Chapter 4 #2
“Eres una puta estúpida. ?Qué cono quieres con un negro americano? Somos los Rodríguez. Nuestra familia controla México. Podrías haber vivido bien. Ahora, sufrirás y te follarán hasta que sangres. Tu padre no puede salvarte. Tus hermanos no pueden salvarte. Este negro del ejército no puede salvarte... Quizás te quite la virginidad primero. Hace tiempo que no me follo a una virgen. (You stupid fucking whore. What the fuck do you want with a Black American man? We are the Rodríguez family. Our family runs Mexico. You could have lived well. Now, you’ll suffer and get fucked until you bleed.
Your father can’t save you. Your brothers can’t save you.
This one army nigger can’t save you... Maybe I’ll take your virginity first. It’s been a long time since I fucked a virgin.)
Running my tongue over my teeth, I huffed. “Maybe in another life, bitch-ass nigga.”
Pushing Solana to the ground, I covered her just as shots were let off. My gun hadn’t let off a shot, so the men were caught off guard, and that shit cost them.
“Andale! Andale! All this fuckin’ quesadilla talk got a nigga hungry.”
Nel’s stupid ass came through the door, blasting and running to shield himself behind the concrete wall.
“Why the fuck yo’ hardheaded ass leave us?” I heard Vello say somewhere close, but bullets were flying, men were dropping, and glass was shattering.
I was trying to get eyes on big 6ix9ine, but a pipe above us began gushing water from a bullet piercing it.
“Shio, you straight?” Ezio asked. His voice shook, but it wasn’t because of fear; the power of the gun vibrating against his body had him physically shake as the bullet shot out.
I yelled back, “Yeah, I’m good,” as I looked down for Solana.
Her face was contorted as she looked up at me, but I didn’t have time to decipher it.
“Aye. You good?” I asked her, and she nodded, still clutching the flashlight.
Lifting my gun, I fired at the remaining soldiers. It was still about thirty of them, but they were now in an assembly line with shields. These niggas were acting like they were in Iraq at war, but then again, this was no doubt a war.
“Why in the fuck you run yo’ ass out here without a plan?”
That was Matteo. He had flipped a table over and was shooting over it.
I’d seen the four of them when they first came through the door after the initial bullet flew.
Don had to have given them the drop on me, which meant when we were in the sky, so were they.
Even though I was grateful to have backup, it was still fuck that nigga, Don.
He was playing too many games, and dumping a coked-out Solana on me was no fucking training assimilation.
Ole girl could’ve died in my house if I hadn’t caught her dancing with the devil.
“Stay low,” I said to Solana, pushing Don’s fucked-up ways and her nasty habits to the back of my mind.
Since the men were gathered in the opposite direction, and the squad was holding their position, I managed to crouch to the back, pushing Solana along in front of me.
We were soaked and wet, and my feet crunched on broken glass with each step, but I kept letting off shots as we disappeared down the hall.
She slipped, and I caught her mid-fall before we kept going forward.
Gun drawn, I stood, kicked in the first door, and saw it was an empty supply closet.
The next door was a bathroom. Holding my breath, I kicked the last door and froze.
Lying on a dirty mattress was a toddler, whose face I couldn’t see because her hair was bigger than her head.
My heart raced, my knees buckled, and my left eye twitched.
“Shio! Someone is coming!” Solana screamed as quietly as she could.
I pulled her into the room and stuck my head out of it. A bullet whipped past, missing me by an inch.
Blaow Blaow
Two shots to the dome removed his head completely from his body. I made sure no one else was coming but didn’t move from the door.
Mmmm! Mmmmm!
We could hear muffled screams, but that wasn’t my concern.
“Get the baby, Solana!”
She froze. “S-Somebody is in the closet…”
Instead of doing what the fuck I instructed, Solana went to the closet, revealing Bahati, who was duct-taped and on the floor. Her skin was sweaty, and each time she moved, a braid fell into her face.
Removing a piece of glass from her pocket that I didn’t even see her slick ass pick up, Solana ran into the closet and began cutting the tape. Bahati was tearing up and still crying while I stared her down. Even roughed up, she was still fine as the last time I saw her ass over three years ago.
Once Bahati’s hands were free, Solana slowly peeled the tape from Bahati’s mouth, who jerked back away from her. Solana stood from crouching and moved to the bed to get the baby just as I shot another trooper coming down the hall.
“Aye, college boy! We gotta fuckin’ go!” I heard Nel yell.
Solana unzipped her jacket, revealing a black sports bra.
She tucked the toddler inside and then zipped the jacket back up as much as she could.
That fucking jacket must’ve had the stretch of a Laffy Taffy because if it wasn’t for the toddler’s head, she would’ve been able to zip her completely inside.
The toddler’s bare feet dangled at Solana’s back as her legs wrapped around Solana’s stomach.
Her not crying had my stomach dipping, but I couldn’t focus on that right now, though.
Bahati ran past Solana with the little girl and into my arms, wrapping one around my waist, dangling from me unnaturally.
Her body shook as she cried into my chest.
“Shhh… Stay behind me, Bahati. We gotta move.”
Not giving her time to respond, I pushed her behind me and shot two more troops coming our way. There was a black shoe sticking from under one of the dead troopers, so I snatched it.
“Solana.”
She rushed to my side. I glanced at the little girl, whose face I still couldn’t see due to her hair.
Bending, I lifted Solana’s wet, bare foot and slid her Croc back on, making sure to flip it in sports mode.
When that one was back on the ground, I lifted her other leg, removed the sandal, and put that one on sports mode too.
I could feel Bahati’s eyes on us, but I ignored her and asked, “You wasn’t gone say shit about your shoe?”
Not waiting for an answer, I led us down the hall. By the time we got back to the battlefield, there were still at least fifteen of the Rodríguezes’ men.
What the fuck had these niggas been shooting at?
I pushed the girls toward the exit and then covered for my niggas as they kept shooting and ran out the door. Once we were all on the other side, I reached into the duffel bag, pulled out my weapon, snatched off the pin, and tossed it.
“Everybody run!”
Boooom!
The building shook, nearly blowing a few of us backward.
My ears were ringing, but everyone made it to an extended black truck and quickly filed inside.
I pivoted and jogged to the rental, tossing the duffel inside and grabbing Solana’s phone from the cupholder.
The car would be taken care of by Ledesma’s guards.
I ran back to the black truck, which was already running and slowly moving, and hopped inside.
Bahati immediately grabbed my neck, her sniffles becoming louder and louder.
Once the door was closed, Matteo accelerated, burning rubber while the deserted shopping plaza went up in flames.
“Aye! Anybody hit?” Ezio turned from the front seat, scanning everyone.
Bahati was next to me in the first row, her head on my shoulder, now crying hysterically.
Nel and Vello were in the back row, catching their breathe.
Solana was in the middle row, her seat directly behind mine.
Turning around, I looked at Solana as best as I could with Bahati practically in my lap.
She was rubbing the baby’s back, still zipped inside her jacket, while she hummed.
I slanted my eyes at her, and when she nodded, I sighed in relief.
“Naw, nigga! We ain’t hit. By the grace of fuckin’ God, though. Had I died back there, Pia was gone kill everybody in this fucking car!”
“Why the fuck you pull a suicide mission like this, stupid nigga? I told Don to leave your ass out here. I don’t know why he got a soft spot for you incompetent niggas!” Matteo argued as he sped down the dirt road.
“I didn’t ask you niggas to come. I had the shit handled.”
“Speaking of handled…” Vello leaned over Solana’s seat. “Where the fuck you get grenades from?”
“On foe ’nem!” Nel shouted. “This nigga thinks he’s Osama bin Laden. Grenades, nigga? Damn near blew all our asses to smithereens. My fuckin’ ears still ringing.”
“Aye! Shut the fuck up with all that fucking crying! I’m tryna drive and get the fuck outta this country before these Mexican cops get on our asses,” Matteo barked out before catching my eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Shio, getcha hoe… We know she can’t go on no mo’ missions. Making my fuckin’ head hurt.”
Matteo cut a sharp left, nearly flipping the truck over and making Vello scream. “Fuck, Teo! I got kids, witcho mean ass. Don’t kill us ’cause Shio baby mama won’t stop blubbering.”
Nel and Ezio laughed before Nel leaned over Solana’s seat and said, “That’s the power of that fucking grenade that got your head ’bout to explode, Matteo.
Aye, as a matter of fact, you got some more of them bitches?
I’m dropping a few in Preston’s sick-ass simulations.
Ending that psychotic-ass training once and for all. ”