Ava was dreaming that Stackz was fucking her hard doggie style. Her pussy was wet and throbbing. She was on the verge of climaxing when she was awaked by her sister Leela.
“Bitch, wake up! Get up, Ava, wake up.” Leela was talking fast and loud, as if the house was on fire.
Ava snapped out of her wet dream and jumped out of the bed. Half asleep and sore, she was hotter than fish grease. “What the hell is wrong with you, girl? Why you up here fucking with me? Take your loud ass downstairs! You get on my damn nerves.” Ava rubbed the sleep out of the corner of her eyes, promising to lock the basement door that joined the two levels.
“Forget all that! Ava, what the hell happened last night at the club? I just saw on the news a shootout took place at Detroit Live while the club was letting out. Were you there? Who got shot? They said a girl got hit by a car fleeing the scene.” Leela bombarded her with question after question. “I know you was there, and I know you got the gossip. So what’s the deal?”
“Look, you nosey bitch, I don’t know what happen. We heard gunshots when we got to Jefferson Avenue, but ain’t go back to see what jumped.” Ava yawned as the bed commanded her to lie back down. “This is the first I’m hearing about any of what you talking about.”
What Leela was really doing was covering her ass in case it came out that she told Rank and Mickey where Ava and Stackz would be last night. She knew Stackz and his brother, along with T. L., didn’t play no games. And if she could keep her name from ringing with dirt and still avenge Devin’s death, then why not try it? “Girl, I’m glad you okay. I was worried sick about you. What time did you get in? Did he give you some money?”
“Money? Girl, what the fuck you talking about? Why everything gotta be about money all the time with you? It’s other things in the world besides money!”
Leela took two steps back, looking her sister up and down. “Oh yeah, like what?”
After they both laughed, Ava told her Stackz dropped her off a little after six this morning. Then she went on to tell Leela how good of a time he’d showed her and his entire crew. Ava lastly bragged to her how thirsty bitches were trying to get at Stackz and how he played them to the left.
Leela was low-key hating; wishing Ava had got shot and killed so she wouldn’t have to deal with her any longer. Well, maybe not killed, but at least shot so she’d temporarily shut the fuck up with acting so stomach sick in love with Devin’s killer.
“Well, I’m going back to sleep.” Ava fluffed her pillow ready to make it her BFF.
Leela, low key, was glad their fake conversation was over. No longer interested in hearing about how good of a time she had last night anyhow, she rubbed her stomach thinking about how much she wanted the man who murdered her baby daddy dead. I swear I hate Stackz and this backstabbing bitch for riding with his ass! I guess blood don’t trump dick these days!
* * *
Rank and Mickey were on the other side of town holed up in a bando. It was Mickey’s grandmother house at one point but not anymore. It had been vacant for over three months now since the elderly woman lost it due to the taxes being delinquent. After the bank had boarded the single dwelling up, Mickey tore the wood barriers off the back of the house, reclaiming his family home. Needing a place to lie low at after the blotched shootout, this was the best place possible for them to be. They knew Stackz and his people would be on their trail, so staying on the East Side was out of the question.
Mickey had been thinking. Something about last night didn’t seem right; didn’t add up. He knew Leela was known to be grimy at times, and since Devin was gone, she really didn’t have any true loyalty to him or Rank. Running down how he felt to Rank, he soon discovered he had been thinking the same exact thing. Leela was a snake. It just seemed so convenient to them both that Stackz would be waiting on them outside the club. Wasting no more time with speculation, Rank placed the call.
Leela answered her cell on the first ring, asking Rank right off rip, “Damn, what happened?”
Rank yelled into the phone, getting it real, “Bitch, you set us up! They was ready for us. That’s what the fuck happened! Don’t act stupid!”
“What the hell! Fuck outta here, nigga. No, I didn’t set y’all up! Why the fuck would I do that dumb shit?”
“I dunno. You tell me why you’d do some ole ho shit like that! We over here both fucking wondering that! Please enlighten us!”
Leela was already heated with having to hear her sister’s fairy-tale night with that wannabe hood Prince Charming and knew these busters wanna try to get on her head. Flat out, she wasn’t trying to hear whatever they were claiming. “Listen, Rank, I want that punk that killed my baby daddy dead probably more than you and Mickey’s good cosigning. I don’t fuck with Stackz on no type of level, even though he giving my little sister the dick. So you can kill that dumb shit that’s coming outta your mouth.”
Still rolling off the E-pills he’d taken a few hours back, Rank tried to make sense of what Leela was saying. It started to sound convincing to him . . . or maybe he was just high; he couldn’t decide.
Mickey, also still buzzing as well, was in the background yelling out this and that. “Yo, she lying, bro. She rolling with them niggaz. You know how these bitches be out here; bitter as fuck. That probably ain’t even my manz baby her ass claim she knocked up with.”
Leela was irritated that Mickey was trying to go on her and had her own set of lethal words to equally match his. “Listen, Rank, you can tell Devin’s old hand puppet he can fall all the way back with moving that mouth of his. Tell him his puppet master is gone, so he can move around freely without the next nigga’s hand up his ass telling him how to eat, shit, and sleep. Ole hating-ass bitch! Nigga just mad my sister ain’t never wanna give him the pussy! Fuck him and fuck you too if y’all think I’d spit on Devin’s memory like that!”
Rank was starting to get a massive headache. In between Leela and Mickey shouting in each of his ears, they had blown his high. Finally convinced she may be telling the truth, Rank begged Mickey to chill out. Then he told Leela he had to go handle some business and he’d be in touch in a few days. When Leela asked Rank where they were holding out at, he barked at her, telling her she didn’t need to know all that, just in case he was wrong, then hung up the phone.
* * *
Stackz, Gee, and T. L. met up and talked about the next moves to be made. Stackz informed them to have everybody looking for Rank and Mickey. He wanted to deal with them quickly before shit got too out of hand to control that money can’t make go away. He gave T. L. the green light to do what he does best.
T. L. was in a zone . . . finally being able to snap the chain Stackz had on him from killing up some shit. Stackz reminded them the money doesn’t stop, so they don’t stop getting it; still business as usual.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Three long grueling weeks had passed since Devin got his face shot half off by Stackz. After selling chicken and fish dinners and dry begging everyone they knew, Devin’s family had finally put enough money together to lay him to rest. Today is the day. Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. services will be held for Devin James Boyd at Swanson Funeral Home on Mack Avenue and East Grand Boulevard.
Rank and Mickey had been in hiding since the shit popped off at the club, but today, they agreed to chance their lives to pay their last respects to their fallen homeboy. They’d convinced Leela into going and pay her last respects to Devin as well, seeing that she claimed to be carrying his child. Of course, Leela wanted to attend to say her final farewells but knew her presence would not be a good idea. She’d already sprung for a floral arrangement to be sent and that was all she was willing to sacrifice, knowing, in reality, Devin wouldn’t be around no more to bless her with money here and there after he hit a lick or caught some dope dealer slipping. Leela knew she was on her own also when it came to having his baby. After all, it took his broke-ass family three weeks to scrape up on funeral fare, so asking for milk and diapers would be out of the question.<
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After some coaxing from Rank and Mickey, Leela finally agreed as long as they promised that they would stand by her when she tells his family about the baby. And not let Devin’s crazy still-out-for-blood-holding-a-grudge sister jump on her. The mournful pair assured her that they would, as long as they both could be godfather to Devin’s baby. Wanting all the potential financial help she could get, Leela agreed.
* * *
It was a little after 1:00 p.m. and the service had started for Devin Boyd. Having been left with half a face, the known setup individual had a closed casket service. The family couldn’t afford to pay for the best reconstruction specialist, and even if they could, unfortunately, Stackz didn’t leave them much in the way to work with.
Upon hearing of his victim’s state, Stackz made insensitive jokes about Devin having to have a closed casket. He said, “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Devin’s face back together again.” T. L. and Gee thought it was funny, but Stackz would never say anything that ugly to Ava, let alone in ear range of Leela.
Rank, Mickey, and Leela arrived at the funeral home. After parking, they rushed inside the building. Quickly finding the room Devin’s services were held in, Leela felt as if she was going to pass out or throw up. All three of them were unnerved. Mickey and Rank was looking for the unexpected killer to stand up in the middle the services and start shooting at them in retaliation for the attempt on Stackz’s life, while Leela was afraid Devin’s family wasn’t going to be reasonable with her even being there; at least, his vindictive sister, for that matter.
Once the frightened trio entered the quiet room, everyone looked up to see who was coming in except for Devin’s mother, sister, and aunt. They were sitting in the front row where no one really ever wanted to be. This was the time the best seats in the house weren’t up front center. Some of Devin’s people were grieving hard, bawling their eyes out about him dying so young, while others were whispering that they knew this bullshit was gonna happen considering the street lifestyle he led. Sad church music played low throughout the room as the three of them got their courage up to approach the bronze and sky-blue-colored casket which had a huge black-and-white picture of Devin sitting near it on a pedestal.
“Damn, closed casket. Man, look at this picture of him they used, all dressed up going to the comedy concert downtown last year. I remember that picture from off this Facebook page,” Rank nudged Mickey, speaking in a low tone. “This shit is so messed up. I can’t believe Devin up in that mug dead; gone.”
Although Devin had been dead and gone weeks ago, this day, this time, seeing his picture alone beside a closed casket made the bullshit seemed like it just happened a few hours ago. It was like scraping the scab off a slow-healing wound.
This picture is terrible. Out of all the ones they could’ve used, why in the fuck did they pick this one? Tears flowed like a water facet turned on full blast from Leela’s red eyes as she stared at the photo of Devin. She couldn’t help but think about the last time she saw him on the restaurant floor looking so pitiful at her as she stepped over him like he was no more than a mere piece of garbage.
Rank held back tears. He cautiously scanned the room for anyone that looked like they didn’t belong. Paranoid, he was ready to shoot it out inside the funeral home and risk killing anyone that got in his way if he had to, including Devin’s grieving mother. He, just like Mickey and even Leela, didn’t want any trouble. Like everyone else that was hopefully there, they just wanted to pay their final respects and go home. Huddled together as if they were connected at the hip, they walked up the middle aisleway. Moving closer toward the casket and the front of the room to offer their condolences to the family, Devin’s sister lifted her face that had been buried in her hands when Mickey reached over, placing his hand gently on her shoulder. No sooner than she turned her head around, she looked on the other side of Mickey and locked eyes with Leela. As if on cue—all hell broke loose.
Leaping to her feet, Devin’s already mentally distraught and drained sister went berserk and had to be physically restrained. She couldn’t believe that after all that had been said and done over the past few weeks since her brother’s death that Leela had the bad taste to actually show up. That she had the nerve, the balls, the guts, to march right up to her deceased brother’s casket like she was his loyal wifey or some shit like that.
“Get her out of here! Your ass not welcome in here! Bitch, it’s your fault Devin lying up in a casket now in the first place; running around trying to impress your high yellow ugly ass!”
“Really?” Leela slowly spoke looking at Devin’s sister, praying she didn’t have to reach in her purse and pull out the double-edged butcher knife she brought with her just in case Mickey and Rank wouldn’t or couldn’t do as they promised. Taking her chances, Leela didn’t flinch or move; she stood her ground. Right then and there, she decided if anyone deserved to be standing at the right side of Devin’s casket, it would be her; his soon-to-be baby momma.
Rank and Mickey moved in front of Leela with their hands up, pleading with Devin’s sister to calm down and just hear what Leela had to say. The older aunt reined Devin’s sister temporarily back in line, quickly becoming the sole voice of reason. Hoping to diffuse the explosive situation, she expressed to everyone that this isn’t the time or place for this type of nonsense.
Leela didn’t want any trouble and tried to let Devin’s enraged sister know just that. Still in tears, she went on to explain to his entire family she was having his baby; his seed; his firstborn, meaning his only born. Leela told his mother that she’d carry on Devin’s memory with his child and wanted them to be a part of the baby’s life as well. Their involvement in Devin Jr. or little Devina’s life was totally up to them.
Mumbling amongst the family and friends in the funeral moved around like a tidal wave. Caught off guard, no one knew what to say or what to do. They were speechless at Leela for dropping her newborn love-child bomb. After a short speech about the true meaning of family, the aunt painstakingly got everybody on the same page, reluctantly, to accept Leela and the glimmer of light out of this dark day. With her head still containing several staples, thanks to Ava, Devin’s sister didn’t care what her aunt said or this bitch claimed. She knew Leela was nothing but a whore and a liar.
All the while the confusion was taking place, Mickey and Rank kept searching the small crowd fearing possible retribution. Spooked, they felt like they had been exposed too long out of hiding. They were still doing E-pills that had the two of them paranoid. Rank and Mickey informed Leela they had to get off the street; it wasn’t safe for them to be out like that exposed. Then they slipped out the rear exit so as not to be seen by anybody that might be looking for the infamous pair.
* * *
Leela had made it home from the funeral and was having mixed emotions. She felt relieved that she’d gotten somewhat of an understanding with Devin’s family about her having his baby. Already having three kids whose fathers or their families were not around, Leela, deep down inside, truly didn’t give a fuck about Devin’s people either, but welcomed their help, if any, with the baby when he or she was born.
Ava’s friend’s car was parked out front of the house. Leela hated her, because she always thought she was better than everybody else. She was worse than Ava on that tip, if that was at all possible. Just to be spiteful, Leela took her house keys out of her purse and walked up on the girl’s car. Having no concern or remorse, she dragged her key along the side of the car causing a deep long scratch.
After doing her dirt, Leela tiptoed up to Ava’s, just to be nosey. She moved quietly, so as not to be heard. She peeked around the corner and didn’t see them in the front room. Hearing voices coming from the back, Leela eased down the hall toward Ava’s bedroom. Getting closer, she could hear them gossiping about Ava and Stackz’s night out and how good he’d fucked her and how she was really feeling him.
Leela was heated to hear her blood be so two-faced. As she he
ld her belly looking down, Leela swore she’d make Stackz pay as well as Ava. Fuck her and that murderer; he gon’ pay for killing my baby daddy. Needing to throw up, Leela crept back downstairs as quietly as she’d come up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stackz and Gee sat in the driveway waiting on a phone call to go pick up money they were due. They agreed a long time ago how they would conduct their business and govern themselves in the streets. No re-up money; no bag, no shorts, or I-owe-this-much excuses. Stackz wasn’t playing around about his money; never had and never would. He understood that this life they were living was not promised. He’d spent enough time locked behind bars to know, in a drop of a dime, shit could go from a nigga sitting real right ... to him being down on his luck with his knuckles scraping the ground. Not only had he seen it happen firsthand to some of his direct competitors but heard thousands of tragic stories from dudes giving time to the prison just like him.
The serious subject changed from getting money, making money, and keeping money, to Gee expressing to Stackz bad vibes he was feeling about him dealing with Ava. It didn’t sit well with Gee that Stackz was in as deep with Ava as he was. He advised his big brother that he needed to cut her loose. After what had jumped off at the club, Gee felt, in the long run, Ava was like her sister, Leela; grimy and couldn’t be trusted. He predicted he only saw more bullshit coming their way if Stackz kept fucking around with the manipulative she devil in high heels.
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