by L. E. Newell
She hung up, went to the bathroom and took herself a cold shower to help relieve some of the stress that had consumed her ever since she had found her nephew dead. After revitalizing herself, she contemplated going to the house for a while before she headed to see her girl. She wanted a blast really bad and since she no longer had any coke at the store, she decided to do just that. She figured she might as well enjoy herself as much as possible. It took her only a few minutes to check all the doors before she was ready to leave.
When she pulled away from the store, she didn’t see the car that was parked down the street pull out behind her. With all the thoughts that were running through her mind, it never occurred to her that someone would be following her. She wasted little time once she got there going to her stash in the backyard. Normally she would have taken the time to separate the bags into eight balls. But she was in sort of a rush, and it was lucky that she hadn’t. Unbeknown to her, as soon as she closed the door after going back inside, the stalker was turning the corner checking his weapon and missing her by mere seconds. He jiggled the doorknob, cursing in frustration when it didn’t budge. His frustration quickly turned into exuberance when the bedroom window opened on the first pull.
His adrenaline rush was at its peak with his prey only steps away. He nudged the bedroom door slowly, not wanting to make any sound to alert his victim. He held his gun chest high, ready to pull the trigger when disappointment hit hard again as he heard the front door slam. His immediate response was to run across the room, only to run into the sound of another door closing. He pulled the door open to the empty feeling of the car backing out of the driveway and quickly pulling down the street. He jerked his gun up to pour lead, but quickly realized that it would be a stupid move to open fire in the quiet neighborhood. He sprinted down the street as the car was turning out of sight around the corner. Quickly reaching his car a half-block away, he was soon in hot pursuit of Rose’s fast-fading taillights.
Boy, all Sparkle could think about was getting Rainbow back for setting him up with Beverly like that. A wicked smile inched to the corners of his mouth as a plan for revenge began to formulate in his mind. Even though he was certainly more than a little peeved with his boy, he was still grateful for the insight she had given him. It was sure something his paranoid-ass buddy ‘B’ would be thankful to hear about.
Shaking those thoughts out of his mind for the moment, Sparkle went into the bedroom closet and removed a shoe box buried in the corner. He took the box to the dresser and removed two of the ounces of powder cocaine he had gotten from Duke when he had gotten shot up on I-20. Replacing the shoebox in its hiding place, he took the packages into the kitchen and started cooking the coke in the microwave, using plastic ice trays.
Some twenty minutes later, after he had cooked up the whole batch, he was placing the rocks in plastic bags. He thought about how his boy Duke was doing since he had been transferred to DeKalb General Hospital. He made a mental note to remind Rainbow and ‘B’ that they really needed to pay big boy a visit. After all, the shots hadn’t hit any vital organs, so he shouldn’t be there that much longer.
Sparkle had just finished pulling the last tray out of the microwave when the telephone started ringing. He zipped across the living room to answer it on the third ring. He was pleasantly surprised to hear Mercedes’s sweet, sexy voice on the line. He really didn’t care too much for what she said though, as she was delivering a message from Rainbow about why he was taking so long to get back over there. His first thoughts were to get him on the phone to chastise him for the stunt with Beverly. But he decided to rein in his emotions and let Mercedes know that he would be on his way shortly. It didn’t take him long to get ready to roll out.
When Sparkle walked in the door, there was a loud, boisterous Spades game in progress, which quickly came to an immediate stop. All the girls bum-rushed him, trying to be the first to get a blast before they headed out to the country.
He tossed Mercedes one of the bag of rocks he had cooked up and headed for the kitchen where he heard Rainbow’s and Violet’s voices making deals for when they got out there. He really wanted to get in Rainbow’s shit right then and there, but that wouldn’t have been a good idea in Violet’s presence, which the dirty muthafucka probably knew from the smile on his lips.
Sparkle got in his line of vision and mouthed angrily, “I’m gonna get you, dog. I’m gonna getcha.”
Rainbow eyed Violet out of the corner of his eye and mouthed silently, “Yeah, nigga, whatever.” He then said out loud, “You ready to do this here, partner? How much ya bring?”
Without so much as acknowledging him, Sparkle threw the package to Violet as he said over his shoulder, “Whenever y’all ready to roll, partner.”
He rolled his eyes in his direction and headed for the bathroom. By the time that he came out several minutes later, everybody had taken a blast and were ready to go. They were on their way to the third customer when Violet laid her hand on Sparkle’s lap and smiled devishly. “This is the house where the freaks are, so y’all two niggas ain’t gotta be looking all crazy when they start to want to suck on some dick and pussy. Because it’s definitely about to get off the hook in this here bitch, for sho.”
Lady, who was in the backseat toying around with Carla, Princess and Mercedes, started laughing as she rubbed her crotch. “Sheeiiit!! I ain’t got no problem with a little snow bunny head. Those freaky muthafuckas know how to get low and nasty for a bitch, humph.”
She was quickly followed by a chorus. “Hell, I ain’t neither.” Everybody started laughing and getting pumped up for the up-coming freak show. A little over a half-hour later, the house was rocking full of folk getting geeked to the gill. Folk started doing stripteases all up in folks’ grills. One juicy redhead had started throwing her fat crotch in Sparkle’s face when his phone rang. It was Bertha and she let him know that Max and Junior had made a deal with one their favorite customers but couldn’t locate the supplier.
Figuring that it would be rather nice to be able to hand Duke a big wad of dough when they went to see him at the hospital, Sparkle told her that he’d call her back when he was on the way. He hung up and looked around the room for Rainbow to tell him what was up, but he didn’t see him among the horde of naked bodies twisting around in all sorts of positions. Man, where’s this fool? he thought as he began his search into both bedrooms and bathrooms. No Rainbow. Then he lifted his cell phone and started to punch in his number, when in his peripheral vision, he saw some movement outside of the patio doors. He wasn’t surprised to see one of the white women bent over eating out of the outstretched legs of Mercedes, while Rainbow was long-stroking her fine creamy ass doggy-style.
He slid the door open and cleared his throat to get their attention. When they didn’t respond, he said gruffly, “Yo, dog, we got to make a run downtown, like yesterday.”
Rainbow continued stroking the woman into a series of muffled orgasms as he looked over to him. “Give me another minute here, my nigga. This one will be out of it by then.” His face started transforming into an orgasmic grit of its own.
Sparkle shook his head and started to close the door, but then he said as if it was an afterthought, “Baby girl, go ahead and get dressed; you rolling with us.” He closed the door and went to find Violet, gave her the rest of the coke and let her know what he was going to do. Some fifteen minutes later, they had reached I-20 and he gave Rainbow the whole rundown of what was happening. True, he didn’t necessarily need him to help him take Max and Junior the four ounces, which was half of the quarter kilo that they wanted. Still, it was a little satisfying to disturb the pleasures he was having. And truth be told, he really didn’t feel that comfortable traveling downtown all by himself, with all the recent events still running hot.
Mercedes rode quietly in the backseat. It really didn’t matter where they were going or what they were doing. She was glad to finally be able to get some time with her man. When they got to the house, they immediately started roc
king up the coke into ounce blocks. There were only six left and there was no way that they were going to depart with the last of what they had.
Max and Junior were really grateful when they handed them the four ounces in the back office of the club. While they took care of that business, Mercedes spent her time gathering the latest gossip from some of her former striptease buddies.
After concluding their business they were really surprised to see Mona when they came out of the office. She was sitting in one of the booths with her lookalike baby sister, Crysty. Seems like she wasn’t about to hang around no dead body, either. As they walked by them, Sparkle overheard one of them say something about Hartsfield Airport between giggles. While Crysty appeared to be gleaming with joy, Mona looked as if she was forcing her glee. It was quite understandable as far as he was concerned.
As they left the club, Sparkle’s attention was drawn to someone flickering a lighter inside of a car in the club’s parking lot. He nudged Rainbow in the side to get his attention and nodded toward the car. “Yo, dog, what the fuck is this bitch Woo doing here? I don’t see no signs of her crew. Whatcha think? We should go tell Max and Junior that this ho’s doing the stakeout thing.”
Before Rainbow could respond, the sound of several gunshots rang out in the night air.
“What the fuck?” Sparkle said before he pulled Mercedes close to his body to protect her. Another set of shots rang out and then they heard Woo crank up her car and back out of the parking lot. Only then did Sparkle recognize the car she was driving. It was the same one he had seen leaving the Heart of Decatur hotel just before they had discovered Don’s body.
Could it be possible? Damn, the bitch was a cop and a worrisome- ass one at that. Then again what did that really mean because half the bastards on the force were crooked ass muthafuckas. Another set of tires screeched out of the MARTA parking lot across the street. A large dark car sped onto the street, swerving in a fishtail onto Lee Street and zoomed down the street.
When Woo’s car jetted after it, Sparkle’s curiosity went into overdrive. “Come on, dog, something ain’t adding up here. Let’s follow them and see what’s up.”
Rainbow didn’t hesitate for he needed some answers, too. He pulled Mercedes right along with him to the car. As they were zooming by the MARTA lot, they saw a man staggering against the lamp pole before he tumbled to the ground.
“Hey, did that look like...?” Rainbow started to say.
“Yeah, the fucking deputy chief. Man, what the fuck’s going on here?” Sparkle finished as he strained his eyes to keep Woo’s taillights in sight as she wheeled around a bend in the street.
Aunt Rose didn’t really start feeling suspicious until she had stopped by the Hardee’s restaurant on Dunlap Avenue. She was standing in the line waiting for her order when the hairs on the back of her neck started to tingle. From there her street instincts took over and helped her to control her composure as she accepted her change from the cashier and headed for the bathroom. While inside, she counted to twenty and cracked the door enough to see a suspicious character across the street at the Chinese joint. He was in a dark coupe and jerked his head away when she tried to make eye contact after leaving the bathroom. She leaned further in his direction to get a better look, and he responded by acting as if he was getting something out of the glove compartment.
He had ducked down rather quickly, but not quick enough. Damn, is that& naw& Now why would he be way out here, unless…, she thought as her anger started to rise. She could’ve sworn that she’d seen him peeking over the edge of the door when she’d left the restaurant.
Her antenna was at full alert as she watched him in her rearview mirror when she turned onto and drove down Main Street. Her adrenaline pumped up immediately when his head jerked up and he was instantly on her tail before she had even got two blocks away. Still, to be absolutely certain, she made a right on Second Street and stopped at the first available service station to get gas. She stayed at the pump until she saw the car pass and jumped back in hers and headed back to Main. Now that she knew that he was definitely following her, she started thinking about going to some dark and crowded area with plenty obstructions, where she could confront him. After passing up several possibilities, she decided that the Lee Street MARTA station would be the perfect place.
As she was turning into the gated fence, she noticed Lt. Woo standing outside her car in the club’s parking lot. That really piqued her curiosity, pushing her antennae up that much further why it seemed that nearly every time that she came by the club, that the little bitch was somewhere around. Was that little slut sniffing at the same pussy that she was? She’d have to get in her shit real soon if that was the case. But right now she had to handle this fool following her. Whaddafuck’s up with all these cops? she thought as she pulled in between a couple of SUVs and settled in to wait on her pursuer.
A few moments later, she saw his car pass by and then back up and enter the parking lot. This fool had now become the prey as she checked her wristband blade holder to make sure that it was working right. She quickly scanned the area for any witnesses. There were none, so she took a deep breath and eased out of the car, making sure that she made enough noise for him to hear.
With her senses on full alert, she tiptoed to the other side of the car trying to camouflage her exact position. She was poised for attack as she faced the direction where she figured he had stopped his car. Therefore she was taken totally by surprise when she reacted to a rattling sound to her left, only to have her feet taken from under her by his unseen hands. Dazed from her head and back being slammed solidly against the vehicle parked next to her, and then the unforgiving pavement, she was barely aware of the cold steel of his gun pressed into her neck. Much too late it registered on her wobbly mind that he had yanked her by the hair and slammed her into the SUV. “Bitch, do you realize how much money you have caused me?” he spat angrily in her ear as he gripped her neck in an iron grip.
Flinching and gasping from fear and shock she could only mumble, “What are you talking about? How did I cause you any money?” The foul spittle from his obviously drunken mouth caused her to recoil away from the stench as he continued. “Bitch, don’t play games with me. Your stupid ass killed my man Al. That shit fucked up my digits big time and now your stanky ass has got to pay for getting in my godayum business.”
He emphasized how pissed he was by yanking harder on her neck. She groaned as the darkness of unconsciousness started to cloud over her senses. He yanked hard one more time and pulled the trigger. Only the bullet didn’t go into her neck as he had planned. He grunted in pure shock as his gun hand instinctively jerked upward when he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Followed immediately by another burning sensation in his rib cage. He folded over, mouth gaped in shock, while her stiletto craved a deadly path across his stomach. Blinking into a void of nothingness, he fell to the pavement as the blackness began to take over. But not all of his consciousness was lost as he struggled to his feet and got off several shots as her car was backing away. He staggered after her, getting off some more shots in pursuit, until he ran out of energy and ebbing life flow. With the dizzying spiral of death surrounding him, he leaned against a lamp pole as her taillights faded into the night. Blinking to oblivion, he slid down the pole, seeing nothing at all when his head clunked off of the pavement.
Lt. Woo paused momentarily at the entrance to the parking lot to see that it was the deputy chief fading to his death. She now knew that she was in hot pursuit of a cop killer. She knew that she had seen the car several times, but at the moment, she couldn’t remember where. That was okay, though, she’d know soon enough. She picked up her mike to call for assistance, when her hand suddenly froze before she pressed the button. She had seen the same car at too many drug scenes she had stacked out, as well as at the club, for it to be a coincidence. She’d see where it was headed before she decided on whether to call her crew. After all, she already knew that RJ was involved in the hijacking ring, so there
was no telling what else that he and the person she was following were engaged in.
She followed the car into East Point and when the car made a right turn on Dunlap Avenue, she got a good look at the driver behind the wheel with the aid of the lamp pole. It was the old lady that she had seen frequenting the club and several drug hot spots, but she hadn’t really paid her that much attention up until now. The bitch had killed RJ. Why? She’d have to get the ups on her whenever she reached her destination, which had to be nearby since she had slowed her pace.
She drove past as the car parked and the lady got out and headed down the sidewalk. She quickly parked in the adjacent lot and ran to the corner of the other apartment building. She realized that she was moving too fast and tried to slow her momentum. She was forced to grab onto the wall when her feet slid from under her, taking her beyond the edge. She groaned in agony as her backside rolled onto a scattering of jagged rocks and pinecones on the ground. She covered her mouth to keep from crying out loud as she looked down the roll of apartments, hoping that the sound didn’t attract the attention of her prey. Momentarily stunned, she gave a silent pray as the old lady didn’t show any recognition of discovering her, and entered the apartment several doors down. Now what? Do I call for backup now or come up with a plan to get in the apartment? Woo thought.
“Damn,” she cursed under her breath when a set of headlights washed across her back and forced her to roll behind some bushes aligned beside the walls. There was no need to let anyone see her.
After the car had passed, she started to creep along the wall until she got to the door she had gone in. She could see a silhouette of the lady through the shades at the kitchen window and she started looking around thinking of a way to get in. It didn’t take her long to figure that one out as she smiled when she saw an upstairs window opened. She took a deep breath and set to the task.
