All About The Money

by Glenn, Roy

  “Internal bleeding is the leaking of blood from blood vessels into spaces in the body. Deeper bleeding which involves arteries and veins can result in severe blood loss, which can result in shock.”

  “What causes that?” Simone asked.

  “It can be caused by a violent blunt force, such as being thrown against an object or the beating she apparently took.”

  “But she seemed all right on the way here,” Simone said.

  “Signs and symptoms of internal bleeding are less obvious than that of external bleeding. In fact, an injured person may appear normal at first.”

  The doctor promised he would do all he could to help Bella, but when he came back an hour later, he didn’t even have to say a word for us to know the diagnosis.

  “I am so sorry, ladies. There was nothing more we could do,” the doctor offered up. “The beating she took caused a lot of internal bleeding. It was just too severe,” he said somberly.

  My head was spinning and pounding at the same time. I was fuming! I still couldn’t believe Bella was gone. Before the doctor could even finish, two detectives walked into the room.

  “We need to know who was the last person to see her alive,” one officer said.

  Bullet.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t know his government name, but I knew where to find him. And once I did, he’d be sorry he ever laid hands on Bella.

  We sat through the intense questioning with the detectives. When it was over, Chante drove us all home, and the ride was the longest I’d ever endured. I couldn’t be sure just when Chante went home, but I know none of us ever got any sleep. We stayed up talking about Bella, still unable to come to grips with the fact that she was dead.

  “I’m about to go find this nigga,” I screamed.

  “What? And do what when you find him?” Diane wanted to know.

  I stormed across the room and dug into a nearby closet, pulling several boxes before I found what I was looking for.

  “When I find this muthafucka, I’ve got a bullet with his name on it.”

  “Okay, you need to chill out,” Diane said. “You know the cops will find him.”

  I looked at her, sucked my teeth, and tossed the gun into my bag. “I’m going to the studio; I’ll be back,” I said, leaving the rest of the ladies in the room in awe.

  14

  Chante

  I could tell something was wrong the moment I knocked on the door and no one answered. I knew for sure they were home. It was as if they were just sitting there, listening to me knock. I reached for the knob, and without much effort pushed the unlocked door opened. “H-h-hello?” I started to reach for my piece, thinking something just wasn’t right. “Is everything okay?” I walked down the short hall slowly, not sure if I should have my weapon drawn already. When I rounded the corner, I was confused by what I saw.

  Somber faces stared back at me. I looked around trying to figure out where Jada was. “Hey, guys, what’s going on?” I asked no one in particular.

  Diane buried her face into the palms of her hands and started sobbing.

  “What’s wrong?” I looked around at Diane and Simone. They sat there stone-faced, not even acknowledging my presence.

  “Where’s Jada?”

  That’s when Diane looked up at me. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. “She went after him.” She cried. “She went after him and I’m afraid of what’s gonna happen when she finds him.”

  I stepped closer to Simone. “Who’d she go after? What are you saying?”

  Simone sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “She went after Bullet. And I hope she finds his ass. Bella never hurt a soul. That muthafucka deserves exactly what he gets. I should’ve gone with her.”

  I immediately started blocking Simone out. “How did she find him?” I asked Diane.

  “She, um,” she said. Diane hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know. She just said she was going to the studio.”

  “What studio?” I demanded to know.

  “Triple Platinum,” Diane mumbled over her tears.

  I turned to leave, but Simone grabbed my arm. “Where you goin’?”

  “I’m going to find Jada.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Simone said.

  “No. You stay here and take care of Diane. Maybe Jada will change her mind and come back here. If she does, call me,” I told her and dashed out of there. I couldn’t allow Jada to go out like that.

  Jada West

  I was crying my eyes out when I got to the studio. I just hoped that he would be there. There were a lot of cars parked outside, so I didn’t want to walk in there waving my gun and yelling “Where’s Bullet!” Even though that’s what I wanted to do.

  Then I got lucky. Bullet came out and walked to his car. I started mine and was about to follow him when he shut the door and went back inside. At least I knew he was there. So I turned off my car and waited.

  A few minutes later a group of guys, including The One, came out, and within minutes, Bullet’s car was the only one left. I got out of my car and walked toward the door. As I passed his car I looked in the backseat. It was full of suitcases. He wasn’t getting away after what he’d done. I took out my gun and went inside.

  It didn’t seem like there was anybody left in the building. Maybe Bullet had left with everybody else and I just missed him. That wasn’t likely; if he had come out, there was no way I’d miss him. And besides, if everyone was gone, why would they leave the door unlocked?

  I wandered around the building looking in every room without success. “Where is he?”

  As I continued my search, I began to hear the sounds of music playing and followed the sound. The closer I got, the louder the music became, the madder I got. I was so mad I couldn’t think straight. How could Bullet have done that to her? Bella was the sweetest, most kind and considerate, person I knew.

  When I reached the door where the music was coming from, I smelled smoke. Not weed; it smelled more like something was on fire. I opened the door slowly and walked in. There he was standing over a metal garbage can with a fire extinguisher in his hand. The muthafucka was probably trying to burn the clothes he had on when he beat Bella to death. “Bastard.”

  The music was so loud that he didn’t hear me come in. With his back turned and his attention on the fire I was able to walk up on him.

  “Put the fire extinguisher down and move away from the fire,” I said with me gun aimed at his head.

  Bullet hit the extinguisher a few times to put the fire out and turned around smiling.

  “I said put it down!” I yelled over the music.

  Bullet laughed a little and put the extinguisher down. He tipped his head to one side and looked at me. When he started to move toward me, I took a step closer to him and screamed. “Don’t move!”

  “Okay, okay,” Bullet said and began looking around the room before turning back to me. “You know the whole night I been tryin’ to remember where I knew those pretty-ass titties from. Now I remember you, Miss Kitty.”

  “Shut up!” I yelled and my hands started shaking a little. This may not have been the time to think it, but I had never shot at, much less killed anybody before. But there I was, ready to put a bullet in Bullet’s head for what he had done. Bella was like a sister to me. I couldn’t let him get away with it.

  “You might as well put that little ass gun down, Miss Kitty. You know you ain’t gonna shoot.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. You’re gonna die.” I knew that he could see my hands shaking. I was so mad that it felt like my whole body was shaking. I gripped the gun tighter.

  “No, I’m not. Look at you, can’t even hold the gun you’re shakin’ so fuckin’ bad.”

  “Why’d you kill her?” I yelled.

  “I didn’t kill that ho.”

  “Yes, you did! She died this morning in the hospital from the beating you give her.”

  “She was alive when she left me. I can’t be responsible for what happens to a ho when I’m finishe
d with her. That bitch probably went out and found her another john and he killed her ass.”

  “No, it was you. If you didn’t kill her, what are you trying to get rid of? Why is all your stuff in the car?”

  “You can’t prove that, dead ho’s tell no tales.”

  All of a sudden, Bullet kicked the garbage can in my direction and I jumped back. When I moved, he dove behind a desk. When he came up he had a gun pointed at me.

  “Now, I know you ain’t gonna shoot me, but I will kill you just like I killed your ho. Now put the gun down.”

  “Fuck you!”

  Bullet took another step closer. The door flew open.

  “Freeze!”

  Both Bullet and I looked toward the door; and to my surprise, it was Chante. What the fuck is she doin’ here? Whatever the reason, I was glad she was here with that big ass gun.

  Chante

  “Freeze!” I yelled as I came through the door with my gun drawn. Jada and Bullet had their guns pointed at the other.

  “Who is this? Another one of your ho’s come to have a little threesome?” he laughed.

  “No, she’s here so both of us can kill you,” Jada said.

  “I’m not here to help you kill him, Jada. I’m here to stop you,” I said without taking my eyes off him. I knew neither one of them was going to shoot the other or it would be over. They were both looking for a way out. All I had to do is stall.

  “Stop me? What are you talkin’ about? He killed Bella.”

  “I know that. The police are on their way. Let them handle this.”

  “NO!” Jada shouted at me. “He killed Bella and he’s gonna die for it!”

  “No, Jada,” I said slowly and quietly. The tears were flowing from her eyes.

  “He’s gonna die!” Jada screamed and took a step closer to him. Whether he meant to kill her or not, Bella didn’t deserve the beating she got from him. I had to defuse this situation fast or she just might do it. I couldn’t blame her, ’cause in reality, I wanted him dead too.

  “Jada, please put the gun down.”

  “NO!”

  “He isn’t worth it.”

  “I’m gonna kill him,” Jada said almost in a whisper.

  “Please, Jada, don’t do this. Don’t throw your life away on this worthless piece of shit. The police will be here any minute. Just put the down, Jada. I got him; he’s not going anywhere.”

  Jada slowly began to lower her gun. “Thank you, Jada,” I said and glanced at her. When I did, Bullet fired at me. I felt the shell rip through my left shoulder. The impact knocked me off balance. He tried to run.

  I was about to return fire when Jada screamed, “NO!”

  I saw Jada raise her gun, close her eyes, and empty her clip. The recoil put her on her ass. While she was down, Bullet turned and fired at Jada, but he missed her. I took careful aim and fired. I hit him with two shots to the chest.

  He went down and I moved in on him. I held my gun on Bullet and kicked the gun out of his hand.

  I looked down at Jada. “You okay?”

  “I’m okay—I’m all right.”

  Just then the door burst open. “Freeze!” one uniform yelled.

  “Put your weapon down!” the other yelled.

  I immediately put the gun down, raised my hands, knowing how trigger-happy some of my brothers in blue could be, and yelled, “I’m a cop!”

  “What?” I heard Jada say.

  I could see the look of hurt and disappointment in her eyes. “Yes, Jada, I’m a cop.”

  15

  Jada West

  Ain’t this a bitch? Chante’s a cop. I can hardly believe it, but here I am sitting in the backseat of a police car, somewhere I thought I’d never be, because I was just too smart, too careful. I knew that I wasn’t under arrest because nobody had read me my rights and I wasn’t wearing handcuffs. Bullet was dead though. Chante killed him. The bastard got what he deserved for what he did to Bella. Now she could rest in peace.

  I heard Chante tell the other cops that I didn’t hit a thing, so I wasn’t all that worried. But the fact that Chante was a cop and she was all up in my world couldn’t be a good thing. A million things were going through my mind as we drove to the precinct. Along the way, I tried to think of everything I’d said to her. I tried to remember who she’d seen us with. I had a lot of high-profile clients and now their reputations, and maybe their careers, were on my back.

  I should have known better; should have seen this coming.

  Chante’s a cop. Ain’t that a bitch?

  We arrived at the precinct and I was taken to the same room that I had been taken to the last time I was questioned about a murder. I had been in there for about an hour and a half before anybody came in the room.

  It was the same cop that questioned me the last time, and one I had never seen before. “Ms. West, my name is Detective Sergeant Banner; I’m with the homicide division, and I believe you already met Vice Lieutenant Gineconna.”

  Now I was scared. If this asshole was vice, then they’d been on me for a long time. It was all starting to make sense to me now. And the more it made sense to be me, the more scared I got. I was the target and Gineconna questioning me about that murder at Sensations was just the beginning of it. I should have stayed out of that club after that night; never gone back. But then I thought about it. If I was the target, club or no club, they would have come at me anyway.

  “I’m sorry to keep you waiting so long,” Banner said. “I only need to take your statement and then you’re free to go.”

  I started to say something dumb like, “You mean you’re not going to arrest me for running a prostitution ring?” but I simply said, “I understand.”

  Banner placed a tape recorder on the table and asked me to tell them what happened. While I told my story, Gineconna stood behind Banner and never took his eyes off me. Once I was done, Banner turned off the tape recorder, thanked me for my time, and got up to leave. Naturally, I stood up too. I followed the two cops to the door, but when I got to the door, Gineconna turned and blocked my path.

  “I hope you learned something from all this Ms. West,” Gineconna said to me. Then he stepped aside and let me pass.

  As I walked out of the precinct, I thought about his question. Had I learned anything? And if so, what was it? I was glad he didn’t want an answer, because I didn’t have one. Maybe in a day or two I would, but not now. Right now I was too shaken to think. Bella was dead; murdered by Bullet. Chante was a cop assigned to get close to me. There was definitely a lesson to be learned from all this, but all I wanted to do was go home.

  When I came outside the building, the first thing I saw was Chante. She was leaning against my car. “How’d my car get here?” I asked her.

  “I had it towed here instead of the impound.”

  “Thanks,” I said and walked past her.

  “Jada, wait,” she said and grabbed my arm.

  I jerked my arm away. “What do you want, Chante? Is that even your name?”

  “It’s Rachael, Rachael Dawkins. Chante is my middle name.”

  “And you’re a cop.”

  “Yes, Jada, I’m a cop.”

  “How could you, Chante? I mean, Rachael or whatever your name is. I trusted you.”

  “I was just doing my job, Jada.”

  “Yeah well, if your job is to betray people who considered you a friend, then your job sucks.”

  Chante looked away from me. I could see the pain in her eyes. “You’re right. It does suck.”

  I leaned against my car next to Chante. “So, what’s going to happen next?”

  “Nothing.”

  “What do you mean nothing?”

  “I mean that’s it. Gineconna told you that you were free to go, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, there you go. If there was going to be any charges, you’d be under arrest now. I never told Gineconna anything.”

  “I understand that, Chante. What I don’t understand is why, Chante? Wasn’
t that your job?”

  “You’re right, it was, but something happened to change all that. I wasn’t completely honest with myself, Jada, ’cause if I were, I woulda had to admit to myself who I really was, because I loved being Chante. The truth was that I found your lifestyle exciting. I mean look at yourself, Jada, you always wear the finest clothes, you get chauffeured around, and you’re making mad money. But it was more than that, Jada. I came to like you. We became friends.” That one made me smile on the inside because that’s how I saw her, as a friend.

  “That’s deep, Chante. The cop and the Madame—friends.”

  “Ain’t it?” Chante laughed.

  “What are you gonna do now, Chante?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Wanna go get a drink?”

  “I could definitely use one.”

  “Come on then,” I said and got in the car. Chante got in the passenger seat and broke out her sunglasses. As I drove off, I thought about the fact that it wasn’t all about the money at all. In the end, the money didn’t matter at all. It was about friendship.