Gangstress

by India

  Pop. Pop. Pop. Three shots sent the nigga stumbling to the ground. I staggered over to his body then placed the pistol right into his mouth. Pop. That was all she wrote for Gudda. His time was up.

  Staggering up the stairs, I managed to retrieve my phone.

  “Hey, girl, what’s up?” Ali answered.

  “I need you to get here quick.” Due to the loss of my front top teeth, I sounded like Daffy Duck.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked with concern.

  “This nigga just tried to kill me!”

  Chapter Fifty-three

  After the incident, my girls urged me to take a few days away from the trap in order to recover. I used the time off to contact Richard to see if he could schedule a visit with Ace. I also went to see an oral surgeon about my mouth. There was no way I’d be seen with missing teeth. Dental implants were my only option. Because I didn’t have insurance, the outpatient surgery hit me up for $10,000 out of pocket.

  My grill was back just in time for Richard’s call informing me that he was able to arrange a visit with Ace. Hence, I didn’t complain, but I did wear the mask they wear at the nail shop while doing nails. They wear the mask to keep them from breathing in fumes all day. My lie for wearing the mask was that I was sick with flu-like symptoms. In all honesty, I just didn’t want Ace to see my new teeth and lose his mind about what happened with me and Gudda. Thankfully, our attorney had major pull behind the prison walls. I needed to find out what in the hell was going on with Ace and our relationship.

  “Please have a seat, ma’am. He’ll be out shortly,” the chubby corrections officer informed me before he closed the room door behind him. I sat on the cold metal seat. While waiting for Ace to show up, out of habit I nervously bit down on my bottom lip. After a few minutes passed, I stood up and began pacing the floor in my new red bottoms. On my fourth lap around the small room, I heard Ace speak.

  “You look good, Janie.” He walked through the door and my heart melted. He was a tad more toned than I remembered. Seemingly an inch taller as well. His shoulders were broader and his arms chiseled. It was apparent that he’d been spending most of his days working out. Subsequently, my focal point became his eyes. Those hazel-green eyes were as piercing as ever. Ultimately, I discontinued the loving stare between us and took in the mini Afro he was sporting. His hair was so curly that one would think he rolled it up at night. Yet I knew better. It grew like that when he went too long without a haircut. Furthermore, the facial hair around his mouth and chin needed to be trimmed. He sported a beard now. Although I was pissed off and wanted to hate him, my love outweighed all of my anger. Just as I had months ago, I still felt the same about him. In fact, I wanted to run into his arms and breathe in his essence.

  Then I remembered why I was even there in the first place. “What the hell is going on with you?” I crossed my arms across the sheer leopard top I was wearing that pushed my breasts up.

  “You came all the way down here to question me?” He tried to give me attitude, but I wasn’t having it.

  “You’re damn right I came down here to question you!” I rolled my eyes. “First, you don’t add me to your visitors list. Second, you don’t call. You aren’t even communicating with me via mail. Is there another bitch?” My heart raced in expectancy of his answer. I had watched too many movies where the main chick discovers her man has side bitches after he goes to prison.

  “What?” He shook his head. “Why would you think something like that, Janelle? I love you with everything I got. Can’t no other bitch take your spot, baby.” He stepped closer to me but I wasn’t done.

  “Why are you treating me like shit then?” I questioned.

  He sighed. “Baby, I’m facing forty fucking years in this place. I don’t want nor expect you to do this bid with me.” He pulled me closer. “If I go down, I want you to take my seed and forget about me. Pretend I got killed or something.” He rested his chin on top of my head and held me so tightly that I could barely breathe.

  “Ace, why are you talking like this? Forty years isn’t that long.”

  “Janie, there is no use in pretending this shit is hunky-dory. Forty years is forty years, no matter how you look at it. By the time I’m released, you’ll be fifty-eight and my seed will be forty with grandkids.” He released the embrace.

  “They offered you a plea of five years. Why didn’t you take it?” The question had been burning a hole in my head ever since Richard told me he declined the offer.

  “The prosecuting attorney wanted me to snitch on Nicky and the Pauletti crime family. You and I both know better than that.” He shook his head. He was right, I did know better, so I didn’t push the issue. Where we came from, “no snitching” was the code of the streets. Real niggas and bitches lived and died by it. “The truth of the matter is I might go down for this, Janelle, and do the whole bid. It’s not fair but it’s reality. I’ve come to accept it, and you have to do the same.”

  “Baby, you will get out of this. I promise.” I needed him to know that I believed he would beat this thing.

  “Never make promises you can’t keep.” He took a seat on one of the metal chairs.

  “Ace, I’m making moves and setting shit up for us. I believe wholeheartedly that you will come home.” I took the seat across from him.

  “What moves are you talking about?” He frowned.

  “Me and Alicia got a spot under Chucky.” The look on his face told me he was disappointed. “Baby, don’t look at me like that. It’s just for the meantime.”

  “The trap ain’t no place for you.” He hit the table. “And it damn sure ain’t no place for my seed.”

  “Calm down.” I placed my hand on top of his. The corrections officer was peeking into the room. I wasn’t ready for him to end our visit. “It’s only temporary,” I whispered.

  “Do you know how many niggas are in the cemetery who have said the same thing?”

  “Ace, I’m doing this for us.”

  “Bullshit!” he yelled. “You’ve been begging to be in the trap ever since your father died, so don’t say you’re doing this for us!”

  “I am doing this for us! I need the money to pay your lawyer,” I hollered back. “Listen, it was either selling pussy or selling powder!” I stood from the chair and grabbed my purse. It wasn’t my intention to say all of that in the vicinity of the officer. I was beyond furious, so it was what it was. “I’m leaving.”

  “Janie, I’m sorry. Don’t go.” Ace stood with me.

  “Fuck you, Ace!” I spat and banged on the door for the officer to let me out.

  “I’m so sorry. Please don’t go.” He blocked the door.

  “Why would you say some shit like that then?” I was hurt by his words and I wanted him to know it.

  “Ma’am, are you okay?” the officer asked.

  “She’s good,” Ace answered for me.

  “Ma’am, are you good?” the officer asked in an aggressive tone.

  “Yes, I’m good, thank you.” I nodded.

  “Come here, Janie.” Ace pulled me away from the door and over toward the table, where he took a seat.

  “Ace, I’m leaving. If that’s the way you feel about me, then I’m done with you.” I resisted when he attempted to pull me down onto his lap.

  “Come here,” he said again with more bass in his voice. “I’m sorry for snapping on you like that, but a nigga is stressed. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you or my child.” Ace sighed. “I often wonder what type of life you guys will have without me, and then I get sick to my stomach. I love you, Janie. More than anything in this world. It’s killing me not to be able to be there for you.” He showed a vulnerable side that I had never known him to have. The tear in the corner of his eye softened my demeanor.

  “What am I gon’ do without you, Ace?” I blinked rapidly. He stood from his seat, walked over to mine, then dropped to his knees.

  “It’s going to be all right, baby.” Ace lifted my shirt and pulled my waist toward him.
With both lips puckered up, he began to plant soft kisses all over my belly.

  “What are you doing?” Now was not the time to get freaky.

  Ace stopped kissing my stomach and smiled. “I probably won’t be there when you have the baby. Most likely I won’t be there at the first birthday party or when my baby starts walking. Hell, I might not even be there for the first day of school. But I can at least say I gave my baby the first kiss.”

  “Ace baby, please don’t do this to me.” I tried to dab at the tears beginning to freely fall down my face.

  “I’m sorry I did this, Janie. Somehow, someway I will figure this out, believe me.”

  “I believe you.” Through my tears I nodded and wrapped my arms around him in silence until the corrections officer told me that it was time to go.

  Chapter Fifty-four

  The visit with Ace had my emotions all over the place. But after receiving a text from Chucky requesting my presence at a meeting, I put my game face on. This was my first sit-down with all of the players in his organization. I was nervous to say the least. I didn’t know how the fellas would take to seeing a female at the table. However, I was quite anxious to find out.

  Upon entrance into Snookers, the billiard spot off of the I-96 freeway, I scanned the place for any familiar faces and saw Dog heading past regular patrons through a back door. Therefore, I followed him into a medium-sized room. The place was set up with several cocktail tables and one pool table. From the outside looking in, you would’ve never guessed all of this extra space was back here. “Yo, Dog, wait up,” I called out, and he stopped.

  “What’s good, J?” He nodded. “I hear you and your girls have been doing the damn thing over there. That’s what’s up.”

  “I told you we would.” I nudged him playfully. Don’t get it twisted, he and I weren’t BFFs. Alternatively, he wasn’t that bad, and right now he was the only person in this place I knew to some extent.

  “What’s this meeting shit about?”

  “I don’t know, fam.” He sipped from a shot glass then took a seat at one of the tables. “Fox stated that Chucky wanted to sit down with the heads of each trap, but that’s it.” He shrugged.

  I grabbed the empty seat beside him and sat down. Quickly, the place began to fill up with hardened criminals. I caught a few niggas staring in my direction and gossiping like females. Yet no one had the balls to approach me until one nigga actually did walk up.

  “You must be Jane Doe.” The gap-toothed brother rested his beer bottle on my table. “I heard you was getting it poppin’ over on the east side.”

  “Something like that.” I smiled politely.

  “That’s unheard of, but I guess there’s a first for everything. Right, homie?” He extended his fist to bump knuckles with Dog, who didn’t return the gesture.

  “What do you mean by that?” This nigga was only talking reckless because he saw me as a weak female, but he was gon’ learn today.

  “I mean, back in the day the trap didn’t have no place for a bitch, but I see things done changed.”

  “Ain’t no bitches at this table.” I smirked.

  “Yeah, okay. There’s a bunch I can say about that. But for now, I’ma let it ride.” He grabbed his drink and moved on to the next table.

  “Don’t let that nigga get you stressed.” Dog patted my back.

  “I’m not stressed.” I brushed his hand away. The last thing I needed was to look like I was being consoled.

  “Chill, J, I was only trying to let you know it was all right.” He shook his head, and I felt bad for snapping but I still stood my ground.

  “I appreciate your concern. But if I were another man, would you be rubbing on my back?”

  “Hell no!” he snapped.

  “That’s my point. Just because I’m a female, don’t treat me like a pussy.” I smiled.

  “Point taken, Jane. I feel you.” He nodded just as Chucky came through the back door with a group of men on his trail.

  “Who is that?” I whispered. The only person I recognized with Chucky was Fox.

  “The light-skinned dude is Perry. Should something happen to Chucky, he’s second in command, and the young nigga is Vito, Chucky’s son.”

  “Son?” My mouth dropped wide open because I’d never known him to have children.

  “Yeah, supposedly the little nigga has been living with his mother in Las Vegas. Until recently, Chucky didn’t even know about him. Now that he’s here, his spoiled ass gets everything he wants. He doesn’t have to work for anything.”

  “How old is he?”

  “’Bout twenty or so,” Dog whispered as Chucky took the floor.

  “I called y’all here today for the monthly meeting, so let’s get to it.” He paced back and forth in a Ralph Lauren Polo and a pair of khaki shorts. “First and foremost, we have a new member added to the team. Her name is Jane, and she has the spot on Charlevoix. After the meeting, stop by and introduce yourselves.”

  “I ain’t introducing myself to no broad,” someone joked, and everyone laughed except me and Dog.

  “Jane might a girl but she hustles like a man. This month, her spot has outsold all of y’all. From what I heard, your spot is in jeopardy, so you better take notes from her, Nate.” Now everyone was laughing except Nate. “Anyway, I brought y’all here to let you know we gon’ switch things up a bit.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” a voice from the crowd spoke up.

  “In an effort to break up the normal routine, I’ll be rotating everyone. For instance, Jane and her crew will be moving to Rosemont. Vito and his crew will take over her spot.”

  Before he could continue, I was up on my feet in protest. “Hold on! We’ve worked our ass off at that house. I’m not about to let anyone take our customers.”

  “Janelle, you and your crew have done an awesome job, but I’m relocating you and that’s the bottom line.”

  “So basically you’re giving your son everything I’ve worked hard for? Why not let him build up his own trap like a real hustler?” I was pissed. A few men began to whisper and some snickered.

  “Are you questioning me?” Chucky asked.

  “Are you stealing from me?” I retorted.

  “Enough, Jane!” he snapped. “Keep on talking and you’ll be fined.”

  “Fuck you and the five thousand dollar fine.” I removed a few green bills from my purse and made it rain all over the meeting room.

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Chucky was a dummy if he thought I would bow down and kiss his ass like every other nigga on his team. My father didn’t raise no fool. He should’ve known better than to take my spot and give it to someone else, son or not!

  When I came home, I didn’t bother relaying the message to the girls right away. Since we weren’t going anywhere, nothing was changing. Instead, I took a nap to ease my pounding head. Regrettably, I was awakened later by the pounding of Alicia’s headboard up against the wall and Keisha’s high-pitched screaming. Promptly, I grabbed two pillows and covered my ears. It was useless.

  Snatching the pillows from my head, I flung them across the room. Alicia and Keisha were getting it in like jackrabbits and it was getting on my nerves. I hadn’t had sex in several months. The batteries in my sex toys had been swapped out more times than I cared to count.

  After glancing at the clock on my nightstand, I noted it was three o’clock: primetime hour at the trap. Standing from the bed, I stretched my arms toward the ceiling as best I could without straining my belly. By now I was seven months pregnant, and my stomach was big, round, and tight. My due date was still two months away. Even so, I wished I had more time. The thought of going into labor and delivery without Ace by my side was sickening.

  Sauntering over to the dresser, I removed a pair of sweatpants and socks then put them on. Next, I went to the closet, slipped on a pair of Reebok flip-flops, and grabbed my purse. As I stepped into the hallway, Alicia’s bedroom door opened.

  “Where are you going this time
of night?” Alicia asked on the way into the kitchen.

  “I’m headed to the trap. I can’t sleep.” I was sure I sounded grumpy. I was irritated, no doubt.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Janelle.” She looked back into her bedroom. “Did we wake you?”

  “It’s all good. Don’t worry about it. I’ll catch you later.” I grabbed my keys and left her standing there. It wasn’t my intention to be rude, but today wasn’t one of my better days.

  Coasting down I-75 in silence provided the perfect opportunity to mull over the day’s events. I didn’t like my position with Chucky, so it was time look elsewhere for employment. Furthermore, Alicia and Keisha were beginning to work my nerves. Maybe it was time we looked into separate living spaces.

  As I exited the freeway, my stomach began to hurt. Sharp pains hit me all of a sudden and I felt weak in the knees. The feeling was so intense that I contemplated driving straight to the hospital. However, I ignored my intuition and continued to the trap instead. Michelle’s car was parked outside when I pulled up so I blew the horn once.

  She opened the side door. “Jane, what are you doing out this late?”

  “Auntie, I couldn’t sleep.” I swung my legs out of the car and struggled to stand up.

  “What’s wrong?” She came down the driveway toward the car.

  “That damn Ali and Keisha been sexing like rabbits and I can’t sleep.” I laughed.

  “So why didn’t you get a hotel room instead of coming here?” She helped me from the car and up the driveway.

  “This may sound funny, but I actually find peace here.”

  “Your daddy used to say that.” She shook her head.

  As we reached the side door, I saw movement in my peripheral vision. Before I could completely turn around, I heard the gunshots. Bang. Bang. “Ahh!” I screamed as hot fire hit my knee, forcing me to the ground.