Dirty DNA 3: The Renegade (G Street Chronicles Presents)

by BlaQue

  Takiya laughed and then proceeded to tell me what she wanted me to do. I want you to get the clothes from the old hag. Make sure she doesn’t call the police and see if you can get her to take you back to the campus. After you get back to the dorm, I will take it from there. Can you handle that or do you need me to write it down for you? Takiya chuckled, but I was far from amused. I had been beaten, raped and left naked in the middle of nowhere and this bitch thought it was funny. I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes.

  When the little old lady came out from the back, she was carrying a pair of jogging pants and a sweatshirt that had seen better days. I didn’t complain though. I politely took the items from her and she pointed me to a bathroom. When I returned, the woman was sitting on her couch with a grim look on her face.

  “Baby, maybe you should call the police. There’s no telling what that man will do to you next,” she said, getting up and heading in the direction of the phone.

  “No! No police. He said if I called the police he will kill me. He knows where I live and if I call the cops on him he’ll come after me,” I said, refusing the phone she was trying to offer me.

  “Well, what are you gonna do? You certainly can’t stay here and if you let that wild dog run free there’s no telling how many other women he will have his way with,” she said stunned.

  “Ma’am, I just want to go home. If you could do me the favor of taking me home I would greatly appreciate it.”

  “Well, where is home baby, because I normally don’t drive after the sun goes down for reasons just like yours. I don’t wanna end up a victim,” the woman said a bit too sarcastic for my liking.

  “I’m a student at Howard University and I live on campus,” I said, hoping the woman had an ounce of compassion for me.

  “That’s about thirty minutes out of the way. Not to mention, I would have to drive all the way back home by myself,” she gasped.

  “Ma’am, I hate to take you out of your way, but I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need it. I have money and I will gladly give you everything I have in my room if you’ll just take me home,” I pleaded.

  Why are you begging that old bag for anything? If we need her fuckin’ car, take her God damn car! She’s like two seconds from death. Knock her old ass out, find the keys and get us out of here! Oh fuck it, I will do it myself. I gotta do everything else for you anyway. Next I’ll be helping you wipe your ass!

  “No! I’m not gonna hit that old woman!” I screamed, frustrated with Takiya. I covered both of my ears and shook my head back and forth to drown out the sound of Takiya’s voice. The old lady looked at me and I could read the fear written on her face. She knew she had made a grave mistake opening the door to help me.

  “Look here missy, maybe you should just leave. If you don’t get out of here, I’m gonna call the cops on you,” the scared white lady said, backing away from me, but it was too late. Takiya saw a way out and she was going to take it.

  My steps were no longer my own as Takiya took control. The last thing I remember is walking toward the old lady and putting my hands around her slender, pale neck and everything else after that was a blur.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Old Habits Die Hard

  Pinky York

  It was early Saturday morning and I didn’t sleep a wink last night. I think the anticipation of Neko coming to D.C. had me on edge. No matter how hard I tried to get him out of my system, the harder it became to let him go. Now he wants me to check up on his niece. What I should have said was ‘no’ but instead, I told him I would.

  I got up and cleaned myself up and turned on the news while I made a pot of coffee and twisted up a blunt. I sat there contemplating if I should really help Neko or not when there was a breaking report that flashed across the screen.

  This is Giovanni Drummond with News Channel 8. I’m on site of a blazing fire at Flower Village Mobile Home Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. What we were able to find out is that the trailer belonged to an elderly widow; a Mrs. Catherine Kramer who was eighty-three years old who perished in the fire.

  The bizarre twist in this ongoing investigation is that police sources believe that the fire behind me was to cover up a brutal homicide. If anyone was in the area of this mobile park between midnight and six this morning, you are asked to contact the authorities.

  Also, Mrs. Kramer’s neighbors reported seeing an unidentified vehicle leaving the area around midnight and Mrs. Kramer’s 1990 Lincoln Town Car is missing. Again, if you have any information you are urged to contact Crime Solvers at 301-555-1212. Your information will remain anonymous.

  I sat there watching the news in horror. Who would kill an eighty-three-year-old woman? Either she was mixed up in some bad shit or she was just a victim. Either way, it was fucked up.

  I finished my coffee and decided to do what I knew I shouldn’t do. I got dressed and went to my office. I needed to find out all I could on Neko’s niece and make sure her lil’ ass was where she was supposed to be before he got to town.

  When I got to the campus and the administrative offices, I was grateful that it was a Saturday morning and no one was really around to get on my nerves. I didn’t feel like hearing my boss ask me a million and one questions about my absence for an entire week. When I got to my office, the first thing I noticed was the stack of work waiting for me. I can’t say I was excited about what I was going to have to do come Monday morning. I hated working. I pushed the papers to the side, sat down in front of my computer and logged into the university’s student roster. I pulled up YaSheema Nicole’s file and jotted down her room assignment so I could check to make sure she was really there. From the looks of everything in my computer, she had checked in earlier this week. I guess Neko didn’t have anything to worry about. His precious niece was safe and sound.

  I swiveled in my chair and knocked over the stack of papers that was looming about my desk onto the floor. I mumbled a few choice words before picking the paper up. That’s when, for the second time in under a month, I almost had the wind knocked out of me. The name Ronald Evans stood out like a sore thumb. I picked the paper up and examined it. My luck couldn’t be this damn good. I inspected the paper as though it were foreign and found out it was the Ronald “Dread” Evans I had almost killed. This was the man I believe killed my sister outside of a D.C. nightclub seventeen years ago. He was the same one I shot and left for dead; but to my surprise, he hadn’t died and now I was holding info for his campus access badge. He was now a part of the H.U. staff and I was the one who had to grant him his permissions to access certain places on campus.

  I smiled because I couldn’t believe my luck. What were the odds of me and ole boy Dread working in the same place? I assigned his badge and put it in his mailbox in the main office. I didn’t want to hand it to him personally like I normally did. I wasn’t ready for Mr. Evans and I to become reacquainted just yet. I had to prepare for our meeting because it was going to be explosive.

  Now that I had programed his keycard, I could keep tabs on him at all times via the school’s monitoring system. When the time was right, I was going to make him wish I had killed his bitch ass the first time. After digging up as much dirt as I could on Dread through his files, I strolled over to the dorm to check on YaSheema. Then it hit me. YaSheema Nicole was Dread’s daughter. I definitely couldn’t let her know I knew him.

  I pulled my jacket around me as the autumn wind whipped all around me. I took a few more steps and bent the corner and my heart began to beat wildly in my chest. There were police all over the faculty parking lot and there were crime scene investigators roping off the area. I walked up to the crowd that had gathered around the area behind the yellow crime scene tape.

  “What happened?” I asked one of the onlookers.

  “Someone said they found a car that has something to do with an old lady in Upper Marlboro that they found dead. I guess whoever torched the old broad took her car and left it here and ran. Damn shame,” the informant said.

  I looked
around and saw the news trucks and reporters preparing to break the news first. I shook my head and walked around the outside of the crime scene and over to the dorm. Once inside, I was checked in at the front desk by one of the assistant resident managers, Alma. She and I chatted about what was happening in the parking lot for a few minutes and then I went to YaSheema Nicole’s floor. I knocked lightly on her door and heard some shuffling.

  “Who is it?”

  “Ahh, my name is Ms. York and I was just checking to make sure you had settled in ok,” I lied. I hope she bought that bullshit because I wouldn’t have. To my surprise, I heard the locks on the door slide from their chambers and the door opened.

  Even though I had seen pictures of YaSheema Nicole and I had seen her in our chance passing in Georgia, her resemblance to her aunt was amazing. YaSheema looked eerily like YaYa Clayton. So much so, it sent a shiver up my spine. Her stormy grey eyes looked exactly like that of my late employer’s daughter and Neko’s. The only difference was she was a half of a shade lighter than YaYa and she had dirty reddish hair like Dread.

  I swallowed hard and tried not to stare at her.

  “I’m settled in just fine. Thank you for checking. Is there anything else?” she said a little too snotty for me, but I had to hold my composure. I didn’t need to have a confrontation with her. I just needed to make sure she was definitely here to calm Neko down and then hopefully get her to lead me to her father.

  “That’s all, Ms. Evans. Just checking to make sure you’re all settled in and ready for classes.”

  YaSheema Nicole tilted her head like she was studying me and then she smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile either. It was sort of sick. “I’m good. You know…you look awfully familiar. Have we met?” she asked.

  The smile on her face gave me the creeps. I had done some ill shit in my day and nothing really fazed me, but I had to admit this young girl had me shook. Something about the way she was looking at me made me feel like she had me all figured out. I have never felt like this before.

  “Umm, I don’t think so. I’m just a part of the campus welcome committee…just doing my job. That’s all,” I said nervously, but impressed by the way I lied with a straight face.

  “Well, ok. Thanks for checking, Ms. York. Have a good afternoon,” she said and started to close the door then she stopped and swung it back open. “Ms. York…why didn’t you ask how Paige is? If you’re the welcome committee, I’m sure you know I ain’t the only one in this room. Why ain’t you ask about my roomie?” she asked, still smiling that sick, demented smile.

  “I only had your name to check on. I’m sure someone will be by to check on Paige,” I stuttered.

  “Umm hmm. Have a good weekend, Ms. York.” YaSheema Nicole said and slammed the door in my face. I was glad she did. I didn’t want to do anything but get the fuck out of there. I hated to admit it, but that bitch had me shook. I knew YaSheema Nicole and I were going to cross paths again and I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Welcome to the District

  Neko Reynolds

  As soon as I saw the first sign that welcomed me to Washington, D.C., I knew I didn’t belong here. This was no longer my home and she didn’t love me like she used to. Although I had to come to D.C. to find my wife and niece, I wasn’t excited to be here.

  I crossed the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and peered into the murky waters of the Potomac. The Potomac River – or the Anacostia as native Washingtonians liked to call it – was the source of some of misery. My sister and best friend YaYa, and my mother, had both been found dead in the Anacostia. Memories of my sister flooded my mind and I smiled. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me despite all the things that came along with being her brother. I loved YaSheema Clayton.

  I stepped on the gas and thought about all the things I left behind in D.C. Reminiscing made me remember to call Shadow to let him know I had touched down. It had been seventeen years since I had been back home, but I remembered my way through the city. I navigated through what used to be the hood that was now gentrified. Places that were notoriously dangerous back in the day were now cleaned up and livable.

  Looking at Southeast D.C. now one would never know it was drug infested and that my family owned this portion of the city. My father and sister ruled over the Southside by pumping drugs through the hood with the help of some of their most trusted employees. One of which was my former girlfriend, Pinky York, who had returned from the dead to profess her undying love for me.

  Thinking of Pinky made me shake my head. There was no doubt that I still loved her. She was my ghetto love and no one could replace her. Not even Rhina with her degrees and her private practice could compare to the excitement of Pinky. Pinky was wild and free. There was no taming her and she never tried to tame me either. Maybe that’s why we had always gotten along so well in the past. She did her and I did me. There was no in between.

  Pinky allowed me to be me. She never pushed for more than what we were. We loved each other and we loved hard. The only problem Pink and I had was that I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants and she turned cold when her sister died. I still never got all of the details about the night her sister died. I was only able to find out that Detective Gatsby was the one who murdered Pinky’s sister. Pinky thought Dread had something to do with her sister’s death, and I could never figure out why she assumed that. Dread was many things, but a killer he was not.

  I pulled up in front of Shadow’s apartment and couldn’t believe my nigga still lived in the same place after all these years. You would have thought with time he would have upgraded himself; but like he said, with all the kids he has, how could he?

  I killed the engine and stepped out the car feeling strange to be back in the capital city. I watched in amazement as some youth walked down the sidewalk passing a blunt back and forth like it was nothing. Then I remembered they had decriminalized weed here a few years back. That was never going to fly in the south.

  I walked to the building that I remembered as Shadow’s and used the intercom to let him know I was here…I was home. Shadow buzzed me in and I climbed the steps to his apartment. Just as I was about to knock on his door, the door flew open and Shadow was standing there with a grin as big as the state of Texas on his face.

  “My nigga…what it do? Man, oh man it’s been far too long,” Shadow said hugging me.

  “Yeah, I know. I’ma try to get up here more often,” I said, walking inside. To my surprise, his apartment was neatly decked out. Pictures of all of his children lined the walls and there was even a picture of Shadow and I from when I opened the detailing shop. He lived in the same place, but it was much neater than when we used to hang years ago.

  “That was a long time ago; huh man?” Shadow said as he observed me looking at the photo.

  “Yeah. It feels like it was centuries ago,” I said. Then I came across a framed picture of me, Shadow and NiQue. Seeing the picture of my sister made my blood run cold and it reminded me of what I was doing here in the first place. I took a seat on the couch and attempted to get comfortable but the big elephant in the room was preventing that. Shadow took a seat across from me and I knew it was coming.

  “I thought you said you would never come back to D.C. And what’s up with Pinky coming back from the dead? I thought ole girl got 187’d before you decided to leave here?”

  “I thought she was dead too. She just showed up on my porch a few days ago. Shit ain’t sitting right. I know this may sound crazy, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she showed up right now. Now Rhina is M.I.A. and YaSheema Nicole hasn’t returned any of my calls either. That ain’t like either of them to ignore my calls. I called Pinky before I got on the road up here to see if she would be able to get me any information on my niece’s whereabouts. I lied to her and told her that I wouldn’t be here until Monday or Tuesday. No one knows I’m in the city but you and I wanna keep it that way. You feel me?”

  “Nigga, that’s some heav
y shit. Let me ask you this…have you heard from your niece’s father? I know you and ole boy weren’t on the best of terms, but I think maybe you should give him a heads up that his seed is in town. You don’t want them running into each other unexpectedly. That shit could get ugly,” Shadow said, breaking down a big bud of weed on a magazine.

  “I thought about calling him and telling him that she was here, but what am I supposed to say to him? He ain’t want anything to do with the girl. Why would he give a fuck about her now? Besides, I don’t even know if that nigga is still in the area or not. The last time I had contact with him was a few years ago when I sent him pictures of YaSheema Nicole. My niece, on the other hand, is very interested in her father. She’s been asking me over and over again for years about him. I ain’t know what to tell her about him. What was I supposed to say…your father didn’t want you because your mother and aunt drove that nigga crazy?”

  Shadow shrugged and continued rolling his blunt. Then he stopped what he was doing and looked at me like a light bulb went off inside his head. “My daughter Paige is in her second year at Howard. Her mother and step-father checked her in last weekend. Maybe I could call her and see if she has seen your peoples around. I know it’s a long shot being that Howard is huge, but it won’t hurt to ask,” Shadow said, passing me the rolled blunt.

  I lit the blunt and nodded my head at Shadow. “Make sure you keep it on the low that I’m looking for my niece. I don’t wanna tip her off that I’m in town. There’s something else Shadow,” I said passing him the blunt.

  “What’s that?”

  “You remember how my sister NiQue was a lil’ off before she died?’

  “A lil’ off? Shawty was all the way gone. She tried to burn down the shop and kill you and her own baby. That bitch was crazy!” Shadow said between taking pulls from the blunt. “Aww, damn man…no disrespect intended. I know that was your family,” Shadow said after realizing I wasn’t feeling him talking about my sister like that. I know NiQue was crazy as bat shit, but she was still my sister. NiQue needed help, love and guidance. She never got it and that caused her illness to spiral out of control until it took over her. It wasn’t her fault she was fucked up.