Page 159 of The Ninth

He popped up, turning his back and fumbling with his phone. He called a number saved in his phone as JUAN HUNNID. Corny as fuck, folks. The mothafucka paused for a second before going to the voicemail like he said.

“Leave a message. Tell him K3 looking for him.”

The three of us waited.

To leave a voice message, press on—BEEP!

Twist: JUAN, NIGGA. YOU GOTTA GET BACK TO THE CITY. THIS NI—

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!

K3 shot all into the nigga back while the voice message recorded. I shook my head slowly as he walked to the phone, wrapping his finger in his shirt before pressing a number to save the voice message. He stood up straight, looking back at me.

“Them hoes seen your face?”

“Yeah, but—”

He turned away from me, jogging between the houses. Instead of following behind him, I called my baby.

Devyn: Hello?

Her voice was soft and strained like she’d been crying.

Me: What’s wrong?

Devyn: I just put Cassandra in her bed. My heart hurts for the two of them. How is K3 handling it?

I looked down at the dead nigga.

Me: Not good. They’ll get it together. Can I slide? Come up and see you? I wasn’t ready for our time to end and all I can think about is you...

Devyn: Yeah, of course.

I could hear the smile in her voice. I also heard some pops in the distance.

Me: Bet. Wait up for me.

Devyn: Bye, baby.

Me: Bye, my heart.

After a minute or so, I saw some lights flashing. I jogged my ass to the truck, dick and heart swelling at the thought of Devyn. We sat until the nigga finished rolling two blunts. He lit his, I lit mine, and then we pulled off. His body was visibly more relaxed with his head bopping to the music and fingers tapping the steering wheel.

“Take me to Devyn.”

He didn’t reply or make any movements other than the ones he was already making. We silently faced the blunts as if we didn’t just grab a nigga out of a house to kill him. What’s crazy is, my goofy ass really thought twin was gon let shorty go. Them five years got niggas, including myself, feeling stupid, foe.

As we parked outside of Cassie’s, I snatched my shirt off that had blood splatter on it. Hell nah I didn’t want to walk inside of this nice ass apartment building with just a beater, but I would never allow her to see me like that. You don’t put the woman you love and care for in men business. I’ve taught my little brother a lot of things, but he taught me that.

I quickly noticed that K3 turned the truck off, staring up the skyrise as if he could see Cassandra at her window. As bad as I wanted to encourage him to come up, I didn’t. I love them together and I love them separately. I’ll always stay neutral unless it comes to handling some niggas. A piece of me still felt a little disappointed when the Raptor started up.

“Aight gang,” I told him while shutting the door.

“Aight.”

****

Knock. Knock. Knock.