Chapter 18 #2
Ten minutes into that, someone came and knocked on the door.
I assumed that it was going to be one of the nurses walking in because they would be in and out of this bitch on rotation all day.
When I saw the ballons, the flowers, and the teddy bear in the person’s hands, I knew then that it wasn’t one of the nurses.
I didn’t even have a good look at the figure, but I knew who it was.
I knew who that body belonged to. It was Riot’s ass walking in.
I was surprised that she came. I understood, and respected Riot’s decision in not wanting to come to the hospital and see Diego like this. I knew it could be traumatic, especially after losing her dad, and her brother to gun violence.
The closer she got in the room, Diego was able to make out that it was her, and he smiled. It was a weak smile because he was tired.
“Aww shit. Look who made their way over here to see about their brother. I thought you forgot about a nigga,” Diego weakly said to Riot, as she stood on the other side of his bed.
With a smile on her face, she sat the flowers down on the table, that wasn’t too far away from his bed, and she sat the balloons down too, allowing them to float on the string that they were attached to.
The teddy bear that she had, she sat it on the bed with him, giving it to him like he was a little kid.
“You know I can’t forget about you. How are you feeling?” she asked him, looking around, paying close attention to his IV and everything else that he had attached to him.
“Shit, I’m tired. They made me walk today,” he let her know.
With a smile on her face, she walked around, coming to the other side, so that she could come to where I was. I held my hands out for her, like I would always do, whenever I knew that she was getting ready to come over, and hug me.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, while mine went for her ass, holding her there.
I was happy to see her. I knew she had her anger management course this morning right after she finished with her session with Uzi.
The classes that she was taking with Uzi were wrapping up next week.
Uzi was putting on a little ceremony for them, giving them their certificate of completion.
“Mitch brought you out here?” I asked her, after she pulled away from the hug.
“Yes. He’s going to come up too, so that he can see Diego. He’s down there trying to find somewhere to park. It’s busy down there. The line to check in is crazy,” she let me know.
She stepped back, and I used this time to sit here, and admire her.
Months later of being with her, and I still found myself with my jaw on the floor, admiring the looks that Riot would put together.
Nobody could put that shit on like she did.
She didn’t even have to show a bunch of skin when she dressed up, but her outfit would always be flyer than anyone else’s.
Whenever I tried to talk to her about getting into fashion, and how she should come up with her own brand, that I know for a fact people would support, she would always turn it down, telling me that fashion wasn’t the route that she wanted to go in.
This morning, she was sporting some fly shit.
The kind of fly shit that was going to have me snapping a couple of pictures once we were outside, just so that I could have them stored away in my phone.
The jeans that she had on were a light wash, and they hung a little low on her small hips.
They were ripped at the knees. She wore a white, cropped tank, that clung to her frame.
On top of the tank was a navy-blue button up, that put you in mind of an old school Dickies button up.
The one she was wearing was cropped though.
I fucked with the red and white Chicago 1’s that were on her feet.
Her hair was hanging out in its curly state, but a blue hat sat on top of her head.
She had her tom boy shit going on this morning, but the small red, Louis Vuitton cross body that she had on, gave the outfit a hint of girly.
I bought that purse for her. I loved the way she was able to style it.
“You ate something?” Riot asked Diego, moving away from standing in front of me, so that she could go over, and be a little closer to him.
While she talked with him, I used this time to stand up, stretch, and instead of sitting back down on the bed, I sat in the chair that was near his bed.
“Yeah. I had some breakfast. That’s another reason why I’m ready to get the fuck up out of here. I’m ready to eat some real food. I need something with some seasoning. Food here so fuckin bland,” he complained, causing Riot to laugh.
Like the two of them were the best of friends, they carried on with all kinds of conversations. The whole time Diego was talking to her, he was yawning, eyes kept getting low, damn near about to doze off on her, but he was fighting to stay up.
“I heard ya’ll went to the candlelight, guns blazing. Dolo told me ya’ll cleared that shit out,” Diego said to Riot. His eyes were closed as he said that. I laughed at this nigga, and Riot did the same.
“Go to sleep, Diego. We’ll talk about it when you wake up. It’s a long story,” she said to him.
She leaned in, so that she could kiss him on his forehead, and not long after that, he knocked out for good this time.
I reached my hands up, pulling Riot to me by her small waist, making her sit down in my lap.
She turned, so that she could sit sideways on me, and once her head was facing in my direction, and she was close enough to me to kiss me on my lips, she did just that.
We made out with each other for about a minute straight, and then she rested her head on my chest. We didn’t say anything for a little while because I’m sure she had her own thoughts, just as much as I had mine.
Hearing Diego bring up the candlelight shooting had me thinking about that shit. Out of all the crazy things that I’ve done since I’ve been in the streets, I think that this was the wildest.
We did some shit out there that you would only see in the movies.
Took out half the men that were out there.
I went out there with a goal in mind, and that was for me to pop Elijah.
Riot got to him first, but I was glad that she saved him for me.
I was able to make his ass look down the barrel of my gun, right before taking his life.
To further disrespect him, and his family, we made sure that we burned that historical warehouse to the ground.
I’m telling you, if you fuck with me, or the ones that I love, I will forever take shit to hell with you.
I almost lost my brother behind this madness, so it was only right that we came at Elijah, and his family the way that we did.
A little birdie told me that their father made it out alive.
He was a bitch just like his sons because he probably took off running the same way his boys did when we ran into their drop and stole all their drugs.
I wasn’t worried about their daddy though.
That nigga wasn’t a threat to me. His sons were out of the picture, and that was all that mattered.
Now that I didn’t have that lingering over my shoulder anymore, I could focus on the business.
We could revisit the conversation again about opening shop in Orlando and Tampa.
We could get the ball rolling with this security business that I was knee deep in.
I had to put all that on hold for a little while, so that I could hunt, and get a location on Elijah.
I could get back to business, and continue to come down here to the hospital, check on my brother, and motivate him to do what he needed to do, so that he could come back home.
When Loco came down here yesterday, he asked Diego if he was going to take a break from the streets since he was shot.
Diego looked that nigga in his eyes and told him that if he was able to walk, and get around right now, he would have been at the trap house already.
Diego was a hustler at heart. I knew he wasn’t ready to give this life up, just as much as I wasn’t ready to give it up.
We just had to move a little smarter. We couldn’t be going around, underestimating niggas anymore.
I was at a point in my life where I wasn’t trying to be beefing with anyone. I just wanted to push my dope, make my money, and run my business. Our war with dem 9 boyz had officially come to an end, and hopefully in the future, we didn’t have to beef with anymore crews.
“I’m so ready for this nigga to come home. I’m sick of being in this depressing ass hospital,” I told Riot, placing my hands on her hips, and I gave it a firm squeeze.
“In due time. Nobody is ready for him to come home more than he is. You just have to be patient,” she told me, and I nodded my head to that because I knew that she was right.
“What the lady told you today in anger management? She let you know that your ass is still crazy?” I asked, just to fuck with her. She reached her hand up, and she playfully held my lips together, squeezing them.
“She didn’t, actually. She told me that she sees a lot of improvement in me, for your information nigga,” she talked shit back to me, making me laugh, loving that it didn’t take much to push her ass there.
“I’m fuckin with you, beautiful. I see the change in you. Your crash outs don’t be as bad as they used to,” I replied, leaning my head in, so that I could tuck it into the crook of her neck.
My hands that were on her hips, I took them off, so that I could palm them on her stomach.
Riot hated when I would do that shit. She felt like I was trying to insinuate a pregnancy.
She’ll let me explore and place my hands on any part of her body, but the second I went near her stomach, and I started rubbing it around and shit, she would quickly move my hands.
“Move. You know I don’t like that,” she voiced, putting her hand on top of mine, so that she could remove it from her belly.
“You act like I have the power to do some kind of spell that’ll put a baby in there. Baby Ransom not coming yet. We agreed on 2027,” I replied, knowing damn well that we didn’t agree on that shit.
“We didn’t agree on anything. Move, Dominique.
Call me crazy, but when you say shit like that, and when you put your hands on my stomach like that, I feel like your speaking a pregnancy into the atmosphere.
Let me grab a chair and sit next to you.
You doing too much,” she said, trying to stand up, but I had a firm grip on her, not letting her get up.
“Aight. Aight. I was just fuckin with you. Damn. You so fuckin strict bruh. You want to be Judge Judy so fuckin bad,” I cracked, and you could tell she didn’t want to laugh at that shit, but she cracked up, and she pushed me.
I was able to get some kisses out of her too, and then I left her ass alone, and didn’t bring up baby Ransom anymore.
I don’t know if I was having doubts about how I planned my future to go, but lately, I’ve been having baby fever like a motha fucka.
Being in Turks, seeing Riot with all the kids, and seeing how they bonded with her, that shit made me have a change of heart.
One of those nights, Mauricio slept in the bed with us.
I think that was the night that really moved me.
Riot has made it clear from the very beginning that she didn’t want kids. Shit, I made that clear at one point too. I had a change of heart now. If all this beef slowed down, if I could get some legitimate businesses up and running, and everything else checked out, I wanted to meet baby Ransom.
Riot was always in my ear, mainly while we were fuckin, telling me that she would do anything for me. I needed to see if she was telling me the truth. You say you’ll do anything for me, right? Lay on your back and have my son for me then.