by Mikal Malone
For now he was safe.
Him being cautious was the main reason they didn’t want to bring Carissa with them. Had they brought her with them and it was an ambush Yvette would snatch Carissa and get what she came for.
Killing him next.
He had to be smart.
“Mind your fucking business, “Dukes yelled at Wilson. “This don’t have nothing to do with you so we’d appreciate if you would just stay the fuck out of it.”
“I know it ain’t my business, mami, I know…just wanting to help that’s all,” Wilson said. “Plus I don’t want to fight with you. You look like you would kick my ass.”
“And like my friend said we got this,” Rocky yelled. “We having a little disagreement that’s all.” She continued crossing her arms across her white t-shirt. She changed out of her bloodied scrubs so Wilson wouldn’t be more suspicious.
Wilson’s jaw twitched because what he wanted to do was punch both of them in the face but he was playing the long con game and needed to take his time.
For the moment anyway.
“We’re not the enemy, beautiful,” Spotter said, figuring he could lend some help since Wilson was coming up short. “We’re here to—”
“Nigga, get the fuck up out my face!” Dukes yelled so loud she spit on his upper lip. “Why are ya’ll still here anyway? Damn! It’s fucking stupid! Go away and worry about your own business, faggies!”
Rocky looked at Dukes through the corner of her eye. The goal was to not give in so easily so that they wouldn’t suspect a set up but Dukes was acting like she was going for the Oscar. It was one thing to make them thing the argument was genuine and a whole different matter to be so difficult that they walked off or shot them in the forehead.
“Listen, can we talk in the apartment ‘bout this?” Wilson asked tired of faking it. His patience had run thin and there was no longer a smile on his face. “I hate doing things like this in the hallway.”
Any other time Rocky would’ve sent him on his way but now was not the time to play hard to get. Rolling her eyes she said, “I guess so.” She opened the door wider and both men walked inside, ahead of her and Dukes.
“Bitch, you was going too far,” Rocky whispered to Dukes, out of earshot of the fellas.
Dukes rolled her eyes. “They in here aren’t they? So it worked.”
Rocky closed the door and the moment she did Wilson shot Dukes in the stomach. “OH MY GOD WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” Rocky screamed. “WHY DID YOU SHOOT MY FRIEND?”
“I hate to be called a faggy.” Wilson rushed toward her and slapped her in the face to calm her down. “Look at me…”
But she wasn’t looking at him. Instead she was hysterical as she looked down at her friend who was holding her stomach, too shocked to speak.
“Why did you do that?” Rocky continued to cry. “Why did you shoot her?”
“I just told you.” Wilson grabbed a hold of her face and looked into her eyes. “Now look at me…is…this…a…set…up? Did Yvette and them have you come into the hallway with this shit? ‘Cause I find it mighty convenient you know what I’m saying? Do you know about what’s been going on in this building? With the bullets flying on this floor and shit? You saw the carnage out there?”
“Nigga, this is Marjorie Gardens.” She said through clenched teeth. “Bullets always fly around here.”
“Don’t be smart, bitch.” He slapped her again. “Are you setting me up? Answer me!”
Rocky was scared into another religion but she knew if she didn’t get herself together she would be on the floor next to her friend, who died seconds earlier. Slowly Rocky looked at him and glared. “No…this ain’t no set up. Now what you want from me?”
He backed up a little and tilted his head sideways. “Oh you mad now? You ‘bout to be hard and shit and defend your friend’s death?” He pointed at Dukes’ body. “I have no problem shooting you too. ‘Cause I still don’t trust the situation.”
Although he threatened her actually he did have a problem with murdering her. He let off too many rounds and was dry. He had one more bullet left in his gun and needed it in case he had to hit one of Yvette’s men.
“You killed my friend,” she said through clenched teeth. “Why wouldn’t I be mad? Now what do you want with me? I keep asking and you not saying nothing.”
He liked her roar. She wasn’t scared and that was attractive considering the situation. “Actually I’m surprised you so upset about shawty. The way you were acting a minute ago in the hallway I would think I did you a favor. By shooting your friend and all.” He shrugged again. “But hey…maybe I made a mistake. My bad.” He looked back at Spotter. “Check the crib and make sure nobody else is in here.”
“On it,” Spotter said.
Wilson grabbed her hand and walked over to the sofa. He sat down and pulled her to the seated position also. “Now, I want you to tell me about yourself. Starting with your name.”
“Rocky…”
“So what does Rocky do around here? Come on…tell me more.”
Rocky was so angry she could spit in his face. Her rage was the main reason her grandmother nicknamed her Rocky. Whenever she got upset unlike a lot of people in her family she couldn’t hold her composure and preferred to box her way out of a situation instead. While she looked at him she wanted to steal him in the jaw but thought better of it.
“Ain’t nothing to know about me.” She said rolling her eyes. “I’m here and I’ll die soon.”
“You can die even sooner if you don’t be a little kinder.” He paused. “Now I know you mad about shawty but try not to get shot over spilled blood okay?”
Rocky nodded.
“It’s empty, man,” Spotter said coming back into the living room. “Looks like this is the place to be.” He rubbed his hands together.
Wilson stood up and grinned. “Okay, go get Carissa and the work and bring them back.” He looked at Rocky and sighed. “I hope you don’t mind if we hang around here for a little while. Even if you do, well, nobody gives a fuck.”
“I’ll be right back,” Spotter said as he moved for the door in a hurry. “Make sure you let me back in when I knock.”
“I got you.” Wilson winked at him as he walked out.
Wilson looked her up and down. “I been meaning to ask from the time I saw you last summer at the cookout ‘Vette and them threw. You got a man, beautiful? Because somebody with a personality like yours could be on my arm if she acted right.”
“Yeah…I’m taken.”
He sat down and leaned back into the sofa. “Word…tell me about this nigga.”
Rocky had zero time for the games but had to keep herself together. “He ain’t really my type but I gave it a try,” she lied. “It’s still early so I’ll see where it goes.” She looked at her friend and looked away again, trying her best not to be emotional. When she agreed to help Yvette and her team being humiliated and losing her friend was not part of the plan.
Only if she could turn back time.
“So where you meet him at? Your man. Please don’t tell me you fuckin’ a nigga from Marjorie. Ain’t none of the dudes ‘round here about shit. Present company included.” He winked before laughing at his own joke.
“I did meet him from around here...he…he…” Her voice trailed off and a tear crept down her cheek for Dukes’ sake. Feeling weak, she swatted it away. “Gotta see how it goes after a little time I guess.”
He nodded. “I get that…but if things don’t work out I’d like to put my bid in now. I got shit with me but for a sexy red head like yourself, I might be willing to change. That is if you don’t mind getting to know a nigga.”
“Shoot your shot, playa-playa.” She said under her breath, having no intentions on pursuing the creep.
“That I will do.” He grinned. “I like you, Red Head. And I prefer to keep women close to me that I like.” There was a knock at the door and he grabbed her by the arm and snatched her toward it like a rag doll. Once there he glanced out th
e peephole. Looking outside he only saw Spotter. “Where the bitch and the dope?” He yelled at the door.
“They won’t let me in, Wilson!” Spotter said angrily. “Fuck! You gotta come out here and tell them to let me in.”
Wilson felt something was off and took a moment to play the moves in his head. Either his cousin Grace decided to keep the dope and the girl for herself or Spotter was lying. The thing was he knew Spotter long enough to know he always had his back. Corey on the other hand was too green over Grace to see things his way and of course his cousin was fifty-fifty.
He also realized that if Grace was betraying him, there was no way he could let her stay in that Trap with both rewards by herself. If he was gonna die for something he was gonna die for a price.
So he opened the door.
GRACE
Rambler and Carissa sat on the living room sofa while Corey and Grace paced the floor. “Something is wrong, I can feel it,” Grace said eyes moving wildly around the Trap house. “This is about to blow up in our faces.”
“I know…I knew I couldn’t trust that nigga…he gonna leave us with this shit,” Corey said. “When Yvette and them come back I’m gonna be left with my dick in my hands.”
“It’s gonna be a bloody dick if she kicks that door in,” Grace said.
When there was a knock at the door Corey moved toward it, relieved Wilson hadn’t let them down. He looked out the peephole and back at them with a smile. “He came back. Guess he found a place for the stash after all.”
“Wait, don’t open the door,” Grace yelled. “Let me make sure shit is good first.”
“Bitch, you must be crazy. We gotta get out of here!” He turned to open the door when suddenly he felt a piercing slash in his lower back. When he looked over his shoulder he saw that Grace had stabbed him. “What…what is wrong with you?” With wide eyes he asked, “Why you do that?”
He dropped to the floor and she kicked him out of the way and looked out of the peephole. Wilson was by himself but something didn’t add up. “Why you looking all crazy out there?” Grace asked. “You okay, cuz?”
“Open the door, man,” he said under his breath. “I found a place for us. But Spotter said you wouldn’t let us back in.”
“I will…but is everything cool? Because I got a bad feeling. You’re not your usual upbeat self.”
“Yes I’m fine!” He took a fist to the door. “Now stop fucking around and open up! I need to help move the coke out before Yvette and them come back.”
Grace looked back at Rambler and Carissa. “I’m gonna have to pass on this shit,” she said to Rambler. “My instincts telling me not to make any moves.”
“But what if he’s telling the truth?” Rambler whispered. “We can’t be in here forever. You know that. And my arm is killing me.”
“I can’t explain it but I can feel something is off, Rambler,” She looked out of the peephole again. “Sorry, cousin, I’m not gonna be able to open the door. I’ll get up with you though.”
Wilson’s jaw twitched and she felt she made the right decision. “So you gonna leave your own flesh and blood out here to die?”
“Is that what you call it? You slapped me. You humiliated me and now you call me your cousin?
“Bitch, stop fucking playing before I—”
His sentence was forever silenced when Yvette, using the bullet she kissed, shot him in the temple. With Wilson dead she came into view of the peephole with Heavy and 88 at her side. “You’re a smart girl, Grace,” Yvette said calmly through the door. “I always knew that about you.”
Carissa tried to hide her smile although it was difficult. Her girl came back for her. But Kenyetta’s death taught her that she could not claim the glory until she was home safe and in her bed sleep.
Grace, on the other hand, tried not to piss on herself feeling as if her life was coming to a tragic end. “Oh...yeah? How do you know I’m so smart?”
“Because you picked a real nigga when you chose Heavy. In that way I guess we have a lot in common. Which is why I’m giving you an opportunity to come out on your own. To give up my friend and my product. You gonna do that for me, Grace? Or you gonna make things harder?”
“I can’t, Yvette. If I’m gonna die I guess I gotta kill your friend and myself.”
“You don’t really mean that, Grace. You already see where threatening my friend has gotten folks. DEAD. Come out now and open this door. Don’t share Wilson and Spotter’s fate.”
“I can’t do that,” she grinned. “I’m so sorry.”
YVETTE
I was exhausted and I wanted this to be over. In my mind, when this night went down I saw one scenario happening and I was trying to avoid it.
It would be my final sacrifice.
“Let us knock this door down,” Vance said as he and Scott held the Battering Ram. “No sense in waiting when we’re almost there. Whatever’s gonna happen it has to happen now.”
Heavy looked at me and said, “Baby, he’s right. Let’s not wait. I love you. And she may have been my child’s mother but whatever you decide I’m supporting.”
I smiled and looked up at him. “I love you too, Heavy. I know I didn’t say it because I was afraid to express myself but I want you to know now.”
“Yvette, we don’t have time for all this,” 88 whispered. “Let’s bring your girl home.”
I looked back at him, at Heavy and then the door. “Grace, open the door. This my last time asking.”
Grace giggled. “And if I don’t what’s gonna happen?
“Either open the door or I’ma put a bullet in this nigga’s head.” I said referring to Heavy.
Heavy’s eyes widened as 88 walked up behind him and pressed a gun to the back of his scalp. Shelly B on the other hand relieved Heavy’s weapon quickly from him with a smile on his face since the tables were now turned.
“Bae, why you doing this?” Heavy asked with wide eyes. “I’m on your side.”
“I know you are, Heavy, but my friend is in that apartment and I need her safe,” I told him. “If I gotta kill you than so be it. Call it taking one for the team.”
GRACE
Grace farted as she saw the gun being pressed against Heavy’s head from the peephole. She stumbled backwards and looked at Rambler. “What’s going on out there?” Rambler asked, trying desperately not to move her arm. “Are they gonna leave?”
“She’s threatening to shoot Heavy,” Grace said. “She’s gonna…she’s gonna…”
“Just open the door, Grace,” Rambler begged. “This shit is over. Please don’t make them kick it in. It’ll just be worse.”
Before she could give a response Yvette and her team was banging at the door again with the battering ram. It was all over. She could either give up with class or have it be done the hard way.
Either way she lost.
At that moment she thought about how the day started, when Heavy said he didn’t want her. Now she felt stupid and more than anything she realized it wasn’t worth it.
So Grace stood up straight, took a deep breath, kicked Corey’s body further away and opened the door.
Now she was facing the love of her life and the woman who took him from her. “I’m done fighting. You won, Yvette.”
“I always do,” Yvette said.
Since the door was opened 88 rushed inside and picked Carissa up off the sofa, while Grace continued to look at Yvette and Heavy. Shelly B now had a gun pressed to the back of Heavy’s head.
“So you left me for her,” Grace said. “A woman who‘s threatening to have you shot. You call that love?”
Heavy remained silent and looked away.
“So let me guess, after all of this you still gonna be with him.” Grace asked Yvette.
Yvette smiled. “That’s where me and you differ. When it comes to my friends I don’t fuck around.” She looked back at Shelly B. “Aye, yo, drop this nigga.”
With that Shelly B shot Heavy in the back of the head and his body flopped as Yvette’
s eyes remained on Grace. Like he never mattered. “You see that shit?” Yvette pointed down at him. “Consider that the fall from Grace. And you don’t have nobody to blame but yourself.”
“You…you killed him!” Grace cried covering her mouth. She went ballistic with wide eyes and quick breaths. “I thought you cared about him!”
Yvette walked closer to Grace and sighed. “I DID care about him…I even loved him …but where you got me fucked up is when you took my friend. When it comes to her or Mercedes, I don’t play. Now you know.” She turned around and walked out but not before saying, “Kill everybody in that Trap.”
POW! POW! POW!
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
Dipped in a black Versace jumpsuit, Yvette stood on her veranda and looked at the small lake she built on her private property in Virginia. She hadn’t owned it long but there was something about the way the water sloshed against the rocks quietly that put her at ease. She had just taken another sip of wine when Mercedes and Carissa stepped out to join her, standing on opposite sides of her small frame.
Earlier they had lunch but something felt off and she needed fresh air.
She looked back at them and smiled, before focusing on the water again. For a while no one said a word, each allowing the other to take in the calmness of nature, a blessing hard to come by in Washington DC.
Finally Mercedes spoke, the diamonds in her ears shining like stars. Looking at the water she took a deep breath. “Lil C moved the Trap out of Marjorie. To stay on the safer side.”
Carissa frowned. “Why? We stopped using #745. Even moved the Trap to the building over. We’re good now.” She hadn’t touched coke personally since Marjorie. And her frame was thicker and she never felt better.
Mercedes shrugged, feeling slight pain in her arm from being shot. “I know. But he feels after what happened last winter you both shouldn’t take any more chances.”