Chapter 35 Amethyst
Chapter thirty-five
Amethyst
“Alright, let me figure this shit out.” I dropped the files on my desk and then sat down.
I didn’t have plans to be here longer than I needed to be.
Moving nonstop was the only way I was keeping my fucking head.
It’d been two months since I’d stepped into this house.
Two fucking months since that shit with Ta’lon went down.
And four months since I’d sent Yale away.
I opened my laptop and immediately went to work.
I hadn’t found out shit in the past few months that could point me in the direction of who the fuck was running the Kilmore operation for real.
Piecing together the small parts was easy.
Luther being dead had niggas making moves, and the loyalty they thought they had started flipping.
Grant wasn’t the clean nigga I thought he was, which still made me pause because how was this nigga this dirty, and I never knew?
The doorbell rang, and without moving from my seat, I tapped in the code to unlock my front door and kept working.
Morning’s hum echoed through the quiet as he made his way to my office.
I looked up when he pushed the door open and walked into the room.
His face was twisted in annoyance, and I went back to working.
Morning was always annoying by something or someone.
“You look like hell,” he said as he set his briefcase on my desk and took a seat. I nodded but didn’t stop reading the file I was given earlier. Having friends in high places worked in my favor. “You got the file from Gift?”
“Yeah.” I nodded as I turned the page. “I wasn’t expecting this.”
“Me either,” Morning agreed. The sound of him typing at his computer made me lift my head, and I saw him working on his laptop. “I’m not surprised, especially since Pyrite snatched up Javien.”
“That nigga talking?” I asked, and Morning shook his head.
“Nah,” he denied. “But that didn’t stop us from searching his shit. Nigga had about a hundred videos in a stash in the closet.”
“Videos?” I questioned. “What kind of videos?” I sat back and watched Morning.
“Shit, I didn’t need to see,” he answered, shaking his head. “Every video has two or three sessions on it. Shit turned my stomach so bad. Gift and Purpose are in the process of watching them.”
“Why?”
“Purpose is going to turn them over to her boss once she’s finished,” he explained with a shrug. “From what she told me, there were quite a few of them with missing girls in them.”
“When you say girls?”
“Exactly what I said,” he clarified, and I felt myself getting sick.
“As young as five or six. Gift said he watched one that was so brutal, he damn near passed out. It took him a few days to get back to his normal self, and even now, he still has moments when he zones out and swears he can still hear the person yelling for help.”
I wasn’t one of them niggas that tried to pretend that I didn’t have a conscious. When shit wasn’t right, I let it be known. I had no problem showing my feelings; I cried plenty of times in front of all my boys and in Yale’s lap.
I wiped my hand over my mouth and shook my head. “He liked little girls?”
“Yeah,” Morning answered with a single nod. “Apparently, he and a few other niggas, including Grant, had a whole underground business they were a part of.”
“Any idea who was in charge?” I sat forward and rested my elbows on my desk. “Because I know the Kilmores weren’t running the shit like we originally thought.”
“That’s why I’m here.” He set his computer on the desk, then turned it around so I could see what he was looking at.
“This nigga right here,” he said as he tapped the screen.
“His face keeps popping up. I’ve already got some people looking into it, but I’m getting impatient as fuck. Who is this nigga?”
I stared at the screen, trying to figure out how I’d seen this nigga before, but was coming up blank. I knew his face; I just couldn’t place him.
“He looks familiar,” I said, and Morning grunted. “How long have you been looking?”
“I put in word yesterday,” Morning answered.
“You have Nine run his program?” I asked, and Morning shook his head. “Well, let’s start with that.” I turned to my computer, pulled up Nine’s information, and Facetimed him.
“Yeah?” Nine answered the phone. He was on the move and had the phone at his side, so all we could see was his moving background.
“If I send you a picture, can you run it through your program?” I asked him.
“Hello to you too, nigga. I’m good, thank you for asking. Cross had Love. She’s a pretty ass little girl, quiet and shit. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with a little ass baby though. Every time I hold her, I’m scared I’m gonna crush her. Thanks for asking.”
“My bad,” I chuckled and shook my head. Even though Nine was already a daddy, he wasn’t around for his son’s birth, so he was experiencing all the first-time fears with his daughter. “I’ll be around to see my lil niece soon.”
“Nah, you’ll be around to see her today,” Nine said. He got in his car and dropped the phone into the passenger seat.
“Nine--”
“My fucking wife asked about you three times this week. She knows you’re busy and trying to figure this shit out with tracking Quincy’s bitch ass down, but Cross fucking DeCorte-Strong told me, Amethyst, fucking told me to bring you home.
You are a fucking grown ass man, a nigga with his own shit going on, and my fucking wife said bring you home.
You know she doesn’t know you’re out there killing any and every nigga that doesn’t have the information you want? ”
“Nine--”
“I’m not fucking done,” he cut me off. I looked up at Morning, who was chuckling and shaking his head. “My fucking wife, the murderer that we all know she is, is starting to get upset with the Stone brothers as a whole.”
“Why?”
“Because Pyrite kidnapped a fucking woman and had her locked in his basement!” Nine picked up the phone and mugged me.
“Citrine is walking around with Uri’s ass knocking niggas out.
And I don’t mean just a quick knock out, no, that nigga is dragging muthafuckas through the street and shit.
” He pointed at me through the screen. “The Stones are supposed to be calm and collected, but you niggas are showing out, and it’s stressing everybody out. ”
“Pyrite and Fable are basically in love,” I countered, and Nine kissed his teeth. “And Citrine running with Uri is the safest bet for a lot of niggas. Knocking niggas out is better than killing them.”
“That’s only because you’re out there killing niggas!” he yelled. “We’ve seen you like four times in the last few months. Pyrite said you good, but I don’t believe that nigga, and neither does my wife. So show your face at my house in the next hour, so she can see for herself that you’re good.”
“Alright,” I said, nodding. Nine disconnected the call, and I sat back in my seat. “That nigga is so fucking dramatic.”
“He ain’t lying though. Y’all three are just doing what the fuck ever y'all want. Pyrite is the calmest one right now, and that should say something about y’all’s situation,” Morning said, and I shrugged.
I couldn’t control what my brothers were doing.
“They committed Xoey after that shit with Ta’lon. ”
“I heard,” I said, nodding. “How did she do?”
“She came out laughing and smiling,” he answered. “She acts like she’s okay, but we are keeping an eye on her. Pyrite lets her come and go at his house; she’s made friends with Fable in the process.”
“Yeah, he told me they are friends,” I chuckled as I stood. “I’ll go see her after I go see Cross.” I closed his laptop and handed it to him. “Come on, let's go.”
**
“She’s so little.” Looking down at Love, I realized how much time had passed and what I was missing. “Was Deuce little like this?”
“Yeah,” Cross answered, nodding. “Calm like her, too.” She handed me a small yellow blanket, then pointed to the empty spot next to her.
I sat then Cross handed me Love. She made that little whimpering sound that babies make, then opened her eyes to look at me.
Her eyes were gray, like her daddy’s and brother’s.
“What’s good, lil mama? I’m your Uncle Am.
I’m sorry it took me so long to get over here to meet you. ”
“She’s like her mama, she doesn’t forgive easily,” Cross said as she picked up her laptop from the coffee table.
Chuckling, I shook my head and adjusted Love in my arms, “You can’t blame a nigga for leaving,” I said. Cross twisted her lips and rolled her eyes. “Boss lady,--”
“No, Amethyst Stone,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You will not hit me with that nickname, poke your bottom lip out and bat those long ass lashes at me and think that I’m going to forgive you.” She opened her computer and started typing. “You will not be forgiven.”
“Damn, it’s like that?” I sat back and laid Love against my chest. She made that grunting noise that babies make, and I looked down to make sure she was good. “You see how your mama treats me, Love? I’m just a young nigga.”
“Don’t lie to my daughter,” she laughed.
“Nah, never that,” I replied with a smirk. Cross talked a lot of shit, but sis was legit a blessing in my life when I needed it the most, which is why I knew I had to show my face when Nine said she was getting upset. There were very few people I hated to disappoint, and she was one of them.
“Where are the pictures you need ran?” She put her hand out. Morning had given me the pictures to have her look at because he couldn’t come and needed to handle some shit at his office.
“I emailed them to you already,” I answered.
Cross looked up and smirked. “You knew I wasn’t going to tell your ass no, huh?” she laughed, and I shrugged. “You’re spoiled as fuck.”
“Nah, I just know if I want the information, I gotta come to the best,” I replied. “And you love me like family, so even though you are going to cuss me out, you’ll still help.”