Kisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t play nothing with that simple bitch, for all y’all know, she probably set him up.”

“Kane, let me handle this, aight?”

“Whatever, Sin.” Kisa went back into the waiting room and sat next to Arnessa.

“I’m going to get Nessa something to drink,” Tasha said to Kisa as she rose from her chair. “Do you want anything?”

“Yeah, can you bring me a ginger ale, please?”

“Sure.”

Kisa looked at Arnessa. “You okay, sweetie?”

“To tell you the truth … I don’t know. So that was Butta’s other chick in the flesh, huh?”

“Nichelle is nothing to Butta.”

“Come on, Kane, I’m far from naïve.”

“Don’t do this right now.”

“Don’t do what? Deny that I’m hurt that she showed up here.”

“Fuck Nichelle or any other bitch that might wanna come at you when your dude is down.”

“But—”

“But what? Arnessa, I’ve been here before, okay. Therefore, you can’t tell me shit. You been riding with him through the good. It’s your duty to ride through the bad, even when people are throwing dirt from all sides. Butta is back there shot up, and if he was locked up, I would be telling you the same thing—fuck all the bullshit. As wifey, you got one job, and that’s to hold him down.”

“Nichelle, we gotta get that money out ya spot so Butta’s connect can be paid.” Shawn said as they stood in front of the hospital.

“There’s no money in my house. Butta took it,” she lied through her teeth.

Sincere walked up. “Butta took what?”

“She’s saying Butta got his money already,” Shawn commented in a tone of disbelief.

Sincere eyed Nichelle for moment. Kisa might’ve been right ’bout Nichelle setting Butta up, he thought. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Go where?” Nichelle questioned, afraid that they suspected her involvement.

“To check ya car then ya apartment,” Sincere responded.

“You can check whateva you want.” Nichelle shot back with confidence, knowing that they wouldn’t find the money because she’d already hidden it at a home she’d recently purchased on Long Island. No one, including Butta, knew about the house. “My car is parked up on 116th.”

As the trio walked up Amsterdam, they suddenly found themselves under attack as bullets flew at them. Shawn and Sincere both pulled out their guns as they ducked behind an illegally parked cab. Nichelle ducked down and crawled until she was out of the line of fire, then got up and ran.

When Shawn stood up and fired a few shots, he saw the two men who were firing at them but couldn’t make out their faces. He ducked back down and yelled over to Sincere, “I don’t know these niggas.”