CHAPTER 6
Raul Romano
After walking awayfrom Sariah’s car, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I let out a sigh because I already knew how this conversation would go with Cairo. He was about to rip me a new asshole and to be honest, I didn’t wanna hear it. However, if I didn’t answer, shit would go way left and let’s just say Cairo wasn’t the nigga to fuck with. We may be related but he had no mercy for anyone.
“What’s up?” I answered heading up the long walkway to get to my house.
When security called to say an unknown car was on the street or should I say premises because the entire area and two blocks around it belonged to the Romano family, I ran the plates in the system and Sariah’s name popped up. What was she doing here at this time of the morning; better yet, why was she here? It wasn’t a problem with her showing up because she’s been here before. It was unexpected and with the way my life was set up she could’ve been taken out soon as she pulled on the street.
The specific street my home was on only had four houses and that included mine, Cairo, Rosalina and Manny’s. We were the oldest out of the grandkids and the closest. Cairo wanted all of us near in case anything went down. His mom and mine didn’t want to be on our street and stayed one block over. My Aunt Sophia said me and my brother were ruthless, Rosalina was quiet, stayed to herself but handled all the paperwork and Cairo, well he was just a different type of breed.
My uncle groomed him to be a beast yet he turned into something worst. The family considered him a psychopath, insane, deranged, demented and a maniac. The streets called him one word; a monster, and that’s exactly how he wanted to be known. Things that he’s done to people would have been too graphic for a scary movie. I’m not even sure how he came up with the ideas but when it was all said and done, he was feared by the entire world.
“Why the fuck is your girl pulling up at four in the morning?” He snapped.
“Sariah is not my—” He cut me off.
“The fuck you mean she not your girl. Nigga, you making pit stops in the middle of us doing business, knocking down doors and shit but she not your girl. You ain’t doing that for just anybody.” Plopping down on the couch as he continued all I could do was listen. If I hung up on him, he’d probably shoot me in the face. Cairo didn’t give a fuck if you were related to him or not; if you disrespected him, he’d be at your door ready to fuck you up. In my twenty four years of being alive, I have to say all it took was one time for Cairo to get me right.
The day after my eighteenth birthday, Cairo came over to check on me. He threw me a birthday bash and I was drunk as hell. He dropped me off at my parent’s house and the next day, my Aunt Sophia, and my uncle stopped by. They thought it wasfunny because I had no business drinking at such a young age and wanted to see how I handled it.
Long story short, I walked down the steps and I don’t even remember the smart shit my mother said; I know my response was disrespectful and I’ve never been that way towards her or any women in the family. Before I could muster up an apology, Cairo caved my chest in, stomped on my body, closed both of my eyes, had my jaw wired, broke some ribs and shot me in the leg so closed to an artery I almost bled to death. It took both of our pops and Manny to get him off me.
From that day, I promised to never be disrespectful to family and keep my mouth shut when he was mad. It took my body almost three months to heal and not one person felt bad for me. Not that I wanted them to but damn. Crazy as it was though, he was still my favorite cousin and I’d do anything for him.
“Cuz, you of all people know how Naomi did me and I’m not tryna be in that situation again.”
Naomi was my ex who cheated on me with her ex, well alleged ex because when the truth came out, they never broke up. Evidently, he was locked up for a couple of years when we met but they were still in contact and she was visiting him in prison. When he came home, we had just finish fucking and was laying there discussing our future. Who knew the nigga had a key to her crib and came straight there from jail. I almost murked his ass right then and there but when all the shit came out, Naomi was telling us both different things. I put a bullet in her head, dared him to try me and walked out.
A week later, word on the street was he told people I killed her and wanted my head on a platter. He even put up 20k for anyone who had info on me. So of course, I showed up to his house and challenged him to a fight. He lost, I murked him and his family as well.
Now I was very careful calling a chick mine and kept a close eye on her. Sariah wasn’t anything like Naomi but who knew my ex was the way she was.
“You can’t let what Naomi did hold you back. Fuck that bitch and do what you need to before the baby gets here.” I sat up on the couch.
“What baby?”
“This nigga. How you don’t know Sariah pregnant? It’s all in her face, she cry for every little thing from what you say and you said there was something different about her during sex. Are you really that dumb?” I thought about what he said. Cairo was right, I did notice changes in Sariah but why didn’t she tell me. Did she know? Was she keeping it?
“Look, whatever you got going on let her know that popping up shit don’t fly over here. Next time, she may not make it off the street.” When I heard the two beeps it let me know he hung up. Even though he was calm when speaking, his tone spoke volumes. Cairo didn’t like the unexpected and had taken lives for a lot less. Maybe it was time to claim Sariah; especially if she was expecting.
“What’s up?”I asked Sariah when she walked out of work. We hadn’t spoken in two days and not because I didn’t want to, but because some shit kicked off that same day. Me, Cairo, Manny and Felix had to catch a flight down south to deal with business and we just got back an hour ago.
“Nothing much. How are you?” Sensing an attitude, I walked behind her into the parking garage until she found her car.
“When were you gonna mention being pregnant?” She let out a slight laugh and hit the alarm on her car.
“Who told you that?” She opened the door to put her things in. Afterwards, she folded her arms and waited for me to speak.
“Are you pregnant?” I knew that smirk on her face was gonna piss me off with whatever she was about to say.
“Not anymore.” I yanked the back of her head and put a gun to her temple.
“You got two seconds to tell me the truth or I promise to blow your brains out in this parking garage.” Sariah instantly started to cry and it didn’t make me feel bad one bit.
“I’m still pregnant.” Pushing her away and putting the gun in my waist, I watched her get it together. With my hands in front of me while I stood in a stance, I waited for her to speak. When she stood there continuing to cry, I let her know what the fuck it was.
“Listen here, I’m not about to play no games with you. That’s my kid and you should’ve told me.”
