I made sure she ate, even if she only picked at it. I made sure she took her meds on time. I kept an eye on how she was movin’, how she was breathin’ and how that shoulder was holdin’ up, ’cause I already knew she was the type to act like she was good when she really wasn’t.
I watched the way she stayed quiet as her mind kept goin’ back to that call. She kept lookin’ at her phone like she wanted to call Yunique, then stop herself before she did it..
This type of shit wasn’t no regular hurt. This was somebody close to ‘Nelle bein’ tied into some foul shit, and her tryna figure out how it even got here in the first place.
I ain’t keep askin’ her about it either, ’cause I already knew what I needed to do with what I had.
“Make sure you answer that bitch when she call,” I told her, sittin’ across from her while she held her phone in her hand.
She looked up at me, and I could see she ain’t like that. “I don’t even know if I can talk to her without givin’ my tone away… I can’t even… I don’t even know?—"
“All that’s cool, but you can’t switch up on that fake ass bitch right now,” I continued. “You gotta answer the same way you always answer. Just talk the same, and don’t say nothin’ about what you know. She wanna play games, then we gon’ play games.”
She let out a slow breath and leaned back on the couch, rubbin’ her hand over her face.
“This is so fuckin’ crazy,” she said. “I was just with her. I was just laughin’ with her, smokin’, eatin’… all that shit. She been checkin’ on me, and just…”
“And now you know what you know,” I replied, plain and simple.
She shook her head like she still wasn’t fully acceptin’ it, but she nodded anyway.
After we talked about it, I moved how I needed to move. I stepped off for a minute, made a couple calls, locked in what I already had in motion and by the time I came back in the house everything was lined up on my end.
Sha’Nelle watched me while I moved around, and was quiet for the most part, but I could feel her eyes on me.
“You leavin’ tonight?” she finally asked.
“Yeah,” I said, not lookin’ up right away while I checked what I had in my hand. “The already on the way.”
She sat there for a second, then nodded like she expected that answer.
“How long?” she asked.
“I ain’t gon’ be gone long,” I told her, finally lookin’ at her. “I’ll be back before you even have time to start overthinkin’ shit.”
She tried to smirk at that, but it ain’t fully land.
I reached inside my bag and pulled one of my guns out, holdin’ it for a second before I walked over to her and held it out.
“Keep this on you,” I said.
She looked at it, then back at me.
“You serious?” she asked.
“I ain’t gon’ hand you nothin’ I ain’t serious about, ‘Nelle,” I replied.
She took it slow, her fingers curlin’ around it while she adjusted her grip like she was gettin’ used to the weight of it.
“Don’t nobody know you here, but I wanna leave you with somethin’ that make you feel safe. I’ll be back in a few hours.
She nodded, and this time it was different.
“Okay,” she said.
I stood there for a second, lookin’ at her, and even with everything goin’ on, she was still holdin’ herself together better than most would.
I grabbed my shit and headed for the door, takin’ one last look around the place before steppin’ out. The rental stayed parked in the driveway, but I was comin’ back for it. Instead, I had Blaqson order me a ride even though he was still in Trill-Land.
