by LadyJ
“Where are we going C?” Moe asked while busting the left turn at the stop sign.
“Just drive Moe.” Carmen said hitting the start icon on her phone so that her GPS would lead them straight to the other woman’s front door, which by the time displaying from her cell phone was only twenty minutes away. “Make this right up here Moe, then jump on the freeway.” Carmen’s nerves were shot. She tried to remain calm but her legs wouldn’t stop shaking. She sat quietly thinking to herself what she was going to do to him and his little girlfriend if she choose to get in her way. “When you get off exit make a right, then another right at the light.” Carmen said still giving turn by turn directions.
“We’re going to South Beach?” Moe asked flying down the exit ramp.
“Moe!” Carmen said annoyed.
“I know, I know, just drive. No asking questions.” Moe replied.
“Now, slow down and cut the radio off Ro.” Carmen said. Your destination is on the right, the voice from her GPS sounded off indicating they were in the right place. Stop right here Moe.” She took the knife out of her purse and grabbed her baseball bat from the floor of the car and hopped out.
“Aww shit!” Moe stated watching Carmen spring over towards Trent’s CTS parked outside of some chick’s house in South Beach. Carmen stabbed all four tires first, then raised her bat and began to bust the windows out of Trent’s car. “Hurry up before he comes, crazy ass girl!” Moe yelled at Carmen from the driver’s side window.
Carmen smashed every window but the front windshield. She walked around to the hood of the car then began to yell Trent’s name. She wanted him to see her bust the very last window out of his car. “Trent!” She screamed. “Get yo punk ass out here. You got one window left mother fucker!” She hollered our loud enough for him to hear her on the inside of the house. Carmen twisted the bat in her hand as she got into position if front of the car. The doors to the house flung open and Trent came running out screaming with no shirt on.
“Carmen, what the hell is wrong with you!” He hollered then turned his attention to Moe and Roshel sitting in the car watching the whole thing go down. “And y’all just gone sit there and let her do the shit?” he asked them. Moe turned her head away as if she didn’t see nothing and Roshel threw her hands up in the air and shrugged her shoulders, not knowing how to reply.
Trent’s little floosy came strutting out of her home with a sour expression on her face. She was wearing a long silk gown and house shoes. Carmen noticed her big round tummy she was rubbing and lost her damn mind. “Is that your baby she’d carrying?” She gave him a nasty glare. Trent put his head down and refused to answer her. “ANSWER ME!” She screamed as her tears spilled down her cheeks like a running river. The pain was all too real as she swung her bat at him, trying to knock his head off of his shoulders. “And you fucked that bitch raw?” She swung again as Trent tried to run away. Carmen took off chasings after him around the woman’s yard with her bat griped tightly in her hands. She looked a damn fool but she no longer cared how stupid she looked; she was fed up and had enough of his bullshit.
“Get her! Get her!” Trent yelled, begging for someone to come to his rescue. “Moenisha, come get heerrr!” He screamed out like a little girl when the bat whipped past his head again.
Moe jumped out of her car and ran over to stop Carmen from beating the hell out Trent with her bat. “Yo, C chill out.” Moe said snatching the bat from her hands.
“Moe, give me your pistol, I’m about to kill this bitch!” She tried to get around Moe who was holding her back and get to Trent on the other side of her. “I hope you and that nasty bitch over there burning like hell with y’all nasty infected asses.” She unfolded the test results from the doctor she had in the back pocket of her jeans and tossed it at him. Trent picked the papers up and read them both. One was the positive pregnancy test results, and the other was the list of all the testing she had done. His mouth dropped wide open as he cut his eyes at his other woman standing on her front porch. “Unhuh motherfucker! I’m pregnant too!” She spat, “And yo nasty ass burnt me.”
Moe dropped her head and shook it from side to side. She could see Ro doing the same thing from the front seat of her car. “Come on Carmen, that’s enough.” Moe pushed the demented Carmen toward the car as she continued to scream and curse at Trent and his girlfriend.
“Give me the damn bat.” She snatched her bat out of Moe’s hand, wound it up in her hands, and then smashed the windshield of Trent’s car. Moe grabbed her and pulled her to the car and pushed her inside. “And I’m burning up all your clothes too ya BITCCHHH!” She hollered out the back window as Moe drove away.
Seventeen
The pressure of holding down the trap and working the blocks was starting to get to Nino. He did all he could to help out and make sure they kept eating, even when Trent was too busy playing around with his woman. He had been busting his ass since his big brother took the rap and got into trouble. He felt as though he owed it to Meek to make sure he and Moe were taken care of because he had saved him from doing federal prison time.
Nino glanced down at his watch then piled the bags of dope and pills into his Gucci backpack, then headed for the door. He opened the trunk of his 2013 Dodge Charger and tossed his backpack inside and closed the trunk. Before he pulled away from his current girlfriend’s house, he sat in her driveway and rolled his self a nice fat blunt. He changed out the CD in his disc changer then eased his car out of the driveway. He bobbed his head to Lil Boosie’s My Brother’s Keeper as the intro of the song came on. The speakers boomed in the trunk as the smoke from his blunt filled the inside of the car. Nino had one thing and one thing only on his mind, and that was getting this money.
He had about four hours left in the day. He had gotten so bent on the Molly pills he popped the night before and slept the whole day away. Lately, he hadn’t been himself. He was smoking weed, popping pills, and drinking lean on a daily basis. His world changed the day they went through that road block and this was his way of filling the emptiness he felt now that his big brother was gone.
Growing up together Nino looked up to Meek, and till this day he still did. He taught him things a man would teach their child and he had so much respect for him as a man.
I’ll ride for you nigga, I’ll die for you nigga, and if I get caught I’ll do the time for you nigga, Lil Boosie’s lyrics shot cold chills all over his body. Meek was indeed his brother’s keeper. He always had his back in any situation whether he was right or wrong. If one had beef, they both had beef and if one was hurting, they both were. Nino pulled his car onto the lawn of the trap and put his car in park. He sat back in the driver’s seat to finished the blunt he had fired up. He threw his head back on the head rest and let the one tear he was holding in roll down his face. Nino felt like a wounded soldier on the battle field; he was in that much pain. He finished his blunt then tossed the end of it out of the window. He popped the trunk from the inside of his car and got out and grabbed his backpack. Walking around to the back of the house, he put his hand on the handle of his gun. He peeped around the corner before he stepped out and jotted to the back door. He unlocked the door and made his way inside.
Nino was on go mood as he set up shop and got straight to work stuffing plastic sandwich bags with Mollys and tying them in knots. He took a short break and grabbed the 20oz Sprite and a small pill bottle of codeine from his bag. He twisted the cap and poured the purple syrup inside then shook it up. He sipped on his drink while sorting his drugs. Jumping to his feet to the sound of the front doorbell sounding off, he stood, grabbed his pistol from the table, and walked through the living room slowly. Moving the bed sheet they had hanging in the front window; he noticed it was a fiend and calmed down just a little.
“Why you knocking like the damn police?” Nino snapped at the fiend when the door swung open. “What you need?” He asked the small women standing on the door step. She looked like the rest of the dirty old crackheads the came through, although h
e had never seen her there before.
“What you got?” The fiend stuttered through her rotten teeth.
“Man, look lady, what you came here to get?” He said feeling annoyed by the woman questioning him at the front door. “I got blow and I got Molly; what you want? he asked.
“I need three vials of that good shit man.” She said with the shakes as if she was in desperate need of her next hit. She pulled three crispy hundred dollar bills from her sweaty cleavage and slapped the money in the palm of his hand. “Hurry up now, I got to go.” She said while repeatedly looking over her shoulders. She rocked back and forth on the heels of her old torn shoes as she impatiently waited for Nino to return with the goods. Nino opened the door back up and handed her the dope she paid for. “It’s about time. Hey, how much more of this stuff you got in there?” she asked.
Her question made Nino feel some type of way and he snapped, “Bitch, get you some business.” He slammed the door in her face, pulled the money back out of his pocket, and held it up to the light. He folded it then before he could stick it back into his pocket, he unfolded it, and examined it again. The money was fresh as if it had just came from the bank or an ATM machine. It was nowhere near the first of the month and he began to wonder where the dirty fiend got the clean money she’d just used to purchase the coke. He let his thoughts fade away as the ringing of his cell phone threw him off track.
“Aye, what’s good Blood?” He answer for Trent on the other end.
“Man, where the hell have you been? I been calling your ass all damn day.” Trent blew as if he was still upset.
“My bad, fam, got on them Mollies last night and been knocked out all day. I just got my ass over here to the trap about an hour ago,” he said. “What’s good tho?”
“Tell me why Moe’s ass brought Carmen over to my girl house this morning.”
“Nooooo!” Nino began to laugh at Trent’s mishap. “Boy, I told you dat ass was gone get caught up. That’s what you get, nigga.” He laughed louder.
“Man, that shit ain’t funny, blood. Carmen’s crazy ass smashed my shit up. She busted all the windows out that motherfucker, fam.” Trent said with anger. “She came over this bitch swinging that bat like her ass was Bo Jackson, my nigga, she wasn’t playing with that bitch bro.” He finished.
Nino became very quiet when the eerie feeling came over him. It was like he had a sixth sense and could feel whenever danger was near. “Hold on blood,” He said after he seen a dark shadow pass the front window of the home. He grabbed the two extra clips he had in his backpack and slid them into the front pocket of his jeans, then ran into the kitchen and tried to peep through the wooden board they had nailed up to the window. “Shit!” He said out loud unable to see a thing.
“What nigga, what?” Trent asked still on the other end of the phone.
“Fam, it’s something going on around here.” Nino cocked his .40 and ran back into the living room. He stood close to the wall and discretely peeped out of the front window again. This time there were two guys creeping up to the front door, and another headed to the back of the house. “Oh shit! It’s a hit!” He yelled dropping the phone and rolling across the floor as is he was an actor in an action movie. He didn’t give the men on the other side time to make it up to the front door good enough before he let loose. Nino emptied the first clip, then rolled into one of the bedrooms and reloaded while the bullets ripped through the front door and windows of the house.
Trent heard to gun shots going off left and right in the background as he scrambled to load the extendo clip of his Tech-9. He grabbed his girlfriend’s keys and hurried to get to the trap. He pushed the small Kia Sophia to the max as he speeded through stop signs and red lights; he had to get there as fast as he could.
Nino heard the back door open up and quietly crawled to the bedroom door and peeped out. He laid flat on his stomach and aimed his gun out of the crack in the door. He watched as two familiar faces slowly appeared from the kitchen area with guns in hand. I should’ve known that lil nigga was in on this when Carmen got robbed, Nino thought when he saw one of the guys that had been working for them leading the other guy into the living room. Nino thought hard on where he knew the other guy from, then it dawned on him, that was the guy him, Meek, and Trent had beat up in the club. The same guy who lifted his hand and made the shooting gesture at them right before they left KOD that night.
Nino slowly rose to his feet and aimed at the guy’s heads as he pulled the trigger repeatedly. As the men both turned around and fled through the back door, Nino ran after them trying to hit his target. When he reached the front room he heard the gun shots going off like a firework show on the front lawn. He crawled over and peered through the shattered glass window in the middle of the front door. Trent was outside acting a fool with that Tech. There was one guy lying face down in the middle of the yard and he was still shooting at the other three men who were all running for their lives.
Trent ran up on the porch and jumped through the shattered glass window. “Get yo shit nigga and let’s go!” he yelled.
Eighteen
Meek ran down the hall to the front office trying to see what was so important about the phone call they had waiting on hold for him. A member of the staff had come by his room and informed him of the urgent call and demanded he get to the office immediately. He busted into the front office and snatched the phone up from the desk.
“Hello, hello.” Meek said winded and out of breath from his run.
“Those greedy grimy motherfuckers just ran up in the candy shop and tried to take all of our goodies.” Nino began to speak of the altercation he and Trent were just involved in.
“Who? When?” Meek questioned.
“Those clowns who be selling them lollipops on the Southside. It was four of them and those monkeys had bananas, I talking about big stupid ass bananas spraying nuts everywhere,” Nino informed his big brother in code just in case there was someone else listening on the line.
“Oh, word?” Meek mumbled calmly.
“Hell yeah man, and check this out, it was the same monkeys we had to toss around at the show the other week,” he said referring to the fight they had at the club.
“Wait a minute, you said four. It was only three.” Meek said remembering the three guys they jumped in the restroom of the club that night.
“Yeah, that other fucker was one of us turned monkey.” Nino said and Meek picked up on what his little brother was trying to tell him. “But big homie came thru with that Ratchet thing slanging hollows at they ass. Let’s just say that monkey will never do another show again.”
“Nino, listen to me.” He stopped talking and stepped out of the office, into the hall. “You have to keep the girls away from that shit. It’s getting real out here and I don’t want them involved in our bullshit. I can’t have it on my conscience if something happen sto them.” He quieted down as a patient passed by. “Y’all need to lay low. You can still hustle, but move in silence, you understand me?” He asked, then made sure Nino comprehended everything he was saying before he continued. “If you have to, come get me, and I’ll sign myself up out of here,” he finished.
“Come get you for what, bro?” Nino asked. “You got enough time hanging over your head as it is. We can handle this shit, man. You just focus on coming home.”
“Y’all boys better be safe out there and remember what I said, Nino.”
“I got ya, bro. I’ll try my best to keep her away.” Nino replied then hung up. He turned to face Trent who was rolling up a blunt on the driver’s side of his girlfriend’s Kia.
“What bro say?” Trent asked as he sobbed the cigar down with his tongue. He used his two thumb nails to split the cigar down the middle and dumped the stuffing out of the window.
“He said keep Moe and Carmen out of this, and not to let Moe hit the blocks no more. Guess it’s just you and me blood.” He let his seat back and relaxed as he tried to free his mind. It was enough that he was already down on his luck,
but to almost have his head blown off was fucking with him bad. The flashbacks of the dead body lying in yard as he and Trent scrambled to their cars flashed through his head like a picture slideshow. The whole thing was like something out of a hood movie, only this was his real life. “Now what?” Nino asked taking the blunt from Trent’s hand. He hit it a few good times then passed it back.
“Now, we find ourselves another spot.” Trent replied as if it was nothing.
Nino pulled his hat down over his eyes and stared out of the window. The sky was a beautiful shade of orange as the sun was just about to set. He started to reminisce about his early teenage years when he used to write raps and bust flows with his friends in the school gym. That was all before he dropped out and started working the streets. He let his dream die when the fast money began to come in on a regular. As a young boy, he thought he was living the life. He was making enough money to afford nice things and even though he wasn’t old enough to drive, smoke, or drink; he did all three. To some it may seem as if he was forced to grow up way too soon, but when you grow up poor, you grow up fast. But, he was still living that fast life and holding on to his dope boy dream of hitting it big and making it out of the streets. Reality set in and just then he felt the need to say what was on his mind.
“I think I’m done with this shit, man,” he said, still gazing at the sunset. Trent choked on the smoke as he turned his attention to Nino. “I could’ve been killed out there today. This lil money and shit I’m making ain’t worth my life dawg. A nigga righteously thinking about going out and getting a job, it’s time I leave this street life shit alone. Hell, all of us. Ain’t no good gon’ come of this shit, fam.” He expressed. “I got my lady at home worrying about a nigga every time I step out the door. My brother in a fucked up situation, and all this extra bullshit got a nigga mind fucked up. I can’t deal with this shit no more.” Nino eyes began to water and turn red. He pulled his hat down further to hide them. It was clear that this street life had him locked in, finally he was about to break the chains and turn his life around.
