by Kiki Swinson
So while I awaited my brother’s arrival, all I could think about was why the hell had he jumped out of the truck and blasted those niggas in broad daylight? I swear Aiden is beginning to show me a whole other side to him. I think this last prison bid he did kind of fucked his head up. He never had a problem with beating niggas up. But the way he does it now is reckless. I mean, he acts like he doesn’t care who sees him. I just hoped that he was all right and no one would be able to ID the truck. If they did, then I would be fucked because they’d be able to track it right back to me.
I sat in the truck for what seemed like forever. I kept looking down at my wristwatch, and it seemed like the time wouldn’t move. One part of me wanted to go and look for my brother. But the other part of me told me to sit tight and that Aiden would be here in a matter of minutes. So as I sat there I monitored the foot traffic that went in and out of Feather & Fin. I have to admit that Feather & Fin is a favorite fast food restaurant of mine, but as I could see, it was also popular among other black folks. Feather & Fin was also a hangout for dope boys, too. In the short time that I’d been parked here, I noticed two drug deals. I even saw a black, medium-build guy hustling CDs out of the restaurant. Any way a black man could make some money, he did right out of Feather & Fin.
I looked down at my wristwatch again. This time I noticed that ten minutes had gone by. But, unfortunately, Aiden hadn’t shown up yet. So I called him. His phone rang three times. “Hello,” he answered. I swear I was so happy to hear his voice.
“Where are you?” I wanted to know.
“I’m walking up Princess Anne Road.”
“Where at on Princess?”
“I’m walking by the corner store off Cromwell Road.”
“Okay, keep walking. I’m less than a block away on the left side. And I’m directly across the street from Feather & Fin. I can literally see everything that’s going on over there,” I let him know.
“A’ight, well, I’ll be there in a second,” he told me and disconnected his call.
I was relieved to hear my brother’s voice and to know that he was all right. I was about to have a damn fit if I found out that something happened to him. As the truck engine idled, I prepped the questions I was going to ask Aiden once we finally met back up. First I wanted to know if he killed everyone. Then I wanted to know if he was all right. I was talking about mentally and physically. Killing people like he did had to affect you in some way. You just couldn’t go and kill someone and not feel something after it was done. I wasn’t sure what my brother felt, but I did know that he was a fucking psycho and I was going to need to figure some shit out so I could make my escape when all of this was over.
Two more minutes went by and still no Aiden. “Where the hell are you?” I mumbled underneath my breath. Had he gotten picked up by the cops right after he got off the cell phone with me? I couldn’t see it happening that way, so where the fuck was he? Then my cell phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID and noticed that the number calling said UNKNOWN. I started not to answer but I did anyway. “Hello,” I said.
“Hey, baby,” I heard Nashad say.
“Hey to you too,” I replied.
“Are you ready to see me tomorrow?” he wanted to know.
“Come on, Nashad, what kind of question is that? You know I miss you like crazy,” I told him.
“So you’re gonna be ready to give me that pussy when you see me?” Nashad asked me.
I chuckled. “You know I am.”
“Okay, well meet me at the gate of pier two at ten p.m. tomorrow night.”
“I can’t wait,” I told him, smiling from ear to ear. Hearing Nashad’s sexy voice always put a grin on my face. It was intoxicating, so while I was relishing the moment, I took my eye off the task at hand. While I was melting away, I didn’t realize that Aiden had come to stand outside the truck. When I finally turned around and looked at the passenger side door, I saw Aiden glaring at me with the most evil expression I’d ever seen on his face.
My heart instantly dropped to the pit of my stomach while my hands became sweaty all over again. I knew why he was looking at me that way, so I went into damage control mode. “Hey, baby, can you call me back?” I asked Nashad with a sense of urgency.
“What’s wrong?” he wanted to know.
But I didn’t have time to answer him. Aiden had just pulled the car door open so I disconnected the call. After I pressed the end button, I placed my cell phone on my lap and waited for Aiden to speak first.
“Who was that you were talking to?” he didn’t hesitate to ask.
I didn’t know whether to lie to this guy or tell him the truth.
“Tell me who you were talking to?” He repeated the question as he slid into the passenger seat and closed the door.
Anxiety engulfed me. But this time my head started spinning in circles like a hamster on a spinning wheel. So while I was trying to figure out what would be the most appropriate answer, Aiden reached over and snatched my cell phone from my lap. I wanted to take the phone from him, but I was frozen solid. Completely paralyzed. I couldn’t move one inch. “Let me see what the fuck is going on here,” Aiden said as he navigated his way into my call log.
I sat there and watched him. “So, that nigga Nashad just called you, huh?” he asked me, like he had just taken a wild guess. The phone number that Nashad called from was blocked so even if I’d lied to Aiden about the caller being Nashad, something on the inside whispered to me that somehow he would find out later that it was.
“Yeah, but he was only calling me to say that I need to change all the air filters in his apartment,” I lied. I swear I don’t know where that lie came from, but it came right on time.
“You better not be fucking lying to me!” Aiden hissed. “Now let’s get out of here,” he continued and then he tossed my cell phone back onto my lap.
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the apartment. We gotta regroup,” he told me, and then he turned his attention toward the road in front of us.
There were at least a couple minutes of awkward silence in the truck for the first two minutes of my drive back to the apartment until Aiden finally spoke. “I betcha those murders be on the news,” he finally said.
“Did you get everyone?”
“Yep, I got all those niggas. I saw them fall one by one and they didn’t even see me coming. They were so busy watching how you barreled out of the parking lot that they didn’t realize I was standing there until I killed the driver, Monty,” he explained.
“Did you leave any witnesses?” I asked while I maneuvered in and out of traffic. If there was someone following us on our way back to Nashad’s apartment, I’d be able to pick it up.
“There were a couple of people that saw me when I let off the first few shots at the driver but after that, they ran.”
“Okay, so we can scratch off four more bodies, huh?”
“Yep, we sure can. Now all we got is three left,” he said proudly, and then he fell silent all over again.
I didn’t say another word. I was more focused on how he kept scaring me when he started questioning me about my personal life. Now that I knew what time to meet Nashad tomorrow night, I had to think of an exit plan: now or never.
CHAPTER 21
THREE SOULS LEFT
I was very proud of myself after taking all those niggas’ lives at the same time. That shit was gangster as fuck! And to do it in broad daylight put another notch on my belt. Damn, I wished I could see Nu-Nu’s face when he found out that I just ended the lives of four more of this gang. I knew it would be priceless.
“I wanna get the rest of those niggas by tomorrow night,” I told Ava.
“Why not tonight?” she asked me.
“Because I know that Nu-Nu and the rest of his gang will be on high alert. There’s no way they’re going to hang out in the open again. With six of his boys dead, I bet you any amount of money that those cats are gonna go in hiding for at least a few days.”
> “So if you know they’re gonna go into hiding, why don’t we find the rest of them now and finish the job?”
“Because it’s not gonna be safe.”
“I think it will,” she kept protesting.
“Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’ll agree to going out tonight. But if I don’t see an easy way to take the rest of the niggas out of their misery, then I’m gonna wait. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” she replied while she kept her eyes on the flowing traffic in front of us.
The drive back to the apartment didn’t take long at all. Ava got us back there in a matter of eight minutes. Upon entering the apartment, plans about how I should kill the rest of those niggas started coming together in my mind. I just needed to make sure this plan wouldn’t get me killed or sent back to prison. So after crossing the threshold of the front door, I took a seat on the couch and laid the pistol and the silencer on the coffee table.
Ava glanced at the gun as she passed it and went into the kitchen. “What’s on your mind?” she asked me.
“I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get the rest of those niggas. I’m ready to finish what I started so we can get the rest of the money and blow this joint,” I told her.
“Where do you wanna go when all of this is over?” she asked while she grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
I changed the subject. “Bring me the black permanent marker and the two Facebook pictures of those niggas. I think I left it on the kitchen counter.”
“Could you answer my question please?” Ava said while I watched her pick the pictures up from the kitchen countertop.
“I think we should go to Cali,” I finally answered.
“Aiden, Cali is too far away. What if something happens to Mama? We won’t be able to come back here and check on her.”
“Fuck that bitch! She let those people lock us up. So why should I care about something happening to her. She didn’t care about us. Do you know how long it’s been since we last saw her?”
“I don’t know,” Ava replied with uncertainty.
“Well, the last time she saw me was when she let those crackers lock us up because we stole her car. She didn’t come visit me one time. So do you think that I’m gonna make her a priority in my life? Hell, no! She’s an evil bitch! And I wish she was dead! But since she’s not, don’t ever bring her name up to me again.”
“Okay, I won’t,” she replied as she stood there before me. Without saying another word, she tossed the two photos of the guys and the black marker onto the coffee table before me and walked away.
I picked up the marker and put an X across the faces of the four guys I had just shot. From the looks of it, I had just murdered Monty, Calvin, Vince, and Big Mel. The last three niggas I had to kill was Keith, Eric, and Nu-Nu. So I wondered to myself when and how that was going to happen.
Ava made it perfectly clear that she wanted it to happen tonight. While I understood her wanting to get these hits over with, she had to also understand that our execution techniques would have to be flawless.
While I was in the living room, and Ava was in the back of the apartment somewhere, I decided to turn on the TV. There was no doubt in my mind that there were news reporters on the scene of the Church’s Chicken restaurant in Norfolk because there were witnesses. So immediately after I powered on the television I turned the channel to WAVY TV 10 and what do you know, there was a breaking news live broadcast about the shooting. I became so excited that I jumped to my feet and yelled out Ava’s name.
“What happened? What’s going on?” she asked me after she rushed into the room where I was.
I pointed toward the television. “Look, they’re talking about the murders at the Church’s Chicken,” I told her.
Ava stood there and watched the news reporter while she delivered the news live. I sat there and watched, too.
“In breaking news, Norfolk police and three coroner’s vehicles are on the scene at the Church’s Chicken restaurant on Princess Anne Road, where three men were shot and killed while parked in a drive-thru.”
“I thought you said you killed all four?” Ava looked at me.
I looked back at the TV as the reporter said, “The fourth victim was carried away from the scene in a paramedic transport. No word how serious his injuries are. There are several investigating officers on the scene as well as a couple of forensic technicians. The entire area of the parking lot of the restaurant is blocked off with yellow homicide tape, so they aren’t letting anyone in. I spoke with two witnesses who said they saw a tall, black male open fire on the white Acura parked right there in the drive-thru of the restaurant, and then he fled away on foot. No one can give a good description of the shooter, but they did say that right before the killer opened fire on those men, a black SUV sped out of the parking lot. No word on whether the driver of that SUV and the shooter are related in any way, but one homicide detective confirmed that they would be following up on that lead. He also said that if anyone has any information concerning this unfortunate tragedy, to please call the tip line at 888-LOCKUUP.”
“I am going to shit bricks if one of those niggas is still alive!” I spat. I was mad as fuck. I mean, how did I fuck that up? I aimed at all those niggas with precision when I shot them. So why the fuck was one of them still alive? This just didn’t make sense to me.
“This is not good,” Ava said as she started pacing the living room floor back and forth.
“Fuck!” I roared.
CHAPTER 22
THIS CAN’T BE REAL
I could not believe that one of those guys was still alive. And then to know that a witness saw me leaving the parking lot in a black SUV got me unraveling at the seams. What was I going to do now? What if the witness saw the license plate? And what if the cops were running the tags now? I was going to be up shit’s creek without a paddle.
“What are we going to do now?” I questioned Aiden, who was by this time pacing the floor in the kitchen. I stood at the entryway of the kitchen and waited for him to respond.
“I don’t know. You are going to have to give me a minute to sort this shit out in my head.”
“Do you realize that we may not be able to drive that truck again?”
“You are overreacting. They only said that they saw a black truck leaving the parking lot at the time of shooting. They did not say they had a license plate number. So calm down,” he snapped.
“You can say what you want. But I heard what she said,” I snapped right back at him.
“Just shut up, will you!?” he barked.
“Yeah, I’ll shut up for now. But don’t come back to me later today talking about you need me to take you around town because I am going to tell you no,” I threatened, and then I walked away from the entryway of the kitchen.
I thought Aiden was going to walk out behind me, since he does it all the time. I guess he was on some new and improved shit. It’s all good, though. After this gig was over I was leaving and never coming back because I wanted a normal life. I was tired of stealing, committing fraud, and fucking men for a place to stay and food to fill up my tummy. I wanted to get married, I wanted a man who was going to love me. I wanted a great sex life, I wanted money, and I wanted to be able to have kids someday. But if I continued to spend most of my time with my brother, none of that shit would happen.
I went back into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. I buried my face in the palm of my hands while I began to feel sorry for myself. Here I was in yet another fucked situation that could land me in jail. In the beginning, I couldn’t care less. It was my brother and me against the world. But now I wanted to live a different life. I liked the way I felt when I was with Nashad. So I didn’t want to give that up. What Nashad and I had was special and I intended to hold on to it.
A few minutes later, Aiden showed up at the bedroom door. “Listen, I got it. I know what we can do,” he started off.
I lifted my face up from my hands and gave him my undivided attention
. “What’s up?”
“I figured out how we can kill the rest of the guys,” he replied. He seemed very excited.
“I’m listening,” I said nonchalantly.
“First, we need to go to the hospital and find out which room that guy is in. After we do that, I’m gonna kill him. Then, after that we’re gonna use the GPS tracking to take us to the other niggas, and then after we get the locations for them, we go and get those niggas too.”
“I see what you are saying, but what if the homicide cops decide to watch the rest of them because they have a hunch that the whole gang is being targeted?”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ve got that all under control.”
“Apparently you don’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t have run up on Monty and the other guys like you did. That was pretty freaking careless. And to know that someone saw the color of the truck I was driving makes me sick to my stomach. Remember, we are driving someone else’s vehicle. So do you think it’s fair that he gets in trouble because of us?”
“I don’t give a fuck about that nigga! And you shouldn’t be, either. I told you to leave that situation alone.”
“I have,” I lied. I refused to let on that I had feelings for Nashad and that I intended to run away with him. And as long as I kept my plans to myself, everything would work out perfectly.
“Look, just get ready because we’re going back out tonight,” Aiden instructed me, and then he turned around and left.
CHAPTER 23
FALSE ALARM
I knew Ava was pissed off with me but I had got a job to do. And this job didn’t come with a fucking manual. She’d better be glad that I wasn’t going to kill that nigga that owned this spot.
A few hours passed by and the tension between Ava and me was still thick. She acted like she didn’t want to say a word to me until another breaking news story hit the airwaves. This time the TV was changed to channel three, and what the news reporter said made me sit up and take notice.
