Against the Grain

by Freeze

  Kay couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He used to have to argue with her to get her to suck his dick. And when she did do it, she really didn’t know what she was doing. Now she was trying to turn him out. Sonia felt Kay’s dick going soft a little, so she hurried and jumped on it, pushing it inside her as far as she could. Kay got rock-hard instantly. She threw her head back and moaned. Looking in Kay’s eyes, she said, “I missed you so much. I’m sorry I did you wrong, baby. Let mami make it up to you.” Tears rolled down her face. Kay pulled her to him and they kissed with passion. He wanted to forgive her, but he just couldn’t. They made love all night until they were both exhausted and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  At 5:30 a.m. the phone rang, awakening them from their sexually induced sleep. Sonia reached over Kay to pick up the receiver. “Hello.”

  “What are you doing?” the voice on the other end asked.

  “I’m sleep. What you think I’m doing this time of morning?” Sonia said to her current boyfriend.

  “Why you ain’t call me back?” he asked.

  “ ’Cause I was busy, that’s why.”

  “Busy doing what?” He was getting agitated now.

  Kay got up and started getting dressed.

  “Hold on,” Sonia said into the phone, and then she covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “What’s wrong?” she asked Kay.

  “Nothing,” he said as he got dressed.

  “Why are you getting dressed then?”

  “Handle your business, shorty,” Kay said as he pointed to the receiver in her hand.

  Sonia uncovered the mouthpiece. “Hello. Look, Magic, my son’s father is home. I’m trying to work shit out with him, so I can’t fuck wit chu no more.”

  “So you going to play me like that, bitch?”

  “S-cuse me? What did you just call me? Your baby’s mama is a bitch, nigga. You think I don’t know you still fuck with her and that bitch Sherri in Park Heights? Don’t call my house no fuckin’ more!” Sonia hung up the phone in Magic’s face. She looked at Kay, who was now fully dressed.

  “It’s handled, now what?”

  Kay laughed. “Come lock the door,” he said as he left the room. Sonia jumped up, put on her nightgown, and walked Kay to the front door. “I got something to do. I’ll call you when you get home from work,” Kay told her.

  “What you gots to do this time of morning? Don’t get in no trouble with Mike and dem. Think about your son, he needs you out here,” Sonia said.

  “Shut the fuck up. Ain’t nobody getting into trouble,” Kay snapped. Sonia could tell that he was a bit ticked off, so she chilled.

  “Okay, baby, call me later.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Kay.

  Kay kissed her and bounced.

  13

  Kay was doing push-ups in the living room when Tramaine walked in.

  “What’s up, yo?” Tramaine said to his big brother.

  “What’s up, nigga? I’ve got one more set and I’ll be finished.”

  Tramaine noticed Big Duke lying on the couch asleep with his mouth wide open. Tramaine walked by them both and went upstairs while Kay finished his workout. A few minutes later Tramaine came back downstairs with an old shoebox under his arm. He handed it to his brother. Kay recognized it immediately. He opened the box and dumped the money on the floor in front of him.

  “I used two grand when Pooh and I got our own apartment. I couldn’t have my girl sleeping on the floor, you feel me?” Tramaine said.

  “I ain’t trippin’ about that. I’m trippin’ because you still got any of it. I just knew this money was gone,” Kay said.

  “Nah, I wouldn’t do you like that, nigga. No matter how bad shit got. I knew that money was yours and you would need something to come home to. I would borrow some every now and then, but I always put it back.” Kay counted the stacks. Thirteen thousand even. He threw Tramaine two stacks.

  “Go buy you, Pooh, and my niece something nice. Tell them it’s from me.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  He threw a stack on Big Duke’s chest and it made the big man jump. The big man picked up the money and looked at Kay. “What’s this for, man?”

  “That’s a little pocket change for you.”

  “Damn man, good looking out,” Big Duke said with a smile. He really liked Kay, who treated him more like family. Something Mike had never done. He thought to himself that he would never let anything happen to Kay as long as he was alive. The phone rang, and Kay answered it.

  “Hello.”

  “What’s up, playa? Time to go to work,” Mike said.

  “Work?”

  “Hell yeah, work. How do you think niggaz living the way they are?”

  “Aiight then, give me a few minutes to take a shower.”

  “I’m on my way,” Mike said and they both hung up. Kay threw a money stack on the coffee table and put the rest of the money back in the shoebox. Then he took it upstairs to his room and jumped in the shower.

  “Yo, Kay!” Tramaine yelled upstairs.

  “What’s up?”

  “I’m leaving. I’ll see you later.”

  “Aiight!” Kay yelled.

  By the time Mike got there Kay was ready. He got in the car with Mike while Big Duke got in the black Suburban and followed. They stopped at a house on Biddle Street. When they walked in, the rest of the crew was already there. No one was smiling. He caught a vibe that something was wrong but he greeted everyone anyway. As he walked farther into the living room he noticed a man sitting on the floor. He looked as if he had been beaten up really bad.

  “My man, Mush,” Mike said as he walked over to the man.

  Mush looked up at Mike and in a desperate attempt to save his life he said, “I didn’t have anything to do with it, Mike.”

  “Sure you didn’t,” Mike said as he turned to face Kay.

  “Some nigga name Nitty had the balls to rob Gee at one of his stash houses last night,” Mike expained to Kay. “He was supposed to be buying two ki’s of ready rock. While Gee was at the stove cooking up the coke, he sent Raheem around the corner where he told the nigga Nitty to wait for him. Raheem was supposed to go there and count the nigga’s money, make sure all of it was there so that it would be a quick exchange. You know, cop-n-bop. When Raheem got around there, the nigga wasn’t expecting him. Not to come count forty grand in the car. That’s because he didn’t have any money. When Raheem seen that the nigga was fronting, he tried to bounce. But then the nigga Nitty and the nigga he had with him grabbed Raheem and pistol-whipped him. They made Raheem bring them to the house where Gee was and knock on the door.

  “Gee’s cousin, Grubas, answered the door. They caught Gee and his team slippin’. The nigga and his partner laid everybody down and took the two ki’s. One of them was still in the pot on the stove when they rushed the crib. They took the pot and all. Then they took everyone’s jewels. But the dumb fuck didn’t search the house. If he had, he would have seen the shorty Gee had in the bedroom. When she heard all the commotion, she hid in the closet. When she heard them leave she looked out the window just in time to see Nitty. That’s how we know the nigga’s name. Shorty know the nigga. She tells us that he used to date her cousin and that she has a line on him. She said that he’s from New York but when he’s in town, he has an old New York buddy that he always hangs with. That would be our man Mush here,” Mike said as he turned back to face Mush.

  “Somebody turned him on to us. But everything is going to be aiight. Ain’t that right, Mush? Cause if not, I’m looking at a dead man.” Mike knelt down and grabbed Mush’s face around the chin and squeezed tight.

  “He came by here yesterday. We smoked some weed and he asked if his girl could chill for about an hour. Then he left with some cat I ain’t never seen before. They were driving a black Cherokee. When he came back about two hours later, he didn’t tell me anything. He just picked his girl up and left. I swear to God, Mike,” Mush said.

  “Pull out the big guns, we going to New York then. D
on’t no nigga rob us and get away with it. Can you imagine what muthafuckaz would be saying?” Tank yelled.

  “He don’t live up top anymore,” Mush said.

  “Where da mon go then?” Gee asked.

  “He lives in Raleigh, N.C.”

  “Do you know where at in Raleigh?” Tank asked.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Fuck it, we’re going to Raleigh then,” Mike said. “If we find your man, you live. So you better hope he’s there, cause if he’s not, they’ll find yo body parts all the way back to Baltimore.”

  Kay soaked all this in without saying a word.

  “We got some other business to take care of today, fellaz. We’ll leave for Raleigh in the morning. Stash his ass in Park Heights until then,” Mike said.

  They took Mush to an old stash house on Ridgewood Avenue that was no longer in use. They handcuffed Mush with his hands between a rim and tire and sat him in the tub in the bathroom. “We’ll stay here,” Gee and Tank said.

  “Just bring something to eat later,” Tank said.

  “I’m getting ready to whup his bum-ba-clod ass on the Sega Genesis,” Gee told Mike as the two men sat down to get comfortable.

  • • •

  The next morning, the crew was on I-95 headed down south. When they finally reached Raleigh, N.C., they pulled over to a Circle K mini-mart on New Bern Avenue. The crew got out of the three cars that they were driving and walked to the black Suburban where Mush sat handcuffed in the backseat between two of Mike’s biggest bodyguards.

  “Which way from here, Mush?” Tank asked.

  “I can’t really remember from here.”

  Tank’s bodyguard, Uptown, was sitting in the front passenger seat. When he heard Mush’s answer, he turned around and smacked Mush in the head with his 9 mm.

  “Oh shit!” Tank laughed. “You think niggaz is playin’ with you?”

  That’s when Kay spoke up for the first time, “Yo, chill. Let me handle this.” He knew that Mush was getting ready to get fucked up and then he wouldn’t be able to tell them shit and that long-ass trip would have been for nothing. Kay walked closer to the truck window and looked at Mush.

  “How many times have you been out here?”

  Mush, barely holding his head up, said, “Once.”

  “So what can you tell us to help us find your man? Does any of this shit look familiar? Can you remember any landmarks?”

  “Nah, man, all this shit looks the same to me. I do know that it was near the mall, though.”

  “What’s the name of the mall?” Kay asked.

  “I don’t remember, but if I saw it I would know how to get to his crib from there,” Mush told him.

  “You said he had his girl with him. Do they live together?”

  Mush shook his head affirmatively.

  “You know her full name?”

  “Sure. It’s Kisha Brown,” Mush said.

  Kay looked around for a pay phone. When he found one, he walked over to it and looked through the phone book. Kay tore a page from the white pages and walked back to the truck.

  “Would you know her voice when you hear it?” Kay said in Mush’s direction. Again, Mush shook his head yeah.

  “Take the cuffs off him.”

  “Why you want the cuffs off?” Gee asked.

  “So that he can make the phone call. You don’t want people passing by and see him out here in broad daylight with handcuffs on?”

  “Why can’t he stay in the truck and use the cell phone?”

  “You want that phone number to be on your cell phone bill so the police can tie you in to what’s going on?”

  “Nah, you’re right,” Gee said.

  Mike nodded to the bodyguard sitting next to Mush. He uncuffed Mush and let him out. They all walked to the pay phone. Kay dialed the number and handed the receiver to Mush. “If someone answers just hang up the phone.”

  “Aiight,” Mush said. When the woman answered the phone, he hung up and smiled at Kay. “That was her.” They all walked back to the truck and handcuffed Mush again.

  “Now all we have to do is find the address,” Mike said. Mike walked over to an old man pumping gas and asked him for directions to the mall. It took about forty-five minutes to find Nitty’s place. When they pulled into the apartment complex, the first thing they noticed was a red drop-top BMW that Mush said Kisha drove. When they parked on the other side of the complex, Mike asked Kay, “How did you know to look for this bitch?”

  “When you’re doing dirt, you can’t put shit in your name, so who’s name do you use?”

  “A BITCH,” they said together as they laughed.

  Everyone walked over to the Suburban. Kay was in charge at this point and everyone understood that. “We’ll go up in two groups. Mike, you and Tank take Mush upstairs. Let him knock on the door. We’ll be up in two minutes.”

  Mush was escorted up the steps to the apartment and knocked on the door as he was instructed while Mike stood off to the side and Tank ducked down in front of the door. When Kisha looked through the peephole and saw Mush, she opened the door. She spotted someone ducking down as soon as she opened up, and tried to close the door but it was too late. Tank rushed the door and Kisha let out a little scream and tried to run. She had almost made it to the bedroom when Tank caught her from behind. He covered her mouth and put his gun to her head.

  “Shut up, bitch, or I’ll blow you fucking head off.”

  Mike walked in with Mush in front of him. He quickly checked out the apartment to make sure no one else was inside. Once he saw that the girl was there alone, he passed the word on.

  Tank grabbed shorty by the hair and took her to the bedroom. “Bitch, where is Nitty?” he asked, after slapping the taste out of her mouth with an open hand.

  Kisha cried out, “He went to get something to eat.”

  Kay and the others came in with gloves on and started tearing the place apart. They pulled out dresser drawers, turned over tables, and anything else in which the drugs may have been hidden.

  Kay walked over to Kisha, who at this time was on her knees with her hands in the praying position. He could see her lips were moving; she was actually praying. She was so terrified that she shook uncontrollably. Kay didn’t even know what she looked like because she hadn’t looked up since he entered the apartment. She didn’t want to see any faces. Seeing the girl like this made Kay feel sorry for her. He walked over to Mike and whispered, “Don’t kill her.”

  Mike didn’t say a word. He just sucked his teeth and gave him one of those looks, and Kay understood. He knew what had to happen to Kisha and her man. Just then, Gee turned over the mattress and found a bag with one of the kilos of cocaine in it.

  “Bingo!” he yelled out.

  One of the bodyguards came out of the back to show everyone what he found in the closet. He handed the tote bag to Mike. “Yo, this nigga gots a Calico in this muthafucka,” Mike said, holding the gun out in front of him.

  “You should kill that nigga with that same gun,” Tank said.

  Hearing this, Kisha began to shake even more, but she still wouldn’t look up. Kay turned to her, “See what that nigga got you into, shorty?” There was nothing Kay could do for her at this point, as bad as he wanted to. Leave no witnesses was one of the rules of the game.

  “Yo, main man, take this shit downstairs and bring back the duct tape,” Mike said to Kay as he handed him a pillowcase with the coke and the Calico 9 mm with the fifty-round clip in it. The plan was to duct-tape Nitty and his girl, put them between the mattresses, and dump a few slugs into their heads.

  “Aiight,” Kay said. He had taken the pillowcase and was on his way out of the door when he heard Tank threaten the girl if she didn’t take off her jewelry. In the car, Kay was looking for the duct tape when he heard loud music. It sounded muffled, so he looked up just a little to see what it was. It was the black Cherokee, so he held his head down so he wouldn’t give Nitty any kind of vibe. Just as he hoped, Nitty drove right past him. K
ay watched Nitty get out of the Jeep with a big bag in one hand and a plastic cup in the other. He was alone. Kay knew that as long as his hands were full, he wouldn’t be able to pull his gun as fast. But Kay wasn’t taking any chances. He followed Nitty upstairs at a distance. By the time Kay got to the third floor, he could hear Gee yelling at Nitty, and Nitty pleading for his life.

  “No, Gee! I’m sorry, Gee!”

  Then there was a single gunshot: POP!

  Then two more: POP! POP! The door flew open.

  “C’mon, let’s go,” Tank said. “Fuck the duct tape.”

  As they turned out of the apartment complex and stopped about fifty yards away for a stoplight, they could see in their rearview mirrors that the police were turning into the apartment complex with their sirens on. Someone must have heard all the commotion and called the cops. Kay and the crew drove until they found I-95 North.

  • • •

  It had been a week since they got back from N.C. No one had mentioned what happened. Mike was on the phone with Dre, who had been on vacation with Mina and missed it all. He was back in town and on his way to the club. Once Dre got there and everyone told their version of the story, they all laughed about it. Dre was his normal self. He made no facial expressions, so no one could tell how he really felt about it. But that was Dre. They didn’t expect anything more.