Page 182 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

Shad is handing Set boxing gloves a few feet away. He never takes his eyes off me. Rage I’ve only seen a couple times drowns in those creepy ass gray eyes of his, and I’m torn between stating the obvious or picking at him more.

That nigga really called me a liar.

“No head shots, Set!” Nut calls out. The others clear the area, and I knock my knuckles together so that my gloves are on correctly.

“Fuck that,” Set spits. He stomps toward me. “And fuck you.”

I swing again, but he blocks it, sending a powerful haymaker into my side.

My fist collides with the side of his face. He blocks my knee, then grabs my legs and lifts me up before laying me out on my back.

The wind is knocked out of me. I sway from side to side, trying to catch my breath, before someone sits on me.

Set appears in my line of vision, eyes wild and red and glassy. His ungloved hands curve around my throat, and he squeezes hard, cutting off the little air I was getting.

“Lying ass nigga,” he grits, bearing his teeth. “The fuck you lying for? That shit ain’t fuckin’ happen! She ain’t touch you!”

Nut throws his arm around Set’s neck, but he’s not budging. These fucking gloves keep me from grabbing at his wrists.

This bitch ass nigga really gon’ kill me.

I try to tell him it did happen. That bitch did take advantage of me, and I wasn’t the only one.

But something in the way his eyes glaze over makes me think he knows I’m not the only one. And he knows firsthand how Tiny would wield the power Set himself helped her build.

Set’s nails scrape my skin off as Nut finally drags him off me. He pulls him all the way to the wall, pinning him there with his forearm as he heaves and struggles to get back to me.

My neck burns as I finally pull off these fuck ass gloves, and when I tap where his hands were, my fingertips come back stained with blood.

I should kill this nigga. Snow would see this and think I did some weird shit. The idea grows more and more when I tell the others to leave us alone. Set drops to the floor as Nut pulls a protesting Shad out of the room, since he was the only one who doesn’t listen.

His good hand covers his eyes, while his other arm rests on his knee.

I don’t think he’s crying though. And when I finally crawl over to this nigga, I see I’m right.

My breath is back. I can snap his neck and buy myself thirty seconds before my other niggas avenge him.

Instead, I just collapse next to him, on my stomach.

“I’ve lied to you about a lot of shit, but you gotta know I would never lie about that.”

“Is that why you been on bunk? ‘Cause of Tiny?”

My head lifts when his voice cracks. He won’t meet my gaze, closing his eyes instead and rubbing them with his fingers, almost stabbing into his lids.

“I’on know what I did. Racked my mind for months… I don’t really think about back then. I don’t try to. But for months I’ve been combing over every interaction we’ve ever had Dub. Every single one, going back to elementary school. Back when I followed you and Fred and Nut around the playground ‘cause I thought y’all was the coolest niggas. All the way up until this last time you went to Belize. How many skits have we ran? How many times, just me and you, we politicked about bullshit, played the game, shit, just chopped it up. I don’t get you, Rico. And I don’t get why you wouldn’t tell me if she pulled some shit like that on you.”

“And what the fuck was yo lil’ ass gon’ do if I told you the bitch who was raising you was fucking half the hood, including yo underaged crew?”

“Kill the bitch.”

Set finally meets my gaze, and like always, we both crack a smile at the same time.

He sighs, leaning his head back against the wall.

“Did she ever—”

“Nah,” he says quickly, shaking his head. “She tried though. Once. I was like eighteen, drunk as fuck, and I felt like she was touching me weird, so I pulled my shit and aimed right between her eyes. Told her if she ever touched me like that again I wouldn’t hesitate. Next morning, she blamed it on the alcohol, and I… let it go. I mean, I knew about Gee and shit, but fucking you at fifteen? Nah… she needed to die. I wish I killed her then.”