by Nicety
Amy quickly removed her 9mm pistol silencer from behind her back and drove two right in his ass. She embedded one in his stomach and another in his forehead swiftly. He dropped like a bad habit to the grass. She kneeled down pointing the gun checking her surroundings with a keen eye almost like a ninja then looked up at the roof detecting movement. There was someone up there crouching down trying hard as hell not to be seen. She looked trying to make out who it was but it was no use, the darkness and the smoke eroding from the house took over. She figured as long as they weren’t planning to attack her they were good with her for the moment and ran around to the front of the house to meet Danger.
Danger grabbed her and stood there holding her as if they were in front of some romantic candle light dinner. The retched sounds of death and the smell of burnt flesh began to fill the air. Amy tapped Danger’s butt giving the signal that it was time to go as the couple ran back around the house through the yard into their getaway car. They slapped hands for a job well done and smiled at each other feeling like they were the shit. Danger got on his phone and made the call.
“It’s all good over here.”
Pray For Sweet Death
“Did you get any info?”
“Huh, naw man. They was all on dummy.” Danger said side eyeing Amy.
“Damn it!”
Messiah hung up the phone and sat on the couch rubbing his head in total dismay at how long this chick was holding out. She was truly a soldier taking her beating and still ticking. He needed to crack her in a way that would make her submit once and for all.
“Don’t you have a son at your grandmother’s house that you don’t take care of?”
“What?” Zadie was at full attention staring up at Messiah from the floor.
“Struck a nerve, huh?”
She sat in silence with her head down. Her son had never been brought up before since she gave up her rights to her grandmother five years ago. When she went over to visit him he knew her as Aunt Z. Now he was ten years old and had found out the truth from other relatives talking about it in his face. She would go over and he would treat her like a bum on the street, straight trash. It killed her inside but she had no other choice but to give him up or he would’ve ended up just like her, a big fat failure. She kicked her shoes off and stood barefoot toe to toe with Messiah.
“If you want to be a low down dirty bastard and involve my son then go right ahead. But know this only snakes fuck with kids.” Zadie said.
“Bitch you think you gonna guilt me into some shit? That girl you got somewhere fucked up is a damn kid herself. You wasn’t thinking about her life so why the fuck should I care about your son’s?”
“What you jealous cause your crack head ass wife can’t have any kids?”
“How the fuck did you find that out?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Who told you?” Messiah became furious and slapped her back down to the floor.
He didn’t realize that she was just blowing smoke and couldn’t have possibly known about it. But her words were enough to fuel the fire within him. He picked up the phone and dialed furiously.
“You on your way? Bet.” Messiah hung up the phone as quickly as he picked it up.
Zadie knew he had just ordered the hit on her son but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. It was like saving face was more important than saving her innocent son’s life. A lump rose in her throat and tears sparked from her eyes as she sat on the floor licking the blood from her lip. As a single tear wept from her eye and hit the floor in the middle of a small pool of blood, she watched as it spread and mixed in with her plasma creating a shape she thought to be a heart. It was her sign that regardless of what happened to her she could not bring herself to let her seed get mixed up in her bullshit.
****
“Hey babe. I think I know where Red is. We’re literally right around the corner from the joint.” Danger said to Amy as he let his foot sleep on the gas trying to hurry to the location.
He remembered the conversation he had with Zadie in the car by the lake and knew that’s exactly where she was.
“How do you know where she is?”
“I remember them talking about it.” Danger lied.
“Mmhmm.” Amy folded her arms and sat back in her seat staring out the window seemingly annoyed.
Danger turned the music up hoping to diffuse the interrogation and get back to the matter at hand, finding Red. He drove on through stop signs and sometimes through red lights trying to get there before it was too late. He turned the corner cutting his lights off when he hit 119th Street and road down to the end of the block to the old Frito Lay factory. It had been abandoned for almost five years due to the economy and was now only frequented by crack heads, homeless people, and old alchies.
“Babe you stay here in the car. This could get ugly and I’m not putting my baby in harm’s way.”
Amy looked at Danger crooked eyed and smacked her lips. “Are you serious?”
“Naw, I’m just bullshitting. But stay behind me ya heard?”
She nodded her head like whatever as they exited the car and walked around to the side of the building with the most light shining. They crept up to look through the windows but couldn’t get a good view since they were both too short to reach them even with Danger being almost six feet tall. Danger signaled to Amy in informal sign language that he was going to give her a boost to see if she could see anything. She signaled that he better not drop her. He looked at her like she had to be kidding. Danger locked his hands tight and positioned them as he formed a squatting stance. Amy grabbed hold of his shoulders and mounted up as Danger boosted her up toward the window. She held for a few seconds then dropped down.
“Well?” He whispered.
“There is a man and a woman in there. Whether it’s them or not, I don’t know.” She whispered back.
Danger shook his head. He figured if it was a loving couple then he would apologize for disturbing them but if it was some dickhead in there with Red, then he would kick his monkey ass. He prepared Amy and signaled for her to stay directly behind him at all cost, yet again. Amy waved him forward as the two turned grabbing their 9mm pistol silencers from behind their backs and prepared to ambush the people inside.
“Hold it motherfucka! Moving would be a mistake. My girl here is deadly with this weapon. She’ll drive one in you before you get a chance to exhale, dog.” Danger said disgusted by the scene before him.
Pet slowly eased his piece out of Red’s now sore and torn backside. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that the torture and sodomy was over but she still prayed for the sweet victory of death. She didn’t see any reason for her existence to keep being treated like waste in a garbage disposal. Amy followed behind Danger as he moved in gradually towards Red trying to see if she was still alive as she just hung there dangling without so much as moving a fingertip.
“Go see if she’s okay baby, I got you.” Danger told Amy as she moved over toward Red never taking her eyes off of Pet. “Pet, you need your ass whooped, man.”
“How the fuck you gonna judge me, D? You slip your dick in anything that breaths on you wrong and you got the nerve to judge me.”
Amy side eyed Danger but knew this wasn’t the time or the place to bring the shit up. She had her pistol in one hand as she backed up to the wall tracing the chains that were bound to Red. At the wall, she found the chain rolled up around an old pipe and began to release it, watching as Red was lowered to the ground.
“Chump, I ain’t rapin’ females though you nasty motherfucka.”
“Yeah, well, everybody has their own shit going on. This shit is mine. Shit, if you didn’t keep her so cuffed up, I would’ve raped yo bitch.”
JUPE!
Before she realized it, Amy had shot one time into Pet’s arm. “Oops, my bad.”
“AH! You bitch! You shot me!” Pet exclaimed pissed that Zadie had left him there without a pistol to defend himself. He couldn’t wai
t to get back to the crib to get his piece he swore revenge on both of them. “Man, D, why don’t you let me go this one time dude. I promise I’ll leave town and you will never have to see me again, man. Just give me one chance to make it right.”
“Not my call.” Danger said as he kept aim on him like a hawk on a rabbit and took out his phone to call Messiah. “Yo man. We got her.”
“Straight?”
“So far.”
“Good looking.” Messiah said exhaling in relief.
“One.”
As soon as Danger hung up his phone, Pet made a break for it pushing his arms up in the air hoping to make him drop his gun. Danger was solid though and began blasting at him along with Amy. Pet was hit again in the shoulder but was like a track star having ran so fast that he got out the door anyway.
“Stay here.” Danger said as he ran out the door like a detective trying to catch the fugitive.
“Girl, are you okay?” Amy said detaching the chains from around Red’s flimsy wrist.
She sat her up covering her body with a dirty dingy towel that was lying on the floor. The factory floor was cold and icky but it was relief to Red not having her body stretched beyond belief anymore. She trembled not muttering a word just wanting to go home and get in a shower never to get out.
“That son of a bitch is gone. I couldn’t catch his ass.” Danger came back in out of breath.
“We need to get her to a doctor.” Amy suggested helping her to her feet but she fell back down instantly, so weak from the nightmare.
“No.” She said in a raspy voice. “No doctor.”
“Girl you might have some shit you can’t get rid of. Now let’s gone ahead to the emergency room. You ain’t gotta tell ‘em shit if you don’t want to but you gotta go.” Danger said sternly.
Red wasn’t in any mood or condition to argue with anyone so she just followed them out the door. She really didn’t care at this point she was just happy to be around people who weren’t going to hurt her, she hoped.
****
“Messiah, please call off your goons. Don’t hurt my son. I’ll tell you…I’ll tell you.” Zadie said crawling on her hands and knees reaching and tugging on Messiah’s pants.
He kicked her off of him figuring she had found her heart right there. But what she didn’t know was that Danger had already called him with the news that Red was safe and sound. Unbeknownst to her, her plan had failed miserably and as he looked onto her bloody and bruised face he felt no sympathy for her or her cronies.
“Naw Z, you need to suffer just like Red suffered. Maybe next time you will have the same kind of mercy on your next victim that you’re asking me for.”
The darkness was gradually turning into light as the daybreak was upon them. Zadie began balling seeming virtually inconsolable hoping that she would be able to see her son one last time to tell him she was sorry for involving him in all of this. She wanted one more chance to be a real parent to him, to perhaps take him to a basketball game or just give him a hug and tell him she loved him. His youth had only just begun and it seemed because of her ruthless selfish ways it would be stripped away for eternity.
“Shut the hell up. Alright, I’ll give you one chance to redeem yourself. Tell me everything that happened tonight and if you don’t, well, take a look outside.” Messiah pointed to the car sitting in front of the house with the motor running.
Zadie got up and walked to the window to look out at the car. She could only see a person sitting in the passenger seat with a black linen bag over their head. There was no way to make out who was actually sitting there but knowing Messiah and what he was capable of she didn’t want to take her chances. She sat down on the couch with her hand raised to her mouth in shock at the turn of events that had taken place this whole night.
“Okay, we did it. We did it all.” Zadie confessed.
“Did what with who?” Messiah asked fiddling with his phone.
“I set the plan in motion for Pet, Tina, and Marie to ransack the joint and kidnap Red. They stole about a million dollars worth of merch and then Pet brought Red to the warehouse on 119th.” Zadie paused wondering if she should say anymore. “I didn’t mean for anybody to get hurt.”
“What about Braze?”
“Braze was the guinea pig. We just told her to do something and she did it no questions asked. All you gotta do is throw some money at her and she’s down.”
“That’s one hell of a way to talk about your sister.”
“She’s a hoe. She gets down. That’s just how she is, I don’t have to sugar coat it. I love her but it is what it is.”
“Really?” Messiah said giving a backwards look.
It pained Messiah to know that Braze was in on the whole operation with those idiots. He had a soft spot in his heart for her because she was carrying a son. His son. It was a secret she hid very well from everyone and he appreciated that about her. But she knew something was going down regardless of if she knew exactly what was going to happen or not. He was hurt by her blatant disregard to say something and her need to do anything for a quick buck. There was no emotion displayed on his face, as he turned toward the fireplace so disgusted at the sight of Zadie.
“Okay so why did you do it?” Messiah asked staring up at the ceiling trying to regroup his thoughts.
“Because...you had stopped showing me the affection you once showed me before Red came here.” She paused. “I didn’t care anything about the money or the merch, I just wanted you back.”
Messiah dropped his head realizing that ways and thinking brought about a sudden chain of events that could have readily been avoided. But she was selfish and stupid and only thinking of herself and her greed. He turned around looking down upon her weeping eyes. Her mascara had run all down her cheeks and her tears flowed continuously. She hoped he would feel some kind of sympathy for her and have mercy enough to take her back and forget all about everything that took place but she knew that would be a shot in hell.
Don’t Be A Fool
Skid looked over at Braze feeling sorry for her. He didn’t know what Messiah had in store for her but he knew whatever it was he sure didn’t want to be in her shoes. Even though he liked her there was nothing he could do. She had played a big girl’s game and now she must suffer the consequences. He rolled the window all the way down and lit his cigarette on the outside of the car. He took a couple of pulls before hearing the faint sounds of tears under the black satin bag over Braze’s head.
“What you crying for?” He asked solemnly.
“I’m scared. Why do I have to wear this thing over my head with my hands up?” Braze asked trembling.
“Because you can’t know where you are right now.” Skid replied.
“But why? I didn’t do anything wrong. I can’t believe this bitch got me mixed up with this shit.”
“Well, you’re a little big girl. You’re responsible for your own destiny. Can’t nobody control that but you.”
Braze lowered her head in shame. She couldn’t believe that he could do that to her baby’s daddy. A man she had no intentions on being with but seeing him with her sister drove her insane. Zadie always rubbed Messiah in Braze’s face and couldn’t wait to talk to her about their sex-capades. But Braze never came at her about the issue since she had something he would never give Zadie, his seed. She would often dream about one day becoming his wife and having three or four more kids for him but she felt that she would never fully have him or his heart. She didn’t fully trust a man who worked around half naked women all night, but the few magical nights they shared together trying to make their baby were the best nights of her life. Messiah was never a man to just fuck you and forget you. He was always gentle, he was always loving, and he was always sensual when it came down to it.
“I just want him to know that I know I fucked up and I’m sorry.” Braze said waiting for a response from Skid.
Skid knew better than to get too attached to these females. If he did he wouldn’t be able to function
always dealing with their tears and emotions.
“What do you think he’s going to do to me?” Braze asked quietly looking in his direction.
“I don’t know. He told us to drive out here for something but whatever it is…I guess we’ll know soon enough.”
****
“Ma’am, I need to know what happened to you or else we can’t help you.” The officer said writing things down on her notepad.
“I can’t. I won’t.”
