Page 51 of Quasim III: King Inferno

I slowly walked over toward the door and touched the knob and slowly turned it. That powerful light blinded me while I fought my way through it.

The sounds of machines beeping became louder the more I walked through the lights.

My eyes opened.

Papa Inferno

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There wassomething about when someone came for your family, and you sent a bullet into their head. When I made it back home, I sat on the couch and slept like a baby after taking my brother’s life.

He allowed jealousy and the lack of communication to consume him. So much so that he decided to try and take out his nephews. I probably would have respected him more if he decided to do it himself instead of sending his flunkies to do it. Polo thought he was sitting back and calling all the shots. It was him who sent Devils to Blaze and Capri’s house, and then it was him who sent some fucking randoms to Kobe’s house.

They wanted Blair, and it was time for her to go into hiding. She and Quasim needed to get out the city and lay low so she could have a healthy pregnancy. Hassan had been keeping me up to date on my grandbaby. I knew she didn’t want another personforcing her to eat, so I just kept a watchful eye on her while Gams made sure she was eating enough.

I could hear Quasim’s voice complaining about us not being on top of her health. We had no choice but to lay low after what happened on Kobe’s block and the expressway. The only proof they had on video was of those that were in the cars. Even then, the footage wasn’t good because they were all trying to get the hell out of the way.

The one concrete video that had been floating was the corvettes, and Sonny wasn’t worried about it. All the news kept saying is that there was a street race that went wrong, but with no other proof, what the fuck could they do?

Sonny already said that bitch Lucia had come to him and questioned him about the street race. He told that bitch to suck his dick and get the fuck from his property. Lucia was only doing her job because she had Capri on her ass.

My bike was fucked up and in the shop because of a bent wheel, so I was driving my car. My boys were just like me, never wanting to drive and always on their bikes. Putting the car in park, I leaned my head back and looked out the windshield.

“Any reason we couldn’t take my truck? Asked to pick me up like you were gonna be driving something other than this old shit,” Des broke the silence.

I looked over at him. “You had the option to decline the fucking ride… right?”

Des chuckled. “Hard ears.”

His ass was forever saying some Bajan saying that I never understood. Between him and Jean, me and Mina used to be confused. They always had a saying or a term that made complete sense to them and none to us.

I pointed to Ezra standing where his brother had been buried not too long ago. Evan called me and told me his brother put himon a plane to Miami, without giving him a say. While Evan didn’t understand his brother’s reasonings, I understood.

Ezra blamed himself for his brother’s death, and he didn’t want to lose another brother. As much as he was in pain and wished he could bring his brother back, he also knew he couldn’t handle it if he lost Evan, too.

From the scattered stories I heard, Evan and Ellis were going away to college. It was Ezra who refused to go because he had plans on making money. He wanted to make sure their grandmother was taken care of because their father passed, and I wasn’t sure the story on their mama.

His brothers decided to stay back from college and run the streets with their older brother. I could see why he blamed himself for it, and why he was pushing his brother away. Niggas got connected to this world because the allure of the success and money they witnessed.

They never see the sacrifice and loss that you experience for that money and success. For that nice ass whip, you had to sell your soul, one way or another.

Living this life was what had me kill my younger brother. It wasn’t a glamorous life, and you often found yourself in the prison visiting room or the cemetery more often than you wanted.

“Evan called me and told me that he’s worried about Ezra.”

Des ran his hand over his face. “Shit, I’m worried about both of them… their grandmother damn near jumped in the grave and then blamed him.”

“Before she said that shit, I could tell he felt the same way.”

“Don’t matter if he felt it… she confirmed it for him, which made it worse.”

Me and Des remained in the car for a minute, watching him. “The fuck is he doing?”

Ezra had gone into a duffle bag and was putting blankets and shit on the dirt. His burial wasn’t that long ago, so there was still dirt everywhere and the grass hadn’t started to grow yet. His headstone hadn’t even been made.

Des hopped out the front seat and walked slowly over toward where Ezra was, fixing the blanket like he was tucking his brother in. I followed behind him with my hands tucked into my hoodie.

“Ezra, you alright?” Des spoke first.

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