Page 129 of Just Like Summer

“Fuck you mean he’s here?” Cairo asked. Immediately, the fullness in his spirit was gone. “Everyone associated with that nigga, we got rid of.”

“Niggas like Tiny get more niggas. His niggas are here talkin’ shit. Rolled up to my section on some shit about they got a message from Tiny and he’s coming for his money,” Nate huffed. “I’m not waiting for that nigga to pop out and do some shit.”

Cairo was already in full stride to get his family and get them out of the crowd. Every step closer to where they were supposed to be, his heart began to constrict in his chest. His ears were trained on every noise. Happiness of children, joy of adults, the music from the deejay, he had to sift through all of that until he found Kamilla’s.

“Where is he?” the concern edging Kamilla’s voice. “KP! He was right here, D! Where is he?”

Cairo fought through the thickness of the crowd to get to his lady. Breaking through, he found her in full panic. By now, Charlie and Haddon rushed over from wherever they were.

Kamilla spun around, finding Cairo and rushed to him. “I can’t find him, he was right here. Someone bumped into me, I turned around for two seconds. He was gone, Cai. I can’t find him.”

“Dania, take her to the tent,” Cairo directed before holding Kamilla’s face. “I’ll find him. Go.”

Releasing her, he moved over to Haddon and Charlie, needing to hear anything before taking matters into his own hands.

Charlie started. “I have everything locked down and my team is looking at the cameras. You know something?”

“Outside of some shit I didn’t handle years ago popping back up, nah,” Cairo shared.

“The shit you didn’t handle wouldn’t have been a nigga named Tiny?” Haddon asked. “It didn’t mean shit to me when I looked into that corny ass nigga Armon. Tiny is his cousin. That shit was a set up. You know where that nigga would lay his head?”

Nate was now at Cairo’s side and the two spoke in tandem. “The apartments.”

“Haddon, can you get her home?” Cairo asked.

“She’s gone with D, C4,” Nate stated.

“Nigga, wherever you going, we goin’,” Haddon spoke up. “Let’s go.”

Cairo was already on the move to where he’d parked his new car. Next to where Kamilla’s car should’ve been. Like lightening struck through his body, he hopped in and sped toward the apartments. Nate barely made it in the car before Cairo peeled out. He didn’t stop at any stop signs; he didn’t slow down for anyone crossing the street. An anxiety he thought he was free from held him hostage with a vice grip. Everything ran on a loop. Tiny’s greed, Cairo’s heart and not handling him all those years ago. All he’d done was let a snake grow to size so it could swallow him whole, hurting his child and woman in the process. Parked in the vacant apartment set to be demo’d in three weeks, Cairo grabbed his gun from the glove box and hopped out. Nate, Charlie, and Haddon, followed suit. Tiny was a creature of habit and there would be nowhere else he could go. The Vato’s would’ve called Cairo the moment they spotted him. Gang shit aside, the blood they shared held loyalty.

The group of men quietly eased up the back steps to the apartment Tiny used to occupy. The thundering of Cairo’s heart almost made it impossible for him not to hear his son’s grunt.

“My daddy beats up giants,” Kairo-Palmer shouted before Tiny’s voice sounded off.

“Don’t know nobody give a damn about your pussy ass daddy!”

Cairo turned to the group behind, pressed his figure to his lips. “Haddon take KP to Fredo.”

As if all men had done missions for the gang together, they moved as a unit. Charlie took the charge, kicking in the neighboring door to draw Tiny out. When Tiny yanked the door open, gun half-way drawn, Cairo took the shot. Haddon ran through the dirty apartment shielding baby Kairo from Tiny’s fate. With Charlie and Haddon speeding to get their claimed nephew to Fredo, Cairo looked down at Tiny.

“Why?” Cairo asked. “One good answer before I finish this and get back home.”

“I was supposed to in the circle of your rich niggas. You left me in there to fuckin’ rot, nigga. Killed my cousin, took money out my pocket, and food off my table. Fuck you, nigga. Fuck you!” Tiny shouted, letting his envy stand on a hill Cairo was going to let him die on.

He didn’t feel the need to go back and forth. All he offered Tiny before sending the bullet through his skull was, “I should’ve done this five summers ago. Rest up with your punk ass cousin.”

fifty-three

Dania came to a barreling stop at a pay by day hotel. Kamilla’s mind ran back to the last phone call. The house was gone and with the amount of work Aunt J had gotten done and couldn’t afford the upkeep, it would make sense for her to be here.

Kamilla wisped into tiny lobby of the hotel halfway out breath and shouted, “Jameela, what room is she in? She has a bad BBL and a face full of filler.”

The heavy-set woman reeking of cigarettes and old clothing scoffed and looked up at Kamilla who was a stark difference from her aunt. “She’s going to be on her ass if she doesn’t find my fuckin’ forty dollars in the next three hours.”

Kamilla dug into her pocket and handed the woman three hundred dollar bills. “Use that as some motivation to keep your mouth shut if the police show up.”

“Well shit,” the woman huffed, taking the money and sliding the key over. “She’s in room 308. I’m going to play my numbers, you don’t have to worry about me.” The vacancy sign was turned off and the older woman limped out. “I should be at the bingo hall for the next couple of hours.”