The Block

by Treasure Hernandez

  “Yeah.”

  “A’ight, fuck it! I’ma roll with you and confront this bitch.”

  “You sure you wanna do that?”

  “Positive!” Yayo said as headed out the door.

  Mary, along with Nut and about fifteen armed red-flagged soldiers, sat in the living room of the house she had given Gruff the address to.

  “Yo, this shit right here can shoot through cars,” a young soldier bragged, loading his machine gun.

  “Y’all just better make sure y’all don’t shoot me by accident.” Mary thought back to the last time she’d listened to her brother and wound up getting shot in her leg.

  Nut assured her, “Sis, don’t worry about nothing. I got this.”

  “Yeah, I hope so.”

  “This the address right here,” Gruff said, pulling up in front of the house.

  “Call that bitch!” Yayo said, smoking mad.

  Gruff pulled out his cell phone and dialed Mary’s number and put it on speakerphone.

  “Hello,” she answered in her sexiest voice.

  “Yo, I’m outside.”

  “Okay, I’m coming out right now.”

  Gruff looked over at Yayo. “She about to come out now.”

  “My nigga, don’t even get out the car. I got this.”

  Three minutes later Mary walked out the house looking super-sexy slash slutty.

  Before she could make it all the way down the walkway, Yayo hopped out the car. “What the fuck you think you doing, bitch?”

  “Baby!” Mary said startled. “What are you doing here?”

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” Yayo’s fist was balled up like he was about to snuff her.

  “No, baby, you don’t understand!” Mary yelled. “Get out the way!” She was backpedaling as fast as she could in her heels. She heard the door to the house open. She spun around. “NO! WAIT! ”

  But her words were muffled by the sound of about seven to ten guns going off at the same time. She looked on in horror as Yayo’s body got filled with bullets before he hit the ground.

  Once Gruff saw the front door swing open and mad niggas come out carrying guns, he immediately put the pedal to the metal. Bullets decorated the passenger side of the car and took out every window in his car.

  Mary lay out on the lawn crying her eyes out.

  After chasing down Gruff’s car for about a block, Nut returned and stood over Yayo’s body and emptied six shots from his .38 in his face.

  “Noooooo!” Mary cried.

  “Come on, sis. We gotta go.” Nut dragged his sister over to the getaway van and tossed her inside.

  Five blocks away Gruff looked behind him and saw flashing lights. “Muthafuckas!” He said loudly. He only had two realistic choices—Either die or go to jail.

  Gruff pulled over his car, and a tear escaped from his eye as he thought about his dog Tiger. He slowly slid out the car with both of his 9s in his hand.

  Once the officer saw the man holding the two firearms, he quickly pulled out his .357 and shot Gruff in the neck. Gruff dropped down to his knee, but before he fell face-first into the concrete, he sent two bullets from each of his 9s into the officer’s chest, killing him instantly. And Gruff lay on the ground smiling, until all life drained out of his body.

  Chapter 20

  Santiago sat in his office with a mean look on his face as he talked on the phone. After an hour-long conversation, he slammed down his phone.

  “Everything all right, boss?” José asked curiously.

  “Serena got busted out in New York with ten kilos,” Santiago said in a low tone. “I warned her about fuckin’ with those niggas!”

  “Ten kilos?” José repeated.

  All Santiago could do was shake his head in disgust. “I know that punk-ass boyfriend of hers had her involved in that shit.” He banged his fist down on his desk. “I want him dead within the next twenty-four hours!” He looked over at José. “Round up the hit squad and make that nigger disappear!”

  “I got you, boss,” José said as he exited Santiago’s office.

  Serena walked in the visiting room and saw Tone over at a table in the corner. “Hey, daddy,” she sang as she slid in Tone’s arms. “Damn! I fuckin’ miss the shit out of you.”

  “What happened?” Tone asked.

  “My father got me a lawyer, and he told me that your father is the one who snitched on me,” Serena told him.

  “How you know?”

  “My father greased a few palms and got some answers.”

  Tone growled, “I’m going to kill him!”

  “He’s going to get handled. Don’t even worry about it.” Serena knew how her father got down.

  “How much time they talking about?” Tone asked, scared to hear the answer.

  “Forty years.”

  “Oh, hell naw. “Fuck that! You better tell them that shit was mines. That way, you can do like three years, and I’ll take the rest of the time.”

  “I can do my own time.” Serena grabbed Tone’s hand.

  Tone told her, “Fuck it! If they give you bail, I’m going to bail you out, and we just going to be on the run together.”

  “Damn! I wanna suck the shit out of your dick right now.”

  “Did you hear what I just said?”

  “Yeah, I heard you, baby.” Serena broke down into tears.

  “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “I would love to go on the run with you. But I can’t. You have to leave the country.”

  “Leave the country? Fuck is you talking about?”

  “I heard my father has a hit out on you. They are going to kill you at midnight tonight.” She started crying some more. “I tried to stop him.”

  Tone hugged her. “Everything is going to be fine, baby.”

  “Take that money in the safe and leave as soon as you leave from here.”

  “Listen, everything is going to be fine. Let’s figure out how we can get you up out of here.”

  “Don’t worry about me, baby. You need to save yourself!” Serena stressed. “What are you going to do if you don’t leave tonight?”

  “Baby, trust me, I’m going to be fine.”

  Tone smiled, but his eyes told her to pray for him.

  “Visiting hours are now over!” the female C.O. announced.

  “Daddy, I love you sooooo fuckin’ much!” Serena cried as she hugged Tone as tight as she could and slobbed him down. She knew this was probably the last time she would ever see him again.

  “Make sure you call me tonight,” Tone told her.

  “I promise I will, daddy,” Serena said as they escorted her into the back. “Leave town tonight.”

  Tone just sat in his seat and cried as he watched them take Serena away.

  After Tone left the jail he went straight to Ice-T’s crib. He pulled up in front of Ice-T’s house and let the engine die.

  Ice-T answered the door and gave Tone a pound, followed by a hug. “Word on the streets is, you a dead man at midnight.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Tone smirked. “That’s why I need that thang.”

  “I got that for you right here.” Ice-T went in his closet and removed a big duffel bag. “Here you go,” he said, handing Tone the duffel bag.

  Tone removed the M-16 rifle from out of the bag and examined it. “Yeah, I like this shit.”

  “That’s that shit them niggas in the army be having.” Ice-T smiled.

  “I’ll take it.” Tone pulled out his money to pay for the gun.

  “Keep that,” Ice-T told him. “I hope that shit hold you down.”

  Tone replied quickly, “It will.”

  “Yo, you need any money or anything to maybe leave the country or anything?”

  “Nah, I’m good, but good looking though.” Tone gave Ice-T a pound and exited his crib.

  Tone tossed the duffel bag in the backseat of his Infiniti before getting on the highway.

  Thirty minutes later, he pulled up in front of his father’s house. He noticed his f
ather’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but still he had to just make sure he wasn’t home.

  He pulled his .45 from his waistband and headed toward the front door. He rang the doorbell five times. Heading back to his car, he still couldn’t believe his father was responsible for putting his fiancée in jail for forty years. This was the second time his father had took a woman he loved out of his life.

  Tone couldn’t help but to cry for the whole ride home. He pulled up in his driveway and let the engine die. He grabbed the duffel bag from the backseat. When Tone stepped foot in his house, it just felt different knowing that Serena wouldn’t be walking through that door no time soon. He looked at his watch, and it read 9:30 P.M.

  Before he could even make it to the kitchen, he heard the house phone ringing. He quickly rushed over to answer it. “Hello?”

  “Hey, baby.”

  Immediately Serena’s voice brought a smile to Tone’s face. “Hey, baby.”

  “It’s about time you got home. I been calling every twenty minutes.”

  “Sorry, baby. I had to go pick up a few things.”

  “I fuckin’ miss the shit outta you,” Serena sang into the receiver. “I wanna come home, daddy,” she whined.

  “I need you home right now,” Tone said, feeling his girl’s pain. “We will always be together in our hearts.”

  “I know, daddy. It’s just so much I wish we could’ve done together.” Serena’s voice cracked.

  Tone could hear her crying, but he didn’t say anything.

  “I mean, why did this shit have to happen to us? We ain’t never did nothing to nobody.”

  “It be like that some time,” Tone said.

  The operator announced that Serena only had sixty seconds left on her call.

  “Well, I guess this is it, huh?” Tone cried silently so Serena couldn’t hear him.

  “Daddy, I swear I will love you for as long as I live,” Serena told him. “You have my heart for life.”

  “Just know your man is a soldier, and I ain’t going out no chump.”

  “I know that’s right, daddy. Better take as many of them mu’fuckas out as you can. I love you, baby, and you have my heart forever,” Serena said, just before the phone disconnected.

  Tone looked at his digital clock that read 12:04 A.M. He sat at the edge of his bed holding on to his M-16. Just when he thought no one was coming, he heard the lock on his front door get blown off.

  BOOM!

  Immediately Tone hopped up off his bed and ran toward the top of the steps and aimed his M-16 at the front door and pulled the trigger, dropping three Mexicans. “Come on, muthafucka!” he yelled.

  Seconds later, twelve Mexicans ran through the front door yelling something in Spanish as they fired off their Uzis.

  Tone waved his M-16 back and forth, hitting ten out of the twelve, dropping them at the doorstep. Tone let his clip drop out the base of his gun as he pulled a fresh clip out of his back pocket and reloaded his gun.

  Before he could even finish reloading his gun, he felt a bullet pierce his thigh. “Awww shit!” Tone yelled. He felt his whole right side get numb. The bullet must’ve hit one of his nerves, causing his whole right side to shut down. “Fuck!”

  Tone pulled his .45 from his waist. The first two Mexicans that reached the top of the steps got sent flying straight back down the stairs. Tone was getting ready to fire off another shot until he saw around thirty-five Mexicans rushing up the steps. “Damn!” Tone in a defeated tone. He looked down the barrel of about six AK-47s.

  “Fuck y’all niggas!” Tone spat as the Mexicans turned his lights off for good.

  Detective Abraham answered his phone, “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “Have you seen the news?” Maine asked, excited.

  “I don’t watch the muthafuckin’ news.” Detective Abraham laughed.

  “Tone just got murdered!”

  Detective Abraham laughter quickly faded away. “Don’t play like that, Maine. That shit ain’t funny.”

  “It’s all over the news.”

  “I’m right around the corner from your crib. I’ll be there in a minute.” Detective Abraham hung up the phone.

  Maine rolled over to the door to let Detective Abraham in. “Shit is all over the fuckin’ news.” Maine rolled back into the living room.

  Detective Abraham sat and listened to the news reporter announce his son’s death. “You know that was payback for you getting Serena locked up, right?” Maine said.

  “Fuck them Mexicans! They can kiss my ass!” Detective Abraham picked up his ringing cell phone. “Who the fuck is this?”

  “Detective Abraham, this is Santiago, Serena’s father. I know you heard about what happened to your son tonight. If you don’t want the same thing to happen to you, then I suggest you follow these instructions—”

  “Fuck you and your instructions! You killed my son!”

  “I have a one hundred-man hit team in your city as we speak,” Santiago said calmly. “If you want to keep your life, it’s going to cost you one million dollars. Leave it in the trunk of your car before sunrise!” Santiago hung up in Detective Abraham’s ear.

  “Fuck!” Detective Abraham only had $670,000 in the safe in his house. He didn’t dare try to run, knowing Santiago had men all over the city just in case he tried to make a quick exit.

  “Yo, who was that on the phone?”

  Detective Abraham answered quickly, “Nobody.”

  “That’s fucked up what they did to Tone.” Maine shook his head. Even though the two wasn’t on speaking terms, that was still his friend and former crime partner.

  I’ma make them muthafuckas pay for that shit. Detective Abraham sneakily crept up behind Maine and shot him in the back of the head, slumping him over in his wheelchair. “Sorry about that, Maine,” he said out loud. “But I need that four hundred grand you sitting on.”

  He went directly where he knew Maine kept his stash at. “Jackpot!” Detective Abraham smiled as he tossed the two duffel bags over his shoulder and exited Maine’s crib. He got in his car and looked at his watch. It read 4:05 A.M. “Fuck!” He stepped on the gas and went flying down the street like a bat out of hell.

  Detective Abraham pulled up in front of his house, quickly slid out the car, and ran inside his house to grab the rest of the money.

  It took him about thirty minutes to fill up three duffel bags. “Muthafuckin’ Mexicans!” he huffed, as he stepped out his house and walked toward his car.

  “Don’t take another step!” a voice shouted.

  Detective Abraham stopped dead in his track when he heard the familiar voice followed by the familiar sound of a gun being cocked.

  The voice yelled, “Put the duffel bags on the ground!”

  “Don’t do nothing stupid. We can talk about this.” Detective Abraham turned around slowly and looked the gunman in his eyes. “So this how you gon’ do me?”

  “Fuck you!” Malcolm shouted. “Payback is a bitch, ain’t it?”

  “I been nothing but good to you all your life.” Detective Abraham smirked. “I taught you how to make money and everything. I even bought you your first car.” He saw how filthy and stank Malcolm looked. “But once you got on them drugs, I couldn’t fuck with you anymore.”

  “It’s your fault I got hooked on the drugs in the first place! You took my whole life from me, and now I’m about to repay the favor.”

  “Malcolm, I am still your father!” Detective Abraham yelled.

  “Well, you know what they say,” Malcolm said, flashing his rotten-tooth smile. “Like father, like son!” He pulled the trigger and watched his father’s body drop to the concrete like a sack of potatoes. Malcolm walked over and spat on his father’s body as he scooped the three duffel bags up from off the floor. He looked at his father’s dead body one last time before hopping in his car and fleeing the scene.

  The next morning Serena woke up bright and early and ran toward the TV room. Some of the other girls was up watching some bullshit. Serena qui
ckly changed the channel to the news. The other girls huffed and puffed, but nobody wanted to get physical that early in the morning.

  Serena’s heart sank down to her feet when she heard the news report what happened at her and Tone’s home. “Don’t worry, daddy. I’ma always hold you down for as long as I live.” Serena looked up at the sky, tears rolling down her eyes. “I promise, we will always stay strong for you and rep your name,” she said, rubbing her stomach.

  The End

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  The Block Copyright © 2012 Urban Books, LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-6016-2653-0

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

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