Page 2 of No Gemini Does it Better (BLP Signs of Love #2)

The bus ride from Atlanta to the men’s maximum security prison in Sumterville, Florida, was hot and muggy.

As if being cooped up on a bus wearing a prison uniform and cuffs wasn’t already oppressive enough.

There was no A/C, and because we were a transport full of convicted felons, we couldn’t crack any fucking windows.

The whole vehicle smelled like nigga funk and sweat, and we couldn’t do anything but sit and suffer in it.

Just when I thought shit couldn’t get any worse, the rain began. What started as a few thick, sporadic drops soon turned into a full-on downpour. I glanced over at my twin brother, Kadeem, who sat across from me. They had us spaced out one to a seat.

“This shit is starting to look crazy,” I said.

“No fucking talking, inmates!” the correctional officer hissed from behind his protective barrier.

Shit, his ass was lucky he was sitting behind the locked area that separated them from us. If not, those could’ve easily been his last words. I had no problem beating a nigga’s ass like a snare drum.

Instead of giving a verbal response, Kadeem only nodded.

I didn’t need to hear him speak to know he felt the same way.

We were identical twins, born two minutes apart on the second of June, and damn sure shared the same brain for the most part.

I was the yin, and he was the yang. There was no me without him.

A few weeks back, we “celebrated” our thirty-second birthdays with some honey buns from the commissary and getting buzzed off some hooch.

It had been our fifth consecutive birthday being behind bars, so the shit wasn’t anything new to us.

We were both convicted felons serving time for being in the drug game, where we both played distinct roles.

I was the Atlanta-based leader of a big drug trafficking organization.

I authorized sales of the purest cocaine, made deals, and set the prices, while Kadeem handled all the logistics and communications when it came to getting our product where it needed to be.

Shit went left for us when Kadeem recruited and paid a corner boy to traffic our product.

He arranged for the young nigga to fly to Texas and get cocaine supplied by my plug from a Mexican cartel, and drive it back to Atlanta and deliver it to me.

The cocaine would’ve then been distributed by my hustlers and corner boys throughout Atlanta and its surrounding cities.

However, it never reached me or my brother.

The nigga got pulled over in Alabama and sang like a canary on us, pillow talking with the Feds like they were paying the nigga’s bills, when it was Kadeem and I who’d put food on that mothafucka’s table and gave him work.

Still, it wasn’t our first time fucking around and finding out about the judicial system.

We’d been hustling since we were old enough to walk and talk.

The Feds spent years on our asses. Because of our prior convictions for drug felonies, we were charged with fifteen years in federal prison.

We’d served five in Atlanta and were being transferred to a different prison facility in Florida to finish out the rest of our sentences.

We’d been riding on I-75 for over four and a half hours, and for the last twenty minutes, the road had been slick with rain, and the windshield wipers were going into overdrive.

All I managed to see outside my window were menacing gray and black clouds covering the sky as the heavy sheet of rain continued to blow sideways.

The strong wind shook and whipped the trees back and forth so hard that they nearly bent in half.

I could’ve even sworn I felt the bus being pushed a few times.

The longer we rode through the storm, the more I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Something didn’t feel right. I sat up straight, stiffening my posture as if that would help me see better.

The bus driver continued to forge ahead, slowing his speed so as not to hydroplane and crash, but Mother Nature seemed to have other plans.

“Shit! It’s a downed tree.” The bus driver hissed as he swerved and quickly slammed on the brakes at the same time to avoid a collision.

Our bodies jerked forward violently as the bus skidded, sparks flying as it repeatedly struck a guardrail.

Unable to stop, the bus turned up on two wheels and flipped over before rolling at least three or four times down a steep hill.

We all went flying, heads and limbs knocking against the ceiling and windows with heavy thuds.

When the bus finally stopped in a ditch, there was broken glass and blood every fucking where. Everything was silent except for the heavy tap dance of the pouring rain against the bus and groans of pain from the twenty inmates still cuffed inside.

“Twin?” I called out to my brother. “Talk to me, twin.”

“I-I think I’m straight,” Kadeem finally responded, voice gruff. “You good?”

“I think so too.”

I tried sitting up slowly to assess the situation. The CO I wanted to knock the fuck out earlier was out cold with a bloody head. I saw a set of keys attached to his duty belt, and a diabolical plan began to take form in my mind. Why dream about being free when I could be it?

I inched forward, stretching my limbs as far as they could go to reach through the broken gate that separated us and steal the keys to unlock the cuffs.

After unlocking myself and Kadeem, I tossed the keys to another inmate before finding a way out of the bus and climbing up the steep hill.

I wasn’t their savior. Those niggas could save themselves or not.

I didn’t give a fuck. The only person I cared about was my brother.

Niggas like us weren’t supposed to even make it to our thirties.

But yet again, we’d made it out the mud and survived.

We’d managed to make our way back up the hill to the highway, but the visibility was so poor I could barely see half a foot in front of me.

Still, the thick black D-O-C letters printed on the back of our uniforms were like literal targets on our backs.

I knew we had to ditch the tops and split up and find shelter sooner than later, to wait out the storm.

“What the fuck are we going to do now, twin?” Kadeem inquired, eyes glued to his bleeding arm.

“We gotta split up,” I announced, chest heaving in and out.

“Split up and go where, nigga? We don’t even know where the fuck we are.”

“But we know the fuckin’ cops are gonna be on our asses once this storm blows over and they learn about the crash. You don’t think the prison is gonna wonder why a bus of twenty-some inmates just never showed up?”

Kadeem sighed with a knowing nod. “You’re right . . . Fuck, mane,” he hissed. “What’s the plan?”

“Find shelter until the storm blows over, and keep your head on a swivel, nigga,” I instructed.

I still had no idea how we’d find one another once all this shit did blow over, but my brother and I had a connection like no other, so I knew where there was a will, there was a mothafuckin way.

Besides, the way I saw it, God had given us a second chance to live our lives.

We’d be stone-cold fools not to take it.

I looked around, still unable to take in my surroundings due to the low visibility and debris flying through the air and rolling along the highway.

My heart thudded inside my chest as I wiped the water from my eyes.

Blown-down trees were blocking the road, which was flooding more and more by the minute.

I glanced to my left and studied Kadeem’s face.

He wore a grim look. Looking at him was like looking in the mirror for me.

We had the same dark chocolate complexion with tattoos covering almost every available inch from our necks to our torsos.

We both had low fades and full goatees. The only visible difference between us was the scar on his left cheek, which he had received from falling and scraping it on a fence when we were kids.

By the scowl he wore, I could tell he didn’t like my plan, but I knew if we stayed together, there’d be a greater chance we’d get rounded up.

And if we didn’t start moving soon, we’d wind up dead.

Without saying another word, he tore his eyes away from the road ahead of us to look over at me.

“The woods,” he said, pointing across the highway. “You go one way. I’ll go the other.”

I dipped my chin. “Bet. We’ll find each other after the storm. Whatever is the closest convenience store or gas station to here. That’s where we’ll meet.”

Kadeem dipped his chin in a nod. “Good luck, twin. Love you.”

I stood there, my adrenaline coursing through my veins. “Love you too, mane,” I replied, pulling him into a quick hug before turning to disappear into the woods.

The sheet of rain continued to fall, soaking everything in sight, including me. My uniform had gone from flapping and ruffling against my body in the wind to clinging to me like a second skin as I walked for what felt like miles through the woods.

The smell of cedar, pine needles, and wet soil wafted past my nose as I forged ahead. The snapping of small branches around me broke the silence. I was unsure whether it was due to the heavy rainfall or animals seeking shelter, just like I was.

I trekked faster over the uneven ground, my cheap-ass slip-on shoes sloshing with water. I did my best to push my thoughts of my brother to the back of my mind. All I wanted was for the both of us to make it out of this shit alive, because we didn’t have plans on going back to prison.

I stopped for a second, leaning against a nearby tree to catch my breath.

After looking all around, I saw what looked to be a faint light breaking through the trees.

My pace increased, pushing my stamina to the max.

No matter how tired I was, I couldn’t stop until I had a roof over my head.

A fresh pair of drawers wouldn’t hurt either.