Page 196 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

“I can’t leave him!” he cries. “I can’t leave him like this!”

“G, you not dying by cop, bro. LET’S GO!” Strength I didn’t know I had helps me pull this nigga into the hallway, to the utility closet. I close the door just as police and EMTs storm the center, but we’re already halfway into the secret passageway that leads us into Tower Two.

As soon as we’re in the clear, I fist this nigga’s hoodie with both hands and slam him into the wall three times. “What the fuck was you thinking, Guiliano?! At a fuckin’ press conference?! I should snap yo fuckin’ neck for playin’ with me! Killing yo brother ain’t shit compared to how I’m finna make you feel.”

He doesn’t fight back at all. No matter how many times my fists land onto his face. He head just snaps back, and tears by the boatload begin to mix in with the blood coming from his nose and mouth.

I take a step back, and he slides all the way to the floor without my support.

“Do it,” he says, spitting blood on the floor. “Kill me. I can’t live without Gio.”

His gloved hand jerkily wipes his face as he openly wails.

My feet back me up to the opposite wall. Lungs seizing up, just like my throat. I can barely get air through. My head feels funny, and soon I’m sinking to the floor, too, unable to stop watching G break down in his hands.

Four shots to the chest. Slime would have to have some serious angels to keep him here. He’d have taken his last breath, right before G lifted his gun and made the cops shoot him, too. Them niggas ain’t even twins, but I know they can’t live without each other. Everyone ain’t as strong as me.

But coming at me like that, G deserves to at least have a few days with it, before he finds another way to die. I quiet down the rest of my thoughts, shutting down my mind though my body is still being weird.

I’m glued to the ground. My eyes are glued to G. A couple people walk past us. They glance at us, before quickening their steps. A paramedic siren gets quieter and quieter, before turning off completely.

When G lays on his side, I finally muster up enough strength to get to my feet. Without another word, I walk away.

It’s well into the night by the time I’m released from the police station. Most of the time was spent waiting it out. Once Roe came in, he had me released in thirty minutes, since I actually didn’t do shit. We opted to go through the back, and promptly at two oh one, I was walking through Snow’s apartment, the adrenaline leaking through my body with each step.

She was asleep when I came in, but now that I’m showered and changed, she’s sitting up in her bed, watching me.

“The only reason I wasn’t down there acting a fool was because your lawyer called and told me he’d handle it. Since when do you have Rowan Wyatt on retainer?”

I shrug, collapsing onto her soft ass bed. “Roe’s the homie.”

I turn on my phone, but the amount of notifications I have are too overwhelming, so I power the shit back off, slide it off the bed, and crawl towards my woman.

She accepts me with open arms. Every time she does, I’m still surprised. Surprised we made it here, that I can even hold her and feel her heart beat steady against my ear.

“Patience says he’s alive,” she says, her finger tracing the shall of my ear. “He was alive when they brought him in. Been in surgery all day and night, but he’s alive.”

I hum, holding her tighter to me. “It was G.”

“His brother?!” she asks, horror evident in her voice.

I hum in agreement. My lungs begin to seize again, as my morning replays over and over in my head.

“Take your time,” Snow says, perfect as ever. The tension in my shoulders releases, just a little, but enough to know I can go on.

“I, uh, always knew there was a chance me and Fred would have to live without each other. But… him dying alone, it eats at me. Ate at me. I never thought either of us would go out alone. We wasn’t born alone. I hated that for him, Snow. That he was reduced to nothing. I wished for a long time that, if he was meant to die as early as he did, that maybe, I could have been there with him, at the very least. He wouldn’t have had to die alone.” My eyes begin to sting from not blinking, but I still hold my eyes open, and try to will the scenes from earlier to stop.

“But you’ve changed your mind?”

My nose begins to run, but I can’t unwind my arms from Snow to wipe it. The only thing I can do is try to keep the tears in my nose as I nod my head on the side of her chest.

“G was aiming for me.”

She tenses, but because my woman is perfect, she holds her tongue, even as I feel the questions mounting in her head.

“I didn’t even think I could snatch Slime as fast as I did. He took four to the chest. I felt each bullet. I thought I got hit, too, but none of the bullets had an exit point. Slime was dying, Snow. And G… he wanted to die with him. He was ready to shoot himself or aim at twelve. I pulled him away, and got us out… I ain’t ever seen a grown man cry like that before.”

“Why did you take him away?” she whispers.