by Roy Glenn
The cost of vengeance
Roy Glenn
Roy Glenn
The cost of vengeance
Chapter one
Nina Thomas
The grand jury didn’t return a murder indictment against me. I was so relieved I cried. Now that that was behind me, I had something else on my mind-the women who robbed me. They didn’t follow me from Jimmy’s; they were there at my apartment waiting for me. They had to know that I would be at Jimmy’s, and where I lived. I looked at Teena and wondered how they knew that.
I went home with Shay and Teena. They had a surprise party waiting there for me. “Surprise!” Even though I wasn’t in the mood for a party, I acted like I was having a good time, but my mind was focused on how them women knew where I lived. Sometime during the party, I sat down and watched Teena. She was all over the place, like she always was, being the life of the party. After awhile, Shay came and sat with me. “Something bothering you?”
“Why you say that?”
“This is your party and you’re the only one that’s not having fun.”
“Just got a lot on my mind.”
“That why you been sweatin’ Teena all night?” Shay asked.
I didn’t answer.
Shay stood up. “Come on. We need to talk.”
Shay led me by the hand into the bedroom. We sat on the bed and I ran it all down to her. How no matter how much we talked about not doing business at Jimmy’s, Teena called me to do business at Jimmy’s. I told her about the two women who were watching me, and that it was those same two women that robbed me. “They didn’t follow me from Jimmy’s; they were waiting there for me, Shay. They had to know that I would be at Jimmy’s that night, and they had to know where I lived.”
“Wait here a minute,” Shay said and left the room. When she came back, Teena was with her. “Tell her what you just told me, Nina.”
I ran through it again.
“Hold up. You think I set you up?” Teena asked.
“We just talkin’, Teena,” Shay said.
“I ain’t talkin’ to you, Shay. Nina, you think I set you up?”
“Like Shay said, we just talkin’.”
“You do think I set you up. That hurts bitch. Long as we’ve known each other, as much shit as three of us have been through together, you think I would do some shit like that? That shit hurts,” Teena said, and I could see the hurt on her face.
“If you would stop being so hurt and think about it, you’d understand why we had to have this conversation,” Shay said.
“Why?”
“Think about that shit, Teena. Nina don’t go to Jimmy’s, that’s your spot,” Shay began. “You call her up there and there are two women watchin’ her. The same two women that are waiting at her apartment to rob her. How did they know where she lived? How did they know she would be at Jimmy’s that night?”
“Okay, okay; when you run it down like that I can see why Nina’s lookin’ crazy at me,” Teena said.
“In case you ain’t noticed, it ain’t just Nina lookin’ at you crazy,” Shay said.
“I get it, Shay, I get it. But believe me; I didn’t set you up, Nina. First of all, Shay, didn’t I call you first and you said you didn’t have it?”
“Shay?” I asked.
“True, she did call me.”
“Was I gonna rob Shay’s ass too.” I wanted to say maybe, but I didn’t. “How did I know you was goin’ back to your apartment? You was on some dick when I called you, and you said that you were in a hurry to get back to that dick.”
“Nina?” Shay asked.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” I had to laugh at myself ’cause I got a little wet just thinking about gettin’ some more of that dick. But for reasons that I understand, Victor didn’t want to see me anymore.
“And if I was gonna set you up to get robbed, why wouldn’t I set it up so you would have to go get the stash where the real weight is, instead of at your apartment, where I know for a fact that you got a key at best?”
Me and Shay looked at each other. “I’m sorry, Teena,” I said.
“You ain’t gotta be sorry, Nina. I understand why y’all had to come at me like that. Shit, if it was either of you bitches, I woulda pulled the same stunt.”
“Anyway, I’m sorry too,” Shay said. And we had a group hug.
“I love you two bitches. I would never do nothin’ to hurt you,” Teena said.
“I’m glad that’s settled,” Shay said.
“No, it’s not,” I said and Teena and Shay looked at me. “The one thing we agree on is that it was a setup, right?”
“Right,” they both agreed.
“The question is: how did they know where I live?”
“Who knows where you live?” Shay asked.
“Not many people know where I live. At least that was the case before this party,” I said and thought about moving.
“So who?” Teena asked.
“You two, Kenyatta, Leon, and Cedric knew, but he’s dead,” I said.
“I think we can eliminate him.”
I thought about that night and that’s when it hit me. “There is one more person that knows where I live.”
“Who’s that?” my girls both asked simultaneously.
“Victor.”
“Victor?” the both asked in unison, again.
“Victor.”
That night we decided to watch Victor. It felt like we were cops as we took turns sitting outside his house and following him wherever he went. I followed him to a house and waited for him to come out. When he came out, my two female bandits came out with him. When I told Teena and Shay about it, we argued about what we were gonna do about it. “We kill them,” I said quietly.
“We?” Shay asked.
“Yes, we, Shay. We gotta do this,” I said.
“What; now that you’ve killed somebody you’re a killer?” Shay asked.
“That’s not it, Shay. I don’t think I’m a killer, but we gotta do this. We can’t let this go without us doing anything about it. We can’t have people thinking that they can just rob us and we let it go.”
“What you say, Teena?” Shay asked.
Teena looked at both of us. “I agree with Nina. We gotta kill them. Three of us, three of them.”
We planned how we’d do it. Shay was shaky. “We’ll do it together,” I said.
“We’ll both be right there with you,” Teena promised.
That next night, I drove to the house I saw the women with Victor and waited. The three of us sat in the car and talked about everything, except what we were there to do. The only thing that was different was that we all had on bandanas and gloves. We had been there for a couple of hours when the front door opened. “There go one of them,” I said as she walked out of the house and locked the door.
“Which one is it?” Shay asked.
“She’s mine,” Teena said and got out of the car.
I grabbed my gun and got out of the car as well. Shay got out, too, but she didn’t bring her gun with her. Teena walked up on her so fast that we had to hurry to keep up with her. She got to her just as she made it to her car.
“Hey, bitch,” Teena said, and she turned and looked at Teena. “Time to die.” Teena raised her gun and pulled the trigger. She fired three shots and hit her with all three.
Now the plan was that Teena would kill one woman, Shay would kill the other, and Victor was mine. This way we were all in it together. But Shay left her gun in the car, so when Teena took care of hers, Shay froze. I ran to the door and waited with my gun raised. When the other woman came out to see what was going on, I put my gun to her head. I thought about just going ahead and shooting her, but I thought it was important to stick to the plan. I walked her at
gunpoint to the car. Once she was inside, I said to Shay, “Find something to gag her with.” Shay took off the bandana she was wearing and shoved it in her mouth. Teena drove off. We took her to Kenyatta’s dope spot.
When we got to the spot, I called Kenyatta and told her to come to the car. “Here she comes,” I said, and Teena got out of the car and walked up on her before she got to the car. She told Kenyatta that we needed a vacate apartment. “What’s goin’ on?” I heard Kenyatta ask.
“Never mind all that. You got a spot or not.” Teena said.
Kenyatta led Teena toward the building and ten minutes later, Teena came back and we took her inside to a vacant apartment on the third floor. As soon as we got in there, we made her get down on her knees. Both Teena and I looked at Shay.
Shay stepped up to her and pointed her gun at the woman’s head. She closed her eyes and got ready to die. We all stood there watching Shay, as she lowered the gun.
“I can’t.”
“Gimme that,” Teena said and took the gun from Shay. Without another word Teena shot her point-blank in the head. She looked at Shay, handed her back the gun, and walked away.
Shay looked at me. “I’m sorry, Nina.”
“Come on,” I said and followed Teena out of the apartment. There was only one thing left to do. There was nothing said while Teena drove us to our next spot. When we pulled up outside, Teena put the car in park and her and Shay started to get out.
“Let’s go get that nigga,” Teena said.
“No. I gotta do this myself,” I said.
“What?” Teena asked.
“No, Nina. You shouldn’t go in there by yourself,” Shay said.
“I know I shouldn’t, but I have to,” I said and opened the car door. I got out of the car and started walking toward the house. Teena jumped out of the car and ran up to me.
“Why you doin’ this, bitch?”
“I need to do this alone, Teena,” I said and started walking toward the house again.
I rang the bell and there was no answer. I walked around the house looking for another way in. I found a window in the back of the house that was cracked open. I went in and made my way to the living room. I got a chair and pulled it in front of the door. I sat down and waited, knowing that when he turned on the lights, the first thing he would see was me.
I had been sitting there for over an hour before I heard the key hit the lock. I raised my weapon. Victor opened the door and turned on the light.
“Nina?” His eyes opened wide when he saw the gun. “What are you doing here?”
“Come in and close the door,” I said. I should have shot him on sight and been done with it. But I didn’t.
“What’s this about, Nina?” Victor asked.
“Don’t play stupid. You know what this is about.”
“’Cause I wouldn’t go out with you again,” Victor said and laughed a little.
“Very funny. Chose your next little joke carefully, ’cause it will be your last.”
“Can I sit down?”
“Go ahead,” I said, and Victor sat down on the couch. When he sat down, I stood up.
“So, you wanna tell me what this is about?”
“You set me up.”
“What?”
“You were the one that sent those women to rob me that night.”
“And I suppose that I set it up to get beat to death?”
“There was no way you could know that Cedric would be there, or that I would have to call you to untie me.”
“This is crazy, Nina. What makes you so sure that I did it?”
“I been following you.”
“Now you stalking me, Nina? This is ridiculous.”
“I followed you and you led me right to the two bitches that robbed me that night.”
The look on his face changed completely then. Up to that point, I guess he thought that he would be able to talk me out of killing him. Now, for the first time since he walked in the door, Victor looked scared. “So, let’s start again. Why you set me up?”
Victor looked around the room, and then he took a deep breath. “It wasn’t anything personal, Nina. That’s just our hustle. One of us gets the mark out of the house and the other two rob them. LeSean and Shantia scouted you out.”
“How’d they know I’d be at Jimmy’s that night?” I asked just to put my fears about Teena to rest once and for all.
“I called them right after you left and told them where you’d be, and where you lived. They were there waiting for you.”
“Why me?”
“Like I said, it was nothing personal, Nina. It’s just what we do,” Victor said. “Give me a couple of days and I swear we’ll get your money back.”
“There ain’t no more we,” I said and took a step closer to him.
“What do you mean?”
“Your girlfriends are dead now.”
“You’re not gonna kill me, are you?” he asked with a nervous laugh.
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to do that. Look Nina, I got a couple of thousand in the bedroom. You can have that right now, and I swear I’ll get the rest of it to you. I just need a few days to get it together, but you ain’t gotta do this.”
Just then he jumped up from the couch and came at me. I shot him three times in the chest and he fell back on the couch. I stood over him, and when I turned to I leave, I was startled to see Teena coming out of the bedroom with her gun in her hand.
“You didn’t really think I was about to let you come in here alone, did you?” Teena asked.
“No I guess not,” I said and started for the door.
“By the way, the nigga didn’t have any money in the bedroom ’cause I checked.
Chapter Two
Rain Robinson
Nick dropped me off at my apartment, and I was about to do what I was told and get some rest when the phone rang. “You have a collect call from a correctional facility,” the recorded voice said. I knew that it had to be from my brother Miles, so I accepted the charges.
After Miles found out that my father’s right-hand man, Jeff Ritchie, arranged the murder of the mother of his child, he killed him. That bitch Wanda recommended that Miles plead not guilty of the murder due to temporary insanity, and wave his right to a jury trial. Mike Black arranged to have his case heard in front of a judge that was on his card. All of the witnesses testified that they saw Miles and Jeff Ritchie fighting, and then Miles shot him. But none of the witnesses could remember seeing Miles leave and come back with the gun. That was Nick’s doin’. The judge said that Miles’s mental condition at the time of the killing, rendered him unable to determine right from wrong, or that what he was doing was wrong. The judge ordered clinical treatment until Miles could be certified safe to be released back into the community. But the DA fixed it so Miles had to stay at Rikers Island for treatment.
“What’s up, Miles,” I asked.
“I need to see you, Rain,” Miles said.
“How you doin’, Miles?”
“I don’t have time for this, Rain. I need to see you.”
“Look, Miles, today ain’t really a good day for me. I’ll try to make it out there tomorrow.”
“No!” Miles shouted. “It can’t wait until tomorrow, Lorraine! I need you to come out here today.”
Anytime Miles calls me by my name, I know it’s something serious, ’cause he knows I hate being called Lorraine. “Okay, Miles. I’ll be out there today, but I got shot and I just got outta the hospital.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“What? What was you in the hospital for?”
“We’ll talk about that when I see you,” Miles said and hung up the phone.
The last thing I wanted to do was ride out to Rikers. I was tired and my chest hurt. I probably did too much last night. Rollin’ wit’ Nick and gettin’ some dick this morning didn’t help. I wanted to do what my man told me to, and get some rest, but Miles needed me and that means I’m goin’.
When Miles c
ame out, the first thing I noticed was the bandage on his face. “What happened to you?”
“Two guys jumped me in the shower. One of them held me, while the other cut my face.”
My first thought was this was some jail-house pretty-boy shit. My brother was a pretty nigga, so I laughed a little. “What they do that for?”
When he pulled the bandage off and I saw that they’d cut an E in his face, I knew I was wrong. “They said the Easely family sends their regards, then he sliced me.” I knew this was my shit. This was because I killed Jay Easy. I sat there and looked at Miles. “What did you do?” Miles asked me.
“I can’t say right now, but I’m sorry this had to touch you.”
“I knew this was your doing, Rain.”
“I’ll take care of it; you can be sure of that,” I said and started to leave.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“If they came after me, they might go after Lakeda and the kids. When was the last time you checked on them?”
“It’s been a minute.”
“Why?”
“You know I can’t stand that bitch. Shit, she’s the reason you’re in here.” Lakeda found out that Miles had been cheatin’ on her, and that’s why Jeff Ritchie arranged to have the woman killed.
“No she isn’t. I’m in here because I killed Jeff Ritchie for having Zakiya Phillips killed.” I looked at Miles and wondered if I should I tell him how it really went down. I guess he knew I had something to say. “What, Rain?”
“There’s something you need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“It wasn’t Jeff Ritchie.”
“What you talkin’ about, Rain?”
“I knew something wasn’t right about her story. Lakeda wouldn’t talk to Jeff Ritchie about you having an affair. Her and Jeff wasn’t cool like that. But she would talk to daddy.”
“What are you sayin’?”
“Lakeda went to see daddy that night after she’d caught you. You know as well as I do that Jeff Ritchie would never do anything like that. He wouldn’t send men to kill her; not unless daddy told him to.”
Miles dropped his head.