“Was it worth it?” Kemo said, standing next to Sanaa by the bench.
She jumped up, scared out of her mind, but also ready to react. Sanaa backed up, reached into her Louis Vuitton bag, and grabbed her .380. It didn’t matter where she went; she always had a gun on her.
Kemo looked at her and just chuckled, unfazed by Sanaa reaching. He knew she was too smart to make a scene out in front of the station where there were cameras everywhere.
“You should have just left it alone and got rid of it, just like I had to,” Sanaa said, keeping her hand on the gun in her bag.
“Yeah, well, that’s three hundred grand, and if you don’t know who I am by now, I’ma be the first one to tell you that I’m not the right one to be fuckin’ wit’,” he said as he looked back and forth for his ride to pull up.
“Let’s make a deal,” Sanaa began. “I’ll give you—”
“Bitch, you got me fucked up,” Kemo snapped, cutting her off. “You think I wanna deal right now?” he said, lowering his voice as the police officers passed by, going into the station. “You tried to kill me, ho. It ain’t no fuckin’ deals. I’ll see you in traffic,” he ended, walking out to the pavement where his ride had pulled up.
Sanaa clutched the gun a little tighter and walked out to the pavement behind him. She took the safety off and took a good look around to see in anybody was watching her.
Danielle looked from the driver’s side as Sanaa was getting closer with her hand still in her bag. The concern in Danielle’s eyes convinced Kemo to turn around and see what she was looking at. When he did, Sanaa stood about ten feet away from him with an intense look in her eyes.
“Bitch, pull the trigger,” Kemo dared, standing there like he was made of steel. “’Cause this is the last chance you eva gonna have to kill me,” he taunted.
They both stood there for a moment staring at each other in silence. Sanaa was so zoned out she didn’t even notice the few police officers behind her going into the station. She was seriously considering getting it done and over with right there, but a very important thought entered her head at the right time. She really wasn’t ready to go to jail. She just nodded her head with a nasty grin on her face, and then backed up slowly.
“I thought so,” Kemo teased, opening up the passenger side door and getting into the car.
Just then, Bread walked out of the station, giving Sanaa the ugly face as he passed by her and jumped into the back seat of the car. He made a gun gesture with his hand and pointed it at Sanaa through the window before Danielle pulled off.
“How long have you been out here?” Joi asked as she walked out the front doors of the police station.
Sanaa almost didn’t hear Joi. She was focused on Kemo’s car pulling into the street. She wanted to see which way they went, so that she could go the opposite. It wasn’t because she was scared; she just knew she wasn’t really prepared for a gun battle to erupt on the streets. A . 380 wouldn’t have gotten her far in a war and she knew it. She had to be smart, and being smart meant that she didn’t have time to make stupid emotional mistakes.
It took Joi and Sanaa almost two hours to get home, a ride that would’ve normally taken no more than thirty minutes from where the police station was located. The extra hour and ten minutes came from Joi taking a number of routes in order to shake anybody who may had been following them, specifically Kemo and his crew.
“So what now?” Bread asked Kemo, who was sitting at the head of the fifteen-foot-long table in one of Kemo’s trap houses. “We gotta kill dis bitch tonight,” he suggested, pacing back and forth with a gun in his hand.
Kemo felt his pain, but he also had other plans on how and when he was going to kill Sanaa and her people. It wasn’t something that had to happen right away, and for somebody like Kemo, who was much more experienced in the game, he knew that he would be the number one suspect on the police list, since he was just caught by the police with his arms around Joi’s neck.
“We gotta wait a couple days,” Kemo said, twirling two Baoding balls in his hand. “She just tried to kill us and failed, so you know she’s gonna be on point right now. We not gon’ make this shit no harder than what it has to be,” he calmly said.
“Well what about the money?” Danielle added, hoping nobody had forgotten about that. It was her only reason for still being around, and if he wasn’t going after it, there was no need for her to stay.
“Aaahhh, I see somebody is thinking.” Kemo applauded, giving Danielle a wink of the eye. “Now how can I get my money if she’s dead?” he asked hypothetically.
That was something Bread hadn’t thought about, and that was because Bread didn’t have the same financial problems Kemo had. Bread was the type who didn’t even care about money that much. His only talent was pulling a trigger, and truth be told, he wasn’t really good at that.
“So how do you plan on getting your money?” Bread asked with a doubtful look on his face.
Kemo was starting to take Bread’s words and actions a little personal. It seemed like he was losing respect for Kemo, but Kemo was one who knew how to regain power and control.
“What, you forgot who da fuck you was talking to?” Kemo snapped back, rising from his chair with anger written all over his face. “You need to calm da fuck down.”
“Dat bitch was about to kill me. How else am I supposed to feel?” he yelled with his eyes filling up with tears. “She was going to kill you too, and all y’all are worried about is some damn money,” he snapped, slamming the barrel of the gun onto the table.
Although Bread’s message was raw and a bit disrespectful, Kemo could understand how he felt. He too thought about the ride in the van with his hands tied behind his back, waiting to be taken somewhere and murdered. He understood all of that, but at the same time, he could see an opportunity to gain financially, and he could have done that either with or without Bread. Setting aside his pride, he decided to have Bread riding out with him on this one.
“Look, we wait a day or two, take da bitch for everything she got then put a bullet in the front of her head,” Kemo demanded, giving Bread a stern look. “I need you on this one,” he confessed, getting Bread’s attention.
Kemo never needed anybody for anything, and to hear this come from out of his mouth made the difference in Bread’s eyes. He placed the gun down on the table, pulled out the chair and took a seat. Kemo eventually took a seat too and they all just sat there in silence for a moment.
“All right, and tell me what you got planned,” Bread said in a low and submissive voice.
“It’s gonna go like dis . . .”
Joi and Sanaa were on their way to the club to meet with Boo to discuss some business. The expressway wasn’t that crowded, so it wasn’t hard spotting the patrol car creeping up a half mile back. Joi discreetly put her seat belt on and advised Sanaa to do the same. The speed limit was sixty-five miles per hour and Joi had slowed her down to sixty-eight miles per hour from doing seventy-five miles per hour. All the precautions were being taken, because guns and a large amount of money were in the car. Not to mention the fact that she and Sanaa both had bulletproof vests on.
“So you think Boo is going to go for it?” Joi asked, trying to make conversation while keeping her eyes on the rearview.
“I don’t see why not. Two million in real cash for ten million in counterfeit money is a good deal.”
“A good deal for what? We barely moved a million in a week, and now you’re talking about ten million. What’s goin’ on, Sanaa?” Joi asked.
Sanaa just sat there looking out of the window at cars passing by. “We’ll talk about it later on,” Sanaa said, wanting to wait until Sleepy and Royce were around.
Before Joi could even attempt to get Sanaa to talk, the patrol car had pulled up within a couple cars back. It switched lanes a few times and ended up right behind Joi. She took in a deep breath then exhaled. Sanaa was also attentive to what was going on, looking at the cruiser through her mirror. When the police lights start
ed flashing, both of their hearts dropped.
“What you wanna do?” Joi asked as she continued to watch the blue lights.
Whatever Sanaa wanted to happen would have been done by Joi. If she wanted to go on a high-speed chase, it would have gone down. Stop and have a shootout, it would have gone down. That’s how much love she had for her friend and sister.
“Pull over,” Sanaa instructed, taking her chances with the possibility of Joi just getting a ticket.
Joi did as she was told, pulling over to the shoulder of the highway. The cop sat behind them for a moment before exiting his vehicle. He walked up slowly to the driver side door.
Joi automatically reached for the sun visor to grab her registration and her license. She rolled her window down to pass it to the cop before he could ask for it, but was surprised by his command.
“Step out of the car, ma’am,” the officer demanded in a relaxed tone.
Joi looked at Sanaa then reached for the compact .45 automatic inside the center console.
Sanaa stopped her hand before she got it open. She nodded for her to just get out of the car, which she did.
“What’s goin’ on, Officer?” Joi asked, looking up and down the highway for a good direction to run.
“You know, the last time I saw you, you had a pair of arms wrapped around ya neck,” the officer said.
Joi looked at him closely and then remembered that it was the cop who arrested her and Kemo. He looked different and younger, and a lot cuter than before.
“Yeah, you look different,” Joi shot back.
“Yeah, all cops look different when we’re putting handcuffs on you,” he joked, managing to get a chuckle out of Joi. “So do you normally let ya boyfriend choke you out and don’t press charges on him? You know those kind of relationships could get out of hand,” he said with some concern.
“That’s not my boyfriend, and don’t you think you’re asking me the wrong questions?” Joi said with a flirtatious smile.
“You’d rather me ask you about the bulletproof vest you got on or the possibility of you having a gun in the car wit’ you?” he replied, letting her know that he really wasn’t trying to be a dick.
“So what do you want, Officer Waters?” she said, looking at the name on his shirt.
“Honestly?”
“Yeah, honestly,” Joi said.
Waters didn’t know how to explain it. He’d never felt this attracted to a woman before, let alone one that he had arrested. But there was something about Joi that grabbed his attention and he didn’t know why.
“When I saw that guy with his arm around ya neck, I thought, ‘he must be crazy.’ I don’t think someone as beautiful as you should be subjected to something like that.”
This was the first time anybody had complimented Joi in this way in a long time. She was so used to having a stern, warlike expression that most men didn’t approach her. It made her blush as if she was a teenager again.
Waters knew that he was getting beyond himself going this far with Joi, but sometimes the heart makes people do some strange things.
“So what, I’m supposed to ride off wit’ you into the sunset, like this some type of fairy tale?” Joi asked, looking off down the highway.
“No.” He laughed. “I just want to take you out one time. After that, if you don’t ever want to see me again, that would be the end of it.”
“I don’t know about dat,” she answered, not too sure about going out with a cop.
“Well listen, if you change ya mind, call me,” Waters said, taking out a pen and writing his number down.
Joi took it then got back into her car. She wasn’t sure if she would ever use it, but just in case, she stuck the phone number into her pocket. She just might have some use for it in the future. Anything could happen, and having a cop on standby could come in handy.
Raven drooled into Royce’s mouth as he lay on the bed, lifting her up and down into the air. He was so happy to have his family back that he hadn’t even said much to Krystol about her disappearing act. He knew that once he opened that situation, he and Krystol would be pulling an all-nighter. They both had a lot they needed to get off their chests.
Royce glanced over at Krystol through the corner of his eye. She was just as beautiful as the day he met her. Although she had put on a few pounds since then, she was still just as sexy to him. He laid Raven down as he began to feel his dick harden at the thought of the love of his life. Well, that and the fact that the only sex he had gotten since she left was the head Danielle had blessed him with nearly a week ago.
A sudden knock at the door caught both Krystol’s and Royce’s attention. Not moving off the bed, Royce nodded for Krystol to answer it. When she did, she couldn’t believe who was standing in front of her face. It was Danielle, looking as beautiful as ever. Krystol held the door, and stared at Danielle; she thought she was looking at a ghost. Something inside her told her that if she wasn’t a ghost, she should be, and the nerve of her to knock on her door after all this time caused Krystol to see red. She focused on her breathing; she was gripping the door so hard that her hand began to cramp. She thought about the gun she had in the foyer closet, she thought about slamming the door, her mind was racing, and she couldn’t focus.
Danielle smiled at Krystol. She studied her for a moment, and then slowly stepped back allowing Danielle entry into her home. Her keys lay on the table with Mace on the keychain, and she quickly grabbed them. Something about Danielle made the hairs on her arms stand up. She cursed to herself as she looked at the door of the closet. The gun was locked away, this bitch was stepping into her home, and she was going to make sure that if one of them had to leave in something flashing she would be the one leaving out feet first.
“You must be Krystol,” Danielle said, walking into the living room.
She didn’t even notice Krystol walking behind her with a can of mace in her hand. She had already planned in her head that she was going to Mace Danielle, and then beat the dog shit out of her. Royce coming down the steps broke her out of her concentration, but Danielle turned around and caught her trying to ease the spray back into her pocket. Krystol carried Mace and a switch blade with her when she went jogging. They were small, compact, and easier to carry than a gun. If she were ever to get in a confrontation and someone took them away from her to use against her, she had a better chance of surviving the attack, versus a gun ending everything. She was cautious, and a good judge of people. This bitch standing in her house right now was bringing some trouble.
Danielle looked at Royce as if to say, “You better get dis bitch before I shoot her.”
Royce tried to give Krystol the baby to cool her down, but she declined, wanting her hands to be completely free to use them. Royce just held Raven, hoping that the situation wouldn’t get out of control.
“I see you two have met,” Royce said, bouncing Raven in his arms.
“Met? We ain’t meet,” Krystol said with an attitude.
“Well, Krystol, this is Danielle. Danielle, this is Krystol, the mother of my daughter as of right now,” he said with his own little attitude. “Now, Krystol,” he emphasized, “I was supposed to go out and meet Danielle somewhere, but instead, I told her to come here. I think it’s time.”
“Wait, just let me say something,” Danielle interrupted, turning to face Krystol. “Your daughter’s father is a good man, and I can’t say that about many men. Not one time did he ever make any advances at me nor did he ever respond to the many times I flirted with him before he told me about you. I honestly thought that he might have been gay or something because not too many men can turn me down.” She smiled, tooting her own horn just a little. “The bottom line is that Royce never cheated on you with me, and now that I know him a little better, I don’t think he will ever cheat on you with anybody. He really does love you, and that’s all I got to say about that. Now, I’ll let him explain the business aspect of our relationship,” she said, turning it over to Royce.
Krystol
felt insulted by the way that Danielle was speaking to her. If this was to make her feel more secure in regard to Royce’s commitment to her, it was doing the opposite. This bitch held herself in high regard, and basically was telling her that Royce had turned her down for a basic chick like her? She looked at Danielle’s smooth complexion, and hourglass shape. She was fashionable, and exuded confidence, enough confidence for Royce to have some type of admiration for her. Royce having any type of emotion for another female made Krystol’s blood boil. She kept a poker face as Royce asked her to take a seat.
For the next twenty minutes, Royce broke down the whole takedown relationship he and Danielle had. He told her about the robberies, the setup, and he even made Danielle lift her shirt up to show her the light bruises she sustained from Kemo shooting her the night Krystol followed them. He would have shown her all the money he’d been saving, but Danielle was there. He knew just how hungry she was for money and how she didn’t have no picks. He wouldn’t dare put himself in harm’s way like that, messing around with a chick who he knew would kill for a dollar.
After listening to everything, Krystol had become convinced that Royce was being faithful the whole time but still had lied about how he was getting money. It was a bittersweet moment. It was definitely something they had to talk about, outside the presence of company. For now, she was willing to set that aside for the greater good of saving their relationship.
Royce was happy to be building a life for his family, but there was something nagging him. He had tried to let the past go, and move forward just being grateful having the chance to love and be with them, but the voice of doubt was speaking louder as the days passed. The voice told Royce he would not be able to relax and rest until Krystol told him where in the hell she had been with his daughter. Everything needed to be on the table, and right now he knew he was missing an entrée.
Girls From Da Hood 10 Page 23