“Oh the fuck well,” Ray said.
Breon pulled off and headed back over to Wayne’s house. He began to think about the house that Charles had said that Edric’s brother owned, over near Sacramento. He was quickly starting to wonder if maybe that was where Nikki was being kept. However, the thoughts filled his mind with worry and gnawed at him as he wondered if there was any truth to them.
Wayne’s neighborhood, for a snowy day, was pretty busy. The various corners with stores all had foot traffic. The single mothers who didn’t work were out and about, going here and there. Traffic was somewhat building up in the area as everyone in the hood woke up. However, unbeknownst to all three men in the car, as soon as they pulled off, there was a car parked at the other end of the block. Once Breon’s SUV was out of sight, the driver of the car pulled into a parking spot closer to the entrance of Charles’ store. He pulled his gun out from underneath his seat, put it into his pocket, and headed into the store.
CHAPTER 8
The rest of the day was long for Nikki. The four walls of the room where she was being held seemed to get smaller and smaller – closer and closer to her and the bed where she sat. She often wondered, looking out of the window, why such a thing was happening to her. It all seemed so sudden and so wrong, especially since she really didn’t know Breon like that. There were many times that Nikki would slide out of the bed and look out of the window. No matter how many times she did this, however, the snowy rooftops of nearby houses and buildings told her nothing. At this point, all she remembered was seeing Sacramento on her way over here. In many ways, she hated herself. She was a grown woman who had been taken from her apartment against her will and she hadn’t had enough sense, as she thought of it, to look for real clues as to where she was going.
No matter how often these thoughts made their rotations in Nikki’s head, they brought her right back around to Breon. There was no denying that hearing Breon talk about her in such a derogatory way while on the phone with Dante was certainly disheartening. She felt as if her efforts to help him, like keeping the guns for one night, were in vain. Every so often, just thinking about it would be too much for her. She’d bury her face in her hands, wishing she would have never done it, and thinking about how she should have been smart enough to know that doing something like that would only wind up being trouble for her.
Before Dante and Edric left the room, Nikki demanded to know what was going to happen next. Dante leaned in closer to Nikki. With wide eyes, he told her to calm down and that once they got Breon, she’d be as free as a bird – free to go. Nikki still wondered how in the world she was going to get Breon to come out into the light, so to speak, if he obviously wasn’t going to come and get her. When the bedroom door closed for the umpteenth time, leaving her alone in the room, trying to figure out what was going to happen next wreaked havoc on her mind. With her nostrils flared, she just felt angry as she waited in silence for whatever was next.
Dante sat down in the kitchen as Edric went to run a couple of errands. , Nearly two hours later, Edric was letting himself back into the back door. When his eyes met Dante’s, who was sitting at the kitchen table, he shook his head. “Nigga, them niggas is really movin’,” he said.
“What you talkin’ about, nigga?” Dante asked. “I been sittin’ here thinkin’ about movin’ her and shit from here. Somethin’ about bein’ here, especially now that she done called somebody just don’t sit with me, man. I mean, for real. I’m paranoid as shit bein’ over here.”
“Nigga, I’m talkin’ about serious shit,” Edric said. “Why when I went home, I saw this nice ass SUV pass by. Three niggas was inside, pointin’ at the house.”
“Yeah,” Dante said, standing up. That got his attention and he wanted to hear more. “And?”
“It was that nigga Breon and the nigga we went to get to show us some respect just a few blocks over from the house,” Edric said. “I was just about to walk out the door and head back over here when I saw that shit. A nice ass SUV. Man, why don’t you just let me smoke them niggas so we can be done with all this hidin’ and shit.”
“’Cause,’ Dante explained, “I want that nigga Breon to suffer. I sat in prison for years cause of that nigga. I’m not gon’ let him just get off easy with a bullet to the head. Where did they go?”
“Man, that’s the fucked up part,” Edric said, walking over to the sink. Just as he did, he walked into some light that was shining in through the window above the sink. Dante could see that there were some bruises and scuffs on his hands. “Them niggas went just around the corner and into this store I know that I go to every so often. It’s owned by this nigga named Charles. His family used to own a buncha houses in the area.”
“Yeah,” Dante said. “And? What the fuck is they up to? Why was the three of them goin’ in there?”
“That’s what I’m getting to,” Edric said. “So, when they left, I went in there and had a little talk with that nigga Charles.” He shook his head. “Man, he was try’na give me the run around, sayin’ that they just came in there to shop and shit. I knew the nigga was lyin’. He that kinda nigga. Will lie to your face and shit and act like ain’t shit happened or nothin’. Long story short, them niggas was goin’ in there and askin’ questions about you and shit, pullin’ at straws and try’na find you.”
“Do that Charles nigga know that you be over at this house?” Dante asked, looking around at the kitten.
“Naw,” Edric said, shaking his head. “Don’t nobody know that but Trell, and that’s only because this is his daddy’s house and shit. Man, that Charles nigga got me frustrated as shit with all his lyin’. I wound up havin’ to take my gun and shit out ‘cause he was tellin’ me that if I don’t leave his store and shit, he was gon’ pull a gun out and take a nigga out.” He chuckled briefly. “So, I pulled my gun out and shit and showed him what the fuck was up.”
“You ain’t kill the nigga, did you?” Dante asked.
There was a long pause from Edric – a pause that Dante couldn’t ignore. “Nigga?” he said.
“Nigga, I had to,” Edric said. “That nigga was talkin’ too reckless and I don’t know what the fuck he told them niggas, runnin’ his mouth and shit.”
Dante paced around the kitchen. “Man, you gon’ fuckin’ get us caught,” he said. “You gon’ fuckin’ get us caught! Shit, for all we know, somebody coulda already done found his body and shit. The hood over there could be swarmin’ with them racist ass cops.”
Edric cut Dante off, knowing that he was going the wrong way with his train of thinking. “Naw,” he said, shaking his head. “Naw, you ain’t gotta worry about that for a minute.”
“What you mean we ain’t gotta worry about that shit for a minute?” Dante asked. “What the fuck you mean by that shit?”
Just then, Edric dug into his pockets and pulled out some keys. “’Cause ain’t nobody gon’ be gettin’ up in there,” he said, confidently.
Dante smiled, shaking his head. “No, you ain’t do no shit like that, nigga,” he said. “You killed the nigga then took the keys to his place? What the fuck you do with his body?”
Edric shrugged. “He still over there, behind the counter and shit,” he answered. “As soon as he hit that ground and wasn’t gettin’ back up, I grabbed that CLOSED sign and locked the fuckin’ door. Closed the blinds and everything. I hung out there for a minute before I took my black ass out the back door and got the fuck out of there. And this was like thirty minutes after Breon and his boys had pulled off. I don’t know where they went to, but the fact that the three of them was ridin’ around together and goin’ up in there let me know that somethin’ was goin’ to happen.”
“Man, if you get us caught over killing the owner to that store,” Dante said. “I swear to God.”
“Nigga, calm down,” Edric said, trying to put his buddy’s worries to the side. “You was the one that said you was thinkin’ about movin’ that bitch somewhere else until we figure out how she gon’ help us get that nigg
a Breon.”
“Yeah,” Dante said. “I wanna find out where that nigga live. And since you left, my black ass been sittin’ here and try’na think of how we can do that. I know the nigga work at Johnson & Pearl, and I know if a couple niggas go on the property down in Chinatown, they gon’ already know what’s up. That place gon’ be swarmin’ quicker than the scene of a crime where a rich white girl been killed.”
“Shit, I know,” Edric said, agreeing.
“But what the fuck do any of that have to do with anything?” Dante asked.
“Cause, nigga,” Edric said. “Since you so worried about the chick bein’ over here, we can move her there.”
Right away, Dante began to shake his head. “Nigga, you crazy,” he said. “How the fuck we gon’ keep her in a grocery store without nobody wonderin’ what the fuck is up. I mean…”
Edric cut in, saying, “Think about it nigga. People gon’ walk by and just think that somethin’ happened with Charles to where he had to close the store a couple days. And plus nigga, you know how them corner store buildings are over there. They all got a basement. Basements that ain’t got no windows and shit.”
“Hmm,” Dante said, finding the idea more appealing. “That is true.”
For the next several minutes, Dante and Edric talked back and forth about when would be the best time to move Nikki. Naturally, Dante wanted to do it at night. However, he’d rather have his night free to see about catching up with Breon. If he was riding around with his cousin, they might hit a streak of luck and be able to keep an eye on the cousin’s house until Breon came back over.
“Exactly,” Edric said. “That’s the same fuckin’ shit that I was thinkin’. If we post up over there, not only is we close to the house, but we also close to the house of his cousin and shit. That way, we can keep our eyes on the hood and stuff and…”
“Might be able to get that nigga alone,” Dante said. “That shit could work.”
After a bit more deliberation, they decided to go ahead and move Nikki now instead of later. There was also another benefit to moving Nikki to the basement of a grocery store: food. They wouldn’t have to worry about going to get food for her because the store already had it. With their minds made up, the two men headed up the stairs. They were even more confident about moving Nikki this time because they’d talked about how Edric’s black car had tinted windows. All they had to do was get her outside, in broad daylight, from the door to the car, then the car to the door, without being seen. Everything needed to be as smooth as possible. As they approached the bedroom door, Dante pulled his gun out of his inside coat pocket. He was going to see to it that Nikki didn’t make a sound during this ordeal.
Nikki had been sitting on the bed, having no real sense of what time of day it was other than looking at the sun’s position in the sky and knowing whether or not it was morning, midday, or afternoon. She felt incredibly nervous when she heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. Within seconds, the doorknob moved. She pressed her back against the headboard and watched Dante and Edric walk into the room, with Dante at the front. Dante smiled, holding his gun toward the floor.
“Wassup?” Dante said. “You ready to go?”
“Where are you takin’ me?” Nikki asked. “I swear, why are you holdin’ me here? I told you what I know. You know that that nigga ain’t gon’ come and get me.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dante commanded, pointing the gun at Nikki. She screamed and squealed, scared that this guy would be crazy enough to pull the gun. “We getting ready to go, so come on.”
Nikki moved hesitantly. In fact, she moved so slow that her speed was aggravating to Dante. Tired of seeing her uncooperativeness, Dante lunged forward. He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door as he pressed the gun into the side of her head. “Listen here, little bitch,” he said, talking softly and crisply. “Do anything fuckin’ stupid and we will keep you for twice as long as we need to, okay?”
“Okay,” Nikki said, going along with the plan. “Okay, okay, okay. Just don’t kill me.”
“We not gon’ kill you,” Dante said, slapping Nikki’s ass. “You got too much ass to go to waste. Just come with us and everything gon’ be okay.” He looked at Edric and said, “Let’s get this bitch the fuck outta here, and leave the cell phone somewhere. Actually, I got a betta idea.”
Nikki was guided down the steps by Edric and into the kitchen. There, Dante walked up to her and demanded that she open her cell phone once again. Not wanting to endure anymore pain, Nikki did as she was told. She unlocked her cell phone and handed it back to Dante. He grinned and said thank you, pointing toward the back door. “Walk her ass out to the back and put her in the backseat. I’mma use the bathroom real quick and I’ll be right out there.”
Dante asked Edric if he still had his gun. He let Dante know that he did, and that he’d use it if he had to. Dante discouraged him against doing such, because it would make too much noise and possibly draw too much attention to them. With a firm grip on Nikki’s arm, Edric pulled her through the back porch and out into the backyard. Nikki put her hand over her face as the bright sun, combined with the snow, nearly blinded her, especially since she hadn’t seen it yet today. Once her eyes adjusted, she was better able to focus on her surroundings.
At first, Nikki looked at the abandoned house next door. She realized that the house on the side where the bedroom she’d been in was abandoned, so her hopes that somebody next door would have heard her and called the police diminished. She then looked at the house on the other side, seeing that the backyard was rather immaculate Everything about it told her that perhaps older people lived in the house. Here, she had a little hope because she knew how much more prone older people were to watching their surroundings and calling the police about any and everything.
“Come on little bitch,” Edric said. “You lucky that that nigga don’t want me to touch you, cause I would long dick you all fuckin’ night long.”
“Fuck you,” Nikki said, trying to bear the cold wind. It was brutal, and blowing so hard that there were times she struggled to walk. “You nasty ass nigga.”
“You like nasty niggas, don’t you?” Edric asked, whispering into her ear. Nikki cringed at feeling his warm spit spray the insides of her ear. She wanted to scream so loudly, but she knew that if she did such a thing, her red blood would be spilled out on the untouched snow in the backyard.
Within seconds, Nikki was pushed into the backseat of a black car that was parked behind the house, just off of the alley. “Wait right here,” Edric said. “Gotta wait on this nigga to come out.”
Nikki watched as Edric pushed the car door closed. Her eyes were glued to him as he walked around to the front of the car and smoked a cigarette. Nikki took this chance to really look around. Still, there was nothing that told her where she was. However, Edric’s back was to her as he sat on the hood of the car and enjoyed his cigarette. Desperate to break free, Nikki took advantage of the fact that Edric’s phone had rung. When he was deep in a conversation, Nikki gently pushed the car door open. She prayed to God that the hinges of the car door wouldn’t need to be oiled – that they wouldn’t make a lot of noise when the door opened.
With the door about a foot or so opened, Nikki checked to make sure that Edric still had his back to her, and he did. She needed to push the door open just a little wider so she could squeeze her wide hips out. She was able to do so, eventually stepping back out into the cold. Now was her moment. She looked down the dirty alley, which had garages on both sides, and knew that she needed to run for her life.
Just as Nikki had taken a step away from the car door, a man’s voice yelled loudly from up by the house – Dante’s voice, to be exact. “Nigga, what the fuck is you doin?” he yelled. “Get off the fuckin’ phone and watch that bitch! Get off the fuckin’ phone!”
Edric dropped the phone and turned around. However, at this point, it was too late. Nikki had gotten out of the car without making a sound and was now on her way, running dow
n the alley.
“Shit, it’s cold,” Nikki said, feeling tears run down her cheeks. “It’s so cold.”
Nikki ran as fast as she could. At this very moment, her goal was to at least get to the street. Once she got there, she would have to make a quick, split-second decision about which way she’d go. She could only hope that somebody would see her and help, but the mean streets of Chicago were not known for being as helpful as most people would think toward a person indistress.
Edric charged behind Nikki, keeping his eyes on her big ass as it swayed from side to side. He was in luck, as he hadn’t run this fast in years, when Nikki slipped on a patch of ice. She instantly fell into the snow, but got back up quickly. Once she did, she forged ahead, toward the end of the alley. Every so often, she would look back and look at the distance between her and Edric. Soon enough, however, she could see that both men were chasing after her.
“God, please don’t let me fall again,” Nikki said, looking down at the icy, snow-packed alley. “God, please. Why did this have to happen to me? Why did this stuff have to happen to me?”
Nikki screamed as she ran down the alley. Her actions were only motivation for Dante and Breon to run faster, as they didn’t want to get caught in this situation. Just as Nikki was coming to the end of the alley, Edric had caught up with her. Before she could run out into the openness of the side street, he had grabbed her arm once more. He grabbed her forcefully and swung her to the side. Nikki, feeling as if she were being tossed around by Goliath, was not strong enough to maintain her footing. Before she truly realized what was going on, her head slammed into a cold, icy wood fence.
“Shit,” Nikki exclaimed, grabbing the top of her head. It stung from the impact, causing her to wonder if she was bleeding. “My head hurts so bad.”
“Shut the fuck up with all the bullshit,” Edric said, grabbing Nikki and pulling her to her feet. He then looked back down the alley and saw Dante approaching.
Wrath of a Side Chick 3: A Chicago Hood Drama (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 11