by Mikal Malone
“They coming out of the theater right now!” Kenyetta yelled from the back seat of the Grand Prix we rented. I sat next to her slumped down in my seat. I didn’t want Thick to see me.
But for real, he was still slipping. Recognizable car or not, he should’ve known that somebody had been following him for so long.
But there he was, just as sure as it was night, coming out of the theater, in the dark grey slacks and jacket that I paid for. He looked like a million bucks when he cleaned up, and with his body and build, I know she was losing her mind.
“Did he just kiss her?” Mercedes asked as she took pictures of them in the truck. She was in the front with Carissa.
“It looked like it,” Carissa said. “Thick has lost his mothafucking mind. I say we run up on him right now, before they pull off. Fuck the bullshit.”
“I’m with Carissa, Yvette,” Kenyetta added looking at me for approval. “We seen enough. Let’s handle this shit now.”
They were right, but I didn’t want to do it right here. I needed to find out where she lived and where he’d been laying his head every night. So for forty-five minutes we followed them to her apartment in Baltimore. The moment I saw him leaned up against his truck with her in front of him kissing on him, I decided to jump out.
My heart dropped as the man I would have done anything for violated me. Here I was, his flunky, running an operation that he should’ve been taking care of, and this is how he repaid me, by breaking my fucking heart.
We all got out of the car, but they couldn’t keep the pace I was giving. With his arms wrapped around her, and his tongue in her mouth, I snuck up on him from the side of his big ass truck and said, “Is it that good to you? That you would risk everything we have together?”
He stopped and on instinct pushed her away. She immediately backed up, sensing what I was getting ready to give. And as mad as I was, I knew she wasn’t ready for it either.
“What you doing here, Yvette?! Who watching EC?” he yelled trying to flip the shit and put it back on me.
“Fuck you, Thick! Is this were you’ve been going? Is this where you’ve been spending your time? With this bitch?”
I was loud and I didn’t care. I wanted to break up the peaceful serenity in the place she lived. Why should she live like a queen and my living conditions be fucked up? Here I was, living with fiends and criminals, and this bitch is over here in B-more living like a princess.
“Who you calling a bitch?” she snapped.
I ignored her because I was focused on his bitch ass now, and my girls were already on the job.
“I’m telling you right now, if you want your ass whipped, make another mothafucking move!” Carissa said with her hand in her purse.
Yeah, bitch! I thought. This is how we do it! Southside style, baby! She was so shook, she didn’t move.
“Answer the question, Thick! Is it worth it? I see you living it up out here, and got me living in trash. Why, Thick? Why you doing this to me?”
“You living in trash? Are you serious? You wouldn’t be living in trash if you’d clean your fucking house, you nasty bitch! Half of the time I ain’t home because it’s too mothafucking dirty! I’m tired of that shit, Yvette!”
The embarrassment I felt overwhelmed me.
I felt like I did the best I could do. He wanted me outside fourteen hours a day, and he wanted me to be his wife, mother and friend. I didn’t have time to clean my house and I barely had time for myself.
“So now you trying to play me in front of your bitch and my friends? If you had a problem with something, why you ain’t tell me, Thick? You are dead wrong right now and you’re acting like I’m the one to blame. Why, baby? Don’t you love me?”
He was silent and I was hurt. Here we were, outside in front of the friends I considered family and the love of my life acted like he could care less about me. The only comfort I had right now were my girls. I knew all I had to do was say the word, and they’d stomp his pretty girlfriend out. I wondered how much he’d like her then.
“Let me ask you something, Thick, and be real with me. Are you gonna marry this bitch?” I asked him not really prepared for the answer. “I see the ring on her finger, and since you ain’t bother to put one on mine, I wanna know.”
The bitch called from the sideline, “Tell her the truth, Thick. Let’s get this over with.”
“Listen, bitch! Mind your mothafucking business before I kick your fucking ass!” I yelled. I was tired of her mouth. I hadn’t addressed her yet because I believed in dealing with the man. But since she insisted on getting in the business, she was getting ready to see how I beat bitches down on the block.
“Naw, you ain’t doing that,” Thick said taking up for her. “You ain’t gonna fucking touch her.”
“And why not? She’s stealing my man and talking shit,” I told him as tears rolled down my face.
“You ain’t doing that because she’s carrying my baby. Now I’m sorry you found out like this, but tonight I’m celebrating. She giving me something you never could. A son.”
For a few seconds there was nothing but complete silence. I never realized that Baltimore had peaceful places like this. All I could hear were the crickets trying to be heard above the low hum of passing cars. My world was ending. Everything that I fought for and everything that I believed in was vanishing and I didn’t understand why.
“Uuggghh, Thick! I didn’t even know you were grimy like that!” Mercedes said. “This don’t make no damn sense!”
“This between us!” he yelled. “So step the fuck off.”
His new girlfriend quickly moved to his side, as he put his arm around her to comfort her.
He used to do that to me. What changed? What fucking changed! I loved him with all my heart and I felt like that wasn’t good enough.
My eyes filled with tears, blurring my vision. He didn’t even bother to console me. He just looked at me as if I was another issue he had to deal with before moving on with his life. The anger I had before diminished. I decided that I had one chance to fight for my man. One last chance. On my knees, outside in front of my friends and the bitch who had stolen my man’s heart, I begged.
“Baby…..please don’t do this to me,” I said as I grabbed his leg. “Please don’t leave me like this. I’ll be a better woman to you I swear. On my life, I promise to be everything you need.”
His girlfriend huffing and puffing didn’t bother me. I knew I was disgracing myself but I would’ve felt worse if I didn’t at least try.
“You gotta give me a chance, baby. I’ll lose weight, clean my house better, anything you want, I will do. I’m nothing without you, Thick. Everything I do don’t mean shit unless I have you in my life. Baby, please. I’m the one. I’m the one you trust, baby. I’m the one that would lay down my life for you. Don’t walk out on me, Thick.”
I could hear my friends crying behind me. Kenyetta had already walked to the car because it was too much for her. But I felt that nobody understood more than them why I was doing what I was doing. I know those tears were filled with sorrow for me, and the realization that this could be them right now. And I’d put my life on it, that they’d be doing the same thing too.
But my pleas landed on deaf ears. He kicked me off his leg like I was a crack head trying to get a rock. My friends rushed by my side and helped me up. And it’s a good thing they did because my legs couldn’t move. All I could think about was what I could’ve possibly done to deserve this.
“It’s over, Yvette. You and me are business partners, but this right here is my future wife. Now I’m sorry it gotta go down like this. I really am. But I’m not in love with you no more. I didn’t know it was gonna turn out like this. But what we had ends here.”
“I’m glad you laughing, bitch! ‘Cause he gonna do the same thing to you too!” Mercedes yelled.
“Fuck you, Mercedes!” he yelled.
“No fuck you, you sorry ass mothafucka!” she shot back.
His new girl smiled at me,
as she faded in the dark with my life. He held her hand and moved toward the apartment building. He stopped short and turned around.
My heart skipped thinking he was gonna tell me he made a mistake. That maybe we could work on us after all. But what he said next only proved more that he was through with me.
“I hope this don’t affect our business relationship. You the hardest working nigga I know. I’ll check you later,” he said as he walked off into the night.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I sat in the backseat, as my friends drove me home. Wondering to myself how I was ever gonna make it…alone.
Chapter 16
Wishing Things Were the Way They Used To Be
January, Wednesday, 6:37 p.m.
Mercedes
It had been three weeks since Thick and Yvette split.
My girl had been taking it bad. She wasn’t on post anymore and Emerald City was quickly going down with her. Cameron and them made their presence known, but with them still holding down the other shops outside of EC, they weren’t around as much. Several of our runners had been robbed and we were starting to wonder if they weren’t a part of everything that was going on.
“Carissa, one of Harold’s soldiers is missing in action. I think we should go see what’s up with ‘em,” I told her as I ended the call with Harold and placed the phone under my chair.
“Damn! I hope he ain’t trying to do us greasy,” Carissa said while zipping her Baby Phat waist length coat.
“I’ll be glad when Yvette get it together. We need her out here!” Kenyetta said.
“You ain’t lying. How long has he been missing in action?” Carissa asked.
“A week and a half. The thing is this, you know Harold’s squad has been hit more than once over the past week. I’m starting to think it’s an inside job.”
“Well who slacking?” Carissa asked, sensing how serious things were.
“It’s Key. They probably smoking up our shit right now.”
It’s easy to spot which soldiers respect their captains when the going gets rough. Nobody on Doctanian’s, Derrick’s, Bruce or Jones’ team got out of line. Just because we were having issues amongst ourselves, didn’t mean it was time for everybody else to fall apart. See Doctanian and them were respected captains and had their soldiers in check with the exception of one of them who attempted to get away. And because of it, nobody tried them as much as they did Harold and Ed’s teams. We didn’t have any problem from any other squad outside of those two.
“Okay. Let’s go over to Unit B, and see what’s up,” Carissa responded.
“I’m right behind you.”
The hallway was dark, the lighting poor, and thanks to the leak at the other end of the corridor, it smelled musty. Before stepping off the elevator, we scanned the floor. We wanted to make sure another situation didn’t happen to us like the one that happened to Carissa.
We quickly moved down the hall toward the apartment. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the apartment due to the bend in the hallway. We arrived at the door and heard voices coming from inside. I placed my hand on my heat and Carissa did the same. We never went anywhere without our fire and although we had them, we never had to use them. However, if Yvette didn’t come back to work, I knew it would be just a matter of time before that changed.
We knocked firmly on the door three times. There was no answer but the chatter on the inside stopped.
Before we could knock again, the door flew open. The person who opened it stepped behind it, giving us a clear view of the inside. Before going in, I stuck my head around the corner and saw it was Key’s older brother Deuce.
“Come on in,” he said blowing out smoke.
“Is Key here?” Carissa asked before going any further.
He nodded toward the living room. “Yeah, he over there.”
When we walked in, Carissa went before me, and I fell back a little. I didn’t want anybody rushing us from behind, so I wanted to make sure we had all angles covered. I hated having my back turned in places I didn’t know. There were six dudes in the dirty one-bedroom apartment. Two of them were sitting in front of the television playing NBA Live ‘08 on a broken ottoman, two were sitting on the couch, Deuce was standing up, and the other one was at the kitchen table rolling weed.
“That’s a nice ring, Mercedes,” Deuce said. “You and Cameron must be stacking mad money.”
As hard as it was, I just ignored his dumb ass.
“Where’s Key?” I asked, realizing he wasn’t in sight or included in the six men I had counted when we stepped in the apartment.
One of the men sitting on the couch said, “He in the room, he’ll be out in a second.”
The smell of the apartment was sickening. The dingy walls and dirty carpet told the story of endless drinking and smoking sessions. There was a table filled with weed and the insides of Philly Blunt papers covered it throughout. The couch looked like it used to be cream colored, but it was damn near black.
One minute later, Key appeared from a back room visibly high.
“What up? What you need?” he asked as he joined his friends on the couch. “I know you ain’t come over here to give me no pussy. I hear Lavelle and them banging y’all’s backs out.” He laughed with the others.
Carissa looked at me. With my hand on my piece, I made sure I kept my eyes on every one of them. My senses were so heightened that even in the dim lighting of the apartment I could tell you which one of them needed to shower and who was wearing Sean John jeans. I was willing to bust somebody’s ass just for moving wrong.
“I need to know why you ain’t been back to work. What’s up with that? You ain’t in here smoking our shit are you?” Carissa asked.
He laughed. “Smoking your shit? Naw. I ain’t smoke nothing that belong to you.”
“Okay. Well give us your product and money and we’ll be gone. And don’t bother about coming back on the block, you cut off!” I jumped in.
“What the fuck you talking ‘bout? I don’t answer to your ass! I answer to your nigga!”
“Fuck you talking ‘bout, Key? You answer to everybody, mothafucka! We put the cash in your hand every week. Now you know the mothafucking routine. Either ante up our money or product or you will be dealt with,” Carissa added.
She was passing out threats that, with the way things were looking, I was sure we would have to follow through with.
He stood up and moved toward Carissa with hate in his eyes. “Dealt with? And just how do you plan on dealing with me? What you gonna do? Suck my dick?”
Carissa backed away from him and moved toward me, pushing both of us towards the front door. All of them stood up and I could see that whatever was getting ready to happen was gonna be real bad. They outnumbered us, and although we had guns, there was no telling what they had on them.
I grabbed Carissa’s arm as we scooted closer to the door. I knew that whatever happened at this point would have to be done by the EC squad. I hated Yvette not being with us because although she didn’t say it, I knew she had at least two bodies on her gun.
With Carissa behind me, I snatched open the door and bolted toward the elevators. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. I couldn’t wait to tell Cameron and the rest of them what happened. When I reached the elevator I turned around and my heart sank to my stomach sank because Carissa wasn’t behind me.
Without hesitation, I ran back down the hall and started banging on the door with my gun in hand demanding they open it. When the door flung open, I trained my gun on his gully ass. “Where the fuck is my girl, nigga?”
“Hold up. Hold up! What the fuck you doing, yo?” he stammered. “Your girl ain’t here, man! Now put that shit down before somebody get hurt!”
“What the fuck you mean she ain’t here?” I asked desperately trying to stop the tears from forming in my eyes. I didn’t want to remind them that I was a woman and afraid.
Without asking, I pushed my way in and ran through all four rooms including the kitchen and bathroom
, but still didn’t see her. Excessive amounts of sweat caused my hair to cling to my forehead and my clothes to cling to my body. I felt lightheaded; I knew in my heart that they had done something to my friend. There was no way in hell I was burying another friend!
“Where in the fuck is my friend!” I said pressing my 9mm to one of their heads. I didn’t care anymore, if they killed my friend, one of them were going with her.
“Listen, bitch! We let you run through here. If you ain’t see her, that mean she ain’t in here. Now get the fuck out!” The older man said as he pushed me toward the door, and into the hallway. When the door slammed behind me, I fell to my knees and banged on it harder but they didn’t open it.
Afraid that I lost my friend, I ran to the elevator to get help. I reached for my iPhone and my heart dropped. I had left it on the porch! Shit!
The first person I saw when I got off the elevator was Derrick. Seeing the look of terror on my face must’ve set him off because he ran to my side to help me.
“What’s wrong, shawty? Somebody fucking with you?”
I tried to tell him everything that happened through tears and trying to catch my breath. The look on his face, although angry, comforted me. I could tell that he would find out what the fuck happened even if it meant taking somebody out.
We got back on the elevator and I took him to the door.
“This Key house! I just left outta here,” he said as he knocked on the door.
Deuce saw him through the peephole, and without hesitation opened it for him.
“Sorry, nigga. We thought you were that bitch!” he said. “Come on in, man.”
Before they could close the door, I pushed my way in and Derrick knocked Deuce out with the back of his gun. I held my gun firmly in the direction of them mothafuckas because I was sure my friend was dead.
“What you doing, Joe?” he called him by the name most DC natives gave everyone. “Is this bitch lying to you too?” Key said as he jumped up.