Another Hood Love (5 page)

Tone

Jaeda’s car had cost me a pretty penny, so I had to hit the block so that I could be ready for the beginning of the month. We had to add our $5000 to the account, and I had other things to take care of as well. It was starting to get hot in the streets, and there were only three more months of school left. I had gotten accepted to four schools with full ride scholarships, but I didn’t know what direction to go. I loved the feel of the streets, but I also wanted to challenge myself as a man to get that college degree as well.

I didn’t want to be that father that told his kids what they needed to do and hadn’t even done it myself. Nah, that wasn’t me so I had a decision to make, but I wanted Jah, Laela, and Jaeda to embark on this journey with me. I couldn’t do this alone; I needed my ride or dies there to motivate me. I spent day in and day out with those three, and we had a plan; we already had half a million in savings in our company account, not including what we had accrued in our joint interest account and whatever was in the safe at our safe house. We were moving mean in the streets, but also smart and cautious.

Jah had his older brother Gio open up a business account under his record label, and had listed Jah as a second owner so he would have access to deposit and withdraw. Every three months, we made large cash deposits into the account and listed it as music tour payments. We also had an apartment outside of Oakland where we went at times to just chill, but it was so out of the way that nobody really stayed there. There were two large safes in the closets, but only me, Jah, and the girls knew about the apartment – neither Gio nor the other members of Gas Squad knew every thing. It was never good to let everyone know everything. There was one last safe that was built into the back of one of the kitchen cabinets at Gio and Jah’s house that only the three of us knew of. Yeah, we were definitely papered up but this was money we didn’t touch; it was that long-term money. We didn’t plan on touching that until we were ready to make our move out of Oakland. We still had another 2 years before we all would be 18 and out of high school.

I had plans that included me and Jaeda, wedding rings, houses, and kids. I was a young street nigga that was talented on the field and in the field, but I knew when I had something real. I had fucked plenty hoes and dated a few, but nobody made me connect like Jaeda did. She was definitely it for me, that’s why that day at Big Ken house’s I was hot than a motherfucker when he started spitting that dumb shit about cooling off. The fuck that nigga thought this was, I wasn’t out here buying bitches $70,000 cars because I liked them; my girl had to match my fly and I loved that girl, so it was only right for me to show her. It’s cool though; soon enough we would put all this behind us and move on, creating our own empire.

I was riding through the hood in my old school. I had a midnight blue 1968 LTD with a slapping ass stereo system, and I was hitting a few corners playing some Peezy, just cruising until I had to go pick up Jaeda to go to the movies. This nigga Mess was testing us every day and the shit was about to come to a head, so I was ready for whatever but I knew that this problem was going to need all of our focus, so this would be me and Jaeda’s last little outing until this little beef simmered down. Niggas were talking about some on sight shit, so we had to be on point. I hadn’t really bust my gun since I caught my first body. That was something that I tried to keep in the back of my head; it wasn’t something that I was proud of, but it was what had to be done. I caught my first body two years ago when I was 16.

My cousin Josh was older than Jah and I, so he used to put us up on all kinds of different money plays. Josh was the one to teach us how to shoot a gun, and had schooled us on how to hit licks – from home invasions to botched drug deals, he taught us how to finesse the mark and get the money fast. We used to even hit parking lot licks at the train station, where we would find a mark that were usually just getting off work and rob them for whatever they had on them and dip off. Most times, our targets were other races that were dressed business casual and looked like they were holding a little change. Well, one day Josh approached us on a weed lick that was supposed to have us sitting nice for a minute. We were told that nobody would be home and it would be an easy lick. There was supposed to be at least three pounds of weed and about $75,000 in cash stuffed in some Gucci bags in the back closet. Josh wasn’t going to be there for the job because the house he was hitting was one of the niggas he was grinding on the block with. Josh said the nigga owed him some money from a bet and he was hitting his ass for his paper, and the extra was all interest. Josh had given us the layout of the 3-bedroom apartment and had given us some guns to go in with. At the time Jah and Josh weren’t on the best of terms, so going in I wasn’t worried because I wouldn’t have to deal with the tension between the two. Even though Josh had given us both pistols, I opted to carry my own – not that I didn’t trust the one I was given, I would just rather use my own hammer. The night we were supposed to hit the lick, Josh wasn’t answering his phone; although we knew all the details, I still wanted to make sure it was still all good for the play.

At first I was having an uneasy feeling about the whole thing, but Jah said it was just my nerves from Josh not being there. I mean, he was kind of like our mentor so it was going to be very different without him. Jah and I had parked at the end of the block from where the spot was; once we killed the lights, we both exited the car and crept down the block up to the apartment we were going in. It was a duplex, so there was only one other apartment connected, and we knew that it was vacant. As we entered the apartment there was a little bit of light coming from the hood of the stove that enabled us to see where we were going. This was easy shit and we should have only been in there less than five minutes.

Creeping down the hallway towards the rooms, I went in one direction and Jah went in the other to secure the other two bedrooms before we went into the room that held the stash. Right as I was about to turn the knob to the bedroom door, there was a loud noise behind me like somebody had ran into the wall. I whipped around pulling my pistol and saw a figure directly behind Jah, and I let off a head shot with no hesitation. Soon as the body dropped, the lights of the apartment all shut on and a figure stepped into the hall. I kept my gun trained on him and Jah did the same.

“So you little niggas just thought y’all was about to just walk in here and take my shit and then walk out like it was nothing?” He laughed a deep laugh as he looked between the two of us, like we weren’t even holding hammers in his face. “Well almost,” he said as he looked up toward the ceiling.

“Man, I came for the work and I’m taking what I came for!” Jah said, raising his voice a little.

“Yea okay bum ass nigga, see ya whack ass patna slipped up and left his phone in my whip when he ran into the store earlier, and you was blowing his phone up like a little bitch so I picked it up.” The tall man, who looked to be in his mid twenties smirked as he continued, “So imagine my surprise when I scroll through the incoming text message and see that this snake ass nigga had texted you my mothafuckin address!” I gripped my hammer a little tighter; my shit was already cocked and ready to go, so I dared this pussy to make a move. “Nigga talkin about let’s go fuck with some bitches while he plotting to take my shit, and the killer part was he was about to have one of his other young niggas hit y’all the moment y’all stepped off my porch,” the nigga shook his head and bent down. Jah and I steadied our guns, still aiming at his head from either side. My shot was always on point, so I wasn’t too much bothered about what he would do at this point. The nigga reached down and pulled the mask off the man I had shot minutes ago and it was Josh; my heart dropped to my fucking knees as I thought about the fact that I had just killed my blood fucking cousin.

“Nigga set me up and was about to set y’all up to, but y’all violated coming up in my spot trying to take my shit, and that ain’t shit I’m going to let slide.” In one swift move, he pulled a gun from his ankle and came up busting toward Jah first. Jah pulled the trigger, but nothing happened; in that delay, I let off two shots, dropping the man instantly.

“Aye nigga my gun jammed!” Jah yelled, visibly shaken from that close call. Right then, something clicked in my head and I pulled the gun that Josh had given me earlier; aiming at the owner of the spot, I cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened – my gun was jammed as well.

“Son of a bitch!” I yelled. “Let’s grab this shit and cut,” I said to Jah. I was heated that Josh had the nerve to set us up after we put in the work, gave us them faulty ass hammers, and had set us up to get got for what we put in work for. I reached in the back of the closet; all that shit the nigga talked about, we weren’t taking shit and the shit was sitting right where it was supposed to. We grabbed the bags and left out as quietly as we came. I heard sirens in the distance, so we got up out of there immediately. The next day the news aired the story about Josh’s death, and it was ruled as a home invasion turned bad. Jah and I swore to take this to our grave, and to this day neither of us had so much as mentioned it to a soul, let alone brought it up between each other.

I pulled up to the block and just sat in the car thinking as I smoked on a blunt of some true granddaddy purple. I loved to smoke cookies, but nothing would ever feel as good to me as some purple. Thinking of my first body had me shaking my head, because that wasn’t the only body and I knew that in this game, there would be more to come. Jah and I had stopped hitting licks after that one; we had ended up with much less than we were told the lick would pay, but it was still enough to put us on. We came off with two pounds of weed and about $15,000. We figured that Josh just wanted to lure us into the lick to where we wouldn’t back out once we knew he wouldn’t be there. With what we had, Jah and I sold the weed a pound a piece and split the cash down the middle. That’s how we met Big Ken; we had sold the weed to Tommy, copped some work with the cash we had, and hit the block. About two months later of grinding aimlessly, we were approached by Big Ken and we’ve been under him ever since.

Jah

I ain’t got time cus I run these streets, my money too long why you hatin’ on me, I be on my grind and I run these streets, so it’s about time that I flood these streets…

I was sliding through the North side on my way back to the East listening to Dej Loaf and Young Klep; it felt good to see niggas from my city making moves. I had been cattin off all morning and I should have been in the hood three hours ago. I had gone to go chill with this little bitch last night, and I ended up getting caught up over there all night. My intentions weren’t to even stay there over an hour, but Kari had other plans; she was 20 and freaky as hell. Little mama was cool; she had her own spot and worked at a dental office. I had met her a couple weeks ago at the gas station; she was a little dark-skinned cutie with a fat ass and some big titties to match. She had two kids by two different niggas, but that wasn’t any of my business.

I was supposed to meet up with Laela after I left from Kari’s, but after a minute I could see that Kari had plans to keep me longer than I had expected, I turned my phone off after Laela’s fourth call and kicked back as Kari gave me a strip tease and did that little fruit roll up trick on my dick. She had even made some dinner, so after all that excitement, a nigga passed out. I just prayed that Lae wasn’t out here on the block when I got over there. I knew I would hear her mouth but as long as I could prolong it, the smoother my day would go.

I pulled on the block and let out a deep breath when I saw that neither Laela nor Jaeda were outside. I just knew if Jaeda was there, she would run back to Lae the second I pulled up. I planned on just telling her that I stopped at home to change and fell asleep soon as I got out the shower. I knew she wouldn’t have driven all the way to the house to come check and see if I was there, so I was in the clear. As I stepped out the car, I grabbed my weed and my Phillies and crossed the street to where my niggas were at. I dapped up the Squad and nodded my head to the other niggas out there. It was the beginning of the month, so it was cranking; all we had to do was sit back and let the money come to us.

I watched as this broad Triece that I dealt with every now and again pulled up with her patna and hopped out. I was expecting two bricks of some Actavis from her, and she was right on time because my nigga had just called trying to come cop. I walked up to Triece as she approached me and grabbed the bag from her as she kissed me on the cheek; she never wanted cash for getting me the syrup, she just wanted groceries for her kids so I had a knock that would come through and let me buy his food stamps, I always gave Triece the card and let her get $275 worth of food each month.

Soon as Triece pulled off, a green Audi pulled up and parked on the opposite side of the street; even though it was the middle of the day, I couldn’t see who was behind the tints. I stepped back onto the curb and checked to make sure my hammer was on top of the tire of the car in front of me. We were all watching the car to see who it was. I had never seen the car over this way, so I was most definitely on alert. After a few moments, two niggas hopped out the car and I recognized one of the guys as Mess’ right hand man; his name was Mikey, a 22-year-old loud-mouthed hot-headed nigga that played tougher than he really was. I already knew it was going to be some bullshit, so I prepared for the worst. I knew any wrong move and my niggas would bust his head, so I wasn’t too worried.

“Oh okay, I see y’all out here getting money,” Mikey slapped hands with his patna, and they both laughed as they approached the curb.

“Can I help you niggas with something?” I asked as I stepped forward.

“Nah I just was coming by to see how I was going to redecorate the block when me and my niggas moved in.” I looked behind me at my niggas as B stepped up beside me.

“I’m only going to give you niggas 30 seconds to get the fuck off my block before I show you how to leave,” said B as he pulled his .45 from his waist.

“Nigga yo little ass gun ain’t scaring nobody, they ain’t stop making guns when they made yours, bitch ass nigga!” yelled Mikey as he took a step back; his voice roared with authority, but his eyes showed the bitch in him.

These dumb ass niggas came to a gunfight empty handed. I was about to teach these niggas a lesson in respect. I grabbed my banger from the tire and bust past that loud ass nigga’s head; my next shot was into his patna’s leg. In the second that he hollered out, Mikey froze and I grabbed him by the shirt, and started raining blows on his face. This nigga wasn’t even attempting to fight back, so I made his bitch ass strip. I looked over and B was making the other nigga strip out his clothes too.

“Ayo Bernie, come here my nigga!” I yelled to one of the knocks on the block. I grabbed the clothes I had just stripped off these niggas and threw them in his arms.

“Merry Christmas my nigga,” I said as I pulled the keys and threw them to my little nigga Tae. “Here Tae, gon’ head and take her for a spin, but make sure she don’t pop back up.” I knew Tae would ride that whip until the wheels literally fell off. We had beaten the shit out of them niggas, and I had the young niggas make them get up off the block. This nigga Tone’s wild ass was talking shit to them niggas the whole time they were shuffling up the street.

“Fuck them niggas thought we were,” I said to B as he shrugged his shoulders and walked off. I pulled my phone and saw that I had five missed calls from Laela and a few messages. I dialed Big Ken’s number and filled him in on what had just transpired in the least amount of words. After I hung up with him, I shot Laela a text and let her know that I was on my way to her. I prepared myself for the war.