“‘Cause I got a baby due any day now and I ain’t ‘bout to be changing numbers.”
I wiped my nose and pulled my gun out.
“Whoa! Wait, Whodie!” two of the dudes yelled.
“You wanna live to see yo’ jit or nah?” I asked.
He sat there like he was big shit. Since I was already on edge about Adore, I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. One snake ass nigga down.
“Clean this shit up. If I hear ‘bout this shit again, you’ll be next,” I warned.
“Fuck that nigga, man,” one of them said. “What we gonna do about the westside spot?”
“Let it sit. They watchin’.”
That was really my first test. The westside store was the only store I was able to clear. The Indians on the westside moved like thieves in the night. The wives were able to move the product day by day under their clothes. So, if anything came back on the westside store, I had my answers.
“Bet.” He nodded.
I pushed off the wall and headed out. Back in my car, I sat there for a second and pulled my phone out.
“Yo,” Reese said on the phone.
“I need you to pull up on me, Reese. Old spot on our side of town.”
“Bet,” he said before hanging up.
I drove to the empty lot that we used to meet up and drink when we were underage. The lot was so damaged that no one bothered to buy it and gentrify it because they were afraid of the kids that hung around. Reese pulled up ten minutes after me, hopped out, and got in the car with me.
“Nigga, you switched yo’ number on me?” Reese said.
I handed him a blunt.
“You trust everybody?” I asked.
He looked at me crazy.
“Fuck nah. Why you ask?”
“Good.” I lit my own blunt and took a pull as he did the same.
“We got a rat. I don’t kno’ if it’s Adore’s crew or one of us. I’ve been feedin’ different information to different muthafuckas. Whichever one takes the bait is the rat.”
“Aight. Sayless.”
“If it’s one of us, Reese–”
“They don’t get a pass,” he finished.
“That’s why I fuck wit’ you. Shit been fucked up since Tone been gone. You’re the only one in the crew that I can talk to ‘bout this shit.”
“You kno’ I got you. Whatever you on, I’m on.”
We finished our blunt and parted ways. As I got on the freeway, my phone buzzed with an unknown number.
“Whodie,” a voice said.
I pulled the car over. “Who the fuck is this?”
