“Yow! Wha happ’nin’, star? Wha de fuck yuh?” a huge dread with a barrel chest and big beer gut barked in Sean’s face with a thick Jamaican accent.
“Fuck out my face, nigga!” Sean snarled, raising his gun to the dread’s head. Scowling Sean pressed the barrel of his .40-caliber Glock hard against the man’s forehead and moved his finger into the trigger guard. The dread immediately threw his hands up in surrender, but not before about six others came rushing toward Sean and his crew speaking hard with their Jamaican patois. Guns were raised and pointed in their faces before the basement makeshift security team could even get their bearings.
“E’erybody back the fuck up! Back up! We came here for one reason, so don’t get ya m’fuckin’ dreads twisted for no fuckin’ reason!” Beans screamed, raising the chopper in the air so the dreads would know they were immediately outgunned. All of the dreads threw their hands up and stood their brooding but helpless.
“Yuh nah know a who yuh a fuck wit’, star?” the first dread grumbled. Sean raised his Glock and brought it down on the man’s head, sending the dread to the floor like a deflated balloon.
“Nah, nigga . . . you don’t know who you fuckin’ wit?” Sean spat. The crowd of partygoers who had been wining and grinding up on one another began flooding out of the makeshift club like roaches when the lights go on. They wanted no parts of the drama unfolding in front of them.
Sean forged ahead, interrupting a few intense grind and sex parties that were going on in random corners of the basement. He was in search of Sunny and wasn’t leaving until he found her.
“Where Faheem at?” Sean asked one dude as Ak and Ty pulled the dude up off of a girl. “Back!” the dude spilled the beans right away, his dick dangling in the open. Sean tossed him down and steamed toward the back of the club like a madman.
There was a closed door next to the bathrooms. Sean bulldozed into the door with his shoulder and it crashed open sending the doorknob into the wall inside.
“What the fu . . .” Faheem started, jumping to his feet with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Sunny remained sitting, but her one good eye went round as well. Between her teeth she held a belt that was tightly wrapped around her arm and she grasped a needle full of heroin, ready to jam it into her vein. She saw Sean, but the urge to get high prevented her from letting go of the belt and calling out to him.
“You m’fucka! I warned you right?” Sean snarled, grabbing a handful of Faheem’s long dreads. “I told you to make sure you treated her right!”
“Agh!” Faheem winced, swinging his arms futilely as Sean winded his hand tightly in the dreads.
“You not only pimpin’ her out but you putting ya m’fuckin’ hands on her, too? You ain’t no fuckin’ man,” Sean hissed in Faheem’s face.
“Sean!” Sunny finally screamed, dropping her needle on the floor. Before she could rush over to Sean her movement was halted.
Bang! Bang!
Faheem’s eyes popped open and his body went limp immediately. Sean had put two in his dome right on the button at the temple.
“No!!! No!!!” Sunny screeched, her body folding over at the waist. “Why! Why!” she cried out.
“Get her and let’s go!” Sean commanded. Ak rushed over and hoisted Sunny onto his shoulder caveman style. “No! Don’t touch me! No!” She was kicking, screaming, spitting and scratching.
“You killed him! Why? Why?” she was hollering. “Get off me! I need to help him! Fah? Fah?” Sunny screeched so loudly she began coughing and wheezing. She stretched her arms out toward Faheem’s stiff form, but she was no match for Ak.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Beans barked. They all rushed toward the exit.
“Sean!! I hate you! I hate you!” Sunny howled as she continued to flail her legs. “Fah!! Fah!!” she continued screaming for her dead man. With each scream Sean’s insides churned harder and harder. If he didn’t love Sunny so much he would’ve put one in her dome to shut her up too.
“You can hate me all you want. I’m saving your life right now,” Sean grumbled as they all loaded into the Range Rover.
Pain shot like daggers through Sunny’s head as she struggled to open her eyes. “Mmm,” she moaned, moving her head side to side slowly.
Sean stirred in the chair he’d been sleeping in across from the bed where Sunny lay.
“Where am I?” Sunny croaked out, finally able to open her eyes slightly. Her mouth and throat were desert dry and her lips were cracked and painful.
“Big Mama’s new house,” Sean said, sitting up in the chair. He flexed his severely cramped neck and tried to work the kinks out of his back. He took a good look at Sunny and couldn’t believe it. Sunny’s once-flawless face was now marred with old and new bruises. Her left eye was healing, but it still had blue, green and purple rings around it. One of her front teeth was missing and her usually long, silky hair was matted and missing in a few places. Sean could still see remnants of her old beauty under all of the scars and he couldn’t wait until she was well enough for him to take her for a full makeover.
“I need to go, Sean. I am going to be sick if I stay here,” Sunny said, sitting up in the bed too quickly. She suddenly felt faint and collapsed onto the floor. Sean jumped up and rushed to her side. He grabbed her and pulled her back up onto the bed.
“C’mon, Sunny, just relax. You been through a lot. You don’t need to go nowhere. I got my man to get you some methadone to wean you down and you gon’ stay right here and detox off that shit. Big Mama knows what’s up and she wants to see you get better, Sunny,” Sean told her as he helped her lie back down.
Sunny began sobbing and rocking back and forth. She wanted a hit real bad and she couldn’t stop thinking about Faheem.
“Why? Why you keep trying to help me?” she cried, rubbing her arms like they hurt really badly. “Maybe I don’t want to be helped,” she sniffled back a nose full of snot.
“Whatchu mean why? C’mon we been best friends since we were little. Why wouldn’t I wanna see you doing better, Sunny? Being in clubs fuckin’ niggas for drugs ain’t you,” Sean replied, stroking her hair. “You just don’t know that you want to be helped . . . but you do. You want shit to be like old times. Remember when you used to be scared and stressed and would come over to my house and stay?” Sean said as he lay down next to her and held her like he would when they were kids.
“It’s the same old us, Sunny. We are the same old us,” he said softly, holding her tightly.
“I’m embarrassed. Look at me,” Sunny said, extending her arm so Sean could see all of the deep, purple track marks on her once-flawless skin.
“You ain’t never got to be embarrassed in front of me. I was the first nigga to smell you take a shit remember?” Sean said jokingly. Sunny elbowed him playfully and let out a halfhearted chuckle.
“Well I was the first chick to smell your deadly-ass farts,” she joked back. They both busted out laughing. Sean hugged Sunny into him and kissed the top of her head.
“You gon’ be a’ight. I’ma make sure you get clean and live like the queen that you are,” he said, his heart filling with love. More tears dropped from Sunny’s eyes and soaked the pillow. Once again, Sean had showed her the most love she had ever received in her entire life. They lay there for a few minutes in silence. Both of them wondering what life had in store for them.
A soft knock on the bedroom door interrupted their moment.
“Come in,” Sean called out in response to the knocks. He unlatched himself from Sunny and sat up on the side of the bed. The door slowly crept open and within seconds Sean’s grandmother was standing there with her usual warm, inviting smile spread on her face.
“Good morning, babies. I had Lacy make y’all some breakfast so come on downstairs. I hope you’re feeling a little better, Sunny girl,” his grandmother said sweetly. Sunny turned over and smiled at her; tears welling up in her eyes.
“You still call me that after all these years, Big Mama,” Sunny said, her voice cracking.
“You gon’ always be Sunny girl to me,” Sean’s grandmother replied.
“See, this is gonna be the perfect place for you to stay to get back on your feet. Big Mama’s lovin’ will have you better in no time,” Sean said, smiling from ear to ear. He couldn’t be more happy to have both of his true loves together in one house.
Chapter Thirteen
Sean stood in the warehouse with BG on the opposite side of a long, wooden folding table. He looked down at the flawless, neatly wrapped bricks of heroin that were laid out perfectly on the table.
“Ain’t this bitch pretty?” BG asked, waving her hand over the shipment like a game show host showing a winning prize. “You can’t beat getting this shit as easy as we did.”
“You ain’t never lie,” Sean replied, excitement apparent in his eyes, but his face showing that he was cool about it. He was still kind of stunned that BG had pulled off the transport without even consulting him on a shipping method.
“Like Reemo promised, this is straight off that banana boat. Not one bit stepped on at all. Purest shit you gon’ ever get in the U.S.,” BG told him, sticking her chest out proudly. She had something to prove to Sean and this shipment was just what she needed to make the point.
Sean looked over at her and he felt funny inside . . . a tingle that he didn’t get from many women. BG was as beautiful as the first day he’d laid eyes on her, but today, after what she’d accomplished, BG looked even more gorgeous to him. Sean loved to see her in white, so the white blazer she wore with her perfect cleavage peeking out was doing something to him. He remembered the hot night they shared in Miami and wondered if BG ever thought about it like he did. Neither of them had ever mentioned it again and BG knew that for the past two months, Sunny had been living with Sean’s grandmother and receiving frequent visits from Sean. BG also surmised that Sean and Sunny had taken things to the next level, so BG stepped back from the situation to protect her own heart.
“Why you staring at me like that? I got something on my face?” BG asked, snapping Sean out of his daydream.
“Nah. Nah. Nothing like that. So you, we need to get this out to the streets and see how it goes,” Sean told her quickly changing the subject back to strictly business. He picked up a brick of the pure heroin and held it for a few seconds. “This is good . . . real good.”
“So God is a dead issue now right?” BG asked for clarification. It had been bothering her that Sean hadn’t kept her updated about the situation with God.
“I’ll handle God. You handle distribution,” Sean came back quickly. Sean had already been dodging calls from God for the past two months while he waited to see if Reemo would make good on his deal. Sean finally got tired of God’s incessant calls and changed his phone number. Sean told himself he’d get in contact with God in due time. His plan was to make God whole for the last supply and then let God down easily with the hopes they could just part peacefully. It was a lofty goal and hope and Sean knew it.
Adina awoke to a loud crashing noise in her apartment. Not too many people knew about her new living arrangements, so she was immediately struck with panic. Her mind was still a little fuzzy with sleep, but Adina had enough clarity to grab for the small .22-caliber pistol she kept in her nightstand drawer. The noise came again, this time Adina was on her feet with her gun out in front of her. Her heart raced so fast she could barely breathe, but she was not going to lie down and let herself be an easy victim again.
Adina slowly turned the doorknob on her bedroom door and just as she went to step through the doorway she felt something pulling her forward.
“Ahh!” Her scream was short-lived as someone snatched her by her hair and dragged her down to the floor. Adina tried to get her finger into the trigger of her gun, but a brute force punch to the face dizzied her so badly her completely lost grip on her weapon.
“Help,” she croaked out, but another slam to the face caused the words to tumble right back down her throat. Adina could feel herself moving now but not of her own will.
“Sit her in front of me,” a male voice that she recognized demanded. Adina was weak, but her attackers slammed her into one of her own chairs, pulled her head up so she met their boss eye to eye.
“G . . . G . . . God,” Adina stammered, her lips beginning to swell. She knew his voice and his scent anywhere.
“I told you that if this little boy you brought me turned on me like Fox did, you would be the one to suffer for it this time. You know I never go back on my word, ’Dina,” God spoke calmly as if Adina wasn’t in front of him bleeding from her mouth and nose.
“What? I . . . I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she groaned, her legs swinging in and out nervously. As far as Adina knew, things between God and Sean had worked out perfectly for years now.
“I guess Sean really thinks he is a king huh?” God asked. “I hear that’s what he calls himself these days . . . King Sean.”
Adina shook her head from side to side. She hadn’t heard from Sean in months. Once she was paid her cut for introducing him to God, Sean’s visits became less and less frequent.
“So you didn’t know he has been going around to clubs killing people at will?” God asked Adina. She shook her head again.
“I swear. I haven’t seen him,” she mumbled as blood dribbled down her slips.
“Oh yes. There was a big incident at a Jamaican club. I hear King Sean really showed his power by blowing a man’s brains out in front of one hundred witnesses,” God said sarcastically. “This young boy has brought heat with his antics and now I hear he has crossed me . . . gone with a new supplier and didn’t even have the courtesy to sit down with me man to man like he always like to say it,” God said with an eerily calm tone to his words.
“Please. Let me call him . . . He . . . he . . . can tell you that I don’t know nothing,” Adina pleaded barely able to speak through her swollen lips.
“No need to call him. I will send him a message,” God said, nodding at the goons he was with. “Starting with you.”
“No! No! Please, God! No!” Adina screamed, bucking her body in the chair she was being restrained in. It didn’t take long for them to silence her.
It had been almost four months that Sunny had been clean from heroin. She had had a few slipups in the process, but Sean was always there to put her back on the right track. Sunny was feeling pretty good, but getting a little antsy about being in the house all of the time. It was wintertime so that made it easier to accept; however, Sunny didn’t know if she would be able to stay stuck inside when the weather broke.
Sunny and Sean’s grandmother sat in the kitchen laughing and talking about one of the television court shows when the doorbell rang and interrupted their laughter. Sunny crinkled her brow and looked at Sean’s grandmother strangely.
“You expecting somebody, Big Mama?” Sunny asked, standing up slowly from the kitchen table with a pang of fear flitting through her stomach. They both knew that Sean would just use his keys to get in.
“No, baby. Since you been here I told Lacy to just stay on home. You been all the help I need. I don’t know who would be ringing my bell this time of day,” his grandmother said, a little concern registering in her voice. Sunny moved away from the table tentatively. The hairs were standing on the back of her neck and she was involuntarily holding her breath. The bell rang again and her heart throttled up in her chest.
“Let me see who this is then, because whoever it is they ain’t going away,” Sunny told Sean’s grandmother, padding through the kitchen and into the living room. Sunny peeked out of the side windows in an attempt to see who it was before she opened the door. She had been super paranoid since Faheem’s death that someone from his camp would be coming to find her for revenge.
As she peeked from the windows suspiciously, Sunny noticed a white FTD florist van out front and the tightness in her chest quickly eased as a sense of relief washed over her.
“Who?” she called out with her hand on the doorknob just to
make sure.
“Flower delivery,” a male voice called back. Sunny smiled and let out a long, relieved breath. If it was flowers she definitely knew who was sending them. Sean had been so good to her since she had gotten clean and been staying with his grandmother that Sunny didn’t know how she would ever repay him.
“Sean . . .” Sunny whispered with a smile as she twisted the locks on the door. Before she could fully get a sentence out of her mouth the door banged open and three men with dreadlocks rushed into her with the force of a hurricane. Sunny stumbled backward and fell hard on her butt. Terror registered all over her face like she had put on a mask.
“Aggh!” Sunny screamed, but not for long. One of the men’s hands closed around her throat immediately cutting off her air supply. Sunny instinctively threw her arms up over her head, but she was no match for the men that rushed her. After a few minutes of being choked, Sunny was yanked up off the floor by her hair. Pain shot through her scalp like stabs from a butcher’s knife.
“Agghh!” she yelled, grabbing her attacker’s hand, trying to free her hair from his grip. Sunny got a good look at him and immediately noticed his dreadlocks. The one holding her grabbed her roughly into a headlock while one of the other dreads drove his fist into her gut. Sunny wheezed and coughed because his blow had literally knocked the wind out of her. She actually felt like one of her ribs had cracked from the force of the next blow.
“Yuh man can’t protect yuh nuh,” one of the dreaded goons growled, his Jamaican accent unmistakable. Sunny knew he must’ve been referring to Sean.
The Day the Streets Stood Still Page 13
