CHAPTER THIRTY
Stackz and Ava drove in silence. No longer mad about Pissy’s betrayal, he couldn’t believe the nerve of Leela. Whenever he caught up with Rank, he prayed Leela was there too so he could make her pay for all her sins. For every tear Ava and her three babies riding in the back of his truck shed, he’d make her suffer tenfold.
Arriving at her mother’s house to drop off the traumatized kids, he first drove around the block, making sure the brazen duo were not somewhere close plotting, once more, in hopes of ambushing them. Before getting out of the truck, Ava searched through her purse, finally finding the spare key. Looking up at the house, she took notice there were no lights on in the single-family dwelling. Assuming that her mother was still over at her friend’s house having some drinks and playing cards, Ava had Stackz sit in the truck with the kids while she ran in and made sure what she believed to be true was.
Still very much shaken and on edge that her own flesh and blood could be so cold and callous, Ava nervously ran to the porch of her mother’s house. Peeking over the railing, she looked on the side of the house, not knowing if Leela was maybe there waiting in the shadows to try to kill her yet again. Putting her key in the front door, Ava unlocked it, then went inside the dark house. Calling out to her mom, she went from room to room, turning on lights as she went along. Ava knew her mother had a bad habit of overdoing it at times and wanted to make sure she hadn’t enjoyed her break from watching Leela’s three babies so much so that she was passed out cold somewhere on the floor.
After Ava’s minisearch was complete, she left the living room and kitchen light on so her mother wouldn’t come home to a dark house. Locking the door, Ava darted back to the truck. “I’m sorry, bae. She’s not home yet, and we can’t leave them here by themselves,” she explained to Stackz.
“I know. Now listen, we’re going to your crib real quick. I want you to get whatever else you might need for a few weeks because you’re not going home until this bullshit is taken care of with Rank and ole girl.” Stackz referred to Leela as ole girl, so the kids didn’t know he was talking about their soon-to-be-dead mammy. “After you go grab your things, we’ll just double back. Your mother will probably be home by then. Then I’ma drop you at the crib ’cause me, Gee, and T. L. gotta link up.”
Ava knew what that meant and prayed to God they caught up with not only Rank but Leela as well.
* * *
Fifteen minutes after leaving Ava’s mother’s house, they pulled up at her place.
“Make it quick, baby,” Stackz said to Ava as she got out and ran to her front door.
When Ava got upstairs and turned on the lights, she noticed right away somebody had been in there. She was instantly pissed. Her first mind told her to go back outside and get Stackz, but she bravely ventured on, praying whoever had been there was long gone now. When Ava got to her bedroom, the first thing she looked for was her jewelry box, which was gone. As her body tensed up in anger, she looked around, quickly realizing nothing else had been touched or was missing with the exception of her work bag that had a few extra blank scripts in it and her framed achievement certificates scattered on the floor with the glass smashed. Then and there, she knew Leela was the culprit. It was the only probable assumption. A real burglar would’ve cleaned the place totally out. They would’ve taken the flat-screen TVs and everything else that wasn’t screwed or bolted down, not taking the time to get as personal as to care about pissing on her accomplishments.
Ava went downstairs and saw the window over the sink had been jimmied open from the outside. The only other person besides herself that knows how to get in that way is Leela. Whenever she’d be locked out, she’d roll the Dumpster to the side of the house, stand on top of it, and lift the window up. After Ava put two and two together, she hurried and gathered all her valuables that she didn’t want to leave behind, just in case her crazed sister had the audacity to return. Making sure she double locked the window to at least make it a challenge for Leela if she did come back, Ava left the house.
After putting her things in the rear of the Range Rover, she hopped back in the front seat. “That ho broke in my house. She took my damn jewelry, my work bag that had a few extra scripts in it, and did some other petty bullshit.” Ava was disgusted with her so-called blood’s antics. “Me and that bitch are the only ones that know how to get in like she did. Trust me, it was that rotten womb-ass ho. Leela is a snake bitch. She didn’t even care her kids were in here when that nigga shot at us.”
Ava broke down crying once more. Stackz reassured her all would be taken care of as soon as they dropped the kids back off at her mother’s house. Ava wiped her tears away, finding some comfort in his words. Putting her seat belt back on, she looked in the rear at Leela’s sleeping kids, glad they didn’t hear the harsh words she’d spoken about their mother.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
It was as if something menacing was circulating throughout the night air as Ava and her man returned to her mother’s house to drop off the children. It’d been one of those days that started off like any other; things were good, no big problems, no major issues. They’d enjoyed the day with Leela’s kids, who were thankful to be out of the house, and Stackz’s family, who seemed to accept her into their close-knit fold. All was well. Then bam! Out of the clear blue sky, things transformed within the blink of an eye. From the very moment they stepped foot outside of Chuck E. Cheese and Stackz laid eyes on that man and what she heard him say was his truck—or used to be his truck—the drama unfolded quickly and seemed to be never-ending. It was as if the devil had turned on the light switch in the middle of their calm, dimly lit serenity.
Ava had a sick sense watching Stackz transform into the shoulder to shoulder tattoo he’d proudly worn across his back for years: 100% GANGSTER. Somehow, Ava knew standing over to the side with Gee’s woman and the children, the ride home and the rest of the evening would be on definite edge. And from the near-fatal and crime-filled chain of events thus far, she’d hit her mark. The sugar-to-shit evening could’ve, however, been much worse. They could have all been dead from the bevy of bullets Rank sent torpedoing their way, and Ava’s house could’ve been burglarized by real thieves. As she settled back in the passenger seat, she knew there was one common factor in both of these mind-numbing actions: Leela. Her sister, her blood, her supposed-to-be best friend since birth. Ava could only pray for the girl to turn herself in to the law before not only Stackz got his hands on her, but she as well.
As Stackz tried his best to avoid the multitudes of potholes in the road, Ava couldn’t imagine how the night could get any worse. He had the radio on low as to not wake up or disturb the children asleep in the rear of the truck. Stackz knew they had suffered enough trauma for the evening. In between running themselves ragged at Chuck E. Cheese, and then their own mother attempting to have them shot in what Stackz felt was a botched hood assassination, he just wanted to safely deliver them back to their grandmother the way he’d gotten them . . . alive and unharmed; well, at least, physically.
Having had ridden with his gun on his lap, Stackz parked in front of the house and checked his surroundings. He’d been caught slipping earlier and knew that could never take place again; not tonight—not ever.
Seeing the light she’d left on in the living room was now off, Ava was relieved knowing her mother had made it back home. Wanting nothing more than to take a long, hot bath at Stackz’s condo, she was happy to drop her nieces and nephew off and do just that. Still cautious, she opened the passenger door, placing one foot down on the truck’s running board. “Bae, hold tight real quick. I see the light I left on is off so I know my mother is back. I just wanna make sure she’s not in there drunk and tripping. You know what I mean.” Ava looked over at Stackz, hoping after all that had taken place this evening he was sympathetic to her dilemma. “When she gets to drinking that cheap wine, she can’t function properly.”
Looking up into the rearview mirror, Stackz saw the kids were stil
l fast asleep, probably having nightmares of being cursed with such a bitter, vindictive bitch as a mother. “Ava, go ahead and see what’s good with your old girl. I’m posted. And if it ain’t right up in there, don’t worry. Push come to shove, the little shorties can crash at my crib tonight with us. It’s all good.”
* * *
“Ma, we back with the kids,” Ava shouted as she stood in the front doorway waiting for her mother to respond. Still in her feelings, not knowing where Leela was at or what she was capable of, Ava was spooked in the house she’d grown up in, as if she was a total stranger. Hearing nothing, she called out to her mother once more while walking into the living room turning on the lamp. “Ma, where you at? We back from Chuck E. Cheese.” Ava paused, looking toward the now once again dark kitchen. Hitting the light switch, she took notice of a brown paper bag on the countertop containing a fifth of whiskey in it, verifying her mother had indeed made it home.
Closing an open drawer, Ava then double-checked that the basement door was locked as she always did when stopping by. Seeing it was, she was relieved her mother hadn’t at least accidently fallen down the stairs like she had in the past when she’d been out drinking with her friends. “Ma, where you at? Them kids need to go to bed. It’s getting late! Where you at?”
Nearly exhausted herself, Ava was just ready to get this terrible night over once and for all. Coming out of the kitchen, she hoped her mother was not too intoxicated and was able to take care of what should have been Leela’s responsibility and burden to bear.
Standing in the hallway, Ava quickly noticed the rear bathroom light was on and headed in that direction, praying for the best, but anticipating the worst. Damn, don’t let her silly ass be passed out in that motherfucker, please.
“Ma, Ma, are you in the bathroom or what? I know you hear me calling you. Are you in here?” Ava reached the semiclosed door. “Ma,” she loudly called again, slowly pushing the door open, “are you in here?” Oh my God, no! What in the hell? Stumbling backward away from the bathroom, Ava couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing. She wanted to scream out to Stackz for help. Unfortunately, her mouth couldn’t seem to form the words. The night had just officially gone straight to hell.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Yeah, I think I ripped a hole through the side of that motherfucker’s head! Did you hear your ho-ass sister screaming and shit? Dumb bitch. Yeah, I think I hit ’em both. Yo, Leela, did you see that shit? That shit was live!” Rank was going on and on about what he’d just done. Still gone off the pills he was on, he felt like he could take on the world and win.
Equally as high as Rank, Leela’s adrenalin was soaring for an altogether different reason. For her, it was more personal. Although deep down inside, she prayed her babies weren’t shot or worse than that, dead, Leela was living her life under a brand-new set of rules she was making up as she went along. She was fed up with being a mother and having to deal with all the responsibility that came with it. She’d made up her mind back at Mrs. Baines’s house she was going to get rid of Devin’s kid even if she had to throw herself down a flight of stairs to do it. Fuck one more mouth to feed. Leela kept her eyes focused on the road as her thoughts raced.
If the devil was on her side, hopefully, Ava had taken one of those rounds intended for Stackz. She’d be done with Ava outdoing her all the time and people going around looking down on her because she wasn’t as smart as Ava, as pretty as Ava, and as wise as Ava to not have three different deadbeat baby daddies. Leela felt like now that Ava was dead, it could finally be—fuck Ava! People would say why wasn’t Ava as smart, pretty, and wise as Leela to avoid taking a bullet to the head and staying alive. Now would be Leela’s time to shine.
* * *
Jointly, they decided it’d be in their best interest to get a new vehicle. Wanting to avoid contact with any of Stackz’s people and the law that may have recognized the car they were in, Leela pulled over so they could devise a quick plan of their next move. Knowing they would need some extra cash, she suggested that they creep by her sister’s house because she knew she had a few items of value they could flip right away. Pulling up a block over from Ava’s house, Rank slid over to the driver’s seat after Leela had gotten out. Paranoid off the pill high she was still on, Leela darted down the debris-filled alley and cut across a few vacant lots. In no time flat, she was rolling one of the black garbage cans underneath the kitchen window and breaking into the place she’d last called home.
Once inside, she went down in the basement, then up the stairs leading to Ava’s part of the house. Running down the hallway, Leela knew just what she was looking for. Flicking on the bedroom light, she snatched her sister’s jewelry box off the top of the dresser, grabbed her work bag off the chair, then maliciously raised her hand, knocking a couple of Ava’s awards to the floor, stamping on them a few good times before she left.
By the time Leela had made it back to the car, Rank had already set up a buy with his used-to-be connect so he could cop some more pills. The only thing he needed and was counting on was Leela coming back with either some bread or something else she claimed Ava had they could quickly turn into cash.
“Okay, cool, you hit a lick. Just give me the jewelry and I’ll go get us a new stash, dump this car, and get one we can pimp a few more days,” Rank plotted, still living in the celebration from believing he’d killed Stackz.
Not wanting to part with the jewelry, she’d been trusting Rank all of this time and he’d never crossed her once. So against her hood-raised judgment, she agreed. “All right then, just take me by my mother’s house. Just like it’s fuck Stackz and Ava, well, it’s fuck her too!”
Rank had watched Leela turn into a complete savage since they’d teamed up on the run. He thought she might’ve at least been in her emotions about her kids and Ava being in that truck when he let loose, but she seemed more eager than he was to start shooting.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Ava’s eyes widened, darting from the blood on the sink, to the blood on the side of the tub, to the bloody handprint that was smeared down the wall. Stumbling backward, she quickly got herself together. She had no choice. There her mother was, sprawled out on the black and pink ceramic tiled floor, facedown in a small pool of blood.
Running into the bathroom, Ava bent down to see if her mother was at least still breathing. With care, she placed one hand on the side of her mother’s face, positioning the other on her waist. Turning her over, Ava could easily smell she reeked of wine and liquor and had urinated on herself. Ava was hurt seeing her mother in this condition. Her mouth was busted and the side of her jaw bruised as she fought to speak. Ava assumed she’d lost her balance trying to make it to the bathroom and fell like so many other times in the past. Ava felt disgusted having been down this road with her alcoholic mother on more than several occasions throughout the years. The entire night had been an utter nightmare . . . now this. Ava shook her head.
“Damn, Ma, you must’ve hit your face and mouth on the sink when you fell. You need to stop all this madness!” Growing queasy at the strong pungent smell taking over the bathroom, Ava carefully stepped over her mother’s drunken body. With intentions of getting some air, she moved the shower curtain over to one side. Reaching her arm up to unlock the window, Ava was suddenly knocked into the glass. Feeling a hard object then strike the rear of her head, Ava’s hand grabbed ahold of the curtains, snatching them off the rod as she fell to her knees. Dazed and confused as to what had happened, she could barely think, let alone stand up. What had to be her own blood poured down on her neck, then started to drench her shirt.
After a few brief seconds of being on her knees, Ava felt the intense onset of the worst pain she’d ever felt in her life. She didn’t have time to get herself together or gather her thoughts as she heard Leela’s voice calling her every name she could think of. Before Ava could say anything, her older sister snatched her up by the back of her collar, dragging her across their mother’s body and out into th
e hallway.
“So you and that asshole parked out front still alive, huh?” Leela bowled Ava’s unsteady body into the wall before kicking her in the side two good times. With the hammer she’d use to bust her sister’s head wide open down at her side, Leela grew more enraged as well as deranged. “Damn, I guess Rank’s aim ain’t as good as his dumb ass think. But, hey, it ain’t no thang. I’ll take care of you, then Stackz myself, so fuck it.”
Ava reached one hand up to the rear of her head while keeping the other wrapped around her stomach and waist. Seeing that Ava called protecting herself from any more of her attacks, Leela struck again, this time bringing the sole of her shoe brutally down on Ava’s face. Ava let out a grunt, followed by a few moans and groans. Finally catching her breath, she spoke out.
“Leela, why in the fuck you doing this to me, Momma, and the kids? What’s wrong with you? Why? Have you lost your damn mind?”
“Fuck Momma.” Leela glanced back in the bathroom where their mother was still lying, bleeding from the mouth. “Her motherfucking ass talk too damn much. That’s why I made a special trip to come over here and tap that ass. Then the bitch gonna show me some papers from the court saying you and her got joint guardianship over my kids. Hell naw! Fuck that sneaky bitch trying to come for my food stamps, and you too!”
“Really, Leela? You gonna do us all like that? For real?”
This wasn’t the time or place for Leela to continue to answer who, what, or why with Ava. Playtime was over. “Look, I’m out here doing me, bitch, and that’s fucking that.” She tried kicking Ava once more but was caught off guard as her leg was grabbed and she was yanked down off her feet. Having had the hammer fly out of her hand, she and Ava were now even. Side by side on the hallway floor next to Ava, the two sisters went at it, holding nothing back. As they clashed, each giving as good as they got, the younger sibling was at a slight disadvantage considering the hammer blow to the head she’d suffered. Leela, of course, capitalized on that fact, delivering punch after punch to the open leaking wound.
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