Page 87 of For the Love of City
I crossed my hands in front of me at the wrist with my head tilted, staring his ass down. The nerve of this nigga to lie on me to my face. He wouldn’t lift his head to face me. Just like a bitch.
“Oh, am I? First rule of snitching is that you don’t sign the paperwork with your actual name, dumb ass. You always have them give you an alias or a code name. They normally do that shit for your protection but it’s clear they ain’t give a fuck about you at all. That alias is to keep you safe during discovery so thatno one can confirm who’s the snitch. But you proudly put your John Hancock on some paperwork that could’ve had my people in trouble. But thankfully they had friends in high places that could keep the heat off of them.” Not a word could be heard as my voice echoed inside of the warehouse.
“Too bad the same couldn’t go for you huh, City? Guess you not so important either.” Jury just had to try to get under my skin but it didn’t bother me.
His words didn’t even prick the surface. A nigga like him who wasn’t man enough to confront some shit head on could never shake my self-importance.
“I’m a man about mine. The last thing I’ll do is throw someone under the bus for some shit I got caught up in. And since I’ve done plenty of wrong in this world having to sit down for some shit that I didn’t do ain’t really fuck with me. Especially not when that lawsuit money hit my account. I’m talking generational wealth kinda money. The kind that the state of Georgia gone spend a good long while having to recoup from. That dirty ass DA was trying to find you to warn you but I guess your Black ass was dodging her too. So, thanks for the bread, nigga.”
“Damn, every time you try to fuck this nigga’s life up you end up making him money. Are you his fairy godfather?” Yacouba was clowning like this was just a regular day shooting the shit and technically it was.
“So why all this animosity?” Jury truly looked as though I should’ve been happy with the way he’d been fucking with my life.
“Just cause that shit turned out for the good doesn’t mean you get a free pass. Yeah, we have all your shit. Lyric has all her masters and we own everything that was ever produced withStreet Laws. Even whack ass D-Mill. Your fuck up was our come up. But we was gone have bread no matter what.”
“I see you out here trying to be me. Have a label. Recruit talent and shit.” That shot was sent to Travis by Jury while his brother sat silently by with his swollen face, watching the type of shit that was going on.
Travis pointed to himself in surprise. “Me, copying you?” He pointed to Jury his voice filled withthis nigga can’t be serious.
“Yeah.”
Me and Travis looked at each other before we bust out laughing. I gathered myself enough to school this nigga one last time.
“Damn, you really are delusional as fuck ain’t you? Bruh, you been doing everything you could since I first met your ass to fit into these size seventeens. Let me clue you in, it ain’t finna work. You ain’t got the heart. You reached out to Lyric trying to be a mentor when you got me locked up but you couldn’t do that right cause your heart wasn’t pure. You saw her and took advantage. When she was doing her indie shit, you tried to get her on a bullshit deal but she was smarter than you even then. And when you couldn’t make it in the streets like me, you tried to take me out of them as though it would make your way clear. And you still failed. And now look at you, about to die, all because you couldn’t do the right thing and stick to the code.”
“It’s a dog eat dog world out here.” I don’t know why Judge thought to speak up just then but I’d put him in his place just like his snitch ass brother.
“Yep, and I’m a Great Dane while you’re a fucking teacup chihuahua.”
They were back to looking scared, the people beside me were laughing and I wanted this shit done. I paced in front of the laws while Trav stood with his arms folded. I knew he wanted to say something or do something, but I wasn’t going to let him. He’d pulled my weight when I was locked up so it was time I returned the favor he would never ask of me.
I turned back to our guests of honor, one having stayed notably silent, and smiled. “Jury, you want to tell your big brother why he here?”
“That shit ain’t gonna work with us. We family. Blood. Some shit that no matter how much you say it doesn’t make it true between you Lyric and this nigga.” He nodded again toward Travis like saying we were fake family was gonna hurt our feelings or some shit.
“You think this is just about Lyric? Damn, you really ain’t paying attention are you?” Travis cracked his head from side to side as he grinned smugly.
“What you mean?”
“I mean your little shitty rap that you put out full of lies was easy to dispute. Dumb ass that you had writing it didn’t even think how bad it made him look to claim the girl that he was swearing was an industry pass around. Then you had a bunch of niggas going to bat for her in the comments. To add insult to injury, she got two Grammys and went diamond off the album she made about y’all being shitty human beings. L handled herself the way she was supposed to. And I’m about to do the same shit.” My trigger finger was itching for more action and I saw Travis with his hand near his back like he was ready to go.
“You had D-Mill killed didn’t you?”
I had to laugh thinking about how that nigga’s death barely made the news. When the media couldn’t get traction on his death they immediately moved on to something more salacious.
“He had more enemies than me. A lot who don’t fuck with a nigga putting they hands on a woman. I wanted to get that nigga out and end his life in a hail of bullets but someone advised that would be too messy.”
“It would’ve been.” Smoke spoke up like he was annoyed with my even bringing that shit back up. He looked over at the people we were about to kill and said, “Not sorry for your loss.”
We all cracked up because this nigga was being dead ass serious in the most unserious way.
“But hanging that man wasn’t?”
“I wanted to shank him but that would’ve put the prison on lock down and caused me to be away from Sweets for an extended period. I did us both a favor. I mean you’ve met Jada. I wasn’t about to incur more of her wrath.”
Yacouba spoke up with a chuckle, “Smart man.”
“As it was she already cut the toes out of all of my left shoes and the crotch out of all my draws. And she melted down my favorite gun. Shit, I should’ve killed the nigga harder if I would’ve known that she was going to be that angry.” Smoke looked normal but the dip in his brow was the only sign that he was hurt.
