Another Hood Love

by Jontu'

  About fifteen minutes later, I was snubbing out the doobie that was in between my fingers when Jah and Tone walked through the door.

  “What’s going on youngins?” I looked up as they took seats around the table that I had in my office. My house had a family room upstairs and downstairs, so I used the downstairs room for multiple purposes. It was towards the back of the house and was closed off by double doors. I had made the room sound proof and installed weed neutralizers on two sides of the room. I had an 80-inch TV mounted on the far wall, and four La-Z-Boy recliners that were placed towards the TV. There was a large couch that sat on the wall to the right of the chairs, with a coffee table beside it. On the opposite end of the room, I had the conference table set in the middle and a small bar built in behind it. This room was cozy and perfect to come chill in, and also perfect to conduct meetings. Next walked in Rico, Brayden, and the twins, who all came in, spoke, and took a seat. I don’t know how Jaeda and Laela were the last to come in when they were sitting in the kitchen eating me out of house and home when I first came in here. It was a good thing money wasn’t an issue, because 5 teenagers were not the cheapest to feed.

  After a few minutes of small talk with the guys, my nieces and Lexis walked in giggling probably, about some kind of gossip or whatever. I was ready to get this meeting done and over with because I had things to do. I was throwing a party for Tommy’s 21st birthday at one of the clubs that Shae and Quita worked, and I had a bunch of details to still iron out. The party was about business, but the celebration would be a great cover up.

  The owner of the club, James, was in a great deal of debt and was about to lose the place, so I had convinced him to let me buy him out of it. He wouldn’t lose the club to the bank, but I would pay the bank and throw him a little something for the takeover, and I would own all rights to the club. With $50,000 extra and no bankruptcy, he could relocate and retire. I had already met with a contractor about the changes and was meeting up with them today. I had exactly two months to have all the remodeling and rehiring done before the party. The party was the unveiling of the new club.

  I had changed the name from Purple Paradise to The Hideout. I had been working so hard to get everything together, and nobody even knew about it. I would be firing a few of the main dancers and replacing them with some that I had recruited through the other surrounding clubs, and I was hiring two more bartenders but for the most part, I would be keeping everybody else – unless they wanted to go. The week of the party, I would filter in the new employees and give the bartenders, waitresses, and security their new uniforms. The club will still be open during renovations but only at night until the party, and then we would go back to regular club hours.

  “Okay, now that I got all the thugs in the room,” I said, leaning back and pouring myself another shot of Patrón. “I don’t need the numbers today because this wasn’t a scheduled meeting, but I did want you all to know that I’m very pleased with what is going on out on the blocks.” I looked around the room into the faces of my young team, nodding my head in approval. “It’s some young niggas in the 60’s that are looking to expand, and two of our blocks are under their scope. I’m going to need y’all eyes and ears open more than usual, because I heard these niggas are wild so I don’t know what to expect.”

  In Oakland, or the “Town” as they called it, we didn’t bang colors. It was all about blocks out here; you had the hoods and blocks, and then you had the avenues. You also had other gangs that came up every few years, which were more so an assembly of friends that came together on some hustling or murder game shit and gave themselves a name. Just like Gas Squad. Out here in the Bay, it was nothing to go to another city and hustle, or move around the Town if you had affiliations – not that it wouldn’t be any static about it, but it was easy to do. The Bay Area bred hustlers, the kind of niggas that did it all from pimping to robbing, and grinding to white collar scams. If you came up out the Bay, you were well rounded in getting money because your mouthpiece was everything. Niggas from my era could talk your mama out her kitchen table and make her believe it was still there.

  “So who these niggas fuck with?” asked Rico. He was a little trigger-happy, but not enough for me to be worried about it. Shit, he was mild compared to a lot of youngsters out here.

  “The leader of their crew is a young nigga named Mess; he’s from 6-5 Ville and he wants the 60’s on lock, and you know I’m not giving up those blocks,” I replied. “6-4 to 6-9 are our money making blocks, and I’m not about to let them go to them niggas; they trying to expand out and I don’t need them trying to push up into my shit.”

  Between my crews in the West and the East, plus my niggas I had on call, we could go to war with these niggas, but you can’t make money when you’re fonkin’. My crews were well trained when it came to handling those choppas; 30 rounds or better is how we came, so if this crew came I hope they were ready. I had no intentions on losing anything or anybody.

  “I just found the nigga Mess on Instagram. Mmm, he an ugly black ass nigga too,” Sage said; her ass didn’t hold anything back. “I’m about to follow his ass from my fake account and see what these niggas about,” she said while scrolling through her phone.

  “What you got a fake account for?” Jah asked.

  “Because you niggas be shady and I be needing to see what’s really good, who they baby mama’s are and all that; plus when these new niggas pop up out nowhere, it’s easy to get to them.” What she said actually made sense, so I told her to watch them and find out everything she could about their crew. These young niggas put everything on social media nowadays and wondered why they getting caught up and knocked down.

  “Alright but check this though, I need you all to be focused. Jah, Laela, Tone, and Jae – I’m not really feeling how serious things are getting with the four of y’all,” I began. “I understand that you love each other, but I don’t want that love to come between getting this money.” I could see fire dancing in Tone’s eyes as I spoke. “Matter of fact, the rest of you can leave – let me holla at these four in private.” The rest of the squad nodded and left the room. “I mean, do you really know what real love is? I know you may think you are in love, but y’all so young and haven’t experienced much else. I’m just thinking maybe y’all should cool it and focus a little more.” I lit the blunt that was sitting in front of me as I stared at the four kids in front of me. Tone was the first one to speak, I figured because he was the hothead out the bunch; he and Jaeda were definitely two peas in a pod.

  “Ain’t this some shit!” Tone chuckled while shaking his head. “How the fuck are you gonna tell us to just chill? All due respect OG, but I love my girl and that’s by my standards not anybody else’s. Love ain’t never had no boundaries, so I ain’t letting anybody put none over here.” Tone leaned forward and continued speaking with a little more bass than I was feeling. “I will go to hell and back for Jae Money and I know she would do the same for me, so all that chill shit is out the window, you may pull rank with these streets but I’m the man over here homey!” he said, pointing between him and Jaeda. I nodded my head; I was heated, but I couldn’t do anything but respect the little nigga’s mind. “Aye real shit OG, I feel the same way; me and Laela in a good place and we might be young, but we not out here living reckless and shit. We focused as shit and money will always be the motive, but this here is real.” Jah grabbed Laela’s hand as he continued. “I will lay my life down to give her the world, and ain’t nobody going to come between that, nah mean?”

  I chuckled and sipped my Patrón. These niggas were the truth and I couldn’t deny it. At their age, I just wanted pussy and money – all that love shit was irrelevant. It was funny because half a year ago, the girls were really quiet and it was like they evolved over night; I guess the streets did that to you. They had a way of hardening the most delicate flower. I may not have showed it, but I was proud of this bunch; they were definitely on their shit.

  “You know what, you’re right,” I
said “Who am I to interfere in the affairs of the heart? All I know is if this don’t work out between y’all, my money better not get stuck in the crossfire. Money is my bitch, and just like you would kill over your bitch, I will kill over mine,” I said, clenching my teeth and staring at each and every one of them.

  “We got you Unc, we know what’s expected; even if we broke up, we still a squad and I’m going to always rock with my day ones no matter what,” Jaeda said while rolling a fat blunt of some cookies.

  “Well now that we are all in agreement, I think this meeting is complete; just remember where you started. Don’t let the money bring up any bright ideas; I trust the four of you to keep your Squad in line because, I have no problem eliminating any problems. Feel me?”

  With that, I rose up out my seat and walked out the room. I had to be at the club in 45 minutes and still had to cross the bridge to get to the City. With an extra burst of reassurance, I could breathe a little easier knowing that my team was on point.

  Tone

  Jaeda’s car had cost me a pretty penny, so I had to hit the block so that I could be ready for the beginning of the month. We had to add our $5000 to the account, and I had other things to take care of as well. It was starting to get hot in the streets, and there were only three more months of school left. I had gotten accepted to four schools with full ride scholarships, but I didn’t know what direction to go. I loved the feel of the streets, but I also wanted to challenge myself as a man to get that college degree as well.

  I didn’t want to be that father that told his kids what they needed to do and hadn’t even done it myself. Nah, that wasn’t me so I had a decision to make, but I wanted Jah, Laela, and Jaeda to embark on this journey with me. I couldn’t do this alone; I needed my ride or dies there to motivate me. I spent day in and day out with those three, and we had a plan; we already had half a million in savings in our company account, not including what we had accrued in our joint interest account and whatever was in the safe at our safe house. We were moving mean in the streets, but also smart and cautious.

  Jah had his older brother Gio open up a business account under his record label, and had listed Jah as a second owner so he would have access to deposit and withdraw. Every three months, we made large cash deposits into the account and listed it as music tour payments. We also had an apartment outside of Oakland where we went at times to just chill, but it was so out of the way that nobody really stayed there. There were two large safes in the closets, but only me, Jah, and the girls knew about the apartment – neither Gio nor the other members of Gas Squad knew every thing. It was never good to let everyone know everything. There was one last safe that was built into the back of one of the kitchen cabinets at Gio and Jah’s house that only the three of us knew of. Yeah, we were definitely papered up but this was money we didn’t touch; it was that long-term money. We didn’t plan on touching that until we were ready to make our move out of Oakland. We still had another 2 years before we all would be 18 and out of high school.

  I had plans that included me and Jaeda, wedding rings, houses, and kids. I was a young street nigga that was talented on the field and in the field, but I knew when I had something real. I had fucked plenty hoes and dated a few, but nobody made me connect like Jaeda did. She was definitely it for me, that’s why that day at Big Ken house’s I was hot than a motherfucker when he started spitting that dumb shit about cooling off. The fuck that nigga thought this was, I wasn’t out here buying bitches $70,000 cars because I liked them; my girl had to match my fly and I loved that girl, so it was only right for me to show her. It’s cool though; soon enough we would put all this behind us and move on, creating our own empire.

  I was riding through the hood in my old school. I had a midnight blue 1968 LTD with a slapping ass stereo system, and I was hitting a few corners playing some Peezy, just cruising until I had to go pick up Jaeda to go to the movies. This nigga Mess was testing us every day and the shit was about to come to a head, so I was ready for whatever but I knew that this problem was going to need all of our focus, so this would be me and Jaeda’s last little outing until this little beef simmered down. Niggas were talking about some on sight shit, so we had to be on point. I hadn’t really bust my gun since I caught my first body. That was something that I tried to keep in the back of my head; it wasn’t something that I was proud of, but it was what had to be done. I caught my first body two years ago when I was 16.

  My cousin Josh was older than Jah and I, so he used to put us up on all kinds of different money plays. Josh was the one to teach us how to shoot a gun, and had schooled us on how to hit licks – from home invasions to botched drug deals, he taught us how to finesse the mark and get the money fast. We used to even hit parking lot licks at the train station, where we would find a mark that were usually just getting off work and rob them for whatever they had on them and dip off. Most times, our targets were other races that were dressed business casual and looked like they were holding a little change. Well, one day Josh approached us on a weed lick that was supposed to have us sitting nice for a minute. We were told that nobody would be home and it would be an easy lick. There was supposed to be at least three pounds of weed and about $75,000 in cash stuffed in some Gucci bags in the back closet. Josh wasn’t going to be there for the job because the house he was hitting was one of the niggas he was grinding on the block with. Josh said the nigga owed him some money from a bet and he was hitting his ass for his paper, and the extra was all interest. Josh had given us the layout of the 3-bedroom apartment and had given us some guns to go in with. At the time Jah and Josh weren’t on the best of terms, so going in I wasn’t worried because I wouldn’t have to deal with the tension between the two. Even though Josh had given us both pistols, I opted to carry my own – not that I didn’t trust the one I was given, I would just rather use my own hammer. The night we were supposed to hit the lick, Josh wasn’t answering his phone; although we knew all the details, I still wanted to make sure it was still all good for the play.

  At first I was having an uneasy feeling about the whole thing, but Jah said it was just my nerves from Josh not being there. I mean, he was kind of like our mentor so it was going to be very different without him. Jah and I had parked at the end of the block from where the spot was; once we killed the lights, we both exited the car and crept down the block up to the apartment we were going in. It was a duplex, so there was only one other apartment connected, and we knew that it was vacant. As we entered the apartment there was a little bit of light coming from the hood of the stove that enabled us to see where we were going. This was easy shit and we should have only been in there less than five minutes.

  Creeping down the hallway towards the rooms, I went in one direction and Jah went in the other to secure the other two bedrooms before we went into the room that held the stash. Right as I was about to turn the knob to the bedroom door, there was a loud noise behind me like somebody had ran into the wall. I whipped around pulling my pistol and saw a figure directly behind Jah, and I let off a head shot with no hesitation. Soon as the body dropped, the lights of the apartment all shut on and a figure stepped into the hall. I kept my gun trained on him and Jah did the same.

  “So you little niggas just thought y’all was about to just walk in here and take my shit and then walk out like it was nothing?” He laughed a deep laugh as he looked between the two of us, like we weren’t even holding hammers in his face. “Well almost,” he said as he looked up toward the ceiling.

  “Man, I came for the work and I’m taking what I came for!” Jah said, raising his voice a little.

  “Yea okay bum ass nigga, see ya whack ass patna slipped up and left his phone in my whip when he ran into the store earlier, and you was blowing his phone up like a little bitch so I picked it up.” The tall man, who looked to be in his mid twenties smirked as he continued, “So imagine my surprise when I scroll through the incoming text message and see that this snake ass nigga had texted you my mothafuckin address!” I grippe
d my hammer a little tighter; my shit was already cocked and ready to go, so I dared this pussy to make a move. “Nigga talkin about let’s go fuck with some bitches while he plotting to take my shit, and the killer part was he was about to have one of his other young niggas hit y’all the moment y’all stepped off my porch,” the nigga shook his head and bent down. Jah and I steadied our guns, still aiming at his head from either side. My shot was always on point, so I wasn’t too much bothered about what he would do at this point. The nigga reached down and pulled the mask off the man I had shot minutes ago and it was Josh; my heart dropped to my fucking knees as I thought about the fact that I had just killed my blood fucking cousin.

  “Nigga set me up and was about to set y’all up to, but y’all violated coming up in my spot trying to take my shit, and that ain’t shit I’m going to let slide.” In one swift move, he pulled a gun from his ankle and came up busting toward Jah first. Jah pulled the trigger, but nothing happened; in that delay, I let off two shots, dropping the man instantly.

  “Aye nigga my gun jammed!” Jah yelled, visibly shaken from that close call. Right then, something clicked in my head and I pulled the gun that Josh had given me earlier; aiming at the owner of the spot, I cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened – my gun was jammed as well.

  “Son of a bitch!” I yelled. “Let’s grab this shit and cut,” I said to Jah. I was heated that Josh had the nerve to set us up after we put in the work, gave us them faulty ass hammers, and had set us up to get got for what we put in work for. I reached in the back of the closet; all that shit the nigga talked about, we weren’t taking shit and the shit was sitting right where it was supposed to. We grabbed the bags and left out as quietly as we came. I heard sirens in the distance, so we got up out of there immediately. The next day the news aired the story about Josh’s death, and it was ruled as a home invasion turned bad. Jah and I swore to take this to our grave, and to this day neither of us had so much as mentioned it to a soul, let alone brought it up between each other.