Country Boy 3

by Blake Karrington

  “And Quentel…”

  “Yeah, ma?”

  “The cost is between ten and fifteen thousand dollars.”

  “What!!! Van are you—”

  Van quickly slammed the door in Q’s face

  “Open this door Shawty!” Q banged on the door. He knew that he would have to kill Bear if he forced his way back in their bedroom.

  “Alright ma, but yo ass is paying for that shit.”

  “Whateva you say, Quentel, whateva you say.”

  He could hear her snickering on the other side of the door.

  “I’m going to sleep now, Van.”

  “That’s a good boy, Quentel.”

  “Yeah, this good boy is going to sleep right on your damn brand new lamb skin couch.”

  “Dammit Quentel… you better not lay on my new couch!” Van screamed.

  Q could hear her unlocking their bedroom door. He didn’t hesitate as he turned and raced towards one of the empty bedrooms. Q knew that once their bedroom door opened, Bear would come flying out,.and he would be looking for blood. Over his shoulder, he heard Van give the order.

  “Get’em boy.”

  The ringing of their house phone jarred Q back to the present. His thoughts drifted to Bear, once again giving him a heavy heart.

  “I'll never forget you, big boy. Thank you for saving Van.”

  Turning his attention back to the secret security system, which he knew nothing about, Q pressed the small hideaway button. He watched in amazement as the rear wall of the closet did a 360-degree turn, revealing nine small flat screen monitors.

  “What the fuck,” was as all Q managed to get out his mouth.

  He had seen several hi-tech security systems over the years while he was in the underworld of the streets. But this system Van had installed was like none that he’d ever seen. After nearly an hour of tampering with unknown buttons and gadgets, Q finally got a sense of how the system worked.

  The system retained data dating as far back as thirty days. Q keyed in the date he was looking for.

  “Damn,” he mumbled, realizing he was a day off from the time of the incident. He quickly reprogrammed the system and waited.

  “Come on Ma, give me sum’em, anything —”

  Q stopped in mid-sentence as one by one, each of the small screens came to life. Every screen monitored a different section of the house.

  Sorrow once again tugged at his insides as he watched Bear come into view on one of the outside cameras. He seemed to be prowling the area, marking the grounds as he went about his daily routine. After all, this was his territory.

  Darkness had fallen. On the video, Q noticed that the time read 9:58 pm. He hit the forward button once more. It was exactly 2:15 am when the halogen lights of Van’s 470 Lexus SUV made its way up their driveway.

  Anticipation of the unseen was about to drive Q into a panic attack as he watched her exit the SUV, then rush towards the door. About halfway there, she was met by Bear who almost knocked her down with his massive weight.

  Inside the house, he watched her grab two suitcases, toss them on the bed, then turn and walk into the closet he was in now. Moments later, she walked back out the closet. It seemed to Q that her lips were moving, as if she was talking to someone.

  He quickly hit the voice activation switch on the system. As if on cue, Van walked over to the nightstand, picked up their cordless phone and dialed a number.

  “What’s up girl? Are you packed and ready yet?...Good, cause I’m wore out. I hope you know you’re doing the driving in the morning.”

  After hanging up the phone, Q watched Van strip completely naked and rush towards the shower. Just as Van walked off, he saw Bear’s playful demeanor turn to a deadly countenance. Q’s whole body tensed as he saw two dark figures appear on the two screens at the entrance of the house. Without hesitation, they forced their way inside.

  Instantly, Q knew that Van had been either too tired, or in such a hurry that she’d forgotten to reset the alarm. Guns pointed, the two dark figures made their way through the house.

  “Watch out ma,” Q mumbled.

  As soon as the first dark figure stepped inside the bedroom, he was met by Bear. He barked, which is something he never did before he attacked. He was trained as a silent killer, but this time he barked as if to warn Van that danger was close by. Startled by Bear’s presence, the first figure fired his gun. The bullet shattered Bear’s chest, plunging through his heart. He was dead before he hit the ground.

  The loud blast caused Van to rush from the shower. Her body froze when she saw the two men standing just inside their bathroom.

  “Where that bitch nigga of yours at?” one of them asked her.

  It wasn’t the words that gave Q a heavy heart. It was the pain of knowing that these two men had come there for him, and his soul-mate was now fighting for her life.

  “Fuck you nigga. He grown and don’t have to check in. I don’t know where he at, but I can tell you, if he come in here now, you’ll be some dead niggas,” Q heard Van yell at them.

  As Q stared at the two men, he realized that he had never seen either of them before, but the one doing all the talking seemed to have very little or no use of his left arm.

  “Kid, I told you this bitch got a fly mouth to match that body,” The one with the bad arm stated.

  Q was so caught up in the moment; he forgot that Van was naked.

  “Damn, can I at least grab a towel? Or are you bitches so hard up to see a pussy that I got to stand here naked?”

  “Fuck you bitch! Put a towel around your little ass, but be slow with it.”

  After Van wrapped herself with a towel, they forced her from their bedroom and lead her into their large living room. Q continued to watch, and saw Van’s reaction when she spotted Bear lying dead on the floor.

  “You niggas will get y’all’s” she screamed.

  “Bitch that dog had it coming, after what it did to my arm.”

  “Scar!” Q shouted, then jumped to his feet, pacing around the closet in circles. “I knew I should’ve found that nigga and killed him,” he mumbled.

  “Shit!” he screamed again, as tears slowly cascaded down his cheeks.

  “Right now, you need to be calling that nigga of yours and telling him to get home,” he heard Scar say.

  Van picked up her cell phone.

  As painful as it was, Q sat and watched the security screen until it went black. He sat alone, in total and complete silence for a long while, then forced his body to respond to his command. Little by little, he began pulling himself together, his body numb and oblivious to the pain.

  Knowing that there were only a few people he could trust, Q began putting together a plan to unleash a fury that the Carolinas hadn’t witnessed since their black serial killer was claiming victims on the busy streets of Charlotte, NC.

  Chapter Three

  “Nothing Lasts Forever”

  “That’s the last of it,” June said as he watched the carpet layers load and drive off with the last of the bloodstained carpet from Q and Van’s home.

  “Yea that’s it, homie,” Q agreed as they both turned and walked back inside.

  Two days ago, Q had made the decision that as few people as possible would know that he knew who was responsible for what had happened to Van, his best friend and partner in crime. June was the first person he called.

  “Dam this joint is starting to look like a house again, “June said.

  “Yeah but do you think it will ever be a home again?” Q asked, his thoughts turning to Van.

  “Look Q,” June said clasping his friend by his shoulder. “Homie, everything is going to be alright. Van is now breathing on her own, without the use of a machine.”

  “Yeah, but she’s still in a coma,” Q said, getting angry.

  “That’s why you have to be strong, and keep it together, bro.”

  “Yeah, I know, June, but it’s just so hard not to locate this nigga entire family and slaughter everything with his
last name.”

  June knew his best friend was struggling.

  “But that’s not your style, Q.”

  “You are not like them. You don’t believe in killing or hurting innocent people.”

  Q nodded his head.

  “Have you spoken to the rest of the crew?” June asked.

  “Only Tim.”

  “What about Tee?”

  “Nah.”

  “Why not?”

  Q didn’t answer right away. Instead, his thoughts momentarily turned to Tee, and the last night they’d spent together.

  So much had been going on over the last several days; he hadn’t taken the time to check any messages on his iPhone. When things finally did settle down enough to where he could gather himself, he picked up his phone, thinking that maybe the battery had died. He hadn’t received a call in days.

  What the fuck? The message and text boxes were full of frantic messages from Van. Someone had purposely put his phone on silent. Anger rose inside him; he knew who that someone was.

  “Q,” June called. “Yo Q,” June called again, snapping him back to the present.

  “Ye..yeah, what it do?”

  “I asked had you spoken to Tee yet.” Q looked at his best friend, then gave him the rundown on what Tee had done.

  After he finished, June asked. “And you think that Tee did it deliberately?”

  “I don’t know, June. But anyway, what difference does it make? She did it.”

  “It makes a lot of difference, bro.”

  “You damn right it makes a difference June. If Tee hadn’t touched my fuckin phone, I would’ve gotten all those messages Van hit me with. It’s her fuckin’ fault bro!”

  “It’s her fuckin fault he repeated again.”

  “Nah...nah… It’s not her fault, homie,” June said in a calm voice.

  He stood and looked Q directly in his eyes, never blinking or breaking his gaze.

  “Nah homie, I can’t allow you to say that about big sis, and not defend her character. This thing with you, Tee, and Van has been going on for years, Q. I’d bet my life that no matter how much Tee wants you all to herself, she would never do anything to hurt Van intentionally.”

  “Maybe you’re right June, but I just don’t have anything to say to her right now.”

  “That’s cool Q, maybe you do need to give it some time.”

  There was a moment of silence. June turned to walk out of the room, but almost tripped on something lying on the floor. He reached down to pick it up and noticed that it was a white iPhone with a pink case.

  He turned and tossed the phone to Q. “Tell my other sister I almost broke my neck on her phone,” he said with a laugh.

  Q caught the phone and placed it in his back pocket.

  “Man, let's get on up out of here,” Q said, while walking towards the door.

  Him and June dapped each other up and got into their cars. Once Q sat down, he realized he still had Van’s phone in his back pocket. He pulled it out and placed it on the car charger. He turned on the radio. Immediately, the sounds of 2 Chainz and T.I. began blaring through the speakers.

  I’m riding around on my side of town wit’ my dubs up and my window down. It’s the king Homie, I’m on one, them suckers know they don’t want none.

  Q began bouncing his head with the beat. He noticed Van’s phone beginning to power on. He reached down and picked it up and saw she had six missed calls. He went to clear the screen when he noticed that two were from her mother and four were from someone with the name DOC.

  Q pulled the car into the McDonald’s parking lot and searched through the phone. He saw the name DOC very often in the call logs. He clicked on the message icon to see if it matched the call logs. His heart was pounding so hard, he thought it was going to bust out his chest. Q sat back and began to read through the texts

  Hey I will be running a little late today, is 9:00am ok? This was the first text he saw from Van to Mr. DOC.

  He scrolled down further Did you tell Quentel yet?

  No I want to make sure this is real first.

  Trust me this is real, I can feel it! But he should know so we can move forward

  Now the pain had moved from his chest to his stomach. His mind was racing, but it didn't take long for him to figure out that DOC stood for Dr. Otis Conway.

  “A friend huh? I knew I should have whopped that nigga’s ass!” Q shouted.

  He just sat numb in the dark parking lot. Lord knows he had done enough dirt that if Van decided to get some get back it, would be justified. But that didn’t console him. The thought of another man being with her and she with him was something Q couldn't mentally deal with.

  “Shitttt!!!!” he screamed out loud, while slapping the steering wheel with so much force that the whole car shook. “Damn God, how much you going to put on a nigga?”

  Tears streamed down his face. He had cried more in the last 3 weeks, than in his whole life. Q sat there for an hour, running every angle through his mind. Finally, he rested his thoughts on Van’s history. She had never done anything like this, nor given him a reason to believe she would. He would have to place this out of his mind until they were able to discuss it further. He owed Van that, at least. Still, that didn't heal the open wound he had suffered. It took him nearly another hour to regain his composure enough to drive.

  Chapter Four

  “To Protect and Serve”

  “Wanda, could you page Vie and direct her to my office?” Stokely patched his secretary through his office intercom.

  “Mr. Stokely, I’ve already paged Miss Fuller four times. Today was her off day. She called and said that she would be here within the hour.”

  “It’s been almost two hours Wanda!!” Stokely shouted. “Page her again!!!” he ordered before slamming his fist on the desk.

  As if on cue, Vie stepped inside Wanda’s office.

  “Jesus... am I ever so glad to see you,” Wanda said, giving a mean look at Stokely’s office door.

  Vie Fuller had joined the police force six months ago. Vie was actually her middle name. Her first name was Rachel, but Vie was the name she used throughout her adolescent years, and it stuck with her. Her resume consisted of detective, and undercover work, mainly involving heavy narcotics gangs, small cartel networks, and local street hustlers in poverty-stricken neighbors.

  “Miss Fuller,” Wanda called interrupting with her thoughts.

  “Oh… aah pardon, me my mind was in another place,” Vie said.

  “Oh that’s okay. We all find ourselves wishing sometimes that we were in a whole different world.” Wanda assured her. Her statement caused Vie to smile.

  “Wanda!” they both heard Stokely scream.

  “Good luck,” Wanda said, pointing towards the door.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to go in with me?”

  “Honey, I am gone,” Wanda said, standing up, and gathering her things. “Like I said, good luck.”

  And she was out the door.

  “Good morning Miss Fuller,” Officer Stokely said in a humble but rehearsed voice.

  “What can I do for you Officer Stokely”?

  “Well Vie, since Chief Fox recently promoted me to Sgt., I figured it was time to bring in someone who could assist me with some of my caseload. I was looking over your resume and I’m very impressed.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Every job you’ve been assigned, you’ve conquered, completed and made hundreds of arrests.”

  “Everything I do, Sargent Stokely, I’m committed to it 100%.”

  “I see… well I have a situation.”

  “A situation, or a case?”

  He paused a moment, he could feel anger from the back of his neck rising. Calming himself he answered.

  “Not a situation, but definitely a case.”

  “What type of case?”

  “A high profile case involving narcotics, murder, conspiracy, and a truck load of guns.”

  Vie almost leaped from her seat.
It took all her inner strength to keep herself under control. These types of jobs were the reason she joined the force in the first place. They were dangerous, yet exciting, but most of all unpredictable. Still, for her, it was also personal.

  “I would be more than happy to assist you Mr. Stokely, but let’s be clear. I work alone. In other words, I spin the web, and I do it by any means necessary. Are we clear?”