Chapter 35
Forever?
It was about three or four in the morning, I had just made love to Islah, and we were lying in bed, listening to the waves crash onto the beach. She was laid up under me like she was supposed to be, my finger softly doing circles on her thigh.
“I know I just gave you a baby,” I blurted out, making her look up at me, and we both laughed.
“Stop playing,” she said softly.
“When have I ever played with you, baby girl? I’m just knocking things off your list.”
She rolled her eyes with a soft laugh.
“I wanted to do things right, be married first.”
“We will be,” I said quickly. “We can get married tomorrow for all I care. All I need is you, damn people watching us.”
She turned over on her stomach to face me and had a smile on her face.
“I kinda like that small wedding vibe.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? What’s ya idea?”
“I don’t want nothing crazy, we could do a few friends, or just us. I just don’t want to feel overwhelmed.”
I nodded. “We can do it wherever you want. Beach, boat, flower garden…just say the word, and I will make it happen.”
She smiled a lil’, but I could tell she was still thinking.
“You serious about this?”
I sat up a lil’ bit. “Girl, why do you keep asking me that? I just told you I gave you a baby—you think I’ve been playin’ with you this whole time?”
“No!” she said quickly. “I don’t know… sometimes it just feels too good to be true.”
I leaned down, getting all in her face. “It’s real, you are here, you are going to be my wife, and the mother of ALL my kids.”
She nodded as I kissed her, then got back comfortable.
We stayed quiet for a lil’ bit, the waves were still the only noise around us. Her head ended up back on my chest, and I could feel her breathing slow down again
My mind was moving, not in a bad way; I was just picturing Islah in a dress, walking down the aisle to me, and me placing the ring on her finger. It was a beautiful thought that got interrupted by both of our phones ringing from the living room. We looked at each other.
“At the same time, tho?” Islah pointed out.
I nodded. “Yeah… I don’t like that.”
We took our time getting outta bed. Both of us needed to put on some clothes, as we moved around the room, our phones didn’t stop ringing.
“Maybe it’s people trying to congratulate us, you know, you finally posted the picture,” Islah added.
I nodded, but the hairs on my arms were standing up, a feeling I used to get back in the day when shit was about to hit the fan.
I didn’t let Islah know what I was feeling. We walked out to the living room, and Islah picked up our phones.
“Who is calling you?” I asked.
“Kenya, and Keith is callin’ you.”
I took the phone from him and walked off.
“Wussup nigga?” I said, answering.
“We have a problem,” Keith said. “The store was hit.”
I looked toward Islah while she was talking on the phone. Her face was all scrunched up while she was talking.
“What the fuck you mean the store was hit?” I asked.
“Somebody broke in, glass is everywhere, the counters are flipped, your office was broken into.”
I let out a sigh. “Iight, we’ll be on the way back.”
We hung up our phones at the same time, and Islah walked over to me, looking scared as she sat on my lap.
“Kenya said Gio walked up on her at the hospital. She said he was questioning her about me and where I was.”
That name made the room feel different, not even loud different, just heavy.
I tapped her on the thigh. “Okay, we need to get dressed and go home.”
“What was Keith calling you about?”
I paused before I answered her, wanting to make sure what I thought was goin’ on was true before I moved on it.
“Business, baby, come on, let’s get ready.”
She looked at me like she wanted to ask more, but she didn’t press it and started moving.
It took me a lil’ bit of time, and a lot of bread, but I got us some return flights home days before we were supposed to leave.
Islah laid her head on me the whole flight and was knocked out. I couldn’t sleep; I sketched and thought the whole time, putting all the pieces I had together. The timing, the break-in, him poppin’ up on Kenya, all that shit didn’t line up for nothing.
As soon as we landed, I was already waking Islah up and calling for a car to get us. Islah held on to me tight as we made our way off the plane and to grab our bags, still half asleep. We had like a ten-minute wait for the car; those ten minutes felt like an hour.
“Baby, are you okay?” Islah asked.
I gave her a slight smile. “I’m okay, luv, just want to make sure everything is okay.”
She didn’t press it.
The driver finally pulled up; we quickly walked out, and he took our bags while we hopped in the back.
“Two stops,” I said to the driver, then I tapped Islah on her thigh. “Give the driver Kenya’s address,” Islah raised an eyebrow.
“You are not gonna come with me?”
“After I check on somethin’ at the store.”
She watched me for a second, like she was tryin’ to read if I was lying or not, but she didn’t push it. She did what I asked, then leaned into me, her hand resting on top of mine like she needed that contact.
The ride was quiet.
I placed my hand on her thigh, trying to keep myself grounded for whatever I was about to see at my store.
When we pulled up to Kenya’s, I got out first, walked around, and opened the door for her.
Islah took my hand as she walked out, and I walked her to the door.
She hugged me and kissed me before she cuffed my face softly with her hand.
“You gonna call me and let me know you’re okay?”
“Of course, baby, tell ya girls we will go out to dinner after I make sure this shit is straight, and tell Kenya I’ll have some of my niggas slide through.”
She laughed, kissed me again, and walked inside. I didn’t move an inch until she was outta eyesight, and then I looked around, making sure I didn’t see anybody just sitting.
When I hopped back in the car, the driver looked at me.
“Take me to my store,” I said, knowing the nigga already knew who I was. On the way, I texted Keith and told him to have a blunt put together for me.
The driver pulled off, and I closed my eyes for a second, preparing myself. That peace didn’t last long cause Islah started taking me, worried about Gio walking up on her friend, saying she’s now scared that the nigga was always watching.
I took a deep breath, and was texting her back not to worry when I looked up, and from two stop lights away, I saw lights flashing in front of my store.
Once we got closer, I saw people in front, tape around my store, officers, and Keith outside talking.
“Stop here!” I told the driver in the middle of the street.
I hopped out with our bags, lookin’ crazy at my store. Just from outside, I could see everything down inside. Keith walked away from the police and over to me.
“Nigga, I don’t know what this shit is about, nothing is missing.”
I nodded.
“Put our shit in your car,” I said as I gave him everything, and walked straight past the police who were trying to get my attention and walked through the broken glass door, looking at my store.
Glass crunched under my shoes as I walked through. Cases were flipped, chains, rings, diamonds, everything, all over the place. My eyes scanned the whole room in silence, my door kicked in, shit thrown.
This break-in wasn’t some YNs in the street; it was personal.
Keith and the police walked in behind me as I looked around.
“Nothing was missing?” I asked.
“No,” Keith spoke up. “Nothing is missing from what I can see.”
I nodded, walking around some more quietly, every step around what I work so hard to build felt like the old side of my trying to creep up, the part of me I’ve been keeping tucked away—the part that didn’t care about no business, no image, straight Zone 6 nigga.
It just needed a reason, and between my store and her, this felt like the reason.
I ran my hand across one of the broken cases, lettin’ the glass scrape against my palm, Islah texting my phone, but I couldn’t respond.
“Do you have cameras, sir?” one of the officers asked me.
“Yeah, in my office.”
They followed behind me, trying to watch where they stepped. In my office, my shit was thrown, the computer screen was cracked, loose diamond, papers, and everything. I shook my head, picked up my chair, and took a seat.
“I can pull it up on my phone.”
As I pulled up the app on my phone, ran the camera back from the night before, I stared at it, watching the break-in happen. I watched it all the way to the end, then placed my phone on my desk and looked up at the officers and Keith.
“Look, officer, nothing is missing; insurance can handle the rest.”
Keith and the officer looked at me strange.
“Are you sure, sir? If you let us see it, we can try to locate who did this.”
I stood up, shaking my head. “No, it’s fine; that’s what insurance is for.”
The officer nodded and let it go; I could tell that he really didn’t want to.
Once they were gone, and the yellow tape was removed from around my store, I called Islah.
“Baby, change of plans, ask Kenya to bring you to the store,” I said before she could say hello, and hung up before she could question me.
“Yo!” Keith asked me. “Everything good?”
I nodded. “It will be; let’s get this shit up.”
We started cleaning, picking up the glass, loose diamonds, gold rings, and everything else that was fucked up. I was calm, maybe too calm, and for me, calm is dangerous.
It took twenty minutes for Islah to get to the store. Once I saw Kenya’s car, I walked out to meet her.
“Baby,” she said as she got out of the car. “What the fuck happened?”
“Come inside,” I responded, not caring about the question she asked.
Most of the floor was picked up, and the girls could walk without falling as they looked around the store, as I pulled the video up.
“Love, I’m so sorry this happened to you. Do you know who did it?” Islah asked.
I smirked. “I’m glad that you asked.”
I pulled out my phone and started to pull up the clip.
“Keith, Kenya, come over here. I want y’all to watch this with us,” I said, getting their attention.
They joined me, and I played the video.
They all stared at the screen, but I watched Islah, her eyebrow raised when she saw the nigga in the camera.
“I know that is not…” Kenya voiced.
Islah cuffed her mouth, looking at the video, then back at me.
“Gio! What the fuck!” That was all Islah could get out.
“Hold on,” I said, listening to the glass smash on the video. “This is where he fucked up.”
I fast-forwarded the video to the end, and they watched Gio kick in my office door, walk in, and back out.
“What the fuck is he doin’?” Keith asked, everybody invested to see what that nigga was gonna do like it was a TV show.
The nigga wrote on a piece of paper Islah is mine with the most unhinged smile I ever seen on a nigga. Making all three of them look at me.
“Gio gotta be on some other shit. That nigga has never did no shit like that…” she paused, and I could see the tears forming in her eyes, and I comforted her.
“I swear I didn’t want to bring any drama into your life. I’m so sorry.”
“This ain’t on you, baby. That nigga lost his damn mind, but I’ma help him find it.”
I went into my office to grab Islah a tissue and happened to look out of the window in passing and stopped in my tracks, seeing somebody standing across the street, staring into my store, wearing all black from head to toe.
“Aye y’all,” I said calmly. “Look outside.”
They did, and Islah gasped.
“What the fuck is Gio doing?”
Once that nigga saw her, he smiled, a smile that didn’t sit right with me at all. Then he walked away like our acknowledgment of him was all he needed.
Kenya wrapped her arms around Islah. She was visibly scared of him, and that was a no-go.
I walked back to Islah and wiped her tears away.
“You know I love you, right?” I asked, and she nodded.
“So you know I have to kill this nigga, right?”
TO BE CONTINUED…