by Shan
“Damn!” I cussed as I pulled down the ramp of the exit that I needed to take. Cuba was still blowing up my damn phone, and that shit was a fuckin’ distraction. I was good, and I needed her to worry about getting herself together.
Wifey: Why are you not answering me anymore? What is wrong with you? I can tell something is wrong. Please answer and talk to me. Can you come back home, Khi, please?
Me: Cause I’m trying to fuckin’ concentrate! Ain’t nothing wrong with me. As long as I’m treating you good and taking care of home, why you worried about anything else? I’m fine. I’ll be home in the morning. Just take care of yourself. I’ll check on you in a few hours.
Send.
Wifey: Why do you have to curse at me?
“Oh my fuckin God! This damn baby need to come on. This girl gonna drive me crazy,” I said, before I picked up the phone to dial Cuba’s number.
“Hello,” she answered on the first ring, and I could tell that she was crying.
“Man, what the hell is wrong with you?” I asked her, trying my hardest not to laugh.
“Why are you cussing at me? I’m just worried about you, and you’re getting mad at me for worrying.”
“I’m getting mad, cause I ain’t been gone but like 20 minutes and you done sent me a hundred text messages and done called me too many damn times. You know I gotta keep on my muthafuckin’ toes, and you got me over here checking my phone every two seconds because you going crazy. I need you to chill out and take care of yourself. I promise you I’m good.”
“Okay…I guess I will leave you alone then. Khi, I love you,” Cuba said, and I chuckled.
“I love you, too, big head girl. Make sure you get your hair done, though, even though we getting married at the courthouse and shit. I ain’t wanna say nothing ‘cause I know you sick and pregnant, but that weave you got in looks tied babe.”
“Oh, fuck you, Khi,” Cuba yelled, and I heard the line go dead. I looked at the screen to see that she had hung on me. I laughed and sat the phone in the center console.
“Damn, it’s dark as fuck down here,” I said to myself, as I turned left on the street ahead of me and slowly drove down the block. I had gotten this lil’ address from one of the goonies for this little business that I needed to take care of. Niggas was out here cutting up when all I wanted to do was count this money I made from this dope shit. I was ready to wife Cuba and keep her ass pregnant, so I can have a bunch of bad ass kids running around the crib when I came home at night. Shit was simple, but muthafuckas didn’t want to see the kid happy. They wanted me to be miserable, but when I was miserable, so was everybody else.
The house I needed to be at, I didn’t see any lights on in that bitch, so I didn’t know if anyone was home or not. Really didn’t matter to me, because I was willing to wait until they returned. I hit a U-Turn in the middle of the road and pulled my car in front of house that already had several cars parked outside. I powered my phone off, slid it into my pocket, and then, grabbed my pistol that sat in the passenger’s seat.
Casually, I stepped out of the car and walked down the block until I made it to where I needed to be at. The house was a small one; it looked to be no more than a couple of bedrooms. I took to the back of the house and noticed that there was more light in the damn alley than it was in front of the house. Shaking my head, I hopped over the fragile fence and jogged up to the back porch. The door was locked when I twisted the knob, so I took out a finger nail filer and fiddled around with the lock until it popped open for me.
I closed the door behind me and kept my tool close by my waist while looking around. Like I had expected, the damn house was small as fuck, except that there was three bedrooms instead of two. They were right by one another, and I didn’t have to do much to see that all of them were empty. I made my way to the front of the house and stopped the moment I spotted an ol’ bird sitting in a recliner in front of the television. Her head was nodding back and forth so I knew that she was sleep. I nodded and continued to quietly look around. She seemed to be the only one here, but her ass wasn’t who I was looking for.
I went to the back and waited in one of the rooms that was set up for the kids and sat on the little twin bed. I had already twisted a blunt up in the event that this would be my life right now. I pulled it from behind my ear, lit the tip, and quickly took a pull from it. Sucking the hay into my lungs, I pushed a cloud of smoke out, then sucked it right back in.
It seemed like hours had passed as I sat back and waited for a muthafucka to show the hell up. I got so damn bored that I started roaming through shit; children’s books, toys, and then pictures. Shit was cool until I ran across a picture of Tramell’s kid on the damn wall with a couple of other kids. I nodded and kept it cool.
Shit was like this in the hood though. Niggas would turn on you quick. In a sense, I guess Tramell never really owed me any loyalty since he wasn’t my damn homey, but one would think he would respect the hustle. I know, for a fact, that that hoe ass nigga had seen more money than he ever had when I really put him on. When he was just riding side by side with Dae, making drop offs and shit, his ass was only getting peanuts compared to what I put in his pockets now.
I know times was hard for him and his ol’ lady; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had her in the bando cooking up that dope shit. I felt sorry for the nigga after he lost Cocoa and treated him hella good, but in the end, I guess it was all about his emotions. Emotions always got a nigga fucked up... every damn time.
I sucked my teeth and sighed as I continued to wait. I was beginning to get impatient and was about to wake that ol’ bird up, but just as that thought entered my mind, I heard keys rattling in the distance. I moved quickly and tucked myself behind the bedroom door that I was in and slowed my breathing down.
“Gram, I’m home,” I heard a voice call out and heard footsteps shortly after. I made sure to stay as quiet as possible when the footsteps grew closer and closer. It was more than one person, and they were trying to be quiet as they giggled and made their way inside the bedroom. Soon as they got ready to close the door behind them, I rushed across the hallway to the room they were in and pushed my way inside.
“Aahhh shit,” one of them yelled, and to quiet her up, I raised the pistol and emptied one into her head.
“Scream if you want to,” I said, and sucked my teeth, as I moved closer to her. Her eyes went from me to her home girl that was now laid out on the bedroom floor.
“My grandma gon’ call the police,” she told me, and I shrugged.
“She ain’t gon’ do shit. You and I both know yo’ bird hard of hearing. Sit your bitch ass down,” I told her, and she followed my instructions. She backed up until she felt the bed and slowly sat down. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and I watched as tears gathered in her eyes. She knew what the fuck it was.
“Deandrea Scott, huh? You know me?” I asked her, and she threw her stare to the floor. “Bitch, I said do you fuckin’ know me?”
“I—I—no, I don’t know you,” she answered. Her legs shaking, uncontrollably
“You trying to get to know me?”
She shook her head no, and I kneeled down in front of her so that I can look into her eyes. Her ass was nervous as shit, sweating and dropping tears everywhere. I sighed and looked back at shawty that was dead on the damn floor.
“You want that to be you?” I asked her, and she shook her head no while the tears kept coming.
“Please, I got kids. I got four kids, and I’m all my grandma has. Please God, please spare my life,” she cried and began to rock back and forth.
“Who is Tramell to you?” I asked her, and I saw her close her eyes tightly. She brought her hand up to wipe the tears away, and then, kept her stare to the floor. I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me. “You gonna let that nigga take you away from your kids…and your grandma. I already saw the kid’s kid on the picture in the other room, so I know for a fact that you and that nigga affiliated in some kind of way. You been going around ta
lking about you kin to my baby mama, but I already knew that was some bullshit. That broad ain’t have no family.”
“Tramell’s just somebody I fuck with from time-to-time…I was with him before he got with Cocoa. Cocoa’s my niece. When they started fucking around, I left him alone up until after she died, and we got back close again. I suppose he’s just using me to do this little favor for him, but it came with some good dick and money, so I did it. Plus, he said you had killed Cocoa, so why not? I needed the money, and everybody’s hurting behind what happened to Cocoa.”
“I didn’t kill your fuckin’ niece. She was like fam to me, and I thought Tramell was too,” I told her, as I stood to my feet.
“He’s been doing fucked up shit since Cocoa died. He doesn’t even deal with his child anymore, so I do my best, but that nigga’s gone in the head. He really loved him some Cocoa...enough to say fuck the family, I guess.”
“Where your cell phone at?” I asked her, and she looked up at me before she looked around and grabbed her purse. She pulled her cell phone out, and I put my gun to her head.
“Oh, my God, please no. Please no. I got my babies to live for,” she pleaded, as her entire body shook.
“Dial 9-1-1 and tell them that somebody broke into your house and robbed you, and then killed your friend.”
“Okay…okay,” she said and quickly pushed the numbers in her phone. She placed the phone to her ear, and I shoved the gun into her temple.
“Put it on speaker.”
“9-1-1…what’s your emergency,” the operator said just as DeeDee put the phone on speaker.
“I need the po…police and an ambulance. My friend has been shot…we were robbed,” DeeDee said, her voice trembling.
“Ma’am is the person that robbed you still there?” the operator asked, and she looked up at me. I shook my head no and gritted down on my teeth.
“No…no…”
“Hang up,” I told her, my voice barely above a whisper. The moment she hung the phone up, I raised the hammer and fired one shot into the bed next to her.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, shit! Please! Please, don’t do this! Please…I promise you I will do whatever you need me to do. Just please don’t take me away from my kids and my grandma. They will end up in the system…my grandma in a home. I’m all they have.”
“You know where Tramell at.”
“I don’t...but I can find out. Just don’t…don’t kill me.”
“Put this number in your phone,” I said to her, and she nodded and did her best to get into her phone without dropping it. “214-807-3611. Save it under Chaison Clarke…when the police get here, you tell them that Chaison Clarke is the one that robbed you and bodied ya homie, a’ight. Chaison Clarke. I need you to do two more things before I go.”
“Okay…anything.”
“Find out where Tramell’s at as soon as the police leave, and when you get an address on him, text it to that number I just gave you. Then, Monday morning, take your muthafuckin’ ass down to the police station and tell them that you lied on me. Tell them that nigga Tramell made you lie, and that he’s the one that dumped that body, a’ight? When you do all that, text me, and I’ll tell you what to do from there. Don’t try to fuckin’ run, don’t try to snitch or anything, other than what the fuck I just asked you to do. I got the goonies on your ass, you hear me? If I hear anything wrong, I’ll be back. Understand?”
“Yes…okay. I promise I will do everything you tell me.”
“I know,” I told her before I turned around and walked out of the room.
***
“What up? Where the hell you been?” I asked Tramell soon as he got in the car. That broad DeeDee came through and text the phone number I gave her not even an hour after I left there. She texted the exact address to where Tramell was, and I went straight over to it.
At first, I was gonna run up in that bitch and knock everything off in sight, but I decided to go another route. This was between me and this nigga. I had already bodied a bitch that I didn’t even know, so shit, that was enough. Hell, I wasn’t that cold. That was somebody’s daughter, and being that I had a daughter, I had sympathy, but shit, at the end of the day, I wasn’t taking no more losses.
“Just been chillin’ on it. Thought y’all wasn’t fuckin’ with a nigga or something.”
“Now, why the hell would you think that,” I said, sarcastically, as I drove off.
“That nigga Dae ran the fuck off on me the other day. I been trying to call his dumb ass to pick his car up, and he not answering me. I hit you up trying to see if you needed anything, and I never got an answer, so shit, I been chilling,” Tramell said, and I looked over at him.
I grabbed my cell from the center console and powered it back on. I had to turn that muthafucka off so my shit wouldn’t be hitting off any of the cell towers in the neighborhood where DeeDee lived. I had seen a nigga get caught up like that on First 48, and I wasn’t about to let police get me the same way. Shit, I was sure he had me nearby, but I rolled through the hood on a daily, so that was nothing to explain away.
“Dae told me about that shit. He said you pissed him off, and he ain’t wanna argue, so he hopped in a cab and came back to the house. I was gonna try to mediate the shit between you niggas, but I got jammed up with that punk ass murder charge. Police talking about her body washed up and shit, but they ain’t have shit on me. That hoe DeeDee still at it. Simple ass hoe,” I said, and Tramell shook his head.
“Dae say what he was mad about,” he asked, and I looked down at my phone once it vibrated in my lap. It was Cuba calling, but I ignored it and placed my attention back on the road.
“Nah, not really. He was just like y’all was supposed to be brothers and that he felt like you had came at him wrong. That’s all.”
“Oh yea,” was all Tramell said just as I had pulled to a red light. I ain’t know just yet where I was gonna take this nigga, but I halfway thought about taking his bitch ass to the same place he dropped off Briana since he wanted to play.
My damn phone buzzed again, and this time, it was a text from Tangie. I started to ignore her, but what she sent fucked me all the way up.
Tangie: Come to the hospital now…
POW!
I didn't even get to finish reading the text message before my head hit the window. My hand went over my neck, and I could feel the blood oozing down my fingers. I grabbed for my hammer that sat in the doorway on the side of me, and let off three shots just as Tramell was getting out of the car and making a run for it. I thought I saw one hit him, maybe even two, I didn't know…I just blacked out.
Chapter 18
Dae
“Aye, yo…stop with the muthafuckin’ games. I’m sick of telling your ass to stop calling me, and now you’re playing on Amber’s phone,” I yelled into the phone, as Taylana cried on the other line.
This broad was fuckin’ bananas. I was mad I ever nutted in the kid, being she hadn’t been doing shit but wilding the fuck out ever since. I was used to hoes getting mad when I stopped giving them the dick, but Lana’s ass was beyond mad. Maybe, this was an Andrew’s thing, because that nigga Tamar was a looney ass nigga, and he needed to get his nut ass sister before I killed her this time. That hoe was Lorena Bobbit crazy. She was Left Eye burn your house down crazy.
I swore, every time I turned around she was popping up some damn where, calling me from all these different numbers, and now she was even playing on Amber’s phone. She would call her and just hold the phone and sometimes would just breathe hard as hell into the receiver.
“Because it seems to be the only time I can get your damn attention. Ain’t shit about me crazy, but since you wanna keep playing with me, Dae, then I’m a play with your ass and your bitch too.”
“Look, hoe don’t be fuckin’ threatening me, and I swear to God if something happens to Amber, I’mma…”
“You gonna do what? I’ll shoot that bitch in her back again the same way my brother did. Keep on, Dae. I’m not the one
to play with. I was the only one holding you down when everybody turned their backs on you, and I be damned if I sit back and let you fuck me over…again!”
“A’ight…cool. You win. You got it, whatever you want,” I told Taylana before I hung up on her. I sucked my teeth and sat the phone down on the cabinet. I took in a deep breath and slid my hands into the pockets of my sweats before I pulled them right back out and grabbed my phone again.
Me: Bruh, get your sister man. I’ve been telling this girl over and over again to leave me alone unless it’s about our son, but she been coming at me nonstop. She following me, threatening my bm, just some straight up fatal attraction shit. Last time, she was doing this shit, I reacted, but I’m coming to you first.
Send.
Just as I hit send on the message to Tamar, I heard engines roaring outside, and I walked over to the nearest window that led to the front of the house. Peeking out of the blinds, I noticed about six cars out front, but I couldn’t really see from the distance of what kind or who was behind the wheel. Rushing over to the camera system that KaeDee had, I opened up the panel and looked at the camera. KaeDee’s shit was just like Khi’s; it allowed you to see a clear view of who was at the gate without them being able to see you.
I noticed that it was three Camaros, two Tahoes, and some kind of Chevy. It was them Jamaican cats. I could see that cat Chaison’s face clearly, as he pushed button after button on the keypad. I shook my head and fell back. I took off running, grabbed my phone off the counter, and ran around the damn corner into Amber’s room.
“Amber, Amber, Amber!” I yelled, and her head darted up from the bed. I raced over to her side of the bed and pulled the covers off of her. I grabbed her up, pulled her into my arms, and carried her out of her bedroom and into DJ’s room. As soon as I rushed inside, DJ sat up and looked around with his eyes bucked open.
“What’s wrong, Dae? What is going on?” Amber cried, as I jerked DJ from his bed and pulled him behind me. I took them down to KaeDee’s lower level, which he used to store his workout equipment and a bunch of other shit. There was a huge deep freezer in the corner and a bunch of boxes that I took Amber and DJ over to.