Jaicyn was flashier than her boyfriend. She wore the best clothes, ate in the best restaurants, and drove the nicest car. Her black Ford Mustang convertible had twenty-two inch chrome rims, a better stereo system than Rayshawn had in his Lexus, leather interior, and chrome pipes. She had one of the boys in the neighborhood wash and wax it once a week so that it shined like a mirror as she drove along the streets of Washington Heights.
Jaicyn was “the man”; the top dog in Washington Heights and she used it to her advantage. Plus she was kid-free for the summer meaning she could do whatever she wanted. She and her friends hit the clubs every weekend. They went on shopping trips to DC, New York, and Chicago whenever they felt like it. She strolled through the streets like she owned them. One of her favorite lines was “Do you know who I am? You better recognize.”
It was her “you can’t fuck with me’ attitude that pissed the other dealers off. Not only was she outselling them, she was doing it with the flash and arrogance of a person who’d been in the game forever. Blaque warned her that she was stepping on toes.
Marcello on 129th Street, Sonny on 91st Street, and K.C. in Oakland Terrace projects all thought that King was going to divvy up Oak Park while he was away. When it didn’t happen, they were pissed. Jaicyn didn’t care what they thought. The Oak Park crew was making the most money out of all King’s territories. Until someone could outsell her, Jaicyn was determined to do and say whatever she wanted.
While she and Joy worked on the laptop Slim came through with more dope. Jaicyn finished up just as Slim was about to leave. She asked him to take a walk with her over to her office.
“What’s up Jay-Jay,” Slim asked as they walked.
“Something’s up and I don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Jaicyn replied. “First the stick up boys and then Curt and Sonya get arrested today. Something ain’t right.”
Slim nodded his head in agreement. Jaicyn had a big problem. Slim had been hearing grumblings from the other dealers around the city. Jaicyn was getting under their skin. They wanted her out. He was going to bring it to Blaque’s attention so he could squash it before Jaicyn found out and did something stupid.
“So, what you sayin’?” Slim asked.
“I need some more muscle down here. Shit’s about to get ugly. I can feel it coming.”
She didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but whatever happened was not going to be a song and dance. Her women’s intuition and street sense was telling her that people were going to get hurt. Jaicyn had no plans on being one of them.
“Have you talked to Blaque?” Slim wondered what the girl had in mind.
“Not yet. I’m going with my gut on this.”
“I’m on it,” Slim said. His first priority was to protect King’s investment and that meant making sure that Jaicyn had everything she needed down in the Park.
“Don’t send me any people from any other crew,” Jaicyn demanded. “This heat is coming from inside and I don’t trust anyone that doesn’t work directly for me.”
Slim stopped walking. She couldn’t be right about that. No one in King’s crew would go up against someone else in the crew. Marcello and Sonny might be mad but they’d wait until King took care of it. The crew was like one big family. Jaicyn was wrong.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she questioned, her hazel eyes filled with anger. “Oh, you didn’t know? Slim, I’m a hell of a lot smarter than everyone thinks. Think about it. Any other dealer in the city would have made a move a couple of days after Rayshawn left. Not King’s people, though. On that note, I need another gun.”
Slim couldn’t believe his ears. He had been one of the people who underestimated Jaicyn when King talked about how good of a hustler she would be. He knew that when she was younger she got in a lot of fights and could talk shit with the best of them, but that was high school. She was in a different league. He didn’t think she’d be down with anything except keeping her hands clean.
Jaicyn Jones was proving to everyone in Washington Heights that she wasn’t just a pretty face or Rayshawn’s stand-in. Rayshawn had taught his girl well. She was a beast and talking his language. If she wanted a gun, he’d get her a gun.
“What’s your plan?” Slim asked, interested to see what she was up to.
Jaicyn trusted Slim with her life but she hesitated to let anyone know what her next move would be. He was loyal to King and she didn’t want word getting back to the boss without her telling him of her suspicions first.
“I’ll let you know,” Jaicyn answered. “For now, let’s just keep this between me and you.”
“Cool.
Jaicyn and Slim parted ways at the entrance of the 200 building. Jaicyn climbed the steps, avoiding empty beer cans on the way. She couldn’t avoid stepping on the empty vials tossed haphazardly across the floor. She looked around for needles. Little kids lived in the building. They didn’t need to see that. When she got to the steel gray door of apartment F she opened it and walked in. As usual Corey and Marcus were watching BET and smoking blunts. Johnny was on his cell. All three sprang to attention when the door opened.
“What the hell happened with Curtis and Sonya?” Jaicyn said to Johnny. “You were supposed to call me when you heard something. It’s been two hours.”
“Nobody knows anything,” Johnny explained. “Word is that the cops just jumped out on them. Just the same old shit, nothing unusual.”
It wasn’t unusual for police to ride around and jump out on the corner boys and other lower level dealers. They did it all the time, especially on the east and west sides of Washington Heights. However, this was the south side. Cops didn’t usually bother anyone on the south side. In fact, some of the patrol cops even moonlighted for King. Every once in awhile they came through and roughed up the dealers but it was all for show. They never arrested anyone.
“Hook Curt and Sonya’s moms up with the bail money and call the girl we use at the bondsmen’s office,” Jaicyn instructed Johnny. “When they get out, bring Curtis and Sonya to me.”
She turned to Corey and Marcus. “I need y’all outside more. Slim is sending some people down here to help but you two can’t be in this apartment all day getting high.”
“Fine with me,” Corey answered. “I’m tired of not having anything to do and sitting around here all day anyway.”
“Nobody told you to hang out here all the time,” Jaicyn replied sarcastically.
“Jay-Jay, we goin’ out tonight?” Marcus interrupted before the two of them could start arguing.
“Yeah. We’re going to the Red Room like we do every Saturday.”
Corey and Jaicyn bickered like brother and sister but he was serious about protecting her. He and Marcus went above and beyond the call of duty to protect her. She didn’t make moves without them. They knew that she could handle herself in a fistfight but on the streets niggas carried guns.
“I’m goin’ to see if I can hook up with some of your friends,” Corey said.
Jaicyn laughed for the first time that day. “Some of my friends? You’re such a hoe!”
“No, your friends are hoes,” Corey corrected her. “Every dude out here done ran up in Taylor and Ciara. Why shouldn’t I take another turn?”
“At least something will be getting some tonight,” Jaicyn joked.
Jaicyn missed Rayshawn and her sisters terribly but she missed her man most of all. The apartment was too big to be so empty. She couldn’t get used to the feeling of being alone. She’d never done it before. Even in Job Corps, she shared her space with the other girls. Her only consolation was that Rickie and Bobbie would be coming back from Puerto Rico soon.
“I’m going home,” Jaicyn announced. “Please do what I asked. Autumn and I are going out to dinner so just meet us at the Red Room around eleven.”
Jaicyn took a long look at the three men in the room. Not including her father, she only trusted four men in her life and three of them were right there. They were her friends, her confidantes, and she
’d rather be with them than go home to an empty apartment. She had to leave though. Autumn was waiting.
As she walked across the courtyard every dealer in the yard acknowledged her presence. Even the resident dope fiends took notice of her. It had taken months but Jaicyn finally commanded the type of respect that she thought she deserved. She wondered what would happen when Rayshawn came back.
Chapter 27
“You okay to drive Jay-Jay?” Corey asked.
It was three o’clock in the morning. Corey, Marcus, Jaicyn, Johnny, Autumn, Joy, Taylor, and Ciara had closed down the Red Room. Corey was high but he definitely felt that he was in better condition to drive than Jaicyn and her friends who had been smoking weed and downing French Connections and Patron and pineapple all night.
“I’m good,” Jaicyn slurred, sounding far from sober. “My apartment is only ten minutes from here.”
“I’m not riding with her,” Autumn laughed.
“Nobody’s riding with her,” Johnny spoke up, “because she’s not driving anything. I’ll drive.”
All the girls broke out in high pitched drunken laughter, amused by Johnny’s protectiveness. They had enjoyed watching the tough guys cut loose in the club with them. Plus none of the square guys had tried to ease up because Corey and Marcus were there. It was a good night.
The girls were giggling and laughing so hard they didn’t even notice the burgundy Acura creeping down the street. The passenger side windows rolled down. Jaicyn heard someone call her name and looked in the direction of the Acura. Two shooters leaned out of the front and back windows and opened fire at the small group standing outside of the club.
Bullets crashed into windows, parked cars, and anything else that was standing. The other club patrons scattered and ran for cover. The situation was pure chaos. Jaicyn’s eyes darted over the thinning crowd, looking for Marcus and Corey. They were ducked behind a wall shooting back at the car.
“Who the fuck is that?” Jaicyn shouted.
“Jay-Jay, get down,” Johnny ordered and pulled his .45 out of his pants. He stepped in front of Jaicyn and pushed her to the ground. She grabbed onto his shirt. As they both fell, a bullet hit Johnny in the shoulder, spraying blood all over both of them.
“Oh fuck,” Johnny cried out,” I’m hit!” He dropped the gun he was holding and grabbed at his shoulder. Bright red blood oozed through his fingers and stained his orange Polo shirt.
Jaicyn heard a bullet fly past her head. It was so close that she could feel the heat. A few centimeters closer and she would have been dead.
Fuck that!
She picked up Johnny’s gun and aimed at the moving car. She squeezed the trigger over and over; the sudden shootout and smell of gun smoke sobered her up enough to remember what she’d learned at the shooting range.
It was over in less than a minute.
When the shooting stopped, Jaicyn stood up and surveyed the damage. Autumn and the other girls were lying on the ground terrified and crying. Johnny was lying on the ground bleeding. Corey and Marcus were pissed.
What the fuck had just happened?
This wasn’t some random shooting in the parking lot of the skating rink or mall. She’d seen that happen many times growing up. She heard gunshots before. She even knew people who got shot. This was different.
They were shooting at her! Someone wanted her dead!
Jaicyn leaned up against the wall trying to calm her heart that was threatening to jump out of her chest.
“Who the fuck was that?” Corey yelled.. He was pissed that somebody had the balls to shoot at them. He was already planning his retaliation.
“Get Johnny to the fucking hospital,” Jaicyn yelled trying to regain her control over the situation. “Marcus, take the girls to my house!”
“And what the fuck is wrong with my arm,” Jaicyn cried out, noticing a searing pain for the first time.
Autumn grabbed her friend and saw blood oozing out of a gash on her upper arm. “Did you get shot?”
Marcus looked at Jaicyn’s arm. “No, she just got grazed. But you need to go to the hospital too.”
Jaicyn looked at her arm. It hurt like hell but it wasn’t serious.
“Don’t worry about me. Just do what I said. Where the fuck is my car?” she yelled at the valet who’d come from around the building. He’d run for cover as soon as the shooting started.
Corey looked worried as he helped Johnny into his Jeep. Jaicyn was screaming. She was losing her cool. She needed to calm down quickly. He’d hadn’t witnessed her being so angry or scared.
“Jaicyn, don’t do anything stupid. Let us take care of this.”
“Just do what I said, Corey,” Jaicyn advised, more calm than she had been a few seconds ago. “Get Johnny to the damn hospital before he bleeds to death.”
The valet pulled Jaicyn’s car to a stop right in front of her and hopped out. She dug in her pocket and handed him some money.
“When the cops get here, don’t say shit,” she told him. She could hear the sirens in the distance and knew that they didn’t have long to get the hell out of the area.
“Marcus, after you drop them off, stay close to the Park and check in with Blaque and Slim. Don’t do shit until you hear from me. I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?”
“Just do what I said. I’ll be back.”
Jaicyn sped off in the opposite direction of approaching police. Corey may not have known who the shooters were but Jaicyn did. She recognized the burgundy Acura. Marcello had made his move. He’d broken the rules. Two could play that game. All she needed was a simple “go” from King.
Jaicyn didn’t even feel the pain in her arm. Too much adrenaline was coursing through her body for her to feel anything.
Someone had tried to kill her! Someone had meant for her to die and she was hell bent and determined to do something about it!
Chapter 28
Rayshawn woke up in his suite at the Marriott Marquise in downtown Atlanta to the sound of his cell phone ringing and someone knocking on the door. He rolled over and looked at the bedside clock. The red LED numbers read 6:33 a.m.
“What the hell?” Rayshawn said out loud.
He picked up his phone and answered it. As soon as he did the knocking stopped.
“What?” Rayshawn barked into the phone.
“It’s me,” he heard his girlfriend say. “Open the door.”
Rayshawn got out of the bed and opened the door. Jaicyn was really standing outside of his door and she looked a mess. She looked like she’d just gotten into a fight. The hair on his arms stood straight up. Something had happened. Something bad had happened.
Without a word Jaicyn stepped into the room and shut the door.
“God,” Jaicyn groaned, “I need a shower. And some Tylenol for this stupid headache.” She laid back on the bed, mentally and physically drained.
“Jaicyn, what happened? What are you doing here?” Rayshawn asked.
“I need to talk to King,” Jaicyn said.
“About what?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. I called him from the airport. He’ll be here in a minute and I need shower. Can I borrow a t-shirt?”
“Jaicyn-”
“Not now, Rayshawn. It’s better for me to tell you and King together. I don’t like repeating myself. Can you call down to the front desk and have them send up a first aid kit?” Jaicyn asked before disappearing into the bathroom.
Rayshawn picked up the hotel phone to call the front desk but he hung up. Instead, he slipped on his sneakers and went down to the hotel lobby. They had a Starbucks inside the hotel and Jaicyn looked like she needed coffee badly.
Rayshawn ordered Jaicyn’s usual vanilla latte and went across the lobby to the gift shop where he bought a first aid kit and a nightshirt. He was tempted to get on the phone and call Marcus or Blaque. They would know what was going on.
His mind went through all of the possibilities. Whatever had happened was bad enough for Jaicyn to g
et on a plane and fly to Atlanta in the middle of the night. Someone had to have made a move, the one thing that he feared every day that he was gone.
Jaicyn was out of the shower and sitting in the living room area of the suite when he walked in. She was wrapped in a bathrobe and graciously accepted the coffee. Rayshawn sat on the bed next to her and stared as she took the first sip with her eyes closed.
“Will you please tell me what happened?” Rayshawn asked as he watched his girlfriend apply some antibiotic cream to a burn mark on her arm.
“Last night,” Jaicyn said slowly, “Pete and Marcello tried to kill me in front of the Red Room.”
“What did you just say?” Rayshawn hadn’t heard her correctly. He couldn’t have. Pete would never cross him like that.
“I didn’t stutter,” Jaicyn answered. She applied some more ointment to her injury and closed the tube.
“Hold up,” Rayshawn stammered. “Start from the beginning.”
Jaicyn shook her head. Rayshawn wasn’t completely oblivious to what was going on in Washington Heights. They talked practically every day. He knew she’d fired Pete. She purposely didn’t tell him until after the deed was done, but he still knew.
“I don’t have to start from the beginning. You know what’s been going on. Now I have a serious problem on my hands,” Jaicyn stated. “That’s why I’m here.”
“What kind of problem?”
“I just told you,” Jaicyn said, exasperated. “Pete and Marcello tried to kill me. They shot Johnny in the shoulder too.”
Rayshawn rubbed his finger softly over Jaicyn’s burn mark.
“Is this what I think it is?” She nodded.
Rayshawn felt sick to his stomach. This was a dream. His girlfriend was not sitting in his hotel room with a bullet wound. Any minute he’d wake up.
“So you see,” Jaicyn explained, “I’ve got Blaque and Slim and Corey and Marcus on stand-by, waiting for me to give them the word. But I can’t hit back at Marcello without letting King know what’s going on, right? Those are the rules even if Marcello didn’t follow them, right?”
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