Page 11 of Quasim III: King Inferno

“Papa,” I looked up from my hands and saw Des standing there.

He got down on the floor beside me and leaned his head against the wall. “Red called the hit… he didn’t succeed the first time, but he made sure that he got the second chance to do it.”

I continued to look down at my hands as my body became hot. “You certain?”

“Doubt burns… we don’t.” He replied, his eyes still closed.

My chest felt tight as I looked between each room. “Des, I can’t lose either of my boys.”

He opened his eyes and looked at me when he heard my voice crack. I felt his arm and he pulled me onto him. “You not losing either of them… Quasim and Quameer Inferno are fucking strong. Neither of them are leaving this earth… it’s not their time. If anything, we need to sit in the silence because the minute Sim rises, there won’t be any peace.”

Des and his mushy ass was always so quick to give you a hug or comfort you. Imagine watching this nigga put the steel to a nigga’s head, and then in the next second, he could comfort you and give you that brotherly love.

Tears fell from my eyes and I wiped my face. “Fuck.”

“You’re a father, Quinton. This shit ain’t easy for anybody… especially a father. I know you carry a lot of guilt about always being in the streets and leaving Mina and Gams to raise them, but you been their father. Taught them everything that they need to know.”

“I put them into this life… they should have been fucking doctors or some shit… Meer has a whole degree. Should have sat down like you and drove fucking cabs.”

Des laughed. “I sat down because Jean didn’t give me a choice… told me she didn’t need the big homes, cars, and diamonds. Told me she had to lose a piece of her heart because of me being in the streets, and she would have left me and tookmy boys with her. She had a plane ticket in her bible, Papa. I sit and think about all I had, and all that I had lost. Now, my sons went and snatched that shit back, and not because I forced that shit on them. It’s in their blood, Quinton… they was going to do this with or without you.”

I leaned my head back on the wall and sighed. “Family means everything to me, and now I have to take my own brother’s life.”

“Nigga was never family, Quinton. Always wanted to be you and was mad because he could never be you.”

“Put the word out that Sim passed.” I choked out the words, not even wanting to breathe life into those words.

“Got you.”

My phone started buzzing in my pocket again. It had been ringing since I arrived, and I had been ignoring the shit. Everybody knew that I was the worst when it came to being on my phone. If you had some shit to tell me, you better had caught me when you saw me. The only person that could get me on the phone was Mina, and now that she got her own phone, she had been obsessed with sending me emojis because she thought it was cute.

When she sent me an eggplant emoji, I was confused and figured she wanted eggplant parm and went to her favorite Italian spot in Brooklyn that she had loved. Imagine my surprise when I came home with a pan of fucking eggplant parm, and that shit meant something different.

She told me Capri had told her what it meant, and now I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the shit. I couldn’t have my daughter putting her onto shit and leaving me in the dark. Had me looking crazy, coming home with that damn parm. Either way, she sent that emoji and got handled that night.

When I pulled my phone out of my pocket, I saw the missed calls and nephew’s name on the screen. Zahir had called like seven damn times in the span of three minutes.

“Yo.”

“The fuck happened to Sim, Unc… I got the word he was shot… is he good?”

“I don’t know.”

The line grew quiet, and I thought the nigga hung up on me for a second. “I’m flying back in now… I should touch down by morning.”

“Ight.”

“What about Blaze?”

“Waiting to hear on him, too.”

The line went quiet again. “Fuck. See you when I touch down.”

After we ended the call, I leaned my head back onto the wall. Za was my nephew from my sister on my father’s side. My pops was a nigga that got around, and while he was getting around, he had a daughter a year younger than me.

When he had his shit straight, he made sure that we knew each other and built a bond. I could admit that I meshed with my sister more than I did with my brother. It was crazy because we weren’t even raised together. Shae was a straight shooter like me, and she would always give you the real, even if you never wanted to hear the shit.

Zahir was only two years younger than Quasim, and older than Quameer. Whenever I could, I made sure that I was present in my nephew’s life. Shae was a single mother, so anytime she needed something, I never hesitated to go help her out. Shae would drop Zahir over toward the house and Gams would watch him for her.

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