Moses
A month after getting shot, I was still moving slow, but I was breathing and that was enough for me. The pain came and went, but it reminded me every day how close I came to my face being spray painted on a T-shirt.
Since being released from the hospital, I’d been locked in on my family, trying to soak up every second with Kahlani and Trent, and putting whatever energy I had left into my hustle. The near-death experience had put things into perspective.
Rah had been blowing up my phone, but I’d been brushing him off. I didn’t have the patience for his schemes.
But as I stared at the Black Ice lounge, I knew I couldn’t dodge him forever. I took my burner from the glove compartment and put it in my waist. I wanted to keep my promise to Kahlani by not ending up in jail, but if I had to use this motherfucker, I would.
After killing the engine, I hopped out of my ride and trudged through the snow towards the bar. Looking through the picture window, I could see Caine’s punk ass on security and a few people at the bar. It was pretty empty, but it was a Monday, so that was to be expected.
When I walked in, a few sets of eyes bulged at my presence, not believing that I had finally resurfaced. Since getting released from the hospital, I hadn’t showed my face in the hood until now.
“Yoooo, Moses! What’s up my, nigga?”
“Hey, Moses!”
“Looking good, beau.”
I waved, grinned, and nodded at the people that spoke to me and kept making my way towards Rah’s office.
Once at the door, I didn’t knock. I opened it and walked in. Rah’s head swung towards the door, and he looked surprised to see me.
“Moses, what’s up?” As I closed the door, he stood and had the nerve to extend his hand to shake mine, acting as if things were completely normal between us.
I hocked spit right at his outstretched hand. “Fuck your hand, nigga.”
Rah’s eyebrow curled as he stepped back, staring at the rage in my eyes.
“Where the fuck is the money you took from Carlos?” I spat. “That’s all I came for, nigga.”
“I don’t have it.”
I knew he would pull this shit. So, I reached for my burner and up’d it on him.
Pointing it straight at his head, I started making my demands.
“I strongly advise you not to play with me. You damn near got me killed, and I’m an accessory to murder because of your dumb ass.
So, I need half that money. So, I’mma ask you one more time before I kill yo’ ass. Where the fuck is the money?”
“I don’t–”
I cocked the pistol, causing Rah’s eyes to buck. He immediately raised his hands and stepped back.
“Don’t fucking play with me!” I barked.
“I swear to God, Moses. Aaliyah ran off with that shit,” he hurriedly told me. “I’m popped. You think if I had that bread that I would be here, after that shit I did to Carlos?”
Rah was a lying ass bitch, but he was right about that.
I had assumed that once he got out of the hospital that he would be in California or somewhere further by now.
I looked him over. A clown like him would have had on labels and been iced out if he still had that kind of bread.
I noticed the desperation in his eyes. I knew he was telling the truth.
Once I lowered my pistol, he stepped towards me.
“Look, I know you feeling some type of way about what I did to Carlos,” he said. “But I did that for us.”
I shook my head as I returned my pistol to my waist. “You did that for yourself. Fuck you.”
“I can make this shit right,” Rah tried to assure me. “Me and you gotta focus on this music shit. We almost there.”
“Oh, word?” I glared at him, fighting the urge to go against my promises and kill this punk ass bitch. “The meeting with Interscope, right?”
“Hell yeah,” he swore with so much sincerity. “I talked to them earlier. We just need one banging single and we in there.”
I had to laugh. But the chuckle was possessed with fury. “Word?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Word.”
“You a bitch ass nigga.”
Rah’s pleading eyes suddenly turned cold and full of rage. There was the conniving motherfucker I knew. I shook my head, realizing that he was already ready to put on an act, but the real Rah was standing up.
I spat, “I ain’t fucking with you no more.”
His nostrils flared. “How you gonna make it then, lil’ nigga? I own you.”
My rage boiled over to the point that Rah’s smirk weakened. Before I knew it, I had the gun aimed at his head. I squeezed the trigger, ready to end this shit once and for all…
Click.
But the gun jammed.
Rah’s eyes went wide, but not with fear. It was more like shock blended with relief that I hadn’t just blown his brains all over his office. He didn’t even move. He just stood there, chest rising and falling, as if he knew he’d just been saved by a miracle.
I bolted out of his office. Patrons froze, staring at me like I was out of my mind. Security’s eyes trailed me, mouths half-open, but they were slow to react, too stunned to put the pieces together. All I could think was getting out before Rah shook off his shock and pulled his own piece.
I bolted out of the exit and kept running towards my ride. I knew I had just put myself on Rah’s hit list.
As I pulled off, I heard my phone ringing in the pocket of my Pelle. But I was too shook to answer. I wanted to kill him, but I couldn’t believe I was actually about to in a club filled with witnesses. I had almost just broken my promise to Kahlani and her heart.
My phone was ringing again. Thinking it was Rah with threats, I took it out, answering without looking at the Caller ID.
“What, nigga?”
“Moses?” I heard a familiar voice ask fearfully. “This is Eli.”
My foot eased off the gas. “I’m sorry. Thought you were somebody else. What’s up, Eli?”
“Aye, man. I’m sorry that your manager sent you off like that. But after we got off the phone yesterday, I listened to your catalog of music, and you’re really dope. I wanna get you in the studio to see what we can do.”
See what we can do? Nah, I had been seeing what we could do for years.
“I’m straight. I don’t have time to keep trying. I got mouths to feed,” I told him, reaching for the driver’s side door.
“But–”
“Thanks for calling, Eli, but I’m good.”
I hung up. I had no more time for dreams, and what ifs.
I shut the door behind me harder than I meant to. My hands were still ringing from the rage that hadn’t burned out yet. Kahlani looked up from the couch with narrowed eyes. Looking at me, she instantly knew something was off.
“What happened?” she asked as I took my coat off.
I ran a hand over my head, growling inwardly. “I fucked up, bae.”
She looked like she stopped breathing for a second. Then she asked reluctantly, “What did you do?”
I cringed as I began to pace. “I tried to kill Rah.”
She gasped. “You what?! Moses!”
“The gun jammed,” I admitted, staring at the floor because even saying it out loud made me feel like the universe was laughing at me.
Her hands started to fly as her voice climbed. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Why would you—Moses, do you know what that means? Do you know what he’s gonna—”
“Baby!” I barked, harsher than I intended.
She froze, looking at me wide-eyed, so I took a breath and forced myself to calm down.
“I’m sorry… He had it coming. He provoked me.
He’s been treating me like I’m a punk, like I’m not a grown ass man, like I’m supposed to bow down to him. I ain’t bowing to nobody!”
Her chest rose and fell hard, but slowly her face began to soften, like she understood exactly what I meant.
Finally, her anger and shock subsided enough for her to ask, “So what now? You know he’s gonna want payback. You’re the only one that saw what happened with Carlos.”
I nodded grimly. “Exactly. And now that he knows where I stand, he ain’t gon’ let me live. If the cops ever put two and two together about that night, I’m the one that can put him in the dirt for real. He can’t risk that.”
As she chewed her lip, I could see threatening tears starting to surface. “Maybe… maybe he won’t kill you. Maybe he still needs you. You’re his meal ticket. You’re the music. Without you—”
I cut her off with a humorless laugh. “Nah. That nigga don’t think like that. Loyalty don’t mean shit to him. If he feels threatened, even a little, he’ll take me out and figure the rest out later.”
Kahlani gripped her arms, and her eyes darted around like she was searching for an escape out of all this chaos. “Then we should go. We should move somewhere far away, out of the city. Somewhere he can’t find us.”
I shook my head. “We can’t. I make my money here.
These streets are how I take care of y’all, so I ain’t running.
If we run once, we’ll be running forever.
That ain’t no way to live, and that ain’t no way to raise Trent.
I’m not a punk. I’m a man. And I’ll protect you and my son against anybody, even Rah. ”
Her tears finally fell, but she met me where I stood, and wrapped her arms around me anyway, pressing her face into my chest. I held her tight, as I started to mentally prepare myself for this battle.
If Rah wanted war, then I’d be ready for it.