Hood Misfits, Volume 4

by Brick

  She also had a nasty gash in her side but the bullet had gone clean through so she was safe. The only problem was that, due to the cancer, her healing was going to take longer. Since she had relapsed from dodging bullets, they explained that they were going to go ahead with the surgery she had agreed to, a non-hysterectomy procedure that would maintain her fertility. This was going to happen to secure her health and so they would not have to work on her multiple times.

  My mind reflected on the fact that cancer was eating at my mother’s body and she had fought long and hard against it. I stepped to the left side of her to just watch her a moment before taking her hand and resting a hand against her short mahogany ’fro. She had just dyed it to celebrate getting better and now here she was. She looked as young as Angel did and it freaked me out. Shy had been so stressed, not taking care of herself as she should have, that the medicine wasn’t counteracting the trauma the cancer was putting on her. The Orlandos had polluted her and damaged my mother. Micah tried to kill her.

  “Damn, you took forever, bro. Everything good now?” Drew questioned.

  I could see a multitude of emotions in just his gaze and the sound of his voice alone. My head shook and I pulled a chair up to sit while holding our mother’s idle hand. “Nah, nothing is ever going to be okay, Drew man, nothing. Is she awake?”

  Drew’s eyes softened then darkened as he bowed his head against her arm. “Yeah. She . . . she got real bad, man. We ain’t know what to do because she was hurt real bad. She started spitting hella blood, then fainted, and then started shaking.”

  I knew between the words he was saying, he felt scared, alone, like I did right now. My head bowed again and I felt helpless all over again. I felt like it was all my fault. If we weren’t battling Micah, if that nigga had left us the fuck alone, then maybe Shy’s treatments would have been going better. It was like the nigga knew no bounds. He wanted me gone before even knowing me and who I really was, but that was okay. I wanted him just as gone at that point. I wanted his face over the mantel of my condo with his blood painting the streets of ATL.

  “A’ight. I’ll be here until she wakes up then,” I glumly responded.

  “What we gonna do about that nigga?” I heard Drew ask at my side as I tried to get my mind right. My baby brother’s body was tense and it was like looking at my younger self whenever someone had pissed me off.

  “I’m going to smoke that nigga. Matter of fact, I’m going to start some fucking trouble after I leave here. After all this blows over you’re going to stay with a set of Misfits, and keep your head in the game. Learn all you can from them, keep your nose in your books, and hold up your promise to our tía. Education, what you do in between that, is between her and us brothers, feel me? Just look for her.” My hand rested on my brother’s shoulder and I stared at him hoping he’d understand.

  My baby brother shifted in his seat before responding. I knew he was practicing what we both always were taught: think before responding.

  His next response threw me off: “I always will; that’s our mom. But I want to help with that final kill.”

  “Nigga! I’ll think on that ’cause I’m not trying to have you caught up. Not again. That was too fucking close, Drew. But I got you. If it’s open enough, I’ll slide you in to get your pound of flesh again, on my word,” I said clipping my anger and trying to stay cool.

  “Anyway, baby bro, you need to keep your shit smart and level. Yeah, I know. I’m the one to talk with the fucking blackouts, but that’s why you gotta do and be better, bro. Soak these lessons up because more than likely, our bad blood will be gunning for you soon,” I explained, hoping he was hearing some of what I said.

  “Yeah? Well, fuck them niggas. They hurt what’s ours, so fuck them. But I’ll do what I have to for you and her.” Drew’s words cut off as his mind went elsewhere.

  “I know, bro. Ain’t shit in this life the way we wanted it to be, or needed it to be, but we make it ours. She said we are hers.” Where he was coming from, I understood it deeply.

  Drew let go of our mother’s hand, looking away, and bit his lip in restrained anger. “That’s why we gotta do whateva to protect our mom. Who’s gonna be there for the shawties who get done like that, like how our tía was? So I’ll do whatever to protect her and handle business, on my word,” Drew rushed out in passion and loyalty.

  Standing in that moment, I moved across the room to pull my baby brother into a hug, and then released him, with a rub of my hand on the top of his dome. “Damn, man. Aight, ain’t shit else to be said about it then. You got nothing but my respect, bro. We both just got to be smart about how we handle shit with that nigga watching our every move. Which is why I’m going to leave him a fucked-up message on his doorstep.”

  Drew watched me as if seeing me for the first time, yet again. He reached out to hug me again, then sat back down and took Shy’s hand. “What you say all the time? Oh yeah, you don’t do well with flying bullets.”

  “Nah, I don’t,” I said laughing. “Niggas get killed if they try to rain lead on me, so that’s what’s ’bout to happen.”

  Shy’s soft grunt let us know she was awake. Our mother opened her bloodshot eyes then gave a weak smile. “Good, now we can all plan on killing this nigga. I want you two to know, though, that I always wanted you both. It was easy to want you two regardless of how you both were created, which is why I protected you so hard.”

  We watched her cough and struggle in her speech but she was clear in letting us know that she had heard everything. Both Drew and I leaned forward. I moved to the other side of her and took her hand, moving the bed up so she could sit up, and a sigh of relief went through me as I sat at her side.

  “You see? I’m up, so get your ass up out of here, Shawn.” Shy coughed with a smile.

  “Naw, I’m good, we’re good. Not going anywhere until you tell me what they said you had to share,” I muttered in defiance of her will.

  Drew gave a light laugh, but with all seriousness in his face he said, “Ain’t shit coming for you again. We’re going to protect you, Mama.”

  “But check it, what the fuck happened, huh? Why you out there in the damn streets going G.I. Jane and shit and getting fucking hurt? That ain’t cool, especially with you being sick!” I tried to stay calm but the rest of what I said came out in heated anger.

  Shy shook her head. Her pale, beautiful face contorted in pain and she reached for her breathing mask as she tried to speak. “I know, Shawn. I know, baby, but I’m not going to sit there and just be a damn target. Like you, I got plans for that nigga and you need all the knowledge you can get to take that bitch-ass nigga down, do you understand me?”

  I felt that familiar darkness creeping up in my mind, trying to cloud my judgment, but I let it work for me rather than against me. “I hear you, but you could have gotten killed, you and Angel. That nigga came for you. That means he’s on more sneak shit. Nigga knows I’m an Orlando, the fuck you got to say to that?”

  The monitors connected to my mother started going off with the rise of her stress. Her eyes darkened like mine and she fisted her blanket before she talked. “This is what I have to say: go in my bag that I always have you bring. I got some information for you, Shawn. What you see is why I suggested you step into that world you don’t want, and why you need to be out there and not worry about me.”

  My anger took the best of me. I paced back and forth, kicked a chair in the process, and watched my brother move across the room.

  Drew moved quickly to get back to holding her hand. He pulled out a thick folder and opened it. “Yo! Is that Micah?”

  That name had me stopping my walk and I headed back to the bed. Interest had me leaning over to grab the folder and skim over it. My eyes widened in awareness of how deep this shit was. I realized that the woman in front of us needed to stay on this earth, because what she had gotten for me, for Drew too, was icing that could get us through this war.

  “Mama Shy, how did you get this information?” I h
ad to know. I checked my anger, leveling it to a cool simmer, and waited.

  Our mother coughed, sucked up some more air. She turned her face upward our way and then smiled maliciously. “Anika out there?”

  I gave a nod and she wiggled in her bed. “I hear Ahmir, too. Well, we have resources too, baby, hands deep. When you told me he was FBI, I knew who to go to, so because of that, we have a nice little gem, one I had no idea I was very familiar with. See, when I told you that it was me and my resources that helped Phenom slip into prison, I meant it. That was when I created my liaison with some law enforcement and FBI. Learn this. It’s good to have law who will work for you. Not dirty motherfuckers, but real niggas and chicks who understand our life in this game and what we have to do to protect the streets from men like Dame, Dante, and now Micah.”

  Shy paused to take a shaky breath then continued, “When I say don’t fuck with a mother, and family, I mean it. I may be sick, son, but I am still a fighter, so turn that anger into what we need to murder. Now listen to some truths and let me tell you a story about a little boy named Micah and his sister. After that, if I die, baby, know I died loving and protecting you both, but go out there and fuck that nigga up. You both are mine. Your bloodline comes from New York through me by King Kulu. What I told you, Shawn, as a kid and you, Drew, was not some gangsta shit I made up; it’s truth. Remember that. Now listen as I give you more history.”

  What she told us changed everything in that moment. Not only was Micah not what we thought, but the beef against the Orlandos and my mom’s side was too deep for words. Especially when Phenom and Anika came in with Angel following and dropped the rest of the story. The truths hidden from me and Drew, hidden from the Misfits as a whole, left me pissed, but tripped out in awe. They didn’t lie.

  Fury had me seeing red. Everything they said had me heated; and I needed that nigga Micah’s blood on my hands. I glimpsed the people around my mother’s bed, absorbed the image of her laid up in bed, bleeding and hurting, and I turned and stormed out of the room. As I was heading to my ride, I heard the sound of feet behind me.

  Turning, I saw it was Angel. She gave me a worried gaze but her posture let me know that wherever I was going, she was following. Thumbing my nose in that understanding, I said nothing at all. I had no damn words. I just needed to kill that nigga and I knew I had to work out my plan right. Micah had come for my circle. He had stepped so far as to turn one of my homies against me. I needed to find out just exactly what that was.

  “Let’s go. I got a nigga I need to see. Two of them actually,” I rumbled low.

  Angel tried to keep up with my pace and I heard her softly say, “I’ll hold you down.”

  I thought I was going through shit, but it was only a drop in the bucket compared with what the foundation had gone through. This all had me gone. It was then that I changed my plan up somewhat.

  Chapter 9

  Angel

  “Nigga, I know you in this motherfucker so just open the door,” Enzo yelled out as we stood outside of Dragon’s condo.

  Dragon, like most young black males, had realized too late he was blowing through his money on useless shit. So, by the time he had his daughter and realized he needed to do better, he found himself almost broke. Hence the reason he had a low-end condo instead of one that should have showed all of his hard work on the field. Still, the message Tino had relayed to me about Micah having Dragon’s daughter and baby mother held hostage just so he could help to end Enzo on the field was what had me and Enzo at his door.

  We could hear movement behind the door, but still Dragon didn’t answer. Enzo kicked the door and then banged on it again. It was cold outside. The wind chill made me pull my hood tighter and duck my head as a gust came sweeping through. Dragon’s porch light was off, but the streetlights lit up the way so we could see. The smell of fried chicken made my stomach rumble so loud that Enzo looked down at me. I shrugged and felt the pain in my shoulders from the fighting I’d done earlier.

  “I’m not trying to disrespect your home, my nigga, but if you don’t open it willingly then I’m coming in forcefully. Your choice,” Enzo spat out.

  I looked behind us when a neighbor’s porch light came on and the old lady stuck her head out the door. When she saw the look on Enzo’s face, she quickly closed the door and locked every lock she had on there.

  I knocked on the door this time. “Dragon, I know me and you are not on the best of terms, but if Enzo kicks this door down it’s going to cause more problems that we don’t need. So open the damn door!”

  Before I could finish my last sentence, Enzo’s boot kicked forward and Dragon’s door splintered in two. The place was pitch black. It was the kind of dark where you could make out the shapes of objects but you couldn’t see what or who was lurking behind them in the shadows.

  Enzo walked in before me. “I heard you in here, nigga. I mean, you hiding because you know it’s fucked up the way you ain’t been having a nigga’s six in practice?” he called out with his arms wide. “That’s some real fucking shit, my nigga.”

  Out of nowhere a big, bulky shadow came charging from the hall like a bull, tackling Enzo so they went flying over an end table that was sitting in the middle of the floor. I jumped back with a scream, picked up a golf club from a golf bag that was sitting in the corner, and rapped the man who had tackled him across the head.

  “Ahhh, God. Angel, bitch, I’ma kill you,” Dragon roared out as Enzo monkey-flipped him onto his back.

  I went in to hit Dragon again, until Enzo jumped in front of me and stomped the nigga in his gut.

  “The fuck is wrong with you, nigga?” Enzo asked his boy with so much venom in his voice that I was afraid he was going into blackout mode again.

  Dragon twisted back and forth in pain again before he snarled up at his friend and jumped up. “You what’s wrong with me, nigga,” he growled out and threw a punch at Enzo that stumbled him.

  Once Dragon had backed Enzo up he came for me. His eyes held pure hatred, but I could also see the pain in them. Blood was trickling from the back of his head over his shoulder from where I had hit him before. In that moment, as he charged at me, he really looked like a dragon breathing fire.

  “Don’t do it, Dragon,” I yelled at him as I held the club up, ready to swing again. “I ain’t . . . We ain’t come here to hurt you—”

  Before I could finish, the big man leaped at me and I had no choice but to swing like I was aiming for the MVP award at an MLB all-star game. I hit the man so hard that the club bent. Saliva and blood went flying everywhere as a gash on the side of his head opened up. By that time Enzo had gotten his bearings about him. He stood up and snatched his leather jacket off, and spit on the floor. I watched him charge the man he considered a friend, lift him off the floor from behind, and slam him to the floor so hard it was as if the whole building shook.

  There was only one other time I’d seen Enzo fight a person he considered a friend. Back when Dame was running the block, he’d made any- and everybody in his command do things they didn’t want to do. Dame had a way of convincing people that they were going to do exactly what he wanted them to do or he would find a way to make them do it. He had made Enzo kill his best friend Big Jake’s grandmother. Eventually, after Dame died, Jake found out; and when he did he came for Enzo and they fought like two caged lions until it was a draw with Enzo falling on his sword. Enzo told Jake that he could kill him for the affront, but Jake had declined. Instead, Jake took a boot to his ribs and face.

  Now, Enzo stood over Dragon, hitting him with fists to the face, one after the other, until his boy could no longer fight back.

  “Nigga, I came to talk to you,” Enzo barked out then kicked Dragon in his ribs. “Came to lend you a fucking helping hand in getting ya fam back and you gon’ attack me, nigga? All you had to do was come to me and tell me that nigga had you by the balls.”

  Enzo was in a rage. So much so that spittle was flying from his mouth. I wanted to believe that he was so an
gry because on top of Micah going after his friends, he had gone after Shy. But to be honest, I didn’t know.

  “You . . . you gotta get the fuck away from me, Enzo.” Dragon barely got those words out as he coughed and spit up blood. “Get the fuck away from me,” the man yelled out. “You bad luck, nigga. Since I met you and this bitch y’all been bad luck for a nigga,” Dragon roared and tried to kicked at Enzo’s feet.

  I didn’t know if the man had tears in his eyes from the ass whooping Enzo had just laid on him or if he was hurting because Micah had his family.

  “This motherfucker got my baby mama and my seed,” Dragon yelled again. “And it’s all because of you, nigga!”

  “This shit ain’t got nothing to do with me and more so with that nigga chasing ghosts. I didn’t know he had your fam until somebody told me, nigga. So for you to come at me like I’m the enemy is bullshit,” Enzo countered as he glared down at him.

  For a long while all Dragon did was lie still on the floor as he gazed up at the ceiling; then out of the blue he mumbled, “He got my fam, man, and I don’t know where they at. Ain’t shit I can do,” he belted out. “And I don’t know what they doing to them, man, and all I can do is sit and wait on this nigga to say move.”

  I had to turn away from the man when he bellowed out in frustration and banged the back of his closed fist on the floor. The soundtrack to our lives sounded in the background. I knew that old lady was going to call the cops, I thought.

  “I came to help,” Enzo finally said. “I’ll help you get your fam back.” Enzo kneeled and laid a hand on Dragon’s chest. “Just let me know you ain’t in on his bullshit. Give me your word that you got my back and I’ll get your fam back.”

  I listened as they talked a bit more and then I rushed to the window and looked in the distance. Those flashing blue and red cherries were getting closer.