Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love

by Blake Karrington

  Chad looked at Niya. “I was wondering if you could let me see the twins. I really do miss them,” Chad said with his voice breaking.

  The pain in his voice brought tears to her eyes. Above everything else, Chad was a damn good father, and she knew that now of all times, he needed the twins close to him. She moved to give herself some space from the situation, not to keep him from the twins.

  “I swear that right after the visit, I will take you to them and you can spend as much time as you want with them,” Niya assured him.

  Before he could even respond, Gwen came walking down the steps. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

  “You ready?” Chad asked, getting up to meet her at the bottom of the stairs.

  She took his hand. Gwen stopped when she noticed that people were standing outside her mother’s house. She looked at Chad and Niya, who looked as confused as she did.

  “Who’s that?” she asked, pointing to the window.

  They walked outside see over thirty women standing there. Diamond and Tiffany stood at the bottom of the stairs looking on.

  “Diamond, what’s going on?” Niya asked.

  “I don’t know. They all just showed up,” she answered.

  She looked into the crowd and some familiar faces emerged. Tasha, Porsha, and Kea walked towards the front porch.

  “Diamond told me about Zion,” Tasha began. “So the girls wanted to come out and show their support. You said that MHB is a family, so we here to help family, and support you during this time. You cry, we will all cry with you. Whatever you need, sis,” Tasha said looking up at Gwen.

  Everyone had T-shirts with a picture of Zion on the front. The official members of MHB had on the MHB hoodies with Zion’s picture on the back, and MHB on the front. Gwen could feel the love and support coming from the crowd. They were all strangers to her, but today they were sisters, aunts, mothers, in prayer for her little angel.

  Niya scanned the crowd. She smiled at Gwen and took her hand to lead her to the car that waited for them. The crowd parted as Gwen leaned on her.

  “Are all these girls MHB?” Gwen asked Niya while wiping the tears from her face.

  Niya looked back at the crowd as Gwen got in the car. She scanned the faces again, and inhaled. Every woman there had passed the most important test to become a member of MHB. Loyalty and support for a sister in pain.

  “Every last one of them are MHB,” Niya told her. “Every single one of them.”

  __________

  “We burned Betty Ford down, now what do you want us to do?” Redd asked Rell, who was still laid up in his hospital bed. Due to his injuries, his stay in the hospital was longer than he had expected. They were concerned about a clot they found in his leg, and advised that he needed to stay for further testing.

  “Did you kill that bitch, Niya, yet?” he asked, wincing as he adjusted himself.

  “Naw,” Redd answered looking him in the eye.

  Rell had niggas that followed any orders given to them. He knew if they would have had access to the Niya, she would be sporting a nice hole in her head. His crew would take her out, and anyone else who was around at the time. When she popped that hot lead in his dick, she should have put one in her head, if she wasn’t going to finish him. These hoes playing with real niggas, and now they was gonna wish they kept to being on their knees and fucking keeping a nigga’s belly full, instead of trying to jump in this game.

  “Get my troops together, Red,” Rell said as he turned to watch TV. “Let them know we got some bitches to put in their places. They fired the first shot, and now it’s war.”

  Chapter 14

  Niya pulled up and parked at the breakfast spot where she was supposed to meet up with Rose. After her two workers and Mandy’s death, Niya made a decision to cut back on her dealings in the hood for a few days. She needed to figure out how she was going to deal with the impending war that she knew was brewing between her and that nigga, Rell.

  Rose had taken the lead on situations that Niya was unable to handle, and Niya made sure she was being paid for every brick she sold and a bonus for picking up and dropping off to her hoods. Rose was making money hand over fist; this was making her more cash than a promotion to Chief of Police would produce. Rose felt a twinge of guilt. Being with these women gave her a sense of sisterhood, love, and loyalty. Although what they were doing was illegal, it was still women fighting to get what was theirs in a world of men. These girls really cared about each other, unlike the tolerance she felt from her male counterparts at the department

  “It’s about $150,000 in the bag, and I still got two keys left,” Rose informed Niya when she got into the car.

  “Damn bitch, you making a killing,” Niya joked, tossing the duffle bag into the back seat.

  “Yeah girl, I’m trying to get out of that apartment,” Rose shot back, looking out the window at people going into the breakfast house.

  “I ain’t mad at you, girl. Get ya money,” Niya smiled. “Oh, it was something I needed to talk to you about.”

  “Yeah sure, what’s going on?” Rose said, turning to face her.

  “Look, I know we’ve just met, and like every friendship it takes time to build trust.” Niya said, looking at the new MHB diamond pendant on her bracelet.

  Rose sat there, nodding her head in agreement. She held her breath for a moment. The mood had changed within a few seconds.

  “I just want you to know that you can trust me. When you became MHB, you not only became my friend, but you became my sister. That means I would put my life on the line for you and I wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in somebody’s head for you,” Niya said.

  Rose looked at Niya, she could hear the sincerity in her voice. She bit her lip. The guilt that came over her felt like a thousand pound weight on her heart. People who go undercover have to learn how to disassociate themselves from the criminals. She had seen so many times, good people falling into the trap of money and loyalty from the people they were trying to put away. Part of her wanted to tell Niya she was only befriending her to shut her entire organization down, but she knew that she took an oath to serve and protect. That oath superseded her oath to MHB, even if she felt in her heart that MHB was truly more her family than the pricks at the department.

  “I got u, Niya, is there something I need to do for you?” Rose said.

  Niya smiled and patted her thigh. “Naw, baby girl. I just wanna make sure that you would do the same thing for me. Just letting you know how deep you are in the fam, is all.”

  Rose smiled. She wondered how Niya would feel when she slapped the handcuffs on her.

  __________

  Chad was having a great time with the twins. He hadn’t seen them in about two months. They seemed to have grown since the last time he saw them, and they were squealing with joy as he played with them. He was glad Niya dropped them off; he really needed to have them near him.

  Gwen watched Jahill wobble around. He looked so much like Zion at that age. The air in the room seemed to become heavy. She needed to get some air. She picked Jahill up and kissed his little chubby face. He laughed and pinched her cheek. She placed him back on the floor and walked into the other room. As she sat down, she noticed Jahill crawling behind her. He touched her leg, and pulled himself up. She looked into his eyes, and saw Zion. She wondered if she would ever see Zion up and moving around like a normal kid again. She picked Jahill up and held him close to her, inhaling his baby scent.

  Chad stood in the door for a moment watching them. “You alright, shawty?” Chad said as he sat down beside her.

  “Yeah, I just got a lot on my mind right now,” Gwen answered, kissing the baby and handing him to Chad. She laid across the bed and turned on the television. Gwen had so many thoughts running through her head. She wasn’t sure if she was being selfish, keeping Zion on life support. What she did know, was that she was going to make sure the men who were responsible would pay for their actions.

&nbs
p; But those weren’t the only things troubling her. About a week ago, she realized that she had missed her cycle. At first, she thought it was because of all the stress and improper diet she had been under. She knew this was not the time for her to be pregnant; the wound from Zion would take a long time to heal. As she lay there, a pregnancy test commercial was on the TV. She laughed at the irony. She sat up and slipped her shoes on. She was feeling a little woozy, but she tried to block it out and get eyes refocused.

  “I have to run to the store,” Gwen said as she grabbed her keys.

  Chad grabbed her arm.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked as he held Jahill.

  “Nothing, I just need to get some air,” she replied, smoothing Jahill’s hair.

  Gwen began to take what she thought was a step, but when her leg moved, she found herself on the floor. Chad placed Jahill on the floor and ran to Gwen. He checked her pulse, and looked for his phone. He grabbed Jahill and ran into the other bedroom. When he returned, Gwen was trying to sit up.

  “Nah, babe, relax,” he picked her up and laid her on the bed.

  “What happened?” Gwen asked as she tried to sit up again.

  “No, sit back. I am going to get you some water.” He ran down the stairs and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He almost leapt from the bottom stair to the top. Gwen had laid back on the pillow. Chad opened the bottle and told her to sip it.

  “Babe, have you eaten anything today?” Gwen closed her eyes, hoping the room would stop spinning.

  Jasmine began to cry as Chad handed Gwen the bottle of water. “I need to call the ambulance.”

  Gwen shook her head. “No, no, I just got dizzy is all. I probably just need to eat. Go get the baby, I’m fine.” Chad touched her forehead. He knew there was something wrong, but he knew if Gwen didn’t want to talk, it would be pointless to press her. After what she had been through, her body was finally reacting to the stress. Jasmine cried out again, and he left the room.

  __________

  Nose walked into Rell’s hospital room. Nose was Rell’s right hand man and had been handling the business of the streets while his boy recovered. Redd was the enforcer and had blazed Betty Ford road up.

  “Yo, big bro, I got some good news,” Nose said, pulling up a chair and sitting it next to Rell’s bed.

  “Is da bitch dead?” Rell asked.

  “Naw, big homie, not yet. I’m definitely working on that too. But Ronheart Street is doing some crazy numbers right now off the dope. Ever since we burned down Betty Ford, the traffic on the block has doubled.” Nose explained.

  Since Ronheart was so close to Betty Ford, he already knew that the fiends would be coming to his block. He had quality shit, and them fiends loved it. Now that the block was shut down, he had taken MHB clientele, why the hell wouldn’t he just shut down all that shit? Yeah, Rell smiled to himself, they would shut down all MHB shit, and then open up shop to get that money.

  “Listen, I want you to shut down every block MHB has, and every crack house MHB owns. We’re gonna kill this movement financially first,” Rell instructed. “And if any one of those bitches get in ya way, make like a Mack truck and run dem hoes ova, ya dig?”

  Nose nodded his head in agreement.

  “Yo homie, just fall back and get ya rest. I’ma take care of it,” Nose assured him as he stood. He pounded Rell and headed out to rain fire.

  __________

  Diamond, Tiffany, Alexus, Tasha, Porsha, Kea and Millie sat around the TV in Tiffany’s living room with their eyes glued to the screen. They were watching a special report on CNN about the spike in drug activity in Charlotte. The murder rate was up 10% from last year, bringing the body count to three hundred, and it was only the end of August.

  “State, local, and federal officials are working together to try and regain some order in this city,” the police commissioner announced to the news reporters.

  Tiffany looked over at Diamond. She was worried about the attention that the QC drug business was getting. Tiffany knew first hand that when the feds got involved, it could mean some serious time, or someone could be put into a box. Her brother was serving twenty years for conspiracy to distribute. He wasn’t a high-level dealer, just a street boy. The murder rate had gone up, along with the drug trafficking which made the government twitch. They knew there was a lot of money, property, and drugs to confiscate in the name of the law. This would be prime time to get some bricks out there to people. Seeing this report, she knew that they would be grabbing what they can, due to the impending lockdown.

  “We need to be careful who we fucking with,” Tiffany whispered to Diamond.

  “What you mean?” Diamond asked, leaning over to hear Tiffany, but also keeping her eyes on the TV.

  “The feds, you know they send snakes in the hen house. We need to be careful,” she answered.

  Niya and Gwen walked into the living room. Niya grabbed the remote and turned off the television. “We got some problems. There are some niggas who don’t appreciate some chicks eating so well. They view MHB as the reason dey wallets on a diet right now. When a nigga hungry, you know they start looking for food, and will do whatever it takes to eat.”

  Niya threw the remote on the table. This shit was about to blow up, and right now, she needed to ramp up her members. She needed the best bitches in Charlotte to be with MHB. These niggas was going to come at them hard.

  “So what you wanna do?” Tiffany said, checking her Glock.

  “We gotta be smarter than these niggas,” Niya answered, taking the gun from Tiffany. “We are women, ladies, we think things through. It ain’t always about bullets and shit.”

  “Fuck dese niggas out here. If they don’t like what we’re doin’, I’ll smoke any of dem niggas,” Porsha blurted out.

  The comment from Porsha ignited a spark in the room. Everyone pulled their guns.

  “Stop … stop… stop…” Niya yelled. “Listen to me. Like I said, we are smart, we don’t want to get into gun battles with these fools. There are ways for us to handle this shit, and make more money.”

  “So, what are we gonna fuck our way to a peace treaty?” Tiffany laughed.

  “Naw… the first thing that we gotta do is get our numbers up. It’s time we take this shit to higher levels,” Niya said. “I want every chick in the hood from ages 18 to 25 to be a part of MHB. I want ya’ll to take the next week to find bitches that’s just like you. If they understand what MHB is about and willing to stand on our principle, then bring them in. We about to go to fucking war,” Niya said, handing Tiffany back her gun

  “War?” Diamond asked. “War with who?”

  Gwen went and stood right next to Niya. The whole room became quiet and everybody was looking at her. “With these niggas who think we just some weak ass bitches in a nigga’s game.” Gwen announced.

  Chapter 15

  The knock at the door startled Detective Rose. She closed her laptop. Since the last visit from Niya, she had locked away all evidence of her being on the force. She looked through the peephole and saw Niya and Gwen standing in the hallway. She looked back again to make sure she had not left any evidence out, and then opened the door.

  “Hey ya’ll,” Rose said, opening the door.

  “You ain’t got a man in here, do you?” Niya joked entering the apartment. “Don’t want to interrupt no headboard breaking.” They laughed.

  “Can I use ya bathroom?” Gwen asked, setting her shoulder bag on the couch.

  “Sure, it’s down the hall and the first door on ya left,” Rose said, pointing down the hall.

  “So Millie, I need to talk to you about something.” Niya said as she placed her automatic on the table. “I need your help. I need to find somebody who might be in the witness protection program.”

  “What… um how would I know how to find that kind of information out?” Rose said as the hair stood up on the back of her neck and arms.

  Niya smiled at her. Ro
se felt something being pressed against the back of her head. Gwen pressed the barrel into the base of her skull.

  “What’s going on, Niya?” Rose asked.

  Niya walked over to the wall where the picture of Rose in her uniform had once hung.

  “You didn’t think that I was that dumb, did you? Detective Monica Maria Rose,” Niya said, turning to face her.

  Rose exhaled and slowly sat down on the couch. Her sixth sense had told her that when Niya dropped by the apartment, her cover was blown. Her ego and the money had clouded her common sense.

  “The day we had target practice, I noticed how you were intentionally not hitting the target every time, and when you did, you hit it dead on. You even held your gun like someone who had either military training, or police training. So one day, I followed you home, and when we walked through, I saw the picture of you in your uniform hangin up here.” Niya said patting the wall.

  “So why —”

  “Cause I wanted to see how far you was willing to go,” Niya said, cutting her off.

  As Rose listened to Niya with her narcissistic rant, she slowly eased her hand between the cushion of the couch. She felt the butt of her gun, and wrapped her hand around it. Niya walked over and sat on the coffee table, facing her.

  Rose took a chance and pressed the barrel into Niya’s chest. Niya looked back at her gun on the end of the table, then back to Rose.

  Rose had moved so quickly, Gwen didn’t have time to react. If she put a bullet in Rose’s head, Rose might get a shot off in Niya’s chest before going down.

  “Drop it,” Gwen yelled out, pressing the gun up against Rose’s head.

  Rose didn’t move. She looked into Niya’s eyes. She knew these women had no issues with murdering people. Her chance of survival was very slim at this point.

  “Bitch, I’m not gonna ask you twice,” Gwen yelled out, gripping the gun tighter.

  “You shoot me, I shoot her,” Rose responded, not losing eye contact with Niya.