"Queen it's been a week since I've seen him." I spoke into my phone while pacing back and forth in my small room. "Every time I call him he doesn't answer and when I text he's dry. I feel like he's about to do something stupid."

"He already doin' something stupid, ignorin' you and shit. Do I needa make ah trip to his house or what, Nae?" Queen questioned.

"No," I shook my head before sitting down on the edge of my bed. "Wit' everything that's goin' on, I don't need him distracted or stressed more than what he already is."

"So you just gon' wait 'til all this beef shit die down to hop on his ass?"

"Yeah," I huffed. "He's not really givin' me ah choice, plus I need him focused."

"Mm," she hummed. "You want me to make Bean knock sum' sense into him?"

"No," I laughed a little, "I'll call you later. I'm finna take a stress nap."

"Oh god, this nigga got you naming naps now."

I laughed, "Queen, I hate you."

"I love you too, bitch! Call me back when you wake up." She said.

"Okay, I love you. Bye." I hung up and threw my phone on the other side of my bed.

I slid off my bed and walked out of my room. "Oh s-"

I almost jumped out of my own skin when I saw my dad standing right inside of the hallway.

I stopped covering my face once I gained back my composure. "Dad, you scared me."

"I see," he slightly smirked before nodding his head towards the living room. "Lemme show you something."

"Okay." I uttered as I followed him into the room and sat beside him on the couch.

He reached under our living room table and pulled out a wrapped box. I felt my face scrunch up in confusion.

"Umm.. is it Christmas already?" I asked.

My dad smacked his lips before laughing, "Nah. Why you got on 'em hot ass pajamas, anyways?"

"They're comfortable, plus dad you be havin' the AC on the lowest temperature. Like 50 to 60 degrees."

He nodded his head, "You right. That's why yo' smart ass is goin' to college now."

I smiled and shook my head. I think he is the most excited out of everybody about me going to college.

"So is this ah college gift or something?" I asked, curiously.

"You can say that." He shrugged before placing the box in my lap. "It's something you've been askin' me for since I've been outta jail."

I raised an eyebrow and quickly ripped the wrapping paper off of the box before opening it up. After pulling out more paper, I finally found the gift and damn near burst into tears.

I stared down at the picture frame of my mom and dad. Most of the pictures were of her. A couple were pictures of the both of them, looking so happy.

I've been asking my dad for pictures of my mom and if they had any pictures together. Every time I asked he would just say yeah, I got to look for them. This was a total surprise for me. A perfect one at that.

"Aww daddy," my voice cracked. "When did you put this together?"

"When you was over Lucky's house, last week. I found all these pictures and brought the frame."

"And you just now givin' it to me?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"'Cause it was suppose to be a gift for yo' college dorm, smart ass." He said causing me to laugh a little. "You been actin' like yo' life is over these past couple of days, so I decided to give it to you early."

"Thanks dad," I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "This really made my day ah whole lot better."

"Good." He smiled before looking down at the picture frame. "You yo' mama's twin, man."

"I get the blasianiness from her, huh?" I grinned.

"Shit," he dragged. "Both of us, for real."

I nodded my head in agreement. "You right. Y'all both had sum' chinky eyes."

"No lie." He chuckled before brushing his finger tips against the picture of her being pregnant with me. "Outta all the pictures in this frame, this one is my favorite."

"Really?" I questioned, surprised.

I expected one of his favorites to be a photo of them two together.

"Yeah. This picture represents the two queens I live for and love the most in this cold world."

My eyes grew glossy just from hearing those words come out of his mouth. I could tell he was still madly in love with my mom and I felt so bad because I felt like he was miserable without her. I know I would be if Omari ever left this earth, god forbid.

I mean I know everybody has to die one day, but I just hope and pray that doesn't happen until my hair is sliver and my skin is wrinkly.

"I love you too, daddy." I said causing his sorrow eyes to lit up.

"What's your favorite picture?" He asked.

I pointed to the picture of them where my mom was wearing a black dress and my dad was wearing a blue dress shirt. "This one, for sure. Y'all looked some happy. Just lookin' at this picture makes me fill with joy."

He nodded his head, smiling. "Yeah, we were at my birthday party and it was a couple of days before I got locked up. Me and her was cracking up at yo' stupid ass uncle Oscar. His tall ass was tryna spin on his head like 'em beat street niggas, but he kept kickin' shit over. We were drunk as fuck that night."

"I see." I laughed. "What was y'all drinkin' in this picture."

"Hennessy."

I laughed, I should've known.

My eyes drifted to the picture of my mom with her eyes closed and her head tilted up. She looked so peaceful in this one, making this my second favorite photo of her.

"Dad these pictures are so precious, I don't wanna take these away from you." I uttered.

"Nah, it's coo'. I made myself one as well." He informed.

"Good." I grinned, happy that we both had something valuable of her.

"So.." my dad cleared his throat, "you gon' tell me what's goin' on wit' you and that knucklehead ass boy."

I sighed heavily, placing the picture frame on top of the table. "I don't even know. He's always pushin' me away when he's goin' through something."

"Elaborate."

"Well, a week ago we were at the park. Everything was fine until some man came up to us and told Omari that there was money on his head."

"You haven't heard from him since that day?"

"I mean.. kinda, but only through text and even then he'll only send me one word replies. I think the only reason why he's respondin' to my texts is to let me know that he's okay."

My dad hummed and rubbed his long chin hairs, "He probably tryna keep you out of the situation, baby girl."

"And I get that," I admitted, "but that doesn't give him the right to be dry with me. He can still keep in contact with me and keep me updated on whatever's goin' on."

"No doubt." He agreed. "You want me to kick his ass for you?"

I side eyed my dad before busting out laughing, "Violence don't solve everything, dad."

"It do for Harlem niggas." He stated causing me to shake my head at him.

"Tell me, bitch!" I yelled, choking some random member from the YNG gang. "Who got the balls to put ah hit out on me, huh?"

He wheezed as he struggled for air.

I felt somebody place their hand on my shoulder, "C'mon, Lucky." Sunny said. "Let the nigga breathe ah lil'. We ain't gon' get answers if he die."

"Man, fuck him! We'll go find another YNG member." Bean spat from behind me.

I squeezed the teenager's neck before dropping him to the ground. We surround this scary ass nigga when we noticed he wore a gold chain around his neck that read YNG.

It's been a week since I found out I got money on my head. I don't know who specifically targeting me, but that's what I've been trying to figure out. Me and all my niggas from Slum money been in the streets. Day in and day out. We haven't really found out any information yet. We only ran into some clowns who were suicidal enough to try and murk me. Money literally got these niggas out here handing over their lives. It's a shame.

The YNG member coughed furiously causing me to smack my lips and yank his body up off the ground.

"I don't got time for this shit." I said through gritted teeth. "Tell me what I wanna know."

"I don't know, man." His voice was hoarse. "I don't know what you talkin' 'bout."

I laughed humorlessly, "Now, I know you lyin'. Everybody in Harlem know about this fuckin' money on my head. You really except me to believe you? Some lil' nigga from YNG, that's been beefin' wit' my gang and I killed two of y'alls members?"

"Please, man." He pleaded while his voice cracked. "I just joined the gang ah few days ago. I-I di-"

I punched him in his jaw making him stumble back into a brick wall. "Stop lyin' to me! How wouldn't you know about sum' you join into? That's like jumpin' into ah 12 foot swimming pool without knowin' how to swim."

"I'm not lyin'." He groaned while rubbing his jaw.

I pulled my gun out of my waistband and aimed it at his head while taking it off of safety.

"Lucky!" I heard Nick call my name.

"No, no, no." The YNG member repeated rapidly with panic in his eyes.

"Shut the fuck up!" I shouted as tears began falling down his cheeks. "What's yo' name?"

"Jay."

"Yo' real fuckin' name. Matter fact, tell me yo' full name." I demanded.

"J-jason Joe Jenkins."

"Aight." I nodded my head. "Imma ask you this one question. If you can answer it, you live. If you can't, you die."

He nodded his head, rapidly.

"What's the leader in yo' gang's name?" I investigated.

"H-hex."

My eyebrow raised, wondering if I heard him correctly. "Hex?"

"Yeah."

I know he ain't talkin' 'bout the one that was in Slum Money. I know he ain't talkin' 'bout the one whose ass I had to beat at Lanae's welcome back party? I know it ain't his pussy ass. I thought inside of my head.

"Describe him to me."

"He brownskin wit' waves." He plainly said causing me to narrow my orbs at him. "I met him for ah quick second, I really don't remember."

"Show this nigga ah picture of the Hex we know." I ordered without looking back.

Soon I seen an arm stretch out in front of me with a phone facing the little dude's face. I watched him scan the screen before I nodded his head.

"Yeah, that's him." He said confidently.

"Oh, hell no." Chris said removing his phone away from Jason's face.

"We should've known that soft ass nigga was ah snake." I heard Bean smack his lips.

I lowered my gun and put it back on safety. "Lemme give you sum' advice." I tucked my piece in the back of my waistband. "Get outta this gang life. You ain't 'bout it, for real. You just snitched on yo' gang like it was nothing, plus you don't got the heart for it. Go to college or sum' shit."

Jason just nodded his head.

"Oh yeah.." My eyes landed on his chain. "Next time I see you wit' this chain on, I won't think twice about killin' you. 'Cause once I find this nigga Hex, that YNG shit is dead along wit' his snake ass."

He gulped and nodded his head once again, taking in everything I said.

"Minus well take that shit off now, lil' nigga." Nick suggested.

"Nah, I'll go pawn that bitch if I was him." Bean said causing a few chuckles to erupt.

"Ah few of y'all take this nigga home. While the rest of y'all head over to Hex place wit' me." I said before walking away and heading towards my car.

"Aye!" I heard Nick call from behind me.

I glanced at him over my shoulder. "Wassup?"

"Lemme speak to you, real quick."

I unlocked my car doors before leaning against it and giving him my undivided attention.

"Why you ignorin' Lanae?"

"I'm not."

He squinted his eyes at me. "Yes. You are, Omari. What's goin' on, B?"

I stared at him with a straight face. "You really tryna' have this deep conservation right now, when we can be headin' over to Hex's crib and murder his ass?"

"Niggas is headed that way as we speak." He pointed to some cars filled with Slum Money pulling off in Hex's direction.

"Well, I'm determined to kill that mothafucka' myself, so we can talk about this after I'm done." I hopped inside of my whip as he shook his head at me.

Once I pulled up in front of his house, I noticed they already kicked his door open. Without turning off my car, I got out and stormed inside of the house.

I seen everybody, but Hex. My blood began to boil as my rage reached an all time high. "Where the fuck is he?" I punched a hole into the nearest wall.

"Man, calm down!" Nick said, entering the house.

"I'm fuckin' calm, nigga!" I spat.

"No the fuck you not! Just chill out, B. You actin' like we on ah time limit or sum'." He said, pissing me off.

"Easy for you to say." I mugged him, getting in his face. "You don't got no money on yo' head, nigga! You don't gotta worry about the whole fuckin' city comin' after you and probably the people you love! I don't got time to fuckin' waste like you."

I felt someone pull me out of Nick's personal space as we both stood there glaring at each other. "C'mon Lucky. Y'all brothas, y'all don't needa be arguin'." Oscar said.

"Omari, don't ever make it seem like I don't give ah fuck. Yo' family is my family. You my mohafuckin' brother, but throwing ah fuckin' temper tantrum ain't gon' help you find shit out." Nick spoke with anger laced in his voice.

Before I could respond to that, Kenny walked up to me handing me a scarp of paper.

"You might wanna read this, Lucky."

My jaw clenched tightly, already knowing this was about Hex and some bullshit I ain't want to hear.

I opened the note:

I ripped the note before letting it fall on the floor, "I want eyes everywhere. Nobody rest until Hex is burned to ashes."

I stormed out of the house, while everybody else looked confused about the letter. Kenny will let them know what it said.

I sped away from everybody in my car, doing 180. I kept my eyes ahead as I speed dialed Lanae.

She answered immediately, "So now you can call back?"

"Where you at?" I asked, ignoring her smart ass comment.

"Mindin' my business."

"Lanae." I said in a warning tone. "Where the fuck you at?"

"Home, why?" She said with an attitude.

I swerved past a few cars before speaking, "Stay there. Don't leave or nothing, you hear me? Stay in the house. I'll be by later."

I hung up, not giving her a chance to respond back.

My phone began ringing and I looked down to see Bean's name.

"Yo." I answered.

"Where you headin'?" He asked.

"I don't even know no more." I sighed. "I was finna go to Lanae's, but I already spoke to her. So I'm probably just finna drive around and see if I find anymore YNG members or Hex."

"Aight, we'll do the same. Watch yo' back."

"You too."

He ended the call as I stopped at a red traffic light. I quickly punched in Rob's number before hooking my phone up to Bluetooth.

I turned down the volume of my speakers as it began to ring.

"Wassup?" He answered on the fourth ring.

"You home?"

"Yeah," he dragged out. "You wanna speak to Lanae or sum'?"

"Nah, I just spoke to her. I wanted to fill you in on what's goin' on."

I heard some shuffling in the background before it got silent again. "Talk to me."

"I just found out that nigga you knocked out at Lanae's party last year is targetin' me. We just came from his place and he left ah note, basically confirmin' it and threatenin' Lanae."

"What the fuck he say?" Rob asked in a menace tone.