Another Hood Love

by Jontu'

  “It was you?” she reached into the top part of her dress and pulled out a small wrinkled up piece of paper from her bra. Unfolding it, she held it up for him to see. “You wrote this note?”

  Trigga squinted at it as he tried to decipher the smudged words on the paper. Then he nodded his head slowly.

  “Yeah, I left you that. I wanted you to get yourself together.”

  “So all this time…all this time you’ve been keeping that from me! You knew and didn’t mention it?”

  Keisha started to get angry but it was more so from her embarrassment at knowing that Trigga had been the man who’d found her when she was at her all-time worse. He was the one who had pity on her. He was her savior but just thinking of how she must have looked and acted that day mortified her.

  “Whoa, hol‘ up…I didn’t know who you were until you started flippin’ out on me again in the room. You don’t look the same as you did that night. Excuse my words, but you looked like shit. Plus, your hair was longer,” he added. “Being clean did some wonders for your ass because I could tell you was cute and all but I had no idea you could turn into all this.” Trigga looked pointedly at her to stress his words.

  “Oh…” was all Kiesha could utter. She had no other words to say. This night had revealed so much to her that she felt like her brain would overload on the information. “Well, I still want to go home.”

  Trigga looked down and didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he nodded his head. “Okay. You can go.”

  Keisha took one last look at him and then opened up the passenger door. Trigga grabbed the handle from her fingers and pulled it open for her as she got inside. Once she was in the car, he closed it firmly behind her and walked away. Keisha watched him through the side door mirror as he trekked back to the hotel. Then, feeling as if someone was staring a hole through the side of her head, she turned towards Tish.

  “Bitch, you got some explain’ to do,” Tish muttered as she gazed at Keisha through sleepy eyes. “Y’all muthafuckas done dragged me out the bed then had a lover’s spat in the middle of the damn street. This shit better than the damn movies.”

  Keisha shook her head and laid her head against the window as they drove off.

  TWO

  “Keesh…um, I think you gonna wanna see this.”

  Keisha groaned and rolled over in her bed at the sound of Tish’s voice. It was the next morning and she could tell by the sunlight seeping through her blinds that she’d definitely overslept and was late for class. But she didn’t intend on going anyways after the night she’d had so it didn’t matter much. It was a good thing that she had made a friend who she shared three classes with and could get the assignments from.

  “What, Tish?” Keisha asked, pulling a pillow over her head.

  “Get your ass up and come see!”

  Keisha groaned once more and pushed the pillow off her head before sitting up in the bed. After blinking a few times to focus her eyes, she saw that Tish was standing in her room with her head to the blinds as she peeked out the window. Instantly, Keisha was jarred awake as the feeling of alarm took over her body.

  “What is it?” Keisha asked in a hushed whisper. She pushed the covers off and crawled to the foot of the bed where Tish was. She turned towards the blinds, opened them a small amount and peeked out.

  There, sitting right in front of her apartment, was an all-black Porsche SUV. Trigga was there.

  “What the hell is he doin’ here?” Keisha asked as she snatched away from the window.

  Tish ran a hand through her hair as she pulled away and turned to Keisha. Then she sighed.

  “I guess he’s lookin’ out for you. He’s been there all night, I think, because he’s in Gladys’ parking space and she gets in ‘round 2 a.m. but you see she had to park over on that side. I know she’s mad as hell.”

  Keisha turned on her heels and grabbed a robe from the hook on her door and wrapped it over her body. She walked into the kitchen, poured some coffee into a mug and grabbed some creamer out of the refrigerator then poured some into the mug. As she stirred the hot liquid, Tish gawked at her.

  “A nigga stalking this bitch and she tryin’ to get her caffeine fix. I done seent it all!” Tish exclaimed with sarcasm.

  “I’m makin’ him some coffee before I go out to talk to him,” Keisha informed her and rolled her eyes as Tish scoffed. She placed some toast in the toaster and then turned around to look at Tish.

  “About what? This nigga is caught up in a lot of shit! His own brother was in on that ambush…what the hell you got to talk to him about?”

  Sighing, Keisha grabbed an egg out of the refrigerator, cracked it on the counter and watched it as the inside spilled out slowly onto the heated frying pan she’d placed on the stove. The egg started to fry, she grabbed a spatula and poked at it.

  “I need to know how he’s going to handle it,” Keisha answered. “Based on that, I’ll make my plan on whether I can stay here or if I need to move. Even then, I don’t know where the fuck I’ll go. I don’t have anyone.”

  “Heffa — ”

  “EXCEPT you,” Keisha corrected herself. “I have no one but you.”

  She grabbed the toast out and started to place butter and jam on top of the lightly toasted bread. Then she scrambled the eggs and placed light seasoning on them. After thinking for a second, she decided to sprinkle some cheese on top.

  “What about tellin’ the cops?” Tish asked as she watched her.

  Keisha shook her head and placed the toast on a plate. “I don’t trust them. At the hospital, when I didn’t speak up about what they wanted, they started lookin’ at me like I had parts in that shootin’ shit. Plus, snitchin’ on everyone would put me in a worse position. And it would implicate Trigga.”

  “Yeah, but you barely know that nigga. Maybe his ass needs to be implicated,” Tish said giving her a shrug. Keisha looked out through the thin curtain on the kitchen window and focused in on Trigga’s ride. The windows were tinted but she knew he was in there.

  “No,” was all she said. “He doesn’t.”

  ***

  Tap! Tap! Tap!

  Trigga jumped suddenly at the sound of the knocking on his window. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep. Glancing at the clock on the dash, he checked the time before looking out the window. It was Keisha and she was holding a plate of food and a coffee mug.

  “Hmph,” Trigga laughed a little to himself as he looked at her. It was early but she still was beautiful. Chicks was always talking about “I woke up like dis” and knew damn well they woke up looking like a swamp creature from the depths of The Everglades. But Keisha actually did wake up flawless.

  “Well, good morning, you,” Trigga said when he rolled down the window. Keisha turned towards him and narrowed her eyes at him.

  “So you stalkin’ me now?” Keisha asked him. “Didn’t I leave your ass at the hotel last night?”

  Trigga gave her a serious look. “You said you wanted to leave so I let your poutin’ ass leave. But I’m gonna make sure you’re safe.”

  “I can handle my own,” Keisha retorted slightly lifting her cute button nose in the air and sniffing indignantly.

  “Oh yeah?” Trigga smirked. “Lemme see how you handled them eggs first and then we’ll talk more about that.” Trigga eyed the plate. A simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and toast with butter and jelly. She did her thing from the looks of it.

  Keisha shot him a nervous look as she shuffled back and forth from foot to foot. “I—I hope you like it.” She pushed the plate towards him through the window. “Do you drink coffee?”

  “Do I look like a coffee drinking ass nigga?”

  Keisha smiled. “Well, what you tryin’ to say about coffee drinkin’ ass niggas?”

  Trigga returned her smile and reached for the coffee. “Not a damn thing. Give me that. Get your ass in the car so I can tell you what I think when I’m done.”

  Keisha walked slowly over to the passenger side and gl
anced over at the window in her bedroom. She could’ve sworn that she saw the blinds move suddenly.

  Nosey ass, Trish, Keisha thought and rolled her eyes.

  By the time that Keisha sat down in Trigga’s SUV and closed the door behind her, he was already digging in to the food like he was starving. A smile spread across her face as she watched him eat.

  “I told your ass I could cook,” Keisha bragged as she sat back on the cool leather seats and looked at him.

  “Naw,” Trigga responded as he took a sip of coffee. “A nigga just hungry as hell.”

  Attitude flaring, Keisha sucked her teeth and Trigga laughed as he looked at her. “I’m just kidding. You a’ight but if you had messed this up, it would have been a damn shame.”

  “Well, if I had known you were going to be stalking me all night, I would have gotten up earlier to prepare something,” Keisha said. Then she got silent and the smile disappeared from her face as she thought about the reason for why Trigga was there. He got quiet too and seemed to retreat into his thoughts so she knew he was thinking about it also.

  “What are you goin’ to do about Mase?” Keisha asked him after debating in her mind about whether or not she should bring up the fact that Trigga’s own brother was trying to kill the both of them.

  Trigga sighed and sat back on his seat. He placed the plate of half-eaten food down on his lap and rubbed his face with his hands.

  “I gotta talk to him,” he told her. “No offense, Keesh, but that’s my brother. He’s my twin brother. I can’t just go off your word on something like that.”

  “I understand,” Keisha said then looked out the window. She didn’t have any siblings but she could imagine that if someone had been telling her that her family was trying to kill her, she would want to think it through first before reacting. She would need to be totally sure.

  “Listen, I gotta prepare for a call in a little bit. After the call, I’ll be back over here. But I need you to take this, just in case.”

  Keisha looked down at Trigga’s outstretched hand and her mouth fell wide open. Shaking her head vigorously, she pushed the object away from her.

  “No, I can’t take that,” she said as she continued to shake her head at him. “The last time I held a gun…I can’t. I’ll be fine.”

  “Either you take this or you come with me. Those are your options. I need to make sure you’re safe…you’re in this shit because of me,” Trigga told her firmly as he puhed it towards her again.

  The way that he looked at her let her know that he wasn’t going to take her refusal as an option. Keisha nodded her head, swallowed hard and then held out her hand for the gun. Before giving it to her, Trigga held it up and pointed at it.

  “Click this button to turn off the safety before pulling the trigger. There is already one in the chamber. All you have to do is turn off the safety, then aim and shoot. Got it?” he asked her with a raised brow.

  Keisha nodded her head. When Trigga handed her the gun, she held it awkwardly in her hand, unsure of exactly where to put it. After giving him an uneasy look, to which he responded with a wink, she jumped out of his ride and decided to just hide the weapon under her shirt and make a mad dash to the door.

  As soon as Keisha ran in her room, she placed the gun in the drawer of her nightstand along with the other items she had stashed there, including over a dozen sandwich bags full of coke, pills and several thousands of dollars she had taken from Lloyd the day she barely escaped with her life.

  For some reason she just stared at all the paraphernalia and suddenly she felt a timorous shiver rise up her spine and dove onto her bed with tears in her eyes. She hated that she was being such a crybaby but at the moment, she felt like she had so much stress on her and there was nothing she could do about it and no one she could run to. She just wanted to remind her life to a point where it was normal and stay in that moment.

  Now she was holding drugs and caught up in a situation that she knew nothing about. Lloyd and Trigga’s brother, Mase, would kill her if they found her and she didn’t have the faintest idea what to do about that or where to go. She had no family or friends outside of Atlanta. She could take the money she took from Lloyd and go but to where? And how long would the money last?

  Halfway into her pity-party, Keisha’s phone chimed. Wiping at the tears that were rolling down her cheeks, Keisha grabbed it and stared at the screen. In true Trigga-fashion, he’d read her mind and was there to put it at ease.

  You’ll be fine. I got you, he’d texted her.

  Keisha smiled through her tears and wiped her face.

  Thank you, she texted him back feeling a ray of hope that only came from the protection of a man.

  Two seconds later he responded.

  You’re welcome. Now stop all that damn crying and close the blinds in your room. Your nosey ass roommate left them open.

  Frowning, Keisha’s eyes shot up to her window and she saw that she was looking directly into Trigga’s front windshield. Although she couldn’t see him, he had a perfect line of vision to her. He’d seen her mini-breakdown and all. No wonder he knew what to text.

  “TIIISSSSHHH!” Keisha yelled out as she closed the blinds. She could just imagine Trigga laughing at her from behind his tints. “BRING YOUR NOSEY ASS HERE!”

  THREE

  “Man, nigga, what you mean?” Mase fumed through the phone. “So you not gone be able to make the call?”

  “Naw, we can do the call, I’m just not at the room,” Trigga told him as he sat in the middle of a small coffee shop in Buckhead. He was trying to talk low but even still he saw a few of the patrons casting annoyed glances at him.

  “Well, how we gone do it? Three-way or some shit?” Mase asked.

  “Yeah, that’ll work. Queen will call me and I’ll add you on the line,” Trigga told him. “I’m not gonna be at the room until later on but she wanna have the call in about thirty minutes.” Trigga checked his watch out of habit although he already knew what time it was.

  He was feeling antsy for some reason. He also was feeling like he was being watched. Lifting his head, he scanned the coffee shop for a minute as he half-listened to Mase talk about how his funds were low and he needed the job. Then his eyes fell upon the gentle stare of a woman sitting diagonal to him. She had milk chocolate skin that seemed to glow. Her hair was pulled neatly into a ponytail, exposing her long, elegant neck and toned arms. As soon as his stare met hers, she blushed and turned away from him. Trigga found that funny and made a short, snorting noise as he watched her pretend to read a flyer on her table.

  “We takin’ the job as soon as we get this current job finished with. She gettin’ mad as fuck that the shit takin’ so long. Only reason she gave us this long is because she got her hands full with some other shit,” Trigga responded to Mase.

  A server came over to ask him if he wanted another coffee or anything else. She made sure to put extra emphasis on the ‘anything else’ that she was offering. Trigga mouthed ‘no’ to her and then tuned back into his conversation with Mase. His eyes fell upon the woman across from him and he noticed that she was studying him once again. Throwing her a small smile, he waved and she sent him a bashful wave back.

  “A’ight, well, I’ll be waitin’ on the line for the call,” Mase said.

  “Bet,” Trigga responded. “Aye, quick question.”

  “What’s up?”

  “The night I went after Lloyd at the club and them niggas set me up, where the fuck were you?”

  An older woman dramatically gasped at Trigga’s language, bringing her hand to her chest and then frowned. He shot her an annoyed look and then turned away from her as he waited for Mase to respond.

  “I was chillin’ wit’ some chicks from the club. Yo’, I felt like shit about that night. I ain’t even know that you was goin’ to be goin’ after that nigga like that. And you usually got that shit handled so…Man, my bad,” Mase said to him.

  Although he was trying to sound sincere, his face was blank and emo
tionless. He couldn’t wait until he was able to put a bullet through Trigga’s skull so he could be done playing this lil’ game.

  “Yo, something else had been troubling me that night at the club you was actin’ strange and unconcerned like you really wasn’t feelin’ murkin’ dude and his crew.”

  Trigga clinched his jaw as he pondered his thoughts carefully. If Keisha was telling the truth and his brother was trying to kill him he couldn’t let him know he was on to it.

  “Naw’ll, I wasn’t in any hurry to clap them niggaz cause shit was lookin’ lovely. Them niggaz was like prey on an ordinary day. You know how we rock! Lullaby they bitch asses to sleep, then BAM! Pounce on dat ass! Besides I was tryin’ to get my dick wet with them fine ass ATL bitches and murk them niggaz later on a smooth creep…like how we normally rock, na’mean?”

  Silence.

  Trigga held the phone so tight his knuckles paled white as he thought. All the while, the turbulent ebb and flow of his emotions were centered around the implications of what would happen if it turned out what Keisha said was really true?

  Could she be lying?

  Hopefully his brother wasn’t. But it seemed to him that Mase was trying too hard to make it seem like he wasn’t on some crazy shit that night at the club.

  “Nigga, you still on the phone?” Mase asked with an attitude, raising his voice.

  “Yeah, yeah…” Trigga responded as he contemplated his thoughts carefully and moistened his lips with a dry tongue. It felt like he was about to have an anxiety attack. Ever since they were little boys he had always known how to catch his brother in a lie. Mentally, he prepared to set the trap.

  “Tell me something, Mase.”

  “What, nigga? And make it quick. I found an online website where bitches selling pussy.”