Mark hit the locks and the robber snatched the door open. “Get the fuck out,” he aimed his pistol.
“Alright, man,” Mark got out of the car with his hands still up in surrender. “The money is in the backseat. Take it.”
“I was gonna do that anyway,” the robber said as his boy opened the backseat and grabbed the plastic bag with the cereal box. He quickly checked the box and found neatly stacked bundles of cash.
“Alright, where the rest at?” the robber asked.
Mark glanced at the robber still standing on Necole’s side of the car. If she wouldn’t have been with him he would have put up a fight, but her being there changed everything. He refused to place her and the baby’s life in danger. No amount of money was worth that.
“Tell that nigga to stop pointing a gun at my woman,” Mark insisted even while his back was against the wall.
“Nigga, she ain’t your bitch,” the third robber snapped.
“What?” Mark looked at the dude in disbelief.
“Look, ain’t shit gon happen to the bitch if you cooperate,” the robber spat as he continued to point his gun in Mark’s face. “Aye, get out the car,” he told Necole.
Her hand trembled as she slowly opened the door. She stood on shaky legs as Carmelo’s eyes grew two sizes larger. This couldn’t be. Necole wouldn’t get fucking pregnant by another nigga. He just stood staring at her small round belly.
“Take us to it,” Loon gritted as he focused on Mark.
“It’s in the house,” Mark said as he watched one of the robbers stare at Necole.
“Well, let’s go, nigga.”
“The key to the house is still in the car,” Mark said, hoping that he’d get a chance to grab his gat.
“Aye, get the keys out the ignition,” Loon told Kareem, killing Mark’s hopes.
Kareem leaned into the car and turned off the engine before removing the keys. He then walked over to the door leading into the condo and tried several keys until he found the one that fit. He pushed the door open and decided to check it out before everybody else entered.
Kareem did a quick sweep of the condo before he came back to the door and gave Loon a nod. “Go in,” Loon told Mark.
Carmelo was silently thanking God that he was the one pointing the gun at Necole, because he knew how Loon could get. If Mark was on some bullshit, Necole would be the first target of his fury.
They all stepped into the house.
“Sit that bitch down,” Loon told Carmelo.
Without saying a word, Carmelo pulled her by the arm and pushed her to the couch. She took a seat while trying her best to stay calm. She’d already pissed on herself and could feel a ball movement coming any minute.
Loon and Kareem took Mark into the room where he claimed he kept his money. His adrenaline was rushing as he thought of different ways to get out of the scenario. He had several guns stashed throughout the spot and he was hoping that he’d get a chance to grab one. Still, Necole and the baby had him hesitating about pulling heroic acts. It wasn’t just his life that could be lost that day and he had to keep that in mind. Besides, the robbers still had on ski masks, which gave him a glimmer of hope that they’d survive.
Mark opened the closet and then knelt down to pull the carpet back. Meanwhile, in the living room, Carmelo grew more disgusted as he looked at Necole. All the times they shared couldn’t have meant shit to her. She moved on with her life without giving him a second thought. She had to know that having another nigga’s baby would devastate him, but she’d gone and done it anyway. A huge part of him wanted to slap the shit out of her. Even while she was sitting there appearing terrified, she had this glow about herself. She definitely hadn’t been stressing like him. There were no worry lines forming underneath her eyes. No signs of a broken heart seemed evident.
As he studied her, his eyes landed on the diamond engagement ring sitting on her finger. He unintentionally gasped. His hand shook with anger and his trigger finger began to itch. At that very moment he wanted nothing more than to hurt her.
He forcefully grabbed her hand. “What, what are you doing?” she stuttered as he snatched the ring off of her finger.
“Shut the fuck up,” he gritted as he tried his best to disguise his voice.
“Please don’t take that from me,” she pleaded. “That ring is special to me.”
That did it for him. Before he could stop himself his hand went across her face. “Shut the fuck up,” he lashed in a hushed tone.
Necole scooted back in her seat petrified.
Mark went to open the underground safe. He couldn’t believe that those dumb ass niggas allowed him to dig in it himself. He reached into the safe and came out with a .44 caliber gun. He didn’t hesitate to spin around and blast.
Blow! Blow! Blow!
Three shots rang out into the air. Kareem’s body dropped to the floor, riddled with bullets. Loon had already dropped to the floor and was returning gunfire.
Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!
Loon caught Mark one time in the shoulder as he crawled to his feet and ran out of the bedroom
“Oh, my God!” Necole screamed before she looked up and saw Mark running into the living room. “Baby!” she gasped as she saw his t-shirt covered in blood.
Carmelo spun around and aimed his gun, but before he could react Loon ran in shooting Mark two times. One bullet landed in his back and the other in his leg. He fell face-forward into the floor.
“No! Nooooo!” Necole cried.
“Bitch, shut up!” Loon spat as he stepped over Mark’s body.
“Oh, my God! Nooooo!” she howled.
“Bitch, I said shut up!” Loon seethed as he aimed his gun at her.
“Hey, chill, nigga. What the fuck just happened?” Carmelo asked trying to distract Loon.
“Man, that bitch ass nigga just shot Kareem.”
“What?! Fuck!” Carmelo paced the floors. “Well, we gotta get the fuck outta here. Did you grab the money?”
“Shit!” Loon headed back to the room.
“Please let me go,” Necole pleaded, fearing for her life. “I have two kids and one on the way. Ya’ll have already taken their daddy away. Please, I’m all they have left.”
She had no idea that those words felt like knife jabs to Carmelo’s heart. What about him? She’d still have him. Now, Mark was their kids’ daddy? As far as he was concerned, the bitch had lost it.
Carmelo was about to go off until Loon stepped back into the room with a black duffle bag. “Let’s go, man…and kill that bitch!”
“Noooo! Pleaaaaase!” Necole begged as snot leaked from her nose.
“Kill her for what?” Carmelo wanted to know.
“What you mean, nigga? Kareem is in there dead. He is the link back to us and if we leave her breathing, she could be a link too. You know the deal; no loose ends.”
“Naw, man. Let’s just go. She ain’t seen our faces,” Carmelo insisted.
“Hell, naw. That bitch gotta go! Now, if you can’t do it, I will,” Loon spat as he and Carmelo locked eyes. It was then that he knew that he’d have to take him out soon, but they were going to handle business first.
Loon didn’t have time to go back and forth. He knew that someone had reported hearing gunshots by now, so time was of the essence. He aimed his pistol at Necole.
Beads of sweat dripped down Carmelo’s face. It was crunch time. He knew that Loon wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. He was starting to wonder if he should defend a life that didn’t seem to care much about him. Fuck it. It was a dog eat dog world and he had to get his.
Carmelo snatched off his mask and Loon lowered his gun. He knew that if Melo was revealing his face that he was about to get rid of the only witness.
Necole gasped as she saw her babies’ father standing over her. She knew that he was unstable at times, but she never saw this coming. She had been begging for her life and all along it was Carmelo that had a gun pointed in her face. Fear was replaced with rage.
“Why you do this?” she screamed at him.
“Shut the fuck up!” he barked.
“Carmelo, I can’t believe you. You would take me from our kids? I never knew that you were this damn selfish.”
“Bitch, you were just saying that this bitch ass nigga was their daddy,” he fumed.
She sat at the edge of the couch. “He is! When was the last time you did anything for them? He takes care of them!”
“What the fuck?” Loon interrupted confused. “This bitch is your baby mama?”
Carmelo ignored him. “You don’t let me see them, so how the fuck can I take care of them?!”
“Hey, hey. We ain’t got time for this family court shit, nigga. Let’s go! Do this bitch!” Loon yelled. He didn’t give a damn about her being that nigga’s baby mama. This was business. She was a witness and he wasn’t going to leave his freedom in no bitch’s hand.
“Alright,” Carmelo nodded, looking like a crazed maniac. “You wanna be with that nigga so bad? Then be with him!” he turned around and pulled the trigger. Four bullets pumped into Loon’s body. He didn’t know what hit him. His body hit the floor with a loud thud.
Necole curled her body up on the couch. She figured that she was next.
Carmelo walked over to Loon. He stood over him watching him struggle to breathe as blood spilled from his mouth. He wanted to watch him take his last breath. He was fighting the inevitable, but unlike him, Carmelo had a heart. He decided to put him out of his misery and placed a bullet between his eyes.
“Ahhh!” Mark let out as he crawled on his stomach.
Carmelo turned around and focused on him.
Necole looked up from her curled up position and saw Carmelo walking over to Mark. Suddenly, she swallowed her fears and stood. She ran over and stood in front of Mark’s body as he continued to crawl away.
“Move, Necole,” Carmelo said as he pointed his gun at her.
“No!” she shouted.
He gritted. “I will shoot your ass. Is this nigga worth losing your life over?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m not moving, Carmelo. Do what you have to do.”
He stared at her for a few seconds before pulling the trigger.
“Ahhh!” she screamed as she covered her face.
The bullet penetrated the wall behind her. “The next one won’t miss,” he promised. “Move!”
“No!” she yelled. “Shoot me ‘cause I’m not letting you hurt him!”
He looked at her in disbelief. “You love that nigga that much?”
She took a deep breath. “More than you know.”
His hand shook as he aimed the gun in her face. His brain said shoot her, but his heart wouldn’t allow it. Even if she’d turned her back on him, he still loved her beyond reason.
“Fuck!” he spat as he lowered his gun.
Necole turned her back on him and ran to Mark’s side. He was lying in a pool of blood with his eyes closed. “Baby, are you okay?” she asked. He’d stopped moving. “Mark!” she shook him. “Baby, say something! Mark!” she shook him.
“Shit!” Carmelo knew that he needed to get out of there. The duffle bag was still sitting next to Loon’s dead body. He grabbed it and headed to the door.
“Mark, baby, wake up,” Necole cried. “Wake up.”
Carmelo placed his hand on the door’s knob. “Carmelo!” she shrieked with pain in her voice. “Help me. Pleaaaase.”
He kept his back to her.
“Please help me. I need a phone to call the police. I have to try to save him.”
He shook his head. “I can’t help you with that.”
“Please, Carmelo. He doesn’t deserve this.”
He stared at the door. Something in her voice was pulling at his heartstrings. He couldn’t believe that she had him stuck. She sounded desperate.
“Don’t turn your back on me, Carmelo. Of all the times you’ve disappointed me, please don’t do it this time.”
He shook his head. “You asking for too much, Necole,” he stepped out of the door.
He walked outside and realized that Jesse had left. He figured that he must’ve left after he’d heard all the gunfire and no one came out. Luckily for him, Mark’s keys were still in the door. He grabbed the keys and hopped into the Rover. He started up the car and backed out of the garage. He glanced down and saw Necole’s cell phone sitting in the seat. He grabbed it.
Carmelo stared at the phone. On the screen saver was a picture of Necole, Mark, Carma and Little Carmelo. They looked like a perfect family, smiling for the cameras. He hated that he’d allowed another man to step in and become a father to his kids. There was so many things that he wished he could take back. He knew that he’d let his kids down.
“Damn,” he mumbled to himself. “What the fuck was I thinking?” he dialed 911.
“911. Do you need police, an ambulance or the fire department?”
“Ambulance. Somebody just got shot on 8354 Long Drive,” he said into the phone as he looked at the address at the front of the condo.”
“Okay, is the person still breathing, sir?” the operator questioned.
“I don’t know. Ya’ll need to hurry though,” he said before ending the call.
He tossed the phone out of the window before pulling out into traffic.
He drove while thinking about Necole. As much as he hated the fact that her heart now belonged to someone else, he silently prayed that Mark pulled through. Necole needed to be there for his kids. He knew that he wasn’t a positive role model in their life. They needed Necole and he could tell that losing Mark might drive her insane. They didn’t need that.
“God, please let that nigga make it,” he whispered as he hopped onto the freeway.
Chapter 23
“Oh, God! Get this baby out of me!” Necole shouted from the hospital bed.
“Girl, stop all that screaming,” Janet frowned as she held her daughter’s hand.
Necole cut her eyes at her mom. “That’s easy for you to say. I’m the one that’s getting split into two,” she huffed.
“Aw, it’ll be okay,” Janet cooed. “Here. Nibble on these ice chips,” she fed her daughter more ice.
Necole chewed on the ice until another contraction hit her. “Shit!” she grunted.
Janet laughed. This was the first time she’d been there to actually witness the birth of a grandchild. She’d always missed the other kids’ births, but this time she was right there at her baby’s side. It was the least she could do since Mark couldn’t be there.
“That’s…not…funny,” Necole complained as beads of sweat dripped down her face.
Janet gazed down at her and stroked her sweaty face. “I know, baby.”
“I wish Mark was here,” Necole said as a tear slid out the side of her eye.
Just then the door swung open. “Ya’ll didn’t get started without me, did ya’ll?” he asked as he stepped into the room.
Necole lifted her head. “You made it.”
“You thought that I wouldn’t?” he asked as he walked over to her bedside.
She gazed up into his face. “I thought that your flight was delayed?”
“It was, but I had to get here, so I caught a flight to Atlanta and from there I caught one here.”
“Mark said that he’s not missing this birth for nothing, huh?” Janet smiled as she looked at her son-in-law.
Mark nodded as he caressed Necole’s face. Only death could keep him from witnessing his first child being born into this world.
Necole looked up at her man. Sometimes she had to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming. Mark was truly her super hero that possessed incredible strength. Even after taking three bullets he was still standing.
The day he was shot, he’d lost plenty of blood, but miraculously he pulled through. He now walked with a slight limp, but that was the only evident sign of his near-death experience. Still, what was most shocking is that the only reports of the incident came from Necole’s cell phone.
Mark
was still dumbfounded by the fact that Carmelo was the one that called the ambulance for him. The man must have had a heart after all. There were still so many unresolved issues with Carmelo, but Mark decided to allow him to keep his life. He never told the police anything about Carmelo either. He was a street nigga and the code was to never talk to the police.
In the end, he had too many more important things to focus on like his family. Getting shot had helped him to see things much clearer. There was no future in the streets and if he wanted to stay around for his loved ones, he’d have to leave that life alone. So now he was too legit to quit.
“It’s a boy,” the doctor announced as he removed the baby from Necole’s womb.
Something in Mark’s chest bloomed as he laid eyes on his first son. The nurses hadn’t cleaned the baby yet, but he still stared in awe. “Aye, son,” he beamed with pride.
Necole weakly smiled as she watched the expression on Mark’s face. She couldn’t stop thanking God. He’d been right there with her through some of her most trying times and now she had a brand new baby and husband. She and Mark had married in Vegas just a month earlier, making her the happiest girl on earth. He was definitely heaven sent. He’d opened her eyes and showed her what love was all about. She was no longer blind to the fact and for that, she was eternally grateful.
Click Below to Download to Your
Kindle
Click Below to Download to Your
Kindle
Click Below to Download to Your
Kindle
We’d like to thank you for supporting G Street Chronicles
and invite you to join our social networks.
Please be sure to post a review when you’re finished reading.
Facebook
G Street Chronicles
G Street Chronicles CEO Exclusive Readers Group
Twitter
@GStreetChronicl
Instagram
@GStreetChronicles
Email us and we’ll add you to our mailing list
[email protected]
George Sherman Hudson, CEO
Love is Blind (G Street Chronicles Presents) Page 29