9. Rico
Rico
Thirteen stitches in my fucking face.
I’m lucky I can still see, my cousin tells me.
Permanent scarring, even with plastic surgery. Vision may be impaired while healing. I’m fitted with an eye patch I’ll be wearing for the foreseeable future.
This bitch turned me into a pirate.
Nan tsks at me as my cousin cleans up the sterile area.
“You put your hands on her?”
I buck my good eye at her, not acknowledging the pain from my other. “Do you not see what that bitch did to me?” I point to the eye patch.
She bristles. “Reno says she has hand marks on her neck, and a deep cut on her hand.”
“I choked her ass out after she sliced my face open. Are you serious? Do you not remember who you’re related to? I should have snapped her neck immediately.”
“Will you? Kill her? I know how important your face is.”
Nan narrows her eyes, ready to spot a lie. But I don’t answer right away.
I should murk Snow. I’m well within my right to.
Part of my job is being able to blend in a crowd, and with a fucking scar on half my face, that’s over with.
I’ll be retiring immediately, killing off multiple aliases around the world.
I’m not exactly upset; it’s a great way to retire from my extracurricular business, besides actually dying, but the fact that I’m being forced, by Snow no less, has me itching for revenge.
Plus, I like blending in, especially after trying so hard to stand out coming up in the BBs.
All that’s over with.
Just like her life should be.
However, when I look at myself in the mirror, looking like I’m about to rob niggas in the sea for gold, I fight a smile. My lips keep pulling at the corners, and when I meet Nan’s gaze, we both chuckle.
“You know, your mother sliced Pooh Bear up, too.”
I turn toward her, shock reverberating through me. Nan never talks about Ma. Pooh, entirely too much, but rarely Yani.
“What?”
She nods, chuckling more. “It was an accident, but she did it. On his arm. She cried the whole way to the ER.”
A lightbulb goes off. “That scar he always covers?”
She smiles and nods again. “Pooh Bear said it was a love tap, and never wanted anyone else to see it. He was romantic like that. And it helped Yani feel better about hurting him.”
Part of me wants to ask her to keep going, but I know Nan well enough to know she won’t. She can’t. I see the light leaving her eyes before she clears her throat and stands.
“You’ve hurt her. And now, she’s hurt you. It should be easier to clear the air.”
With that, she shuffles out with my cousin, leaving me in the makeshift infirmary of the resort.
I try to roll my eyes before I flinch at the pain of my stitches pulling.
And just like that, I’m angry again.
Snow has the nerve to sleep peacefully, despite the handcuffs.
She’s curled onto her side, mouth parted, snoring softly.
I stand at the side of the bed, fists clenched, willing myself to calm down.
When nothing happens to the rage zapping through my chest, I break down and walk back all the way to the infirmary.
I’m already used to my eye being in pain. It thumps to the beat of my heart, the skin trying to fuse itself back together. Once again, Snow has me pissed at how much I empathize with Pooh.
The scratch doesn’t bother me… too much. I’ve always been good at healing, so I’ll reassess once the patch and stitches come off.
It’s the inevitable conversation I need to have with Snow that has me ready to strangle her.
I was careful for years. Set and Snow weren’t into overt public displays of affection, but even then if we popped out, I kept a bitch with me.
It was easy enough to almost ignore they relationship.
Fredo refused to divulge any information, even going as far as to only chill with me alone, without Set, who he’d grown even closer to while I was gone.
He figured that he wouldn’t want to provoke me into breaking the promise he made me make under duress.
He didn’t say shit, until the last time we hung out.
I was only in town for a night, unauthorized at that.
Shit was shaky in the city, with everyone on alert about the new rift between Tiny and Set.
Fredo had told me Set had hooked up with Sabrina, Tiny’s daughter.
He said some dumb shit, about how they reminded him of how me and Snow used to be.
I ignored him and asked him about that stupid ass tatt on his neck.
After Fredo passed, no one knew to even try to give me updates, and Snow made herself scarce.
Until now. She’s everywhere now. With nowhere to go.
Nan’s right. Well almost. I’ve hurt her, and she’s hurt me, but I’m still not ready to speak.
The locked medicine cabinet is right there. It’s nothing to open it, and grab the small prescription bottle of Valium.
It’s been years since I’ve tried to take anything besides a tylenol. The Valium will have me floating for days, even if I break it in half, but I don’t think I can really have the conversation I wanna have without something to calm my nerves.
Pussy nigga.
I sigh, turning toward the medical cot, where Fredo is draped without a care in the world.
“You want me to kill her or not? I’m not understanding right now.”
Fredo sits up and interlocks his fingers. “That’s because you don’t know if you wanna kill her or not. You waiting to see what she says. Make a decision now. Regardless of the nitty gritty, commit to one outcome, then you won’t need no Valium.”
“I’m…” I shake my head and lean against the wall of the sterile room.
I talk a lot of shit. I know I do. And killing a bitch has never been an issue for me.
But can I really snuff out Snow?
Even if she tells me she fell in love with Set?
Is that the worst thing Snow can do to you?
“Of course,” I answer aloud without thinking. Snow loving anyone other than me feels… unimaginable.
But is it punishable by death?
I don’t answer for a long time. I try to imagine it. Truly. Them two, young and having their way with each other. Set has always kept his feelings close to his chest. But the fact of the matter is, they fucked around for years.
There had to be some type of feelings there.
Right?
Fuck. If this was any of my homies, I’d laugh at them.
I go to palm my forehead, but stop at the last second.
This fucking eye patch.
“No,” I answer lowly. “It’s not.”
I’d probably feel what’s left of my heart be torn to shreds at hearing the words, but I wouldn’t kill Snow if she admitted to catching feelings.
It’s still my L to take. I put her in that position. If I’d put my bros on game, he’d never have crossed that line.
It’s time to face the music.
Proud of you, Rick.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Snow’s in the same position when I get back to my room. She startles when I drag the chair from the wall to the side of the bed and take a seat. She’s all legs trying to get into a sitting position, and I wait patiently, until she’s sitting up and gaping at me.
Her eyes are glued to the eye patch.
I should have taken the Valium.
“We’re gonna have an honest conversation, Snow.” I ignore her flinching at the sound of my voice. “We both need to clear the air.”
She averts her eyes, before glaring at me. Fear is there, rightfully, but so is fire. Snow came back to life in more ways than one after her ibogaine trip, and it has me wondering what exactly she dreamt about while she was under.
“Do you even know how to be honest, Richard?”
I narrow my good eye at her, before I lick my lips. Her and that fucking name.
“If I’m asking you to be honest, the least I could do is be honest myself.”
“That’s not answering my question,” she grits.
“Look, Rico. I already know where this is going. But if I’m gonna be honest with you, you need to be honest with me.
Brutally honest. Leave no stone unturned.
No riddles or double entendres. Be blunt and as literal as possible. So again, are you even capable?”
I sink a little into the chair, but she’s unyielding. Her back is ramrod straight as she looks at me expectantly.
Snow doesn’t think I can do it.
“Fine. One hundred percent honesty. I’ll go first. Why did you fuck Set?”
She blinks. “Because I could.”
I sit up to speak but she cuts me off.
“Imagine my surprise when Set, one of my ex-boyfriend’s best friends, my sister’s baby daddy’s best friend, comes onto me.
Someone I’ve known like, what, ten years at the time?
But there’s no reason I would have told him I dated his friend.
Why would I have said something, when there were countless other people who could have, on my ex’s behalf?
The same man who regularly checked my phone for other niggas’ numbers.
“Set came onto me in front of Fredo. Your twin brother. And… nada. Not even a wayward glance from him. That’s when I knew everything I thought we ever shared was a lie. That I mean nothing to you.” She blinks again, and this time tears dislodge from her lids and roll down her cheeks.
The fire in her browns ignites more.
“So I fucked him because I could. And then, I kept fucking him because at least with Set, I knew what I was getting. He told me up front what it was, and never switched up.”
“Did you?” I push out. Everything in my body is rebelling, but I have to know. I need to know. My hands grip the armrests, the wood groaning beneath my fingers. “Did you switch up? Did you… you loved him?”
She keeps me in suspense for far too long.
“No,” she finally says, licking tears from her top lip. “Not in that way.”
It must be obvious, the exhale I take, because Snow scrunches up her face.
“Oh, fuck you! My turn; how many times did you cheat on me, Rico? Be honest.”
Shit.
But, a deal’s a deal. So, I turn my brain off, and just answer.
“I never stopped fucking other bitches, Snow. We… we wasn’t having sex at first, and I was never gon’ pressure you, so I got it elsewhere.”
“And when we started?” Her voice is lower, her shoulders hunching. But she wanted honesty. She deserves it, so I give it to her.