Page 42 of Read the Room

“They just took Mama Bee to the hospital. She was in bad shape. Corp said that they killed the other two workers.” Ethan had tears in his eyes, but I knew they wouldn’t fall.

Corp was one of the cops on our payroll. He gave us most of the inside information that we needed.

“Fuck this shit!”

I moved toward the house with Sully right behind me. Corp was the first to see me.

“AK, man, come talk to me.”

When he started to walk over to the side, I knew it was some bullshit. There was something that he wanted me to know that he didn’t want anyone else to know. Sully, Joey, Ethan, andI circled Corp, which was his last name. He huffed before he started to report.

“Man, I don’t know who the fuck had the nuts to do this shit. From the neighbor’s account, masked gunmen ran up in her house and killed the workers. They beat and shot Mama Bee, but I don’t think they wanted to kill her.”

My hands flew to my head.What the fuck!I felt like I could pass out at any fucking minute. I heard Sully ask about the kids.

Corp stepped in closer. “Mama Bee was responsive when I got here. When I checked on her, she wanted me to tell my colleagues that all of the children are accounted for. She wanted me to tell y’all that they took Lucas and SJ. She said she fought hard.”

Sully let out a booming holler. I had to bend over with my hands on my knees. So many would be in the obituary section of the newspaper in the next week. When I stood to my feet, I watched Joey pace back and forth. Ethan stood there with vengeance written on his face.

“Ethan, go to the hospital. We gotta go get Reya and Simone,” I told him.

I knew this hurt Ethan just as much as it hurt me. Mama Bee started watching Ethan when he was five years old. His mom wasn’t shit, so he spent a lot of time with Mama Bee.

“Alright, what you wanna do about twelve?”

“I’ll handle this shit here. Y’all go handle y’all shit,” Corp told him. He patted me and Sully on the shoulders. “Go get y’all fuckin’ boys. My team will keep the streets clear for y’all.”

Back to the Present…

I cupped Reya’s face in the palms of my hand. “Baby, we have to go to the hospital.”

“Why do we have to go to the hospital?” Simone was on her feet. “Sully, where is SJ?”

Sully moved to his wife. The wetness in his eyes tore my soul up.

“Baby, we’re going to get him back. We already got people on it.” His eyes bounced between me, Reya, and his wife. “We will get our boys back by the time the morning sun kisses the sky. I put that shit on my life. Right now, we’re going to the hospital to check on Mama Bee.”

Simone tittered, then pointed her finger at Sully’s face. “Sullivan Carson, this is it. You have a year to wrap this street shit up.” Tears poured down her face. “If anything happens to my son, I’m killing everyone, including you.”

When she stepped around Sully to move toward the door, his head dropped. His back lifted, then fell. The tears fell from his eyes when his head came back up.

“We’re going to get them back, Reya. I swear to you.” He rushed behind his wife.

“I don’t understand, Lo’ak. Wh-why would someone take our kids? They hurt Mama Bee?” Reya’s words came out slowly and her breathing was shallow.

I felt like a fucked-up individual. Someone touched the people that I loved. I slipped somewhere, and I knew it. I got so caught up in my personal love shit that I was too derelict when it came to getting that nigga Jeremy off the streets. There was no one but him that could have done this stupid, reckless shit. I kissed my wife’s forehead before I pressed mine against hers.

“I swear on my life that everything will be alright.”

The closest hospital to Mama Bee’s house was Presbyterian Hospital. When we got there, the people on my team who weren’t out in the streets on assignments were there. I dapped them all up. I knew in my heart that they were here for me, but more so because of the impact that Ma had on the community around her. On top of her childcare center, she did school supply giveaways, family angel trees, turkey giveaways, and a bunch of other positive things. She also had a non-profit that assisted people in the community with bills. A lot of these niggas’ households had been impacted by her before they came onto my team to make a better life for themselves and their households.

My hand went over my heart at the sight of Derrick and Tiberius when Sully and I walked into the hospital emergency rooms with our wives. These two old heads used to be in the game heavy. From what Geo told me, Tiberius went to jail when he was younger on a murder charge, but when he got out, his little brother Kirk flipped their money legally to the point that he didn’t have to play with the streets anymore. Derrick was a nigga that was made for the streets, so he stayed in the game much longer. Now, both of them were retired from the streets but received lifetime residuals. Our teams have never had beef and would never. That was something that Geo told me about the first day of the game.

“Sully, AK, we heard, and our team is at your disposal,” Derrick informed us. He glanced at the side of him where Seneca stood. Seneca was the head of the organization now. He was a thorough nigga.

Seneca bowed his head. “Who do you want my point people to work with? Y’all got us until we get shit to one hundred. I’m sorry this shit happened.” He shook his head. “I know how berserk I would go if someone fucked with my wife and baby girls.”

An interesting change that I’d noticed in the game was the encouragement for the men to find their forever and leave these hos alone. Sure, we all went through our ho stage, but that shit needed to be short and strategic. Seneca was three years younger than me but had been married for five years. He and his wife had four girls, two sets of identical twins that were only eighteen months apart. He was the ultimate girl dad.

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