by Kiki Swinson
After running all the possibilities through my mind I headed into the kitchen, because that was where Ava went. When I turned the corner and stepped on the kitchen tile I saw her pouring herself a drink. Her back was turned to me, so I approached her from behind, but I kept about three feet in distance between us. “As soon as we’re done doing this job, we’re leaving this place, and I don’t want you talking to that nigga anymore. I want you to cut all communication with him.”
Ava turned around with the glass in her hand and said, “Okay. That’s fine.” And then she raised the glass of lemonade and took a sip of it.
I stood there for a moment and looked into her eyes to see if she really meant what she’d just said. After looking at her for a couple of seconds, I was assured that she was. “Come on, let’s finish mapping out the plan to get these niggas we’ve been paid to murder,” I said, and then I took a seat at the kitchen table.
CHAPTER 12
MY BROTHER IS REALLY FUCKING CRAZY
After Aiden took a seat at the kitchen table, I followed. But while I was sitting there, watching him talk about what he was going to need to make these hits, I couldn’t help but think about how he ran up on me in the bedroom. He literally burst into the bedroom like he was my fucking man. And the way he questioned me like I was a kid or his woman threw me for a loop. Aiden has never yelled at me, or even put his hands on me, for that matter. Then again, he never knew me to love anyone else but him. But did that give him the right to rough me up like that? And then to tell me that after we completed the job, we were going to leave this apartment and I couldn’t talk to Nashad anymore. Was he fucking crazy? I mean, I knew he might feel threatened because of my feelings for Nashad, but that didn’t mean I was going to erase Nashad from my life altogether. We weren’t kids anymore. It wasn’t a situation where Aiden and I were against the world. I was a grown woman and I had needs. I couldn’t walk away from Nashad just like that, even though I had told Aiden that I would. That would be impossible on so many levels. I didn’t know how I was going to handle this situation with my brother and Nashad. But I was going to have to figure it out sooner rather than later, because when I had talked to Nashad a few minutes ago, he had told me that he was coming home in three days. This was Tuesday, and he was going to be here by Friday night. So I had to come up with something fast.
“You said you know where they hang out, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we’re gonna have to take a ride so we can come up with a precise plan. I need to find out how they operate. When they get up, how many of them leave out the house at the same time, where they go eat, but most importantly, what are their weak spots. In the world of hustling, niggas think they stay ahead of the cops and niggas that wanna rob them, but there’s always a weak spot in their routine. And we’re going to find out what it is,” Aiden said.
But by this point, everything he was saying was going over my head. I saw his mouth moving, but I wouldn’t be able to repeat anything he said. My ears were closed shut. My body had been completely engulfed with anxiety, and I had no idea how to control it. Maybe if I just took a deep breath and drank the rest of this lemonade I’d be fine. I guess I wouldn’t know it unless I tried.
“What time do you want to leave?” Aiden said, breaking my train of thought.
I didn’t know what to say to him, because I hadn’t heard the question. I mean, I saw his mouth moving and I heard him say something, but once again, I wouldn’t be able to repeat it. “Did you hear me?” he said.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” I replied.
“Were you even listening to me?” he asked me, and he seemed irritated, too.
“Yes, I was listening to you, but I drifted off for a minute,” I lied. And he knew I was lying, too. Thank God he didn’t press the issue, though.
“I said when do you wanna leave so we can go and check these niggas out?”
“Oh, I guess we can go out tonight.”
“I’m ready to go out now. The quicker we can get the intel, the quicker we can get this job done,” he said matter-of-factly.
“All right, we can leave now. But let me use the bathroom first,” I told him. I really didn’t have to use the bathroom. I just needed to get away from him for a few minutes to regroup. I figured going into the bathroom and washing my face would snap me out of this funk I was presently in. And as much as I wanted to get over what had happened back in the bedroom, I couldn’t. So hopefully, after I went off by myself, I’d be able to move forward with this job with a clear head. Leaving out of here with a bunch of shit clogging up my mind wouldn’t be a wise thing to do. Whether I wanted to or not, I knew I gotta get my shit together. After all the years of shying away from having women as best friends, now I wished I had one, because I couldn’t go to Nashad to get advice about my situation with Aiden and I couldn’t go to Aiden and ask for advice about dealing with the situation with Nashad. What was a girl to do?
“I’ll be back in five minutes,” I told him, and then I walked off.
CHAPTER 13
BOYS IN THE HOOD
Ava suggested that we roll out to the Norview area of Norfolk because that’s where her ex-nigga Nu-Nu had a trap house. The trap house was near five points on Alexander Street. It was good that it was dark outside. Getting intel on street niggas is best done at night. Driving around in different hoods in the daytime is for amateurs. Plus, you’d mess around and get shot, too, staring at niggas while you’re driving by them. Real hustlers don’t play that shit. And considering what Ava said about these niggas, it was not gonna be an easy job to get them. So I knew that I had to be on my A game when I went in for the kill.
“Nu-Nu’s trap house is on the right,” she said as she slowed her speed down.
“Which house?” I wanted to know.
“It’s that brick duplex,” she replied as she pointed in the direction.
I looked into the direction she was pointing and saw the brick house. I also saw a group of niggas standing outside of that spot. It couldn’t tell who was who, so I asked Ava to take a look. “Do you see any of the niggas that was in those pictures?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I see four of them. The other guys standing out there with them I don’t know.”
“Which are the ones you recognize?”
“The guy with the blue fitted cap on is Eric. The guy standing next to him in the green jacket is Monty. Calvin and Big Mel are the guys slap boxing each other.”
“Is that what those dumb niggas are doing?”
“Yeah, they do it all the time.”
“I see the lights on in the apartment. Do you think Nu-Nu is in there?” I asked Ava.
“No, he’s not there. I don’t see his car.”
“What kind of car does he have?”
“A black Porsche Panamera with tinted numbers.”
“So do you know who’s driving that Lexus with the rims?”
“I think that’s Monty’s car.”
“Are you sure?” I wanted to know.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Ava continued as she cruised by everyone on the block. Unfortunately for us, only four of the guys were outside when Ava and I rode by. I wished I could’ve seen the rest of them. But it was okay. Tonight was still young.
“Since Nu-Nu wasn’t out here, where do you think he could be right now?” I asked Ava, who by this time had made a left turn from the block onto the next street.
“He’s either at his crib or at this bitch’s house I heard he’s fucking with right now.”
“Well, let’s go and see,” I insisted.
“I’m on it,” she told me and sped up the street.
CHAPTER 14
TWO DOWN, SEVEN TO GO
The drive to Nu-Nu’s side bitch’s apartment was a hop, skip, and a jump from the trap house on Alexander Street. It was a five-minute drive, so Aiden and I got there in no time. Just as fate would have it, Nu-Nu’s Porsche was parked outside of his side bitch’s house. Her name was Tiffany, and she
lived in one of the Oak Mount North apartments off of Chesapeake Boulevard. Oak Mount North was a low-income-housing neighborhood so she wasn’t living in anything fancy. It was one step up from the projects.
Tiffany was a twenty-seven-year-old stripper chick Nu-Nu had been fucking on and off for a year now. She was an average looking ho. She, along with some of her other stripper friends, paid top dollar to get breast enhancements and booty shots to look more appealing while they were on stage. Tiffany couldn’t hold a candle to me, so I’ve always wondered why that nigga chose her over me. Anyway, it didn’t matter now. He was going to be dead in less than forty-eight hours, so he did me a favor by leaving. Good riddance.
I drove into the complex slowly. The buildings were built in a horseshoe configuration so when you drove into the neighborhood you had to drive in a circle. Halfway around, I finally came to the apartment where Tiffany lived. “There’s the house right there,” I told Aiden as I pointed at a bottom-floor apartment. Nu-Nu’s car was indeed parked outside, and Tiffany’s beat-up Honda Civic was parked next to it. I was surprised to see that she wasn’t at work yet. But when I looked at my watch, it dawned on me that she always worked the eleven p.m. to eight a.m. shift.
“I wonder how many people are in there?” Aiden asked aloud.
“Tiffany got two kids. So it’s probably him, her, and her kids.”
“So you don’t think none of his niggas are in there with them?”
“If they were, more cars would be out here,” I explained to him while I slowed the truck down. I didn’t come to a straight stop because I didn’t want to bring any attention to us. It was important for us to stay under the radar this entire time.
“Does Nu-Nu be here all the time?” Aiden asked me.
“Yes, he is. But if he’s not here then he’s chilling at his stash spot,” I replied as I continued to drive around the horseshoe.
“How far is the stash house?”
“It’s about ten minutes from here.”
“Well, let’s hit it, then,” Aiden instructed me. “We gotta get this shit popping so we can get the rest of our dough so we can bounce from this whack-ass city,” he continued as he turned his focus toward the cars in front of us.
While I was driving to Nu-Nu’s stash house, I couldn’t help but think about Nashad. The fact that he was going to be back in town in three days made my heart dance with joy. The flip side to that was trying to figure out how I was going to see him after I move Aiden out of the apartment. It was going to be really hard especially with Aiden sniffing up my ass like he was doing. I knew Aiden was going to try to do everything within his power to keep tabs on me. I also knew that if he had the slightest idea that I was sneaking around to see and be with Nashad, shit was going to hit the fan. So how was I going to make this shit work? Ugh!
Finally we made it to the stash house located down in the Ocean View section of Norfolk off Pretty Lake Avenue and Fourth Bay. The lighting situation on Pretty Lake Avenue was pretty much nonexistent; I thought Aiden and I could use this in our favor. “You see this?” I pointed to a dimly lit streetlight at the corner of the block while I cruised by it.
“You talking about the light?”
“Yeah.”
“What about it?”
“Do you see any more?” I asked him after the truck passed it.
“No.”
“Exactly. Now take a look at the brown vinyl siding house on the left of us.”
“Okay, I see it.”
“Can you see anything else over there?”
“It’s dark as fuck over there. I can see a car, though. Can’t tell you what kind it is.”
“My point exactly,” I said and quickly made a U-turn in the middle of the street, but I made sure I was about thirty feet away from the stash house before I did it.
“I don’t get it,” Aiden said.
After I turned the truck around, I slowly drove back past the house and said, “This will be a good spot to get rid of everybody coming out of that house, because it’s so dark over there. No one is going to see us do it.”
“Fuck, yeah, sis! Good job,” Aiden replied and gave me a high-five. “So when are we doing it?” he continued.
“We’re gonna do it tonight. If my memory serves me, Nu-Nu only has two to three guys at each house at a time: one to collect the money when the drug addicts come knocking; the other one passes the drugs to the buyer, and the last guy watches everyone’s back,” I explained as I drove back in the direction I had come from.
“So if there’s gonna be three guys in there, how do you think we should run up on them?” Aiden wanted to know.
I pulled the truck over to the curb on the next block. Then I turned the ignition and the headlights off. I didn’t want to bring any attention to us. I wanted the truck to look like no one was inside. “I’ve got the advantage because they know me, so if I go up to the door and lure their dumb asses outside, they aren’t gonna be suspicious.”
“What are you going to say to them?”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet.”
“Well, figure it out, because we can’t sit here all night. If somebody drives by and see this truck and then they later hear that somebody got killed, they’re gonna tell the cops that they saw this truck. And who knows, they may get the license plate numbers, and then we’d really be fucked because you know if they get in touch with the nigga that owns this, he’s gonna sing like a canary and tell the police everything about you. And after that happens, you’re gonna appear on America’s Most Wanted.”
“Aiden, the Norfolk city cops ain’t gonna put me on America’s Most Wanted. They don’t give a shit about drug dealers. If anything, we’re doing their asses a favor by getting rid of the motherfuckers. Killing those niggas gives the cops less paperwork to do.”
“Yeah, you got a point there.” Aiden chuckled after I made my speech. “Okay, so are you going to get all of them to come out of the house at the same time?”
“Do you think I should?”
Aiden thought for a moment, and then he said, “First things first, knock on the door and find out who’s in there and if there’s two or three niggas in there. If you find out that all those niggas are in there, then invite one of them to come outside. Say you’re in the neighborhood, and you came by to see if Nu-Nu is there. And when they say he’s not, then tell the same nigga that you got a home girl in the car that you want to introduce him to. If he bites the bait, then I’ll be there to take his ass out. Got it?”
“Okay, so I get everything you’re saying. But where are you gonna be by the time I lure the first guy out the house?” I wanted to know. I needed to be clear on everything Aiden was saying. We couldn’t afford any fucking mishaps.
“I noticed there’s a big-ass tree near the front porch. I think that would be a good spot to hide.”
“All right. Well, there you go. Let’s get this job done,” I said.
“Why don’t you get out of the truck first so I can make sure no one is watching us?” Aiden suggested.
“It’s completely pitch dark out here. No one is going to see us,” I assured him.
“Just go up to the house before they leave and then we’re fucking screwed,” he replied sarcastically.
I opened the driver’s-side door. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” I said, and then I slid out of the seat and closed the door.
The moment I took the first step toward the stash house my heart rate picked up, and before I could blink my eyes fear engulfed me. So many things started running through my mind while I headed toward Nu-Nu’s stash house. My first thought was: What if there were more than three guys there? Then I started thinking about what if nobody wants to come outside? What if they’re on to me and know that I’m trying to set them up? Where would that leave me? As crazy and insane as those niggas were, they would kill me on the spot. And I wasn’t trying to die. I’ve got a life to live so I was crossing my fingers that this plan worked.
I looked back at the truck at lea
st five times before I got within fifty feet of the stash house. One part of me wanted to turn back and walk back to the truck, but the other part of me convinced me to do it because of the amount of money that was involved. Aiden and I had never had that much money at one time. Shit, the most we’ve ever seen was probably two thousand dollars. And now that I thought about it, it may not have been that much. Nevertheless, Aiden and I took on the job so we must go through with it.
Now before I made the left turn to walk up the driveway, I looked back at the truck for the last and final time, and that was when I saw Aiden walking my way. Boy, did I feel a load of pressure lift off me. Now it didn’t feel like I was alone on this mission.
Immediately after I walked up the driveway I took a deep breath and exhaled while my heartbeat raced at an uncontrollable speed. “Just calm down and relax, Ava, you can do it, girl,” I said, giving myself a pep talk.
I took the first step on the stairs and then I took another step. There were a total of five steps all together, so after I hiked all of them, I came face-to-face with the front door. I could see the light on in the front of the house, so I knew that was where those niggas were. I forced myself to knock on the door lightly. I refused to alarm those niggas like I was the cops or something.
“Who is it?” I heard a male’s voice ask.
My heart started beating even faster. It felt like I was about to have an anxiety attack. But I knew I couldn’t. Showing signs of fear would derail my entire plan.
“It’s me—Ava,” I finally said after taking another deep breath and exhaling. I even rubbed my hands across my chest, hoping this would calm my nerves down.
“Ava who?” the same guy yelled through the door.
“It’s me—Ava. Nu-Nu’s ex-girlfriend,” I yelled back.
I took it the guy on the other side of the door must’ve heard my voice because he opened the door immediately after I yelled back through the door. I stood there still as I looked up at the guy standing before me. I recognized him as Trey. Trey was Nu-Nu’s younger brother. I hoped like hell he remembered who I was.