For the next couple of weeks all she planned to do was push up on corners and run down on potential trap houses. Her motto was, either get down with the movement or get found not moving. On her way out of the trap house, Diamond’s phone started ringing. She waited until she got out on the porch to answer it, because she didn’t want anyone hearing her conversation. It was Mike calling, “Hey stranger,” Diamond said, looking up and down the block.
Ever since Diamond had started moving the cocaine, she really didn’t have time for Mike. It was during this short period of time, that they both found out that some feelings were starting to get involved.
“Hey beautiful. I was wondering if I could see you later tonight,” Mike said, looking out of his office window.
Diamond had to think about it. Her mind was really on money right now, and tonight she was supposed to get with Dollaz about some business. She wanted to take this opportunity to try and get Washington Street, or at least set up a trap house a couple blocks over.
“You still there?” Mike said, breaking the silence on the phone.
“Yeah, yeah I’m still here. Naw that’s fine. We can hook up later on,” she said as she calculated a time that would be good for her. “How does 11:00 sound?”
“Like a booty call,” Mike chuckled. “But I’ll take what I can get,” he joked.
They both laughed. This was one of the things she enjoyed most about him. He was so easy to get along with, and always understanding. But at the same time, she couldn’t ignore the feeling she had in her gut that things between them weren’t going to last. She had been down this road before, and she knew most perfect relationships were always too good to be true. However, this one was someone different. Mike was white, so maybe, just maybe this could work.
__________
Gwen left the county jail and got right on the phone. She had already hit up the realty guy Mayo had told her to call about selling his house. Mike had told her she could easily borrow 80 to 90 thousand against it. She didn’t know how far ninety grand was going to take her with the new connect, but she sure as hell set up the meeting to discuss it. She had a couple of days before the meeting, so until then, Mayo gave her the ok to collect the rest of the money he had left out on the streets, so that she could add to the pot. Gwen’s mind was made up, and she came to the conclusion that she was going to tackle the drug game full time, with conviction. This would be her year to get paid and put herself in the position she had been hoping for all her life.
__________
Mandy and Niya stood in Mandy’s kitchen, at the table, breaking down another key of dope. It had taken almost 30 minutes to move all the half empty cereal boxes and the dirty dishes Mandy had all over the table. Niya was trying to hold her tongue. Any other time, she would have told Mandy that even though you live in the hood, the inside of your house don’t have to look like it. One thing Niya could say for her mother, was even though they were in the projects, her mother always made sure their house was clean. However, Niya figured this wasn’t the time to discuss good housekeeping skills with Mandy. She needed her to show her how to cut and package this work. This time, it was for street level sales instead of weight, so the money would be even greater than what she could have made with Master.
Master had been dead for a couple of days, but Niya wasn’t going to let that death derail her from cornering the market with her product. Diamond and Tiffany were handling the coke, and she and Alexus were taking care of the heroin. Niya had taken one of the most dangerous and violent places to start. This hood was crawling with hustlers and thieves, who didn’t mind killing for what they wanted. But Niya knew that this was also the best place for the quickest and most lucrative come up.
“Niya, it’s a lot of shit you don’t know about the H game,” Mandy said passing her a mask to cover her face with. “It’s a lot of shit that comes along with it, and if you wanna survive you got to be willing to act and think like a nigga,” Mandy explained.
Mandy wasn’t lying. She knew how the dope game was, and the drama it brought, not only with the dealers and the dope fiends, but also with the law. On the flip side of it, you could become a millionaire overnight.
“Now, you sure you wanna go through with it,” Mandy asked before even starting the process of cutting again.
Niya shot her a ‘bitch please’ look. “Mandy… if I wasn’t sure about this, I wouldn’t be here. Now, if you having second thoughts about getting this money, then let me know,” Niya answered.
Mandy looked at Niya, and could see that she was dead serious. She cut the key open, and spread it across the plastic covered table, while Niya grinded up the Banita, also known as cut. Masks and gloves were obligatory if you didn’t want to get high off inhaling and touching the dope. Many people got strung out on heroin, just because of the contact during the cutting process. It was the fastest way to lose everything before you had a chance to gain anything. After about an hour and a half of chopping and bagging, Mandy handed Niya the shoe box of work.
“Now look, I got enough dime bags in here to last you a couple of days. After that, I’ma take you to the store where they sell boxes of them,” Mandy said as she continued to blend the cut into the heroin that was still left on the table. “The dope you got right here is an excellent grade. I might be able to turn this one key into two keys, or at least one and a half keys, depending on how much cut it can take without losing its potency. Oh, and I got to put you up on the prices so you can make the max on ya profit.”
Niya looked at Mandy, and was amazed at how much she knew about dope. She was like a mad scientist in the lab, carefully doing everything with precision. Niya knew for sure that she had to have Mandy on her team, no matter what her house looked like, or the cost she would charge for mixing the product.
__________
Chad sat in the house, playing with Jahmil. He had been with the kids day and night for the past three days. Gwen had to attend JR’s funeral, so Zion was also there. He didn’t mind spending all this time with his kids, but even super Dad needed a break, and Niya wasn’t a lick of help lately. She was rarely home, and by the time she did come in late at night, Chad was too tired to even argue. He had to be honest with himself. He was starting to feel like the bitch of the relationship. He was doing all the cooking and cleaning like he was a housewife. It was getting old real fast, and Niya was so far gone in her own little world, she didn’t have the slightest idea what was about to hit her.
He had reached his breaking point, and asking Niya to step up and be the mother and wife he and the twins needed was getting old. Chad was really feeling like the best thing he could do for all involved was take a break and give the marriage some separation to see if they both wanted to still be there. He wasn’t sure how he was going to break it to Niya, or even if she’d care. What he did know, was that something outside had a hold on her, greater than him.
Chapter 7
“Harper, you got a visit,” the guard said, tapping on Mayo’s cell door.
Mayo looked around with a confused look on his face. He wasn’t expecting anyone, so he wasn’t sure who would be coming to see him.
He took his time getting to the visiting room, but once he got there he almost turned around on his heels when he saw Detective Butler, and his partner, Rose, sitting in the legal booth. He looked around the room to see who else was around, and coming from the vending machine, was his lawyer.
“What’s all this about?” Mayo asked his lawyer with a concerned look on his face. He didn’t know what the detectives were there for, being as though he had already been charged with Prada’s death.
“Look, these guys wanna talk to you. They might be willing to make you a deal if you can help them out.” Mayo’s lawyer said, passing him one of the sodas he’d gotten out of the machine.
Reluctantly, Mayo went into the room with the detectives. He only intended to see what they were talking about. He stood there with his back against the wall, while th
e detectives and his lawyer sat down.
“What ya’ll want?” Mayo said with an obvious attitude.
“Mr. Harper, a man was murdered in your house, and we know that you weren’t home at the time it was done,” Butler began. “But, I am willing to bet just about anything, that you know who did it.”
Mayo didn’t know if he was talking about Dro or JR. “Well, just like you said, I wasn’t home at the—”
“You’re right, because you were out killing Ms. Thompson.” Rose cut in. “Look Mr. Harper, if you wanna go to prison for the rest of your life, then that’s ok with me, but if you ever want to see the light of day again, I suggest you put ya pride in ya back pocket and take advantage of this opportunity.” She said, pointing at him with her pen.
Mayo didn’t think about it as an opportunity. He knew that they wanted him to be a rat, something he never considered until now. Life in prison had been his only thought since the day he was arrested, and it was a sure thing that life is what he would get for Prada’s death. This was his seventh offense, and third felony.
“Yeah, so what you wanna know?” he asked, walking over and taking a seat in the chair.
“We wanna know who killed ya friend JR in ya house that night,” Rose said.
Mayo opened up the soda and sat there trying to convince himself that what he was doing was self-preservation, not snitching. This was by no means was easy for him to do. He had his pride and street credit on the line. But sometimes, even for a so called real nigga, there is a breaking point, and he had reached his.
“So, what’s in it for me?” Mayo asked, putting all that pride to the side.
Detective Rose smiled, and motioned for his attorney to fill him in on the deal they had already discussed.
__________
Gwen hadn’t slept a wink all night, she was constantly tossing and turning, and the same dream, or rather nightmare was continuously playing back in her mind. It was nights like these that she wished for JR or any man to be there to hold her so she could fall asleep. Looking over at the clock, she read the bright red lights announcing 9:00am. She had been up all night, with no sleep, and to make matters worse, she had a busy day planned and she need to get it started soon. Realizing that it didn’t look like she was going to be getting any sleep anytime soon, she figured she would grab a good hot shower.
Once she was in the bathroom, Gwen turned on the water to let it run until the water was at the right temperature. The room was filling up with steam quickly, and before the mirror fogged all the way up, Gwen took the beauty of her naked body in and smiled. She knew she had everything a man wanted when it came to a woman, and once she got the money and power to go along with it. She would indeed be that bitch!
Gwen felt so relaxed, standing under the hot shower stall. It was too bad she couldn’t enjoy it a little longer. A knock at the front door brought her right out of her comfort zone, but she was well aware who it was. Chad was dropping Zion off for the weekend. She still couldn’t believe that he had him all week. Chad was really trying to stick by his word of spending more time with his son, and Gwen really appreciated it. She threw a towel around her wet naked frame and rushed to the door.
“Hi Mom,” Zion said in a low tone when she opened the door.
He leaned in, gave her a hug then went straight to his room. Gwen curiously watched him walk away, then looked back at Chad. “What you do to him,” Gwen joked.
“We been up all night playing Xbox and watching movies,” Chad said with a proud smile.
“O ain’t that cute. I know he beat the wheels off your ass,” Gwen jokingly said.
“Yeah he did.” Chad laughed back.
“You wanna come in for minute?” she offered, stepping to the side.
Chad peeked inside and looked around suspiciously. He had never been inside of her apartment before.
“Ain’t nobody in here,” Gwen laughed, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside.
Chad sat down on the sofa and looked up at Gwen, “I wanted to tell you, on some real nigga shit. I am sorry to hear about ya boy,” he said sincerely.
Gwen had damn near forgotten about JR until he said something. She had a depressed look on her face, but Chad knew this wasn’t from JR’s death. He had seen this look too many times during the course of their relationship.
“Was it one of those nights?” he asked, this time with an even greater look of concern on his face.
Gwen knew that Chad knew her too well for her to lie to him. “Yes, I haven’t been able to sleep all night, and my bed was soaking wet from the all of the sweating.”
Her eyes began to water up, and so did Chad’s. He remembered all the nights of Gwen tossing, turning and waking up screaming with her body covered in sweat. It took nearly two years before Gwen finally confessed that she had been suffering from nightmares. Chad thought back to that night and the horrific story that Gwen recalled.
She was seven years old and had been sent to live with her Grandmother and Grandfather for the summer. She always loved going to Norfolk, Virginia even though the town was small. Her grandparents would take her shopping and to the nearby beach. The days were beautiful and sunny and she would always play with her cousins who lived there.
One night, tired from a full day of swimming, her grandparents took her to McDonald’s before going back home. Gwen ate the happy meal and played with the toy on the short ride to the house. Her grandfather gave her strict instructions to go upstairs and take a bath. He gave her some scented liquid soap and the scented lotion to put on afterwards. Gwen loved the smell, it was the same scent her Aunt May wore, and it made her feel like a big girl.
Once she had finished her bath and put on the lotion, she got dressed in her night shirt and went to bed. She was so tired that she fell asleep immediately. She remembered dreaming about all of the stories she would tell to her friends and classmate’s once the summer was over.
Gwen’s beautiful dream was interrupted when she felt a body pressed up against her from behind. Gwen awoke groggily; unable to see anything in the pitch-black room. The body behind her tightened the grip around her small frame. Gwen was about to yell, thinking that the boogie man was real, but before she could utter a sound, a larger hand covered her mouth. She could feel something sharp up against her butt.
At the young age of seven, Gwen realized quickly that this wasn’t a boogie man that hunted kid’s dreams. She recognized the familiar smell of old spice cologne as her grandfather’s scent, but she couldn’t figure out what he was doing in her bed. Her grandfather released his grip around her body, only to pull her pink polka dot panties down until they were around her knees. Then suddenly, Gwen felt the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life in an area her mother had always told her to never let anyone touch her. She could not believe that this was happening to her. Her young mind could not understand why the same man who’d been so kind and caring to her was inflicting so much hurt.
Her heart raced as pain and fear encompassed her entire being. Her instinct to fight back kicked in, and she squirmed and wiggled to prevent the inevitable from happening. She figured that if she made it inconvenient enough, he’d lose his patience and it’d be over. When that didn’t work, she cried and pled with him to stop, but he wouldn’t. Instead, he persisted at trying to force his way into her seven-year-old womb. After nearly twenty minutes of fighting, her body and will to protect herself had been exhausted. It was clear that her grandfather wasn’t going to give up until he got exactly what he wanted. He was finished in less than five minutes. Once he was done, he got up and told her to go wash herself up.
“You better not tell anyone, or you won’t be able to come up here anymore, you hear me?” he asked.
Gwen didn’t respond, she just went into the bathroom. Her Grandfather would repeat the same shameful action every summer until Gwen was 12. Whenever summer was close, her nightmares would start. Even though Gwen had often pleaded with her mother to not se
nd her to her grandparents, her mother enjoyed the summers when Gwen was away. It made her feel like she was single again, with no responsibilities.
Finally, when Gwen was 12, her grandfather passed away, she would then over hear a conversation between her mother and her Aunt May. Her aunt shared that her father had molested her for years, and it was the reason she had ran away from home at such a young age.
Over the years, Gwen had taken the anger and hurt, and put it to use for what she felt was her benefit. She would use the face of her grandfather whenever she had to kill. It had served as a sure fire way for her to murder with no remorse. She promised herself that she would never be a victim again.
Chad had always kept the hurt and anger in his heart, also. He wished that cancer hadn’t delivered the painful death he so want to give to Gwen’s grandfather.
Chad took her in his arms. “If you want, I could hold you and let you get some sleep.”
Gwen had to admit that Chad was looking good sitting in front of her with a well-fitted V-Neck t-shirt, a pair of Robin jeans, and some black, leather high top Jimmy Choo sneakers. The smell of his Polo Black cologne traveled through the air, lighting up the whole room.
“Let me go change real quick,” Gwen said, remembering that she didn’t have anything on underneath the bathrobe.
Gwen went into her bedroom and put on a pair of boy shorts and a white tank-top, no bra, no panties. On her way back into the living room, she walked by Zion’s room. Gwen quietly opened the door just enough to see that Zion had fallen asleep on his bed with all of his clothes on. She shook her head and smiled, going into the room where Chad was waiting.
“What you do to my… our son?” she joked.
When Gwen arrived back into the room, Chad couldn’t take his eyes off her. She looked so good. Her body was crazy. Even without a bra on, her breasts sat up like she had implants, and when she got into the light, he could see her nipples poking through the cotton tank-top. The boy shorts she had on were so snug, her vagina print stuck out like a baby camel toe. Chad had to adjust himself on the couch, because he was beginning to get hard despite the attempts his brain made to block out her beauty.
Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love Page 10
