The numbers didn’t sound that crazy at all to Niya. She had made close to 300k from one key of heroin and Diamond brought back 50k off one key of cocaine. In her eyes, the math was cool and the prices were gonna get cheaper the more they bought.
“Yaw good in here?” Van said, coming back to the shack with two pit-bull puppies in her hand.
Niya nodded her head with a satisfied smile on her face. “Yeah, we good. We are definitely good.” Niya said, sipping on her tea.
__________
Detective Butler got straight to business and had his team watching East Falls, Betty Ford Road, Niya’s house, Diamond’s spot, and Tiffany’s apartment. The only place they didn’t have surveillance on was Alexus’ apartment. The surveillance team assigned to her never could seem to follow her around as much because she used public transportation when she wasn’t with the other girls.
Butler and Rose staked out Betty Ford Rd., personally. Butler had become infatuated with Niya and the way that she moved. He put her at the head of MHB, and was determined to see to it that when it was all said and done, Niya was gonna fall the hardest.
__________
As soon as Niya and Van got off of the airplane, Niya’s phone began to ring. It was a reminder that it was back to business, even though the two-day trip to Jamaica was business in itself. The first shipment was gonna be delivered in three days and Niya couldn’t wait.
“What’s good?” Niya answered seeing that it was Diamond calling.
“Yeah, everything taken care of,” Diamond said, then hung up the phone.
A big smile came over Niya’s face. She had to quickly check it though, because Van started asking questions. Niya knew that Van had met all the girls of MHB before, and had a real liking for the realness of Gwen in particular. She also loved the sisterly bond the women had with each other. So Niya felt that Van would never understand why she was about to kill Gwen. For that reason, Van needed not to know anything that was going on.
__________
Chad woke up from his sleep to the smell of smoke. It was so thick in the apartment, he could hardly see. He jumped straight up from the bed and ran straight into the kitchen to see a frying pan on the stove engulfed in flames. He grabbed the pan and threw it into the sink, then turned the stove off.
“Fuck is goin’ on?” he mumbled to himself, looking around for the smoke detectors. The first thing that came to his mind was that Zion had tried to make something to eat and went back to bed while the food was cooking. Mad as hell, Chad steamed down the hall, then busted into Zion’s room, ready to whoop his ass. When he got there, Zion wasn’t there.
“Zion,” Chad yelled out in the house.
He called out his name a few more times, but still there wasn’t any answer. He went into Zion’s room and looked around. He almost didn’t notice the piece of yellow paper sitting on his pillow as he was about to leave the room. He picked up the paper and began reading. The contents of the letter were so severe, it made him take a seat on Zion’s bed. His knees became so weak he couldn’t muster strength to stand up.
Chapter 13
Gwen barely opened her swollen eyes, looking around trying to figure out where she was at and how long she’d been there. She could taste the blood in her mouth as it seeped down her throat, and her hands became numb from the wire that bounded her hands behind her back. As she looked around the room, she could tell that she was in a cellar or some type of basement to a house.
The sounds of footsteps crept through the cracks of the floor above her, and before she could yell to her abductors, the cellar door opened. It was to no surprise when Niya made her way down the steps and walked over to the mattress Gwen was laying on. Niya had a large chrome .40 caliber in her hand, but at the same time, she seemed relaxed. She was calm, and showed no signs of anger. In fact, she had a creepy little smirk on her face as if to say ‘Bitch I got you!’
“Ch… Chad is gonna k … kill you, Niya,” Gwen managed to utter out of her bloody mouth. Niya just chuckled at Gwen’s words, shaking her head as she walked up and squatted right next to Gwen’s body.
“Do you really think for one second that he’s gonna miss you? You foul, Gwen, disloyal and ungrateful.” Niya said, waving the gun in Gwen’s face. “Not to mention the fact that you tried to kill me. You better be lucky it’s not him down here ready to blow ya fuckin head off.”
“I didn’t try to kill you, Niya. If I wanted you dead, I could have done it a long time ago,” Gwen shot back in her final attempt to preserve her life.
Deep down inside, Gwen knew that this was her last ride. Too much had transpired over the past couple of weeks, and it was no other way this story was about to end. In an instant, Gwen could see her whole life pass her by, and the thought of Zion actually brought tears to her eyes. Even then, she still didn’t let em fall, determined not to let Niya see her in her weakest state.
“Fuck you, Niya,” Gwen screamed through her bloody mouth. “No matter how hard you try, he will never love you the way that he loves me,” Gwen said, then spit a mouth full of blood in Niya’s direction.
If it wasn’t for Niya’s quick reaction, it would have hit her in the face. The nerve of her, she thought to herself as she rose up, over Gwen.
“See, that’s why it can only be one,” Niya said, raising the gun to Gwen’s head.
This was the end of the road for Gwen, and not even Jesus himself could walk down the steps, and stop Niya from pulling the trigger. Niya took the safety off, looked Gwen in her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Goodnight, baby girl,” Niya said.
The sound of the basement door swinging open temporarily grabbed Niya’s attention. She looked up to see the unexpected walking down the steps. It was like the whole world was caving in. But before she would let Chad change her mind about killing her, she quickly focused her attention back on Gwen. Now, anger showed all over her face. Her palms were sweaty, heart was racing, and her finger was on the trigger.
“Ni, don’t shoot her,” Chad yelled out. “Please babe, I’m begging you,” Chad pleaded.
Niya stopped and turned to face him. He had never begged her to do anything, and the tone in his voice sounded like he was scared of something or someone. Niya took her attention off Gwen for a moment, to see what was goin on with Chad. He only had one chance to speak before Niya put a bullet in Gwen’s head.
“He got my son,” Chad said, damn near breaking down. “Da nigga Mayo took my son and she’s the only one that can get him back.”
“Noooo,” Gwen yelled, hearing Chad. “My son… Oh God, my Zion,” Gwen cried, trying to wiggle out of the restraints.
“You kill her, you kill my son. You kill my son, then you might as well kill me,” Chad said with a dead serious look in his eyes.
Niya didn’t believe him at first, but then beyond his anger, Niya could see the hurt in his eyes. This changed everything. There was no way in hell that she was going to be able to pull the trigger. It would be killing three people with one bullet, a heavy price to pay for such a selfish act. She lowered her gun, tucked it into her back pocket and headed for the steps. She stopped at Chad.
“For what it’s worth, I hope you find ya son… ya family needs you,” Niya said, looking back at Gwen, then turned around and went up the steps.
Those words coming from Niya’s mouth were like a bullet by itself. Niya and the twins were his family in his eyes, and always had been. As bad as he wanted to run after Niya, he couldn’t right now, he just had to worry about getting Zion back.
__________
“Detective… we’ve got Niya and Tiffany leaving Niya’s house, and it appears that Tiffany has a large caliber rifle in her possession. Possibly an AK-47,” the surveillance officer told Det. Butler over the radio.
“Do not engage… I repeat, do not engage,” Butler yelled over the radio.
With the right lawyer, Tiffany wasn’t gonna be facing that much time for the rifle. Butler thought th
at it was best that they just let her go for now, instead of risking the possibility of being exposed. It would be hard to investigate someone who knows that they are being watched by the police. It was still early in the investigation. Time was the only thing Butler was counting on having, and the more time MHB had, the deeper they were gonna dig their own graves.
__________
Dead silence took over the apartment. Gwen sat on the couch holding an icepack over her face from the bruise Dollaz left after knocking her out. Chad sat at the kitchen table with his head in his hands, waiting for the phone to ring. The abductors wrote in the note that they would be calling later on that night with instructions on how to get their son back. Chad had so many questions to ask, he didn’t know where to start with Gwen. At this moment he really didn’t even want to talk to her.
The loss of Zion had drained him so much, he ran out of tears to cry. He just wanted his son back, and the only person that could make that happen was sitting on the couch with a dumb look on her face. As much as he wanted to fuck Gwen up for putting his son’s life in jeopardy, he just didn’t have the energy to do it.
The dumb look Gwen had on her face wasn’t because she felt stupid. She was sitting there trying to figure out who would be so stupid to do something like this for Mayo. Gwen really wanted to kill everything breathing for the return of her son, but she hadn’t the slightest clue where to start. Mayo was still in jail, and just about everybody he knew in the streets turned their backs on him.
All Gwen and Chad could do was wait for the phone call, something that seemed like it would never happen, until it finally did. Gwen’s cell phone rang so loud, it echoed throughout the whole apartment. Chad picked his head up to see Gwen grabbing the phone off the table. She looked at the phone, then looked over at Chad, and then back at the phone. She had a feeling it was them because of the blocked number. This was the call they both were waiting for.
“Hello…”
Country Girls 3
Acknowledgments
To the best writing team in the game, Tina Nance, Alan Little, Christopher Booker, Marva Farris, and Michelle Outlaw… La Familia!
Chapter 1
The silence in the small two-bedroom apartment was so heavy that it was difficult to focus. Resting her head in her left palm, Gwen clicked the hammer of the empty .38 special and focused on the sound to pass the time. The thump of the revolver clicking seemed to echo throughout the apartment. Chad, meanwhile, sat in the living room on the couch with his head in his hands. He would look up every few minutes to check the display on the cell phone, which rested on the table. Both he and Gwen were silently praying that the phone would ring at any moment. The house held an odor that emanated from both of them. Hygiene had been the farthest thought from their minds. Zion, their son had been gone for nearly two days, and they had not moved since being advised of his abduction.
Gwen pulled the trigger of the gun several times. The sound of the chamber clicking was replaced with Zion’s voice crying out to her. Images of him tied up in a basement, alone, scared, hurt, or possibly worse crowded her headspace. He was her only child, the center of her life, and the reason for her existence. Her chest became tight, the room seemed to shrink in size, and the air became thinner. The only thing that Gwen could clearly focus on was the handgun and the bullets that were lined up on the glass top of the table.
Zion’s voice echoed in her head. She placed a bullet into the cylinder and positioned the barrel against her chest. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, waiting for the heat of the bullet to end the ache that now existed in her heart. Her baby was gone, due to her own greed, ego, and selfishness. Without him, there was no need to keep breathing. She moved the barrel of the gun until it rested against her temple. She took a deep breath.
“What the hell you doin?” Chad said softly as he walked into the kitchen. He looked at Gwen with the firearm raised to her head and sat down slowly next to her. He knew one wrong word or move could result in her brains being sent all over the kitchen. “Look, I don’t know what’s running through ya mind right now, but our son needs you,” Chad said in a low tone. “I need you,” he said in a louder sincere voice. “We gotta be smarter than this, Gwen, in order to get him back. This shit right here, this ain’t gone get him back. We gotta get our heads straight. Come on baby, fight it, we gon get our boy back, but it’s gonna take both of us.”
The tears began to pour down Gwen’s face. She heard his words, but they didn’t stop the pain that was in her heart. She didn’t know what to do; she had never felt this helpless before. She wanted her baby back. Having him in her arms or dying would be the only way to stop the pain. She applied pressure to the trigger
“Gwen, please don’t do this and leave me here alone,” Chad pleaded softly.
Chad searched for Gwen in her eyes, but they were blank. Her soul was missing. He inched closer to her. Her mind had shut down, and he knew it was only a matter of seconds before her finger squeezed the trigger. Time stopped as he reached for the gun.
Before he could take the gun, the sound of the metal clicking echoed in the room. He yelled as he snatched the gun from her hand, and she fell back onto the floor. “Fuck, Gwen, fuck! No!”
He sobbed as he lay on top of her. He was afraid to turn and look at her. He had blown plenty of brains out of niggas without blinking, but he knew he couldn’t handle seeing Gwen like that.
The impact had broken the chair. Tears ran down his face as he looked at the gun in his hand. Shit, he had lost his son and his love, the pain was too much. He felt arms around his shoulder, and breath on his neck. He turned his head. Gwen was sobbing against his shoulder. He opened the cylinder to see the bullet still resting in the chamber.
“Fuck, Gwen!” Relieved and angry, he picked her up and held her.
The sound of the cell phone ringing in the next room brought them both back to reality. Chad didn’t realize that he was running with her in his arms to the living room.
Gwen jumped out of his grasp, grabbed the phone off the table, and hit the accept button on the screen.
“Hello!”
__________
Niya sat back in the chair. She wore a white linen wide leg jumper and orange Tom Ford pumps. The neckline dipped down to her navel, displaying the long silver waterfall necklace with matching earrings. Her hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail, and she had applied little makeup other than the cocoa shade of lip-gloss that made her full lips sparkle.
Sauce was mesmerized by the beauty that sat across the table from him. He looked over at Dirty, who was leaning against the outside bar on the deck of the Italian Bistro. The Mob like scene seemed cliché, but an appropriate place for the two underworld bosses to meet. Diamond and Tiffany sat at the table behind Niya, each wearing designer shades. Sauce laughed to himself at the three of them.
He adjusted his body in the chair and got a quick glance of Niya’s partially exposed breasts. Niya ran her manicured French tip across the top of the wine glass. As Sauce continued to adjust himself, he remembered Dirty’s warning she was a viper. He cleared his mind and told his other head to settle down.
Sauce sat back and took a swig of his Henny and coke, and then he leaned forward to inhale the sweet scent that came from her. He cleared his throat. “So, let’s get to business, shawty,” he said, breaking the silence. “What you lookin’ to buy… an ounce or two… or maybe some weed?” he asked as he placed a piece of bread in his mouth.
Sauce had no clue what this meeting was about. Dirty had advised him to meet with these chicks because they were from his hometown. He had told Sauce that they probably were looking to buy some weight, and that they were on the come up back in Charlotte. Dirty was his right hand man, but looking at these broads, he wondered if Dirty was thinking with the right head. Niya looked like a chick that would be in a corporate office, not a drug king pen. He checked his watch, and sipped some more of his drink.
Niya didn’t smile. She s
at back, giving him a better view of her breast.
Shit, this bitch is fucking ridiculous! He thought to himself.
“Honey, I’m not here to buy nothin from you,” Niya began. “I’m here to make you an offer that can be lucrative for both of us.” She took a small sip of the white wine and leaned forward.
“Boo, what could you possibly have to offer me that could make me more money than I already make? I mean, you fine and all, but I ain’t into pimping.” Sauce laughed as he toasted his drink in Niya’s direction and winked at Diamond and Tiffany. “My boy, Turbo… that is who you need to talk to. He into that pimping shit, not me.”
Niya took a deep breath. This nigga had no idea who the fuck he was talking to. He might have had Durham on lock, but the lock was loose. He had everyone thinking that the money flowed to him, but it was only a trickle, compared to what he could have with her. This nigga was thinking this little trickle made him a Boss. The prostitute comment he made had her trigger finger itching, but she needed this dude for the moment, so she settled her temper.
“Sauce, I don’t sell ass, and I don’t appreciate the disrespect. But now if your junior high school boy tactics are over, I am here to talk business. I am not talking about business where you are making low six figures, but the kind that will gross nine figures on a constant.” She studied him for a moment, and then checked her reflection in a spoon. She could tell his mind was starting to spark, and his interest was piqued. She was intentionally silent for a few more moments.
He had shifted his position in his seat again. He no longer was relaxed and casual. He locked his fingers, rested his elbows on the table, and leaned forward.
Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love Page 15
