AUGUST, page 23
“I didn’t fumble over my words, baby brother. Cage Doucette. As far as I know, I’m the first of Nathaniel’s offspring.”
“What the fuck you want, Cage?” That was August.
It gave me too much comfort to know my younger brothers were just like me.
“One thing Nathaniel passed along to us, is our ability to not give a fuck. I’ma need you to get outta my face, so we can talk like men. If that’s cool or whateva.”
“You the nigga I bumped into at the hospital.” August finally placed me.
“We’ve seen you there before. Years ago when Nate was first attacked.” King’s eyes never left mine. He had many questions, as did August.
I inclined my head. “If you back the fuck up and invite me to a seat, we can chop it up.”
“Everything okay?” A woman appeared at the entrance of the foyer. She was beautiful as hell and very pregnant.
“Everything’s cool, baby,” King said.
However, she eyed the gun, then me. “Who is he?”
“Their brother—”
King cut me off with a push to my chest. “Shut the fuck up.”
“I’ll go uhm… hang out with Asia while the three of you talk,” she said.
I watched her retreating back, intrigued. Not many women understood their man enough to not ask a million fucking questions. She was used to a life of trusting her nigga. I liked that shit.
“Wifey is bad, my G.”
“Shut the fuck up!” King barked once again.
I chuckled. “No worries. My wifey has the order to blaze this bitch up if I’on make it back home in a couple of hours. So can we get to it?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
AUGUST WELLS
“Talk without all that fuckin’ sarcasm, nigga,” King prompted. We never left the foyer, causing Cage to chuckle.
“You sure you don’t wanna have a seat first—”
“Naw!” King and I spat, mugging this nigga. Right down to the fucking locs, I swear, he looked so much like King it was crazy. I felt like I was inside of a dream.
“Aight, cool. August King Cage, or better yet, Nathaniel Wells—”
“Wait, who?” I interrupted.
Cage snickered. “Oh, pardon me. Nate is such a narcissist that he named his sons after his cover name.”
“Cover name?” King cocked his head. “Nate was undercover?”
“At a point in time. Very deep, too. It’s not on anyone’s paperwork.”
And all that time he hated King wearing a fucking badge! Knowing that nigga played me further flamed my rage.
“How the fuck did you find it?” King questioned.
“I told you… we have mutual friends. He never would’ve come up on any of our radars had he not got himself set up to be butchered. The minute I saw his eyes, I knew exactly who the fuck he was. I hadn’t seen his ass since I was four.”
“Set up?” My mind raced. “He caused his own attack?”
Cage nodded. “He purposely had that shit happen to him. He was deep cover, remember? That nigga knew very well that all he had to do was pull the right strings, and he would be a free man.”
King just chuckled and shook his head like he knew Nate would pull some shit like that.
I was flabbergasted. “Is he faking the fuckin’ heart attack?”
Cage shook his head. “Nah. Muhfucka’s heart is weak as shit. Back to what I was sayin’, though. I really think y’all should take a seat.”
“We gon’ stand right here ‘til you tell us what the fuck is goin’ on,” King said.
Cage lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “My mama’s name was Félicité Doucette. She was leaving the hair salon when a car rolled up on her. The killer aimed at her and shot at her enough times to lay down an entire baseball team.”
My brain came to a screeching halt.
“Sound familiar?”
Speechless and stunned, wide-eyed, King and I stared at each other.
“No!” I spat.
“I’m gon’ splatter yo’ shit!” King upped his heat, pointing it at Cage’s head.
Having heard us shouting, Tiffany appeared back inside the foyer’s entrance, Asia on her heels. Their eyes were both wide with fear.
“King!” she cried, shocked to see him pointing his weapon at Cage.
“Don’t fuckin’ play wit’ me!” King shouted to an unfazed Cage.
“Does it sound familiar?” Cage’s voice escalated as he walked up on King’s gun. This nigga was suicidal. “I told yo’ muthafuckin’ ass to take a seat. Yeen wanna do that. Man to man, you know I’m not playin’ no fuckin’ games. Marie died the same way as my mama. That’s not a fuckin’ coincidence.”
All at once, my mind shot back in time.
“You see this son?”
“What is it, Dad?”
“A brick. I have plenty more underneath mama’s garden.” My daddy chuckled. “Don’t tell her that, though. She’ll kill me.”
Giggling, I said, “Okay.”
“Nate!” My mama gasped loudly. “What the hell are you doing?” Mama snatched me up and put me behind her as she glared at my daddy sitting on the couch. He had his brick on the coffee table, partially open. Several small bags and a scale were on the table too.
My daddy chuckled again. “Oh, stop actin’ like that, Marie. He’s gotta learn some time.”
“No, the hell he doesn’t! Nate, I’m done! I can’t do this anymore. First you tried to pull King in and now August. He’s eight!”
“August…”
“Detective Duncan, this is Marie. I’m ready to talk.”
“Help him! He’s blacking out!”
“You sure about this, bruh? You barely got off the last time.”
“I’on have a choice. Any time a bitch crosses me, she gotta be dealt with.”
“Marie is different, though. She would never snitch on you.”
My daddy chuckled humorlessly. “Duncan called. She’s ready to roll on me. This is why I don’t give a fuck about these bitches!”
Gasping, I stepped back from the patio door. Afraid that he’d heard me eavesdropping on him and his friend, Enis, I held my breath and stood in place.
“August, breathe!”
“It’s done, bruh. Don’t call me for nothing else. I’m done.”
My daddy’s boisterous laugh made me smile as he disconnected the call.
“Enis is crazy, ain’t he?” he asked me. I was just in the backseat excited that, for once, my daddy had picked me up from school. I couldn’t wait to get home to my mama and tell her how all the fellows thought my daddy was the coolest.
Daddy cranked up the radio as one of his favorite songs came on.
“You can’t trust these bitches, August. Not ever,” he reiterated.
“August!”
I shoved King off of me. “How the fuck could he?” I roared. Enraged, I grabbed my head to try to silence the alarm going off in it. My heart sped at such a high rate that I felt dizzy. The ground started spinning.
“I got you.” King caught me as my knees buckled.
“Fuck!” Holding onto my brother for support, I broke down in his arms. Years of heavy ass grief poured out of me. My whole body felt like it had been hit by a train. Every bone, every joint, and every muscle felt like it was being broken and ripped out of me. King held me tight until I became too tired to stand. He helped me to the couch, where I sank down. Defeated, I leaned over and stared at the carpeted floor.
Staring at the carpeted floor, I watched my tears hit the plush carpet and disappear. Sort of how I wished Nate’s muthafuckin’ ass would disappear. Asia appeared, kneeled in front of me and wiped my tears. She looked so distraught but held it together better than me.
“He killed her.” I shook my head as the words left my lips. “Ma was about to turn him in. Detective Duncan... He’s the one who gave Nate the drop. And some nigga named Enis pulled the trigger.” I told them about Nate showing me his drugs and how he hid them. Revealing the incident at the grocery store, and overhearing Nate both set my mother up, then later confirm her death, was the hardest to voice.
“Duncan?” King mumbled.
“You know him?” Cage asked.
Glancing up, I saw King’s answer in the look on his face. “He’s the DEAs special agent in charge for this region.”
Cage tilted his head. It was the slight smile on his face that caused me to ask, “The fuck are you thinkin’?”
He glanced at Asia and Tiffany. I already knew the caliber of woman Tiffany was. She was going to ride or die for King. Looking into my woman’s eyes, I knew Asia was willing to ride or die for me.
“Tell us,” I prompted Cage.
“We have a mutual friend.” He pointedly eyed me. “Dallas threatened my life behind y’all. I’m gon’ put a bug in his ear about Duncan and Enis. As for Nate… I’m not askin’ for permission. His fate was sealed the moment he was rushed into my hospital.”
My eyes were back on King. Distressed, he rubbed his beard as he walked toward the patio. I placed a kiss on Asia’s lips before rising to follow King outside. He stood on the patio with his hands in his pockets, looking out at the sky.
A headache brewed on my right side, causing a pounding sensation. Still, I put it to the back of my mind and parroted King’s stance.
“What do you wanna do?” he questioned after a few minutes had passed.
“The question is, will we be able to live with ourselves?”
King turned to me. My brother was always trying to do the right thing. The only time I ever remember him stepping out of character was to protect me and my future. To think, I spent so much time being angry at him for not getting Nate free. Now… I wanted to reach back in time and punch myself in the face. King’s instincts kept a murderer right where his muthafuckin’ ass needed to be. Nate had no remorse for the shit he did. That was my biggest fucking issue. He moved on as if he hadn’t ruined anyone’s life.
Which was why looking into King’s eyes and seeing his answer there didn’t even surprise me. We were on the same type of time. Cage stepped onto the patio, too fucking calm for my liking. He walked up to stand in between me and King. The three of us stood there for a while, just resigned to the fact that we’d suffered great losses behind Nathaniel Wells.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
ASIA ANTHONY
A few days later…
“What the fuck you keep lookin’ at, bitch?”
Whipping my head around, I gawked at Faith who grilled the brown-skinned lady sitting in the section on the other side from us. The lady turned her nose up, rolled her eyes, and turned from staring.
“Fuck wrong with her?”
“Fuck wrong with her? Who the hell was that?”
Faith giggled. “A girl I used to be a long time ago. Life humbled the gangsta outta me. By the time I got tired of being tough all the time, no one was there to even care. I had to learn the hard way how to be this Faith that you see today. It took a lot of trusting someone I knew absolutely nothing about other than he lived down the street from me. Now, I’m just a woman who loves raising her son and being at peace.”
The smile on her face was crazy as hell though, and so was the look in her eyes. Brushing it off, I got comfortable in my window seat. I had a true, deep-rooted issue with the way worry could just come in and mess up even the best of days. Here I was on this flight to Texas for this shoot for Black Beauty Magazine, and I couldn’t find it in me to act like this occasion wasn’t the icing on the cake for the year my business had.
Instead, I was immersed in overthinking about my health. Each day I checked my calendar, sure that I wasn’t missing anything. There was the possibility that my period would just be irregular like it had always been. I hadn’t skipped one of my pills from Dr. House though, and neither had I been feeling sick. The fear that the medication was no longer working gripped me so strongly that I wasn’t able to do anything…except worry.
“If you don’t take that look off your face, I’m gonna call August as soon as this flight lands,” Faith said.
Placing a smile on my face, I turned from the window to look at her. She shrugged.
“You’re supposed to be my girl. Snitching to my man every time I have a problem is kinda crazy.”
“Actually, it’s not. The only reason he and Jericho approved of us going on this girl’s trip together was because they know we’d take care of each other.”
I took a play from the lady across the aisle and rolled my eyes so hard at Faith, who simply laughed.
“It’s the truth. Listen, I understand girl code, or whatever. However, I also know how fuckin’ crazy August is about you.”
This time, I smacked my teeth.
“He loves you so much that he and I made a pact.”
“About?” I asked curiously.
She pursed her lips to which I chuckled. “Now, you want me to tell his business, but I can’t tell yours?”
“Okay, okay,” I conceded.
“Exactly. Just know that he was willing to climb out of hell for you. That says e-fucking-nough.”
Damn, I thought. Of course, I knew that August loved me. Being willing to heal in order for us to be together was another ball game.
“He healed me too,” I stated.
“No, you healed you. You just finally found someone who made you want to be that healed person. Okay, you healed for a man. So, what? Whether it was a mother figure, father figure, or friend. You still wanted to be that healed person for them. Which means you had to do the work. You decided to be better for them. That shit takes work.”
“You’re right,” I said, thinking of my mama. “I had a complicated childhood. Just recently I actually spoke to my mama to try and heal some of those areas that were broken between us. My father… you already know how that is.”
Faith smiled. “From one woman to another, if you’re able to heal that relationship with your mother, do it. It’s nothing like losing a mother. Trust me, I know.”
“Your mother’s dead?” She’d never told me that before.
She shook her head no. “She’s incarcerated for killing my daddy.”
“I’m so sorry, Faith.” Here I was wallowing, and she had deep shit she was going through too.
“Nope, there’s nothing to be sorry for. My daddy played with the wrong woman’s heart too many times. The only reason my mother and I don’t talk is because she had blacked out to the point she tried to kill me too. She has a permanent no contact order for the rest of her life.”
Sadness engulfed me for Faith. My mother was right in Atlanta, just a drive away. I had the opportunity to still build with her whereas Faith didn’t have that with her mother.
“So, I understand coming from a fucked-up family dynamic. Which is why I cherish what I have with Jericho, August, and the crew. They are my family. So are you. Therefore, if you’re going through something or distant, I know the best way to handle it is to get your man involved. If you won’t talk it out with me, I know damn sure he’ll pull it outta you one way or the other.” She hiked a brow to accent her last statement. I had to blush in agreement. Faith and I waited to continue until takeoff was over. Once we were in the air and soaring, I broke down my health struggles. At the end of it all, Faith glared at me.
“What?” I questioned.
“Why the hell would you go through that alone? I would’ve accompanied you at any time.”
“I know, Faith. I’ll remember that in the future.”
“Also, remember that your doctor did say that it was possible to get pregnant.”
“He wasn’t confident about it. And it still carries its own set of problems. Plus, August has a lot of shit going on right now, and I don’t wanna dump this shit on him.” Nate had done a number on my baby. Thankfully, it wasn’t to the point where August had changed towards me.
“Uh, uh, see. You’re thinkin’ too negative and I’on like that. What I need for you to do is focus on the good possibilities. You did not walk through a whole season of healing, facing your fears, and falling in love just to have the carpet pulled from under you.”
Faith grabbed my hands and started praying. Her fervent pleas had my face wet by the time she was done.
“Now that that’s settled. When we get settled into the hotel room, you better call August or I will.”
I chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” There was no arguing with Faith. Plus, her advice was too sound not to take heed.
We arrived in Dallas a short while later. The flight was smooth, and Faith and I took the time to crack up about how we became best friends although we’d had the same man. No one would ever believe our story.
An hour and a half later, we arrived at our hotel. We were excited that our men had everything set up for us. All we had to do was grab our keys and head up to the penthouse suite. We acted like two kids in a candy store, like we’d never been anywhere before.
Faith used her key to open the door. Both of our faces frowned up at the smell of food and the sound of the television coming from inside. Not just anything was on the television. Cartoons blasted from the flatscreen.
August and Jericho sauntered toward the entry way like them being here was a part of the plan.
Faith snickered. “What the hell?”
“What made y’all think we were really ‘bout to let y’all come all the way here without us?” August walked up to me and pecked my lips. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey.” I wanted to be upset right now, but I just grinned like a fool. Even though he had his own shit going on, he was so supportive of my career.
“And not y’all got my baby involved in y’alls foolishness,” Faith stated. She quickly kissed Jericho, then pushed him to the side.
“Hey, Mommy! Hey, Gift!” June’s bright smile was laden with spaghetti sauce as he spoke. He was at the coffee table, eating some lunch.
“Who is Gift?” I asked.
“You,” August responded. My eyes softened. “He wanted a name for you besides Asia. Jericho thought he should call you Bonisha.”
