Codeine and Fully Automatics

by Ghost

  Alicia looked worried. She took a step behind me. “I won’t never seen him like this before Phoenix. Maybe you should get him out of here until he come off whatever he’s on. I don’t feel safe in here right now.”

  “You don’t feel safe? How the fuck don’t you feel safe?” He took three steps forward and finished the entire bottle of Patron and threw it to the ground, shattering it.

  Alicia was behind me fully now. Her nails dug into my sides as she cowered behind me. “Please baby. You need to get some sleep. You been up the last few days trapping. Den, you just drank a while bottle of Patron. You’re not in your right mind right now.” She said with a shaky voice.

  “Right mind. Right mind.” He aimed the forty five directly at her after pulling me out of the way so he could get a straight line to her. “Bitch, you probably the reason that nigga went to my stash spot. You the only one that knew that I kept my shit in a big ass hole behind my mother’s washing machine. Yeah that pillow talk done got a nigga in trouble, ain’t it?”

  Alicia closed her eyes. “Mikey, you are real high, and real drunk. You need to take that gun and put it back into your waistband. You’re talking real stupid right now.”

  “Stupid. Stupid. Bitch ain’t nothin stupid about me. I peep everythang. I just play dumb. You don’t think I know that you’re way too far along for that to be my baby?” He said this through clenched teeth. Mickey grabbed her by the shirt and pressed the gun to her temple.

  Now it was time for me to intervene. I stepped on the side of him. “Mikey that’s your wife, man. Dats yo queen right thur. You gotta treat her as such. You know damn we’ll she ain’t fucked off on you. That gurl loves you Mane.”

  “Nall she don’t. She just like everybody else. This bitch got a hidden agenda. It was all about my bread. That bitch ain’t shit but a rat looking for my cheese. Now she got it Potna. All one point six million of it. Bitch gotta give me mines or eat this lead. I already got my mother killed. I might as well lose everybody in one day.” He curled his lip. Where my bread at Alicia and whose baby is that?”

  She swallowed. Her head tilted backward. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Okay. Okay. Mikey I’m sorry, but the baby is...”

  “It’s his.” I interrupted. “I know for a fact that you love him like crazy Alicia. You’re the best woman that he ever had. Tell him dat its his baby so he can calm down. He hurting right now. He need you.” I bucked my eyes and looked into hers. “Tell him Alicia. Tell him.”

  “Its yours, Mikey. Whose else could it have been? You’re the only man I’ve been with. You’re my husband.” She cried.

  Mikey walked her backward and slammed her into the wall. “Don’t you lie to me, bitch. I’ll kill you, I swear to God.” He cocked the hammer.

  I was seconds away from upping my piece and splashing my nigga. I couldn’t afford for him to slam my baby mother into the wall anymore. I couldn’t risk him putting a bullet into her head. And I couldn’t risk her breaking down and exposing our truths to him. There was too much at stake. Before he hurt her, I was going to have to hurt him, unfortunately.”

  “Please Mikey. Please baby. I love you so freaking much. You are the love of my life. I would die for you. I would never betray you in no way. I’m more of a woman then that.” She started to shake. Her knees knocked into each other. Her pregnant belly was poked out under her belly shirt. The belly button was dark brown. She looked vulnerable and it was killing me to not step in. This was my child’s mother. Damn their marriage.

  “Say shawty, I’ma give you one more chance to tell me what’s really good? If you lie to me, I’m putting two in your dome and I’ma cook you in my uncle’s cremation oven. You and that baby that I know ain’t mine! So, bitch stop playin wit me!”

  My hand eased around the handle of my weapon. My trigger finger in place. I envisioned hitting him with at least six slugs. If was going to get at my nigga I was goin to overkill his ass. I had too simply because I had so much love for him.

  “Please Mikey. I love you baby. Its your child. I would never do you like that. Phoenix please help me. This ain’t right!” Alicia screamed.

  He grabbed her neck. “Oh, you think my homeboy gon save yo ass. Bitch ain’t nobody can save you. I gave you a chance, but you ain’t take it. You can rest in peace wit my mama and my daddy.” He threw her against the wall and stood back. Aimed his gun. “Its over!”

  I upped my gun. “Mikey nooooooo!”

  Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

  Chapter 18

  The windows shattered all around us as somebody from outside chopped at Mikey and Alicia’s crib rapidly. Thitta-Dat. Thitta-dat. Thitta-dat. Thitta-dat. Thitta-dat. Boom. Boom. Boom. Thitta-dat. Pictures fell off the walls. Big holes appeared in the walls. A big cloud of smoke covered the interior of the house.

  I broke full speed and jumped on top of Alicia. Covered her with my entire body as more and more shots chopped at their place. She was screaming beneath me. I held her tighter. Preparing to feel a slug in any moment now. I had to protect her. I couldn’t allow for her to reach harm. I was her only line of defense. She was secretly my child’s mother.

  Mikey fell on his ass and aimed his gun toward the front of the house and in the direction that the shots were coming from. Then he was firing. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. His gun spit round after round.

  From the outside the gunfire continued to ensue with no signs of letting up. I stayed on top of Alicia and sort of willed us to the bathroom, throwing a table down to block our path. Once there, I hurriedly placed her in the bath tub. “Shawty stay right here. Stay low and don’t get up until I come and get you. You hear me?”

  She nodded. More gunfire sounded toward the front of the house. “Thank you, Phoenix. Thank you so much. I love you. I swear I do.”

  Mikey appeared at the door way, on his knees, holding his shoulder. Blood poured through the cracks of his fingers. “They got me bruh. Them bitch azz niggas got me.”

  I dropped down low and crawled to the backdoor with my gun out. Slowly, I opened it ran down the steps, and out to the backyard. Once there, I hopped the fence to the neighbor’s yard, and ran to the front of their house. I saw the black van parked with the side door opened. In front of it were two masked dudes with Choppers in their hands spitting at the house. On the side of them one dude knelt and lit a cocktail bomb. He stood up and ran toward the front of the house with it.

  I aimed at his bitch ass and fired. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. Boo-wa. The gun jumped in my hands, as the rain fell from the sky.

  He fell backward and dropped the cocktail. A circle of fire appeared in the street beside his body.

  The two masked shooters turned to me and let loose rapidly.

  Boom. Boom. Boom. Thitta-dat. Thitta-dat. Thitta-dat. Boom. Boom.

  I sent three shots at them and took off running back the way I came.

  Before I could make it to the backyard, they were shooting down the gangway. Bullets flew past my head. I could hear them whizzing by one after the next. I got to the backyard and hopped over the fence, then took off running back to the front of the street where the van was parked. The dude that I’d popped was struggling to get to his feet. Blood ran out of the holes in his mid section.

  Boo-wa, one to his face. I jumped into the van, just as the shooters were coming from the path that I’d come. They aimed and took fire at me. Their bullets tinkling off the body of the van. I got into the driver’s seat as the wind shield shattered and threw the van in drive, storming away from the street. More bullets riddled the van. I drove it two blocks down and crashed it into a pole purposely. I figured that if me and Mikey couldn’t catch the people who had targeted his and Alicia’s home, then the police would have no trouble doing so. It was petty, but I didn’t care. It was survival of the grimiest as far as I was concerned.

  When the van made impact with the pole it plunged me forward and threw me out the window. I rolled over the hood, and onto my back. Lightning illuminated the sk
y. The rain drenched my face. I landed awkwardly. When I went to get up a sharp pain shot up my back, and almost caused me to double over. I fought through it, and jogged with difficulty back to their place, taking the alley the entire way.

  ***

  “Yo, you gotta sit still, Mane. I see the mafuckin bullet. But every time a Bitch try and grab it you get to jumping and shit. Mane sit yo ass still.” My cousin Sabrina chastised as she stood over Mikey with a frown on her face. She was a certified nursing assistant, and more than familiar with taking a bullet or two out of a person. I’d never been hit up, but if I had been, she would have been the person I’da went to to get my bullet out of me. Sabrina was my heart, and as country as they came.

  “Damn Sabrina. You gotta at least wait until my Perks kick in. This shit hurt like a muthafucka. I feel like crying like a baby. Damn.” Mickey wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Say Potna, take my wife out of here upstairs somewhere. I can’t let her see me like this.”

  Sabrina pursed her lips. “I’m sure she’ll thank yo tough ass later. Jesus have mercy. Hurry up and get her out of here Phoenix.” Sabrina was five feet four inches tall, about one forty, stacked. A red bone, with long curly hair like her little sister Kamya.

  Alicia stood up holding her stomach. I could tell that she was still rattled by the shooting that had taken pace last night. She’d said very few words ever since then. I was glad that Mikey wanted me to take her upstairs because now I could see how she was going.

  “Homeboy I’ma take her to get something to eat. She ain’t ate nothing yet. We’ll be back in a minute. I gotta check on my shawty too.”

  He waved me off. “Whatever just go. I gotta get this bullet out of me.”

  “Mane, your baby wit Kamya and my daddy. She straight. They went to that fair downtown. They ain’t supposed to be back until sometime after seven. But she straight doe.” Sabrina said, dabbing the cloth filled with alcohol onto Mikey’s shoulder.

  He jumped and turned the bottle of Patron that he was drinking all the way up. Starting to down it guzzle after guzzle. Sweat slid down the side of his forehead. “Y’all take my truck, Mane. Put some gas in my shit fa me.”

  Alicia waited until we got outside, and into the truck, before she broke down again. I helped her into the passenger’s seat and closed the door behind her.

  By the time I hassled around to the driver’s seat she appeared to be enraged. She tossed me the keys and beat her fists on the side of her seat. “I hate him now Phoenix. I hate his fuckin guts for what he was getting ready to do to me and my baby.” Alicia wrapped her arms protectively around her middle. “It just ain’t right. Its not. I’m pregnant I shouldn’t have had to go through that shit.” She cried in anger.

  I started the truck and pulled away from the curb. We drove about twelve blocks in silence. The entire time she was breaking down. The audio of it all was killing me. I hated to hear the mother of my child sound and look so defeated. I knew it was partially my fault. I should have stepped in earlier before he was able to snatch her up and do the things that he did to her. I should’ve never gotten her pregnant behind his back. As adults she and I should have handled things differently, and from here on out I think we needed to come up with a better plan. It was only right.

  “I should’ve told his ass Phoenix. I should have told him that the baby I’m carrying is yours and got it over with. You wasn’t going to let him kill me, was you? Of course not.” Alicia answered her own question.

  I parked the truck in the parking lot of a Super Walmart and looked over to her. “Alicia, I’m sorry. I should have stepped in ahead of time. I should have never allowed things to go that far. You deserved better than that. I’m sorry lil One.”

  Alicia nodded. “Its okay. Its not your fault that he’s so fucking crazy, or that I married one man, even though I was in love with another.” She lowered her head. “What am I going to do? I don’t want to be with him anymore Phoenix. I see what he really is, and how he really feels about me and I don’t like it. My heart is split. I swear to God that I just wanna be with you. You really care about me.”

  I held my tongue for a short time. I had a million different things going through my brain. On the one hand I wanted to save and cuff Alicia. I couldn’t deny how much I honestly loved and cared about her. I’d felt some type of way about her ever since high school. The only reason I’d never made a move toward her on a serious level is because I knew that I wasn’t ready for anything like that. I was unsure if I was ready for it now. I mean there was no doubt in my heart that I would do right by her, but what Alicia expected when she thought in terms if a relationship was monogamy. That was something that I didn’t feel I had in me. I was still young, and I had so much of the world to see. I didn’t want to be tied down to just one woman right now. At least that’s what my mind told me.

  “Damn Phoenix, ain’t you got nothin to say?” She dabbed at her eyes with a Kleenex from her purse that she’d retrieved from the glove box. “I’m hurting, and I’m so confused right now.

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the very back of the truck, sat her down and placed my around her. She sat up and removed Mikey’s Spring coat that she’d sat on, tossing it on the seat in front of her. Then she snuggled under my arm and laid her head on my shoulder.

  I kissed the side of her fore head. “Alicia, I love you. Point blank, and period. But you’re married to my right-hand man. Now as bad as you’re feeling right now y’all gotta work that out because y’all are together. That’s just what it is.”

  “But I don’t want to be with him, Phoenix. This nigga just put a whole ass gun to my head, choked me out and threw me against the wall, all while I’m pregnant. Really? What type of shit is that? Huh?” She shook her head. Tears began to sail down her cheeks again. “That’s not love, and Mikey’s not stupid. That nigga was getting ready to kill me. He knows this baby isn’t his. The dates just don’t add up no matter how hard we try to make them do that.” Alicia inhaled deeply and blew it out slowly to calm down. “He was going to kill me if that shooting hadn’t started Phoenix. He was goin to kill me and you know it.”

  I saw the entire shooting play out again in my mind’s eye. There was no doubt in my mind that if we hadn’t been under attack that Mikey would have killed Alicia right before my very eyes. “Damn I know. Fuck, Alicia. So, what do you propose we do? When that nigga finds out that I’m the father of this baby we are going to war, and it will not stop until one of us is six feet under. The homie is a monster, just like me. He bout that life, and murder is human nature to the both of us. I love that nigga. He been my right hand for a long time now.”

  She jerked her head back and smacked her lips. “Love him? How the hell do you love him so much if you were going behind his back coming at me?”

  She pushed me away from her. “You can’t have it both ways Phoenix. You gotta be loyal to somebody. You have to choose who you’re going to ride for in this equation and then be one hunnit to them. Is it going to be him, or is it going to be me and our unborn child?”

  “Shawty, you already know how I am when it comes to my kid. I’ll go to the ends of the earth for my baby. Mane, you still ain’t answered my question. What do you propose we do?”

  “I want us to be together. If we aren’t going to be together then I need you to help me break away from him. I hate this man. He could’ve ended my life, and all for what? Shid, I’m not even so sure that he won’t still do it in the very bear future.”

  “I ain’t gon let that happen. Look, for now, just let me stay in bruh’s ear. I’ll keep his head on straight. You gon continue to chill wit him for a lil while. I’ma get my bread all the way up, and then I’m coming for you. I wish I could do it right now, but I kind of need the homie to go at these Black Haven studs. Plus, it’s a whole lot of money to be made. Opportunities can’t be squandered. But I’ma get right, make sure you’re straight in the process and we’ll go from there. That sound like a plan to you?”

  She shrugge
d her shoulders. “I mean what can I do? I ain’t got nothin right now. This man controls everything because when we got married that’s how he wanted it to be. Me in the kitchen like his fuckin mother, while he controls and handles everything. I’m so stupid.”

  I pulled her back to me and wrapped my arm around her. “You’re not stupid. You were in love, and that’s cool. Don’t sweat it. I got you. I’ma get you and my baby right. You got my word on that. Just let me know some of the things you need when you need them, and I’ll see to it that you have them. Cool?”

  She nodded. “Phoenix?”

  “Yeah baby?”

  “A woman should never be solely dependent on a man. When I break away from Mikey, I’ma be my own boss, you’ll see.”

  I rested my lips against the side of her forehead. “I believe you baby, and I’ma do all that I can to get you right. For now, focus on staying healthy, maintaining that lie, and planning for your future. I’ll take care of the rest.

  Chapter 19

  Instead of us going at Dragon, and his Black Haven niggas right away, we hustled for the next month super hard, and on high alert. Mikey said it was impossible to go at their chin broke when they were moving with so much money. So, we needed to get our scratch back up to compensate for the loss that Dragon had dealt to us, or should I say Mikey, because he hadn’t hit my pockets for one red cent. I was the only person that knew where I stashed my shit, and that’s how it was always going to be because I didn’t trust nobody, not even myself. Orange mound was rocking hard. The lines to our traps were three times as long now, and Nastia always kept us supplied with top notch Rebirth.

  Mikey made the hustlers from Brooklyn take turns pulling all nighters in the traps. I did the same thing with Smoke and his crew of eight. There were four men manning the traps at all times while the other four were able to get rest and then they’d switch. I made it a habit to pop up and hustle for eight to ten hours at a time. Then I would be out. I’d hit Link and Jack’s pockets as we’d discussed and bounce from the area altogether. Even though I had them on the payroll I still didn’t trust them because at the end of the day they were Swine.