45th Street

Bishops POV - War

     I jetted out the crib when Nook came to the door telling me our product was stolen and a dozen of our men were shot. Just when I got in the whip, Nook showed me a picture of one of our men, faced down with letters carved in his back, "SD".
   I'm sitting in my car with Nook, Juice, Blizz, and Zaric, right on South Disciple territory. The car lights are off while we sit a couple of feet away from their pad. Juice is looking at the picture of our men, "This is fucked up B." he says turning the phone off. That was DeVantae's revenge for the shoot out I called on their block after he came in my condo. I knew that nigga was plotting, he was too quiet.
   "Man let's go cap these niggas, quick, and fast." Blizz says, he's ready, holding his gun. I turn the car off and grab my Uzi, check the clip, it's full.
   Juice, Bliz, Nook, and Zaric all step out of the car when I do. I put my mask on with my hoodie.
   We roll up to their pad and Juice blasts a nigga on the porch, we rush in and shoot any nigga in our way.
   I'm looking for DeVantae's ass. I check every room, I then motion my smoking gun towards a door behind me for Juice to get it. I check the one in front of me, it's empty.
   "Yo we gotta bounce five niggas against the Disciple's we need back up." Nook says breathing heavy.
   "Fuck!" I yell running out of the house, mothafucka' got away.
   "That's not him, his car isn't parked anywhere." Nook says on the side of me, he's right, that mothafucka' takes that same Cadillac everywhere he fucking goes. I then realise, if they found where one of our shipments were, killed our men, they can find my condo, and that's easy because I own the building.
    Shal. I unlock the car and get in with the phone to my ear to call Eshal. No answer, I pull off fast, she's probably asleep. It's like five AM.
   "What's up man?" Nook asks, he can see I'm worried.
   "Shal man, she's not answering." I say.
   "Check the cameras." Nook says, he's right, I have cameras in the living room which is close to the front door. I'm positive she didn't leave the house, she's not a deep sleeper though, she would've answered my phone call. I go to my phone and check the cameras, it shows motion around four o'clock. I click the motion and it shows Eshal moving from the couch to the room, she comes out with a gun then she stands by the front door.
   Three masked niggas with guns comes in, my leg starts to shake and my heart pounds as I watch a nigga point a gun to Eshal. He then pistol whips her with that big ass gun, that big ass gun for a little woman. A strong woman though.
   They hold her to the nigga and she spits in his face. How the fuck did they get past security?  I hand Nook the phone, 
   "If those niggas still in the building I'm going to be the one to kill them! On my daddy!" I say smashing my foot on the gas pedal.
                                      ____
   I open the door to the condo to see Eshal laying on the floor, she's bleeding a little from her head. She lays there, looking lifeless. I run to her fast as hell and get on my knees, I sit her in my lap.
   "Baby, baby talk to me." I say touching her face. Her eyes are closed but I see them twitch a little. I pick her up and carry her to the couch, Nook stands there. Juice, Blizz, and Zaric put their guns down. Nook then puts his hands on top of his head, "Fuck." I hear him say.
   I ended up getting Shal to the hospital, she's going to be okay, she's got a bunch of bruises on her stomach and face area.
   Whoever did this shit to my baby will pay for it, I want to torture that nigga before I kill him. Her beautiful face all bruised up makes my blood boil. Any Disciple I see walking, I don't give a fuck where it is I'm killing the nigga. This is about to be a bloody war.
   Most importantly I'm waiting for her to wake up. I haven't slept or eaten, I've been in the hospital with her since this morning and it's now night time.
   She hasn't woken up, I'm sitting in this cold ass hospital chair, Zaric is here, Femi, Chantelle, and Nook. Femi is sitting on the edge of Shal holding her hand, Nook is sitting on the floor on his phone, Zaric is in the corner, drinking water, shit surprised me he don't got a bottle.
   Chantelle is sitting by Femi rubbing Shal's leg as they look at her. Femi is the only one crying. Zaric shakes his head and glances at me.
   "Y'all hungry? I can go get us something to eat." Nook insists as he gets up, Zaric walks towards him, "I'll go with you, hospitals ain't for me." Zaric adds, shit he ain't lying. Both these niggas get awkward when shit like this happens. They don't know how to take it. Let alone deal with a crying woman. As much as I'm the same, I'm not leaving Eshal's side, she's fighting because of me and I want to be the first person she sees when she wakes up.
   Femi shakes her head no, Nook gives her a kiss on the forehead.
   "I'll text you what I want." Chantelle says to Z, I say nothing. Two knocks come from the door, I'm hoping it's a doctor but two niggas step in. Who the fuck are they? I pull out my strap from my tail and so does Nook and Z, Z lifts his shirt up and takes his glock from his pants and cocks it, he's ready. One of the niggas pull out a strap, the fuck?
   "Who the fuck are y'all?" Z asks pissed. Femi gets up fast as hell and gets in between them.
   "Stop, they're with us." Femi says looking around at all of us. I put my strap up, so this is the famous Lennox and Talik, the nigga that fucked her over for Latasha's lame ass. I remember when she told me that over dinner at the French spot.
   Nook looks at me for reassurance before putting his gun away, Z is still pointing his.
   "Lennox put it away!" Femi demands the nigga pointing the gun at Zaric. He puts his gun down and so does Z.
   "This some bullshit." Talik says lifting the corner of his mouth.
   "What nigga?" Zaric asks, giving him the same energy. Nook and Z walk past the two of them, sizing them up, they size them back up before they are out of the room. Lennox puts his strap back in his pants. I've seen this nigga before, around the pad. He's a Hoover.
   "Chill Lennox, you know what happened to Eshal, they were taking the proper precautions." Femi says calming everything down. Talik walks over to Eshal and looks at her. Lennox stands at the end of the bed. I watch this nigga Talik.
   "Sunshine." he says under his breath, that nickname he made for her, she is Sunshine. She can light up any room with those eyes and that smile. Shal's eyelids twitch, I walk up to her, Femi squeezes her hand.
   "Come on ShalShal, wake up." Femi says, about thirteen seconds pass by and she doesn't open her eyes.
   The door opens and it's Shal's mother, when she sees me she drops her purse and runs towards me fast as hell. She then slaps me across my face.
   "You did this, you did this!" she repeats hitting me on my chest as she cries, I grab her arms for her to stop and she doesn't.
   "It wasn't me." I repeat, I then squeeze her arms and hold them, she calms down, "It wasn't me." I repeat. I don't know what to do with crying women, I've never dealt with it before. So I hold her close.
   "I'm sorry." I say, she deserves it. She cries in my chest before Femi comes over and grabs her. I nod my head at her, my way of saying thank you.
   I walked out of the room, for the first time since I've been here. Chantelle steps out too and stands on the side of me, I glance at her. I look at her necklace, C. Then at mines, B. Zaric has a Z and Nook has an N. They all are the same, diamonds from the neck to the front to the letters. It's our click thang, Shal is now a part of it.
   "She's going to be okay." Chantelle says rubbing my shoulder.
   "I wouldn't blame her if she left, shit she's only been staying at my crib for a day and some bitch ass niggas want to punch on her, I wouldn't blame her Chan," I say looking away I feel ashamed, "I wouldn't blame her Mother for doing what she did a minute ago." I add, it's the truth.
   As selfish as it may sound, I wouldn't want her to leave. I need her, she makes me happy.
   "I barely know Shal but she's cool as hell, out of all the other bitches you fucked with like Ciara, that bitch is clueless, Shal got heart, she spit iron in that niggas face after he knocked her down, that's fearless." Chantelle says getting in my face, I've known her for years and I know not to fuck with her when shes trying to get her point across. I look away and she follows my eyes.
   "What? You know I'm right? Man, just come back inside." Chantelle says annoyed walking back in the room, I take a deep breath before following her. I go into the room and Shal's Mother looks at me.
   "Let me talk to you." She says getting up, aw shit. I walk back out with her. She stands in front of me and looks me up and down.
   "I see Shal's Daddy in you, and of course I see me in Shal so I know why she's with you, she cares about you. I have to accept that, but If y'all continue to be together after all of this is over, I hope you protect her better than you did when all of this happened." Her Ma looks me in my eyes, she looks just like Shal, I want to hug her.
   She's as beautiful as Eshal and man they are Americas top model type beautiful. She's right though, I have to be more mindful if I'm with Shal. I should've had security at the door before I left. I knew what was up. I'm used to being alone so that didn't come to my head.
   "I promise you Mrs.Brown, I will. I'm sorry for all of this, I truly am." I explain to her, I grab her hand. She looks down at my hands and squeezes it, she begins to cry.
   "You even act like him." She chuckles as she cries, "Don't just protect my daughter son, protect yourself." she adds. I feel a hint of motherly love when she says that.
   "I'll die for your daughter." I say looking her in the eyes, I will die for Eshal, no matter what the causes. I feel like I've known her forever, like we lived in the past life.
   "Survive for her." Mrs.Brown adds, she then walks back into the room. I do need to survive for Shal, she needs me as much as I need her.
   When I walk back into the room, this Talik nigga keeps eyeballing me. The fuck is his problem? We all sit there in silence with Eshal, her mother holds her hand, and Femi has fallen asleep. Zaric and Nook come in just thirty minutes later with food.
   "Has she woken yet?" Zaric asks sipping from his cup, I wouldn't be surprised if he spiked it.
   "Hello Miss, I'm Bishop and Shal's friend, Neikel." Nook says, shaking her hand, she shakes his hand and slightly smiles. That's the first time I've heard him introduce himself with his real name in a long time. Femi looks down and smiles a little, I'm assuming she didn't know.
   "Zaric." Z goes over and does the same. Zaric hands Chantelle her food, then Nook hands Femi hers, then he hands me mine. Me or Femi didn't ask for food, I sit mine on my lap and Femi opens hers, she then hands it to Nook and whispers something in his ear. Chantelle and Zaric are already eating. Eshal's mother steps out of the room, Femi follows her.
   "Yo is there a fucking problem?" Zaric snaps at Talik, that's the thing about this blunt ass nigga, when he doesn't like the way something is whether a mothafucka' look at him wrong, breathe wrong, or approch him wrong, he's gonna shut that shit down. No exceptions.
   "I don't know nigga is there?" Talik gets up, Nook looks up at them while he eats.
   "The fuck is you sizing us up for, shit we got here before y'all niggas did, but y'all her day one's right." Zaric scoffs.
   "Chill Z." I try not to laugh, it's not funny but at the same time it is funny. It's the way this nigga acts son.
   "Sit the fuck down, both of y'all it's not the time for that bullshi-" Lennnox says until Femi cuts him off when she walks in, she looks at Eshal and rushes towards her,
   "Shush shush she's waking up." Femi says, we all go over to Eshal, she then opens her eyes. She looks confused, then shocked.