by Shan
"I seen Dre early this morning with that bitch Tasha, but I ain’t seen them since then," Lug said.
"Well check this out, it may not have gotten ‘round this way yet, but I got one-hundred stacks for whoever can bring that nigga Andre to me," I said with as much conviction as possible.
"Your cousin Andre?" D-Man asked.
"Yea, my cousin," I answered and shook my head. "He done crossed me too many times and I need him to be taken care of."
"Damn for a hundred stacks, you got it like that?" Lug asked, "I told you a nigga starving around these parts. Tell me how you want it done and when can I pick up my money?"
"Nah, all I want is him brought to me or information where I can find him at, that’s it. When I catch up to him I can handle the rest from there," I said looking back and forth between Lug and D-Man making sure they were clear not to kill him.
"Damn a hundred thousand just to tell you where that nigga at. What the fuck he do to you? You sure you don’t want us to dead that nigga? That seem like a lot of money just to give up the location," Lug said.
"That’s how bad I want his ass. I got some other shit I gotta take care of, so I don’t have time to look for him," I said.
"And we ain’t got time to waste. Let us get on it and we’ll get at you later. Nigga can damn sure use that paper, ya' feel me?" Lug laughed giving D-Man a pound.
"And let it be known that’s for him or either if they find my girl Rozalyn!" I yelled as they walked away.
They both walked away to the beat up Ford Crown Vic they were driving around. One thing for sure about the hood, was that any nigga that’s down and out was willing to do anything for some paper, so that was the exact reason I came to Lug and D-Man.
They could sit out here hustling twenty-four hours straight and would only come home with a hundred dollars between the two of them.
After six hours of searching for Rozalyn myself, I practically just gave up. I’d received over a hundred calls with people from the hood calling me to see if I was serious about paying that money when Andre popped up. I was even more serious than I had ever been, but really feeling like Rozalyn was gone and I really couldn’t wait to get my fucking revenge.
I hit the highway going about ninety sipping and spliffing, thinking, wondering, and feeling bad as hell. I was beginning to second guess myself as a man. Lately all I’ve done was get onto Rozalyn about having my baby, but I couldn’t even protect her. I just wished I could take some of the things back that I’d said to her; things that I’ve done to hurt her.
I should have never pursued her and maybe she wouldn’t have experienced some of the things she has experienced since meeting me. Damn I just wish I could hold her again.
"Look at me getting all mushy and shit," I mumbled to myself. I read all the text messages that she’d been sending to her friends about how she blamed me for the loss of our son and how it was my fault that she was kicked out of her pop’s home. That was the main reason I provided for her and put her in her own spot. It was the main reason I didn’t trip when I found out she spent ten stacks on a Lexus that she could barely drive.
"Damn God all I need a second chance," I said as I looked to the roof of my truck. I really cared about Rozalyn; in fact, I think I was in love with her. I really felt like she would be the mother of a few of my children and my wife when I was ready for that.
If I got another chance to, I would definitely make things right with her. Apologize for everything; come clean about the freak I fucked in Miami that ended up burning me. Stupid. I thought about how I ain’t know nothing about that chick from Eve, but that she was a fine ass red bone with big titties and a fat ass. I can’t believe I ran up in her raw like that. Nasty bitch.
I brought the speed on my truck down to about sixty when I saw a couple fixing a tire on a raggedy ass Honda Civic. Just when I was about to speed back up, the female turned around and looked me dead in my eyes. Right then I saw for a fact that God had just answered my prayers.
The chick hurriedly patted the dude on the back that was taking the tire off of the car. I came to a quick stop on the side of the freeway, and then placed my car in reverse to back up to where they were stranded.
POW! POW!
Bullets shattered my back window, and I reached for my pistol that was occupying the passenger seat. I continued to back up towards them and smashed my foot against the gas.
POW! POW! POW!
I heard a loud ass thud and what felt like my car rolling over a big ass speed bump before my car crashed into the Honda Civic. I pushed the Honda out into the open freeway. I placed the truck in park, and jumped out.
POW! POW!
A bullet tore through my hand and another through my shoulder. I hurried and ran to take cover in front of my truck and waited and listened for him to make his move. Footsteps approached closer and closer to me.
"Come out and face me like a man! Ain’t no need to put money on my head. I’m right here!" he yelled. "Don’t get scared now! You supposed to be the baddest nigga in town! They say if I was smart I, would run!"
I stood up from in front of the car and faced him just like he asked. Blood dripped from my hand onto the ground, but I felt no pain.
"I failed the last time, but I won’t fail this time," Andre said as he raised his gun and pointed it directly at my head.
"Where Rozalyn at?" I asked as I looked away from him to the Civic.
"She dead! It’s too late to save her now! Let’s not worry about her. She already gone to the other side and you getting ready to join her. That’s what the both of you need for crossing me anyway!"
"You know damn well this is not about Rozalyn. This shit started before her! I know it was you that planted that dope in my car that night me and Shalea got popped!
"You needed to be out of the way so I did what I was told to do! Big fucking deal! You ain’t do no time. You get out and come take my girl to get back at me, so to get back at you I tried to kill your ass. Yea I did that shit. I was the one that pumped them bullets into you and I must admit that I felt good doing so," Andre said with a wicked smile over his face.
"Yet, I still walk away. You never could beat me at anything. You can try and try but you never will defeat me at ANYTHING," I said.
"This time I will," Andre said before he pulled the trigger on the empty clip he was holding.
I looked at him with a huge smile planted on my face. He tried to reach in his pocket to grab another clip or either another pistol; I wasn’t sure, but before he could I raised my shit and shot him in each leg. He dropped to the ground and screamed in pain. I didn’t want him to die just yet. I needed to know for sure if Rozalyn was dead. I just didn’t want to believe it.
I walked towards him and pointed the pistol at his chest not caring that cars were passing by." Where is Rozalyn?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"I never wanted to kill you, Tae, I never wanted any of this shit to happen. You gotta believe that this is bigger than the lil’ childish ass grudges we had. This go way deeper than child hood wars," Andre said. "Nigga was paying me a quarter million dollars to get rid of you, said you had to go or else it would hurt a lot of niggas pockets with you running things. Promised me the head position if you were out the way."
"I don’t care about that nigga! I just wanna know where Rozalyn is at!" I roared.
"They made me do it! Since you ain’t do no time I had to make up for it!" Andre growled.
"Nigga, I said I don’t give a fuck about that shit. I just wanna know where my girl is at!" I bellowed hearing my voice echo across the freeway.
"That bitch is dead ain’t no coming back for her! I put two bullets in her pretty little face after I made that bitch suck my dick. Grimy bitch!"
POW! POW!
Two shots to his fucking face! All this bullshit over some damn jealous ass rage he and his brother had. What the fuck was he talking about a quarter million dollars to kill me? Who wanted me dead that bad they would pay that much money to see it done?
Andre and Roderick were supposed to be family and all alone one wanted to kill me and the other wanted to fuck my damn girl. How the fuck can you share the same blood with someone and they do some bullshit like this to you?
I walked over to the Honda and searched the inside and in the trunk, but there were no signs of Rozalyn. I walked over to Andre and grabbed his cell phone from his holster and made my way over to my truck as rapidly as I could.
It wouldn’t be long before the police showed due to a frantic call from one of the civilians that looked on as they passed by. Wasn’t worried about being caught or anything because it was too damn dark on this freeway. The lights didn’t come on until you made it out the hood so it was impossible for anyone to have seen my face. At least I hoped.
I heard another thud and what felt a speed bump again as I rolled away. It had to be Tasha. I didn’t even see what I had hit and nor did I care. It only served her ass right for being with a grimy muthafucka' like Andre. Damn, is that why Rozalyn is dead for being around me?
The pain in my shoulder began to throb and so did the pain in my hand, it had been numb since the bullets first entered my body that I’d forgotten all about it until now. Pushing the truck to a speed of one-hundred and twenty miles per hour, I quickly soaked up the miles on the freeway and made my way to Keylan and Latoya’s in record time.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
26: Keylan
I glanced at the clock and noticed it was just past two in the morning. I’d been out helping Tae look for Rozalyn and just made it home less than an hour and half ago when we decided to give up and let the streets do what they do.
I could tell my nigga was sick behind this shit and if Rozalyn didn’t surface alive and well that it was going to tear him up. Just like the loss of his son did. He stayed away from everybody and gave all of us accusatory looks every time we crossed each other paths. He treated us like we were business partners and not the people he’d grown up with for over ten years.
All of it was stemming from the fact that the person that was partly responsible for his son’s death was his blood cousin, which made him doubt everybody that was in his life. I couldn’t blame him because I was beginning to wonder if anyone else in our small circle had turned and was only pretending to be loyal when they really wasn’t.
Things were finally getting back to normal when Tamar and Dmitri were able steal all the business from Tahj. To say Tahj was upset was an understatement. He threatened Tamar on a couple of occasions but we all took it lightly. He should have known that shit couldn’t always go his way. I know he didn’t really expect for things to say the same with all the complaining these boys were out here doing. The money wasn’t even coming in the same so he had to know things were going to change.
Those couple of months out there in Miami with Tae put enough money in my pocket to ensure that I was set for the next few years. Dmitri wasn’t bullshitting about the fact that if we got in personal with his pop’s people that our pockets would swell quicker than a pimple.
In the next year or two, the plans that Tamar and I have been discussing about leaving this whole game alone and trying to do something positive with our lives for the first time ever would damn sure happen if business kept going good.
Toya wanted kids badly and I wanted to give them to her, but there was no way I could bring a child into this world knowing the kind of shit I was into. I wasn’t really into the dope dealing shit like Tamar them was. I knew all about it and how it worked, but I just wasn’t good at it.
I helped out when needed, but I mainly put my talents in another basket. I had a heavy and excited trigger finger and I loved to shoot first and question a muthafucka' later. Whenever things got out of hand such as a fool trying to disappear when they owed some money, a nigga deciding he wanted to be a snitch, getting rid of a body or two, or some shit like that; I was your man.
No one was really clear on what I really did, but my crew, my girl, and her mom. Everybody around me assumed that I was just some quiet, strange, nigga that Tae’s mother and father saved from his fucked up parents. I liked it that way. I liked for people to think I was quiet, strange, and needing to be saved.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
I grabbed my chopper from the closet located near the front door and checked to make sure it was locked, loaded, and ready to go.
"Who the fuck is it?" I asked demanding an answer before I sprayed whoever it was standing on the other side of the door.
"Me! Open up!" I heard Tae yell from the other side. I sat the gun back in its resting place in the closet and opened the door. The minute I opened it Tae fell face first onto the floor of the foyer. I could see he was bleeding and looked to be wounded, but the reason he fell didn’t have anything to do with his wounds. I could smell the liquor permeating from his breath as he went down. Neither he nor Brandon could control their liquor, so I don’t know why they chose to drink.
I knelt down and rolled Tamar onto his back and pulled him out of the doorway so that I could close the door back and lock it. I thought about pulling him into the living room but thought twice about it when I saw the blood leaking from his hand. My carpet was a plush, cream color and blood stains would be hard to come out.
"What the fuck happened?" Toya asked as she peeped around the corner.
"I don’t know. Go and get your mama," I said. "Tae! Tae!"
"I gotta piss!" he said.
"Well get your ass up! Don’t pee on my damn floor!"
Tamar laughed and opened his eyes to look up at me. "That nigga dead bruh. I had to pop his bitch ass." Tae’s speech was slurred as he spoke, but I didn’t have to ask who he was talking about. Andre was the only person on his mind all evening and that he was dying to put some led into him.
"Where is Rozalyn? Did you find her?"
I pulled Tamar up off the floor and asked myself why I did that when a stream of vomit flew from his mouth onto my bare feet. All I could do is twitch, as goose bumps covered my skin. I had to cuss under my breath to keep from kicking his ass in the face.
I left him sitting in the foyer to soak in his drunkenness while I went to clean this sewer smelling shit from my body. By time I finished washing up and went into the living room, Toya’s mom Tanya had Tamar laying on the sofa shirtless. She puffed on a cigarette as she went through her kit of medical equipment that she stole from the hospital where she’d worked.
Tanya was a down ass lady that hip to the game a little too well. Her late husband was a veteran in the streets and made it out alive and wealthy. I heard many stories about how he would come home late nights and early mornings with a stab wound or a bullet wound or two and she would fix him up real nice to keep him from having to go to the hospital.
She talked about how she always worried that some punk ass nigga was going to take his life or that he was going to get locked up. She didn’t want to be a widow or a wife of a convict so she refused to marry him until he got out the game. When he finally did, they’d been married only two years before he was killed by a drunk driver. That was almost ten years ago.
That shit was crazy how he he’d ran around and played in the streets and always woke up to see another day, but the minute he laid his guns down and went down a better path, he was killed in a freak accident. I wondered if that shit would happen to me one day. Would I find myself thinking I escaped this game to only be killed by some shit that ain’t have anything to do with the streets.
"Aaggh shit! Do that shit one more time you gonna make me punch your ass in the mouth!" Tamar was laying on my couch spilling blood every damn where, as Tanya worked on him.
"Nigga, I wish you would! You'll have a pair of scissors right in the middle of your eyeball," Tanya said taking another puff off her cigarette.
"Did it go all the way through?" I asked.
"Nah, the one in his hand did, but this one in his shoulder didn’t. You think I should take it out?" Tanya asked.
"Yea, that shit look nasty enough he may need to go the hospital in a cou
ple of days. Don’t wanna leave that in there for them to find," I said.
If Tae had murdered Andre like he said, the last thing he needed was evidence that would lead the police to him. Anytime you went to the hospital for a gunshot wound it was policy for hospital staff to report it to the police so removing the bullet fragments would make it harder for them to their job.
"Aaggh, you bitch!" Tae yelled.
Wham!
Tanya punched Tae in his face. "This muthafucka better be glad he like a son to me or else I would fuck his ass up!"
"Let him slide ma', you know that fool can’t hold his liquor." I said trying to ease the situation.
"Lil sissified muthafucka'," she said.
I looked up when I saw Toya enter the living room fully dressed like she was about to go somewhere. She was carrying a small Gucci handbag that she only carried when she was toting the pistol I got for her birthday a couple of years back.
"Where you about to go?" I asked.
"I gotta go and find Rozalyn. Y'all sitting around here acting like ain’t nobody take my friend. She could be somewhere hurt and y'all act as if that is ok." she said as she adjusted the collar on her jacket.
"Nobody said it was ok. We looked all over for her Toya. Everybody know we looking for her so trust me if anybody see her they gonna call and say something."
"Well I’m not about to sit around and wait for the phone to ring."
"You not about to leave this damn house either."
"Since when did you tell me what I can and can’t do?"
"Toya, I’m not about to go there with you. I’m just letting you know that you not about to leave my muthafuckin' house! It ain’t shit you can do right now!"
"No, it may not be nothing you can and this bum ass nigga can do, but I can damn sure do something and that’s look for my friend."
Toya tried to walk past me, but I stood up from the loveseat and placed my hand around her neck and pushed her down. I could see the tears in her eyes that she fought to keep from falling. I hated to see her in any kind of pain, but it was nothing she could do right now.
