“That’s not for you to say, though. We don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I’m not ready to accept my relationship with my girl being over. I hate to be telling you this ’cause I know it hurts, but I need you to know where my heart is.”
“I respect your honesty, but I’m really not asking. I been too easy on you, making you think you had an option, but we finna try this family shit out and see how it goes, or I’m gon’ be yo’ worst fuckin’ nightmare! I know too much of your business for you to ever think about playing with me!”
“Bitch, you ain’t finna force me to be with you! If you think you got the nuts to rat on me or speak on my business, I’ll be a single father to a motherless son. Why would you even want a nigga who don’t want you? Get some fuckin self-respect and become someone my son can admire, you stupid hoe!” I aggressively said, unable to be nice anymore.
“Come on, JJ. Time to go home!” She stood from the table and yelled out to my son.
“You can leave! I’ll bring him home later.” I side eyed her, daring her to challenge me.
“You are a fucking loser, Jakari. You wanna be a man but can’t move like one. You right. I shouldn’t want nobody who doesn’t want me, and that’s the difference between us. I know when I need to move the fuck on, and I wish I could say the same for you. Bring my son home by seven, or we gon’ have a big ass problem,” Diamond said and stormed out.
I spent time with my son, just bonding and catching up on our cartoons. No matter what was going on around me, he always brought me so much happiness. I loved spending time with my seed. I fell asleep in his room and was awakened by my phone ringing and JJ shaking me. The hospital called, telling me to get up there as soon as I could, but they wouldn’t give me any information over the phone.
I dropped JJ off at home at a little before seven, and I was thankful for that, so I wouldn’t hear Diamond’s mouth. I rushed to the hospital, praying that I wouldn’t receive any bad news. Once I arrived, I barely had my car in park before jumping out and rushing inside. When I found Keith’s doctor, he looked happy to see me, so I felt a little relieved.
“I got here as fast as I could, Doc. Please tell me you don’t have any bad news. I can’t take that today,” I said.
“Actually, your brother has been up for a few hours and is asking for you. He’s been in and out of it because of his medication, but we’ve run tests on him, and so far, everything looks good.”
“You fa real? Man, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day, Doc. Can I see him now?”
The doctor told me I was only allowed thirty minutes today because they still needed to run more tests on Keith. I told him I understood and watched him leave the room before I took a seat beside Keith’s bed.
“Man, I thought you checked out on me! I was about to turn this whole city upside down,” I said to Keith, whose eyes were barely open.
Keith gave me a slight smile before weakly speaking. “I hope you got at them niggas. They did me bad, man. I knew I should have killed that nigga when I knocked his teeth out. That nigga Black said that it’s war. I gotta get the fuck out of here, so we can slide.”
“All you need to do is focus on getting well. All that other shit is for me to worry about. You just danced with death, my nigga! I’m not about to let you back out in the streets just yet.”
“Let me? A nigga ain’t neverlet medo a bitch ass thang. I’m getting out of here, and I’m gon’ bring this shit to an end like we should have done from jump. Since I’ve been down, have you even gotten any more information on this mysterious ass nigga that popped up out of nowhere? His people did this shit to me!”
“I tell you what. Just wait until you’re released, and I’ll make sure we dead all this shit once and for all. The crew is ready to get active, but we need to make sure we are ready. Don’t ever question me like that! You know I’ve been out here working.” I told him.
I talked to Keith for a few more minutes before his medication kicked in, and he started dozing. This nigga was talking about war and could barely stay awake for twenty minutes at a time. I was relieved that he would be alright, but now I had to set shit in motion.
Since Keith was out of commission, I had to rearrange my whole operation. Business was still good, and the product was selling like hotcakes. The only thing I hated was that I had to bring Jashawn out of retirement. Jashawn was my oldest brother who taught me the game. He made his money and got out long ago. He owned property all over the city and was really heavy into real estate.
Before he changed his life, my brother was one of the most ruthless and feared D-Boys to come out of our city. When the heat started coming down on him, and he was facing real fed time, he cleaned his money up and sat the fuck down. I hated to ask him to come back to the game, but he agreed because it was temporary. Keith and Jashawn were the only people I trusted. I had niggas who had been in my camp since day one and had proven their loyalty, but I just wasn’t ready to let them that close.
I met up with Jashawn to drop off his package. He was getting off bricks at a time. It wasn’t no petty hustling when it came to him. He had big boy connections. I used my key and let myself into his home with my duffle bag on my shoulder.
“Bro, I’m here,” I yelled out.
I walked into his mini mansion and went around the house to their entertainment room, where he was sitting with his wife. After greeting her with a hug, I waited for my brother to lead me to his man cave. Once we were seated, I passed him the product and sat down on his sofa.
“I hear Keith is awake and doing good,” Jashawn said.
“How did you hear that and he just woke up today?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I got eyes and ears everywhere, baby bro. It ain’t shit that I don’t know. Just like I know y’all left some niggas alive that’s supposed to be dead, and that’s why I’m back saving yo’ ass,” he said as he looked me directly in my eyes.
“I really don’t wanna get into that. Everybody fucks up sometimes, but I learned from that shit. I’m here to tell you that I want revenge, and I want to end the shit once and for all. I never even heard of these lame ass niggas. They just came out ofnowhere and set up shop on my shit. I assumed it was an honest mistake, and we sent them a message just in case, but that shit ended bad.”
“You think? Let’s say that those country ass niggas did set up shop on your turf by mistake. You let Keith pistol whip a nigga’s teeth out, and in return, they pistol whipped this nigga into a coma. Now it’s time for you to make the next move, and nigga, it better be yo’ best move. This shit is unheard of. Niggas knew not to play with me.” Jashawn shook his head.
I went back and forth with this nigga for hours before I headed home. My brother didn’t care what he said, nor did he sugarcoat shit. I was learning from my mistakes, and I knew what I had to do. I was gonna get my product back and make sure no nigga ever thought to play with me again. I had the drop on these niggas, and I was about to be on some stalked out shit until it was time for me to strike. I was about to make sure I knew the ins and outs of their operation and take them for everything they had.
I had been so caught up with Keith being hurt and Moni leaving me that I wasn’t worried about revenge, but now that the smoke had cleared, I was about to show these niggas. The first thing I did was set up a meeting with my crew. Everyone needed to be on one accord and aware that we were at war. It was almost time to get active, and I needed them to understand that it was also business as usual. Getting to the money was the main objective until I said otherwise.
