“Robert is Nine and Six’s uncle,” Cross said, then rubbed her hands over her face. “He also tried to kill Six when she was younger.”
“Kill her?” I asked, and she nodded. “Kill her how?”
“You don’t want to know,” December answered. “Just know it took us too long to find her, and when we did, the shit we saw broke something in all of us.”
“Wait, you said when she was younger, how old was she?” I asked while watching Cross. I knew that December and Nine had been friends since they were kids. They went back way further than we did.
“Too fucking young to deal with the trauma she did,” December said. “Cross, I’m going to make a few calls. See what I can dig up. If Robert is showing his face, then that means something. You said he was at Grant’s funeral, right?”
“Yeah, I sent you the pictures. He was there; it looks like he gave a speech. Stood next to Quincy at the grave site.” Cross sat on the couch and put her hands to her face.
“Alright, let me make some calls. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“It’s a good chance when December calls me back, he’s going to say that the person you’ve been looking for this entire time is Robert Strong,” Cross said after December ended the call. She lifted her head and then sat back, rubbing her hands against her thighs. “And when he does, just know that you’ll never get a chance to get your hands on him.”
“Why?” I chuckled and shook my head. “No nigga is untouchable, Cross.”
“I didn’t say he was untouchable,” she replied, shaking her head. “I’m just saying that you won’t be able to get your hands on him because as soon as December tells Six what he knows, she’s going to want to run, and to keep her from doing that, Uri is going to get involved.”
“Uri can’t--”“Uri is going to do whatever he can to protect Six, Amethyst,” she cut me off. “He’s going to go back to that dark place that he was at when you first met him. He’s going to kill any and everyone who gets in his way to protect Six, and nobody is going to be able to stop him.”
“Maybe we can get Corinthians to--”
“Nope,” Cross said, shaking her head. “My cousin is not about to be dragged into this shit. Leave her where she is. The less she knows, the better.”
“Why, huh? Why is this so important to him?”
“It doesn’t matter, Amethyst,” Cross said, shaking her head. “Just know if he’s involved, then it’s a big ass problem and more people than just you and Yale are involved.”
“So I’m just supposed to let this nigga handle it and do nothing?” I questioned her with an attitude. “That ain’t how I work, and you know it. That nigga is possibly the person who’s been pulling the strings to all this shit with Yale for all these years, and I want to know.”
“Go after Quincy instead,” she said, shaking her head. She looked up at me, then ran her hands through her braids. “Amethyst, I’m never going to tell you what to do when it comes to your relationship, but I am going to say that you’ve been doing what you want to do for all these months because you thought it would get you closer to finding the truth.”
“Because it is--”“It’s going to get you and Yale killed,” she rebutted. “Robert Strong isn’t just some random old nigga that is living beyond his glory days. Some people are just that damn fucked up that they can’t be knocked down. Robert is one of them. If Nine and December stepped the fuck back all those years ago, what do you think you can do?”
“No offense, but I’m not them niggas.”
“You’re right, you aren’t.” She stood and closed the distance between us and sat on the coffee table in front of me. “You aren’ta little nigga on the totem pole, I will give you that, but the Stones don’t have the pull to try and go after Robert. You will have to call in way too many people and put their lives in danger in the process. Go after Quincy, kill him for the shit he pulled, and then get Yale. That’s what you can do.”
“You have that much fear for Robert?” I questioned her.
“No,” she laughed and shook her head. “I have that much love for the people around me. I’ve done some fucked up shit, Amethyst, and mishandled situations because I refused to trust the people around me. Please don’t follow in my footsteps. Listen to what I’m telling you. Handle what you can handle, then get your woman. Let someone else handle Robert.”
I sat back and watched Cross. I heard everything she said, and even though I disagreed, I understood what she meant. My beef was with the Kilmores. I’d killed Grant, Luther, and Paul. The only person left in my life was Quincy, and he was alive only because I needed to find out who was pulling the strings. Now that I had a name, there was no reason for this nigga to be around. “If I step back, handle this shit with Quincy, and then go get Yale. You promise that the shit with Robert will be handled?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “It’ll be handled.”
“Alright,” I agreed. “If December gets back to you and says that Robert is their boss, then I’ll step back, but Quincy is mine.”
“Thank you.”
**
I got out of my car, closed the door, and headed to the front door of Xayne St. Thomas' house. It was a calm night: the moon was high in the sky, the stars bright, and there was little to no noise, which meant shit was going to go to hell and soon. After ringing the doorbell, I stepped back, put my hands in my pockets, and waited. The front door opened, and Xia stood on the other side. I hadn’t seen her since Corinthians killed Ta’lon at the warehouse.
“You’ve finally shown back up, huh?” she smirked and crossed her arms. “Where have you been?”
“Everywhere and nowhere at the same time,” I answered with a chuckle.
