Chapter 7
“You sure you wanna do this?” Finn turned to Rose and asked.
Parked in a random car watching a house down the block, Rose cleaned his gun and checked his clip with a blunt dangling off his lip that he took a puff from every now and then. Finn studied him because he seemed so focused.
“Yup,” Rose said, screwing a silencer on his weapon.
When he was done, he met Finn with a hard stare before he passed the blunt.
He hadn’t heard from Nadia. She was dodging his calls, had hired some bitch at his gym, and seemingly disappeared.
He didn’t know what she was up to, and some of his business accounts were showing that money was moving.
He didn’t know where to find her, but he was pretty sure that Forrest was still moving around.
The house was his spot with his crew, and Rose needed answers one way or another.
He played no games when it came to his people or his money.
“She’s possibly pregnant, with my kid, and she took off without a word. She left some bitch in charge at my business that I don’t even fucking know. I need fucking answers,” Rose countered as Finn took a few tokes of the weed.
“How does this work with Minx, if Nadia is carrying your baby?”
“At this point, I will knock that bitch off myself and worry about my own damn kid. Nadia is a liability a nigga don’t need at this time in life,” Rose conveyed.
“Minx is my rib. I can’t walk through this shit without her.
If there’s ever a choice between her and Nadia, I’m always choosing her.
I gotta remind her of that shit every day. ”
“Minx is crazy, but deep down, she knows that nobody even stands a chance against her position in your life. She got ya ass wide the fuck open right about now. A blind mothafucka could see that.” Finn teased, then laughed.
“Fuck you,” Rose said, his eyes on the house as he watched movement take place.
The front door opened, and out walked Forrest. The nigga was looking like he didn’t have a care in the world, chatting it up with someone on the phone and paying no attention to his surroundings. He and Finn watched a black car roll up with tint, and Forrest went to get inside.
“Follow him,” Rose instructed, and Finn shifted gears then maneuvered from the curb.
He stayed a couple of cars behind the Malibu all the way to the highway. Rain sprinkled the windshield as Finn continued behind the car.
“You really think he’s going to lead us to Nadia?” He asked.
“I’m banking on it. She’s communicating with somebody. I think this baby is his too.” Rose tugged on the last of the weed before dropping the roach in the ashtray.
Pistol in his lap, eyes glued to the back of the Malibu, he anxiously waited.
Arriving on the outskirts of town, very low-populated, the car parked and waited at the curb.
Finn slid into a spot a couple of houses down on the back road with a perfect view.
Forrest hopped out and skipped up the staircase.
The door opened, but he didn’t see anyone as he stepped over the threshold inside.
Frowning, Rose only grew more frustrated.
“I’m gonna walk the perimeter. Holler if something shakes around here,” Rose said, reaching for the door handle.
Neither were aware of the tail on them. Finn was so focused on keeping up with Forrest that he wasn’t paying attention to who was keeping up with him.
Gerardo Martinez parked with one of his soldiers as Rose hopped out of the car and cut through the thick trees toward the house at the end of the street.
“?Que quieres hacer? (What do you want to do)?” Jesus, Gerardo’s cousin, questioned.
“We wait. Follow them. I don’t want to make a move until we are absolutely sure,” Gerardo replied.
When they learned more about Rose and his background, they decided to pay him a visit.
After working with him in Miami, Gerardo respected him.
He knew that a man like Rose had heart. He didn’t back down, even in the face of trouble.
Fisting his beard, Gerardo watched as Rose disappeared behind the house ahead.
Pablo, Gerardo’s cousin, was gunned down about two months ago.
After learning that some black man from the Midwest was involved, Gerardo did his research, and all roads led to Rose.
They were in town for answers only. If what they learned ended up leading to taking someone’s life, that was what it was going to be.
Gerardo had no qualms about it. Where he was from, it was eye for an eye.
Across the street, Rose was able to peek through a window where he spotted Forrest in the face of an angry Nadia. Screaming, face scrunched up, and a belly hanging over her pants. No denying she was carrying somebody’s child. Rose traipsed to the back of the house.
“Fuck you, Forrest! You had one fucking job!” She raised her finger and got in his face. “I’m walking around here pregnant as fuck, and now I’m a fucking target! What happened to being my man and holding me down? Rose is going to kill you and then he’s coming for me, in that fucking order.”
“No the fuck he ain’t. I got leverage against him,” Forrest spoke up.
“Yeah? And what’s that, huh? That paperwork don’t mean shit. All he has to do is get a lawyer and prove the shit was forged. We fucked up!”
“Calm the fuck down, a’ight? I got a plan. Tonight is the event for his girl and Finn’s bitch. The flyers been all over town. I’m going to snatch that hoe. He’ll do anything for her, right?” Forrest grinned wickedly.
Rose heard enough. He went around back of the house and paused.
Without hesitation, he kicked in the back door, knocking it off the hinges.
Screaming and cowering in a corner, Nadia squeezed her eyes shut, and Forrest immediately went into his waist for his gun.
Before he could draw on Rose, a bullet went through his hand, and his gun thudded against the floor.
“Argh!” Face tight in a grimace, Forrest looked down at his bloody hand. “The fuck—”
Rose stepped inside, weapon aimed at both of them, waving it back and forth so they didn’t get any ideas. Nadia nearly pissed herself.
“Rose, I—” Teeth chattering, shaking like a leaf in the wind, she pleaded with him.
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled.
“Rose, just let me explain…”
“Explain what? You lying about every fucking thing? You trying to take some shit from me that I helped build? Or laying up with this fuck ass nigga? What you wanna talk about first, Nadia?” Rose questioned, eyes never budging from Forrest.
“What brings you around these parts? You thought you was getting something else coming here?” Forrest taunted.
Rose fired another shot, this time to his leg, right in the thigh.
“Argh! Fuck!” Forrest hissed, throwing his head back before he slammed into the counter behind him.
Nadia’s high-pitched wails erupted within the room.
In that moment, watching Forrest be broken down in front of her, she fell apart.
She didn’t like him most days, but he’d been there for her recently.
He was doing his best to prove to her that he cared about her.
It was way more effort than Rose ever put in.
She was tired of falling for his same game.
Rose used her. He took advantage of how she felt and depended on her loyalty.
Forrest didn’t treat her like an accessory that he could slide on his wrist or finger when he felt like it, depending on the outfit.
He included her in it all. Rose kept her compact, in a fucking box, and she’d been suffocating for years.
“No!” Nadia ran up on Rose, and his instincts took over before he could process what was going down.
Nadia reached for his gun, wrestling him.
Of course he gained the upper hand, twisting her arm until they were pressed into one another.
Looking into her eyes, his mouth tight with anger, Rose’s shadowy irises bounced around hers.
Pow!
When the gun went off, both Rose and Nadia’s faces shifted into shock and despair.
Mouth slipping open in horror, face scrunching up in pain, she yanked way from him.
Blood stained her shirt, and Rose remained on his feet, watching her stumble back and lose her balance.
The bullet found a home, right in her belly.
A sudden pang of guilt hit him in his chest when he saw her fall over.
“Baby! Shit! Nadia!” Forrest crawled toward her sprawled out on the kitchen floor.
Trembling, she gripped her enlarged belly, fingers dripping with her own blood. Spread out on the floor across from her, reached for her. He ran his fingers through her hair, and with tears in his eyes he kissed her forehead.
“F-Forrest,” Nadia stammered.
“I’m here… shhh… it’s okay,” he assured her. “I fucked up. I fucked up,” he repeated over and over.
Rose squeezed off on both one last time before backing toward the exit.
There were certain moments in time when he had to turn off the humane side.
It usually came in the midst of war. This was what they were dealing with.
He didn’t have time to dwell on whether it was right or moral.
What he was sure of in that moment was that Forrest was going to be a problem.
Him and Nadia were going against him for a long time.
Unfortunately the child became a casualty in some shit they set in motion.
What kind of world would he or she be brought into with neither parent around?
Rose didn’t give it much thought as he fled the scene.
Finn rolled down the street the minute he spotted his boy and Rose slipped right into the passenger seat, not even giving him time to come to a full stop.