Chapter 10 Giovani “Ghost” Baxter #2
I pulled open the gate door and was banging on Bashar’s mom’s door like I was MPD.
“Who the fuck is it?” I could hear him on the other side.
“It’s Ghost, open the door nigga.”
He pulled the door open, and when he did, I didn’t waste any time.
I pulled the gun from my waistband and forced my way inside, shoving him back before he could even react properly.
I knew that his mother wasn’t home because I didn’t see her raggedy ass, rusted Honda Accord in the driveway.
The door shut behind us, and the energy shifted immediately.
“Yo, what the hell?” he started, stumbling back.
“Don’t,” I cut him off while raising the gun just enough to stop him where he stood. “Don’t act confused. You were talking really crazy earlier on the phone.”
His eyes flickered to the gun and then back to me. I could tell that he was trying to decide how to play it.
“Man, you ain’t have to come in here like that,” he said, holding his hands up halfway. “We could’ve talked.”
“We did talk,” I snapped while stepping closer. “What did you say? Oh…you said you were gonna run your mouth if you ain’t get paid.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t back down the way he should’ve. The way I wanted him to.
“I meant that,” he said. “I ain’t playing. I put you on that move. That’s my play too.”
I stared at him for a second. This nigga had a gun pointed at his chest, and he was still playing tough.
“You think that’s how this works?” I asked in a low voice. My voice was dangerous in a way that didn’t need to be loud. “You drop a location, and now you a nigga partner?”
“I ain’t say partner,” he shot back quickly. “I said I want my cut. That’s fair.”
“Fair?” I let out a short laugh while shaking my head. “What’s fair is that you’re still breathing after making a threat earlier.”
That made him pause, just for a second. But it wasn’t enough. This truly wasn’t the same nigga that I thought I had known.
“You’re trying to scare me,” he said as he squared up a little. “I’m not one of them scared little niggas no more. I’m not about to back down because you pulled up with a gun.”
He moved before I could finish a thought.
His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. He was trying to push the gun away, and just like that, we crashed into each other.
Our bodies slammed into the wall as we fought for control.
We were literally fighting over the gun, and it was caught between us in a way that made everything unpredictable.
“Man, you are tripping!” I barked while trying to twist free.
“Give me that!” he grunted as he gripped my wrist tighter.
Adrenaline had to push him harder than I expected.
I was bigger than him in every shape and form, yet he was getting the best of me.
We stumbled back into the living room and started knocking into furniture.
Our feet were sliding as we struggled. Neither one of us wanted to let go.
I could tell that by the look in his eye that if he got a good hold of my gun, he would indeed shoot me with it.
The gun shifted, turned, pressed between us, and then it went off.
The sound was loud enough to stop everything.
My ears were ringing in the small space.
His grip loosened as his body jerked and then went still. And then… he dropped.
For a second, I just stood there, breathing heavily while staring down at him like my mind was trying to catch up to what just happened.
This wasn’t the plan. I came to scare him.
Suddenly, a small cry cut through the silence.
It was soft, and the tone was shaky, like whoever it came from was hurt.
I turned my head toward the hallway, and that’s when I saw her.
A little girl stood there with the fastener to her little dirty onesie undone.
She had to be no more than two years old.
A lump formed in my throat as I saw her standing there with tears running down her face.
Her tear-filled eyes went from looking at me to looking at him. She looked just like Bashar.
They had the same eyes and the same face. My chest tightened for a split second before I pushed it down. She started crying louder and calling out to him. Dada… Dada… I could tell that she was not understanding why he wasn’t getting up.
“Damn…” I muttered while dragging a hand over my face.
I moved quickly after that. Bashar didn’t live in the best neighborhood, so I’m sure that the police would drag their ass with responding to the sound of the gun.
That’s if anyone even reported it. I had to move swiftly.
I checked the rest of the house out of instinct.
All the rooms, corners, and even under the beds.
I had to make sure nobody else was there.
It was just them. I didn’t know what to do with her, but I knew one thing for sure: she couldn’t come with me.
Her cries followed me out. This wasn’t something I could fix.
I made my way to the door, opened it, and stepped out without looking back.
I pulled the door shut behind me as her cries echoed in my ears.
I had made it outside with all the air in the world to breathe, yet I felt like I couldn’t take a steady breath.
Being out of that house didn’t change anything.