24. Pistol Whipped
Twenty-Four
Pistol Whipped
PISTOL
Destiny was on a mission.
We had been sitting in the waiting room of the Sleighton Hope Memorial Hospital for hours with no updates.
They said Brick was rushed into emergency surgery, and it would be touch and go…
That was hours ago. Eden showed up and took Destiny home to change and calm down, because seeing her cry and scream was really fuckin’ all of us up.
She obviously didn’t go to The Kalida West School of Hidden Emotions and was breaking down every five minutes.
The last time I saw her, she was bloody and wailing, damn near laid out on the hospital floor begging for my brother’s life. Now, she and her sister came striding in, laced head to toe in black, with determined frowns on their faces. Kilo and I both looked up when they stopped in front of us.
“Let's go,” Destiny said with a rage in her eyes that I knew too well.
My brother and I were on our feet in an instant, knowing what time it was.
I turned to look at our mother, who hadn't moved or spoken since she got there.
She continued to sit in her chair, stewing in a silent anxiety as she stared off into a corner.
Before Kilo and I left, we stepped over to her.
I damn near flipped the whole hospital over when she looked up at us with tear-glazed eyes.
We had experienced some close calls over the years, but this was the closest that death had been to our front door in a few decades.
“We'll be back, Mama,” Kilo said as he stooped down and kissed her forehead before handing her our phones. She remained wordless but gave us a knowing nod. I kissed her forehead too, and we turned to walk out.
She had brought us up to believe that if you fucked with one of us, you fucked with all of us, and fuckin’ with any of us was a death sentence. The sun had just set, and niggas didn’t even know that would be their last time seeing that muhfucka.
We followed the girls to the parking lot where Eden tossed me the keys to an all black, unmarked Jeep.
The two women hopped in the back and Kilo and I in the front.
Destiny gave me the cross streets for where we needed to be, and we fell back into the charged silence.
Thirty minutes later, we approched the two-story brick house in the quiet neighborhood.
I pulled into the driveway of an empty house across the street with a For Sale sign in the driveway, and every passenger in the Jeep let out a simultaneous sigh.
“Des, you don't have to come in. We got it,” Eden said softly once we made it to our destination.
“I'm coming,” she answered without considering any other options. Eden nodded at her, then turned to us, and I saw something familiar in her eyes. Yes, they were different, but they were just like us—willing to lay down anybody for their sibling. I was ready to do just that for mine. They stood by the car while I cased the house. These niggas were bold enough to be moving like this without having even the most basic of security systems in place. They didn’t even have a fucking doorbell camera.
This would be too easy.
“So, what’s the move?” Ki asked in a hushed tone once I rejoined the group.
“Five niggas downstairs, two people upstairs,” I answered. “No security, no cameras. We can take out the niggas downstairs in one clean sweep before we head upstairs.”
“Where is she?” Destiny asked.
“Upstairs with that nigga Que. They fuckin,” I said in disgust at their carelessness.
After the shit they pulled—and the way we painted the city red the other night—they should have been halfway to the border.
To still be in our city, playing video games and gettin’ pussy like shit was sweet was insulting.
I planned to correct that immediately. Clearly, we had been moving too delicately if people thought they could fuck us over like this.
“Let’s go,” Eden said as the four of us moved silently across the dimly lit street.
Having seen it firsthand, I knew that Eden could handle herself, so I sent her to the front door with Kilo. I took Des around back with me. I made a vow to myself to make sure she was protected until Brick was able to again.
We slipped in the back door just as we heard the front one open.
One of the niggas screamed before being permanently muted when he met the end of Kilo’s silencer.
He turned to the other two on the couch, but Eden somehow managed to take them both out with the same bullet.
Kilo looked back at her with an impressed expression on his face and gave her an approving nod.
The other two, who tried to make their escape towards the back door, froze in place when they saw me standing there.
I took care of them easily as the four of us crept towards the stairs.
Between the noise they were keeping up downstairs while playing that gotdamn game, and the loud music combined with louder fuckin’ that the two of them had going on upstairs, they had no clue that their lives were in danger until Kilo kicked down the door.
“Surprise, bitches!” he hollered, making Kat scream and rush to throw a t-shirt over her naked body.
“Nigga, what the fuck?” Que hollered, reaching for the nightstand. Before his hand could grasp the glock he stashed there, I was on him. I pulled it out of his reach and knocked him out cold with one punch. Des’ eyes honed in on Kat, who immediately hopped off the dick and started apologizing.
“Des, I’m so sorry!”
Judging by the way my sis grabbed her by her hair and drug her to the ground, I thought it was safe to say she didn't accept that shit. I didn’t even know her churchy ass had it in her, but I looked on in pride as she worked that bitch over.
Eden had her gun pointed so I knew if she put even a scratch on her, it was lights out.
“Wait—” her words were abruptly cut off when Destiny repeatedly bashed her mouth in with the butt of her gun. She was my brother’s soulmate for real because that nigga loved to pistol whip somebody. I almost smiled at the thought until the reality set in that I may never see him do that shit again.
I turned to the nigga laying in the bed, and let off four shots that I knew barely nicked his major arteries. He didn't know it yet, but he wasn't getting up. As my fuckin’ brother was in there fighting for his next breath, he would be out here fighting for his last.
We watched as Destiny beat the fuck out of that girl, only stopping when her face was completely unrecognizable. Then, she rose to her feet and pointed the gun at her.
“Bitch,” she mumbled as her finger trembled over the trigger.
“I got it,” Eden offered as she came to stand next to her.
“No! I got it.” Yet she hesitated and never moved. I didn't even think she was breathing.
“See, you can't do it, can you? Weak! Just like I thought!” Kat spat, like she wasn't laying on the ground bruised and bloodied by the very person she just called weak. In an instant, every gun in the room was pointed at that dumb bitch. I guess she decided to use her last words to get some shit off her chest. I hated when niggas did that. Why couldn’t they just die gracefully instead of popping’ shit that they were too pussy to say every other day of their miserable lives?
“He deserved it! I hope that bitch ass nigga rots in pi–” Her disrespect was halted by the sound of Destiny's gun going off with one perfectly placed bullet to repay her for all the turmoil she caused her in the last day. We all stood there in silence and acknowledgment of a job well done until Destiny broke. I wasn’t sure if it was the weight of what she had just done, or the fear of what was to come, but her breaths turned into shallow choppy inhales.
I looked away, knowing what was coming next.
I could barely watch out of the corner of my eye as Eden took the gun from her, handing it to Kilo before she pulled her into her arms.
“H-H-He can’t go!” she wailed, turning into a puddle of tears and emotion in her sister’s embrace.
“He can’t leave me, Eden! I just got him!
He has to be okay!” she screamed, finally hitting her limit for the day.
I had to give it to her, she held her shit together until business was handled and deserved to fall apart.
Ki and I stood there awkwardly looking on with our emotions mirroring hers, but without the courage to express it.
I looked at anything but them, fearing that eye contact with any of them would have me falling out worse than Des’ ass.
Once Eden was able to calm her sister down enough for us to move, we trekked downstairs and across the street, loaded back into the Jeep, and headed out.
Other than Destiny’s light whimpering while her head rested in Eden’s lap, we rode in silence.
We stopped by my shop to dispose of any evidence.
I put our guns and clothing in the incinerator and parked the truck in the back so my employees could have it disposed of in the morning.
Once we were changed into sweats, we hopped in one of my company vehicles to head back to the hospital.
Main was the first face we saw when we arrived, standing outside puffing a blunt right next to a sign that said “NO SMOKING” in bold red letters.
The relaxed look on his face told me everything I needed to know, and I nearly collapsed from relief.
Destiny wasn’t as familiar with him, so she stepped forward with her still teary eyes.
“I-Is he… H-have they said anything?” she asked nervously.
“He’s awake,” he answered simply. The moment hit her and none of us were quick enough to catch her from dropping to her knees and sobbing loudly.
She cursed, then thanked God, then went back to cursing, clearly delirious from everything that had gone down.
We gave her a moment, then helped her up before all of us went running inside the doors, scaring the girl at the front desk so badly that she just got up and stumbled to the back.