Chapter Five: Times like these

It was now going on four in the afternoon and I was still waiting on the arrival of Dex and the rest of the guys. I found myself doing minor housework, just to kill some time. After placing more dog food in ice's bowl, I made sure to restock the fridge with water and juices. I watched as Ava sat around the small Minnie Mouse table while she watched videos on her iPad. Minutes later the doorbell rung, catching my attention. I opened the door to see Dex, Jigs, Travis and Becky standing on the other side. “You gon let us in nigga?" Jigs asked frowning his eyebrows.

"Shut yo' dumbass up." I joked moving to the side, letting them all in. “Titi Becky!" Ava squealed, noticing her god mother's presence. It was no secret that Ava and Becky had a tight bond. After everything that went down, Becky always checked on Ava. She would even fly out here occasionally to see her, bring her presents and smoother her with love. I respect her on a different level for that. “Give your uncle some lovin'." Jigs spoke looking over at Ava as she finally let Becky go. She ran and jumped right into his open arms, giving him a hug. Ava was familiar with everyone, she had a different relationship with each of them.

Becky is her comfort zone, Jigs is the nigga to never tell her no, Dex is her favorite uncle, according to her because he is her god father, and Travis is the one always slipping her a piece of candy. “This house looking nicer than a mother fucker." Travis dapped me up as he admired my nicely set up house. Shockingly, this was all my doing, no Lizzie. It wasn't easy picking out furniture to go into a home, but slowly but surely I found a lot of things that would complement the huge house. “Good looking.” I nodded. “We should get down to it." Dex spoke looking over at me.

"You know it." I assured him, leading the way to the den which was basically my man cave. You just could never go wrong without having your own space. This house has nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Shit is crazy, but this was how I wanted my family to live.

“What's da' word?" My voice questioned as Jigs shut the door behind him. “Where do I start?" Dex said rolling up the weed that was in a zip lock baggie. "You know the streets fuck wit' me." He stated.

“I got word that Chad fosho got yo' lady in his possession. I also got word that, dat nigga paid some doctors back at the hospital to pronounce her dead." He spoke, laying it all on me.

My jaw clenched together tightly as I sat in the leather recliner. Chad was really out here doing foul shit over his sister, who was a serious nut case. “Where they at?" I asked, keeping my anger inside. “Check this, bruh." Jigs spoke, pulling out a long white sheet of paper from the duffel bag he was carrying. Looking down at the paper, I soon realized it was the map out of some unknown place. “We was able to get eyes." Dex said lighting up the blunt. "This map is showing you the whole set up of this nigga so called operation." This is ridiculous. “So, you mean to tell me this nigga shot my wife on our fucking wedding day, paid the hospital staff to say she was dead and now he got her captive somewhere?" I questioned, raising my voice.

"New Bern to be exact, but yea bruh." Jigs shook his head looking down at the map. “What the fuck that nigga doing in New Bern?" I questioned, scrunching up my face. New Bern is one of the few areas in North Carolina you ain't wanna visit. I know because Jigs is all too familiar with North Carolina. He got family out there and he hold a lot of weight. I was just really confused as to why Chad would be out there. As far as I know, he only has ties out in Georgia. "We don't know, but I know we finna find out." Dex grinned. “We already got a plan set in motion too." Jigs rubbed his hands together, smirking. I swear his ass won't ever stop being trigger happy.

"Oh yeah, what’s that?” Placing the blunt to my mouth, I took a few long pulls as I listened to the guys share the fully thought out plan. It’s smart, clever. Chad bitch ass wouldn't see it coming and since we would have inside intel, that was a big bonus on our end. I just needed everything to go smooth so I can get my wife out dat' bitch, only god knows what that nigga putting her through. I swear if she tell me that nigga put hands on her, it's a wrap. On my mama, ain't no nigga gonna touch what's mine and not reap what the fuck his ass sew. “Well, it's enough space for everybody to crash here.” I stated after the conversation died down. "But, y'all know we gotta be on our shit with this nigga."

"Nigga, we know!" Travis exclaimed. "It's a fully thought out plan, and that shit gon work. Now let's order some food cus a nigga hungry." I laughed, “Aye, look bruh, you know how we do shit. We brothers. We gon ride this shit out and get yo lady back home in no time." Dex spoke, patting me on the shoulder as they began leaving the room. I was left alone in the room a few seconds later. Chad was playing with fire, him of all people should know if you fight fire with fire, it's only gon' get bigga'.

    You and I will always be unfinished business