by Nicety
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NicetyCouture
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to my family, I will love you all until the end of time. You are the air that I breathe. To my friends, thanks for keeping me afloat when I thought I would sink. To my cover model, Redd Lauren, thanks for doing your thing on the photos. You rock everyday! To my fans and many followers, I love you all more and more each day. Thank you for the love and support you deliver each day!
To book Bianca Daniels (Redd Lauren) for cover modeling contact [email protected] or
www.thicktoppmodels.webs.com
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this book to my family and my friends who supported my dream of becoming a published writer. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself years ago. I’m making you proud now! Also to my readers for without you there would be no me. I love you all!
To some very special readers who have been rocking with me and supporting me from day one, I love you all. This book goes out to Latosha Scruggs, Jackie Figueroa, Yung-Lit, Tiffany Haynes, Camille Lamb, Nefertaria Ayo, Fallon Willis Blaqk, Keyanna Savage, Shemika Jones, Sharon Blount, Courtney Bryant, Keona Day, LaShaun Cadney, Rosalyn Reed, Shanta Shaw, Me’Tova Hollingsworth, LaSonya Steger, Lakenya Ross, Candice Preyer, Tiffany Williams, Nae Martinez, Shikira Hoy, Tona McCoy, Shamella Skipper, Linda Jiggets, Marissa Palmer, Tonia “First” Maurice, Sistar Tea, Sandy Sims, Carla Towns, Brandie Davis, Joy Hammond Nelson and Tanisha-PhatPhat. I’d also like to dedicate this book to the Facebook Book Clubs that support me, New Beginnings Book Club, RRU, We Read Urban, Just Read, SRS, Slyce, Tajana Sutton’s Club, MUB, KR, Bayou Diva Readers, and last but certainly not least The Nicety Readers!!! Love you all!
Thanks to Tamika Newhouse & AAMBC for their support and my award for Break Out Author of the Year for my novel Juicy: Pandora’s Box!
Special Shout outs to #TEAMNICETY, the bullets to my nine!
To my besties…you all know who you are as I will only use first names but your love and support knows no bounds. Mario, Guillermo, Ashley H., Ashley P., and Ashley P. (Yes I meant to do that), Jeanne, Yvette, Bob, Manny “You’re so silly”, Arndell, Leslie, Princess, Walt, Will, Karen, Theresa, Tiffany K., Irine, Meron, Earline and Jermika. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for always supporting me and making sure that I remained focused on the task at hand, which was getting your books to you on time. Laughing but dead serious. To my husband, the perfect verse over a tight beat. Thanks for being nothing more than you!
**If I have forgotten anyone, know that I love you still**
“Sleep is for people who don’t work hard enough”—
Nicety
Chapter 1
Picked Up
“What the fuck?” Messiah snapped as he reached for the gun from Bentley’s hand one second too late.
Federal Agent Crosby was stretched out on the concrete with a single gunshot wound to his dome, set perfectly between his eyes. They were glossed over and were still open from the trauma of it all. All the while, the warm summer wind blew his cheap looking toupee to the side revealing a semi bald head. Red froze with her hand covering her mouth in disbelief that Bentley had actually shot a cop. She thought his whole scene was all just for show, a simple scare tactic. Messiah tried to calm his boiling point before he was able to assess the situation.
“I’m sorry, Meech. I’m so sorry to do this at your place of business.” Bentley covered his mouth in horror at the amount of blood oozing from the detective’s head.
“Sorry ain’t gon’ scrape this nigga's shit off the ground and keep the heat off my business. Is it?” Messiah retorted angrily.
“Well I’m out. I see you’re busy with this shit so—“ Red began to walk away but was interrupted by the tight grip of a hand on her arm.
“No! You ain’t going no where.” Messiah grabbed her arm forcefully. “Don’t even think about walking away.”
Red snatched her arm away from his grip then crossed them sending him a funky look. She rolled her eyes and stood there but she couldn’t bring herself to look into his eyes. He knew she was still angry with him but he was determined to make her listen to what he had to say. He just couldn’t deal with her right then but couldn’t bear to watch her leave.
“Skid, get Danger and get up here. Some shit just went down.” Messiah hung up his cell phone and stuffed it back inside his pocket.
Danger and Skid reached the storage opening with Braze tagging along behind them and the shock on their eyes read like braille. They looked at Bentley standing there with an expression of guilt on his face and immediately became angered by it. Neither of them were in the mood to clean up his dirty work since it was bad enough that they had to clean up the stiff downstairs. Messiah rubbed his head wildly, feeling his blood pressure skyrocketing.
“Alright, I need y’all to clean up this shit here first before that shit downstairs. I can’t have this out here when customers get here man so I need this done now.” Messiah demanded.
With that, he reached up pointing the gun blasting two slugs into Bentley’s chest. His body made a loud thud sound as it hit the ground with everyone’s eyes focused in on him. Messiah lowered his hand looking down at his body without an ounce of remorse flowing through him. He motioned for the guys to take care of him as well.
"Scrape that dumb ass up too. Shit." Messiah spat handing the gun to his brother.
“Dude what the fuck is going on? Man Meech, I’m telling you shit is getting too crazy out here, dog. This shit ain’t as tight as it used to be, man. You got enough money. You need to retire.” Danger said placing his hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Why? So you can take over and run the shit into the fucking ground for real. Look, I give the orders around here, alright? I got shit to do. Make sure this shit is handled before the doors open.” Messiah retorted as he placed his hand on the small of Red’s back escorting her to his truck. “That’s your job.”
Braze shook her head at his anger trying to fix her lips to respond but was interrupted as she looked down at the wet goo dripping down her legs. She didn’t know how long it had been there but realized it was definitely time. There wasn’t any pain as of yet and she could not even feel the baby move. It wasn’t the time or the place to be going into labor but it seemed she would not have a choice in the matter now.
“Meech!” Braze shouted rolling her eyes at Red. “I’m in labor.”
“Oh no. We ain’t playing that shit again.” Skid said wrapping the final piece of blue tarp around Agent Crosby’s dead body then helping Danger toss it into the back of his truck’s trunk.
“No really! I’m in labor. Look!” Braze said pointing down to the sticky residue soaking her jogging pants.
Messiah looked into Red's irritated eyes and knew his talk with her was going to have to wait just a bit longer. He signaled for Braze to get in the truck and watched as the look on Red's face went from angry t
o pissed. Braze hopped her ass conveniently in the front seat leaving Red to lackadaisically take the back. The guys were pouring bleach on the ground attempting to clean it up and watched as Messiah backed out of there speedily.
"So what we gon' do with these motherfucking bodies man?" Danger snapped, pissed that now he had to burn his brand new Sean Jean fit.
"Shit. We gon' do what we used to do back in the day, take 'em to the Stew Maker." Skid replied checking the ground for any leftover residue.
"Damn, I didn't know that son of a bitch was still in business." Danger smirked.
"Yeah, and the sooner we get these stiffs in the truck, the quicker we get rid of 'em. So move your ass." Skid replied grabbing the second blue tarp from out of a box and tossing it to him.
Danger laid the tarp down right next to Bentley's body and with Skid's help, rolled him onto it. Gurgling, moaning sounds filled their ears as they looked down realizing that Bentley was still alive. Skid didn't want to waste anymore time out in the open with bullet-ridden bodies. He wrapped the tarp around his body securing it tightly then signaled for Danger to aid him lifting it.
"Alright. You clean up the blood and I'm gon' get this bitch from downstairs." Skid said as he headed for the elevator.
Danger was pissed. He hated doing the dirty work. As Skid loaded onto the elevator, Amy waddled off examining the scene her man was cleaning. She noticed the angry look on his face and knew she shouldn't ruffle his feathers about leaving her downstairs with a bloody corpse for so long. She placed her hands on her hips releasing a deep sigh before looking up into his eyes to speak.
“Babe, what the fuck happened up here?” She asked in a soothing voice.
“Man, motherfuckas trippin’. That’s all. Why didn’t you stay downstairs?” He responded angrily.
“You left me down there with a dead body in the fucking dark and shit. You got me fucked up, goofy.” Amy retorted.
“Girl, I’m up here handling business. You can't help me with this being pregnant and all.” Danger curled the bottom of his t-shirt around his fist, using it to clear the droplets of sweat from his forehead. “Maybe you should take the car and gon’ on home.”
“Uh un, you know I’m not leaving you.”
“Amy, I’m good girl. All the drama is over. You need to give our sunshine some rest. She had enough excitement for one night.”
"Boy you don't even know if its a girl or not. Them doctors don't be knowing shit til the baby come out. Fuck those ultrasounds. Your ass just want a daughter that damn bad."
"You right I do but not if she's gonna be as hardheaded as you. Go home, Amy!"
Amy didn’t have time to rebut his demand as the elevator doors opened up. Skid stepped out dragging Zadie’s heavy carcass in a dirty blue tarp. He made his way to the truck holding the other two bodies and with Danger’s help loaded the final body into it. Skid slammed the fly door down ensuring it was locked and secured tightly before making his way over to close the storage door. He tapped the keypad turning on the alarm then headed over to assess the cleanup effort.
“You did a good job there, boy. Ain’t shit left on that ground. Shit, you’d make a good house nigga.” Skid joked as he slapped the back of Danger’s shoulder.
“Man shut the fuck up man and get yo’ big Shaq lookin’ ass in the damn truck dude.” Danger snapped pushing him back. “Look babe, just go home.”
“No. I ain’t fucking going nowhere.” Amy curled her lips and crossed her arms.
She was adamant on going with him. She got clingy like that with every job that they did ever since she got pregnant. Danger hated it but he knew she was only smothering him because she was nesting. He didn’t want her to meet the Stew Maker. There were things in that place that even the most ruthless vathos had never seen and he was afraid she might be traumatized by it all.
“Babe, where we going isn’t a place for pregnant women—“
“D. you can talk that shit all you want but I’m going and that’s that.” Amy walked off, jumping in the back seat of the truck.
Honk! Honk! The horn annoyed him and interrupted his thoughts. Skid was an asshole like that, not wanting to wait on anything when it was on his time. He looked over to the driver's side mirror seeing his eyes mean mugging back at him. He rubbed his head as he headed for the front passenger seat and jumped in. Damn. Danger thought as he wished like hell he could persuade Amy to get her stubborn ass out the truck before they pulled out the gate.
It was too late. Skid had already tapped the button on the sun visor and exited the gate as it slid open. As they drove along the road and eventually merged onto the Stevenson Expressway, Danger began to relax about bringing Amy along. She was a beast, after all, and could damn well handle herself in any condition. He realized he might have been tripping over nothing. Skid blasted the Mrs. Officer by Lil’ Wayne allowing it to penetrate the speakers from the radio station. Amy sat still in her seat unfazed by the fact that not one foot from her was the bodies of three dead people, one of which was a cop.
Once off the expressway they drove a few blocks then pulled into the back alley of a commercial neighborhood. Amy didn’t journey to the North Side much but she knew that's where they were because the buildings were much taller and the streets were much cleaner than any other parts of the city. She knew they had to be about to fuck with someone of great prestige since only people with money lived in that part of town. Even the alleys were clean like no one ever even threw a single piece of gum or potato chip wrapper on the ground.
“Wait here.”
Skid parked just before a long black gate with a tall wooden fence covered behind it, so no one could peek in. He exited the truck, heading up to the gate appearing as if he was whispering something into the gate. Danger and Amy sat in the car and watched as the gate opened giving a soft buzzing sound as it did. Skid reentered the truck, revving it up as he maneuvered it backing it into the grassless yard instead of pulling straight into it. The three flat building behind them was all brown brick with no visible stairs and the windows were all covered with newspaper on the inside.
“Skid, where the hell you got us at, dude? This is an abandoned building with a dusty, dirty ass yard and shit.” Amy wondered, looking puzzled at the yard’s dead like appearance.
“Ay, shut the fuck up, alright? When we go in here don’t say shit cause you liable to get cut. Alright?” He retorted slamming the truck door.
“Nigga, how the fuck we supposed to get these stiffs out the trunk without motherfuckas seeing this shit in broad fucking daylight?” Danger panicked.
“You worried about shit that don’t concern you. Let’s go.” Skid said signaling him to follow.
They headed for a set of concrete stairs in the back of the building leading down to the basement. The door swung open automatically with a guy standing there holding an AK-47 guarding it. He escorted them deep into the back of the dark dungeon past long hanging chains with hooks attached to them. They could hear a loud buzzing, rattling sound in the distance that was slowly becoming more apparent the closer they got to it. Amy tried to remain calm, making sure to focus in on her surroundings using her other senses since her visual was more than obstructed by darkness. The only light visible was the light from the guard’s cigarette lighter that he held up for them.
“In there.” He said pointing to a room with light illuminating all around the edges of the door.
The man disappeared into the darkness leaving them there to fend for themselves in the dark. There was no going back, as Skid walked up to the door, pushing it open. The revving sound was slapping them in the face but it was drowned out by the display before them. Amy felt sick to her stomach feeling as if she would barf right there on the cold concrete floor. The only thing helping her to hold it back was Skid’s words before they walked in the building. She placed her hand gently over her stomach while her baby did back flips inside.
“Stew Maker, respect from Big Meech. We request your services.” Skid said in his
most humble voice.
“How many?” The Stew Maker asked very sternly turning the chainsaw in her hand off.
“Tres.” Skid responded.
“Who are they?” The thick accented Mexican female asked.
“Familia.”
She removed the huge black rubber gloves from her hands and the matching ski mask from her face. Long dark hair flowed from her head dangling all the way down her back and just above her muscular plumped backside. She wore extra thick makeup around her eyes and dark deep black lipstick. Her dark colored jumpsuit was very tight fitting almost spandex like with all black leather Timberlands adorning her feet. The woman didn’t smile and it seemed like she didn’t blink as she hawked Danger and Amy down, studying them like an AIDS test.
“Familia, eh? Okay, thirty large.” She spat placing her hand on her small hips.
“Thirty large?”
“Ten a piece, motherfucka you got a problem with that?” She snapped curling her eyebrows over something wicked.
Skid put his hands up. He knew he wasn’t in the right place to be trying to negotiate deals. All of them looked over at the dripping half a corpse hanging from the chains over a huge dirt hole in the ground. There was only an arm and leg left on the torso with the genitals still hanging out from it. Blood was splattered everywhere. On the opposite side of the room, there was a huge pot about the size of a MACK truck’s tire. It was sitting atop of a gas fire with the lid being heated by burning charcoal. It was very unusual to them that the pot wasn’t giving off any foul aroma or stench. Instead it smelled like they were in a fast food restaurant waiting on their order. Turning back to the woman impatiently waiting on an answer about her money and a dead hanging corpse made them realize this was no fucking restaurant.
“Well, thirty large or what, huh?” She said walking up to them.
