Page 25 of On Everything

Ciara’s ass is about to learn quickly that if I want to talk to her, there is nothing that can stop me from talking to her. Not even jail. Shit I’ll do some shit like have a nigga drop off love letters to her house if I ever did a bid.

As I dodged in and out of traffic, I looked in my rearview and noticed there was a car tailing me making the exact moves I was at least four cars back.

I knew this could be one of three things.

A hit, a robbery, or I could just be paranoid as hell after what happened at my apartment with Cashmier.

To be honest all of the shit sounded like a problem none much worse than the other.

The only thing is, I can say that I been shot at before, had niggas attempt to rob me in my earlier days, but never in my life have I been a paranoid nigga because paranoid was too much like scared and my father always taught me to never have fear.

He used to say that fear of death keeps you from living.

But now, I’m looking at this life shit a whole lot different.

If I’m murdered and don’t get to see my kid grow, then dying will be a much bigger tragedy for me.

I want to teach my child how to live, shit I want to say teach him because I want to speak having a little nigga into existence.

I can’t wait to teach him how to brush his teeth, how to tie his shoes, and even how to piss without getting the toilet seat wet.

If I have a little girl, I’ll probably love and protect her more, but a son would be a dream come true for me.

When the car I suspected was following me finally passed by, I felt stupid seeing that it was a white couple inside who were a threat to no one. I relaxed in my seat and loosened up my tight grip on the stirring wheel because now I see I really am tripping.

After a few minutes of driving in silence my phone rang, and I saw it was a call from Crew on one of his burner phones.

“What up.”

I answered the phone on the touchscreen dash.

“Yo, get to the warehouse on Stanley Avenue.”

“Asap as in right now or as soon as I can?”

“Right now, nigga. Like ten minutes ago.”

He sounded amped up before he hung up the phone.

I hit a U-turn in the rode and did the dash to the warehouse in East NewYork that was ducked off enough for us to do dirt.

When I pulled up, I spotted Crew’s car and jumped out when I felt like I heard a nigga scream.

The warehouse was the old Linden movie theater off Linden Blvd that we purchased years ago just for times that we needed to handle people in secrecy. There have been plenty of bodies dropped in here and when Crew came to this location, I knew another body would be added to the list.

I walked into the large open space to Crew who was standing over a nigga lying hurt on the ground. Whoever it is was squirming all over the floor and covered in so much blood that I couldn’t tell what race he is.

“Who the fuck is this?”

I asked, standing next to Crew.

“Councilman Davis.”

This nigga caught me completely off guard.

“Cashmier’s pops?”

“Yeah.”

“What the fuck happened with him? You tripping.”

Crew glanced down to him and then back up at me clapping his fist to his palm.

“Alright, to make a long story short, you know that I have my other business on the side that I do from time to time.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So, one of my old clients hit me up saying that they had a friend who needed a job done in the next six months and they were willing to pay top dollar for it. I talked through the friend for the past couple of days on a proxy zoom call with a voice changer and a ski mask because you know I’m never falling for a set up by the cops.

I get pictures and payments, and everything sent over electronically, and I never have to meet the muthafuckas I do work for. That keeps me out of jail.”

Some people may think that hits are mostly put out in the streets, but it’s rich muthafuckas that’s ordering hits because they are too scared to bleed a nigga themselves.

They instead pay niggas like Crew to take out enemies like owners of businesses they are competing with or just business partners who have crossed them.

Crew has made a lot of money by killing powerful people for even more powerful people.

He often joked that his hits are five star Michelin and came with good reviews from others.

“Okay and, how the fuck does that land Carl here nigga?”

“Because when I told this new client to send a picture of who the hit was for and the name, this is what they sent back. That’s when I went against what I normally do with these rich mother fuckas and organized a meet up.

This dumb ass didn’t realize he was trying to hire me to do a hit on my best friend. ”

He turned his camera around showing me a picture of me and my name Jehovah written under it like a fuckin obituary or some shit. Just seeing that shit had me heated that quick. I leaned down over Mr. Davis’s body and grabbed him up by his shirt.

“You were trying to get me killed muthafucka! Why would you want me dead when I have done nothing but try to help you and your daughter? You’ve known me most of my fuckin life nigga.”

He started to spit up blood.

I kicked him in his stomach making him take another ten seconds to catch his breath.

“If you don’t start moving your lips right now you going to see that this nigga took it easier on you! Explain this shit!”

Carl coughed a few times before he struggled to get his first few words out.

“My daughter has been scared that you were about to leave her for months now.”

“So, Cashmier is in on this shit too?”

“No Jehovah. It was just me. She thought things between you two would get better because of the baby but I know niggas like you. A baby wasn’t going to change the way you treat her.”

“Says who nigga?”

“Says everything about you Jehovah. You’re selfish.

You one of them niggas who thinks he’s saving the world only he’s making it worse.

I knew you would never marry my daughter, but I knew that you would leave every dime you had to a kid.

That’s why I was planning to get you taken care of a few months after she has the baby.

I made a mistake in thinking so recklessly and now I know I am about to pay for it.

I tried to steer you down the right path, but I learned long ago that you still turned out to be a cold blooded drug dealer. ”

Pop Pop Pop.

Crew sent shots straight into his head.

“Crew what the fuck? I wasn’t done talking to this nigga!”

“Talking to him about what? He just admitted that he is a snake and he and his daughter were trying to take you out.”

“He didn’t say him and Cashmier. He said he was doing it because she felt like I was about to leave her ass, which I was, so I know that shit is the truth.”

“Look, all I’m saying is that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. This nigga a snake so do the math Hov. I don’t care if she pregnant, watch that hoe. Hoes will forever be hoes, just like snakes will forever be snakes.”

Crew fussed, as I stared at my mentor and one of my highest inspirations dead on the floor.

“Well, I’m about to step outside for a minute. I need to smoke before I clean up all this fuckin’ brain matter.”

He walked away from me, lighting a blunt as he stepped outside of the building.

No matter how much I hated to admit it, I know he was right about the apple not falling far from the tree.

Now I feel like I really can’t trust Cashmier because she has the same DNA as her father.

The blood of a snake. I can’t believe I didn’t see it at first. How I let a nigga like him slither past me all these years let me know that I’m not on my shit

My father used to tell me that when I’m on top, I would see there are more people that will be against me than with me.

People who I felt would have my back would stab me in it without a second thought.

It’s crazy that the gems he used to drop when I was a kid were proven to be true now.

He knew how much I loved Carl coming up and he always said he couldn’t stand that uppity nigga. I see why now.

My phone chimed in my hand taking my attention to a message from Ciara.

Where are you? I’m not about to wait out here for too long and we probably leaving in a minute anyway.

I can admit I let her slip my mind after getting that call from Crew but since he is going to handle this shit, I know I need to get to her before she really cut me the fuck off.

Hov: Still on my way, was caught in traffic, but I’m coming.

I left out of the warehouse leaving Carl’s body on the ground.

“You leaving out my boy?”

“Yeah, I had some other shit to take care of? You got it here? You need me to send some help to get this nigga gone.”

“Nah.”

He blew out another cloud of smoke.

“I got this shit.”

“Alright, bet.”

“But stay safe out there nigga. Even around muthafuckas you may think you can trust.”

He replied, and I was about to take that shit to heart from here on out.