“Yeah, that might just be the address that he put on file for the people downtown to see that he has one,” Ray said, “but you know how niggas can be, always trying to hide from the government and stuff.”
“I feel you on that,” Breon said. “So, where he stay at? Did you look the address up and shit?”
Just then, Ray chuckled. “That’s the thing, my nigga,” he said. “As soon as she said the address, I knew exactly where it was. This nigga live three streets over from where your cousin Wayne stay, and like a block and a half up.”
Breon could feel his heart begin to beat fast. While hearing that Dante was, possibly, closer than they’d thought was certainly good, it also made him think of how much danger his cousin Wayne could be in. He then thought about how he’d stopped by his cousin’s house to talk to him and Jayron. Just the very thought of how him being parked outside for the short while that he was over there didn’t sit well with him.
“Man, is you fuckin’ for real?” Breon asked, slamming his fists into his steering wheel. “That nigga might be stayin’ over up in there.” Breon shook his head. He was never the kind of guy to be scared of any hood, no matter what city he was in. However, that didn’t mean that he didn’t take precautions. The simple fact of the matter was that the only time he’d go over into Wayne’s area was when he was actually going to Wayne’s house. Other than that, Wayne’s neighborhood had too many of what Breon would call “spotty” blocks. These were blocks were everything looked okay, until you pulled up to a stop sign and found someone with a gun pointed in your face, trying to take your car. Worse, a brick could come flying through the windshield, totally blinding you while a gang of young dudes come out and pull you out of the car. “You know how that hood is up in there,” he said.
“Yeah,” Ray said, “with all them savages that don’t do shit all day and shit. That’s the same thing I was thinkin’. You know the minute we go step foot over there, we gon’ have to worry about Dante hearin’ that we there before we even get a chance to find him. You know it’s like the same ten families that live over there that done always lived over there.”
“Yeah, I know,” Breon said. “That’s the fucked up thing about it.”
“Yeah, so when you wanna roll up over there and see what’s up?” Ray asked. “Shit, I been sittin’ here and thinkin’ myself about goin’ over there and just ridin’ down the street so I can just see if the nigga is walkin’ up and down the street or not, but I’ll move when you ready since he came after your cousin and shit. Man, you should probably call and tell that nigga Wayne that that nigga ain’t nothin’ but a heartbeat away from where he at.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry ‘bout that shit, man,” Breon said, “’cause I know Wayne, and Wayne ain’t gon’ get got twice. He probably over there literally sleeping with one eye opened and shit, while the otha’ hand is on his gun. But, like Kiwi said, we need to find this nigga as quick as we can because he so damn slippery and shit.”
“Right,” Ray said. “And I don’t even know if that nigga Dante live over there, ‘cause my cousin say that sometime people will use addresses of they friends and stuff while they’re really stayin’ somewhere else and shit, like you already know. But, at least it’s a start. We ain’t gotta go up in there and no shit like Dante did, though.”
“Yeah, well,” Breon said, very dismissively. “If that’s what we gotta do, then that’s what we gotta do. I’m not gon’ lose no sleep over that shit. Fuck that nigga and his family.”
For a minute or so more, Breon and Ray talked before Breon finally said, “Man, I’m pulling up at home and shit and I see Trina here. I’mma go in and talk to her and then I’mma come through and swoop you up so we can ride over there and just see. I don’t wanna do nothing, I just want to see. We ain’t gotta go playin’ all of our cards at once.”
“Bet,” Ray said then they hung up the phone.
Breon pulled into a parking spot not too far from the entrance to his and Trina’s apartment building. He took his sweet time heading inside, as there was so much that was on his mind. He felt accomplished, to say the least, because he’d talked to both Ms. Sandra and Mr. Robert. This caused Breon to actually feel like he was getting somewhere, despite old drama and lame dudes trying to pull him back.
When Breon stepped inside, he was greeted by Trina’s smiling face. She came over and hugged him. “Hey, how was work?” she asked.
Breon told her that work was the usual tonight—trucks coming in and either taking things off of them or putting things on. Trina showed Breon that she’d already made some spaghetti, of which he gladly got himself a plate. At the back of his mind, as he stood over the stove digging spaghetti out of the pan, Breon hoped that Sandra hadn’t said anything about him calling to Trina’s sisters, especially Tamar.
Breon and Trina sat down across from one another at the small dining room table. After playfully talking about how Breon had dicked her down so well last night, the conversation then moved to talking about Breon’s situation. “So, have you heard from that one dude anymore?” Trina asked.
“Actually,” Breon said, “when I get done eating, and in a little bit, I’m going to go over to Ray’s place if that’s cool with you. Ray said that he actually know where this dude might be staying and, so, we just gon’ go over there so we can get this thing sorted out. He actually stay not too far from Wayne’s house, so that makes sense why he went over there looking for him.”
Trina suddenly got quiet. The look on her face let Breon know that she wasn’t too happy about what she’d just heard.
“I know, Trina,” Breon said. “I know, but I promise you, we just goin’ over there to talk. I ain’t on that bullshit no more or anything like that.”
Trina nodded. “You ain’t still got them guns that you had when we first started talking, do you?” she asked.
“Naw,” Breon said, thinking of the black Rover that he and his boys would ride around in back when he was working out in these streets. “You know I got rid of them a long time ago. Ain’t no guns in this house, Baby. I don’t even know why you think that there would be.”
“I’m not sayin’ that I thought that there would be,” Trina said. “I was just asking. Look, Breon, whatever you do just be careful. And try to not make this situation any worse than it already is.”
“Oh, I’m not gon’ do that,” Breon said. “I’m not gon’ do that.”
Breon used the rest of the evening to steer the conversation in the direction of talking about the trip to Gatlinburg. Trina was oh so excited as they sat on the couch and browsed through Google Images to look at different things that came up in the area. All the while, as their eyes were fixed on the Smokey Mountains and their umpteen tourist attractions, Nikki was at the back of Breon’s mind. Trina asking him about guns made him feel all the better about keeping them over at Nikki’s place. Now, however, Breon knew that his focus had to be on getting Dante…before Dante got too close and came after him.
Around 11 o’clock, as Trina was going to bed to get up and go to work in the morning, Breon kissed her forehead and said goodbye to her as she lay in the bed. He pushed out into the windy, winter night and headed over to Ray’s house. What Breon didn’t know, though, was that Dante was already getting closer and closer to him. And he would get anyone that was close to him, or who he perceived as being close to him, just to prove a point.
CHAPTER 10
Nikki lay in bed after she got off of work, wondering why Breon hadn’t hit her up yet. Sure, she had other things to think about in life, but this was nagging her mind. She could see the look in Breon’s eyes last night when he’d come to stash the guns at her place; he was probably getting feelings for her and just didn’t want to admit it. If this had been any other guy, Nikki probably would have either thought twice or be quicker to say no. However, there was something about how gentlemanly Breon was that made her think about him more and more each day. The way he helped her upstairs at Wayne’s house after that crazy chick
attacked her really did change his light in her eyes.
While thinking about Breon, the thoughts of getting on Facebook were hard to push to the side. Nikki didn’t want to log onto Facebook for the sake of talking with her friends and seeing what was going on with their lives. Rather, she wanted to get on there and see more about this Trina chick. From the little glimpse that she and Gracelyn had gotten of the girl, Nikki was trying to figure out why a man like Breon would settle for something when he knows that there is so much better he can get out here than her. Nikki couldn’t say that she was surprised, though. The simple fact of the matter was that she’d seen many fine dudes with money go after plain chicks even when dimes are coming at them by the dozen. Nikki did believe, though, that once a man found something he liked, he didn’t have to cheat—he would want to hold onto it as long as he could.
As Nikki lay there in the dark, waiting to feel the weight come upon her eyes that would tell her it was time for her to fall asleep, she would glance over at the closet door. In no way was she going to betray Breon’s trust. However, she did wonder where he’d gotten such interesting guns from. The only places that Nikki could place seeing guns that looked similar were in movies that centered around the Italian or Russian mob. Sure, that kind of stuff existed in Chicago and always had. However, that still left Nikki to wonder how Breon had gotten his hands on them.
Nikki then thought about the money. She wasn’t necessarily struggling in her life financially, but a little money never did any harm to anyone. She was anxious to see how the weed would play out, hoping that Breon could find whoever he was looking for and come to use the guns so he could get his money back. Nikki had already started to plan out what she would do with her cut of the money. If she got $5,000, which she knew she deserved more than that, she would get some work done on her car and maybe go do a little shopping. If Breon gave her a $10,000 cut of the $100,000 the guy supposedly owed him, it was already a done deal in Nikki’s mind. She was going to go shopping and mall out as if it was her last. If, for whatever reason, she could get that man to come up with $15,000 or $20,000, Nikki was going to hop her black ass onto the next plane out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, with her eyes set on Paris or London. She had only seen how the fashion over in Europe looked on television shows and blogs. And ever since she was a little girl, she’d taken a liking to it and wanted to have it.
Nikki couldn’t sit in her dream world for too long. After thinking about how she would spend the money, glancing at her closet door and know that her closet was what was helping her to help Breon, Nikki looked toward her bedroom door and thought about Gracelyn. She didn’t know if she and Gracelyn could ever be friends again. While they had some ups and downs, like any friendship would while living together, Gracelyn had never said anything disrespectful.
“Shit, that bitch should be happy she even know me,” Nikki said, quietly as she shook her head in the dark. “All the times she have dudes interested in her when we at the mall, but she don’t realize that the only reason they even lookin’ over in her direction is ‘cause she was walkin’ with me. Fat bitch. Fuck her.”
With a bitter taste in her mouth, Nikki readjusted her pillow and turned over. Nikki could care less about how ever she may have made Gracelyn feel, as she was convinced that Gracelyn was just upset that quality men were coming to her and Gracelyn had to chase after decent guys as if they were her last meal. Nikki checked her phone one last time to see if she’d missed a call or text from anyone, but more specifically Breon. Once again, she saw that she hadn’t. She shrugged and pushed her phone to the side of her bed and closed her eyes.
***
Breon stepped into Ray’s house for just a moment and used the bathroom before the two of them came right back outside. The wind howled, but Breon hardly noticed. The very thought of Dante essentially sitting under their noses just didn’t sit well with him. Tonight, though, he was going to see what he could get going without having to make Nikki go into a strip club and talk to some guys. In fact, the less part she took in this, the better Breon would be. He’d already made up his mind that he would just sort of fade away after he got Dante, figuring that Nikki would probably just think that another man had done her wrong like all women tend to think.
“We’ll ride in my shit,” Ray said, pointing at his car. “I don’t know if Dante know what you drivin’ or not, so you betta watch your back with your shit.” He looked over at Breon’s SUV. “I know that shit every time I see it, so I know these other niggas out here know it’s you, too.”
“Yeah,” Breon said. “My shit do attract a lot of attention and shit, but it’s whatever. A nigga ain’t broke, so I don’t know why I gotta go around lookin’ like I am and shit.”
Breon and Ray climbed into Ray’s car and Ray headed out to the main road. As they headed toward the south side of Chicago, with the downtown high-rises reaching toward the night sky to their left, Ray looked over at Breon. “Nigga, you sure you just want to go over here and see?” he asked.
Breon looked over at Ray. “What you mean?” he asked. “Hell yeah. I wanna find this nigga. You heard what Kiwi said. Even he want this nigga dead and shit.”
“Yeah, but that ain’t what I’m talkin’ about,” Ray said. “I mean, you sure you don’t wanna hit up that new chick and shit and see about gettin’ that heat tonight in case we roll up over there and see him?”
“Man, look at what time it is,” Breon said, pointing at the clock above the radio. “And it’s so fuckin’ cold outside tonight that you know niggas is not gon’ be out and shit, even over there, so they can freeze their dick and balls off. Nigga, I don’t know what the fuck you smokin’ and shit, but I wasn’t goin’ over her to bank on seein’ the nigga or nothin’. Like I was sayin’ with Kiwi and shit, I wanna play this shit safe and keep it from gettin’ messy and shit. I just wanna ride by and see how we feel. Then, maybe we can get the guns tomorrow night or somethin’ and come back. Whatever we do, I don’t want this nigga Dante to even know that we onto him. Shit, I want him to think that ain’t nobody lookin’ for him. That’s why I’m bein’ careful with who I talk to and hang around with and stuff. And I did what you said with that chick Nikki.”
“Did what?” Ray said, not immediately recalling.
Breon snickered. “I went over there last night with the heat and shit, you know,” he started, “and told her that I was try’na get some money out of this one nigga and that’s why I needed her to help me. I even told her that she could get a cut of the money.”
Ray shook his head, trying to not laugh. “Man, why you do that?” he asked. “You know that chick is gon’ be so damn mad at you when she don’t get her money and shit.”
“Fuck all that,” Breon said, looking away. “Who the fuck gives two shits if some bitch is mad? All she got is her ass and her throat. She stupid for thinkin’ that a nigga is actually gon’ give her some money. But you know how these simple bitches be out here nowadays. All you gotta do is sell them a dream and they will buy it.”
“You right about that,” Ray said, shaking his head.
Within ten minutes, they had crossed into the south side of Chicago. Breon looked out of his window, still feeling like he needed to watch his back. There was something about rolling around the south side on what had to be one of the coldest nights of the year. Lights were on, but nobody was out. There was not a single person standing on the corner waiting for a bus; not a soul trying to cross a busy street. Even the major streets were rather desolate. Ray pointed at a couple of cop cars parked in an alley, their noses sticking out and into the space of the sidewalk.
“See, my nigga,” Breon said. “That’s why I’m glad I put that shit over at that chick’s house. You know if we woulda been carrying that shit, they woulda came up with some reason to pull out. I only wanna use that shit when it’s absolutely necessary and when I ain’t gotta have it on me for no prolonged amount of time.”
Ray turned down a narrow street with dilapidated houses.
“Fuck, they need to fix this shit up over here,” he said. “This shit don’t make no fuckin’ sense.”
“Yeah, you right about that, nigga,” Breon said. He watched with a precise eye as they rolled up the street. It had been a while since he’d been over in this neighborhood and had gone beyond Wayne’s street, as there was simply no reason for him to do so. On some sides of the block, there were fields or burnt-out houses that were never razed. On the other side of the block, there were older houses that looked as if they were about to cave in. No street lights were still working, as they’d all probably been shot out by the neighborhood kids. Breon was a little nervous, knowing that if this had been in a month like June or July, the scene would be very different. This was the kind of neighborhood to have 24-hour foot traffic during the warm months. Because of it being in the dead of winter, both Breon and Ray felt as if they could go exploring a little bit.
The street zigzagged then crossed over a railroad track that was lined with overgrown bushes and small wooded areas where the backyards of houses were once situated. After making a few more turns, and going even deeper into this dark, desolate hood, only having seen one soul out on the street, Ray slowed down. He pointed at a house up the block. “Forty-two twenty seven is the address that my cousin downtown gave me,” he said.
Ray checked the street sign at the corner to make sure that they were on the right street. And they were. With that in mind, he slowly crept up the block, only hearing now the sound of his tires crunching against packed snow on the street. He and Breon both looked side to side, as it felt as if they were in some sort of urban jungle. It was so dark. There was a stray dog or two, literally looking as if they were trying to stay warm to stay alive, crossing the street further up.
Wrath of a Side Chick 2: A Chicago Hood Drama (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 12
