Still thicker than water (33 page)

“
You could go see her shortly. Parents first,” he instructed, shooting Mike a look, and then walking off.

Everyone took turns hugging Sasha, truly thrilled that Aubrey had pulled through and Tatum took out her cell phone, ready to fill Ree in on the good news.

“
I’m sorry Miss, no phone calls in here,” the receptionist informed her.

Tatum rolled her eyes lightly.

“
Okay y'all, excuse me for a minute. I’m going to call…,” She paused and looked at all of the watching eyes. “I’m going to make a phone call.” And then she headed down the corridor. She couldn’t wait to tell him.

Ree saw Tatum calling, but didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He was stunned into silence as he held the phone to his ear. For the first time since he could remember, he couldn’t think straight or rationally.

“
This is not even possible,” he finally managed to utter.

“
How do you figure that, Sean?” Trinity sniffed through the phone, and he could tell she was crying. “You’ve slept with me more than once. At one time, you even shared your bed with me.”

Ree sat on the hotel bed and stared blankly at the flickering fireplace. He couldn’t believe it. And to think, he wasn’t going to answer Trinity’s call, but after the tenth time, he decided against his better judgment.

He ran his left hand over his face in frustration as he held the phone with his right.

“
Trinity…I’ve always used protection with you. Always,” he reiterated. Ree was not stupid, he knew Trinity was the type of woman that would love to luck up and have his child. He never slipped with her.

“
Well, that’s why it's not one hundred percent Sean!” She screamed. “When you decide to sleep with someone, there is always a possibility!”

Ree closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. He knew she was right. But something about her voice, the venom in it. He just didn’t believe her. He contemplated on whether if it was the fact that he didn’t want to believe her.

“
Trinity, listen to me. If I find out you’re lying to me…if I find out this is a scheme or something…I’m going to…,” he paused, and changed the course of his words, not wanting to threaten the potential mother of his child, if she was in fact telling the truth. “It just…it just wouldn’t be a good idea for you to play around like that.”

There was a silence and he could tell she was taking in what he was saying, another sign that gave Ree a red flag. But she insisted.

“
Sean! I am pregnant…with your child! I’m sorry if this doesn’t fall into your little
fairytale
with your American project princess…but you are going to have to deal with it. And before you even ask it, suggest it, offer it, whatever. I will not terminate my pregnancy!”

It wasn’t a thought in Ree’s mind yet, to suggest that. But he already knew by her temperament that it was not happening. He wondered how Tatum would take the news.
Could she handle it?

“
Alright,” he finally simplified.

Trinity was taken aback by his cool demeanor.

“
Alright?” She asked, not able to mask her surprise.

“
Yup, alright… Let me know what you need.”

“
Really?” She asked, feeling like maybe she had a chance to come back into his life, and his heart.

“
Yeah,” he agreed. “And when the baby comes, we will do a blood test.”

Trinity’s heart sank. Well, first it shattered, and then sunk.

“
How…,” her voice cracked. “How could you even say that to me? There’s been no one else, Sean.”

“
Trinity,” he spoke softly. “It’s nothing personal. I just know... It’s for my own sanity.”

She cried.

“
Sean, I’m having your baby…how is that not personal?”

Ree sighed. He knew that if it was the small possibility that she was telling the truth, then he was handling the situation all wrong. He would have to be a man, and face up to his responsibilities. But in the end, there would be a blood test, and Trinity would not be able to escape it.

“
Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I’ll…I’ll be here. Just call me if you need anything.”

He disconnected the call and dropped his head into his hands and wondered how this had happened. Things like this didn’t happen to men like him. Careful, well-calculated, men like him.

He sat in that position for an hour and a half, deep in thought, until he heard Tatum unlocking the hotel door, breaking him out of his contemplation.

She walked in, looking radiant. Her skin glowing and her face lit up with happiness. He dreaded the fact that he was about to cut that happiness short.

“
Guess what, Ree?” She walked hurriedly over to the bed. “She’s fine! Aubrey’s fine…I seen her!” She beamed. He smiled through his deliberation.

“
That’s great baby.”

“
I tried to call you, did you see?” He didn’t answer.

“
Did you see me calling you, Ree?” She asked again.

He looked up at her, feeling a million emotions at once, a million emotions that he had never felt.

“
Tatum,” he spoke seriously. “We have to talk.”

She faced him with curiosity and he proceeded.

“
There’s something I have to tell you.”

“
I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Jayde admitted, making her way to the parking lot with E in tow. She had asked Bleek to get her Range Rover from the restaurant and meet them up at the hospital so that he could give them a ride home, being that Chauncey, Sasha, and Mike were staying at the hospital.

She was relieved that Aubrey would be okay, but was more than curious as to what had actually occurred.

Jayde had called Sasha' parents for her and left a message that everything was okay, a follow up to the message that she had left before saying that they needed to be on the first flight to Atlanta. Now that all seemed to be calm, her hunger was kicking in.

“
Yeah,” E said blandly. He was trying his best to give Jayde a chance, thinking that maybe working with a female was something that he just had to get used to. Lately he had been being really hard on her, especially since the pool incident. Anything that she had asked of him, he ignored. And he knew that was no way to treat someone on his team. He lightened up. “That food at the party was looking type good too,” he humored.

Jayde chuckled.

“
Yeah, I know. I should go back to
that
bitch and eat.”

They approached the truck and Bleek hopped out of the driver’s seat and threw his head into a nod at them.

“
What up Bleek?” E said in response as Jayde just smiled and watched Bleek climb into the backseat. Her mind traveled back to when she had mounted his face in her living room after he had protested, preaching about his girl and his baby. She wondered if they could have an encore tonight, he definitely had a killer tongue game.

E climbed into the passenger seat and Jayde changed the CD from the Tupac that Bleek was blasting, to her Mozart classical music.

“
Bleek, next time, don’t touch my shit.”

E raised an eyebrow to the classical symphony that serenaded them and turned and looked back at Bleek, who just shrugged. Bleek knew that eventually, E would realize how strange she really was.

“
Y'all wanna hit the waffle house?” She asked over the piercing violins.

It was close to 4 am, and with the exception of Bleek, neither of them had eaten anything.

“
That’s cool,” E said, looking out of the window as they cruised down Peachtree Dunwoody. It was dead, like a ghost town.

“
I can definitely eat,” Bleek agreed from the back, checking his phone messages.

Oh you definitely can,
Jayde thought and smirked through the rear-view. Bleek matched her eyes and knew what she was thinking. He was down, but only if he could go all the way. E was lost in his thoughts, oblivious to their secret signals.

As they approached a red light, a black tinted out Escalade pulled up beside them. E glanced at the vehicle but then faced forward.

He contemplated if maybe they should bring some food to the hospital for Sasha and Chauncey.

“
Yo J, you think we should-”

“
E duck!” Bleek shouted from the back, as bullets began to rip through Jayde’s Range Rover, turning the passenger side instantly into Swiss cheese.

“
What the fuck!” Jayde shouted, trying to drive off but noticing a car in front and one on her left side had them boxed in.
A set up.

E tried to crouch his large frame down, reaching in his waist for his nine as Bleek blazed shots back at the firing Escalade with his .45. The way the bullets were raining on them though, Bleek could tell they were working with Mac-11 machine guns, and he couldn’t match it.

“
Drive J, drive!” Bleek shouted, arm out and firing like a true soldier.

She dropped her seat all the way down and threw the car into reverse quickly, backing up and escaping the parade of shots. Bleek looked through the back window and guided her as she continued to floor the gas.

“
Alright, bust a U-turn! Bust a U-turn!” He yelled.

She sat up, when she knew she was a distance away from the other cars, quickly spun a U-turn, and raced down the opposite end of the street.

E stayed crouched down in the seat.

They looked back and didn’t see anyone following so they breathed a sigh of relief, and Jayde let up lightly off of the gas.

“
What the fuck was that!” Bleek screamed, adrenaline pumpkin. His baby face was full of rage and animation. “You think that was some of Father’s peoples that we didn’t lay down?”

Jayde shrugged and shook her head in disbelief, looking around, as Bleek contemplated. He thought him and E had laid everyone on Father’s side down, or got them to get down.

“
I don’t know what the fuck is going on…you alright?”

Bleek leaned back and nodded.

“
Yeah I’m cool.”

Jayde turned to E.

“
You alright, E?

She saw the light turning red, but quickly ran it; she would not be stopping at anymore lights.

“
E?” She repeated, but already knew what it was when she saw that he was still slouched in his seat.

He wasn’t crouched down, he was slumped. And now Jayde could see the blood pouring from his white button up.

“
Damn,” she whispered, dropping her head.

Bleek sat up in worry.

“
What…what you mean damn? Yo, E.”

Bleek leaned up to the front passenger seat.

“
E!”

But then he saw the same sight, and he closed his eyes in distress, his jaw tightened in anger.

In the short time that he had known him, Bleek had grown close to E.

“
Yo, we gotta take him to the hospital!”

Jayde continued to drive at her regular pace, her face filled with sadness.

“
J! We gotta get him to the fucking hospital! Floor it, yo!”

“
He’s gone, Bleek!” When she realized that she was shouting, she lowered her voice. “He’s…he’s gone.”

She could see E was as lifeless as a doorknob, so she reached over and placed her right hand over his face, closing his eyelids. Bleek buried his head in his hands as they drove through the Atlanta streets in the shot up Range Rover.

“
Rest in peace, E,” Jayde whispered.

“
I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“
Just say it baby,” Tatum urged. Ree was beginning to scare her. She was hoping that they weren’t in any kind of trouble. “Is everything okay?” Her voice dripped with alarm.

He took her hands into his and looked into her eyes. Then he took a deep breath, and…

“
Trinity says she’s pregnant.”

That was it. He could’ve punched her square in the nose and it would’ve felt better.

“
H-huh?” Tatum couldn’t find any air for anything.
Where did all of the air go? I can’t breathe.

“
I said…Trinity called me, she said-”

“
I
heard
you, Ree!”

Tatum jumped up off of the bed and Ree did too. He watched as her body trembled and as she placed her hands to her ears, as if that would prevent her from hearing anymore of what he had just told her.