What Da Lick Read? The Triple Cross

by McCray, Sevyn

  He looked through the wrought iron fence and he could see a fire truck, an ambulance and three police cars on the property. Khalil didn’t see the flames anymore, just a lot of smoke. The firemen had already put out the fires.

  “Sir, let me radio to one of the officers on the property to make sure that it is safe for you to approach” the officer who looked like he was fresh out of the police academy used his radio that was on his shoulder.

  Ponchees’ blacked out Escalade pulled up on the side of Khalil. The back window let down and he peeped his head out and asked “What’s the problem Coach? Why do they have the property blocked off?”

  “They are trying to make sure that everything is safe first.” Khalil replied.

  The young police got into his vehicle and moved it from in front of the gate.

  Fire turned the truck around and went into the gate as Khalil followed behind him.

  The paramedics were bringing bodies out on stretchers. Another ambulance came roaring up the driveway and paramedics jumped out. Khalil jumped out his car and ran to the first stretcher and looked down at Gorgeous. She was unconscious and she had a large knot on her head. The second stretcher that was bought out had Honesty on it. She was conscious and trying to sit up. Khalil stopped the paramedic before he took the stretcher down the steps.

  “Baby girl, you got to get on some meds, you can’t keep passing out like that. You are gonna fall out and hit your head one day. Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay Pop-Pop, just worried about Gigi and Con. What have we done so bad that we are now moving targets. This the second attempt on my life in two weeks.” Tears flowed down Honesty’s cheeks as her dad held her close and wiped them away as they fell continuously.

  Ponchees approached the stretcher that Gigi was on just before they put it in the ambulance. He looked down at her. She looked to be sleeping so peacefully. Tears swelled up in him and he clenched his jaw to try to keep them from falling. He would give up his life to protect hers and this incident really meant war. Ponchees pushed the hair out of her face and kissed her on the forehead. He moved away as the paramedic put her in the same ambulance with Honesty.

  Khalil stepped inside of the house and two paramedics were working on Concrete. There wasn’t much damage to the house. He could see where the paintings were jolted from the wall. The vases and platforms that they were sitting on were shattered. He looked around trying to put together what could have happened. From the look of things, Honesty probably was in the house and Concrete sustained the blow from the bomb. Since Gigi didn’t look to be hurt that bad, maybe Concrete had knocked her down trying to protect her.

  Ponchees knelt down next to Concrete after he walked in the house. The paramedics had started him an I.V. He was still unconscious. Day after day, he put his life on the line to protect Gorgeous and didn’t ask for anything in return. He wasn’t on the payroll. Whenever Ponchees tried to give him something he simply told him that he would not be paid to do something that he was destined to do anyway. Ponchees didn’t see any visual injuries except for a few scrapes and bruises. Concrete’s condition was even more serious because we were dealing with the internal. A third paramedic came in and helped the other two get him on the stretcher because he was so big.

  “What hospital are you taking him to?”

  “Sir we have been advised to take him to Atlanta Medical, do you have a problem with that facility?”

  “No I do not. Thank you.” Ponchees stepped back and they lifted him up and went out the front door. He turned around to face Khalil.

  “You’ve heard the news?”

  “Shit what has happened now, every time I get over one thing, something else is happening. Either the streets have forgot who the fuck I am or they think I have gotten soft. Whoever is fucking with me and mines do not know my resume. Either way it go, they bout to feel my pain. My daughter has almost been killed two times; my son has lost his fucking leg. His girl is about to die and they think I’m gonna sit around and not do shit. Nawl, they got me stone cold fucked up. I started the West Side Assassins. I raised half these young niggas. I got a clique of goons on standby that is ready to die for me. I haven’t gotten soft. I just wanted to live a normal life. But the streets keep calling me. And guess what I just picked up the fucking phone!”

  Chapter 31: Poker Face

  Sam still hadn’t really been to sleep yet. There was only so much sleep that you can get when you are sitting in an office chair on pins and needles. She was gonna make sure and order a sleeper sofa for the other side of the room later on today. She had been calling Ponchees damn near all night and still hadn’t heard from him. Rafek had left hours ago and he hadn’t turned up yet. Sam got up from her desk to stretch, she thought about going home to lie down, but she had made a vow to herself that she wasn’t going home until she had some of this chaos under control. She needed to be able to call Ponchees and tell him some form of good news. Just as she was walking out of the bathroom from washing her face and rinsing out her mouth, Rafek walked in. Sam looked down at her Rolex watch and looked up at him.

  “Where in the fuck have you been for almost twelve hours?”

  “Well you see what happened was…”

  Rafek stuttered as he looked at the ground and rocked back and forth trying to get his lies together. He had met his girlfriend at home after she got off from work. After they fucked, he had dosed off to sleep and just woke up fifteen minutes ago.

  Sam walked up to him and raised her hand up and slapped him unexpectedly. His head jerked back and his hand went up to return the slap.

  “What the fuck you slap me for? Now I know you are under a little pressure, but it was nothing but the love that I have for you that just prevented me from backhanding your ass across the room. Calm your ass down Sam. You are playing yourself. You out here doing all the work and all the worrying while the bossman is chilling in his villa.” Rafek rubbed his face where Sam had struck him as he sat down in a chair in the corner.

  “I apologize, I’m hungry and irritable. I have been waiting all night for you and Ponchees will not answer the phone.” Sam sat down at her desk as her stomach growled.

  “Well I know one of your problems is solved. Poke’s house exploded into flames last night. Big as the boom was no one could have survived that. I heard it with my own two ears. And you wouldn’t believe who I seen driving away from the house before I heard the boom?” Rafek hoped that this news would take the edge off of Sam

  “Exploded? What the hell? That nigga was doing a lot of people dirty. Somebody got to him before we did. Now who did you see leaving? One of them No Pressure niggas probably. They whooped his ass the other day.” Sam got out the yellow pages and looked for a restaurant that delivered.

  “Nope it was Gigi. She came from around the back of the house, looked around and got in her car. She looked like she was on some sneaky shit too. She drove away, I drove away and then there was a big boom.”

  “Gigi don’t need to go to that nigga house. He goes in her spot at least three times a week. She can have her body guard choke his ass out and then dump his body somewhere. Nawl that wasn’t Gorgeous, I don’t see her operating like that.” Sam was confident and she knew how Gigi thought, there was no way she would go to Poke’s house.

  “I saw her damn face!” Rafek screamed as he got up from the chair in the corner and headed out the door.

  “Where you going Rafek, Get back here right now!” Sam got up from her desk screaming at Rafek, her voice echoing throughout the empty warehouse.

  Rafek turned around as he was about to exit the warehouse.

  “Sam, I am your friend and I am your employee. Not your child, not your slave and not your dog. I’m going to get us both something to eat. While I’m gone you need to straighten yourself up, on the inside and the outside.” He shut the door and locked it.

  Sam stood there for what seemed like forever staring at the closed door. Rafek was right. She did need to loosen up. She thought that she had every
thing under control, but that is when everything was running smoothly. Now that something was happening damn near every day she was at her wits end and Ponchees wasn’t making it any better. He acted like she was in Atlanta chilling. It was a hard job babysitting a bunch of grown folks.

  As she sat back down at her desk and fired up her laptop, she heard the door opening. She didn’t pay it any attention, Rafek probably was coming back to see exactly what she wanted for breakfast. She went straight to the Atlanta Journal Constitution website to see did they have anything on the house fire. It was the top story ‘House explosion with two unidentified adults found dead inside’. She tried to bring up the security cameras that she had installed outside of his house, but she couldn’t. Sam kept trying as she spoke out loud to herself.

  “Who in the hell was in the house with Poke?”

  “If you would have been doing your job, you would have known that.” Ponchees said from the door as he leaned up against the door jamb.

  Sam nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Ponchees voice. Usually she would run up to him and wrap her arms around him and smother him with kisses. But today that wasn’t the case. His voice was filled with anger and his face was filled with pain. She still was going to get up and hug him.

  “No stay seated.” Ponchees walked in, with Khalil behind him. The both of them sat down in the chairs that were facing her desk.

  “Coach, this is Sam, my eyes and ears on the street.” Ponchees took off his suit jacket and laid it across the back of the chair.

  Sam felt the tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Nice to meet you Coach, I have heard so many wonderful things about you. Can you gentlemen please excuse me.?” She got up and instead of going to the restroom in her office; she chose to go to the one on the other side of the warehouse.

  As soon as she walked out of her office, the tears poured down her face. Ponchees always had a way to remind her where he got her from.

  “Damn, she fine as a muthafucker. Where in the hell did you get her from?” Khalil leaned over and asked as soon as she was out of earshot.

  “I won her in a bet.” Ponchees said with a straight face.

  Khalil stared at him for a full minute waiting for him to break into a smile or laugh or something but he didn’t.

  “You won her in a bet? But didn’t you tell me when we were outside that she is from Atlanta.” He was confused.

  “Yeah, I won her about five years ago. It was around the time that Sillk had started messing with his young chic. We were at his spot in the middle of the night and I was gambling with them cats from Zone Three. Sam was in there with a young dude. He had been winning big all night long and talking cash shit. She was aggravating him because she was ready to leave. So he bet all or nothing and he lost. So he wanted to get his money back right and I allowed him the opportunity. I think this probably was his re-up money. But anyway to make a long story short, he didn’t have any more money when I won. He had gotten dropped off, his jewelry wasn’t real and I didn’t know him so I wasn’t going to trust him. The only thing of value that I could see that he had, was her. I told him that he had to leave her with me and I would return her as soon as he got me my money with interest. He left out that door and I never seen that nigga again. She was with me for a whole year. I told her that she could leave. But she was feeling me and I was feeling her. She was beautiful enough to be on my arm, old enough to be legal and young enough to still be molded.”

  Khalil saw this as the perfect time to bring up Jazmeir.

  “Check this out. Was the young girl that Sillk was fucking with before he died a Dominican chick name Jazmeir?”

  “Yes it was, he had met her one night when he went to the Blue Magic. He was just stopping through to get some of the money that Blue owed him. Blue always stayed in debt with Sillk. The young girl was walking around the club scared looking like a deer caught in some headlights. I remember him saying that he was supposed to be her first dance. He said that when she came up to him and asked him with her voice trembling did he want a dance; he replied ‘I want a lifetime’. Blue came out and gave him the money, but he didn’t want to leave her. He stayed in the club in the same seat all night talking to the girl. She never gave him one dance. When the club was closing, he said that he gave her two thousand dollars and he told her that if she was to come with him that she would never have to worry about anything again. She got her shit and left with Sillk.”

  “Damn that was some player shit right there, and nobody knew. I mean everybody knew that Sillk was lonely after Emma Sue died. They had been together bout fifty years. I used to always mention to him that he needed to go and get him a young girl and he would just laugh. I guess the joke was on me cause he already had one put up. So are the kids Sillk’s?” Khalil was amazed that Sillk had lived a double life and no one knew it, but Ponchees.

  “The little boy is Sillk’s, but the little girl is her neice. She sent for her sister right after Sillk died and her sister came over here and she got pregnant by some young knucklehead. She ended up dying in child birth and so Jazmeir kept the baby and she’s raising it as her own.” Ponchees quieted down when Sam walked back into the room.

  “Okay, sorry about that. How are you guys doing today?”

  Sam sat down at her desk and she could tell that they had stopped talking when she approached. She had gone out to her Bentley coupe, one of her many gifts from Ponchees and got her overnight bag out of the trunk. Sam changed clothes, washed her face again, brushed her teeth and applied a coat of lip gloss. She combed her shoulder length wrap up into a ponytail and she felt refreshed. She could not let Ponchees know that he had her down bad.

  Khalil smiled to himself as he noticed the change in the young lady’s disposition when she sat down at the desk. He had to admit to himself, that if he was in Ponchees position he would have done the same exact thing. Sam was bad.

  Ponchees leaned over on her desk and looked her in her eyes.

  “So tell me what’s been going on? You are supposed to be my eyes and ears here in Atlanta, no one else should tell me anything before you do. If you can’t do what you are supposed to be doing. You can come back to Mexico with me and I will find someone else to do it. I have entirely too much money coming in and out this city without someone overseeing everybody that is involved in my operation.”

  “We are going to talk business, strictly business. There’s a time and a place for everything and now is not the time. We will be discussing nothing but business. We have a guest. The business at hand is Poke was posing a big problem. I found out that he was responsible for robbing your daughter’s spot and he may have been responsible for your son’s car accident. He was working with someone else though, because the day after the robbery when the house got shot up, Poke was sitting inside of Gigi’s club with a stripper, so there is someone else. We need to find out who he is working for, because I have a feeling that whoever is calling the shots is probably the one who set his house on fire last night. I have some cameras installed on the street light facing his house, but I can’t bring up the footage. When I do, I will be able to see who was at his house last night.”

  Sam directed her focus and her conversation to Khalil, but she felt Ponchees’ eyes boring into her. His presence alone gave her butterflies. She couldn’t understand how a man almost thirty years older than her could have that type of effect on her.

  Ponchees sat in his chair and loosened his tie. He didn’t take his eyes off of her. He had taught her well. She put her emotions to the side quickly and focused on Khalil. He knew that as soon as Khalil was gone that she was going to give Ponchees an earful. One thing that he could say was that she didn’t bite her tongue. Sam always told him everything that was on her mind. That is one of the main reasons why he had so much love for her.

  “Poke is out of the picture and the information that you provided was good. But this shit has me at the point of no return. Whoever the fuck is behind this had my daughter’s truck blown up
this morning. To see the pain in her eyes because she feels like she is the target has me ready to get in beast mode.” Khalil looked down at his phone as it rang and interrupted him. It was Loyalty.

  “Excuse for a minute, let me take this call.” He got up from his chair and walked out of the office.

  Rafek came back into the warehouse. He had noticed the Escalade outside and knew that Ponchees was on the inside. He saw Khalil standing on the outside of the office with his cell phone to his ear. He was loaded down with two bags of take out from Thumbs Up Diner. He knocked on the door before entering the office. He put the bags of food on the round table in the corner and was about to exit because he could sense that he was interrupting something. The tension in the air was thick.

  “Wait a minute have a seat. We never got to discuss what happened last night when I sent you over to Poke’s place.” Sam stressed every word in her sentence to make sure that Ponchees knew that she was doing her job.

  Rafek pulled up another chair and sat down close to the desk. He faced Ponchees; his heart was beating out of his chest. He had only heard about this man before, so to finally be in his presence was remarkable to him. “Sir I went over there as Sam had instructed. I was prepared to bring him to her. When I was driving up the street I noticed three cars in the driveway. The last car was a black Porsche Panamera with tinted windows. I saw a young lady come from behind the house and open the trunk of the Porsche and put something in it. She then got in the car and went in the opposite direction toward Hollywood Road. As I came back down the street I seen flames so I kept going and then as I looked in my rear view mirror I heard an explosion.”