Page 48 of Phone On DND
“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 andnoticed 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.
“Bet.” He bumped my fist as we pulled up to the care facility they were keeping Dex at. Unlike me, his ass still hadn’t come out of whatever had him down, but that shit didn’t matter now. I shot a text to the janitor nigga that was supposed to get us in, and he told me to come around the side of the building so he could let us in. The shit was out in the country, so it wasn’t nothing but fields around. I guessed they figured since the residents weren’t supposed to be outside after dark, they didn’t need lights around the building, which sort of worked in our favor. But I knew if a coyote popped out, I was shooting that bitch.
We made it safely to the window, and I tapped on it lightly. He pushed the curtain aside, and once he saw me and Maasai, he unlocked the window for us. I hadn’t really thought throughthis shit because it low-key hurt to get in that bitch since it was so high off the ground, but I finally made it despite Maasai’s childish laughing. I landed on the hard ass floor and winced as I pulled myself up on the windowsill.
“See, what I told yo’ ass.” He shook his head and helped me the rest of the way up.
“Fuck you!”
“Aye, y’all gone have to make this quick. I gotta get back to my routine or it’s gone look suspicious,” the janitor, Tio, said, looking all nervous.
“I got you, man.”
Nodding, he pointed to the bathroom and told us that we could go through there to get to Dex. All I planned to do was smother his ass and be done with it. Tio left to get back to work while me and Maasai headed to the bathroom and into the room with Dex. I wasn’t surprised to see his shit void of cards or flowers, like Raya’s crazy ass had put him in here and forgot about him.Nigga will probably be better off dead,I thought, pulling his pillow out from behind his head while Maasai stood watch. Using all my strength, I held it over his nose and mouth until my fingers grew stiff. When I finally removed it, I checked to make sure he wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse before replacing the pillow behind his head. It literally looked like I hadn’t even been there, and I motioned for Maasai to come on so we could go.
