by K. C. Mills
“What’s all this shit?” I asked, waving my hand around all the bags that were on the floor.
“Stuff for my dorm, are you gonna miss me?” She lifted her head and looped her arm through mine.
“How the fuck am I gonna miss you for when you’re not going anywhere,” I said and smiled.
“Keem, yes I am and it will be here before you know it.”
I let my hand run across my head and then glanced at my sister. “Yeah I know, and I’m not ready for this shit either,” I said.
Liyah let her head fall on my shoulder again. “I gonna miss you too.”
“Don’t get out there acting all wild and shit either, because you’ll never know when I might pop up and if I don’t like what I see, that’s your ass. You know that, right?”
“You know you don’t have to worry about that. I’m always on point,” Liyah said.
“It’s not you I’m worried about. Its Mel’s wild ass.”
My sister wasn’t perfect and she did her dirt, but for the most part she knew I wasn’t having no parts of her running the street and disrespecting herself, but Mel was off the chain. She didn’t really care about the shit she did, and that could be a problem for Liyah since I wouldn’t be around to curb that shit for her. No matter how much you know what the right thing is, it gets real easy to do the wrong thing when you don’t have anybody in your head keeping you on point.
“I make my own decisions. You know that and that’s not gonna change, no matter where I am.”
“Just make sure you keep it that way.”
“So have you heard yet?”
“What’s that?”
“About Tasia?”
“What about her?” I looked down at my sister, trying to figure out what she was talking about.
“She’s going to New York.” Liyah looked up at me as if trying to gauge my reaction
“How you know bout that?”
“Lisa, you know she’s got a big ass mouth. She’s telling anybody that will listen, like it’s her deal and not Tay’s.”
The way she said it made me laugh, because Liyah sounded like it annoyed her that Lisa had diarrhea of the mouth.
“Yeah, I just found out.”
“And?”
“And what? I’m proud of her.”
“That’s it, so you don’t care that she’s leaving.”
I stood up and walked into the kitchen. “What do you want me to say, Liyah. I don’t have a say in that.”
“You know better than that, Keem.” Liyah was now standing in the kitchen with her arms folded, glaring at me.
“What I know is she wants to move to New York and I’m not gonna make her feel bad about that. It is what it is, and sometimes you just gotta roll with it.”
“So you don’t care.”
“Come on Kaliyah. You know better than that, but it’s her life and I’m not going to be the reason why she stays.”
“For you to be so smart, you sure are real stupid sometimes. All you do is run the streets, and that’s not gonna last forever. You love her and I know she loves you, so I don’t see what the big deal is. Even if she goes, it’s less than an hour away so figure it out. I’m leaving and I don’t want you to be here by yourself.”
I looked at my sister and saw the concern in her face. Since our parents died, it had always been just us. We were a team, and even before then we were always tight, so she was feeling bad about leaving me and it finally clicked. I grabbed my sister and pulled her into a hug, and she hugged me back.
“I’ll be fine Liyah. Don’t worry about me, and I won’t be alone. You know Jodie’s moving in your room the second you move out,” I said, just to fuck with her.
“Uh negative. It’s still my room whether I’m here or not, and you better not let him either.”
“You know I’m just playing, but real talk. I’m good so don’t worry about me, and let me deal with Tay. We’ll figure it out or we won’t, but for now just worry about you, because your ass better be at the top of your class. That way I know you’re studying and not partying.
“Can we settle on top ten percent? I need a party or two every now and then,” she said with a grin.
“Nah fuck that, magna cum laude.”
“Whatever Keem,” Liyah laughed, and left the living room.
Rock
“I’m tired of this shit, Juice. You know good and damn well we should be running this shit.” I looked across the table at Juice, who was focused on his gun. His crazy ass was making me nervous as hell because he just kept flipping it over on the table all wild and shit, and I know it was loaded.
“Yeah, well Simuel fucked us on that one, but if we stick with the plan this shit will be ours in no time,” Juice said as he lifted his gun, closing one eye and pointing it at my head.
“Man put that shit down before you fuck around and shoot me bruh,” I yelled, moving to the side just a little. Juice just laughed and then laid his gun on back on the table, and started spinning that shit around in a circle.
I always knew his ass was crazy, but lately that shit was at an all-time high. I was starting to see why my cousin didn’t leave the business to him, but me on the other hand, that was a different story. I knew the business inside and out, and I knew I could run shit better than Simuel ever did, and especially better than Keem and Jodie.
Simuel said that I was too reckless and didn’t make smart decisions, but sometimes you just had to get shit done and that meant making decisions on the spot. Simuel was too cautious, always trying to plan shit out, but every once in a while you had to let your presence be known so that everyone would know who was in charge.
“It’s been hard as hell to make this shit work since they changed the rules. We can’t really get to the product or the money, so we just need to chill and get all the information we can. After we let Moses know where the drop is going to be tonight and he hits them up for all their shit, we’ll have the upper hand,” I said, staring at Juice.
“And when we get that shit, we’re putting it on the streets in their territory,” Juice said.
“Bruh are you high? We can’t do that shit. They’ll trace it right back to us. We’re sticking with the original plan and selling it to Moses at cost,” I said, narrowing my eyes at this dumb ass. Shit, I wanted to run things but I couldn’t do that with a fucking bullet in my head, and that was just what was gonna happen if Keem and Jodie found out that we set them up to get hit.
“You scared of Jodie and Keem, Rock?” Juice asked with a smug look on his face.
“I’m not scared of any fucking body, but I also know what makes sense and that shit don’t make sense, no matter how you spin it,” I said, pissed that Juice was trying me. If he kept this bullshit up, then I was gonna be running shit solo.
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Look, just stick to the damn plan or I can handle this shit by myself. We good on that?” I asked, getting annoyed with Juice’s bipolar ass.”
“Yeah, we’re good,” he said just before stood, picked up his gun, and walked away from the table.
About half an hour later, we were joined by the rest of the organization. I looked around the room, fuming as everyone sat there hanging on every word that left Keem and Jodie’s mouths, like they were some kind of fucking gods or something. That shit was making my blood boil.
“We’re making money, which is a good thing, but we need to tighten up on the block a little bit. Keep your people in line. I’m noticing a lot of sloppy behavior that has the potential to get us caught out there, and that shit needs to end. Stop hanging out in front of our houses and bringing attention to the block. Be cautious when you’re making moves because you never know who’s watching. Our philosophy is hide in plain sight. When you do shit normal and with confidence, then it gets over looked but when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder and sloppy, then people start to watch your moves. I’ve been seeing a lot of that lately as I’m riding through and it’s gonna be a problem,” Hakeem said.<
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“And keep your damn women away from our spots. Nobody needs to know where and how we operate. Females get mad and wanna run their damn mouths,” Jodie said looking right at me.
“Our shit is moving good, so we’ve got a big shipment coming tonight. We’ll be hitting everybody up so that you can reup after we get that shit in house,” Keem said, looking around the room.
“Everybody good, you got any questions?”
I looked around, and everybody in this bitch shook their heads like shit was cool. Fuck all of em. When I took over, I was cleaning house. These niggas didn’t know shit about loyalty. I used to be the fucking man running shit right along with Simuel, and now I was basically a fucking errand boy. Hakeem and Jodie wouldn’t let me touch shit, and these ass holes in here were walking around grinning, snickering and shit like I didn’t used to be their fucking boss. Fuck all of them. My time was going to come sooner than you think.
I got up to leave after listening to that bullshit, but before I walked out Jodie stopped me.
“You good Rock? You look like you got a lot on your mind and shit,” he said grinning.
“I’m straight,” I said, annoyed that I had to entertain this bullshit.
“You know we’re just looking out for you. It’s our mission to make sure our team is happy,” Keem said.
“What about you, Juice. You good? You need to get anything off your chest?”
“I’m Gucci. So what’s up with that shipment tonight?”
I could have shot Juice’s dumb ass. He just didn’t know when to shut the fuck up. I glanced at Keem and Jodie, who looked at each other.
“We’re all set. You don’t need to worry about that shit.”
“Aight boss, well if there’s nothing else I’m heading out,” Juice said sarcastically.
“Nah, you good bruh,” Jodie said.
I just shook my head and left, but I could feel their eyes on me as I walked out. I just clenched my jaw and kept it moving. My time was coming. Soon, real soon.
Hakeem
“You know something’s up with that shit, right?” Jodie looked at me the second Rock and Juice were out the building
“Hell yeah. I’ve gotta feeling both them bitches will be taking their last breaths real soon,” I said as I pulled my phone out to check a message from Liyah.
“I just don’t trust them, and I feel like we need to handle them before they do some fuck shit,” Jodie said. I could hear the annoyance in his voice.
“It’s necessary, but right now let’s just focus on this shipment and we’ll deal with them later. You know we’ve gotta figure out a way to make this money legit.” We were making money, but we needed a way make it clean. Right now we were just sitting on it, but that wasn’t gonna last forever.
“Yeah I know, I’ve been thinking about that shit. We need to try and buy something, but it’s not like we can just go drop half mil on a business and not have proof of where we got that shit from.”
“I was thinking about that. I own my place, so we need to try and use as collateral to open something small, and then once we pay that off use the business as collateral to open something else. We keep doing that until we own enough to cover the money we’re bringing in.”
“We need a cash business, like a laundry mat or a barber shop. It’s easier to handle the books that way.”
“You can write receipts for any amounts with a cash business; both of those are low maintenance. We need something that’s basically gonna run itself.”
“Straight up.”
“I’ll check into that shit. I can call Dave.”
“Who the fuck is Dave?” Jodie asked.
“The lawyer that handled my parents accounts. He seemed pretty chill and I feel like he can at least give me some information.”
“Aight bet, just be careful about what you say. You know how that shit goes.”
“Come on Jodie, I’m not stupid. I got this shit?” I said, mugging Jodie.
“Chill yo, I’m just saying you can never be too careful.”
“I need to holla at him about setting up some shit for Angel so she’ll be straight after Mona fucks around and puts a hot one in your ass.”
“Man, don’t say no crazy shit like that before you speak it into existence. You know her ass is crazy as fuck. She might just try that shit.”
“The fuck you mean might? I know she’ll cap your ass. As much shit as you put her through, you already know.”
Jodie just laughed. “Let’s go so that we can get this shit over with. You talking reckless as hell, playing with my life and shit.”
We left the warehouse and climbed in Jodie’s truck. We had an hour before it was time to meet our connect, but we liked to get there early to check things out. You never knew when people were on that shady shit.
“Yo, you see that?” Jodie asked, looking in his rearview mirror. I had been checking the same thing. A car had been following us since we left the block.
“Hell yeah. Keep going though. We’ve got time.”
Jodie pulled out at of warehouse and parked a few blocks away. We watched as the car rounded the block and then parked.
“What do you wanna do?” Jodie asked.
“Get out, walk towards the warehouse, and hold your phone to your ear. Keep your back to the car. I’m gonna get out and sneak up on ‘em and see who the fuck they are.”
Jodie looked at me for a minute, like he was trying to decide if he was down with my plan when he finally agreed. I already had my gun on me so I got out and headed towards the warehouse while Jodie made his way towards the street. He had his phone to his ear pretending to be on a call while I walked around the building, circling the block until I crept up behind the car. I stopped when I realized there were two people; knowing that I could only hold my piece on one of them, I called Jodie.
“Yo, walk around the back of the building. There’s two of them. You take one side and I’ll take the other.”
“Aight I’m on my way.”
When Jodie finally made it to me, we both got low and suck up behind the car. Whoever was following us was dumb as fuck, because they were not aware of their surroundings. They had no idea that we were making moves on their dumb asses, so they were surprised as fuck when Jodie and I pulled our pieces on them.
“Hands up bitches, and don’t do anything stupid,” I yelled as I pressed my gun to the driver’s temple, while Jodie had his piece on the passenger, who dropped the blunt he was smoking.
“Who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you following us?” Jodie asked.
They looked at each other, but neither of them said a word.
“I guess they don’t speak fucking English. Maybe they speak 9 mm,” Jodie’s retarded ass said before he shot the passenger in the shoulder.
“Ah fuck,” he yelled before he stared signing like a bird.
“Rock paid us to follow you and take you for your shipment.”
I looked at Jodie and busted out laughing. “Get out the fucking car,” I said to the driver, who quickly complied. The second he was out the car, I rocked the shit out of him and when he recovered, I rocked his ass again.
“What was the plan?” He grabbed his jaw and looked at me, but didn’t say a word. “Oh, so I guess your ass doesn’t speak English either. How bout we see if you speak 9 mm.” I raised my gun, but he spoke before I pulled the trigger.
“After we had your shit, we were supposed to call him so that he could tell us where to meet him. He was going to sell me your shit at cost and then…”
I laughed again. “Stupid asses. How much did he pay you?”
“Ten grand up front. And the other ten when we showed proof of the product.”
“Which you were never going to show up with. Why the fuck would you put your hands on product that’s worth two mil in street value just to pay him for it and collect 10K? You never planned on calling him, did you?”
Dude looked at me, but didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. Shit, it’s what I
would have done if I was in his position. Stupid shit like this is why Rock’s dumb ass wasn't in charge. Why the fuck would you trust somebody to handle that much product, and expect them to bring it to you and pay you for it? Stupid ass, this dude was gonna take that shit and run.
“We need to get them inside. After we meet up with Roman and Marcel, we’ll have him call Rock as planned, set up the drop, and then we’re bodying his ass. I hope Juice’s stupid ass is in on this shit too so we can get both their asses at the same time,” Jodie said before he turned to dude he shot in the shoulder.
“Get out the fucking car.” He pulled the handle and waited for him to get out. After we had them both secured in the warehouse, we prepared to meet Roman and Marcel. Once we had the product secured and stashed away in our vault at the warehouse, we set the plan in motion.
Moses made the call to Rock, who planned to meet at a spot by the docks. Jodie rode with them while I followed, parking far enough away that Rock wouldn't notice me. I got out and made my way to the handoff, making sure Juice and Rock both were there. While they walked up to Moses, I snuck up behind them and as soon as the made it to the car, Jodie got out and pulled his piece on Juice, and I had my nine in Rock’s back before either of them could pull their weapons. I could see the fear in their faces when they realized they were bout to die.
“See, this shit right here is why Simuel didn’t put your dumb ass in charge,” I said
“I don’t need a fucking commentary. I know I’m about to die so just do that shit, but just know Simuel will make you pay,” Rock said.
“See that’s where you’re wrong. We already had a conversation about this shit, and before we agreed to take over we made it very clear that this would be our organization, and that meant all of it. Even the people who worked for us, including you. If this was our shit, then we would be allowed to handle everything the way we saw fit, which meant that if we needed to take a life, so be it. That includes you. Simuel made it very clear that he agreed to our terms one hundred perfect, so the only thing Simuel will be stepping to us for in regards to you is an invite to the funeral,” and with that I pulled the trigger, and Rock’s body hit the ground.