Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love

by Blake Karrington

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ll deal with the favors later, Ralphy, just tell me what you got,” Butler said.

  “MHB stands for Money Hungry Bitches. It’s a group of chicks that hustle in the neighborhood,” Ralph informed.

  “What do you mean hustle?” Rose cut in trying to get some clarity. “Well, I know one of the chicks just opened up shop, selling H on Betty Ford Rd. She might be small time, but business looks like its picking up,” Ralphy said.

  The detectives looked at each other. They couldn’t believe that they had just heard that a female was moving heroin, and on Betty Ford Rd. at that. If it was any truth to it, they knew from experience she wasn’t gonna last in that area very long.

  “I need a name… give me a name,” Butler demanded.

  “Niyesha… Niyrobie… Niya… It’s something like that,” Ralphy said, unable to remember exactly what he had overheard somebody else call her. “I’ll give you a call later with an exact on her name. But in the meantime, how about that favor that I need?” he asked with a smile.

  “Yea what is it? Butler questioned with a pissed look on his face.

  “Man, really it ain’t even a real favor, shit I’m looking out for ya’ll and being a good citizen with this one.”

  “Just spit it out!” Rose Chimed in.

  “Ok, ok… well, it’s this nigga name TJ who be hustling over on the eastside. I got his address right here and his tag number,” Ralphy continued while passing Butler the paper. “He keeps dope and guns on him always, and I know the nigga’s a felon.” Both of the detectives’ eyes widened.

  “And what did this poor bastard do to you, to make you such a concerned citizen that you would point us in his direction?” Rose asked.

  Ralphy just smiled again, this time even wider. “The mutha-fucker been fucking with my baby momma, and I told the nigga I had something for his ass. And the time he going to get when you niggas see him is just what that bitch ass nigga need.

  __________

  The loud sound of laughter caught both Mandy and Niya’s attention as they headed out the front door of Mandy’s apartment. Niya looked down the street, and could see a crowd of her new workers huddled in a circle, cheering on whatever was going on in the middle. Niya, curious and wanting to get some control and order over her block, went to go break up the fun. To her, this was no playtime, this was money time, and she needed these people to understand that.

  When she got over to the crowd, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at, and had to do a double take just to make sure that it was real. On all fours in a doggystyle position, a dopefiend name Chelsey was allowing Max, a red nose pit-bull to hit her from the back. Max was humping away like he’d been there before. What was even crazier, was the look on Chelsey’s face. It actually looked like she was enjoying it. As much as Niya tried to hold her composure, she couldn’t.

  Niya screamed out, “Get that fucking dog off her, are you niggas crazy?”

  Her and Mandy started trying to break the situation up. Everybody was laughing, but Niya didn’t see anything funny. She was still cussing and directing the men to break this shit up. Two of her workers began trying to pry Max off Chelsey’s back, but he was putting up a strong fight. Niya and Mandy pulled Chelsey off the ground, while the guys were finally able to free her from Max’s grip. Niya couldn’t help but to wonder what would make a woman allow herself to do such a thing.

  Then she noticed the dime bag of smack Chelsey tightly held in her right hand. Niya was almost ashamed, now realizing, that it was the dope she was selling that had this black woman, a mother and elder, doing what she was doing. While everyone else continued to laugh and joke after Chelsey got up and left, Niya was coming to understand that if a woman would stoop this low, then what would a man or woman do for the goods she now held. It was at this point she knew she needed to step up security on herself and her girls. The streets had already cost her one friend, and she was determined to not lose another.

  In just three days, the block was moving over eight grand a day. “Yo… we’re gonna have to find another stash house,” Niya suggested as her and Mandy got into the car.

  “Yeah, I agree. And we’re gonna have to start having shifts for our workers, so we can put a hold to the excess people around doing nothin’ but making us miss money,” Mandy said, nodding to a dopefiend standing up against the wall waiting to cop his drugs.

  It was understood that Niya needed to put the clamps on just a little tighter. Her presence was there, but it needed to be felt. At any given time, somebody on the block might think about tryin his hand at robbing Mandy and Niya. It wasn’t just the workers on the block, it was also the dopefiends that Niya had to worry about. She just witnessed with her own eyes that they would do just about do anything for a hit. Killing her wasn’t something that was too far off.

  __________

  Gwen was paranoid as hell, driving back home with five keys in her truck and a .45 automatic under her seat. She made sure that she was careful when approaching traffic lights and using her turn signals properly. Rell and Browny drove behind her the whole time, just in case they had to become a decoy for the cops. Gwen picked up her phone and called Browny to let him know she had something else to take care of. He was cool with it, and just stayed behind her. Gwen really couldn’t afford to make any stops right now, but this would be quick, plus it was en route to her spot.

  She was about to be doing a lot of cooking and bagging, so she needed to go to Premiums, a store that sold just about everything that a drug dealer needs. As she drove down the street the store was on, Gwen happened to look over and see a familiar car parked right in front of the store. She knew that it was Niya’s Range Rover from the Carolina Panthers sticker attached to the back window. Gwen drove by and glanced at the license plate to be sure, and it was.

  “Dis bitch,” Gwen mumbled to herself as she looked for a good spot to park.

  It hadn’t been a day, lately, that went by that Gwen didn’t think about the attempted kidnapping on her, Niya murdering her boyfriend, and then catching Niya talking to Master. She was all but sure, Niya was the one who was behind the kidnapping. The only reason why Gwen hadn’t run up to Niya’s house and blew her head off, was on the strength of Chad and the twins being in the house. But Gwen vowed to herself, that if she ever caught Niya out on the streets, they would finish what they had started in the basement of the church. And this time, she was going to deal with her in accordance to the laws of the street if need be.

  Gwen parked at the corner of the road, making sure nothing was blocking her in. Browny and Rell pulled up behind her. Neither had any idea what Gwen was up to. Gwen grabbed her .45 from under her seat, checked and made sure it was a bullet in the chamber, and then exited her vehicle. She didn’t have any plans on shooting Niya, but she felt like she needed to be prepared, just in case Niya was ready to take it there. Rell could see the change in her behavior, plus the .45 she had tucked in her pants.

  “Yo shawty, you good?” Browny asked also seeing the look Gwen had in her eyes.

  “Just come on,” she said, heading for the store.

  She could see Niya and another female coming from out of the store together. Gwen started jogging to close the distance between them. Browny and Rell were right behind her. Pedestrians on the sidewalk started moving out of their way, noticing that it looked like something was about to go down.

  Then it happened. Gwen and Niya caught made contact as Niya walked around to the driver side of her car. Mandy had also seen Gwen and her two goons approaching, and she quickly went for her gun. Niya tried to tell her to hold up. Although she knew Gwen wanted to start some shit, she also knew that she wasn’t about to take it to gun play. Besides the fact that they had Chad and the children in common, they both were still MHB to their death. This was like a family who could fight each other every day, but would never think of killing one another, and would kill someone else, who did think of harming either.

 
Niya’s cry was too late, because Mandy was already pulling the trigger. Gwen had caught a glimpse of the shine of the chrome 38 semi-automatic pistol Mandy had, and had pulled her own Glock .40, and was returning fire. Everything went into slow motion.

  “Oh shit… Mandy get down,” Niya yelled, slipping behind the car.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Pop! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Gwen was letting her pistol scream in Mandy’s direction. Browny and Rell were also letting it fly.

  Niya got low behind her truck, while Mandy took cover behind another parked car. Niya reached down, pulled her pistol, and began firing as well. All she could do was reach the gun over the truck and keep pulling the trigger. She and Mandy were sitting ducks, because they were caught off guard. The sounds of bullets knocking holes in the truck flooded the street, that along with people running and screaming trying to get out of the way. In a bold attempt, Niya reached up and grabbed the driver’s side door handle trying to get it open. A bullet crashing through the window forced her to yank her hand back.

  Seeing what Niya had tried to do, Mandy crawled to her feet and shot out from behind the parked car and made her way over to where Niya was. Mandy reached up and grabbed the back side door handle, opened it, reached in under the seat and grabbed a shot gun. She jumped up and started returning fire, covering Niya so that she could get her bearings together and possibly get the truck started so they could get the hell outta there.

  By the time Niya got the truck started, Gwen was already retreating back to her car. She screamed for Rell and Browny to follow. Mad as hell, Niya placed the truck in drive. She yelled for Mandy to jump in. As soon as she was sure Mandy was securely in the truck, she took off out the parking lot.

  “Who da fuck was that?” Mandy yelled, climbing out of the backseat into the passenger side of the Range.

  Niya couldn’t believe what had just happened. Never in a million years did she think that it would come to this, but now it was only one person that could save Gwen, and that was God. “That was a fuckin ghost,” Niya said, speeding the truck down the narrow road,” That was a muthafuckin ghost,” she repeated.

  Mandy looked down and saw a red spot on Niya’s shirt. With her adrenaline still pumping, Niya didn’t realize that she had been shot. It wasn’t until Mandy said something that the burning sensation began. She reached down and lifted up her shirt to see a hole the size of a dime in her stomach.

  __________

  Detective Rose and Detective Butler took a ride down on Betty Ford Rd. out of curiosity. They parked a couple of blocks away so they wouldn’t draw any attention to themselves. Right off the bat, they noticed the heavy traffic of dope fiends going to and coming from an off street. It was almost impossible to see who they were getting their stuff from, without getting close.

  “I think our boy, Ralphy, was right about this one,” Butler said.

  Betty Ford was a little more active then it usually was. Ever since Master was murdered, the violence had gone down, and it had become a spike in the financial department. The dispatcher screaming over the radio caught the detectives attention.

  “Shots fired! Shots fired! All available units to Cedar street,” the dispatcher announced.

  Rose looked over at Butler with a smile on her face. She knew he couldn’t resist responding to the call, even though he tried to play it cool.

  “What?” he said, looking at her like he wasn’t that interested in the call.

  Rose put her head up and back counted from five. She didn’t get to three when Butler started up the car and pulled off. His hunger for action wouldn’t let him sit there any longer.

  Chapter 9

  Mayo sat in the dayroom staring up at the TV as Judge Mathis was giving some poor sucker a run down on being a man. It was hard for him to keep his mind occupied, because he hadn’t heard anything back from his lawyer, since he had given the info on Niya and MHB. Also, Gwen hadn’t been back to see him, he still didn’t have a paid lawyer, Gwen’s phone was turned off, Browny and Rell wasn’t answering their phones, the detectives had been giving him the runaround, and on top of all of that, he was dead broke. He couldn’t even buy a Ramen Noodle soup, and it seemed like his problems were only getting worse.

  “Homeboy, let me holla at you for a second,” a voice said from behind, followed by a tap on Mayo’s shoulder.

  Mayo turned around to see a skinny, 5’7, 150lb kid standing behind him. The young man was brown skinned, and had the image of a crown tatted under his right eye. He didn’t pose a threat at all, and at first, Mayo sort of brushed him off, not really feeling like being bothered.

  “Damn homeboy… you ain’t hear me?” the young thug said, this time in a little more aggressive way.

  Mayo jumped up, irritated and ready to set this youngin’ straight. He stood in front of him with a look that said, ‘Is this what you wanted?’. The young kid started walking down the hall towards Mayo’s cell. Mayo followed, and so did all the other eyes in the unit. Everybody on the pad knew that lil Terry was wild. He was small, but he put in big work.

  “Fuck you want, homie?” Mayo snapped once he got into the cell.

  As soon as he spoke, Terry started swinging. Mayo outweighed him by more than 70lbs, so he proceeded to toss Terry halfway across the cell, then slammed him to the ground with ease. However, what Terry lacked in weight, he made up for it when he pulled out an eight inch flat knife from his boot. At first Mayo didn’t realize he was getting stabbed. It felt more like someone was pinching him, but then he saw the knife in Terry’s hand with blood all over it. He began to feel his heart rate increase and his breath was shortening.

  Mayo kept trying to throw punches, but his vision was becoming blurry. The fight continued or rather the stabbing continued because Terry just kept poking and poking Mayo every time Mayo threw a punch.

  The loss of blood was starting to take its toll on Mayo. He knew that if he didn’t get out of that cell, Terry was going to kill him. He took a couple more punctures from Terry, but he made it to the door, pushing his way out of it and onto the pad. There was blood everywhere. The guard on the unit saw Mayo’s orange county jail jump suit covered with blood and quickly pressed the emergency response button. Within seconds, ten officers strapped with vests and beanbag guns rushed the unit.

  __________

  The doctor entered the room with Niya’s chart in his hand. The bullet went in and out, missing all of her organs but damaging a lot of tissue and nerves.

  “You’re gonna make a full recovery, Niya. Just try to get some rest,” the doctor said before leaving back out of the room.

  Niya layed in the hospital bed, and explained everything about Gwen and the shooting. Diamond, Tiffany, and Alexus couldn’t believe it. They didn’t understand why Gwen would go this far. Niya couldn’t understand it either. In her eyes, the last beef they had was about Prada’s death, but the fight in the bathroom was the end result of that. It wasn’t cause for Niya taking a bullet in the gut.

  “So now what?” Diamond asked.

  “You already know what gotta happen,” Tiffany cut in.

  “Naw… naw… whatever the beef is, it’s between me and Gwen. I’m not getting the crew in the middle.”

  “Shit, if something was done to you, we in the middle.” Alexus added.

  Niya could appreciate her loyalty, but all the same, she knew Alexus wasn’t aware of the love her and Gwen once had for each other, or the family connection they shared.

  “Thanks for your concern, baby girl, but all the same, I’ma take care of that. Y’all just keep doin’ what ya’ll been doin’,” Niya instructed.

  Unfortunately, Niya didn’t have the slightest idea, that Gwen was holding her accountable for JR’s death and the attempted kidnapping.

  “I know that now isn’t really a good time, but I wanted to let you know where we are at with the work,” Diamond said, pulling up a chair next to Niya’s bed.

  “Nah, it’s cool,” Niya said, a
bit curious about the progress anyway.

  “Girl, this shit is movin’ fast,” Diamond said excitedly. “By Sunday, we will be done sold a whole key, and the traffic is only picking up.”

  “Yeah, soon we are gonna have to find a plug, Ni,” Tiffany cut in. “I know a couple niggas, but I really don’t trust them like that.” she continued.

  Up until now, Niya hadn’t thought about what she was going to do once all of the work was gone. At the pace Betty Ford was moving, she too was going to have to find a heroin connect. Niya didn’t know one person who sold heroin in weight, besides, the people they had robbed, and it was no way she could go to any of them. The more Niya thought about it, it was only one person that came to mind who may be able to help her.

  “Don’t worry about it. I think I know somebody who can help us,” Niya said. “I just got to get out of this damn hospital before I go crazy,” she joked.

  __________

  Butler and Rose raced through the hospital.

  It was hospital policy that medical staff had to inform law enforcement when someone was being treated for a gunshot wound. Niya had come in late in the day, and it was busy around that time, so staff didn’t get around to reporting it until the following day.

  “Yeah, two people came in with gunshot wounds yesterday,” the nurse told Butler.

  “One was a Mr. Alexander, who has already been released.”

  “Damn it,” Butler yelled in frustration, looking up and down the hall. He knew that generally, when it was a shooting victim, it was a major crime involved.

  “Well can you give us his address or something?” Rose asked.

  “He didn’t have any medical insurance, and hospital policy is once he was stabilized he was discharged. However, the other shooting victim is still here, in fact she is located on this floor.”

  Butler and Rose made their way down the hall and around the corner where room 208 was. When they got to the room, Niya’s bed was surrounded by Alexus, Diamond, and Tiffany. Mandy was sitting in the chair off to the side. Butler started to enter the room, but stopped mid stride when he noticed something that froze him. He saw the letters MHB clear as day on the back of Alexus’ neck. The tattoo still looked fresh, so it stuck out.