Invincible: A Novel

by Styles P

  The bus was packed. Jake didn’t bother to scan the metal box on wheels to see who was who or what was what. He didn’t even care. His mind was in a totally different zone. The CO ordered Jake to sit in the first row, alone, then sat in the row behind him with his shotgun in his hand. Jake had not seen daylight in almost a year. It felt good to look at the sun and the clouds.

  He heard the whispers of, “Oh shit! That nigga’s still here.”

  “I thought they killed him.”

  “Told you he wasn’t in the feds, nigga!”

  Jake ignored it all. Today he just wanted to appreciate looking out of the window and seeing something different. Jake got to court and was put in a separate holding cell from everyone else.

  An unenthused court-appointed lawyer came in the back and told Jake, “Listen, we’re gonna try to get you life. The DA is gonna be talking the death penalty.”

  Jake cut him off. “Just tell them you don’t want to drag this on. I’ll plead guilty today and I want to be sentenced as soon as possible.”

  The lawyer told Jake: “It’s not going to go like that. We have procedures and certain protocols we have to follow.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Jake said.

  When Jake got called in front of the judge, he let the DA say his piece. Before Jake’s lawyer could get a word in, Jake said, “Excuse me, Your Honor. I would like to address the court with something.”

  “I usually don’t do this, but go ahead Mr. Billings.”

  “Well, Your Honor, I just want to say that I don’t want to waste the taxpayer’s money, your time, the District Attorney’s time, or my time. No disrespect to the process of the federal court, but I would like to plead guilty on every count today and be sentenced to whatever it is I’m going to be sentenced to as soon as possible, whether it’s life or death, Your Honor. And one other thing, Your Honor. The circumstances I’m being held under are not humane. I’m aware I am locked in the only correctional facility that holds federal inmates in the area, but I’m being treated like an animal due to the fact I killed CO Frazier. But that doesn’t mean I should be subjected to eating food with spit in it and living in a cell with inadequate water. I am aware of the fact that even though it’s a local jail, you can be held there up to four years. I ask to please make sure that doesn’t happen to me. Please, Your Honor!”

  The judge told Jake he heard him and would make sure things went as speedy as possible. Then he called the lawyers to approach the bench. Jake overheard the judge tell the DA that his living conditions better be fixed. Then the DA mentioned something about Jake killing Frazier. Then Jake’s lawyer mentioned something to the likes of CO Frazier was being investigated due to his criminal activity. Jake couldn’t hear anything else. The lawyers returned and court was adjourned.

  Jake prayed that what he did would work and if it didn’t, he would just make the best of his situation. Jake rode back to the jail. When he got there he was unshackled and thrown in the bullpen with everyone else. He thanked God for taking care of his problem. He knew they weren’t going to put him back in the dungeon.

  Jake was put in the bullpen with twenty-two other dudes. Now it was just him left. They was trying to hit him with a dose of bullpen therapy but that wasn’t shit to what he had just been through. He actually didn’t mind what they were doing.

  Meanwhile, upstairs in the federal part of the jail, “That shit is true niggaz been saying all day. That nigga is still in here. I seen him with my own eyes,” one of Regg’s homies was telling him, as he stopped at the law library to kick it with Regg.

  “When I was leaving the kitchen and walking by the bullpen I seen the nigga just sittin’ in there. Something looks different about him! I can’t explain it, though.”

  Regg closed the book he was reading. “I heard they had that nigga in the dungeon, but I thought niggaz was bullshittin’. That shit been closed for years. You mean to tell me they held that man in a part of the jail nobody has been in for years? I bet we would look like there was something different about us, too, if that shit happened!”

  “Yo, Regg, you think it’s going to pop off with Jake, Frankie, and Clips?” Regg’s man asked.

  “How could it not, my man? How could it not?”

  In another part of the jail, Clips walked to his homeboy’s cell. “Yo Frank, you know our friend Mr. Invincible is back, right?”

  Frank laid in his bunk reading the paper. He answered his good friend without putting it down, “Yeah I know. Been hearing that since this morning. So it was true he has been in this jail the whole time, so what!”

  Clips said, “The so what is that he will be upstairs tomorrow, or possibly even late tonight, and I wanna know what you want to do with him. I mean we did almost kill the man before. He might be a little upset over that, not that we give a fuck, but I like being on point and having my schedule right. So if killing him is on the schedule, let me know.”

  “Clips, we ain’t killing him,” Frank said. “Unless he tries to kill us. Other than that, we’re chilling.”

  A CO finally came over to Jake and said, “Come on.” He handed him a bedroll and a bullpen sandwich when he let him out of the bullpen.

  “Where to?” Jake asked. “Back to the dungeon?”

  “Nah, you headed to the federal side.”

  “Okay, that’s a big step up from where I was at,” Jake said to himself.

  “Now you look out for yourself in there,” the officer told him.

  “You know something I should know?” Jake asked.

  The guard looked at Jake with raised eyebrows. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?” Jake asked.

  “Listen,” the guard said. “They’re sending you upstairs to the federal side. That’s where all your enemies are. The two dudes that put you in a coma are over there. Ike and Cory are over there and every other nigga you probably got into it with.”

  Jake said, “Oh well, it is what it is.”

  When Jake got to his cell block, it was 9:30, half an hour away from lock in. He looked around the house and didn’t spot any threats. He walked to his cell to put his bag down. Then he went and stood by his doorway and looked around. He decided to go hit the pull-up bar he saw when he walked into the block. It was the standard pull up/dip/push-up machine you saw in every jail. It had been a long time since Jake hit the bar. He couldn’t do that when he was down in the dungeon.

  All eyes were on him. Some niggaz were curious on how he even made it back to population. Some of them were curious to how he was even alive. Some thought he was sent to another jail. Jake really didn’t give a fuck what any of them thought. His main concern was to keep his mind and body right. He had lost weight since he was in the dungeon, but he was still all muscle from the push-ups and sit-ups and dips off the bed he had been doing. Jake made his first two sets of pull-ups fifty clips ’cause he knew niggaz was watching him. He had to let them know the strength was still there. Then he just did a few twenty clips after that.

  Jake looked at the clock and saw that it was a few minutes from lock in, so he walked back to his cell and stood by his doorway to observe whose and what type of house he was dealing with. He took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself to deal with the nonsense of being surrounded by liars, dirty motherfuckers, gangsters, fake gangsters, drug addicts, homosexuals, undercover homosexuals, gamblers, COs, and all the other hustlers, killers, and strong-arm robbers.

  Jake heard the five-minutes-to-lock-in bell and looked up at the clock. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Regg coming through the cell block door. Regg spotted Jake at the same time. A sudden nervousness came over Regg and he gave Jake a “what’s up” head nod that he instantly regretted when Jake just looked at him, turned around, and went in his cell. The door slammed shut behind him.

  “Motherfucking coward,” Jake said to himself.

  “Damn, I have to deal with this nigga,” Regg said before the cell doors slammed shut.

  ———

  “Phil Ro
senberg is on top of the world, babies! You rolling with the best,” Phil said like he was a star athlete or a champion of something. Phil was talking shit on the penthouse balcony to three of his lady friends he decided to hang out with. Phil’s idea of hanging out was a big duplex suite at a high-class hotel with an eight ball of coke, some E pills, some good weed, and vodka and tequila.

  “Listen, ladies, I got two friends coming over. I want y’all to show them a nice time, but that’s later on. For now I need y’all to clean this shit up and put the drugs away. As a matter of fact, leave all this shit right here! Damn, I’m high as a kite! I’m going downstairs. Don’t interrupt me unless I call one of y’all! I’m hopping in the shower for a while.”

  Phil had a meeting with the remaining Calvin brother and Monster. After taking his shower, he didn’t feel like going back up the stairs to change. He yelled upstairs, “One of you ladies bring my clothes down here and lay them out on the bed! I’m going to fix me a drink.”

  Phil was at the bar making his drink when he heard one of the girls run down the steps. Without looking at her he asked, “You got all of my shit?”

  “No, Phil, I don’t have all your shit!”

  Phil jerked around to see M.B. standing there holding a gun on him.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, you fucking cunt?”

  “So disrespectful when I have a gun in my hand, Phil?”

  “Bitch, you never shot or killed anything in your life and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go to jail now. Where the fuck did you send my bitches, M.B.?”

  “They went home, Phil, like I told them to. Did you forget I’m the one who hooked you up with most of your connects, even the one who sends you your hoes, dumb ass?”

  “Cut the shit, M.B., and get to the point! I got a meeting in a couple of minutes and I wouldn’t want one of them to come in here and see you with that gun out and put a bullet in your pretty li’l head now,” Phil said.

  “I know you have a meeting with Calvin and Monster, Phil. I have been following you for a few weeks now, but neither one of those gentlemen will be showing up. The girls won’t be coming back, either.”

  “And why’s that?” Phil was starting to get a little nervous, but he didn’t let it show.

  “Because they all know about you now. So will Jake. I wrote him a letter explaining the whole thing. He should be getting it any day now.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about, M.B.?”

  “You know, Phil, it took some time to figure it out, but I did,” M.B. said. “You are the one who set up Jake’s store to get robbed in the first place. Your intentions were to discourage him from being around. You hoped that robbery would leave him broke and make him relocate. Couldn’t bear the fact he witnessed you get raped. So when he went to jail you went and told Albert about Jake killing his son and his friends, but you made it seem like I got raped and you wasn’t there. But you never expected Albert to work so hard on getting Jake killed. You didn’t expect him to want to be the one to hurt Jake personally. When he decided to go in on the inside and have your guys’ other partner, Frazier, help him, that’s when you went into extra hard mode and went to the jail. You hired Franklin Butler to do the job, which he almost did. That’s around the time you told me Jake was out and just left town. But Jake didn’t die. Instead, he fell into a coma. You probably wanted to kill him in the hospital, but you couldn’t afford to make yourself hot. Then somehow you got in Kim’s head. You told her about my baby. You scared her with talk of fed time, being she was the founder of the 300 and Jake’s girl. Then came your death threat for her to let you know if Jake ever got up; if she didn’t, that was it for someone in her family. She actually believed you until your men tried to kill her, too. When you knew you couldn’t count on her anymore because you double-crossed her, you got Mitch in on it. You wanted him to kill his nephew, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t do it. He was actually trying to save Jake’s life. That’s why he killed Kim and not Jake. Mitch didn’t know Nine-One was a fed and he was about to bring you down, so you got real lucky when he got killed. You are a lowlife! You were trying to get Jake killed because you knew the feds were on to him killing Phat Murphy. At first I thought it was really over me, but that ain’t the case. You didn’t want the feds to get Jake for them bodies because you didn’t want the feds to hear the whole story. The reason why you didn’t want them to hear it is because you are a motherfucking federal agent! And you didn’t want your fellow agents to knock you off. You didn’t want them to know you got fucked up the ass. You’re not only a fed, but you’re a dirty one that has made money off your cover!”

  Phil turned red as a beet. He had blood in his eyes. “Fuck you, you fucking whore,” Phil screamed. “How the fuck did you find all this out?”

  “I kinda stumbled upon it, Phil. When I saw that Nine-One was a fed, I just automatically assumed he was on Jake’s case. Then I thought about it. He had more than enough time and evidence to bring Jake in. He was trying to get closer to the 300 Crew. He knew Kim started it, but when he found out you were in it and that wasn’t part of your cover or case agenda, he was on to you. But now that he is dead and most of the Crew is dead, and because Jake and your friend Frank are in jail, you think you got off scot-free.”

  “You still ain’t say exactly how you stumbled on all of this, M.B.”

  “When you got my address, Phil, you fucked up! You fucked up bad! How did you get it? You went to my real estate agent and gave my name and picture and told him I was under federal investigation. You got my address from him, that was your mistake. You fucked up! My real estate agent is an ATF agent and I used to be an ATF agent, too.”

  Phil was speechless. She had him. He wished he could kick himself in the ass. It made so much sense. What other way could she have had so much info on that many people for so many years? No wonder she just up and left. How come he hadn’t looked into her background deeper?

  “So what the fuck are you doing? You gonna take me in? Then come on over here and cuff me.” Phil stuck his hands out.

  “No, Phil. I ain’t here to arrest you. I said I used to be an ATF agent. I was forced into early retirement for being a dirty cop like you, but I was nowhere near as grimy as you! Yeah, I stole and had a baby by Jake while I was investigating Kim, so I had to leave my job.”

  Phil sensed M.B. was going to shoot him and tried to throw a liquor bottle. She sidestepped and put a bullet in Phil’s groin.

  “That’s for me, motherfucker!” Then she shot him again in his stomach. “That one is for Jake, motherfucker!” Then she shot him in the head. “That’s for my daughter and making her grow up without a father.”

  M.B. left Phil in his hotel room sprawled out bleeding.

  ———

  Regg knew he had to be well prepared to fuck with Jake. He also knew Jake just got in the house and most likely he didn’t have a blade on him. So if he ran up first, he could get Jake.

  Jake was in his cell thinking of how to make the best out of his time. He would tell Regg in the morning to just stay away from him. He didn’t have a plan for Frank and Clips and he knew he would definitely see them in the yard or mess hall. “Whatever happens, happens,” he told himself.

  Morning time came and Jake was up. He couldn’t sleep. He was waiting for the lock-out bell to ring. He knew Regg might try his hand and it was going to be an early morning wreck.

  The lock-out bell rang and Jake stepped out of his cell. Regg stepped out of his, and so did the rest of the block. The CO made the chow call and everybody who was hungry headed to the mess hall. Some fell back ’cause they was too tired. Some fell back because they were gonna eat some shit off their commissary.

  Jake headed to the mess hall. He made sure to play the wall of the hallway as he walked. Regg was kind of nervous-looking but trying to cover it up with a poker face. That was making Jake uneasy. As soon as Jake picked a spot where he could eat and observe everything, he got on line for his food. He made a mental note that Regg
was ten men behind the guy that was behind him. Jake’s spot was somebody else’s table, but the kids it belonged to noticed it was Jake in the spot and kept moving. So Jake ended up with the whole table to himself. As Jake was eating, he noticed Clips walking into the mess hall, which made him reminisce on his brutal beating.

  Clips noticed it got quiet as soon as he entered. The tension was extremely thick. He scanned the area and saw Jake sitting by himself. Clips not giving a fuck, got his tray, cut the breakfast line, and joined Jake for breakfast.

  “Good morning, Jake,” Clips said, as if he and Jake were the best friends in the world and he never played a part in trying to kill him.

  Jake replied, “You’re a funny guy!”

  Frank had walked into the mess hall and knew something was going down. He saw Clips sitting with Jake at a table by themselves. He skipped getting his tray, went straight to the table they were sitting at, and sat down next to Clips.

  “Clips, what are you doing?” Frank asked as soon as he got to the table.

  “Just saying good morning, that’s all, Frank.”

  “Yo, check this out,” Frank was addressing Jake. “Let’s just squash the beef.”

  “I can do that if you two go back to your cell block and go to sleep for two years. Do that and we call it even,” Jake said.

  “Listen, Jake, you can play tough, but you don’t stand a chance against us. I’m trying to be levelheaded, but I see we gonna have to handle our business,” Frank said.

  “I prefer it that way,” Jake said. “One way or the other y’all gonna have to pay, you know. I ain’t letting that shit slide.”

  As soon as Jake said slide, Clips hopped over the table with his blade out. That was exactly what Jake expected him to do. Jake hopped up and smashed his tray into Clips’ throat and stepped back. He knew Clips was hurt bad. Frank walked around the table and Jake threw his hands up. Frank kicked Jake in his knee and made him buckle. Then he caught him with a kick in the side of the head that dropped Jake to the floor. Jake’s head was ringing, but he jumped to his feet fast. Frank threw another kick at Jake’s ribs, but Jake caught his leg and slammed Frank to the floor. Jake felt Frank’s strength and knew Frank was some kind of expert in something. Jake tried to stomp Frank’s leg and Frank ended up sweeping his leg and hopping up. Jake hopped up just as fast. They were squared back up and Frank kicked Jake in the mouth and hit him twice in the body. Jake didn’t know if the body shot was a fist or foot, but he knew a rib was broken and he was dizzy.