Lotus ran out of the back door of the building, the large duffle bag hugging around her small, petite body. She could still hear the gunshots going off inside the building as she began to run down the dimly lit back alley. With her adrenaline rushing, her heart was beating out of her chest, she kept glancing back as she ran, waiting for the door to open again.
She made it to the metal fence, and crawled through the opening of where she cut it opened earlier. She looked back once again, but to her disappointment she still saw no one. It almost brought her to tears, thinking of how it was her fault, Reese, got shot. She made the wrong call, and unfortunately that caused a bullet to pierce his neck.
Lotus watched in horror as her close friend bled out, because of the move she made. She didn't even know if he were still alive or had bled out to death. But Midnight made sure if he were to die, he wouldn't have wanted Lotus to see. The only thing he worried about in that moment was making sure Lotus got out to safety—even if it meant it might cost him his life as well.
"Lotus!" Bambi shouted her name through the rolled down passenger window. Lotus ran towards the car, throwing the duffle bag in the backseat as she got into the passenger seat. As soon as she closed the door, Bambi burned rubber down the street.
Bambi knew couldn't risk waiting any second longer, she knew they would be pouring from the building once they realized Lotus was no longer in the building with their money, or merchandise.
"What happened?" Bambi finally asked after moments of silence in the car. Lotus swallowed hard, and a few tears welling up in the brim of her eyes.
She slowly shook her head, running both of her hands through her hair. "He told us that he wanted buy out our list of connects, and I told him no. We worked hard for the folks we make business wit', and I wasn't about to let Mid sell it for a few hundred thou'." Lotus began to explain to her, letting go of a shaky breath sitting back in the seat.
"I told him he could go fuck himself, and to find another dumb naïve ass group of people that was willing to take that offer—and he fuckin' shot Reese as he was getting up to come talk to me!" she started bawling, a few tears rolled down Bambi's face as she listened.
"That wasn't the deal we were making Bambi! We were only pose' to go there and make a trade for his product—I cost Reese his fuckin' life!"
Bambi remained quiet, silently praying that Reese was okay and that his gun shot wounds wasn't that critical. Bambi was aware of Lotus's temper, and how she spazzed on anyone with a quickness if they tried to cross her—so she could understand why Lotus may have blamed herself for what happened.
Once the girls made it back to the house, the rest of crew were all waiting. They all sat in angst, Santos pacing back and forth in the living room, his hands placed on his sides. He stopped once they heard footsteps approaching, Bambi and Lotus both walked in with their faces soaked with tears.
Gotti started to say something until Bambi shook her head standing in the middle of the room as Lotus continued walking past everyone else to go upstairs. They all watched her before redirecting their attention on Bambi, waiting for answers they desperately wanted.
"Where's Mid and them?" Tiny questioned realizing the guys weren't with them. They were all there when shots went off, but unfortunately got separated from each other and had to shoot their way out. Riding out in the cars with the person they arrived with.
They wanted to stay behind but knew Mid and Lotus always told them to never stick around for long whenever there was crossfire—hence why Mid sent Lotus out before it was too late, the only ones that were left behind was Mid, Reese, Jon Jon and Gotti.
"They were still inside," Bambi sniffled, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She took a seat next to Boonie, resting her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward. "Lotus is blaming herself for this,"
"It's not her fault though," Boonie spoke up.
Lotus burst into her room, tossing the duffle bag to the side along with her assault rifle. She closed the door behind her, before sliding down to the floor as she broke down and cried.
As much as she tried to stay positive, she saw how much blood Reese lost and knew if he hadn't made it to a hospital soon enough, he was bound to die. Her best friend practically lost his life at a young age because of a choice she made for them, instead of discussing it with them like she usually did.
She couldn't imagine what there was to talk about, she knew Midnight wasn't dumb enough to accept the offer the guy made with them, they had built their business up from the ground with blood, sweat and tears—literally. Selling the list of connects meant, they wouldn't be able to make deals anymore, and would have to start from scratch again.
She was simply thinking of everyone—or at least she thought she was.
A few hours passed, as everyone still sat in the living room, anxiously awaiting the rest of the guys to return with news about Reese's condition, both Bambi and Tiny went up to Lotus's room to check on her but had no luck of talking to her. Lotus wanted nothing more than to be alone, until Midnight got back.
She was hoping, and praying that she wouldn't have to make that dreadful phone call or visit to Reese's mother house.
Midnight trudged into the room, his clothes still bloody from earlier, Jon Jon and Gotti behind him with the same expression on their faces. His eyes were puffy and blood shot red, Santos closed his eyes, lowly cursing under his breath, placing his hands on top of his head.
"There was nothing they could do..." Midnight mumbled, "He was gone before we even made it to the hospital, lost too much blood."
"Oh my gosh," Tiny threw her hand over her mouth as she burst into tears. The room fell completely silent, distressed expressions on everyone faces.
"Lotus..." Boonie trailed off, looking towards the staircase. Midnight deeply sighed, and passed by everyone to go upstairs, as much as he dreaded telling her the news, he knew she needed to hear it from him rather than someone else.
He gently knocked on the room door, "Nevaeh," he called to her by her middle name. Something he did whenever he was being serious. The door quickly swung open, a distraught Lotus standing in front of him.
The two stood there both gazing into each other's eyes. Lotus tucked her lips, feeling her eyes burn with tears again, once she realized that he wasn't going to say anything.
"Where is he?" she mustered up the courage to ask him, Midnight swallowed hard, glancing down at the floor.
"At the hospital still," he said.
"Okay—" she let go of a shaky breath, wiping her face as she continued to nod her head. "L-let's go see him then, I-I have to call his mom. She's gonna wanna—"
"Nevaeh..." Midnight called to her, perceiving her to be in denial about what he was really trying to say.
"N-no w-we have to go s-see him now—" she stuttered, trying to walk past him until Midnight held his hand out to stop her.
"He's gone—," he said, trying to hold her back as she desperately fought to get past him.
"No,"
"He's gone Lotus!" his voice cracked, placing both of his hands on her arms, shaking her lightly. "He didn't make it,"
He broke down and cried, pulling Lotus into a consoling hug. She felt as her body went numb, her world came crashing down, facing the harsh reality that Reese was actually gone.
The rest heard her scream from upstairs, they all sat in their own thoughts, unable to wrap their head around the fact that they lost one of their own tonight.