by Brick
She reached up and clawed my face, but I didn’t feel that shit. I stomped her in the face as she went down to the floor.
Just to put on a good show so Dame wouldn’t be the wiser, I screamed out, “You stole my daddy shit, bitch. Fuckin’ up my daddy money, ho!”
“Ahh,” the Russian said again. “I take it the one laying the smackdown is the bottom, er, beech.”
Niggas cracked up.
I could see Timberlands coming my way. I knew that was Trigga, so I tried to beat that ho as much as I could before he pulled me away.
“Naw, Trigga,” Dame growled low. “Let her handle that shit.”
I knew he only allowed me to go to town on that bitch because he couldn’t do it with Anika in the house. I was beating Sasha so bad, I didn’t even realize when she had stopped swinging back. I’d torn her dress off her and kicked her in her pussy before I realized she wasn’t defending herself anymore. She lay in the middle of the room in a pool full of her own blood. Just like Gina.
“Bitch!” I screamed out and gave a running punt kick to her face. I wanted to finish that ho right then and there. I picked up the heaviest vase in the room, well, the vase closest to me, straddled her while standing up, and was set to bring it down on her face, but Dame told Trigga to grab me.
“Naw, don’t kill that bitch yet. That ho gon’ make me my money back,” Dame fumed. “Drag that bitch downstairs,” he told another soldier.
We all knew downstairs meant the basement.
When Trigga snatched me back, the vase crash landed on the floor, while Sasha lay moaning on the floor.
Forgetting I was still in the presence of a madman, I lay my head back against Trigga’s chest and laughed. I was sure that by then everyone in the room knew “Scotty” was calling me. Some of the men in the room offered Dame cash just to take me with them for the evening,
“What the young one says is true.” Anika scowled at Dame, whose face was contorted in anger. “Your product is being distributed watered down on the south side. Bodies were dropped. A turf war has been set off, and it’s looking like niggas from your house started it.”
Dame thundered. “Hey, I don’t know shit about no turf war!” The vein in his forehead was protruding again, and his hazel eyes had darkened.
“Watch that tone when you’re talking to me, Damien,” Anika hissed. “I’m not one of your girls.”
The Russian, who looked like that big pale mofo from the Rocky movies quirked a brow and smirked. “She is beautiful in her sass,” he said, talking about Anika.
“Your shit has been sloppy for a while now, and until you get your house in order, I’ll be staying my distance.” Anika rose from the table, snapping her fingers, and all her guards fell in line behind her.
Armando, the Latin King, rose to his feet. “I know I’ve been pretty silent, but my allegiance has always been with Anika. If she’s keeping her distance, so am I.”
There was a smirk on Armando’s face that told Dame that he knew something that Dame didn’t know. He buttoned his double-breasted black suit jacket and signaled his guards to follow him out.
The Jamaican King rose to his feet next. “Yuh already know way me stand, brudda. If Anika goes, so do I.”
It looked like the king’s house was crumbling, and this time he was going down with it.
Trigga
Diamond had wilded out and got on some real ratchet shit. Was sexy as fuck. I watched as she took Sasha’s head and slammed that shit down on the floor. Smirked when she stomped that broad in the ground. In my mind, I was laughing my ass off and wished she had finished that bitch off, but then I remembered it was too soon to end her torture.
Diamond was slumped against my chest, eyes rolling and shit. Shawty was sniffing, almost sweatin’, so I knew she musta gotten into some dust. What had me tripping though was how Dame was watching us. Nigga was cutting me with his eyes. I almost gave a wide smile at that nigga. I had what was his in my arms, and she felt good too. But my mind was on some other shit.
One, I had noticed through the dinner how Anika spoke. Shit was, like, in codes, codes like I’d learned from my pops. I realized she got my message, and had one for me too. Dope. My network with her was down. Also, when Armando walked by, I noticed how he gave me a signal of allegiance. That tripped me out too. Another one on my side. This shit was falling into my lap like clockwork, all of it going down without Dame noticing a thing. Why? Because nigga was stuck on pussy. Young pussy.
Now, on to number two, Gina had taken her life. The blood everywhere, how she went out, played over in my head. It was as if I was seeing how my mom got killed by that nigga Dame. Sasha needed to pay, Dame needed to pay, Pookie, Blackout, everyone that helped that nigga Dame end Gina’s life needed to die, and I was happy to be the one to do it.
Diamond needed to be handled, because Sasha needed to have a private conversation with a nigga. I turned to the side to give Diamond to Big Jake. Pookie and Blackout walked up to me to try to get to Sasha, but I pushed past them niggas.
“We got that bitch, Trigga dog,” Blackout said to me.
Feeling how Dame watched me, I kneeled down to snatch Sasha by the back of her neck then dragged her body behind me like a rag doll. Bitch didn’t deserve to be picked the fuck up. “Naw, ya don’t. Y’all need to get at them niggas that was chasing at Jake and me. Find out who started the turf war behind bossman’s back. Defend the house. Feel me?”
Nigga got in my face like he was going to step to me, so I did him a solid and punched him right in his face. I watched him stumble back before sending my Tims right into his muthafuckin’ chest, while pulling on Sasha’s hair.
Blackout pushed back, trying to punch me, but he was clumsy with it. So I was able to slowly walk back, laughing.
Dame slammed his cane on the floor. “Go handle that shit, Pookie and Blackout!” he yelled. Then he called behind me, “Ey, yo, fuck you going, Trigga?”
Everyone in the house had cleared out. Dame had gotten played again. Nigga was about to bring hell and fuck up everyone in his way, like the bitch-ass nigga he was.
The vein in my temple began to throb. “Taking this broad to the basement, like you asked, bossman.”
“Nah, nigga, you assumed that shit.” Dame started to go in.
Keeping my voice level and calm, I quickly stopped his shit at the pass. “Bossman, looks like the rest of the bosses are trying to get your attention. Let me do my job for you and take care of this disloyal bitch.”
Malice glinted in his eyes. He looked like he didn’t know what the fuck to do in the moment. His house was falling, and he was sitting stupid. Nigga definitely wasn’t a true boss; I could see that shit now.
So as he sat on the side of the table thinking on how to grow fuckin’ apples, or whatever the fuck that nigga had going on in his dome, I yanked on Sasha and walked off on him. I ain’t have time for his split-personality bullshit. I was on a time frame, which included fuckin’ this bitch up more.
As I headed down into the basement, I heard a whistle down in the hallway. I knew no one was around, and where the whistle came from, which was familiar to me, no cameras were there. So I twisted Sasha’s hair in my hand and slammed her face hard into a wall and dropped her where she lay. Her soft whimper let me know that bitch was still out.
Moving quickly, I dropped down to one knee and looked into the darkness. The person I called my eyes stood there holding a card. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of candy in exchange for the card.
“What she say?” I asked.
The soft voice of my eyes happily grabbed the candy and gave me a smile. “She said tha world is yours, and ta hurry up, she’s mad bored with his life.”
A slow smile spread across my face. I stood then looked down. “You need to disappear and go chill with her. She’ll keep you safe, Ghost, until I get to you, a’ight.”
“A’ight. Trigga?” Ghost’s soft voice asked.
“Yeah, baby girl?” I kneeled down to look in
to her big doe eyes.
See, for about as long as I been in the house, Ghost had been there. She was one of the lost kids like me, but mad younger, around eight or nine years old. Her mom hid her well in the house from Dame, his own daughter, by dressing her up like a boy. Me and Gina had promised always to watch her once her mom died, and she became my eyes. I’d also schooled her on my pops’ and moms’ teachings.
“I miss Gina. Fuck that nigga up. I don’t care that he ma daddy. You ma real daddy. So fuck him up. Thank you fa the candy,” Ghost said, reaching out to hug my leg, before disappearing through her secret ways.
I rolled my shoulders then popped my knuckles as I walked to Sasha, yanking her up. “You know I will, baby girl, on my word.”
Sasha started waking up the moment her body rolled down the stairs. Yeah, I just tossed that bitch down like the trash she was.
The smell of blood still scented the basement even though it was clean. A glance far into the darkness of the basement made me smile.
I yanked hard then picked Sasha up and laid her on the table. See, the table was known as the lunchroom ’cuz this was where bitches and niggas lay as they got ran in. So, for now, Sasha looked like she needed to be put on the lunchroom.
“Uggg! Hey! What? Trigga? Get ya gimp-ass hands off me! Get off me! Where am I? The fuck you doing?” Sasha screeched, fighting me.
She kicked her legs, hitting my chest, but I just kept on tightening the leather straps at her arms. Each time she kicked or swung, I tightened the bonds some more, until I looked her in the face then punched her dead in the mouth, sending several of her teeth sliding into her mouth, choking her up with her blood before she spat at me.
“See, you fucked up, Sasha, so now it’s me and you.” I pulled my mask down and pushed my hoodie back.
This broad really thought she was about some shit, like she wasn’t going to get hers from what she had done to everyone in the house. I chuckled deeply then playfully slapped each side of her cheeks before snatching some of the blonde extensions in her hair by the root.
“OW! Get off me! I ain’t did shit to you, nigga. Oh, you mad now ’cuz of that bitch Ray-Ray. Wait till I tell him you fuckin’ her. You ain’t shit, Trigga!” she yelled, bucking at me.
I had to laugh again. This broad really thought she was a dime. Did she not see where the fuck she was at? “Bitch, do you realize where you at? The basement. Your time is mine, ho.” I stepped back and reached into my hoodie for my cell phone while she was bucking and screaming. I scrolled through it, shaking my head and laughing. The light from my cell covered me as I searched through my files looking for that special video I had made.
“Fuck you, Trigga! You ain’t been shit since you came in here. You think ’cuz you Dame’s right you got power. Just like I always have, I’ll survive the basement, and when I’m done with you, nigga, you gonna be mute fa real. With a dick in ya asshole too! Now what?”
See, now, when a broad turns into a bitch, I usually couldn’t give two shits. But this bitch right here wasn’t a woman. Which was why I punched that bitch in her pussy then landed another against her face.
I leaned down to show her my cell. “Shut the fuck up and watch,” I cooly said, my hand gripping her throat. My lips parted into a smile the moment her eyes widened at her brother’s then cousin’s deaths.
“You set me up!” she screamed. She tried to move but couldn’t.
Her screams and attempts to buck at me made me laugh aloud. I hit delete on the video then pulled out my gun and pressed it against her temple.
“Naw, you set your own self up, and now me and you ’bout to play, Sasha.” Leaning over her, I slammed her head back hard on the table, grabbed a leather strap, and then covered her mouth with it.
Behind me were tools of torture Dame liked to use. His machete was gone, but a jagged rusted iron rod drew my attention. I reached for it, flipped it through my hands then traced it over her body, cutting into her skin.
“You don’t fuck with me and not expect to get some loving back. So, rock-a-bye baby, you got an appointment with Trigga.”
My eyes stared into her shocked and now scared gaze, and her pleas quickly spilled out.
I reached behind me to turn the lights out, leaving only the flickering florescent pool table light to turn on as her screams then gargling sound of blood caught in her throat filled the basement.
Several hours later, I sat in my car in the parking lot looking at the note the Nigerian queen had given me. I had to laugh. I saw my real name written on the back of the same card I had just gotten the day before from the suit shop Dame had sent Big Jake and me to. On it was my name with a cell number then on the other side was the name Phenom. The nigga I’d wanted to see.
Getting out of Dame’s wasn’t hard at all. I let him know that I was going into the streets to find out about the turf shit and explained that Jake and me had been running from some niggas who’d been gunning for us because of it.
Of course, the nigga didn’t care. He was busy trying to save face with some of the bosses, so he let me go. I checked on Big Jake who stood outside of the bedroom Diamond was in and gave him our code that I was about to finalize this shit. I knew he was broken. The way he looked at me, I knew he wasn’t even really there, but he was going to manage to hold me down even though he’d lost Gina. I respected him for that.
So, for her, I moved fast. I hit the numbers on my disposable cell and waited.
“That didn’t take long, K. Are you at the location, sweetie?”
The syrupy, sexy voice of the Nigerian queen straight up purred at me and had a nigga sitting up straight. Naw, it wasn’t for the fact that her voice could make a nigga’s dick hard, but this broad knew my real name. I didn’t know what to say for a minute.
“K, we do not have time for this. Answer me, or I’m done here.”
Ultimatums didn’t work for me, but tonight for my fam, I’d handle it. “Ah, yeah, I’m here. How you know my name?”
Her soft giggle had me clutching my cell. Shit wasn’t cute anymore and was pissing me all the way off.
“You’ll find out shortly. I just wished to tell you that my house will protect you, honey, especially after tonight. You bring me that negro’s head once you are done, yes?”
I blinked for a couple of moments. I could hear the smile in her voice as if she knew more than me. That tripped me out too. “A’ight, so what’s really real?”
“You’ll find that out soon, I said. Now are you bringing me that prize, yes or no?” she asked again with a soft, sexy command.
“No doubt. But what you get from it?”
I listened to her laugh again, pausing to whisper something to someone in the background before talking to me. “Just for you, you get to know what no one knows. I get to see that negro’s head on my mantel and smile at the muthafucka who dare to put his hands on my blood. See, Diamond is my niece, and I do not take kindly to what the fuck he did to my sister and my niece—my blood.”
She stopped talking for a minute, and I heard doors closing in the background.
Then she spoke up again, saying, “Her mother and I fell out. But had I known what she had planned, I would have helped her. And had I known that bitch Damien had taken my niece, things would have been very different. Therefore, you see an eye for an eye, sweetie, plain as day, and a favor out of many long overdue to you. Now go around the back and handle your business, Trigga. We’ll be in touch.”
Like that, she hung up on me, and I sat back, mind blown. Don’t trust anyone was what I grew up on, and now I saw that the people I didn’t trust knew more shit about me than I thought. Wasn’t jigging on how much she knew about me, that she knew my name, so I definitely was going to check back on that shit, once the dust cleared.
Getting out of my ride, I kept my face down and walked to the back of the store. The lot was empty, the building empty, but the storage door was open. Part of me wished I had gone with my first mind and had Jake here, but fuck it, if a nigga was �
��bout to die, then that’s what it was gonna be.
I stepped in quietly and walked through, following the open doors. I smelled cigars and heard the sound of a lighter. All around me were suits, clothes, shoes, and mirrors, nothing else. The hair on my arms stood, which had me turning around again with my gun ready.
The sound of a British accent came at my right side. “I knew when you walked in that you were my blood. Look just like your pops.”
I turned to point my gun that way, noticing that Idris Elba-looking cat sitting with both feet up on a desk, smoking his cigar. He was dressed in black slacks, white shirt, and black vest. Around his neck was a loose tie, and a gun lay right next to him.
“Fuck you know about that, sir?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
I watched the man shift forward and study me. I couldn’t remember his name for shit. He had the eyes of an OG, like he knew everything. Then it hit me—this is Phenom. No way. Couldn’t be. Not some British cat. Fuck outta here.
“Because that nigga was my fam,” he said, “and you are my nephew and blood. Been looking for you for years. Call me Phenom.”
His accent quickly disappeared into a Brooklyn swag. Nigga sounded just like my pops through and through. No fuckin’ way! I kept my gun leveled on me because shit felt like games being played.
“Yeah, the fuck right! This some game? Get me, Phenom,” I urged, keeping my back to the mirrors as I watched him.
“My nigga, let’s cut all this shit at the pass. You been lookin’ for me, and I’ve been lookin’ for you. I promised your pops back on the block that we’d always look out for each other. Fam first. Nigga was just like you. He was Battle, and I was Phenom. Came to the A to follow my sister to school. Me, I went overseas.”
He paused to watch me. “So you comin’ to me for what, nephew? Guns? Because I can give you that and then some, as your right. Put the shit away because, like on some real shit, I could have taken you out in the parking lot. That trigga shit ya got from me and ya pops, so chill and speak. Chaos is order, and order is chaos—this is the way of the street.”