by Anna J.
“They raided the joint and took everything,” Breeze told her while they walked up and down a rainy, empty block in Sutter Gardens.
Ruby stood under a large black umbrella, while Breeze wore a black rain suit. She didn’t care about getting wet, but she found that her paranoia grew each day, and that prevented her from speaking in cars or houses about anything illegal.
“Everything?” Ruby asked, surprised.
“The safe and all. Luckily, my dudes ran out in time. Nobody got knocked.” Breeze nodded.
“Why was everything in one crib?” she inquired, suspicious of the circumstances.
“We were just about to switch cribs because the other spot was hot. Some cat tried to rob the joint, and my man Kap had to clap him.”
Ruby and Breeze stood silently watching as a black Caravan drove by slowly. The two white faces made it obvious that they were cops. The stocky cop in a flannel shirt on the passenger side smiled at Ruby and Breeze as they kept on driving. That smile made Ruby nervous.
“Come check me tomorrow, Breeze,” Ruby said, walking toward her Benz.
“Where you gonna be at?” he asked as he began backpedaling into the building.
“I’ll call you,” Ruby roared as she jumped into her car.
She didn’t like the way things were turning out. She was having a bad week, and she knew the police could make it more than a bad week. They could make it bad years. Brooklyn was becoming bad for business, with too many setbacks occurring. First, the robberies of her and Daphne’s spots, then Karmen plotting against her, now the raid on the Sutter Gardens spot. A spot that was bringing in good money. In fact, all the money Ruby was making was coming from Sutter Gardens. She had closed the store after Karmen and her sisters were murdered. She had considered keeping it open to let Mecca run it, but Mecca was in her own world. She wouldn’t sell weed out of it if she let her run it, because she did not want to put her at risk again. She finally decided to keep it closed when the cops came snooping around, until she could sell the place.
Breeze pulled his hood off his head after he came out of the rain. He grinned, thinking to himself that she fell for it. The cops had never raided the spot; it was still up and running. It was his and Mecca’s now.
When Mecca had offered him the deal, he couldn’t refuse. She’d told him that once Ruby was out of the way, she could get him weed and coke cheaper than he’d ever seen and that they could split it down fifty-fifty. He’d agreed, but he really had no intentions of doing business with her. He knew she was washed up and wanted to make money, but she didn’t realize that she was cutting her own legs from under her by separating from her aunt. Mecca had no power without her aunt. It was a win-win situation for Breeze.
What he did not know was that Mecca had no intentions of partnering with him, either. He was Shamel’s best friend, and Shamel had betrayed her. She knew Breeze was down with what was going on and said nothing. So he was on the list for payback, too. Plus, he proved that he couldn’t be trusted by plotting against Ruby. They were supposed to be tight. It was another reminder to Mecca that no one in the game was your friend.
Breeze lit up a blunt before walking up the steps of the building. Taking his time, he stepped to the side as a tall, dark-skinned female with long dreadlocks down her back in a ponytail descended. He gave her a quick glance, thinking that she was coming from a friend’s apartment, being that he never saw her before, and chuckled to himself after noting the strange clothing she wore. Her black-and-white Chuck Taylor sneakers looked weird with yellow spandex under a tan cotton trench coat. He shook his head as she passed.
“Excuse me, sir, can I get a light?” the woman said with a deep Jamaican accent.
Breeze turned to look down at her. She held a beedi cigarette in her hand, made of small brown paper. Taking a lighter out of his pocket, he walked back to her and lit it. He didn’t notice her slide a machete down her sleeve and drop it into her hand. In one swift movement, she swung.
His eyes widened in fear just as the sharp blade connected with his neck, severing his head. When his headless body fell to the bottom of the staircase, his head landed beside it, etched with his stunned expression.
The war was on and popping.
“That’s the Davidson broad,” Detective Mike Levy mumbled from the passenger seat of the black Caravan he cruised the street in. Levy smiled as they drove past Breeze and Ruby, recognizing that they now saw them. He already knew who Breeze was from the neighborhood and his clashes with police and had decided to torment him a bit by keeping an eye on him.
Feeling this was his lucky day, he turned to his partner when Ruby got into her car. “She’s taking off. Let’s tail her.”
The Caravan pulled over behind a parked car, waiting for Ruby to pass. Inside it was silent, except for the sound of the windshield wipers and cars passing over the wet streets.
Ruby noticed the Caravan as she drove by. When they began tailing her, she became nervous. “What is these crackas up to?” she mumbled to herself, nervously looking in her rearview mirror.
She drove slowly down Sutter Avenue with them on her tail, and her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she saw the light flash from the Caravan’s dashboard. Then a voice over a loudspeaker roared, “Pull the car over to the right!”
Ruby sat still while she waited for the cops to get out of the Caravan with their hands on their side holsters. They approached the car from both sides, with bright flashlights beaming through the windows and right in Ruby’s face.
“Turn the car off, and roll the windows down,” Levy said after tapping the driver-side window. Ruby calmly did what she was told, well aware of trigger-happy cops in the city.
“What’s the problem, Officer?” Ruby asked, trying to remember if she had run a stop sign or red light.
“I’ll ask the questions, Davidson.”
Him saying her last name without her giving him identification sent red flags up. She knew this wasn’t a routine stop. Playing the confused role, she looked at Levy with a surprised expression.
“You know my name, so I guess there is no need to show my license, huh?”
“I don’t think you’re foolish enough to drive around without papers and a license, so we’ll skip that. I need to ask you some questions about some particular murders out here in East New York. Would you be willing to come in for questioning, or are you going to play hardball?”
“Am I under arrest?” Ruby asked with a serious face. Rain dripped off the bill of Levy’s Giants cap and splashed Ruby’s cheek. She resisted the urge to wipe it off.
“No, you’re not. Just some questions is all I want, and hopefully some answers.”
“Give me your card. I’ll come to the precinct with my lawyer. Until then, I’m on my way home. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be pulling off.” Ruby rolled her window up and turned the music in her car up to the max so that the cops could hear 50 Cent’s voice sing, “Many men wish death upon me.” The Benz’s tires screeched, leaving Levy frustrated in the rain.
Ruby could not believe it. Murders ... .How the hell did her name come up in that conversation? She knew it could only be Tah Gunz’s and Mo Blood’s murders that the cops were talking about. The only person that knew anything about them besides her was Breeze. Could he be talking? she wondered. One thing for sure, she wouldn’t risk her freedom by not tying up loose ends. Her freedom far outweighed a friendship or business association. Breeze had to go.
Detective Levy was unaware that he would be Ruby’s alibi witness when Breeze’s murder came to light. Just as he and his partner were driving off after pulling Ruby over, the call came in over the radio.
“All available units report to Sutter and Hendrix. Report of a homicide by decapitation.”
Levy looked at his partner, wide-eyed. “Let’s roll!”
When they arrived on the scene, there was only a marked squad car there. They were patrolling the area, and as they passed the building, a young woman wearing a robe, with her he
ad wrapped in a scarf, and under an umbrella waved them over. The uniformed cops were apparently rookies, Levy noticed. Their young faces were ghost white as one of them patted the other on the back while he vomited on the sidewalk.
“You fellas okay? What we got?” Levy asked.
“Someone chopped a guy’s head off in there. It’s the most gross thing I ever saw,” the cop doing the patting said.
“This is Brooklyn. Believe me, fellas, you’ll see worse.” Levy smiled back at his partner, who just shrugged. They walked into the hallway, and Levy shook his head at the bloody scene and headless body. Then he recognized the face.
“Ain’t this a bitch?” Levy grunted.
“Holy shit! That’s the guy the Davidson broad was just with,” his partner grunted as he looked at the face.
“Fucking A right it is. Can’t say she committed it, either,” Levy sighed.
“Death just surrounds her. What a broad,” Levy’s partner replied while shaking his head. “I guess I’ll call my old lady. Won’t be home for dinner tonight.”
Once in the comfort of her own home, Ruby decided to take a hot bath. Whenever she was on her period, she soaked in a bubble bath. It was her way of cleaning the pussy hairs of dried blood and relieving the tension of a grumpy mood. She had heard all the bad things about menopause, but she would rather deal with that than the cramps and the bleeding. She had even once thought about having a baby so for at least nine months, she wouldn’t have to deal with it. But when she witnessed her sister give birth to Mecca, she told herself, she’d rather have blood come out than a human being.
After the bath, Ruby went into her kitchen, wearing nothing but her own skin, to fix a meal. She was one of those people who could eat breakfast all times of the day and night. So she fixed a cheese omelet and toasted some Eggo waffles. Her cell phone rang as she was flipping the omelet over. Reading the caller ID, she knew it was Tashy.
“Tashy, what’s up? Please gimme some good news, because it’s been a terrible day.” Ruby told her about the spot being raided in Sutter Gardens, then about the cops pulling her over and asking about some murders.
“Murders?” Tashy barked. “God, Ruby, you just got to lay low, Ma. You got too much to lose.”
“Don’t I know it? I got things covered, though.”
Tashy sighed. “I hope so. Anyway, Simone is really getting on my nerves.”
“How? Already? She just moved in!”
“This Mona chick got her stressed out. She thinks Mona’s cheating on her.”
“Why she thinking that?” Ruby asked, picturing the rendezvous they’d had. Though Mona’s performance wasn’t memorable, it was nothing to be strung out over. Simone must be new to the lesbian experience. What Simone needed was a woman to rock her world, and she’d forget about Mona.
“She say’s Mona’s been acting different. Mona’s been avoiding her. I try to tell her not to get all bent out of shape over her. If she’s acting funny, let her go. Just now she went out, looking for her. She using that GPS they got on these cell phones to find her. Girl, the technology they got these days,” Tashy rambled as Ruby’s doorbell rang.
“Someone’s ringing my door. I hope it ain’t no damn cops,” Ruby said, putting on her whorehouse kimono and walking to the door.
She unlocked the door leading to the brownstone’s vestibule; then she looked through the curtain of the building’s front doors and couldn’t believe who was standing there, soaking wet from the rain. Mona. Ruby sighed. How the hell did this child know where I live?
To Tashy, Ruby said, “Tashy, I’ll call you back.”
“Who is it?” she asked.
“One of my peoples I got on the job,” Ruby lied, ending the call and opening the door, frustrated.
“Mona, what the hell are you doing here, and how do you know where I live?” Ruby snapped.
Mona stood there with a sad look on her face as drops of water fell from her soaked hair. “I need to talk to you, Ruby. Can I come in?”
Reluctantly, she let her in. “Take those sneakers and those clothes off. I’ll get you some dry ones. Why don’t you have an umbrella?”
“When I got on the train uptown, it wasn’t raining,” Mona said, quickly stripping out of the wet Baby Phat sweat suit and Nike Air Max sneakers.
“Simone is looking for you as we speak. She knows you’re in Brooklyn with that GPS stuff on your phone,” Ruby said flatly.
“How do you know that?” Mona asked, staring at her. Ruby turned to walk into the bedroom while Mona stood in the living room in a pair of lace panties and matching bra.
“I just got off the phone with Tashy. How else would I know?”
“I don’t care. I just wanna be here with you,” Mona replied with a shrug. Ruby came out of her room with a robe for Mona. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at Mona with pity on her face.
“Mona, we’re not going to be together, so get that out of your head now. Put the robe on. I’m gonna put your clothes in the dryer and when they’re dry, you’re gonna get a cab uptown to be with Simone.”
“I don’t want Simone. I’m in love with you. You should have never made love to me, Ruby. I didn’t want to hurt Simone, and I tried to avoid you, but no. You had to come and make me feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life. “
“Listen, Mona, I don’t want to hurt your—”
“Then don’t... .” Mona cut Ruby off. Leaving her robe open, she walked toward Ruby with a horny look on her face.
Ruby looked at her pussy through her panties and at her tight stomach, which served only to highlight her perky breasts, and almost entertained the thought of having one more session of mediocre sex with her. Maybe she could teach her something to use on Simone later on. Then she thought better of it, knowing she would never be able to get rid of her after that. Moving closer to Ruby, Mona was stopped by an outstretched hand that took a firm grip on her arm.
“You’re young, Mona, and you got a lot to learn. If Simone ain’t the one for you, you’ll find someone that is. That person ain’t me.”
Mona’s eyes began to tear up. Ruby wanted to snap, but the doorbell rang. Ruby threw her hands up in disbelief, wondering who the hell it could be now. She had just hung up with Tashy, so she didn’t think it was Simone that fast. She also hadn’t inquired about what time Simone left, but at that point she was already at the door.
“If you don’t want to be bothered, I’ll answer it. I’ll tell whoever it is you’re not here,” Mona said while wiping the tears from her face.
“Good idea. In fact, tell them a Ruby doesn’t live here. Tell them you own the place now,” Ruby directed. While she went to put Mona’s clothes in the dryer, she wondered what had happened to Daphne. Did the feds get her? Loud screaming broke her thoughts, and Ruby paused to see what was going on.
“Who the fuck lives here, Mona? Is this your secret lover’s house? Move! Let me in this bitch!”
Ruby didn’t immediately recognize the voice but knew it could be only Simone. That damn GPS! When Simone finally saw Ruby standing in her living room, in a robe, like Mona, she figured she’d walked in on a lovemaking session in progress or one that had just finished.
“Ruby?” Simone said, not believing her eyes. “How could y’all do this to me? How could you do this to my mom?”
“Hold on, Simone. There’s nothing ...”
“Don’t fuckin’ lie to me. You know what? Fuck this and fuck y’all. I hate y’all scandalous bitches.”
Simone rushed out of the house, not giving either of the women a chance to speak. Ruby was vexed. She walked into her bedroom and returned with one of her own sweat suits. She couldn’t believe how this shit was going down.
“Put this on, and get the fuck out now!” Ruby threw the sweat suit at Mona, who was about to say something, but Ruby cut her off. “Mona, don’t make me beat your young ass up. I said go!”
Mona dressed quickly and left. Ruby didn’t even give her cab fare. Exhausted, she plopped down on he
r couch and looked at a portrait of her sister. I miss you, sis, she thought as her eyes watered. She really needed someone she could talk to about her life. If only she were here. The portrait over the brick chimney and mantel was next to a picture of Mecca and Monique from 1984, standing in a Coney Island project hallway. Ruby smiled. She reached for her cell phone and dialed Mecca’s number. Ruby’s smile vanished when she heard the mechanical voice announce that the number was no longer in service.
Meanwhile, at a Jamaican restaurant in the Tremont section of the Bronx, Daphne sipped an Irish Moss out of a plastic container with a straw while sitting in a small office in the back. Engrossed in a card game with a young, light-skinned Jamaican guy who looked like a double for Spragga Benz, she checked her cards and smiled. The room was filled with marijuana smoke, which made her eyes water a bit. Then a dreadlocked woman walked in.
Daphne looked up and saw the huge mole on her nose that looked like a raisin sitting on a chocolate bar. Her dark skin was smooth and shiny. Her face was long and sculpted like that of an Ethiopian beauty queen. The woman smiled at Daphne and the Spragga Benz twin and then made a cutthroat gesture, which Daphne understood.
As the dreadlocked woman was walking away, Daphne murmured, “Just him?”
The woman shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and saying, “The man’s family, too.” And then she walked out.
Daphne stared at Spragga’s twin for a few seconds, imagining the carnage left behind. She didn’t want innocent people getting caught up in the war she was bringing to Ruby and her associates, and hearing that the woman had killed Breeze’s family was something that she didn’t want. Especially considering that the woman did not like using a gun.
“Daphne, you all right?” the Spragga twin asked in a heavy Jamaican accent.
She snapped out of her thoughts. “Yeah, I’m good. I was just thinking.” She knew she would have to accept the fact that innocent people would get caught in the middle. It was called collateral damage, she reminded herself. Charge it to the game.
