by Kiki Swinson
I shoved the phone into my front pants pocket and said, “A nigga that’s gonna pay me to do a job.”
“What kind of job?”
“I’m supposed to get rid of somebody.”
“You mean kill ’em?”
“Yeah.”
“Who does he want you to kill?”
I already had the information, but I told her, “I’ll find out when I see him.”
“Are you sure you wanna get involved with that shit? I’m not trying to lose you to another prison bid. I need you out here.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t get caught. And if I do, I won’t be taken alive,” I told her.
Ava didn’t say another word. She continued to drive in the direction of her apartment. After we reached our destination, she parked the truck and told me to follow her.
She lived in an apartment complex off Baker Road. I could instantly tell that the apartments were brand-new—well, at least to me, considering I hadn’t been a free man in a few years. “Is this your spot?” I asked Ava while we walked toward the apartment building.
“It is while my friend is out to sea,” she told me.
“You talking about that nigga that left you his truck?”
“Yep,” she replied as she led the way up to the second floor.
The manner in which Ava answered my question about the guy who owned the truck and also owned the apartment sent up a red flag for me. I saw a spark in her eyes and she gave me a half smile. I didn’t make mention of it, though. But I knew I needed to keep a close watch on her and this nigga she was involved with.
When she unlocked and opened the front door of the apartment, she let me go in first. I scanned the living room area and the kitchen area. I could tell that it was a bachelor’s spot within seconds. There was nothing that told me Ava lived here. Normally when a man and a woman live together, you’re gonna see some flowers on tables, nice feminine pictures on the wall, among other things. But not here, and it pleased me.
“When did you say this nigga was coming back home?” I asked her after I took a seat on the living room couch.
“A couple of months,” she replied as she picked up the remote control for the television. “Wanna watch anything in particular?” she continued.
“Nah, I’m good. I just wanna relax a minute and eat my food before we head back out of here to see that nigga I called earlier.”
“All right. Well, I’m gonna watch one of my favorite reality shows while you eat. And when it goes off, we can leave.”
“Sounds good to me,” I told her.
I watched Ava as she pressed play to watch the show she recorded, but then she walked away from the TV. I heard her go into what I assumed was the bedroom, and then I heard the door close. She stayed in the room for what seemed like halfway through the show. When she finally returned she looked a little disheveled. Her shirt was only halfway tucked into her pants, and her hair looked out of place. “What the fuck is up with you?” I asked her.
“Whatcha mean?”
“What’s wrong with your hair and clothes? You look like you just came back from wrestling with somebody. You sure homeboy that owns this spot ain’t back there?” I asked her, cracking a smile.
She burst into laughter. “No, boy, what are you talking about?” she asked me as she stood and looked into a framed glass mirror hanging on the wall behind her. At the sight of her disheveled reflection, she started fixing her hair and repositioning her shirt. “Damn, how did I do that?” she said. But only she could answer that question.
I didn’t pursue any more information about how she got like that. I figured if she wanted to talk about it I wouldn’t have to twist her arm to do it. So I changed the conversation altogether. “I’m gonna want to leave here in a few minutes and head to the spot to meet the guy,” I told her.
“A’ight,” she agreed.
CHAPTER 4
GOTTA BE MORE CAREFUL
Why hadn’t I checked myself before exiting Nashad’s bedroom? I needed to be more careful—I was slipping. Aiden was a very observant guy who would zero right in on anything he saw out of order. If he knew that I was hiding things, like intimate photos Nashad and I took together and a white gold Tiffany heart pendant that he had personalized to me, Aiden wouldn’t understand, even if he knew how deeply Nashad was falling for me. I didn’t want Aiden to think he had competition for my attention. I had to keep him in the dark about Nashad.
Fifteen minutes later, Aiden and I left the apartment. After we climbed back inside of the truck, I asked him to tell me exactly where we were going. “He told me to meet him in the side lot of the Longshoremen Hall off of Princess Anne Road. I think he’s going there to get his car detailed.”
“Are you sure this guy is legit? I mean, you could be going there to meet up with a cop,” I pointed out.
“The nigga that gave me this guy’s cell phone number said that this guy was his cousin. It had better be legit.”
“I hope so,” I commented. I knew I was casting a lot of doubt into the atmosphere, but I loved my brother, therefore it was my duty to make sure that he was all right. And if that meant I had to do something to protect him, then that’s what I would do.
The drive to the Longshoremen Hall was only a twelve-minute ride. When we were two blocks from our destination, Aiden called the guy back to ask him what he was wearing and what kind of car he was in. After the guy answered both questions, Aiden disconnected the call. “He said he was wearing a gray hoodie and a pair of blue jeans. And he was standing outside of a white Ford Mustang.”
Giving me the description of the guy’s attire and the type of vehicle he was near gave me something to look out for. It only took Aiden and I a minute to lay eyes on the guy. “He’s right there,” Aiden said, pointing to a black guy standing next to the trunk of a white vehicle. As I drove toward him, I zoomed in on his facial expression. He looked nervous, to say the least. If I had to guess his age, I would say that he was in his early thirties, like Aiden and I were. I could see Aiden sizing him up as we got closer and closer to him. “This nigga look like a pretty boy,” Aiden commented.
“Yeah, he does,” I agreed. “So who is this guy again?” I wondered aloud. I needed Aiden to jog my memory about the role this guy was playing.
“He’s supposed to be cousins with a nigga I was locked up with.”
“Is the guy you were locked up with this guy’s age?”
“Nah, the nigga I was locked up with was older.”
The moment I stopped the truck and put the gear shift in park, Aiden got out and walked over toward the guy. I watched the guy’s body movements as Aiden approached him. Once Aiden started talking to him, his nervousness seemed to ease and he became a little more relaxed. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from Aiden’s body language, I could tell that everything was going smoothly. Three minutes after the conversation started, they shook hands and then they went in opposite directions.
Aiden got in the truck with me, and the other guy got into his white Mustang and drove out of the parking lot and merged onto Princess Anne Road with the other traffic. Aiden and I watched the guy as he drove away while I made my exit, too. “So how did everything go?” I asked Aiden.
He opened his right hand, which lay on his lap. In his hand was a note, a photo of a white man, and a bunch of hundred-dollar bills folded neatly. “Yes, everything went fine.”
I grabbed the photo of the white man and looked at it closely. “This is the guy they want you to kill?”
“Yeah, that’s what he said.”
“How much is that?” I asked Aiden while I placed the photo on his lap.
“Five grand.”
“That’s all?”
“No, this is only half of it. I’m supposed to get the other half after the job is done.”
“When does he want it done?”
“Before the guy in jail goes to court.”
“When is court?”
“Next Wednesday.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
“But that’s only four days away,” I noted. I was both shocked and worried at the same time. I mean, why would my brother get out of jail and take a job to kill someone soon thereafter? That’s reckless!
“Look, Ava, you’re worrying too much. I promise you that I’ve got everything under control,” Aiden replied nonchalantly.
“What’s your plan?”
“I’m working that out in my head as we speak.”
“Have you thought about the possibility that the cops may have this guy under witness protection?”
“I was told that he wasn’t. The nigga that just gave me the money said that the guy was a utility worker that drives around in a company truck and that he goes to work every day.”
“He sounds like a family man.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“Did he tell you where the guy lived?”
“Yep, I’ve got all that information on this little piece of paper.”
“A’ight, well, let’s do it.”
“What do you mean ‘let’s do it’?”
“Do you think I’m gonna let you go out and do this alone?”
Aiden turned his head slightly around to look at me. “Now, that’s the sister I know.” He smiled.
CHAPTER 5
OUR FIRST HIT
My target was a rat by the name of Sam Carson. He was a white, middle-aged man who had witnessed a murder at the hands of Winston Battle in the parking lot of a local grocery store one late night. It was my job to track this dude down and figure out when and where it would be a good time to end this motherfucker’s life.
Ava drove me by the house of the man who I was paid to murder. The address Winston’s cousin had given me was in a middle-class neighborhood called Doves Grove, and it was only two minutes from highway 264. Seeing this was like music to my ears. If Ava and I had to make a quick getaway from this white man’s house, jumping on the highway would be our best bet to escape.
In addition to that, I was told that Sam drove the company SUV alone, so I figured killing him in between jobs would be the perfect way to get the job done. “That’s his house right there on the left,” Ava said. She spoke in a whisper-like manner as if someone other than I could hear her.
The house she pointed to was a one-story, ranch style house. The yard was nicely cut and the small bushes around the front porch were manicured to perfection. “Somebody is coming out of the house,” Ava announced, whispering again, and then she turned her head forward. Since I was sitting on the passenger side of the truck I knew I couldn’t be seen, so I leaned my seat back a little and then I casually looked behind Ava’s seat and in the direction of the front door. A white woman with red hair appeared. “That must be his wife,” I told Ava.
“I wanna look so bad,” she said, as she continued to drive by the house.
“You ain’t missing nothing. She stepped out on the porch, picked something up, and now she’s going back inside,” I told Ava.
“Did you see that there was only one car in the driveway?” Ava asked me.
“Yeah, I saw that. So now we know that if her car is the only one parked in the driveway, then she’s home by herself.”
“I wonder if the kids were there.”
“It’s not even twelve o’clock yet, so you know that they can’t be at home.”
“I wonder what time he goes to work?” Ava’s questions continued.
“Winston’s cousin said that he leaves out of the house at six a.m. every morning.”
“Well, I guess that’s when our job starts, too,” she said, and then she drove away from Sam’s home.
Immediately after Ava merged back onto highway 264, I mentioned to her that I needed a gun. “Do you think I should call the cousin back and ask him to get one for me?” I asked her.
“Nah, don’t call him until the job is done. I’ve got a gun you can use.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s back at the apartment.”
“Ava, I ain’t using that nigga’s gun to kill that white man!” Aiden protested.
“It’s not his gun, so chill out!”
“Then who does it belong to?”
“I stole it from a nigga that tried to take me out to eat on a dinner date a couple months ago.”
I couldn’t hold it in. I had to laugh after picturing Ava going out on a date with a nigga, and then, when the date is over, she robs him of his metal piece.
“Ava, you know you can’t do shit like that when I’m not around. What if that nigga would’ve tried to kill you?”
“Let’s not get into that. I’m alive and well. So let’s keep this train going.”
“Do you know what kind of gun it is?”
“Yes, it is a forty-five-caliber pistol. It came with a silencer, too.”
“Stop fucking with me.”
“I’m not.”
“Where do you keep it?”
“Right now, I got it hidden in the closet of the bedroom.”
“Well, I want you to pull it out of the closet as soon as we get back to the apartment.”
“You got it,” she assured me.
CHAPTER 6
TIME TO SAY GOOD-BYE
The following morning Aiden and I made our way back to Sam’s house. We observed what time he left in the morning and what time he made it back home. After watching this rat for a couple days Aiden decided today would be the day to take him out.
Aiden and I were sitting in Nashad’s truck and followed Sam as he drove away from the utility company he worked for. We knew he was on his way to his first appointment so we put enough distance between our car and his truck so he wouldn’t get spooked and lead us to the cops.
We followed him to his first stop, which was a single-family home in a middle-class neighborhood in the downtown Ghent section of Norfolk. I parked the truck halfway down the block. Our position was close enough to see Sam’s every move but it was far enough for him not to see us. It helped us that it was extremely foggy outside. The fog gave us a level of obscurity that worked in our favor, and I could see Aiden becoming intoxicated by the second because of it. I watched him as he locked and loaded his .45-caliber pistol, then screwed the silencer into the barrel. “I’m gonna go down there and get in position so when he walks back to the house, I can murk him before he even makes it back to his truck,” Aiden announced.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked him. This was our first hit so I felt like I needed direction.
“Stay in the truck but keep the engine running and the door unlocked. When you see me coming toward you, be ready to drive off. But we’re gonna turn around and drive back the same way we came. Got it?” he replied.
“Yeah, I got it,” I assured him while I felt the rush of adrenaline pump through me.
I watched Aiden as he exited the truck. He put his hoodie over his head as he walked down the sidewalk toward the house where Sam was. One minute into the walk, Aiden disappeared behind a row of bushes a couple of yards away from the house. From that moment, I couldn’t see what was to come.
I sat quietly in my truck while my heart rate sped up uncontrollably. I wanted to know what was going on. But I didn’t dare leave the truck when I was told to stay still. Five minutes went by and nothing happened. I was becoming more nervous by the second. “Aiden, what are you doing?” I mumbled to myself while I glanced from the watch on my wrist to the bushes where Aiden had hidden himself.
I noticed another minute had passed when I looked back down at my watch, so when I looked back up I was startled to see Aiden running toward toward me. I immediately put my foot on the brake and put the gear in drive as he approached the truck. After he opened the door and hopped in the passenger seat, I took my foot off the brake and made a U-turn in the middle of the street. “Hurry up,” he huffed.
“I’m trying,” I snapped as I pressed down on the accelerator after I straightened the steering wheel. I was a nervous wreck.
; “Make a left at the corner,” he instructed me.
“Did you get ’em?” I questioned while I was making the left turn. Now it seemed like everything happened so fast.
“Yeah, I got ’em. But we might have to take a trip back over there,” Aiden replied in a chilling manner. The hairs on my arms stood up.
“Why? Whatcha do?” I asked him. He was acting really weird.
“I think the lady of the house saw me. And if she did, then I’ve gotta go back there and kill her, too,” he replied, and then he started unscrewing the silencer from the barrel of his pistol.
CHAPTER 7
TIME TO COLLECT
After I stuffed the gun and the silencer into the glove compartment, I took the throwaway phone out of my pocket and dialed Winston’s cousin’s cell phone number. He answered the phone on the second ring. “What’s up?” he said.
“I just finished the job so I want to know when and where I can come and pick up the rest of my money.”
“What guarantees do you have to let me know that the job has been completed?”
“Turn on the motherfucking news. And call me back within the hour with the location and time to meet,” I instructed the guy and then I disconnected the call.
“What’s up with him?” Ava asked me.
“I don’t know what the fuck is up with him. But I know he better call me back and tell me where he’s going to meet me so I can get my money.”
“Do you think he’s trying to renege on giving you the rest of the money?”
“He would be wise not to.”
“So what exactly did he say?”
“When I asked for the money he said he needed proof that the job was done. So I told him to turn on the news and call me back within the hour.”
“Think he’s going to do it?”
“At this point, Ava, I really don’t care what he does. I can’t control his actions. But I can control mine. So if he tries to play me for a fool, I’m gonna take his life, too.”
“Well, I hope he does the right thing.”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I said, and then I fell silent. I turned my attention toward the ongoing traffic in front of us. But I wasn’t thinking about the traffic, I was thinking about the man I had just murdered. The thought of me sneaking up behind him, pointing the gun at the back of his head without him knowing that he was about to die gave me a sense of power. I felt like a god. And for the first time in my life I felt in control. I remembered back when I was younger, how I was always getting picked on. Kids older than me used to call me retard, dummy, old man, Beetlejuice, and a lot of other names. I also remember the kids running me home from the bus stop. They acted like they hated my guts. And it was for no reason, because I always stayed to myself. I never bothered anybody. All I ever wanted was for people to leave me alone. That’s it. But no. Those kids wanted me to be their punching bag, so here I am.
