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Chad cautiously approached Mayo’s house, not really sure what to expect. All he knew, was that Gwen had called his phone several times. When he decided to pick up, she told him that she needed him to meet her. After receiving the address, he got in his car and headed out. He could tell by the sound of her voice that it had something to do with Zion. He put their earlier fight out of his head, and had hope that their son was still alive.
The sun was going down and the house was dark, Chad gripped his gun as he approached the porch. He slowly turned the doorknob with his gun raised. A television was playing in the living room. He checked the rooms downstairs and made his way up the stairs. He took out his phone and texted Gwen.
I’m downstairs where you at?
“I’m up here,” Gwen yelled.
Chad proceeded up the stairs slowly. He had his gun raised, ready to fire. When he reached the top, he could see a light in the first room to his right. He walked in. Gwen was sitting in a chair. A woman was on the bed, and a man on the floor.
“What’s goin on?” he asked, looking around the room.
“He knows where Zion is, but he is not saying anything”.
“I told you I don’t know where ya son is at,” 4Pound yelled from the floor.
“Fucking liar!” Gwen yelled as she kicked him in his stomach. “I talked to my son from ya phone, you lying bitch.”
Chad grabbed her before she kicked the dude again. He looked down at the man, he was missing a few teeth, and his right eye was swollen. He coughed, and blood sprayed from his mouth onto the tan carpet. Chad made sure Gwen was seated, walked over to 4Pound, and rolled him onto his back. 4Pound let out a painful moan. Chad put the barrel of the gun to his forehead.
“Check dis out, homeboy. I don’t know who you are and I really don’t give a fuck either,” Chad said, kneeling down next to 4Pound. “All I want is my son back.”
“I told you, I don’t know…”
Chad pressed the barrel into his forehead. “You got kids homie?” Chad asked cutting him off.
4Pound looked over at Pam.
“Yeah, you got kids.” Chad said, looking at the expression on Pam’s face. “Listen, homie, and I’ma keep it 100 wit you right now, cause I don’t got time for games. I don’t care about you, I don’t care about Mayo or the niggas that got my son. If you tell me where he is, I give you my word that I will let all of ya’ll niggas live. I’ll take my son and move to the other side of the map. You will never see me again,” Chad said. “But if you don’t tell me where my son is at, I’ma find whatever kids you and shawty got,” he said, nodding to Pam. “And then I’m gonna slay em. I’ma kill you, her, ya mother, ya father, ya brothers and sisters, and anybody else in ya family I can find. I’ma wipe out ya whole lineage. I swear on my son’s life, I’ma kill everybody you love, my nigga, and they won’t go fast, either.” Chad threatened, as he applied more pressure to 4Pound’s forehead with his gun.
4Pound closed his eyes. He knew he should have walked away from this shit as soon as he saw little man. He really thought Made and Spice would give the little boy back to his parents. He looked into Chad’s eyes, ol’ boy didn’t look like the type to spray a nigga’s brains everywhere, but he looked like a father on edge. He thought about his family. Mayo, Spice and Made were on their own, he had to save his blood.
“Aight man, just give me my phone. I’m gone help you get little man back.” 4Pound said as he looked at Pam’s terrified face.
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Chad parked his car at the convenience store. He walked down the block of abandoned houses. He shivered to think that his boy was in one of these rat traps. Gwen was back at Mayo’s house with 4Pound and his girl, in case the information he had given him was bogus or a set up. 4Pound had asked Made to meet him at one of the trap houses to deal with a problem. He told Chad that Spice would be the only one in the house.
He looked at the faded numbers on the mailbox. 42, it read. He checked the chamber and listened at the door. He heard the TV, and someone talking. He listened to the conversation and determined that the male must have been talking to someone on the phone, due to him not hearing another voice respond to the man. He put the key in the door that 4Pound had given him and slowly opened it. Spice was walking into the bathroom. He didn’t notice that Chad was standing there, and he began peeing.
“I don’t give a fuck what 4Pound said. Get da fuck back over here and help me wit dis shit, nigga,” Spice yelled into the phone before hanging up.
He flushed the toilet and turned around to see Chad standing in the bathroom doorway. Spice dropped his phone in the toilet and his eyes widened.
“Fuck!” Spice said as he attempted to lunge at Chad.
Chad moved and cracked the butt of the gun in the top of Spice’s head. When Spice hit the floor, Chad fired a round into his stomach. He rolled him over, and put his foot on the wound.
“Where da fuck is my son, nigga?” Chad said through clenched teeth as he stepped on the bullet wound.
Spice bit down in pain from the bullet wound. He tried to get up, but Chad wouldn’t let him.
“Where da fuck is my son?” Chad yelled in fury, smacking Spice in the face with the butt of his gun.
“Fuck you… fuck you nigga,” Spice said, knowing that at any minute his life was about to end.
“Zion!” Chad yelled out to see if he would answer.
Chad looked around the room and called for Zion again. He noticed a large black duffle bag on the floor in the kitchen. His eyes scanned the room, but when he looked down at Spice, he noticed that his eyes were on the duffle bag. The terror in his eyes confirmed Chad’s fear. He looked at the bag, and then at Spice.
“Look, he just stopped breathing, and I didn’t know…”
Chad fell back against the wall.
Spice took a chance and made a run for the door. One flash and he hit the floor.
“It was an accident,” Spice pleaded, still trying to get out of Chad’s grasp.
“God please, please.” Chad walked into the kitchen. He fell to the floor and unzipped the bag. He opened the bag, and Zion’s pale face appeared. Chad yelled, “No, no, no, no, nooo!”
He reached in and grabbed his son’s body out of the bag. His entire body ached, and his lungs were on fire. He cradled Zion in his arms, screaming to God to bring him back. He didn’t even care or hear the police sirens approaching. He made no attempt to get up. He held his first-born in his arms, and rocked him. He pulled his phone out. He had one more phone call to make before the police got there.
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Gwen sat on top of the dresser looking over at the TV. 4Pound was still lying on the floor and Pam had started to nod off on the bed. The sound of Gwen’s cell phone ringing made everyone jump. Gwen quickly reached over and grabbed the cell phone.
“Yeah!” Gwen answered, jumping down off the dresser. There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Hello,” Gwen said as she listened to the police sirens in the background. “Chad, what is going on?” Gwen asked frantically as she paced back and forth across the room.
Chad tried to speak, his voice cracked, and Gwen could hardly understand him.
“Baby, please tell me what’s wrong,” Gwen pleaded.
There was silence, then she heard a loud crash as the police announced themselves. She heard them yell for Chad to put the gun down.
“Zion’s gone,” Chad cried into the phone before dropping the phone to the floor. The words echoed through her soul.
“Chad! No… no… don’t tell me that. Where is my son?” Gwen yelled at the phone.
She fell back against the chair as the phone slid out of her hand. Ten minutes later, she stood up and abruptly stopped screaming. She stared out the window, then turned and headed out the room. Pam looked at 4Pound, surprised at Gwen’s exit. 4Pound dropped his head. From the sounds of it, he and Pam only had a few moments left on this earth.
Terror struck Pam as she looked at 4Pound. She tried to free her hands from the duct tape. She looked at the door and she slid off the bed, still struggling with the tape.
“Come on baby. She’s gonna kill us,” 4Pound pleaded. “Just get up and come un-tie me,” he begged.
Pam placed a foot on the floor and froze. Gwen came back in the room; her eyes were cold and lifeless. Pam looked in her hand and saw the lighter fluid. She jumped off the bed and ran towards the window. Gwen fired, hitting her in the back of the neck. She fell back beside 4Pound. Gwen looked down at him.
“Come on, shawty, don’t kill a nigga,” 4Pound pleaded as she stood over him.
Gwen didn’t hear his voice, she heard Zion calling for her. She just began spraying the fluid on top of him, mainly in his face. She sprayed some over Pam as well, and then sprinkled the rest of the bottle around the room. She went back to him and saturated him with the fluid. Gwen tossed the bottle to the ground, tucked her gun into her back pocket, and then pulled out a book of matches. She lit the whole book, and tossed it onto 4Pound’s face.
He briefly screamed in agony before the flames shot down his throat when he tried to inhale.
Gwen just stood there for a moment, watching him wiggle around on the floor, trying to escape the pain. The fire quickly spread over to Pam and then across the room. She slowly exited the area, looking back one more time to see the flames eat away the flesh of Pam and 4Pound. She walked down the stairs and out the door. She went to her car, and looked back as the second floor erupted in flames.
__________
The EMTs came running into the house as the police were attempting to pull Zion’s pale body from Chad’s arms.
“Sir, let go of the child.” one officer screamed, while the other one was instructing Chad to raise his hands. Chad did neither, he just continued to hold and squeeze Zion.
The EMT, realizing that it was hopeless to try to remove the son from whom he assumed was the father, simply placed his hands on the young boy’s neck.
“We have a pulse, we need a defibrillator in here now!” he screamed. “Sir, let go if you want me to save your boy!”
Chad let go of Zion. As soon as he moved back, he was pushed to the floor by cops. He watch as the EMT performed CPR on Zion.
“Come on baby boy, come on,” Chad said.
Two more EMTs entered the house with a machine. Chad didn’t move from the floor, he kept his eyes on his son. An EMT took a pair of medical scissors, cut Zion’s shirt off, and began placing white stickers to his small chest. The other one began connecting the wires that were coming out of the machine that he held him in his hands. Everything was a blur as the medics worked on Zion.
The police had to carry Chad out of the house. They placed him in the back of a patrol car. He sat in the backseat, looking out the window as they rolled Zion out of the house and placed him in the back of the ambulance.
Chapter 8
Club Cameo looked as if they were having a summer fling in the parking lot. The lot was full of women dressed in purple, waiting to get inside. The variation of women went from hood to corporate, from tall to skinny, lipstick lesbians to butch, fat to thin, the crowd was diverse, and no penises in sight.
Niya, Diamond, Tiffany and Alexus pulled into the parking lot. The valet ran to each car and opened the door. Heads turned as Niya stepped out of her two door Bentley wearing a purple silk Chanel halter with lavender wide leg pants. She wore purple red bottom matching Chanel open toe sandals, with a silver linked Chanel belt around her waist. Tiffany followed behind, stepping out of her Maserati Quattro wearing a purple mini skirt with matching cowboy boots, and a sheer purple blouse. Diamond slid out of her silver Aston Martin Vanquish. She wore the curve hugging Chanel cocktail dress, and Alexus slinked out of her black on black CL 55 Mercedes. Niya had instructed each girl to make sure that they brought glamour, class, and their big girl toys out tonight. She wanted to make sure that the potential recruits could see what could be obtained by being with MHB. The parking lot was filled with whispers.
Once the women stepped inside, Niya looked around at all the impressed faces in the crowd.
“Damn, I didn’t know this many people was gonna come out,” Tiffany said once they made it to the VIP section.
“I know. Shit, it gotta be over 500 girls in here,” Diamond said, looking out at the dance floor.
Club Cameo was packed with chicks from the security to the DJ. Niya looked at the crowd on the dance floor; she had so many broads to choose from. To be a part of MHB, a girl had to be smart, attractive, and if they weren’t attractive, they had to exude confidence that made people find them attractive. She watched the women dance and what they ordered at the bar. She mentally made note of the ones that caught her eye, and went through her mental checklist of attributes she saw in each one. She smiled as she sat back. Later tonight, there would be a way to separate the kittens from the female tigers.
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“Is he talking yet?” Detective Gibson asked, walking into the interrogation room next to the room where Chad sat.
The detectives had been trying for the last forty-five minutes to convince Chad that Zion was not dead. They told him that Zion was in the hospital, but Chad still had not said a word to them. Chad thought they may have been just telling him that so that he would talk. It had been a little less than twenty-four hours since they had brought him into the station. At this point, without him saying anything, they had not charged him. The detectives had assumed that the boy was Chad’s, and that something had happened to cause him to shoot the man in the house. The boy’s body was halfway in a duffle bag, and Chad was distraught when the officers kicked in the door. They needed him to fill in the blanks for them, and he was not saying a word.
“No, he hasn’t said a single word,” Detective Rodgers replied, looking at Chad through tinted glass. “He didn’t ask for nothing to eat, nothing to drink not even a damn cigarette. Hell, he hasn’t even asked to use the damn bathroom,” Det. Rogers said, shaking his head while watching Chad sit in the chair.
Chad stared at the gray walls of the interview room. His mind and body were exhausted. What kind of father was he that he couldn’t protect his child? Why didn’t he hear them when they came in the apartment? His boy was gone, and right now, the only thing he wanted was to hear Zion run up to him and call out “Daddy.” He wanted to feel those little arms around his neck, and hear him laugh when they played the belching game.
Detective Rodgers opened the door due to the commotion he heard outside. He and McFadden stepped outside to see a woman and a man talking to one of the officers. He heard the man say that his client had rights.
“What in the hell is going on out there?” McFadden said as he approached the man and woman.
“My client has rights and I don’t think you want to violate them,” the man in the suit said.
McFadden cursed under his breath. With Chad having a lawyer, he knew that if he had any chance of getting a statement from him, it was now gone.
“I’m Detective McFadden and I’m the lead investigator.”
“Well, is my client being charged with anything?” Donald Mac, Chad’s lawyer asked.
“Look, I’ll be straight with you. We didn’t file any charges against him yet, because we’re trying to figure out what’s goin on, but your client hasn’t been very helpful. What we do know is we got a severely injured child, and a dead body in a house. Your client was sitting right in the middle of them. Now, unless ya’ll got a good explanation for this, I’m gonna have to hold him until he tells us what happened.
“Hold up… Did you say an injured child?” Gwen asked, wanting to make sure she heard the detective correctly.
“Yes, and if he don’t tell us what happened, we’re gonna have to charge him with both cases,” Detective McFadden tried to explain.
“So are you telling me that my child is alive?” Gwen screamed. “Where is he? Please tell me where he is.”
Donald Mac had to hold Gwen.
McFadden could see that this woman had been through hell, but he needed answers. “Look, before I can go into the information on the young male victim, I will need you to tell me everything you know. I can tell you that he is alive and I can have an officer take you to the hospital as soon as you give me a statement.”
Mac looked over at Gwen and nodded that it was okay for her to tell the detective what happened. Leaving out some specifics, she told the detectives that her son had been kidnapped and held for ransom. She and Chad were too afraid to come to the police, due to the kidnappers watching their every move. She had no idea why they targeted them. Two of the kidnappers had allowed her to speak to her son, and she memorized the number that was on the screen. From there she was able to track them down through a reverse look up. This was after they had given them the money and they did not return her son. They became desperate. They knew they should call the police, but they just wanted their son back safe. After finding the address, Chad went to get their son back.
Detective McFadden looked at the woman who could hardly speak for sobbing between words. She was so distraught that he patted her shoulder, trying to calm her down. He thought of his own children, and was sympathetic towards the couple. It would be up to the D.A. to decide how he wanted to proceed. He still needed to hold Chad until he confirmed everything Gwen had said.
“Well, we’re gonna check that story out, but until then, he’s gonna be in our custody. Now, I will have an officer give you a ride to Carolina Medical Center, where your child is.” He nodded to a uniformed officer. “Officer Starnes will take you there ma’am.” He walked out of interview room 12 into room 11 followed by the lawyer.
“Give me time with my client please.”
McFadden closed the door. He only had 24 hours left to decide if he was going to charge Chad or let him go. He walked to his desk to call the D.A.
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Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love Page 22
