Page 46

Cruz

I pulled a page out of Maasai’s book and dipped out the country while I recovered.

Wasn’t no way I was staying in Chicago while I was fucked up and Raya was on the loose.

I wanted to be at one hundred percent when I caught up to that bitch, and I was going to make her ass suffer too.

It had been over a month, and I was already feeling good, even though I was still sore as shit.

That didn’t stop me from digging Keyani’s ass out every time she let me though.

She came straight up to the hospital when she got the message I was up, ready to run her mouth and tell me everything that had happened while I was out.

I couldn’t blame her though. My folks were dead ass wrong for doing her like that, and it only made it worse that they had enlisted the same bitch who had damn near killed me to do it.

I was ready to eliminate everybody who brought us harm though, so as soon as the hospital cleared me, I was on a flight with my girl and my kids with me.

“Baby, wake yo’ ass up. We gotta go.” I slapped Keyani’s plump ass and watched the ripple it made.

The shit had me ready to reconsider leaving just so I could lay between her legs again, but it was time to get our lives back.

She let out a kitten- like moan, and my dick stirred as she stretched her half-naked body.

“Hmmm! I’m not ready to get up yet!” she whined and snuggled deeper into the bed.

“Well, me and the kids bouta leave yo’ ass here. How ’bout that?”

With her eyes still closed, she grinned lazily. “Shiiit, don’t threaten me with a good time! Make sure you make them go to bed by eight and have them ready for the bus by seven,” she rattled off instructions and waved me away.

“You got us fucked up! Don’t make me call them in here.

You know they love jumping on beds and shit.

” That had her popping right up with a groan as she held her hands out to me.

“Come on, baby.” I pulled her to her feet and kissed her dry mouth ass before sending her into the bathroom, smiling as I watched her.

It had taken some time to get her to stop feeling guilty about what happened, and even now, I still felt like she was holding on to that shit when it was Raya’s fault.

Yeah, she’d asked for some food, but that crazy bitch was already tailing us, and if Reno and Drew had been behind us, they would’ve probably been dead just like Roc.

A nigga really had to thank God that she was able to walk away with barely a scratch, and I’d survived that shit too.

It had me reconsidering my life, and my folks had only solidified what I was already thinking.

I was out this shit, but first, I needed to drop a couple muthafuckas off.

“Cruuuuuz!” Kari came running in the room, grinning wide and unashamed of her missing teeth. When she said my name now, the shit had a whistle to it, and I cracked the fuck up every time.

“What’s up, Kari?”

“Wanna hear a joke?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and forced myself to nod. She’d been telling me knock-knock jokes from off the popsicle sticks she had here, and them muthafuckas were bad, but since baby girl expected me to laugh every time, I always tried to do that for her. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Okay, okay. Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“A little old lady,” she said, already snickering.

“A little old lady who?” I tried not to sound so dry, but they were bogus as hell for the jokes they had my baby going around telling, but I was gone laugh like this was Comic View .

“Hey, I didn’t know you could yodel!” Shorty literally grabbed her stomach from laughing so hard, and I let out the most exaggerated one I could muster, considering that my body was still sore as a bitch.

“Dang, that was a good one. I’m gone have to see if I can remember any jokes that I can tell you.” I reached out and tickled her belly.

“They won’t be as good as mine!” she howled, talking shit even though she was about to pee on her damn self.

“Oh, you think, huh?”

“Nooooo!”

“You lucky I gotta finish helping your mama pack or it was gone be over for you, my baby.” I finally left her alone so she could catch her breath.

“Where your brother at?” They were usually stuck at the hip, and for him to not have come running when he heard his sister laughing hysterically, I had to wonder.

Kari was still laid out on the floor, breathing heavy, and she stretched her arms out.

“He was watching cartoons. He’s mad, he doesn’t wanna leave yet.

” Frowning, I left the room in search of him, but the closer I got to the living room area, the quieter it seemed.

As I expected, his little ass wasn’t in there, and the TV was off.

I looked around the open layout surrounded by windows and noticed him out on the beach.

He wasn’t doing anything, but I still needed him to tell people when he was coming and going.

“Kani!”

His head shot up from whatever he was looking at in the sand, but he didn’t move, just continued pushing a stick around while squinting from the sun.

He must really didn’t want to leave because he had his swimsuit on like he was about to get in the water instead of on a plane.

The kids had gotten off with this impromptu vacation, even though I had tutors for them to still get their work done, but this trip was outside of their norm, and they were enjoying the fuck out of it.

“What?” That shit came out muffled since he had his chin resting on his knee, but it wasn’t that damn muffled.

“Aye man, don’t what me. I’m tryna see if you good and you out here looking all depressed and got an attitude.

What’s up?” I really wanted to hang him upside down by his feet, but I didn’t want to risk dropping him on his head, and I was trying a soft approach with our bebes.

I eased down into the closest lounge chair and waited for him to speak as he eyed me.

“I don’t want to go home. Can’t we just stay here?”

“What’s wrong with home? I thought y’all liked the house?” I squinted, trying to block out the sun.

“I do, but nothing bad happens out here. All the bad stuff happens in Chicago.”

“You think living out here gone stop bad stuff from happening?” I quizzed, and he nodded, never taking his chin off his knee.

“I don’t know about all that. Bad shit happen everywhere but look, if I promise to make sure no more bad shit happens, will you be cool going home then?

” The way his entire face morphed into his mama’s when she thinks I said something stupid threw me off, and I wondered briefly if our baby was going to do that.

“You can’t promise that though.”

“How come I can’t? You know what, how about if anything else bad happens, I gotta pay you?

” I was pulling ideas out my ass just to get him to come get ready to leave, but fuck it.

I damn sure planned to keep my promise and not have to pay him.

The offer of cash had him perking up, and his thick eyebrows raised slightly.

“How much?”

“Maaan, how much?” I sucked my teeth. “You seven, I’ll give you seven bucks?—”

“But we about to be eight,” he pointed out, and I narrowed my eyes. “What about Kari? Do she get eight too, you know, since we twins?”

“You know what, I’ll give y’all a dub just because you a real one for that.

” I nodded my approval, seeing firsthand how they looked out for each other.

At the sound of twenty dollars, he was on his feet cheering.

“You ready to go now?” He nodded emphatically and beat me to the house.

Keyani probably wasn’t going to like me bribing them and shit, but fuck it, a win was a win.

We’d been home for a week and my patience had run out.

With Raya still in the wind, I was going after the next best thing.

Her husband. I knew she wouldn’t give a fuck about him because she was only focused on how unhappy she was, but carrying Dex’s last name was a form of protection.

If I broke down every fence she had around her, then she’d be left out in the open, and it wouldn’t be anywhere she could outrun me, which was exactly what I wanted.

She was going to see that I played cat and mouse much better than she did.

“Damn nigga, you sure you good for this shit?” Maasai asked, side-eyeing me as I eased into his passenger seat.

“I can hold a gun, nigga.”

“Shiiit, you sure? You look like you can barely walk, let alone hold a gun,” his ass cracked as he pulled out my driveway, and I just mugged his ass.

“Oh, you got all the jokes today, huh?” He shrugged, still laughing, and handed me the blunt he was smoking like it was a piece offering, but I was gone trip his ass as soon as he wasn’t paying attention.

“You got in touch with Aw’sum yet?” I asked after we’d been riding for a minute.

That nigga had been on a job, and the shit was taking way longer than usual for him.

Sighing, he shook his head. “Naw, shit starting to make me worried for real.”

“You know that nigga good wherever he go, but if worse comes to worse, we can do some digging once we get shit straight out here.” I knew he wasn’t going to be comfortable leaving Avery, and I damn sure wasn’t leaving Keyani and the kids while shit was so hot.

I had to make sure my family was straight first.