The Day the Streets Stood Still (13 page)

Sunny began sobbing and rocking back and forth. She wanted a hit real bad and she couldn't stop thinking about Faheem.

“Why? Why you keep trying to help me?” she cried, rubbing her arms like they hurt really badly. “Maybe I don't want to be helped,” she sniffled back a nose full of snot.

“Whatchu mean why? C'mon we been best friends since we were little. Why wouldn't I wanna see you doing better, Sunny? Being in clubs fuckin' niggas for drugs ain't you,” Sean replied, stroking her hair. “You just don't know that you want to be helped . . . but you do. You want shit to be like old times. Remember when you used to be scared and stressed and would come over to my house and stay?” Sean said as he lay down next to her and held her like he would when they were kids.

“It's the same old us, Sunny. We are the same old us,” he said softly, holding her tightly.

“I'm embarrassed. Look at me,” Sunny said, extending her arm so Sean could see all of the deep, purple track marks on her once-flawless skin.

“You ain't never got to be embarrassed in front of me. I was the first nigga to smell you take a shit remember?” Sean said jokingly. Sunny elbowed him playfully and let out a halfhearted chuckle.

“Well I was the first chick to smell your deadly-ass farts,” she joked back. They both busted out laughing. Sean hugged Sunny into him and kissed the top of her head.

“You gon' be a'ight. I'ma make sure you get clean and live like the queen that you are,” he said, his heart filling with love. More tears dropped from Sunny's eyes and soaked the pillow. Once again, Sean had showed her the most love she had ever received in her entire life. They lay there for a few minutes in silence. Both of them wondering what life had in store for them.

A soft knock on the bedroom door interrupted their moment.

“Come in,” Sean called out in response to the knocks. He unlatched himself from Sunny and sat up on the side of the bed. The door slowly crept open and within seconds Sean's grandmother was standing there with her usual warm, inviting smile spread on her face.

“Good morning, babies. I had Lacy make y'all some breakfast so come on downstairs. I hope you're feeling a little better, Sunny girl,” his grandmother said sweetly. Sunny turned over and smiled at her; tears welling up in her eyes.

“You still call me that after all these years, Big Mama,” Sunny said, her voice cracking.

“You gon' always be Sunny girl to me,” Sean's grandmother replied.

“See, this is gonna be the perfect place for you to stay to get back on your feet. Big Mama's lovin' will have you better in no time,” Sean said, smiling from ear to ear. He couldn't be more happy to have both of his true loves together in one house.

Sean stood in the warehouse with BG on the opposite side of a long, wooden folding table. He looked down at the flawless, neatly wrapped bricks of heroin that were laid out perfectly on the table.

“Ain't this bitch pretty?” BG asked, waving her hand over the shipment like a game show host showing a winning prize. “You can't beat getting this shit as easy as we did.”

“You ain't never lie,” Sean replied, excitement apparent in his eyes, but his face showing that he was cool about it. He was still kind of stunned that BG had pulled off the transport without even consulting him on a shipping method.

“Like Reemo promised, this is straight off that banana boat. Not one bit stepped on at all. Purest shit you gon' ever get in the U.S.,” BG told him, sticking her chest out proudly. She had something to prove to Sean and this shipment was just what she needed to make the point.

Sean looked over at her and he felt funny inside . . . a tingle that he didn't get from many women. BG was as beautiful as the first day he'd laid eyes on her, but today, after what she'd accomplished, BG looked even more gorgeous to him. Sean loved to see her in white, so the white blazer she wore with her perfect cleavage peeking out was doing something to him. He remembered the hot night they shared in Miami and wondered if BG ever thought about it like he did. Neither of them had ever mentioned it again and BG knew that for the past two months, Sunny had been living with Sean's grandmother and receiving frequent visits from Sean. BG also surmised that Sean and Sunny had taken things to the next level, so BG stepped back from the situation to protect her own heart.

“Why you staring at me like that? I got something on my face?” BG asked, snapping Sean out of his daydream.

“Nah. Nah. Nothing like that. So you, we need to get this out to the streets and see how it goes,” Sean told her quickly changing the subject back to strictly business. He picked up a brick of the pure heroin and held it for a few seconds. “This is good . . . real good.”

“So God is a dead issue now right?” BG asked for clarification. It had been bothering her that Sean hadn't kept her updated about the situation with God.

“I'll handle God. You handle distribution,” Sean came back quickly. Sean had already been dodging calls from God for the past two months while he waited to see if Reemo would make good on his deal. Sean finally got tired of God's incessant calls and changed his phone number. Sean told himself he'd get in contact with God in due time. His plan was to make God whole for the last supply and then let God down easily with the hopes they could just part peacefully. It was a lofty goal and hope and Sean knew it.

 

 

Adina awoke to a loud crashing noise in her apartment. Not too many people knew about her new living arrangements, so she was immediately struck with panic. Her mind was still a little fuzzy with sleep, but Adina had enough clarity to grab for the small .22-caliber pistol she kept in her nightstand drawer. The noise came again, this time Adina was on her feet with her gun out in front of her. Her heart raced so fast she could barely breathe, but she was not going to lie down and let herself be an easy victim again.

Adina slowly turned the doorknob on her bedroom door and just as she went to step through the doorway she felt something pulling her forward.

“Ahh!” Her scream was short-lived as someone snatched her by her hair and dragged her down to the floor. Adina tried to get her finger into the trigger of her gun, but a brute force punch to the face dizzied her so badly her completely lost grip on her weapon.

“Help,” she croaked out, but another slam to the face caused the words to tumble right back down her throat. Adina could feel herself moving now but not of her own will.

“Sit her in front of me,” a male voice that she recognized demanded. Adina was weak, but her attackers slammed her into one of her own chairs, pulled her head up so she met their boss eye to eye.

“G . . . G . . . God,” Adina stammered, her lips beginning to swell. She knew his voice and his scent anywhere.

“I told you that if this little boy you brought me turned on me like Fox did, you would be the one to suffer for it this time. You know I never go back on my word, 'Dina,” God spoke calmly as if Adina wasn't in front of him bleeding from her mouth and nose.

“What? I . . . I don't know what you're talking about,” she groaned, her legs swinging in and out nervously. As far as Adina knew, things between God and Sean had worked out perfectly for years now.

“I guess Sean really thinks he is a king huh?” God asked. “I hear that's what he calls himself these days . . . King Sean.”

Adina shook her head from side to side. She hadn't heard from Sean in months. Once she was paid her cut for introducing him to God, Sean's visits became less and less frequent.

“So you didn't know he has been going around to clubs killing people at will?” God asked Adina. She shook her head again.

“I swear. I haven't seen him,” she mumbled as blood dribbled down her slips.

“Oh yes. There was a big incident at a Jamaican club. I hear King Sean really showed his power by blowing a man's brains out in front of one hundred witnesses,” God said sarcastically. “This young boy has brought heat with his antics and now I hear he has crossed me . . . gone with a new supplier and didn't even have the courtesy to sit down with me man to man like he always like to say it,” God said with an eerily calm tone to his words.

“Please. Let me call him . . . He . . . he . . . can tell you that I don't know nothing,” Adina pleaded barely able to speak through her swollen lips.

“No need to call him. I will send him a message,” God said, nodding at the goons he was with. “Starting with you.”

“No! No! Please, God! No!” Adina screamed, bucking her body in the chair she was being restrained in. It didn't take long for them to silence her.

 

 

It had been almost four months that Sunny had been clean from heroin. She had had a few slipups in the process, but Sean was always there to put her back on the right track. Sunny was feeling pretty good, but getting a little antsy about being in the house all of the time. It was wintertime so that made it easier to accept; however, Sunny didn't know if she would be able to stay stuck inside when the weather broke.

Sunny and Sean's grandmother sat in the kitchen laughing and talking about one of the television court shows when the doorbell rang and interrupted their laughter. Sunny crinkled her brow and looked at Sean's grandmother strangely.

“You expecting somebody, Big Mama?” Sunny asked, standing up slowly from the kitchen table with a pang of fear flitting through her stomach. They both knew that Sean would just use his keys to get in.

“No, baby. Since you been here I told Lacy to just stay on home. You been all the help I need. I don't know who would be ringing my bell this time of day,” his grandmother said, a little concern registering in her voice. Sunny moved away from the table tentatively. The hairs were standing on the back of her neck and she was involuntarily holding her breath. The bell rang again and her heart throttled up in her chest.

“Let me see who this is then, because whoever it is they ain't going away,” Sunny told Sean's grandmother, padding through the kitchen and into the living room. Sunny peeked out of the side windows in an attempt to see who it was before she opened the door. She had been super paranoid since Faheem's death that someone from his camp would be coming to find her for revenge.

As she peeked from the windows suspiciously, Sunny noticed a white FTD florist van out front and the tightness in her chest quickly eased as a sense of relief washed over her.

“Who?” she called out with her hand on the doorknob just to make sure.

“Flower delivery,” a male voice called back. Sunny smiled and let out a long, relieved breath. If it was flowers she definitely knew who was sending them. Sean had been so good to her since she had gotten clean and been staying with his grandmother that Sunny didn't know how she would ever repay him.

“Sean . . .” Sunny whispered with a smile as she twisted the locks on the door. Before she could fully get a sentence out of her mouth the door banged open and three men with dreadlocks rushed into her with the force of a hurricane. Sunny stumbled backward and fell hard on her butt. Terror registered all over her face like she had put on a mask.

“Aggh!” Sunny screamed, but not for long. One of the men's hands closed around her throat immediately cutting off her air supply. Sunny instinctively threw her arms up over her head, but she was no match for the men that rushed her. After a few minutes of being choked, Sunny was yanked up off the floor by her hair. Pain shot through her scalp like stabs from a butcher's knife.

“Agghh!” she yelled, grabbing her attacker's hand, trying to free her hair from his grip. Sunny got a good look at him and immediately noticed his dreadlocks. The one holding her grabbed her roughly into a headlock while one of the other dreads drove his fist into her gut. Sunny wheezed and coughed because his blow had literally knocked the wind out of her. She actually felt like one of her ribs had cracked from the force of the next blow.

“Yuh man can't protect yuh nuh,” one of the dreaded goons growled, his Jamaican accent unmistakable. Sunny knew he must've been referring to Sean.

“Please,” she croaked, blood leaking from her busted lip. Sunny immediately assumed these were Faheem's people coming back to avenge his death.

“Where he deh? Where yuh man deh?” another goon barked getting so close to Sunny's face she could smell the weed odor on his breath.

“Where yuh man deh?” the dread growled, backhanding her. This time Sunny's nose busted and blood sprayed from it. Sunny refused to answer him.

“Fuck you,” she whispered defiantly. She didn't care what they did to her; she would never give Sean up.

“Yuh wan' play hard?” the same dread gritted, punching Sunny across her face so hard more blood and a tooth shot from her lips. Sunny was taking the hits like a pro. Each time they hit her, she forced herself to raise her head to meet them face to face. Her attackers didn't know that Sunny had been being beaten all of her life and it took much more to get her to fold.

Sunny was fighting, flailing her arms and trying to kick her captors. She was fighting so hard, she didn't hear Sean's grandmother calling out to her.

“Hit she again. Make her shit on she self,” one of the goon's growled evilly. When his partner moved in to hit Sunny, she extended her left arm and swiped at him, catching the end of one of his dreads. Sunny yanked wildly on the lock of hair she had and was shocked when the dreads came off of the man's head. Sunny couldn't believe that the dreads were a wig, but she didn't have time to think hard about the fact that all of Faheem's people were
real
dreads.

“This bitch!” the disguised dread barked. He was so angry that he'd been exposed that he punched Sunny in her chest like she was a man. He hit her so hard her back teeth clicked together. Sunny made a squealing noise and her body folded as pain shot through her chest so fast and furious she just knew her heart had exploded. Sunny's oxygen was being cut off, but before her world went black she finally heard Sean's grandmother calling her name frantically.

Be quiet, Big Mama! Run, Big Mama! Run!
Sunny was screaming inside of her clouded head, but she could not get the words out with the amount of pain wracking her body. Another hard blow made Sunny's eyes snap shut by themselves and piss leaked from her bladder involuntarily.

“Somebody else here . . . go!” the goon holding Sunny barked at the other two. “Take care of it!”

“No!” Sunny rasped out, immediately thinking about Sean's helpless and innocent grandmother. “Big Mama . . .” Sunny gasped, her words barely audible, but it was too late. Both dreads were already heading toward the kitchen and toward Sean's grandmother.

“Shut up, bitch!” the one holding Sunny barked and with his last blow to her head her world finally went completely black.

 

 

BG and Sean sat across from one another at Ruth's Chris Steak House. The awkward silence between them caused both of them to squirm in their seats a bit. It had been awhile since BG and Sean had had any time alone and there were several long bouts of painful silence that had made BG uncomfortable. She had been killing herself trying not to think about Sean in a sexual or romantic way, but whenever she laid eyes on him it was extremely difficult.

“That profit is almost triple what we were making.” BG cut the silence with business talk as she sliced her food properly using her knife and fork. “I told you that deal was going to be the sweetest thing for us,” BG said with forced excitement in her voice. She was trying to make their time light, but it wasn't easy. Sean nodded like he wasn't really interested in talking about it, but BG wasn't ready to give up just yet.

“So did how did God react when you told him we found a new connect?” BG asked, taking in a forkful of asparagus. Sean reared back in his chair and shot her a look.

“Let me handle God and his reaction. Keep your mind on the new business and the distribution. Period,” Sean snapped curtly. BG dropped her fork on her plate loudly and glared at him evilly. A few patrons in the restaurant looked over at her after hearing the fork clink loudly on her plate.

“Look, you been acting real different since your
girl
been back,” BG gritted leaning into the table using a harsh whisper and doing air quotes with her fingers when she said the word “girl.” “Don't tell me to keep my mind on the business because God's reaction is my business too. I can turn around and tell you to keep your mind on the business and not on the drug addict, but I don't.” BG could feel the blood rushing to her face and her heart pounding so wildly it moved the silk material of her shirt.