by C. J. Hudson
Soon after, his constant complaints got back to Duck and Pee Wee. Because the two capos didn’t want their boss to be bothered with the ambitious street soldier, their solution to the growing problem was to simply have the young man killed. Frank begged them not to do it. He reasoned that since Damon came aboard, sales had increased 20 percent. It took hours of pleading from Frank before Pee Wee and Duck finally relented. They made it clear to Frank, though, that the next time they heard a complaint from Damon, it would be the last time they ever heard a complaint from him. Frank had gone out on a limb for Damon, and his reward had been death. After talking to Duck and Pee Wee, Frank laid down the law.
He informed Damon that either he stopped complaining or make his bones somewhere else. Damon had plotted to get rid of Frank and take over his lieutenant’s spot from that moment on. His opportunity finally came when Frank let it slip that he planned to take a female friend to the movies one Friday night. Damon then hired a thug named Roach to go to the same theater, wait till the lights went out, and blow off the back of Frank’s head. Damon even provided Roach with the silencer-attached pistol to carry out the hit. When Roach met with Damon to collect his money, Damon shot him in the face and tied up the loose end.
When Duck and Pee Wee found out about Frank, they suspected that Damon was somehow involved. Since they couldn’t prove it, they let the matter go. Even though they still didn’t like him, it hadn’t been lost on Darnell and Turiq how much Damon had been earning for the team, so they slid him into Frank’s spot. Duck and Pee Wee didn’t like it, but their hands were tied. Had Turiq known about Damon’s complaints, it’s quite possible that Damon would have been executed. Darnell would have also been amazed at how two of his capos could have let that situations get so far out of hand. So to stay on Darnell and Turiq’s good sides, Duck and Pee Wee decided just to let sleeping dogs lie.
Sitting directly across from Damon was OG Hann. Except for Darnell, Hann had been in the game the longest. He was actually offered the second in command position before Turiq was, but he turned it down, causing Darnell to question his commitment to the game. Unlike the rest of Darnell’s crew, Hann didn’t see slinging poison in the hood as a lifelong occupation. He wasn’t flashy like Trey, and he rarely spent any money. He had a few legitimate businesses that no one knew about, and he was actually married. However, because of the dangers of being in the dope game, he kept that a secret from everyone. Not even Darnell knew about his wife. At 35 years old, he planned on being in the game another five years and then ride off into the sunset.
“Yo, Duck, pass these around for me, my dude,” Darnell said, as he opened the envelope and handed its contents to Duck. Duck walked around the table and placed an eight-by-ten photograph in front of each lieutenant. Damon smirked as he looked down at the picture of Detective Warren’s shot up body. He never liked the man and was pissed when Pee Wee brought him into the fold. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized that Pee Wee wasn’t in attendance.
“I neva did like you, cracka muthafucka,” Damon mumbled.
“Yo, what’s good with this, D? Why is Jeff lying there with a fuckin’ hole in his skull?” Trey asked.
“Because his name ain’t Jeff. It’s Anthony Warren. As in Detective Anthony Warren.”
At the mention of the moniker “Detective,” all four lieutenants’ heads snapped up.
“Damn, man, that muthafucka was 5-0?” Blue asked, obviously surprised.
“Yeah, he was,” Darnell said. He pulled out his cell phone and went to an app that controlled an overhead projector. A video of Pee Wee’s car sitting in front of his house appeared on the wall. Everyone’s head turned to Duck when they saw him getting out of the vehicle.
“The fuck is that shit about, Duck?” Damon asked.
“Nigga, just shut up and watch the damn video,” Duck barked. He was still pissed that Damon’s snake ass had been promoted. Damon seethed as he slowly turned back toward the video. He didn’t like the way Duck was talking to him. When his time came, he would make sure that Duck was the first one to catch it. Everybody in the room jumped when Pee Wee’s car exploded.
“Yo, was Pee Wee in that car?” OG Hann asked.
“You damn right he was in that muthafucka. That dumb-ass nigga let a cop infiltrate my fuckin’ empire, so he had to go.”
Darnell looked into the eyes of each man. He wanted all of them to know that he meant business and wasn’t going to tolerate any more fuckups. “From now on, nobody else comes aboard unless I bring them in. Is that clear?”
Darnell’s second in command, his two capos, and his four lieutenants all nodded their heads in agreement.
“Good. Now, let’s get down to business.” Darnell nodded at Turiq, and his second in command placed an empty duffle bag on the table. OG Hann and Trey each picked up the duffle bags they’d brought and emptied stacks of money onto the table. Damon stood up and removed the backpack he had on and did the same. Blue simply emptied both of his pockets and threw his portion into the bag. Lard then picked up the bag and carried it to another table, where he and Duck began counting it. While they were counting the money, Darnell let the rest of his crew know how appreciative he was of the job they were doing. All of them were making money by the truckload, and to show them how much he appreciated their efforts, he told them that whatever they made for the next thirty days, they could keep. The lieutenants looked at each other and smiled.
“Damon, I need to holla at you for a second,” Darnell told him.
As the rest of the crew continued to chop it up with each other, Darnell gave Damon a very important job to do. Damon nodded and smiled as Darnell was filling him in on the details. By the time he was done, Damon was rubbing his hands together in anticipation of carrying out his assignment.
“I got you, dawg. I’m just the man for the job,” he said, smiling wickedly.
Chapter 9
Flora’s forehead produced a loud thud as she dozed off and fell face-first onto her desk. It had been a week since Darnell and his minions had paid her a visit. Since then, sleep hadn’t come easy to her. Even when she was lucky enough to catch a few z’s, the nightmares she’d started experiencing would cut them short. She nearly jumped out of her skin when one of her coworkers touched her on the shoulder
“Girl, you all right?” she asked.
“Yeah, just a little sleepy.”
“Yeah, I see. You’ve been coming in here like that for the last week. Yo’ man been keeping you up or something?”
“Something like that,” Flora lied.
“Girl, I’ll be back. I’m going to get you a cup of coffee. And tell that damn man to leave you alone and let you get some sleep.”
“Thanks,” Flora said, trying to force herself to smile. Not only was she dealing with the grief of losing her lover, but she was also so paranoid that she was continually looking over her shoulder. And if that wasn’t enough, she was being weighed down by a tremendous amount of guilt. Two days ago, she’d attended a memorial service for Pee Wee. She didn’t want to but knew that there was no way she could not be there for Rhonda. As Rhonda cried on Flora’s shoulder, the weight of screwing Pee Wee behind her back nearly caused her to collapse. Throughout the entire service, Flora was never once able to look Rhonda in the eye. Her guilt almost made her confess, but the thought of losing Rhonda’s friendship was too much for her to bear.
“Here, girl, drink this,” her coworker said, handing her a cup of coffee.
As Flora sipped from the cup, she thought about the offer her sister had made her. Her sister, who worked as a schoolteacher in Dayton, had offered to get her a job as the school’s secretary. Flora had the skills for the job. She just never had the desire to move. In her opinion, Dayton was a small, country type of city. She liked the excitement of being in a bigger city such as Cleveland. But ever since the threat from Darnell, she’d been a nervous wreck.
A frown crossed her face as she thought about Darnell. In the span of a week, she had truly grow
n to hate him. Nothing would please her more than to see him get what was coming to him. She may have been wrong for sleeping with her friend’s man, but Darnell was a thousand times wrong for killing him. Her lover was dead, and her best friend had fallen apart. At that point, Flora didn’t give a damn about Darnell’s threat. She made the decision right then and there to take up her sister’s job offer. She loved Cleveland, but she just couldn’t deal with the guilt that her actions were causing her. Before she left, however, she would make sure that Darnell paid dearly for his role in Pee Wee’s death.
* * *
After leaving work, Flora decided to stop by Rhonda’s. As hard as it was going to be, she wanted to tell her face-to-face that she would be moving. There was no way in the world Flora would be able to continue their friendship, knowing that it was based on deceit and disloyalty. On the way over, she went back and forth, thinking about whether she should confess. In the end, she decided not to. She concluded that it was better for Rhonda to grieve her man and miss her friend instead of hating them both for what they had done.
As soon as Flora turned on Rhonda’s street, a lump formed in her throat. The charred smell of Pee Wee’s car still lingered in the air. The scent of burnt flesh hovered over the area where body parts once were. However, that was nothing compared to the pain in her chest, which was sure to get worse the second she laid eyes on her friend. After turning off her car, Flora sat there for ten minutes before getting out and making her way toward the front door. She raised her hand to ring the doorbell but never got the chance.
“Hey, girl. Come on in. I was hoping that you’d come by,” a teary-eyed Rhonda said as she opened the door. Flora’s heart broke into a thousand pieces. The guilt riding her back damn near broke her spine.
“How are you?” she asked, genuinely concerned.
“I’ve been better. I still can’t believe that Pee Wee is gone. I mean, I’m not gonna fool myself into thinking that he wasn’t fuckin’ other bitches. I’m not that damn stupid, but he was still my damn man. Whatever he did in the street, he kept it there. He never brought any of that bullshit home.”
Flora tried to find words of comfort but fell short. She was shocked to see Rhonda pick up a small mirror with a marginal amount of cocaine on it.
“Don’t look at me like that, Flora. I know you’ve never seen me do this, and there’s a reason for that.”
After snorting a line through her right nostril, she paused for a few seconds before repeating the process through her left one.
“How long have you been doing that stuff?” Flora asked.
Rhonda shrugged her shoulders.
Once again, Flora felt like a fool. She’d been feeling that way a lot lately. Rhonda was a good friend of hers, and she had no idea that her friend was sniffing blow. Rhonda dropped her head for a second before lifting it and staring directly into Flora’s eyes. What Flora saw in them convinced her that she was doing the right thing leaving Cleveland. The hurt that Rhonda was experiencing seemed to be transferring into Flora’s soul.
“The reason I stopped by is that I wanted to tell you that I’m going out of town for a couple of weeks. I hate to leave when you’re hurting like this, but my mother just had surgery, and she’s going to be laid up, so I have to go and take care of her,” Flora lied.
“Okay. When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow. If I don’t get there soon, she’ll be calling me everything but a child of God.”
Rhonda smiled. It was the first time she’d done that since finding out about Pee Wee.
“You know, it was nice of his friend Darnell to send all those flowers to the memorial. I know the two of them were friends.”
Bitch, if you only knew, Flora thought. All she could do in response to that statement was nod silently.
“You wanna smoke something?” Rhonda asked.
“Nah, I’m good.”
Rhonda gave Flora a sideways glance. She knew that Flora liked to smoke weed, so she was curious about why she was turning down a free high. Shrugging her shoulders, she let the matter go. The two women talked for another thirty minutes before Flora reminded Rhonda that she had to get home and pack. They hugged each other for a long time before Flora finally left.
Flora had barely gotten into the car before bursting out into tears. She couldn’t take back what she did, but she was damned sure determined to bring Pee Wee’s killer to justice.
She took out her cell phone with trembling hands and dialed the number for the Cleveland Police Department. As the phone rang, a thousand thoughts went through her head. She thought about the threat that had been issued on her life. She thought about Victor and how he’d just been an innocent bystander who was killed to send her a message. More guilt. Deep in her heart, Flora knew that she was doing the right thing. But when an officer spoke on the line, she froze.
Flora opened her mouth and tried to push the words from her throat, but they resisted. Without uttering a single word, she quickly hung up. Her nerves were frayed. She now felt like an ass for turning down Rhonda’s invitation to smoke a blunt. She needed something to help her calm down. She called her cousin again to see if he’d re-upped yet. Much to her delight, he had indeed copped a few pounds of weed from his supplier. That was music to her ears.
After swinging by his house to pick up a bag of the head banger, she made her way home. It took her a little over an hour to pack up everything she wanted to take with her. The rest she would just leave behind.
Flora then dropped down on her couch and took out the twenty-dollar sack of weed she’d bought. After expertly preparing the blunt, she lit the tip and inhaled. A calming effect washed over her as the smoke descended into her lungs. Flora held it there for a few extra seconds before blowing it into the air. She smiled as she ignorantly thumbed ashes onto the floor.
“Fuck this place,” she spat. Had she and the landlord been cool, Flora wouldn’t have done that. But since Mr. Parker was an asshole, she didn’t give a shit about his property. After smoking half the blunt, Flora walked to the kitchen and poured herself a shot of vodka. She tossed it back and grimaced as the hot liquor burned her chest on the way down. Normally, Flora wouldn’t drink alcohol straight, but she needed nerves of steel for what she was about to do. Taking her cell phone out of her purse, Flora took a deep breath and dialed the number to the police station once again.
Chapter 10
Sweat bubbled up on the top of Detective Little’s bald head as Captain Moore’s eyes stared lasers at him. It had been five minutes since he’d been called into his boss’s office, and Moore still hadn’t said a word. Now and then, he would grunt. The phone rang a couple of times, but when it did, Moore would simply pick it up and slam it back down on its base. He ignored the knock on the door, but when it was apparent that whoever was there wasn’t going to leave, the captain snapped.
“Come in, and this shit better be important!”
Slowly, the door opened, and one of the beat cops looked in.
“Uh, is this a bad time, Captain?” he asked.
Moore looked at him like he was the stupidest person to walk the face of the earth. “The fuck do you want, Gaines?”
“Uh, I just wanted to give you that report you asked for and—”
“Gaines, I asked you for that report yesterday morning, and you wait until I’m in the middle of something to bother me with this bullshit? What the fuck is wrong with you? Put it on my desk and get the fuck out of my office.”
The embarrassed cop did as he was told and got out of there as fast as he could. As he walked past Little, he raised his eyebrows and gave a low whistle as if to say, Man, what the hell did you do?
Captain Vincent Moore was old school through and through. He didn’t trust many people and that included cops. He’d seen too many of them take bribes, use unnecessary force, and even break the law when it suited their purposes for him to believe that any cop was 100 percent genuine. But even though he didn’t trust many of his fellow law enforcement brother
s and sisters, he didn’t dislike them as he did criminals. He hated crooks. To him, a drug dealer was the worst kind of criminal there was. Even if a murderer killed ten people, in his mind, it didn’t compare to a drug dealer slowly killing an entire community by feeding them poison in a bag. That’s why he was so upset about what had happened with the botched bust.
Captain Moore had deemed this bust top secret. Only Detective Warren, Little, and he knew about it. Everyone else would find out when it was time to put Darnell McCord and the rest of his crew in handcuffs. But now, that wasn’t going to happen. The big fish had wiggled off the hook, and Moore wanted to know what the fuck had happened.
“Let me ask you a question, Little. Are you going to honestly sit up here and tell me that you didn’t know anything about Warren going after McCord himself? You mean to tell me that I’ve got cops that stupid working under my command?”
Harold weighed his options. He didn’t want to dishonor the memory of his partner by ratting him out, but he didn’t want his captain to think that he was stupid enough to go along with Warren’s idiot plan. When he didn’t speak fast enough, his boss barked at him.
“Answer me, dammit! Did he do that dumb-ass shit on his own, or were you a part of that silly shit?”
Fuck it, he thought, I’m not putting myself on the captain’s shit list just because my dumb-ass partner wouldn’t listen to me.
“Captain, I swear to God, sir, I had nothing to do with Warren’s decision to do that.”
“Did you know he was going to do it?”
“No, sir, I didn’t,” Little lied. The captain stared at him for another ten seconds before slowly nodding his head.
“Okay, Little. I believe you. But if I find out that you’re lying to me, I’ll have your fuckin’ badge. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Captain Moore wiped his brow. He too had begun to sweat.
“I swear, you incompetent motherfuckers are going to be the death of me. Lucky for me, I only got six months until I leave all this bullshit behind. Now, do you remember when that poor slob was killed and left on the front porch a few days ago?”