The Golden Hustla 2, page 20
“Yeah?”
“Baby, where are you? Rhodes is on a rampage—”
“Melissa, slow down! What’s up?”
“Where are you? I have to see you now. It’s an emergency!” Korn emphasized.
“Look, I’ll call you back in—”
“Rick!”
“Goddamn it! I’ll call you back. I think Nina’s about to have her baby!” he barked, then hung up.
Korn glanced up at Rhodes. He had heard every word because they had her phone patched through the tracking system. Rhodes hoped she would be able to keep him on the line long enough to track him, but he had something just as good.
“Okay, people, you heard him! Coles is about to have her baby. If we’re lucky, she won’t do it on the bathroom floor! I want every fuckin’ hospital in Arizona on the line! Any Black woman coming in to give birth anywhere in Arizona, I want to know about it before the baby does!” he barked, and the whole team scattered like roaches, heading to the phones.
“What do you want me to do, Chief?” Korn asked eagerly.
He looked her in the eyes and hissed, “Pray.” Then he walked away to do the same.
Dead.
Kyra stood before the grave site feeling the soft drizzle sprinkle her face like tears from heaven. She read the headstone:
Marvin Blackshear
1952–2013
Once again, her conversation with Trae came to mind. She would put money on him and Rick being the ones responsible for Marvin’s death after he left her for dead. I can’t let Aisha find out her baby brother’s father, and basically, her uncle were the ones responsible for her father’s death. It would ruin their entire relationship!
She took a deep breath and started to walk away when a man walked up. He was carrying flowers and was dressed in a greasy jumpsuit that bespoke his profession. A mechanic. Kyra followed his every movement.
“How are you?” he greeted politely, then laid the flowers on the grave.
“I’m fine, and you?” Kyra responded.
He shrugged. “Could be better, but then again, could be worse.” He chuckled. “How did you know my Marvin?”
“It’s…complicated,” she hesitated.
She looked at the man again. She couldn’t exactly recall his face, and she wondered if it was because her memory hadn’t returned one hundred percent or because this was her first time meeting him.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’m Jabaar. He was my big cousin. I used to want to be just like him.”
Kyra shook his hand and smiled. “And I’m Kyra…Brown,” she said, unsure if she’d just made a huge mistake. Maybe I should have told him Blackshear, she wondered. But Brown was a popular enough last name. She figured it was fine.
“Yeah, man,” he sighed. “I can’t believe he’s gone. I wish I could catch the son of a…” He let his voice trail off but not his anger. “The person who did this.”
“I-I understand. Well, I’ll let you have some time here alone,” Kyra said, questioning if Trae had actually been telling the truth.
“Thank you. I came on my lunch break.”
“Well…Nice meeting you.”
“You too.” Jabaar tried to shake the strangest feeling of déjà vu. This Kyra looked an awful lot like Nina. It had been so long since he had seen her or any of his siblings that he felt his eyes burn with unshed tears. After Derrick had gotten killed and Peedie was maimed, his mother had forced him to stay away. It was as if his family was cursed. So Jabaar tried to beat it with distance. He had been away for so long. He couldn’t help but see the gaps his loved ones once occupied. It was just him and Nina now. Maybe even just me. With his mother gone, he had no way of knowing if Nina were alive or dead. His mind turned back to Kyra’s uncanny resemblance to his sister as Kyra walked away.
Part of her wanted to go back and tell him the truth. She just didn’t know how. She headed back to her cab, but before she could get in, a red Charger skidded up, and a masked gunman jumped out.
B-Murder had been visiting his sister’s and nephew’s grave site. Despite the citywide King beef, he preferred to roll solo when visiting his family.
“I’m all alone now, sis…So I ain’t got nothin’ to lose,” B-Murder remarked, allowing the tears to flow freely because they were hidden in the rain. “I swear that nigga gonna pay! He took my family and broke up my set. I’ma make that nigga beg me to kill him!”
As he spoke, he looked up, and that’s when he saw her. Across the cemetery a few yards away. Nina. His adrenaline kicked in. B-Murder couldn’t believe his eyes as he squinted across the graveyard. “I know that ain’t that bitch!” he hissed.
There was no way he was about to let her get away. But he knew he couldn’t just kill her. She was worth more alive. I got you, bitch!
B-Murder raced to his Charger and grabbed his red bandana. He tied it around his face and headed for that grave site. As Kyra neared the cab, he accelerated, blocking the cab’s path, and hopped out.
“Oh shit!” Kyra gasped.
“Bitch, shut up!” B-Murder based and struck her in the head with the pistol, knocking her out instantly.
At that moment when he hit her with the gun, he realized that she wasn’t Nina. But he couldn’t stop his momentum. Besides, they looked so much alike. Her sister? his mind questioned.
“Hey!” Jabaar called out when he saw B-Murder hit her and her body slump.
He started to run toward them, but B-Murder let off several shots that made Jabaar jump to the ground and stay there. The cabby had ducked below the dashboard before pulling off.
“I ain’t see shit!” he yelled.
B-Murder threw Kyra in the passenger seat, jumped in over her, and skidded off. As soon as he was off, Jabaar jumped up, filming the back of the car to get a picture of the license plate as B-Murder disappeared. What was that all about?
Charley didn’t feel comfortable being a free man. He still owed some very powerful people. His name may have carried weight, but theirs carried more. So, he was on pins and needles waiting for Rinaldo to call about the money. Instead, he got a call from the Armenians.
“Charley The Ace Adams?”
“Who wants to know, and how the fuck did you get this number?” Charley barked.
Vladimir chuckled. “I can assure you that it wasn’t from Angelo Borcelli.”
Charley stiffened just hearing the name. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Just call me Vladimir, or your savior, whichever you prefer. How I got the number is irrelevant. I have a deal that you better not refuse,” Vladimir stated firmly.
“Fuck you. I’m hanging up.”
“I can get your money for you.”
Charley didn’t speak, but he didn’t hang up either.
“I assume you’re still there.”
“I’m listening.”
“I know who has your money. I know where he is; you don’t. He and I have a deal for twenty million. If you can come up with a better deal than his, it would be my turn to listen,” Vladimir propositioned.
“How do I know you are who you say you are?” Charley questioned.
“You don’t. But you know you can’t afford not to take me at my word,” Vladimir replied.
“Twenty-five. But I wanna be there when you pick it up.”
“That can be arranged. How quickly can you be in Arizona?”
“Arizona’s a big state,” Charley said.
“Pick a city, and I’ll have you taken to the destination. Do we have a deal?”
“I guess I don’t have a choice, huh?”
Vladimir chuckled. “No, Charley, in this situation…you don’t.”
“This is where it gets interesting,” Rinaldo chuckled as he sipped his drink.
Deanna asked, “Who was that?”
Rinaldo hung up the phone. He knew this was the crucial part of the plan. The part where the mark thought they were the ones running game. But if he moved too fast, they’d see right through him.
He looked at her, then rose from his seat and crossed the room to where she sat.
“Deanna…Remember when your mother was sick and desperately needed that operation? Who paid all the medical expenses?” he questioned her.
Her mouth was silently agape, and she began to feel guilty about the role she was playing.
“You did,” she answered, lowering her eyes, not being able to meet his gaze.
Rinaldo squatted down in front of her, then lifted her head by putting his hand under her chin. “And when your father lost his job, and they were about to foreclose on the house, who paid the mortgage until he got back on his feet?” Rinaldo probed, voice smooth and nonthreatening.
Tears creased her cheeks. “Why are you bringing all this up, Rinaldo?” she sobbed.
He smiled sweetly, the smile of a vampire right before he sucks you dry and replied, “Because you’ve been untrue to me, Deanna. When I needed you the most, you jumped the fence on me.”
“No, Rinaldo! I would never do that!” she protested through her tears.
He kept his smile sweet and his voice calm. “Yes, Deanna…I know everything. You can’t lie to me, baby. Why did you do it? What did Brandon offer you to betray the man who cared for your family?”
She broke down, covering her face with both hands. “A million dollars! I told you he wanted me to spy on you!”
“I know that much, but while you were supposedly double-crossing him, you were triple-crossing me.”
She nodded her head. Rinaldo smiled to himself. Brandon would never see this coming.
“But now, Deanna, you have to choose: him or me. Brandon’s going down. Charley is going to kill him. I can’t protect you if you choose him,” Rinaldo explained.
She threw her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, Rinaldo. I swear I choose you! I choose you!” she lied.
Why do the students always think they can play the master’s game? he mused to himself as he untangled her arms from around his neck, looked her in the eyes, and replied, “Are you sure?”
She nodded vigorously.
Rinaldo stood up and paced the floor. “Charley…He’s got the money. Or I mean, he knows where it is. That bitch Nina and some guy named Rick…an ex-Fed. Can you believe it? The Feds set me up to rob me!” He laughed, then added, “But I can’t go pick up my share of the money.”
“Why not?” she questioned.
He looked at her like she was the dumbest bitch in the world. “Because the son of a bitch would kill me. But he won’t kill the person I send because then he knows I’ll tell Brandon he has the money. He has to play fair as long as I don’t show up. Which is why I’m sending you,” he explained.
“Me?” she echoed.
He nodded. The look in her eyes said she was taking it all in. “He’ll give you my cut. You won’t be in any danger. He has to pay. Then you meet me in Louisiana with the ten million. You keep two, and we ride off into the sunset,” he proposed.
“I’ll take care of it, Rinaldo. You can trust me.”
“I know I can, baby,” he answered, simultaneously thinking, Trust you to play yourself out of position.
She couldn’t wait to get on the phone with Brandon to tell him everything. As soon as she left, Rinaldo was on the phone with Rochelle. “Get little man packed up and meet me in Miami. I’m taking a little trip.”
Lala and Supreme sat down the street from Nurse Wright’s front door, waiting for her to come out. Getting her address had been easy. Once Lala hacked into the hospital’s human resources files, she quickly found all she needed to know.
“This time, I don’t care what you say. I’m snatchin’ the old bitch up,” Supreme vowed.
Before she could respond, Nurse Wright came rushing out of the house and jumped in her car. When she pulled out, Supreme wasn’t far behind.
Nurse Wright had just gotten a call that Nina was in labor. She was worried because the baby was early. She knew it was from stress.
“Oh, my Lord, Nina…I tried to tell that girl,” she said, reciting a quick prayer in her head. Too focused on what was in front of her to concern herself with what was behind her, she headed straight to Nina’s house.
She reached Nina’s house just as the ambulance did. Supreme fell back when he saw the lights. He went around the block, then parked a few houses down when he was back on her street. He noticed a black sedan slowly drive by filled with three white boys, but he didn’t think anything of it. He was focused on the EMT’s and the big Black guy bringing Nina out. He caught a glimpse of her before they loaded her into the van and his blood boiled. He was so close.
In the ambulance, Rick tried to comfort Nina.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’m right here,” he said, squeezing her hand, but he had a funny feeling in the back of his mind.
He had seen the black sedan, too, out of the corner of his eye. But when he looked again, he could only see the backs of the occupants’ heads. His mind said he was bugging, but his street senses screamed, Be on point! His gut was resting on Vlad’s people, the Armenians.
Supreme followed the ambulance to HonorHealth Sonoran Crossing Medical Center.
“So, they were gonna try to duck us, huh?” He chuckled, taking in the fact that they had chosen a hospital different from the one where Nurse Wright worked.
“That means the nurse told her we’re here. Be on point,” Lala cautioned.
“Always,” he replied cockily.
The EMT’s rushed Nina inside.
“My babies? Where are my—” Nina huffed between contractions, but Rick cut her off.
“Nurse Wright, baby. She’s with the kids.”
His words and presence comforted Nina, but the pain seemed unbearable. The contractions with this baby were stronger than any of her other births.
“Oh God!” she cried in anguish. “I’m not even eight months.”
“I’m here, baby! Just breathe!”
Supreme and Lala went into the hospital through the lobby. They knew they would have to wait until the baby was born.
But Rhodes wasn’t prepared to wait.
It took twenty minutes after Nina arrived at the hospital before one of the agents came rushing into the room.
“Chief, we got her! She’s at HonorHealth Sonoran Crossing Medical Center in Phoenix!”
“Get Phoenix on the phone! Forward them pictures of both Rick and Nina and tell them to approach with extreme caution! We’ll be there within an hour!” Rhodes instructed, then shot out the door with Korn on his heels.
Four and a half hours later, Nina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Rick’s first child. He was premature, so he had to go into an incubator. Nina and Rick looked through the glass at him.
“Rick?”
“Huh?”
“No…That’s what I want to name him. Rick,” Nina remarked, looking up into Rick’s eyes.
He smiled and replied, “I love you, baby,” before kissing the mother of his firstborn child.
“As soon as the baby’s strong enough, can we just…go?” Nina asked.
“No doubt,” he assured her, his mind saying fuck the Armenians.
Rick had decided to make his move solo. He hoped Trae would hold up his end of the bargain. If so, the Armenians wouldn’t be able to make a move on them anyway.
He wheeled Nina to her room and got her comfortable in the bed. Then he walked over to the window and looked out, contemplating their future, but thought, What about Kyra?
Even if he did leave, he wasn’t about to just walk away from Kyra. He started to look away, but then he saw the police lights and federal vehicles speeding into the hospital parking lot.
“Oh fuck!” he spat, then spun and quickly approached Nina, “Baby, the Feds! We gotta go!”
“How did they know?” she panicked.
Rick didn’t have time to think about it. They had checked in using fake IDs that Rick had just gotten from California, so he was baffled, not realizing his own words did him in.
“Can you walk?”
“I-I can…yes,” Nina answered.
He helped her off the bed, but he scooped her off her feet and carried her from the room when he saw the baby steps she was taking. They couldn’t take their son, not yet, but Rick resolved to come back for his firstborn later. They would have to trust Nurse Wright to help with this one.
“Excuse me, sir,” a nurse called out.
“Newlyweds,” Rick smiled, trying to appear carefree.
Before the nurse could object, they disappeared out of the exit door to the steps.
When Supreme and Lala saw the federal convoy march in, he was worried that they were for them. But when he heard one ask for Dolores Miller’s room, his gut told them that Dolores was Nina’s alias.
“Let’s go,” he mumbled to Lala before they calmly headed to the exit.
Once they were outside and saw how deep the police were, he knew they were there for Nina.
“Goddamn, yo!” he barked, knowing that the fifty million was as good as gone if Nina got arrested.
“Go get the car and call me. Stay close just in case we gotta move,” he instructed Lala.
She nodded and walked off.
Meanwhile, inside the hospital, Rick could feel the Feds getting close. But he wasn’t giving up. They found him at the hospital, but he knew they didn’t have a drop on the house. On the other hand, Vlad did. But he already figured out how he would use that to his advantage.
His only hope was the ambulance bay. He took Nina out the side door just as several officers ran by. Then, quickly, he opened the back of an ambulance.
“Stay low,” he ordered.
Checking over his shoulder, he walked between two ambulances to the driver’s side. An EMT was smoking a cigarette in the ambulance with the engine running. My lucky day. Rick tapped on the window. The guy looked.
“Got a light?” Rick asked.
“Sure,” the guy replied.
He opened the door to give Rick a light, but Rick hit him with a vicious right twice. The man slumped so quickly Rick had to catch him. Rick yanked him out of the vehicle, laying him on the ground. Now he could make his getaway without worrying about a witness to his escape.
“Baby, where are you? Rhodes is on a rampage—”
“Melissa, slow down! What’s up?”
“Where are you? I have to see you now. It’s an emergency!” Korn emphasized.
“Look, I’ll call you back in—”
“Rick!”
“Goddamn it! I’ll call you back. I think Nina’s about to have her baby!” he barked, then hung up.
Korn glanced up at Rhodes. He had heard every word because they had her phone patched through the tracking system. Rhodes hoped she would be able to keep him on the line long enough to track him, but he had something just as good.
“Okay, people, you heard him! Coles is about to have her baby. If we’re lucky, she won’t do it on the bathroom floor! I want every fuckin’ hospital in Arizona on the line! Any Black woman coming in to give birth anywhere in Arizona, I want to know about it before the baby does!” he barked, and the whole team scattered like roaches, heading to the phones.
“What do you want me to do, Chief?” Korn asked eagerly.
He looked her in the eyes and hissed, “Pray.” Then he walked away to do the same.
Dead.
Kyra stood before the grave site feeling the soft drizzle sprinkle her face like tears from heaven. She read the headstone:
Marvin Blackshear
1952–2013
Once again, her conversation with Trae came to mind. She would put money on him and Rick being the ones responsible for Marvin’s death after he left her for dead. I can’t let Aisha find out her baby brother’s father, and basically, her uncle were the ones responsible for her father’s death. It would ruin their entire relationship!
She took a deep breath and started to walk away when a man walked up. He was carrying flowers and was dressed in a greasy jumpsuit that bespoke his profession. A mechanic. Kyra followed his every movement.
“How are you?” he greeted politely, then laid the flowers on the grave.
“I’m fine, and you?” Kyra responded.
He shrugged. “Could be better, but then again, could be worse.” He chuckled. “How did you know my Marvin?”
“It’s…complicated,” she hesitated.
She looked at the man again. She couldn’t exactly recall his face, and she wondered if it was because her memory hadn’t returned one hundred percent or because this was her first time meeting him.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’m Jabaar. He was my big cousin. I used to want to be just like him.”
Kyra shook his hand and smiled. “And I’m Kyra…Brown,” she said, unsure if she’d just made a huge mistake. Maybe I should have told him Blackshear, she wondered. But Brown was a popular enough last name. She figured it was fine.
“Yeah, man,” he sighed. “I can’t believe he’s gone. I wish I could catch the son of a…” He let his voice trail off but not his anger. “The person who did this.”
“I-I understand. Well, I’ll let you have some time here alone,” Kyra said, questioning if Trae had actually been telling the truth.
“Thank you. I came on my lunch break.”
“Well…Nice meeting you.”
“You too.” Jabaar tried to shake the strangest feeling of déjà vu. This Kyra looked an awful lot like Nina. It had been so long since he had seen her or any of his siblings that he felt his eyes burn with unshed tears. After Derrick had gotten killed and Peedie was maimed, his mother had forced him to stay away. It was as if his family was cursed. So Jabaar tried to beat it with distance. He had been away for so long. He couldn’t help but see the gaps his loved ones once occupied. It was just him and Nina now. Maybe even just me. With his mother gone, he had no way of knowing if Nina were alive or dead. His mind turned back to Kyra’s uncanny resemblance to his sister as Kyra walked away.
Part of her wanted to go back and tell him the truth. She just didn’t know how. She headed back to her cab, but before she could get in, a red Charger skidded up, and a masked gunman jumped out.
B-Murder had been visiting his sister’s and nephew’s grave site. Despite the citywide King beef, he preferred to roll solo when visiting his family.
“I’m all alone now, sis…So I ain’t got nothin’ to lose,” B-Murder remarked, allowing the tears to flow freely because they were hidden in the rain. “I swear that nigga gonna pay! He took my family and broke up my set. I’ma make that nigga beg me to kill him!”
As he spoke, he looked up, and that’s when he saw her. Across the cemetery a few yards away. Nina. His adrenaline kicked in. B-Murder couldn’t believe his eyes as he squinted across the graveyard. “I know that ain’t that bitch!” he hissed.
There was no way he was about to let her get away. But he knew he couldn’t just kill her. She was worth more alive. I got you, bitch!
B-Murder raced to his Charger and grabbed his red bandana. He tied it around his face and headed for that grave site. As Kyra neared the cab, he accelerated, blocking the cab’s path, and hopped out.
“Oh shit!” Kyra gasped.
“Bitch, shut up!” B-Murder based and struck her in the head with the pistol, knocking her out instantly.
At that moment when he hit her with the gun, he realized that she wasn’t Nina. But he couldn’t stop his momentum. Besides, they looked so much alike. Her sister? his mind questioned.
“Hey!” Jabaar called out when he saw B-Murder hit her and her body slump.
He started to run toward them, but B-Murder let off several shots that made Jabaar jump to the ground and stay there. The cabby had ducked below the dashboard before pulling off.
“I ain’t see shit!” he yelled.
B-Murder threw Kyra in the passenger seat, jumped in over her, and skidded off. As soon as he was off, Jabaar jumped up, filming the back of the car to get a picture of the license plate as B-Murder disappeared. What was that all about?
Charley didn’t feel comfortable being a free man. He still owed some very powerful people. His name may have carried weight, but theirs carried more. So, he was on pins and needles waiting for Rinaldo to call about the money. Instead, he got a call from the Armenians.
“Charley The Ace Adams?”
“Who wants to know, and how the fuck did you get this number?” Charley barked.
Vladimir chuckled. “I can assure you that it wasn’t from Angelo Borcelli.”
Charley stiffened just hearing the name. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Just call me Vladimir, or your savior, whichever you prefer. How I got the number is irrelevant. I have a deal that you better not refuse,” Vladimir stated firmly.
“Fuck you. I’m hanging up.”
“I can get your money for you.”
Charley didn’t speak, but he didn’t hang up either.
“I assume you’re still there.”
“I’m listening.”
“I know who has your money. I know where he is; you don’t. He and I have a deal for twenty million. If you can come up with a better deal than his, it would be my turn to listen,” Vladimir propositioned.
“How do I know you are who you say you are?” Charley questioned.
“You don’t. But you know you can’t afford not to take me at my word,” Vladimir replied.
“Twenty-five. But I wanna be there when you pick it up.”
“That can be arranged. How quickly can you be in Arizona?”
“Arizona’s a big state,” Charley said.
“Pick a city, and I’ll have you taken to the destination. Do we have a deal?”
“I guess I don’t have a choice, huh?”
Vladimir chuckled. “No, Charley, in this situation…you don’t.”
“This is where it gets interesting,” Rinaldo chuckled as he sipped his drink.
Deanna asked, “Who was that?”
Rinaldo hung up the phone. He knew this was the crucial part of the plan. The part where the mark thought they were the ones running game. But if he moved too fast, they’d see right through him.
He looked at her, then rose from his seat and crossed the room to where she sat.
“Deanna…Remember when your mother was sick and desperately needed that operation? Who paid all the medical expenses?” he questioned her.
Her mouth was silently agape, and she began to feel guilty about the role she was playing.
“You did,” she answered, lowering her eyes, not being able to meet his gaze.
Rinaldo squatted down in front of her, then lifted her head by putting his hand under her chin. “And when your father lost his job, and they were about to foreclose on the house, who paid the mortgage until he got back on his feet?” Rinaldo probed, voice smooth and nonthreatening.
Tears creased her cheeks. “Why are you bringing all this up, Rinaldo?” she sobbed.
He smiled sweetly, the smile of a vampire right before he sucks you dry and replied, “Because you’ve been untrue to me, Deanna. When I needed you the most, you jumped the fence on me.”
“No, Rinaldo! I would never do that!” she protested through her tears.
He kept his smile sweet and his voice calm. “Yes, Deanna…I know everything. You can’t lie to me, baby. Why did you do it? What did Brandon offer you to betray the man who cared for your family?”
She broke down, covering her face with both hands. “A million dollars! I told you he wanted me to spy on you!”
“I know that much, but while you were supposedly double-crossing him, you were triple-crossing me.”
She nodded her head. Rinaldo smiled to himself. Brandon would never see this coming.
“But now, Deanna, you have to choose: him or me. Brandon’s going down. Charley is going to kill him. I can’t protect you if you choose him,” Rinaldo explained.
She threw her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, Rinaldo. I swear I choose you! I choose you!” she lied.
Why do the students always think they can play the master’s game? he mused to himself as he untangled her arms from around his neck, looked her in the eyes, and replied, “Are you sure?”
She nodded vigorously.
Rinaldo stood up and paced the floor. “Charley…He’s got the money. Or I mean, he knows where it is. That bitch Nina and some guy named Rick…an ex-Fed. Can you believe it? The Feds set me up to rob me!” He laughed, then added, “But I can’t go pick up my share of the money.”
“Why not?” she questioned.
He looked at her like she was the dumbest bitch in the world. “Because the son of a bitch would kill me. But he won’t kill the person I send because then he knows I’ll tell Brandon he has the money. He has to play fair as long as I don’t show up. Which is why I’m sending you,” he explained.
“Me?” she echoed.
He nodded. The look in her eyes said she was taking it all in. “He’ll give you my cut. You won’t be in any danger. He has to pay. Then you meet me in Louisiana with the ten million. You keep two, and we ride off into the sunset,” he proposed.
“I’ll take care of it, Rinaldo. You can trust me.”
“I know I can, baby,” he answered, simultaneously thinking, Trust you to play yourself out of position.
She couldn’t wait to get on the phone with Brandon to tell him everything. As soon as she left, Rinaldo was on the phone with Rochelle. “Get little man packed up and meet me in Miami. I’m taking a little trip.”
Lala and Supreme sat down the street from Nurse Wright’s front door, waiting for her to come out. Getting her address had been easy. Once Lala hacked into the hospital’s human resources files, she quickly found all she needed to know.
“This time, I don’t care what you say. I’m snatchin’ the old bitch up,” Supreme vowed.
Before she could respond, Nurse Wright came rushing out of the house and jumped in her car. When she pulled out, Supreme wasn’t far behind.
Nurse Wright had just gotten a call that Nina was in labor. She was worried because the baby was early. She knew it was from stress.
“Oh, my Lord, Nina…I tried to tell that girl,” she said, reciting a quick prayer in her head. Too focused on what was in front of her to concern herself with what was behind her, she headed straight to Nina’s house.
She reached Nina’s house just as the ambulance did. Supreme fell back when he saw the lights. He went around the block, then parked a few houses down when he was back on her street. He noticed a black sedan slowly drive by filled with three white boys, but he didn’t think anything of it. He was focused on the EMT’s and the big Black guy bringing Nina out. He caught a glimpse of her before they loaded her into the van and his blood boiled. He was so close.
In the ambulance, Rick tried to comfort Nina.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’m right here,” he said, squeezing her hand, but he had a funny feeling in the back of his mind.
He had seen the black sedan, too, out of the corner of his eye. But when he looked again, he could only see the backs of the occupants’ heads. His mind said he was bugging, but his street senses screamed, Be on point! His gut was resting on Vlad’s people, the Armenians.
Supreme followed the ambulance to HonorHealth Sonoran Crossing Medical Center.
“So, they were gonna try to duck us, huh?” He chuckled, taking in the fact that they had chosen a hospital different from the one where Nurse Wright worked.
“That means the nurse told her we’re here. Be on point,” Lala cautioned.
“Always,” he replied cockily.
The EMT’s rushed Nina inside.
“My babies? Where are my—” Nina huffed between contractions, but Rick cut her off.
“Nurse Wright, baby. She’s with the kids.”
His words and presence comforted Nina, but the pain seemed unbearable. The contractions with this baby were stronger than any of her other births.
“Oh God!” she cried in anguish. “I’m not even eight months.”
“I’m here, baby! Just breathe!”
Supreme and Lala went into the hospital through the lobby. They knew they would have to wait until the baby was born.
But Rhodes wasn’t prepared to wait.
It took twenty minutes after Nina arrived at the hospital before one of the agents came rushing into the room.
“Chief, we got her! She’s at HonorHealth Sonoran Crossing Medical Center in Phoenix!”
“Get Phoenix on the phone! Forward them pictures of both Rick and Nina and tell them to approach with extreme caution! We’ll be there within an hour!” Rhodes instructed, then shot out the door with Korn on his heels.
Four and a half hours later, Nina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Rick’s first child. He was premature, so he had to go into an incubator. Nina and Rick looked through the glass at him.
“Rick?”
“Huh?”
“No…That’s what I want to name him. Rick,” Nina remarked, looking up into Rick’s eyes.
He smiled and replied, “I love you, baby,” before kissing the mother of his firstborn child.
“As soon as the baby’s strong enough, can we just…go?” Nina asked.
“No doubt,” he assured her, his mind saying fuck the Armenians.
Rick had decided to make his move solo. He hoped Trae would hold up his end of the bargain. If so, the Armenians wouldn’t be able to make a move on them anyway.
He wheeled Nina to her room and got her comfortable in the bed. Then he walked over to the window and looked out, contemplating their future, but thought, What about Kyra?
Even if he did leave, he wasn’t about to just walk away from Kyra. He started to look away, but then he saw the police lights and federal vehicles speeding into the hospital parking lot.
“Oh fuck!” he spat, then spun and quickly approached Nina, “Baby, the Feds! We gotta go!”
“How did they know?” she panicked.
Rick didn’t have time to think about it. They had checked in using fake IDs that Rick had just gotten from California, so he was baffled, not realizing his own words did him in.
“Can you walk?”
“I-I can…yes,” Nina answered.
He helped her off the bed, but he scooped her off her feet and carried her from the room when he saw the baby steps she was taking. They couldn’t take their son, not yet, but Rick resolved to come back for his firstborn later. They would have to trust Nurse Wright to help with this one.
“Excuse me, sir,” a nurse called out.
“Newlyweds,” Rick smiled, trying to appear carefree.
Before the nurse could object, they disappeared out of the exit door to the steps.
When Supreme and Lala saw the federal convoy march in, he was worried that they were for them. But when he heard one ask for Dolores Miller’s room, his gut told them that Dolores was Nina’s alias.
“Let’s go,” he mumbled to Lala before they calmly headed to the exit.
Once they were outside and saw how deep the police were, he knew they were there for Nina.
“Goddamn, yo!” he barked, knowing that the fifty million was as good as gone if Nina got arrested.
“Go get the car and call me. Stay close just in case we gotta move,” he instructed Lala.
She nodded and walked off.
Meanwhile, inside the hospital, Rick could feel the Feds getting close. But he wasn’t giving up. They found him at the hospital, but he knew they didn’t have a drop on the house. On the other hand, Vlad did. But he already figured out how he would use that to his advantage.
His only hope was the ambulance bay. He took Nina out the side door just as several officers ran by. Then, quickly, he opened the back of an ambulance.
“Stay low,” he ordered.
Checking over his shoulder, he walked between two ambulances to the driver’s side. An EMT was smoking a cigarette in the ambulance with the engine running. My lucky day. Rick tapped on the window. The guy looked.
“Got a light?” Rick asked.
“Sure,” the guy replied.
He opened the door to give Rick a light, but Rick hit him with a vicious right twice. The man slumped so quickly Rick had to catch him. Rick yanked him out of the vehicle, laying him on the ground. Now he could make his getaway without worrying about a witness to his escape.
