Chapter 28 Adore
I had been in a lot of shit that should’ve scared me.
Gunshots, raids, niggas running up on me, and losing people.
Nothing felt like this. This shit felt final.
It was like everything I built, everything I loved, and everything I’ve survived comes down to one night.
I stood in my closet just staring at clothes like any of this shit mattered.
Like picking a fucking outfit was going to change the outcome of what we were about to walk into.
My hands were steady, but my chest wasn’t.
Behind me, Whodie leaned against the doorway, watching me.
“You gonna stand there all night or you gonna pick somethin’?” he asked.
“Does it even matter what we put on?”
“It does to me,” he replied.
“Why?”
“‘Cause if this goes left,” he paused, shaking his head like he didn’t want to finish the sentence. “I wanna go out like myself.”
“I hate when you talk like that,” I whispered.
He stepped closer and lifted my head.
“I don’t. I just don’t lie to you.”
I swallowed hard and looked away, trying to hide the tears that were trying to form.
“Nobody is dying tonight,” I said firmly.
His thumb wiped the tear from the corner of my eye. “I kno’, but just in case…”
“Whodie.”
“I’ll choose this every time. You, every time.”
“You better not leave me.” My voice cracked as I wrapped my hands around his waist and pressed my face into his chest.
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” he said.
The drive was quiet. What did I expect? For Whodie to be talking my head off about what we were going to eat after?
Neither of us knew the outcome of this shit.
I sat in the passenger seat, just staring ahead while my fingers played on the edge of my door handle.
Whodie had one hand on the wheel and the other resting on his gun.
We both were taking a chance riding dirty with a fed case pending. It was a chance I was willing to take.
“Don’t be nervous.” Whodie looked over at me with a smile.
“I’m not,” I lied.
He knew I was lying by the way I was counting the damn threads in the door handle.
When we pulled into the location, you could feel the shift in the car.
The warehouse sat alone with part of the ceiling missing.
It was a building I was looking at, but I was told that the infrastructure would collapse at any time.
I didn’t want to risk it. That was years ago, and the building was still standing.
“I want you to stay close to me. No matter what happens…you stay close,” Whodie said, grabbing my jaw and kissing me passionately.
“Same for you,” I told him.
“Ain’t nobody takin’ me away from you.”
We stepped out together. It was like as soon as I stepped out, every sense in my body activated. The doors to the warehouse creaked as Whodie opened them for me.
“I don’t like this shit,” I muttered.
“Shit, me either, but we here now.”
Then, a slow clap echoed through the space.
“Look at that,” Rico’s voice carried. “The queen finally shows her fucking face.”
Rico appeared dressed in an expensive suit like this was just another night on the town. Niggas wasn’t even dressed for war.
“You wanted to meet. Now I’m here,” I said, stepping forward.
His eyes went from me to Whodie before smirking.
“And you brought your damn guard dog.”
I became nervous. Inside, I was praying that Whodie kept his composure like Hollow had told him to.
“I brought what I needed. I’m sure you did too,” I told him.
“You always were smart. That’s why Sosa trusted you with everything.”
“Don’t mention his name.”
“There it is,” he pointed and started pacing. “That emotion.”
Here I was hoping Whodie didn’t overreact, and it was me letting this nigga control the conversation. Whodie shifted a little but continued to let me control the situation.
“You said you wanted your shit. So let’s talk business. I don’t have all night,” I said.
Rico’s smile faded. “You think this is business?”
“What is it then?”
“It’s personal. Sosa took everything from me. My routes, my money, and my name in these streets.”
“And so you think I’m just going to hand it over because you said it was yours?”
“I think you don’t have a choice,” he replied.
“Let me explain something to you. I always knew who you were, but you never knew me. Sosa and I were business partners. I brought him in because I couldn’t move the amount of weight that my plug wanted me to alone.
He started making a name for himself and doing business on the side.
It was me and his wife that set him up to be killed.
It was me all along who wanted you to go down for it so I could politely get my shit back.
But no, you are a stubborn little bitch.
Just like Zhane. The bitch thought she could go Fed on me and I wouldn’t know,” he laughed. “Y’all Florida bitches got some nerve.”
And just like that, everything exploded.
Gunshots ripped through the air before I could react.
Whodie yanked me down behind one of the crates as bullets ripped through the building.
The sound of metal, concrete, and glass was deafening.
My ears rang as I clutched on to Whodie’s pant leg as he shot back.
Like my brother said, they ambushed us. I was so glad Whodie had his boys on standby.
What I was really wanting to know was why Hollow hadn’t taken the shot.
“Stay here,” Whodie said.
“Hell no,” I snapped. “You said stay close,” I reminded him.
He looked at me like he wanted to argue but didn’t have time. I pulled my gun out, and he nodded.
“Watch my back,” he told me.
“Always!”
We moved together. Just like we always did. Whodie took a shot, I took a shot. There were bodies everywhere. But the one I was looking for was nowhere to be found.
“Adore,” Rico called out over the gunfire. “You really think you’re going to survive this?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I yelled, firing in his direction.
Whodie moved in closer, trying to close the distance. A shot rang out, and all I saw was Whodie’s body jerk.
“Whodie!”
He staggered back, his hand going to his stomach as blood spread through his shirt.
“No…no, no!” I rushed towards him as he dropped to one knee.
“I’m good,” he gritted.
“You’re not,” I cried.
Rico stepped forward, gun raised.
“This is how it ends,” he said.
Then the shot that I was waiting for. The green dots landed right in the middle of Rico’s forehead.
Before he could pull the trigger on me, Hollow had sent a bullet flying right through his skull from over a hundred feet away.
His body dropped, but I didn’t care at the moment.
My focus was on Whodie. The bullet somehow hit right below his bulletproof vest.
“Stay with me, baby,” I cried, pressing my hand against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. “Please, baby, stay with me.”
“Aye,” he whispered.
“Nah…nah, you said you weren’t going to leave me, remember?” I let the tears drop from my eyes.
“I love you,” he said anyway.
“Stop! Just stop talking. You’re not leaving me. You hear me!”
“Come on, we gotta get him outta here and to a hospital,” one of Whodie’s homeboys scooped him up.
Before we could get him in the car, Whodie had stopped breathing. Hollow came running.
“Aye…Adore, drive this muthafucka while I do CPR. I don’t give a fuck ‘bouta light or if the police get behind you. Drive, cause yo’ nigga life depends on it.”
Hollow hopped right in the back seat and started chest compressions. I pulled off with a few of the 239 Boyz behind me. I tried my best to focus on the road, but I kept looking in the rearview mirror at Whodie’s limp body.
“Breathe, nigga! Breathe!” Hollow said as he pressed into his chest.
I was blinded by my tears as I ran red lights and horns blew.
“He said he would never leave me,” I cried.
“Sis, I got you. Just keep drivin’. This nigga not ‘bouta die on me. We’ve been through too much shit together. Nigga can’t leave us now.”
I heard Hollow, but when we got to the hospital, and Whodie still didn’t have a pulse, I knew this shit was over.
He had gone too long without breathing. Hollow was covered in blood and winded from performing CPR.
As they wheeled Whodie to the back with a machine now pushing down on his chest, Hollow grabbed me, and all I could do was cry.
I had been sick to my stomach since the doors closed and they took Whodie to the back.
I’ll never forget this feeling. This was worse than Sosa, and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why every man I had was taken away from me.
I could remember my brother grabbing me before my body hit the ground.
The nurses throwing me on a bed and pushed me to the back.
I was awake, but I felt like I was dead.
My heart was hurting, and all I wanted was my Whodie.
When they got me stable, Hollow was sitting in the corner with his head in his hands.
I just knew shit wasn’t about to get worse.
“Hollow,” I called out.
When he lifted his head, his eyes were bloodshot red. The dried blood of my man was still on his clothes.
“Adore, I need you to rest. Your blood pressure is high,” he said calmly.
“Hollow, don’t tell me rest. How is Whodie?”
Hollow looked at my machine and then back at me. The machine was beating faster as I waited for an answer.
“Adore,” Hollow said.
“Hollow, I’m going to spazz the fuck out. Tell me!”
“He’s gone, Adore.”