Chapter 2
Two
Noble sat in the passenger seat while his mother’s boyfriend, Bernard, drove. Wilde and Zayd were in the back, arguing over miscellaneous topics as usual. Noble had just come from basketball practice and couldn’t wait to get home and eat.
“When’s your next game?” Bernard asked.
“Saturday.”
“Where is it at?”
“I gotta check the schedule.”
Noble’s answers were always short with Bernard. It wasn’t that he didn’t like him but he wasn’t his father. He missed him so much and still found it difficult to accept his death. It had been three years since his father’s untimely murder, and Noble was admittedly stuck at stage two of grief.
“I’ll be there as soon as I get off work,” Bernard assured.
Noble couldn’t have cared less about his presence at his game. The only people he cared about coming to watch him play was his mother and Uncle Dame.
“That nigga ain't gon’ get no points,” Wilde joked from the back seat.
Noble turned around, smirking at his hating-ass brother. “I’ll bust yo’ ass.”
“Doubt it,” Wilde arrogantly spat.
Noble faced forward and saw a look of panic on Bernard’s face. His gaze then traveled to the side mirror where he saw flashing blue and red lights.
“Shit,” Bernard cursed under his breath. “Got dammit!” He hit the wheel with his open palm.
“What’s wrong?” Zayd asked.
“Uh, nothing.” Bernard tried to hide his uneasiness by straightening his posture but Noble saw right through it.
“Look here, y’all. The police is behind us so act cool.” He pulled over.
Noble knew how vile and disrespectful the police were.
He’d seen them relentlessly beat a man for not providing his ID fast enough.
He’d witnessed them pulling people over in the hood and arresting them for miscellaneous things.
There had been a lot of corruption with the St. Parklynn Police Department, and he prayed that this wasn’t the case.
Bernard’s face was covered in sweat as he gripped the steering wheel. An officer approached his window, resting his hand on his utility belt.
“License and registration!” he ordered.
Bernard cautiously reach for the glove compartment and grabbed his paperwork. He then passed it to the cop, who took a quick glance at it.
“Sir, do you have any illegal substances in the car?”
“N-no, I d-don’t,” Bernard stammered.
Noble watched him closely as his leg began bouncing.
“Sir, step out of the car,” the cop commanded.
“For what?”
“Look, I’m not gonna ask you again to step out of the car.”
Bernard huffed before releasing his seatbelt and getting out the car. The officer kneeled down taking a look at Noble, Wilde, and Zayd.
“I’m gonna ask you guys to step out as well.”
Without protest, the brothers got out the backseat and joined Bernard on the sidewalk.
“You got something in your car?” Noble whispered to him.
He nodded, eyes widened in fear.
Noble gawked in disbelief that this man had been riding around dirty with him and his brothers in the car. Shaking his head, he exhaled a sharp breath, knowing this was about to be some bullshit.
“Mr. ‘I don't have anything in my car’, what’s this?” The officer held up a bag of white substance and another package of what looked to be marijuana. They all looked at Bernard, awaiting his answer.
“That’s not mine, Sir,” he finally denied after a few awkward moments in silence.
“Oh, yeah?” The cop smirked, clearly amused by Bernard’s response. “Then whose is it?”
“It’s his, Sir.” He pointed at Noble.
“What the fuck?” he bellowed, grilling Bernard. “Nigga, that shit ain't mine. That’s yours.”
“Yeah, don't try to blame my brother,” Zayd seethed.
“It’s not mine, Officer,” Bernard continued to deny, holding his arms up. “I can guarantee it’s his.”
Noble’s mouth gaped in incredulity. His heart rate had accelerated to a range he was certain wasn’t healthy.
“Aye, this man is lying. He just picked me up from practice. I have no fucking drugs on me. He’s a liar.”
“Yeah, he’s lying!” Wilde asserted.
“Well, since you can’t figure out who it belongs to, I’m going to place all of you under arrest.”
“Noble, stop it!” Lyra screamed, holding her hands out.
He barged through his mother and grabbed his stepfather, Bernard.
For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why they’d chosen to provoke him.
Didn’t they know how ruthless he could’ve been?
Did they not know that at times, he’d decided to play the Most High and end lives for lesser?
Instead of taking heed, they opted to aggravate the beast inside him, knowing when he lost self-control that no one was safe.
“You think I’m a fucking game?” Noble seethed, wrapping his arms around Bernard’s thick neck. “I’ll kill you, nigga!”
Lyra and Kaliste attempted to pull him off the man, who was six inches shorter than Noble’s six-two frame.
“You wanna talk like a man but when it was time for you to show up as one, you turned pussy.” Noble slapped him, immediately causing Bernard’s nose to bleed. “Where was your manhood when you tried to pin that charge on me, huh?”
“Turn me loose!” Bernard barked through bucked eyes.
“No.” Noble shook his head. “This what y’all wanted. I told y’all to leave me the fuck alone but you don't know when to let shit be.”
“Noble, listen, it’s my fault,” Lyra professed. “Please, let him go. Take your anger out on me.”
Glaring at his mother, he couldn’t believe how weak she had been for this man.
Where was her spine? Why didn’t she stand up for him when the time permitted her to?
Lyra had been such a disappointment over the years.
Her ability to stand on the frontline for a man rather than her children had been jarring.
“As usual, you taking the heat for this man.” He pushed Bernard out of his grip and stood.
“Noble, you just broke my damn table,” Kaliste complained, looking at the damage.
“Good! You should've left me the fuck alone. And I’m not paying for this shit either. Have your mama do it.”
He headed for the front door. Noble was so incensed that he couldn’t think a complete thought.
“Noble! I wanted to apologize!” Bernard coughed, holding his neck. “That’s all I wanted with this meeting. Your mama is hurting. She wants her son back.”
“At thirty-three?” Noble questioned. “Lyra, you wanna know why I can’t respect you? ‘Cause you don't have no backbone. You avoid the hard conversations then try to act like everything is all good. We ain't been good since I was sixteen. Since you chose this pussy over me!”
“I didn’t choose him over you!” she shouted. “He paid for what he did, Noble. You act like he didn’t suffer any consequences.”
“It wasn’t enough. Do you know how that man tried to ruin my life? And you just took him back like he didn’t do shit!”
Noble could’ve killed his mother in this moment.
She was such a letdown. He didn’t think she’d grasped how her actions had affected the way he loved her.
Once upon a time, Lyra had been the light of his life.
Noble was a daddy’s boy when his father was alive but he adored his mother in ways that was so sacred to him.
He was her first child so their celestial bond had been solidified.
When his father suddenly passed away, Lyra changed.
She became anxious, feeling this need to have a man around.
She stumbled across Bernard and allowed him to swoon her into a relationship that Noble felt was too fast. She’d made decisions that fucked up his entire way of thinking.
Noble was more than disappointed with Lyra; she had let him down.
“I’m done with this shit! Don't fucking call me and that includes you, Kaliste.”
He headed toward the front, snatching the door open.
“Noble, I was only trying to—”
Her words were silenced by the slamming of the door. Stalking to the truck, Noble got inside and inhaled a few deep breaths. Willing himself to calm down had been a bust since he wanted to go back and end Bernard’s life.
As soon as he cranked the engine, his phone rang.
“What the fuck,” he mumbled, answering right away.
Everyone in TLM knew he didn’t take calls. Text only. So when the jit, he sent to look after Irish called him, he was confused.
“Yeah?”
“Aye gang, some shit went down,” Zavier informed him.
Immediately, Noble’s chest tightened. “Where you at?”
“I’m ‘bout to send my location.”
Knowing not to go into detail over the phone, Noble hung up and checked the text for the location. When he saw it, he put it in his GPS system and drove away. It was a fifteen-minute ride when he arrived at a vacant parking lot. Zavier got out the car and approached Noble’s window.
“Man, bruh, some shit went down at the park.”
“Is my lady good?” Noble asked straightaway.
“I mean”—he shook his head, planting his hands on top of his head—“yeah and no.”
“Fuck you mean?” Noble barked, getting out the car. “I told you to look after her, nigga.”
“I did, gang,” he professed. “But somebody came out the cut and murked Jovanis’ ass, then they started shooting at Irish.
That shit happened so fast that I was confused.
But I hopped out and started bussin’ at the nigga.
He got away. I was able to save Irish but fuck, I couldn’t do nothing for Van. That nigga gone.”
Noble was astonished and confused while processing the update. He didn’t have to think very hard on who had murdered Jovanis. It was clear to him that Tuck had made a call but what he couldn’t understand was why he would play with him by shooting at Irish.
“So, they popped Jovanis then started shooting at her?” he asked once more to be sure.
Zavier nodded. “Yeah, they was chasing her down and shit. She hid under a bench but soon as I started shooting, they got the fuck on. I think I hit him but I ain't sure.”
The fire that started at Kaliste’s home had spread into an inferno. Irish witnessing her best friend’s murder was devastating but turning the gun on her was a death wish.
“Where she at?”
“I think they took her to the hospital.”