A Hustler's Promise 2 Promises Kept

by Jackie Chanel

  Only when they walked into the condo, they walked into a war zone. For a second, Rickie had to look around to see if she and her sister were in the right house. The girls heard Jaicyn and Rayshawn yelling at each other in their bedroom. It didn’t sound like their usual ‘where’s my keys’, ‘I don’t know where the hell your keys are’ argument. This one sounded serious and Rickie would have bet money that Jaicyn was crying.

  “What the hell is going on up there?” Rickie wondered aloud. She and Bobbie hurried upstairs to Jaicyn’s room. Jaicyn was sitting in a chair yelling at Rayshawn. Her hair was disheveled; her face was red and wet with tears.

  Rayshawn looked upset too. His face was clouded over with anger and he was throwing clothes into a suitcase. Rickie glanced at the suitcase and then at her sister. Both girls had the same thought. Jaicyn and Rayshawn were breaking up.

  “What’s going on in here?” Rickie asked, opening the door wider so that she and Bobbie could enter.

  “Nothing,” Rayshawn said. “Go eat or something.”

  Rickie ignored Rayshawn and walked over to her sister. She sat on the arm of the chair and rubbed Jaicyn’s shoulder.

  “What’s wrong Jay-Jay? What happened?”

  “Nothing happened yet,” Jaicyn said tearfully. “Rickie, Bobbie, leave us alone for a minute, please.”

  Unsure about leaving the room, Rickie and Bobbie walked slowly out of the room.

  “You better not hurt her,” Rickie warned Rayshawn.

  Jaicyn heaved herself up from the chair. Her pregnancy was stressful enough. She certainly didn’t need the added stress that Rayshawn was causing her. She shut the door and sat down on the bed, making his pile of clothes fall over. Rayshawn glared at her and picked them back up.

  “Rayshawn, you can’t go. Why would you want to? This is dumb!”

  “Jay-Jay, that’s been your argument all day. If you can’t come up with something better than ‘this is dumb’ shut up about it. I’m going!”

  “Why the fuck do you have to go to Washington Heights?” Jaicyn yelled.

  Just a few hours ago, Autumn had called Jaicyn with some disturbing information. Her brother had overheard some guys in Oak Park talking about Rayshawn. She called Jaicyn right away to tell her what they said.

  Jaicyn didn’t know if she should cry or just kill Rayshawn after Autumn told her that the word on the street was that people were looking for Rayshawn and if they ever found him he was as good as dead. The most disturbing part was that this order was a directive from King; at least that’s what Autumn heard.

  Jaicyn decided to ask Rayshawn about it but before she could ask him, she came home to find him packing a suitcase, talking about he was going to visit King. Jaicyn was livid. That’s when the argument started an hour and a half ago.

  “You are being dumb,” Jaicyn continued to scream at Rayshawn. “If niggas wanted to kill me, you can rest assure that I wouldn’t voluntarily walk into the firing squad.”

  “I’m going to Youngstown, not Washington Heights,” Rayshawn said. “And you know me. I don’t give a fuck what these lame ass niggas want to do to me. Nobody in that damn city is going to take me out.”

  “I don’t understand you, Rayshawn. You’re always talking about protecting us. Yet, you’ve known for a month that there’s a hit out on you and you didn’t say shit to me. Now you want to go up there and leave us here. What the hell am I supposed to do if someone comes here looking for you? I’m seven months pregnant!” Jaicyn hollered.

  “Like I said before, Jay-Jay, get a fuckin’ grip. You’re takin’ this shit to a whole new level of paranoid. No one is coming down here!”

  Jaicyn wasn’t hearing it. She knew that something had happened or else Rayshawn wouldn’t have raced home and started packing, talking about he had to get to Youngstown ASAP. But he wasn’t telling her anything.

  “Look, I’m trying to get this shit ended and the only way I can do that is by talking to King. I’m only going to be gone a few days. If you don’t feel safe in the house without me then go stay in a hotel. You’re going to be fine.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” Jaicyn fired back. “It’s you. Rayshawn, I’m about to have your child. I need you to be alive for that and you acting so reckless is not working for me.”

  Rayshawn stopped packing, pushed the clothes out of the way and sat down next to Jaicyn. He put his hand on her stomach and felt his child kick.

  “Jay-Jay, you’re panicking and you have no reason to. I’m going to take care of this. I promise. Nothing’s going to happen to you or me.”

  “I don’t see how you can say that,” Jaicyn said lowering her voice since didn’t want to upset her sisters even more than they probably were. “You’re going to Youngstown to ask the man who put a hit out on you to take it back.”

  Rayshawn wiped Jaicyn’s face with his t-shirt. She was upset and her raging hormones weren’t helping her emotions, but she didn’t know the whole story. She was only getting pieces of it from big mouthed Autumn.

  “This isn’t coming from King,” Rayshawn assured her.

  It couldn’t be. Rayshawn didn’t want to believe that King wanted him dead. That’s why he had to go. If the hit was from King then King was the only one who could call it off.

  “Jay-Jay, listen to me,” Rayshawn decided to be honest with his fiancée. “I don’t know what’s going on. But today Rock called me and told me that some dude was in College Park asking questions about me. I can’t have some stranger running around Atlanta gunning for me. Especially with you and the girls here and the baby coming soon. I have to take care of this now. This isn’t anything but a big misunderstanding. It’s King we’re talking about, Jay-Jay.”

  Rayshawn’s eyes pleaded with Jaicyn to understand. He didn’t want to argue about it anymore. He just needed her to let him handle his business without anymore protests or arguing.

  “Fine,” Jaicyn sighed reluctantly. “Do what you have to do.”

  “You don’t have to worry about shit. Dayshawn is coming to stay with you and so is Blaque.”

  Rayshawn threw the rest of his clothes into the suitcase and zipped it. Two days, Jay-Jay, that’s all. I’ll only be gone two days.”

  “Just be careful,” Jaicyn pleaded. “Rayshawn, please be careful.”

  “I will. You just rest and I’ll be back.”

  Rayshawn heard his brother’s car pull into the driveway. “Love you babe,” he said.

  “I love you too.”

  Jaicyn watched her man walk out the bedroom and said a silent prayer for him. She had a bad feeling about this trip but no matter what she said, Rayshawn wasn’t listening.

  ****

  The next day Rayshawn was sitting in the visiting room at The Ohio State Penitentiary waiting for King. Rayshawn was very surprised to find out that he was even on King’s visitor list. Based on what Blaque and Rock had informed him, King didn’t look at Rayshawn the same way anymore. Rayshawn was there to rectify that.

  Rayshawn stood up when he saw King enter the visiting room. King didn’t even look like a prisoner. He had on a pair of black True Religion jeans and a blue shirt. He had a fresh haircut too. He looked like the player that Rayshawn had always known. But no matter what he looked like, Rayshawn couldn’t get over the fact that he was visiting King in prison. He felt his eyes start to water when King walked towards him. He quickly put his emotions in check and waited for King to approach the table.

  “What’s up youngin?” King said when he got to the table. King was actually a little uncomfortable seeing Rayshawn too. He was angry with him, but at the end of the day, there were things that needed to be said and it was time to say them.

  When King took a good look at Rayshawn, he didn’t see the grown man that Rayshawn had become. He saw the fifteen year old boy that’d he’d taken under his wing and guided him on the streets. King stepped closer to Rayshawn and even though it was against the rules, he reached out and hugged him. Rayshawn hugged him back.

&nbs
p; “You alright?” King asked Rayshawn when they sat down. “What brought you up here?”

  “No, I’m not alright,” Rayshawn stated. “Shit is all fucked up. You should know that.”

  “How would I know that?” King asked.

  Rayshawn glared at King. “Do I look stupid?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Don’t try to play me, King. You tell me what’s up.”

  “No boy,” King replied. “You’re the one with some explaining to do. What’s this I hear about you not coming back to Washington Heights?”

  “I’m not. So if that’s what you heard then you heard right,” Rayshawn said. “Why should I?”

  King leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. He was used to Rayshawn’s defiance. Sitting in the visiting room of a prison hadn’t changed anything. It felt like they were in the back office of King Cars and Rayshawn was complaining because King asked him to do something he didn’t want to do again.

  “You should because that’s always been the plan. The city is yours and you got a lot of people waiting on you to come back and get it poppin again.”

  Rayshawn shrugged his shoulders. “I guess there’s going to be a lot of disappointed people in Washington Heights then, because I’m not going back there. I’m done with it all.”

  King sat back in his chair and stared at Rayshawn. “You’re done?”

  Rayshawn nodded. “I’m done.”

  “Why?” King asked.

  “Because I don’t need it anymore. I didn’t want to run Washington Heights,” Rayshawn reminded his mentor. “That was your vision and I told you that I wasn’t going to do it a long time ago. Why can’t you respect that? Why is it a go back or else situation with you?”

  “I’m not making you do anything,” King replied. “But I question the fact that you can just turn your back on the city that made you? How can you do that?”

  “Because, I’m smart,” was Rayshawn’s reply. “I have a chance to do something different with my life, for me and my fiancée and our kid. Fuck what anybody else thinks I should do. I’m not putting my family at risk anymore.”

  King nodded his head slowly. He never had the chance to be anything else except a drug dealer. King’s came from a family of dealers and that was all he knew. Rayshawn didn’t have to have that same fate. He should have wanted more for Rayshawn, especially since Rayshawn wanted more than a life of drugs and guns. King acknowledged the unmoving expression on Rayshawn’s face closed his eyes.

  “You’re right,” King finally said. “I can’t force you to do something that you don’t want to do. You and I don’t live the same life. I was your age when I took over Washington Heights because that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t give a damn about anything else except owning the city and making money. The money wasn’t even that important to me. It’s the power.”

  “But with me,” Rayshawn interrupted, “it’s only about the money.”

  “So you’ve said,” King replied. “I respect that you want to be with your family. I’d give anything to see my son and daughter grow up. I’m going to miss that because I never had those kinds of wants like you do.”

  Rayshawn was stunned by King’s sudden turnaround. It didn’t change the fact that he was still pissed off. It didn’t change the fact that people in Washington Heights thought he was the reason King was in prison.

  “If you respect it,” Rayshawn started, “then why did you send some nigga to Atlanta to kill me?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” King questioned.

  “You know what I’m talking about,” Rayshawn insisted. “You sent Blaque down there to tell me yo come home. I said no and now I’m getting word that niggas are gunnin’ for me. Why can’t you just let me out of this shit?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” King said. “No one in Washington Heights should be looking for you. ”

  King was infuriated. His last standing order before he got sentenced was Rayshawn was not to be touched. The crew was supposed to protect him, not try to kill him! He knew that Rayshawn had never uttered a word about King or anyone else in the organization. Rayshawn was one of the few people that King trusted. King knew who the snitch was. He wanted Blaque and Rayshawn to handle it, like old times.

  One last gesture to let everyone in Washington Heights know that even though he was locked up, he could still make shit happen.

  “What are you saying?” Rayshawn asked. If it wasn’t King, then who the hell wanted him dead?

  “You’ve been set up,” King stated gravely. “And I know who’s behind it.”

  “Who?” Rayshawn wanted to know but King gave him a look that indicated it wasn’t something that they could speak freely about in a prison.

  “Call Slim and tell him to bring his ass home. You, Blaque and Slim find Little Man. He might still be in Philly or he’s hiding out at his mama’s. I don’t have to tell you why.”

  “I told Jaicyn I’d be back in two days,” Rayshawn protested. “I can’t go to Philly or Washington Heights.”

  “If you don’t,” King warned, “you won’t make it back to Atlanta.”

  The serious tone that King was using instantly clarified the situation. No further explanation was necessary.

  Next stop, Philadelphia.

  Chapter 19

  Jaicyn sat up in her bed and clutched her sheet, startled awake by loud shriek. She glanced at her bedside clock. The blue LCD numbers read 9:35. She took her loaded pistol from the nightstand and eased out of the bedroom. When she came upstairs an hour ago, the girls had just started watching a scary movie but that scream wasn’t from a movie. Rickie’s scream sounded like she was being tortured.

  Paranormal Activity was still playing on the living room TV but the only people in there were her sisters. Jaicyn held the gun behind her back and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Why are you screaming like that? Turn the damn station if you’re so damn scared! You almost gave me a heart attack,” Jaicyn yelled. “I thought someone was down here trying to kill you!”

  Rickie reached towards Jaicyn and handed her phone to her.

  “Sandy needs to talk to you,” Rickie whispered. Jaicyn looked down at the phone then at her sisters. Both were crying.

  And Sandy hadn’t spoken to Jaicyn in almost a year!

  Jaicyn’s hands were shaking as she brought the phone to her ear.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “It’s Rayshawn,” Sandy said slowly.

  “I know,” Jaicyn said. “What happened?”

  “He got shot. It doesn’t look good. Jaicyn, you need to get here fast.” Even Sandy didn’t want to go into details over the phone. The situation was too serious to talk about.

  The phone slipped from Jaicyn’s hand and fell on the carpet with a quiet thud. Her entire body went numb, except her heart. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The harder it beat, the harder her baby kicked.

  “Where is Dayshawn?” Jaicyn barely managed to utter to her sisters.

  “He and Blaque went to get something to eat,” Bobbie answered. Her hands were trembling as she wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist. “What happened to Rayshawn?”

  “I don’t know,” Jaicyn wept, “but I have to get home!”

  “They’ll be back in a minute. Sit down before you fall down,” Rickie ordered. “I'll text him.”

  Jaicyn sat on the sofa and stared at the carpet. The room was spinning in slow motions. It seemed like hours before Dayshawn and Blaque burst through the front door.

  “What’s going on? Rickie said something happened to my brother.”

  Jaicyn looked up. Tears streaked her face. “Sandy called. Rayshawn got shot. We need to get to Washington Heights ASAP.”

  If Dayshawn wasn’t so dark his face would have turned white. He looked like someone had just gut punched him. He’d been feeling weird all day. There was a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that something awful as going to happen to him or his brother. Apparently, his tw
in connection with his brother was still intact.

  “Is he alive?”

  “I don’t know,” Jaicyn said. “We have to get to Washington Heights now.”

  “Let’s go to the airport now,” Blaque said. “I’m sure we can get a flight out tonight.”

  Within ten minutes, Jaicyn, Rickie, Bobbie, Dayshawn, and Blaque were piled into Rayshawn’s Escalade and were off to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Jaicyn was disturbingly quiet during the ride. She didn’t even say a word as they bought tickets for the next flight out of Atlanta to Cleveland, Ohio. They had an hour wait. Rickie and Bobbie talked quietly to each other, each girl worried about their sister and how she would act if Rayshawn died.

  Blaque spent the hour making calls to Washington Heights trying to get information about what happened. The news was coming in fast. Everybody in Washington Heights knew what happened but nobody knew who did it.

  Dayshawn was trying to keep from breaking down in front of Jaicyn and her sisters. They were scared and the sight of a grown man crying always scared women more. He forced himself to believe that his brother was going to be alright because if he thought that there was even the slightest chance that Rayshawn would die; Dayshawn wouldn’t be able to take it.

  Instead, he did something that he hadn’t done in years. He called his grandparents. Ike and Yvette had stopped talking to the twins shortly after Jaicyn went to Job Corps. Rayshawn had chosen to completely cut all ties with his father’s side of the family. Dayshawn tried to keep in touch but he only talked to his grandparents once in awhile. But one of their grandkids was lying in the hospital and they needed to know about it. Rayshawn needed all the prayers he could get.

  Blaque got off the phone and walked back up the corridor to where Jaicyn was sitting and staring out the window. She was in a daze and had been since she hung up the phone with Sandy.

  “I just got off the phone with Slim,” Blaque said, sitting down next to Jaicyn. “He’s flying in from L.A. It looks like the team is gearing up and everyone’s going to meet up in Oak Park after we go by the hospital. Corey said that Rayshawn isn’t doing so good,” Blaque continued to talk even though Jaicyn was ignoring him.