Hood Misfits, Volume 4

by Brick

  He backed away from me a bit and folded his arms across his chest. His upper lip twitched as he stared me down. “So you team DOA now? After all that nigga Dame did to you, you’re defending the men and women who bred him?”

  “Shawn, no. I’m saying I don’t want you to get so dead set on being anti-DOA/anti-Orlando that you forget who you are,” I said emphatically, speaking with my hands to get my point across. “Don’t get lost in a war that’s never going to end. Don’t get me wrong, I have mad respect for every elder in the room up front. I love Shy like she’s my own mother, but it just seems as if they all have an agenda. Are they trying to use you to kill half of what you are?”

  “I’m half Orlando and half Kulu. In order to step into the role my grandfather wants me to be in, I know I’m going to have to do some evil shit. Really I’m not DOA or a Kulu King. I’m Shy’s son, Queen Iya’s blood, but most of all, I’m me. So no one can use me to do anything unless I choose to be used.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m just . . .” I sighed and turned to glance out of the window again and then back at Enzo. “I’m just saying I don’t want them to try to use you to take out DOA for old shit. I mean, I don’t know all of the history of bad blood. I know what Shy has told me and for all of the pain DOA has caused your families, the ones who committed and helped to commit the foul acts, need to be held responsible. Don’t get me wrong, I just don’t ever want you to get so caught up that you forget what your true agenda is. And that’s to make sure Drew and your mother are always protected and never have to want for anything.”

  Enzo bit down on his bottom lip as he watched me. He stood in a wide-legged stance that made the jeans he had on stretch across the huge bulge in his pants. Even when being serious, I couldn’t help but to admire that part of his male anatomy. The nigga had a dick that had to have come from kings. I shook out of my oncoming lustful haze. Shook my head to get the images of him naked out of my head and I looked back up into his eyes.

  “I never wanted this to begin with, but it fell in my lap and I won’t allow evil to dictate what I do with it. Shit, I won’t let anybody dictate what I do with it.” I nodded in understanding as he continued, “I know not everyone in DOA is bad blood. My mom, Shy, told me that much. Still, I have to see for myself and go from there. I’ll keep DOA around, but I’ll make it into what I want it to be and it won’t be to terrorize, rape, kill, sell drugs, and ruin more black communities. Naw, I ain’t here for that. I only trust the people in the room up front. So just because a nigga steps to me and mention he’s a Kulu King doesn’t mean I’m going to let him into my inner circle. I’ll mend fences and build the bridge to this the way I want to.”

  “I understand. I just, you know, wanted to let you know how I was feeling. Don’t want to just be tagging along with you being a yes-woman, you know? Not trying to be your Lilith. I refuse to let you jump out the window without first surveying what’s on the ground below,” I told him.

  His eyes widened and softened a bit. I could see he was kind of surprised at my words. Shit, I’d surprised myself. I was coming into my own woman and the shit felt good. I was no longer looking to others for approval. He came back to stand beside me at the window. We went back to having the silence serenade us for a while. We could hear the laughter and cheerful taunts of the males joking about Jake becoming a father in the next few months. Enzo pulled a blunt from his pocket and passed it to me. I took it and sniffed the potent loud. I hadn’t had time to partake in any vices, but it was welcomed. I put the blunt between my lips and he lit it for me. I took a long pull then held it in until my lungs couldn’t take it anymore. Just like before when we had smoked together, he chuckled at me when my eyes watered and I started coughing like I had emphysema. I passed it back to him and tried to catch my breath again.

  “You know what the fucked-up part about this shit with Micah is?” Enzo asked out of the blue.

  “What?” I asked him as the tendrils of the smoke started to caress my face.

  “That nigga was trying to avenge his family just like most of ENGA was trying to do, but he lost himself.”

  I nodded slowly, then said, “He became the monster he was hunting.”

  Enzo took a few puffs of the blunt. He looked like he was deep in thought before he responded. “Had he not tried to force me into a position I didn’t want, none of this would be happening. That nigga may have been okay had he not fallen into darkness while working with Dame.” He puffed and then passed me the blunt. “Had he kept his perspective, that nigga might have been okay.”

  “And that’s where I don’t want you to go. Micah is the kind of nigga I don’t want you to become.”

  “He kind of reflects who I could be. That’s one of the reasons I said I don’t want history to repeat itself, B,” he said and then looked at me. I smiled because I’d started to like the new nickname he gave me. “So, see here, Ms. Don’t Get Lost and all that rah-rah.” He smirked. “I know I have to keep perspective in this and I do pretty good. A nigga has done pretty good thus far. I know if I forget then it’s all over. Then I become no better than the man who raped my mother at his leisure.”

  In that moment, I felt damn proud to be the one he called a wife, even if it was, technically, an arranged marriage. He’d said the words I needed to hear and I felt, in part, it was a part of my job to make sure he stayed true to his words. I wrapped an arm around his waist and was pleasantly surprised when he did the same to me. He put the blunt back to my lips and laughed when I tried to hold in the cough that came afterward. He joked about having to teach me how to handle the blunt like I handled his dick. I laughed and playfully shoved him before standing on my toes to kiss the cut on his cheek.

  In that moment, we weren’t Enzo and Angel; we were Shawn and Bianca, the little kids who had their lives snatched away because of demons in the flesh. It felt good just to stand in that moment of peace because we knew at any moment it would be over.

  “What are you afraid of?” he asked once we got serious again.

  “Losing the woman I’ve become. I like who she is and I want to keep her, nurture her, and make her stronger. I don’t ever want to be afraid of my own shadow again. I don’t ever want to be afraid to speak up for myself or defend myself again. I don’t ever just want to give in or give up.”

  “So you still that conwoman who be taking niggas for their loot and diamonds?”

  I smiled wide and nodded. “I’m just being honest. I’m going to always be that woman, but I know when to bring that part of me out and when to leave her locked away.”

  He didn’t say anything. We were higher than a camel’s pussy at that point, but it was welcomed distraction.

  “What about you? What scares you?” I asked him.

  He removed his arm from my waist, let me take one last hit of the blunt, and then snuffed it out. “The rape of my mother. The killing of my aunt, the woman I thought was my mother. Me running from the drug dealers when we lived in the Chi, the killers. Drew being homeless and hungry again. Trying to feed Drew and keep him warm when shit wasn’t kosher back in the Chi. Those are my nightmares, B. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  I felt his words deep within me. That was the first time he had ever been that honest and open with me. I walked behind him and then wrapped both arms around his waist. I laid my head against his back and listened to the way his breathing changed. He’d opened up to me, but I wouldn’t force him to show me the water that glazed over his eyes. I’d let him keep that to himself.

  “If you ever decide to jump out the window with anything, just know I won’t let you go there without taking your hand and jumping with you,” was all I said to him.

  I smiled warmly when he brought his hands to where mine connected, pulled them apart, and then connected his fingers between mine. I couldn’t say we were in love or any of that, but I could say, without a doubt, I knew that Shawn “Enzo” Banks had my back in a way no one had ever done. We stayed in the room for about another thirty or so minutes. We
didn’t say too much of anything else. A few things about Micah and what was about to go down with him here and there. He didn’t care for Lilith and told me as much. I kind of felt sorry for the woman and wondered exactly what had been done to her to make her behave in such a manner.

  We walked out of the room to find the Misfits one man short. Phenom, Anika, Shy, and Mirror were all sitting quietly as they watched the youngsters in front of them.

  “Where Speedy go?” Enzo asked.

  “To see a pimp about a ho,” Trigga answered.

  I quirked a brow and wondered just what that meant. I looked to the table and saw straws laid about. Ray-Ray was sitting with tears in her eyes as she held a long straw that was the same length as the other ones, except for the one lying where Speedy had been sitting. Ray-Ray wiped the tears from her face, shoved away from the table, and then stormed from the room. I remembered what Dominique had told me about what she had done in that moment. She’d turned snitch on her best friend’s parents and in turn helped in getting them killed. I looked to Jake as Gina stood and went after Ray-Ray. I figured I may as well tell them.

  Enzo’s phone rang and I could tell by the look on his face it was his grandfather, but I halted his departure for a moment. I told them what Dominique had confessed to me. After I was done Trigga left the room and headed in the direction Gina and Ray-Ray had gone.

  I didn’t know if he was about to tell her what I’d told them, but I could tell that the Misfits had their own agenda they had to deal with. Just by guessing, straws had been pulled between Speedy and Ray-Ray after it had been determined that Dominique had to go. What there was left to do afterward was anybody’s guess. After all the Misfits had made their exit, Enzo and I were left alone.

  “Now what?” I asked him.

  He looked at his ringing phone again and then back down at me. “When I told you I was going to give Micah what he wanted, I meant it. The only reason I didn’t let him take me before was because my gut told me not to. Maybe that was because he had found a way to capture you.” He shrugged for emphasis. “I don’t know. All I know is now I’m going to meet this nigga. Once and for all, we’re done.”

  “What do you need me to do?” I asked him.

  “You already know what I want and need.”

  I nodded and we both said in unison, “Be the boss bitch I know you can be.”

  “You’re on your way to becoming an African Queen now, B,” he said to me. “Find your place and stay there.”

  “I know and I will. I’m all in.”

  Enzo was about to say something else, until Speedy rushed back through the door. It was an “all hands on deck” moment when Phenom saw blood pouring from his mouth.

  “Bloody fucking hell,” Speedy yelled as he fell backward through the door and kicked it closed. “I didn’t ’ave anywhere else to run,” he said frantically. “Get fucking down,” he yelled again.

  I saw Drew and Ghost run for the bulletproof basement. Anika stood so fast she toppled the chair over behind her. She and Shy flipped the dining room table over making dishes crash to the floor. Phenom snatched an AK from the bottom of the table while Shy and Anika followed suit with their own weapons. Enzo shoved me down when bullets started to dance inside of the house. I heard Trigga yelling for Gina to get to the basement. Ray-Ray crawled in a panic to Speedy who was bleeding from bullet wounds to his stomach.

  I’d never seen Enzo move the way he did as he, Jake, Trigga, and Phenom worked in tandem. Someone kicked the back door in and was met with the rounds of a shotgun from Enzo. The shit blew that nigga clear back out the door.

  “Angel,” Enzo called out to me.

  I jumped up, grabbed the shotgun he tossed at me, and hit the deck again. While the shotty was too heavy for me to hold standing up, he had taught me a nice little trick. I positioned myself in the center of the hallway leading from the dining room to the back door, and using an overturned chair as somewhat of a shield and a perch, I lay in wait.

  “Take the legs from under any motherfucker who comes through that door,” Enzo said to me.

  I saw Ray-Ray and Speedy firing guns at the door that had been blown off the hinges. Speedy may have been hurt, but he was still a fighter and it showed.

  Phenom, Jake, and Trigga all had the windows covered. It sounded like a Fourth of July celebration. I heard a woman scream. Looked to the left of me to see Anika and Shy working a bitch over. When Shy used her gun to smack the bitch, Anika took the woman’s legs from under her then brought a booted foot down into her sternum. All I heard were bones crack.

  “You led a firefight to our door, Speedy,” Phenom yelled. “Better be a damn good reason.” Phenom was angry, that was clear by the way he snatched a hooded gunman through the broken window and pumped his back full of bullets.

  “Went to do my duties with the traitor, Unk, swear down. I get to where she is and it’s an ambush wai’ing for me,” Speedy called out. I could tell he was in obvious pain by the way his breathing was labored.

  “She set you up?” Ray-Ray asked him as if she still didn’t want to believe her best friend was a snake.

  Speedy looked at her and there was something unspoken that passed between them. “She set me up, blood,” he told her.

  “I had to be friends with two crazy niggas who don’t care about dying,” Jake’s voice boomed.

  I looked up to see Enzo and Trigga leaping through broken windows, taking the fight to the intruders. Just because I glanced around the room didn’t mean I wasn’t in on the foray. My shotgun was singing a tune of sweet music as I snatched limbs from the niggas trying to get in through the back door. Anika ran toward me, jumped over my head, picked up the empty shotgun Enzo had discarded and used it like a baseball bat to knock a nigga’s head back who had been coming through the kitchen window.

  “Iya, to the basement,” Phenom demanded of Shy.

  “He’s right,” Anika added. “This is too much for your body to handle.”

  “Already on my way,” I heard Shy yell over the noise.

  Her grunts told me she was still fighting her way down. Glanced to my right to see a body fall, then up to see Phenom flanking her until she got down to the basement.

  “Everybody outside except for Speedy. Diamond, get him to the basement.” Phenom yelled out another order to Ray-Ray. “Get them away from the house.”

  Then it made sense to me why Enzo and Trigga took the fight outside. I hopped up with the quickness. Flanked Phenom as he exited through the back door, while Anika flanked me. As soon as my eyes took in the sight, I saw a bloody Enzo. Couldn’t have been his blood because the nigga was laughing while holding what looked like a machete. Where he had gotten it from was anybody’s guess. In his hand was a severed head that he tossed to the side like it was nothing. Trigga stopped his run midstride and gave Enzo a look. It was something akin to “nigga, the fuck is wrong with you?” and being amused. We’d lowered their numbers but there were still more. I came out shooting first and never asking questions. When the bullets ran out in my shotty, I grabbed my Glock 19 from my waist. Who I couldn’t shoot, I beat with the shotgun. Didn’t matter to me how I backed you up off me, as long as I backed you up.

  All the while I watched my back, I watched Enzo’s too, just as he had done mine. For a second we were back to back killing niggas until he had to get a nigga off Jake’s six. For as crazy as the whole thing was, some shit I still didn’t expect. I didn’t expect for two niggas to sneak up behind Enzo and try to take him out; no, didn’t see that one coming.

  “Shawn,” I called out to him. “Shawn, watch out,” I cried as a red laser trained on his chest.

  “Awww, look, how cute. Your guardian Angel is coming to save the day, nigga,” a voice taunted.

  There was Micah, sneaking in from the back of another house. He had a shotgun in his hand that made mine look like a Nerf gun. There was an evil grin on his face that read like Enzo was about to be dinner. But not if I could help it. I aimed in his direction, all set to
fire, before I realized my clip was empty. Another masked man had come from another direction. Enzo dodged his knife while Micah trained the shotgun on me. I took a leaping dive just before he sent the shells my way. I hit the ground hard, feeling like I’d broken something in the process.

  When Micah turned his attention back to Enzo, he didn’t hesitate to fire the shotgun. Enzo maneuvered the masked man he was fighting with around to use him as a human shield.

  “Whew, nigga. Almost had you,” Micah yelled arrogantly.

  I got my bearings about me, and went to take a peek at seeing if it was safe for me to move until another blast came my way.

  “Don’t do it, Angel. Don’t make me clip your wings, baby, even though I gave them to you.”

  Micah was like a madman. The way he came at us, I knew there would be a turning point. Enzo was too quiet. When he was too quiet, he was in his deadliest form. I saw a pair of boots move past me and looked up to see Phenom scoping Micah.

  “A man who’s always talking never finds time to hear the words not being spoken,” Phenom said coolly and Micah laughed.

  Micah slowly turned to the sound of the voice. “Well, I’ll be damned, if it isn’t the infamous . . .” He stopped himself, tilted his head, and looked at Phenom as if he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. “Naw, it can’t be. You wouldn’t be that stupid, would you?”

  “Seems like the only stupid one here is you, mate.”

  “Kill me with that fake-ass Brit accent, my nigga. I know all about the Kulu Kings. You motherfuckers just as bad as the Orlandos. What a prize it would be to kill two birds with one stone.”