Dynasty
Page 18
“Nigguh, you know who I’m talking about! Bertha Braswell, motherfucka!”
Hearing the name made Vee smile and made Hawk Bill think he was crazy.
“What the fuck is so funny?! Nigguh, if anybody so much as come near—”
“Nobody gonna do nothin’ to my grandma, yo,” Vee assured him calmly.
Now Hawk Bill was fucked up. “Your grandma? Nigguh, you think this a game?!” Hawk Bill sneered then raised the gun.
“Like I said, Ms. Bertha is my grandma, ‘cause Shantelle Braswell is my mother.”
“You lyin’! Shan ain’t got no younguns!” Hawk Bill stated, but as he looked at Vee longer and deeper, the image of his sister’s face began to take on the shape of Vee’s. Hawk lowered the gun slowly, but he still wasn’t convinced.
“That’s where I’m coming from. I went to see Shantelle,” Vee told him, not knowing he had been followed the whole way.
“That’s who you went to see,” Hawk mumbled to himself. Shantelle had a child? If his mother knew, she hadn’t told him, but it was just like Shan to ensure that no one knew. Hawk Bill knew one thing, if she had a child it could only be one man’s.
“What else did she tell you?” Hawk Bill probed, the gun no longer a factor in the conversation.
Vee smiled because he knew why he was asking. “You mean about who my father is?”
Hawk Bill nodded.
“Yeah… she told me. A dude named Guy Simmons,” Vee smirked.
Guy and Willie sat at the table in wheelchairs, along with Ty and another old coon. A few of Guy and Ty’s soldiers stood around the pool hall holding them down. They were playing seven-card poker. The pile of money in the middle of the table was more than a working man’s weekly wages, but to them it was pocket change for a family gathering.
“Gimme two,” Guy said, asking for two cards. He turned to Ty. “I liked the way you handled that. Legitimate money beats street money any day.”
Ty was happy his father was proud of him.
“Now that’s out of the way, I need you to see if you can find that bitch I was wit’ that night I got shot. She was a part of it. Hawk Bill can tell you who all was in there. Talk to everybody. The bitch is local ‘cause I seen her before. Find her and we find them,” Guy explained, not knowing the more he talked, the more Ty felt he was the ‘them’ Guy was talking about. He could never let Guy find that girl. Ty had his own reasons to find her—to kill her.
“And this fuckin’ dude that killed Kev.” Guy was choked up momentarily with emotion. “Whatever you got to do, you bring me his head alive! I want the pleasure of killing him myself.”
“I got you, Pop,” Ty replied, feeling like they were back on the same page.
Guy didn’t have long to wait. They heard a knock on the door. One of Guy’s men peeped out. “It’s Hawk Bill and some dude.”
“Yeah, let that nigguh in, goddamnit! He still owes me five big ones from the Redskins game!” Willie huffed in his husky voice.
Guy chuckled as Hawk Bill and Vee entered the room.
“Hawk, I hope you got five—” was all Guy could get out before Ty jumped up from the table and pulled his gun. He pointed it at Vee but Hawk Bill quickly stepped in front of him. It happened so fast, no one knew what was going on, but seeing Ty draw down, his team did the same. Guns were aimed at Vee from every direction.
“Ty, no!! Listen to me!” Hawk Bill yelled.
“Hawk, get the fuck outta the way or I swear to God, I’ll drop you where you stand!” Ty demanded.
Hearing his son threaten his oldest and most trusted friend made Guy bark, “Ty, what the fuck is goin’ on?!”
“That’s the nigguh who killed Kev. That’s Vee!”
Guy wasted no time and pulled his gun, causing his men to do the same.
“Guy, don’t! You don’t—”
“Hawk move!” Guy demanded. “What the fuck you doin’ bringin’ this nigguh in here?!”
“Guy, this Shantelle’s son! Your son!” Hawk bellowed. There was no way he was going to move from in front of Vee.
The whole room got quiet.
“What did you say?” Guy asked. He had heard him clearly, but it didn’t fully register.
Vee subtly moved a reluctant Hawk Bill to the side and looked into the face of the man that had sired him.
“I’m Shantelle’s son… and she say you my father,” Vee stated, standing in the shadow of death, but he truly feared no evil.
Guy saw instantly what Hawk Bill saw. It was like Shantelle had spit Vee out. Guy was speechless. Ty looked from Guy to Vee in total shock. His emotions were too wired, his adrenaline was too high. He gripped the pistol tightly…
And pulled the trigger.
Dutch
Hailing from Newark, New Jersey, Kwame Teague is the award winning, critically acclaimed, and Essence #1 bestselling author of the street classic Dutch trilogy. His other novels include The Adventures of Ghetto Sam, The Glory of My Demise, and Thug Politics under the pseudonym Dutch.
Published by DC Bookdiva Publications
Copyright © 2009 by Dutch
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