And just like that, once again, Leela had pulled Rank’s strings to do her bidding. She knew it would be dangerous to go with Rank on his sure-to-be-murderous melee, but she said fuck it. Why not ride shotgun and get a ringside seat? After putting the play into motion, she wanted to see the look on Stackz’s face when he got what was coming to him. And better than that, to bear witness to Ava’s little sad, cracked face when the new man in her life, that meant more than their sister bloodline bond, was lying dead facedown in a pool of his own blood.
Swallowing a few of Rank’s “get a nigga right” pills, Leela was hyped, still thinking about the hate her mother was putting in her ear. She was so bent and in the zone that she didn’t care if her sister or her kids were smack-dab in the middle of the tragic situation. They could get longtime therapy later for what was about to pop off. Fuck ’em all! Leela’s heart, or what was left of it, had gone completely cold as ice.
* * *
Trying to decide what to do with the old woman until they came back from their mission, they tossed ideas back and forth as they went to the spare room. Leela went in first, and Rank followed closely behind.
“Hey, Mrs. Baines,” Leela called out to the old lady who didn’t respond to hearing her name. Going over to the bed, she harshly shook her shoulder. The woman’s body was flimsy, and she didn’t move an inch. “Hey, wake up, old lady; don’t play fucking sleep. We don’t have time for no games. Not now. We got shit to do, places to be.” Leela shoved the elderly woman yet again, this time harder and in the spine of her back. Mrs. Baines still had no response.
Rank moved closer toward the bed to investigate the situation. Taking the woman’s wrist in his hand, he checked to see if she had a pulse. Rank felt nothing. Letting her wrist go, it flopped down lifelessly back onto the bed. Leela and Rank simultaneously looked at each other with an oh . . . shit face. Already in too deep by home invading the old woman’s house, now the treacherous pair could add kidnapping and premeditated murder to their résumés. At least, that’s how the police, judge, and jury will react if and when it was ever discovered that Leela and Rank had been in her house uninvited.
Neither of the two had any real remorse for clearly causing the old woman’s early retirement from life. In a fast-paced attempt to try to cover their tracks, they decided to straighten up the place the best they could. Hopefully, if they untied Mrs. Baines and staged her body just so, they could have it appear that she was old and just died in her sleep.
Leela and Rank hurried so they could hit the streets and tend to the business of ruining Stackz and Ava’s good time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Stackz and Ava picked up Leela’s three kids and were headed to the birthday party for Stackz and Gee’s first cousin’s daughter. Ava had bought all the kids brand-new outfits to wear and got the girls’ hair braided and her nephew’s haircut. She made sure the kids would represent the Westbrook clan’s name to the utmost.
When they got to Chuck E. Cheese, Ava reminded them to please be on their best behavior. Stackz watched his girl interact with the kids and thought to himself, Yeah, I’ll put a seed up in her ass. I see she knows how to handle the little shorties. They entered the building, and Stackz looked around for his family. Once he located them, they turned the kids loose to join the other children who were playing with the birthday girl.
Stackz introduced Ava as his wifey to his family. The women praised him for finding a beautiful lady that looked like and carried herself like she had good sense, not the other tramps they’d seen him with from time to time. The adults were having their own party, drinking liquor they’d put in pop bottles, and going outside occasionally to smoke some weed.
Ava was happy his family accepted her and made her feel comfortable. Stackz noticed Gee, his small son, and the boy’s moms coming in the building. He went and greeted them and hugged his nephew’s mother like they were best buddies. Introducing her to Ava, she felt awkwardly put on the spot because, A, she didn’t even know Gee had any kids, and B, Ava knew Gee had spent countless times over at her house laid up with Leela like it wasn’t shit.
It was almost time to cut the cake and the birthday girl’s father still hadn’t arrived yet. Stackz asked his cousin where Pissy was at.
“That asshole just called saying he got held up on some business and he was on this way with my baby’s new bike she’s been asking for. He better have it because you know that fool is full of shit and games!”
* * *
It was nearing two hours later. The happy birthday song had been sung, the cake had been cut, and the adults had about enough of the kids. They started gathering them up to leave, but there was still no sign of Pissy. The little girl asked her mother if her daddy was here yet with her big surprise, and she disappointedly had to tell her no.
Family fun time had come to an end for the street loyal brothers. Stackz and Gee had some business on the floor that couldn’t wait. Gathering both their girls and the kids, they said their farewells and headed toward the door. Seemingly in a deep conversation, Gee and Stackz walked side by side discussing how they were going to handle this and that. Gee’s baby moms, Ava, and the kids followed a few feet behind the men so they wouldn’t be in their mix.
Stackz was still talking to Gee as they went out the door. Distracted by what was out in front of the building, Stackz stopped dead in his tracks. Blocking the doorway crosswalk was an obviously freshly custom-painted burnt-orange Jeep Commander. As he stood speechless alongside of Gee, Stackz knew he had to be seeing things. He knew he had to be wrong. His mind had to be playing tricks on him.
Slowly walking around the truck, he saw the same small dent on the rear quarter panel as his Jeep and the same nick on the passenger-door handle. Stackz knew for certain when he saw the guts were the same color, this was his motherfucking truck, and this slimeball Pissy had done the unthinkable. He’d done the complete opposite of what Stackz had told him to do. Stackz warned Pissy not to be up to his shiesty ways he’d do to others and slick tag his truck instead of having it melted down as told.
Pissy hadn’t seen Stackz because he was preoccupied pulling the small-size bike out of the rear of the Jeep. When he finally looked up, it was like he’d seen a ghost. “Oh, hey, Stackz,” he stumbled on his words. “I didn’t know you was coming to a kid’s party. I mean, I ain’t know you had any kids.” Pissy didn’t know what to say. Spending an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese didn’t seem like it would be in Stackz’s DNA seeing how he had no kids, so Pissy thought the coast would be clear, so to speak. He would drive the truck just for today and have it shipped out West where he had a guaranteed sale. Now, here, he was busted; caught red-handed having had done dirt.
Stackz was infuriated that Pissy had crossed him after being warned. Heading straight for Pissy, the vein in the side of Stackz’s neck bulged and started to jump. “Nigga, did you just meet me or something? What did I tell your dirty ass to do?”
“Cuz, fam, hold on. This ain’t what it look like.”
“Naw, nigga, it’s just what it looks like!” Stackz ripped the bike out of birthday girl’s snake-ass father’s grasp. Seeing red for having been not only betrayed, but disobeyed, he threw the bike as hard as he possibly could up against the brick wall of Chuck E. Cheese.
Gee had the women go get in the vehicles and take the kids with them that had started to cry. Gee’s son’s mother was used to this type of drama popping off at the end of most of their family functions and get-togethers; however, Ava was shocked to see Stackz transform back to the beast he was the day she first laid eyes on him at the restaurant. Without saying a word, she did as she was told, taking her nieces and nephew to Stackz’s truck.
“Look, ho-ass nigga, ain’t nothing to talk about. You done fucked up the church’s money, cuz. Now run those keys before I send you on your way right here and now.” Stackz had Pissy collared up against the building, shaking him up until the truck keys dropped from his hand.
Stackz signaled for Gee to com
e get the keys and help him get rid of the truck before he murked Pissy right on the spot for going against the grain.
“Bet. I’ll have my baby momma drive my shit, and I’ll drive this. Don’t worry, bro, I got you,” Gee replied, stepping over the frame-bent small bike, not believing the nerve of Pissy.
“Family or not, you can’t cross the king and expect to keep breathing,” Stackz raged with malice in his tone, letting Pissy go. Knowing he needed to calm down before he caught another body, Stackz walked away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Stackz was on ten, furious when he got into the truck with Ava and the kids. “I told him don’t fuck me. I warned that son of a bitch not to play with me,” he shouted, looking at Ava dead in the face before putting the key in the ignition.
The kids had recovered from the shock of seeing the little girl’s bike thrown up against the wall and were horse playing in the backseat. But all that ceased immediately seeing Stackz getting in the truck. They’d seen their mother and grandmother have enough arguments and near physical fights to know when to become invisible. The kids said nothing as their aunt looked at them with warning eyes to settle down and be on their best behavior; they did just that fearing Stackz.
“He thinks this a fucking game? Is Hasbro stamped on my forehead, or something like I’m somebody to play with?” Stackz’s rage intensified as Ava remained silent.
Stackz maneuvered his way out of the Chuck E. Cheese’s parking lot into traffic. He had no patience with other drivers as he darted haphazardly from lane to lane. He knew something was fishy when he hadn’t heard from Pissy about the ticket for the meltdown and disappearance, but trusted him because of their longtime affiliation and family ties; obviously a big mistake. He wanted to get Ava and the kids back to her momma’s house as quickly as possible so he could figure out his next move.
Ava wanted to say something to soothe Stackz’s temper, but thought it was best to keep quiet in fear of him recalling the circumstances of how they first crossed paths and the underlining reason his Jeep Commander ultimately had to be ghost in the first place.
Knowing he now had to make preparations to get rid of that possibly hot truck himself, Stackz’s mind-set was preoccupied. Totally off his square, he was forgetting one of the main rules of being about that life. Stackz wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. If he had been, he’d seen the black Mercury Grand Marquis following them. On a mission, Rank sat in the passenger seat shotgun as Leela drove.
* * *
Leela and Rank had shown up just in time to see their intended target getting rough with some man, then storm off to his ride, seemingly in a rage. Leela thought she saw Ava and her children inside of Stackz’s truck with tinted windows when they whizzed by, but was not sure. She hated Ava’s new man with all she had, blaming him for taking Devin away prematurely. She knew Devin had it coming that night, and he definitely wasn’t the only man she was messing with, but her soon-to-be baby daddy was the only one willing to take her out in public, proudly showing her off. And for that, she missed him.
Making sure she kept up with the clean Range Rover, Leela grew more agitated that her children had been hanging out with her sister and Stackz, probably not once wondering where their own mother had been and if she was okay. Just as she hated Stackz, she despised Ava even more for ruining her life in general and causing their mother to turn on her. Gone off a handful of pills she’d chewed up to get in her system more quickly, she swerved, trying to keep up with Stackz. Now three cars behind, she asked Rank if he was ready to make his move and take Stackz out of the game once and for all.
“Fuck all that, you been in my stash, ho,” Rank snapped at Leela, worried about his rapid decline in pills.
“So what if I have? I needed something to even me out. A bitch got shit on her mind too,” Leela snarled, switching lanes when Stackz did.
Rank shook his head, not having time to argue with Leela’s good thieving, trifling, pregnant ass. He was focused on Stackz’s truck as he peered over the dashboard from his slumped down position. “Okay, dig . . . At this next light, be ready to pull up on the side of his ass,” Rank order Leela.
Stackz, Ava, and the kids blindly had no idea what chaos was about to take place in a matter of seconds. While Stackz was still going about Pissy, Leela got closer. Rank was ducked down in the passenger seat geeked up like always off E-pills. Glancing over, he noticed Leela grinding her teeth and her arms trembling. She was gone in her head due to the pills she had taken from Rank’s stash, and it showed. Nothing or no one mattered to Leela right about now but getting revenge on Stackz and her low-down, dirty, backstabbing sister.
“Make sure you kill that nigga. He don’t deserve to live. He took our people outta the game, so he need to go too. Remember Devin and Mickey. Do it for them, Rank; kill that nigga.” Leela hyped him up to commit murder as the next light grew closer in their sights.
Stackz had called T. L. and was barking into his phone as he came to a complete stop at the red light. Still preoccupied, the normally cautious Stackz was off his square mad at the stunt Pissy had pulled. In his own world, he paid no mind to the black car abruptly swerving over alongside him in the turning lane. Ava, still being silent, felt something bad come over her all of a sudden. Turning her head to look in Stackz’s direction, she suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream as the light turned green. Ava couldn’t believe her eyes as she looked out of the vehicle. Rank was hanging out of the passenger-side window of a car pointing a gun up toward the truck and Stackz, while Leela was at the wheel.
Not one, or two, or three, or even four gunshots rang out, but seven in total as Stackz’s foot simultaneously lifted off the brake. Bullet-shattered glass flew everywhere as Ava instinctively grabbed the steering wheel swiftly, veering the truck away from the car Rank was riding in. Stackz dropped his phone in his lap while yelling at Ava and the kids to get down and hurry. As low as possible in hopes of being out of harm’s way, Stackz hit the gas while trying to reach for his gun that was underneath his seat to return fire.
Not being able to follow Ava’s instructions on being quiet any longer, the three under-the-age-of-seven children were hysterically crying in the backseat. Ava somehow had managed to commandeer the SUV to the right, narrowly missing ramming into an oncoming car that now had the right of way. It had become total anarchy within a split second inside the Range Rover for Stackz, Ava, and the children. Stackz’s truck jumped the curb and ended up coming to a stop a few inches away from a bus stop bench.
Rank had emptied the clip of his gun but was so amped up on pills he kept squeezing the trigger. Leela kept one hand on the wheel, using the other to snatch Rank by his shirt, pulling him back inside of the car. Smashing her foot onto the gas pedal, she floored it into traffic at a high rate of speed, turning left and disappearing into the far distance.
* * *
Stackz and Ava jumped down out of the truck. As remnants of glass fell to the pavement on Stackz’s side, he felt a small trickle of blood drip down over his eyebrow. Not taking any more chances, he held his gun at his side on high alert just in case whoever was ballsy enough to pull such a stunt had any intentions on doubling back. Not immediately worried about himself, he opened the rear door on one side while Ava opened the other. With their hearts racing with fear for the little ones, they began searching the hysterically crying children for any signs of trauma. Other than a few minor cuts from flying glass, some that had struck Stackz in the face as well, all seemed to be good. Visibly shaken, tears streamed down Ava’s face as she leaned against the truck to catch her breath. Stackz made his way around to the passenger side. The same exact way he’d checked the children, he checked Ava. Holding her in his arms, he asked if she’d been hit. Thankfully the answer was no.
“I saw him right before he started shooting. All I could do was scream,” Ava broke all the way down, sobbing into Stackz’s chest.
“Who did you see, Ava, who?” he quizzed, pulling her away from his body, look
ing into her face for the answer.
As the children look on terrified, their aunt was completely losing it. Ava’s body was shaking. Her lips began to tremble. She started to feel dizzy. It was as if the night air was strangling her. Her throat grew dry, and she couldn’t swallow, let alone speak.
Stackz was not new to people being in shock. In his line of work, occurrences like this, and sometimes fatally worse ones, popped off all the time. Placing both hands on her shoulders, Stackz shook Ava until she snapped out of what she was going through. “Ava! Ava! Listen to me, who did you see? Tell me! Who the fuck was it? Who?”
Struggling to get her mouth to form the god-awful words, she finally pushed them out. “Rank! It was Rank shooting, and Leela was driving, Stackz. My own sister was driving! She needs to be dead for what she just did. How could she, how?”
Stackz didn’t say a word. At first he stood there not believing what she’d just said about her sister. As the reality of it set in good, he was infuriated all over again. Rank was one thing. He expected for him to make his play and seriously had to tip his hat for trying to go so hard with it just then. But Leela? Ava’s own sister, driving a nigga around to shoot up a car with her kids in the backseat, like . . . So the fuck what? Like Ava, Stackz’s emotions grew numb for any chance of allowing Leela to live. He’d seen a lot of grimy things jump off in the streets from crackheads, junkies, drunks, crooks, and criminals doing just about anything, but Stackz had never seen a woman that would sink so low as what Leela had just participated in.
“Come on, we gotta get out of here.” Stackz helped Ava get back in the SUV as people began to gather around and ask questions. He thanked God the truck was still drivable as they pulled off. As he drove, Ava turned around, promising the still whimpering kids that everything was going to be okay and not to cry. But deep down inside, she knew that wouldn’t be the case.
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