by Shan
“Stay back here, a’ight. I gotta go outside to see what’s going on,” I told them. I kissed DJ on the forehead as tears began to pour from his eyes.
“Dae, please don’t leave us again. Please not again,” Amber cried, and that shit caused me to tear up. I thought about how I had left her and DJ after she’d been shot. That night she could’ve died, and I walked out like she had meant nothing to me when that was the furthest thing from the truth. I loved this girl, but at the time, embarrassment and other shit kept me from showing her how much.
I grabbed Amber by both sides of her face and kissed her lips. She cried, silently, and I stood up to my feet and looked down at them. DJ moved closer to his mom and wrapped his arms around her.
“I gotta go out there, because if I don’t, they gonna come in here,” I told them just as I heard a loud noise that sounded like something had been slammed into the iron gate. I handed Amber her phone before I kneeled down and kissed them once more. “Soon as I leave out of here, call the police, a’ight.”
Amber nodded her head and wrapped her arms around DJ. I took off and ran back upstairs where I had two guns tucked on the side of the nightstand in Amber’s room, where I had been sleeping lately. I placed one in my back, and the other, I kept down by my side. I didn’t even have to wonder how the fuck these niggas knew where we all stayed. I knew Tramell’s punk ass had to be responsible for this shit, but it was cool, cause when I caught up to that fuck nigga, I was laying his out. This was another time Khi was right and I should’ve just listened, and now, here I was with Amber and the kid in danger again.
Refusing to let anything happen to them, I left out through the backdoor and ran alongside the pool until I was at the back of yard and at the iron gate. There was an opening that led to the lake that sat on the back of KaeDee’s house. I went through it and crept away to the far side of the house that would lead me up into the street where them niggas were. It took a few minutes, due to all the land between the houses, but once I made it on the street, I could see them niggas still trying to get inside. They had taken one of the Tahoes and slammed it into the gate, and that had only tilted it a little, but still allowed no entry.
I noticed how one of the Tahoes sat in the back in the distance and when I looked around and didn’t see that hoe ass nigga, I knew that had to be him. I pulled the hammer back and made my way over there. They were all so focused on KaeDee’s house that none of them saw me coming. I emptied four rounds into the windshield of the Tahoe and then moved around to the side and put three more through the driver’s side window.
Rahaim’s body slumped over the steering wheel, and I quickly pulled the door opened and yanked his ass out. It was definitely him. His long dreads were now stuck to the blood that had splattered onto his face. Him and his brother were almost identical, but I remembered from the pictures that I had seen that Rahaim had the blond tips.
POW! POW! POW!
I emptied three more bullets into Rahaim, and just then, bullets started flying my way. I hopped inside of the Tahoe, jerked the car in drive, and sped off with them niggas following behind me. Just what I had wanted. As long as they were after me, they would leave Amber and DJ alone.
***
I parked the Tahoe in front of someone’s house, then quickly jumped out and cut between two houses. Them hoe ass niggas had been on my ass sending some heavy heat my way. Shit was real live out, and I was beginning to think that I wasn’t gonna make it out until them niggas saw twelve and backed the fuck off.
I was able to get away and found my way into my old neighborhood when we used to live with our grandmother. Once I found the house I was looking for, I used my elbow to break a window out one of the old traphouses. Glass shattered everywhere, some falling inside, and some hitting my feet.
This used to be the hotspot until it was raided by the police a few years ago; now it was just used as a duck-off spot that me and a few of the goonies would use every now and then. The place was still furnished, so it made a good spot to come through and hideout in, and shit, plenty of times, we would bring a few hoes through here and pass them around.
I still had a key on my keyring, but being that I left KaeDee’s with nothing, I had to break my way inside. I slid my hand through the part that I had broken and reached up to unlock the window. Pulling the window up, I crept inside and closed it behind me.
Soon as I turned around, I sniffed and pulled that tool from my side. I could smell the Kush as it flowed through the air, and I followed the scent until I had made it to the front of the house. I gritted down on my teeth and wasted no time pulling back on the hammer.
Two bullets went into his chest just as he had stood up to come at me. He fell back on the couch, and that was when I saw that his ass had already been hit several times. His head was covered in sweat, and he was now breathing erratically.
“I tried…I tried to keep you out of it, but-but you wanted to stay riding for that pu-ssy, pus-sy ass brother of yo-yours,” Tramell said, as he voice trembled. His chest rose and fell as his body shook, uncontrollably.
“Who the fuck side did you think I was gonna take nigga? My muthafuckin’ brother we talking about, the nigga that taught me how to ride my bike, tie my muthafuckin’ shoes, had my back when niggas used to jump on me at school. This the nigga that went out there and hustled for his whole damn family when my young ass had a chick and a baby to feed. Hell muthafuckin’ yea, I’mma take his side, nigga!
I see your ass don’t know shit about loyalty and family. Bitch, we fed you and your hoe and made sure your pockets stayed fed, and you wanna come for us over some beef that comes along with this dope shit! You knew the risk and so did Cocoa!”
“I ca-came for your fam. Not you—you was caught up—in their shit like the---re-rest of us. You cho-chose sides, so I fed the Rastas your info,” Tramell tried to laugh, but only ended up coughing up blood. “Yo-you should’ve got-gotten rid of Khi’s bitch. That h-hoe was gon’ always b-be his weakness. She made it easy for me t-to ta-take him down.”
“Fuck you mean take him down?” I said and popped Tramell again in the arm. He jerked back and blood flew out of his mouth. “Fuck you say nigga?”
“Bo-bodied him. Shit was easy,” Tramell said with a chuckle before he fell back and off to the side. His chest no longer was moving, so I walked over to him and checked his pulse. He was dead.
I looked around the room frantically to see if I could find Tramell’s cellphone. I didn’t know if what he had said was true or not, but I needed to call my brother. Nobody would understand the relationship we brothers had with each other. We could be cold and hating each other one minute, but let somebody fuck with us and it was World War III on that ass.
I was closest to Khi than any of my brothers. He was always the one that tolerated my little bad ass, and he did his best to keep me in line. Year after year, I always did something that would have Khi stressed the fuck out, but he would always put up with my ass. His patience was on a different level when it came to me. He tried and tried and he tried, but I was just too gone in the head. I didn’t think anything could save me until I was forced to face my demons when Khi had me locked up. That nigga had really come through for me more than anybody could ever say. It was just really fucked up that, when he asked me to handle the one nigga that he knew was a problem, I had waited until it was too late, and now my brother was dead.
Chapter 19
Tangie
“He ain't answering for nobody,” I told Cuba, as Cassidy drove as quickly as he could to the hospital.
I was sitting in the back seat with Cuba laid across my lap whimpering like she was in so much pain. My heart went out to her, because the blood that had seeped through her clothes said that she had lost the baby. I had hoped that I was wrong.
Cass and I were sleeping in Khi and Cuba’s downstairs guest room when the nanny Mrs. Patrick had come to wake us. She had gone to check on Cuba as instructed by Khi only to find her on the bathroom floor sweating and bar
ely breathing. My cuz just couldn't catch a damn break. It seemed like one thing after another was being tossed at her. I was a strong believer that God only gave the strongest battles to his toughest soldiers, and Cuba was one of the toughest chicks I knew.
I leaned over, kissed her on the forehead, and looked ahead just in time to see Cassidy pulling inside of the hospital’s emergency Bay Area.
“I'm a go in and get somebody. Be right back,” Cassidy said, sleepily. He placed the car in park, hopped out, and took out my cell phone to try Khi again. I knew he had seen my message I had sent him not too long ago, because his read receipts had said he’d read it. I was hoping that he was too busy driving here to reply. Even then, I called his line and waited for him to pick up but nothing.
“Did he answer?” Cuba asked, weakly, and I sighed. I tried him again, but it was still the same outcome. Moments later, Cassidy pulled my door open and reached in to grab Cuba. He had a doctor along with two nurses with him. They placed her inside of a wheelchair and rushed her inside.
“Still no answer,” I told Cass, and he nodded.
He grabbed me and pulled me close to him. The Axe body wash that he’d used to shower with tickled my nose and made me fall in love all over again. I looked up at him and him down at me. The moment he grabbed me from the house, he brought me back to Cuba’s and Khi’s and made love to me over and over again. Everything about it was good.
What we had shared was love up until he fell asleep, and I just had to check his phone. Seems like he and his lil’ baby mama had gotten real acquainted again since me and him wasn't dealing with one another. She seemed to be real thankful for the house that he'd gotten her and their daughter, Cassie, and even more thankful for leaving her with a wet pussy. I wasn't even mad about the shit until I saw that she loved him. She told him, but he didn't reply. It hurt, but Cass said that I always judged him and was constantly on him about every little thing. I didn't realize that I was like that. I didn't want to be like that. I knew that everyone had faults, and that no one was perfect, but I knew Cass better than I knew myself at times, so I knew the man he could be.
He had so much potential to be so much in life, but he chose to settle for a life in the streets. I accepted him for everything he was and wasn't, but did that mean that I couldn't push for better? For now, I was gonna let him and this Jourdin situation go, but only because Cuba’s situation was more important.
“Go be with her. I gotta go back and grab my damn phone. I’mma park and try to get in contact with Khi. This not like him to not be answering his phone, especially if you told him it was his shawty. Something not right.”
“Oh, my God, I really hope not,” I said, as I thought about Khi possibly crashing his car when he read my message. I really didn’t want to be that person that sent somebody a text that killed them. I sighed and gripped my hand over my stomach.
“You, okay?” Cassidy asked as he looked at me. His one hazel eye was almost glowing. He pulled his hair back, and I smirked, because I knew it hadn’t been braided because of me. I hated the wildness of it and would never let him walk around with it like that. At least I knew that Jourdin hadn’t been playing in his damn hair.
“I think my body can tell that I’m stressing,” I admitted.
“Go sit down, Tangie. I don’t need you up in this bitch too. I’m a be in, in a few.”
I nodded my head and walked around the car to go inside of the hospital. Looking around, I noticed how packed it was and was at least glad that they didn’t have Cuba sitting out here with everyone else. You had to be dead or damn near dying to get any help in Dallas hospitals.
I made my way to the nurses’ station and told them who I was looking for, and the nurse advised me to have a seat and that someone would be out soon. I did as she said and found an empty seat in the far corner of the room near the vending machines. My thoughts were all over the place, so I tried to calm myself down. I lost my last baby due to stress, and just seeing Cuba in the shape she was in, and having to go through it twice, had me thinking it was gonna happen to me as well. I tried not to drop tears, but they fell involuntarily.
“What they say?” Cassidy said, and I cleared my throat and looked up at him.
“Nothing…just to wait,” I told him, and he pulled me up from my chair and walked me outside of the hospital. “Anything?”
“Nah, but I called Dae’s phone and Amber answered. She said that someone had come to the house, Dae ran out, and she heard gunshots. She said Dae hasn’t come back yet and her and DJ hiding out in the basement. I don’t know what the fuck to do right now. I need to find my fuckin’ brothers!” Cassidy yelled out, suddenly, and I sighed as I rubbed my hand across his back.
“Calm down, Cass.” I told him, although I knew it had gone in one ear and out the other.
“How the fuck I’m gonna calm down when I don’t even know where they at. I can’t reach neither one of them,” Cassidy said just as his phone began to ring in his hand. He quickly looked at the screen and then frowned down at it. He slid the bar across the screen and then put the phone on speaker. “Yea.”
“Bruh, it’s me. I got this pussy’s phone,” I heard Dae’s voice come over the speaker and watched as Cass showed a bit of relief in his face.
“Where you at, bruh? Yo shawty answering your phone and she said she heard gunshots.”
“Tell me where you at, and I’ll come to you and explain,” Dae told him.
“We at the hospital… Baylor in Plano. We think Cuba might’ve lost the baby,” Cass said, and I could hear Dae sigh on the other end.
“That’s fucked up, but damn, I thought you was gonna say it was bruh. You talk to Khi?” Dae asked and Cass looked up at me.
“No…why you say that though? I’ve been trying to get at him too,” Cassidy said.
“Tramell said…” Dae started, but Cassidy’s phone beeped indicating the call had dropped. Cassidy attempted to call Dae back, but Tramell’s voice came over the speaker causing Cass to yell out. He walked off toward the parking lot, and I started to follow him but knew that he just needed time. I decided to go back inside of the waiting area and just sit it out and pray that everything was good with Cuba as well as Khi.
Chapter 20
Cassidy
I was standing across the street from the hospital putting one in the air when a Tahoe skirted past me and did a U-Turn in the middle of the street. I pulled my hammer from my back ready to let that thang go. The windshield already had bullet holes in it, and I was getting ready to put some more in it until I heard Dae’s voice. I shook my head and sucked my teeth at his dumb ass before I walked over to the passenger’s side.
“The fuck, Dae,” I said, and he shook his head at me.
“Nigga, you was about to knock your little brother off,” he said, and I nodded. The fuck did he think I was gonna do?
“How you rolling up on me like that? You know shit crazy right now, and your ass stay on joke time. Whose car is this?”
“Aye, I popped that nigga Rahaim right outside of KaeDee’s place. I wish I had got that other hoe ass nigga too, but it was too many of them niggas.”
“Is you bleeding?” I asked, as I looked at the sleeve of Dae’s arm, noticing that it was soaked in blood. He looked down at it, touched his sleeve, and looked at the blood that was on his fingers like it was foreign to him. He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, and that was when I noticed a nasty looking hole oozing with thick ass blood coming from it.
“Damn, I don’t even know when I got hit,” Dae said, as he hopped out of the car and walked around to me.
“You need to go in there and get that shit checked out,” I told him and he frowned.
“Hell no. We need to see where the fuck this nigga Khi at man. Tramell said he killed Khi…you ain’t heard from him?” Dae said almost sounding if he was about to cry. I knew how that nigga felt about Khi, so I didn’t even have to wonder if he had finally taken care of that hoe ass nigga Tramell.
“The fuck you
mean he said he killed him? You think he was just fuckin’ with you?” I asked and rushed off to my car with Dae following behind me.
“I don’t know, I hope so.”
“Call him! Call him again!” I yelled out getting frustrated. I got inside of my truck and turned the key in the ignition.
“Let me see your phone. I left Tramell’s inside of that damn truck,” Dae said, and I shook my head and sighed. I took the cell phone out my pocket and tried calling my brother again. Again, it only rung until I got his voice recording. I skirted out of the hospital’s parking lot thinking of what the fuck we was gonna do. Khi was the middle brother, but he had always been the glue that held us together. He worked harder than any of us, and if anything happened to him, I didn’t know what that would mean for the Princes’.
I pulled on the ramp to the highway going about sixty miles per hour. Soon as I was up on the highway, I pushed the pedal to the floor and hit speeds of a hundred or better trying to get to the hood. I didn’t know where to go or where to look, but the hood fucked with Khi, so if something had happened, then maybe someone knew something.
“You good?” I asked, noticing how quiet Dae had gotten in the passenger’s seat.
“Yea,” was all he said before looking out of the window. I reached for my phone to check to see if I had any missed calls or messages, but nothing. This shit was real live annoying not knowing what the fuck to do or where the fuck to go right now. I was low-key going crazy inside, but I knew I had to hold it together for the fam. Dae was gonna flip the fuck out if something happened to the kid and would be so far gone that nothing or nobody would be able to save him.
“Let’s just ride through the hood and see what we can find out. Maybe by then, somebody will call us and let us know something,” I said, and I could hear Dae’s shallow breathing. I looked over at him to make sure he was good, then looked back at the road.