by Shan
“Yea, just call me when our daughter is born. I ain’t got shit else to say to you. And if that nigga Fariq gets ahold to you before then, then fuck it. That’s some shit you caused. I know your ass is still lying about some shit any muthafuckin’ way. I’ll call you a cab. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you out here stranded.”
“I have nothing to do with you and Fariq’s beef. I told you before that he wants payback for his sister.”
I stopped walking when I heard Selena mention Fariq and his sister. That’s not what the fuck Selena had said before. She told me that they were looking for payback for some shit that they had felt was owed to them. Nothing about a sister.
“No, he wanted payback for his father Amin and some shit that he claims we owe to him. Payback for his sister, for what? I didn’t even know he had a sister. See, that’s what the fuck I’m talking about, Selena. You didn’t say that shit when I asked you.”
“Because I did not know when you asked me. Every time you asked me a question, I contacted him to see if I could get any info out of him. He never answers the phone when I call and only texted back sporadically. He knows that I’m helping you.”
“So what did he say?” I asked, as I walked over to her.
“Can we go back inside?”
“Fuck no! What did he say?”
“That Cassidy killed his sister and stole a lot of dope from them,” Selena said, and I swallowed back hard.
I knew that Cassidy had known a lot more about this shit than he had led on, but I wasn’t expecting this. When he’d mentioned knowing Fariq the other day after we left the meeting with Tamar, I knew something was up. Them Arabs had the drop on us way before Cass had even got out of jail and could’ve hit us at any time, but they waited until the very moment that we touched down in the city to hit us. This shit didn’t have anything to do with Dae at all. This was all Cass’ mess.
I turned around and headed back towards the house. Although, some of this shit still wasn’t adding all the way, this gave me a whole lot more to go on. I stood in front of the door, shot Cass a text message, and told him to meet up with me in the South. I then sent Tramell the same message, and then finally called for Selena a cab. We waited outside for the cab for a little over thirty minutes before it finally arrived.
“Khi, I didn’t do that to Cuba, okay?” Selena asked, and I ignored her. I handed the cab driver a couple of hundred dollars and then handed Selena the rest of the cash that I had left in my pocket.
“This should be enough for a hotel or something. Just call me when it’s time for our daughter. Other than that, don’t ever contact me again, Selena,” I told her, as I tapped on the top of the cab a couple of times and turned to walk back into the house.
“That’s a dirty bitch,” Briana said, once I closed the door behind me. She stood staring out of the blinds with a cigarette lingering between her lips. She took a pill and blew out the smoke as she looked me over. I took in a deep breath, cause I knew this was about to be hard. I had a soft spot for Briana because of the love we once shared. I knew that she and I would never share anything ever again, but I did wonder sometimes. We had a real live love thang going on. Damn, I thought to myself. She was just special, but not as special as Cuba, and not losing my woman behind. “Why are you looking at me like that?
“When’s the last time you talked to Skylarr?” I asked and sucked my teeth, as I watched Briana roll her eyes back like she had to fuckin’ think about it.
“I…I don’t know. I think yesterday.”
“So she been gone for several days and you think you talk to her yesterday, but you not sure.”
“She’s only one years old, Khi; not like her little ass can talk on the phone. I would’ve went to go see her, but you told us to stay here and that you were bringing the kids here.”
“She’s damn near two, and I did say I was bringing them here, but shit kept popping up that I never got to it, but you never did ask though, either.”
“Because I knew that you were busy.”
“I did get a chance to stop by there and make sure that everyone was good though. But check this out, guess who our shawty asked for?” I said to Briana, and she shrugged her shoulders and took a pull off the cigarette.
“She asked for Cuba. She wanted to know when she would be able to see Cuba again, and if she was okay. I told her that Cuba and you was good and that she would see y’all soon…and then she told me that she loved Cuba. Never mentioned you once.”
“That’s because y’all brainwashed my daughter to be against me. She was fine until you came and took her away from me!”
“How the fuck I’m gonna brainwash a muthafukin’ 2-year-old? How you sound right now, Briana?”
“You’re letting Cuba come in between us, Khi. Do you know that she stood upstairs in that room yesterday after I took her some clothes and spit in my face? She called me a junky and told me how she was my daughter’s mother.”
“Was she lying?”
“Wow,” Briana said, shakily. She shook her head and pulled on her cigarette again. “Another bitch that’s gonna be your downfall. Look at what Selena did to you. Got these muthafuckin’ Arabs after you. That nigga Fariq and his brothers. Then Cuba is up to some shit and everybody sees except for you. I was the only bitch that held you down and held your weight! Can’t neither one of them hoes say they did that for you. Nigga, you was just starting to get some money when I came into the picture. I helped you up!”
“Yea, and you also stole from me, fucked the goonies, and a bunch of other shit that I don’t even wanna talk about! Where Cass had dropped you off the last time, can you go back there?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to. I want to stay here. You told me that you felt safer knowing that you can watch me. What if I start wanting to use again? See, that’s why I haven’t really checked on Skylarr yet, because I still be having those cravings sometimes, and I just wanted to get my head right. Even you said that I needed some time to get my mind right. That’s all I was doing, Khi.”
“Right. So that’s where I’m gonna take you. Grab your stuff, and let’s go. I got some shit I gotta handle.”
“I don’t wanna go, Khi! What if them niggas try to come after me?”
“Call me if they do.”
“So Selena poisons your ugly ass girlfriend, and I’m punished. You just gonna let that girl come between us, Khi,” Briana said, as she began to cry. She walked over to me and took a couple of steps back.
“Let’s go,” I told her, as she stood in front of me with tears soaking her face.
“Khi, please. Don’t do this. Can I please stay? I promise you that I’m going to get myself together, and that I’m going to be a good mother to Skylarr. I’m going to be like how I used to be. And then maybe you can give me another chance, and we can be a family again.”
“I don’t wanna be a fucking family again!” I yelled, my voice echoing against the walls. Briana jumped back a little, and then, nodded her head, as she looked around for her things. She grabbed her cell phone, pack of cigarettes, and her charger, and walked towards the door. “That’s all your stuff?”
“I’ll get the rest of it later.”
“Ain’t gonna be no later! You not coming back here! I’m not about to babysit you, Ma’! I never should’ve brought you here in the first muthafuckin’ place. Got me fightin’ and shit with my shawty over nothing man. Damn, Briana, let’s go! It’s never gonna be another us outside of co-parenting for our daughter, and that’s only if you want to be a damn parent. I reached out to help you, because I was scared as fuck of losing you, but not cause I wanna be with you. That chapter of our life is over. It was cool, I learned a lot from being with you, and it was an experience I’ll never forget, but I’ve moved on man, and I need you to do the same.”
“I knew that you loved her. You love her more than you love me. You’re picking her over me. You never did that with Selena. You love her,” Briana broke down, and I sighed.
“P
lease, just get your stuff and let me drop you off.”
Briana walked away and returned seconds later with her rollaway suitcase. We left out of the house, and I helped her put her things away in the car. Once we got inside, I turned up the music, and we rolled in silence all the way to Briana’s people’s house. I didn’t know what was going to happen with Briana once I dropped her off; if she would go back to drugs, if I would ever hear from her again, but it was nothing that I could worry about. I have moved on, and I knew that as long as I kept Briana close, she would always think that I was holding on. Shit was rocky right now, but I had plans for Cuba. I was forever saying that shit to her and to everybody that would listen, and I was serious. I wasn’t about to let nothing or nobody stand in the way of that. It was time for Briana to stand on her two feet.
***
“Only time I ever heard Dae mention them Arabs was when he said he used to go at the old man Amin for them selling they packs on our blocks. He always said that he felt like the Arabs was the ones that robbed us that night, but like I told them, that shit happened so fast, I can’t remember shit,” the goonie Tramell said, as we sat in the car passing a backwood back and forth.
“This shit was Cass all along. That nigga sat in front of that man with me yesterday and remained quiet the whole time like he ain’t know shit. Nigga got us flying down the freeway dodging bullets and didn’t say shit. Call me to help him at IHOP and saw the nigga that he had the beef with and didn’t say shit. Got me out here fighting his battle for him. Muthafuckin’ fam was lost… Dae did the shit he did to that old man all because of him and this bitch ain’t say shit,” I said to Tramell, as I took a pull off the blunt and blew the smoke in the air just as KaeDee and Cass pulled up next to my car. I nodded and both Tramell and I hopped out of the car.
“Y’all picked the darkest parking lot. We almost didn’t see you over here,” KaeDee said, and I pulled my hammer out and pressed it against Cassidy’s head before anyone could stop me. I took my forearm and jabbed it into Cassidy’s neck causing him to drop down to his knees.
“Get the fuck back!” I yelled to KaeDee when he tried to step towards me.
“Bruh, what is you doing?” KaeDee asked me, and I waved his ass off and pressed the tool harder into Cassidy’s temple.
“Nigga, we been out barely breathing over your shit! You better muthafuckin’ start talking,” I said to Cassidy and watched his chest seem as if it almost caved in.
“A’ight, but take that muthafuckin’ pistol away from my head, Khi,” Cassidy said, and I sucked my teeth.
“A lot of muthafuckin’ nerve you got nigga to ask me for shit. We out here ducking and dodging bullets on your accord. Got me putting hands on my baby mama and knocking that broad over the head for your mess. Start talking.”
“That nigga Fariq’s sister Tress, I used to fuck with her for a long while right before I started talking to Tangie. She would hook me up with Fariq, and he and I would do a little business together. It was back when we was just copping shit from everybody just trying to make a name for ourselves. Because I fucked with Tress, Fariq would give me bricks on top of bricks for a little bit of nothing. Shit was cool, and then, I met Tangie and stopped fucking with Tress as much. She noticed it and started tripping on a nigga and said she was gonna tell her brother to stop supplying us with the work, and I was cool on that. I told her it didn’t matter because we had the other little connect, and we would’ve been cool.
One night, I get a call from Tress telling me she need to see me and that she really wanted to talk and all this bullshit. I go to see what she want, and she opens her trunk and had fifty bricks in the trunk of her car. She was trying to hand that shit over to me in exchange for a relationship. She started talking about how Fariq didn’t have to know that she was giving it to me. Telling me to think about how much money I could make off of fifty bricks free and clear, and I did think about that shit. I thought about how hard we was out here working and just trying to make a name for ourselves, so I popped Tress’ ass, took them bricks, and stuffed her in the trunk of her car.”
“Muthafucka,” KaeDee hissed and shook his head. He placed his hands in his pockets and sighed as he looked at me. All this time we had no idea where Cass had come from with that work. All we had known at the time was that he’d come through, and it was time to put in work. I went hard as a muthafucka back then moving that dope shit. All night and day working the block and stacking paper. I was determined as hell and so was Cass. KaeDee was away at school, but he knew all about those bricks that Cass brought home. Emon and Dae played all day, but not Cass and I. We worked hard. We built this shit from the ground up of what I thought was from our blood, sweat, and tears, but all along it was somebody else’s blood.
“I thought that I was in the clear. I had never heard from Fariq. Nobody ever came asking me no questions or nothing. It took them about three months to find her body, and I even attended the funeral just to make it look good on my end. I guess Fariq got smart or maybe was just waiting for the right time to hit, because the same night I got popped by the Feds coming out of Razoos when I was with Tangie, Fariq had been there that night too.”
“Did he have something to do with you being locked up?” I asked Cassidy, and he shrugged.
“Nah, I don’t think that Fariq had me locked up. I’m still lost on that. All I know was that I was set up to take that fall, but I don’t know by who. I can’t imagine Fariq wanting to send me to jail knowing I killed Tress. I felt like he was there to kill me that night, but the Feds intervened. He did try to have me killed a few times back when I first got locked up, but thanks to y’all, I was heavily protected. He sent me a few messages talking about wanting his shit back and wanting revenge for his sister, but I ignored all that shit. The last two years I was there, I never heard nothing from anyone else until the last few months.
They sent pics of Selena, Brian, Deonna, Amber and all the kids threatening to kill everybody if I didn’t pay them back for what I took, and I became desperate. I had Dae come see me and I started questioning him about shit, and he gave up the info on the factory without even realizing it. I went to get in contact with Fariq to get all this shit over with, but I got word that it had already been hit. I figured they found out on their own, because I damn sure didn’t tell them. When I came home, and you told me Dae killed that old man and about the Arabs threatening y’all, I didn’t even put that shit together. I didn’t even connect the shit until the incident at IHOP, and I saw that nigga’s face. It took a minute then, because he looked different. I had been struggling to tell y’all, because I realized the mess I had caused.”
“So you never told them about the factory?” I asked, and Cassidy shook his head.
“No, I never got a chance to. Some niggas on my cell block told me about what happened and how the goonie Tramell lost his shawty. I never got a chance to say shit and Fariq never contacted me again. Shit, I didn’t hear from none of y’all again until you came to pick me up,” Cassidy said, and I sucked my teeth and pulled the hammer away from his head. He took a deep breath and let it out, and I took a few steps back to lean against the hood of my car.
“Somebody still isn’t saying some things. They hit us at a place where only a few of us knew about, so that information had to have come from somebody. Not only that, Tamar says it’s more being hit the same damn way. How did they know about our spot if you didn’t tell them Cass, and if all they wanted was to recoup their shit that was stolen from them, then why are they still hitting muthafuckas?” KaeDee said, asking the questions that none of us had the answers to.
“Selena said that Fariq told her that they was laying down everyone that had something to do with the coalition. They want to reign supreme in the streets so I guess that makes sense, but still. They knew about our shit because somebody had to tell them.”
“Maybe Dae told them,” KaeDee said, and I waved that off.
“Nope, he hated them muthafuckin’ Arabs. He had been itching to
kill them cats forever, and I always told him to leave it alone. Somebody else did. Cass…straight up man, are you sure you never told them? Did you tell anyone else?”
“I never opened my mouth to no one about it. I promise you that, bruh.”
“Yea a’ight. I’m about go holla at Selena again. I’mma make her get a location out that nigga Fariq. Maybe I can get his ass to tell me who the fuck gave us up before I hand him over to Tamar.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Cass asked, as he stood to his feet.
“Nah, I got Tramell with me so I’m straight. I’ll see y’all in the morning for the funeral.”
Everyone nodded and slapped hands before we hopped into the car and peeled off the scene. I believed everything that Cass had said. One thing about bruh was that he wasn’t a snake. It was fucked up that he held onto that info for as long as he did and had us out here in the blind, but I know that if he had given up that info on the factory’s location, then he would’ve said something. What more did he have to lose?
The game was all about finding the right opportunities and making sacrifices. Back then, Cass had made a sacrifice to put us on. I could never be mad at that nigga for that. All I wanted right now was Fariq at my feet and the muthafucka that had lined up with his ass. Somebody around me was a snake, and I was close to finding out.
Chapter 21
KaeDee
The following morning…
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him and give him peace. Amen,” the reverend said, as he sprinkled the dust over Deonna’s casket finalizing her burial. I tossed a rose on top of the casket just as Chanel, Khi, Cassidy, Amber, and Tramell all did the same. The service was quick, and we were the only ones in attendance.