Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0)(80)

I tear up. Man, I done turned into a crybaby. I need to get my shit together, for real.

I pick him up. “Hey, man. What you doing awake, huh?” I kiss his temple. “You waiting on Daddy?”

He play with the string on my hoodie. Can’t lie, I’m as scared as I was that first day I held him. Don’t know if that feeling gon’ ever go away. Forget the world; he should have the sun, the moon, and all the stars, and they wouldn’t be enough.

I’m definitely not. I’m a gangbanging, high school flunk-out who only seventeen. But you can bet that I’m gon’ do my best to be whatever he need.

I press my forehead against his. “Daddy almost messed up tonight. You saved me, man. You and your li’l brother—or sister. I thought of y’all and I couldn’t do it.”

Seven more into my hoodie string than anything I’m saying. Good. He shouldn’t know how close I came to failing him.

I kiss his eyebrows. “I won’t let you down. You got my word.”

I lay him back in his crib and turn on his mobile, so he can watch a moon and stars like the ones that should be his.

Damn, I’m tired. The adrenaline rush from earlier must’ve drained me. I untuck the Glock and the Ziploc bag from my waist, and I hide them in the shoebox in my closet. I throw myself onto my bed and close my eyes, but they quickly open again.

I gotta tell King what happened to his drugs.

The sun not fully out when King park in front of my house. I called him last night and asked him to meet me first thing this morning.

He gon’ be beyond pissed that I flushed his drugs. I doubt pissed even the right word. That had to be a couple grand’s worth of product. If this was anybody else but King, I might end up six feet deep. He probably gon’ beat my ass, homies or not.

Goddamn. I’ll have to pay him back, but I got no idea how the hell I can get that kinda money. I’m in deep shit.

I wipe my clammy hands on my shorts and close the front door behind me. Ma, Moe, and Seven asleep. There’s a damp spot on my tank top from where Seven drooled on me. He didn’t wanna stay in his crib last night, and I let him lay on my chest. It was the only way either of us was gonna fall asleep.

I hop in King’s Crown Vic and dap him up. “Thanks for coming over so early.”

“Fa’sho,” he says hoarsely. He must not’ve been woke long. “I need to be up and at it anyway.”

Pops used to get up before the sun rose. He’d say, “Fiends don’t sleep, and neither can I.” It’s wild how normal he made some stuff for me.

“So what’s up?” King asks. “You said it’s important.”

“Yeah. First I wanna return this to you.” I set the Glock in the cupholder. “I don’t need it anymore.”

King pick it up and examine it. “Did you use it?”

“Red didn’t do it,” I say.

“What? But you—”

“Drop it, King.” I look at him. “Red didn’t do it.”

Don’t get it twisted—I’m not doing this for that coward. Red gon’ get his one way or another, that’s how karma work.

“If you say so.” King set the gun on his leg. “I’m honestly glad you hit me up. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Word?”

“Yeah. I want us to take over the set’s drug operations.”

I do a double take. “What?”

“P-Nut don’t know what he doing, Mav. That’s fact. He running everything Shawn did into the ground. We can go to the supplier ourselves, tell him we can handle it better than P-Nut, then bam! We move the product and make the money.”

I stare at him for a long time. “You tryna be the crown?”

King shrug and lean back in his seat. “Whatever come with it, come with it. I got a baby on the way. I need to make major moves.”

“Dawg, this a death wish,” I say.

“I dare any of them to come after us.”

Us.

“Nah. Count me out,” I say.

“Aw, hell! C’mon, Mav! We can pull this off!” King says. “It would take a little time, but a year from now, we’d run the whole Garden just like our daddies. Li’l Zeke and Li’l Don, doing the damn thing.”

Yeah, and Big Zeke in a grave with his wife while Big Don in a prison.

I shake my head. “I’m done selling drugs. For good this time.”

King chuckles. “Here we go again. You talking big shit for somebody who got their second baby on the way. What you gon’ do for money? Work that sorry job for Mr. Wyatt?”

“I guess so. I’m sorry, but I gotta do it, dawg.”

“This not the Mav I know talking. My best friend down for whatever. Let me guess, your momma found out you were slinging. Or was it Mr. Wyatt’s old ass? Wait, nah.” He snap his finger and point at me. “It was Lisa, wasn’t it? That ho say jump, you say how high.”

“What the hell you call her?” I yell.

King bust out laughing. “Damn, you whipped!”

“I’ll show you whipped, keep talking!”

“A’ight, a’ight.” He put his hands up. “Chill, Li’l Don. Getting pissed over a female that don’t want you. You’ll be begging me to let you back in the game soon enough. Watch. I’ll take your stash for now.”