What Da Lick Read? The Triple Cross (28 page)

“Damn that was some player shit right there, and nobody knew. I mean everybody knew that
Sillk
was lonely after Emma Sue died. They had been together bout fifty years. I used to always mention to him that he needed to go and get him a young girl and he would just laugh. I guess the joke was on me cause he already had one put up. So are the kids
Sillk’s
?” Khalil was amazed that
Sillk
had lived a double life and no one knew it, but Ponchees.

“The little boy is
Sillk’s
, but the little girl is her
neice
. She sent for her sister right after
Sillk
died and her sister came over here and she got pregnant by some young knucklehead. She ended up dying in child birth and so
Jazmeir
kept the baby and she’s raising it as her own.” Ponchees quieted down when Sam walked back into the room.

“Okay, sorry about that. How are you guys doing today?”

Sam sat down at her desk and she could tell that they had stopped talking when she approached. She had gone out to her Bentley coupe, one of her many gifts from Ponchees and got her overnight bag out of the trunk. Sam changed clothes, washed her face again, brushed her teeth and applied a coat of lip gloss. She combed her shoulder length wrap up into a ponytail and she felt refreshed. She could not let Ponchees know that he had her down bad.

Khalil smiled to himself as he noticed the change in the young lady’s disposition when she sat down at the desk. He had to admit to himself, that if he was in Ponchees position he would have done the same exact thing. Sam was bad.

Ponchees leaned over on her desk and looked her in her eyes.

“So tell me what’s been going on? You are supposed to be my eyes and ears here in Atlanta, no one else should tell me anything before you do. If you can’t do what you are supposed to be doing. You can come back to Mexico with me and I will find someone else to do it. I have entirely too much money coming in and out this city without someone overseeing everybody that is involved in my operation.”

“We are going to talk business, strictly business. There’s a time and a place for everything and now is not the time. We will be discussing nothing but business. We have a guest. The business at hand is Poke was posing a big problem. I found out that he was responsible for robbing your daughter’s spot and he may have been responsible for your son’s car accident. He was working with someone else though, because the day after the robbery when the house got shot up, Poke was sitting inside of Gigi’s club with a stripper, so there is someone else. We need to find out who he is working for, because I have a feeling that whoever is calling the shots is probably the one who set his house on fire last night. I have some cameras installed on the street light facing his house, but I can’t bring up the footage. When I do, I will be able to see who was at his house last night.”

Sam directed her focus and her conversation to Khalil, but she felt Ponchees’ eyes boring into her. His presence alone gave her butterflies. She couldn’t understand how a man almost thirty years older than her could have that type of effect on her.

Ponchees sat in his chair and loosened his tie. He didn’t take his eyes off of her. He had taught her well. She put her emotions to the side quickly and focused on Khalil. He knew that as soon as Khalil was gone that she was going to give Ponchees an earful. One thing that he could say was that she didn’t bite her tongue. Sam always told him everything that was on her mind. That is one of the main reasons why he had so much love for her.

“Poke is out of the picture and the information that you provided was good. But this shit has me at the point of no return. Whoever the fuck is behind this had my daughter’s truck blown up this morning. To see the pain in her eyes because she feels like she is the target has me ready to get in beast mode.” Khalil looked down at his phone as it rang and interrupted him. It was Loyalty.

“Excuse for a minute, let me take this call.” He got up from his chair and walked out of the office.

Rafek
came back into the warehouse. He had noticed the Escalade outside and knew that Ponchees was on the inside. He saw Khalil standing on the outside of the office with his cell phone to his ear. He was loaded down with two bags of take out from Thumbs Up Diner. He knocked on the door before entering the office. He put the bags of food on the round table in the corner and was about to exit because he could sense that he was interrupting something. The tension in the air was thick.

“Wait a minute have a seat. We never got to discuss what happened last night when I sent you over to Poke’s place.” Sam stressed every word in her sentence to make sure that Ponchees knew that she was doing her job.

Rafek
pulled up another chair and sat down close to the desk. He faced Ponchees; his heart was beating out of his chest. He had only heard about this man before, so to finally be in his presence was remarkable to him. “Sir I went over there as Sam had instructed. I was prepared to bring him to her. When I was driving up the street I noticed three cars in the driveway. The last car was a black Porsche
Panamera
with tinted windows. I saw a young lady come from behind the house and open the trunk of the Porsche and put something in it. She then got in the car and went in the opposite direction toward Hollywood Road. As I came back down the street I seen flames so I kept going and then as I looked in my rear view mirror I heard an explosion.”

 
Khalil walked back into the office and sat down.

“Well that was some good news, I guess. Loyalty said that Killian has woken up, so I need to be headed down there.”

“Wait a minute before you leave, listen to this. He went by Poke’s house to get him to bring him to Sam last night, he seen something.” Ponchees said not breaking his stare at
Rafek
.

“No wait a minute! Tell it just like you told me, including the part about who was in the Porsche.” Sam wanted to have all her bases covered. She could not take the fall for nobody else’s lapses of judgment.

Rafek
nervously repeated the story, but this time he included the fact that it was Gorgeous that was getting in the Porsche.

“There is no way that is possible. Gigi was right there beside me at the hospital all last night.” Khalil interrupted in a roar. Then he suddenly looked at Ponchees and the both of them said it at the same time.

“Beautiful.”

Ponchees, jumped out of his seat.

“Well I’ll be damned! Let’s get over to the hospital right now.”

Loyalty sat beside Killian’s bed and looked down at him. He seemed to be sleeping so peacefully. He had just awakened fifteen minutes ago for the first time since the accident. The first and only thing that he seemed to be worried about was Leigh. Loyalty immediately called her father to let him know that he had woke up after she notified the nurse. Two doctors rushed in accompanied by a nurse. They checked his vitals and adjusted his medication drip then left back out. They told him that they would return once his father arrived. Killian looked up at Loyalty and he could barely speak for the tube down his throat. He tried to speak in spite of it. She struggled to make out what he was saying. He asked her two questions, why am I here? And where is Leigh? Loyalty looked down at her brother and tried to hold back the tears as she told him that there was a car accident. She got quiet because she didn’t want to tell him about Leigh. He asked her again and she told him that she is here. He drifted back off to sleep.

So many tragic things had happened in their lives in such a short period of time. She glanced at her cell phone that she was holding. She still had not received a call from K.J. yet. As she looked at her brother who in an instant had lost the love of his life and his leg, she rubbed her flat stomach and thought about her life and what she was going to do. Loyalty scooted to the edge of her seat and reached out and grabbed her brother’s hand. They were always the closest out of the four of them. They were the same age and despite having different mothers, they both looked just alike.

“I hope you can make it through this and not give up on life, because I know you. This is either going to kill you or make you a beast and I don’t want either. I just want you to be back to your normal self. I wish I could rewind back the hands of time; we need to do this entire month over. This shit has been too crazy. I should be grateful for my health and strength and have my worry focused on helping you get better, but I can’t focus.
Killa
, what am I going to do? K.J. will not talk to me. They got my face and name all over all of the blogs, badmouthing me like I’m some two dollar hooker and to top it all off, I’m pregnant. What in the world am I going to do? What have I gotten myself into?”

Tears poured down her face as she poured her heart out to her brother, not knowing her father was standing in the door listening to everything. She laid her head against the bed rail and dozed off to sleep.

Khalil shook his head as he listened to his daughter.
When it rains, it storms
. Loyalty and Killian were set to graduate later this year with their bachelor degrees, now he has lost a leg and she is pregnant. He turned and walked away from the room. He went to go and check on Gigi, Honesty and Concrete. Khalil knew that he had done a lot of wrong over the years. He killed people for money and sold poison in his own community for, goodness sake. His worst fear was that he would be taken away from his kids, either by someone killing him or him going to jail. He never in a million years would have thought that after he had gotten out of the game, that his family would be faced with so much turmoil. But he could do nothing but hold his head up high, and know that it was a part of the game. That bitch karma didn’t play and when she swoops down on you, there is nothing that you can do about it.

Ponchees, Sam and Fire were standing at the emergency room desk trying to figure out what they had done with Gigi, Honesty and Concrete when the ambulance brought them in. The security guard was giving them a hard time. Ponchees cleared his throat, his jaw was clenched tight and his temple was jumping. He was trying to maintain his temper. He muttered something in Spanish under his breath and Fire turned and walked out of the sliding glass doors. Sam knew this only meant trouble. She stepped forward and leaned over the desk, her plunging neckline on her shirt showed her cleavage.

"Excuse me; I'm sorry for any misunderstanding or confusion that we've caused by bursting in here in such an uproar. Please sir put yourself in our shoes. If your loved ones had come in here after an explosion you wouldn't be able to calm your emotions either."

The security guard's facial expression softened. He started pecking on the computer keyboard.

"Ma’am the two females are in observation rooms in the back. I cannot see in the system where the young man is. A nurse will be back shortly. If you can take a seat, I will make sure that she addresses your needs as soon she returns."

Sam was pleased with what he told her, she smiled as she put her arm through Ponchees arm and led him to the chairs.

"See baby you catch more bees with honey. Calm down, I see fire coming out of your ears."

__________

Reality sat at the table with the two laptops in front of her. She had tapped into the Georgia DOT's database and she was looking at recorded footage of the accident. She paused it and zoomed in. She then rewound the footage and watched it in slow motion.

D.J. walked into the room quietly. He was trying to do his best to keep her calm. He had just come from his prayer room offering prayer for her and her family. He watched her with her brows furrowed as she stared at the screen on the laptop. He went over to where she was sitting; he leaned down and massaged her shoulders. D.J. felt the tension in her shoulders.

She looked up at him, "Baby watch this right here." Reality made the footage start from when
Killa's
car first came down the onramp.

D.J. watched as the accident unfolded before his eyes in slow motion. He gasped as he saw the car make impact with the passenger side and bounce the car back into oncoming traffic. A few seconds passed before another car slammed into the driver's side. It was amazing that
Killa
even survived the accident. He reached down and grabbed Reality's face. Her mascara was running along with the tears that streaked her face. He wiped them away and kissed her deeply.

"Baby don't do this to yourself. If you keep watching this you are going to wind up sick."

"But baby, tell me what you just saw as you watched the accident happen. I want make sure that I am not seeing things. Look at it just once more." Reality hit a few buttons on the Mac keyboard and the video replayed in slow motion.