Niya got off the bus in Durham, North Carolina, and took in a deep breath. She smiled, thinking of how surprised all the girls were going to be to see her. She had decided to keep her early release a secret, so she could get some time in with Eagle before she assumed her post again. Being free felt amazing and she was enjoying every second of it. Even the long ass bus ride from Arizona to North Carolina didn’t feel too bad. The most important thing was the fact that Niya was a free woman after serving a little under two years in prison. The early release was due to the new federal Good Time bill, which had recently passed.
The sun was beaming and Niya couldn’t believe how hot it was in the middle of October. As she was walking through the bus station, she noticed a bunch of flyers on the ground. She stopped and picked one up when she saw the letters MHB on one of them.
“MHB Realty…” Niya mumbled to herself.
She smiled at the flyer, happy to see her crew moving the way they were. They had come a long way without her around, but now they didn’t have to go any further without her because she was back on the streets. The whole MHB was going to be ecstatic to see her, and Niya was ecstatic to be reunited with them.
Terrence pulled his phone out as he, Randy, and Tianna walked through the lobby of the Hearst Towers. Stacey was calling him, and he wanted to know why, because he thought he made himself clear that he was through with her.
“What?” he answered, pushing the elevator button.
“Hey bro. I was wondering if we could talk,” she said in a low voice, as if she didn’t want anybody around her to hear her conversation.
“It’s nothing for us to talk about. I told you not to bring those stupid ass niggas up here and you did anyway. Y’all got da whole fuckin’ city hot right now!” he snapped as he waited.
“But we family. I need ya help!” she responded.
“We only got the same Dad, so that just makes us…”
Terrence stopped. Even he didn’t like the words that were coming out of his mouth. It was a little too late because Stacey had heard enough. She was hurt to hear him say that, like them having the same father didn’t mean anything to him. She sat there and stared at the phone, shaking her head.
“Stacey, I’m sorry,” Terrence said, missing his elevator and walking back out into the lobby.
“No, I guess I deserve that for everything I’ve done.”
“Nah, you don’t deserve that. I’m being a fuckin idiot right now. It’s just… ya people making’ it hard for me to eat right now.” Terrence told her.
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t know they were going to do all of this. These muthafuckas are crazy. I don’t wanna be here. I wanna go home!” she pled, still at a whisper.
Dink was her son’s father and she wanted nothing more than to see the people responsible for his death be held accountable, but the stuff Cornell was doing was a little too much for her. Stacey had never killed anybody a day in her life, and the first person she ever saw murdered, was when Cornell shot the cashier at the hair store. It was at that moment she knew that shit was real. She wanted out, but getting out wasn’t a simple option. She didn’t know what Cornell would do to her if she tried to go back home now.
“Stacey, just tell me where you at and I’ll come get you.” Terrence said, walking towards the exit.
“I’m at the Madison Inn right off of Pinegrove.” Stacey said, walking over to the window. “I’m in room 108, but I’ll be standing outside waiting for you. And please bro, don’t come by yourself. I don’t know what dese crazy niggas is gonna do.”
Terrence assured her that he would be there, and that he wasn’t going to come alone. She really didn’t have to tell him that part, because he hardly ever traveled alone. If it wasn’t Randy following him around all day, it was Tianna, but in this case, he had both.
“Wassup cousin?” Tianna asked, seeing the look Terrence had in his eyes.
“Nothing. I just gotta go pick up my sister before she get herself into trouble,” he responded as he walked towards the door.
As he was walking towards the door, Gwen, Tiffany and Alexus were entering the building. Gwen was hoping that he could help her find the men responsible for the carnage happening to her people. If anybody would know, it would be him. Gwen just hoped that he would help her at this point.
“Damn, that’s crazy that you’re here. I need to talk to you.” Gwen said, walking up to him.
When he saw Gwen, it was like his brain short-circuited, and all he could see was her. It happened just about every time he encountered her. It took Tianna, to remind him about Stacey, but even then, he still put Gwen’s concerns first. That’s probably because he wanted to talk to her about some shit he had on his chest.
“Yeah, where do you wanna talk?” he asked.
“Can you come up to my office in about an hour?’’ Gwen needed a little bit of time to get some things situated. “I have something to take care of real quick.”
Terrence looked at his watch. That’s about how long it was going to take him to pick up Stacey, so an hour was good timing. He agreed to it before him, Tianna and Randy walked out of the building, while Gwen, Tiffany and Alexus proceeded to the elevators.
The cloud of weed smoke was thick inside the small motel room where Cornell, Stacey, Niki and three other men were sitting. Everyone in the room except Stacey had latex gloves on, jamming bullet after bullet into clip after clip. Cornell noticed that she wasn’t participating, but he didn’t say anything. He had other plans for Stacey, ones that didn’t include her seeing tomorrow. She was Dink’s baby momma, but he really didn’t like her from the jump. He even put some of the blame for his death on her, since she was the one who encouraged Dink to get some money with her brother, Terrence.
“Yo, after today, we goin’ back home, so make sure you go hard when the time comes.” Cornell said, slapping a clip into his .40 cal.
Cornell pretty much felt that after this last massacre, his work in Charlotte would be done. Truth be told, he was ready to go back home anyway, but he wasn’t going to leave without saying goodbye to a few people.
It took twenty more minutes for everybody to be locked and loaded, suited and booted, and ready to go out the front door. Stacey was scared as hell, hoping Cornell wouldn’t say anything if she chose to stay back. He really didn’t mind. In fact, right before he walked out the door, he told Stacey to fall back and wait for him there at the motel. She was somewhat relieved when he directed her to do that, but Niki and everybody else that was there knew that the outcome for Stacey wasn’t going to be good.
Cornell was vicious, and if he felt at any time that there was a weak link in his circle, he was going to terminate their contract. Stacey definitely fit the criteria of someone that couldn’t hold water if the police had her in the interrogation room. For that, she was as good as gone.
“First thing we gotta do is get all of this money out of here.” Gwen said, closing the blinds to her office windows.
“You don’t think those fools are gonna be stupid enough to run up in here, do you?” Alexus asked.
“Yeah, Gwen, those niggas ain’t that stupid,” Tiffany chimed in, walking over to look out the window.
Gwen didn’t think Dink’s people were crazy enough to wonder into the Hearst Tower, but she really wasn’t going to take any chances. After all the damage they’d done in the city thus far, she wouldn’t put it past them. They had already proved to be treacherous.
“Oh, and send out an email and let everybody know to be on point. Our bitches that’s in the street got the green light to blast anything movin’ wrong.” Gwen said, walking over to the safe door.
Tiffany walked over to the computer and jumped on top of the email situation immediately. Tiffany could write one email and send it out to every member of MHB at the same time. The email would go straight to their cell phones within seconds of pushing the send button.
“Lex, help me with this.” Gwen said, punching the numbers
into the key pad.
This was the first time that Tiffany or Alexus had seen the safe open, so when Alexus stepped inside, she felt the same way Gwen did every time she saw that money.
“Damn girl!” Alexus said, looking around at all the stacks of money. “I didn’t know you had all this.”
“We!” Gwen corrected. “This is all of our money. Me, you, Tiffany, Diamond and Niya. All I’m doing is stacking it up for us. As soon as Niya gets home, we gone break dis shit down correctly,” she said, grabbing a couple of duffle bags from the top shelf.
Alexus squatted down and opened one of the bags while Gwen tossed money into it. This was the most money Alexus had ever seen at one time. It took about ten minutes to get all the money into two duffle bags and one Louis Vuitton suitcase. Once it was all packed up, Gwen jumped on the phone to call a few of girls to escort her to the stash house outside of the city where the money would be safe.
“Yo, I think Cornell gon’ mess around and make me kill him, my nigga.” Terrence said as he pulled into the motel’s parking lot.
“Whatever you wanna do, I’m ridin’ wit you, brah.” Randy responded, reaching under his seat and grabbing his gun.
If Terrence decided to drive off a bridge at 100 miles an hour, Randy was going to put his seat belt on. The love he had for his boy was unquestionable, and if Terrence had to run down on Cornell, Randy was going to be gunning for his head too, along with a Tianna, the silent killer.
Stacey was walking out the door when Terrence pulled into the parking space in front of the room. Everyone jumped out of the car, and they were all strapped. Stacey had a confused look on her face and only wanted to get the hell out of there. The look Terrence had in his eyes told her that wasn’t about to happen.
“Is he in there?” Terrence said, walking towards the door holding his gun in his hand down by his side.
Stacey stood in front of him with her arm out to stop him. “It ain’t nobody in there. Let’s just get da hell out of here,” Stacey said, pushing Terrence backwards towards the driver side door.
Stacey just wanted to get as far away from Cornell as she could. The vibe that she got from him before he had left the motel made her a little more afraid of him.
“Yo!” Terrence called over to Randy. He simply nodded his head at the motel room door.
Randy walked over to the door and kicked it in, aiming his gun as he entered the room. It took seconds for him to clear the room. He walked back out and cut at his neck, indicating that nobody was in there.
“Where did they go?” Terrence asked.
Stacey knew that he was up to something. She could tell by the look in his eyes that Terrence had his mind made up, and his final conclusion came down to Cornell being wiped off the face of the earth. Cornell and his crew had come up to the city and shut shit down, despite Terrence telling them not to.
“They should be goin’ back home today. They got one more place they wanna hit, then Cornell said that they were done,’’ Stacey said.
“And where is that?” Terrence asked.
“I don’t know. Cornell said MHB had some type of Realty Company.” Stacey told him.
Terrence’s eyes shot wide open. His heart began to race uncontrollably as he rushed to get back in his car. He almost pulled off without letting anyone in the car. Randy knocking on the window snapped him out of his zone. He put the car back in park, then unlocked the doors so everybody could get in.
Terrence couldn’t believe Cornell would be so bold and stupid to go downtown, late Friday afternoon, to put in some work. More importantly, he couldn’t believe that he was going after Gwen. Just the thought of it had him amped up. Gwen didn’t know it, but Terrence had developed strong feelings for her in the short period of time that he’d known her. He cared about her enough that he didn’t want to see her go out like that. If it was within his power, he was going to make sure that it didn’t happen.
Cornell, Niki, Cub, Killa, and Tec all walked into the Hearst Towers looking like they were supposed to be there. They weren’t wearing the usual war time attire of black hoodies, jeans and boots. Everybody had on a suit, except for Niki, who had on a black pencil skirt and a white blouse. Her black leather jacket concealed the two semi-automatic handguns tucked away in her back.
“Can I help you, sir?” the female receptionist asked when Cornell walked up to the front desk.
“Yes, I was looking for the MHB Realty Company. I was told that their offices are in this building.” Cornell spoke in a professional tone.
The woman looked down at her listing then lifted her head. “Their offices are on the 17th floor. The elevator right over there will take you up,” she said, pointing to the elevators.
Cornell and his crew walked back through the lobby past several guards with no problems. No one in his camp appeared to pose any threats.
Once on the elevator, Cornell, Killa, Cub and Tec unbuttoned their blazers, reached in and pulled out their handguns. Niki reached behind her back and pulled her two compact Chrome .45 automatics. They didn’t care about the cameras on the elevator or the armed guards that would be waiting for them downstairs. Cornell was about his business, and as the elevator climbed up towards the 17th floor, everyone in that elevator was ready to go.
Terrence sped through the late day rush hour traffic, almost having several accidents in the process. He swerved in and out of lanes like he was a race car driver, pushing the BMW 750 to its max. Tianna struggled to stay on one side of the car as Terrence maneuvered the V-8 like it was a toy.
“Slow down, brah!” Randy said, wanting to avoid being pulled over by the police before they got there.
Terrence really didn’t have to slow down because he was already off the downtown exit where traffic was bumper to bumper. The good thing about the Hearst building was that it was only three blocks away from the expressway exit.
“Tianna, when I get out of this car, I want you to pull up and double park right in front of the building.” Terrence told her while digging into his center console and grabbing the gun.
He looked outside his window at the cars that slowly passed him. His lane was moving super slowly, frustrating the hell out of him. He cocked the .357 Sig slightly to make sure he had one in the chamber. Once he confirmed he was locked and loaded, he threw the car in park and jumped out without saying anything.
Randy jumped out right behind him while Tianna climbed over into the driver seat. By the time she looked up, Terrence and Randy were running up the street.
Cornell and his crew stepped off the elevator and onto the 17th floor. They walked across the small hallway and through the glass double doors of MHB Realty. A few females were sitting in their cubicles. All it took was a female walking past with a MHB tattoo on her calf muscle to set Cornell off.
“Can I help you, sir?” the secretary asked, looking over her computer.
Cornell looked over at her. She too had a MHB tattoo on her neck, clear as day.
“Yeah, you can help me,” Cornell said, reaching for his waist and pulling out a large chrome .50 caliber Desert Eagle.
She didn’t even have a chance to scream before Cornell squeezed the trigger. The large bullet exited the gun with fire on its tail. It hit the young secretary in her left eye, damn near knocking the whole side of her face off. The force of the bullet knocked her clean out of her chair.
The rest of his crew drew their weapons too, spreading out on the floor and gunning down everything that was moving.
“Oh shit!” Tiffany yelled, jumping up from the desk.
Gwen rolled off the brown leather couch, barely getting out of the way of a bullet that came crashing through the office door glass. Alexus backed away from the glass windows and pulled out her 17 shot 9mm. Gwen crawled over to the safe door, reached up and punched numbers into the key pad blindly, desperately wanting to get inside. Tiffany dipped behind the desk, avoiding more bullets coming through the office door.
“Tiffany
, here!’’ Gwen yelled, sliding her a black .45 automatic from out of the safe.
The gun didn’t make it all the way across the room, coming short a few feet from the desk. She crawled out to get the gun, and when she got to it, she looked up and saw a man in a suit coming through the shattered glass door. He had his gun aimed at Tiffany, but something in his peripheral view caught his eye. He looked over and saw Alexus standing there with a gun pointed right at his head. She pulled the trigger without hesitation, sending a hot led ball into his head.
“Cuuuuuuubb!” Cornell yelled, looking back towards the office and seeing his man’s body fall to the floor.
Two MHB workers who brought their guns to work every day, engaged in a shoot-out with Cornell’s crew. They took refuge behind some cubicles at the far end of the floor. Niki and Tech occupied themselves with trying to get to them, but they were standing their ground.
Terrence and Randy darted through the lobby towards the elevators. Security was about to stop them, but calls started pouring in on their phone. People from the 18th floor called in with reports of gunshots sounding like they came from the 17th floor.
“You think they’re here?” Randy asked, standing at the elevators with Terrence.
Just then, two of the six elevators doors opened. People rushed out of them and raced across the lobby.
“Yeah, they’re here!” Terrence answered, walking over and getting onto one of the empty cars.
Bullets continued to crash through the office windows, forcing Gwen, Alexus, and Tiffany to stay low. Cornell stood about ten to fifteen yards across from the office, trying to pick Gwen and the girls off one by one. He couldn’t really see into the office because the blinds were covering the windows.
“I’ma kill every last one of y’all bitches!” Cornell yelled, firing another shot into the office.
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