Chapter 44
forty-four
He woke up to nothing. Every trace outside of her lingering scent and an eyelash cluster, gone.
The only number he remembered was disconnected.
There was a swirl of irritation and dare he name it, abandonment.
His own childhood traumas coming out to play at the most inopportune time.
He had commitments. East was depending on him to be on the sound stage hyping him up as he rapped the lyrics they’d worked out the night before.
After he dressed and packed his things, he made a phone call to Fahaad.
He heard what she said last night and understood it completely.
She’d been working harder than her peers to get where she was.
This call wasn’t to undermine her; this call was to put a connection together.
When everything cleared, he wanted his talent ready and protected.
“Could’ve sworn I came out here to work,” Cairo replied. “I’m gon’ keep this short because I got to get to this stage and some shit threw me off this morning. You got space to manage someone else?”
“New, old, or established?” Fahaad quizzed.
“New. Azul. Good head on his shoulders, we just got to keep him out of bullshit,” Cairo answered. “Meaning I’m bringing him back to L.O. and putting him up in a spot.”
“Aight, tell you what. I’ll get up with you on Monday, and I’ll see how this young bull moves,” Fahaad seemingly agreed.
“Aight.”
The call ended and in stride Cairo, was riding the elevator down to his room. The moment the doors opened, East was on the other side, ready to go. The men continued the ride, both in their own heads. Hitting the lobby, they strolled off, being met by CiCi and her iPad.
“Good morning, Cairo. Kamilla has given me strict instructions to assist you for the rest of the weekend. Kwan is outside waiting,” she spoke professionally, flashing both of them a smile.
Cairo scoffed lowly to himself. The audacity to steal off on him in the middle of the night but still make sure he was covered.
Yeah, she still loved him and was playing the most unnecessary game of denial.
This only cemented that after East won the hype competition, they were all on the first thing smoking.
“Shit, I don’t have to run? Hell yeah,” East jeered, taking off toward the breezeway where Kwan was waiting.
“CiCi,” Cairo grumbled.
“If you ask me where she is or if I can call her or give you her number, the answer to all three is no. Not because I wouldn’t want to because you’re big and scary and snarling at me.
But because she’s bigger and scarier and this is the first time in two years that I’ve been assigned to the field, so I won’t fuck it up.
You’ll just have to hunt your prey, and something tells me if you caught her once, you’ll catch her again,” CiCi rambled off the answer to all of his questions.
He groaned inwardly. “Fair. How about this, call the pilot and tell him we’re wheels up when we get off the stage.”
“Now that’s more like it, Mr.C4,” CiCi agreed, tapping on her screen and sashaying to the exit.
C4: tell Dania I need a hot plate of food in my hand in five hours
Nate: you gonna have me cussed out, take her with you when you done
C4: Hell nah, that’s yours to have and hold
On the sound stage, Cairo stood in the wings, watching East rap his heart out. Pure, raw, loyal talent that he was proud to have snatched up before the vultures did. The sound of hardbottom shoes entering his space caught his attention briefly.
Sincere came with his hands up. “Peace, nigga.”
Cairo laughed.
“You laughing because you know your reputation proceeds you. I didn’t want to get beat up and questioned later. I’m a pretty nigga,” Sincere joked with ease. “That you?”
“Yeah, getting him signed. You found one?”
“Nah, I’m here for the views and the vibes. Both at the same time is the time I’m on. How’s Kamilla?” he asked, getting to the part of the reason he was occupying space.
“This shit with Rowdy threw her off.”
“Yeah, I could see it. First time I found about his diagnosis was when he started tripping on me. The weed and the liquor was enough to set him off. Anyway, when you see her, tell her we took care of the manager issue. Nigga won’t be seeing shit, saying shit, or walking nowhere. Dropped him and left him.”
“Will do,” Cairo muttered, seeing in real time, how both sides of L.O. looked out for his heart.
“Make sure when Lucci signs him, y’all tell that temperamental nigga I’m getting on a track with him.” Sincere’s head turned when a woman switched by. “And there goes a view right there I’m trying to catch a vibe with.”
Cairo chuckled to himself listening to the hardbottoms hurry off. “Chasing pussy got to be tiresome.”
East wrapped up his moment on stage and then stood in the wings by Cairo.
“How you feelin’, Azul?” Cairo asked.
“Like I’m flying,” East admitted.
“Remember how it feels right now. Don’t forget it.”
The pair waited another twenty minutes for the other artists to perform and then the results to be announced.
The deejay’s chuckle into the mic made East sway.
He hadn’t won anything in his life, but the mere fact he was here standing next to Cairo meant he was on the right track.
It also meant that this had to work out or he would be couch surfing again or worse, back in prison.
“Y’all give it up for muhfuckin’ East Way P and producer C4! Yeah, them niggas worth all the hype,” DJ Hype Report announced, throwing Cairo a nod.
As he nudged East back on the stage to get his money and trophy, Cairo threw a nod back. Purposely, Cairo had omitted the fact that the winner got a thousand dollars and a featured spot on the Hype Report. He wanted East on the stage just to feel what flying felt like.
They moved off the stage after East put the check in his shoe.
“I got a proposition for you,” Cairo started.
“I’m all ears,” East said, blindly trusting him.
“Let’s fly back to L.O. I’ll put you up in an apartment, set you up with a manager, and we prep for El Jefe. The next two weeks are crucial. You got to lay low, build your muscle up, and get ready for how this shit is about to take off.”
“I’m not trying to sound like a simp or no weird shit like that, C4. But on everything, I’ll follow you off a cliff if you said I could fly,” East stated, solidifying that Cairo’s ear hadn’t led him wrong.
“Then let’s fly, nigga,” Cairo replied.
An hour and a half later, they were on the private jet headed back to L.O.
True to his word, Cairo had East in one bedroom apartment outside of the city in a decent neighborhood.
Before he left, he gave him a roll of cash and a directive to get a bed, food, any necessary items he needed to survive and not to get caught up in no bullshit.
Next stop, Nate’s to press Dania about where his woman had run off to. Upon knocking, he was met by the cutest little girl he’d ever seen. His heart melted when she looked up at him in her princess dress, full sass, and her hand on her hip.
“Are you my Uncle Cairo?” she asked.
“That’s me,” he assured, lowering himself to her level. “Are you my niece Malayna?”
“That’s me,” she cheered, before throwing her arms around his neck.
Cairo hugged her and Nate antagonized him.
“Big ass C4, a sucker for a princess with a sassy ass attitude. Awww. Welcome to hell,” Nate joked and Cairo flicked him off.
He stood with Malayna in his arms. “Dania, I don’t smell shit cooking.”
“Nate didn’t tell you what I said, I see. I don’t cook on the weekends. The best I can do is a slice of cold pizza. And that’s not even why you came over here,” Dania sounded off.
“Uh oh,” Malayna winced. “Mommy is using that voice, you’re in trrouuubblleee.”
She hopped out his arms and scurried off to her room. Once she disappeared from Cairo’s sight, he looked at Nate who shrugged.
“She don’t cook at all. She’s killing me slowly,” Nate teased, earning a pillow launched at him.
“Shut up, boy,” Dania huffed. “I ordered you food. Because all you want to do is press me about where my friend is. When I should be asking you what you did to make her leave in the middle of the night.”
Nate sat down and watched the back and forth, preparing himself for the C4 he knew. The tycoon of crazy.
“I didn’t do shit. That nigga RowdyRedd had an episode and after that, she shut everything down. I just want the lo.”
“I’m not giving that to you. Sorry, I can’t,” Dania replied. “You know Rowdy and her pops were best friends. They kept it low, but Rowdy was around for a while. So his episodes sometimes tend to sour her mood.”
“No, I didn’t know that,” Cairo huffed, as he sat down. Baby girl was back, this time with a doll for him and her.
She climbed up by his side and popped the head off of the brand new doll Nate just got for her. An infectious giggle rattled her body. “My cousin showed me that. You do it.”
Nate attempted to talk over her. “Talk to me about this nigga you found in the desert.”
“I think the food is here,” Dania mumbled, getting up to leave Nate in the viper’s pit. She snatched up her daughter in the process, attempting to cover up her big mouth.
“Wait, Mommy, I want to show him Kairo. They have the same face!” she shouted before Dania muffled the rest of her words.
Cairo looked at Nate, his brain trying to regulate what it heard. “How she get a cousin named Kairo?”
Nate stood, trying to avert his attention from the wall of photos. “Let’s talk out here, man.”
“Nahhh,” Cairo trilled dangerously calm; standing and moving right to the wall. He plucked a frame off housing a photo of Kamilla, a baby boy, Dania, and his niece. “What the fuck is this?!”
Nate pulled in a breath. “Hear me, nigga.”
“Nah, the time for being heard is over. Is this my fuckin’ son?” Cairo asked, losing the battle to temper himself. “Never mind, fuck all that. Give me the lo, Nate. I’m not in the fuckin’ mood for you to play with me.”