That same day, both guys caught and robbed Lemon for some pounds of weed and some cash. The mistake was made when they did not kill Lemon. They let him seek revenge, and later that night he almost had a victory.
It was the same night of the robbery back on Simpson. Gangsta was outside talking to a freak and trying to get his dick sucked. He was leaning on the car while Kash stood across the street at the corner store with some older guys. Up the street, Kash noticed a pickup truck rolling down the block past Gangsta at a creep, and Kash notice that Gangsta wasn’t paying any attention at all. Kash was locked in and ready as the pickup truck began to turn so the shooter could be on Gangsta’s side. Kash jumped right into action, pulling his Beretta out, but held down by his side.
“Gangsta,” he yelled to make him look up, and he also pulled his strap.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
Kash shot before anyone could react. Gangsta rolled off the hood of the car and blasted his Piston.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
The entire hood watched the exchange of gunfire. Gangsta and Kash both took off running at full speed away from the scene. Both the boys made a pact that night to forever have each other’s backs, no matter what.
Later that day, Kash heard the male pod officer who worked with Ms. Jones call out for the last meal of the day.
“Chow call!”
Today was chicken day, so everybody would be going to grab their chain gang pimp except for him and a few other people. Kash slept in room 239 in G2, down the top tier. When the officer cleared the pod and closed the door, Kash peeped out of his cell to see the pod was empty. Ms. Jones stepped out as well. Kash quickly slid down to room 236, which was a short distance from his own cell.
“’Sup, nigga?”
Kash pulled the cell door closed and it locked. He pulled out a shank made from a piece of fence and sharpened down to a point. The big dude stood 6’4” easy to Kash’s 5’10”, 190 pounds soaking wet frame, but Kash didn’t care. The big dude was lying down and started to get up, but Kash was on him with two jabs of the shank into the guy’s face. The next shot hit the guy’s chest, and then Kash took a step back. The big dude tried to hide his face from another blow.
“Damn, Kash, ma—”
“Pussy-ass nigga, where’s that bomb at?”
He stepped back up to the big dude, who quickly sat on the bed holding his hand out.
“Here you go! Here, man.”
He passed Kash a pillowcase with ounces of weed in it. Kash took it and slid out of the cell into his own. He locked the door, rinsed the shank off, and then counted six ounces of midgrade weed. He stuffed all of them into his boxer briefs, then came out of the cell and posted up on the big floor by the phone.
Kash watched as people returned from chow and waited as he noticed Pie, the nigga who’s weed it was. The big dude Kash stuck was named Nut. Kash and him worked out together. Pie was from Atlanta and was considered a hard head, but Kash barred none. Fuck these suckas, Kash thought, because Pie ain’t been fucking with the city no way.
Kash watched Pie calmly walk into Nut’s cell, then quickly come back out. Pie looked around the pod until he spotted Kash. Pie walked toward the steps in a fast pace, and then down toward Kash. Kash stood there ready for whatever.
“Shawty, that’s my dope you got from Nut,” Pie said and stopped a few feet from Kash.
Kash was holding his banger down to his side.
“I got this in blood, nigga. Check, yo’ ho’s not a real nigga.”
“I don’t want no beef, bruh, but I ain’t ‘bout to let you take nothing from me, fo’ real, fo’ real.”
“Man, fuck you, shawty.”
“So, that’s how we gonna rock, my nigga?” Pie asked, defeated.
“Fuckin’ right, nigga. Tear it down,” Kash replied and meant what he said.
After everyone got back from chow, the lieutenant and sergeant called gym call like they promised. Kash went out the door with six fresh ounces and made his way to the gym to meet up with a couple old Rydc friends who were in other pods.
He chopped it up with two partnas in the gym, ducked in a cut with his back against the wall. Kash watched Pie pull up on a couple city niggas, and they made eye contact every time. Kash was showing he was on point. He truly wasn’t thinking about Pie, and he didn’t care who he went to get or tell. Kash was prepared.
Gym time ended fairly quickly. Kash was the last person to enter the pod. He took in his surrounding and headed up the steps. Kash felt something wasn’t right as he turned around and saw Pie coming at him with a lock on a belt. Kash got a tight grip on the railing and kicked Pie directly in the mouth. His head snapped back from the blow and his body crumbled to the ground. Before Kash could get on Pie’s ass, Nut came out of cell 244 swinging a knife. Kash ducked and pushed Nut in his stomach, making him stumble back. Kash then pulled his own knife out. Officers from all over the prison rushed in as Pie started to get up. Kash swung his knife at Nut’s face and caught him with it. Nut also caught Kash, but Kash didn’t notice as he poked Nut at least four hard times. Nut took off running, and Kash chased him while Pie chased Kash.
***
NeNe
Three Days Later
“I’m outside, girl,” her sister said over the phone.
NeNe hung up the phone, returned it to its cradle, and then grabbed her pocketbook. With the remote, she clicked the TV off and radio on, then headed out the door. She really didn’t want to go out today, especially with her sister, who was creeping on Kash and doing so in his car.
Erica wanted to hook up with this guy from Bankhead Court, and NeNe just wasn’t feeling her sister’s actions. She didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to hear the million excuses why she was doing it.
NeNe made her way down the steps to Kash’s Range Rover that Erica sported as if she was some down-ass bitch. Once NeNe climbed into the truck, Erica pulled off. NeNe put on her seatbelt.
“Honey boo, yo’ ass takes too long,” Erica said in a rush.
“Girl, I was lying down,” she replied to her older sister, then put a hand on her small belly.
She listened to Erica talk while her mind was on Gangsta.
She couldn’t wait until Saturday so she could see him again. That was the only time she was able to touch him, feel him, smell him, and most of all kiss him. NeNe hoped he was missing her like she was missing him.
Thirty minutes later, Erica parked by the dumpsters and texted a number on her phone.
Minutes later, NeNe spotted three guys walking toward the Range Rover. She kind of thought she recognized one of the guys, but she wasn’t sure. A very, very black dude approached Erica’s side of the truck and leaned in. NeNe could instantly smell the weed coming off him, and another dude approached NeNe’s window while the one who looked familiar kept walking.
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” the guy asked with a heavy smell of beer on his breath.
“No, you don’t.”
She was about to roll up her window.
“Well, I’m PeeWee. Step out the car, ma.”
He pulled at the door handle, and NeNe was glad she had it locked.
“No, I got a man.”
“So? And I’ma boss,” PeeWee boasted.
“Well, I don’t care.”
She started rolling the window up as her sister and her friend laughed. She was uncomfortable and ready to leave. She wasn’t feeling this trip with Erica, and she was going to be sure to let her know.
***
Kash
The van pulled up to Macon State Prison and the big gate slid opened to let it in. It stopped to be checked by two females. Kash noticed both of the corrections officers were old and white as they checked around and under the van.
After the van was cleared, it pulled to the back of the intake building where the cert team was awaiting the new arrivals. Cert teams were elite groups of correctional officers that process inmates into any prison. They also were the ones wh
o mainly enforced order in the prisoners.
Kash was pulled off the bus along with three more inmates.
“Who is McCants?” the sergeant of the cert team asked.
He was a big white man with a heavy voice and big chest under his black shirt, which had cert written across the front.
“Me, sir,” Kash spoke up.
“You’re going to our lockdown unit. We don’t have all that stabbin’ shit here,” the sergeant said, then instructed everybody to go inside the intake building.
Kash had already figured he was going to lockdown because he’d been in the box at Smith three days, so he was ready to ride.
They placed Kash alone in a holding cell and locked the door. His property was outside of the cell. Kash quickly pulled five ounces out of the cuff of his nuts and stuck them under the steel bench. He stood at the door and watched the cert team strip search the other three inmates. He wondered if they would step in and search the room. He hoped not, but if they did, he knew they could not pin the weed on him. Moments later, one of the cert team members came to the door and unlocked it.
“Step out and grab yo’ property.”
Kash did as the man instructed him and was elated to see the man closed the door, but didn’t lock it. They did not take a long time to go through his property and to strip search him, and then they put him back into the room with his bomb and property. Kash quickly stuffed the weed in a pair of his socks that he had in his bag. Now he was more than happy to get his cell in the hole.
***
NeNe
She accepted the collect call. “Hello.”
“’Sup, baby? How are you doing?” Gangsta asked.
She smiled. Her and Erica were on the highway heading back home, and she was glad to hear his voice.
“I’m making it, baby.”
“How ‘bout my seed. How is he or she?” he asked, and it made NeNe put her hands on her stomach.
“Everything is fine.”
“I’ma see you Saturday, right?”
“Yes, if you be there. Your lawyer has you going to court in a few days. Did you not know that?”
“Nah, I didn’t know that.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s what your mother called and told me.”
“Okay,” Gangsta replied.
They continued their conversation until the fifteen minutes were up, and NeNe was full of love as they hung up.
“Girl, yo’ ass don’t love that boy,” Erica said while rolling her hazel eyes and looking at the road ahead.
“That’s my baby. Anyway, just ‘cause yo’ ass don’t got love for Kash doesn’t mean I do not have love for Gary, ‘cause I do.”
“How do you figure I don’t love Kash?”
Erica looked at her sister, and then back to the road ahead.
“Hell, you can’t, ‘cause you already messing around on him.”
“Let me tell you something, NeNe. I do love Kash with all my heart, but he’s got a life sentence. Life is life, so the boy ain’t never coming home. I’ve got a life to live. As long as I go see him, answer his call, and shit like that, Kash will be okay.”
“Well, I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be messing around with nobody four months after my man goes away,” NeNe replied, then added, “no matter how much time he’s got.”
She really meant that in her heart. No other guy mattered to her. She saw nobody else taking Gangsta’s place, no matter what. She knew Erica was the type of female who jumped from man to man. She’d been doing it since NeNe could remember. Her sister only dealt with thugs and drug dealers, who somehow, someway always ended up in prison or dead. NeNe had been dealing with her sister’s boyfriends for years, so it was nothing new to her. She just thought with age comes growth. She thought at twenty-nine years old, she would’ve grown.
***
Gangsta
Ms. Bell was doing paperwork in the front of the kitchen as Officer Green sat next to her at the table, getting his mack on. Gangsta kept going to the back, but didn’t forget to throw up the deuces. He walked into the office and spoke to Ms. Smith, and then headed toward the bakery.
It’d been two weeks since Ms. Bell and he hooked up, and nobody around them knew what was up, or at least that’s what he thought.
She only brought him four ounces, and she scared him when she did so because of how she panicked when she gave it to him. He’d also fucked her in the warehouse three times, and the pussy was amazing.
Gangsta was high out of his mind when he walked into the bakery. He pulled his shirt off and put on an apron. An older guy who had been locked up thirty-two years was now working with him, and he was already in his mode when Gangsta walked up.
“What’s up, ol’ man?” Gangsta spoke.
“What’s up, young blood?”
The man looked like a young George Foreman. He had the same bald head and build. He was light-skined with thick state-issued glasses.
“Coolin’.”
Gangsta began pulling pans out to warm the rolls up, and then he noticed Ms. Bell walked in holding some paperwork.
“Hey Mr. Morris. Umm, Jackson, come here a minute, please,” Ms. Bell said, and Gangsta noticed something was wrong so he wasted no time walking out to her.
“What’s up?” he asked as he approached.
“I’m scared.”
“It’s good to be scared, baby girl.”
“Officer Green said he overheard the lieutenant and the sergeant talking about us.”
“Fo’ real?”
“Yes,” she replied, walking away when the other inmates got in ear shot.
Gangsta just shook his head and went back into the bakery. He was lost in thought and wondering what was going on. He wondered how word got to the officers so fast.
When kitchen duty was over, Gangsta left without speaking to anybody. Ms. Perry signed him into the pod. He stripped down out of his clothes and took a hot shower for the next thirty minutes. He was still trying to wrap his mind around how they were exposed and who could’ve exposed them. All that day and well into the night Gangsta analyzed the situation and came up empty handed every time. At lockdown, Ms. Perry told him he was being transferred. He knew it was for court.
Chapter 15
Kash
Two Weeks Later
“You need to get down and put a shirt on,” the officer said.
Kash was hanging on the top rail doing pull ups and only looked at the woman. He let go and came down hard. He had sweat dripping from his body as he grabbed his shirt. He looked the woman up and down before pulling the shirt over his head. Her name was Officer Wishob, and by far she was beautiful. She was one of the best looking officers around, Kash heard through the chain gang gossip, but for some reason he didn’t like her.
He’s been out of the hole two weeks now, and he was already doing his thang. He liked this camp more than Smith, he just didn’t like the inmates. Kash walked away from the officer and into his cell. He saw a letter on his bed from Erica. She still tried to hold him down, but the love was fake, and he saw it clearly. Most of the time when he did call her collect, he would only speak to NeNe. She kept him informed about Gangsta, who was back at Rice Street awaiting trial.
Kash’s cellie was a scary white man that hardly ever came into the cell, and when he knew Kash wanted space, he stayed gone. Kash laughed to himself as he opened the fake ass letter Erica had written. Minutes later, after he read and flushed the lies on the paper, his cell door swung open and his slick partna strolled in eating a honey bun wrapped around two beef and cheese sticks.
“Fi’ up, shawty.”
“Roll it. It’s on the table, bruh,” Kash replied.
Kash’s partna was tall, lanky, and slim. He was black as the night skies with a mouthful of gold teeth. His name was Blue. Blue also had a life sentence plus forty. He was from Summer Hill and had been in prison sixteen years. He worked up front in the visitation area and was one of most trusted inmates around the camp, being that he’d been in Macon ten ye
ars.
They smoked three joints of mid and made a bombay. Kash put his cup inside his locker and jumped in the shower, high out of his mind.
***
Veedo
His right-hand man and he pulled into the parking lot of Burger King on Northside Drive. Veedo parked and got out, followed by his partna, Rock. They strolled into the restaurant and noticed the two girls at a table waiting on them, so they made their way over.
“What’s up?”
Veedo slid into the booth, and Rock did also. The girls both were young, but old enough to handle business.
“Hey,” they both spoke in whispers.
“What happened today?” Veedo asked.
“We didn’t show up,” one of the girls said.
“Okay cool. ‘Preciate it.” Veedo reached inside his pocket and pulled out two knots of cash. “Here’s ten racks each.”
Gangsta had Veedo paid the two witnesses on his case not to show up to court because they were the only ones who could nail him. Veedo did not hesitate to leave Albany and help out his partna. Both girls pocketed the money.
“Now listen, we’ve got to be real about the whole situation, so do as the two of you agreed to do and stay ghost. If y’all need help, I can take y’all down south for a few weeks until trial is over.”
Both girls looked to one another, and then back at Veedo and Rock before they agreed to go down south.
“First, how old are y’all?” Rock asked, speaking for the first time.
“I’m 18 and she 19. Why?”
“Shit, we just checking,” Veedo shot back and stood up to leave.
He was followed by the two new girls, whom he had plans to put to work once they hit Albany.
***
Gangsta
“How do you feel?” his lawyer asked as he embraced Gangsta with a firm hug.
“I feel good. Now, I need you to get my parole officer to release me,” Gangsta replied and waved to his mother and Terry as they left the courtroom.
The Streets Bleed Murder Box Set Page 14