by Shan
We drove through Oak Cliff, South Dallas, East Dallas, and then finally ended up in Pleasant Grove. Hours had gone by, and the only update I had gotten was from Tangie saying Cuba had lost the baby. She was being sent home and told that it was nothing the doctors could do for her. I told Tangie not to tell Cuba anything about Khi until we found out some solid info. I didn’t want the kid stressing out any more than I knew she was. That was fucked up that she had lost another damn baby, and I really didn’t wanna have to tell her that she had lost her fiancé too on the same damn night.
I started thinking that we were never gonna find the bruh until Dae started patting me on my shoulder and pointing across from us as we pulled up to a red light. On the other side of the street, the police and the entire street was blocked off, preventing traffic from coming through. There were several police cars and fire trucks on the scene, and through it all, I was able to spot Khi’s Maserati parked at the light and taped off with crime scene tape.
My heart dropped into my stomach, because I didn’t see any ambulances and felt like that could only mean that they were waiting on the coroner. I was so anxious to get out that I damn near forgot to the truck in park. Dae was out and across the street, and I hopped out and followed behind me. We were greeted by a bunch of police officers, and I had to back up and throw my hands up remembering I had that tool on my side.
“Yo, that’s my brother!” I yelled out. “Dae, chill!”
“Aye, that’s our fam,” Dae cried, as he pulled his dreads from his face. He was still trying to get through the police, and I had to go over and pull him back.
“Chill…chill,” I told him, as I gripped his arm. It was then that I remembered the bullet wound in his arm when I felt his blood running down my hand. I turned around and faced him and looked into his eyes. They were dark and gloomed over, and that only meant that he was angry and hurting. “Go to the car. Don’t forget you got that bullet in you, bruh. You don’t want them to start getting suspect.”
Dae nodded, and I saw a tear drop from his eye. He tried to throw his head back to stop them, but he didn’t have to do that shit in front of me. I felt the same way on the inside, but I knew better than to let it show. I waited until Dae walked away before I turned back around to face the officers. They were guarding the scene like they were protecting the president or some shit.
“That’s my brother’s car,” I said to the black officer feeling like he would be more sympathetic towards me.
I pulled my wild hair back and looked around them at the Mazi. The passenger’s door was wide open, and so was the driver’s door. I couldn’t really see on the inside to know if Khi was there or not.
“He was care-flighted to Parkland Hospital. Let me get a detective over here…just a sec.”
“He’s alive?” I asked, and my stomach dropped as I waited for the answer.
“He was touch and go as far as I know. Detective Rand,” the officer called out, and I impatiently waited for him to come over to us. I looked across the street to see that Dae was pacing back and forth with his head hanging down.
“Yes…,” Detective Rand said, as he came up, and I turned around to give him my attention. I was about to slide my hands into my pockets, and then, I quickly remembered who I was dealing with and folded them across my chest instead.
“This is the victim’s brother,” the officer said, as he pointed at me.
“Do you know what happened here tonight?” the detective asked, and I just shook my head.
“Nope…we been looking all over the city for my brother. We’ve been calling and calling and… shit, we pull up on this.”
“Who would want to see your brother dead?” he asked, and I shrugged.
“I don’t know bruh-”
“You don’t know anyone that he was beefing with? Or has he said anything about any problems he was having? Maybe someone being after him?”
“Nah, nothing. Give me a card though, and if I find out anything, I’ll let you know,” I told the detective.
“What’s your name, young man?” the detective asked me. He flipped through the little notepad he was hanging onto and then looked up at me.
“My name is Reginald Johnson,” I lied and kept a straight face when I said it too. I wasn’t about to give police my muthafuckin’ name. Soon as they ran my shit, I would end up on one of the hoods of their cars and in handcuffs. Fuck that. I was trying to get to Parkland Hospital so I could check up on Khi.
“You’re in a hurry?” He asked me, and I frowned.
“Yea, I’m tryna get to the hospital to see about my brother.”
“His name is Khian Prince…are you blood brothers?”
“Yep. Same mother, different fathers.”
“Okay, Mr. Johnson, here’s my card, but I’ll be at the hospital shortly. Right now, we’re investigating this as a homicide since the EMTs could barely find a pulse. I pray that’s not the case,” he said, and I snatched the card from his hand and took off running towards the car. I hopped inside and honked my horn so that Dae’s retarded ass could get inside.
“He’s at Parkland; they said he’s gonna make it,” I lied to Dae the moment he got inside.
“Fuck man…I was about to lose it. Let’s go. Let’s go,” Dae said, as he sniffed and wiped the tears from his face. I pulled through the light the moment it turned green and quickly made a left at the next street to get back onto the highway. I couldn’t take telling Dae the truth right now and only hoped that Khi did make it.
“I’m going back to where I left that nigga Tramell and fucking his face up….carving Disloyal in his forehead. His family gonna have a closed fuckin’ casket. That faggot don’t deserve to be honored. I should’ve burned his body. I should’ve murdered his kid. I should go body his mama right now. I should go piss on Cocoa’s grave,” Dae ranted, and I knew he meant every word he’d said. I shook my head and sighed as I sped down the dark and open highway praying that God saved our brother. At this point, it was all we could do.
***
Four hours later…
“Hey.”
I jumped up and patted my hip before I finally realized where I was. I looked around the waiting room to see Dae had fallen asleep too. That nigga still didn’t get that damn wound checked out and was dripping blood all over his clothes and the chair that he sat in. I yawned and checked the time before I finally looked up at Tangie as she stood in front of me. She had me biting down on my lip and fighting off the thoughts I was having. The little tights she wore hugged those hips of hers that I had contributed in spreading.
Shit. I thought as I sighed. I wanted to leave shawty alone for good for the way she was always on my damn back, but her damn apology had me wanting to crawl right back to her ass. I loved the fuck out of this girl, but I could feel myself developing something for Jourdin, too. Shawty was a winner, and she deserved a good nigga, but damn, I didn’t know if I wanted it to be any other nigga than me.
I knew I didn’t want a nigga around the kid, and I was gonna feel the same way about Tangie when she birthed the kid. A nigga could only have both in a different world, and although I knew I could wife Tangie and have Jourdin too, shit would have to be a secret, but I didn’t want my daughter thinking that shit was okay. What was a nigga to do?
“What they say?” Tangie asked, as she came and stood behind the chair I was sitting in. She started combing through my hair, and I knew that meant she was about to get me right. She hated the wild look, and I guess that was because she knew the hoes loved it.
“He’s in surgery. Said it’s going to take a while, because the bullet went into his throat and severed a lot of arteries.”
“Oh, my God. Who did that to him?” Tangie asked, and I shrugged. She knew I wasn’t going to tell her shit anymore like I used to. She stayed using shit against a nigga to try to say everything that happened was more of a reason for me to leave the streets alone.
“You find what you was looking for?” I asked Tangie, and she got quiet for a
second.
“What you mean?”
“When you went through my phone when I fell asleep.”
“I wasn’t really looking for anything,” she said, and I sucked my teeth.
“The fuck you go through it for then?”
“You bought her a house, car…she’s telling you she loves you. You’re having sex with her…I gotta compete with her too?” Tangie said, and I shook my head and pulled away from her.
“Get the fuck outta my head,” I said and stood up from my chair. I slid my hands into my pockets and walked out of the waiting room. I looked over my shoulder to see Tangie was coming after me. I sighed and pushed the button for the elevator.
“What? What did I say now to make you so mad?” Tangie asked right as I stepped onto the elevator. She hopped on as well, and I grew so angry that my body began to heat up.
“I’m about to go smoke…can you leave me the fuck alone?” I told Tangie as I stormed off and headed out of the hospital and to my car.
“No, you brought it up, so we gonna talk about it,” Tangie said, just barely able to keep up with me. I hopped in my truck, closed the door, and tried to lock the locks, but I wasn’t quick enough. Tangie climbed her little ass up into the passenger’s seat and stared at me.
I reached inside the center console, pulled out a little bag of weed, and a cigar. When I looked up, Tangie’s nosey ass was looking all inside the console, and I quickly closed it causing her to jump back. She cocked her head to the side, and I shook my head and started to roll my blunt.
“The fuck you want, Tangie?”
“What’s going on? You just made love to me over and over again while we were at Khi’s, and now, you’re getting mad because I went through your phone and questioned you about your baby mama? We still haven’t even discussed the fact that she really was pregnant with your damn child.”
“What is there to discuss? You told me you was gonna ride if she was mine or not. She’s mine, discussion over,” I said and sealed the cigar close.
“She’s yours, so you take care of her and fuck her too? That’s how this gonna work?”
“I fucked her cause you was acting dumb. I wasn’t fucking her or anybody else until you started acting ungrateful.”
“So you fuckin’ other bitches too?”
“Man, look…me and you ain’t together right now. I can fuck whoever I want to. You had me and you acted like it wasn’t good enough for you, so go on with all this shit,” I told her and lit the tip of the blunt. I sucked in a good amount and blew out a cloud of smoke, before pulling it back into my mouth.
“I love you, Cass, and I want us to be a family. You act like it’s wrong for me to care about you or something. What type of bitch would I be if I didn’t want better for my nigga?”
“What the fuck is wrong with my better, Tangie? I’m a street nigga, not some Wall Street nigga man. I don’t wear suits and ties unless I’m meeting about some coke. I don’t wanna be that nigga you trying to make me out to be so stop it! I’m a muthafuckin’ drug dealer, and I ain’t never pretended to be shit else. Don’t tell me you accept me if you really don’t. I tried like a muthafucka when I got out to show you I could be good to you. Sending your ass flowers, gifts and shit. We taking trips and laying up in expensive ass hotels. I fucked you good every damn night and the minute some ratchet ass hoe come to you about being pregnant by me, you flip the fuck out.”
“What was I supposed to do, Cass? I thought you cheated on me, and that girl works in my damn shop!”
“Fire the bitch…beat her ass. Look like I give a fuck about that hoe? Ain’t no telling who baby she carrying, but I know it ain’t my seed. Your ass was so ready to come at me about some shit, you ain’t give me a chance to explain.”
“All I think about is the shit that came out when you were going through all that legal shit. All the shit you had done to me, and I thought that I was really good to you. I can’t understand what I was doing back then to cause you to cheat on me with so many women, Cass,” Tangie said, as her voice broke. I looked over at her and watched as tears fell from her eyes. I shook my head and took a pull from the blunt.
“I can blame it on a lot of things. Every day I blame it on something new you do, but it don’t matter cause I had changed from all that. I was trying to do better, cause you was who I wanted to be with. I wanted to give you my last name. I wanted to raise the kid together…but shit, I don’t know now. I kinda feel like I want the same thing with Jourdin. I’m confused as fuck right now.”
“Damn, you love her?” Tangie asked, as she looked up at me with tears in her eyes.
I shook my head no, and that was the truth. Tangie was the only woman that I ever allowed myself to love. Everybody else was something to do, but being around Jourdin now, and knowing that we had a kid together, I knew that I could love her.
“I don’t know…but I just want to be honest with you. She cool peoples, but shit, I don’t know. I know you the only woman I love, but you make it hard for a nigga.”
“Maybe we should go to counseling,” Tangie suggested, and I chuckled.
“Hell nah, for what? Ain’t shit wrong with me. I sleep well at night knowing a fuck nigga ain’t killed me, and that I did my best,” I told her and took a pull from the blunt. “What you want me to do, Tangie. I apologized to you a thousand times for the past. I changed who I was from the past with the exception that I’m still in the streets, but I did all that for you…for us.”
A tap at the window caught my attention, and I pushed the button to let the window down when I realized that it was Dae. His eyes were red from crying, and I feared the worst as I waited for him to say something.
“Said he flat-lined twice on the table. We might want to call everyone that needs to be here in case they lose him,” Dae said and suddenly broke down. I hopped out of the car and grabbed him before he fell.
“Dae…Dae…Dae,” I said to him and shook my head. I tried my hardest not to breakdown along with him. He pulled away from me, turned around, and slammed his fist into the window of the car that was behind him. The glass shattered, some cutting into his hand, but it didn’t stop him. He kicked his foot in the body over and over again before he stormed off, while talking to himself. “Call Cuba, Tangie. Let me catch up with this nigga before he do something stupid.
“O-okay,” Tangie said, nervously. She pulled out her cellphone, and I rushed over to her and kissed her lips.
“I love you, baby. That’s forever,” I told her and ran off to catch up with Dae.
Chapter 21
Cuba
A week and a half later…
About a week and half ago, I lost another baby and received a call from Tangie that I was more than likely going to lose my fiancé too. I had left the hospital only to have to return to another one. The pain was all too familiar with me. It was the same thing I had felt when Alaska was killed. It was just crazy, because I knew something was going to happen. I tried my hardest to warn Khi and to get him to come home, but he always wanted to blame the way I felt and acted on my hormones.
“You about to be driving me,” he said, his voice deep and raspy.
“Is that a problem?” I asked and grabbed the bag from the bed. I placed it on his lap and looked around the room to make sure that I had everything.
“Shit, I almost died three times; I just wanna make sure it’s not a 4th,” Khi joked, and I looked at him and could only smile. I didn’t know what I would do if I was to lose this man. The fact that it almost happened was enough for me to know that it was a loss that I wouldn’t be able to handle, nor would anybody else that loved him.
While Khi was in surgery fighting for his life, Dae ended up bringing the whole hood to the hospital. It had everyone so hyped up and ready to go to war that they ended up having to call twelve in, and they tried to put anyone that wasn’t family out, but Dae wasn’t having that. He let the police know that the doctors said that everyone needed to be there in case Khi didn’t make it.
> Everyone that had love for Khi was there. Some I had seen around, and most, I didn’t really know that well. As long as it was all love, though, I was cool with it. Niggas was letting it be known that they was getting at whomever had done it not really caring who was around to hear them. Once Khi’s mom showed up, she was able to calm them all down and got them to praying instead. It seemed like the moment that happened, the doctors came out telling us that Khi was gonna pull through. He was still in critical condition, but his surgery was a success.
“My driving is not that bad,” I said to Khi, and he bit down on his lip. I blushed as usual when he stared at me like that and tried to look away from him.
“Come here,” Khi told me, and I walked over to him. He pulled me down onto his lap, and I kissed his lips. I ran my hand down the side of his face and stared into his eyes.
“I love you so much,” I confessed, as if I had never said it before.
“I love you, too, baby. You a’ight?”
I nodded my head yes and kissed him again. Khi pulled me back and looked at me strangely before he sucked his teeth. I tried to climb off him, but he held me in place.
“What?” I asked and looked away from him.
“Is you good?” he asked me again, and I nodded just as the nurse came into the room.
“Alrighty, Mr. Prince, I have your discharge paperwork, and the doctor wants to see you in his office in a couple of days. Okay,” she said to him, and Khi stared at me before finally giving the nurse his attention. I climbed off of him and made sure that I had everything before I walked over and stood over by the door.
After being here for ten days, they were finally letting Khi go home, which for now, was a two-bedroom condominium downtown. Since whomever Khi them was beefing with had been to Cass and Tangie’s house, then to KaeDee’s, they felt like Khi’s place would be next, and that it wasn’t safe for me and the kids to be there. I had found us a condo in the downtown area that had 24-hour security in the parking lot and on the door. It wasn’t too far from where I had found my interior decorating firm, so I had been staying there and working on the building whenever I wasn’t at the hospital by Khi’s side.