Carl Weber Presents Ride or Die Chick 2

by J. M. Benjamin

  “I’m not trying to take over here, I’m just lending a helping hand. Correct me if I’m wrong, but at the end of the day we do want the best outcome with minimum incident as possible,” Chief Randle expressed.

  Lt. Lyles studied Chief Randle for a few seconds. “Absolutely, Chief,” the lieutenant then replied. “What do you know?”

  Chief Randle began to brief the lieutenant on everything he knew about Teflon, Rich, and the case.

  Chapter 27

  “Treacherous are you hurt?” Teflon asked as she reclined the seat of the Avenger.

  “No.” The sound of her son’s voice snapped her out of the semi-trance she had just been in. The shot that had ended Rich’s life had come out of nowhere and all she could think about were his last words before he breathed his last breath. She played them back over and over in her head. She thought she’d heard him wrong, but knew she hadn’t. She knew now was not the time or place for her to be dwelling on Rich’s words or death, but she couldn’t help but think about how he could have felt the way he had about her. She was positive that she hadn’t done anything intentional to fuel his feelings, but at the same time understood. Teflon shook off his words, but couldn’t shake Rich’s death. Although they had prepared themselves for the worst, she did not expect Rich’s sudden demise. Her thoughts were moving at a lightning-speed pace.

  She knew her own time was nearing and coming to an end and was ready to embrace it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about where that would leave her son. Returning back to prison was not an option for Teflon. She told herself when she had come home that she would rather be carried by six then to be condemned by twelve. For her prison was the most degrading and worst time of her life. She felt prison was contributing to her animalistic way of thinking and behavior and that’s exactly what she had felt like: a caged animal. Being someone who had always had a problem with authority and taking orders from another she found no pleasure in being told when to eat, sleep, shower, or any other luxuries one should have the right to do as they please. The more she thought about it the more she realized that would be the type of life she’d be leaving her son to be subjected to and that upset her. Teflon reasoned with herself that with his bloodline her son was destined to travel down the same paths that she and his father had and she did not want to take that chance. Just as she made her final decision she heard the voice boom through the bullhorn.

  Chief Randle was grateful that Lt. Lyles had allowed him to take control over the situation. They knew it was just a matter of time before the feds arrived on the scene and the both of them lost all control over the matter. Coming to an agreement for him to take charge, Chief Randle grabbed the bullhorn.

  “Ms. Jackson, this is Chief Randle of the Norfolk police department. As you can see we have you surrounded. No one else has to get hurt,” he tried to reason. “It doesn’t have to end this way. I give you my word if you place your weapons outside of the vehicle and exit the car slowly nothing will happen to you. If not for you, please consider your child,” the chief added, appealing to her maternal side. Remembering the last time she found herself in the similar predicament, Chief Randle knew Teflon Jackson had no problem ending things in the middle of the highway. To his surprise, the driver’s door flung open.

  “Hold your fire,” the chief ordered.

  Teflon couldn’t help but laugh. Same shit, different day, she thought, reflecting back to the similar words the negotiating officer had offered her and Treacherous the last time she found herself in the similar predicament. She wondered had Treacherous felt the way she was feeling at that very moment. She reached her hand up and brushed it gently across Rich’s face.

  “Come here, man,” she then said to Treacherous. “Climb over here.”

  A confused Treacherous did as his mother requested. Teflon noticed the vanilla envelope in her son’s hand that she had under the seat. She had actually forgotten she had placed the book she had written about her and his father underneath the driver’s seat. Seeing the envelope now made Teflon wonder who would pick up where she had left off and finish the story, because she knew her final chapter had arrived. With that being her thought, Teflon grabbed hold of the car handle and pushed the door open.

  Chapter 28

  The first thing Chief Randle saw was the assault rifle hit the pavement when the door of the Dodge opened. The lieutenant was impressed at the rapid progress the chief had displayed. He had actually anticipated a more tragic ending on the interstate due to the circumstances and history the chief had given him on the suspects. He hadn’t been involved in many standoffs or negotiations, but the few he did had never ended nicely. He watched closely as a leg appeared out of the car.

  “I can’t believe it Chief, you did it,” the lieutenant congratulated.

  “Not yet,” Chief Randle calmly replied. “Everyone hold your fire,” he ordered for a second time. He was fully aware of how riled up officers could get when one of their own had been shot or slain and knew all officers on the scene were antsy and itching for one false move on the suspect’s part.

  Chief Randle watched steadily as Teflon Jackson rose up. He could see a portion of her body appear out of the vehicle. As she carefully made an attempt to climb out of the car the chief noticed the additional legs that dangled in front of her.

  Teflon reached over and grabbed hold of the AR-15. She tossed it out of the car so that the authorities could see that she was surrendering.

  “You gotta trust Mommy on this okay, baby,” Teflon said to her son as she rose up.

  “Okay.”

  “Good, now hold Mommy tight.” She half smiled and kissed him on the side of the face.

  Treacherous wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck and squeezed tightly.

  She reached for her Glock 40 and began exiting the vehicle.

  Just as she climbed out the car fully Treacherous could feel the cold steel pressed against his temple.

  “Go ahead and shoot me muthafucka,” Teflon shouted, now out of the car, walking in the direction of the dozens of police.

  “Stand down,” Chief Randle roared into the bullhorn. He along with everyone else saw the gun Teflon held up against the child’s head.

  “No, shoot,” she spit back, continuing to approach them.

  “Ma, what are you doing?” a scared Treacherous asked. It was the first time he had actually questioned his mother on anything since they had been together.

  “Shut up,” was the only response he got.

  “Ms. Jackson please, don’t do this. Don’t do this to your child,” Chief Randle continued with his persuasion.

  Based on the circumstances he didn’t know how much longer he could keep his fellow officers at bay.

  “You don’t know me. You don’t know shit about me or mine,” she retorted, pressing the gun even harder against her son’s head.

  “Okay, you’re right,” he said apologetically. “I don’t know you or anything about you, but I know that right now you don’t care about dying,” the chief added, speaking the obvious. “But what about your son? Don’t you care about his life?”

  Chief Randle’s last words caused Teflon to break out into an insane laughter.

  She knew he had no idea as to where her head was at that point.

  “What about my son? Do I care about his life,” she repeated his question with a chuckle.

  A bad feeling swept through the chief’s body at the sound of her words. Not what she had said, but how she had said them. Where he was once subtle, the chief was now in full-alert mode.

  Tears began to wail up in Teflon’s eyes as she fought them off. “Son,” she started out. “I want you to know that I did this because I love you. I’ll see you daddy and grandpa when I get there,” Teflon said all in one breath before she began to apply pressure to the trigger of her Glock 40- cal.

  “Hold your fire!” Chief Randle ordered with a wave of his hand as he rushed the two bodies that had hit the pavement with his weapon still drawn. The lieutenant and ot
her officers on the scene trailed behind him. Everything happened so fast no one even knew where the shot had come from.

  Chief Randle shook his head in disappointment as he reached the bodies lying on the ground. This was not the way he intended for things to end, but knew it was a possibility.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling next to the bodies.

  Treacherous did not reply. He was still in shock.

  Chief Randle grimaced at the sight of Teflon sprawled out on the pavement with eyes wide open. He had no other choice, he reasoned.

  His options were limited, he told himself as he saw the hole from the shot he fired between her eyes. Either he shot her or he allowed her to shoot her son and he couldn’t let that happen. In the end a life was taken so that one could be spared, the chief chalked it up as. He felt for the young boy.

  “I’m sorry, kid,” he offered. “Didn’t mean for it to go down like this.”

  Still Treacherous said nothing. He continued to lay his head rested on his mother’s chest. He didn’t have to look up and see the bullet hole between her eyes to know she was dead. He could not hear her heartbeat or feel her breathing. He wept for the loss of his mother as silent tears soiled her shirt.

  Chief Randle rose. He understood the silence from the boy and knew there wasn’t anything he could do to console him. Before he knew it every officer and medical team was on the scene. “Can one of you get the boy,” he stated more then asked, directing his words to one of the EMTs.

  The EMT rushed over, kneeled down, and scooped Treacherous up.

  “Come on, young fella.”

  Surprisingly to the chief, Treacherous did not resist. He had expected him to throw a tantrum, but he continued to remain silent.

  “I don’t think he’s hurt, but check him out anyway, he may be in shock,” Chief Randle instructed just as they had reached the ambulance.

  “Sure thing, Chief.”

  “Take it easy,” the chief then said to Treacherous.

  His words caused Treacherous to turn and face him. The chief was taken aback by the look that appeared on Treacherous’s face. “You killed my mother,” Treacherous let out. “I won’t ever forget you.” His words were cold and murderous.

  The EMT’s eyes widened, but the chief remained calm. The young boy’s words were to be expected after all he had just been through and witnessed, thought the chief. He did an about-face and began walking off.

  “Chief?” the EMT called out.

  When Chief Randle turned around he saw the EMT holding up a vanilla envelope.

  “What do you want me to do with this? The kid had it.”

  “What’s in it?”

  The EMT skimmed through the contents of the envelope. “Just some papers, it looks like letters.”

  “Let him keep it,” the chief replied. He figured they were letters written by the boy’s mother to him.

  He turned back around and started making his way back over to the car. He walked right up on the coroner covering the body of Teflon Jackson.

  What a tragic day, Chief Randle thought as he peered into the Dodge Avenger.

  Epilogue

  Two months later

  “Treacherous, it’s time to eat,” the elderly woman called up to the top of the steps.

  Since they had placed him into a new group home in Richmond, Treacherous had isolated and alienated himself from everyone in the facility as much as he could. For the past couple of months all he did was stay in his room and read. The only times he in fact left his room were to eat, shower, or use the bathroom; then he was back to his bed. In a short period of time he had learned a great deal about his parents through the pages his mother had written. Her death was still fresh in Treacherous’s mind and the incident that lead to her demise began to make sense to him each time he completed a chapter of the story. It became apparent to him that he came from a bloodline of gangsters. It made him feel good to know that his parents loved one another and that he wasn’t just the result of a mistake and was intentionally abandoned. He read in amazement at the type of man and woman his father and mother were. That explained the anger he had built up inside of himself, he realized. The same anger he now harbored for the man named Chief Randle who had killed his mother. That day Treacherous locked the man’s face in responsible for his mother’s death. He vowed to himself that the two would cross paths again and when they did it would be on his terms.

  “Treacherous, we’re all waiting on you, dear,” the elderly woman called out for a second time.

  Treacherous sighed out of irritation. He wanted to finish up the chapter he had just been reading before he went down to eat. He hurried to read the last few sentences that would bring the chapter to an end before he closed the notebook.

  Treacherous walked over to where each body lay and lodged another shot into them.

  “Let’s get the hell up outta here,” Pete suggested, snatching up the bag with the drugs and money once Treacherous had reached the final body.

  “Nah, you stayin’” Treacherous said to Pete right before he pumped three rounds into his face.

  Even I did not expect that, but was not surprised. I knew my man had good reason. Without me having to ask he said, “I didn’t like the way the nigga tried to challenge me in front of you at the rest stop.”

  I had a feeling that was the case because Pete’s words didn’t sit right with me either when he told Treacherous he would remember that he gave him an invitation for a rematch.

  Like always, Treacherous and I made it out in one piece and back to our bikes. We gathered up our belongings, wiped down the motel room, and cut our Memorial week short.

  Young Treacherous closed the notepad and slipped it under his mattress. As always, he felt a sense of belonging each time he finished reading. Seeing that he was nearly coming to an end of the pages in the second notebook, Treacherous had already made up his mind that he would continue writing where his mother had left off, telling his version of her last days and couldn’t wait until the day where he’d be old enough to pick up where his family had left off, hoping one day he would find the type of woman his father had in his mother to be his ride or die chick!

  Urban Books, LLC

  97 N18th Street

  Wyandanch, NY 11798

  Carl Weber Presents Ride or Die Chick 2 Copyright © 2014 J.M. Benjamin

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-6016-2628-8

  First Trade Paperback Printing October 2014

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.

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