by T. Styles
“What does that mean?” Danny asked.
“Ever since he took Parade he been on some other shit. I mean, at first it seemed like he ran into her by accident. Like it was some crazy situational fate type event but now, well now it feels personal.”
“Personal?” Danny asked. “For what?”
I scratched the top of my head and moved closer. “And why would Am’rak make things personal to her?”
“Like I said, man I don’t know,” Mercer shrugged as blood continued to pour down his face. “Do you know Am’rak?”
”Fuck nah.”
“Well, he’s very secretive. He only tells me what he wants me to know. For the most part he’s really close to his aunt who has been the key distributor to a drug dealer in Cuba ever since I was in diapers. She never been found out until recently. The thing is now she’s losing her mind a little and making mistakes. Just recently the DEA got a hold of some info that she may be responsible for bringing in work because she told her hairstylist while under the dryer…but I think…I think he may be about to frame Parade as the Queen Pin instead.”
I backed up.
“How?” Danny frowned.
“I’m telling you all I know,” Mercer continued. “Whatever you do, please don’t kill me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
JAY
The moment we got outside his aunt’s house Danny pushed me backwards. “Are you crazy?” He asked.
I swung at him but he ducked and missed my blow by inches. “Fuck wrong with you?” I yelled.
“Fuck wrong with me?” He pointed at himself. “I thought the plan was to question him. Not to hurt him. Don’t you realize I’m retired and borrowed the car to get info. If something happens to him I’m going to jail!”
“Are you serious?” I asked sarcastically. “These niggas got the woman who gave birth to my kids in some—”
“She had a part in this, Jay.” He said. “Let’s not forget that Parade willingly kept time with him to get the house back. She wanted to be where she is right now.”
“Meaning?”
“I just said it.” He paused. “Had Parade not willingly left with them none of this would be happening.”
“Danny, for your safety, I suggest you stop talking.” I warned. “I’m being all the way serious.”
“And so am I.”
“Just because she agreed to do whatever she agreed doesn’t mean, you know what…” I walked to the car and got inside the passenger seat. Just talking about this shit was sending me on edge and I wasn’t trying to hurt ole’ boy.
Danny waited a few minutes and then he got in the driver’s seat. “First let me say that I want Parade home just as much as you.”
“I doubt it but ‘aight.”
“I’m serious, Jay. If nothing else just to make sure Wayne stays out of this shit because I have a feeling if he doesn’t stop coming to your wife’s rescue he’s gonna kill our marriage and himself.”
I nodded. “Listen, if you got a problem with how I handle any of this I suggest you get out the car now. Because it’s very important that you know that I intend on seeing this through to the end.”
“Just let me talk when we get to his aunt’s house okay? Please, man.” He looked over at me. “I’m putting my reputation and life on the line.” He paused. “Alright?”
I looked out the window. “Let’s go.”
When we made it to a single-family house with a small garden out front I thought we were at the wrong address. There was no way that anybody who lived here sold drugs. It was a front, and a good one at that.
We walked up to the door and knocked several times. Immediately an elderly woman with white hair that looked like soft cotton opened it. Her skin was as wrinkled as freshly washed sheets and she was wearing a light blue muumuu with a red apron over it. From the scent of cake coming from inside I gauged she was baking.
“Hello, fellas.” She smiled. “Can I help you?” She looked up and down the block. “Lost?”
“No,” Danny said. “But we are here about possible drug activity in this neighborhood. Actually in your house.”
Slowly the smile vanished. In that second I could see the façade she held up for so long wash away. Now she looked like a drug lord. “I told my boy I couldn’t go through this and he promised me.” She dug into her pocket and texted someone. Next she reached into her other pocket and pulled out a gun.
“Ma’am,” Danny said with his hand hovering over his weapon. “Put the gun down. Please! All we wanna do is talk.”
She smiled, put it under her chin and blew her brains out. Her innards splattered on me and Danny’s faces.
“What the fuck! What the fuck!” Danny kept chanting. “What the fuck! What the fuck!”
I bent down and grabbed the old lady. “I’m going inside to see what I can find out.”
“Jay,” he grabbed my arm. “We have to leave now, man.”
I snatched away from him. “I’m going inside.” I dragged her body into the threshold.
Danny placed both of his hands in the air. “I can’t deal with this anymore. You know what, Jay, you are officially on your own.” He walked off and drove away.
I didn’t care. I closed the door behind him and walked through the house for answers. It didn’t take me more than a few minutes to find out everything I needed to know from a little red phonebook she kept on her kitchen table next to her house phone. She was definitely sloppy and I’m sure she was making other major mistakes. I knew more about Am’rak in that moment than he probably knew about himself. This woman recorded everything.
It was also clear after I saw some of the names in her book that Parade was in trouble. If they found out that his aunt was dead and that I did it they may try to hurt her in retaliation.
I had to get her away from him now.
****
AM’RAK
DOWN SOUTH (VIRGINIA)
Am’rak stepped out of the shower preparing to make some runs, only to see Parade lying on the bed asleep. He figured she was high as usual because lately she had been shooting up so much in the bathroom she was barely conscious when he saw her.
At first he was annoyed that she was hitting the bag so hard but with time he started not to care.
Besides, if things went his way tonight she would be arrested as The Queen Pin and his great aunt Quila would be free and clear. But since it was their last night together he figured the least he could do was get a shot of pussy for old times sake.
The moment he slipped in bed he was surprised to see that she was wearing no shirt or bra, only grey sweatpants. “Why you got clothes on girl?” He bit down on his bottom lip. “You normally sleep naked.” He slipped behind her since she was lying on her side.
She didn’t respond.
“Parade, stop the fake shit. I know you hear me.” He pushed down one side of her sweat pants preparing to fuck. “You know you gotta get up in a minute anyway since—”
Before he could respond there was a needle lodged in the side of his neck by Parade. It was filled with all the heroin she had requested from him over the days. She was able to push some into him but when he jumped up she plunged the heroin needle in his back and shot it in him as he tried to get away.
Am’rak thought she stayed high but outside of the first time Parade took a hit, when he inserted it into her arm, she hadn’t taken another hit since. Her plan was to make him think that she wasn’t aware of life so that he would let his guards down and that’s exactly what he did. She knew trying to kill him was dangerous because he could possibly murder her family but she had to take a chance. She even laid out how they would get away from L.A. after they stole more of his money.
“You fucking, bitch!” He yelled from the bathroom. “I’m gonna…I’m gonna kill you.”
After causing as much damage as she felt she could, she leapt off the bed and moved toward the stairs. Running down them she tripped and missed the last three steps, falling down to the bottom.
; Her legs and arms ached badly but she had to get away. Wearing no shirt, she opened the front door only to see Jay standing in front of her. Thinking she was losing her mind, she backed up into the house.
How could he possibly be there?
“Parade,” Jay said with tears in his eyes. “Bae, it’s me.”
Emotionally battered for days on end she shook her head left and right. “No…no it’s not. How, you didn’t even know where I was. You…”
He rushed inside and pulled her to him. “Parade, it’s me.” He gripped her strongly. “I found you.”
She looked up at him and cried so hard her body went limp. Exhausted and relieved, she fell into his arms and although Jay himself wasn’t one hundred percent on the mend after the accident, he managed to maintain the hold of his wife.
When she was a little calmer he separated from her and said, “Parade, where is dude? This nigga threatened my family and I, I did something I had to do and I gotta kill him before he kills us.”
“I killed him already.” She wiped tears from her eyes.
He frowned. “You killed him? How?”
“Yes, but, how did you get here?” She looked at him. “And are you okay? Should you be out of the hospital and—”
“I’m ’aight. I took an Impala from this dude’s aunt to come get you but we’ll get into all that shit later. You remember the nigga Cannon?”
So much was happening but Parade remembered him vaguely. “I, I’m not sure. Why?”
“Parade, he was the dude that Smokes hired to kill you when we lived in the manor.” He said. “Back in the day. Don’t you remember that shit? He was going to kill you over—”
“A game of Truth or Dare.” Her eyes widened. Now everything started to make sense. The similarities in Cannon and Am’rak’s facial features were un-canning. She knew he looked familiar but she was a grown woman with three kids and a husband. Miles away from her days back at the Manor so her memory was faulty about the past.
“He’s his son, Parade,” Jay continued. “And—”
“And it’s because of you my father not here!” Am’rak said from the top of the stairs. He was barely holding on but the .45 revolver he had aimed at them made him feel stronger. “I got a text from my aunt, nigga. And don’t even think about reaching for a weapon.” He slid down one step. Holding the rail with one hand and the gun in the other. “Your wife may have tried to kill me but I still got enough strength to pull this trigger.”
“It’s over, man,” Jay said moving Parade behind him to shield her. “The cops are at your aunt’s house right now. I made an anonymous call when I went through the house and saw all the drugs and shit yah were moving on these streets. A little sloppy if you ask me then again you already know. For her to be such a big dealer but whatever,” he shrugged. “What I don’t get is why you wanted to frame my wife?”
“Are you serious?” He laughed sliding down another step. “This bitch and her friends were the cause of my father having to leave Texas to do a hit. My mother hung herself when he died in prison. Before that she got hooked on heroin after learning he actually fell for that bitch!”
“I’m the one who had somebody kill your father in prison!” Jay corrected him. “Not my wife!”
“I don’t give a fuck who did it,” he laughed heartedly. “All I know is my life suffered behind this shit. And now we’re here.” He scooted down one more step.
Suddenly Jay started squinting and Parade noticed as Am’rak moved closer. “What’s wrong?” She whispered to Jay.
Jay smiled, pulled out the gun he got from his friend and aimed at Am’rak. Squeezing the trigger he splattered his brains all over the walls behind him. Parade lost her mind.
“WHAT, HOW DID YOU, HOW DID YOU KNOW HE DIDN’T…”
“The chamber wasn’t full and I saw only one bullet. I took my chances.”
It was then that Parade recognized the gun lying at the foot of the steps. It was the same one he gave her when the dirty cop moved on his house and he killed him.
Suddenly Jay’s phone beeped. When he looked down he got the worst message he wanted to see. “What is it?” Parade asked in horror.
“We gotta go now!” They ran out the door.
****
JAY
The moon was in rare form as it hovered above the filthy, grungy water that made up the Potomac River, causing it to shine in a liquid blue hue. A little to the right, on a patchy land that Chocolate City called Hains Point, Danny and Wayne stood on their knees, their gaze toward the river.
Their fate unclear.
Standing above them, Mercer aimed the warm barrel of a .45 in their direction, which had already been fired once as a warning shot indicating that he alone was in charge.
After what seemed like an eternity, slowly a black Impala rolled up in the parking lot some ways over from the group, the brightness of the headlights made Mercer squint slightly to see who was arriving. Normally policemen circled the tourist trap but a bomb threat had been called in not even three miles ahead to a government building, which required all available officers on deck.
It was Mercer who made the call.
When the car parked, the lights went out, placing the scene as it was before its arrival.
Dark.
Scary.
Uncertain.
Slowly Parade and Jay eased out, carefully toward the trio.
Observant, Jay glared at Mercer, believing that if he tried hard enough he could knock him to the ground and end this madness once and for all.
“Don’t be stupid!” Mercer suggested, aiming at Parade and Jay and then back at Danny and Wayne who were still on their knees. He killed Brad and Daley back at Danny’s aunt’s house for striking him in the face and was uneasy. Jay thought Danny’s cousins could handle him when they left and since Mercer was alive it was evident that they couldn’t. “I’m feeling kinda nervous right now. Don’t make me kill everybody out this bitch before you have a chance to hear me out.”
Jay’s hands went up in the air. “I’m unarmed.” He paused. “Please don’t do anything crazy.”
Mercer aimed at Parade. “Me too.” She cleared her throat. “Me…me too.”
Mercer returned his weapon onto the men on their knees and laughed. “Let me ask yah something right quick.”
“I’m listening,” Jay said.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a little liquor in the ride would you?” He snickered awkwardly. “Seeing as how at least one of you niggas are gonna die today.” He laughed hysterically. “We might as well drink to pouring blood.”
“Please don’t,” Parade felt light headed as her words left her mouth. Just thinking about losing Wayne was not an option and would surely bring her as close as possible to a nervous breakdown. “Please don’t hurt them. If you’re going to hurt anybody hurt me.”
“Maybe,” Mercer nodded. “I could certainly do that, but this is the mothafucka who pulled over my car and because of it, made me kill Quinn after realizing she had to be involved.”
Jay’s head rotated quickly toward Parade and then back at Mercer. He felt extreme guilt for Quinn’s death but it was all about his wife. “Hey, man, they didn’t have nothing to do with us,” he said about Danny and Wayne. “Don’t do this.”
“Why can’t I keep anything for myself, huh?” He yelled, spit flying from his mouth. “Why can’t I ever be happy? I fucking loved that girl!”
Parade was now crying so hard she could barely see. She couldn’t visualize any scenario that would end with them all leaving out safely. And since it was her fault she had to make a move.
So she charged Mercer, throwing him off guard. He expected Jay to try something but this was different. Aiming at her, since she jumped, he decided she could get a bullet first. But Danny seeing this knocked Mercer down with his body and then BOOM.
Parade screamed when she saw their bodies meshed together and Wayne quickly rose and looked at the two. It was difficult to see who was hurt because neither was m
oving and Danny was on top of Mercer. Afraid, Jay rushed toward them and when Mercer began to move it was obvious that Danny had taken the hit.
Wayne screamed at the top of his lungs as Parade grabbed the weapon. This was the worse that could happen. Danny moaned loudly, the wound causing him extreme pain. Wayne’s heart was ripped out in such a violent way.
After kicking Mercer in the gut and head repeatedly, Jay managed to remove his own weapon and shoot Mercer several times in the face. Just that quickly it was all over.
Parade untied Wayne’s arms before he rushed to Danny where he suffered a gunshot to the belly.
“I love you,” he said to Wayne. “You know that right?”
Wayne rocked him in his arms. “Baby, we gonna get you out of here.”
Jay untied Danny’s arms, tucked the gun behind his jeans and picked him up, before rushing him to the hospital.
EPILOGUE
The funeral was a disaster.
Wayne, for the first time in his life, was too weak both emotionally and physically to walk. Not even for his husband’s funeral and so he had to be pushed in with a wheelchair.
The crowd in and out of the church was massive yet sullen, causing the minister’s voice to disappear under the sounds of cries. Some wept because Danny Hurts was truly a good man and other’s because witnessing Wayne fall was too much to bear.
Parade fell in with the second group, blaming herself for it all. Her feelings weren’t without warrant. Had she never took Am’rak on none of this would’ve happened.
Wayne had shunned Parade since they’d returned back to L.A. so she was grief stricken. Even having her family safe and sound didn’t shield her pain.
But Parade had had enough. She drove to Wayne’s house where he was outside, on his knees in his garden planting roses. When he heard a noise he turned around and sighed, before focusing back on his garden again. “Danny was allergic,” he said.
“To what?” She asked softly.