by Shan
“I gave you your stuff back! I replaced it before you got out of jail!”
“Are you fucking stupid? What am I gonna do once it is gone? You gonna go back to stripping, Jah, while I go to work at fucking Burger King!” Quin bellowed. His hands were balled tightly into fist and his veins were popping out of his neck.
“Quin, I have a little money put up. We will be okay for a while until we can figure something out.”
“I’m not about to let my woman take care of me. Just give me the fucking address, Jahzara, and stop fucking playin' with me!”
I placed my hands on my hips and stared into Quin’s dark brown eyes. If I didn’t give him Imran’s address, there would always be an issue of whether or not he could trust me, and he would always throw it in my face about how I gave his life line away to another nigga. I didn’t wanna do it, but it seemed as if Quin was leaving me with no choice.
Shit!
13 Imran
"Don't let anybody in my fuckin' house! Do you understand me? It's bad enough that I'm trusting your thieving ass up in here!" I yelled and rushed past Rain to my bar area. I quickly poured myself a glass of Henny and pulled the Kush filled blunt from behind my ear.
"I didn't let her in here. She came in here on her own! You said you would help me, so I don't need you throwing my past in my face!" Rain spat back at me. Her voice cracked with pain, and I refused to turn and look her way.
"My bad. I'm just fucking stressed right now. First, this shit with Tamar, and, now, somebody took out three of my corners. My street soldiers are gone, along with my dope and my cheddar. Took every damn thing!" I yelled and punched my fist into the table. I swallowed back the rest of my drink and tossed the glass across the room. I lit the tip of my blunt and watched as the shards of glass slowly slid to the floor.
One spot being hit was bad enough, but damn three? And all at once? That shit there had Quin's name all over it, and, maybe, I was completely wrong about my uncles doing this shit to Tamar's people. I honestly didn't think the nigga had the balls or the street resources to even come after me. I had completely underestimated him, and, because of it, I had to take a hard-ass L.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Imran. Do you know who did it?"
"Not for sure, but I think I have a good idea. Think I'm ‘bout to make a trip over there to holla at his ass, too. Yeah, I went after that nigga, but only because I knew, if I didn't, this was the kinda shit I would have to worry about," I huffed, taking another toke from the blunt. "Way I see it. We one to one. It's ‘bout to time we finish that lil shoot out."
I blew a cloud of smoke in the air and paced the floor. My mind was going crazy, trying to think of how I wanted to go about things with Quin.
"Do you think that's the smart thing to do, especially with you not knowing for sure if it was him?"
"It was that nigga. Ain't nobody else trying to come after me like that! Everybody eating, which means everybody is happy… except for him!"
I sat at my table and finished smoking my blunt and went over everything in my head. Quin was the only one that had the motive to do this to me. I had to squash this shit now, put an end to it, or else I was not going to have anything left in the end.
I got up from the table and stormed out of the house without saying another word to Rain.
***
"Look. I need to know if you know anything about what happened to Tamar's mama?" I asked my Uncle B.B. as I pulled onto Quin's block.
"Nah. What happened to his mama?" B.B. asked with a look of confusion on his face. He pulled out two .9mm handguns and sat them across his lap.
"Somebody attacked her, told her to let Tamar know he needed to stop dealing with me. Y'all the only ones that told me to stop all contact with him."
"Dom told you that. Everything is lining up, Imran. We have to stick to the organization and allow things to take its course."
"Fuck all that organization bullshit and allowing things to take its course. I'm not a part of that shit. Y'all gave me the keys to the city and told me it was all mine. Now, y'all wanna control how I do my job? I'm not trying to hear that."
"You have no choice, Imran," B.B said with finality.
"So y'all did go after his mama, huh?" I asked again.
"Nah. I said I didn't know anything about that. Let's just go see this nigga, so I can get back to the hospital with my girl."
"It's been a year, B.B. When you gonna let her go? Don't seem like she's gonna wake up to me."
"I'm hopeful."
B.B. got out of the car and placed one gun in his waistband. He held the other one down by his side. Now that I no longer had Jay to put my dirty work in for me, I had to do shit myself. Back in the day, when I had to do shit like this, B.B. always had my back, and it was the same for him.
I beat down Quin's door for a few seconds and then checked to make sure I had a bullet in the chamber.
"I don't know what you knocking for. You say this nigga took your shit and killed your people!" B.B. said. Then, he slammed his foot into the door. The first time, the door cracked open, but the second time he kicked it, it flew completely open.
Standing a few feet from the door with a look of fear written across her face was Jahzara. Her mouth gaped open, and she was frozen with terror.
"Where the fuck is he, Jah?" I yelled.
B.B. raised his nine and pointed it directly at Jahzara's head. I placed my hand over the top of his gun and pushed it down. No matter what that fuck nigga Quin had done, I still had love for Jahzara. Love just didn't go away that quickly and easily when it was real.
"I don't know where he's at! He just… just left a few minutes ago!" Jahzara shrieked. She held her hands in the air and looked from me to B.B., anticipating our next move.
"Jah, did that nigga take out my goons on the block today? Take my shit?"
I walked closer to her and began my interrogation. The smell of her Victoria Secret's lotion hit me hard and had me wanting to taste her.
"No, I don't know! I was with Quin all day until I came to your house to get my things, but, at that time, he had to go see his probation officer!" Jahzara explained.
"Where the fuck he at, Jah? I'm not playing no fuckin' games right now! Nigga playing with my money!"
"I don't know, Imran. He didn't tell me where he was going! I can't believe you up in here waving a damn gun around! It's like that now, Imran?" Jahzara placed her hand on her hips and stared at me defiantly.
"Fuck you! I'm here ‘bout my damn paper!"
"Ain't nobody up in here man. Let’s go!" B.B. placed his other gun on his hip and headed out of the house. I looked at Jahzara once more and examined her face for any signs that she might have been lying to me.
"He didn't do it, Imran. Maybe, on any other day, I would wonder, but not today."
I nodded my head and left the house. It had to be Quin. There were no other niggas out here crazy enough to fuck with me. I slowly walked back to my car, not wanting to leave just yet. I needed to see Quin for myself. I wanted for him to tell me that he didn't do that shit.
"Bro, what’re you doing? Let’s go," B.B. demanded with a tap of the hood.
"Nah. We waiting. I'm not going nowhere until I see and talk to this nigga for myself." I leaned against the car and crossed my arms over my chest.
"I'm trying to get back to the hospital with Lush."
"She's in a coma. It's not like she going anywhere."
14 Quin
The last thing I should’ve been doing was blowing trees, but, with things as crazy as they were, I couldn't help it. I sat in front of Imran's house, blowing a cloud of loud in the air. He lived in a very quiet and upscale neighborhood where everyone's lawns were crispy green. In their driveways sat luxurious cars, and, not just one, some had two and three. The jealously I felt ran deep into my blood. This was what I could've had if I hadn't lost damn near five years of my life to the system. Imran was the one that was supposed to have been caged up, not me. This mini mansion should have been mi
ne and not his.
I put the blunt out in the ashtray and stepped out of the car. I looked around and noticed that no one was outside, absolutely no one. With ease, I made it across the big-ass lawn and up to Imran's front door. I pulled out a couple of pins. Then, I placed them inside the holes of the lock and prayed that it opened with no problem. After a good five minutes of struggling with it, it finally popped, and the door opened with ease.
I walked inside, and the smell of vanilla and some kind of fruity shit was floating in the air. I quietly walked around, looking around at pictures of this nigga’s happy moments. Pictures of him and his crack head mama, his uncles, and then… a fucking picture of him and Jahzara. I brought my hand up and swiped all of the pictures to the floor. Seeing that shit made me angrier than I already was. Knowing that Jahzara was there enjoying the luxury of living in a fucking mini-mansion disturbed me. I wondered why the fuck she chose to come back to me anyway. I didn't have shit to offer her at that point. My funds were super low and, soon, shit was going to get very bad. For those very reasons, Jahzara had me questioning her motives and if she was really there for me.
"Imran!"
I jerked my head up and pulled my pistol from my waistband. As quietly as possible, I walked over the broken glass and frames, trying not to crunch too much under my feet.
"Imran! Are you okay down there?"
I stayed in place upon hearing the female's footsteps descend the stairs. She turned a couple of lights on before she turned the corner and was face to face with me. She looked from me to the gun in my hand, down to the glass on the floor, before bring her attention back up at me. I cracked a sinister grin and bolted directly after her when she took off running in the other direction. I grabbed at her already mangled hair and pulled her into me.
"Where the fuck you think you’re going?" I questioned, while looking around to make sure no one else was coming.
"Who sent you? Did Chino send you?"
"Who the fuck is Chino? Bitch, who else is in here with you?" I asked, placing the pistol to her head.
"No one! Nobody else is here."
I pushed her away and pointed the gun into her back. I was hoping that Imran had something in his house that would be of great use to me, but, somehow, I knew that was reaching.
"Take me to the money, drugs, or whatever," I said, pushing the gun deeper into her back.
"I don't live here. I don't know where anything is—"
I punched her in the back of the head with the gun and watched as she stumbled over and hit the ground. Blood seeped from her head onto the cream colored carpet and stained it with a perfect red spot. I stepped over her body and rushed to the top of the stairs. The upstairs was even more immaculate than the downstairs. Life size pictures hung on the walls, and African artwork was situated in various places throughout the halls. I peeked my head in the first bedroom I came up on and noticed that it was just a plain old guest room. Next, I moved on to the next room, which was the same as the last one. Finally, I came upon the master bedroom. A bedroom, which was the size of half my damn house. The bed was fucking huge and the sheets looked to be of an expensive thread.
I searched all over the bedroom for anything of value. Sad that I had to resort to such measures, but Imran and Tamar had left me without a choice. I can’t be broke. I just can't, I thought. At one point, I had everything, but, now, I had nothing. I had been left to pick over scraps like a fucking dog.
I tossed the mattress off the bed and found nothing. Everything out of the dresser drawers, every inch of the closet, holes in the walls… and nothing. I decided to go back to the guest bedrooms and strip those down just in case. Sadly, this fool didn't have a dollar or even some loose damn change in this house. I made my way back downstairs, checked on the girl, and, once I saw that she was still out, I checked the remainder of the house. There were three rooms downstairs. One was an office, and the others were guest rooms, as well. I checked the office first. I went through everything from the paperwork to the shit on his computer. I tried to pull open the last two bottom drawers and noticed that they are locked. I searched all over the office for the key but couldn't find it. Impatiently, I grabbed my hammer and aimed it at the lock.
Pow!
After a hole replaced the lock, I jerked the drawer to the cabinet wide open. The smallest drawer at the top held a few stacks of cash, but the bottom drawer made my dick hard. Three kilos of pure, untouched coke and a pound of Kush.
"Damn! I can't believe this nigga got this shit in his house and in an obvious spot at that," I said as I pulled out the money and dope. I placed everything on the desk and looked around for something to put it in. I spotted a Sears bag hanging on the back of the door, but the voice coming out of the room pulled my attention away.
"Hello?" I said into the receiver of my phone.
"Imran just left from over here. He flew out of here, so I hope that you are not at his fucking house," Jahzara said on the other end.
"What you mean he just left from over there?" I asked, frustrated.
"He came over here asking question about you shooting up his people and taking his dope."
"What?" I shook my head and threw everything I’d found in Imran's file cabinet into the Sears bag. I walked out of the office and found Imran's girl cradling the phone to her ear. I hung up my cell without saying anything further to Jahzara. After sliding the cell phone into my pocket, I crept up behind her and punched her in the back of her head. She and the phone went stammering to the floor. I walked over to her and kicked her once in the stomach and once in her face.
I headed towards the door to leave, but I stopped the moment I made it to the front door. For what seemed like forever, I contemplated my next move. Why couldn’t I just walk out the door and take everything this nigga had along with me?
I turned back around and made my way into kitchen, looking for something that I could easily start and spread a fire with. I came across some vegetable oil. I poured a trail of it from the kitchen into his foyer, right to where the bitch was lying. I didn't know if this shit would work or not, but it was worth a try. I grabbed a piece of paper from the floor, pulled a lighter from my pocket, and made my way back to the front door. I lit the piece of paper and tossed it on the ground. The shit took too long to spark up, so I walked over to the windows and put fire to the curtains. Finally, flames. I nodded my head in pure pleasure, took a look at the chick once more, and left the house.
"I hope that muthafucka burns to the ground before he makes it home," I said to myself as I jogged over to my car. I looked over at the house before getting in and driving off and saw that the fire was getting bigger and bigger by the minute. Happily, I tossed my bag of goodies inside the car, get in, and drove away.
15 Honey
I took a puff of my cigarette and waved my hand at Imran and his buddy as they flew by me. Of course, neither of them saw me sitting there. Eagerly, I wanted to crank up and follow him, hoping that he led me to his house, but I was having a little too much fun watching and fucking with Quin and Jahzara. I sat up in that house for hours without either of them knowing. Listening to them profess their undying love for each other and a bunch of other bullshit. I didn't leave out of there until Jahzara left, but I didn't go very far, only to grab a pack of squares and to handle some other business. I had yet to decide on what I wanted to do to either of them, but I did know that seeing the two of them together had me pissed. I only wanted to hurt Jahzara and Imran in the beginning, but now Quin had been added to that list. He thought he could just tell people whatever the fuck he wanted and then turn around and do differently.
I flicked my cigarette to the ground. Then, I made my way to the back of Quin's house. The same window I had climbed into last time was still cracked open. Luckily for me, since they never went into that room, they never had reason to check it. I pushed the window open, eased inside, and pulled it down to that same crack.
I heard the faint sounds of the TV playing in the front room and Ja
hzara's voice as well. I slowly walked to the door and glanced out. I spotted her pacing the floor. The look on her face showed that she was scared out of her fucking mind, and I wanted nothing more than to scare her even further, but I held off. I didn't want to play my hand too fast, not without having a little fun first. I knew that I couldn't play this game too long because I had a good feeling that the police would be coming back for me real soon. I was sure they would have concocted some kind of way to charge me with something and drag my ass back to jail, and I was not trying to be around for that.
