BURY ME A G, #1

by Tranay Adams

  “What the fuck is this?” He stammered, eyes lit with fright.

  “You tell me.” She patted him down for a weapon, but came up with nothing. “Did Faison send you here for me? If so, he done fucked up ‘cause I’ma ‘bout to send yo’ ass back in a bag.”

  “Oh, God, I don’t know any Faison.” The delivery man swore nervously. “I’m just a flower delivery man.” He trembled with fear.

  Chevy reached into his suit and pulling out a business card, she read over it: Jerry’s Floral Arrangements. She then removed her gun from under the delivery man’s chin and told him to kick rocks. The delivery man ran off of the porch. He stumbled and nearly fell but kept on going.

  Chevy picked up the flowers and removed the card attached to it. She opened it up and Ruben Studdard’s I’m Sorry played. The inside of it was signed Faison. She took the card and flowers and dumped them into a trashcan out on the curb. She gave the Buick Regal one last look before heading back up the steps into the house.

  ***

  Faison sat in the backseat of the Buick Regal watching the whole scene play out. He was crushed when he saw Chevy dump the flowers he’d delivered to her in the trashcan.

  “Bossman, did you peep that?” Bird asked from the front passenger seat. He was a dark skinned cat with beady eyes and a hairstyle that put you in the mind of Coolio in his Gangster’s Paradise music video.

  “I saw.” Faison replied as he casually sipped Cognac from a plastic cup.

  “Lil’ momma a G behind hers, you’re engaged to a rider, fa’sho’.” Bone declared from behind the wheel of the Buick Regal. He was a muscular dude with a deep voice and a shaved head. He was the oldest between him and Bird and had put in the most work. Faison nodded his head. Bone looked into the rearview mirror and saw Faison’s glassy eyes. He could tell he was hurting. “Yo’, fam, you want us to snatch baby momma up?”

  Faison was quiet for a time before he replied, “Nah, fuck her.”

  Chapter 9

  Five days later

  Chevy stood beside her Caprice with her arms folded across her chest. Her eyes were hidden behind burgundy tinted Chanel shades that covered most of her face. Her long and normally jet-black hair was now blonde. She had gotten it dyed the week before after Tiaz told her how beautiful she’d look with it. She hadn’t dreamed of changing her hair color, but since he thought it would make her more enticing she decided to give it a shot. When her hairdresser unveiled her new style, she was floored. She fell in love with her new look.

  Chevy chewed on gum as she checked her appearance in the sideview mirror for the umpteenth time, fixing her hair. She twisted the cap off of her M.A.C lip gloss and smoothed some over her luscious lips. Hearing a buzzer at her rear, she hurriedly put the cap back on her lip gloss and tossed it into her purse. She turned around just in time to see the gate of the prison rolling back. She spat out her gum and straightened out her D&G salmon colored dress. When the gate had rolled all of the way back, her man stood out in full view. He was in a charcoal gray short sleeve Dickie shirt, which he wore buttoned at the neck with matching pants and dark shades sat at the top of his head, making him resemble a black Cholo.

  Chevy’s eyes became glassy when she saw her man. A smile stretched across her face and she folded her lips inward. She fanned her misting eyes and pounced up and down. She was overwhelmed. It was like she was in a desert and he was a mirage. It couldn’t be him standing there, live and in the flesh. She cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, tears flooding her cheeks now.

  Tiaz was smiling like a mothafucka while feasting his eyes on his boo. She was even more beautiful than she was in her pictures. It still hadn’t hit him that he was free, so seeing her really had him fucked up in the head. He wanted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Chevy took off running toward her man, and he took off right behind her. She leapt up into the air and he caught her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

  They kissed long, hard, and passionately, like the world was falling apart around them and it would be their last time doing so.

  Tiaz carried her over to the Caprice and laid her down on the hood. She cupped his face as their heads bobbed from their kissing. His hand slid up her dress and he moved to slip off her white cotton panties, but she grabbed him by the wrist. She pulled her head back and looked into his eyes smiling, still in disbelief that he was right there with her right now.

  “Easy tiger, we’ve got plenty of time for that.” She slid off the hood of the car.

  “Mind if I drive? It’s been a minute since I’ve sat behind the wheel.”

  “Hey, knock yourself out.” She gently punched him in the chin. He ran over to the driver’s side and she tossed him the carkeys. He resurrected the engine and she slid in on the passenger side. He turned the key in the ignition and resurrected the vehicle, driving off.

  Tiaz gunned down the freeway doing eight-five miles an hour. Chevy stuck her head out of the window and allowed the wind to blow through her hair causing it to waft like a lone T-shirt on a clothes line. She smiled as she climbed out and sat down on the windowsill. She shouted like a drunken white girl as she held her fists in the air. Today was a beautiful day. She was young, she was alive, and her man had come home.

  A smile emerged on Tiaz’s face hearing Chevy make all of those crazy noises. He looked into the rearview mirror and saw a police cruiser far off in the distance. “Aye, get back in, The Ones our coming up.”

  She ducked back inside and rolled up the window. She took her pack of Newports from out of the ashtray and pulled a square from out of the box. She lit up the square and blew out a gust of smoke.

  “I went out and got chu a few things to wear out on job interviews.” Chevy grabbed a Macy’s shopping bag from the backseat and sat it on her lap. She went through the items inside with her freehand while the other held her smoldering cigarette. She pulled out a buttondown shirt, laid it against her chest along with its matching tie. “What chu think?” She asked of the two items. Tiaz spared the items a glance.

  “That’s what’s up.” He refocused his attention back to the road.

  “I got chu some shoes, too. They’re Mauri’s Italian leathers.” Chevy removed a lid off the shoebox and pulled out a lone black leather alligator skin shoe. The shoe was so clean they had a polish to them like a buffed floor.

  “Yeah, those are fly,” Tiaz declared. “I can fuck with them.”

  “I gotchu a few other things, they’re back there in the bags.I don’t know your style, so I bought you an assortment of things. I kept the receipt, so if you don’t like them you can take them back.”

  “I’m sure I’ll love them, babe.” He leaned closer and gave her a peck on the lips.

  “Where are we headed?”

  “Inglewood Cemetery,” Tiaz answered. “I haven’t visited my father in five years. Are you down?” He held out his balled fist.

  “I’m down.”She dapped him up. The rest of the ride to the cemetery, she leaned her head against his muscular arm and closed her eyes, a grin forming on her face.

  ***

  Tiaz pulled the Caprice to a stop at the top of the hill that overlooked his father’s grave site. He reached into the backseat and grabbed a bouquet of flowers he’d gotten on the way over. Opening the door, he turned around to Chevy. “I’ll be right back,” kissing her on the lips before hopping out of the car. He made his way down the rich green grassy hill, en route to his old man’s resting place, occasionally glancing at the various headstones surrounding him. Once he reached the one he was looking for, he kneeled down and laid the flowers down. He stuck his hands inside of his pockets and stared down at the black marble with Melvin Eugene Petty engraved in it.

  Tiaz mother had passed away while giving birth to him, which left him in his father’s care. His old man was okay. He wasn’t big on showing affection, though. He pretty much let him do as he pleased just as long as he knew what time he was coming in and he maintained at least a C
average.

  Melvin Petty wasn’t anyone’s fool. He worked two jobs. He worked security at the Staple Center and drove a cab at night. He was at home just long enough to take a shower and grab a bite to eat on his way back out of the door. With him working constantly, he knew his boy would have a lot of free time on his hands. Free time that he knew he’d most likely use to get into mischief. That’s why he was given a list of chores and a set of rules that he’d have to abide by just as long as he was living under his roof.

  Father and son were getting along quite well. Everything seemed to be alright until the old man lost his job. He couldn’t maintain his living expenses working as a cab driver alone, so he turned to the streets. Picking up a gun, he robbed every trap house, D-boy, and corner hustler he came across. When things got too hot for him to handle alone he took his only son on as a partner. Together they took the underworld by storm leaving every Top Dawg in the game shook.

  That was until karma came knocking and they found themselves before the barrel of the gun instead of behind it. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Exhaling, he thought back to the night that his father had been murdered in cold blood.

  “Goddamn you, Cordell, don’t chu kill my boy! Don’t chu touch ‘em!” Melvin shouted from the chair he was bounded to, spittle flying from his lips and his nostrils flaring. His hands were nailed to the armrests of the chair and his ankles were duct-taped to its legs. His face was bloody and bruised. His left eye was swollen shut while the right was narrowed from swelling. His broken nose was double in size and his busted lips caused him to talk funny. He and his son had spent the past hour being beaten by Cordell’s henchmen. It was a setup. They had gotten a bogus lead that led them straight into a trap.

  Cordell held a silver .357 Magnum revolver against a young Tiaz’ head causing it to bend at an angle. The boy had gotten his issue just as his old man had. His injuries mirrored his own. The blood that had ran from his face and down his neck had stained the collar of his wife beater pink. His eyes were staring out of their corners and his lips were a straight line.

  He knew the risk of the deadly game he and his old man were playing, but he was still scared to die. His pop’s made sure he was well aware of the graveyard risks they were taking and he agreed to go along with them.

  With that in mind, Tiaz decided he wasn’t about to tuck his nuts in the face of death. Nah, fuck that, he was going to let them hang.

  Cordell looked from Tiaz to Melvin wearing a devilish grin as he held that steel to the side of his melon. He got a kick out of watching the older man beg for the life of his son.

  “Now why wouldn’t I kill this lil’ mothafucka, huh? Tell me why?” His lips peeled back into a sneer. “Gimmie one good goddamn reason. And maybe, just maybe I’ll let ‘em walk.”

  Melvin was quiet for a time as he looked away trying to conjure up a good enough reason to have his son exonerated.

  “Welp.” Cordell shrugged. “I guess this is goodbye, junior.” He cocked the hammer of his revolver with his thumb and moved to squeeze the trigger.

  “No! No! No! Wait!” Melvin shouted, seeing his son’s brain about to get splattered.

  “You better start doing a whole lotta talking real fast.” Cordell’s eyebrows arched and his nose scrunched as he gritted his teeth. Tiaz squeezed his eyelids closed tightly, waiting to be delivered to heaven or hell, whichever came first for people who’d done the dirt he’d done.

  “The money, all of the money we’ve stole since we’ve been kickin’ in does.” Melvin spoke fast, hoping to change the course of his baby boy’s fate.

  “Money, huh? How much are we talking here?”

  “Half—half a million dollars.”

  “Five hundred big ones, huh? I hear ya talking, but chu gon’ have to show me something.” He put the hammer back into its rightful place and took the gun away from Tiaz’ temple causing him to sigh and relax. “I want that money right here and right now. So where is it?”

  Melvin closed his eyes and swallowed, taking a deep breath, thanking the Lord for sparing his offspring. When he peeled his eyelids back open, he started rattling off the address where the money was hidden and were he’d stashed it.

  Cordell sent his men after the loot. An hour later they returned with a Puma duffle bag. He ordered them to unzip the duffle bag and hold it open. When they did as instructed, his eyes were pleased by the contents inside. One of the henchmen zipped the duffle bag back up and dropped it at Cordell’s feet.

  “Now your end of the bargain.” Melvin nodded to his boy, keeping his eyes on his abductor.

  “Right. I am a man of my word.” Cordell turned to one of his men. “Release the boy.”

  The henchman worked the nail back and forth with the hammer causing Tiaz to frown and clench his teeth, blood splattered on the scratched up hardwood floor creating a small pool.

  Snikt! Thump! Snikt! Thump!

  The nails made their noise as they dropped to the floor, stained with blood. The henchman kneeled to the floor, sitting the hammer down and unsheathing a knife. He sliced the duct-tape around the boy’s ankles and snatched it loose.

  Tiaz rose to his feet wincing as he looked at his wounded hands. He quickly forgot about them when he realized his father hadn’t been set free, yet. He ran toward him but Cordell stepped in his path. He stared up at him like, Get the fuck out of my way or get your ass bowled over.

  “Give us a minute, please.” Melvin asked of Cordell and he moved from the young man’s path. “Come here, son.” He winced, aching from the injuries to his hands and face. His boy stepped before him. “Get outta here, son.”

  “Pop, I’m not leaving here without you. Fuck these niggaz.” He mad dogged all of the opposing man in the room, then he looked back to his father.

  “Listen, you’ve gotta get outta here now. If you don’t, we’re both dead. Please.”

  There was silenced as father and son stared into one another’s faces. Their eyes saying what their mouths hadn’t the courage to mention. Melvin hadn’t been too big on affection with his first born, so he let his actions show him what he couldn’t verbalize.

  “I love you, son.”

  Those words made Tiaz’ eyes turn glassy, but he refused to shed a tear in front of the men present. Without saying a word, he wrapped his arms around him firmly. His father kissed him on the cheek and the side of the head.

  “Go, son, go! Get outta here.” Melvin threw his head toward the door.

  “I love you too, pop.”

  “I know. Now gon’ son, get!”

  Tiaz headed for the door, glaring at the henchmen as he went along. He stopped at the one that had just opened the door for him, hocking up spit and hawking it into his face. The man closed his eyes and pulled his handkerchief from his breast pocket, wiping his face clean. Tiaz crossed the threshold out of the door.Going down the steps he heard the muffled commotion coming from inside of the house he just left.

  “It’s time to pay your tides, Mel.” He barely heard Cordell say.

  “Ol’ Melvin Petty has always been good for it. I always pay my debts.”

  “And that’s why I fucks with chu.”

  “You just remember when it’s all said and done, theygon’ bury me a G, you hear me? Bury me a mothafucking G! A G! A...”

  Bop! Bop! Bop! Bop!

  Once the shots went off, Tiaz closed his eyes and tears shot down his cheeks. He never broke his stride as he headed out of the front yard of the trap house, though.

  He was sure of one thing at that moment, he wouldn’t rest until he avenged his father’s murder. And he did too. With the assistance of Threat, he tracked down all parties involved. His execution of them was swift and carried out with extreme prejudice. It was with this blood pact that he and Threat’s brotherhood was sealed.

  Tiaz got down on his knees and placed his hands on the sides of the gravestone. He looked at the scars on his hands he’d gotten twelve years ago when Cordell’s men had nailed his hands to the armrests of
the chair. He couldn’t help thinking of how Jesus must have had the same scars that he had when he was nailed to a cross. He had been crucified by his own while he was being crucified by the streets.

  Tiaz touched his forehead to the cold marble of the gravestone and closed his eyes. He held it there for a time before kissing it and getting to his feet, smacking dirt from his hands.

  “Later, pop.” He headed back to the car.

  ***

  “Who house is this?” Chevy asked Tiaz as she stared out of the window at the white and green house they’d just pulled up to.

  “This is my dude Threat’s spot. He’s supposed to let me hold something until I get back on my feet.I’ll be right back.” Tiaz pecked Chevy on the lips and hopped out the Caprice. He bailed into the yard and up the steps, knocking on the door. A moment later, Threat pulled open the door dressed in a wife beater and boxer briefs, smoking on a smoldering blunt. His eyes lit up when he saw his brethren and he embraced him with a manly hug.

  “I thought chu said you weren’t getting out until tomorrow, old lying ass nigga?” He threw phantom punches at his brother from another.

  “I wanted to surprise you. Let me hit that.” Tiaz held out his hand for the blunt. Threat let him have it and he took a few puffs.

  Threat looked over Tiaz’s shoulder into the Caprice where he saw Chevy sitting shotgun. She smirked and waved at the shorter thug and he waved back. “Come in, fool.” He patted Tiaz on the back and he lumbered his bulky frame inside.

  “That’s you girl, Chevy, sitting in the Caprice?” Threat asked. Tiaz noddedyes. “She’s a bad one, Crim.”

  “Penpals.com, huh?”

  “Yep.”Tiaz responded journeying down the hallway.

  “Man, they got bitches that look like that on there? I should have made me an account,” Threat said, leading the way down the corridor. “Have a seat in the living room, I’ll be right back.” He ducked off into his bedroom, purposely leaving the door open so his righthand could see inside. Lying in the bed fast asleep under silk bed sheets was a thick ass Dominican chick with golden skin and long reddish brown hair. She was a big woman with a really pretty face that reminded most men of the porn star Angie Love.