They stared in Jessica’s eyes and knew she was telling the truth. They then turned toward Johnson for his response, and he took the cigar out of his mouth and gave her a nod.
Cleveland smiled and said, “Since we got that out the way, all we got to do now is somehow provide bait, and that is going to be the hard part.”
Jessica stared at the pictures again. “I know how to get them where we want them, but I need my friends with me to make it happen.”
Shooter immediately said, “Oh, no, more people? Who is it now, the Girl Scouts?”
She smiled and said, “Close. My crew—the Get ’Em Girls!”
Doc smiled widely and said, “Yes, more ladies.”
“So what’s your plan, Jessica?” Cleveland asked with excited interest.
She smiled. “The best way to catch rats is with some pussies.”
Cleveland nodded and snapped his fingers. “That might be just the bait we need to flush him out.”
“That might just work,” said Johnson.
They all looked at Shooter, who reluctantly nodded and said, “I still don’t know why we just don’t shoot all their asses and let that be that.”
“Like I said, you’ll have your share,” said Cleveland. He shifted his attention back to Jessica. “Anything else that might be helpful, Jessica?”
Jessica looked down at one of the photographs and then picked it up slowly. She squinted as she studied the photographs closer and said, “Oh, shit!”
Chapter 18
Jessica arrived in the front of building 106 on 144th Street to meet Jordan. She had already gone with Cleveland down to the Times Square bus station to see her mother off, and she felt safe for her for the very first time since all drama had begun. The block was desolate as she looked around at mountains of abandoned, boarded up buildings without a soul walking around—it looked like a ghost town.
She stared cautiously up and down the dark, empty building and saw an orange light illuminating one of the apartments on the fourth floor. She grasped the gun that she had hidden in her jacket and proceeded inside the building and up the rickety staircase slowly. It was so dark in the staircase that Jessica couldn’t see two feet in front of her so she fished in her pockets and found a book of matches and struck one, giving her an instant burst of light, just enough to make it up to the third floor landing.
She looked up to the final landing above her and saw that there was a flickering amber light coming from one of the apartments. “Jordan?” She paused and awaited a response. She didn’t hear anything and called out his name again. “Jordan, are you up there?”
“Jessica?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Where you at?”
“I’m up here, come on up.”
Jessica stepped cautiously up the remaining flight of the stairs and when she finally made to the fourth floor she saw the apartment where the light was coming from. She peered inside and repeated, “Jordan, where you at?”
“In here. Come in.”
Jessica walked inside and saw several candles spaced all over the dreary apartment. She then saw Jordan sitting down on an old dirty mattress taking a hit from a crack pipe. He had his head down and blew out the thick, poisonous cloud from his mouth, avoiding eye contact with her.
“Jordan, that’s enough. Put that shit down so we can get out of here.”
Jordan was unresponsive and kept his head down.
“Jordan!” Jessica called louder. “Don’t you hear me? Let’s get out of here, now!”
He barely moved.
Jessica walked directly up to him and yelled even louder, “Jordan, look at me!”
He slowly raised his head, and it was then that she noticed tears falling from his eyes. He looked up at her with pleading eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jessica. I’m sorry,” he said through cracking voice.
Jessica assured him, “Don’t worry about the money, Jordan. We’ll talk about that later, but we have to get out of here now.”
From the corner of her eye, Jessica saw a shadow and reached for her pistol, but it was too late. Three men came from out of the kitchen with guns already drawn. They quickly disarmed her, and when they did she recognized them immediately as the men who’d threatened her at the grocery store. They held her arms behind her forcefully. The same short man with the afro, Li’l man, now had a bandage over the bridge of his nose. He smiled wickedly as he walked slowly up to her.
Jessica stared down upon him.
He said, “Your brother is sorry because he sold you out for some crack.”
She turned and looked down at Jordan, not wanting to believe what she had just heard. “Jordan, you did that to me? You did that to your own sister?”
Jordan, still too ashamed to face her, shook violently as he tried to steady himself to light his crack.
“Yes he did, bitch! He’s a crackhead and that’s what crackheads do.” Li’l man reached in his pocket and pulled out a thick cellophane bag full of crack and threw it into Jordan’s lap.
Jordan scrambled to retrieve it and scooted back on the mattress and opened the bag to smoke some more.
Li’l man felt his nose and began to grow angrier. “I tried to tell you to walk away from this shit, and you thought you could play with the big boys. Now look at your bitch ass.”
Jessica didn’t show any fear. “Fuck you, li’l man. I see your nose didn’t heal straight yet.”
Li’l man looked at Jessica and laughed, then punched her viciously in the mouth.
Jordan looked up, and in a drug-induced stupor said, “Hey, y’all said y’all wasn’t gonna hurt her!”
“Shut the fuck up, crackhead, ’cause you’ll be dying next.” Li’l man nodded to one of the men and pulled a weapon from his waistband and took aim at Jessica’s head.
Jordan suddenly rose up off the mattress and let out a harrowing scream as he raced toward the man with the gun and tackled him to the floor. One of the men quickly pounced on him and began beating Jordan viciously. Jessica was horrified and tried in vain to help her little brother, but the huge man holding her made it impossible. The man picked Jordan up by his thin neck and tossed him awkwardly back onto the dirty mattress.
Jessica gritted her teeth in defiance, and once again watched the killer raise the gun toward her face. The next thing Jessica heard was a faint cracking sound coming from the window. In an instant, the man with the gun to her face let out a loud gasp and collapsed suddenly to the floor. The man holding Jessica released her as he stood confused and watch his brethren in arms gasp for air.
From the corner of Jessica’s eye, she saw movement and quickly dove on the mattress by her brother and shielded his body with hers. The room came alive with gunfire and began to fill with the acrid scent of gunpowder and death. Jessica closed her eyes and protected her brother’s head as she continued to hold him down.
When the gunfire ceased, Jessica lifted her head and saw Cleveland, Doc, and Johnson standing with guns in hand as thick smoke rose in the air. She stood up and saw the two lifeless bodies of the men who had tried to kill her and Li’l man cowering in the corner with his hands held over his head as he shivered.
Johnson went over to Li’l man and kicked him viscously in his side and told him to get up. Li’l man rose cautiously to his feet and they threw him up against the wall and handcuffed him.
Jessica had already prearranged to have the men cover her back. She noticed in one of the pictures that Cleveland had shown her that this was one of the buildings used by Bosco on 144th street. When she looked at the picture a little closer, she saw the building’s address was 106—the same address that Jordan had written down on the note. That was then that she knew she was being set up.
Moments later, Shooter rushed in the apartment with his rifle drawn and scanned the area of the room until Cleveland waved him off.
“Good shot,” Cleveland said to Shooter. “You got him in the heart.”
Shooter looked down at his victim and said, “I had a close shot. I was ju
st on the roof across the street—a five-year-old could’ve hit him.”
Cleveland looked at Jessica. “You ready?”
Jessica looked down at her brother in disgust as he put the stem to his mouth, trying to flick the lighter as he bled heavily. She walked over to her brother in a rage and knocked the stem and the lighter from out of his hand.
“Get the fuck on your feet, Jordan!” Jessica yelled.
He searched for his bag of crack and stood to his feet.
She snatched the bag out of his hand with contempt and asked, “How could you do this to me, Jordan? How could you?” It took every ounce of strength in Jessica’s body to prevent her from hitting her younger brother.
He was speechless. He never even noticed the blood leaking from his head and mouth. His shrunken and frail body was almost lost in his clothing, which looked to be three sizes too big. With all the drugs he was consuming he wasting away to nothing, but that meant nothing to him. He wobbled unsteadily as his pants suddenly fell to his knees and he fell flat on his face when he attempted to pull them back up. Everyone looked at him with pity as he tried in vain, but unsuccessfully to cover his naked behind.
The anger that Jessica once had for her brother was instantly replaced by compassion and empathy. Jessica looked at the bag of crack in her hand and then at her brother and aided him to his feet, then assisted him in pulling up his pants. She handed him back the bag of crack and looked him in his eyes and for the first time noticed that the person who stood before her was someone she no longer knew.
Jessica kissed her brother on forehead and hugged him tightly as she closed her eyes as she fought back the tears. She pulled away suddenly and then turned around to walk away not wanting to look back. As she was heading out the door, she stopped in front of Shooter and whispered in his ear and handed him her 25 automatic. He looked Jessica in the eyes to see if he had heard her correctly and she nodded slowly and walked out the apartment with Cleveland, Johnson, Doc, and Li’l man, right behind her.
“Come on, you son of a bitch,” Cleveland said to Li’l man, “we got something special in store for you.”
By the time Jessica reached the second landing, her body jerked when she heard the first shot. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and continued down the stairs as she heard three more shots.
**********
Jessica roamed the streets of Harlem until she found herself ringing Kenny’s doorbell. He embraced her when he opened the door and saw she was so upset and held her through the night while she slept a fitful sleep.
She woke up the next morning, as the sun rays beamed down on her face. She looked around and realized she was at Kenny’s place and he wasn’t in the room. She looked at the alarm clock by his lamp and realized how long she had slept. She knew that she had to meet up with Vonda, who she told to get in contact with Lynn and Tiny so she could take care of the second phase of the plan.
She jumped out of the bed and looked around for her shoes, found them, and put them on her feet. Just then, Kenny walked into the room shirtless, with food and orange juice on a tray.
“Oh, you awoke, perfect timing,” Kenny announced. “You must have been tired from staying over the other night,” Kenny joked, trying to get Jessica to smile. “I cooked you some breakfast, so sit down and enjoy.”
“I’m sorry Kenny, but I don’t have any appetite to eat anything right now, I really have to go.” Jessica put her arms through her jacket and began walking toward the door.
“Jessica, you got to eat. You are doing too much and you got to slow down.”
“Kenny, right now is not the time, I got something important that I got to do.”
“Like getting yourself killed!” Kenny screamed. “Can you just listen to me for a moment please?”
Jessica stopped in her tracks and knew that she had made a mistake by getting emotionally involved with him so soon. She turned on her heels to face him.
“Jessica,” Kenny pleaded, “you are dealing with some bad, bad people, and I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
She walked over to Kenny and placed a kiss on his lips. “I know that you love me and I love you, but I promise you that I will be ok and all of this will be over real soon.”
He wrapped his arms around her one last time before she walked out the door.
Chapter 19
It was nearly 1PM when Jessica finally arrived at Vonda’s house via cab service. She looked over her shoulders several times because she knew she was a marked woman at that point so she became paranoid. Jessica rang the doorbell and heard someone’s footsteps approaching the door. When the door opened, it was Lynn standing in the doorway with a huge smile on her face, and she immediately began screaming for joy.
They embraced and continued to celebrate until Vonda walked up and joked, “Damn, y’all act like y’all ain’t seen each other in years.”
They pulled away to look at each other. “Damn, it’s good to see you again, Jesse!” Lynn shouted excitedly.
“It’s good to see you, and damn girl, you looking good. Macy’s must be treating you well.”
Lynn did a complete 360 and turned all the around, giving her a full view of her newfound fashion. “I don’t work there anymore; I resigned last week. It’s too many rich-ass niggas out here that want to take care of a bitch, if you know what I mean.”
“What you back to getting dick now?” asked Jessica.
Lynn smiled. “That was when we was in prison, and we only did two days in prison: the day we got in and the day we got out. Everything else don’t count, remember?”
Jessica gave her five. “I hear you. We had to do what we had to do.”
Lynn nodded and said, “Fuck all that other shit. I hear you got big problems?”
Jessica nodded. “Major problems.”
Vonda interjected and said, “Come on. Let’s go in my room and talk.” They walked inside Vonda’s room and for the first time in almost nine months she saw Tiny, who was sitting in the same chair as she always had.
Jessica was happy to see her also. “Tiny.”
She looked up from the armchair and smiled then stood up to hug her. When they embraced, Jessica felt nothing but bones. She looked Tiny up and down and instantly knew that she was still doing drugs by the gaunt look to her face. She still dressed well, but she wore a long-sleeved sweatshirt and it was the middle of the summer. Jessica thought it was rather odd, but she overlooked it and said, “It’s good to see you, Tiny.”
She nodded and said the same, “It’s good to see you too. When you got out?”
“About a month and a half ago.”
Tiny nodded again and said to everyone, “Yo, I’m going to use the bathroom for a minute. I’ll be back in a second.”
They watched her exit the room and felt real sorry for her.
Jessica put her head down and asked, “She still on that shit, huh?”
Vonda nodded, and you could see in her eyes how it was affecting her.
“Yep, what’s worse is that she got the monster too,” Lynn said in a sad low tone.
“The monster? What is that?” Jessica looked in Vonda’s eyes and saw that they were watery.
Lynn said, “AIDS. She caught the virus by shooting that heroin in her arms. That’s why she wears only long sleeved shirts, ’cause her arms are fucked-up looking.”
Jessica was stunned. Vonda turned away to hide her tears, and Jessica walked over to her and gave her a hug.
Jessica spent the next hour explaining to all of them everything that had gone down from the time she got home to the incident that happened last night. None of them could believe what Jessica had done to her own brother and were saddened and realized just how much trouble she was really in. After Jessica had finished explaining everything, they were all in awe and no one said a word.
“So there you have it,” said Jessica.
There was a long silence until Lynn said, “So what do you do now?”
Jessica shrugged. “That’s why I cal
led y’all here today. I need your help.”
Lynn nodded and said with confidence, “Well, you ain’t saying nothing but a word. I’m in for whatever! That’s how we motherfucking roll. What do you say, Vonda?”
“You don’t even have to ask. You know I’m down.”
Jessica smiled and they all looked toward Tiny, who was looking up at the ceiling as she scratched her body. “What’s up Tiny? You in or what?”
She lowered her eyes. “I don’t know. I know that nigga Bosco. I brought plenty drugs from that nigga, and his Jamaican ass ain’t no joke. He would kill you if he even thought you was gonna cross him. And all that other shit you talkin’, Jessica, it sounds like you brought it on yourself, being all in the paper and shit like that, tryna be some motherfuckin’ hero or something. You are talking about kidnapping and murdering motherfuckers. If we get caught we can spend the rest of our lives in jail.”
Jessica had to admit that she was right.
Lynn countered, “Damn Tiny, you know that we are crew, and if one of us has a problem, all of us got a problem. That’s just how we get down.”
Tiny shrugged her puny shoulders as she nodded at the same time. “I hear you, but if I’m gonna risk my life it got to be at least something in it for me.”
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