by Erica Hilton
***
Lil Nut made a promise to himself that before his father was given a proper burial, Lamiek, Lite, and Blue Bug would meet his father at the crossroads. He knew he needed to strategize or else he’d be the one meeting his father. What he had on his side was anonymity. As far as the neighborhood knew, he was a ghost. They no longer knew his movements, but he knew theirs. He knew that Blue Bug would be walking with heat and bodyguards whenever he came to see his wisdom. He would be the hardest to catch. Lamiek and Lite wouldn’t be that much of a challenge. They were both creatures of habits.
Lil Nut hated to involve Samantha in his plans to assassinate his former friends and boss, but he didn’t have any choice. They had gone too far in murdering his father, thus pushing his hand. Even if Lil Nut wanted to chill, he couldn’t.
“Listen, I need you to keep your ear to the ground and find out the movements of Lamiek. But you gotta be slick. From what you tell me, GG ain’t a stupid broad—”
“She ain’t smarter than me,” Samantha said defensively.
“Nah, I’m not saying that. I know she ain’t book smarter than—”
“She ain’t street smarter than me either!”
Lil Nut exhaled. He had to proceed with caution. He didn’t want to offend Samantha, but he didn’t have time to stroke her ego. His father was just taken away from him for good. There ain’t no coming back from the dead.
“Will you just listen and hear me out? Y’all can compare SAT scores later. This is important. My fucking pops is lying stiff-cold in the morgue over these two cowards.”
“I’m sorry . . . you’re right. This isn’t about me, and I want to help you as much as I can.”
“OK, bet. Check it. Call GG and see if you can get her to tell you where Lamiek is, or if he’s coming over her house tonight. That way I can creep over there and splatter his fucking brains.”
“That won’t work. As you just stated, GG isn’t a dummy, and she’ll be hip to my game. If Lamiek told her that he was the reason your father was murdered, and that y’all beef just got heated up, she’ll be protective about giving up any info. She’s grimy as hell and knows the game from her brother.”
“Damn! Then how can I catch him?”
“Well instead of him being the target, why don’t you make yourself the target? Why don’t you be the bait? I’ll help you.”
“You’ll help me get killed? How that sound?”
Samantha giggled. “Do I even need to say that your remark was stupid? Why would I help you get killed? I love you.”
The L word made Lil Nut squeamish. Before they had sex he thought he loved her. Now he realized that he no longer felt that way. And that he never felt that way. It was all superficial. Getting shot and her being there for him had clouded his judgment. She was the only female contact he’d had while hiding out and being on the run from niggas who wanted him dead. Now that he was adjusting back into society, he didn’t feel that they had gotten to that part of their relationship yet, and he didn’t know how to respond, so he said nothing.
Samantha continued. “What I mean is, I will call GG and tell her that you asked me if could you come over to my house tomorrow while my parents are out of town, and that I was afraid to tell you no. I’ll tell her that you said you were coming for some sex, but I don’t trust you, and that I think you’re really coming to quiz me about getting shot. I’ll tell her that if you think I had something to do with setting you up, you’ll kill me, and that I’m scared. We both know that she’s going to relay that information to Lamiek. Now all you gotta do is be outside and lay low while they’re outside trying to lie low on you. When you get the opportunity, then do what you need to do.”
Lil Nut had to admit that it was a perfect plan. And gangster. He didn’t realize that his book smart girlfriend was actually street smart too.
“I’m really feeling this plan,” he said. “OK, ma, put it into motion, and call me back. Remember, be slick about it, and if you think she’s on to you in the slightest, let me know.”
“I know how to handle GG.”
“Cool. Talk to you later. Bye.”
In a rushed, nervous voice, Samantha replied, “OK, love you, bye!” And hung up.
Lil Nut couldn’t help but laugh to himself. He figured that he’d better start loving Samantha back, especially since she was a good girl and all.
***
As she promised, Samantha set up everything. She told GG that Lil Nut was to arrive at nine o’clock, so Lil Nut figured that Lamiek and Lite would get there early to wait on him. He wasn’t sure if they planned to murder him going into Samantha’s, or catch him coming out. He guessed it would all depend on opportunity.
Lil Nut borrowed his aunt’s hooptie and made his way uptown to Samantha’s residence. He didn’t have a clue how Lamiek and Lite would creep up, how many would be in the goon squad, or how much ammunition they would have. All he knew was that he couldn’t make any mistakes, nor could they peep that he was there. Before he left he called Samantha.
“I’m sure at some point GG will call me to make sure you’re here,” Samantha said. “Now if you’re supposed to come at nine o’clock, and they don’t see you come in the building, they’ll probably only wait a little while. If Lamiek asks GG to call me, then I’ll say that you’re up here and that you came earlier. Do you think that’s a good idea? Or should I just say you didn’t come yet?”
“Hell, yeah, that’s a good idea. You’re a pro at this. Remind me never to get on your bad side. If Lamiek gets GG to call you, say like you said, that I’m already there and that I came over early to surprise you. That way they’ll only be looking at your front door, and they won’t be so on point.”
Lil Nut pulled up shortly after five o’ clock because he didn’t know how early Lamiek would show up. He’d dressed in all black and in layers to prevent the cold from getting to him because he couldn’t keep the car running out of fear he’d easily be spotted. He parked on the opposite side of the street, figuring Lamiek would want to be on the same side, not too far from the front door.
As the hours passed, Lil Nut was frozen. He kept running his fingers in and out of his pockets to keep them warm. He desperately wanted to cut on the car to get some heat. As each hour passed, he grew more discouraged that his plan had failed. He felt like a loser. He’d let his mother down last year, and this year he’d let down his father.
Nine o’clock came and went. As eleven o’clock steadily approached, Lil Nut decided to see if he could catch them around their way. Maybe he would get lucky and catch them slipping. First he thought about driving over to GG’s, and if Lamiek wasn’t there, he’d shoot over to his old neighborhood.
As he wondered whether he should call Samantha to see if GG had called, an old Oldsmobile came creeping down the block. Lil Nut ducked down into the driver’s seat and peered through his side view mirrors. The car glided at a slow pace, finally stopping in front of Samantha’s apartment building. It was brick cold outside and deserted. Lil Nut shook his head once he saw Lamiek in the driver’s seat, Lite as the passenger, and a third person in the back. He prayed to God it was Blue Bug and he’d be able to kill three birds with three stones.
He went over and over in his head how he would do it. He wondered if everyone in the car was strapped. He’d have to be quick as lightning to be able to pull off shooting three armed men without getting hit himself. And on the thought of getting shot again, Lil Nut realized that he didn’t have room for error.
Finally, Lamiek parked and cut off his car. As they sat there, Lil Nut sat. Lil Nut didn’t know why he was hesitating, but the moment just didn’t seem right to him. He kept peering out of his back window, looking back at the carload of men. They were talking, laughing, and even singing. They were too lax. Lil Nut rationalized that they felt he was already inside the apartment. They must have planned to ambush him c
oming out of the building in the wee hours of the morning.
By four o’clock in the morning, Lil Nut had been there almost twelve hours. He was frozen stiff, and if it wasn’t for sheer determination, he would have pulled off and gone home. He flexed his fingers in and out for a few minutes until they warmed up, took one more peek through the back window at the peanut butter and tan colored Oldsmobile, and discreetly slid out of his driver’s seat. He crawled down the darkened Harlem street on his hands and knees until he was almost to the corner. Lil Nut tossed his hood over his head and walked across the street. He took another peek and realized that they hadn’t spotted him.
In a crouching position, he crept toward the car with his gun aimed and cocked. He could see Lamiek’s head resting on the window, asleep, and Lite staring straight ahead. Lil Nut steadied his gun and decided to take aim at Lite first.
Boom! Boom! Lite clutched his chest with both hands and began to scream. Lamiek’s eyes popped opened, but Lil Nut was already hitting up the back passenger. Boom! Boom! Lamiek opened up the driver’s side door and bolted. Lil Nut was on his heels quickly. Boom! Boom! Boom! Lamiek fell face-first onto the cold pavement. Lil Nut stood over him and emptied his gun into his head.
“This is for my pops, you faggot!”
A few lights began clicking on inside people’s apartments. Lil Nut ran toward his aunt’s car, tripping over his sneaker laces and scraping his knee on the pavement. Quickly he hopped back up and tore out of there like he’d just committed a triple homicide. It took him a few minutes to steady his hands from shaking, and for his heart rate to slow down to a normal pace. During the whole ride back to Queens, he continued to look over his shoulder for the police. He hoped and prayed to God that no one had seen him. Then he convinced himself that if he did get caught and had to go to prison, at least those bastards were dead.
As soon as he got inside his aunt’s house he called Samantha. He made sure his voice wasn’t shaking. He didn’t want her to know that he was terrified.
“The police are all over this place!” Samantha’s voice had elevated to a high pitch.
“Well what did you think would happen?”
His response must have plucked her nerves, because she replied, “I guess I didn’t really think about that!”
“Why are you yelling at me? You helped me do this!”
“I didn’t kill anyone!”
“What are you saying? You’re gonna snitch me out, because if you do, you’re just as much going down with me. If you didn’t help me set them up, they’d still be alive!”
When Samantha began to sob heavily on the phone, Lil Nut realized he’d made a mistake involving her. She was already folding under pressure, and the heat hadn’t even knocked on her door.
“Did you hear from GG?” he asked.
“No,” she whimpered. “I’m sure she doesn’t know yet.”
“Are you by the window? Tell me what’s going on outside.”
“What’s going on? It’s a fucking crime scene!”
Lil Nut had finally had it. That was the last time he was going to allow her to disrespect him.
“Samantha, don’t diss me by talking to me like that. One thing I don’t do is disrespect women. My moms taught me better. Ya parents should have taught you not to disrespect a man.”
“Well I’m sorry you feel that I’m dissing you, but I’m upset!”
Samantha refused to fold, and Lil Nut began to realize that he really didn’t know her that well.
“Well I’ma let you go and be upset.”
Lil Nut disconnected the line, which only infuriated Samantha more. She called back and the loud ringing threatened to wake up his aunt. He picked up the receiver, hung it back up, and then took it off the hook.
***
After shooting the backseat passenger, who was not Blue Bug, Lil Nut realized he still had one adversary left. Once he bumped him off, he’d be able to go back to his block in Brooklyn and stop hiding out like a little bitch. Each night he thought about how to get at Blue Bug. He drove around on the low in his unmarked car looking for him, but to no avail. In two days he’d be laying his father to rest, and if he didn’t get Blue Bug by then, he wouldn’t be able to attend his father’s funeral. Not only that, if Blue Bug didn’t get Lil Nut soon, then Lil Nut figured his mother’s life could be in danger. He told her to stay inside and not to come out until he handled the situation. Word on the street was that Blue Bug planned on kidnapping his mother in order to lure Lil Nut out of hiding.
In a nanosecond the answer came to him as if his father were still lurking around. When Milton told him about the ten crack commandments, he said that anyone was susceptible to setting up a motherfucker, even your moms. Lil Nut had proved that right when he got Samantha to go against the grain and help him set up Lamiek and Lite. Now he needed another ally.
Lil Nut remembered that his mother had told him that Blue Bug and Lady Bug had broken up, and he’d stopped coming around. Lady Bug’s mother had apparently driven a wedge between the couple, because she felt her daughter deserved more than what Blue Bug was giving her. It wasn’t a secret in the hood that Blue Bug was a cheap motherfucker. And what Lil Nut had that could work in his favor was a safety deposit box full of money, money that he’d earn back once he was able to go back on his block. His neighborhood was a goldmine with all the crack fiends lurking around. Any smart hustler could make money hand over fist.
Lil Nut made the call, and to his amazement, Lady Bug’s mother, Princess, was ready to sit down and make a deal. Lil Nut crept over to Brooklyn in the early hours of the morning. Princess came downstairs to his mother’s house because she didn’t want her daughter to have any part in their deal.
“Look, Blue Bug gotta get got, and I need your help,” Lil Nut said.
Princess was in full gear. She had her head fully wrapped with a silk scarf covering her nose and mouth, and a long wrap covered her from head to toe. The only things showing were her eyes.
“Well my help is going to cost you,” she said. “Setting up a man who was almost my son don’t come cheap.”
“I know that, and I’m already prepared for all that. Name your price.”
Princess hated to be a greedy woman, and she always fancied herself smart. She sized up Lil Nut and saw the determination in his eyes. That determination made her feel safer. She knew that if he fucked up and Blue Bug put two and two together, then not only would her life be over, but her daughter’s life as well. She’d already heard that Lamiek and Lite were executed in Harlem and the whole neighborhood speculated that they had gotten caught up in a drug deal gone wrong. But Princess knew better. She knew that Lamiek didn’t sell no drugs, and after Milton had gotten murdered, she knew it was only a matter of time before those two would end up dead.
“The information that I got will cost you twenty-five thousand.”
Lil Nut couldn’t believe his ears. He’d gotten Samantha to help him for free. He figured that Princess was accustomed to being spoiled since her daughter dated drug dealers for years, but jeez, twenty-five gees just to know the whereabouts of where a nigga rested his head? Plus, he still had to put in the work. It was absurd.
“You must gonna do the hit too, talking all that dough.”
“I see this is a waste of my time,” Princess said and began to stand.
“Hold on a moment,” Lil Nut said. “Let’s be reasonable here. Ma, how much do I got in the stash?” Lil Nut asked his mother, who was listening.
“You only carrying about seventeen thousand, and you can’t give her all of it. We got expenses too. Especially now that your father ain’t here.”
“Well that seventeen thousand ain’t gonna do neither one of you any good if Blue Bug murders Lil Nut, now is it?” Princess asked.
Lil Nut exhaled. “All I got is seventeen. Do we got a deal or not?”
Princess smiled like a Cheshire cat until her round eyes became slanted. “Seventeen will do me just fine. You bring me the money and I’ll give you the address.”
“You get half up front, and the balance upon completion.”
“It don’t work like that—”
“It will work like that. For all I know I can give you all my dough and you send me on a wild goose chase. And when I get back, you and Lady Bug done packed up never to be seen again.”
That thought had actually crossed her mind. As Princess was making this deal she was thinking of a way to outsmart Lil Nut. Not because she cared anything for Blue Bug. He was a vermin to her, but he was in the Five Percent Nation, and that should count for something. Now she realized that the young man standing before her wasn’t as stupid or as gullible as she thought he’d be.
“My word is my bond!” Princess said.
As Lil Nut thought about what he said to Princess about cheating him, he realized that if she was capable of stiffing him for his seventeen thousand, then she’d be capable of stiffing him for eighty-five hundred. He was sure that that was more money than she’d ever seen at one time in her whole life. He decided to up the ante.
“You know what, I don’t trust you,” he said. “In fact, the only person I trust is my moms. After my two friends tried to get me murdered, everyone is suspect. Now if you want the money, then you gotta come with me to get it.”
“That’s fine by me. Where you got it? In the bank or a stash house?”
“Nah, you misunderstanding me. You gotta come with me to get at Blue Bug in order for you to get it. My whole life savings is at risk, and I don’t know, you could be setting me up to get murdered, or to just take my blood, sweat, and tears.”
“Are you crazy?!”
“Not at all. The choice is yours. I’ll wait a few minutes for you to make up your mind. But once I walk out that front door, the deal is off the table and I promise you that I will catch Blue Bug before he catches me. Either way he’s getting put to sleep. Your only dilemma is whether you will cash in on his life insurance policy.”