by Keon Smith
Kev frowned in confusion at Montega’s impersonation of the Joker. The comment was made to do just that. Once Kev was thrown off-track, Montega aimed.
Breezy’s eyes widened, she now knew who her captor was. Kev tried to reach for his gun, but it was pointless. Montega pulled the trigger, and the gun exploded. The kick was tremendous against his slim arm, thrusting upward as a .50 caliber bullet slammed into Kev’s forehead and damn near took half his head off. Blood, bone, and brain matter painted the tracks like pig slop.
“Nooo!” Breezy shouted.
After putting the mask back on, Montega rushed over to pick up the bag of money. He then put the strap over his shoulder and un-taped Breezy’s wrist.
That was when he heard footsteps coming from the bushes. He looked up and saw the man with the dreads emerge. He then quickly aimed and fired the huge tiger-stripe beast three times more. His arm jerked and slammed into his shoulder.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Maniac ducked down, nearly tripping over the rails, and fired back at the masked man, who was now running across the tracks and into the woods. Maniac squeezed off four shots but missed. Montega ran into the dense forest quickly. He dodged thorny bushes and brushed against sticky balls that clung to his pant legs. Maniac left Breezy where she was and ran after him. When he came out on the other end of the woods, he saw his target running down the hill with a bag in one hand, gun in the other. Maniac clutched the SIG with both hands and fired another two shots. He then stopped with surprise.
What caught Maniac’s attention was the car the masked man was running to. It was the same black car he saw leaving Tee-Tee’s house earlier. The shooter wore the same clothes as the man he had seen leave. Maniac couldn’t believe who the kidnapper was. He took aim and squeezed until his gun went empty. Montega crouched and ducked his head as angry bullets whizzed by. Once he was in his car on Franklin Street, he stepped on the gas and peeled off.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks, after hearing the gunshots, Spade came running to the scene. When he arrived, he found Breezy hysterically crying over Kev’s dead body. He hurried over and finished un-taping her.
“C’mon!” Maniac barked as he walked by. “We gotta get the fuck outta here.”
“What about cuz?” Spade asked. “Did you get him?”
“Nah. The lucky muthafucka got away.”
Spade escorted Breezy to his wheels. She was still in shock, not just because she saw her boyfriend dead with the top of his head missing, but because she knew exactly who to blame.
Stakes Are High
“An eye for an eye…”
MONTEGA
JULY 14TH, 2005
EIGHT MONTHS LATER…
It was a breezy Sunday morning in July. The streets were quiet, and most of the neighbors were in their homes, watching TV or cooking Sunday dinner. Others were at church, receiving the good word. A couple of kids played out in front of their houses, enjoying the beautiful day. Everything seemed normal until the air was filled with the sounds of a Yamaha Banshee screaming as it zoomed from block to block.
Lil’ Man rode hard on the four-wheeler with one intention. With the strap slung across his neck and the AK on his back, he swerved onto Belfield Avenue with a tunnel vision for blood. He had been on the run for eight months since the police came to his house with a warrant, but on this day, he would run no more.
Inside the large church on the corner of Broad and Courtland Street, Anthony Lucca, his wife, and his kids were exiting the church with everyone else. “That was a good service, wasn’t it?” he asked his wife.
“It sure was, honey.”
“Daddy, can we get some ice cream?” his two little girls begged. “Please. Oh, please!”
“No, no. Ice cream is bad for your teeth. Eat some fruit instead,” he replied, bringing frowns.
“Tony!” his wife said with her hands on her hips.
“What? I’m tellin’ the truth.”
“No, you’re being cheap. Now get these girls some ice cream. Besides, I wouldn’t mind a hot fudge sundae myself,” his wife ordered as they walked down the sidewalk.
“Oh, alright,” he replied, giving in.
“Yaaay!” the girls cheered.
Suddenly, the sound of a four-wheeler approached while people paused to watch. Lucca heard the sound as well. He looked around to see what the fuss was about. He saw, standing about fifty feet away, a short Puerto Rican with an AK-47 pointed right at him.
“Lucca!” Lil’ Man shouted. “You want me! Well, here I am, puta!”
Lucca’s eyes widened. “Get down!” he shouted while trying to push his family to the ground just as Lil’ Man began to unleash a barrage of bullets in their direction.
The assault rifle vibrated like a jackhammer in Lil’ Man’s hand as he chopped down everything in his path, including Tony, who spun like a top before hitting the ground. Screams of horror could be heard from afar. Panic came in a wave of madness. As Tony’s hand twitched, Lil’ Man slowly approached him while he was lying on his back, struggling to breath. He, as well as his wife and one of his two daughters, had been hit.
Lil’ Man stood over Tony and looked him dead in the eyes, waiting for him to die. Tony, however, was strong. In Lil’ Man’s mind, there was no glory in shooting a man then leaving him to die. But to shoot him and watch him die was what fueled his desire for revenge. Lucca wouldn’t give him that satisfaction though. He tried his best of hold onto his life until the paramedics got there.
Impatient, Lil’ Man pointed the gun at Lucca’s head and said, “You picked the wrong Puerto Rican to fuck with. Now I’ll be the last thing you ever see.” Then he squeezed the trigger. “Hell is low,” Lil’ Man said before making his getaway.
Montega walked up Woodlawn so he could meet with Nino, who wanted to buy a quarter ounce of hard from him. The sun was beaming down, and the weather was starting to heat up. A gust of wind blew some hot air every now and then, and perspiration built up within his T-shirt. He saw some of the corner boys hustling in front of the Chinese store. The effect of the Purple Haze for what was supposed to be his birthday was nothing more than a regular day. He didn’t want to celebrate. He had nothing to celebrate for. He just wanted to hustle, and the smoke had him on cloud nine.
When the hustlers on Blakemore Street saw him approaching, they all cautiously crossed over to the other side of the block to make sales. It had been almost eight months since Montega killed Kev on the train tracks, and now Shug had adopted Kev’s beef. Montega became a wanted man with a $150,000 price tag on his head. The bounty attracted a slew of cheap assassins willing to take a chance at cashing in.
Every now and then, Montega found himself in a shootout with a hungry wolf he didn’t know—either on foot or on the move. He had nearly lost his life on two occasions. But no matter how bad the odds, he always kept something to back a killer down and a bulletproof vest to protect himself. Because of his will to survive, and with the unwanted help of gossip, his reputation grew overnight.
As he waited for Nino, his mind was going in circles. Tasha had been in touch, constantly begging him to come down to Atlanta to be with her for a while, but Montega was too busy on the lookout for an opportunity to make big money. His ambition was relentless. It didn’t matter that he was up a hundred grand in the game. Everyone was too paranoid to deal with him. What he needed was a connect. Mike had distanced himself from him as well. And to make matters worse, he wouldn’t sell him anything over nine ounces. Montega knew there was something strange about that because Mike sold Reek a half a bird every other week.
As Montega leaned on the wall of the Chinese store, he observed everything moving around him. There were hustlers across the street, counting money out in the open, young bols walking around, looking for weed, cars slowly cruising down the block with fancy rims and loud enhanced stereo systems, and little kids running in and out of the store with popsicles in their hands.
Nino rode up to the block in a burgundy 2001 B
uick Lasabre. The car pulled over to the corner before he got out. His dark skin glistened as if he had been covered in oil, and he was a bit taller than Montega with a very slim built. “What’s good, bol,” Nino said, giving Montega some dap.
Montega exchanged the quarter with a handshake. He then watched as Nino placed the drugs in his pocket.
Suddenly, Montega’s whole demeanor changed when he saw Breezy pull up in her Mazda. “Awwl, man. Here come this bitch,” he said, now irritated.
When she saw Montega, she scowled and looked the other way, mumbling something under her breath.
“Damn, who dat?” Nino asked with interest.
“You don’t even want to know,” Montega stated.
After Kev’s death, Breezy found it hard to move on without him. Her world as she knew it was destroyed, and it was all Montega’s fault. She hated his guts, and had it not been for Kia being her best friend, she would have sicked Maniac on his ass.
Maniac had been searching for the so-called ‘Phantom’ ever since the day they shot at each other. Maniac blamed himself for not getting to the scene in time. He felt that Kev could still be alive if he hadn’t been trying to trick around. What made the situation even worse was that Montega had shot back at him. No one had ever done anything like that and lived to tell about it. He swore that whenever the two met up again, it would go down like Young Joc’s video. He didn’t care if he was at the district, reporting a stolen vehicle; guns would be drawn, and someone’s life would be lost.
Nino watched as Breezy parked her car and got out.
“Goddamn. Look at the body on her. Yo, I gots to try my hand with—”
Montega tapped him hard in the gut as an unmarked cop car shot up the one-way street. The hustlers on the other side tried to break and run, but regular squad patrol cars blocked their escape. The entire city was on fire from the incident that transpired in front of the church. Cops were everywhere, looking for a single suspect.
“Oh shit!” Montega said as he tried to walk off with Nino undetected.
He started to use Breezy as a distraction but wouldn’t dare, based on the look she gave him when she walked into the store. He had already used her enough.
“Get up on the wall!” a big, black officer ordered as he approached Montega and Nino.
Nino looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He froze, not knowing what to do. “Yo,” Montega whispered. “Run, man. You dirty.” But Nino had nowhere to go.
High as a kite, Montega knew he was going to jail. He had not one but two chrome Taurus 9mm’s tucked in his waistband. As an officer searched Nino, the black cop grabbed Montega and shoved him against the wall. He kicked Montega’s legs apart so that he could spread ’em, and a woman’s voice said, “I got him, Jankens. Get the others.”
“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” one cop sad, holding up the plastic bag with the quarter inside. Nino put his head down in shame as the officer handcuffed him and led him to the back of the cop car.
When the big ape walked off with Nino, Montega felt the small hands of a woman probe his body, starting with the chest. She then worked her way down and around his waist where her palms ran across the two guns that were tucked away. To Montega’s surprise, the woman kept searching him. “He’s clean,” she said just as Breezy walked out of the store, alarmed to see so many cops.
When Montega turned around to see Olivia, he cracked a smirk. “Don’t let me catch you out here on this corner again,” she warned, trying to put on a front for her coworkers. “You hear me?”
Montega nodded respectfully then appreciatively walked down the block. Seeing him stroll away with his cool, apathetic swag, Breezy peeped game as she got into her car. If there was one thing she was good at, it was figuring people out. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that those two were fucking on the calm. This was news she knew she had to run by her best friend.
As Montega walked down the block, Mike pulled up in a silver Dodge Ram 1500, motioning with his hand for him to get in. Montega crossed the street as Breezy was coming down the block. Seeing him strolling across, she stepped on the gas. The car picked up speed, and Breezy gripped the steering wheel tightly.
When Montega heard the roar of the V-6 engine, he dove to the other side of the street like Max Payne, dodging bullets just as the Mazda flew by. Breezy chuckled at his quick agility. She looked in her rearview and saw him tumbling to the other side of the street just before swerving around the corner. She hadn’t laughed that hard since Kev was alive.
When Montega got up and dusted himself off, he saw Mike cracking up as well. “Crazy bitch!” he shouted.
“Damn, bol, you looked like Neo in The Matrix just now,” Mike joked as Montega slid into the passenger seat. “I didn’t know you were that quick on your feet. It’s no wonder your ass ain’t dead yet.”
“Can you believe that shit, yo? First, my man get booked up the block; now, this bitch just tried to kill me,” Montega exclaimed, studying the cherries on his kneecaps.
“How you expect shorty to feel? You gotta realize, dog, you rocked her dude. Bol was her bread and butter, and you took that away from her. You lucky she ain’t tell her cop ass father,” Mike said, trying to reason with him
“Her dude killed my homie. What was I supposed to do? Sit there and let that shit ride? Fuck that. An eye for an eye. Right or wrong?”
Mike nodded in agreement. Truthfully, he didn’t care about Shug wanting Montega killed, which was why Montega was still breathing. Mike hadn’t told Shug anything about Montega. All he cared about was his money. “Yo, I wanted you to know that my case in the state got picked up by the Feds.”
“What?” Montega said in disbelief.
“Yeah, man, I’m lookin’ at forty-six months. I gotta turn myself in tomorrow,” Mike said sadly. “But as far as business goes, I’m gonna hand it back over to Reek. Stay loyal to him, and he’ll lookout for you.”
Yeah right, like he did the last time, Montega thought as Mike continued.
“As far as this beef with Shug is concerned, you need to find a way to squash it because if you ain’t gotcha money right, and I mean multi-millions right, then you ain’t gonna win. Trust me. A single knight can’t mate a king alone. Shug got hundreds of goons at his disposal. It’s some major people backing him as well. I’m talking international. You think you getting’ swarmed now; wait until he gets fed up and sends the real hit squad at you.”
Montega sucked his teeth and ignored this advice. He was already pissed that Mike was once again giving Reek some power. He knew that Reek was the type of guy who you gave an inch, but he took a mile. He abused his authority and thought he was John Gotti. Besides that. Nino had gotten booked, trying to cop work off him. The first thing Montega wanted to do was get him a lawyer. Nino was already on probation for a drug case he copped out to before. He knew Nino’s PO would drop a detainer on him now. Before he could speak on it, his phone vibrated. Montega gave Mike some dap then got out to answer it. “Yo, what’s good?” he said, shutting the door behind him.
“Kenny, my brother just got locked up,” Faith said hysterically.
“What? What the hell happened?” he asked.
“The detectives kicked in my mother’s door and beat him up so bad. There’s blood all over my carpet. Then they dragged him out to the car and took him to jail. Kenny, they said he killed a detective along with his wife. His two daughters were the only ones to survive. It’s all over the news. I’m so scared for him. I hope they don’t kill him.”
“Damn, yo. Look, Faith, I’ll call you back. Matta fact, call me when your brother gets in touch with you. They’re going to take him down to the Roundhouse then process him. When he gets to the county, call me, and let me know what his situation is, you hear me?” he commanded.
“Yes, Kenny, I hear you,” she said before hanging up.
Ever since that day when Lucca punched holes in the tires of Lil-Man’s four-wheeler, he made a dangerous enemy. Lil’ M
an knew exactly who the cop was. Montega wasn’t surprised about Lil’ Man one bit. Lil’ Man hated a certain detective. It was all he ever talked about. He had discussed countless times of a way to kill the racist detective, and now he finally did it. This bit of news really made Montega unsettled. If Lil’ Man fell, it could be for life, if not Death Row. As Montega sadly headed for his car, his phone rang again. “What?” he said, frustrated.
“Uh-oh, somebody’s upset. Maybe it’s not a good time to tell you that you owe me a drink tonight,” Olivia said, bringing a relieved smirk to his face.
“I owe you a lot more than that, but yo, can you do anything for my homie?”
“Sorry, boo, I can’t. It was either check him or check you, and quite frankly, I don’t know him. But I do know you owe me a drink tonight.”
“I guess I can sip a few shots with you. It is my birthday.”
“Ohh, boy, why ain’t you say something earlier? Happy Birthday.”
“Thanks, but truthfully, I don’t feel all that happy,” he replied. “But be ready by eight,” he said before ending the call. He sighed dryly. He needed something to clear his mind. Anything was better than worrying about both his homies. Then he thought about what he and Lil’ Man had done together and wondered if he could hold water. The streets were different than being locked behind bars, and the talk of football numbers could make even the most dangerous criminals change sides. Smoke was a prime example. It was then Montega realized how serious the situation was, and paranoia set in.
Hunting Season
“I’m huntin’ a nigga that’s hard to kill.”
MANIAC
Maniac pulled off Sansom Street and headed north on Broad Street. He had just finished enjoying a wonderful blowjob from one of the Chinese girls at a massage parlor in center city, and now it was back to business. When he got uptown, he pulled into a gas station on Broad and Godfrey that he knew all too well. He parked by the back exit.