Deceit, Lies, & Alibi's Trilogy Books 1-3

by Shontaiye

  “Yeah, well pay the mortgage then,” he said sarcastically.

  “Yeah ok smartass. You do payroll, use QuickBooks, and write a business plan. When you learn to do that then I’ll be happy to switch places with you and just pay the mortgage,” she said with a satisfied smile.

  “You stay talking shit,” he laughed. “You got me though, I’ll take care of the mortgage…And I got sumn for that smart mouth later,” he added, before walking out. She laughed to herself and shook her head.

  Noah headed back out to do business with his soon to be former friend.

  Shaleea

  The following day Shaleea sat on the floor of the bathroom and read the plastic stick she was holding for the second time. She had taken two tests and this one said the same thing; POSITIVE. She was definitely pregnant.

  After eating her normal light breakfast Shaleea didn’t feel so well. Nausea and dizziness invaded her body shortly after consuming the small meal. She hadn’t missed a period but she had been experiencing bouts of tiredness over the past week and decided to confirm her suspicions.

  Shaleea was happy that the surgery she had months back had been successful, but she was now faced with a new problem. She wasn’t sure if this baby was Noah’s. She didn’t remember a whole lot from the night she slept with Mann, but she did know they had went several rounds. She was sure Mann didn’t use protection and she cursed herself for not being smart, or responsible enough to get emergency contraception after the encounter.

  She didn’t plan to say anything about the pregnancy until after she met with Dr. Davis. She had already called him and he told her to come in that week. He would confirm she was pregnant and then would perform an intravaginal ultrasound to determine how far along she was. She prayed she wasn’t too far in the pregnancy. She and Noah had recently become intimate again and if it was his, she wouldn’t be any more than around six weeks pregnant. Anything past that would make the baby Mann’s. She took a deep breath and hoped for the best, before she got up to continue with her day.

  Shaleea turned off the engine and took out the keys of the new truck Noah had purchased her. Even though she wasn’t initially impressed with the truck, she still accepted it once she moved back in. The Audi was gorgeous inside and out, and she loved every bit of it.

  After moving back into their home, life went back to normal for the three and Shaleea had been busier than ever. She was almost to the end of her Master’s degree program and was about to begin her practicum, which was basically several semesters of her applying all that she had learned from graduate school in a practical business setting. She was having trouble coming up with ideas about ways to apply what she had learned to her business.

  Since she knew she wouldn’t be able to fully juggle her coursework and conduct business she and Noah decided that they would promote Susan and hire another full time attendant to cover her shift. Susan would officially become area manager for the four North Philadelphia laundromats and receive double the pay. They would pay an extra $3,200 per month overall but it didn’t matter. Shaleea had to focus on finishing her degree so she could be good for the long haul. Besides they had more than enough income coming in and after being apart from Noah for several months, she realized even more how important it is to be independent.

  Noah had been really sweet to her since she had moved back in. Shaleea guessed that once he got a taste of life without her, he straightened up. She knew he loved her but she sometimes didn’t know if that love alone was enough to keep him on the right track. He did however, make some changes, starting with changing his phone number and committing to being home every night by nine. She prayed they made it. Lord knows she loved him.

  “Hey Susan,” Shaleea said to her top employee when she walked into the office of Squeaky Clean 4 at 21st and Lehigh. That was their largest laundromat and where they had their main office that they handled all of the paperwork.

  “Hey Shaleea, how are you?” Susan asked. Susan was an older, short plump Puerto Rican lady who she had known for many years. She met Susan when she opened her first laundromat. She knew she would need help when she first opened up and wanted to reach out into the poor community to give someone a job. She walked into the welfare office workforce center off Lehigh and saw Susan diligently searching for jobs.

  She hired her on the spot to work the overnight shift since Noah refused to do it and wouldn’t allow Shaleea to do it herself. She was an awesome employee and an incredible asset to Squeaky Clean. She and Noah both adored Susan.

  “Hey Susie Q, how’s it going?” she asked.

  “Laid back really. I had to put a few people out who were loitering and stealing muffins and coffee.”

  “Ohh you mean the homeless guys?” Shaleea asked.

  “Yes, unfortunately I do.”

  “Ok. Well we definitely can’t have them standing around, but next time go ahead and let them grab whatever’s up there. I don’t want to turn them away if they’re hungry. After that they do have to move out the front,” Shaleea stated, while going over an inventory sheet.

  “Okey dok boss lady…Oh! I forgot to tell you someone came by here for you today.” She snapped her finger profusely trying to remember what he said his name was.

  “What did he look like?” Shaleea asked, after Susan failed to remember after a few seconds.

  “Oh, umm he was kinda tall…well taller than me…dark-skinned, bald head—drove a black sporty looking car. “

  “Oh ok, Susan. I know who it is…Thanks,” she grumbled. She knew it was Mann and she was pissed that he brought his black ass up to her and Noah’s laundromat. She hadn’t seen him in over a month before yesterday, and he still was tripping over what happened.

  “Oh yeah, he left his number. I put it on your desk.”

  “Ok, I’ll grab it. Thanks Susan.”

  She was going to rip the number up as soon as she got the opportunity. Besides, she already knew Mann’s number. She had called him and Hakim both on multiple occasions when she couldn’t reach Noah. She wondered why he felt the need to show up at her place of business looking for her when Noah could have been present. He was up to something. She just didn’t know what.

  FIVE

  Mann

  Mann walked into his home carrying a noisy plastic bag that held soup and tea. He had drove all the way into Philadelphia to get the items and hoped his grandmother would be able to hold it down on her weak stomach.

  Mann closed his door but didn’t bother to lock it since the neighborhood was extremely safe. He didn’t even own a security system yet. However, he planned to get one as soon as he returned from New York in a few days.

  “Hey Grandma,” he said with a smile. Mann’s grandmother Darlene was laying in her queen sized bed watching Goodtimes. It was one of her favorite shows so Mann went and found her several seasons on Blue Ray.

  “Hey baby,” Darlene responded with a profound cough. The cough sounded like it came from the deep pits of her soul and actually caused her body to shake.

  “You okay?” he asked, face full of concern. She had been sick for several weeks and her health was deteriorating because of her age. In just a couple of weeks she had been to the hospital several times. It pained him to see her in the condition she was in, and lately he had been thinking about how he would carry on his life without her. She and Zeke were pretty much the closest things he had to him. Zeke’s mom had too died from drug abuse along with his own mother. The rest of Darlene’s family were living their life and were too selfish to occasionally reach out and check on their elderly relative. For that reason Mann didn’t acknowledge them. It was as if they never existed.

  “I’m okay Manny, just a little under the weather baby,” she hoarsely replied, calling him what she had called him for years. Everyone called him Mann, which was a nickname derived from his given name Damon, but Darlene called him Manny.

  “Well, I got you some soup and the tea you like from 4th street…Where’s Sonya?” he asked. He was referring to Darl
ene’s caregiver who he had hired when they moved into the home. Darlene didn’t need around the clock care but he paid Sonya to be there from 7am-3p. She would help Darlene bathe, get dressed, take her medications, and would also prepare all her meals for the day. The remainder of the day Darlene would watch T.V and sometimes Mann would drive her into Philadelphia to see some of her elderly friends or play bingo. At one point she had been fond of the slot machines at the Sugar House Casino but once her health began to fail her, she stopped going. Mann was secretly happy since she could easily go in there and waste hundreds of dollars. He wasn’t into fucking up his money but he didn’t like telling her no since she cared for him since he was a baby.

  Both he and Zeke’s moms were fast girls living in a big city. They partied, had loads of fun and tried different drugs. When crack hit the scene in the 80’s, their young lives were cheated the chance to blossom properly because the drug ravaged through the community and devastated families. Mann’s mother was killed when he was twelve. She had been found alongside of the Schuylkill River in West Philadelphia. The cops ruled it most likely drug related. To them she was just another dead crack-head. Zeke’s mother eventually ended up falling in love with Heroin when crack was no longer good enough for her. She would eventually succumb to an overdose. Darlene raised the two side by side the best she could, and loved them as well as she knew how. His grandmother was his life, as well as his hero.

  “I told her she could go get some lunch. She had taken care of everything for me and I could tell she was hungry,” she said, responding to Mann’s earlier question. She was smiling. As long as he could remember she always had a smile on her face, even when things were bad.

  “Oh that’s cool. Well look Grandma, I have some business to handle. I’m gonna leave your soup by your bed in case you want some before Sonya gets back. There’s a spoon and straw in the bag.”

  He walked over and gave her a kiss on her thin brown cheek and left for his own room. He had to call Zeke. The “come up” day as Mann liked to call it, was swiftly approaching and he wanted to make sure he and Zeke were on the same page since the plans had changed up a little. There was no room for error.

  After speaking with Zeke, Mann went to the bathroom and rummaged around his medicine cabinet. He was looking for the Tylenol he had purchased the other day. Lately he had been having a series of painful headaches and he needed something to alleviate the pain. As a child he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety that stemmed from him feeling abandoned by his mother. He remembered having the same terrible headaches then. When his mother died it was an extremely traumatic experience for him, especially because of his fragile mental state. He was too young to understand that she was sick and because of this he always felt like he was an inadequate child, incapable of being able to get something that should be a given in life; the love of one’s mother. She had already chosen drugs over him and when she died that solidified that her love with drugs surpassed her love for him. The few people he had left, he loved them fiercely and wanted to hold onto them for dear life. It was one way with Mann. He either cared for you intensely or you were in his way and he would run you the fuck over. It was that simple.

  With his grandmother becoming sick, his deepest fears resurfaced. What would he do if she left him? He knew it was inevitable; she was old. He knew when the day came he would have trouble coping, so he focused on the positive. He planned to fill the void he knew would exist in his heart. Hands down Darlene was irreplaceable, but he knew Shaleea was the perfect woman to continue life with and fill the soon to be hole in his heart. He wasn’t reaching her the way he wanted to currently, but eventually she would come around; once Noah was out of the picture.

  <><><>

  Mann sat at Noah’s kitchen table and the two of them counted out $25,000 for the weed they were about to cop from Dodda. Mann had convinced Noah to double their purchase from their normal twenty-five pounds weekly to fifty. Mann knew Dodda’s shipments came in monthly and he wanted to make sure he had more than what he normally would coming in. The extra hundred pounds of weed he ordered for them would be an extra hundred pounds of weed he would jack from his Jamaican mentor.

  “How long you think it’s gon take to move that shit?” Noah asked eagerly with an unlit Swisher dangling from his mouth.

  “Well, I got my team ready for it and they usually run out completely before I pick up, so maybe a few extra days. The couple days they usually sitting with nothing, they’ll be moving the extra work.

  “Aight cool. That extra bread will definitely come in handy. Leea done planned this big ass party for her mom and of course I gotta foot the bill. Her ass done went and rented a big ass hall, hired a fucking comedian and gon have lions and tigers and shit roaming around,” he laughed.

  “Now you know you exaggerating!” Shaleea said coming out unexpectedly. She had overheard him but didn’t know anyone was out there with him. She thought he was on the phone.

  “Whatever,” Noah laughed, before pushing the money over to Mann so he could bag it up.

  “Wassup Shaleea,” Mann said, greeting her. He made intense eye contact with her and winked.

  “Oh, hey Mann,” she said hesitantly, growing a little nervous. Although she was extremely attracted to Mann she preferred he not be around. She really wanted to like him as Noah’s friend, but it was becoming increasingly hard for her to do so. He seemed like a good guy but he was acting in poor taste by pursuing her. As intense as the night was they shared, she put it to rest in her thoughts because she loved Noah. She felt like he should do the same but he wasn’t. He continued to call her and would still send numerous text messages to her phone. Additionally, he had stopped by the laundromat. She was beginning to think she had a fatal attraction on her hands or to put it plainly; the nigga wasn’t wrapped too tight. To her, her and Noah’s relationship was far more important than the night they shared. For as long as Mann and Noah had been friends, Shaleea assumed Mann would see it that way as well, but he wasn’t. He put his energy in telling her he missed her and wanted to see her again, as well as what he could do for her.

  “Well this is the first party I threw for my mom and I want to make sure she enjoys herself. It is a little pricey but nothing that’s going to cripple us,” she added.

  “You keep saying “us.” Why don’t you just pay for it,” he asked sarcastically.

  “Noahhh, you have plenty of money and it’s not like I buy bullshit. This party is for my mom. The person that feeds us well on Sundays, takes care of Heaven, anddd will most likely be providing care to your children as well…It’s my mom. We’re paying, and you will be happy about it,” she smiled. She didn’t see why he was complaining; he was going to give her what she wanted.

  Mann silently disagreed with the statement she made. He didn’t see the children part happening for the two of them.

  “She right Noah. Give her what she want,” Mann butted in jokingly.

  Noah stopped and grilled Mann playfully. “Shut up nigga,” he laughed. “As a matter fact, babe get the money from Mann,” he suggested.

  Mann smiled at Noah and then Shaleea, “Not a problem,” he laughed.

  Yeah, I bet, Shaleea thought, as she walked off and rolled her eyes at Mann. Out the corner of his eye, Mann watched her and admired how her form fitting sweats gripped her ass.

  After loading up the cash by thousands in the duffel bag, Mann left. He was leaving for New York first thing in the morning. He hated driving through rush hour traffic but that made the transport easier. He would be able to blend right in with the average Joe. Besides tomorrow would be his final drive to the city. He had a new connect lined up in Philly and he knew that by tomorrow he would have officially worn out his welcome in the city that never sleeps.

  <><><>

  The next morning at 7am, Mann and Zeke pulled up to the apartment building they usually met Dodda at. It was cold and large snowflakes had begun to trickle from the sky. The forecast called for six inches so they had to comp
lete their task quickly so they could head out of the city and avoid the soon to be hazardous roadways.

  Zeke slowly sipped his Arizona iced tea as he sat beside his older cousin Mann. He listened to him repeat the same instructions for the fifth time. Zeke had heard him the first four times and wished his big cousin would have more confidence in him. He knew he had fucked up in the past, but this time would be different. There was a lot of money involved and he wouldn’t let his cousin down. He hadn’t smoked weed in two days and had made sure he was well rested so he would be fully focused. Zeke scratched in his scruffy braids and continued to listen. Although 25, Zeke didn’t look a day over 19. Browned skinned with a baby face, he was the complete opposite of his cousin Mann, who was a dark-skinned bearded thug.

  “As soon as Dodda walks out and closes the door to head to the car we count to five and will fire on our targets. Those niggas won’t know what hit them. Silencer in place, head shot, we leave gun still smoking. In and out so we can catch and follow the nigga to the crib. Snatch the nigga at the door, get the bread. We kill everybody in the house. I don’t give a fuck who it is. His son in school so we don’t have to worry about him. Got it nigga?” Mann asked, after running down the game plan for the final time.

  “I got it cuzzo,” he responded.

  “Good,” he said, and then patted him on the back the way a proud father would his son before his first game.

  Mann was excited but nervous. However, he displayed a level of calm that was almost scary. Despite the image he projected, he had a lot on his mind. His grandmother was still sick and Shaleea wasn’t returning his calls; not that he expected her to. But nevertheless it was still unsettling.

  “Good, let’s roll,” he said, before putting his thoughts aside and hopping out of the car.