Suga ran to the rear area, while Travon stood just inside of the entrance holding the door slightly open. To his horror, Suga’s HKMP-5 released an almost continuous flash of blue and orange in several directions. It was capital murder now.
A knot formed in Travon’s stomach as he glanced at his watch.
Darius began smashing the glass counters on the right side of the store, while Lil Fade smashed those on the left. There were four hostages lying on the floor in the middle of the shop. Capone gathered the others from behind the counters, and made them join the four already on the floor. It was Travon’s job to annihilate them if they moved. He prayed that they acted like statues.
Capone returned to the area behind the counters, where he began opening the cash registers and emptying them. Darius and Lil Fade continued to smash counters with their hammers, and bag the numerous guns and pieces of jewelry.
“Thirty seconds!” Travon shouted.
Ten seconds later, Lil Fade and Darius completed their part of the job.
“Number One, done!” Lil Fade shouted.
“Number Two, done!” Darius shouted.
“Bitch, keep your head down!” Travon shouted to one of the hostages.
A silenced burst was heard in the rear of the store. No one inside the store, except for the boys, knew what it meant.
Suga had just executed the last of the hostages in the rear, after they had opened the safe. Fifteen seconds later, he burst from the rear.
“Safe is secured!” Suga shouted.
“One minute!” Travon shouted, his voice cracking.
“Number Three done!” Capone shouted.
Travon threw open the door, and Suga, Darius, and Capone raced out of the pawn shop. Travon nodded at Lil Fade, and motioned toward the door. It was time to go.
Lil Fade walked down the line of hostages and fired two shots into the back of each of their heads. Travon closed his eyes and his legs began to give. That hadn’t been a part of the plan. No bodies. Lil Fade had promised them that there would be no bodies.
“Five, let’s go!” Lil Fade shouted into Travon’s ear.
Travon snapped to, and ran for the car. Lil Fade removed a hand grenade from his pants pocket, pulled the pin, and tossed it inside of the store. He turned and ran like hell.
On the way to the car Travon raced past a young white couple lying dead in the parking lot. They had chosen the wrong day to go to the store and shop for an engagement ring. Marcus had shot each one of them in the head twice.
Travon climbed into the car, followed shortly thereafter by Lil Fade. A deafening explosion filled the air as they pulled off, and the car was peppered with glass fragments from the pawn shop’s windows.
“We did it, Blood!” Lil Fade shouted. “We did it!”
“Whooooeeee!” Capone shouted. “Fuck yeah!”
The boys celebrated as they drove to the mall to change clothes and cars. After being on the highway for several minutes, Lil Fade tapped Marcus on his shoulder.
“Pull over here,” Lil Fade told him. “Exit right here!”
Marcus exited the highway.
“We ain’t got time for this shit!” Darius told Lil Fade.
“Yeah, in case you’ve forgotten, this car is stolen,” Marcus added.
“We gonna put the clothes in the Dumpster behind the movie theater,” Lil Fade explained.
Suga turned to Lil Fade. “I thought we was gonna burn them?”
“Just chill,” Lil Fade replied.
Marcus drove behind the movie theater. It was completely deserted. A high wooden fence shielded the area further.
“Pull in that space right there.” Lil Fade pointed. “Pull all the way up in between those two buildings, up near the Dumpster.”
Marcus navigated the car in between the two small air conditioning buildings, so that they could be totally shielded from view.
“We’ll change right here and put the clothes in the Dumpster,” Lil Fade told them. “When y’all change clothes, don’t forget to put on the surgical gloves too. Don’t touch shit in the car without gloves.”
The boys climbed out of the car and began to strip their clothing off. While they were occupied with removing their clothing, Lil Fade eased back to the car, and removed a silenced pistol from his bag.
No one paid Lil Fade any attention. He slowly crept up behind Suga, lifted the silenced pistol, and fired twice.
Travon felt Suga’s blood and brain fragments fly onto his face, neck, shoulder, and chest. He looked to his left, where Lil Fade was standing over Suga, holding the silenced pistol. Travon shifted his gaze to the ground, where he witnessed Suga’s last spastic movements. Blood poured from Suga’s head. Slowly, Travon peered down at his arm, and saw the thick crimson liquid oozing down it. He lifted his right hand and wiped his face. His hand was covered with blood and soft, pink brain tissue. His stomach heaved and he fell to his knees and began to vomit.
Lil Fade gathered Suga’s belongings and passed Suga’s clothing to the rest of the boys. “Wipe the blood off with this. And don’t worry, we gonna burn it all anyway.”
The boys took the clothing and wiped the blood off of their bodies. They then dressed in all black, bagged up the blue clothing, and placed it inside of the car.
Marcus walked to where Travon was kneeling and wiped him off. He lifted Travon up off of the ground and helped him get dressed. Darius grabbed some of the clothing that they were going to burn and wiped Travon’s vomit off of the ground. He then kicked dirt over the remainder of the vomit and finally poured oil over it from a bottle that they had found in the trunk.
Together he and Marcus placed all of the clothing that they were going to burn back inside of the bags, and then helped Travon climb into the vehicle. Once all of the boys were inside, Marcus pulled away, leaving behind the naked, bloody corpse of their former comrade.
“Can I ask why?” Travon asked weakly.
Darius shrugged, indicating that he did not know anything. Travon shifted his gaze toward Marcus, who shook his head.
“I talked to the homie Edmond yesterday,” Lil Fade explained. “He called me from the pen. Him and Suga was on Bido One together. Suga was not only a snitch, but a transformer. He got up there and was hanging with some Crabs and claiming Disciples. That snitching and transforming shit pisses me the fuck off. Nobody disses the BSV, and nobody leaves. It’s BSV until the day you die. Blood in, Blood out.”
“He, he was your friend,” Travon told him.
“Fuck that nigga!” Capone shouted. “It’s all about BSV. A’int nobody greater than the set. Besides, if he snitched once, the muthafucka will snitch again.”
Lil Fade smiled. He stared at Travon with his cold, penetrating blue eyes.
“Remember that,” he told Travon. “Blood in, Blood out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Aunt Vera’s House
Days Later
“Police, FBI, sheriffs, and ATF have been raiding the East Terrace every night since the robbery,” Darius told them. “The news say that they have executed sixty-eight search warrants and will possibly be executing another one hundred and thirty before it’s all over with. They are taking all of them Crabs’ guns and dope. They have even laid off everybody else and forgot about that concert shit.”
“While we won for almost a hundred straps, a hundred grand, and who knows how much jewelry!” Marcus laughed.
Travon bolted from the house, headed for his car.
“Where you going, T?” Marcus asked.
“I gotta run to Tamika’s house real quick, I’ll be back,” Travon answered. He carried his backpack with him, which he removed from his shoulder and placed in the front seat. He quickly climbed into the driver’s seat, cranked up the volume on his stereo system, and pulled away.
Tamika’s House
“Tre, I don’t understand all of this,” Tamika told him. “Where did you get all of this money?” She tossed a thick wad of rubber-band-wrapped twenty-dollar bills back onto a pile of similarly wrap
ped wads.
“Don’t be stupid, girl, you know how I got this,” Travon replied.
“But this is sixty-five thousand dollars! You made all of this from selling drugs?”
Travon leaned forward and kissed her on her cheek. “What? Are you wearing a wire or something?” He lifted his hands to her chest and began pat searching her. “You trying to give me a case, girl?”
Tamika pushed his hands away. “Stop, Tre, don’t get on my stomach.” She turned back toward the money. “That’s a lot of money, Tre. What do you want me to do with it?”
“Put it away, hide it,” Travon told her. “It’s for us and the baby. I was gonna buy my mom a house and get her out of the Courts, but she’ll be finished with school in a few months. She’ll be making some decent money, and she’ll be able to move out of the Courts after a couple of paychecks. Especially since she’s by herself now.”
“Tre, are you sure?” Tamika asked, caressing the side of his face.
“She’s gonna be okay.” Travon nodded. “So now the money is for us and the baby. Besides, she wouldn’t take any of it anyway, unless I could explain to her exactly where I got it from. Anyway, now that we’re having a baby we’ll need it, so everything works out for the best.”
Tamika sat up in bed. “Tre, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. I went to the doctor and I finally let him show me the sonogram. I know that I said that I didn’t want to know what I was going to have, but I just couldn’t help it.”
Travon sat up. “Is everything okay with the baby?” he asked nervously.
Tamika laughed. “Yes, boy. Relax.”
Travon reclined back onto the bed, interlaced his fingers, and rested his head on his palms.
“Well, it’s not just a baby,” Tamika told him. “It’s two babies. That’s why my stomach is so big.”
Travon’s eyes widened and a smile slowly crept across his face. “We’re having twins?”
Tamika smiled and nodded.
Travon sat up and wrapped his arms around Tamika. “That’s good, baby! Expensive, but good!”
“The doctor asked me if twins ran in my family, and I told him no. Do twins run in your family?”
“Hell yeah!” Travon exclaimed. “I got three sets of twins in my family right now. I got two sets of cousins who are twins, and my mom is a twin. What did your mom say?”
“She’s happy. As a matter of fact, she’s really beginning to get on my nerves with all of the attention. She’s already dropping hints that she wants to keep the babies while I’m in school. She’s been talking about all of the fun she’s going to have with the babies and she’s been calling everybody and telling them that I’m having twins. She called Varika in Hawaii, and my other sister in Virginia, and all of my aunts.”
“That’s good. I could kind of tell that she was coming around.” Travon smiled. “She even pretends like she actually likes me now.”
Tamika waved her hand through the air, dismissing Travon. “Boy, she does like you. If she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t even let you inside the house, let alone spend the night.”
“So what are we gonna do about leaving, Tamika?” Travon asked. “I gotta get outta here. At least for a little while. The longer I stay, the more shit I get into. If I stay with another aunt, I’m still in the same boat. I need to get away. I have to get away. We have to get away.”
Tamika exhaled forcibly. “I know, baby, I know.” She lifted her hand and caressed his cheek. “I don’t want you to get into trouble. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.” She kissed Travon upon his cheek.
Travon smiled at her. “Now you sound like my Tamika.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve just been moody lately,” she said softly. “I’ve been thinking about me, me, me, and not about us. If I have to leave and put school on hold, I will. Or, I’ll go to school wherever we move to.”
Tamika smiled, and Travon replied with one of his own.
“I fell in love with a gangsta, so I’ll just have to go on the run with you, and lead the life of a gangsta bitch.”
Together they laughed. Travon tugged on the sleeve of her shirt.
“Where did you get this outfit?” he asked. “It looks real nice on you.”
Tamika ran her hand across her white maternity shirt and traced her finger over several of the blue teddy bears, yellow ducks, and red sailboats that were embroidered into the fabric. “You gave me the money to get some maternity clothes, and this is one of the outfits that I bought with it.”
Travon leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. “You look beautiful to me.”
Tamika peered down at her belly and pouted. “I look fat.”
“You look pregnant and beautiful,” Travon told her, as he kissed her belly through the shirt.
“Stop that!” Tamika told him. She reached for the lamp on her nightstand and extinguished the light. The room became pitch-black.
“Hey!” Travon shouted. “Watch your hands!”
“When you get pregnant, you get real horny,” Tamika explained. “I’m having twins, so I’m twice as horny.”
Hours Later
Travon spied a convenience store on his way home from Tamika’s, and pulled into the parking lot to top off his gas tank. It was past one a.m.
Tired, Travon climbed out of his vehicle and walked inside the store, where he received a friendly nod from the night clerk. He nodded back and continued on to the soda freezer. A patrol car pulled up outside.
The officers exited their patrol car and began to examine Travon’s vehicle. The custom paint, large chrome rims, tinted windows, and numerous chrome trim pieces drew their attention. It was obviously a car that did not belong in this area.
Travon grabbed a Big Red soda from the freezer and then walked to the chip stand and he grabbed a bag of Cheetos from the rack. He then headed over to the candy aisles, where he grabbed a bag of M&Ms with peanuts. Now finished with his shopping, he headed up to the checkout counter. The officers watched as he pulled a small wad of bills from his pocket and handed the clerk a twenty.
“Put the change on gas,” Travon instructed the clerk. He turned and peered out toward the gas pumps. “I’ma pull up to pump number five.”
One of the officers approached. “That’s an awful lot of money to be carrying all rolled up like that.”
The clerk rang up Travon’s merchandise and handed him a receipt.
“Is that your car outside?” the officer asked.
Travon nodded. “Yeah.”
“Has some pretty expensive-looking rims on it,” the officer commented. “Where do you work?”
“Who said anything about working?” Travon asked.
“Are you saying that you don’t work?” the officer asked.
“No.” Travon shook his head. “I work at the convenience store in my neighborhood.”
The second officer approached. He handed the first one a cup of coffee.
“What neighborhood is that?” the first officer asked.
“The Heights,” Travon told them.
“That’s kinda far from here,” the officer told him. “What are you doing way out here at one o’clock in the morning?”
“You got any identification on you?” the second officer asked.
Travon pulled out his wallet, and handed the second officer his ID.
“You got a driver’s license?” the officer asked.
“No,” Travon told him.
“What are you doing driving?” the second officer asked.
“I’m not,” Travon told him.
“I thought that you said that was your car out there?” the first officer asked.
“It is,” Travon confirmed.
“You just told me that you weren’t driving!” the second officer told him.
“I’m not,” Travon replied calmly.
“All right, smart-ass, turn around!” the second officer ordered.
Travon turned and placed his hands on top of the counter. The of
ficers pat searched him, and found a pager, wallet, set of keys, and a total of two hundred dollars. They handcuffed him, led him outside, and placed him in the back of their patrol car.
Officer number two took Travon’s keys, walked to his car, and began searching the vehicle. The officer found Travon’s Glock model twenty-three, forty-caliber semiautomatic pistol beneath the driver’s seat. He tossed the weapon on top of the passenger seat, and continued his search. Nothing else was found.
The officers took Travon to the county magistrate’s office, where they charged him with driving without a license, driving without insurance, and unlawful carrying. A hold was placed on him, and he subsequently denied bond in order to investigate a warrant on him from the district attorney’s office. It was a warrant for murder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Next Day
Bexar County Courthouse
Travon was taken before a county judge for arraignment. The court clerk called his name.
“Robinson, Travon!” the clerk bellowed.
A sheriff’s deputy walked to where Travon was seated in the jury box, uncuffed him from the twelve other prisoners that he was shackled to, and escorted him to the center of the courtroom.
“You are aware of your rights?” the judge asked.
Travon nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“You are charged with unlawful carrying, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to twelve months’ incarceration. Mr. Robinson, to this charge, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty.”
“You are charged with murder in the first degree, a Class A felony punishable by life imprisonment or lethal injection. Mr. Robinson, to this charge, how do you plead?”
Travon was stunned into silence. The first thing that came to his mind was the pawn shop.
“Not guilty, Your Honor,” Travon stammered.
“Mr. Robinson, do you have an attorney?” the judge asked.
“Uh, no, sir. Your Honor, what’s this about a murder charge?” Travon asked.
The judge lifted his finger. “Just one moment,” he told Travon. He turned to a group of attorneys standing in the corner to his left. “Which one of you is the least busy?”
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