Chapter 11 #2
He picked it up off the side table where Moose kept his instruments and swiped to find a bunch of texts from Lin, Gill, and Roni coming through.
The last few days, he hadn’t been fucking with any of them like he normally did, and after today at the tournament, it was clear why.
Now they were all shook because he was leaving them on read.
“She pregnant.”
“I told you that, fool.” Mozzi scrolled through Lin’s threats, Roni nagging him about not responding, and Gill asking him if she could get her back cracked later.
While tempting, since he wasn’t fucking Coast, he shook his head and ignored all of them again. Mozzi was a pain freak, always had been. The pinches against his skin from the needle were welcomed as Moose worked meticulously.
“I’m saying, she seems cool. A good girl.”
“You seen that attitude? ’Cause it’s more where that came from,” Mozzi joked.
“Like you ain’t moody. Has she seen that side of you?”
Nobody knew Mozzi better than his brothers.
The three of them had seen each other at their darkest and lowest too many times to count.
Growing up the way they did, being raised by Audiemar, who was slightly off his rocker and not at all traditional himself, their lives were as far away from normal as it could get.
“Moose, I don’t need this shit, aight. I’m fucking with her. That’s my business. I don’t know what the shit is because I ain’t never felt it before,” Mozzi confessed, propping his chin against both hands resting on the headrest in front of him.
His brother paused, watching how rigid he was now as he stared off ahead. He’d never heard him that defensive or open, and this was the first time he ever confessed to feeling anything for anybody aside from lust.
“And the baby?”
“What about it?”
“Nigga, the fuck you know about babies? You don’t even fuck with chicks who have kids. One of your own fucking rules, remember?” Moose jogged his memory but went back to drilling into his skin.
“Like I told her, that’s my fucking baby.” Mozzi glanced at his brother over his shoulder. “Fuck that nigga that got her pregnant.”
“I never thought I’d see the day a female got you tight like this. Let me find out you trying to grow up.”
“Fuck you,” Mozzi snuffed, chuckling with his brother.
The whole time Moose worked on Mozzi, Inari, Coast, and Ayla danced and sang along with whatever trap tunes blared from the surround sound speakers in the shop.
Other than Trini, Moose had three other artists in the shop who were all dope at what they did.
People bounced from chair to chair all night.
Things didn’t start to wind down until nearly two am.
By then, Ayla’s eyes were so tight from smoking weed that they were barely open.
Her first za experience was one for the books, and Inari made sure to capture a few moments for reels and her stories to post. Although Coast couldn’t drink, she caught a contact high off all the weed being smoked, and her energy was almost like she had indulged with them all night.
“I’m hungry,” she declared, watching Moose cover Mozzi’s back in some kind of ointment over his fresh tatt.
“Yeah, tell us something we don’t know, preggo,” Inari teased.
“Which one of y’all going first?” Moose sparked a blunt he’d rolled and leaned against the counter.
“Me!” Ayla hopped up from the seat beside Kong and slid into Moose’s chair past Mozzi.
“Yo, my man Sipes know you pregnant?” a raspy voice questioned from the doorway to Moose’s suite.
Fire, Sipes’ right hand man stood in the doorway with two brown skinned girls in tight leather skirts and matching tops on either side of him. Removing the cherry flavored Blow Pop from his mouth, he grinned as Coast turned rigid.
“Fuck you, Fire. My baby ain’t got shit to do with Sipes!” she hissed.
“Hmm, yeah, we’ll let him decide that.” His dark eyes swam over her in the tight, see through dress before skimming the other faces in the room.
Mozzi reached for his pistol on the counter, whole time, his dark gaze fixed on Fire.
He didn’t know him, but he knew he worked for Donahue, which meant he was also affiliated with that bitch ass nigga Nickel.
Shit had been quiet since they pulled their lick a few days ago.
That usually only meant one thing, somebody was somewhere plotting.
He and his brothers weren’t sweating it.
With Audiemar as their fearless leader, they stayed ready for war.
“The exit is that way.” Moose pointed.
“Like that? I told Donahue I’d swing by, check out your spot.
Was thinking about getting my bitches branded.
” Fire grinned at the ladies with him before returning his attention to Moose and the rest of the room.
Kong gradually stationed himself on his feet with a calm but with a lethal glare.
Fire wasn’t up in there namedropping for nothing.
“I’ll let him know you’re shit is popping. Can probably send some people your way too.” Fire gripped the stick of his sucker and emphasized with it.
“Mozzi, walk this nigga out and lock the door behind him.” Moose was done engaging with this fool. If he wanted smoke, he damn sure could get it.
Trigger finger itching, Mozzi grit his teeth and waved his gun toward the door.
Simpering, Fire backed out of the room and let his girls walk ahead of him to the front of the shop.
Trini and the other artists had cleared out, and it looked like the rest of the party followed.
Fire paused when Mozzi cracked the door to let him and his hoes out.
Eyes glossing over in ice, he studied him,.
Fire was probably one of few men in the city who didn’t give a fuck about the Blackmoor name.
Donahue raised him, and he’d always been taught to stand on all ten against anybody, man or beast. He knew they could move mountains if necessary, but unlike the rest of Ree Heights, he didn’t worship them. His motto was that anyone could bleed.
Click clack!
Mozzi cocked his pistol. He didn’t like how Fire was looking at him. A smug grin lifted the corners of his mouth.
“You have things that don’t belong to you.”
“Finder’s keepers,” Mozzi recited in a low growl.
Nodding, Fire glanced at the ground, then back up into his eyes.
“I’ll remember that when I come across something that’s yours,” he worded, taking the sucker back into his mouth before pivoting on the heel of his Prada sneakers to leave.
Mozzi locked the door behind him and turned off the neon open sign in the corner of one of the windows.
When Coast stepped out, she caught him still looking down the block from the window where Fire had slipped into his black Ferrari.
He hadn’t pulled off, and from what Mozzi could see, he’d sparked a blunt and cracked the window to let the smoke out.
“What was that about?” she pried.
“Fuck that nigga.” Shaking his head, he faced her.
Soft brown eyes drank him in, and he reached down to cuff her chin in his hand.
Kneeling closer, he pressed his lips against hers and placed an arm behind her back to draw her in.
Unbeknownst to him, Fire snapped pictures from his car so he could send them to Sipes.
Coast was growing used to kissing him now.
She found herself watching him most of the night as he interacted with his brothers but always kept her in his line of sight, so he could wink or smile coyly at her.
The butterflies in her belly increased the more she was around him.
When they parted, he hooked an arm around her neck and kept the space closed between them.
“I knew I might have to deal with Sipes eventually.”
“I’ll deal with that nigga. Don’t even worry about that.”
“It’s not your responsibility.” Coast sighed.
“What I say?” Mozzi challenged, eyes serious as they bounced around hers.
“Aye, we ordering food. Y’all want something?” Moose inspected his phone screen briefly before looking up at them.
“Yes! Pizza!” Coast declared, face crumpling up in discomfort. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
Moose finished inking Ayla and Inari with old school hip hop rattling the walls as Coast devoured almost an entire pizza to herself.
In the back room Kong and Mozzi played video games.
The smell of ink, alcohol wipes, and weed lingered in the air.
Inari was in the chair, but Ayla went to show Kong her tattoo, and Coast followed.
Inari grabbed her phone and took a picture of the tattoo, so she could send it to Dane.
“I can’t believe I did that.” She sat up and smiled as Moose hovered on the stool at her side. “How much do we owe you?”
“Consider it on the house,” he told her and watched her eyes soften as she lowered her phone into her lap.
“Thank you! I love it!” Her smile made his heart skip a beat or two. “And I’m coming back for more. I see why they say these things can be addictive. I have to think about what I want next.”
“No doubt.” Moose pushed the stool toward the counter and grabbed one of his business cards from the cardholder. Making his way back to Inari, he handed it to her. “Just hit me up. My personal cell is on there too.”
“Personal?” Inari repeated, eyes flirting with his. “Is that what we on?”
She’d been drinking, a lot, and it lowered the inhibitions she usually walked around with. Being around Moose and his brothers was a good time, and she considered Coast like another little sister at this point.
“Shit, we locked in now.” Moose took his bottom lip between his teeth and smirked.
“Just like that?” Inari giggled.
“You good people, Nari.”
“I guess you ain’t so bad either, Morgan.”
He snorted. “Don’t call me that shit.”
“Why not? And why do they call you Moose?”
The amusement on his face slowly sank. Clearing his throat, he clasped his hands together in his lap.
“It’s some shit they started calling me in the group home when I was a kid. Shit just kind of stuck.” He shrugged.