JAH SAT IN THE CORNER WATCHING EVERYONE
watch the rappers. Though being around them repulsed him, at times he had to admit that they knew how to party. Being behind the gun more often than not didn't allow him much time for fun, and sometimes he missed it. His reflecting was disturbed when his cell phone vibrated. Looking at the number on the caller ID screen, he knew it was a call that he had to take in private. Excusing himself from the table, he dashed to the bathroom and flipped the phone open.
“Tell me something good.”
“Yeah, I think you gonna like this,” Tech said on the other end. “I've been laying on this nigga since last night and he ain't strayed too far, so I'm guessing this is where he stay at.”
“Is he home now?” Jah asked excitedly.
“I'm looking at his fat ass right now,” he said, watching his mark stroll up the street, busy with a scratch-off. He had no idea how closely the shadow of death followed him, but he would learn soon enough. “You want me to bust his brain?” Tech asked, praying Jah would gave him the green light. The mark had never done anything to him personally, but he wanted to kill him just off the strength that he had gone out like a faggot.
“Nah, I'm bout to jump in a cab, so I should be there in like twenty minutes. I wanna see the life drain from his muthafucking eyes when I peel his shit,” Jah told him. “Sit tight and I'll be right there.” He ended the call. Jah was so excited that he had to compose himself before going back out to join the group. He had waited over a year for this moment, and Larry Love's number was finally about to be called. When he arrived back at the table, Cooter and Soda were arguing over who had second dibs on Black Ice's new cop. For as hostile as they were, you would've thought shorty had a golden pussy.
“True, I'll be back in about a half,” Jah whispered in his ear.
“You leaving?” True asked.
“Nah, I got a little jump off down on the second floor that said she wanted to suck my dick from the back, so you know I gotta see what that's about,” Jah lied.
“You might wanna stick around, kid. These niggaz is scheming on running a train on shorty over there.” He nodded towards Dena.
Jah looked over at the young girl who was clearly high out of her mind off of something more than weed. She was laughing at everything and couldn't seem to sit still. The way Don B hungrily watched her, Jah knew the man had something sinister up his sleeve, and he just hoped the girl didn't end up like Reese, with a trick baby. He sometimes wished Reese had been his sister so he could've had a reason to take revenge on the man.
“You a'ight?” True asked, noticing the change in Jah's facial expression.
“Yeah, man. I just ain't wit that train shit,” Jah told him.
“Me either. All that balls-swinging shit ain't my cup of tea. I don't wanna see nothing but pussy when I'm going in on a bitch.”
“I know that's right.” Jah gave him dap. “But let me go ahead and get wit this bitch before somebody else snatch her up.”
“Handle. You're my nigga!” True called after the departing man.
“BITCH, WHERE THE HELL HAVE
you been? I ain't seen your ass since you slid the other night. I was beginning to think home boy had
snatched yo ass,” Sugar said, cradling the phone between her ear and her shoulder. Her hands were covered in flour from the chicken she was frying for Sha Boogie and Charlie, who had come by with liquor and weed.
“Damn, you're worse than my mama. And for your information, he did snatch my ass. My ass, my hair, and some of everything else!” Roxy squealed. “Girl, let me tell you that the saying about fat niggaz having lil dicks is not true for everybody.”
“Youz about a dick-thirsty bitch,” Sugar said.
“Takes one to know one.”
“But fuck the dumb shit, is the nigga holding?” Sugar asked.
“He tricked a few dollars, but his crib ain't all that. I did see some credit cards in his wallet though, when he went to the bathroom.”
“We can do some serious shopping with those on the Internet,” Sugar said. Credit fraud was another one of her talents.
“That's what I'm talking about. I ain't snatched em yet, but please believe I'll have them shits before I leave here,” Roxy assured her.
“So, when you coming back to BK?” Sugar asked.
“Probably tomorrow afternoon. I'm trying to get him to take me shopping on Fordham when the stores open.”
“Bitch, don't bullshit around with that fat muthafucka all day. Don't forget we gotta hit that barbecue tomorrow.”
“I ain't forget. I'm gonna throw on something real slutty and press that nigga Stacks. Its time to take the gloves off.”
“Amen to that!” Sugar agreed. “Maybe we can convince Sha Boogie and Charlie to rob his ass.”
“I don't see why not. Them niggaz is crazy as hell anyway.” Roxy paused when she heard a key jiggling in the front door. “Bitch, I gotta go cause that nigga is back from the store. I'll call you in the morning.” Roxy hung up before waiting for Sugar to respond. When Larry came into the bedroom she acted like she was just waking up.
“Damn, yo ass is still sleeping?” he asked, placing a plastic bag on the floor.
“Yeah,” she stretched, “you put it on a bitch.”
“They don't call me Larry Love for nothing.” He began fumbling
around in the bag. He pulled out a fifth of Hennessey and a box of magnum condoms. “You think you're up for another round?”
“SHA, HOW LONG WE GONNA
play cat and mouse with this nigga?” Charlie asked, putting flame to the end of a blunt.
“We play till I say the game is over. What, you getting scared or something?” Sha snapped.
“Hell nah, you know we ride together. I'm just saying, we need to bump this nigga off before we miss the chance. Its bad enough them niggaz is always crew-thick, but that lil nigga he running with is starting to give me the creeps.”
“Man, fuck that nigga, he ain't hard.” Sha put his cigarette out in the ashtray. “You should've seen that nigga all uptight over his bitch in the club.”
“That was a bad lil bitch. I think she used to dance at Shooter's,” Charlie said and tried to remember.
“Clown-ass nigga trying to turn a ho into a housewife,” Sha Boogie laughed. “Maybe we'll run up on her ass, too, when her man is dead.”
“If we ever get around to killing anybody,” Charlie said. He didn't mean anything by it, but he could see that Sha Boogie was offended by the statement. “Sha, I ain't mean nothing by it. I just wanna get this shit over with so we can get back to business. I really ain't trying to chase True all summer.”
Sha Boogie gave Charlie a disgusted look, but deep down he knew his partner was right. The hit had taken months to plan, but the execution wasn't going exactly how he had expected. After the botched hit he decided to have a little fun and make True sweat, but the time for games was over. True had to die and the debt had to be settled.
“Fuck it, Charlie Rock. We gonna push over to that locked-door joint in Harlem and end this shit once and for all. Let's go twist these niggaz caps back.” Sha pushed away from the table.
“Where the fuck is y'all niggaz going, and I done fried all this chicken?” Sugar came into the living room holding a bowl full of fried chicken.
“Something came up and we gotta bounce,” Charlie Rock told her.
“Fuck you mean, something came up? Y'all niggaz come through my house, have me cook and shit, and you breaking out? That's some real bullshit.”
“Listen,” Charlie Rock pulled her to the side, “it's five bags of weed and twenty cash for your trouble, but if you know like I know, you'll leave this situation alone,” Seeing the frightened look in his eyes, Sugar decided to take his advice and she didn't say another word until they were out of her apartment.
THE RIDE FROM HARLEM TO
the Concourse was a short one, so Jah had enough time to do what he had to do. When he hopped out of the cab on 156th Street Tech was on the corner waiting for him. Tech was his usual smiley self, but Jah's face was grim and hard.
“Jah, what it do?” Tech gave him dap.
“It dies, my nigga,” Jah said, continuing past him. The two bandits made their way to the building where Larry Love was held up, with murder on their minds. There was a group of young men sitting on the stoop, and they gave the two men a wide berth. The young street punks knew death when they saw it.
Thanks to the recon done by Tech over the last twenty-four hours, not only did Jah know which building Larry lived in, but the apartment as well. Moving as silently as they could, they jogged the four flights of stairs and positioned themselves outside Larry's door.
“He alone?” Jah asked, checking the clips of his twin 9s.
Tech shrugged. “He was when I seen him last.”
“Then lets get it popping,” Jah said, just before kicking the apartment door off the hinges.
THE SEX DIDN'T LAST AS
long as the first few times, but Larry got his nut off. Whether Roxy did or not was irrelevant. While Roxy was in the bathroom cleaning herself up, Larry reflected on how easy it was to dupe her. He had made the girl think that he was holding, not
knowing he was ass-popped and all the credit cards in his wallet were canceled. He would continue the façade until she was gone, and he hoped she didn't have to go into her purse for anything, because she was going to be mad as hell when she found out that he'd swiped her money and Medicaid card. Roxy thought she was slick, but nobody was slicker than Larry Love.
Larry smiled at his own cunning, but the smile faded when the door to his studio apartment came crashing in. Larry tried to reach for the .22 he kept in the drawer by the side of the bed, but the shorter of the gunmen was on him before he could get to it. There was something about the dark-skinned teenager that was familiar to Larry, but he couldn't place it; but he knew exactly who the second shooter was and what he had come to do. Not being able to control it, he pissed himself.
Jah took his time coming into the room with a pistol dangling in each hand. He had waited so long for this moment that it almost didn't seem real. The look on Larry Love's face was one of pure terror, which only made Jah's dick hard. Larry made a quick movement and Jah thought he might be going for a weapon, but to his surprise the big man bolted for the window. Larry hurled himself at the flimsy glass, and though it shattered, the frame kept him from making an exit. All he succeeded in doing was cutting himself up something awful.
“Now that was dumb,” Tech laughed at the bleeding man.
“Damn, Larry, that ain't the reception I expected from my long lost
brother,
” Jah said icily.
“Jah, Jah, Jah ⦠wait a minute, man,” Larry stuttered. “Before you do something stupid, you need to know that my next-door neighbor is a cop.”
“Good, then it shouldn't take the meat wagon long to come collect what's left of you,” Jah kicked him in the face, knocking his head into the wall. Larry was dazed but didn't pass out.
“Oh, your ass is gonna get it!” Tech said, while doing the cabbage patch over Larry. His little warped ass was getting a kick out of Larry's situation. He stopped mid-dance and sniffed Larry. “Nigga, did you piss yaself? Jah, this nigga pissed on his self!”
“Tech, shut the fuck up,” Jah snapped.
“Dawg, lets talk about this,” Larry pleaded through his bloody lips.
Jah placed his guns back in the holsters and crouched down so that he and Larry were eye to eye. “What we got to talk about? How you and that skank bitch Marlene crossed my brother?” He slapped Larry viciously across the face. With rage adding strength to his slim arms, Jah grabbed Larry by the throat and lifted him to his feet. “Paul was a good dude, Larry. He didn't deserve to go out like that!”
“You don't think I know that? I live with the guilt of what happened to him every day, so ain't shit you can do to me that's worse than what I'm already going through!” Larry shouted. He really felt bad for what had happened to Paul, but it was mostly theatrics for Jah's benefit.
“Larry, a piece of shit like you couldn't begin to even grasp the fundamentals of guilt,” Jah said, reaching down to retrieve a piece of the broken window glass. “But you will know pain.”
ROXY PRESSED THE PALMS OF
her hands against her ears as tight as she could, but she still couldn't seem to block out Larry's screams. After a bout of so-so sex she had gone into the bathroom to take a shower and shortly after heard a loud crashing. She was about to come out and check on Larry, thinking maybe he had fallen, but then she heard the voices. From what it sounded like, Mr. Larry Love had written a check his ass couldn't cash.