about to walk into.
“Nah, I told the block not to fuck with him. Islah is a good girl. He needs to leave her alone. My number on the paper if you need me.”
I dapped Bully up and walked outta his house and hopped back in my car. After putting the address in my GPS, I called Keith and let him know the move.
“That nigga got the streets against him,” I explained. “I found that nigga Bully, even he’s tired of Gio.”
Keith and Sammy laughed.
“I am thinking about paying his niggas to beat his ass for me while I watch,” I continued.
“What are you about to do now?” Sammy asked.
“What the fuck do you mean? I’m on my way to get my girl. I will be there in a few.”
After an hour in traffic, I finally made it to the house, and no car was there. I pulled right in front and tried to kick the door open.
“ISLAH! ISLAH!” I yelled out, looking around the house.
I tried every door, every window. That nigga did his big one, knowing I was coming for him.
“ISLAH, COME ON BABY, I AM HERE!” I yelled out again, looking up at all the windows, and then I saw her.
My love, my wife.
I damn near wanted to drop to my knees and cry, but I kept my shit together.
I tried to break the windows, but that shit wouldn’t work. She tried to get her window open, and it wouldn’t work.
I didn’t know what to get, what to do.
“Baby, I am going to get you out. I gotta…I gotta think this out.”
I could sit and wait for the nigga to pull up, and he could do something dumb to me or to her.
I could tell my baby had been crying, and it was nothing I wanted more than to hold her in my arms.
“Give me a day, one day baby, let me see how we gonna get it.”
Islah wiped her tears and nodded at me.
“I love you!” I yelled out.
She made a heart shape with her hands for me as I pulled off.
As I drove, I punched the steering wheel, mad that I left without her, but I was determined to come up with a plan.
I stopped at a stop sign, trying to decide what I wanted to do when another car pulled up to the right of me. Lo and behold, it was that clown ass nigga Gio.
We stared at each other for a second. I turned my wheel and smashed the gas, ready to run into the side of him, but he pulled off just in time.
“FUCK!” I yelled out.
I turned the truck around and followed behind him down some wide-ass street with people and kids walking all around, but I was on his ass.
“COME ON, NIGGA!” I yelled out. “LET'S DO THIS!”
I bumped his bumper, and he looked back at me while throwing up his middle finger.
I shook my head while laughing. “Oh, buddy, I’ma kill you!”
Gio took a quick left. I took a quick left. He took a quick right. I took a quick right. This nigga then took a fuckin’ roundabout, and I lost him behind an 18-wheeler.
I took the first right out of the roundabout and continued straight for a few miles, and didn’t see him, causing me to stop.
“FUCKKK!!” I yelled out again.
I couldn’t believe I lost him.
Once I got back to the hotel, I called all of them to the room and explained to them what was going on.
“I saw that nigga! I went to the house, I tried to get her out and couldn’t, and when I left, I saw him. Then lost him.”
I slammed my hands on the counter, still pissed.
“Calm down, blood. It’s okay,” Keith said.
“No, the fuck it is not! Did you hear me? I lost her; I couldn’t get into the house. How the fuck are we supposed to get her out?”
“Did Islah see you?” Deja asked.
I nodded. “I made sure of that.”
“Well, there you go!” Renee said, trying to sound positive. “She saw you, she knows you’re trying, and you know she will too.”
Keith, Sammy, Deja, and Kenya nodded and agreed with her.
“You don’t want to do it while he’s there?” Kenya asked.
“That’s not the problem; even his nigga said that his mind wasn’t right. I don’t want him to try to do something to her. Once I get her, all hell can break loose.”
“Shit, let’s fuck the rental up,” Sammy said.
“No, it has to be another way,” Deja expressed.
I shook my head. “I don’t think it is. Fuck it, I’ll pay the ticket.”
Kenya stood up. “We are not gonna fuck up no cars driving into a house. What if you fuck yourself up? He was gone around this time today, so tomorrow we go watch around the same time. Maybe he will be gone, or if he’s home, maybe it won’t be hard to get in with all of us.
Then, after we get her out,” Kenya turned and looked at me, “you can handle Gio.”
I shook my head. “So I have to go one more day without my girl?”
Kenya looked at me, sad. “I know, we all want her home.”
I didn’t say shit to them, I just got up and left outta my own room. Once I got outside, I looked around for a bit, then started walking.
I was tired of this fight. I had finally locked my eyes on Islah, the first time in weeks, and I couldn’t get to her.
That nigga was really trying to keep her away from me, keep her away from moving on like the bitch ass nigga that he was.
I looked up at the purple and pink sky through the palm trees, finally feeling a breeze since I got in Cali, and closed my eyes for a second. Trying times like this, I wish I still had my mom around to talk to, to calm me down since I can’t talk to my woman right now.
After a while, I walked back to the hotel and went up to my room. All of them were still in there waiting for me.
“You good?” Keith asked.
I nodded, grabbing the car keys.
“Yeah, I’m finna go camp outside that house all night. I be damned that I found her and I leave her alone anymore.”
“Hold on, nigga,” Sammy said, standing up. “We coming with you.”
They all nodded and were walking out to get their shit while I looked at them crazy.
“And is. She’s your wife, but she’s our girl too,” Renee expressed.
I let the shit happen. I was tired of arguing with them too. Once everybody had what they needed, we hopped in the truck and headed back over to Gio’s house.
By the time we got over there, it was dark, but that was perfect for us to park and get a good view of the house.
Where I parked, I had a clear view of the front door and the room I saw Islah in.
“His car is right in front,” Sammy said.
I nodded, thinking about running in right then, but Kenya kept us on track to stick to the plan for tomorrow.
None of us slept the whole night. We watched the lights go on and off in the house, saw blinds moving but saw no faces. The light in Islah’s room was on most of the time, and then it was off, and I just prayed my babies were getting some rest.
When 7 a.m. hit, I drove around the corner for us to pee and get some coffee before we rushed back to the house.
“Listen, Deja, knock on the door like you are selling some shit. Keith and Sammy, rush him. Kenya, run upstairs and find Islah. I’ma finish the nigga off.”
It was nothing else to talk about, they all agreed with the plan.
“Sammy, hand me my shit.”
Sammy reached in the back and handed me my ARP. I was about to drive straight into his driveway when I saw the front door open, and Islah walk out with him.
“There she is!” Deja screamed. “There’s Islah.”
I stopped the car, and she looked at me, giving me a wink with a slight nod as she got in his car. That clown was smiling so damn hard that the only thing he saw was her.
“She has a plan,” I said softly.
“So, what do we do?” Renee asked.
“We follow them.”