by Ca$H
Side by side and in step they moved through the living and dining rooms hitting anything that appeared alive with a few more shots. When nothing was left moving but their eyes they spotted a stack of bricks on the dining room table and stacks of money next to the drugs. They quickly stuffed the duffel bags that they had brought along and moved towards the door. Suddenly, Treebie came to a halting stop.
Lissha looked at her like, what the fuck?
“Bitch, we almost forgot to sign that nigga’s check.” Treebie took a Ben Franklin out of the duffel bag, bent down and rubbed it in the blood of the dead man by the front door then she stuffed it in his mouth.
“Blood Money, nigga,” they said in unison.
“Tell a friend,” added Treebie.
Moving swiftly and on alert they left out the door much quieter than they had entered.
As Treebie pulled off and bent a corner she noticed a car staying a few feet behind them. She adjusted the rear view mirror, grabbed her spare gun from between the seats and sped up to see if the vehicle behind them would do the same. When she saw it turn off she relaxed and continued on to her house.
When they pulled up Treebie hit the garage button and pulled in closing it behind them. They grabbed the bags off of the backseat and moved to the basement to see what all they had.
“Damn, this was a good night,” Lissha said as she poured the money out on the table.
“Bitch, them niggas almost killed our asses.”
“No bitch you almost killed me. I was like well damn.”
“Well, I had to go up top on that nigga to get yo ass outta there,” Treebie said, placing the bricks on the counter.
“Next time warn a bitch you almost took the side of my face off.” Lissha began to count.
“I hear your crybaby ass,” Treebie said with a smile.
Lissha ignored the good natured joke. “Let’s split this shit up and go drop some weight on Dirty and them. The traps have been dry for almost a week.”
“Damn. Can't that wait until tomorrow? I need to come down off of this high. When I took that nigga's head off, that shit got my panties wet.”
“Eww. TMI.” Lissha scrunched up her face.
“I'm just saying,” Treebie laughed.
Lissha had to chuckle. “Tree, you stupid as hell.”
“I know, that’s why you love me.” She did a little dance in her seat, mocking Lissha.
“Bitch you wish.” Lissha smiled. “Stash the money and let's go drop this work off. Time waits for no one.”
“Okay,” Treebie agreed. “Let’s get cleaned up and roll out.” She began helping Lissha stack the dope back in the bag.
When that was done Lissha and Treebie went upstairs, showered and changed clothes, then cleaned up the basement and collected the stash. As they moved out the front door headed toward Lissha’s car they heard a click clack behind them. The sound was unmistakable. Treebie and Lissha froze in place.
“I knew you bitches weren't shit,” Isaiah grumbled, moving closer to them.
“What the fuck is you doing?” Lissha asked as she realized who the voice belonged to.
“Bitch, don’t say shit to me. I told Kiam and JuJu they couldn’t trust you thirsty bitches.” He held the gun firmly in one hand and reached out and snatched the bag off of Lissha’s shoulder with the other. Then he shoved her forward. “Blood Money, huh?” he remarked with disdain as he tightened his grip on the gun.
Treebie’s heart started beating faster as she prepared to reach for her strap and go out bustin' back but Lissha's cry bought them time.
“Isaiah. Kiam knows all about this why the fuck is you trippin’?” Lissha said, turning in his direction.
“Don’t fucking look at me with yo foul ass,” he spat.
Lissha looked at his unsteady hand and dilated pupils and knew that he was an unstable nigga. “Dude like for real you need to put that shit down and let’s get the fuck outta this cold,” she tried to reason with him.
“Say one more thing and I’ma blow your fuckin' pretty face all over this cold ass ground.”
“Bitch nigga, make another threat.” Treebie couldn't hold back. She turned around and met him face to face. If she was going to die she was going to look him in his eyes.
“That’s what I’m talking about. A bitch that think's she a man.” Isaiah raised the gun.
Treebie grabbed ahold of his arm and held on with all of her might. He slung her from side to side until he finally shook her off of him, but in the process his gun clattered to the ground. Treebie stumbled back then caught her balance. When Isaiah bent to snatch up the gun she quickly kicked it out of both of their reach.
Isaiah straightened up, whipped out his machete and smiled like the deranged muthafucka that he had become.
Lissha wasted no more time. As Treebie back peddled away from Isaiah, she drew down on him and hit him with a back full of hot lead. Isaiah's body lurched forward knocking Treebie down and he landed on top of her still holding onto the machete. Filled with cocaine and tons of adrenaline, he choked Treebie with one hand and raised the machete over his head with the other even though his back was opened up.
As he began to bring the machete down in a vicious manner Lissha stepped closer, put her gun to his cranium and blew the little bit of sense he had left out the top of his head.
“Get this crazy muthafucka up off of me!” Treebie said, trying to scoot from underneath Isaiah's dead weight.
As soon as Lissha helped her roll Isaiah's body off of her, Treebie scrambled to her feet and looked around to see if anyone had been alerted by the gunshots. Amazingly there was no movement but that didn’t mean that there was no faces pressed to the windows of neighboring houses.
Moving quickly, Lissha and Treebie grabbed a leg apiece and drug the body inside the garage. Then they hurried back and gathered up the bag with the work in it, the machete, and the gun that had fallen out of Isaiah's waistband.
“That nigga gonna be heavy as hell,” Lissha said as they covered Isaiah's body with a tarp.
“I know but so is a life sentence. We gotta get that nigga outta here.” Treebie picked the machete up and swung it back and forth through the air. “We ought to chop his ass up like crack.”
“No, bitch, quit playing. We're not doing no shit like that, he's JuJu's family. We're gonna dump his body somewhere it will be found so that JuJu can give him a decent burial. Now let's wash the driveway down and go drop this shit off. We'll move the body tomorrow night.”
“Okay,” Treebie agreed.
They turned the lights off in the garage and locked the door. Treebie dashed around to the side of the house and came back dragging a water hose. In the dark, she washed down the driveway as thoroughly as she could while Lissha trained her focus on the ground in search of anything that they may have overlooked. When the area appeared to be clean they hopped in Lissha's car and mashed out.
As they drove to the hood the evening's chain of events played heavily on Lissha's heart. Another murder of one of their own not to mention someone close to Kiam. She wanted to cry but the situation called for balls not bitch ass emotions. She tucked that shit and got herself together. This was not the time to let shit fall all outta place. Lissha had to do whatever it took to continue to hide the truth. There was no turning back.
Chapter 32
Homecoming
As soon as JuJu and Bayonna returned from Florida he had to bury Isaiah, whose body had been found on the side of the road wrapped in warm blankets. Being that Chino had been found beheaded a week before that and the streets accredited his grisly murder to Kiam's clique, it was assumed that Wolfman had Isaiah killed to even the score over Chino and Xyna's murders.
JuJu didn't buy that. He knew that vicious killahs like the ones Wolfman would send didn't take the time to wrap a body up in blankets and gently place it on the side of the road to be found. They would've wet a nigga up and left him bloody and twisted right where they caught him.
When the police se
arched Isaiah's condo for evidence that might lead them to his killer, what they discovered inside brought the news cameras and the gawkers out in droves. For days the two heads that were found inside Isaiah's refrigerator dominated the news as well as the talk on the streets.
JuJu and Kiam took solace in the fact that at least Isaiah had smashed Chino before somebody killed him. As the murders became less of a topic on the streets winter faded into spring. The warmer temperatures melted the ice on Lake Erie and Wa'leek's body washed up.
Treebie played the role of the grieving wife but Riz wasn't convinced. If he hadn't given his word to Kiam he would've had that bitch's head knocked the fuck off.
Treebie didn't give a fuck what Riz or anyone thought, her gun stayed ready. At Wa'leek's funeral up in New Jersey she brushed off the cold stares of Riz and Wa'leek's family just as easily as she put niggas in the dirt. And when she returned to Cleveland she was ready to bury the next muthafucka.
The dope that Lissha and Treebie had dropped off to the trap houses that night got things on and popping for a few days but it was not enough to sustain the streets through the drought that had come over the city.
JuJu had found a connect that could supply them with ten kilos a week; that kept some money coming in and made sure that the trap boys ate but it was far short from what was needed.
“Just maintain until I come home,” advised Kiam. His lawyers had told him that the charges against him would be dropped soon because there was insufficient evidence to take the case to trial. The witness that had called the police hotline and initially picked Kiam out of a photo line-up had recanted her statement. In a second photo line-up she had chosen a different suspect.
Kiam and JuJu were ecstatic. But what neither of them had any way of knowing was that the feds were moving pieces around on the board to free the king so that they could checkmate him later, along with dozens of his associates.
In the meantime the streets were as quiet as a library. Wolfman had adhered to the police chief's warning and had fallen all the way back. The only crew that continued to get money was Kiam's.
Blood Money talked about laying some more niggas down but Bay's heart didn't seem to be in it anymore and neither did Lissha's. All she cared about was visiting Kiam and waiting for his lawyers to free him.
Finally after weeks more of waiting and praying, that day arrived.
**********
History was definitely repeating itself. Lissha turned into the parking lot of the Justice Center, turned off her engine and took a deep breath. It seemed like it was just yesterday that she was picking Kiam up from prison and meeting him for the first time. She looked out of her window at the expansive grounds and her mind began racing.
Spring flowers bloomed around the lawn giving false hope to many that visited the men inside. Lissha couldn't help but wonder if she too was disillusioned. Had Kiam lost too many and had she done too much to be forgiven if the truth ever surfaced? she contemplated.
She considered the revelations that she wanted to disclose to Kiam but the repercussions were far too great to risk allowing her tongue to tell all. For a second she thought about pulling off and driving far away to someplace unknown to escape the lies that were bound to come out eventually. But she couldn’t leave no more than she could continue to plot against Kiam. She had fallen deeply in love and her strong desire had set a fire in her soul that had to be quenched.
Tears threatened to rise up in her eyes as she thought about the complex scheme that Big Zo still had planned for Kiam. How can I warn him without admitting my part in it? she wondered. The answer alluded her.
Lissha leaned her head against the steering wheel as her deception stole the excitement that she should have felt. Even though she hadn't gone all the way through with it, the damage had been done. Once Kiam found out he would never pardon her.
And Bay will hate me for throwing Donella to the wolves to cover up my own deception. Lissha hated herself for that but Donella had almost discovered that Biz Zo wasn't her father. “Self-preservation,” Lissha whispered. That was the same thing Big Zo used to justify crossing Kiam.
The idea that she was anything like him made her dizzy. Lissha jumped out the car and posted up on the hood and took some deep breaths. Just as she caught her composure she looked up and saw Kiam strolling towards her in the company of his well-dressed attorney. The two men stopped and shared a few hushed words then they shook hands and the lawyer walked off.
Kiam stared at Lissha from a distance. Lissha stared back. Neither of them moved at first then they began slowly walking towards each other until Lissha was in his arms. “Welcome home, baby,” she cried. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, ma.” He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head. Then he covered her mouth with his and took her breath away.
Lissha wanted that moment to last forever. She was in his arms enjoying his kiss with his hands palming her ass. At heaven’s door, is what she likened the feel to.
Kiam broke the kiss and held her back at arm’s length and soaked up her sexiness. She was rocking a pixie cut and her brows were perfectly arched. His eyes roamed down her body and he smiled in anticipation of watching her peel off those tight ass jeans.
At the same time that Kiam was checking her out Lissha's eyes were glued on his chest. “Somebody has been doing their pushups,” she observed.
“Yeah, I've been gettin' it in,” he said.
Lissha stepped in close and wrapped her arms around his waist “I got you now,” she joked.
“You don’t know what to do with all this man,” he responded, looking down into her eyes as he reciprocated her hug.
“That’s what you think.”
“Well, I'm about to find out,” he said, tasting her lips again. They had made some very specific promises to each other and today he was going to make her cash in on every one of them.
Lissha pulled back and took a deep breath. She was so overwhelmed all she could do was giggle like a teenager. “I can’t believe I’m in your arms.” She gushed.
“Let’s get the fuck away from this shit hole so I can get into some other places,” Kiam said, caressing her butt.
“I second that emotion.” Lissha chuckled then turned to open his door.
Kiam got in and watched the jiggle of Lissha’s butt as she walked in front of the car.
When she jumped in the passenger seat she reached in the glove compartment and passed Kiam a gun and a heavily padded envelope of hundred dollar bills. “Just a little something, something.” She threw him that sexy smile and pulled out of the lot.
Kiam nodded his head as he fumbled through the neatly stacked bills. “Thanks, ma,” he said then put his seat all the way back. “So what’s going on with the team?”
“JuJu is handling the streets. You know we took some big hits but he was able to make sure our strongest arms are still in place and running well.”
“What else?”
“Treebie and I have been stacking the money and making sure everybody stays on point. I have to walk light with this bail shit so Bay has been the only one making runs with JuJu and Dirty to meet with the new connect.”
Kiam nodded. JuJu had told him the same thing.
“You know they all wanted to be in the parking lot to welcome you home as soon as your feet touched the ground. But I told them I was going to act a fool if they didn't allow us to spend the first day alone,” she said as she turned corners.
“Where you going?” Kiam asked as she pulled onto the interstate.
“I copped a little townhouse out in Mentor. I wanted you to be comfortable and with all the police attention I thought you would feel better there instead of at either of our houses.”
“That’s what’s up,” Kiam said, relaxing in his seat.
“What you thought I was kidnapping you?” Lissha looked over at him with a wrinkled brow.
“Nah, nothing like that. I know you ain’t trying to get fucked up,” Kiam joked.
<
br /> “Whatever. You spent a few days in the pen now you tough.”
“You know I’m the muthafuckin’ man,” he boasted, turning up the radio.
Lissha didn’t even respond. She twisted her lips to the side and shook her head as she picked up speed.
Kiam couldn’t keep his hands off of her, he kept reaching over and rubbing up and down her thigh causing her foot to press heavy on the gas.
Lissha glanced over at him. “You're gonna cause an accident.”
“Stop blocking and pay attention to the road,” Kiam said smoothly as he slid his hand between her legs and rubbed his hand against her fat print. “Damn, this pussy fat,” he said as she came off of the interstate stopping at a red light. “Give me kiss.”
Lissha leaned over and did just as she was instructed. She pulled back licking her lips. “You taste so good,” she cooed as Kiam looked at her with a low gaze.
“I got something else that taste better.”
“The last time I tried to taste that, you pulled a gun on me,” she reminded him.
Kiam chuckled at the memory. “I promise when I pull it out this time it will be all pleasure.”
Lissha twisted her lips to the side and continued on with Kiam's hand causing a stir between her thighs.
When she pulled into the driveway she popped the trunk and pulled out some bags she had picked up for Kiam. He stepped out of the car and looked around the area then followed her up to the door. Lissha fumbled with her key in the new lock until Kiam stepped behind her. He pressed his body against her and placed his hands on hers and turned the key until the door came open.
Lissha pressed her butt back into him enjoying his strength all up on her. “Thanks, Boss,” she jested.
“I do my best work in tight spaces.” Kiam’s warm breath caressed her neck, sending chills up her spine.
