Page 11 of Forced Matrimony With An Unhinged Menace 4

“Kaseem, why the fuck do you insist on playing with me right now?” Her voice broke on the last word. “It’s been a shootout at my home today, and you sitting here talking to me about dinner reservations? Do you think I give a damn about some fuckin food! I thought something happened to my husband. I couldn’t breathe thinking about it. I can’t even think about eating at a time like this.”

“I’ll make it up to you times ten,” I said, “soon as I can. I promise you that. But right now I need you to just listen to me. If it ain’t me calling you directly, don’t trust shit! Don’t make no moves on your own. Don’t take no calls from numbers you don’t recognize. Just sit tight and wait till I send for you myself. I know that’s hard for you, baby, I know sitting still ain’t in your nature, but you gotta learn to listen to me on this one.”

She went quiet for a second on the other end, and I could hear her breathing shaky through the phone.

“I love you,” I said, softer now. “Just try and chill the fuck out for me. I promise you, I’ll always make it home to you. If I don’t do nothing else in this life, I’m gonna make sure of that.”

I ended the call before she could say anything back, before I had to hear her voice crack again and risk losing whatever grip I still had on my own composure. This woman had came into my life and became my top priority. All I wanted to do was protect her. That even included her feelings. Hearing her sound like that, it was too much for me right now.

Talking to Tatti just made me realize that I was in the most dangerous position that a nigga like me could be in while in this business.

I was in love. And that shit always got niggas killed.

I sat there in that passenger seat, phone still warm in my hand, staring out the windshield at the city rushing by. I was praying, silently, desperately, that what I’d just promised my wife wasn’t a lie, and that it was actually a promise that I could keep. I needed to always make it home to her.

Soon as I ended my call with Tatti, Namier leaned forward from the back seat.

“Let me call my bitch too. Shit, I know her ass worried too.” he said, already pulling his phone out.

I didn’t understand why he felt the need to announce that shit knowing damn well we didn’t give a fuck.

Zaire cut his eyes over at me, giving me a look that said everything he wanted to say out loud, disbelief mixed with pure irritation that his brother’s mind could even wander to a phone call with his girl right now, with our mother still missing and three bodies fresh in our own driveway. My situation was different. I called my damn wife to check in.

Namier had it on speaker before either of us could tell him different, and Nyla picked up before it even finished ringing once, her voice already panicked, already halfway to hysterics. Between him and her, I didn’t think I’d be able to take them as a couple. I was already annoyed and they were just getting started.

“Namier! Are you okay? What the hell do y’all niggas got going on that got security sitting outside my house right now? I been trying to reach you for the last few hours and you ain’t answer. I was worried sick.”

“Calm down, baby,” Namier said, all smooth, all charm, like we weren’t in the middle of the worst day this family had seen in years. “You know big daddy ain’t gone let nothing happen to keep him from making his way back to you.”

Zaire’s jaw tightened up so hard I thought he might crack a tooth. He reached over without a word and turned the music up loud, loud enough that we couldn’t hear the rest of whatever sweet nothings Namier was whispering into that phone while our own mother was somewhere out there, possibly with a gun to her head or worse by now. I nodded along to the beat without even meaning to. Finesse was spitting some real shit through them speakers, and for one small minute, my mind actually got a little quieter.

One thing I knew for certain right now was that Namier was never gonna grow up. Not really. Not all the way. Some things about a nigga just stayed the same no matter how much chaos was swirling around him.

We pulled up to the trap house a few minutes later, and the young nigga posted up on guard duty was sitting out front on the porch steps, smoking a blunt like it was any regular night.

We climbed out the truck and walked up on him.

“That bitch been crying and hollering the whole time,” he said, standing up fast, brushing ash off his jeans. “When Mars coming back? I can’t take much more of that noise, bruh. I ain’t sign up for all this. And she done pissed all over herself in there too. I damn sure ain’t cleaning that up, so don’t fuckin ask either.”

Zaire walked up on him slow, getting right in his face.

“Who the fuck you talking to?” Zaire said, his voice low and dangerous.

The young nigga’s whole demeanor dropped instantly. He put his head down, wouldn’t even hold eye contact no more.

“My bad,” he said. “I’m just tired from all this hollering and shit, that’s all. My bad, Zaire.”

Zaire nodded once, satisfied, and pushed past him toward the front door.

But my mind was stuck on something else entirely.

“Aye, Za,” I said, catching his arm before he could go inside. “You had Mars sitting on this girl too?”

“Yeah,” Zaire said, looking back at me like it wasn’t nothing worth pausing over. “What’s up?”

I stood there for a second, letting that settle in. I didn’t respond to him because he knew exactly what was up. He’d put my right hand on a job and didn’t ask or tell me about it.

That explained everything. That explained the way Mars had been looking at me at the warehouse earlier that day, that quick flick of his eyes, looking away too fast, like a nigga who was hiding something. I made a mental note right then to check that nigga later for not keeping shit solid with me, for knowing exactly what time I was on with Demon and not saying a single word about him being on watch for Demon baby momma. This nigga Mars had one foot already planted in whatever Zaire had going on behind my back. Loyalty only meant something if it ran both ways, and right now I wasn’t sure it did with everybody standing close to me.