Page 157 of The Ninth

“On my dead brother grave, bitch.”

Besides running around and getting caught in Tatianna and eventually Kenzie’s shit, I never really heard much about Cassie. She was always straight when I would pop in. There were never niggas around or any sign of em. The most she was doing was shaking her ass on her girls at parties. Word in the city was that that was Lil K3, and she ain’t going. Cassie hate niggas and smart niggas never tried. Especially knowing what I would do to them if they did.

Towards the end of K3’s bid, shit started getting back to me. Some of it was clearly bullshit. Niggas and bitches spit bogus ass shit all the time. The funniest being that K3 was broke and therefore, Cassandra was. Mind you, the woman rent seventy-four big ones a year. That’s more than most salary.

The strip club and Juan was the most far-fetched, but they were the most repeated. Worse? They were coming from a few paid niggas. Niggas that don’t feed into shit that’s not true. I still remember K3’s face when I told him that shit. My brother came out of body for a second, letting that demon take over. It’s the maddest I ever seen him. But all he said was okay.

A month or so ago, the shit was too heavy. He told me to find out about the nigga but leave the strip club be. I quickly found out about Juan. I followed him to that restaurant that day when I saw his buddy sucking on Devyn’s titty.

What Cassie didn’t know was, K3 had two parole reviews. One was the actual review while the second was the appeal in case he was denied. He only gave her the second date in case shit went left at the first. But he wasn’t denied, and so he popped up.

I told him straight up when he blocked Cassandra them last few days that there was a nigga, but he didn’t want to know who. He believed if she didn’t say anything to him, the nigga meant nothing and he would pay it dust because of whatever he and the guard did. The other night when we ran into The Ninth, I had to tell K3 Juan’s name specifically. Because if Devyn knows Twist and Devyn is Cassie’s cousin, that means Juan was more than just a booty call. That Devyn met Twist through spending time with Juan and Cassie.

He told me she loves him and would tell him herself. What he thought would happen is she would pass it off like it was casual and useless like his shit was. But her mentioning him by name to K3? Nigga knew shorty at some point was into that shit.

He looked up at me from the floor, “No word where shorty is?”

The moment K3 sat his ass in that BMW, niggas was looking for Juan. Niggas seeing women only from 12-2am ain’t buying em BMWs. A piece of K3 knew. He didn’t want to implode on his relationship until Cassie confirmed it. He was going to kill Juan regardless.

“Nah,” I admitted.

“You still know where his homie be?”

“Of course! Fuck you talm bout.”

K3 chuckled as I shook my head.

“If that nigga ain’t turning up, shorty...I’ma make him. That’s his day one, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a go, then.”

“Who you want me to send?”

“Who I want you to send? My entire heart is up in that skyrise right now, foe. Only I can handle that. And you just gon let the nipple sucker get away with it.”

I laughed, “I been dreaming of smacking that nigga in his face daily.”

“Too much is being said,” he swiped his face.

“Come on, pussy.”

He hopped up, almost skipping to the front door. I jogged into my room, throwing on my t-shirt, chains, and some black sweatpants. Of course I grabbed my Glock out the dresser drawer, tucking it into my pants. One glance at the bed and I swear I seen Devyn standing above me.

Once I came onto the porch, locking the door behind me, this goofy ass nigga was slow rolling his truck down the street. That shit had me weak as I ran to the passenger door, jumping inside.

“Yo ass slow, shorty!”

“On foenem.”

The truck jerked off, speeding down the street and out of my neighborhood. I didn’t look in my phone to get directions or addresses. We handle that shit by word of mouth only, and you betta remember it. I gave K3 street by street directions to get back into the city and to the lil house Twist be chilling at.

“You’re mine, Devyn?”

“I’M YOURS, DUKE!”

Fuck. That piece of pussy was everything a nigga wished for. The moment Devyn walked down that sidewalk, I knew this was my shorty. I can’t come up off her. All that shit we went through was just avoiding the obvious. That beautiful ass body, face, skin, hair, the way shorty fucking walks and talks. Each time I thought about how much she meant to me is every time I thought about choking the life out of this nigga Twist.