Page 88 of Weddings on the West: Vol. I Brick & Destiny

“Be easy on your mother. She loves you… all of you. She just doesn't know how to show it, and she's afraid.”

“Afraid?” I scoffed. I hadn’t seen fear in that woman at any point in my entire life. She was the one that taught me that fear was all in your mind, and if you showed it, then you were weak.

“You’re old enough to remember, but I’m not sure if you really understood what was going on. When I… left,” he said, struggling over his words. “She was crushed. She had to make the decision to stay every day for y’all. She got it in her head that if she made you boys strong, none of you would have to feel the pain she felt. She was wrong, but she did it with the best of intentions. Give her some time and some patience, she’ll come around.”

I wanted to scoff, until I realized that whether it was intentional or not, she made me the happiest that I had ever been when she forced me to marry Destiny.

“I-… I’ll try,” I whispered back.

“You gotta get back now. You don’t have much time left,” he said, pulling me into a hug. “I love you, son.”

“I love you too, Daddy.”

“Get him up! Hold his head!” The next thing I heard was a voice that was not my Pops, close, but different.

“Wait! I gotta keep pressure on the wound! Go slow!” I heard the voice of my Angel, but she also sounded different. Assertive, sure, but also hurting and scared.

“Nah, nah, open the back! There’s more room in the back!” This time I recognized Kilo’s voice, and at that moment, I realized that the other voice was Pistol. I sighed in relief, realizing that my brothers were there. At least my baby wasn’t alone.

“Brick, baby,” Destiny called as she gently tapped my face. “I need you to wake up for me, okay? Baby, please wake up!” She begged and pleaded like her life depended on it. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t open my eyes or my mouth to grant her request, so I just listened to her cry the entire way to the hospital.

Twenty-Four

Pistol Whipped

PISTOL

Destiny was on a mission.

We had been sitting in the waiting room of the Sleighton Hope Memorial Hospital for hours with no updates. They said Brick was rushed into emergency surgery, and it would be touch and go… That was hours ago. Eden showed up and took Destiny home to change and calm down, because seeing her cry and scream was really fuckin’ all of us up. She obviously didn’t go to The Kalida West School of Hidden Emotions and was breaking down every five minutes.

The last time I saw her, she was bloody and wailing, damn near laid out on the hospital floor begging for my brother’s life. Now, she and her sister came striding in, laced head to toe in black, with determined frowns on their faces. Kilo and I both looked up when they stopped in front of us.

“Let's go,” Destiny said with a rage in her eyes that I knew too well. My brother and I were on our feet in an instant, knowing what time it was. I turned to look at our mother, who hadn't moved or spoken since she got there. She continued to sit in her chair, stewing in a silent anxiety as she stared off into a corner. Before Kilo and I left, we stepped over to her. I damn near flipped the whole hospital over when she looked up at us with tear-glazed eyes. We had experienced some close calls over the years, but this was the closest that death had been to our front door in a few decades.

“We'll be back, Mama,” Kilo said as he stooped down and kissed her forehead before handing her our phones. She remained wordless but gave us a knowing nod. I kissed her forehead too, and we turned to walk out.

She had brought us up to believe that if you fucked with one of us, you fucked with all of us, and fuckin’ with any of us was a death sentence. The sun had just set, and niggas didn’t even know that would be their last time seeing that muhfucka.

We followed the girls to the parking lot where Eden tossed me the keys to an all black, unmarked Jeep. The two women hopped in the back and Kilo and I in the front. Destiny gave me the cross streets for where we needed to be, and we fell back into the charged silence. Thirty minutes later, we approched the two-story brick house in the quiet neighborhood. I pulled into the driveway of an empty house across the street with a For Sale sign in the driveway, and every passenger in the Jeep let out a simultaneous sigh.

“Des, you don't have to come in. We got it,” Eden said softly once we made it to our destination.

“I'm coming,” she answered without considering any other options. Eden nodded at her, then turned to us, and I saw something familiar in her eyes. Yes, they were different, but they were just like us—willing to lay down anybody for their sibling. I was ready to do just that for mine. They stood by the car while I cased the house. These niggas were bold enough to be moving like this without having even the most basic of security systems in place. They didn’t even have a fucking doorbell camera.

This would be too easy.

“So, what’s the move?” Ki asked in a hushed tone once I rejoined the group.

“Five niggas downstairs, two people upstairs,” I answered. “No security, no cameras. We can take out the niggas downstairs in one clean sweep before we head upstairs.”

“Where is she?” Destiny asked.

“Upstairs with that nigga Que. They fuckin,” I said in disgust at their carelessness. After the shit they pulled—and the way we painted the city red the other night—they should have been halfway to the border. To still be in our city, playing video games and gettin’ pussy like shit was sweet was insulting. I planned to correct that immediately. Clearly, we had been moving too delicately if people thought they could fuck us over like this.

“Let’s go,” Eden said as the four of us moved silently across the dimly lit street.

Having seen it firsthand, I knew that Eden could handle herself, so I sent her to the front door with Kilo. I took Des around back with me. I made a vow to myself to make sure she was protected until Brick was able to again.