by T. Styles
But when it fell on the grungy floor and the lid covering it toppled over, out flew a picture of Farah bent down in front of her white Benz. She was crouched over Knox’s bloodied body, with a hand placed firmly on his nose and mouth. Who took this picture? Oh my God. Please don’t let this be happening right now.
At first she thought one of her friends betrayed her, until she remembered Coconut, Rhonda, and Natasha were all in the car when she tried to kill Knox the first time. They could not have taken the picture personally. Then she thought about her ex-roommate, Lesa Carmine, and her friends Courtney and Lady. They had been in a war for months over who had a right to be in the apartment. But they didn’t know each other at that time, so she reasoned that it couldn’t be them.
The angle of the photo showed someone had to have taken the picture from the right, outside of the car. Possibly from the building. Maybe it’s Eleanor, she thought. I definitely have to get my hands on that bitch now.
She was just about to hurry and find her, until she heard the click-clack of Della’s cane from behind. When she turned around and looked up, she was staring down at her.
“What’s that in your hands?”
Chapter 2
Randy
“. . . I’m gonna murder everything you love in life, including those precious cousins of yours.”
Randy was leaned back in a chair in his backyard, smoking trees. It was the only seat in his house. He had packed and moved everything else into his new place across town. Why? Because the nigga had beef of the worst kind.
He pulled on the sweet smoke and it rolled up the back of his mouth and out into the air. It was cold as a mothafucka outside, but he didn’t mind. Not only was one of his stash houses hit, leaving him with virtually no inventory, he had reason to believe that Slade and his brothers, along with his father, Willie Gregory, were to blame.
His heart told him not to call his father, but he needed to know if there was a possibility that they could make things right before things turned deadly. Besides, half of the reason his stash was robbed was his fault.
When Willie left the DC-based drug operation he started in his son’s hands after being imprisoned, he was confident that Randy would turn it back over to him when he came home. Instead, Randy gave him a package, a small area, and a small team to run it. He was learning it was a big mistake.
He removed his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his father’s number. It didn’t take long for him to answer. “Dad, can I talk to you?”
“It depends on what we rapping about.” His voice was strong and confident, and Randy knew he had everything to do with the robbery.
Trying to maintain his calm, he pulled again on the loud he was smoking. “What you mean?”
“Did you put a bounty on my head for fifty thousand dollars?” he asked. “After everything I did for you?”
Sure, Randy put the bounty on his head. When he learned that his stash houses were robbed, Willie was the first person he thought of. Why? Because some of Randy’s men were still loyal to Willie and undoubtedly turned against him. So the question was not if he put a hit on his father’s head, but who told? “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do. But just so you know, the bounty is reversed. The only difference is I’m paying one hundred thousand for your head. You see, son, you’re worth much more to me dead. Rest easy, because you won’t have too many peaceful nights left.”
Randy stood up and the blunt fell out of his hand. If he knew one thing, it was that money motivated men to do some evil things. “So I guess we have nothing else to discuss?”
Willie responded by hanging up.
Randy stuffed his phone into his pocket and paced the ground. He didn’t understand what was happening and why all of a sudden. He wanted to blame somebody, anybody, but the finger kept pointing in his direction. With his mother dead, he lost the only relative he had left in the world.
When Victor, aka The Vet, and Andrew, aka Lollipop, walked out back, he welcomed the interruption of his thoughts. He was hoping to get some good news.
“Sorry to bother you, Ran. Musty let us in and told us you were out back,” Lollipop said.
Musty took Tornado’s place as his bodyguard after Slade beat him to death with his bare hands in Farah’s hallway. Musty was larger, stronger, and didn’t speak much unless Randy told him to. He did a bang-up job of keeping the boss safe, and Randy could rest a little easier when he was in the building. So, without a doubt, although they both were on his squad, neither The Vet nor Lollipop would be inside his home unless Randy gave Musty the okay.
“You not bothering me,” Randy told them. “Unless you not telling me what I want to hear. Where is the boy?” He scanned them, waiting for an answer. A bud from the loud he was smoking rolled across his tongue and he spit it out.
The Vet examined Lollipop and waited for a response too. He was the only person who could answer the question truthfully. Everyone else would be speculating because he was the last one with eyes on him.
After his stash houses were robbed, Randy put his goons out on the Baker Boys. The only one who could be located was Audio, and Lollipop said he had him. That was less than twelve hours ago; yet, he wasn’t there.
The Vet had been in the murder, extortion, and kidnapping business for twenty years. Prior to working with Randy, he ran with Willie. That was, until Willie saw fit to fuck his wife when he got out of prison, which resulted in one of The Vet’s children being fathered by him. The Vet, standing six foot three if he stood up straight, normally hunched. And instead of using the powerful voice he owned, he spoke in low, heavy whispers. But it didn’t make him less deadly.
Lollipop was an albino who refused to let his hair stay its natural color, dirty brown. Instead he dyed it jet-black, and it always drew extra stares from passersby. He had a thing for young girls, and back in the day it was rumored that he’d give candy for sex to any cute face with pigtails. Sex. If they denied him, he took it and claimed it was consensual later. The girls always called it rape. The Vet told him on several occasions that if he ever got proof, he would put him out of his misery. For free. Besides, The Vet had three daughters, including the one Willie fathered, and he couldn’t imagine a pervert like Lollipop violating them.
Lollipop had another flaw some might consider more disgusting: he lied constantly.
“Where is Audio Baker?” Randy asked in a stern voice. He threw the blunt out on the ground and stepped on it. “I was told he would be delivered to me today.”
“I wasn’t there, man,” The Vet told him. “Remember you had me make sure the product we had left was delivered to the new stash house?” He paused. “If I was in charge of the kid, you’d be eating dinner over his body now.”
Randy focused back on Lollipop. “I’m waiting.”
“He went over a steep ditch and died.”
Both Randy’s and The Vet’s jaws dropped. “Fuck you mean he went off of a ditch and died?” Randy was in a rage.
“I was following him down the highway. He was with some bitch, and the next thing I know, a car clipped them from behind and kept driving.”
“You’re saying they were involved in a hit-and-run?”
“Yes. And it was real icy outside. The next thing I know, the car started swerving and they went off of the side of the road.” He spoke with his hands. “The highway was dark as hell, so at first I didn’t know what happened. One minute I saw headlights and the next minute I didn’t. It went down just like that.”
Randy rubbed his throbbing temples. “Why in the fuck would you tell me you had him if you didn’t? We put in calls asking for paper, and we don’t even have the kid. How the fuck that make me look?”
“I know, boss. But when I told you I had him, I meant in my sights,” Lollipop said.
The Vet shook his head because he was disgusted by him.
“The good thing is,” Lollipop continued, “we don’t have Audio, but the Bakers don’t know that.”
Randy
was beyond irritated but realized he had a good point. “If they went off of the road, how do you know that they died?”
“I . . . looked,” he stuttered.
Silence.
“Are you positive?” Randy asked him. “Are you saying you investigated his death personally? And that you got the fuck out of the car and checked?”
The Vet bit his tongue and remained in silence. If Randy asked his opinion, he would’ve told him that he believed Lollipop was a yellow-faced liar.
“On everything I love, that nigga is dead, Randy. You can rest good with that. At the end of the day, five of us know they went over the cliff, and two of us are dead. Even if he was alive for a minute, which he wasn’t, you would not be able to survive in these temperatures. It’s freezing.”
Randy knew something was off, but he also knew half of his story must’ve been true. He had people on guard around Platinum Lofts, and they all said the same thing: Audio Baker had not returned home. So, for now, he would lead Slade and them to believe that he still had Audio in his possession, until he got his money.
“If I find out you’re lying and you fuck this up for me, I’m going to starve you to death. That means I’m gonna place your body in a building, strip you naked, and keep you alive until you die from no food and water. I want to be clear on that. Are we clear?” He paused to let his promise soak in.
“Yes,” Lollipop replied in horror.
“Good. Both of you can go to the new shop and make sure we aren’t hit again. We had another shipment delivered today, and I want shit to go smoothly. We won’t have a situation like last time. Or I’ll kill everybody, and start all over with a more responsible team.”
Markee sat in his car for an hour eating donut after donut. He needed a major sugar rush if he was going to deal with his boss, Randy. When the last crumb was stuffed into his fleshy face, he flung his towel over his shoulder, pushed open the door of his Escalade, and trudged toward Randy’s house. Before his knuckles could knock a second time on the door, he was pulled inside by three niggas with ugly faces and heavy guns.
He called himself fighting as they handled him roughly until Randy said, “You can let him go. You two go on to the shop. Me and Musty got this situation.” Now free, Markee wiped the extra sweat off of his lip and stood in silence as The Vet and Lollipop exited the house.
“Come over here.”
Slowly he approached and stood in front of Randy.
“My stash houses were robbed, Markee. And there ain’t no need in you lying or telling me you don’t know shit about it because I know it ain’t true. So I want to hear it from your own lips. Were your cousins involved?”
“My cousins don’t know nothing about no robberies. They not even here for all that shit, man. Knox was missing, and all they trying to do is get up with him so they can go back to Mississippi. The moment they find him, they gone. But I got to be honest. They not leaving without Audio, so if you have him like you say you do, you gotta let him go.”
Randy hated Markee. Always had. And it wasn’t because he wasn’t loyal. It was quite the contrary. In his opinion, he was weak. “Does anybody know you came here?”
“I didn’t tell nobody shit. I’m here on my own.” The moment he told him that, he wished he could take it back. If he was alone, how would anybody find his body? “Is Audio okay, Randy?”
“He’ll be okay if I get my money. A half a million. But if I don’t get my paper, every last dime, I really can’t make no promises.”
“But my cousins are country niggas. They don’t have that kind of money.”
“You think I’m dumb?”
“No, I—”
“Yes, you do! But it’s cool though. Most people do. Let’s just say that I know that your cousins are working with my father and that they stole my shit. So even if they didn’t have the money before, unless they don’t know how to flip my product right, they should have paper now.”
“If you hurt Audio”—Markee swallowed—“you gonna have a problem. I just want to go on record by telling you that.” He wiped his face with the towel.
“Nigga, I don’t give a fuck about you or your mothafucking cousins. Somebody stole from me and I want my shit. It’s as simple as that. If I don’t get my money, I’m coming at you and everybody else.”
Markee passed gas, and the living room smelled of rotten meat. This was the main reason he didn’t fuck with his cousins or want them in town. Before they arrived, he had a good thing with Randy. Money flowed. He kept bitches by the truckloads and had access to all the food he could eat. Now all that had changed. Even back in Mississippi his cousins were always getting into shit, and when the toilet was flushed, everybody was looking at him when it stunk.
“You know I’m loyal to you, Randy. If I even thought my cousins had anything to do with you being set up, I would deal with them myself. So trust me when I say they don’t know nothing about no robbery. But you gotta let Audio go, man. His mother, Della, is in town, and she’s not somebody you want to fuck with. She’ll flip this city over trying to find him.”
Randy laughed so hard his throat hurt. “Did you just say his mother was in town?”
Silence. “I’m not trying to make it sound like you’re scared. I’m just being honest.”
“You got five days exactly to find out who took my shit.”
“But I don’t know—”
“Five days, you fat mothafucka! And if you don’t, I’m gonna murder everything you love in life, including those precious cousins of yours. Starting with Audio.”
“I’ll try my best to get on top of this, Randy. Just don’t hurt him. You got my word that this is the only thing I’m thinking about.”
“Your word was never good enough for me. Find out what’s going on and tell me ASAP. In the meantime, bring Slade to me. We have business to discuss.”
“Slade? But . . . he’ll never meet with you.”
“That’s why you have to arrange the meeting without his knowing. Once I have my hands on him, I’ll do the rest.”
“Are you gonna hurt him?”
He smiled. “You don’t give me enough credit, Markee. Would I do something like that?”
Markee walked back to his car with the weight of the Baker Boys on his shoulders. Before he reached his ride, he dropped to his knees and expelled all of the food he had in his stomach. This was the worst thing he could’ve imagined. He didn’t want to betray his family, and yet he was sure that if he didn’t, Randy would execute him in broad daylight.
His mind was so far gone that he didn’t see Killa in his car, checking his every move. Killa left Farah’s house earlier to watch Randy’s house. Sure he could’ve run up in his crib and killed him, but he decided to play it smart. He knew for a fact that Audio was not in the house. Even Randy wouldn’t be that dumb. But he was certain if he played possum long enough, Randy would lead him to his little brother.
Markee got into the car and sped off. He appeared to be in a hurry. Killa’s only question was, what was Markee doing at Randy’s? “Sneaky mothafucka, betraying your own people.” He shook his head. “I got something for you though, and you not gonna like it either.”
Chapter 3
Farah
“. . . Do not trust him. I don’t care what he tells you.”
A cold air crept up Farah’s spine as the mother of the person she killed stared down at the picture of her trying to take his life. Farah quickly stood up, placed the picture behind her back, and said, “It’s none of your business, Ms. Baker.”
Della gripped the head of her cane and leaned on it for support. “What did you just say to me, child?”
Although Farah really wanted to deliver her old ass, she had to remember that Della was the mother of a man she adored. She cleared her throat. “I meant, it’s my picture and nothing you need to be worried about.” She collected the lid and box off the floor. “I have to go now. I’ll be back soon when I find Eleanor.”
She sprinted down the hallway, and Della di
dn’t take her eyes off the sneaky girl until she disappeared into the elevator. “That was a close fucking call,” she said to herself.
Once inside the elevator, she bumped into Kindle and Raven, two freaked-out bitches who moved in with their brother and single mother last week. The first day she met them she saw them smack their mother in the back of the head when she didn’t give them twenty dollars. And for that, she despised them. They both wore jeans so tight you could see the veins under their skin.
“Hi, Farah Cotton.” Kindle waved with a sly smirk on her face.
“How come you always look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Raven added before they both stepped out on the floor and headed toward their apartment.
“I hate them bitches,” she said to herself.
Luckily for them she had other shit to deal with. She pressed the button leading to downstairs and looked up at the ceiling. Since Della almost caught her with the picture of Knox in her hand, she used it as a moment to talk to the dead. “I know what you’re trying to do, Knox. I love Slade, and no one will ever find out what I did to you. Do you hear me? Never!”
When the elevator rocked a little, like it was jammed, her eyes flew open. Now she wished she hadn’t made the comment. It wasn’t until the door unlatched and she was looking at the door leading outside that she was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Too much was going on. First she had to find out where Eleanor was located and eliminate her before she ratted her out. Then she had to find the mystery boy who delivered the picture.
The moment she stepped outside and into the night air, she was approached.
“Farah, let me holla at you for a minute.”
She knew exactly who he was. His voice was steady and immediately inserted fear into her. The voice belonged to Knight, Rhonda’s fiancé and also the father of their dead baby.
