by Niecy P
“Hey, you,” Mom said, happy to see me. She knew that those couple of days had been rough for the family and she worried more that I was going to get caught up like Madison did. There was nothing that I was able to do to ease her pain. It was my job. I needed to go out there and have my family’s back like they had mine for all those years. Madison and Mason protected me when I didn’t know I needed protection. I had to protect them. I closed the door and turned to face my parents.
“Hi guys,” I said.
“Do you want something to eat,” Mom was getting up to fix me a plate of food. I shook my head and held my hand up.
“No, Ma. But there is something that I need to talk to you both about,” I told them. I grabbed a chair from the round kitchen table and sat down. I looked them both in the eyes before reaching in my pocket for the recording. I placed it in the middle of the table and sighed before speaking.
“You saw the video of the guy on the phone when he shot Madison,” I asked. My parents nodded their head and waited for me to continue. “Tylee and DJ were able to focus on that, and they got this,” I said and pressed play. It started off with static but when the person started talking it was clear as day.
“Is it done,” he said.
“I don’t know, Sir. She sped off before we could check. We are walking up to the car now,” the shooter said.
“Get in there and get it done! Do not come back here unless you want to die,” he screamed over the phone. The shooter hung up the phone and proceeded to kill my fucking sister. I pressed stop and watched the blank expressions on their face. Pops first reacted by beating on the table with fury. I pulled my mother away from the table. The wooden table that was made from Black’s Carpentry was in pieces after my father was done with it. His hand was bloody and swollen. I did the exact same thing to my Mustang. I was sure that Mom was in shock and couldn’t handle the voice of her son on the recorder. My father roared his agony out of losing one of his sons because he knew what needed to be done. Mom cried silently and patted my hands to let her go.
“Ma,” I called out, but she shook me off and ignored me. Mom left out of the kitchen, not wanting to hear what I was going to do. Pops collapsed in his seat and he stared down at his hands. He looked confused for a minute.
“I thought if I gave you both everything that it would never result with this. I guess it’s my own karma coming back on me. All the sons that I took from mothers and fathers. Not once did I ever think that it would result with me losing my own son. My. Fucking. Son,” he emphasized those last three words with a clap. His elbows rested on his knees with his head down. I leaned on the kitchen island and asked the question.
“Where is he, Pops?” I asked. Pops shook his head.
“After the meeting we had about Juice and shit, he left. I thought that he was with some bitch or laying low as we told him. I didn’t think that he was doing some crazy shit like this, man,” he said. I was about to say something until we heard sirens riding in our neighborhood. I knew it had to be something serious if the doctor on the estate couldn’t help whoever was in need. I frowned and walked to the front of the house to go out the front door. I saw an ambulance coming up the street. I looked around at the houses and saw my Uncle Jason’s front door wide opened. I took off in that direction and came up to my uncle in Madison’s lap fighting for his life. The doctor hooked him up to an IV and was cutting his shirt opened to survey the wound.
He already had an oxygen mask over his mouth with his eyes closed. I saw Madison whispering something into her father’s ear. My Dad and other uncle rushed in and collapsed to their knees. Cries were heard from the women of the family, and for the life of me, I couldn’t move. The medic asked Madison to move out the way so that they could help him more. She got up and with the voice of the killer that her father was proud of, told us that we all were going to die if he didn’t make it and walked out. We helped them put him on the gurney so that they could get him to the hospital. Truth ran over to the car Madison jumped in, but he got there too late. She sped off without a backward glance. I knew where she was headed. Truth did also. We ran to my truck and went after her. When we got to the security gate, all the guards that were guarding it had bullets in their heads.
“Fuck,” I said and drove towards Mason’s cabin. I pulled out my phone and tried to give him the heads up, but it went to voicemail. I slammed the phone on my steering wheel.
“What happened?” Truth asked me.
“That nigga turned off his phone,” I said and took the back streets and shortcuts to Mason’s cabin.
“There is nobody else that you can call,” he said.
“No,” I mumbled. My phone rung and I thought that it was Mason. When I saw that it was my Dad, I only wanted to know one thing.
“Did Jeremiah have anything to do with this? If so, tell me now. Because if you lie for him, I promise you that I will bury you together,” I answered. I saw Truth reaction in the passenger seat. I didn’t have time to tell him about what I found out because I had Marley in the car with me. I didn’t want him to go after Jeremiah.
“The fuck are you talking about. If he did have something to do with this, I would bury him myself,” Pops growled through the phone.
“Nah, I got ‘em. Whoever did this, I think they took Aunt Joel. There is no way that she would have left Uncle Jason on the floor by himself volunteeringly,” I said as I weaved through the traffic.
“We checked already. She is not here. She was taken. Callum is making some calls and getting more people involved. I need their children here,” Pops said and hung up.
“Easier said than done,” I mumbled and tossed my phone on the dashboard. Truth’s eyes were shooting bullets on the side of my dome. I didn’t want to repeat the shit, so I nodded hoping that he understood. He nodded and bit down on his bottom lip. I knew that he was trying to control his anger.
“You bet not miss either, nigga,” he said loud enough for me to hear.
“I won’t,” I said and pressed my feet on the gas. We saw the dust that was picked up from the dirt road. That meant we weren’t too far behind Madison or should I say Smoke.
I pulled on the side of Mason’s ride and heard a struggle in the cabin. Truth and I jumped out the car and headed towards the front door. A woman came running out the back door screaming for help. I motioned for her to come to me and placed her in the back of my car. Truth took a step on the porch, but the glass to the window was shattered with two bodies flying out of them. They rolled and got up into a fighting stance. Mason had on some joggers with no shirt and Smoke was wearing some grey sweats with a tank top on.
“Wah di fuck a yuh problem Smoke, huh? Yuh nah rest til mi put mi hands pan yuh,” Ghost growled at her.
“Eff yuh cya put yuh hands pan mi. Mi warn yuh. Mi did. Yuh eitha tun har ova or suffa,” Smoke replied to him. Ghost didn’t say anything else after that. He threw up his set and was ready to rumble with his other half. I didn’t know whether to stop it or let them get the shit over with. It was something that was bound to happen. It was best for them to get it over with. Smoke put up her fighting stance and didn’t wait for Ghost to react. She went at him with blows after blows. Ghost brushed them off at first, but he knew that he was going to feel that shit later. Ghost blocked her hits and countered with a few blows of his own. Smoke kicked Ghost knee and forced it to bend. She stepped on that knee and came up with her own knee to Ghost face. He stumbled back but didn’t fall.
“Gud,” he complimented her. Ghost swung and missed purposely. He put his shoulder down and bumped her body. Smoke stumbled from the bump but fell from the palm hit to the chest from Ghost. She jumped up and kicked his arms that were held up to block his face. They started going at each other with hits to the face and the body. None of their attacks were sticking, because they knew exactly what the other was going to do. It took a turn for the worse when Smoke got in a good uppercut and hook to the face. She tried with the left hook, but Ghost blocked it and countered a hit to
her face that had Truth moving in. I grabbed his arm to pull him back, but he pushed me off.
“Bruh, they gotta handle this shit on their own. Ghost isn’t completely gone,” I told him. He looked back at me with a scowl on his face.
“Yeah, but Smoke is,” he said. And not a second after that. Ghost punched Smoke again, and that had her dazed upon the ground, so we all thought. She rolled up to her feet and was behind Ghost. She hit him three times in the back and paralyzed him. Smoke moved in front of him and with a scowl on her face she hit her brother in the chest. Ghost took in a deep breath before falling to the ground. Beauty got out the car yelling for Ghost with one of my guns in her hand.
“No,” she said and held the gun up. She shot it towards Smoke, and she dodged it. Truth yanked the gun out of her hand and pushed her back in the car. Smoke turned back to her brother on the ground and kneeled before him. Ghost laid still and took in slow breaths. Truth passed me the gun and walked over to the twins. He stood over Smoke and started talking to her.
“This is what you want, huh? Is this that feeling you were chasing? Tell me, Smoke,” he taunted. I didn’t understand what he was doing, neither did Smoke. She looked up at him and rolled her eyes.
“Back up an mind yuh bizniz,” she told him and focused on her brother.
“You don’t understand shit. You have to realize that in this situation, I’m your peace. I step in to let you know when you are going too far. Your breathing picked up because you are trying to breathe for him. You are sitting close because you’re wondering if he will be alright because you hear him in your heart asking for help — you not that far gone to see that this shit is wrong Smoke. It’s wrong baby,” he said to her. Smoke jumped up and got in his face.
“Wah yuh eant from mi. Fos mi too soft an weak. Now mi too harsh. Yuh more confuse dan mi. Yuh chat shit as eff yuh kno mi. Yuh nuh kno shit,” she yelled.
“I know that we love you. Your brother loves you, Smoke. And we all see what you were talking about. The young lady from Portugal that you saved saw it to. Her exact words were, ‘When we were on our way to the bad people's house, I started praying for an angel to save us. And she appeared in black with this blade in her hand. Mr. Bean thought he'd take care of her easily. His Madison introduced himself as Smoke and put the fear in him. The fear that only God would invoke in man. She's my angel. She's My God ‘. She saw it, baby. Now I need you to see it again. Your brother is dying and reaching for you, baby girl. Save him, the way that he would save you,” he told her. Smoke didn’t know what to say to that. Her eyes dropped to Ghost who was still taking in slow and easy breaths. Smoke went down on her knees and placed her hand over her brother’s heart. Below a small whispered I heard her say, “Breathe.” Mason inhaled a big breath before taking in the air slowly. Smoke lifted her chin and prepared for a blow from her brother. He surprised her by pulling her into a hug.
“I’m sorry sista,” Mason chanting all over again. I knew that he felt like it was his fault for not being there to have her back. They both sat there and consoled each other. After so many minutes past, I had to get them back to the house.
“Aye, we gotta go. We need to find out what happened to your parents,” I said. Mason's head popped up, and he looked at me.
“What happened to our parents?” Mason asked. Madison told him that she found their father on the ground with a hole in his chest. She didn’t know that her mother was missing. Mason stood up and helped Madison up. Beauty ran pass in between Truth and me to get to Mason. He opened his arms to welcome her in. Beauty wrapped her arms around him and had her head tucked in his chest. She didn’t want to look at Madison. Mason looked at his sister and nodded. Madison smiled and addressed Beauty.
“Hi, Beauty. I’m Madison, Mason’s twin sister,” she started off with. Beauty looked at Madison like she was crazy.
“I know who you are. You tried killing me twice already,” Beauty responded. Madison nodded head and sighed.
“Yeah, I get like that sometimes,” she joked. “But, if you treat my brother with respect and love him the way that he loves you, I promise that I would never try to harm you again.” Madison gave her word to the girl. Mason knew that Madison was telling the truth. Beauty not knowing her didn’t believe her. Madison accepted that and focused on the situation at hand.
“We gotta get to the house. Don’t leave her here. You can bring her to the house. It will be well guarded,” Madison said. She walked up to Truth and placed a sweet kiss on his lips. “Thank you,” she whispered. Truth wrapped her arms around her waist and kissed her seductively. That was something I knew I had to get used to but I wasn’t going to sit here and explain that shit. I walked off and got back into my car.
“I will meet y’all at the house,” I told them. I drove off and went to the house. When I returned, Uncle Kymel and Uncle Kymani were sitting around DJ and Tylee. My dad was at the hospital with the rest of the family. Madison arrived at the house with us, while Mason and Beauty went to the hospital to see his father. I was looking at some of the information that DJ had pulled up about the Costas. They thought that they had missed something.
Madison thought for a minute until something clicked. She turned towards her uncles and spoke. “Have any of you checked on Mom’s family? The lady that called Mom to see if she was ok,” she asked.
“We didn’t get a chance to. You were shot and that put a hold on everything,” Uncle Kymani said.
“Look up my mother’s call log from last week. It will be from a 504 number,” Madison told DJ and Tylee. They began to type on their computers and Tylee found it first. DJ looked up the name and the background of the person. Madison pulled out her phone and started dialing the number that Tylee read off.
“Hello,” a voice answered the phone.
“Hi, I am trying to locate Vanessa Baker. She called my mother weeks ago to check on her,” Madison didn’t want to give anything away.
“Oh, I’m sorry to tell you this, but Vanessa went missing a week ago. We filed a missing person report, but they didn’t find anything at her apartment,” the woman said over the phone. Madison looked at us and DJ pointed to something he found on the computer. It was the police report on Aunt Joel’s cousin being missing. Tylee typed in the last name ‘Baker,’ and fourteen other missing reports popped up on the screen.
“Alright thank you,” Madison hung up on the lady that was still talking. “What the fuck is this?” she asked. With every name they clicked on, pictures appeared of people that resembled each other. Grown ass men that looked like they were able to defend themselves was missing without a trace.
“Wait I think I got something here,” DJ said. It was a body that was found under the Claiborne bridge in New Orleans. The body was disfigured and bloody. “The medical examiner said that all the teeth were removed from the body along with all the tattoos that could identify the body. They didn’t know that it was a Baker until the next body was discovered. The first body they found was Joel’s great uncle, Luman Baker. The second body was older than the first and they had her medical records on file to identify her. It was Ethal Baker, Joel’s great aunt. The woman that called Joel was Ethal’s daughter Vanessa Baker,” he explained.
“Aunt Joel was talking to us about the day she and her mother ran into her sister that her grandmother gave up. Rose, I think the name was,” I said. Tylee started typing.
“I can’t find a Rose Baker, but a Rose Parker keep showing up,” Tyle mumbled and continued typing. She gasped at the news that came up on her screen. “Rose Parker used to be Rose Baker until she married her husband Gerald Parker. Gerald Parker was killed on a construction site in Alabama. His insurance policy left them a large lump sum of money including the money that they received from the construction site. It looks like…” she paused and swallowed the air that she inhaled. “Rose Parker and her son Gerald Parker was killed by Lisa Parker, Rose’s daughter. She went missing after killing two detectives at the hospital.”
“Was she admit
ted into the hospital or something?” Madison asked.
“No, she was there visiting a patient there name Sheddrick Bell. Lisa told the police that her Aunt Janet killed her mother and was involved in a couple of cold cases with her brother Butch and Blake. When the police searched the house, they found paperwork stating that both of the children suffered Multiple Personality Disorder. It looks like Lisa was the one helping her brother kill and torture people. She escaped and drove out the state in the detective car. The car was found in Mississippi,” he finished.
“So, we can say that it was Lisa that had something to do with that,” I gestured to the computer, “And this shit here,” I asked.
“It looks that way. Lisa had been killing the members of her family for years. I guess Aunt Joel was hard to find because she had Callum last name,” Tylee answered. Before anything else was said the front door opened with Marley and Mason coming through with Beauty in front of them.
“Please tell me you got some information for us to use to get the muthafuckers that did that to my Pops,” Marley said.
“We have an idea of who can be behind it. I guess she is in some area where it can’t pick up the signal. She was smart enough to take the phone and destroy it,” DJ said.
“Aight, send us the info to oh boy that was in the hospital. We are going to go and get him, while you take care of the other situation,” Truth told me. Madison looked confused, but Mason wasn’t. Somehow I knew that DJ wasn’t going to tell Mason everything. I was happy that he didn’t go after him after finding that shit out though.
“Bet,” I replied. “Aye Tylee, I need you to do something for me,” I told her. She nodded and picked her laptop up to bring to the office that I walked into. She sat at the desk and placed her hand on the keyboard. I put both of my hands on the desk and leaned in.
