No Room for Mercy (33 page)

Toodie turned off into McDonald’s, all heads inside the car
bobbing to the music and the bass shaking the windows on the building
as the group approached the drive thru speakers where she turned the
music down and placed a special order.

At the same time, Dawk, had just exited Interstate-44 from the west
and had made a right turn onto Jefferson Avenue in a beige 2001
S-Class four door Mercedes on 20” chrome wheels. Traffic was
light on Jefferson Avenue as it was getting late, but McDonald’s
had a line wrapped around the drive thru. When Dawk cruised by, Malik
recognized the Perez sisters’ Cadillac at the drive thru
window. “There they go, homes!” he exclaimed from the
back seat, his glove-clad hands repeatedly tapping the back window.

Dawk wheeled into a small office complex beside the restaurant, which
sat a few feet lower than the McDonald’s and looked over and
saw the wheels spinning on the Perez sisters’ ride.

“You sure that’s them?” Bay asked as she grabbed a
ski mask.

“They been riding that car for a minute now. If it ain’t
them then it’s somebody out they crew. We got the green light
to hit anybody out they crew and it don’t get no better than
this! Let’s move,” Malik stated lowly as he grabbed a ski
mask and slid it over his face.

*******

“You gone give me my order, already!” Phoebe yelled aloud
to the cashier. “And don’t short a bitch on the ketchup
and shit! We strugglin’ back here and can’t afford
groceries!”

The crew inside McDonald’s was joking around with the Perez
sisters until the manager made the switch and received her product.
Toodie had just pulled off and Phoebe was checking the bags when she
noticed four orders of fries were missing.

“Stop the mutherfuckin’ press, Toodie, these hoes done
shorted a bitch on the fries!” Phoebe snapped.

“What? Girl, forget that shit!”

“Nahh! The fries is the most important part of the fuckin’
meal!”

Toodie pulled forward and placed the car in park and stared at
Phoebe.

“What?” Phoebe asked.

“I know you don’t think I’m going get that shit!”

“Toodie come on now! I paid for it! Just run in and get the
shit while I roll this other blunt.”

Toodie hopped out the car and slammed the door. Pepper soon followed
saying she had to use the bathroom. The two went inside the building
where Toodie approached the counter and Pepper headed to the toilet.

Simone was in the backseat bobbing her head to the music playing low
on the speakers. Pepper had just emerged from the restaurant and was
walking back to the car when she saw three people dressed in all
black creeping out from behind a row of bushes and a few parked cars
on the opposite side of the parking lot. She was wondering what they
were up to, but said nothing as she continued walking towards the
car.

At the same time, Phoebe was rolling a blunt when she spotted three
people dressed in all black, one of them running up on the Cadillac
with a chrome Tommy gun on full display. Her eyes grew wide as she
dropped the weed.

“Ohhh, fuck!” Phoebe yelled as her adrenaline began to
flow. “
Peppi, llamada Toodie! Llamada Toodie!”
(Peppi call Toodie! Call Toodie!) she frantically screamed as she
tried to reach up under the driver’s seat.

Simone looked up and nearly pissed her pants when she saw the cannon
the gunman was welding. She opened the back door and rolled out onto
the ground in between the car and the curb leading to the sidewalk
just as gunfire erupted.

The windshield and front passenger side window on the Cadillac
shattered and bullets lodged into Phoebe’s right side, forcing
her against the driver side door. She was reaching under the front
seat for her sister’s mini Uzi when the gunman ran up and
sprayed the interior of the Cadillac, shredding her body and
splattering her intestines and brains throughout the pristine car’s
interior.

Bullets from the assailant’s gun sounded like a bunch of empty
fifty-five gallon barrels crashing down onto concrete at random and
the sparks from the gun’s barrel and chamber was radiating in
the darkness, coming off like a strobe light from a disco tech as the
ski-masked assassin lit up the interior of the Cadillac. A couple of
cars sped out of the driveway and several people had left their cars
behind, jumping out and running away from the violence in sheer
terror.

Phoebe lay on her back, looking her dispatcher square in the eyes as
bullets pumped into her body in rapid succession until everything in
her world faded to black. Just as fast as twenty year-old Phoebe
Perez had lived, so had her life come to an abrupt end. She died on
the front seat of her sister’s car in a hail of semi-automatic
gunfire.

Pepper, meanwhile, was frozen stiff. She stood by and watched as
Phoebe’s killer ran past her, looking her directly in the eyes
before turning away and running off into the darkness with the other
two gunmen.

Toodie ran out of the building and knocked Pepper down in her attempt
to reach her sister. When she reached the car, however, Toodie knew
right away that it was no saving Phoebe. She lay on her back looking
up at the car’s roof, her eyes half-closed and her mouth
slightly open. Brain matter was seeping from the back of her open
skull and spilling out onto the white leather seats right along with
her intestines, which were spilling out from her midsection. Toodie
walked away from the car and went and sat on the curb and hid her
face as she began to scream aloud in agony, knowing she’d just
been dealt a serious blow at the hands of her enemies.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

COUNTRY BUMPKIN BRUISING

“How was the trip to Chicago,” eighteen year-old AquaNina
asked Bay as the two dressed inside their master bedroom after
showering together.

It was two weeks after the hit on Phoebe Perez. Early August of 2003.
Fox Park had suffered the loss of one it’s most revered
hustlers the night Phoebe was killed and the neighborhood was still
in mourning. Teddy bears and flowers were placed under the McDonald’s
drive thru window and many who rode through would often bless
themselves in remembrance of their downed comrade.

Carmella had flown back into town for her girl’s funeral and
had sent her off right. She and her girls partied for two days
straight in honor of Phoebe and had even tried to retaliate a week
after, but riding through Saint Charles was a suicide mission. The
place was heavily guarded at all times, so striking back on the
Chicago Gang’s home turf was out of the question for the time
being. Carmella would have to let things die down before she could
devise another plan to counteract what’d been done on her main
hustle spot down in Saint Louis.

Bay dried her legs and fell back onto the bed and pulled AquaNina
close. The two had been lovers for nearly a year now, but Bay had
come out to the family on her eighteenth birthday, the same day
Junior asked permission to date Tiva. Most in the family weren’t
surprised over Bay. AquaNina had been her only friend for a while.
The two did everything together, from going to the movies, dinner,
shopping and hanging around Ponderosa and showing up at Spoonie and
Tyke’s ball games and the town’s bowling alley together.
They were an obvious couple, but their lifestyle was accepted by the
family.

Bay and AquaNina’s alternative lifestyle was disapproved by
some youngsters around town, however, and they would sometimes
encounter ridicule when out in public. It took a lot within Bay to
not bring out her true self to her peers in Ponca City because she
knew the people who harassed her and her baby really didn’t
know the things she was capable of doing; and it was for that reason,
that a lot of the mockery she and AquaNina endured was being handled
with tact and grace on Bena’s part so far.

“It went well,” Bay said as she kissed AquaNina’s
forehead. “Lotta logistics to learn.”

“I missed you the whole time you were gone. You barely called.”

“I know. I’m sorry for that, but moving around like we do
don’t allow for much free time, you know? By day’s end I
be dog tired. But I always text you good night.”

“You do. And I appreciate that, baby.” AquaNina replied
as she nuzzled her nose against Bay’s neck and inhaled her
scent as she began singing softly in her ear. “
I know you
got a little strength left...I know you got a lotta strength left…”
AquaNina cooed.

“I so love it when you sing that song,” Bay said as she
kissed AquaNina’s forehead tenderly.

Eighteen year-old AquaNina Mishaan was nothing short of exquisite.
She was a five foot eight one hundred and thirty-five pound
full-bloodied Navajo Indian with thick brown hair and clear brown
eyes. She was a slightly slender young woman, a little shorter than
Bay and ten pounds lighter. A lot of boys around town were envious of
Bay because they couldn’t figure out how one of the baddest
women in Ponca City had ended up in her arms.

AquaNina was nothing short of Bena’s heart. She would do
anything for her love, up to and including providing a condo on the
town’s north side so the two of them could be alone like they
were on this day. AquaNina still lived with her mother and father, as
did Bay, but the two really were making plans to be together for
life. For now, though, both were happy with the arrangements. They
could get together over to the condo, make love freely, have dinner
together and play board games. Their time alone was cherished and
neither wanted what they had to end.

Bay lay back with AquaNina in her arms, the smooth sounds of
Maxwell’s song
This Woman’s Work
playing low on
the stereo, one of her favorite songs that she loved to hear AquaNina
sing to her, as she reflected on the events that had transpired up
until this point in her life.

Four—that was how many people eighteen year-old Bena Holland
had killed to date—and she knew their names and could vividly
recall each encounter. A dude who’d called himself Whip down in
Vegas in August of 2001, a man named Isao Onishi and an officer by
the name of Rodney Simmons in Seattle, Washington in April of 2002,
and her latest victim as of August 2003, a woman named Phoebe Perez
just two weeks ago over in Saint Louis.

Bay understood that she was a killer not only by occupation, but by
nature, and truth be told, she loved the job and the life that went
along with it. Killing people gave her power over others; she held
the key to their future and she wasn’t the type to set them
free. The little girl who’d she’d eyed as she fled the
murder scene shortly after killing Phoebe was a mere afterthought.
Had her gun not jammed, whoever the little girl was, she would’ve
gotten it too, just for being affiliated with the Perez sisters.
Whoever was in the backseat of that Cadillac that night had escaped
death for the same reason as the little girl Bay had eyed, but the
main target had been eradicated and Bay knew full well that the hit
she’d pulled was more than enough for the Chicago Gang because
she’d taken a major player away from the family’s
enemies.

Phoebe Perez was a special life taken for Bay. She knew she’d
gotten one of the people responsible for Lucky’s downfall and
hoped she’d done one of her mentors proud from his grave while
bringing about some comfort to the surviving members of the
Cernigliaro family.

The look on Phoebe’s face as she moved about in desperation
inside of that black Cadillac would forever be etched into Bena’s
psyche. Bay saw fear, a pleading for mercy and a sense of
helplessness in Phoebe’s eyes just before she squeezed the
trigger and ended her life. The way her body twisted and turned on
the front seat of the car and the horrifying screams would never be
forgotten, nor would they be shared amongst those outside of the
business. The life Bay led outside of Ponca City would be her big
secret, a secret that only few in the family knew, and that was the
way Bena Holland and all involved in what was going down outside of
the ranch intended on keeping things as it was a rule that needed no
repeating. If Bay had to tell it, AquaNina would never come to know
the dark things she had done and was prepared to do should she be
called upon.

After dressing, Bay and AquaNina headed over to Pizza Hut where
AquaNina once worked in order to pick up several pizzas for the
family back on the ranch. The two were enthralled in their own
conversation, discussing how to further decorate their two story
three bedroom condo and AqauNina possibly opening an antique shop in
downtown Ponca City, when five young males entered the parlor.

Bay was facing the door and she caught sight of the boys, two blacks
and three whites, as they entered. Bay knew the boys; she’d had
words with them earlier in the summer at the movie theater when they
hurled insults at her and AquaNina. Funny thing was, two of the white
boys had tried to get with her and AquaNina, even offering money to
sit and watch the two have sex in a hotel room on the west side of
town. Bay despised the young men, and she knew they were going to
start trouble the moment one of the boys tapped another’s
shoulder and pointed in her and AquaNina’s direction.

AquaNina, meanwhile, as she sat with her back to the entrance, was
overjoyed as she expressed her desire to purchase a handcrafted
wooden head and footboard for the queen-sized bed that was going to
go inside one of the condo’s spare bedrooms, totally unaware of
the situation.

When Bay nodded her head towards the front door, AquaNina turned
around and eyed the boys.

“Oh no,” AquaNina sighed. “Bay, what are we gonna
do now?” she complained.

“Let them be. Our pizzas almost ready so just chill.”

To ‘chill’ was Bay’s plan, but the five boys had
other intentions. They boldly walked over to Bay and AquaNina’s
table and pulled up chairs. “We need a ride back over to Kaw
Lake Park and you two gonna take us,” one of the boys said,
despite the fact the five of them had rolled up in an old, dark green
pick-up truck.