She hung up before I could say anything else, and I just stood there for a second with the phone still in my hand before slipping it back in my pocket.
“She was going off?” O’Shynn asked.
I looked at her. “You already know.”
That got a small smile out of her, but it didn’t last long cause like I said, something else was on sister’s mind. Let me find out she was letting that football nigga stress her out and I was gon’ put belt to ass on that nigga.
The hallway got quiet again for a minute but shit still didn’t sound peaceful to me cause it felt like more of a waiting game than anything else. A little while later, the elevator opened again and this time it wasn’t nobody from our side. Kilo’s people stepped off and you could tell who was who immediately. It was the Same kind of energy we carried, just different faces, and a different type of loyalty. His mama was in the front with swollen red eyes with two niggas behind her who looked like they been holding it together since the news broke. You could tell they was in the streets too.
They didn’t even look at us at first. They went straight toward the nurse’s station, asking questions, in low but tense voices. It didn’t take long before they were pointed down the hall toward the side Kilo was on. Dom stepped out of Carmen’s room when he saw them cause that’s the type of man he is. He didn’t wait, didn’t send nobody else, and didn’t act like he was above stepping into that moment. He walked straight to them and spoke first, keeping his voice calm like he always did like the Boss he was.
“He’s in surgery,” Dom told them. “They doing everything they can right now.”
Kilo mama looked at him like she was trying to read more than what he was saying. I could’ve told her that shit was pointless…nobody could really read Dom.
“He alive?”
“Yeah,” Dom answered. “He fighting.”
That was enough to keep her standing. One of the dudes stepped forward then. “We heard what happened outside. Who did it?” he asked. His long dreads hung down his back, and he had a mouthful of golds with tattoos on his face.
That question lingered in the air for a second. I already knew what the answer was gone be before Dom even opened his mouth. “We got it,” he told him real simple with nothing extra. Ol’ boy actually looked like he could be Kilo’s brother, and he also looked like he wanted more, but he also knew better than to press it right there. Not in a hospital, not in front of his mama, and because he knew he couldn’t go against the Miami King and win.
Dom reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Anything he need, it’s handled. Doctors, money, security, whatever. He made sure my wife ain’t get hit. That don’t go unnoticed.”
That changed something this time more like respect. Even in the middle of all this, that part mattered. Kilo’s mama nodded slowly, like she accepted that, even if she didn’t have all the answers she wanted.
“I just want my son to make it,” she said.
“He will,” Dom told her.
And the way he said it, it didn’t sound like hope. It sounded like a decision. They moved down the hall after that, and Dom stood there for a second longer before turning back toward Carmen room.
He looked at me and O’Shynn. “They keeping her overnight.”
I nodded. “You staying?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m not leavin’ her here.”
That was expected. That was his wife. O’Shynn stepped up and looked at him for a second, then nodded too. “Call me if anything change.”
“I will.”
She looked back at the door one more time before stepping away, but she didn’t leave yet. None of us moved for a minute. The night had finally slowed down, but it wasn’t even close to over. Me though? I was done with the hospital for now. I ran my hand over my face and let out a deep breath I ain’t even realize I was holding. “I’m about to slide,” I said.
Tone looked at me. “Where you going?”
“I need a minute. I been up here too long. I need to clear my head and my balls.”
O’Shynn gave me a look like she already knew what that meant. “Clear your head or go see Keondra?”
I smirked a little. “Both.”
She shook her head. “You stupid. You might as well just be with her.”
“Yeah, I’m stupid, but I also pay the cost to be the boss,” I shot back.
Truth was, I did need to get up out of there for a minute. Not because I didn’t care, but because I cared too much. That kind of pressure sat on you too long, you either gone do something smart or something real dumb, and I wasn’t in the mood to test which one it was gone be especially when Dom already called the move. All I could think about was killing somebody, so I needed to go.
