“You pulled me to the side, asked what that was about and I told you nothing.”
I nodded. “You lied.”
“Maaaan,” he pouted. “Like I said?—”
“Fuck what you said,” I cut in. “She have a bad feeling, fuck you supposed to do? Shit, fuck the bad feeling… fuck were younotsupposed to do, Zeke?”
Shifting my eyes to the road, then back to the rearview, they met his. His nostrils flared and he looked off, running his hand over his wild locs. “Bro.”
“Simple question,” Kiss said, his voice slightly muffled by weed smoke.
“Hit licks.”
“Exactly. Why is that baby bro?” Kiss continued, as I pulled off from the green light, listening. Quiet again. I didn’t want to hear him bitch and moan about how shit wasn’t supposed to go ‘that way’. I wanted to hear him talk about why he wasn’t supposed to be out there in the first place, making petty runs, hitting stupid ass licks.
We’d evolved from that shit. Years ago, when we were down on our knuckles, figuring shit out, we were in Wildermere, hitting licks regularly. Breaking in houses was our go to. It kept us fed but about three years ago, we stopped. However, Ezekiel was addicted to the rush running in cribs gave him. He was anadrenaline junky who didn’t like the pace we were moving at now. He needed action. Healwaysneeded action. Since he was a little nigga, the thrill of everything excited him. That was where shit got complicated and we butted heads.
“Because we?—”
“Fuck is we?” Kiss interrupted.
Zeke shifted around in his seat again, let out a sigh and shook his head. “I. I don’t need to do that shit no more.”
“Exactly. So why the fuck you out there on nut shit for, bro? Look at what happened. We gotta clean that shit up—not you.”
“Finish,” I said, eyes on the road, nostrils flaring.
I didn’t give too much of a fuck about the story. Him reciting it, replaying it… reliving it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to keep listening to it because I was looking for loopholes or a spot where they could have gone wrong. I wanted him to keep reciting it because I wanted him to feel it. I wanted it to sink in. I wanted him to hurt behind it. Was it fucked up? Possibly. Did I give a fuck? Nah. It was psychological. I felt like if he talked about it enough… if he saw the bullets his man’s took, he would sit with it. He would rethink his decisions, and it would really sink in. The mistake he made. Not the mistake he made by trusting a bitch, but the mistake he made by going out there in the first place when he wasn’t supposed to.
He’d been doing it for a minute now. He thought he was getting away with something. Thought he was doing something behind my back. Thought I didn’t know about it. But I knew. I knew every single time him, Meech and Cash took them trips to Wildermere Falls. Usually, when they took them, I had someone looking after them. I did my due diligences and looked into the lick myself. I didn’t do that this time. Not because I didn’t give a fuck about my brothers wellbeing but because I was tired. Tired of him blatantly lying in my face. Tired of using resources to make sure he was straight when he shouldn’t have been outthere in the first place. Didn’t matter how tired I was though. The fall out behind the lick going wrong would have to be handled by me, anyway. There was no winning in this situation for real. The only thing I hoped came out of it would be him finally deciding to listen and sit his bitch ass the fuck down.
Ezekiel was the youngest boy out of the bunch. It was five of us. Moms had us back-to-back. Me—I was the oldest. Leviticus was under me, Solomon after him, then Ezekiel with our baby sister, Genesis, following behind him. As a given, I was the ring leader. I didn’t have a problem with that. I took pride in being the oldest. It was just when shit like this happened, because a muthafucka veered off the plan, that it got to me. I might’ve been pissed at Zeke but ultimately, I was the blame for what happened tonight. I let this go on for too long without bringing it to him. Instead of sitting him down, letting him know I knew what was going on months ago, I decided to play a game. I decided to let him fall on his ass. That was because despite knowing things would eventually go south, I didn’t expect Meech to lose his life behind it.
The rest of the ride back to our side of town was quiet. I didn’t play any music, neither. Kiss would usually go for the AUX, but because he knew I was in a fucked-up mood, he didn’t touch it. When I was upset, people knew to tread lightly. I was known to have a short fuse when I was taken to a certain point. It was usually best to stay out of my way, keep quiet, and let me cool off. Which was what my brothers did until I dropped them off.
I pulled into my driveway and hit the garage opener on my phone. When I pulled in, I closed the garage and killed the engine. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the headrest and thought of Meech’s little sister. I didn’t know her. Not for real. I just knew her as Meech’s little sister. He didn’t talk about her much, but I knew they were all they had. She was young.Stuck in the jungle without her brother. For the most part, I minded my business, looking at peoples circumstances as their own to deal with but because Zeke pulled the nigga in on a job he shouldn’t have been on, I felt for her. Yeah, Meech made a choice. He decided to hit that lick but the only reason he made moves with Zeke was because he thought I okayed it. Zeke hadn’t only lied to me—he lied to his niggas too.
“Dumb ass nigga,” I muttered before I grabbed my phone and got out of the whip.
“Where you go last night?”
I lifted my eyes from the bowl of cereal I was digging into and put them on Jada, my girl. “What?”
She tied the belt to her black Versace robe tighter around her waist. “Last night. You left. Where did you go?”
“Out to handle business.”
She squinted. “Out to handle business at?—”
“Yeah,” I quickly replied, dismissing her.
Me and Jada had been together for a few years. I’d known her since we were little though. She used to come to the church my family owned with her granny and we kind of grew based off that. We were just close. Used to talk and play around but that was about it. Were kids. There was no attraction. It wasn’t until after my pops passed away that we grew closer. Her granny came around a lot during that time, dropping food off and shit and she was always there. From that point, we were kind of inseparable and when I needed her, she was there. Which was what landed us where we were today—together. It would be nice to say we had an unbreakable bond and that I loved her with all of me, butwe didn’t and I didn’t. Jada was loyal and in exchange for her loyalty, I took care of her. We took care of each other.
She took a deep breath and sat on the barstool beside me. “Something happened?“
I nodded. “It’s under control now.”
Jada brushed her hand over the top of her head, fingering through her curly coils. “Good. I wanted to go across the bridge?—”
