Twenty-Four

Nico had not left Jamaica Hospital since the night of the shooting at the funeral home when both BJ and Lo were rushed to the trauma unit. That would be the equivalent of betraying his two most trusted lieutenants. He was at the hospital when BJ came out of surgery. The doctors told him that the prognosis was good, and it looked like BJ would pull through.

But then a different set of surgeons informed him that they had tried everything they could but weren’t able to save Lo. Nico was devastated. He felt all kinds of guilt because he was certain that Lo would be alive and that BJ wouldn’t be clinging to life if he’d followed his gut and skipped Bebo’s wake.

It was nearly four in the morning when he decided to call Jasmine from the hospital. His cell phone battery had died, but one of the nurses was kind enough to let him use the phone at the nurses’ station. When Jasmine didn’t pick up, he decided against leaving a message and ended the call. He desperately needed somebody to talk to, share his pain with, and he knew that regardless of any past drama, she would be there for him. It was late, so he figured Jasmine was sleeping. He decided he would just drive home to Long Island when he left the hospital and give her the news about Lo face to face.

“You okay?” the nurse asked Nico after he hung up the phone.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Listen, I’m not supposed to do this, but the staffing is real light at this time of night, and the anesthesia should be wearing off right about now, so if you want, I can take you in to see your friend but only very briefly,” the head nurse explained to Nico.

“That’s what’s up. I would appreciate that.”

The head nurse stood up from her leather chair and looked around and saw that, aside from a janitor, the hallways were empty, and she told Nico to follow her. The two of them made it to BJ’s room in the intensive care unit, and she opened the door and let Nico inside.

“No more than five minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” Nico responded.

Nico closed the door behind him and walked up to the side of BJ’s bed. BJ was almost unrecognizable because of all the bandages and surgical tape, and the wires, IVs, and monitors attached to him, and the breathing tube attached to his mouth. He noticed the Velcro handcuffs on BJ’s arms, hooking his wrists to the bed railing to prevent him from trying to remove any of the medical equipment.

“BJ, it’s Nico. Can you hear me?”

BJ was silent, his eyes closed.

Nico was as tough as they come, but the sight of his homie in that condition almost made him shed tears. He undid the Velcro handcuff on BJ’s right wrist and clutched his hand.

“BJ, it’s me, Nico.” He could feel BJ starting to squeeze his hand. That was the best feeling. It felt like a surge of electricity shot through his body when BJ squeezed his hand. “You gonna be all right, my nigga. I promise you that.”

BJ squeezed Nico’s hand. Nico could see that BJ was starting to sweat. He looked around and he saw a box of napkins, took a few, and then blotted the sweat from BJ’s brow.

After he did that, Nico could see BJ trying to motion something to him. BJ couldn’t talk if he wanted to, because of the breathing tube attached to his mouth.

Nico tried to figure out what was going on, and was wondering if he should call the nurse. But then he realized BJ was motioning for a pen or a pencil so he could write something. Nico told BJ to relax, that he would be right back with a pen and paper. He quickly left the room and approached the nurse, who gave him a pen and a small notepad, and reminded him that he only had a few more minutes in the room. Nico assured her that he wouldn’t be long and quickly made it back to BJ’s room, where he put the pen in BJ’s hand and held the pad for him.

BJ mustered up all the strength he could and struggled to write the letters L and O.

Nico held on to BJ’s hand and squeezed. He didn’t want to tell him anything about Lo at that point because he knew BJ needed to focus all of his strength and energy on trying to recover from his own wounds.

“Everything is good. Don’t worry about nothing. Just relax, so we can get you healed up and outta here.”

BJ motioned for the pad, and Nico again positioned it so he could write.

BJ then scribbled the words NO KIDS. BJ didn’t want his kids to come to the hospital and see him like that. Nico reassured him that he would get word back to his girl and make sure that she didn’t bring the kids with her to the hospital.

The nurse walked into the room and told Nico that he had to go. Nico told BJ that they were making him leave and that he would be back to check on him the next day.

Nico felt drained when he left the hospital and made it down to the parking lot, where his driver was waiting for him. He instructed the driver to take him to his crib out on Long Island. The roads were deserted because it was nearly the break of dawn and no one was out, which allowed Nico to make it to his house rather quickly.

When he realized Jasmine wasn’t home, he decided to have his driver drop him by Mia’s house. Without calling before showing up, Nico arrived and let himself in with his own key.

“Oh my God!” Mia screamed out when she awoke to feel Nico touching her.

Mia wasn’t expecting Nico, or anyone else for that matter, and since she had withdrawn that cash from the safety deposit box earlier that day, she was terrified that someone had broken into her house to rob her.

“Baby, it’s me,” Nico said.

“Ugggghhh! My God! You scared the shit outta me! Why didn’t you call before you came?” Mia sat up in the bed and turned on the lamp on her nightstand. She saw that Nico looked kind of ragged, and she then asked if everything was ok.

“Lo got killed.”

“What? Baby, oh no.”

“BJ is in ICU. Shit is so fuckin’ crazy right now, I don’t know.” Nico sat down on the bed and ran his hand down his face.

Mia, in her short lace nightie, positioned herself behind Nico on the bed and began to massage his shoulders. “What happened?”

“We was leaving Bebo’s funeral, over on Linden, and muthafuckas pulled up in a Hummer or some shit and just sprayed everybody. The shit was a zoo. Niggas was running, and bitches was screaming and shit. BJ and Lo got hit. Ambulances and five-o came, rushed them to the trauma unit and . . . ”

Nico stopped talking in the middle of what he was saying, and Mia knew not to push for more information. She just wrapped her arms around him and hugged him real tight and told him that she was so glad he was okay.

“It ain’t about me, though.”

“I know, baby, but if something had happened to you, I couldn’t live.”

Mia then thought about the money hidden inside her freezer. She knew she couldn’t let Nico know about it. “Do you know who was shooting?”

Nico slowly shook his head, and then he stood up from the bed. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

Mia was quiet, and so was Nico.

Mia knew Nico really well and could always read his vibes. “What you thinking about, baby? You can talk to me.”

Nico blew out air from his lungs and fell backwards on the bed, his face to the ceiling.

“I need you to go down to Miami to take care of some business for me. I’ll be down there with you as soon as I can. I gotta handle this shit in New York first, though,” Nico explained.

Mia had heard Nico talking about Miami before and knew he was starting to get a lot of money down there with the Haitians, but she didn’t know exactly what he needed her to do.

“I’m here for you, baby.” Mia got on top of him and kissed him softly on his lips and neck. She then positioned herself next to Nico and lay with her left arm draped over him. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Nico just nodded. He was worried about what his future held. For the first time in a while, he felt like his chances of being killed were much greater than his chances of being locked up, and he seriously wondered to himself if it was all worth it.