Grind Mode

by Willie Slaughter

  *******

  Bee and Teddy watched as Mike pulled out of the projects.

  “Bee, what the hell Mike doing over here?” asked Teddy curiously.

  “Beats me. Let me hit this nigga up,” Bee said and then he jumped on the phone. He called him.

  “Hello,” Mike answered.

  “What’s up, fam?” Bee said.

  “Shit, chillin’. Getting my money up,” Mike replied.

  “Word,” Bee said, watching him. “I feel that, my nigga.”

  “Yeah, you know me,” Mike said.

  “That’s for real. Check game,” Bee said. “Where you at?”

  “On Corn at one of the spots,” he lied.

  “Yeah?” Bee said, heated.

  Bee knew he was lying and it didn’t sit too well with him. “Meet me about six on The Dark Side.”

  “Got you, Bee,” Mike said.

  They hung up. He couldn’t believe this shit he’d just witnessed. “What he say?” Teddy asked.

  “Bruh,” Bee said, still in disbelief, “the nigga just lied. I don’t know why.”

  “This Henry’s zone. Something ain’t right,” Teddy said.

  “Hell nah, it ain’t,” Bee said. “We need to find out before shit gets out of hand.”

  As they were talking, Henry hit Teddy’s line.

  “Talk to me,” Teddy answered. “What’s good with you?”

  “A whole lot,” Henry said. “I got to spend some time with my family. My pops died last night.”

  Teddy dropped his head. He hated to hear about a good nigga losing loved ones. “Damn, fam, my heart goes out to you and the family. If you need anything, just call. I got you, bruh.”

  “Alright,” Henry said.

  “One, fam,” Teddy said. He hung up and shook his head. “That was Henry. His pops passed last night.”

  “So he’s with his family,” Bee said.

  “Yep,” Teddy replied.

  “Good,” Bee said, a little relieved. “Let’s make our rounds and get this money to the spot. And call Dink to see if he’s ready so we can ship this money to Lil Will.”

  Teddy called Dink immediately. He answered his phone on the third ring. “Yeah,” he said, sounding irritated. “What up, Teddy?”

  “Just hitting you up to make sure everything is in order,” said Teddy. “A nigga trying to keep shit together and on a consistent timeline.”

  “I understand that, bruh,” said Dink, “but you still haven’t said what the fuck you called me for.”

  Teddy held his temper. Dink definitely knew how to get up under a nigga’s skin. He took a deep breath and said, “We collecting to ship out no later than tomorrow morning. Have the fucking money right.”

  Teddy hung up. He didn’t want to hear the bullshit he knew was about to come out of his oldest brother’s mouth.

  “I swear if that nigga wasn’t my mother and father’s son,” Teddy said still heated, “I would fuck his whole world up.”

  “You and everybody else,” Bee said and laughed.

  They pulled up on the Westside of Albany. Lil Nook and a couple of other niggas from the Westside Crew were out clocking dollars. Bee looked at them and shook his head and said to Teddy, “Man, I hope Lil Nook ain’t on the fuck shit today.”

  Lil Nook was a real Westside nigga. Bee had a run-in with him a couple of years ago about a Westside hoodie he was knocking off for a while named Trisha. He had cut her off shortly after because she was the possessive type. Just so happened, Trisha was Lil Nook's sister.

  He and Bee ended up knuckling up at The Fox. Bee had taxed his ass that night.

  They swerved up on the curve in front of the trap house that they had established on the Westside.

  Bee cocked his .45 and checked the clip and concealed it under his shirt before he and Teddy got out. They noticed Lil Nook watched them the entire time. Don D was sitting on the front porch when they walked up.

  “What up Teddy?” Don D said. “Bee?”

  Don D was old school. He used to run with Big Will, Teddy, and Bee’s pops back in the day. The word in the streets was Don D had fallen off, smoking the yams.

  The two brothers nodded. Don D got up and walked inside the house and they followed behind him. Inside, they sat down on the sofa. Don D tossed Bee a half ounce of grass and two blunts and said, “Make yourself useful, young gangsta, while I grab the cake.”

  Bee sat back and started twisting up. He had finished twisting up all three blunts and Don D still hadn’t shown back up. He began to get a bad feeling that some shit was about to go down.

  “Teddy,” he said while pulling out his strap, “check and see what that fool doing. It’s been over twenty minutes. It don’t take that long.”

  Teddy hopped up off the sofa. He cautiously made his way to the back room, trying his best not to make any noise just in case something was going down. When he peeped through the crack of the room door, he became pissed off. Don D had a crackhead sucking him off while he sucked on the glass dick.

  Teddy eased back to the living room and motioned for Bee to follow him. They crept back to the back room and peeped through the crack. Seeing the pipe in Don D's mouth was more than Bee could handle. He kicked in the door with the gun aimed at Don D.

  “Nigga, if you flinch wrong, I’m pushing your shit back,” Bee said angrily. “Bitch, get up!”

  The naked white lady got up off of her knees. The looks of her was disgusting. She was skinny, tall, and her breasts sagged damn near to her waist.

  “Hold on, young gangsta,” Don D pleaded. “I’m going to straighten it out. Give me a week.”

  He grabbed a brown paper bag from under the bed and tossed it to Teddy. “That’s a little over half of the money right there. Trust me, I’m going to fix it. It’s just that an OG be stressing sometimes, and a nigga need a quicker picker upper.”

  Bee’s trigger finger was itching and Teddy knew it.

  “Listen, Bee, if you twist this nigga’s shit loose, you got to finish the job. No witnesses,” Teddy said.

  Bee responded by letting two rounds go into the woman’s chest before walking up on Don D and dome calling him. Teddy hurried up and threw the rest of the product into a trash bag. On their way through the living room, Bee grabbed the blunts and weed, and they strolled out of the house like nothing had happened.

  Chapter Ten

  Teddy, Bee, Mike, Dink and their main runners had counted the money they had collected. They put their cuts to the side and then put the re-up money inside two briefcases. Dink, his mind being everywhere but it should’ve been, hadn’t paid attention to the count.

  “Nigga, how much this is?” he asked Teddy.

  “250 G’s, Dink,” Teddy said, frustrated. “Your ass would know if you would’ve been counting like everyone else.”

  Dink wanted to shoot back at him, but he let it slide. “Okay. Take that and this bag. It's 750 G’s. Give it to bruh.”

  “Okay,” Teddy said as he grabbed the duffle bag.

  “I’ll call him and let him know you on the way. I’m hitting 23rd and checking on this business I’m tryin’ to buy,” Dink said and then walked out.

  As he drove off, Dink was thinking about his brother Lil Will and how he was back on top of the game. He himself was clocking a major check, but it wasn’t shit compared to his brother’s bank. It wasn’t like he didn’t know who the connect was.

  As he thought about the shit, Dink got mad. In his mind, he was the oldest, so why was he taking orders instead of giving them?

  At that thought his phone rang. It was his partner. “Yeah,” Dink said.

  “I got something good for you,” the caller said. “You know where to meet me.”

  “Okay,” Dink replied. “What time?”

  “I will contact you when I get everything in order and let you know,” the man on the other end of the line said.

  “Good. We will get up,” Dink said and then hung up.

  A smile crept across his face. Instead of keepin
g to his route, he turned around and headed home. Everything was looking up for him so he thought, what better way to celebrate then digging off in some good pussy?

  *******

  Lil Will and Mark walked through Platinum, which was one of the clubs Mark owned. When they reached the office, he noticed someone already sitting inside in his chair.

  “What’s up, Mark?” the lady sitting in his chair said.

  Mark looked at Lil Will, who was looking at the lady, curious as to what she wanted. “You need to hear what she has to say,” Mark told him. “Go ahead, Agent Wright.”

  She propped her feet up on his desk. “Well, your boy Montana jumped ship on you. He’s a federal witness now. And boy, does my partner got a hard on for you.”

  “New York Montana?” asked Lil Will.

  “Yep. And Fred,” Agent Wright stated.

  “So how bad is it? How much have they been talking?” Lil Will wanted to know.

  “Enough to have your ass on canned goods for life plus another go around. Agent Scott is meeting with the judge tomorrow to bring charges on you and to have a warrant issued for your arrest,” she said.

  “Fuck! Where these cheese eating-ass niggas at?” Lil Will said, heated about the situation.

  “Nobody knows where Fred is at,” the agent said.

  “What you mean nobody knows?” Lil Will asked, confused.

  “Just like I said, nobody knows. And Montana is being transferred to a safe house tonight,” Wright added.

  “Shit! Get me the info. I’ll handle it. I also need to pay Agent Scott a visit,” he said nervously. Mark handed the agent a bag. “’Preciate the info.”

  “No problem. I’ll be sure to keep you informed,” she said.

  Agent Wright draped the bag across her shoulder and walked out. In the car sitting in the parking lot, she took out a micro-recorder and played the tape. After playing it three times, she edited it. In her mind it was like an insurance policy.

  Inside the office, Lil Will was pacing the floor. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This shit can’t be happening. The cartel will stop the shipment if they hear about any of this shit.”

  “Listen, fam,” Mark said. “Let me get the crew on the line to get this shit handled before sun up. You just go back to GA and lay low.”

  “I will, after I look that nigga Fred in the eyes before he drops,” Lil Will said. “Also I got to make sure the shipment got through.”

  “Alright, fam,” Mark said as his phone vibrated on his hip. He pulled out his phone. He had received a text message. Mark opened it and read it. “Dammit, man. We got Fred’s ass.”

  “Where?” asked Lil Will.

  “The Meat Shop on 6th Street,” replied Mark.

  “Let’s go,” Lil Will said.

  On the way there they made sure that they weren’t being followed. Mark parked around the back of the store. Four men carrying AK-47’s met them in the hallway. One of them told them to follow him.

  They entered the side room to see Fred chained to a steel chair in the center of the room. They had beat him just that bad. The gunmen left, leaving Lil Will and Mark with Fred to do as they pleased.

  “My nigga, Fred Johnson,” Lil Will said comically. “Rat-ass nigga.”

  “Man, I’m sorry,” Fred said. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, mostly because of the fear of death, which in his mind at the time was better than what plans they might have.

  “Why, Fred? A nigga ain’t been good to ya?” Lil Will asked.

  “The fed nigga Scott dropped in on me and fucked me over with some trumped-up shit he planted. Then he literally tortured my ass while threatening to put my ass away for a good thirty piece and having my pregnant girl locked up too,” Fred said.

  “Fo’ what? Shit ain’t making sense, Fred,” Lil Will said.

  “Nigga said it’s personal between you and him,” replied Fred.

  “Personal how?” asked Lil Will.

  “Some shit ’bout you killed his brother,” Fred said. “Will, he made me say the shit that I said. I wasn’t going to do it.”

  And those were his last words. Lil Will shot him four times in the face. They walked out and on the way back to their ride, he told the gunmen to make sure they swept the scene clean.

  “So what now, fam?” Mark asked?

  “We fuck Agent Scott’s li’l world up,” Lil replied.

  Three navy blue and tinted windows jump out vans with an eight man crew in each cruised through the neighborhood where Agent Scott lived. When they pulled up in front of the house, two of the crews crept around back and the other three stayed out front with AR 15s with the hundred round drums.

  With no warning, they opened fire on the house. Agent Scott was headed to the bathroom when the bullets whizzed by his head.

  “Shit!” Scott yelled.

  He dropped on the floor and crawled back into the bedroom, where he screamed at the sight of his wife sprawled across the bed with a hole in her head and chest and the bed linen soaked with her blood. He grabbed her lifeless body and held it close.

  “I’m sorry, baby,” he said in between sobs. “I’m so, so sorry.” He laid her body down and closed her eyelids. Without a care in the world he grabbed his gun and ran to the living room window. “Y’all motherfuckers are dead!”

  He put two slugs in the chest of the first gunman near the window. He hit three more with straight head shots. He heard a sound coming from behind him but by the time he reacted, he took one in the left arm.

  As he went down, he rolled behind the couch, out of the gunman’s line of fire and reloaded. He waited patiently on the masked man to turn the corner, and when he did, Agent Scott let him have it. He heard doors slamming and tires screeching and knew the assault was over - at least, that was what he thought until he heard more gun shots.

  Cautiously, he made his way over to a window and peeped out just in time to see the unmarked cars. It was a shootout. The agents in the first car got hit up bad, causing the other two cars to veer off course as it hit a fire hydrant. The other two cars got sprayed up so bad they were forced to stop their pursuit.

  “Call for backup,” Agent Scott yelled.

  Agent Scott had come running down the street, unloading the clip at the vans. “Fuck! They got away,” he said angrily as he walked back towards the house.

  Police surrounded the house and radioed for the E.M.Ts to collect the dead. They asked him questions about what had happened. He gave them a full report, but all the while, his mind was on Lil Will. He couldn’t prove it, but he knew he was behind this, and he would pay dearly for his wife’s death.

  *******

  Mark and Lil Will were on their way back to Lil Will’s crib when the text came through Mark’s phone, letting them know Agent Scott had survived, but his wife didn’t. And he wanted blood for blood. Lil Will chuckled.

  “So be it,” he said.

  “Nah, fam,” Mark responded. “It’s too hot up here. You need to fall back. Go lay low.”

  “After this meeting with the connect, I’m getting ghost,” Lil Will promised.

  “Good,” Mark commented. “Because I can handle shit here. Be safe, my nigga.”

  “Yeah. Love, fam,” Lil Will said.

  He hopped out and made his way to the front door. He tried to unlock the door with his key, but it wouldn’t turn. I know this bitch didn’t, he thought to himself. “Monica!”

  He banged on the door. She didn’t open it; however, she opened the upstairs window and looked down at him.

  “What you want?” she yelled.

  “Bitch, you done went crazy,” Lil Will said madly.

  “Nah, nigga,” she shot back, “yo’ ass the one crazy if you think I’m going to keep playing this game with you!”

  “Open my goddam door now, Monica,” he yelled.

  “Nigga, this my door and my house! Yo’ name ain’t even on the lease,” she reminded him.

  “Open this door, Monica! I ain’t playin’,” he said threateningly.

&nb
sp; “No, Will! This shit all yo’ fault! Please just leave,” she begged.

  “I’m going to fuck you up! I promise you! You and that nigga Ju-Ju! What, you think I didn’t know, bitch?” he said, laughing.

  Hearing his name made her adrenaline rush. She began to cry harder. She knew she loved Lil Will, however, his knowing about her and Ju-Ju meant it was over between them.

  “Bitch, I’m gone, but I’ll be back in the morning! Yo’ ass better be gone or you a dead bitch,” he threatened. He jumped in his ride and peeled off.

  The next morning he met with the top dogs. They discussed future business, and money was exchanged for the unseen product, but a damn good profit. After the meeting, the head pulled him to the side.

  “My man, I hear you having some problems,” he said to Lil Will.

  “Nothing I’m not handling,” Lil Will said reassuringly.

  “Good, because I don’t like problems. They bad for business. Especially this business,” he said.

  “I’ll fix it,” Lil Will said confidently.

  “I’m sure you will. You will get the next shipment, but before anything else moves, clean up your mess,” he said.

  Without waiting for a response, he walked off, followed by two bodyguards.

  Lil Will left and stopped at his club, where he found Mark.

  “Yo Mark,” he said to get his attention, “get some guys over to the warehouse and wait on the shipment.”

  “Got you. What’s on yo’ mind?” asked Mark.

  “Not too much of anything good at the moment. Just got to tie up some loose ends. I’ll meet you at the airport at 6:00,” Lil Will said.

  “Alright, fam. Be careful. You know the alphabet boys watching,” Mark reminded him.

  They went their separate ways. Lil Will needed answers fast. He knew where Rimp was being held and that’s where he went. As soon as Rimp saw him, he asked him what was up.

  “Cut him loose,” Lil Will told one of the guys keeping Rimp hostage.

  They untied him and stepped back. Rimp stretched and rubbed his wrists. “Fam, what’s this shit all about?” Rimp demanded to know.