shoulder as he lowered the gun.
“What the fuck is you doin’?” yelled World through the open passenger door. “You tryin’ to get killed or something?”
The girls finally uncovered their eyes and looked up, visibly shaken and teary-eyed.
“I’m sorry, World. I’m so, so sorry. God, you scared me. I’m sorry,” Lana whined from the driver’s seat.
“Naw, you was gonna be sorry. Now you just crazy. I thought I told you I’d be back later?” World questioned, upset that Lana
was out of position, especially in front of his man.
“It… it… I’m sorry, baby, but I thought… Peaches said…” Lana stammered before World cut her off.
“Peaches said what? Fuck that yellow bitch got to do with you followin’ me?”
“Yellow, who?!” Peaches shouted from the rear passenger seat, getting some of her sass back. “Nigga, please. Don’t even go
there, aiight!” Peaches said, rolling her eyes for extra emphasis.
“Whatever, bitch. Mind your business. Lana, you listenin’ to Peaches now?”
“She told me she saw Tawanna from Hillside in your car last week, and she said that’s where you was goin’,” Lana explained,
getting more teary-eyed by the minute, not only from fright, but from embarrassment for getting caught trying to follow him.
Duke laughed as Young World shook his head in aggravated amusement. He was on his way to a very important meeting with his
connect, and all Lana could think about was some chickenhead he was fucking.
“You muthafuckas got way too much time on your hands. I ain’t got time for this shit. Take your ass home and get all them
crows out my car ’fore all y’all be walkin’!” World shouted.
Lana nodded, wiping her eyes. “I’m sorry, okay? I was silly, I—”
World cut her off as Duke got back in the CL.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just be naked when I get home,” he said as he pulled off, giving her lonely, bitch-ass girlfriends something
to talk about.
Young World turned the corner and sped off. Duke bust out laughing.
“Yo, son, you is slippin’! You ain’t even peep your own car was followin’ us!”
“Everybody got black BMs, yo. How I’m supposed to know every BM in Newark?”
“Shorty must really got you on a leash, my nigga!”
“Fuck you,” Young World replied with a chuckle. “That’s how it is when a nigga know how to lay good dick, son. Shit, I should
get outta the drug game and pimp hos for a living.”
“Nigga, fuck around and be broke fucking with these hos out here,” Duke joked, making them both laugh as they headed to Paramus,
New Jersey.
Even though Young World was laughing, the situation was far from funny. It had been three years since Dutch’s disappearance
and already his empire had split into several factions. Young World was young, hungry, and ruthless. However, he had stepped
into the shoes of a man whose shoes no one could ever fill.
Dutch had started with a team that had roots in every part of Newark, which made it easier to control. Young World’s team
came from Hawthorne and Prince streets. So when Dutch disappeared, every team went for itself, and Young World had his hands
full just keeping his territory under control.
Added to that was the fact that the police were seeing blood and weren’t taking any prisoners. The police murder rate doubled
while the criminal murder rate tripled. All together, the city was thrown into a frenzy. The mayor empowered several new antidrug
teams to combat the threat, imposed curfews in certain areas, and kept the block so hot that where money once flowed, it now
trickled. After eighteen months, Young World lost major chunks of northern New Jersey. He had won the crown but getting down
for it was another story.
Lana walked into the house and slammed the door. She felt like she had really played herself. It wasn’t like her to second-guess
Young World, so she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why she had done it tonight. True,