by Styles P
Jake asked him, “Do you guys have a kitchen here?”
“Yup we do,” the guy answered. “What ken I do fo ya?”
“Can I get a steak, eggs, and some potatoes, and a pitcher of water and four orange juices?”
“Yup. Yes, sir. Ya shur can! Be there in forty-five minutes, sir.”
“Thanks,” Jake said. Then he grabbed all three book bags and the bag of shit he got from the pharmacy and went and sat on the tub. He peeled his sweats off, then the bloody pants, and carefully placed them in a garbage bag. He wasn’t sure why, it just seemed smart to be cautious.
Jake wasn’t digging the way he was smelling at all. Besides having dried blood on him, he had sweat a lot and had a really funky odor. He poured himself a big cup of Courvoisier and downed it. That was the only painkiller he had. Then he poured alcohol and peroxide all over his leg and bit down on the towel to refrain from screaming. He looked at the clock and made a mental note of the time. The man had said his food would be there in forty-five minutes. He’d used up about eight of them already. He didn’t want to look like he was doing something suspicious when whoever brought the food came to the door. So he hopped in the shower for fifteen minutes. He did his best to clean his wound, got out of the shower, bit the towel, and poured more alcohol and peroxide on his wound. He spread some Neosporin ointment around the little holes and taped the gauze around his leg. He turned the television on and threw on the sweat suit he had in the bag. He did all of this and still had ten minutes left. Not really, though, because soon as he sat down there was a knock at the door. Jake peeked out of the viewer, then opened it wishing he had bullets for that .38 because it would sure make him feel more secure.
“Here we go, butty. A nishe hot meal for ya.”
It was the attendant from the front desk. “Thanks,” Jake said. “How much I owe you?”
“Twenty-five dollars for the meal usually, but first one on the house for customers here over a week.”
“Thanks,” Jake said. “I appreciate that.”
After the man left, Jake sat down, ate, and took another drink. He would contemplate his next move after some rest. But before he went to sleep, he needed to go through Nine-One’s and Kim’s bags to see if there was anything in there to assist him on what he needed to do. He grabbed Kim’s bag first and emptied the contents onto the bed. She had a box full of bullets for the .38—glad I found those, he thought—the money, a couple of sweat suits, bras, panties, and toiletries. Then he grabbed Nine-One’s bag and emptied it. Nothing of significance, just clothes. So Jake decided to load up the gun, then go to sleep for a few hours.
Jake tried to sleep but he couldn’t. He had too much on his mind. He knew he had to handle his business, wounded or not. Plus, he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he had a child by M.B. Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided he would call her from the cab driver’s cellphone. He let it ring four times. She didn’t pick up. He called right back and let it ring another six times. This time she answered with a curious hello. Jake said, “What up M.B? How are you doing?” Without giving her time to answer, he followed up with, “Is it true we have a child together?”
She coolly answered, “I’m fine, and yes we do.” Even after all this time, even though she had so much to protect, Mary-beth couldn’t front on Jake. She had to come correct. “Jake, I wanna apologize for not being any help to you. I thought you were free and skipped town! When Mitch let me know about you being in a coma and people trying to kill you, and how he was looking for you because you was in trouble, I felt like I was in the twilight zone!”
Jake had been through so much he couldn’t trust her or anyone for that matter, but he had no choice but to try to find out the truth. For all he knew she could be working for Phil, too, and the whole baby thing could be a setup. He had to think out what he was gonna do.
“Listen, M.B. I need you to meet me in the airport by the food court tomorrow around ten A.M.”
“Jake, that could be dangerous,” she replied. “I know what’s going on and who’s trying to get you. That might not be the smartest move to make. You should get out of town. Whatever moves you wanna make, come back and handle them. But right now you should stay low! You have reasons to live. You don’t have enough manpower to go to war!”
“You don’t know what kinda manpower I have,” Jake replied. “I’m enough manpower! Me alone! I don’t need no army and I wanna let you know if you’re included in this grand scheme for my demise, I suggest you get out of it! If you trying to lie to me about this child of ours I will treat you like an enemy and all my enemies better stay low!”
“You fucking listen,” M.B. said. “I understand you’ve been through a lot of shit, but I ain’t the one trying to cross you! I’m the one that loves you! The one that has always loved you for Christ sake! You’re my child’s father and besides that, you saved my life before and I’m grateful for that. So get it through your thick skull, I’m not trying to harm you.” She hung up the phone.
“Damn crazy-ass chick!” Jake was talking to the tone. The phone rang back. It was a message, a picture mail message. When Jake opened it he saw the most beautiful little girl in the world. He knew she was his. She had all of his facial features with M.B.’s complexion and hair. Then the phone rang again and it was M.B.
“Do you still think I’m lying? Do you still think I got something to do with you being hurt? I need to know Jake! I can understand if you do, being in the situation you’re in, and if that’s the case I can go back home and raise our daughter all alone! But if you do want my help, together we can figure out how to handle all of your business in the correct form and fashion! What you did this morning was dumb! They’re talking about you in damn near every hood. Your cab driver was from the projects and you know how that goes! But you’re hot! You should stay low. I’m close by but not in town. Text me a list of things you need and I will get them. I got to go now. I got work to do!”
“Yo, M.B.,” Jake said, getting her attention before she hung up.
“Yes, Jake.”
“Thanks a lot! I’m sorry for giving you a hard time, but shit is real right now!”
“I know! We’ll get through it, though, and Jake I want you to know that I am truly sorry for your loss! You have my condolences for Kim.”
“How did you know?” Jake asked.
“It’s on the news. Been on for the past two or three hours. They found her body in a Corvette in Phil’s visitor’s lot.”
Jake switched the channel from the show he was watching to the news, and there it was. “Oh shit! Call me in the morning, M.B.” He hung up the phone. Then, realizing how short life is, he called M.B. back and said, “Where’s my daughter? I wanna see her. I wanna see her now!”
M.B. said, “We can get outta here, drive away, and leave this godforsaken place behind and raise our daughter as a family. Fuck everybody! I have enough money put away for us to have a great life! Shit, I have a great life right now not far away from here!”
Jake was tired of the game. He now knew he had a seed to live for. He thought about it and told M.B., “You know what? The shit sounds good. It sounds like the smart thing to do. I wouldn’t mind starting over! I’m tired of being around here anyway! Tell me where you at and I’m gonna catch a cab there and we’re gone!”
“Are you for real, Jake? You ready to leave now?”
M.B. was happy and Jake could hear it in her voice. “Yeah I’m for real. We are out of here! I already got two years to try to make up with my baby girl. I might as well get a jump on things!”
M.B. told him where she was at and Jake took a cab over there with his book bag full of money and the .38. When Jake got to M.B.’s spot, he knocked on the door. She opened it with a big smile and a hug and a kiss. “Oh my God, Jake, it’s been so so long! You still look good, baby!” She wouldn’t let go. “Damn, I’m sorry all of this shit happened to you,” she said in a sincere voice. “You didn’t deserve any of this!”
She explained
to him how she up and cut all of her ties because of their child. He explained everything that he could recall that happened to him from the robbery of the store up to calling her on the phone. M.B. cried like a baby. She felt for Jake. “Jake, I know you’re hurting, but the best thing to do is leave. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
———
Back in Phil’s office, Phil was screaming into his phone at his secretary. “Leave me the fuck alone! I’m not taking any calls today!” He slammed the phone down. “Frank, what the fuck are we gonna do? Can you believe what this son of a bitch did? He almost killed us! If you didn’t make me put on that vest I would have been a dead man, and for that son of a bitch to leave his dead girlfriend in our parking lot shows how fucking crazy he is! Now the feds are gonna be sniffing around here for a little while trying to figure out what the fuck is going on! I want this guy dead real soon.”
“Yeah, I want him dead, too,” Frank replied. “And I agree: the sooner the better!”
Frank wanted him dead so he could collect that other five hundred thousand dollars, and by the way this guy was acting, it wasn’t gonna be a simple task. He was reminded of that fact by the nonstop ringing in his ears and the occasional tingling where the bullet had grazed his head.
Phil interrupted Frank’s thoughts. “I want you to come to a meeting with me later, Frank. Not as security, but as a partner of mine. I want you to meet a few people. Since you’re a part of this, you need to meet the guys!”
“Who?” Frank asked.
“The 300 Crew. Even though they are the most powerful organization in the city, for some reason Mr. Billings keeps getting around them. Now we have to have a meeting to figure out how to bring this problem to an end. We need closure.”
Frank had heard Phil talk on the phone with members of the group, but he didn’t know Phil had meetings with them. He’d heard of the 300 Crew and had actually seen their crew take over every other crew in the jail, but he never saw a leader or knew or heard of anyone besides Phil who knew them. He even remembered the kid, Dollar, who was the leader of the Northside Boys, talking about getting down with 300 and getting big time. Those guys were like phantoms on the street. You heard and seen what they did but no one knew who the bosses were.
CAN’T RUN, CAN’T HIDE
M.B. updated Jake about the 300 Crew. How their power reigned across boundaries that the typical criminal only dreamed about. Whatever territory they wanted, they took over. Whoever they wanted dead … died. They had the law on their side, judges in their pocket, and they even scared the shit out of the toughest criminals the streets had made. Their main methods of getting to most people was by threat or physical harm to a loved one. They did not believe in the street principle of: No women or kids get touched. It was basically everybody and anybody could get it. That’s how they got so powerful and came out of nowhere and took everything over.
“How many members in this Crew?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet in my research. I believe there’s only a few of them. Their anonymity is what makes them so powerful. If people knew who they were it would make it easy to get to them,” M.B. stated. “So once we find out who one of them is, I’m pretty sure we can figure out the identities of the rest of them.”
“I really need to know,” Jake told her. “I’m leaving now, but I will never live life comfortable until this is over. So I will be back to handle this.”
“At least we know Phil’s out to get you so he must be somehow connected to them,” M.B. replied. “You said Kim said don’t trust your uncle so maybe he’s connected also. But what’s puzzling me is this brother of Phat Murphy’s, who is he?”
“That’s what the fuck I been wondering about,” Jake said. “Shit, I been wondering was Kim telling the truth at all! The shit makes no sense. How would Phat Murphy’s brother know I was involved in his brother’s death and not know Phil was? I only got into that shit in the first place because of Phil, and we got rid of all of those bodies together. So either Phil lied to Phat Murphy’s brother or Kim is lying.” And what Jake still couldn’t figure out was what part his uncle Mitch played in all of this. And who the fuck sent that letter in jail? Was it the dude he shot in front of Phil’s office, the guy who put him in the coma? All of this shit was really getting to him. Why did people want him dead so bad? It had to be something he was missing. Something else he did that he couldn’t remember.
“Fuck it,” he finally said.
Jake asked M.B. if she had any weed. He needed to get high to relax his nerves.
“You know I keep some weed. I can’t wait to smoke it,” M.B. answered. She pulled a rolled up dutch out of the console of the rented Impala she was driving and sparked it up. Then, to brighten the convo up, she told Jake, “I can’t wait until you see your daughter, Jocelyn! She looks juuussst like you!”
———
At the same time Jake and M.B. were discussing their child and their future, Phil and Frank were headed to their meeting. Frank was eager to see the dudes who ran everything. Phil told Frank: “Don’t speak until spoken to and try to remember their faces. I have a feeling we are gonna have to take one of them out one day!”
“Why would you say that?” Frank asked.
“Because I get a feeling when I’m around those guys!”
Frank asked, “Where we going?” as he noticed where Phil was parking.
“Right in there,” Phil said, pointing to a church. “You surprised those who do the devil’s work meet in the church? Well don’t be! This type of shit has been happening since the beginning of time.”
Frank felt reluctant to go in. He wasn’t willing to sell his soul to get money. There was a lot he was willing to do, but he wasn’t sure about this. Phil, sensing what was going on with him, said, “Listen, Frank, all we doing is talking and that’s it. It ain’t like you selling out God or something. Come on, Frank.”
Against his better judgment, Frank said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Phil and Frank walked into the church. When they got to the room the meeting was in, Frank noticed there was a big square table with three king-size chairs at the head and about ten regular chairs around the sides. He figured whoever sat in the big chairs were the leaders. Frank felt kind of funny about being one of the first people in the room, especially since he didn’t know anyone. Phil looked at Frank and said, “Stop worrying!” Then another man entered the room. Frank recognized him immediately and was shocked. It was CO Frazier. Frazier gave him a nod and took a seat as four more men came in behind him—Mitch from the gambling spot and three guys he’d never seen before. All the men greeted one another like they knew one another for years before taking seats at the table. One remained standing—his name was Albert Murphy.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Albert asked, glaring at Phil.
“Hold it. Hold it,” Phil said. “We have company today!”
Frazier interrupted. “Easy, Albert. This is the guy who put Jake in that coma two years ago.”
“Thank you, Frazier,” Phil continued. “This is Frank Butler, and he’s my bodyguard—a black belt in three different martial arts. From now on, he’s working with me personally.”
“Yeah, but what the fuck does he need to be in our meeting for?” Albert asked, knowing good and well that Phil trusted him as much as he trusted Phil—not at all.
Frazier wasn’t feeling this pissing contest. “Butler! Welcome! That was some good work you put in on that guy. I’m surprised he lived!” Frazier turned toward the rest of the guys. “We could all use someone like him in our crew, agreed?”
“Agreed. And that brings us to our business here tonight,” Phil said. Frank was surprised how Phil took charge of the room, and while Phil was speaking Frank figured it out. Phil was the boss; he was the leader of the 300 Crew. When he spoke they listened—even Albert Murphy, who spoke next.
“You’re right. Let’s get to the point. This Jake Billings is becoming too big of a problem. We
need him dead and we need it fast. How can one guy be so hard to kill? On top of that several of our members are dead! Kim is gone and there’s no telling what she told this guy!”
Mitch interrupted him, “The bitch is dead because she didn’t follow orders! If she would have done what she was told we wouldn’t be meeting right now and she would still be alive.”
The first guy got irritated by what Mitch said. “You was around him, too, Mitch! You had plenty of opportunities to put him down yourself. You might be getting soft! So I wouldn’t be so cocky about talking about a bitch I killed, especially if I was fucking her! And what kinda dude are you to be fucking your nephew’s girl anyway?”
Phil spoke again. “We going to the next plan. We have to get to his mom or M.B. and her baby. Other than that we don’t stand a chance of getting to this guy. Any objections anyone?” There were none. “Well, everybody use your resources and let’s make something happen!”
———
Jake couldn’t believe how beautiful his baby girl was. “Damn, M.B., I can’t believe how much she looks like me!”
“Yeah I know. Looks like you spit her out. She has your demeanor, too,” M.B. said.
“I wish I was there when she was born. I can’t believe I missed so much of her life! I’m glad I’m here with her now, you know! Looks like you did a great job with her.”
M.B. smiled. “Why thank you, Jake! I appreciate you saying that! I have so many pictures and video footage to show you of her. I’m so glad you’re here with her, and me, too. I know it’s a lot of things we have to handle, but first I want you and her to get to know each other.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jake replied as he spun Jocelyn around and she laughed.
“You know from the second I laid my eyes on this li’l angel I understood why God allowed me to make it and not die.”
“I feel you,” M.B. agreed. “It’s a beautiful sight to see you and your daughter together. I didn’t want to raise my child without her knowing her father. God made you pick up the phone and call me. That’s why we’re here together now!”