Page 80 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

“The fuck kind of name is NiNi?” Stone asks. Reem palms his face, while Turk and Nut snicker.

NiNi runs his tongue over the top row of his teeth as he sizes Stone up. They’re the same height, but NiNi maybe has twenty pounds on Stone.

I’ve been so into Snow, I didn’t think about that slick mouth all the Youngs have.

“When my sister was too weak from chemotherapy, she couldn’t say my full name. In solidarity, my family began to call me NiNi as well.”

Awkward silence sweeps through us, while NiNi grins at Stone. He narrows his eyes at NiNi, who just grins and taps Reno’s chest to follow him.

“Was he lying? I feel like he wasn’t, but I’on know.”

“Not entirely,” I answer Prince as we all follow them to the dock.

“Stay dangerous niggas,” I say, as I dap each one of my homies as they follow Reno onto my mini yacht. NiNi hands me my backpack, and I shake my head at him.

“Why you say that bullshit in there?”

He shrugs. “Miele drops that shit like it’s nothing to get what she want, so I wanted to see if it works on others. Got that big bitch to shut the fuck up, didn’t it?”

Shad jumps down onto the dock and grins, interrupting us. “Aight. Let’s go.”

I blink at this nigga.

“I’m comin’ with you to the boat shit. We need to parley anyway.”

NiNi snorts. “Él te va a confrontar por Nieve.” (He’s going to press you about Snow.)

I swipe my tongue ring across my bottom lip and nod. “Fasho. Hope you can row.”

To Shad’s credit, he waits five minutes after leaving to begin to press me.

“So how’s Wyn?”

I keep my eyes on the satellite GPS that’s guiding us toward the yacht. Even though it’s the dead of night, getting there by row boat is optimal, so we don’t make any noise, and since they’ve wandered onto the Belizean side of the bay. The plan is to take care of them, then I drive the boat back to Chetumal to rendezvous with the others.

“Don’t bullshit me either. It’s been almost a year since we got her from them Mathers niggas. I know Autumn checks in with her, but I want an update, too.”

“And why do you feel like you’re entitled to an update on her?” I fight to keep my tone casual as I put my aggression into rowing these fucking oars.

“Nigga, the only reason she even witchu is because you be ducked off in another country.”

“She was never going to be with you, Rahshad. You both would have gone through with a suicide pact.”

Shad balls his face up. “Fuck you, Dub. Stop stalling. How is she foreal?”

I glance behind me, noting our destination. “She’s good. Healthy.”

“Ready to come back home?”

She is home, I wanna say. But instead, I say, “Yeah. Just gotta talk to Haze.”

“About what? I’m already here. She can–”

“She fasho not leaving witchu after this, so dead that.”

“This what I mean,” he chuckles angrily. “The only reason you even involved–”

“My nigga, the only reason I’m even entertaining this shit, is ‘cause of whatever bond Snow swears she got witchu. Stop fuckin’ questioning me about her. Be lucky I don’t drown yo ass for the shit you pulled last year. She good. She healthy. She clean. And when I decide I’m ready for her to go back to the city, I’m sure you’ll be one of the first muthafuckas she calls. Now, shut the fuck up. We coming up on the boat.”