“Can I help you with something?” Mandy said, looking at Butler and Rose standing in the doorway.
Rose hadn’t seen the tattoo yet, so Butler had to back her up out of the room before they drew any more attention to themselves. The girls looked over, but didn’t say anything.
“Sorry, we got the wrong room,” Butler said backing out of the room.
“Tom, what’s goin on? Hey Tom, what’s goin on?” Rose asked as she trailed behind Detective Butler.
Butler didn’t even answer her at first. His brain was racing a million miles per second, and everything had properly registered before he could say something. He walked back up to the nurses’ station and asked for the doctor that saw Niya. Rose was still lost. She didn’t know what was going on, but she could see the excitement in Butler’s eyes.
“Tom,” she said, grabbing a hold of him and making him face her. “What… the… hell is goin on?” she asked.
“I just saw MHB tattooed on one of those girls in there,” Butler told Rose. “It was on the back of her neck, clear as day.”
“Well, let’s see what she knows,” Rose said, turning around in an attempt to go back to the room.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Butler said, grabbing and pulling Rose back. “This is our chance to get to the bottom of MHB. I don’t wanna jump the gun on this one. Now that we got em, let’s do our homework,” Butler advised.
Rose caught on fast. This was about to turn into a full-fledged investigation, and given the circumstances of the latest string of crimes concerning MHB, this case had the potential of becoming something big. Rose and Butler both needed this kind of boost in their careers. For now, all the detectives had to do was sit back and see how it all unfolded.
__________
Mayo laid on the hospital bed handcuffed to the rail. Three guards secured his room while doctors worked on him. The stabbing was vicious. Terry managed to collapse one of his lungs in the brutal assault. Altogether, Mayo had about eighteen holes in him, ten of which required stitches. Come to find out, Terry was part of the 704 Kings, a gang that was well aware of the Fifty Thousand Niya and MHB had placed on Mayo’s head. They had intended to cash in and if Mayo wouldn’t have made his way out of that cell, they would have certainly done so. Terry’s whole intent was to kill Mayo and he was about two centimeters away from doing it.
Chapter 10
“Where da hell are you goin?” Chad joked, watching Gwen getting dressed in the mirror.
She looked sexy as hell, he admitted himself, seeing how crazy her body looked in the black and white Dolce and Gabbana strapless dress. The gold metallic Nappa sandals made her already fat ass, poke out even more. Chad had almost forgot that she wasn’t his girl, and was about to make her go and change.
“Boy, I’m grown. I’m takin my ass to the club tonight,” she said smacking her right butt cheek.
Chad looked at her and smiled. It had been a while since he had been out to a club, and he was damn near tempted to go too, but the reality of babysitting duties set in. He wasn’t going nowhere with Zion asleep in the other room. That was part of the price that he had to pay for choosing Gwen’s place to camp out, while him and Niya took their break from each other. Chad had been there for over two weeks, trying to get his mind right. He hadn’t even called Niya the whole time. He knew the twins where fine, because Niya would have called him if something had happened. Gwen hadn’t volunteered to tell Chad about her run in with Niya, and since she was unaware that Niya had been hit, neither knew about her gunshot wound.
“You been cooped up in this house all week, so tomorrow I’ma take my boys out,” Gwen said, walking over to the bed and climbing on top of Chad.
Chad was loving the attention that he was getting from Gwen. Niya hadn’t made him feel this important in a long time, and that’s probably why he hadn’t left yet. For a minute, it felt like old times, minus Chad being in the game. It was crazy how in a few days of constantly being around each other, Gwen and Chad just clicked back in to their old selves. It was less than a month ago that JR was alive and not even his recent death could affect a bond that had been built over the past ten years. Gwen had loved JR, and at times, she missed him dearly, but there wasn’t a man alive, or dead that she loved more than Chad. Chad also had a significant amount of love still for Gwen in his heart. She was the first love of his life, and had given birth to his first child. For that, she would always have a reserved spot in his heart.
“Make sure you bring ya ass home at a reasonable hour,” Chad said, smacking Gwen’s ass as she straddled him.
“Yes Daddy,” she chuckled, leaning in and giving him a nice, soft, slow, passionate kiss.
She could feel his dick getting hard through his sweat pants. She knew that if she sat there any longer, she wasn’t going to go anywhere that night. Gwen leaned in and gave him one more kiss, then jumped up and ran out the door before Chad could grab her and change her mind.
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Butler stood in front of the chalkboard with little sticky pads, writing down and pining evidence. The main topic and probably the only topic was MHB. Within a couple of days, he had managed to take photos of everyone that was in Niya’s hospital room, including Niya herself. The doctor who was treating Niya at that time confirmed for Det. Butler that she had an MHB tattoo on her wrist. So far out of all the women, Butler had only found her with MHB on her wrist. That matched up with what Mayo had told them about JR’s murderer as having a MHB tat on her wrist, and Niya was placed at the top of the pyramid.
Hospital records provided her first and last name, and almost everything else personal about her life. It was already understood that this whole case was going to be built around Niya, and anybody else that was under MHB was going to be feeling the heat.
__________
Club Onyx was blazing, but it was as if everything stopped when Gwen walked through the door. This was her stomping ground, and all eyes were on her. Tagging along right behind her were Browny and Rell, doing what they do best, which was protection. A lot of people thought that she was there to party, and in a sense she was, but at the same time she was there on business. Every drug dealer from Durham to Fayetteville was there, and this was her time to try and lock people in. Brianna was a hell of a connect, and in two weeks of hustling nonstop, Gwen was ready to cop again, this time even more than what she’d purchased before. She pretty much had taken Mayo’s clientele and branched out a little further, with the small clients she already had.
“Damn shawty, I been tryin to holla at you for a minute now,” Boss Hog yelled over the music.
He had Durham on lockdown, but the prices he was paying were too high. He was paying 26k per key, and he was buying anywhere from five to ten key’s every couple of weeks. If Gwen charged him 23k per key and he bought five in one week, that was a 15k come up a week for Gwen, because she was only paying 20k a key. If she could do that with five to ten dealers on a daily basis, Gwen wouldn’t have to worry about selling nicks and dimes. She could just sell weight.
After a brief discussion, numbers were exchanged, and just like that, Gwen booked another customer. This was her real purpose for being there that night, that and a little bit of dancing wouldn’t hurt. She did that until her feet started hurting, then it was straight to the VIP booth, she went.
“Yo, you got a couple niggas who wanna holla at you over at the bar,” Browny said, coming into the VIP booth with Gwen.
“Tell him I’ll be over there in a few minutes,” Gwen said, pouring herself a shot of Petron.
Gwen sat in the VIP area, taking in the atmosphere. Everything was going good in her life. She was getting money, she had Chad at the house, and she was on the verge of putting the whole North Carolina on her back. It was only one thing missing in her life that she wished she had, and that was friends. That was one thing she missed about MHB and the sisterhood behind it. She’d missed having people that were there for her. She’d missed that ride or die bond wi
th bitches that was willing to kill for you or take a bullet for you. She really was in need of some true friends, who she could share her good fortunes with.
__________
Niya limped up the steps to the second floor of Gwen’s apartment building. She was still sore from the bullet wound, so she had to take her time moving around, or the wound could possibly open back up. She had barely been out the hospital a day, and had decided that she was going to pay Gwen a visit and finish what Gwen had started. Niya had tossed and turned on what to do with Gwen since she left the hospital. Although it was no doubt that they were no longer friends, she still had a tremendous love for Gwen. It just sat so far deep in her heart, Niya would try with all her being to forget about it. Even with everything that had went down with the Chad situation between the two ladies of MHB, Niya had to admit that she never thought it would come to this. She never in a million years believed it would come to one of them taken the other’s life. They had fought together, cried together, and loved together.
Gwen was the only person who Niya was able to share the pain of growing up in a house where she was constantly being sexually abused by the boyfriend of her mother. Niya’s mother had to have the relationship she was in a secret, because Niya’s father Nate, along with his twin brother Norman, where known killers. It wasn’t anyone crazy enough to mess with one of their ladies. Not only would it be certain death for the man, but also Niya’s mother. So, Fitzgerald, aka Fitz would come through late at night and see her mother. He would always spend the night, and go to work from their house. Niya’s mother would leave to catch the bus at 4:40 am. Once she was out the door, Fitz would make his way into Niya’s room. The first time it happened, Niya wanted to tell someone, but Fitz had told her that her father would kill her mother for cheating on him. Niya was stuck. She didn’t want her mother to die, and Fitz only took about 5 minutes. So she endured the abuse for nearly a year.
But then Fitz started to get violent, and one morning, he choked Niya until she almost passed out because she wouldn’t skip school and spend the day with him. Gwen was the first person to see the marks on Niya’s neck. She questioned her best friend until Niya broke down and shared the agony of her situation. Gwen seemed like she was the one who was being abused, she was crying, and Niya could feel the anger steaming off of her. Gwen devised a plan where she would spend the night with Niya, and when Fitz came in that morning they would together make sure that he never came in again. The plan worked to perfection because that was a morning that Fitz would never forget. The scars on his face and back wouldn’t let him. When he climbed on top of Niya, she reached under the pillow and grabbed a small pocketknife Gwen had given her. She tried to stab Fitz in the neck, but he moved and the blade pierced his right cheek. The small sharp blade nearly tore his face apart. When he tried to retreat, Gwen was standing behind him, with a knife of her own. They both commencing to creating puncture wounds over his entire body. Fitz ran out the house butt ass naked, covered in blood. He never came back around, and when Niya had seen him again a couple of years later. He quickly turned and ran.
Niya chuckled at the memory, Gwen was her girl then, but all that was now behind them because Gwen had attempted to take her life. Niya was now at the point of kill or be killed, and she wasn’t ready to leave this world. She pulled the Glock .40 from her Tory Burch bag, placed the bag by the stairway door, and proceeded towards the apartment. Niya had a key to Gwen’s apartment ever since Gwen thought she lost them at Zion’s birthday party a few months earlier.
Niya had found them, but didn’t return them in case she had to use them one day. Today was gonna be that day. Niya cocked a bullet into the chamber, walking down the hall looking up at the apartment numbers. She got to Gwen’s apartment and prayed that she hadn’t changed the locks within the last eight months. It was like magic when she stuck the key in and unlocked the top lock, and then did the same to the bottom door handle bolt. She locked the door behind her once she was inside. The light from the kitchen provided just enough light for Niya to maneuver in. She didn’t give a fuck who was in there, all she wanted was Gwen. She knew that Zion wouldn’t be there since it was the weekend. Even though she hadn’t heard from Chad in nearly three weeks. She knew that he always picked up Zion on the weekends, and she was sure he was still doing the same.
As she walked down the hall, the first door she came to had a spider man poster on it. She knew it had to be Zion’s room, because that boy loved him some Peter Parker. She walked a little further and passed by the bathroom. There was only one door left in the place. Niya pointed the Glock in front of her, turned the knob quietly, then eased the door open. She couldn’t believe her eyes, and it was as if her heart was being snatched out of her chest. She looked down into Gwen’s bed, and there was Chad, sound asleep in nothing but a pair of Champion sweat pants.
Niya just stood there, almost dropping to her knees in front of the bed. She leaned against the wall for support. He left me for her, he left me for this bitch? This is where his heart is at? This is the family he wanted… Niya thought to herself, looking down at him. No wonder Gwen had decided to raise the stakes and take it to gun play. She wanted her out the way, and from the looks of it, Chad did too. Niya was crushed. Her tears wouldn’t stop flowing, and for a second, her weeping almost woke Chad up. Her heartbreak quickly turned to anger, and then hatred. She wiped the tears from her eyes and then walked closer to the bed until she stood directly over top of him. She pointed the gun at his head and then closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see it, but she felt like it had to be done.
Then visions of the twins popped into her mind, then visions of Chad playing with Zion. She had just witnessed Prada’s funeral, and wasn’t sure if she could make it through Chad’s. But then came the visions of Chad making love to Gwen in the very bed he was sleeping in. The thoughts of him and her laughing at her lying in the hospital bed. Fuck it, she wanted to see it. She wanted to see the bullet crash though his skull. He deserved it. He deserved everything that he was about to get.
Niya opened her eyes to see Chad one more time, only to find him looking back up at her. She mustered up everything she had in her to pull the trigger, but she couldn’t. It killed her not to, but she didn’t. The tears started flowing down her face once again. Chad didn’t say a word. He couldn’t, and the guilt was evident on his face. Niya didn’t speak a sound either, and started slowly backing away from him, until she backed all the way out of the door.
Chad didn’t even attempt to get out of the bed. He had absolutely nothing he could think of to say that would set the situation right. He was also just relieved that Niya hadn’t ended his life. For a moment, he truly believed he was a dead man. However, Chad did know that he was now dead in one place, and that was, in Niya’s heart.
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“So what exactly are you asking me for?” The Police Chief, Rodney Monroe, asked sitting at his desk.
“I’m pretty much asking you for everything,” Butler said taking a seat. “I need resources, money, manpower, every kind of surveillance equipment we got. Most importantly, I need to be the point man over this case,” Butler pleaded.
Butler was asking for everything but the kitchen sink to put into this case. After seeing everything that MHB was involved in, he knew that this was going to be something big. He wanted to be the one to bring Niya and her crew down before the feds got a whiff of what was going on. The feds were like vultures when it came to indictments. They would sit back, wait for local or state authorities to gather the hard evidence and then swoop down and take the whole case from them. Butler was trying his best to avoid that.
Chief Monroe gave in with a little more convincing, and at the end of the day, Butler got the green light to head the investigation. He was given everything that he requested and more. The Police Chief figured that one of two things were going to happen, and that was either Butler was going to bring them down the biggest cases since BMF, or he was going to lose his job and pr
obably his pension trying. The Chief was fine with either/or.
Chapter 11
Gwen changed into the bathrobe provided by the day spa staff, then headed to the steam room where Selena was. She walked in, and was blown away by Selena’s body. With only a bikini bottom on, Selena stood in the corner of the room dripping with sweat. Her stomach was flat as a board and her breasts were perky and rounded perfectly. Her long, black hair became a dark brownish color because it was wet and she allowed for it to hang down over her shoulders. This was Gwen’s second time meeting up with Selena since Brianna had handed her off to her right hand chick.
“I’m not gay or anything, Selena, but damn you got a body on you girl,” Gwen said, taking her robe off and hanging it on the hook.
“Likewise,” Selena replied when Gwen took off her bra. Gwen’s body was crazy too, so much so, Selena had to ask Gwen if her breasts were real.
“So did you really want to come to the spa today, or was this ya way to see if I had on a wire?” Gwen joked.
“Trust me, Gwen, if you were a cop, I would know. We got more friends in the Charlotte police department then you can imagine,” Selena smiled. “I honestly felt like being pampered today. In this business, it’s hard to find some time, you know. Like now, even though I am trying to relax I am, still doin’ business,” she chuckled.
Gwen sat there and listened to Selena talk. People lied when they said that most pretty girls were dumb, because everything Selena was saying made sense. It got to the point where Gwen started taking mental notes of their conversation. In a way, Gwen was being schooled. That was big, considering that Selena nor Brianna rarely took the time to talk to any of their clients. But Brianna had told Selena that it was something about Gwen she really liked, and Selena was feeling the same.
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