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dd woke up, reaching out instinctively to find a warm body next to him, but the bed was empty. He blinked his eyes open, squinting in the early morning light filtering through the blinds. He could hear movement from the other room, the faint sound of water running and cabinets opening. Karma must've been up for a while.
He dragged himself out of bed, rubbing his eyes as he headed toward the living room. Sure enough, there she was, fully dressed and ready, her hair pulled back neatly, and her face fresh and glowing. She was by the kitchen sink, rinsing out a cup.
"You been up?" he asked, his voice still heavy with sleep.
Karma turned to him with a small smile. "Yeah, been up since 7. It's a habit. My mom always makes me clean in the mornings."
He nodded, understanding. It was Sunday morning, which meant Karma would be heading to her dad's place soon. She mentioned she does it every week, and as much as he didn't like the idea of her being around her pops in that part of town, he wasn't about to make a big deal out of it.
"You need me to take you to your dad's place?" he offered, stretching his arms over his head.
Karma looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that'd be cool. Thanks, David."
"No problem," he mumbled, heading to the bathroom to get himself together.
By the time he was done showering and throwing on some clothes, ddot had pulled up and was chilling in the living room, with notti sprawled out on the couch, eyes glued to the TV. They were catching up on some show, but when dd came out and grabbed his keys, they knew what was up.
"Aye, we ridin' with you," ddot said, hopping up from the couch.
notti nodded, already heading out the door. "We tryna see what's good over there."
dd knew exactly what they meant. They saw this as an opportunity to scope out the YGz territory and maybe catch a glimpse of some of their ops. They'd been talking for a minute about proving they weren't just all talk, that they were really on that type of timing.
dd didn't say much, just gestured for them to get in the back seat while Karma slid into the passenger side. The drive was mostly quiet, the tension in the car thick as they got closer to the Bronx. dd could feel Karma glancing over at him every now and then, but he kept his eyes on the road, his mind running through all the possible scenarios.
Fifteen minutes later, they rolled up to River Park Towers, where Karma's dad stayed. The spot was active as always, with mad niggas outside smoking, chopping it up like they had all the time in the world. The air was heavy with the smell of weed and the low murmur of conversation.
dd recognized Karma's dad, Malik, posted up with a blunt in his hand, overseeing everything like the king of his little domain. dd knew who he was—a big name in this life, a co-founder of the whole operation. It made dd uneasy, thinking about the kind of shit Karma had to grow up around, but he kept that to himself.
