by L. E. Newell
Why am I even thinking about that punk? Quickly shaking that thought away, her mind drifted to how she knew that she was under the radar as far as Don’s business went with this nigga. She preferred to keep it that way.
“Excuse me, but you don’t know this dude?” she inquired as she pointed to the bed.
He cocked a brow at her. “Of course I know JJ. I didn’t recognize him at first but to tell you the truth, I thought you was talking about Don when you called. I wouldn’t have...” He paused to take a deep breath. “Hell, I wouldn’t have rushed all the way over here for that nigga there. He ain’t nothing but a burned-out crackhead.” He turned away and muttered something to himself. She tilted her back and asked him what he had said.
He snorted before he turned back around. “I said I was thinking that Don had gotten fucked up and had fucked my money up and how I’d hate to fuck him up about my ends,” he said disgustedly as he spun away from her and left the room.
Luckily, he had left when he did, because he hadn’t seen the stiletto that had slid into her hand. He had closed the door too fast on his exit. The stiletto had disappeared as quickly when Bertha came out of the bathroom and went to sit on the bed.
Rose watched her for a second and walked over to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, girlfriend. We’ll get to the bottom of this before long. That Al’s one coldhearted bastard.”
Bertha could only nod her head as the tears started rolling down her cheeks. Damn, that’s both of her brothers getting fucked up in that short a time, Rose thought as she stood up and got ready to leave. She stroked Bertha’s head gently. “You sure you’re going to be all right, because I’ve got to handle some things.” She waited for her to nod that she’d be okay before she walked out of the room.
Rose intended to catch the elevator but it was taking too long, so she fast-stepped to the exit door and sprinted down the stairs. She really wanted to catch Al without anybody around to teach that nigga a lesson. Who did he think he was threatening to harm her baby? She’d show his ass what he could and couldn’t do. By the time she got to the emergency room door, she saw his car leaving the parking area. She proceeded to her car plotting on how she was going to get him. She jumped into her car and sped out of the parking lot. As she pulled onto the street and headed for Peachtree, she began smiling as a plan started formulating in her mind.
The traffic was bumper to bumper along I-20 as Turner Field came into view. Rainbow checked on his boy ‘B’ in the mirror. He was gnawing at what was left of his fingernails. Actually he was chewing on the meat under the skin that was under the skin. He had the bad habit of doing that whenever he was nervous about something—a habit that aggravated the hell out of Rainbow. “Damn, dude, when are you going to realize that you ain’t had no nails on those rough-ass claws for centuries?” Rainbow said with a sneer.
‘B’ ignored his ribbing and turned his finger around, trying to find any piece of skin hanging loose. There was none but he kept nibbling away anyhow.
“Come on, man, stop dat shit.” Rainbow shivered in disgust.
‘B’’s eyes brightened mischievously knowing he was bugging the hell out of him. “Nigga, if you had been paying attention to what you was doing, you would’ve seen that you could’ve gotten off this busy bitch way back yonder.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t, because I was trying to think about the best way to work that nigga Don into a position where we can handle his ass,” Rainbow snapped back at him.
A smiling ‘B’ tapped Sparkle on the shoulder. “You hear that fool? Now he got some ESP shit going on.”
Sparkle rubbed a finger under his nose, gave a short snort of a laugh and cocked an eye across the seat at Rainbow. “Uh-huh, check him out, the great Hodinbow, magician at large.” He turned his attention to “B.” “Ain’t that a bitch? Looks like he ready to do some hocus pocus on that nigga right now, but we need to just whack this fool any way we can.”
‘B’ groaned, stuck his head out of the window and stretched his neck to see if he could see a crack in the traffic flow.
“That’s the same thing I been telling this curly-head pretty boy all along,” Sparkle added as he dipped his glass shooter into the bag of coke for the fourth time since they had left the Checker Club skin game in Ben Hill.
Not really giving a fuck how their silly asses were thinking, Rainbow caught ‘B’’s eye in the mirror and then looked over at Sparkle, shook his head and retorted, “Because I don’t wanna be hollering at y’all from down the tier on death row a year from now. You know, wondering how we could’ve done it without a hundred witnesses. That is if y’all two overhyped niggas don’t mind.”
“Yeah, well, I tell ya what I mind. I mind that those girls are taking so long to pin that nigga down at a spot we can take his punk ass out. Makes me think that nigga flipping game on them hoes.” Sparkle clearly was not trying to hide his frustration.
‘B’ snorted and shoved Rainbow’s shoulder. “Listen to this nigga, dog, sounds like he got some player hating going on here, all jealous and shit. Yo reckon that’s because Joyce said that nigga’s shit be hanging to his knees got anything to do with it?”
Sparkled started to turn around to go off on him, but Rainbow jerked the steering wheel sharply to the right, causing him to lose his balance and slam into the door. He proceeded to veer to the right emergency lane and accelerated down the road despite the loud honking horn of several cars in protest. It included a police cruiser that was jammed between a SUV and a mobile home. And to add insult to ignorance, ‘B’ and Sparkle waved at the astonished officer, whose head swirled all around anxiously when they zoomed by.
‘B’ got all excited and started jumping around in the back seat as he screamed, “Dat’s what I’m talking about, nigga! Sho some gangsta with yo sorry law-abiding ass.”
“Aw, fuck you, man, I’m tired of hearing your bitching,” Rainbow yelled back at him as he jetted to the East Lake Meadows exit and streaked to Memorial Drive and then on to Candler Road. As they neared the intersection, Sparkle told him to pull over at the BP gas station. Rainbow waited until he had pulled in front of one of the pumps before he turned to face him while he was about to open the door. “Man, why you want to pull up here all of a sudden?”
“Ain’t that the twins’ Nissan over there at Joyce’s and ’ems beauty shop?” Sparkle grunted as his eyes strained across the street.
Rainbow cocked his head to the side and strained at the car he was talking about before he nodded in agreement. “I believe that is their whip. Uh-huh, yeaah, that’s they shit with them teddy bears in the back window.”
“Thought they was supposed to be pulling that nigga Don for the ambush,” ‘B’ said as he leaned over the seat to get a better look himself.
“Hell, I thought they were, too. Then again they may be working together with that ho Joyce and they just touching bases. Then again they may be getting they wigs hooked up; you know how those women are about their hair, man,” Rainbow shot back and started rubbing his chin as he concentrated on the possibilities. He sat up straight in the seat and rolled his shoulders. He reached for the door handle. “In that case, we really need to holla at ’em because I don’t like no bitch working beyond my instructions without letting me know about it.” He raised his knee to shove the door open, but Sparkle reached across the seat to grab his shoulder.
With his pimping in question, Rainbow jerked his shoulder away and frowned at the hand. “Man, what’s the matter with you? I know you ain’t about to tell me how to handle no ho. It ain’t like they going to come over here to us if they don’t know we here.”
Sparkle shoved his shoulder back on the seat again. “Just hold your ass still for a second there, man.” He nodded toward the small grocery store parking lot on the other corner. “Ain’t that that nigga Percy?”
‘B’ had placed his elbows on the back of Rainbow’s seat as he strained to see across the street. “Uh-huh, dat’s dat punk aight, but check tha
t shit out. What the fuck he got those little binoculars to spy on his own sisters for? And who’s that skinny muthafucka wid him?”
Sparkle pinched his nose and said gruffly, “That’s what caught my attention. Hold on, wait a fucking minute here. That’s the skinny nigga who was with JJ that night I was telling you about. You remember when I was looking for you in Buttermilk Bottom? Come on, dog, you got to remember that. Help me out here, will ya?” He started snapping his fingers as he searched his memory.
Rainbow frowned in the direction of the shop, his expression clearly full of puzzlement, as he tried to recall what Sparkle was talking about. Not a clue registered.
Sparkle eyed him impatiently for a moment. “Come on, dog, you got to remember that night when I told you I had seen JJ boosting at the little country store on Memorial. The one with the old kerosene pump on the porch. He was acting all strange and shit and when they went outside, I could tell that the nigga was favoring his left arm. Yep, the same one you shot that night at the crib.”
Rainbow rubbed his brow and stared blankly toward the car they were talking about, trying hard to place the guy’s face. “Dat’s the dude?” he asked as the veins started swelling in his neck and he leaned closer to the window and squinted. “You sure, dog?”
“Hell yeah, I’m sure because he was favoring that same arm after he bumped into me that night. Just like he doing now. Uh-huh, probably still got it wrapped up and everything.”
As if right on cue, the dude reached up to adjust the sun visor and sure enough his arm was still bandaged. Suddenly overcome with rage, Rainbow opened the door and was nearly out of the car when Sparkle lunged across the seat and grabbed his arm. Rainbow wasn’t having it and jerked his arm out of his grasp and started around the car. He came to an abrupt halt when ‘B’ kicked the door open.
Rainbow grunted and grabbed his knee. He heaved heavily and gritted at ‘B’ for a sec before he straightened up. His eyes were blazing fire across the street. His thoughts raced back to recall the two dark-clad niggas kicking the door off the hinges with their guns spitting death in the pitch-black kitchen. And one of them yelping out in pain after he fired in their direction. He looked down at Sparkle, who was still laid out across the seat from when he had tried to stop him from getting out of the car. He was looking up with a pleading look on his face. Rainbow sighed deeply and came close to sitting on his face when he got back in the car.
Sparkle scrambled out of his way and sat back up and frowned. Rainbow pinched his brow and reached across Sparkle’s lap to open the glove compartment and remove the gold bracelet with the ‘JJ’ engraved in it. He turned in the seat to face ‘B,’ squared his shoulders and turned to Sparkle waving the bracelet around. He started nodding with his mouth twisted down. “Dat’s that nigga, yo. Man, fuck some patience on this one here. I’ve got to have that bitch nigga right now.” His voice had zoomed back to a fever pitch.
Sparkle waved his hand frantically across his face and yelled over, “Hold up, man; think about it for a minute. Now that we know who’s down with the cross, all we got to do is follow them niggas and see who’s all down with them.”
‘B’ spoke up from the backseat. “Makes sense to me, hero.”
Rainbow looked back at him and then over to Sparkle before he settled back breathing hard through his nose and gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles ached.
With his brow arched with caution, he reached over and started massaging his collarbone. “Dog, I feel your tension. I’m tense, too, but we got to see if this stuff goes deeper than Don. Neither of us bothered to think about that before, know what I mean?”
Rainbow held his head back and squeezed his eyes before he reluctantly nodded in agreement. ‘B’ placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tell ya what, partner, y’all check out them niggas’ reaction when I walk past them on the way to the salon. They know we’re partners and if them niggas start to yakking and acting nervous, we’ll know they on some kind of assignment, you feel me? They may even get nervous enough to lead us to whoever sent them.”
Rainbow glared at the hand clamped down on his shoulder. “Man, them niggas could just be waiting to score or something. Regardless, how in the hell is that supposed to prove any damn thing? He knows that was me and Sparkle at the crib that night.”
‘B’ responded quickly, “True dat, but Percy knows that we roll together and be down like that.”
Sparkle added, “Uh-huh, that’s right, partner, that three amigo thing Bevy be calling us.” Rainbow fidgeted around in the seat, then shook his head from side to side, before he took a deep breath. He was still steaming but he finally nodded and started rubbing a hand across his mouth and chin.
‘B’ and Sparkle eyed each knowing that he had made up his mind. “Okay, I see what y’all saying, but ‘B’ go around the block and cut through that alley so you can cross right in front of them. That way they won’t be expecting us to be checking them out from over this way.”
‘B’ didn’t waste another word and reached down to his ankle and took a .32 automatic out of its holster and slid it in his waistband. He puffed his shirt out to conceal it before he opened the door. He turned his mouth down as he nodded to both of them and eased out and headed down Candler Road.
They concentrated hard on the pair across the street to make sure that they didn’t pay ‘B’’s departure any attention. As far as they could tell, they didn’t. In a little over a minute, they saw ‘B’ as he crossed the street and walked in front of the car. Percy and the other guy reacted immediately and started fidgeting in their seats. It was easy to tell that their conversation really piqued as they motioned toward him as he headed for the salon. Percy leaned forward peering through the binoculars with intense purpose, not wanting to miss a thing. When ‘B’ entered the beauty shop, his head started shifting from side to side, probably trying to catch the twins’ reaction. Then he passed the binoculars to the other guy, lifted a cell phone and started punching numbers. Rainbow and Sparkle smiled openly at his animated antics as he talked with his head swiveling rapidly back and forth down the street like he was expecting some intruders or something. When he nodded his head several times and put the phone away, they had the answer they were looking for.
Responding swiftly Rainbow called the salon and asked for Joyce. She was mumbling something as she took the phone from the other hairdresser. “Yo, redbone, this here’s Rainbow. Yeah, sweetie, I’m doing okay. Check this out, after I hang up ease... No, no, wait about a minute and go tell Johnny Bee to pull out of there with the twins and go to room 316 at the La Quinta in Lithonia. Yeah, in about a minute. I’ll call you back after they leave. You betcha, I’ll pick you up so you can blow a few rocks with us. Bitch, don’t worry about who’s with me. You’ll see soon enough. Yeah, good girl, I’ll holla.”
After he flipped the phone closed, he smiled over at Sparkle. “Now all we got to do is follow them fools.” The wait wasn’t long at all for the action to start. As soon as ‘B’ and the twins exited the salon and headed down Candler Road, Rainbow revved the car up, ready to follow Percy, when the other guy suddenly jumped out of the car and ran across the street to the Wong Chan Chinese joint on the corner. He joined two guys at one of the tables and started talking to them really fast.
The pair, both wearing dark toboggans and big sunshades, left the joint, jumped into a black sedan and immediately turned down Candler in pursuit of the twins’ Nissan. Rainbow and Sparkle sat curious as all hell as they watched the guy run back across the street and shout something at Percy as he was getting back in the car. Percy was pulling into the street before he got the chance to close the door and sped down Memorial Drive toward Atlanta.
They looked at each other for a moment before Rainbow pulled out to the intersection. “Damn, man, which of these fools do we follow?”
Sparkle looked up Candler and then down Memorial as the two cars sped away. Scratching his head and rubbing his hand up and down his face, he finally said, “Uh, uh, Bow, I think we bet
ter follow Percy here because we already know where the other two are headed.”
Rainbow hit the right turn, before the light even turned green and pressed on the gas. “Yeah, dog, that there makes sense. Here, call ‘B’ and let him know what’s up and to keep an eye on those two following them.” After a few blocks, it dawned on Sparkle that Rainbow had told Joyce that they’d pick her up. He looked over his shoulder toward the salon, as they were going around the curve in the road. “Damn!!”
“What’s the matter now?” Rainbow cocked a brow at him. “Man, we told Joyce that we’d pick her up.”
Rainbow slapped down on the steering wheel. “Fuck, I sure did, hell. She’ll just have to wait on there, dog.”
“Yeah, you right; it’s just that, aw, what the fuck, the bitch’s got the best head in the muthafucking world and I sure don’t want her cutting me off of that there.”
“What! You let a bitch rule you with the little head?” Rainbow eyed him with a sneer on his face.
“The head ain’t that little, man.”
“Whatever, dude.” He gave him a quick tssk.
“Okay, I feel your square ass, but we got to track these niggas here. Aw, damn, man, go ahead and call her and let her know that we’ll be there to get her in a few.”
Sparkle smiled and picked up the phone to call the salon. “Yo, Mary, let me holla at Joyce. Yeah, baby, it’s me. Yeah, I’m with him now. Hold up there, girl, you ain’t got to holla, geez.” He pulled the phone away from his ear to escape the octave rampage on the other end. Then he looked over to Rainbow and mouthed “fuck you” while he waited for the rampage to end. He was finally able to get with a word in. “Yeah, I... Yeah, he did, but you know that I got you, babe. We got caught up in some heavy shit. We’ll be by to get you in a few, though. Okay, now that’s better, dat’s my girl.” He held the phone to his chest and let out a long whew.
