by Yoshe
“How do I know that?” Maleek asked, with a scowl on his face. “How the fuck do I know that that little bastard is my child? Knowing your trifling ass like I do, you probably was sleeping with one of my homies, you nasty bitch! You need to call his real father and tell him to go to the hospital with you!”
“You’re a lowdown dirty piece of shit, Maleek! I hope you fucking burn in hell!” Brandi screamed back.
Suddenly, Maleek got real serious when she said that. “Me? Burn in hell? No, bitch, you burn in hell! Fuck you and that fucking baby! I’m outty!”
He disconnected the call and looked over at Dollar in the passenger seat. He was staring out of the passenger side window and stewing with anger.
Maleek laughed. “Yo, Dollar, did you hear how this disrespectful bitch was talking to me, man?” he asked. “She’s gonna tell me that I gotta come back to New York because Shamari is in the fucking hospital! I ain’t got time for no fatherly duties, man; there’s a whole lotta money to be made down here! The fuck I look like leaving Virginia for some sick kid? She must be fucking crazy!”
Dollar couldn’t take it anymore. He looked at Maleek in disbelief. “Man, what are you talking about?” he asked. “Shamari is your son, your offspring, homie! And don’t you know that pneumonia is a very serious condition?”
Maleek waved him off. “Ah, come on, Dollar, man! And? What the hell am I supposed to do for that little nigga if I’m hundreds of miles away, huh?” Dollar had a disappointed look on his face. “Look, man, I’m down here for self! I ain’t got the time to be worrying about nothing going on up in New York!”
As Maleek continued talking trash, he didn’t notice Dollar turning around to see if anyone was behind them. When Maleek put his hands on the steering wheel to turn back into traffic, Dollar grabbed his right wrist. He was surprised the gesture and looked at Dollar like he was crazy.
“Yo, Dollar man, what the fuck are you doing?” Maleek asked, attempting to pull his hand away from Dollar’s vice grip.
All of a sudden, Dollar pulled the concealed gun from his right side and held it to Maleek’s head. “This is what’s going on, you fuck boy!” the angry Dollar said, through clenched teeth.
Maleek never had a chance to reply. Dollar pulled the trigger on the nine millimeter and fired three shots into his dome, killing him instantly. After the shooting, Dollar sat there with the warm gun still in his hand. Some of Maleek’s blood and brain matter were splattered on his face and all-black clothing. Dollar pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the guck off him. Then he wiped down the door handle and whatever else he had touched inside of Maleek’s Land Rover SUV.
Dollar got out of the vehicle and walked a few yards to an idling Infiniti Q45 that had pulled up behind Maleek’s vehicle. Sitting inside of that car was none other than Smokey. When Dollar slid into the passenger seat of Smokey’s car, he had a huge smile on his face. Smokey handed Dollar a thick envelope filled with money. Then he quickly pulled back onto the highway, leaving the dead Maleek on the side of the interstate.
“Hey, mane,” Smokey said, in his thick Southern accent. “You ain’t no motherfucking joke for a city boy! You pushed that dude got damn wig back, for real!”
Dollar chuckled and counted the money in the envelope. It was the $10,000 Smokey had offered him to kill Maleek.
Dollar put the money in his inside pocket. “Listen, man, it took everything in me to kill this dude! Maleek was getting out of control but he was my man! But like I mentioned to you before, I knew that it was only a matter of time before the motherfucker went turncoat on me!”
Smokey agreed. “You ain’t never the lie, mane! You had your reasons for wanting that crab dead and I had my reasons for wanting him dead, too.”
Dollar frowned. “Your reasons? I thought that you wanted the homie dead for the same reason I wanted him dead,” he said, with a puzzled look on his face. “You said that you never liked Maleek.”
Smokey laughed. “Well, let’s put it like this, mane. I agree that ya boy Maleek was getting out of control and no, I didn’t like the motherfucker, that much is true. But the real deal is that his baby mama, Brandi, came down here a few months ago and set that ass all the way up! She asked me if I could put a bullet in that ass for her.”
Dollar shifted in his seat at the mere mention of Brandi’s name. “What are you saying, Smoke? Are you saying that Brandi is the real person who orchestrated this hit?”
“Listen, mane, Brandi called me one day, out of the blue, and told me that she had just landed in Virginia. She asked if we could meet up with each other to talk about something very important. I met up with her, know what I’m saying, picked her up from the airport and all that. As soon as she got in the car, she began telling me about this cat Maleek and how he ain’t shit as a man or a father. Then she asked me if I could take care of him for her. She said that she was sorry that she couldn’t put up the money for it ’cause her funds were low. And instead of giving me money, she paid me another way, if you know what I mean, mane,” Smokey said, with a smirk on his face. “She paid me with some of that good old pussy of hers!”
Dollar narrowed his eyes. “Oh, so you was fucking Maleek’s baby mama, huh?”
Smokey took his eyes off the road and looked at Dollar for a few seconds. “Come on, man, ain’t you been listening? She volunteered to give it to me! I didn’t ask her for shit but it ain’t like I ain’t want to fuck the sexy bitch from the first time I laid eyes on her pretty ass. She got some tight-ass pussy, too. Mmm hmm! Just how I like it!”
Dollar patted the envelope of money. “If Brandi didn’t have the money to pay you, where did you get the money to pay me?”
“Now that right there is some of my own got damn money,” Smokey said, while switching lanes on the highway. “Me and my boys got this thang what we call the Fuck Boy Fund!” Smokey laughed. “I was supposed to have killed that dude Maleek a few months ago my got damn self but couldn’t get close enough to him. Being that you was the closest somebody to that fuck boy, I decided to come to you with the job. You get the money and I get the bitch! It’s a win-win for everybody, you know what I’m saying, mane?”
All of a sudden, Smokey’s cell phone rang. “Hey, Brandi, baby,” he said. He paused. “Yeah, I called you. I was calling you to tell you that deed is done. It’s over. Okay?” Smokey smiled. “Okay, now, baby girl. I can’t kick it with ya right now, li’l mama. I’ma call you back in a few so you can tell old Smoke when you bringing your fine ass back down here to see me.”
Dollar was getting more and more heated with their conversation.
Smokey laughed again. “Hug my stepson for me. Bye-bye, baby.”
Dollar couldn’t believe that Smokey had used him to take his friend out, while he schemed on having Brandi for himself. But what Smokey didn’t know was that Dollar had waited a long time to get Maleek out of the picture. He wanted Brandi more than he had wanted Maleek dead. And there was only one thing to ensure that Smokey never got with her again: he was going to have to die too.
A few miles down the highway, Smokey pulled over to the side of the road again. “Damn, I gotta take me a piss, mane! I’m pulling over yonder.”
Dollar shrugged his shoulders. “Do what you gotta do, homie,” he said. Smokey never saw the sinister look in his eyes.
Smokey pulled over on a grassy knoll, put the idling car in park, and got out. He walked a few feet away from the vehicle, found him a tree, and began to urinate.
Meanwhile, Dollar quietly got out on the passenger side of the vehicle. The unsuspecting Smokey was holding on to his exposed penis as the armed Dollar crept up behind him. He aimed the gun to his head and as soon as Smokey went to turn around, Dollar let off a live round, right between the man’s eyes.
Smokey fell backward and slid down the embankment. Dollar quickly sprinted downhill toward the dying man and shot him one more time in the face. As he put away the gun, Dollar watched as blood seeped from the large hole where Smokey’s lef
t eye used to be. Then he walked back to Smokey’s idling vehicle and pulled off, leaving his dead body on the side of the interstate.
Dollar turned onto Ashford Street and pulled up in front of the house that Peeto shared with his girlfriend and their two small children. He shook his head, wondering why his boy still had his family living in the same neighborhood that they used to terrorize.
“Yo, man, you got a nice crib and everything, man, but why don’t you move your family out to Queens or Long Island or something? Get them out of the hood.”
Peeto opened the passenger door to get out and retrieve his bags. “Man, it’s not me,” he said. “It’s my girl; she’s the one who don’t wanna move! Most of her family lives around here and, you know, she needs help with the kids when I’m out of town.”
Dollar nodded his head. “Oh, okay. I can understand that.”
Peeto paused for a minute. “Man, I’ve been thinking about a lot of shit lately. I’m about to get out the game, man. I’m forty-two years old and I done did all the hustling and illegal money-making that I could do. Fuck it. I’m about to join me a church and get saved, man.”
Dollar began cracking up. “Yeah, okay! I’ll believe that shit when I actually see it!”
Peeto laughed too. “Now you know ya boy lying, man! I ain’t going to nobody’s church but I am about to retire from the game.” After he got all of his bags out of the car, he gave Dollar a pound. “Good looking out on the ride home, my nigga. It was no way that I could have transported all this money on the bus or train, man. That ten thousand for coming to get me is cool, right?”
Dollar smiled. “Yo, Pee, that’s good, man. And you’re my brother. Anything for my brother, man.”
A solemn look came over Peeto’s face. “Damn, I wish that Gator and Maleek was here with us. I miss them dudes, yo. Word.”
Dollar didn’t respond to Peeto’s comment. “Yeah,” was all Dollar could say. “Anyway, Pee, I’ll call you tomorrow. I’m going home to get me some sleep.”
“All right, Gregory Wharton, I’ll holla!”
Dollar threw an empty water bottle out of the opened passenger window. Peeto ducked the bottle and laughed. “What I tell you about calling out my government out in the street, Peter Robertson?” he said. They both laughed. Once Peeto was safe and sound inside of his house, Dollar pulled off.
It was funny hearing Maleek’s name roll off Peeto’s lips. The sound of it made the hairs on Dollar’s back stand up; he was trying so hard to forget what he’d done. That murder was fueled by insane jealousy and wanting someone he knew his friend didn’t deserve to have. It was crazy but after going through with the heartless task of executing Maleek, Dollar never saw Brandi again. Dollar promised himself that if he ever ran into her, he wasn’t going to let her go. After all, he didn’t kill her son’s father for nothing.
Chapter 6
Across town in the diverse middle-class neighborhood of Canarsie, Kane was awakened by the sounds of a car alarm going off outside of his open bedroom window. Annoyed, he reluctantly got out of his bed to close it. The bright sunlight shining into his bedroom aggravated his hangover headache, forcing him to close the blinds, too.
Kane sucked his teeth and took a look at his unmade bed. Now that he was wide awake, he figured that there was no need for him to go back to sleep on an empty, growling stomach. What he needed for his hangover was a good breakfast and an aspirin for his pounding headache.
Kane slowly traipsed down the stairs and into his kitchen to look for some breakfast food to prepare. When he opened the door to refrigerator, he remembered that he hadn’t done any grocery shopping in the past week. He thought about how nice it would have been to wake up to breakfast in bed, prepared by the woman he loved.
“Damn,” Kane said to himself. “Now I’m gonna have to go out and get something to eat.”
After taking a ten-minute shower and getting dressed for the day, the hung-over Kane reached for his car keys. He walked outside to his parked BMW. Once he was inside of his car, he called up Rasheed.
“Yeah,” Rasheed answered, sounding as if he was still asleep.
“Wake up, home slice! Breakfast is on me!”
Rasheed yawned loudly in his ear. “Yo, man, it’s nine o’clock in the damn morning, you bastard! I’m trying to sleep this drunk off!” he said.
Kane overheard Rasheed’s pregnant girlfriend, Asia, in the background. She asked her man who was on the phone.
“It’s nobody but this dude Kane, babe. I’m gonna go downstairs to talk to him,” Rasheed said to her. Kane listened as Rasheed walked down the stairs in his house. “Okay, now why you want me go to breakfast with you?”
“Since you won’t come with me to the diner, I’m coming over there for breakfast,” Kane said, as he backed out of his driveway.
“Why don’t you call one of those broads of yours to go to breakfast with you, Big Pimpin’?” Rasheed asked.
Kane laughed. “Yeah, a’ight, man. You got that one. Anyway, I’m coming over there. I got something to tell you or, rather, ask you.”
Rasheed reached into his refrigerator and took a few chugs of juice, belching in Kane’s ear. “It’s a Saturday morning, you’re up early, and you’re a little too fucking hyped right now, man. What is it that you had to ask me?”
Kane groaned. “Come on, son! I gotta talk to you in person about that! And have me some breakfast ready.”
Rasheed groaned. “Are you crazy, slime?” he yelled into the phone. “It’s too early in the morning for company!”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Kane said, before hanging up on Rasheed.
Not too long after Kane hung up the phone, Rasheed’s downstairs bell rang.
“Who is that?” asked Asia, who was now wide awake and getting dressed for the day.
“It’s Kane, babe,” Rasheed said, turning over in the bed. “Go let him in while I get myself together.”
“Okay. I’ll make breakfast for y’all before I go out and do some shopping today.”
Rasheed smiled. “Thank you, sweetness. Give me a kiss.”
Asia gave Rasheed a kiss then went downstairs to open the door for Kane. When Kane walked in, he gave Asia a peck on the cheek.
“Hello, Mommy,” he said, greeting her with a smile. “You look beautiful.”
Asia blushed and rubbed her protruding belly. “Aw, thank you, Kane! I just made eight months yesterday. Baby is gonna be here real soon. Messiah is going to have a little sister.”
Kane’s face lit up. “Wow! Okay, okay. Can’t wait for the baby shower. I’m gonna have to get my goddaughter something special.”
Asia chuckled. “No doubt!” She walked toward the kitchen. “Why don’t you go have a seat in the living room and wait for Rah? I’m going to cook you guys a nice breakfast and then I’m gonna head out to the mall with my sister and mother. I have to get an outfit to wear to the shower.”
“Tell that sexy-ass India that I said hello,” Kane said, with a wink, while he walked to the living room.
Asia waved him off. “I ain’t telling my twin nothing,” she replied, from the kitchen. “Why don’t you just call her yourself?”
Kane laughed to himself. He was thinking about the last time he saw India. Her ass was tooted up in the back seat of his BMW and he was hitting it doggie style. While he was more than willing to have the raunchy India as a booty call partner, he was not interested in committing to her. Of course, the woman had a serious problem with that.
“Yeah, I think I’ll do that,” Kane said, while rubbing on his manhood.
Shortly after Kane walked in the house, Rasheed came downstairs. He slowly walked into the living room and plopped down on the plush sofa across from Kane. He yawned and stretched then rubbed his eyes. The uninterested look on his face made Kane shake his head.
“Okay, so what’s up, slime?” Rasheed said. “This shit had better be good because it’s not cool for you to be waking me up out of my sleep. I got to go take care of some busines
s this afternoon and you’re interrupting a brother’s fucking beauty rest, man. Real talk!”
Kane shrugged. “I had to talk to you, man. I need your honest opinion on something.”
Rasheed frowned. “What happened?” he asked, with a look of concern on his face.
Kane leaned back on the couch. “Ok, so I’m ready to hang up this player shit, son. I really think that I’m done with all of these women chasing me. I want to be in a relationship and I wanted to ask how you go about doing that, man.”
Rasheed scratched his scalp and looked at Kane in amazement. “Are you serious, man?” he asked. “You? You’re really ready to settle down with somebody? Are you for real?”
“Yeah, I’m for real! Why the fuck is that so hard to believe?”
“Because you . . . you always been the type of dude who liked to keep ‘the bitches at bay.’ Those are your words, not mine. You were never with a female trying to get all close to you and trying to be all up in your business. Now you’re sitting here telling me that you want somebody to make an honest man out of you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, man!”
Rasheed laughed. “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what type of woman you like. Honestly, I don’t think you know! And if you don’t know what you want, how can you settle down with someone?”
The smell of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon permeated Kane’s nostrils, as he continued to talk with Rasheed about his love life.
Kane shrugged. “I’m gonna start working on that. I mean, look at you. You’re going on kid number two, Sean is married, and y’all cats are younger than me! I have to get on the ball, man!”
Rasheed frowned. “Speaking of Sean, I have to ask you a question. What’s up with you and my boy?” he asked.
“Ain’t nothing up with me and Sean!” Kane replied, waving Rasheed off. “Why you ask that?”
Rasheed gave Kane a suspicious look. “I don’t know, man. It just seems like you have a problem with Sean. Every time we’re all around each other, I noticed that you always try to find some way to get at him. Seems like there’s a little competition thing going on with you and him.”