37. Rico #3
“Giovanni Jackson.” I nearly cringe when Nan gasps and starts snapping her fingers.
“The councilman?” Pilar asks.
Nan nods profusely. “The fine one! Ooo, Freddy had taste. I didn’t know Giovanni was a part of your little gang? Freddy never called him by anything other than Gio when he brought him around.”
“So everyone done met Fred’s boyfriend except me? Shit, did you meet him, Pilar?”
“It don’t matter, ‘cause he finna be in the dirt very soon.”
“No.”
My face balls up, but Nan just repeats herself.
“No, Rick. He’s upset–”
“Upset!” I shoot off the couch. “This nigga has tried to kill you, me, and Snow. I got a APB out on me in the Birch, and I literally just had to run up in a house on some John Wick shit to get you! That nigga is past upset, Nan. And I’m done playing pussy.”
She sighs, like I’m pissing her off. “Stand down, Rick,” she mutters, before glancing at Pooh.
“Councilman Jackson? Hmph. I’ve seen that nigga before, and the women he keeps on his arm don’t look shit like Fred or Mars’s mama. Let me go make a call.”
My eyes roll nearly to the back of my head. “Pooh–”
“You need to go see about my Snowball,” Nan snaps. “We tried it your way, and you got me kidnapped. Now, we dealing with this our way. Pooh will handle the hit, and then I’ma sit everyone down and we’ll be a happy family again.”
Her guilt is eating at her so bad, but I just bite my tongue and let her have it. Besides, all my energy needs to go to keeping Snow alive. I don’t have any extra to tend to myself.
Pooh squeezes my shoulder before leaving the room. Pilar stands after, excusing herself to get Nan some of her tea.
“It’s nice meeting you, finally. When we get more familiar, however, I owe you an ass whooping in honor of my girl Wynter Snow.” She winks, before slipping out of the room, leaving me even more bewildered, and more anxious to get back to my woman.
“I mean it, Rick. Leave Giovanni alone.”
“Why the fuck you taking up for this nigga? Huh? I just told you what the fuck he tried to do. Not even to me, but to Snow, too.”
“Giovanni isn’t the only child of mine that has anger issues and acts out when he’s mad.
You’ve put your hands on my Snowball, and shot my son.
Should I let them retaliate? Should I have let you kill Snowball when she sliced your face?
No. He’s angry, and hurt, and feeling left out.
And I’m going to get him together. Mars needs him. ”
“Mars don’t need shit,” I spit, standing again. I ignore the pain in my chest as I stretch. “And he ain’t ya son.”
“That lil’ nigga ate my menudo and loved Fred with everything in him. He’s one of mine, and I’ve spoken.”
My eyes narrow, but her lil’ ass sits there and holds my glare, narrowing her own eyes.
After a long moment, I acquiesce. “Fine,” I snap. “Whatever. Just… stay yo ass here. I’ll call with an update.”
I catch the beginning of her satisfied smile as I turn and stomp out of the room.
“Stay dangerous, Ricky,” she sings at my back, pissing me off even more.
My mood hasn’t improved by the time I get back to the hospital. And seeing Haze in the room they direct me to has me curling my lip in disgust. She glances at me, tearmarks staining her cheeks, but I pay her no mind as I walk inside and stop at Patience.
She already knows what I need, so she stands, handing a sleeping Rue to Haze to stand and lead me over to the computer in the corner of the room.
Snow’s chest rises and falls rhythmically as Patience logs into the system. She looks like she always does when she’s asleep, not anything like how she looked earlier tonight.
“Why she don’t have an IV?”
Patience glances at Snow before going back to the screen. “She took a sedative to sleep, but she’s not dehydrated or anything. She just… needed to calm down.”
She clicks a few more times, magnifying Snow’s chart, and then steps aside for me to read.
Her voice is low as she explains what I’m reading in lay man’s terms in her best professional doctor voice. But I tune her out immediately. I catch enough words on her chart to get the gist of what’s wrong with my baby, and slowly, all of my senses begin to shut down.
She calls my name, but I don’t respond. My feet just drag me out of the room, to the wall beside it, and let me sink only the floor.
I keep doing that tonight. I keep losing my footing. Pressure keeps building behind my eyes. My world keeps threatening to dissipate right from under me.
God keeps trying to take people from me. Like He hasn’t taken enough from me.
“I know you listening, Fred,” I start. My head leans onto the wall, and tears fall, this time from both eyes.
When I blink, Fred is sitting across from me. His head tilts, his usual smirk absent for once.
“Please, Fred. Please keep her here with me. Don’t let her ass go up there. I need one of y’all with me.”
I close my eyes, praying that for once it’s really Fred and not just my mind playing tricks on me. That he heard me and is gonna move mountains. That for this time, just once, shit will work out in my favor, and I’ll get to keep someone instead of lose them.