Just as I told myself that I needed to push her out of my head and focus, a call from her came through. Hitting the button on the screen, I answered for her. I didn’t care what was going on. I was going to see what she needed.
“What’s up?” I asked, answering the phone.
“I was just calling to check on you. I got to work today, and you weren’t here. I’ve never known you to miss so much work. Are you trying to avoid me?”
“I would never avoid you. I just have some other business that’s been popping up that I need to take care of.”
“I don’t like the tone of your voice, Sincere. Does this have something to do with the man who approached us the other day?”
Everything in me wanted to lie to her, needed to lie to her. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to build a relationship on lies, so I wasn’t going to do it now. I might’ve had to reconsider that if she ever directly asked me if I was still in the streets, though. Thankfully, the topic had never come up before.
“Yeah, something like that. I just need to make sure that shit never happens again.”
“Are you afraid that he’ll do something to you?”
Laughing, I replied, “No man walking this planet puts fear into my heart, ma. I just don’t want him popping up when I’m with you. You don’t need to be dealing with that.”
“Okay, I guess I understand. Do you think you’ll make it to the office today?”
“I’m not sure. But, if I don’t, I’ll link up with you after work.”
“Okay, well, be safe, Sincere. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said, hanging up.
Just as I did, I saw Mitch getting out of his car. Today was going to be eventful, but the statement needed to be made. Motherfuckers had another thing coming if they thought they could do whatever the fuck they wanted to in a city that I ran. The crazy part about how chaotic shit was about to get was that it could’ve been avoided. I was a fair nigga and didn’t mind letting anybody sit at the table and eat. It was when motherfuckersforgot that I owned the fucking table was when shit started to get deadly.
“What’s up, bruh? You ready to handle this shit?” Mitch asked.
He was used to getting active a lot sooner, and I didn’t blame him for being antsy. While I liked to be a little calmer and more collected when I handled business, he believed in making as much noise as possible. Both got the job done, so I let him do his thing when it was called for. But when it came to Eithan and his bullshit, it was personal and would be handled in my own way.
“Yep, no time like the present,” I said, walking up to the door.
The minute I was in front of it, I kicked it down and stepped inside of it. Before the niggas in the room could raise their guns, we already had ours trained on them. As I looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone in the room, none of them looked familiar, which let me know they weren’t people from our team.
“If you’re going to kill us, then do that shit,” one of the men said from behind me.
Turning to him, I figured I’d let his ass be the example he was trying so hard to be. Most of these niggas didn’t know that there was a difference between loyalty and stupidity. His ass was being stupid, and he was going to die like the stupid motherfucker he was.
“Is that right?”
“Yep,” he said, chin held high.
“How old are you, lil’ nigga?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“If I had to guess, you’re barely past twenty-one,” I said, watching his eye twitch, which let me know that I wasn’t that far off. His poker face was trash, and he was telling me everything I needed to know about him without saying a damn word.
“You’re right, it doesn’t matter. You’re ready to die, right? You believe in that nigga who could give a fuck about you so much that you’re willing to die behind him, huh? Let me ask you something. Where is he? Why doesn’t he have more protection out here for y’all? You’re going hard as hell for a nigga that left you out here like a sitting duck.”
“He—,” he started, but I put my hand up to stop him.
“Don’t say anything stupid to further piss me off. Now, I’m going to honor your wish because you asked for it, and I like to consider myself a fair man.”
“Man, whatever, go ahead and shoot me.”
Laughing, I replied, “Shoot you? Nah, that’s too easy,” I said, smirking.
