Page 70 of His Noble Heart
“Now, I think I heard someone say you were carrying my niece or nephew. You let a nigga named Rowdy knock you up?”
I gasped and put my hand on my head. “Whew. I feel faint. I need to lay down.”
“Nah, that won’t work with me. You got some explaining to do,” Shyne teased.
I loved my family and was grateful they were here to help me get through this ordeal.
A lot had happenedover the past two weeks . . . I’d been shot, we found out Noelani was pregnant, she shot and killed an obsessed co-worker, and I turned twenty-nine. My birthday happened to fall on a Sunday that Mrs. Natavia had already planned to have dinner. Noelani shared with her that it was my birthday, and the two of them made a big deal about it.
Of course, Ramina and my mother were invited, but they also invited my uncle, as well as Rocky, Russell, and their families, which was a lot of people. It was the first time I’d been celebrated in that way, and it was a good time, but by the time the night ended, I was definitely overstimulated.
Noelani seemed to be handling the shooting well but had taken a month off from work. She’d actually gone back on theMonday following the shooting, but because the news had gotten wind of the incident, the staff and the students bombarded her with questions.
It would be another three weeks before the ballistics would be back for Kenai’s gun. The police wouldn’t be able to confirm that he was the person who shot me until then. No charges would be pressed against Noelani because it was clearly a case of self-defense.
Like Sonshyne, I felt guilty for not being there to protect Noelani. If I hadn’t left the hospital with my uncle and met up with Rocky and Russell, it wouldn’t have gone down that way. Although the time I spent with my brothers was very much needed, it could have been postponed for a day or two.
Rocky and Russell seemed like honest, solid men, and I believed they were telling the truth about not knowing they had another brother. We met at the youth center and talked for over an hour, mostly about me. They wanted to know everything about my childhood up until the moment they walked into my hospital room.
Aside from my mother and sister, and now, Noelani, I’d never had anyone show that much interest in me. My brothers wanted to truly know me, and that meant more to me than they’d ever know.
“What made you start hitting up corner boys and stash houses?” Russell asked.
“I’d like to know that too, because based on what your uncle said, that’s what got you into this predicament,” Rocky added.
“I’m not proud of it, but I’ve been stealing shit and selling it online since I was in middle school. My mother was struggling to make ends meet, and I wanted to help her. I used the money to buy groceries and get things for me and my sister, so my mother wouldn’t have to. As I got older, I noticed things in certain areas of the city that I hadn’t paid much attention towhen I was younger. People I went to school with lost family members to drugs or to the system for selling drugs. I guess it bothered me enough to want to do something, and that’s what my young mind came up with.”
“What did you do with the money?” Rocky asked.
“It was never about the money for me. It was always about how I could use it to help others. I used it to offset the cost of fixing my neighbors’ cars because most of the time they couldn’t pay for the parts and labor. I also had block parties for the kids a few times a year, giving away backpacks and shit like that.”
They both nodded, and Russell said, “That’s very noble of you.”
I shrugged nonchalantly and replied, “I had to live up to my last name.”
“When you moved here, did you plan to keep hitting up stash houses?” Rocky asked.
“Not at first. I got a tow on the west side of town, and it reminded me of what I saw in Savannah, except the corner boys are minors here. I didn’t feel right robbing young boys, especially considering they’d be held accountable for the missing money. Instead, I used them to get information and threatened to kill them if I saw them on the corner again.”
“In all these years, you’ve never been caught?” Russell asked.
“Not once.”
“Tell us about Zelle and why he’s on a mission to take your ass out,” Rocky said.
By the time I got around to asking questions about them, I received a phone call from Noelani, but it was actually one of her sisters using her phone, telling me to get to her apartment immediately. Needless to say, my conversation with my brothers came to an end. We’d only connected once since then, but wehad other things to discuss, so I hadn’t had a chance to ask them anything about their lives.
Although Kenai had confessed to shooting me, Zelle was still a problem. Rocky and Russell put some feelers out and found out that about fifty members of the Savannah chapter of the Westside Riders arrived in Onyx City around the time I was shot and set up shop at the stash houses.
Their purpose for having a larger presence was to catch the person who’d been hitting them up. Little did they know, that person had retired. Word on the street was that they were getting antsy because nothing had popped off since they’d been in town.
I pushed the situation with Zelle to the back of my mind and was focused on healing and enjoying my woman. Now that everyone knew she was pregnant, it seemed her belly had grown overnight, and some may say I was obsessed with her.
“Hey, where are you going?” I asked when Noelani got out of bed.
“To the bathroom if you don’t mind.”
“As long as you’re coming back.”
