Part 2 of this story will be on that account ]

𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚃𝚇.

❦

"Rell just tell 'em to handle it! I got a million things to do, I could care less about some bouncer getting sick. The fuck that gotta do with me?" I heard Rell groan over the phone while I sat in my living room, rubbing Mari's stomach. I looked over to see her staring at me wide eyed.

"So you'on care about our bouncer getting sick?" I heard him scoff, "Terrible ass employer."

"If he's sick tell him to stay his sick ass at home, obviously. It ain't nothin' to replace him."

"You terrible! So he gets sick and all of a sudden the nigga is out of a job?"

"Yea. I don't need no one sick working during the opening."

He sighed irritably over the phone,"Fine then, bitchass nigga! I'll take it upon myself to call a replacement while you sit there under yo pregnant ass girlfriend like you always are. Muthafuckas attached at the hip and shit."

"Sounds like your mad that Aijah dumped yo stupid ass and now Camille is back messin' with Medina too."

"Right!" Mari butted in, moving the phone away from my ear so she could speak. "It's giving very much you tried to be a hoe and it didn't work out." She said and I bussed out laughing.

"Fuck y'all." He said and hung up before I could say anything. Nigga mad 'cause even the ex he cheated on Aijah with don't want him no more. I fuck with Rell but he needed to be humbled and that was god trynna teach him to keep it in his pants next time he's in a relationship so I don't feel bad.

I shook my head and rested my back onto the couch while Mari returned to her original position with her head on my shoulder. She turned the volume back up on the tv and continued watching Criminal Minds. She loves that fucking show too much. But I can't even lie, she got me hooked too.

Tomorrow night is the opening of the club and there's so much shit to do but nah, Mari has me sitting here rubbing her stomach and watching this fucking show. Im the one who actually owns the club but me and Rell run it together.

Rell decided to not put his name on the deed when we first bought the place 'cause he said he's not sure if he's gonna end up following through with his idea of buying the rest of the building on top of the club and turning it into a hotel so he didn't wanna make things official by putting his name on the club legally. But we both know in any instance, Rells the one who's gonna run the club in my absence.

Despite not owning the club, he still chipped in and paid for half even though I told him I didn't need him to. Rell claimed it was the least he could do after that expensive ass baby shower me and Mari had thrown when in reality it didn't even put a dent in my wallet.

"Samiron can I please go?" Mari whined, looking up at me and I groaned. She wants to come to the opening so bad but with all the shit thats gonna be going on, her pregnant ass don't needa be there.

"Baby," I ran my hand over my face. "I already sai-"

She huffed, "I'm pregnant, not dying Samiron!"

"And what about all the smoke? Fuck you gon' do? Cover yo nose and mouth the whole time?"

"Mmcht! I'll leave early then."

I rolled my eyes, giving in,"You stayin' for an hour and a half, that's it. I'm gonna get security to bring you back here and make sure you actually stay here."

She nodded eagerly, "Yes!"

Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the screen, "You're something else."

A few seconds later she flinched and leaned forward, clutching her stomach and I immediately turned to look at her, "Fuck wrong with you?"

A wide smile stretched on her face as she held her stomach and looked down, "Oh my gosh, he's kicking. Samiron he's kicking!" She yanked my hand and put it on her stomach.

"Wait.." She whispered, moving my hand across her stomach and applying pressure in some places. On cue, I felt the slightest nudge go through the palm of my hand and I could've swore my heart stopped.

"You feel it?" Mari sniffled and I nodded, smiling and continuing to move my hand around. "His kicks are so strong." She chuckled.

"It don't hurt?" I asked, feeling another light jab at the palm of my hand.

"Not really.. it kinda feels funny." She smiled. "But if he kicks me in the pussy we're gonna have a problem." She scolded, looking down at her stomach. I started laughing.

"You're laughing and i'm serious. Lil' boy is gonna come out the womb and go straight into time out."

"Get off my son shorty." I shook my head, throwing my arm over her shoulder again.

Mari and I both kept one hand on her stomach the rest of the time we watched Criminal Minds. Once I'd felt the first kick, I wanted nothing more than to feel it again.

It's funny cause me, Soovy, Eli, and Rell stayed making fun of Duck and Zion for bitching over baby kicks yet here I am doing the same thing unapologetically. I'm even more pressed to meet my son now. Halfway through the episode, my phone rang on the coffee table. Slowly reaching forward and being careful not to nudge Mari who was slowly falling asleep, I picked up the phone to see Terris was calling.

"Waddup."

"Whats the word, Ter?"

"Just some new developments and shit." He said and I heard shuffling in the back, "How's Mari and lil' man?"

"He kicked just now for the first time." I smiled to myself. Terris being Terris just had to get loud, "Whatttt?" He dragged.

"Yea, that shit is fucking mind blowing. My stupid ass just sittin' here waiting for him to do it again." I chuckled, hearing Terris laugh over the phone.

"That's wassup. But aye, I have the pin on Jonah so get a pencil and paper right quick."

I darted my eyes around the living room before finding an empty envelope and pen on the glass coffee table, "You and these fuckin' papers.."

"I'm trynna save yo stupid ass! If you ever get caught and they find the addresses that I be sending you, they gon' know you did it. And then they gon' see that I sent it to you and we're both gonna be sharing a cell."

Terris always has me writing shit down. Whether it be of places, phone numbers or people, we never name drop in our text messages. And if we're texting about something serious, we use as little words as possible. To anyone reading our messages, you'd think we were slow. As soon as i'm done with the information Terris gives me, I get rid of the paper. I don't need anything coming back to me and Terris is always two steps ahead of me so we're good.

I shook my head, "Yo just shut up and give me the address."

"114 32nd Street, Houston, TX 87027, and remember he lives with his momma."

Writing the address down, I skimmed over it, "Four houses down from my trap..." I chuckled and shook my head in disbelief, "I never even knew where he lived, let alone the fact that he lived so close to where he worked for me. I should've known he was on some grimy shit."

"He was definitely planning on working under you 'till he got to your spot, that's fasho."

"His ass dumb. If he was loyal, I would've given him a few of my blocks to run after I leave the streets just like i'ma do with Jaiden. But nah, he just had to steal from me huh?"

"Well now you know what you're gonna do.." Terris said hesitantly and I looked down to see that Mari was now awake and staring at the t.v screen.

I nodded without a doubt, "Sholl do."

I heard a weary sigh over the phone, "I'ma be honest Mir, I don't like this. I know you can handle yo own but you don't know what type lf shit this nigga has up his sleeve, regardless of the fact that he doesn't know you're coming. Shit, his momma might've been in on it too considering the fact that the nigga was bagging most of the money you sent him for her chemo." Mari perked her head up and looked at me and I knew she'd heard most, if not all, of me and Terris' conversation by now.

"I got it Ter! You think i'ma let aNnigga jack thousands from me for years while smiling in my face? He took my generosity and ran wit' it. Nigga was too lazy to actually work for my position so he tried to take it from under me by stealing my money. I'm not getting bitched out." I said irritably. I glanced at Mari who's face held an annoyed expression.

Terris sucked his teeth, "Man, all i'm sayin' is you're stressing yourself out for nun. You have a girl, a son on the way, and a life to start outside of the streets— leave this shit to me so you could get your life on track. How do you expect to leave the streets if you be so quick to pick up a gun the second shit goes wrong?"

"Yea I'm leaving the streets but that doesn't mean i'ma let a nigga bitch me out Terris. You know me. No matter how grimy Jonah or his fuckin' momma are, I'm getting my lick back and that's that." I hung up before he could respond.

Me and Mari locked eyes and she dropped her shoulders, leaning back on the couch. "He's right and you know it."

I groaned. This is why I didn't want Mari to involve herself in this shit with Jonah 'cause I knew once she hears Terris's concerned words, she'd instantly start worrying. She see's that I'm actively getting out the streets, but she still thinks ima relapse and change my mind. As if the streets are some typa crack i'm addicted to.

Only reason Terris is weary about me handling Jonah is because of the simple fact that Jonah is unpredictable as fuck and he obviously doesn't have a plan of action— and a person without a plan doesn't have any direction, so they'll go to whatever lengths they have to to get what they want.

Terris looks at it this way; if that nigga stole thousands from me for years without me even batting an eye, who knows what else he's capable of? But the thing about me is, when it's time to teach a lesson, i'm a whole teacher. And Jonah needs to be taught a lesson about biting the hand that feeds you.

If it wasn't for me, his momma would be dead as fuck right now. I gave him money for the best chemo treatment there is and he turned around and spent it buying product from niggas who hate me just to try to one-up me. I'm not letting that go, no matter how dangerous muthafuckas think he might be. That nigga doesn't put any fear in my heart whatsoever.

"If Terris is literally offering to handle Jonah for you and risking getting himself into trouble, why are you putting yourself on the line?"

"What's more important?" She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Don't ask me that dumb shit, Amari." I shook my head, "You know you and my son are way more important to me than any of this street shit will ever be."

"So start acting like it!" She raised her voice, "For once, I want you to think like a parent and not a street nigga, for ONCE." She gritted and shot up from the couch before I could respond. Letting out a deep breath, I dropped my head back on the couch, hearing her stomp up the stairs of the house.

☇

𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚃𝚇 ; 2:21am

Hearing a notification go off, Samiron rolled over on the bed and reached for his phone, being careful not to wake up Mari who was asleep with her back to his chest. After their argument earlier, Samiron came upstairs and found her asleep. He took it as an opportunity to be up under her, knowing that once she woke up she'd remember their argument and continue scolding him.

Rubbing his eyes, he squinted at the text and saw that it was from Terris.

╭┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈╮

iMessage 2s

Got word from Jaiden that Jonah just got to

the trap and everything seems coo so i'm

giving you the green light

╰┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈╯

Reading the text, he mentally sighed of relief, glad that Jonah clearly had no idea that they were onto him or else he wouldn't have even bothered showing up to work at the trap. If Jonah knew that he'd been caught, he would probably be planning to make a run for it right now. But since he was already in Houston, there was no leaving for him anymore.

This nigga either slow or just bold as fuck, Samiron shook his head in disbelief.

You'd think that after Jonah stopped covering his tracks, he would get weary of someone finding out what he's been up to, but he was so confident in himself that he didn't feel the need to hide or duck from Samiron.

Other than the fact that he fled the state a couple months ago to take any rising suspicion off his back, he'd been walking around like everything was still cool, not knowing the person he was stealing from and worked for was plotting on him.

Sliding out of the bed carefully, Samiron made his way to the bathroom to get himself together. He showered and got dressed quickly. Walking out of the bathroom, he glanced over at Mari and saw that she was still asleep in the position he'd left her.

He leaned down and kissed her cheek a few times before grabbing his .9 and .22 out of the dresser and heading out of the bedroom quietly. He knew Mari was gonna be livid if she woke up sometime during the night and saw him gone but he felt like he had to do what he had to do.

After making sure that the front door was locked, Samiron got in his Hellcat and backed out of the driveway. He lived in a suburban neighborhood that wasn't super loud during the day, but at this time of night not a single person was on the street. He drove down the dimly lit road with the rush of the wind beating through his half-open window.

Within 24 minutes he was back in his hood. Several porch lights were on and a few people could be seen lingering in the streets but other than that it was quiet. Slowing down, he passed by a small, one-story brick house that matched the address Terris gave him earlier today. The house was on a corner so it was slightly secluded from the others.

Samiron made a mental note to himself and continued down the street. He had no intentions of paying a visit to Jonah's house anymore since he found out he was already at the trap. But after realizing that there was a good chance his mom was involved in the stealing, Samiron found himself wondering if Jonah's mother needed to be taught the same lesson as her son.

Pulling over across the street from his trap, he saw multiple cars in the driveway so he guessed that the boys were up late bagging product. He turned off his Hellcat and got out, darting his eyes around him to make sure he wasn't being watched. Samiron crossed the street and used his key to walk into the trap.

As expected about 9 boys, including Jonah, were spread out in the living room bagging product, weighing weed, and smoking. Jaiden sat in the far corner away from everyone and on his phone.

The boys took in Mir's presence and sent him a head nod that he returned before going back to what they were doing and picking up their conversations again.

A few of the new boys could already feel the sweat building on their skin from his presense. Samiron was lenient compared to other people who ran the streets but his presence still intimidated some people. The old corner boys were used to him. They knew that as long as they did what they were supposed to, Mir was cool.

Mir walked over to Jaiden but kept his eyes locked on Jonah who was unaware of the glare he was receiving.

"You good?" Samiron asked Jaiden, dapping him up.

"Yea." He nodded. Samiron would occasionally let Jaiden bag weed or count money with the other boys but he didn't really want him to. If Mir wasn't giving him money out of kindness, Jaiden earned his money from doing drops but even those were limited because Samiron was against having someone so young forced to work in the streets.

It reminded him too much of himself and he felt like no teenager should be forced to work such a dangerous job due to their financial situation. But overtime Jaiden earned Samiron's trust which was why he was letting Jaiden run his traps when he got older since he knew Jaiden still had a younger brother to take care of by himself.

Some of the boys envied Jaiden because it was obvious that—excluding Jonah— he was favored by Rell, Duck, Eli, and Samiron. Jonah was Samiron's right hand man in the trap but Jaiden was more like his shadow, being that he was still young and in high school.

He stayed to himself, rarely talked or interacted with the other boys, but still got paid just as much as them— actually more, but they didn't know that. Samiron let the other boys know the reason why he wasn't working Jaiden as hard as them and told them if they didn't like it they could either walk out the door or stare down the barrel of his gun.

Jonah would sometimes peep Samiron's leniency towards Jaiden and he wondered if Samiron had changed his mind and was considering leaving Jaiden to run his traps instead of him after he left the streets— which he was, now that it was revealed that Jonah couldn't be trusted.

Samiron jerked his chin behind him, towards Jonah who had his back towards them while he smoked and joked around with the other boys who were bagging weed, "When did he get in?"

"Like an hour ago. Terris dropped by earlier and told me to text him when he came in so I did." Jaiden told Samiron who nodded.

"What did he do?" He asked curiously since everyone knew Jonah was his right hand man, "Uh, if you don't mind me asking."

"Stole from me." He vaguely said, watching the group of boys. Jaiden's eyes widened at Samiron's response. He would've never thought Jonah of all people would steal from him.