I was in the waiting area of the Trap Spot and Lucy, the chick who installed Shan’s traps, was showing me where all the spots were in her truck. After I left there I headed over to my crib and pulled up into the garage. I began opening all of the traps so that I could unload the cash that she had stashed away but was coming up empty. I must have spent damn near two hours tearing the truck apart. Finally, I came across an envelope and I opened it. The red sheet of paper said:
Briggen, “This is payback, muthafucka!”
Shan aka Redbone and Li’l Anthony.
And she had kissed it with red lipstick.
“You fuckin’ bitch!” I spat.
I couldn’t mull over that shit. I had much bigger fish to fry. I then went to the stash spots in my house to grab my three moneybags. I had shit under the floorboards under my carpet in the bedroom, in the walls in the basement and in the attic. After I did that I was ready to pick up Sharia and hit the road when the doorbell rang. I went to the window and peeked out. There was a big fat white undercover at the door. He was by himself.
“Mr. Thompson, I know you’re in there. Why don’t you open up the door? I need to ask you a few questions. My partner is at your back door so you might as well open up. If you want me to call for backup I can do that as well.”
Game recognized game and this was turning out to be my lucky day. I cocked my .380-caliber Beretta, stood behind the door and said, “Come in.”
Big fat whitey came through the door. I put the burner to his temple.
“Thompson, you can put that away. Sherman already told me you were okay.”
“Then why didn’t you say that when you first made yourself known?” I put the burner away. Sherman was my man on the force. “So what are you here for? Where’s Sherm?”
“I figured you would make this your last stop before you made your attempt to flee. And I must say your timing is perfect. Your admirers at the FBI are hot on your ass.”
I laughed. “I’m not attempting to flee, I am fleeing.”
“We know that.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. And we came by for our good-bye present. I’ve been camped out in front of your house for days. I need to take a shit and a bath. So, if you want to make it outta here, pay your dues. I’m here for Sherman’s share as well. And you got my partner at the back door.”
I didn’t trust this muthafucka as far as I could smell his funky ass. So I kept my guard up and raised my burner. “Get Sherm on the phone,” I ordered.
“C’mon, now. Do you think I’m bullshittin’?”
“Get Sherm on the phone.”
I waited as he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket. He dialed Sherm and went to talking. “Put him on speaker,” I instructed. He did.
“Sherm, what’s up? Where you at? Who is this muthafucka you sent here?”
“I have a family, man. I can’t be sitting around waiting on you to show up. The flunkies with no lives can do that.” Sherm started laughing. “Go ahead and take care of them. And get the fuck outta here.” The phone disconnected and just like that he was gone. Meeting him was one of the most solid moves I had made in this game.
“I told ya,” Fatty said.
“Grab one of those gray bags over there on the steps.” Fatty wobbled over there with a big-ass smile on his face. He opened the bag as soon as he touched it. I watched as he shuffled the stacks around and barked, “What the fuck is this shit?” He turned and looked at me.
“What the fuck you talkin’ about? Take the shit and get the fuck out. Greedy muthafucka. That’s more than enough. Look, call Sherm. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”
“Oh, this is more than enough?” Fat Boy asked. He turned the bag toward me, and when I focused on the contents, I almost lost it. I rushed over to where he was standing and stuck my hand in the bag and came up with nothing but a handful of Shan’s cheesin’-ass, redhead-wearin’ promotional flyers. I dumped the bag onto the floor in a panic. I went for the other two which were filled with the same bullshit. This ho had to have at least 5,000 of them shits in there.
Fat Boy wasted no time. He grabbed his radio and barked, “Carter, come in now.”
Carter burst through my back door, weapon drawn. Fat Boy was already calling for backup. Next thing I knew, I was facedown on my living room floor getting iron bracelets on my wrists.
“Hold up, Fat Boy! Wait a minute. Let me think about this shit.”
“You facing kingpin charges, so you’ll be able to think about it for at least twenty to thirty.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
NYLA
Ding… Dong…
I heard the doorbell ring as I was helping Tameerah out of the bathtub. I quickly wrapped her in a towel and ran downstairs. When I opened the door a young UPS guy handed me a big brown box with the prison address as the return label. My heart sank as I thought about this being the last of Forever’s things. I signed for the package, took the box and closed the door. I quickly sat on the couch and began to rip the tape off.
As I ruffled through the contents my hands started to shake. I took his shirt into my hands and put it to my nose as the tears welled up in my eyes. I thought of the last time I saw him and the pain on his face when he told me not to come back to see him. As the tears ran down my cheeks I could hear my daughter calling me.
“Mommy, I don’t see my clothes.”
“Here I come,” I yelled back then stood up, throwing the shirt over my shoulder. As I started to walk away a piece of paper fell from his shirt pocket. I bent over and picked it up. I then began unfolding it. The words leapt off the page as my mind began to race. Here it was, I thought, I would never get to the bottom of all this shit, and now Forever Thompson was speaking from the grave.
The letter read:
My Dearest Nyla,
Baby, if you are reading this note then things are going exactly as I predicted they would. I need you to do this for me: go into the basement. You know that old sofa you kept trying to get me to throw out? Give it to my baby girl and tell her Daddy loves her. And then that picture frame of that 2 dolla bill on the wall in the bedroom, open it. That’s a gift from me to you.
I was confused. I read the note again and again. This was not like Forever to leave his daughter some damn old ass sofa, and me a fuckin’ $2 bill! I kept asking myself, is he serious?
I ran upstairs and my baby asked, “Are you okay, Mommy?” She smiled at me as I laid her clothes out and turned on the TV to the Disney Channel.
“Yes, I’m fine, baby,” I replied as I walked out of her room and into my bedroom and ripped that picture frame off the wall. I then headed straight downstairs to the basement to destroy that fuckin’ ugly ass sofa. I stormed down the basement stairs and there it was… an old dusty, raggedy red and black suede sofa, the one he refused to let me throw away.
“I am gonna get rid of this piece of junk tonight, so help me God!” I said out loud.
I began pulling and pushing that sofa across the basement floor, but for this to be a love seat it was really heavy. But that wasn’t going to stop me. I yanked the cushions out one at a time throwing them across the floor with such force, causing one of the zippers to bust. I grabbed the box cutters and wanted to slice it to shreds. But that’s when I saw it.
I ripped a hole large enough for me to see the stacks of bills strategically wrapped and stacked in plastic and couldn’t believe my eyes. I tore a large hole in the back of the sofa and saw more stacks of money. That’s when I fell to my knees and cried. “Damn, baby…” Now I had to think about the picture frame. I stood up and went to pick up the picture frame off the floor, took it apart and a key fell out. The key was to a safety deposit box and there was a card that had a bank address.
JANAY
“Nay! Nay! You understand where I’m coming from, don’t you?”
I heard my dad and yes, I understood him clearly, but I kept walking away. The only reason I came to visit him was to hear him tell me face to face tha
t he didn’t want me out of the game. And he did, he said it was because the legacy of our family name was more important.
“Nay.” My dad caught up with me. “Don’t leave until the visit is over. Don’t you want to hang out another hour or so with your old pops?”
“What for, Daddy? So you can try to convince me that the legacy of our family name should be upheld in the underworld? Daddy, we are not royalty. You talking about the dope game. Illegal activity. Activity that won’t preserve the family name. Look at me! I’m all bandaged up because I was shot. They tried to kill me. If I remain in the game, I might as well just kill myself, Daddy.
“This has to stop somewhere. I will either end up dead or sent back to prison. Is that what you want for me? I don’t want it for myself. My mind is made up. I’m leaving with Boomer.”
“To do what, Nay? Sit behind some cash register? Is that what you want? You want to punch some damn 9–5 time clock? I see for you much more than that. You can have that whole city, Nay. All you gotta do is do like I tell you.”
“Daddy, I don’t want the whole city. I don’t care what it takes. I don’t want to go back to prison and leave my son out here for somebody else, or worse, for the streets to raise. I’m leaving, Daddy. I’m out.”
My mind was made up. My daddy was one of them niggas that would die in prison or watch the entire family die first before letting the game alone. Well, this time, he would be dying by himself because I was gone, no longer a puppet at the end of a string.
BRIGGEN
As I was being led out of my half-million dollar colonial home, I was in shock. Them bastards had me in a box. If they had their way, I knew that I would never again see the light of day. As Fat Boy opened up the back door, I noticed Sharia’s Porsche pulling up beside us. I didn’t want her to see me like this so I tried to turn around. But Fat Boy had my arm and was talking to his partner. Sharia jumped out the car, ran up to me and spit in my face. She then stuffed two dollars in my pocket and dusted off her hands.
“Bitch, you cold.” I thought I heard Demetria’s voice but nixed it off.
“Ma’am, you have to move away,” Fat Boy said in the direction of Sharia’s car.
I heard laughter and looked over at the car. Nyla rolled down her window and said, “How does it feel to get fucked?”
Sharia rushed to her car, jumped in and pulled up so that the back passenger window came down. Demetria yelled out as she fanned herself with a stack of bills, “When they bending you over, just relax your muscles, nigga!”
I wished more than anything that I could snatch that bitch Demetria up and pull her snitching tongue out of her mouth. “Fuck you, bitch! You was a mule and always will be one!”
“At least I’m a free one muthafucka!” she yelled at me.
All three of them bitches burst into laughter, and then they pulled off.
DARK
I ended up back at Benny Thrillz, where it all began for me. I was sitting by myself thinking about how everything came together in my favor. I couldn’t believe that all them OGs came to me one by one like I was the pope and each one of them confessed their sins and rolled over on the other one. But the kicker was the chick. She came bearing gifts. This bitch actually had a connect. Big Choppa was no joke.
Crystal walked in and sat down across from me. She pulled out an Arturo Fuente and lit it. She obviously was feeling herself. “I told Big Choppa that I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” She said and took a puff.
“Not longer than me.” I told her, “I done killed me many muthafuckas to get in this spot.”
“We could go back and forth all day about who fucked up for us to get where we at, however time doesn’t afford it. This is business and I had to step up to the plate and think like a man.”
“Whatever it takes,” I told her. Her connect was the missing piece to my puzzle. Me and Crystal sat down last night over a couple of drinks. I knew of her but didn’t know her. She said that her dad, Choppa and uncle Boomer didn’t think she was capable of being in the game. But since Janay stepped down, her father was desperate and had no one else to turn to. She seemed ready. However, her being ready or not was of no consequence to me. I just needed her connect. I started to say something else but I looked up and saw the rest of the crew walking through the door. Six-Nine was in front trailed by Born and Tareek.
“Yo, I heard you got fucked up! Legs, arms broke all that shit,” Born said.
I had a cast on my arm, but that was it. “Nah, niggas be exaggerating. My arm was fucked up that was about it.”
“I heard you ain’t get no bail,” Tareek added.
“If I ain’t have no bail, I wouldn’t be here now, would I?”
Each one took a spot at the table, and we started handling the business at hand. It was now a new day in Detroit. After about an hour we managed to restructure the whole organization and everybody was happy with their new position. We called the waitress over and ordered a round of drinks to celebrate our new partnership.
As we sat talking, drinking and laughing, my phone rang. I noticed it was that same 757 area code from when Cisco’s wife had called me. What the fuck could she want? Curiosity had me by the balls so I hit the answer button.
“Hello,” I said with apparent agitation.
“I heard you were doing real well for yourself, so I wanted to send you a gift.”
“Bitch, don’t call my fuckin’ ph—” she abruptly hung up. “Hello?”
Everyone looked at me as the whole atmosphere of the room changed. Six-Nine and Born were grinning. Before I could digest what had just happened, three gunmen holding semiautomatic rifles burst through the door wearing black masks and began lighting shit up.
SHAN
As the plane lifted off the ground I was caught up in mixed emotions of both relief and regret. For the first time in my life, I had made all of my own choices. As I looked down at my son who had finally conked out, it confirmed that the move I had just made was the right one. I was free. Calvin, or Briggen, no longer had a hold on me. And ironically, I managed to walk away with everything I worked for—and his shit too. I wish I could have been there to see the look on his face when he checked my car. And even more so, when he went for his stash and found out that it was gone too. And his dumb ass thought I was the stupid one.
I took a deep breath. The pressure made my ears pop. I never could get used to that feeling. Once the seat belt sign went off, I unfastened myself and went to the bathroom. When I returned to my seat the flight attendant asked, “Would you like anything to drink?” as she grabbed a cup from the stack.
“Yes, I’ll have a glass of cranberry juice with ice.” The woman poured my drink and passed it to me. “Thank you.” She nodded and moved on to the next passenger.
“Are you okay?” the deep voice comforted my ears as his hand rested on my stomach.
“I’m good, thanks,” I said, smiling back at him as I rested my hand on top of his. I wished that the baby were his.
“Can we toast to this?” he asked as he raised his glass.
I grabbed mine and raised it to his. “To Shan and Nick.” We clinked glasses.
“And to all the muthafuckas that didn’t see this coming,” Nick added.
We both laughed and took a sip.
I sat back and closed my eyes, reveling in the moment. “Payback Ain’t Enough, but it sure is a muthafucka.”
READING GROUP QUESTIONS
1. What do you think was the cause of Shan’s unexplainable behavior? Or was it explainable?
2. What was it about Briggen that allowed him to have such control over the ladies in his life?
3. Do you think Nick showing up or Forever’s death caused the wedge between Shan and Briggen?
4. Is Big Choppa crazy, delusional or power hungry to want his daughter to take over his seat in the drug game?
5. Who do you think that mystery man was who Sharia had sex with?
6. Did you like anything at all about Dark?
7. Did you foresee Shan tricking Briggen?
8. What was your reaction to Briggen’s response when Mia told him she was pregnant? What was your reaction when she threatened to blow her own brains out?
9. What was your reaction in the end when Briggen was taken away in handcuffs? Or were you rooting for him to get away?
10. What was your reaction when Shan and Nick ended up on the plane together?
A Preview of
THUGS
PART 6
CHAPTER ONE
FAHEEM
“Fah, this place is going to be crawling in a minute, dawg,” my cousin G told me again.
“My son, man. My son, G,” I said.
“I understand, but 5-0 will be here. What you wanna do?”
“My son, G. They shot my son.” I squeezed him tighter, wishing I could turn back the hands of time. I had just met my son and was so grateful to have him in my life. And just like that… he was gone. This bitch called life don’t ever play fair.
“Believe me, man. I know how you feel. You already know I’ve been there,” Snell said. “But we got two muthafuckas dead and my little cousin here. You hit, and we got all of these burners on us.”
“Y’all go. I got this. Ain’t no sense in all of us dealing with this shit. Leave me be.”
“Can’t do—”
“Snell! Y’all get the fuck away from here. Y’all played y’alls part. You and G, go. Just get a hold of Jaz and tell her I need her. Don’t tell her what happened, just tell her I said to come back home. Make sure the burner Wali had is still on him. Take mine.” I kicked it away and went back to hugging my son while getting my story together.
Payback Ain't Enough Page 22
