“Yo, my nigga, hold on…” Ski told Dollaz when he looked over and saw Diamond’s car on Front Street. “Yo, I found her car!” he said jumping out of his car and walking over to the Camaro.
“It’s no sign of her,” he said, looking in the car then up and down the street.
When Diamond didn’t pick Dollaz up from therapy as they planned, he called five times and began to get worried when he couldn’t reach her. He called around to everyone, asking if they had seen her her, but nobody did. Ski informed him that by the time he got to the house, she was gone.
Dollaz sat in his wheelchair and scratched his head. He didn’t know what to think, but it seemed like all the negative things found their way into his thoughts.
“Where da fuck are you?” Dollaz mumbled to himself.
If he only knew how much Diamond needed him. She was tied up, gagged and beat up pretty badly, hoping and praying that her nightmare would end soon. Little did she know, it had only just begun and she was going to need a little more than a prayer to get her out of the vicious situation she was in.
Chapter 11
After sleeping on the roof and waking up together to watch the sunrise, Terrence and Gwen finally took it back into the house. There was no rush for either one of them to get to work, because they both were the boss.
“You know you gone buy me another shirt.” Gwen joked, buttoning up one of Terrence’s long sleeved Polo shirts she had found in his closet.
She smiled as she walked over to him and threw her arms over his shoulder while he sat at the desk looking at the computer screen.
Terrence stopped what he was doing once he felt her touch. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. “How about me and you just chill out for today? We can get something to eat, do a little bit of shopping and just kick it.” Terrence suggested.
“What?” Gwen shot back. “Let me find out you getting all soft.” she joked, kissing the side of his neck.
Terrence jumped out of the chair and spun around the bedroom with her, pecking her lips with his like a bird. She couldn’t get enough of how easily he manhandled her and picked her up at will.
When he laid Gwen down on the bed, she felt a vibrating sensation.
“That better not be what I think it is.” She chuckled as she reached under the covers and felt around. It was her cell phone under the sheets. When she grabbed it, Terrence looked at her with the puppy dog face, not wanting her to answer it.
“Don’t look at me like that, boy.” she smiled, looking at the unavailable number on her screen.
It could only be one person calling from an unavailable number, and that was Niya. This was a call Gwen couldn’t ignore. “Yo.” she answered, reaching up and caressing Terrence’s chest as he sat on top of her.
After the operator came through, Gwen pushed five to accept the call. “Hey sis!” she said in a chipper voice.
“G, when was the last time you spoke to Chad?”
“A couple of days ago. I snapped on him about him not spending much time with the twins and…”
“Chad is dead!” Niya said, cutting her off.
“What?” Gwen yelled into the phone, pushing Terrence off her and jumping up off the bed.
“The Chaplin called me down to his office this morning and told me. He put me on the phone with a detective who told me that Chad committed suicide a few days ago.” Niya explained.
The phone went completely silent. Gwen walked out onto the balcony rubbing her head. The news wasn’t sinking in right away; it was as if she was waiting to wake up from the bad dream.
Niya gave her a moment to get herself together, knowing exactly the way she was feeling. She had been crying half the morning after receiving the news, herself. Even with everything that had happened between them, Niya still had tremendous love for Chad, and that would never change. She only wished she was home to help him through his time of need.
“You still there, G?” Niya asked trying her best to hold back the tears that continued to form in her eyes.
Gwen nodded her head, forgetting that Niya couldn’t see her. Truth be told, Gwen was sick. She felt somewhat responsible for his death, thinking that she should have kept a better eye out on Chad, knowing that he was out there riding reckless. Niya finding out about his death before her, only further proved the fact that she had been neglecting Chad.
“Take your time and get yaself together, sis. Then call around and make sure that what the cops said happened is what happened to him.” Niya said. “I’ll call you back later on tonight, okay?” she said.
Gwen nodded first, but then verbally said yes before hanging up the phone. She looked out at the pond and shook her head, hoping the view would help her get her thoughts, but it didn’t. It wasn’t working in the least, nor was Gwen going to stick around and wait for its tranquility to kick in.
Terrence dropped Gwen off to her car then headed for the office to catch up on some paperwork and find out what happened yesterday when Randy and Tianna set out to find Diamond. Until now, he had been pretty much in the dark about the situation. His cell phone was turned off the moment he picked Gwen up for their date. He didn’t want any interruptions, and he knew that if he kept his phone on, he’d never enjoy the night.
As Terrence drove down the highway, he looked up at his rearview and saw a black SUV dipping in and out of traffic. The truck got closer and closer until it pulled up on the driver side. Terrence didn’t panic because at this point he knew what it was. The passenger side window of the truck came down and Randy sat up in the seat. Terrence rolled his window down as well.
“Yo, we got da bitch!” Randy yelled through the whipping winds. “She’s not talking, though. I think you might wanna holla at her!” he yelled.
Terrence nodded then pointed with his two fingers for Randy to lead the way. They darted in front of Terrence’s car and got off onat the next exit. It took another thirty minutes for them to get to a trap house they had off Patrick Street. That’s where they had Diamond, under heavy watch.
Terrence walked up the stairs and to the bathroom door where one of the workers was standing armed. Diamond looked dead. Blood covered her face and body, and she wasn’t moving at all. He looked over at Randy with a confused look on his face.
“Watch out. She ain’t dead.” Randy said, entering the bathroom and kicking Diamonds leg. “Wake up bitch!” Randy yelled, kicking her leg again.
When she didn’t respond, he grabbed a handful of her hair and lifted her head. He smacked her cheeks a few times, which did the trick in waking her.
She was groggy from the dope Randy shot her up with before he left, so it took her a minute to adjust her eyes. When she did, she couldn’t believe she was looking at Terrence. She blinked her eyes several times to make sure her eyes wasn’t deceiving her, but the image didn’t change. Sure enough, it was Terrence.
“Damn shawty. Look like you had a rough night.” Terrence said, walking over and taking a seat on the edge of the tub. “My people tellin’ me you don’t wanna talk.” He reached over and lifted her chin.
After looking at her for a minute, Terrence began to recognize her blood soaked face from somewhere. He felt the same way he did when he saw her picture on Tianna’s phone. He didn’t remember her, but Diamond sure knew who he was.
“Where do I know you from?” he asked, leaning in to get a better look at her.
Diamond didn’t say anything, and that wasn’t because she didn’t want to, but rather because her jaw felt like it was broke and the slightest movement of her mouth gave her excruciating pain. Her silence only made Terrence upset. He drew the Glock he had tucked in his waist and pointed it at her face. Diamond looked up at him with emptiness in her eyes. She welcomed the bullet, as opposed to giving up her friends.
Terrence was about to pull the trigger but stopped when he saw the MHB tattoo on her.
“Y’all MHB bitches swear y’all run this city,” he said, looking back up into her eyes.
Before Terrence was about to pull the trigger, it clicked. He finally remembered where he recognized Diamond from. He took the gun and moved her hair from the side of her face to be sure. Clear as day, the female that was walking with Gwen the day he bumped into her in the Hearst Tower, was lying there in front of him. He lowered the gun from her head then scratched his own head it as he went into deep thought.
“Yo, what’s goin’ on, brah?” Randy asked, seeing Terrance’s confused look.
“Get da fuck outta here.” Terrence mumbled.
He was putting everything together now. If Diamond was MHB, then more than likely Gwen was too. Thinking even harder, Mortgages, Homes, Business’s actually stood for MHB, and the boss of that company was also Gwen, who probably was the boss of MHB. Shit was getting deep, and the more Terrence thought about it, the more it made sense.
“Yo, we can’t kill dis bitch right now.” Terrence said.
“Why not? Dis bitch killed Dink.” Randy responded.
Terrence looked at Randy like he was crazy. “Do I answer to you now?” Terrence shot back getting up and walking to Randy. “I said don’t touch her.” he said through clenched teeth. “Do I make myself clear?’’
Randy knew to stay in his place before it got dark for him. He lowered his head in humility.
“Clear!” Randy answered in a low tone.
Terrence stuffed his gun back in his waist and walked off. Randy looked over at Diamond, who looked back up at him with a smirk on her face. Randy thought that she was going to die, but it wasn’t going to happen, not now anyway. He looked at her and shook his head then walked off, trying to catch up with Terrence to find out what was going on.
Gwen couldn’t stop crying as she looked down at Chad’s body lying on the metal drawer. She couldn’t believe it. It was like her heart sank into her stomach, and she found it hard to breathe, looking at his pale face. The bullet had traveled quickly through his upper skull, so all that could be seen was a small entry and exit wound right above each ear. The doctor stood far off to the side, giving her time and space to grieve.
The detective in the room wasn’t so respectful. He had a few questions to ask so that he could wrap up his investigation.
“Ma’am, where was he currently residing?” the detective asked with his pen and pad out, ready to take notes.
Gwen looked up and wiped the tears from her cheek. She explained to the detective that Chad was living with her and not at the address they had in the criminal system, which was Niya’s house.
“Well, if he lived on the East side with you, what was he doin’ in a motel way on the other side of town?” the detective asked.
That was one thing Gwen couldn’t understand about the whole situation. Not just that, but it was hard for her to believe that Chad would kill himself. This was something most black men would never consider. But she did know that lately he was using a lot of drugs and alcohol to mask his pain. That pain was so hard that she had even considered it once herself, and had it not been for Chad, it would be her lying on that metal bed being identified. Damn why wasn’t I there for him, like he was for me? Gwen thought. The two most important men in her life were now gone, and it was only one person she could think of to blame outside of herself.
The detective tried to ask a few more questions, but Gwen wasn’t up for it. She snapped on the detective and then stormed out of the coroner’s office. Her hurt turned into anger and the only thing that was on her mind when she left of the coroner’s office was putting an end to that other person’s life. Mayo’s number was up and Gwen wasn’t going to wait another minute. She whipped out her cell phone as she walked through the parking lot.
Kea picked up on the second ring. “Yo wassup?” she answered.
“It’s a green light on that. And make sure that shit hurt.” Gwen said before hanging up the phone.
Terrence stepped off the elevator and walked onto the floor of MHB Realty. He stood by the elevators and looked at all the females walking around, answering telephones, and sitting with potential clients. He slowly walked towards Gwen’s office, all the while looking around. Shockingly, he noticed that most of the women had MHB tattoos on their necks, arms, hands and feet, and wasn’t ashamed to flaunt them.
“Can I help you, Mr. Johnson?” one of the secretaries asked from her cubicle.
“Yeah, is Gwen in?” he asked, noticing that she too had an MHB tattoo on her wrist.
“She didn’t come in yet. Do you want to leave a message for her?” the secretary asked politely.
‘‘Nah, that’s okay. I’ll come back a little later,” he told her before heading back to the elevator.
Terrence went downstairs to his own office. When he stepped onto the floor, it was quiet and his employees sat at their cubicles with nervous looks in their eyes.
“Molinda what’s goin on?” Terrence asked his receptionist.
“They been here since 9:00 this morning,” she said, nodding in the direction of Terrence’s office.
He looked back and saw about a half dozen people sitting around his office. They looked hood too, dressed in black hoodies and tan Timberland boots. Seeing his little sister Stacey sitting in the middle of everybody, he knew exactly who they were.
“Here we go.” Cornell said when Terrence entered the room.
Cornell was Dink’s older brother. He was the one who kept pressing the issue about getting some answers concerning Dink’s death. Terrence knew him, but not that well, especially not well enough to continue to allow Cornell to be sitting in his chair with his feet up on his desk.
“Yo, you wanna get up out my chair homeboy?” Terrence said, not even taking the time to acknowledge his sister.
Cornell didn’t even look at him.
Terrence wasn’t going for it though. “I’m not gonna ask you again, my man.” Terrence said, walking around to the back of his desk.
Cornell jumped up and stood toe to toe with Terrence when he walked up on him. There was obvious tension was in the room, and most of it was coming from Cornell and his crew, who were in murder mode behind Dink’s death.
They felt that Terrence wasn’t making enough progress in taking care of the situation, so they came up North to make shit hot.
“Everybody just cool out. We ain’t come up here for all that.” Stacey said, breaking the silence in the room.
Cornell stood to the side and let Terrence sit in his chair. He took a seat on the other side of the desk.
“Yo, what you know about my brother’s death?” Cornell asked with an attitude.
“Just like I told my incompetent sister…” he said, looking up at Stacey. “I’m working on that situation.”
“That’s not good enough.” Cornell said, shaking his head. “My lil’ bro was up here fuckin’ wit you, which makes you partly responsible for his death. Now you either tell me what you know, or I’ma take it out on you!” Cornell threatened.
“Take it out on me? You got me fucked up.” Terrence said, pulling the gun from his hip.
Terrence started a chain reaction, because the other three males that were in the room all pulled out guns and pointed them right at Terrence. Terrence had his gun pointed at Cornell, who was unarmed. A couple of the employees who watched as guns were drawn, were tempted to go for the elevator, but stopped when they noticed a man with a black hoody on, standing by the elevator doors with his hand under his shirt.
“If you gone shoot, nigga then shoot. If not, tell me what you know so we can get da fuck up outta here.” Cornell said aggressively.
It wasn’t that Terrence was bitching or anything, he just figured if he told them what he knew, they could deal with it from here on out. He could save some t
ime and money, plus a lot of unnecessary bloodshed.
“It was some bitches from a crew out here called MHB,” Terrence said, lowering his gun slowly. “I don’t know how many of them there are, but I do know they run this city and they’re not hard to find. The problem is, you gotta find out which ones did it.” Terrence said.
“Yeah, well we do things a little different down south, homeboy.” Cornell said, getting up from his seat. “We gone kill as many of them as we can. Then, after we feel like we caused enough grief in this city, we’ll leave. So from here on out, just stay out of the way.” Cornell said and walked out of the office.
Terrence gave his sister the evil eye as she followed behind Cornell and his crew. She stopped at the door and turned round to say something to him, but Terrence gave her a dismissive stare to let her know he wasn’t trying’ to hear nothing she had to say. As far as he was concerned, Stacey wasn’t his sister right now, and whatever happened to her at this point was on her.
Chapter 12
“LOCK DOWN!” Ms. Nealy yelled from her office.
Mayo was already in his room, preparing to give Ms. Nealy some of the best dick she ever had. A couple hundred push-ups, a few hundred sit-ups and about five hundred back-arms had his body nice and tight. He took a quick bird bath in his sink to freshen up, then dabbed on some oils from the commissary.
“A’ight my nigga. As soon as she open this door after count, I need you to go out there and start cleaning up.” Mayo told his celly so that he would have the cell to himself.
“Damn, my nigga, you da man.” his celly shot back, extending his hand for a pound.
Mayo walked over to the door and looked out the narrow window, watching as Ms. Nealy and another guard walked around counting inmates. He was more so looking at Ms. Nealy’s ass swaying from side to side as she walked up to every door. Just the thought of sticking his dick between her cakes made his dick hard.
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