by K'wan
“Not tonight, nigga.” Remo shook him like a rag doll.
“Come on, man, why y’all tripping,” Happy said, gagging. Ron-Ron tried to pull out the small gun that Happy had made him carry, but Devil slapped him halfway across the room before he could draw the weapon. People scrambled to get out of the way as the Big Dawg entourage swarmed on Happy and his crew and turned the party into a battle royal.
Gucci shoved and elbowed her way through the crowd, trying to get to her friend, with Animal hot on her heels. Bottles, chairs, and everything else that wasn’t nailed down flew around the room as a full-scale riot broke out. She had almost reached the area where she had left her friends when she heard the first shot; before the second one rang out, she found herself slammed to the floor, with Animal shielding her.
“Get off me. I gotta see if my girls is alright.” She struggled under him. Animal was thin but incredibly strong.
“Be easy, Gucci; Remo and Devil got them. We gotta bust a move before them people get here,” Animal said. As if he’d spoken them into existence, a swarm of blue uniforms rushed the front door. They didn’t even ask questions before they started clubbing and pepper spraying the partygoers. There was no way Animal intended on being caught with his gun, but there were too many of them to even think about shooting his way out. “We gotta go.” He snatched her off the floor.
“I’m not leaving without my friends,” Gucci said, continuing to try to break away.
“Yes the hell you are.” Animal grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. Using the butt of his gun to clear a path, he made a beeline for the steps leading down to the bathrooms.
“Animal, put me down before I cut your ass,” she threatened.
Animal ignored her and kept moving. At the end of the hall there was a fire exit marking their path to freedom. Without breaking his stride, Animal kicked the door open, spilling himself and Gucci into the night air.
PART 3
LOYALTY
CHAPTER 19
“I can’t believe you did that shit,” Gucci fumed as she dialed Tionna’s cell phone again. She had been trying to call her friend for the last forty minutes and kept getting the voice mail.
“Gucci, stop worrying: they were with Don B., they’re good,” Animal said, staring at the Harlem streets out the window of the taxi.
“And how the fuck do you know? They were shooting and the police came—for all we know, Tionna could be hurt!” Gucci was starting to panic again.
“I know because Don B. has police working security for him. They might have to answer some questions, but I doubt if they gotta sit. Don B.’s reach goes a long way. And as far as them getting shot, I seriously doubt that.” He laughed.
“I don’t see what the fuck is so funny; those were your peoples in there, too!”
“First off, lady, I ain’t got no peoples, at least not in there. Me and Don B. cool, but it’s more business than anything. And second, it’s a little hard to get hit by a stray when the kid with the gun is shooting into the air. He was trying to get the goons off his peoples, but he wasn’t trying to kill nothing.”
“And what if he was trying to kill something?” she asked.
Animal smiled. “He wasn’t, so ain’t no need to discuss what might’ve happened. What the hell was that dude’s problem anyway?”
“That’s one of Tionna’s old boos who doesn’t seem to know when he’s been kicked to the curb,” Gucci admitted.
“I hope you ain’t got no crazy niggaz waiting in the wings for me when I’m trying to spend time with you.”
“Oh, so you’re trying to spend time with me, huh?”
Animal shrugged. “I’d given it some thought, but I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I say I don’t know because it seems like the prettiest girls always need rescuing from some nut-ass nigga.” He laughed.
“You got that one, Animal. Speaking of which, if you’re trying to spend time with me, then you might wanna tell me what your government name is. I can’t introduce you to my moms as Animal.”
This one caught him off guard. It had been a while since anyone had inquired as to his government name and longer still since he’d spoken it aloud. He started to feed Gucci another line, but something in her big brown eyes made him want to open up to her. “It’s Tayshawn.”
“That’s it?” She made a face.
“Is there something wrong with my name?” He sounded offended.
“No, it’s actually pretty normal. The way you were being all secretive about it, I thought it was something all fucked up. How come you’d rather be called Animal instead of Tayshawn?” Animal got quiet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be all in your business.”
“Its cool, Gucci. My father named me Tayshawn, after him, but I don’t know my dad and he didn’t stick around to get to know me, so I don’t feel right carrying any part of him with me. The streets were my parents and they named me Animal, so that’s what I go by.”
“Which building?” the taxi driver asked.
“Up here on the right.” Gucci pointed at a brown brick building. She reached into her purse to pay him, but Animal stopped her.
“I got it; it’s the least I can do after getting your outfit all dirty.” He motioned to the stains on her knees from when he’d tackled her.
“Thanks for that, Animal. You probably saved my life in there,” she said seriously.
“It ain’t nothing you wouldn’t have done for me, right?”
“Boy, you’re as fine as you wanna be, but not fine enough for me to jump in front of no bullet,” she joked. “But I do appreciate it. I owe you.”
“I know, and you’ll make it up to me when we go to dinner,” he said.
“Oh, so now this is the part where you cracked for my number, huh?”
“Nah, I was actually gonna give you mine and put the ball in your court. I don’t like pressure, so I’ll leave it up to you to call me.” He wrote his number down, then got out and went around to the other side to open her door.
“I told you earlier, if you show me a lady, I’ll show you a gentleman; show me a bitch, and I’ll show you a G,” he repeated.
Gucci smiled. “The gentleman side of you is lovable, but the G side is sexy. With so many choices, what’s a girl to do?”
Animal stepped closer. “Make your next move your best move.” He kissed her. It was a quick and gentle kiss, but it stirred a wealth of emotions in Gucci. “Don’t take too long to use that, Gucci.” Animal got back into the cab and told the driver to pull off, leaving Gucci standing on the curb, watching the taillights fade. She didn’t know if she believed in love at first sight, but she was feeling Animal deeply.
When she turned to her building she noticed two people: Rock Head, who was sitting on the stoop, and her mother, who was glaring down at her from the window. She waved up to her mother to let her know she was coming and headed for the building entrance, where Rock Head started right in with the questions.
“Yo, you just coming from the Big Dawg joint? I heard niggaz was shooting up in there,” Rock Head pressed her. Gucci hadn’t noticed it at first, but he was with a girl she knew couldn’t have been in any higher than the tenth grade. His fetish for young girls was one more reason that she didn’t like to be around him.
“I heard something popped off, but I was gone before it did,” Gucci lied.
Rock Head’s face said he didn’t believe her, but he knew better than to press it. “Gucci, let me ask you something.”
“What, nigga?” She was tired and still needed to check on Tionna. She didn’t have the energy or the patience to deal with Rock Head’s shit.
“Was that who I think it was?” he asked.
“Depends on who you think it was.”
“Gucci, you might wanna be easy with that boy there, he’s bad news,” he told her.
“Rock Head, you got some nerve with all the shit you stay in. That boy there is more of a gentleman that you�
�ll ever be,” she defended Animal.
“Gentleman? Gucci, you gotta be human to be considered a gentleman and he ain’t human—that little muthafucka is an Animal.”
“So I hear.” She kept stepping into the building.
“A’ight, Gucci, but when the devil finally shows his horns, you can’t say I didn’t try to warn you,” he called after her.
“Where the hell have you been?” Ronnie was on Gucci as soon as she walked in the door.
“Ma, I’m tired, so please don’t start,” Gucci said, tossing her purse onto the couch and going into the kitchen.
“You’ve got some damn nerve telling me not to start when it’s almost four in the morning and I told you heifers to be back here by two thirty,” Ronnie snapped. Then it dawned on her that Gucci was alone. “Where is Tionna?”
“She, ah—”
“Gucci,” Ronnie cut her off, “I ain’t flew here, I grew here, so before you even finish that statement you need to know that one, I’m bullshit-proof and two, I’ll slap the black off both of you bitches if you try to play me with some funky-ass story when that girl’s kids is in my bed instead of their own.”
Gucci knew that her mother was in no mood to play, so she came clean. “Okay, Ma, this is what happened.” She went on to give Ronnie the short version of the story, leaving out the part about them being in the company of notorious gangsters.
“I knew it, I knew it. The minute I dreamt about your father, I knew something had gone wrong,” Ronnie said.
“What’s Daddy got to do with it?” Gucci asked, puzzled.
“Whenever I dream about your father, it means you’re going to do something to piss me off, just like he used to. How do you think I knew it was really you who spilled Neet all over my damn rabbit-fur coat in eighty-nine? Now, what precinct did they take Tionna to?”
“I don’t know, Mommy. Everything happened so fast that we got separated,” Gucci admitted.
“What the hell do you mean, y’all got separated? Gucci, I know you didn’t leave that club without making sure Tionna was good?”
“But, Mommy, the police—”
“Don’t give me that shit, Gucci. I understand you getting up outta the spot so you didn’t go to jail, but you wasn’t supposed to bring your ass back in this house without finding out exactly where Tionna was and if she was okay. If that’s your friend, then that’s how you carry it.”
“Yes, Mommy,” Gucci said. As if she didn’t feel guilty enough, Ronnie was making her feel worse. “I’ll call around and see if anybody has heard from her. If not, I’ll go check some of the local precincts.”
“Unless you plan on doing it on the bus, it’ll have to wait for tomorrow. If they do have her locked up somewhere, she ain’t getting out until sometime tomorrow, and I gotta go to work in the morning. Let her ass sit and stew on it for a while, she’ll be okay.”
“That’s foul, Mommy.”
“Don’t throw stones, honey. Y’all gonna lean one day. And Tionna better hope the police keep her ass, because when I see her it’s on and cracking, leaving me in here with them badass kids, knowing they ain’t got no home training. Little Duhan spilled ice cream on my good couch and the stain act like it don’t wanna come out.”
“I’ll take care of it, Ma,” Gucci said, fixing herself a healthy bowl of cereal to fight off the munchies that had descended on her.
“You’re damn right you will. I’m telling you, y’all lucky I’m saved or else it’d have been some shit in here.” Ronnie continued to rant as she went back to bed.
Glad that Ronnie had finally gotten out of her face, Gucci went into the living room and plopped down in front of the television. She tried to call Tionna, Boots, and Tracy, but couldn’t reach any of them. It was out of her hands at that point, so she decided to go to bed and deal with it in the morning. As she was emptying her pockets to put her clothes in the laundry, she came across Animal’s number. As she admired his remarkably neat handwriting, Rock Head’s warning came back to her. She wasn’t as naïve as to think that Animal was innocent because anybody associated with Don B. had to have some type of street credibility, but the things Rock Head had said were harsh. With the exception of the time during the shooting, Animal had been polite, funny, and sharp, hardly what she would’ve expected from the caliber of killer Rock Head had tried to make him out as. But she knew better than anyone how deceiving looks could be. With those thoughts in her mind, Gucci drifted into a peaceful, drunken sleep.
CHAPTER 20
It was going on eleven thirty the next morning when they finally let Tionna go. When the police had rushed the spot, they’d kicked the ass of anything darker than a paper bag left and right. Luckily for them, several members of Don B.’s entourage were on the force, so they were spared the harsh treatment; but they still had to be brought in for questioning about the shooting that had accidentally turned into an attempted homicide.
The police tried to say that it had been a shoot-out between Don B.’s entourage and the local Crips gang that they were said to have been feuding with, but that wasn’t what really happened. As it turned out, Ron-Ron had started clapping in the air to try to scare Don B.’s people, but someone had tried to play hero and taken the gun from him. During the struggle, the gun had gone off and hit a girl in the back who had been trying to get out of the way. The girl lived, but she would never walk again.
In the presence of a lawyer provided by Don B., the police asked Tionna the same questions forward backward and sideways, but her story never changed: “I was just having drinks with some friends when these guys started shooting. I don’t know who they were shooting at, and no, Don B. did not have a gun.” They also asked if she had seen the shooter, which she denied, even though she had been looking right at Ron-Ron when he pulled the gun. The police knew she was lying, but had no way to prove it.
The lawyer was trying to tell her to wait for Boots and Tracy, who would be coming out next, but Tionna wasn’t even listening as she made a mad dash for the exit. Her cell phone was dead so she couldn’t even call Gucci to tell her that she was out and to check on the kids, but she hoped she’d understand, even though she was sure Ms. Ronnie wouldn’t. That was a bridge she would cross when she came to it. She had just over two hours to make it to Rikers to catch Duhan’s visit. Tionna was tired and smelled like she’d been partying all night, but she didn’t have time to go home. Don B. had offered to give her a ride, but after all she’d been through she didn’t feel like being bothered. Promising to give him a call later, she hopped into a taxi and directed him to Rikers Island.
The cabbie was about his business, getting Tionna to the Island in record time. It cost her damn near all the money she’d brought out with her, but it was worth it if it meant she would make the visit. She hopped out of the cab just as the van was loading the last of its passengers to take them across to the Island. Tionna sat next to a girl who smelled like onions and garlic, but she doubted if she smelled much better, so she let it ride.
The whole time she stood on the slow-moving line to the intake building, she kept looking down at her watch. It was bad enough that she wasn’t going to get to spend a lot of time with him, but the process was threatening to spoil the visit altogether. She finally made it to the front, only to have a beat-faced hack tell her she couldn’t come in because her ID card had expired the day before. Thankfully, she spotted an officer she used to deal with and he persuaded his comrade to let her slide. Next, she went through the motions of the metal detector, which required her to take everything out of her pockets and walk through barefoot. She made it through the arch and filled out the proper paperwork without incident; it wasn’t until she was waiting for the bus to take her to Duhan’s housing unit that the bullshit started.
Tionna was sitting on one of the hard benches, reading a magazine that someone had abandoned, when she spotted one of the corrections officers coming through with a dog. The dog made his rounds, trash cans and beneath all the benches, searching for God knew w
hat. When he got to the bench where Tionna was sitting, the dog began to bark. Tionna knew for a fact that she didn’t have anything on her, but the dog seemed to think she did, and he made it apparent to everyone who was watching.
“Could you come with me, please,” the officer said to Tionna.
“Is there a problem?” She crossed her legs to try to hide her nervousness.
“I’ll explain it all to you in a minute.” He motioned for her to follow.
Tionna nervously did as she was told. Halfway down the long hall, she noticed that two female officers had joined her, which did nothing to soothe her nerves. One was brutish, almost to the point of looking like a man, while the other was pretty and petite. Both of them wore no-nonsense expressions on their faces. They stopped in front of an office at the end of the hall, where the two female officers escorted her inside and closed the door.
“What’s going on?” Tionna asked, looking from one officer to the other.
“It says here that you’re here to see Duhan Collins. What is your relationship with Mr. Collins?” the pretty one asked.
“I . . . I’m his wife,” Tionna stammered.
“It says here that Mr. Collins isn’t married,” the pretty one said, double-checking the paperwork.
“She means she’s his baby mama,” the beefy one said. There was smugness to her voice that made Tionna hate her.
“Yes, we have kids together, but I’m more than his baby mama, thank you. Look, are y’all gonna tell me why y’all pulled me or what?”
“Mrs. Collins,” the beefy one began sarcastically, “are you in possession of or have you been in contact with what would be considered a controlled substance?”