Page 131 of Rah

“She looks a little fatter in that picture, but….” She paused and then nodded. “Yeah, that’s her.”

FABE

“Whoo shit!” Aaliyah exclaimed as she slumped on the couch.

Holding Junior, I was looking down on her with a smile full of respect. I was proud of my baby for what she had done that day. Leaving this morning, I could see the nerves in her eyes, but she’d tried to leave like she wasn’t scared. Now, she was tired as hell and it showed. All that hair had lost the curls that she took thirty minutes putting in it that morning. Her eyes were heavy. She had changed out of the skirt, blouse, and heels that she’d worn to court. Now, she was wearing a comfortable pair of leggings, gym shoes, and a bomber jacket. Even though she was obviously worn out, she looked casually and naturally sexy to me.

She’d had a long day. After testifying in court, she had called me crying. I spent her entire ride home talking her into calming down. Since I was still off work, I was waiting at the new crib with Junior when she barged through the door, still shaking. I couldn’t believe how things had gone down in court.But I wasn’t surprised that Rah had put his hands on Essence. That nigga was unraveling because he was losing control.

To get her mind off of things, I had taken her and Junior out of the house for the rest of the day. She had been so busy hiding from Rah that she hadn’t had a good time in a long time. There wasn’t much we could do during the day time with the baby, so, I took them downtown. We walked Michigan Avenue, had lunch, chilled in Millennium Park, and enjoyed the warmer weather.

Now, she was beat, and so was I.

“You hungry?” I asked her.

“Hell yeah,” she sighed as she kicked off her shoes. “I walked that lunch off.”

“We can Grubhub it tonight.”

“Cool.”

“I’ll go lay Junior down.”

“Thank you.”

The new house had three bedrooms. I had given the smallest one to my nephew-son. Even though he was so small that he rarely slept alone, I had hooked his room up with an Iron Man themed nursery, since that had been my favorite superhero when I was a shorty.

After laying him down, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I took it out as I made my way out of the nursery. But I stopped in my tracks when I unlocked it and saw the text messages that were coming through.

Rah:Jackie showed up at the club tonight. I know everything.

Rah:So, you fuckin’ my broad? You knew she was testifying in court today? You a bitch ass nigga! You disloyal bitch made nigga.

Rah:I’m on your ass, nigga. Hers too. You shady motherfuckersare DEAD! Dead, you hear me? And you know I’ll do it. You know me, nigga! That bitch stole from me and now y’all plotting against me. You fucking opps! You know what happens to snitches!

I stalked towards our bedroom, barged through the door, and went straight for the walk-in closet. Then I reached up on the shelf under the pile of my folded white tees and grabbed my gun. Rah was right; I knew him. I knew his potential to not give a fuck. That nigga had threatened me once, but I wasn’t going to give him a second time.

“Fabe!” Aaliyah jumped to her feet as she watched me barge into the living room. She looked from the scowl on my face to the gun that I was gripping in my hand. “What the fuck?! What’s wrong?!”

“Rah knows about us.”

She raced towards me and held both of my arms gently, making me look at her. “How?”

“Jackie,” I spat through my clenched jaw. “She went up to Black Ice running her mouth.”

Aaliyah cringed. “Oh my God.”

“On God, I’m killing that nigga–”

“What?!”

“You stole three-hundred thousand from him. You testified in Solae’s defense. That nigga calling us the opps. He has killed for less, and I’m not waiting for that nigga to come to me. I’ll be at that club when that motherfucker lock up tonight and end all of this shit.”

“Fabe, calm down.”

I couldn’t calm down. Rah had woke up a beast. I was rocking from side to side, nostrils flaring, jaws clenched so tight that it hurt. I could see nothing but red.

“I don’t trust what he will do next. I’m not about to keephiding from this nigga like I’m some type of bitch. I have been doing this for you but now I gotta do what the fuck I gotta do. It’s either me or him.”