by Dutch
Ty sighed.
“He kicked it wit’ me and the fellas ‘bout an hour, got his head right then he left.”
“What guys?” Ty want to know.
Hawk shook his head. “I promise you, Ty, none of them would harm a hair on your father’s head. Besides, they never left the bar when your pops left.”
Ty nodded. “Then what?”
“Then we heard the shots. Had to be an automatic because the shit sounded like a machine gun.”
Ty visibly tensed up just thinking about his father being gunned down. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the bastard. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“So then we ran out and found Guy’s bodyguard face down and your pop’s head in Gloria’s lap,” Hawk added.
“Gloria?” Ty said surprised. “Where’d she come from?”
“I don’t know, Youngblood.”
Ty sat back letting it all sink in. Her presence would explain why she had been in the ambulance with Guy. Could Gloria? He dismissed the thought—for now. He needed to speak with her ASAP.
Ty stood up to leave and Hawk stood with him. They shook hands.
“Thank, Unk, I appreciate your time.”
“We family, Youngblood. Anything I can do, ‘cause you know my guns still bust,” Hawk told him proudly.
Ty smiled. He had heard Hawk had put in major work back in his day. “I know.”
Before Ty turned to leave, Hawk added, “This might be nothin’ or it could be somethin’, but Brah Hardy came home a few weeks ago.”
“Who?”
“Brah Hardy. You probably don’t remember the Hardy Boys, but they were some hell raisers back in the day. He been locked up ‘bout twenty years,” Hawk told him.
“What about him?” Ty asked, now giving Hawk his undivided attention.
“Well… he and yo’ pops bumped heads before he went away for a body,” Hawk explained.
“Bumped heads over what?”
Hawk smile sheepishly. “Your mother. She was wit’ Brah first… before Guy took her. Brah felt a way and they got into it. Guy ended up shootin’ Brah in the leg.”
Ty was on fire. “Where Brah at?”
“Around. Let me make a few calls. Gimme a day or so,” Hawk said.
“Unk, make it happen,” Ty told him firmly, handing Hawk his number. He headed out the door and headed for Gloria’s subdivision.
Vee pulled up to the corner store in north Charlotte. He hopped out of the ’98 Maxima feeling like a whole load had been lifted from his shoulders. Cat and Taheem had bounced to Baltimore, Maryland. Cat had chosen B-more because she could transfer her credits to Morgan State. He had seen them off with two hundred grand to tide them over until the war was over.
Vee glanced around him then entered the Arab store. Actually, the owners were from Afghanistan but everyone was Arab if they were from the Middle East in the hood.
The bell over the door tinkled as he entered. Inside, Vee heard what sounded like Egyptian music playing in the store. The pretty red-bone smiled into his eyes and licked her lips seductively.
“What’s up, J-Rock?” she spoke, using his alias. It was the only name she knew him by.
“What up, beautiful… how you?” Vee responded.
The girl loved that sleepy bedroom look he had. It made her pussy wet just looking into his eyes.
“Where Sami?” he asked.
“He in the back. Oh, you ain’t come to see me?” she asked with a fake attitude and her hands on her hips.
“Next time, baby girl,” Vee replied, not remembering her name.
“You say that every time.”
“Then we both got something to look forward to, huh? Now, go ‘head. Tell Sami I’m here.”
The chick sauntered off with a vicious sway in her Buffy-like hips, making Vee lick his lips.
“Yeah, I’ma hafta bang that one of these days,” he mumbled to himself. But today wouldn’t be that day. His mind was on bigger things. Money, power, respect.
Sami came out the back with his trademark greeting. “J-Rock, my friend! How are you?” Sami said in his thick Afghan accent.
Vee smiled and stepped into his embrace. Sami kissed him on the cheek, something he hated but knew it was an Afghani thing.
“Come. We talk in the back.”
He and Sami went into the storage room that Sami had sound-proofed. Sami often bragged that the room was so secure that he could hide Osama Bin Laden in the hood. They both sat on crates.
“You finished already?” Sami asked, surprised. “You movin’ up in the world.”
Vee chuckled. “Naw, I ain’t ready to re-up yet. I need ammo and plenty of it. I need that shit that be flippin’ buses, yo.”
“What’s going on?”
Vee felt comfortable talking to Sami. Not only was he his heroin and gun connection, he was thorough and street savvy. Vee had met Sami in Raleigh at one of the many corner stores he owned. He was known to move small- caliber pistols in the hood, which is how Vee came to know him. Tyquan had introduced them. Sami cut into Vee quick, seeing his potential as a hustler. Sami didn’t deal with hood cats when it came to drugs because it seemed like if they weren’t trying to rob you, they wanted to dime you out to the Feds. But Sami sensed something in Vee and took him in.
“What can you do with this?” Sami had asked Vee one day, giving him an ounce of uncut heroin. Vee brought him back fifteen grand in twenty minutes: that was the beginning of the breaking off of the Wolf Pack from the Simmons family.
Sami listened intently as Vee explained the situation. “And for these you want some sheet to flip a bus?” Sami asked, after hearing the whole story.
“Hell yeah, yo! They want war, I’ma bring it to ‘em bangin’!” Vee vowed.
Sami shook his head. “J… what you describe is not war. I have seen war. War is when the missiles shake the foundation of your home. When the elders make you sleep in your funeral garb just in case you don’t wake up. That is war, this is not. This is business. Dangerous business, illegal business, yes… but business plain and simple.”
“I hear you, Sami, but business sometimes calls for drastic measures,” Vee countered.
“Then start with your own crew,” Sami suggested.
“Huh?”
Sami smiled. “J, think. You say you and two of your people were targeted within fifteen minutes of one another. How did they know how to find you so quickly?”
Vee sat back on the crate, nodding his head.
Sami continued. “I smell a rat, don’t you? Find the weak link and trace it back to its source then you can strike quietly but effectively and bring your enemies to their knees.”
“Nothin’ beats a cross but a double cross,” Vee mumbled to himself, cursing himself for not seeing it sooner. His blood was boiling thinking how one of his own had betrayed him. He stood up and Sami stood with him. “Maybe I won’t need to flip a bus after all,” Vee smirked.
Sami laughed. “No I don’t think so. But if you do, come back. I got something that’ll stop a tank!”
Vee wasted no time getting back to Durham and calling a meeting with the Wolf Pack. The crew was over fifty deep, but many of them were merely wannabes and block huggers just looking for something to rep. Their chains weren’t even real. The main body of the Wolf Pack consisted of five Lieutenants and the six CEOs as they were known. Rico and Pappy, who were now deceased, Mike G, Banks, Rome and the HNIC, Vee.
They met at Rome’s house because his crib was in a secluded area of Durham. Vee entered the basement to find the crew assembled and talking amongst themselves.
“Vee, what up, dawg?” Rome greeted him, followed by the others. “What’s the plan, yo ‘cause it’s been payback time.” The others murmured their agreement.
Vee stood in the center of the room. “Yeah, you right… it is payback time, but it ain’t the Simmons I’m concerned wit’,” Vee announced cryptically.
The nigguhs looked at each other, confused. By the time they set eyes back
on Vee, he already had his gun out.
“Yo, Vee, what’s really good?” Banks asked, eyeing the gun.
Vee walked up to Banks. He had known Banks the long-est. They had been in training school together. He looked Banks in the eye then said, “It’s a rat in our crew, B… a fuckin’ traitor amongst us, yo!”
“Word?!” Mike G’s baritone boomed. He was 6’5” and cut like Ray Lewis. “Say the word, Vee? Who?” he added looking around.
“Why you say that, Vee?” Banks wanted to know.
Vee smiled but didn’t answer. Instead he turned and addressed the whole room. “How the fuck did them nigguhs know where to find us at the drop of a dime?!” Vee barked.
“Word! Banks, didn’t I say that shit earlier?” Rome growled.
Vee looked around the room at the five lieutenants. He walked up to a short light skin kid. “What you think, yo?” Vee asked.
“Man I—”
BOOM!
Vee blew his brains out all over the wall. Everyone jumped at the sound...
“Yo, Vee, I know that bitch-ass nigguh ain’t set us up?!” Mike G asked.
Vee looked over his shoulder and smile demonically. “I don’t know,” he chuckled, “but somebody in this room know! I want answers! Pappy want answers! Rico want answers!” Vee walked up to a fat Lieutenant. “Well?” Vee questioned.
“Vee, I swear I don’t—”
BOOM! BOOM!
Two more head shots rang out, leaving the fat cat dead and his leg still twitching. One kid threw up.
“Yo, dawg, you wildin’! This my house!” Rome scream-ed, but Vee ignored him.
“I don’t want to hear ‘I don’t know’. I want the… fuckin’… answer!” Vee shouted, putting his gun in another cat’s face.
“Please, Vee… man,” he sobbed, “I-I—”
Vee cut him off, “Huh? What’s that? You what?” he taunted the kid, putting his ear to his mouth. “Speak, nigguh!”
“It-it wasn’t me, man, I swear,” the kid sobbed.
BOOM!
“Bitch-ass nigguh, I never liked his pussy ass anyway,” Vee spat, standing over the third body of the night. “Nobody knows shit, huh?! Huh?!”
“Yo, Vee… chill, dawg. What the fuck is goin’ on?” Mike G tried to calm him down.
Vee got in Mike’s face. “Why don’t you tell me what’s goin’ on, Mike,” Vee spat back.
Every muscle in Mike’s body tensed and his fist balled up. “Yo, Vee… the fuck you tryin’ to say?” Mike hissed.
Vee smiled at him and winked. He turned to walk out the door. “Whoever the bitch-ass nigguh is, I’ma find you. And if I find out somebody knew and didn’t speak on it… I’ma kill his whole fuckin’ family,” Vee vowed.
“Yo, Vee? What about the bodies?” Rome wanted to know.
Vee looked at Rome and shrugged. “Clean ‘em up!” Then he left without another word.
Chapter 5
“Oh yesss, Kev! Oh fuck yes!! Karrin panted, bent over the bed and clawing the sheets. Kev had a fistful of her hair and his thumb in her ass, pounding the pussy relentlessly.
“Who’s the best, hmm? Who?! Say it!” Kev demanded, watching her pretty red ass jiggle like jelly with every stroke.
“Oh yes, baby, that’s my spot!” she squealed.
“Say it!” Kev repeated, while long dicking her with the whole length of his 8-inch shaft.
“You are, baby, you are,” she panted. Karrin knew why he was asking and to whom he was comparing himself, but his dick felt so good deep in her pussy, Karrin spoke for the moment but not from her heart.
Kev watched his dick slipping in and out of her creamy pussy, intensity building in his stomach. “Oh-h fuck, baby, I’m about to cum,” he growled.
“Cum in this pussy, daddy,” Karrin begged, throwing her pussy at him harder, “cum in this pussy!”
Kev’s whole body shook and twitched until he got weak in the knees and let off deep inside her. Feeling his hot load coat her walls sent Karrin over the edge and made her cum back-to-back.
“Don’t move,” she commanded her whole body, too sensitive for any movement.
When they finally climbed into bed, Karrin laid with her head on Kev’s chest while he gently caressed her back.
“You know I love you, right?” Kev whispered, kissing the top of her head.
“I know,” she replied, snuggling closer to him.
“Whatever you want is yours.”
“I already got what I want,” she answered, then paused.
“You sure?” Kev probed.
Karrin lifted her head and looked at him. “What do you mean by that?”
Kev lowered his head. “Nothin’.”
She lifted his head back up. “Kev, talk to me.”
“Yo… I mean,” he began, struggling to express his feelings, “I know you ain’t seen him since the wedding, so I was just wonderin’… I don’t know… how you felt seeing him again?” He finally got it out.
Karrin gently kissed his lips. “Baby, Ty is my past and you,” she kissed him again, “are my present and future.”
Kev looked her in the eyes. “Do I make you happy?”
“I wouldn’t have married you if you didn’t,” she answered.
Kev nodded his head, but deep down, he couldn’t shake the feeling he had when Ty and Karrin were in each other’s presence. He felt… shut out, like he wasn’t included in the energy. He felt like he was a third wheel. It wasn’t that he felt guilty being with his brother’s ex-girl. He always thought Karrin was too good for Ty; he just felt like the consolation prize.
Karrin was in her own world of thoughts as well. It was true she hadn’t seen Ty since the wedding because he hadn’t showed up. Since seeing him at the hospital, she couldn’t stop thinking of him, couldn’t stop hearing his voice in her ears. He had disregarded her like she didn’t exist, but when he looked at her outside the hospital she could still see the love, the passion, the pain and the question… why? Karrin felt like she needed closure. If she could just talk to him, see him alone….
The 50 Cent “Many Men” ringtone of Kev’s cell phone brought them both out of their thoughts.
“Yo,” Kev answered. After a few seconds he sat up straight in the bed. “He did what?!” he asked, first with surprise then stifling a chuckle. “Yeah… yeah… okay look, calm down, aiight. If he knew it was you we wouldn’t be talkin’ right now, correct? Okay then… naw… yo, shit is good… don’t fall back when we almost there… okay look, meet me at the spot. You know I don’t do phones… yeah… fifteen minutes. One.” Kev hung up with a smirk.
“Everything okay?” Karrin asked.
“Yeah, but I gotta make a run,” he told her then kissed her on the nose. “Keep it wet.”
As Kev got dressed, he thought about what his Wolf Pack mole had told him. How Vee had just flipped and murdered three of his own. The mole thought Vee had gone crazy, but Kev knew there was a method to his madness. His move had got the mole shook and wanting to fall back. Vee knew that would buy him some time and ensure no other hit was made any time soon.
Vee was smart; Kev had to give him that. But his mole was greedy. Kev kept him on a short leash promising to give him his own crew, connection and territory in exchange for them Wolf Pack nigguhs. Yeah, his mole was scared, but Kev knew his greed was stronger than his fear, because everybody wanted to be The Man.
“Ty, if I wanted to kill your father, he would’ve been dead years ago,” Gloria told Ty, sitting on her couch watching the Young and the Restless on TiVo.
“Mama Gee, I ain’t tryin’ to say—,” Ty tried to explain, but Gloria cut him off.
“Ty, I know what you tryin’ to say. You just like your father, always think you so damn slick! You wanna play junior detective and wonder why I was there,” Gloria surmised correctly.
Ty had to smile to himself. He knew how Mama Gee was. She was an old school gangsta’s wife. A no-nonsense type of black woman that you had to come correct with or don’t come at
all.
“Look at this bitch Jill,” she said, mean mugging the screen, “somebody need to shoot her ass! Fuckin’ bitch… I was on my way to Hawk’s place ‘cause I knew Guy would be there. I know that nigguh like the back of my hand, so when he stood me up I ain’t appreciate that shit. I was on my way to tell his ass off and that‘s when I heard the gunshots… I-I seen your father lyin’ there, and all that blood…,” her voice cracked and the Harlem girl toughness cracked with it. What was left was a vulnerable woman trying hard to deal with the biggest threat she’d ever faced. Losing the man she loved.
Ty embraced her, allowing her to sob on his shoulder. Gloria got herself together after a few moments.
“I’m okay, Ty. Just… when I think about that night… your father done caused me a lot of heartache in my life, but I swear I didn’t know what I would do without him,” Gloria admitted, wiping the tears that started to fall again.
“You didn’t see anyone leave? On foot? No cars pulling off?”
Gloria shook her head.
“Mama Gee… who is Brah Hardy?”
Gloria looked into Ty’s face.
“That depends… am I talkin’ to a little boy or a grown ass man?” she quipped with the Harlem back in her voice.
“A grown ass man.”
Gloria paused the TiVo and turned to face Ty on the couch. “Your mama’s ex-pimp.”
Ty had to blink to get his composure. “What?”
Gloria sighed. “Back in the day your mother Debra was into a lot of things. She wasn’t but eighteen when Guy first laid eyes on her and she was already in them streets… used to live out in the jungle… Green Acres. Anyway, Brah Hardy was a hustler slash pimp and he turned Debra out. Brah and Guy couldn’t stand each other. The Hardy’s and the Simmons’ was like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s, but that’s another story,” Gloria explained, stopping to catch her breath. “Your mother had a lot of dudes open, but you know Guy Simmons, he got to be the one on top. Well, he finally won out and got Debra.”
Ty’s head was reeling from what Gloria had told him. His mother, a whore? Guy needing to know if he was really his father? It seemed like the more he wanted to know about the future, the deeper the past became. “Mama Gee, I know you ain’t lyin’ to me, but…,” his voice trailing off because he didn’t know what to say.