Roaring up in front of his house, he swerved in front of his aunt’s car. Both he and Wild Child jumped out, on a mission, and bolted up onto the porch. The front door was wide open and unlocked. With guns out, the pair ran into the living room and were met by Wild Child’s mother. She was frantic. Her face was full of tears, and she could hardly breathe.
Leaving his cousin to see about his grandmother, Black Tone wasted no time heading down the hallway. Rushing by his bedroom, which looked like it had been ransacked, he stepped over what he quickly realized was his wall-mounted flat-screen, which had been smashed in the middle of the hallway floor. Once he was at his granny’s doorway, Black Tone’s blood pressure was at an all-time high. His head was pounding, and every vein in his body was budging and on the verge of popping through his skin. He was livid.
Here he discovered his beloved grandmother’s bare feet sticking out from behind the metal bed frame, which had been thrown on its side. With the quickness, the gentle giant, when need be, yanked the bed upward and tossed the heavy frame back to the other side of the room as if it were a piece of paper. Once he lifted the mattress, he finally saw his grandmother’s entire twisted body scrunched up by the wall. With small whimpers, she was asking for God’s mercy.
Black Tone carefully turned her over and saw that her angelic face, which always had a bright smile, was battered and bruised. Part of him wanted to look away, while the other part saw past her pain and knew he had to get her help fast.
In tears, he looked over his shoulder and saw his aunt and Wild Child coming into the room. His aunt explained to Black Tone, just as she’d just done to her son, that when she pulled up and came into the house, she felt like something was wrong. She said she felt some air coming from somewhere and looked in the kitchen and could see that the side door was swinging back and forth. The distraught daughter-in-law then said she ran in the back room and found Granny like this. Still in tears and in panic mode, she expressed how many times she had tried to lift the heavy bed and couldn’t. She said once more that the police and the ambulance refused to send help. Lastly, Black Tone’s aunt told him she had gone out on the porch and had even tried yelling for his little friend, Alexis’s brother, but he had turned his head, ignoring her pleas for help.
Dre and them did this! Them bitches gonna pay! His mind raced, the taste for swift revenge dripped from his lips, and not once did he care that the shoe box containing the money he’d been saving for over a year or so was missing.
“We gotta get Granny some help and fast.” After grabbing some sheets and blankets, he lifted her body from the place Li’l Ronnie had cruelly left her. Black Tone placed the one person in his life he could always count on down onto the makeshift pallet. He then wrapped her up like a small baby. Granny was alive and fighting, still praying, as he carried her out to his aunt’s car.
After laying his granny down in the rear seat, he instructed his aunt to drive as fast as she possibly could to the nearest hospital outside of powerless Detroit. He told her he would be right behind, on her trail, after he spoke to Wild Child about securing the side door.
“Man, I’m telling you I’m gonna kill that motherfucker and all his cronies. He did that ho-ass shit to Granny. I know he did! That’s his ass!” Black Tone declared.
“How you know it was them for sure?” Wild Child quizzed, staring at the other end of the block. “I mean, would they just be all standing down there, posted like they ain’t do shit? I mean, it don’t make sense. Ain’t no fools that damn fucked up in the head.”
Black Tone climbed up in his truck and slammed the door shut. Leaning out the window, he gave his cousin a grim look. “I know that punk-ass pussy. Dre been not giving a fuck about jack he do or say for a long time now. He ain’t have no respect for me or mines or even his own since he was probably born. Naw, he did this shit. Who else would’ve just randomly came on the block and picked my damn house outta the blue?”
“Yeah, you probably right. And yeah, they gonna pay. But first things first. Go make sure Granny is good. Then we’ll go to war!”
“Okay. Bet.” Black Tone looked overhead at the thick black smoke from the still burning party store and was even more disgusted at what his neighborhood had become. “All right, cuz. I’m out. And when you get a chance, hit Amir up and tell him about his people’s shit on fire. Nine outta ten, I know Mikey or Hassan done called him, but you call too. And, oh yeah, keep what happen to Granny close to the vest for now.”
“Okay. Bet, fam. Keep me posted. I’ll catch a ride down to the hospital later,” Wild Child agreed, then dialed Amir as soon as his cousin pulled away from the curb and turned around.
Black Tone knew he had to hurry and catch up with his aunt, but he could not resist letting Dre know that as soon as he was sure his cherished grandmother was being taken care of, he’d be back and thirsty for revenge. Smashing his foot down on the gas pedal, he flew down the block and slammed down on the brakes when he got in front of Dre’s house. Normally, Dre and his crew would have drawn pistols on the next man pulling a gangster stunt like that, but they knew Black Tone didn’t want no real smoke.
“Yo, bitch-ass nigga! That was real fucked up what you did! I mean, you think you can just do that slimeball shit and it’s gonna be all good? Y’all just gonna stand out here and be in my face, like I won’t kill one of you bitches with my bare hands?”
Dre stood there and laughed. He had heard it all. Black Tone was a joke to him. Naturally, he assumed he was down here in front of his house selling wolf tickets, courtesy of Amir, who, he knew, was the oldest of Pops’s sons. Dre believed Black Tone had been sent by his slave master to come see about the fire that was still raging. “So let me get this straight. Your ass came home to call yourself checking me about the next person?”
“The next person? Are you fucking serious, motherfucker?” Black Tone put the truck in park and proceeded to get out. Dre’s boys all took a few steps backward, but Dre didn’t move one inch. He stood posted, unbothered by the physical threat his longtime neighbor could pose. “You kick in my side door and abuse my grandmother, and you think I ain’t gonna do shit?”
Dre was shocked. He had seen and done plenty of low-down shit in his day, but what Black Tone was talking about was nothing he would place on his résumé. “Hold up, dawg. What the fuck is you say?”
“You heard me, nigga! Y’all waited for me to leave, then kicked the side door down and laid hands on my granny. Then left her on the floor to die!” Even saying the words made Black Tone angrier as he lunged at Dre, who finally moved out of the way.
Hearing all the commotion, Alexis, still in a daze, emerged from behind the closed screen door, with dark sunglasses on that somewhat covered her face. Stepping out onto the front porch, she begged Black Tone and her brother to stop arguing. Black Tone yelled out to Alexis, telling her about the heinous act her brother had committed, before trying to rush Dre once more.
“Anthony, as much dirt as my brother done did in his life, this time he’s innocent. Now, I don’t know what happened down at your house or to Granny, but Dre ain’t have nothing to do with it. He was with me. Helping me. My brother ain’t do it.”
This was the first time in years he’d heard Alexis take up for Dre. This must have been the day hell was about to freeze over. Before Black Tone could speak, Wild Child came running down the block, calling out his cousin’s name. Finally up on the loud, spirited group, he held his cell up in his hand.
“Yo, cuz. I just got off the phone with Amir. And before I could get a chance to tell him about the fire, he put me up on some four-one-one. He told me Ethan called him, taking a serious cop for what he found out his nephew Li’l Ronnie had done to your grandmother!”
“Li’l Ronnie! Are you serious? That ho-ass nigga had the nerve to come over here and put his hands on my people like that! I’ma body that ass! I swear for God!” Black Tone responded.
Dre paused and thought back to the dude he’d seen earlier, and it dawned on him w
ho he was. “Yo, Tone, I think I saw that young nigga creeping around this way this afternoon. Little dawg was locked up with me briefly in the county on some minor drug charge. He straight pussy. He was around here, pushing a small white Benz truck.”
Black Tone remembered back to Li’l Ronnie pulling out of the parking lot last night, and he was driving a white truck. His anger grew even more. Out of all the years of him being a bouncer, this was the first time someone had actually brought the shit to his front door. Knowing he had to get going, he was man enough to apologize to Dre for accusing him of such an awful act.
“Man, I’m sorry about that. It’s just, I guess, I’m all up in my emotions.”
Dre stuck his hand out to shake Black Tone’s. “Look, it ain’t no thang. Just know we would never violate your shit like that, let alone do some old ho-ass shit to Granny. That ain’t in me. Shiddd, boy, that lady used to make me cookies back in the day, even if I was showing out in these streets. Now, you . . . hell yeah, nigga. I’ll bust your ass in a blink of an eye, but her never! That’s my word!” Black Tone, along with everyone else standing around, laughed at Dre for keeping it a hundred. “And if you want me to help you do some harm to his gay ass for coming in the hood on that tip, let me know. I’m down.”
Not bothering to ask Wild Child what Amir had said about the fire or even noticing the bruises on Alexis’s face, Black Tone jumped back in his truck and sped off to the hospital.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Receiving the informative call about his uncle, Li’l Ronnie was done playing games with him. He was done being embarrassed and done having it seem like he wasn’t next in line to take over the family business, which had been passed down from his father when he got gunned down while protecting Ethan, who had been accused of cheating one night at a dice game. As far as Li’l Ronnie was concerned, his uncle owed him more than just loyalty and respect; he owed him the entire dynasty that had been built on his deceased father’s spilled blood. Now he would make his uncle play his game. Now he would lure him into his own web.
“Sable, please do yourself and me a big favor. I’m trying to tell you, don’t fight this. Just chill. Let this evening just go down the way I want it to.”
“What, boy? Have you gone all the way crazy?”
“Naw, girl. I mean, seriously, there ain’t no type of win in this bullshit for you. Just chill. Relax, baby.” Li’l Ronnie cracked his knuckles. Rubbing them together, he felt his palms become sweatier as he took the initiative to transform his recent nightmarish life into a beautiful reality. This day and evening were turning out to be everything he had wished for and more. In between getting revenge on Black Tone and having a box full of money, he was good. If ignoring the multitude of insults being directed at him was the price Li’l Ronnie had to pay for the pleasure of the company he was forcefully keeping, then so be it. The lovesick captor was willing to listen to whatever she claimed him to be.
“Chill? Relax? Have you lost your entire mind, you bastard? Let me the hell go.” She squirmed feverishly, setting him on fire with her eyes.
“Girl, I can’t never let you go. You know that! We gonna go the distance, the whole nine. So you might as well just fall back with all that. As much as I used to like seeing you sweat when we’d be getting in, a guy hate to see you making yourself all tired for nothing.” Li’l Ronnie grinned devilishly as he had a brief flashback of the life they used to share back in the day, before his uncle ruined it. “That is, unless you want me to put in some work or something. I know that fool Ethan you been dealing with ain’t been putting it down like me. He been jealous of me since I was a kid growing up with his ugly ass. He’s always wanted what I have, with his ho ass. It wasn’t bad enough he was older than me and getting all the females. He had to want you too.”
“I don’t give a fuck about y’all’s family beef back then, growing up in his household or anywhere else! Just let me the fuck go. I ain’t playing around, Li’l Ronnie. And you can stop talking about him, ’cause when Ethan find out you got me, that’s your ass, and you already know it!”
Spread-eagle, Sable bucked her partially clothed small body in defiance. Her eyes darted from the door, which was missing a knob, to the blue blanket covering the window and back to her captor as she tried to figure out a way to escape. She felt as if she was running out of energy both mentally and physically. Drained from the entire tailspin roller coaster of horror she’d been going through, her body was starting to break down.
Since the very moment Sable woke up and her feet touched the floor, she had had an awful feeling about the day and hadn’t been able to shake it. She had had two cups of herbal tea and had tried to meditate, as one of her many white, suburban hippie friends who also danced had instructed her. Yet she had still felt uneasy. Wanting to get her exercise on, she walked on her treadmill for over thirty minutes or so and still had visions of bullshit occupying her brain.
Not wanting to bother Ethan by having him pick her up and drop her off at work, like he usually did, especially considering the citywide power outage, Sable was dressed and heading out the door to drive herself when she got the call from her ex. Her first notion was to ignore him, as she’d done so many times before, but this time was different. Li’l Ronnie, unlike the other people that’d come and gone in her young life, was a huge concern. She knew he was still hurt and feeling like she’d betrayed him. Sable knew Li’l Ronnie could have been acting out lately because he’d heard Ethan had asked to marry her. She knew the strange mood she was in could only be attributed to one of the things that had hurt him. She had to make it right; karma was showing up and showing its ass.
Wanting to make sure that at least all was good with Li’l Ronnie, Sable slid the green TALK button on her phone over to the side. Within a matter of seconds of them speaking, Li’l Ronnie asked if he could fall through and at least tell her what he wanted face-to-face. Against her better judgment and the warnings from Ethan about her ex man being bitter, she unfortunately allowed the impromptu meeting. Now here they were. Here she was, fucked up, tied up, and at her lunatic ex’s mercy.
As the flimsy headboard knocked back against the wall, Li’l Ronnie derived more and more enjoyment. He was not bothered by the idle threats she was spewing about Ethan. No number of consequences was great enough to deter him. Sable was not just any girl, and as he began to slowly stroke her jawline, his manhood twitched. She was more than the average female who displayed a pretty smile, with each tooth perfectly lined up and full lips. Being blessed with shoulder-length hair and a sassy swag to her attitude was definitely a plus. That deep, rich brown skin tone, despite the few blemishes, only added to her beauty. Sable was everything and more than Li’l Ronnie had ever dreamed about, ever wanted, and ever needed to have in his life.
“You know how gorgeous you are to me? You know how much I dreamed about this day since you started acting like I didn’t matter, since you started fucking my uncle? Come on now. You’re my soul mate. You know that bullshit, baby. Hell, the entire city knows it and knows how we used to get down.” He stood to his feet and paced back and forth, still rubbing his hands and proclaiming his feelings for Sable.
“What?” She grimaced, seething with anger and defiance.
“Yeah, Sable, I don’t know why you been out in them streets, bugging, treating me like I don’t matter no more. You belong to me, like I belong to you. Fuck that old man! Talking about he wanna marry you!”
“Fucking stop touching me, you moron.” Her voice echoed off the wall as her heart raced at twice its normal pace.
“Come on, Sable. It’s me, Li’l Ronnie, you with now, not Ethan. You ain’t gotta front for the streets no more! Think about it for real, though. We’re made for each girl, on some old ‘red light, green light, Simon says, tag, you it’ type of shit. You feel me? Bonnie and Clyde, Kanye and Kim, naw naw Jay and Bey, that’s us, freaking hood royalty. That’s how we started off making that paper being in love. That’s how it was always meant to be, and that’s ho
w we gonna end this thing we got going on—in love and on top!”
“Trust me, Li’l Ronnie, we ain’t got nothing going on no more. You fucked that up by getting locked up! You. Not me! You! And you know why? Because you’s a weak-ass pussy and always have been one! I swear, I hate your dumb ass and hate you even more right about now for this stunt you done pulled. Matter of fact, fuck you and all that ‘way back when’ bullshit! That life been dead to me! I tried to rock out with you, but you ain’t never want shit. No real hustle unless your uncle gave you one, no true ambition!”
Li’l Ronnie was almost six feet tall. Recently, he had shaved his head completely bald but had kept the full beard he started growing some months back. Out of character, he’d started reading books geared toward natural supplements and the effects they had on one’s body. Popping pills and drinking way too much, he’d transformed into a person she could honestly say she hardly knew anymore. Now here he stood at the foot of the four- poster bed, listening to Sable berate him.
Irrational, Li’l Ronnie looked at Sable with the eyes of a man in love. It mattered to him none what she said as he smiled. He knew “his girl” didn’t mean what she was saying. How could she? Despite her words of discouragement and rage for what he was doing to her, Li’l Ronnie remained in his calm state of mind. He refused to waver. His spirit and soul wouldn’t let him. Nothing could knock him off his square of revenge. At this point, he’d be content just to look at his resentful, bitter queen for the rest of his life and pray that after a while, in due time, he’d once more be her king and she’d forget about Ethan. In his mind, no sooner than he murdered his uncle, she’d be begging him to be by her side. Li’l Ronnie’s adrenaline jumped as he played his fantasy over in his head and leaned in closer to Sable, this time tracing the outline of her lips.
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