Page 28 of That Fire

He turned to look at me with a frown on his face. “So me asking you a question about raising Aaliyah’s babies was a fucking crime?”

“Tone is everything. You a smart nigga. You already know that shit. Don’t try to play it down in front of Mama and Daddy. We weren’t one on one. You did that shit in the diner. Then I pretty much told you to quit judging me and left. You followed me outside with that same bullshit and basically called Aaliyah a ho.”

“Man, you putting words in my mouth.”

“Am I? You said Aaliyah fucked anything moving. Ain’t that a ho?”

“Maaaan, I’m just tryna look out for you.”

“I don’t need you looking out for me when it comes to my love life. Whether you believe the shit or not, I know what thefuck I’m doing. You just upset that she turned you down a year ago.” He frowned hard. “Yeah, she told me that shit. We were messing around then. She turned you down because she was already with me. A ho wouldn’t have cared.”

“Whatever, man. I didn’t try to holla at her. You already putting her before your family. That’s the bullshit I’m tryna warn you about, but it seems you too far gone. Already pussy whipped.”

My dad pushed his ass down the stairs of the porch. “You gon’ have some fucking respect, especially in front of your mama. The fuck you on, nigga? Your behavior right now is proving that you a jealous, backstabbing muthafucka. I don’t fuck with niggas like that. I suggest you find out what the fuck wrong wit’chu before I do.”

Crew was on the ground, tryna figure out life and why Dad had pushed his ass down those stairs. Mama was standing next to Dad, and she was frowning. “I don’t know what done got into you, Crew, but you owe all of us an apology. Royal is your brother. If anybody should have his front, back, and sides, it should be you. Who needs enemies with the shit you said to him?”

She cut her eyes at him and walked off. I was glad they were seeing this shit for what it was, but I hated that Crew was acting like this. He stood from the ground and walked toward the back of the house. He had better be glad he didn’t fuck nothing up with the way he went flying down those stairs.

My dad turned his attention back to me. “Just like I got hostile when it came to someone disrespecting your mother, I expect you to always do that shit when it comes to your woman. That’s how I raised y’all to be . . . to protect your mama and your sister. Obviously, that shit would apply to your lady. You right. It don’t matter who the disrespect is coming from. I hate this shit.I saw red just now. I could have really hurt his ass. He don’t even know the danger his young ass was in.”

I slowly shook my head. “I’m sorry we had to bring this shit to y’all house. Had Seven and Kingsley not come outside and broke shit up, it would have been way worse. Ryder J was standing right there, just watching us. He told me that Aaliyah had slept with PJ. That shit wasn’t true. I sent a message to PJ through Ali. Aaliyah said she looks at him like a cousin, and he said she told him the same thing when he tried to get at her.”

“I don’t know what’s up with the two of them, but they definitely better get it together before they get fucked up. When it comes to your mama, it’s me and her against the fucking world. Like the older folks used to say, I brought his ass in this world, and I’ll take his ass out. He must’ve forgot the nigga I can be when somebody got me fucked up.”

He was still pissed, and I understood that perfectly. I would never use the word pussy in front of my mama. We cursed all the time like it was regular ass words, but I still limited that shit around my mama. Crew was wildin’, but he had the right one. Jasper Henderson was a clown and laid-back, but that nigga would lean up real quick to rectify bullshit. He’d been that way our entire lives. I didn’t know why Crew thought anything had changed.

“I appreciate you for your discernment in this situation, Dad. I gotta go back and get Aaliyah. By the way, we’re having a boy and a girl.”

His anger seemed to dissipate at my words. “Congratulations, man. I’m proud of you, Royal. You remind me so much of myself. When I met the one, I got myself together so I could hold on to her and make her hold on to me too. Did y’all give another sample for another DNA test?”

I nodded. “Bali did it today. She’s going to send it to a lab in the morning. She said she would put a rush on it, so we should know before the week is out.”

He nodded. “So when are you going to visit as a couple?”

“We were supposed to do that yesterday, but shit was still hot, so we stayed in.”

“Yeah. Those muthafuckas gon’ figure out soon enough that Watchful Eyes and the cartel are smarter than their asses. Ain’t nobody trusting the government these days, so they surely not snitching. As soon as they calm down again, they gon’ get hit again.”

His phone started ringing and when he looked at it, he answered, “What’s up?”

I watched him as he listened. His eyes got bigger and bigger by the second. Suddenly he yelled, “Fuck! A’ight. On my way.”

He ended the call and said, “The cartel blew up a fucking venue space in Liberty with nearly twenty of those muthafuckas in there. They left for Houston, but they’ll be back.”

“Fuck! What does that mean for us?”

“I don’t know. We’re about to meet about it. I’ll let you know.”

I nodded, slapped his hand, and headed to Aaliyah. When I got there, there was a car there. I frowned as I pulled in next to it. There was a woman in the car and as I looked closer, I saw that it was Lareesa. I wasn’t sure what she was doing here and why she was just sitting in the car. She waved at me and blew me a kiss. I gave her a head nod, then continued to the back to see Aaliyah talking to a man through the door.

I picked up the pace and when I got to them, I could see how red Aaliyah’s face was. He turned to look at me. He extended his hand, and said, “I’m Vaughn.”

I just stared at him, then glanced at Aaliyah. After giving him a head nod, I asked, “Why you here?”

“Well, my cousin told me Aaliyah was pregnant, and I know I slept with her about seven or eight months ago. I wanted to make sure we were clear, and she wasn’t keeping anything from me.”

“You tryna set up a DNA test?”