Detective Thomas and Detective Boyd were at the police station waiting to hear from the judge when they got the call that shots were fired at Club All In, and at least one was dead. It blew both of their minds because they had just left there. They didn’t even stick around for the judge as they bolted out the door and raced to the scene. When they pulled up, there were mainly red and blue lights flashing and just a handful of partygoers off to the side.
“Where’s the body?” Detective Thomas asked the uniformed cop at the front door of the club.
He pointed to the door in the back of the club that led to the casino. The detectives knew there was something going on behind that door, but they had no idea what they were in store for as they entered the casino. They both could smell the gun smoke in the air as they looked around in awe. Blackjack tables, craps tables, slot machines, poker tables. It really looked like a mini casino. Chips were all over the place, and some bets were still on the table. Thomas made sure that the forensic unit took pictures of everything.
“The bullet never left her head,” Detective Boyd said as Thomas walked over to the body. “It looks like she was trying to get out of the door,” Boyd said, pointing with his pen.
It was obvious that Sanaa was nowhere to be found, and that was a good thing, because Detective Thomas now had more than enough to arrest her. With all the evidence he had, he didn’t need the warrant anymore to search her establishment. Hell if it came down to it, he would say he thought someone was in danger. He could simply say he heard a struggle; whatever he needed to say he had to make this move, and make it now. Detective Thomas pulled out his cell phone and pushed a couple of buttons. There was one person he wanted to call to see if any of this sounded familiar to him, and when Agent Razor answered his cell phone, halfway asleep, Thomas knew exactly what was going to wake him up.
“Agent Razor,” he answered.
“Hello, Agent Razor. I hate to be calling you this time of night, but I needed to know something about the woman you were looking for,” Thomas spoke.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Razor responded.
“What would you know about illegal gambling and a full-scale casino?” Thomas asked, looking around at the few poker tables.
Agent Razor sat up in his bed, all too familiar with those details. His heart was racing, and before he knew it, he was getting dressed while Thomas stayed on the other end, explaining in detail what he was looking at. The more he talked, the more Agent Razor felt that this was his girl. They talked all the way up to the point when Agent Razor decided he was going to catch the next available flight to Philly.
Chapter 21
Sanaa crossed Parkside and headed into Fairmount Park, where everyone was supposed to meet. In her trunk, she had $10 million worth of funny money and about five hundred grand in real money. She also had plenty of guns and ammunition with her in case a full-blown war popped off.
“Sanaa! Sanaa!” Joi said, snapping her out of her trance as she drove down Parkway. “Are you even looking at the road?” she inquired in a sarcastic tone.
“Yeah, girl, I was just thinking,” Sanaa shot back.
“About what? I see you got some shit on ya mind, so spit it out. And why are we in Fairmount Park?”
Joi didn’t know about the money Sanaa had gotten from Boo early that morning, nor was she aware that today was going to be the parting day for Sanaa. Joi could feel something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was that was making her stomach tighten. Sanaa could be somewhat tightlipped at times, and hard to read.
“You should go back home to my dad. He really misses you,” Sanaa said as she looked in her rearview mirror.
“Girl, as much as I love and miss Balil, it’s no way I’m leaving your side, especially now.”
“Joi, right now shit is just crazy. Don’t you think we need to let everything die down?”
Before Joi could respond, Sanaa pulled over on the side of the road where Sleepy was sitting on the trunk of his car waiting for her. It was a little secluded area, and just as she put her car in park, Royce pulled in right behind her.
Royce was mad as hell that he wasn’t at the club to help protect his sister. All he saw was red and all he wanted to do was kill something. It didn’t matter who was responsible for the attempt on Sanaa’s life, Royce wanted them dead by the end of the day.
“Yo, I ain’t got no rap. Who da fuck was it?” Royce spazzed out the moment he exited his car.
“Man, where da fuck was you at?” Sleepy snapped at Royce, a little mad that he wasn’t around when they needed him.
They were about to start arguing but Sanaa stopped them. Now wasn’t the time for the family to be falling apart.
“Look, we not here to place the blame on anybody. Right now, everybody needs to listen to me, ’cause this might be the last time any of you may see me for a while,” Sanaa said, walking to the back of her car and opening the trunk.
“Fuck is you talking about, Sanaa?” Sleepy asked with his face twisted up as he followed her to the back of the vehicle.
Sanaa reached in and grabbed a duffle bag. She tossed it to Sleepy, and then reached back in and grabbed another, then another, tossing them to Joi and Royce. Everyone unzipped the bags at the same time to see the money inside. Royce wasn’t impressed.
“What’s this?” he asked, about ready to throw the bag back at her.
“It’s that parting money we talked back at the club. I came, I did my thing, and now I’m gone. I’m already wanted by the Feds in Atlanta, and now, more than likely after last night, I’m probably wanted in Philly.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Joi asked with an attitude, not really feeling the parting comment.
“It’s two and a half million in funny money in each bag, plus an extra hundred grand in real money. You guys can go wherever you want. My suggestion is that you get out of this city before it either kills you or put you in prison for the rest of your life,” Sanaa spoke.
“So you telling me that’s it. Fuck the family, we just take the money and go our separate ways?” Royce said, pissed about the whole idea.
Sanaa knew what he was getting at, and as bad as she didn’t want to do it, the time and opportunity for her to put this life behind her was now. No more drugs, no more violence, and no more looking over her shoulder wondering if the next bullet was meant for her. It was bad enough that the Feds and the local authorities were on her trail. The best thing for her to do was lay low for a while, or at least until the statute of limitations ran out.
“It ain’t like we not goin’ to stay in touch,” Sanaa tried to justify. “We will always be family. You makin’ it sound worse then what it is,” she said, looking over at Royce.
Royce just shook his head and tossed the duffle bag full of money at Sanaa’s feet. Sanaa tried to say something to him, but he walked off with a full-fledged attitude then jumped into his car and sped away. Sanaa, Sleepy, and Joi stood there in silence for a moment. Each of them not knowing if they should say something, or what to say. The time had come for all of this to end. Sanaa grabbed the bag, she looked at Sleepy and Joi. Everything had always been on ten for them, and now as the three of them departed, the silence was louder than any of the drama they had been through. Not seeing each other would be the sacrifice they needed to have a chance at surviving.
“Okay, we got the warrant for her arrest,” Detective Boyd said, coming out of the judge’s chambers.
After the incident at Club All In the night before, there was enough evidence and probable cause to arrest Sanaa. Among other things, illegal gambling and murder were at the top of the charges against her. Somebody had to answer for the female’s body found in the club, and since nobody stuck around after the shooting to tell what happened, Sanaa was going to bear the weight of it for right now. She had been seen with a firearm, and it was known that there was bad blood between them according to witnesses. The judge had granted the warrant mainly based on the way it was presented to him, and
it had not been an easy task. At the last minute Judge Harrison nodded and signed it, reminding them he was still not happy with how flimsy their evidence and the case appeared to him.
“Before we execute the warrant, we gotta go pick up Agent Razor at Philly International,” Boyd said as they left the courtroom.
Razor was very adamant about catching up to Sanaa and bringing her back to Atlanta to face drug trafficking charges; he really wasn’t that concerned about the illegal gambling aspect. With the Feds, Sanaa was facing a minimum of ten years for her role in a drug conspiracy. Agent Razor was hoping Sanaa would save herself and help him bring down her connect, who was one of Atlanta’s biggest drug kingpins.
“Do we still have somebody at the club?” Thomas asked, hoping Sanaa would show up.
“Yeah, we got plainclothes officers on surveillance,” Detective Boyd answered.
“All right then. Let’s open up the blinds on this chick,” Thomas said, getting into his Crown Victoria.
Kemo walked into his bedroom and took a seat in the chair that sat next to the bed. He pulled out his lighter and lit a cigar. Danielle was still asleep in the bed resting peacefully as Kemo looked down at her. He couldn’t put his nose on it, but there was something wrong with her that she wasn’t sharing. He knew her well enough to know when she was up to something, and the longer he sat there staring at her asleep, the more he thought. His senses were in overdrive, he had been getting shivers down his spine for a couple of days now. She had begun taking her phone calls away from him now, something she had not done as frequently before. He searched the bed for the phone; for the last few nights she had been sleeping with it under her pillow. He slowly slid his hand under the pillow, being careful not to wake her, but he didn’t feel anything. He had called her a couple times when she was out, and she cut their conversations short, like she didn’t want who she was with to hear them.
“What you got goin’ on?” Kemo mumbled to himself, taking a toke of the cigar.
When Danielle rolled over to where the front of her body was facing him, he got a glimpse of the two bruises. Suspicious of her actions over the past few days, Kemo got up. He walked over and grabbed her Birkin bag from the nightstand. He moved quietly, making sure not to wake her, and walked into the bathroom. He looked back at her one last time before he closed the bathroom door.
“I’ma kill you if you cheating on me,” Kemo said, opening the bag and dumping everything out on the floor. “Tell me something.”
The first thing that he grabbed was her cell phone. As he looked through the outgoing and incoming calls, nothing seemed out of whack, mainly because his number was the most frequently used in her call log. He wasn’t done there, because he went straight to her text log. The first few were to Kemo, but after that, things got a little interesting.
He’s about to leave. We gotta go now.
I’m on my way. Wear ya vest.
Kemo looked at the phone sideways, not believing what he was reading. There were a few other texts of Danielle giving her location and letting Royce know that she was home safe. The most disturbing text was Danielle texting to Royce, He still don’t know!
Kemo was mad as hell. He stormed back into the room and threw Danielle’s phone at her. It hit her on the side of her head, waking her right up. When she opened her eyes, Kemo stood over her with anger in his eyes and a gun in his hand.
“What da fuck is all this about?” he snapped, pointing at the phone with the gun he pulled from his waist.
“What are you talking about, baby?” Danielle said, going through her phone. Danielle said looking at the phone; she looked at him standing there with his gun in his hand. “Kemo?” She looked at the screen; she saw the text between her and Royce. Her heart stopped and her stomach tightened as she realized it was from the night they had robbed Kemo. She cursed; she was sure that she had deleted all of the texts between her and Royce. She looked at Kemo; the vein on the side of his neck was visible, and her blood ran cold when she realized he was holding his gun.
Danielle was slipping, and it didn’t stop there, because the tank top she had on was droopy, so much so that the bruise on her chest was showing. Her tank top fell forward exposing the bruises on her chest; she looked at the phone, the bruises, and back at the gun that was now pointed at her face. Had he put it together? Shit, she needed to stay calm, and figure out if he had pieced things together or if he was being a jealous lover.
“Baby, this is nothing,” Danielle pled, sitting up the bed. “This all stemmed from last night,” she lied.
Kemo glanced down and saw the bruise on her chest then looked back up at the fear that was pouring out of her eyes. He reached over, grabbed her tank top, and ripped it clean down the middle. The other bruise on her stomach was just as dark as the one on her chest, and that’s when Kemo’s brain really started to go into overdrive.
Visions of him shooting the masked gunman when he got robbed raced through his mind. He remembered shooting him once in the chest and another time in his stomach as he ran past him. The bruises on Danielle were identical to where Kemo had had shot him.
“It was you this whole time?” Kemo asked, twisting his face up at her; his brain felt like it was trying to jump out of his head. He ran his hand over his face trying to stop his mind from spinning. Shit his fucking instincts had been thrown off because he allowed some pussy to get into his heart, and head. The hurt he felt quickly left when he thought back to the text. He still doesn’t know. What a fucking joke he must have been to her and this dude!
Danielle sat there frozen, feeling that her time on this earth was just about up. “Please baby, I’m sorry,” she pled, hoping he would forgive her, and for a moment, she thought that he would when he lowered his gun. The hurt in his eyes stared straight into her soul, his expression softened, and he turned around to leave the room. Danielle was afraid to move, but exhaled slowly.
Kemo stopped. He turned around, as if he was about to leave the room, but spun back around and cracked Danielle on the side of her face with the gun. The blow knocked her clean out, and when Kemo leaned over to whisper something in her ear, he could hear a light snore coming from her nose.
“This is only the beginning of your nightmare,” Kemo whispered in her ear before turning around and walking out of the room.
The drive back home was silent for the most part. Joi was still trying to grasp everything that was happening right now. Ariana was hot on her tail, and was going to stop at nothing until she got her revenge. And now, it seemed like the only real family she had was breaking up. At this point, she really didn’t know what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go. Sanaa, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem.
“Look, I just gotta run to the house and grab a few things. After that, I’ma pick up the rental car for you and then I’m out,” Sanaa said, looking out into the highway.
“Damn, you ain’t wasting no time. I thought we would at least be able to chill for a minute, and process all this shit,” Joi shot back with an obvious attitude.
Sanaa knew how she felt, but right now wasn’t the time for sentimental stuff. She could feel the heat around the corner, and the last thing she wanted to do was get caught slipping. She had the Feds in Atlanta on her heels, the local police in Philly closing in on her, Kemo wanting her dead, and Ariana was on her own warpath. The situation was ugly, and Sanaa knew that it was time to blow town and move on to the next.
“Oh shit. Check it out,” Sanaa said turning down Fifty-eighth and Pine Street.
They were a little in the distance, but Sanaa could see clearly that the cops had the street the club was on blocked off completely. Philadelphia detectives were all over the place, pointing and talking on their cell phones. Sanaa knew for sure that if she went anywhere near that club, she was going straight to jail. Sanaa bit her bottom lip as she recognized the signs of a bust that was about to happen. Too many cars, and people walking around trying to appear casual. Their posture gave them away, as well as the way t
heir eyes were scanning the street. One in particular, a blonde, was anxious. He wore a T-shirt, and tattered jeans, but his face was smooth and clean. As cars drove by he stared at them too long trying to see who was in them.
Sanaa had been watching shit like this her whole life; she knew what a setup from the Feds and local pigs smelled and felt like. The number of cars and their position was also a giveaway to the setup. She thought back to being in North Carolina with an ex of hers. Normally the street he had his trap houses on were busy, but the traffic had increased, and Duley had pointed out how clear some of the crackheads’ eyes were who walked past them. That day they had been driving her car. His boy Tae drove past them and into the driveway of one of the houses. Once he pulled into the garage, agents swarmed from everywhere. Duley laughed, and told her to always be careful when you on the run or when you get that damn feeling in the back of your neck.
“See, this is exactly what I’m talking about,” Sanaa said to Joi as she turned up Spruce Street, away from the crime scene.
It was one thing for Joi to hear Sanaa say how hot it was, but to see it with her own eyes was even more shocking.
“Fuck it. I’m not going back to the house. The cops might be there, too. So what I’ma do is take you to Avis, get you a rental car, then I’m gone,” Sanaa said, speeding away, trying to get as far away from the club as possible.
Girls From Da Hood 10 Page 25