Page 64 of Tainted
“I’m on it,” Nolan agreed, disappearing while Kross and I dipped outside.
The cool night air hit the back of my neck as I strolled towards Nolan’s ride. I opened the door and leaned in, grabbing the takeout bag from the passenger seat.
“Now my shit is fuckin’ cold.” I seethed, glancing at the clock on the dashboard.
“Somebody opened their mouth,” Kross declared. He had more experience than I did, but I’d even considered that idea.
“Miyan?”
Kross ran his hand across his low cut, likely thinking what Pops would do in this situation.
“I don’t know, but nobody is safe until we figure it out.”
“My gut says it wasn’t him.”
A line etched between Kross’s brows. “Your gut?” then he chuckled.
“Yeah, nigga.”
“First, you didn’t want any parts of this. Now we’re trusting your gut?”
“Fuck you nigga. I don’t see yours offering up any solutions.”
“Your first response isn’t always the right response. You still got shit to learn, grasshopper.”
“Teach me something then,Boss,” I challenged.
Nolan pushed through the door, looking more irritated than he had been when we walked in.
“We have another problem,” Nolan announced.
“Goddamn, is it a full moon tonight or what?” I asked, craning my neck at the sky.
“Route 66 got shot up tonight.”
Route 66 was a staple in Northbridge. A few hours ago, I ran into Zara and her girls there.
“Why would anybody fuck with Route 66?” Kross’s question was rhetorical, but Nolan and I knew why. It was no coincidence that I embarrassed Makori a few hours ago, and now it was decorated with bullet holes.
“What do you wanna do about it?” Nolan asked.
Kross’s expression switched from sympathy to irritation, asking, “What did you do?”
Nolan leaned against the side of his car, passing the invisible baton to me. He knew why, but it wasn’t his place, so he wouldn’t say shit if I didn’t.
“Now both of you nigga’s are mute. What the fuck happened?” Kross ranted.
“I got into it with Makori.”
“Makori?” Kross’s face twisted in confusion. On a typical day, we didn’t have shit in common outside of living in the samecity. Makori ran a completely different hustle, so there was no stepping on each other's toes.
Until he disrespected Zara.
“We ran into him, grabbing something to eat. He disrespected one of the girls from the club, so I checked him.”
Kross looked to Nolan as if my version of the story wasn’t sufficient. Nolan didn’t give away anything. We had been friends since high school, too, so he was used to us arguing.
“One of the girls,” Kross turned and shook his head, mirroring the same mannerisms as Eric when he was pissed. “Nova.”