Page 50 of For the Love of City

CITY

WE FINISHED HAVING lunch with Grant and Lyric and they went about their business.

I needed to get up with Travis and he let me know he was on the block.

Lyric needed to rest before she headed to the studio with Royce so they went back to her condo.

She’d sold the original one that D-Mill’s ass had fucked in and gotten one on an upper floor.

I tried to send Porsha back with them but she said she wanted to see Atlanta through my eyes the same way she’d shown me around Houston.

“You are really doing too much.” Porsha looked down at her wrist admiring the diamond tennis bracelet I’d just placed there. The jeweler was inside the plaza we’d eaten lunch at and I was glad they had it ready on time.

“Y’all be talking about push presents and shit like the whole nine months leading up to the baby falling out the pussy ain’t work too.”

She stuttered when she was walking and stopped to stare at me.

“Do I need to slide these panties down so you can be reminded I still got walls? Talking about sliding out like my shit is the Katy Freeway.” She pushed me with her free hand and I was cracking up because I ain’t mean it like that at all.

“Baby, you know I would never—”

I felt somebody brush into me and I immediately went on guard.

I turned so my body was blocking Porsha from whoever it was.

My free hand went to the gun behind my back and gripped it as I turned to see who was touching me.

My brows dipped and I frowned at this clown ass nigga that auditioned with us standing there with a smile on his face and his hand out waiting on me to dap him up.

“What’s good, OG?”

“Say, the fuck you on bumping into me like that?”

The man T-Lo looked surprised that I wasn’t acknowledging him more positively. Were I not with Porsha I would’ve been far more hostile. The last thing I wanted was to put her in harm’s way.

“That’s my fault. I was just coming to speak.”

I nodded at him and still didn’t dap him up. “Cool. See you around.”

I pulled Porsha’s hand so that she knew I was serious about moving on when he spoke up and stopped me.

“I wanted to check in and see if you gave anymore thought to my demo.” I looked down at where his hand had made contact with my chest in order to stop me. His hand was already gone but I was ready to cut that shit off.

I knew we’d told him no when he left and he had to get put out the building, what made him think I was going to change my mind?

“Weren’t you talking shit as I had you drug out my building a few weeks back?”

“Yeah, but everyone can rethink their decisions.”

He did that posturing shit niggas did when they were trying to make themselves look like somebody. He was decked out with way too much jewelry making himself a target.

“Not me. I told you what I needed to then. A lot of men change their minds but I know a fuck nigga when I see one. Word of advice, find you something different as a career path bruh. Rapping ain’t for you.”

He looked at me funny, a cross between anger and disappointment. “Well, I guess all I can do is accept that then. You’ll be sorry you didn’t take a chance on me, though.”

“Is that a threat?” My gun was now out with the barrel under his chin as Porsha squeezed my hand as hard as possible.

I don’t know if it was to remind me she was still here or to get me to act with more decorum.

Me brandishing this gun didn’t mean shit because of Georgia laws.

Well, this shit under his chin might be an issue but I knew this nigga wasn’t going to talk.

The way the beads of sweat were on his forehead and not just from the summer heat made it obvious he was scared.

And I fed on that shit. “I asked you a question.”

I slid the gun from underneath his chin and into the space between the two of us so I was less conspicuous.

“It’s not a threat, I was just saying.”

“Say less, nigga. Another thing the streets should’ve taught your ass but you either missed the lesson or thought it didn’t apply to you. But hear me again, we don’t know each other. I’m notcha OG, big homie, friend, boss nunna that. When you think you see me, you don’t. Feel me?”

He was nodding and despite feeling like he was going to comply I kept my gun at my side as I took a step back keeping him in my sights. Porsha was again behind me as I watched him walk his ass away from us as fast as he could.

“You really just out here brandishing weapons in daylight.”

“ Brandishing weapons. If I ain’t know your mama I would swear your ass was a Hilary Banks baddie instead of Justice from South Central writing poetry.”

She just shook her head at me, still glancing in the direction T-Lo had gone. “Let me drive to where we’re going.”

“Pretty, you don’t know shit about the area.”

“I don’t, but you got me antsy and I need something to do. Since you pulling your shit out in broad daylight like you’re invincible. It’s been a minute since I’ve been involved with any crazy shit. Let me get my mind right before we see your people.”

She held her hand out expectantly and I gave her the keys.

Her being stressed out was the last thing I wanted while she was pregnant.

I needed to keep my temper under control but that nigga T-Lo irritated the fuck outta me with that OG shit.

I felt like he was trying to imply some shit and I started to wonder if going to see Travis round the way was the right shit to do in case he was working with the police.

I’d been looking out around us and ain’t see anything out of order, Even though she was driving I still went to the driver’s side and opened the door for Pretty. She got into the black, extra long SUV that I kept in town and adjusted her seat as I walked around to the passenger side.

“You gonna punch in the address or just let me go wherever?”

I put my phone on the stand in the car and punched in the address to a store that was close to the house on the block. I would never put that shit into any of my devices just in case.

“I’ll direct you from there. I need to get cigars.” Her narrowed eyes and curled lips had me explaining my words. “I’m not going to smoke that shit around you, Pretty.”

“I’d hope not. I know that smell is going to drive me crazy.”

We’d hit up the doctor before we made this trip and found out that Porsha was already thirteen weeks. Smells were kicking her ass and she carried around lemon candy and coffee grounds to keep herself from throwing up.

She’d exited out the parking lot following the directions that popped up on the screen. We weren’t too far from where we needed to be and I tried to relax but that shit with T-Lo had me on edge. I was adjusting the sound on the radio when I heard a sound that I knew instantly.

“What the fuck?”

Porsha was looking in the rearview and it took everything in me not to mush her head down. Instead, I pulled my gun from behind my back and tried to stay calm.

“P, you ever played GTA before?” I was using my right hand to text since my gun was in my left and my eyes were focused on the car that was hovering real close.

“Corey—”

“P, I need you to drive this shit like none of these cars are in your way, feel me?”

Another bullet hit the car almost like they were tentatively firing at us and that shit had me hot. Firing back was only going to draw more attention to us but I wasn’t about to let either of us die today.

“Not these muthafuckas shooting at us!” Porsha looked pissed off as she tried to determine where the gunfire was coming from.

“They’re behind us and trust me, they trying to be real discreet. I would switch seats with you—”

“Nigga, I got this shit. You seem to forget who my damn brother is.” Porsha’s entire face hardened as she backed the car up and went around the long line of traffic. “I just started getting shit good in my life and somebody thinks they gonna shoot at me? The fuck?”

Her muttering was a clear sign she wasn’t afraid, she was more pissed than anything else.

As bad as I wanted to shoot back I was trying to play shit cool because of how busy the area we were in was.

Police would be here within seconds. Whoever this was had some sense that they would end up caught before they got the job done so they were only shooting every few minutes.

If they knew the city like I did, that would change real fast.

She started to honk at the cars in front of her not realizing that Atlanta people couldn’t drive for shit.

Another bullet hit the car and she sucked her teeth before she moved over to the shoulder and gunned it.

Porsha was weaving in and out of traffic ignoring the way that other cars were blaring their horns at us.

The car I’d had my eyes on was steadily trying to keep up and I was thankful that there was too much traffic for anyone to come up beside us.

The GPS was belting out directions but I didn’t know if Pretty was paying attention to it.

To her credit she was driving this truck like she was a pro, but I still needed her to get us to the right area so backup could be around if I needed it.

I wanted to put my hands on her and try to calm her down because I couldn’t help but stress about keeping her and my baby safe.

“I need you to get on this off ramp as soon as you can—”

“City, do I look like I’m lollygagging ‘round this bitch? You ain’t got to tell me to drive this shit like our life depends on it cause I know it does.

I’m not trying to die!” Porsha was steady fussing my ass out but a quick glance out the side-view mirror had her reaching for her bag. “Y’all ain’t slick.”