by L. E. Newell
To her surprise he bowed his head down with the saddest look she had ever seen on him. His expression must’ve really defused her anger, at least a little bit anyway, as the tension eased out of her face. With her face balled up with concern, she asked. “Damn, man, it be that rough, huh?”
When he didn’t respond, she turned her attention to Sparkle. “Whaddafuck done happened, man?”
Sparkle looked away from the seriousness in her eyes and started picking at his nose before he answered that his little cousin Joker had just been killed.
“What?”
“What?”
“What?” all three of them asked at once. Sparkle looked shocked for a second, then turned back to them. “Whatcha mean, what? I thought one of y’all had shot him in the head. Ah, man, that means that it must’ve been either Woo or Bevy, damn.”
Things had happened so fast that he wasn’t really sure what had happened. That really took the air out of ‘B’ and he flopped down onto the couch and lowered his head into his hands. “Damn!!” It was all he could get out.
Debra put her hand on Sparkle’s shoulder, trying to console him. “Aw, man, I’m sorry about that, dude.” She turned to Rainbow. “Oooh, Woo and Beverly, y’all playing with some real heavyweights now. Are y’all sure that she didn’t see any of y’all, ’cause if she did, I know that she’s gonna be paying all of y’all stupid muthafuckas a visit and real soon, too.”
She went into the kitchen and retrieved her pocketbook off the top of the refrigerator. “Hey, y’all, I sorta hate to be putting the rush on y’all and shit. Let me stop lying. I want y’all hot asses out of here like yesterday. So where are y’all going ’cause I ain’t got all night to be messing around with y’all asses, for sho. And it better not be too far away. I can’t be leaving these kids in the house all by themselves for too long, either.”
She looked back down the hall one last time and then went to the door and opened it. “And y’all can close that damn door, too, Miss Ebony, with your nosey self.” They all heard the door shut followed by a pattering of little feet before they headed out of the door.
On their way to the parking lot, Sparkle said to Debra, “Sis, we got to get to the club, but first we got to go to the La Quinta to get Rainbow’s ride.”
She rolled her eyes at him over the hood of the car and snorted. “To the La Quinta then, because I ain’t about to go to nobody’s club.” About a half-hour later, they were waving at Debra as she shot them a finger on her way out of the hotel’s parking lot. They jumped in Rainbow’s ride without even going up to the girls’ rooms. Soon afterward, as they were passing the Red Roof Inn, they saw several police cars and ambulances flashing lights. They didn’t see a coroner’s van but they knew that one had to be there.
As they were discussing what to do, ‘B’ shouted the loudest. “Man, we need to get back to that car to get that coke, for real yo.”
Rainbow replied in a aggravated tone, “Dude, will you please stop bugging about that stuff in your car? For one, there ain’t no way we can afford to go down there, period. Police all over that bitch, nigga. Come on, use your fucking head for once. And secondly, I don’t think that Bevy will even let them know that’s your ride anyways.”
‘B’ huffed but he knew deep down in his heart that Rainbow was probably right. Still he had to have his say. “Man, I see whatcha saying and all, but there ain’t no telling what those fools are gonna be crying when those handcuffs get tightened up on their asses.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Chasing the Hunters
Rainbow forked down his last piece of French toast at the Waffle House before he decided to put an end to the argument. Sparkle and ‘B’ had been going at it nonstop for the past half-hour and he was fed up. “Looka here, fellas, I’ve been listening to y’all for quite a while now and not once have y’all mentioned this nigga Al.” He growled as he sipped his coffee.
Sparkle was quick to reply. “Come to think of it, he might have done that nigga Don. What other reason would he be at the Heart of Decatur, know what I’m saying?”
‘B’ threw in his little bit. “I agree with ya, dog, one-hundred percent. I ain’t said nothing to y’all before because I didn’t want y’all to go tripping on me and shit. But the bitch straight up told me about his dealings with Joker. Hell, I didn’t want to accept that shit but it’s evident that things were a lot worse than I thought.”
“What, nigga, you telling me that you already knew about this shit? Damn, dog, that’s fucked up there. You should’ve been hipped us to that, playa. But fuck it, I say that we pay that fool a visit while we out this way. Man, he’s gotta know something,” Rainbow spat full of anger, then stood up and headed for the door. Before he could place his hand on the knob, his phone started buzzing on his hip. He lifted the tail of his shirt and sighed. “Ah, shit, fellas, there she blows.” He grimaced as he looked over his shoulder at them before he picked it up. He listened for nearly a minute before he finally answered. “Damn, Bevy, you’re really all up in a nigga business, ain’tcha?” There was a long pause. “Yeah, uh-huh, I realize that...” Another long pause. “Naw, they ain’t with me. I just told you they ain’t with me. Looka here, sweetheart, let me go check on a few thangs and I’ll get back atcha.” He clicked off without waiting for a response.
Fully aware of the gravity of their conversation, Sparkle felt the need to chill on whatever, so he fixed up a hit, took a long toke and passed it to Rainbow, who followed suit and passed it to “B.” After a few rounds, he caught Rainbow’s eyes. “What’s the top cop talking about, dog?”
“Yeah, dude, did she say anything concerning us and that situation or my ride?” ‘B’ added anxiously.
Rainbow stared at both of them real hard before he let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, man, she knows that it was your car and that it was us out there. But don’t go getting all excited and worked up because she also assured me that nobody else did and your car is still in the same spot.” He took a moment to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth. “Now, here’s the fucked-up news. She figured that it had to have something to do with us going after Don, so she sent a crew of cops over to the lounge to bust his ass, for any muthafucking thing. And last but not least, we definitely don’t have to worry about any of them younguns screaming on us in handcuffs; they all dead.”
Suddenly, Rainbow pulled onto the shoulder of the road, got out of the car and started pacing rapidly back and forth.
Damn, bro sho nuff acting funny for a bitch. Godayum, what’s with all this here pacing? Sparkle thought as he got out of the car and sat on the hood. Neither he nor ‘B’ said anything and traded the shooter while they waited for him to walk the steam off. After a few minutes, Rainbow’s phone sounded off on his hip. He lifted his shirt tail to see Violet’s number flashing up at him, so he snatched it up and threw it at Sparkle. He continued pacing, mumbling under his breath.
Sparkle scooped it out of the air and sighed. “Yeah, what’s up, baby? Naw, we didn’t have time to re-up. Shit’s been happening. Damn, I thought y’all had plenty of stuff. Okay, hold on a minute; let me ask him.” He lowered the phone to his hip. “Yo, Bow, you wanna stop by the crib so I can pick up the girls some more stuff? They out there tripping, yo.”
Rainbow paused for a second and looked at him like he was crazy. “Man, y’all can do whatever y’all wanna do but I’m going to make that fool Al tell me what the fuck’s going on; hell something, hell anything.” He snarled and got back in the car.
Sparkle also jumped back in, followed quickly by “B.” He continued his conversation with Violet. “Looks like it’s gonna be a while, sweetie. What’s Mercedes doing? Is she winning? Damn, figures. Check this out, we about to hit Al’s poker game while we waiting to hear from these folks. Y’all get one of y’all customers to run you to the crib. Okay, let everybody know that we aight.”
A short time later, they pulled into Al’s driveway. Rainbow jumped out of the car before it even had a good chance to stop and
practically ran to ring the doorbell. Several frustrating attempts later, he stormed over to the garage door. He immediately saw that the door was ajar and waved for the two of them to follow him.
For a poker game to be going on, it was awfully quiet; it was darn right eerie. As Rainbow put his hand on the doorknob to go into the game room, Sparkle noticed what seemed to be a line of light in the floor around the pool table.
He quickened his pace to catch up with Rainbow and grabbed him by the elbow as he nodded for him and ‘B’ to follow him. They went to inspect the line of light and Sparkle got on his knees to peer through the crack. “Hey, man, it looks like some stairs down there.”
‘B’ got on his knees to have a look, too. “Man, I can see some chairs down there. This dude’s got some kind of secret room down there. Hmm, I wonder how he gets down there?”
Sparkle stood up and started walking around the room thinking out loud. “There’s probably a panel in this room somewhere.”
“That’s what I was talking about, fool,” ‘B’ snarled as he stood up and started looking around the walls. The sound of the door opening caused all of them to jump nervously in the direction.
“I thought I heard somebody down here,” Mona said. “I thought you had gone, sweetie. Wait a minute. I thought y’all was Al.” Mona started down the stairs. “What are y’all doing down here?”
‘B,’ who had paused after looking behind one of the pictures on the wall, took a double-take at Mona. In the dim light she seemed to look very familiar. He couldn’t put his finger on it. He walked over to her. “We came by to get in Al’s poker game. We rang the doorbell, but when nobody answered, we came through the garage because the door was opened.”
“I was in the shower jamming on some Ciara. Still, what are y’all doing searching around the room like this here?” she responded.
‘B’ squinted at her for a second before he waved her over to the pool table and pointed to the line of light. She knew immediately what they were looking for, so she walked past ‘B’ directly to the music box. She pulled it away from the wall to reveal the button that opened the false floor.
The three of them turned to the whirling sound and watched in awe as the pool table started to slide back. They waited for her to lead the way down the steps. She didn’t get halfway down before she let out a scream that ran shivers down their spines.
Rainbow quickly pulled her gently to the side. “Damn, whaddafuck?” He continued on down the steps.
Sitting in one of the seats facing the monitors, head cocked to the side with a smile stretched across his face, sat Al, dead as a doorknob.
The trio wasted little time leading her back up the stairs and into the game room.
After several minutes of boohooing, Mona mustered up enough composure to speak. “I heard him down here talking to some woman, but all of y’all know how he don’t like a bitch all up in his biz. Besides, I wasn’t supposed to even know about this room, so I stayed upstairs and took a shower. After I was finished washing up, I heard y’all down here and figured, like y’all had figured, that he was starting up a game, too. That’s why I came on down because he be expecting me to make folk comfortable and to answer the door as the other players arrive.” She went back to her sobbing.
“Looka here, sweetie, we’d love to hang around and do the consoling thang with you, but we know that you got to be calling the five-o and explain this here,” Rainbow said. “So we gonna bounce and get out of your way. If you need anything later, holla.”
He stepped away from Mona and raised his hands to the ceiling. “And girlie, please don’t be mentioning us to no five-o, okay,” Rainbow said as he nodded for them to get up out of there.
She nodded her understanding and slowly got to her feet to walk them to the door. She watched through the curtains as they backed out of the driveway and drove down the street. She blinked her watery tears away, sighed heavily and set out to go through the whole house to look for whatever cash, jewelry and drugs she could find. Afterward, she would call her sister to let her know that it was time to hit another city. Shit had gotten way too hot in this one here.
During her search, she kept shaking her head at the way that ‘B’ was looking at her. She knew what he was thinking because he had recently pulled her sister into his stable; he didn’t realize that she was her sister. As far as Al went, she’d leave that up to the neighbors to report his demise after the stench of death got overbearing, giving her way more than enough time to be wherever she decided to go. One thing was for sure, though. There was no way that she was going to welcome the police back into her life. The nigga was dead, oh well.
After departing the death scene, the fellas went back to the La Quinta to pick up the girls. There was no need to leave them in this vicinity knowing that the fuzz would be out in force. With the feeling that their major adversaries had been disposed of, it was safe to take them back to the track to get that paper. The overjoyed women felt as if they were getting released from prison and reacted as such; whooping and hollering like a bunch of schoolgirls.
Rainbow had only about a eight ball worth of coke left, but they all enjoyed it like it was the last one that they’d ever get. Shortly afterward, Rainbow split with his girls and Sparkle did as well with Violet and Mercedes. ‘B’ decided to take Yolanda and Miriam to the Holiday Inn off Wesley Chapel. All was good again in the hood.
Sparkle and the girls had gotten about halfway to the apartment on Memorial Drive when Violet’s phone started buzzing. She answered it and immediately handed it to him. It was Rainbow. “Yo, bro, since it gonna be hot around this bitch for a minute, y’all wanna hit a party out there in Henry County?” When Sparkle didn’t respond, he heard Rainbow take a deep breath. “Look at it this way, partner; after all that laying up, the girls are in the mood to do some partying. Hell, and we might as well make some cheddar off of some of them white folk out that way, you feel me? Plus. that would be the last place that Bevy’s crew would be looking for us.”
When Sparkle still remained quiet, he threw him one final spiel. “Nigga. brang yo ass on over here, because we might as well get out of DeKalb and Fulton and let this shit cool down some.”
Sparkle looked at both girls through the mirror and finally replied, “Okay, man, we’re on our way over there now. See y’all in a few.”
Rainbow was sitting on the stoop when they pulled into the back yard and parked parallel to the garage. Sparkle had a devious sneaky smile on his face as he got out of the car. “I hope you got some rubbers around this joint because Violet says there are a lot white freaks that love to get nasty after they’ve blooped a few.”
Rainbow stood up and spoke over his shoulder as he led them into the house. “Man, I hope you brought some of that killer blow because I ain’t got but a ball left over here.”
Sparkle spotted the smirk on his face and began to wonder what it was all about. “My nig, you could’ve told me that on the phone. You know damn well we ain’t been by the crib yet.”
Rainbow stopped in the kitchen and turned around. He arched his brow. “Well, it looks like you got to go get some then, right?”
“And what’s wrong with you getting some from over there in the Bottom?” Rainbow gave him a condescending look as he spoke to the girls. “Y’all girls, come on, we’re going to do us a little of this here boy while my nigga goes to get that.”
The look on their faces, especially Violet’s, let him know that he had hit on the right spot. Rainbow reached around him to grab Violet’s and Mercedes’s hands and led them into the living room. Mercedes had a real tender look on her face but she followed them willingly.
“This nigga,” Sparkle mumbled under his breath as he heaved his shoulders, frowned at their departing backs and left the house to get the car. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of their apartment. He was grumbling as he headed for the door, when he heard a car door open and shut. Instinctively he picked up his pace to the door. Damn, the security door was l
ocked. Sparkle immediately snatched his Glock out of his back, expecting the sound of guns to be blasting his way. He spun around ready to go to war, when he heard a familiar voice shout out to him in a commanding tone. It had taken him only a moment to recognize the voice of his childhood sweetheart. Try as he might, it was difficult not to smile as she walked up to him. She was in one of her usual disguises for whenever she ventured into the hood: an oversized jacket, baggy pants, a baseball cap cocked acey-deucy and large aviator glasses. If it hadn’t been for her voice, he would’ve easily thought that she was one of those wannabe hard-as-nails, young, hip-hop honeys.
She wanted to make sure that she had direct eye contact with him so she tilted the glasses down her nose, to make sure that he saw her intensity. “Whatcha ready to run for there, partner? Yo ass be guilty of something; feeling real nervous and shit, huh?”
She leaned back with her hands on her hips, eyes narrowed curiously as he lifted the back of his shirttail to ease the gun back in its customary place. She didn’t give up a blink or any other sign of fear, which didn’t faze him in the least; her being who she was, a straight-up gangster boo and all. He ran the knuckle of his index finger over the corner of his eye as he looked over at the car she had gotten out of; a paranoia move, for sho, but he really didn’t expect to see anyone. It wasn’t her style.
Reacting to his reaction, she looked back at the car herself, sorta like reading his mind, before she propped a high-ankled boot on the first step and leaned forward with intensity bristling from her shoulders.
Her icy stare nearly caused a shiver to escape, but he wasn’t about to show her that kind of weakness. He leaned on the door sill as chill as he could be and waited for her to throw her lecture at him. When she harrumphed loudly, clearing her throat, Sparkle held his hand up to stop her, turned around to open the security gate and held it open for her to go enter. He opened the door to the apartment and left it open for her to follow. He headed directly for the refrigerator, took out two Heineken brews, then tossed her one over his shoulder, which she snatched out of the air with one hand and popped the tab. He smiled at quick reacting agility and said over his shoulder, “So what’s up, sweetheart, or should I say, Chief, with that tone of command in your voice?” He snatched a bag of pretzels out of the cabinet and went to sit on the arm of the sofa.
