My phone started to ring as she fed me. From the sound of the ringtone, I knew it could only be one person. I rolled my eyes as Charmaine's ring tone played in its entirety.
"Who's that baby?" Selina asked.
"Charmaine." I answered and I watched as her upbeat, bubbly facial expression turned into that of pure disgust.
"Oh. I forgot about her. Why is she even still around?" Selina asked and I couldn't do anything but chuckle because Selina always wanted to have amnesia when it came to my baby momma but it didn't take Ray Charles to see that Charmaine even though I didn't want her to be was still very much around. Thanks to my son KJ this chick had a permanent spot in my life.
"Selina, quit playing. You know I still fucks with Char."
"I don't know why." Selina said partially under her breath but loud enough for me to hear it. I laughed at her sudden attitude.
"It sounds like somebody is in they feelings for real." I said as she shook her head back and forth making sure she set the record straight.
"Naw, I'm not in my feelings at all. I just feel like if you know she not for you then why is still around? That don't make sense to me Kwame."
"Come on mami. You already know the answer to that question. My son. It makes perfect sense."
"I get it. I know your son is the reason why you're still there. I just be thinking sometimes."
"Now, I've always rocked with you because you been cool and haven't caused me any drama. You catching feelings or somethin'?" I asked her looking into her pecan brown eyes. Damn, Selina was so sexy when she was in deep thought. My phone started to ring again. Selina closed her eyes as if she was trying her hardest to concentrate, took a deep breath and continued.
"Come on Kwame. You know me. I know what we have and I'm playing my position. No worries boo." Selina reassured me.
"That's what I like to hear baby."
"Good. As long as we keep spending time together that's all I care about and I could care less about your baby moms or anyone else."
"Is that right?"
"Hell yeah."
"I gotta run mami, but you know I'll be back through in a few days."
"Ok papi." Selina let out a long, loud sigh. I knew she was frustrated but she knew more than anything of where we stood and when it came to my son nothing was more important than that and if Charmaine got a little preferential treatment because of that then so be it. My son was my first priority. I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips and then I left her house knowing I had deeper shit to face than her just missing me.
The minute I stepped foot in my BMW 750 it was apparent that Charmaine was on that bullshit.
"Where you at? I've been calling you for the last forty-five minutes."
"Charmaine please don't start. What you want?"
"Does it matter what I want? I could be calling you with something important or an emergency and you've been sending my ass straight to your damn voicemail. Are you forgetting I have your son?" She asked me as if was dumb.
"No Char, I know I have a son. You remind me every chance you get."
"Well I wouldn't feel the need to remind you if you didn't act like you were single and actually remembered that you have a family at home."
"Ain't nobody forget about shit. What did you need?" I asked cutting straight to the chase. If I didn't direct our phone conversation it had the ability to keep going on and that shit was super annoying.
"I wanted to know when you was coming home so we could talk. I think we really need to talk." Charmaine softened her voice in an attempt to change the climate of our conversation. Listening to her change her voice could only mean one thing. She must want something. That seemed to be the only time she chose to act right.
Before I could answer her, my line started beeping and when I pulled the phone away from my ear I saw that my brother Khamani was trying to call me. I had definitely been saved by the bell.
"Char, Khamani calling me. I can't say when I'll be home but when I get home we can definitely talk. Gotta go." I clicked over and answered my brother's call without even giving her a chance to contest what I planned to do.
"What up Khamani? What's good bro?" I asked. It had been a few days since I had heard from my brother. We usually text back and forth all the time but we always made sure that we talked on the phone or saw each other every couple of days.
"Same shit different day. Where you at? You close?"
"Naw I'm a few minutes out from you, but I can be by your house in like fifteen minutes."
"Alright bro. See you soon."
I didn't bother calling my other brother Khyree because I knew Khamani probably already called him if not he was already over there. I was the youngest out of my brothers and our mother never had any girls. She had all boys. Me, Khamani, Khyree, and Kerri. I was the youngest of all my brothers and Kerri was next in line but he ended up getting shot by a stray bullet when we lived on the Southside. He passed when I was twelve years old. He was almost fourteen when he died and ever since he left shit just hasn't been the same. One thing his death did was bring us all closer together. We were thick as thieves and had each other's backs at all times. By the time I pulled in Khamani's driveway on the Northside, I saw Khyree's Black Denali sitting in the driveway.
Khamani's girlfriend Sariyah was sitting on the porch drinking a tall glass of lemonade scrolling through her phone.
"What's up Riyah?" I asked stepping onto the porch and she stood from her chair to give me a big hug.
"Hey bro! What's good? I missed you. Khamani and Khy are inside the living room."
"Alright. Thanks sis." I said and when I walked in the living room I could tell something was troubling my brothers.
"Yo, how well do you know Tariq and Romell bro?" Khamani asked me as he sat on the couch with his hands folded.
"I know them pretty good. I mean I met them through Marquis and he vouched for them and said they was good dudes so I know they cool. What's up doe?" I asked knowing that my brother wasn't one to ask random questions for no reason at all.
"I don't know bro. Something ain't quite right about Tariq. I can't quite put my finger on it but something not right with that dude." Khamani said as I watched my other brother Khyree roll his blunt with the precision of an engineer. Khyree wasn't a man of many words so when he spoke I listened. Even though he was quiet I still knew he had something to say.
"You know when Khamani get a hunch about something he's usually right so we want you to keep an eye on them niggas. We can't trust many people out here so the ones that's around us we have to make sure we can trust with our lives. Can't have no weak ass links in our chain bro."
"You definitely right about that."
"You know how dad and his crew did it. They was the realest niggas on these streets and they got that respect too. We gotta have that same type of respect. Even though dad and his boys were respected them niggas was still feared too." Khyree said in his soft, deep voice. He barely talked above a whisper and when we were little we used to tease him that he was trying to sound like the head of some mafia boss or something but his voice carried that type of sound naturally.
"Bro, got a good point too. Dad had laid a good enough blueprint for us to follow so we can make sure we are tight. We good but I feel we can always be tighter." Khamani said.
"So you want me to follow Tariq?"
"Naw bro. We just want you to keep your ears to the streets and find out all you know about Tariq and his brother Romell. If you feel like you gotta follow this nigga for a little bit then do your thing but honestly just keep your eyes and ears on these niggas. They controlling a huge area on the Sharon line and I feel like we need to capitalize on that but we need to know that we can really do business with them. So do what you gotta do. Maybe we need to meet with them." Khamani instructed me. My brothers Khamani and Khyree ran the streets and had one of the most lucrative crews in the drug game. I ain't gonna lie. They had Youngstown on lock and I had their back when it came to the muscle. My older brothers didn't want me to touch any of what they were doing. They preferred that I be the muscle behind their operation and since I was good with my hands and a natural born fighter then enforcing the law seemed to be a perfect fit for me.
Our father Keith and his homeboys, The Rock Boys, ran the streets back in the day and we came up learning the game from them. My father was the head of the operation and his best friend Markell was his right hand man. They ran a tight ship and, as a result of their die hard loyalty, they were filthy rich. Life was great until one of their street soldiers Trip snitched on them and helped the undercover cops build a federal case that ended up sending my dad and his crew away to prison with hefty sentences. They had so many charges against them they were forced to do a gang of years. Our dad had been locked up for the last ten years and although he wanted us to stay as far away from the game as possible living in the city where we were from it's kinda hard to avoid that shit. He knew that it would be hard to keep us from falling into the same stuff he was doing out here so he begged us to have legitimate businesses too in addition to what we did in the streets. We ended up opening a twenty-four hour gym called Elite Fitness and even though we had only been in business for a year it was pretty steady. I primarily ran that while my brothers held down the streets.