Page 21 of Delirium 2

He exhaled and ran his hand down his head. “Hell yeah. She on her way out this bitch tho’.”

“Mmph,” I said, coming out of my Jay’s. “Say you got that old thang back huh?”

“You know that bitch never left. She was in her feelings. Had to fuck some sense in her big ass head.”

“Who you talkin’ about, nigga? Ramani asked, wearing a frown. She eyed me up and down. “Hey X.”

I chucked my chin. “Mani. What’s good?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Definitely not that nigga,” she said, rolling her eyes at Kiss.

On her way to the door, Kiss grabbed her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. “Shut yo ass up. It’s a lot good about a nigga.”

“I can think of one thing and one thing only,” she mumbled.

I walked away.

Didn’t give a fuck about what he had going on. I was cordial with Mani and that was about it. I didn’t have a relationship with any of the women my brothers fucked with. Not because they ran through them like crazy but because I just didn’t give a fuck.

I walked into the kitchen and hit the refrigerator, knowing he’d have a couple of bottles of freshly squeezed juice. Kiss was like that. Serious about his health. He kept a refrigerator full of healthy, herbal shit. If I wanted a shot of fresh ginger or a turmeric shot or some wild healthy shit like that, I could hit his crib for the free.

I grabbed a green juice and closed the refrigerator seconds before he walked in, exhaling. “Swear to God if it wasn’t for the pussy on that bitch, I would have really cut her ass off.”

I snorted. “Pussy gon’ be the death of you niggas, I swear.”

I sat on the barstool, cracked the bottle open and took a sip of it. Frowning, I took it from my lips and looked at it. “Fuck is in this shit? Straight vegetables? All I taste is celery.”

“That’s what it is, nigga. Celery juice,” he said, standing at the opened refrigerator. Reaching towards the back, he grabbed another green juice and tossed it at me. “This one sweeter. Like the green one from Suja, without all the sugar.”

“Whatever the fuck that is,” I said, not knowing what the hell Suja was. I cracked the seal on the new one and took a sip of it. Much better. I downed it within a few seconds.

Kiss sat across from me on a barstool and cracked open a bottle that I could easily assume was carrot juice because of its color. “You watched the news?”

“Bright and early,” I said before burping. “Caught the seven o’clock joint.”

Kiss nodded. “Me too.” He mocked the news anchor. “Brutal killer at large!”

I laughed and shook my head. “She was shook.”

“Every last one of the muthafuckas in Everly shook, nigga.”

News about British and her brother came out this morning. Two bodies found dangling on light posts in Kingston Hills, MI last night. Mutilated. Everly County’s most gruesome crime scene yet. It’d been a few days since I did what I did. Would have had them out there raw the day after but… I put them on ice. Waited for the third of the month for a specific reason. I liked three’s, remember? That was how I handled dirty work. Every single time I had to do something I wasn’t particularly proud of and needed to deliver a message I waited for the third to make it as public as possible. It was a ritual. My stamp.

Muthafuckas in the hood speculated. They didn’t know what happened exactly, but a few people spotted shorty driving Jada’s whip around the hood then… a couple of days later, she’s found strung up on a light pole on her block, with her brother the same way, on the light pole next to her. Both lights purposely busted out. It was hush, of course but the murder… it had the Christ family written all over it. A message that was delivered plain and clear.

It was lights-out for whoever that went against the grain.

“Good,” I seriously said, my eyes shifted up, staring across the island at him.

He shook his head, finished his drink and tossed it across the room to the trashcan. “What we on?”

“Need to go to the D in a couple weeks,” I said.

“Something off?”

“Nope. Everything is legit, for real.” I cleared my throat. “Got a feeling tho’. Just need to go put eyes on shit. Feel me?”

He nodded. “Felt. What day? Gotta make sure it ain’t overlapping with shit.”