305 Lovin' 3

by Diamond Johnson

  “I’m still not understanding their motive though. That shit is so fuckin’ lame to me! And you couldn’t recognize the voice that called you and said that they had her?” Charlie asked me.

  “Nah, it was a nigga, though, so they got somebody with them that’s helping. I got to swing by the crib to pick up the money, but I ain’t handing them shit. As soon they hand me over China, I’m bussing my damn guns. You think I’m about to let a nigga eat off of me for free and then live to talk about it? Hell no!” I barked.

  “So, let me get this straight. You’re about to go meet with a nigga that you talked to over the phone, and make like you’re going to hand him over the money, but you’re really not? Jaquan, are you fuckin stupid? What’s the purpose of the ransom, you idiot? If you don’t give these niggas the money, they are going to kill China and your dumb ass too,” Charlie yelled.

  I stepped over to her so quick and was about to choke the shit out of her, but the good angel on my shoulder told me that it wasn’t worth it.

  “Watch your fuckin’ mouth, talking to me like you crazy because I’m already itching to get in your ass. But out of respect for you being in the predicament that you’re in right now, I’m going to let those smart ass comments slide,” I told her.

  “Where is my phone?” she asked, ignoring everything that I had just said.

  “For what? Who you trying to call?” I looked at her like she was crazy.

  “Your mama.”

  “For what? So you can go run to her and tell on me like you always do? Sit your ass down and take a nap while I go and try to fix the mess you made.”

  “Fuck you,” I heard her mumble as I left the room.

  I walked down to the waiting area and spotted Toya sitting on Dre’s lap, while Quay sat in front of the TV watching the game. His ass was too scary to go in the room to see Charlie for fear that she was going to be barely recognizable, so he stayed in the lobby.

  “Let’s go, we out,” I said to them, making my presence known.

  “Toya, stay here with Charlie, and I’ll be through here later on to get you,” Dre told Toya after they stood up.

  “It’s fine, just pick me up in the morning. I’ll stay the night.”

  Dre pulled her in for a hug, and after that, we all took the elevator down to the lobby.

  “Follow me down to my house. It’s 9:50 now, and we need to be there before midnight so we can get there before him,” I let them know.

  Dre hopped in his car while Quay and I hopped in mine.

  “Why you didn’t tell Monae to come to the hospital too?” Quay asked me as soon as he got behind the wheel.

  “It’s Saturday, and you know she got that night class tonight that don’t end until ten. I was going to call her when she got out and let her know to head to the hospital. You know how Monae is, and you know she don’t like to take her ass to class, so this right here would have been an excuse for her not to go, and I need her ass in school.”

  Quay nodded his understanding.

  “Not trying to be in you and my sister’s business or nothing like that, but what’s going on with y’all? I’m asking you because ever since that day I caught y’all fuckin’, Monae ass won’t tell me shit concerning you. I be having to force the shit out of Charlie to let me know what’s going on. At the end of the day, that’s my little sister and I’m just trying to protect her,” I told him.

  “Me and Monae good right now. We not technically together, but she ain’t allowed to have no boyfriend or no shit like that.”

  I looked at his ass like he was crazy. “Wait, hold on a minute, nigga. Let me ask you a serious question right now. Are you fuckin other bitches?” I was going somewhere with this.

  “I fuck a few hoes while we’re on the road from time to time, nothing serious,” he said nonchalantly.

  “And are you still fuckin’ my sister?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer right away, but the pause led me to believe that he was still fuckin’ Monae.

  “From time to time, when she lets me,” he said.

  I swear if this nigga wasn’t driving my car right now, I would have punched his ass right in his shit for being so damn stupid.

  “Fuck you mean, when she lets you? Monae not going to say it, so I will. It’s either you gone fuck these bitches or you going to be committed to my sister, but don’t have her out here in these streets looking dumb. I know firsthand how that shit can be because I done did it time and time again with Charlie. If I learned anything from being in a relationship, it’s that these women’s hearts are not a fuckin’ toy, man. They love hard, and they still take our cheating asses back when we fuck up. Look at the shit I done put my wife through, and she still with my ass. Most women would have dipped the first time I cheated, but Charlie stayed because in her heart she knew that one day I would turn into that man she wanted me to be. I know I sound like I’m preaching to your ass, but I’ll never leave that woman because if nobody else believed in me, her ass did!” I said, putting him up on game.

  “I hear what you saying, Quan, I really do. But your sister be on some little girl type of shit. Look how long she made a nigga wait to tell you about us. Shit, had you not caught us fuckin that day, my dumb ass would probably still be somewhere being her puppet, having her string me along. Like I told Monae, I don’t want no scary ass little girl. I want a woman who knows what the fuck she wants in life, and I’m just waiting for Monae to prove that to me, that’s all.”

  “Well, like I said, nigga. It’s either going to be my sister or them hoes, you choose. But I promise you, if I catch my sister crying over your ass, me and you going to have some problems.” I was dead ass serious.

  “Yeah, whatever, nigga,” Quay said.

  We were in the car doing all of this talking and it made the thirty-minute drive back to my house seem so quick. When we pulled up, Dre’s ass was already there, sitting on the hood of his car, smoking a blunt.

  “Damn nigga, what the fuck did you do, fly?” I asked.

  “Nah, Quay just drive too damn slow,” he said, jumping off the hood of the car.

  We all made our way to the front door, and I went in my pants pocket to retrieve my keys. After opening the door, I deactivated the alarm, and we all walked to the kitchen and stood over by the island.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan? Since I been home, a nigga’s trigga finger has been itching, and I’m ready to put this shit to use,” Dre said, lifting up his shirt to show his gun.

  “First off, nigga, it won’t be any guns blazing until I make sure we got my daughter somewhere safe. Ain’t no telling the type of shit that they over there exposing her to, and I don’t need her seeing all of this shit. But I can promise that whoever the fuck is involved in this shit will not make it out of that park alive tonight,” I said as I paced back and forth in the kitchen.

  “Oh yeah, and another thing, they were asking that I come alone. Being as though my daughter is involved and I don’t want to take a chance like them seeing y’all with me, I want to start heading out that way now, and have y’all hide somewhere, scoping everything out. I’m going to get the money from upstairs and put it all in a duffle bag. As soon as y’all see the nigga take the shit and I have China, then you can start blazing. This shit got to be quick and perfect because I can’t take a chance in having one of those bullets hit my daughter,” I told them.

  After we went over the plan for two more times, I ran upstairs and went straight to my safe. After typing in the twenty-digit code, I pulled out damn near all the money that was in there and placed it inside my bag. I didn’t know if these niggas were professional boosters, but I didn’t want to risk giving them a too little and having them feel like I was trying to bullshit them. I knew it was a million dollars or maybe even a little bit more in this bag. I quickly changed into a black Nike sweat suit and put a pair of black huaraches on my feet. After closing the safe and picking up the duffle bag, I closed the closet and made my way downstairs.

  “Lord, all I’
m asking is that you protect my daughter from all of this hurt, harm, and danger. If anything happens tonight, I pray that I do whatever it takes to make sure my daughter is safe, even if I have to die in the process. Amen,” I said out loud.

  We walked outside, and I got into my car alone this time while Quay and Dre got in Dre’s car and followed me.

  Chapter 5: Chantel

  “Hurry the fuck up, Chantel! It’s going to take at least thirty minutes to fuckin’ get there, and it’s already 11:40,” Tracy barked at me.

  After we had left Tracy’s house, we had to make a quick stop at my condo so that I could pack a few things. After this all went down tonight, I planned to get the fuck out of dodge. I knew that Quan would come looking for me and Tracy, mainly because we kept calling out each other’s name in front of China. I’m pretty sure that she would go back and tell her father.

  Tonight, I realized that I somewhat did have a heart because I didn’t kill China, when Lord knows that I should have. She knows too much. She knows how we look and our names, so we were already taking a chance by letting her live. I just prayed that everything went smoothly because after this, I was taking my ass to Atlanta and starting a new life. the experiences that led up to this moment have opened my eyes and made me realize that I was making some fucked up decisions in life.

  At first, I only wanted this baby just so I could ruin Charlie’s life and to keep Quan, but now that I think about it, it wasn’t even worth the hassle because I pretty much knew that he wasn’t the father anyway. I say that to say, as soon as I touched down in Atlanta, I was scheduling an appointment to terminate my pregnancy. I also was going to let Quan know about it so he wouldn’t be walking around worrying about it. Hell, he was already going to find out that I had something to do with the kidnapping, so I may as well let him know. Who knows? He may have some mercy on me and don’t come looking for me since this baby and I won’t have to any longer be a burden on his life.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming! I had to finish getting a few things,” I said, getting inside the car.

  I wasn’t even going to be a part of the drop because Tracy felt like I would just be in the way and fuck things up. He asked for me to stay in the car when the drop went down, but to stay behind the wheel and be the getaway driver. I was cool with it because I already knew that it was going to be some bullets flying, and I wasn’t ready to die yet.

  “Can we go over the plan one more time?” I asked as soon as Tracy pulled out of my driveway.

  “Damn, Chantel, I swear your ass act like you slow or some shit. If you fuck up, this whole fuckin’ thing can go downhill. And when it comes to my money, I won’t have not one problem killing your ass! Now, like I said, when we get to the park, I’m going to get out and you stay in the car and get behind the wheel. When I get out, I’m going to bring his fuckin’ daughter with me and make sure that I have my gun aimed at her head while I’m walking toward him, just in case he tries some funny shit. As soon as you see him hand over the money and I give him his daughter, ride the car over to where we are so I can make a run for it.

  “This is a street nigga, and I already know that he not going to let shit happen so smooth, so we need to be prepared for everything. You need to keep your eyes open at all times because I’m counting on you to have the car ready for me to jump in,” Tracy said.

  Even though he wouldn’t admit it, I could tell that his ass was just as scared of dying as I was.

  “We should have gotten more niggas in on this to help us,” I said, as reality sank in and I started to think about whether we were going to make it out of this park alive tonight.

  “If we brought more niggas to help, then that’s more niggas we would have to fuckin’ split the money with! I don’t know about you, but I’m a greedy ass nigga, and I don’t want to split all this money five or six ways. You got to think about it this way, ain’t much the nigga can do while I have a gun to his daughter’s head. One wrong move and I can easily end her life right in front of him, so I know for a fact that he will easily hand over that money. That nigga sitting on millions and millions, him handing us over one million ain’t shit to him!” Tracy said.

  All I could do was nod my head.

  “Reach in that ash tray over there and pass me that skully and that phone,” he told me.

  I did as I was told and then watched as he sat the skully on his lap and went through the phone. I assumed he was about to call Quan to let him know that we were on our way. I could literally tell that Tracy was a rookie to this shit, and that he wasn’t built for gangsta shit like this. I read my fair share of urban fiction books, and I like to watch suspense movies every once in a while, so I could list a few parts in the game where we fucked up. Number one, we were never supposed to bring China to his house. We should have done the shit in a fuckin abandoned house or some shit. Number two, we weren’t supposed to walk around in front of her without a disguise, and we damn sure weren’t supposed to have her knowing what our names were.

  “Yeah, nigga, we on the way now,” I heard Tracy say.

  I rolled my eyes because his pussy ass tried so bad to be so hard.

  “I hope you by yourself because if I see any funny style shit, I’m putting one right in this little bitch head,” Tracy said.

  I could hear Quan yelling something, but Tracy had hung up the phone on him. Tracy had to be the stupidest nigga in the world because he wasn’t doing anything but making Quan more pissed off.

  Chapter 6: Tracy

  We had just pulled up to Scott Lake park, and it was pitch dark outside. The only light that was really shining out here was on the baseball field. I had picked this park because I knew that at this time of night, nobody would be over here. This wasn’t a place you wanted to be at midnight because there wasn’t a lot of lighting. I knew this park like the back of my hand because as a youngin’, I used to play football out here. So, if I had to make a run for it, I knew exactly where I would be going.

  I wasn’t a dumb nigga, and I knew that this drop wouldn’t be like taking candy from a baby. I wasn’t prepared to die tonight, but I was prepared for maybe getting hit by a bullet or two. The whole way over there, I contemplated if I should just kill Chantel’s ass, and that way I could keep all the money to myself. But I figured that either way she was going to be dead because I knew that Quan would come looking for both of us. I wasn’t worried about if he ever caught up to her and she gave my name up because at the end of the day, she was involved in the whole thing, so he would be forced to kill her ass too.

  “I think that’s him sitting right there on the bleachers. When I get out, just slide over and get in the driver’s seat. Don’t start the car back up until you see me hand over the bag because I don’t want him to get suspicious. Please, Chantel, don’t fuck this up,” I told her and then reached in my lap and pulled the skully over my head.

  My lips and eyes were the only things visible on my face. I pulled out the phone one more time and called this nigga again.

  “Yo,” he answered, sounding like he was aggravated or some shit.

  “That’s your bitch ass sitting over there on the bleachers?” I asked, just to make sure.

  “Nigga, who the fuck else you think it is? You the only nigga going around taking people kids and having them meet you at fuckin’ midnight to get back they own damn child. So yes, to answer your stupid ass question, it is me.”

  Quite frankly, I was tired of this nigga’s mouth. “You really take me for a joke, ain’t it? Playboy, I got your baby girl right here, so what the fuck you want to do?” I asked him, hoping he caught on to the hint that if he kept running his mouth like a little bitch that I would pop her ass. I took his silence as his way of letting me know that he felt where I was going with this.

  “I’m coming now,” I said and then hung up the phone.

  I stepped out of the car, took the keys out and threw them back on the driver’s seat. I opened the door for his daughter and her lil ass was shaking like a fuckin’ lea
f. I grabbed her by her arm and pulled her out of the car. Taking my gun from the waist of my pants, I walked with the gun trained on her temple.

  “Let’s go so I can take you to your bitch ass daddy. Let me tell your little ass something, when we get over there, do not run because I will kill your little ass! Do you understand me?” I asked her.

  She nodded her head.

  We walked across the parking lot and made our way toward the baseball field. As we neared the field, I watched as Quan rose from the bleachers and picked up the duffel bag filled with my money inside. We made it into the middle of the field, with him standing a few inches away from me and China. I still had the gun aimed at the back of her head.

  “You can remove that fuckin gun off of my baby, nigga, you made your damn point!” he barked.

  To show him that I wasn’t playing with his ass, I took the gun off safety and cocked my head to the side.

  “Drop the money right there and walk away.”

  “Nah, nigga, that wasn’t the fuckin agreement! We going to do this shit at the same fuckin time! You hand me over my baby and I drop the fuckin bag,” he said.

  I watched his every movement because as soon as I felt like this nigga was going to reach for something, no questions would be asked before I killed this little bitch.

  “Am I calling the shots? Or are you?” I asked him.

  I could tell that this nigga didn’t like being told what to do. It was killing him that I had one up on him and there was nothing he could do about it. He dropped the bag of money on the floor and kicked it over to me. I bent down and picked the bag up with my left hand while my right hand still held the gun aimed at her head. I then strapped the bag over my shoulders. That shit was heavy as hell.