CHAPTER SEVEN
The two brothers sat outside in front of Ava and Leela’s house. Gee took long pulls of some of Detroit’s finest dispensary kush, getting his mind right. His voice cracked as he tried to talk while he held the thick smoke in his lungs. “I’ma go in first and see who all up in here; then I’ma come get you. It should be just them two, but knowing this rah-rah bitch Leela, you never can tell. I just want to make sure.” As Gee exhaled the smoke, Stackz waved his hand back and forth, fanning skunky aroma.
“All right now, don’t get in there and get all in your feelings over some pussy like T. L. said. We ain’t got all day. We got money to get, so speed this shit up,” Stackz said, looking out each truck window and in the rearview mirror. As he sat low in the passenger seat, Gee reached under the driver’s seat with the blunt hanging out of the side of his mouth. After grabbing his gun, he stuffed his 9 mm in the waistband of his jeans under his shirt. Stackz watched his little brother walk up on the porch and knock on the door. Little did Leela or Ava know, but if things didn’t play out right with Gee’s conversation, it wasn’t him, but death knocking on their door.
Leela was in the kitchen. She’d just finished scraping scrambled eggs out of the frying pan and onto a plate. Hot bacon and fresh toast sat on the table, ready to be served. Having a brief flashback seeing Devin laid out on the restaurant floor begging for his life, she heard a knock at the front door. Figuring it was her longtime fuck buddy (F.B.) and every now and then come up, Gee, she fixed herself up best as she could. Trying not to look like she had been up all night crying, confused, and distraught, she wiped her face with her robe sleeve. Leela hadn’t gotten a moment’s rest because Devin’s people wouldn’t stop blowing up her phone, calling from Devin’s, asking her questions and blaming her for his death. She just kept telling them to ask Rank and Mickey as she was fucked up in the head, in denial Devin was gone.
Still in hustle mode, with bills to pay, Leela made her way to the front door to let her potential meal ticket in. She took one last look at herself in the mirror hanging on the wall by the front door. Teasing her badly-in-need-ofa-touchup weave and loosening her housecoat, hoping she would be appealing enough for longtime F.B. to spend some cash, she schemed. Wearing no bra or panties, she was ready to serve head, pussy, and ass, along with breakfast, just the way Gee liked it; hot and ready. Of course, looking forward to a few dollars, which was sure to be tipped to her for her services and hospitality like always, it was game time.
Turning the locks and pulling the door open, there Gee stood, cocky as ever. “Bitch, what took you so long? My damn food betta not be cold,” he lied, knowing full well food was the last thing on his mind.
“It’s not, boy, and don’t talk to me like that,” Leela snapped with a playful attitude. Hugging him tight he gave her a dry-ass hug in return. She automatically sensed something amiss in his body language for a man about to get food and pussy.
“What’s the matter, boo?” Leela quizzed, hoping not to mess up her soon-to-be-made and much-needed money.
“I’m good, ma. I just got some nothing-ass street bullshit on my mind. You know how it is,” Gee said with a smirk on his face as he looked around the house for any signs of anyone else being there before he called his brother in. Seeing the scene was comfortable with no foul play in the air, he relaxed, adjusting his gun in his waistband.
“What’s up with Ava? Where she at?” Gee wanted to know so an understanding could become between the both of them at the same time, wanting no misconception of how this situation was going to unfold . . . for their own good.
“She’s up in her room, asleep, I think.” Holding the door open, Leela could easily see Gee had somebody waiting for him out in his truck. “Who is that in your ride? You didn’t say shit about no extra dick on deck. Now, I know you really gonna bless a bitch. Damn! I mean, I’ll skull him up to, but you could have at least given a bitch heads-up. Do I know him?” Leela talked shit sounding like a true, uncut hood rat.
“Damn, ho, stand down,” Gee commanded looking at her sideways. “That’s my brother out there, and, naw, you don’t know him—yet!” Thinking to himself he smirked, But you going to.
Leela got excited. She knew Gee was the shit, and if this was his brother, then she knew he was fly getting that paper as well. “Okay, then, cool. That’s what’s up! Tell him to come in.”
“I will, but damn, girl, why you look like you’ve been taking dick all night? Bags under your eyes, and they all puffy and shit. What’s up with that?” Gee knew what time it was. He’d seen her and Ava running out of the restaurant on the footage and just wanted to see if she was going to lie.
Leela sat on the arm of the sofa wondering if she should tell her fuck buddy what popped off the night before. Weighing her options, she decided to tell him only if need be. Gee knew she was banging other dudes, so she knew he would never be on that jealousy trip with her. But that trying to rob the next nigga . . . Gee would never ever condone that foolishness. Leela knew he lived and governed himself by a true gangster’s code; get your fucking own and you’ll always live long.
Gee’s phone was going crazy ringing off the hook. He took it out of his pocket as he stood over Leela turning the volume down. “As a matter of fact, where that ho-ass buster you be running with? What his name you was fucking with the last time I came through and put it in your head? You know, the one blowing your phone up like a straight pussy!” Gee fished around, knowing it could be one of several dudes she ran with, hoping to push Leela into talking.
Off rip, she knew exactly who he meant. Distraught and not able to hide it, she held her head down, shaking it as she spoke. “He got killed last night fucking with the wrong nigga. It was so crazy how everything went down. It been on Breaking News all morning long!”
Gee knew this was about to be the moment of truth. These next few statements Leela was about to make would determine whether she and Ava would live beyond this morning. “Oh snap, for real? Damn, what wrong nigga was he fucking with? And shit, why he fuck with dude in the first place? You know that boy ain’t never really been about that life.”
On the verge of tears, Leela fought them off as she confessed her sins, so to speak. “Well, I was gone when it happened; after me and Ava got the fuck on. Dude was going to work on his ass. Thank God he let us leave.”
“Say, word.” Gee kept on playing the role, having had seen the entire incident inside the restaurant as well as the shooting in the parking lot take place earlier back at Stackz’s crib, but he wanted to still hear her version.
“Yeah, he told me and my sister to get the fuck on. And you know me. I’m a survivor. He didn’t have to say it twice, either. We was outta that bitch. Me and Ava ran as fast as we could to my momma house.”
Gee would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t enjoying seeing Leela tell her tale. “Y’all ran to your mom’s crib? Word?”
“Yeah, because she was like three blocks away from the restaurant we was at. You know, the one off Davison and Linwood. Shit, we wasn’t trying to be a part of that dumb shit.”
Gee stood in front of her with his arms folded, listening to her long drawn-out story while checking his watch for the time. “Yeah, I know the spot.”
“Well, him and his boys was fucking with this dude that came in all fresh and shit. I mean, the guy looked like he was handling some real business out here, ya know. And, Devin, I really don’t give a fuck about that nigga; he was just something to do. You know how I get down. Well, bottom line, he dropped the ball and the tables turned on his dumb ass. Now his sister and ole girl keep calling my phone questioning me like they the damn FBI. I told them I don’t know shit. I wasn’t there; ask his boys that was with him.”
“Have the police got at you yet on anything that happened last night?” Gee continued to fish for more information.
“No, and if they do come at me, I ain’t got shit to say. Fuck the police. I don’t know shit. I ain’t seen shit. I hate those bitches.” S
he promptly reassured Gee that she wasn’t nowhere near a rat, knowing snitches come up missing and found dead in the “D.”
Gee had played the game with her and from what he could tell, she’d passed the test. He wanted to holler at Ava as well, but he hoped for both of their sakes, she’d follow her sister’s belief values as far as the law was concerned. “Okay, well, dig this here. I’m ’bout to introduce you to my brother. And on that note, you better act like you got some damn sense. You feel me? Don’t act a fool.”
Leela was puzzled as to why he was acting like his brother was the president or some top-notch shit like that. “Why would I?” She turned up her nose watching Gee step out onto the front porch.
* * *
Outside, Stackz sat in the truck looking down at his watch wishing his brother would speed shit up. Just then, Gee appeared at the front door waving at him to come inside the house. “’Bout damn time,” Stackz mumbled to himself. Wasting no more time, he hurried up and got out of the truck. Trotting up the stairs, he went inside as Gee led the way.
Leela stood up quickly when she saw Stackz come through her front door. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was scared. She was confused. She had no idea what was going on, and worse than that, what was about to go on. “Oh my God! Oh my God! What the hell is he doing here? Gee, that’s the dude from last night! The one who did what I told you,” Leela shrieked while carefully choosing her words.
“So we meet again, huh? That’s right. I am the nigga from last night,” Stackz snarled while moving toward her. “The one you and your crew tried to roll on!”
“Leela, shut the fuck up and meet my big brother, the one and only Stackz,” Gee announced like he was royalty, grinning from ear to ear.
“Your brother? He’s your brother?” Leela rambled on with her hand over her chest. As her heart pounded, it seemed as if it was going to explode at any moment. “How is this your brother? What the fuck is going on, Gee? I’m confused. How?” She didn’t know if she should be scared or relieved that Stackz was Gee’s brother as she closed her robe, which had fallen wide open.
Before Gee had the opportunity to respond, they each heard voices coming from outside in the front yard. Stackz, Gee, and Leela all stopped talking. Instinctively, Gee and Stackz reached for their pistols. Tension grew in the living room as the voices got closer to the front porch. At Gee’s urging, Leela went to the window and peeked out through the blinds.
“It’s the damn police,” she turned, whispering over her shoulder.
It was indeed the Detroit Police Homicide detectives, along with two uniformed police. One of the uniformed cops was writing down the plate number on Gee’s F-150. Little did the nosey, obviously on a mission cops know in reality, they’d turned on the block no sooner than Stackz stepped inside Leela’s house. If they’d been one minute quicker, they would’ve been face-to-face with a killer now at large: Stackz.
“They coming on the porch,” Leela stated wide-eyed, looking like she just hit a bump of crack.
“I’m out,” Stackz said with conviction, sprinting toward where he thought the back door should be. With his hand on the knob, seconds away from opening the door, an officer appeared in the backyard looking at the door and windows for anyone that might attempt to leave the house. “Fuck” Stackz said to himself as he crept back to the front room avoiding any windows. “The cops in the backyard too,” he announced to Gee and Leela in a low voice, looking back and forth at them both as to say, “What in the fuck should we do now?”
“Hurry up and go upstairs to my sister’s place, just in case. There’s a door in the basement that connects our flats to each other. We never lock the door ’cause we always up and down all the time,” Leela explained to the man responsible for killing Devin and injuring both Rank and Mickey. But like she’d told Gee, fuck the police. She wasn’t a rat and didn’t assist rats, either. Let them earn them blood money paychecks.
“Go, bro, we got this.” Gee motioned with his hand like a nigga would do when they trying to make his boy move fast to avoid getting caught by the police.
* * *
Following Leela’s directions how to get upstairs, Stackz made it to Ava’s after going down one flight, then up another. He entered through her kitchen slowly as not wanting to startle her. The on parole murderer had no intentions on Ava clowning like Leela had when she saw him and possibly draw the police upstairs. He’d first have to assure her he meant her no harm. How he would accomplish that, Stackz didn’t know. In his head, as he navigated himself through her crib as quietly as possible, he’d cross that bridge when he got to it. On a side note, he noticed she had a clean, well-kept house; the total opposite of her sister’s spot, which looked and smelled like a low-rate cathouse. How his brother Gee banged that bottom-feeder Leela was beyond his grasp.
Stackz couldn’t ignore this place smelled so fresh and clean. She had good taste in furniture, nice pictures on the walls, a flat-screen television in her front room, and clean carpet throughout the house. Stackz was impressed, to say the least, not expecting Ava to have it going on like she did. Still moving with caution, he heard music playing low down the hallway that he soon discovered led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. Getting closer toward the rear of the house, he heard running water coming out of the bathroom and a strong mist of steam. Suddenly, the sound of running water stopped.
Stackz stopped as well. Standing dead still against the hallway wall next to the bathroom and the partially opened door, Stackz peeked inside. He saw Ava rubbing a towel over her caramel, wet, well put together body. Normally a boss where the females were concerned, Stackz had to catch his breath. Quickly ducking back up against the wall, shocked and aroused, Stackz’s dick got hard seeing flashes of Ava in his mind from the restaurant, fast-forwarding up until now. He thought he was kinda attracted to her the night before, but he knew now for certain.
Ava was lost in her own world as well, listening to the music that way playing on the radio. Opening the bathroom door, she was unaware of Stackz’s presence in the hallway. For all Ava believed, she was alone in her home; carefree with no worries. However, that was about to change.
Out of nowhere, a strong force grabbed her around her waist, yanking her backward. A hand covered her mouth and before she knew it, she was lifted off her feet. Terrified to death, she attempted to scream and resist, yet it did her no good. She was overpowered by her mystery attacker. As Ava’s eyes bucked, a voice with a warm breath whispered into her ear, “Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Who in the hell beating on my fucking shit like they dun lost their goddamn mind?” Leela roared, yelling through the closed door.
“The Detroit Police Department,” one officer loudly replied from the front porch, gun in hand.
Gee sat calmly down on the tattered sofa, but not before brushing a few random crumbs off of it. Holding a small wad of cash in his hands, he nodded his head. “Welp, you up, bitch. Earn your fee,” he sideline coached Leela like she was next in a pickup basketball game at a city court. Leela rolled her eyes at him. When she said she hated the police, she meant it. That statement wasn’t for show; it was a fact. After the cops had the nerve to bang once more like they paid her bills, Leela snatched the door open, then proceeded to go ham.
“Okay, I know I just really woke up and might be tripping, like I’m hearing thangs. But which one of you disrespectful fools beating on my door like you live here? I mean, why? For what?”
One officer in a hand-me-down Goodwill suit decided to cut straight to the chase. “Yes, miss, are you Leela Westbrook?”
“Yeah and . . .”
“Well, Miss Westbrook, we’re investigating a homicide that took place early this morning.”
“And what would some damn homicide have to do with me?” Before the policeman could get another word out, Leela leaned over toward the right side of the gate, locking it, showing her contempt for their unwarranted visit. “Look, Officer, I don’t know where
you got your information, but trust me when I tell you I don’t know jack shit about no murder this morning or any other time.”
The detective was not giving up so easy having gone up with other supposed witnesses to crimes that claimed to have seen nothing. “Hold on. You haven’t even heard the victim’s name or know the location so—”
Still not trying to hear what Joe Law was saying, Leela went back in. “Look, I done told you I don’t know shit about no damn homicide. Period.” She purposely allowed her robe to open. “Now, if you talking about how to suck a good dick or how to throw this hot pussy on my man, then lock my pretty ass up. I’m your girl. ’Cause see, I’m all the way on my job. Otherwise, y’all might need to go look elsewhere.”
Seeing they were getting nowhere with the defiant female, the detective left his card, asking Leela to please give him a call within the next twelve hours or he’d be back, and next time, they wouldn’t be knocking.
“Whatever. Scat.” She dismissed the policeman and his colleagues off her sister’s property. After closing the door, Leela marched over to Gee with her hand stuck out, expecting not only the money in his hand, but some dick as a tip. Sure, she was sick about Devin being dead and his murderer upstairs with her little sister, but she still had to get her money by any means necessary.
* * *
Stackz held Ava firmly in his arms. Wanting nothing more than to break free, she struggled as if her life depended on it. And for all she knew, it did. The soft powder-blue towel wrapped around her trembling body fell to the floor. Naked as the day she was born, Ava still tried relentlessly to get away. Being ashamed of her nude body never crossed her mind until she saw her reflection in the full-length mirror at the end of hall that hung on the outside of the bedroom door. Not only did she see herself, she saw her attacker as well—the guy that gave her sister’s hanging buddies the business. The man who Ava had heard ended up killing Devin after they fled the restaurant and wounding Mickey and Rank.
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