“Don’t cry, sweetie, Yeah, I know it hurt, shawty. She’s as good as dead,” Mayo taunted, having put two and two together in a matter of seconds.
“I’m sorry, May,” Prada cried, knowing she’d been caught.
Tears fell down her face, but Mayo didn’t pay the tears any mind. Prada reached for her bag as if she was looking for some tissue to clean her face off. While she reached for her bag, Mayo was reaching for his gun that was located in the side panel of the driver side door. Inside of her bag, Prada felt around, but it wasn’t for tissue. Her hand locked onto the baby .380 auto that lived there. This was her only chance. It was do or die. As she began to pull her hand out of her bag, Mayo was pulling the gun from the side of his door.
It all came down to who was the quickest on the draw, and for Mayo, he saw Prada’s stunt a mile away. She never got the chance to pull it out, as a single shot from his gun flashed before her eyes. The bullet entered the center of her forehead and never exited, killing her instantly. Mayo was glad he had invested in the hollow tip bullets, that way, he didn’t have to worry about the splatter of blood and tissue from the bullet wound. He got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side. He looked around a few times to make sure nobody saw what happened, before pulling her body out of the car and tossing it to the ground like Prada was a piece of trash. He looked at her once more, and shook his head in disappointment at her betrayal. The love he was starting to develop for her all but disappeared with the confirmation call he had received from JR. To Mayo, Prada was just like any other trick or nigga that had ever crossed him.
__________
JR tucked his cell phone in his pocket, and then looked down at Niya. He leaned over and pointed the .357 at her head. Finally getting her bearings, Niya looked up at the man who was about to take her life. “See you in the next life, shawty,” JR said.
He put his finger on the trigger, and was about to squeeze, when out of nowhere he heard a gun cocking back. He turned around to see Alexus standing there with a gun in her hand, pointing it right at him. He attempted to fire, but Alexus didn’t hesitate. She began firing round after round into JR’s direction. What she lacked in accuracy she made up for with numbers. JR managed to get off two shots in the midst of Alexus raining bullets on him, but neither one hit her.
It was the last two bullets that Alexus fired that made contact with JR. One in his leg and the other one tore through his gut. He dropped to one knee, but still had his gun in his hand. Seeing that Alexus was out of bullets and JR was still moving, Niya reached for the .45 in her back pocket, popped the safety off and began firing at JR before he could raise his gun again at Alexus.
Pow! Pow! Pow! One bullet hit him in the side of his face, and another hit his neck, splitting open his jugular. Blood shot out of his neck like a faucet, and he was dead before he fell the rest of the way to the ground. Niya got to her feet, gun in hand and still pointed at JR. She made sure he was dead, then unarmed him before running over to the bed and pulling the sheet off of it.
“Lex, get over here,” Niya yelled out. “Help me get dis shit out of here,” she said, laying the sheet out on the floor in front of the safe.
She definitely didn’t have time to be making two trips, especially knowing that Mayo and Prada was more than likely on their way back to the house. As fast as they could move, Alexus and Niya loaded everything of value into the sheet, wrapped it up as tightly as they could, then left the house.
__________
Mayo pulled into his driveway and saw that the front door was wide open. A lot of lights were on in the house as well, which made him proceed with extreme caution. He pulled the 9mm from his waist, then entered the home. It was quiet, and he still wasn’t sure if it was safe or not.
“Yo homie,” Mayo yelled out, seeing if JR was gonna respond.
There was no answer. Mayo continued up the stairs until he reached the room where the safe was located. He could now see why he wasn’t getting an answer from JR. His friend was laying in a pool of blood, dead with his eyes open. Frustrated, hurt, and mad as hell, Mayo walked over and looked into his safe. It was pretty much empty except for the jewelry Niya had left behind. He walked back over to JR’s body and kneeled down next to it. Mayo placed his hand over his dead partner’s eyes and wiped them close. He shook his head in disbelief at the outcome of his plan. This bitch, Niya, had not only robbed him again, but now she had taken the life of someone he really cared about. He took a huge gasp before speaking out loud to his deceased childhood friend.
“Damn homie. I’ma hold you down family, that’s my word. All these bitches gonna pay, my nigga, I put that on everythang.” Mayo said, resting the gun on the side of his head.
Country Girls 2
Chapter 1
Security was a little tight in the emergency room, due to the rash of violence in Charlotte over the past night. Cops were everywhere, but that didn’t stop Gwen from entering the hospital with one thing on her mind, and that was to find out why Master had tried to kidnap her. She had gotten word through some street connections, that he was now housed up in the ICU at Carolina Medical Center. The thought of that nigga still breathing wasn’t sitting right with her, and despite JR promising he was going to take care of it, she wasn’t in the mood for waiting. A large pair of Gucci frames covered a nice portion of Gwen’s face. That along with a full-length blonde wig, made the perfect disguise for her in the event Master forced her to do more than question him, at that time. Instead of bringing her gun into the hospital, Gwen brought her trusty butterfly knife, so that if she did decide to kill him, it would be quiet.
After getting Master’s room number from the nurse at the front desk, Gwen proceeded to the 4th floor where he was at. The whole time walking down the hall, Gwen played back in her mind that day when they came after her. It made her more and more furious, just thinking about it. She looked up at every room number she passed by, until she finally came upon the number the nurse had given her.
“422,” she mumbled to herself, looking into the room to see Master lying in the bed with all kinds of needles and tubes sticking out of him.
“Who are you?” a young female asked, startling Gwen.
It was Master’s sister sitting in the chair off to the side. Gwen hadn’t noticed her upon entering the room, and was startled. She was also pissed at the fact that Master wasn’t alone. She managed to fake a smile, and answer the curious young women’s question.
“Hi, I’m a friend of Master’s,” Gwen lied, thinking fast. “I just stopped by to see how he was doing.”
Master’s sister wasn’t too alarmed. She just figured that Gwen was another one of Master’s girlfriends who was checking in on him. “Well, he’s doin’ a lot better. The doctor said that he should make a full recovery. He just needs to get his rest,” she informed Gwen.
Gwen looked over at Master, mad as hell after hearing he was going to be alright. Master’s sister didn’t think nothing of it when Gwen walked over and stood by his bedside. She looked down on him, placed her hand on his side a few inches away from his bullet wound and squeezed. It wasn’t enough morphine in his system that could stop him from feeling that. His eyes shot wide open, the heart monitor started beeping fast, and the bullet wound in his back started to bleed. “He must be happy to see me,” Gwen looked over and told his sister to try to take her attention off the suddenly rapid beeping noise from the monitor.
Master’s sister simply dug her face back into the hair magazine she was reading. Gwen turned her attention back to Master, who was still somewhat in shock. She leaned in, as though she was kissing the side of his face, in order to talk without being heard by his sister.
“Why?” she whispered in his ear as she held a firm grip to his side.
The pain mixed with a dry throat made it hard for him to speak. He was trying to say something, but Gwen couldn’t really hear him through the oxygen mask. She pulled the mask down from his face, but the moment she did, the
heart monitor started going crazy. It was too loud for Master’s sister to ignore. Not only his sister, but also a nurse came rushing to his bedside. Gwen just backed up and let the two women attend to him.
“What happened?” both women asked her simultaneously.
“I don’t know, I just gave him a kiss on the cheek and he woke up, I think he pulled his mask off to say something to me.”
While the nurse and Master’s sister focused back on Master, Gwen quickly disappeared from the room.
__________
Detective Rose and Detective Butler pushed through the early morning traffic to arrive at the Pilot rest stop off highway I-85. When they pulled up, they were greeted by the patrol officer who was first on the scene. He walked them over to where Prada’s blood soaked body was, right next to an 18-wheeler. Off the top, Butler could see the cause of death was a bullet wound to the head.
“She’s too well put together to be a hooker,” Det. Rose said as she analyzed the body.
“Whoa, we got a gun,” Butler said, looking into Prada’s Louie bag that was off to the side.
Butler looked deeper into her bag and found her I.D., along with some cash. From that, he quickly ruled out the possibility of a robbery.
“We got a witness too,” the patrol officer announced, grabbing both Rose and Butler’s attention.
You could see the excitement in both of their eyes. Homicides were the toughest cases to prove in the criminal justice system, without the proper evidence. Anyone who had ever viewed an episode of The First 48 understood that. But when there was a witness, an eye witness to the crime, it’s like a blessing from God for homicide detectives. The patrol officer walked the two detectives around to the other side of the 18-wheeler, where John, the truck driver sat. John retold them the story of how he was asleep in his truck when he was awakened by a pop. He didn’t think much of it, considering where he was, but curiosity made him take a peek out his window. That’s when he saw a man pulling the body of a female out of his car.
He said that he didn’t get a real good look at the man, however he was sure he was African-American. He also was certain that the car was a Mercedes Benz S550, all black. Because the car turned around so quickly, he didn’t get a chance to see the rear license plate. But he had seen the front vanity plate clearly. He remembered trying to figure out why someone would put the name of some mayonnaise on the front of such a beautiful and expensive car.
“The tag read, Mayo,” He repeated to both detectives again.
Rose asked if he would be able to identify the man who was driving the car if he was to see him again. John said that he was not sure, but he would try. Even though it was a small lead, it was a break in the investigation, and it had been in less than thirty minutes of the detectives being on the case. Now came the hard part, and that was having to make the trip to the victim’s family’s home to give them the sad news of their loss. Both officers dreaded this part of the job the most.
__________
Gwen wisely had left the hospital after drawing all the attention to Master’s room. She was just gonna have to wait until he was a little better before confronting the situation again. She headed back home with somewhat of a bitter taste in her mouth. When she finally did make it home, it was the line of older cars with 24 inch rims sitting out front of her apartment building that caught her attention first. This wasn’t the kind of complex were the occupants drove those types of vehicles. Gwen became more concerned when she could hear the sounds of men laughing and joking coming from the inside of her front door. Pressing her ear to the door she could hear the faint voices of men inside of her apartment. She looked up and down the hall, not sure as to what she should do because she had no idea what was on the other side of the entry. Before she had a chance to react, the apartment door swung open and a short, stocky, black man stood before her with the grimiest look on his face. The look alone scared the shit out of her.
“Yo… come on in shawty,” the man said, stepping to the side so that she could enter.
Gwen looked at him like he was crazy. Before he got a chance to say another word, Gwen took a step back, dropped her pocketbook, and pulled the 9mm from out of her back waist. It happened so fast, the guy at the door didn’t have time to do anything but put his hands in the air.
“Who da fuck are you, and what you doin’ in my apartment?” Gwen shouted, hoping to get her next door neighbor’s attention.
“Whoa… Whoa… Whoa…” Mayo yelled as he ran to the door. “Gwen, it’s me,” he said hoping it would calm her down.
Gwen began to somewhat lower the gun, after seeing a familiar face. But she was still cautiously hugging the trigger of the firearm. “And who da fuck is you, acting like I suppose to know your ass.” she asked, still pointing the gun at the first guy.
“I’m Roni, a friend of JR’s. Remember I met you at his Mom’s house when she had the Thanksgiving dinner last year?” he explained.
Gwen was still on edge with the whole kidnapping situation, so she eased up a little bit, but was still watchful.
“Why are ya’ll in my apartment?” she asked, lowering the gun all the way, now, but still keeping it in her hand. “And where the fuck is JR?”
Mayo lowered his head, preparing to give Gwen the sad news. He still had the memory of seeing JR’s dead body in his house. When he did that, Gwen knew that it wasn’t good news. She poked her head further into the apartment, and could see a couple more guys sitting on her couch with sad looks on their faces.
“JR was murdered last night, shawty,” Mayo said in a low tone with a quiver in his voice.
It was like somebody had taken a knife, and stabbing her directly in the heart when she heard those words. She backed up until her back hit the living room wall. She slid down it until she was sitting on the floor. She couldn’t even stand up anymore, and the more and more it registered in her head, the more she cried. JR had always been there for her, and even though she never could love him as much as he had loved her, there was a special bond between them.
__________
Niya woke up to see Jasmine playing with one of her toys in the living room. Niya was still in the dog house with Chad, so the couch had become her new best friend. At this point, it wasn’t clear where her and Chad’s relationship stood, but the one thing she knew, was that she didn’t want to lose him. In her heart, she felt guilty because she knew the sacrifices he made by getting out of the game, and she knew that those sacrifices was the best thing for their family.
“Jazzy Pooh,” Niya said, calling Jasmine by her nickname. “Where’s ya bro bro?” she asked looking around the room for Jahmil.
“Heee… up dere,” baby Jasmine said, pointing up.
Niya’s ringing cell phone interrupted the short mother, daughter time they were having. She ran to get it, hoping it was Prada finally returning her many calls. She was waiting to hear how Mayo was taking the loss of the contents of his safe. Niya didn’t even look at the screen, she just hit accept and began talking.
“Damn bitch, it took you long enough to return my calls. That nigga must have been crying all night on your shoulders,” Niya spoke with a little chuckle.
“Ni it’s D,” Diamond uttered in a low tone.
“Oh, what up D? I thought you were Prada.” Niya answered, sitting back on the couch.
The phone went silent for a second, and then all Niya could hear was Diamond crying on the other end.
“D, what’s wrong?” Niya asked. “Talk to me Diamond, what’s going on?” Niya pleaded through Diamond’s cries.
“Sheeesss gone, Ni,” Diamond cried out. “He… killed… her,” she managed to get out.
“Who, Diamond? Who got killed?” Niya asked frantically.
It was a moment of silence on the phone. In that moment, a million and one thoughts ran through Niya’s mind. She knew who Diamond was talking about, but nothing inside of her wanted to believe it. She began shaking her head from left to right as
her eyes filled up with tears.
“No, I don’t believe you. You lying, Diamond!”
“Prada is dead, Ni!”
“Diamond you take that shit back. Don’t you play like that!”
“They killed her, Ni,” Diamond cried out, this time even louder.
Niya dropped the phone and fell to the floor. It was as if hearing the words collapsed her heart. There wasn’t a single term in the dictionary that could describe how she felt, not only to have lost a friend who was like a blood sister, but to know that she was the cause. She knew she should have gotten Prada out of harm’s way, earlier. Her stomach began to knot up, and the tears poured out of Niya’s eyes. Baby Jasmine began crying, matching her mother’s screams.
All the noise brought Chad running down the steps to see what was going on. When he arrived and saw the two most important women of his life on the floor wailing their eyes out, he went over and picked up Jasmine in one arm, and pulled Niya close to him with the other.
“Ni, what’s the matter?” He asked, trying to calm her down, so he could understand her words.
“Prada is dead, they killed my best friend… I killed my best friend!” Niya shouted out.
Chad didn’t ask any more questions. He had lost enough friends in the street to know now wasn’t the time. He just pulled Niya closer to him and held his two girls in his arms, like he never wanted to let go.
__________
Detective Rose sat at her desk searching the police data-base for the alias name of “Mayo”. She wasn’t having much luck. That was until another officer suggested she try the domestic violent crime record.
“You know the ladies are always down here taking out restraining orders on these guys, and they always seem to list every alias or nickname they know.” The young beat cop spoke.
She logged out of one search engine, and into the domestic crimes search. Rose typed in the name Mayo, and a huge smile came across her face when she saw the name “Marquis Harper” pop up on the screen with a photo beside it. She then immediately cross-referenced his name with the DMV records, and her smile got even larger. She instantly picked up the phone and called her partner, Detective Butler.
Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love Page 6