The Face That Launched A Thousand Bullets (The Cartel Publications Presents) (34 page)

“And remember, I’ma always take care of what’s mine. And never bring up his name again in my house. Ever. I’ll see you lada. I got some shit to handle.”

With that he smiled. Tiara had no idea that he’d taken the key from around Kavon’s neck on his deathbed, and was on a mission to find out what it opened. After some diligent searching, he’d discover it belonged to a lockbox inside of the house that held over a half a million dollars. Kavon had plans to give it to her after college so she’d never have to depend on a man. Cray didn’t need the money because he was already one of the richest dealers alive, but he wanted her to be dependant on him for the rest of her life. So, he’d never say a word to Tiara. Ever.

Nyzon

West Baltimore

New Addition To The Fam

N
yzon pulled up in a parking spot outside of Cray’s old house in West Baltimore. Cray ended up buying the spot to hold meetings with his crew when needed. The moment he parked, he saw Jinx, Blunt and Cray hanging on the corner. With the chains around their necks and expensive cars parked on the curb, they stood out like diamonds in the rough.

“Bout time you got here, nigga!” Cray joked as Nyzon parked his new white Benz, paper tags. “I was just ‘bout to break these fools.”

“That’s right. You was ‘bout to break ‘em befo I got here.” Nyzon said easing out the car removing the cash from his pockets.

Nyzon and Cray had gotten so close it was eerie watching them sometimes. Once rivals, people now referred to them as the new Nino Brown and G-Money. The love of money brought them together.

“Hell I need some new rims.” Nyzon said as if he didn’t have enough money in his pockets to buy rims for the entire block.

Nyzon embraced Cray, Jinx and Blunt in a one armed manly hug before they all stooped down to play craps. With all the money that covered the sidewalk, nobody dared tried to rob them or interrupt their game. Cray earned respect before he ran Bmore and niggas from miles around knew about his murder game.

“Damn! I ain’t been here but for twenty minutes and I already got ya’ll niggas for seventy grand.” Nyzon bragged. “Let me find out my DC blood givin’ me luck!”

“I’m ‘bout to silence that ass right quick.” Jinx said. “I was just showin’ you some Bmore hospitality.”

Cray and Blunt laughed as they sipped beer from their cans. They were so into the game that they didn’t see two shabby looking kids walking up to them, but Jinx did.

“Fuck ya’ll want?” Jinx asked going for his heat.

Everybody stood up and took noticed at the two twelve year old boys.

“Please don’t shoot!” one of them said with a red shirt on. “We was just gonna ask if ya’ll wanted us to go to the store or somethin’ for ya’ll.”

“What ya’ll want some money?” Blunt asked.

“Yeah. We wanted to buy somethin’ to eat.” The other in the blue shirt said.

Nyzon uneasy about the way they walked up on them felt better when he realized they were just kids trying to make a buck. They had over ninety grand on the ground so giving them some money wasn’t a problem.

It was no longer about the kids, it was about flossing. Still their faces lit up after they looked at all the cash they held in their hands.

“When I grow up, I’ma be just like yall.” The one in the red shirt said to Nyzon and Cray.

That moment meant more to Cray and Nyzon than anyone realized. When they were their ages they wanted to be like the dealers around their way. Now they were bigger. Larger than life. And they were just getting started.

“Are ya’ll a gang or something?”

“Yeah, we’re The Kings of 295.” Cray said. It was the first time they all heard the name, but it wouldn’t be the last.

In a parked car a block down

“There they go.” Grimy Mike said to Monty, the dude he was going to have kill Cray. “Givin’ away money and shit. Punk mothafuckas!”

Ever since they took over, they were making it hard for them to sell on the same blocks they had been for years. They felt Cray’s business skills were trash.

He was the first person cut when The Kings took over. He had to resort to sticking up people just to make a living and was tired of it. He wanted his blocks back.

“A’ight.” Monty said getting out the car. “Watch a pro and learn.”

They wanted Monty to do the killing because he was extra thin and could fake a crackhead better than anybody they knew. So when he approached the Kings, nobody thought much of it at first.

Nyzon stood up and took notice. There was something about him he didn’t like, and then he saw it. The moment Monty turned around to walk the other way, Cray and the rest of them returned their focus to their crap game. And when they did, Monty turned back around and aimed at Cray’s head. Nyzon spotting him whipped out his weapon and hit Monty in the chest. The bullet pierced his heart.

“Oh shit!!!” Cray yelled realizing he was almost dead. He was touching his body to see if he’d been shot.

Monty’s body dropped as the rest of them went for their heat while looking around to see if anybody else was coming for them. It was the second time Nyzon put a body on his gun. The fact that he killed for Cray proved he was down for him and that whatever beef they had was more than over. And Cray indebted to him.

When the body drop Cray looked at Nyzon. “How you know he wasn’t legit?” Cray asked.

“Look at his shoes? They too fresh! Don’t know Crackhead where no shoes like that.”

They all peeped the new white Air Force Ones and said, “Damn!”

Jason

West Baltimore

In Too Deep

I
t was a beautiful day and the sun shined against the water making it look like liquid crystals at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Jason stood the moment he saw Markise walking toward him.

“What’s up man? I missed work to come out here.” They both sat on the bench. “So this betta be good.”

“Aye, yo, I ‘precciate you comin’ to,” he said giving him dap. “But I ain’t have nobody else to talk to about this.”

Jason saw Markise eyeing him. Jason wasn’t wearing racks of gold chain like he use to five months earlier. He was finally growing up and Markise wasn’t use to seeing him like that.

“What’s up?” Markise asked seeing him on edge.

“Cray run Bmore. Basically he got wit some DC niggas and we takin’ ova. They callin’ us The Kings of 295. We got the 295 parkway from Bmore to DC locked down!” he got excited just saying it. “’Kise, I ain’t neva seen dough like we gettin’ now. We spend money, just to get rid of it. And wit all the cash we stackin’, Cray still don’t respect me.”

“Did you think that would change, Jason? You know how that nigga is. His peeps got him fucked up. Why you think I cut his ass off? When that nigga did that shit over Blunt’s crib I was heated for weeks, but I already know he gonna get his in the end.”

“Well Cray needed to find out where all the major blocks were. Cause with the weight we got from NY, we needed access to D.C. and Bmore just to move it. So since nobody was gonna walk up to us and give us the info, he put me on J-Swizz’s bitch.”

“The white broad?”

“Yeah.”

“Hold up! So ya’ll took this nigga’s corners?”

“I need some advice cause I fucked up. I mean all I was supposed to do was get some info and play her ass close. And ‘Kise this bitch told me everything. She even went as far as to write where the blocks were for me in her own handwriting. She beefin’ with J-Swizz for some reason, so I guess she ain’t give a fuck no more. Everything was going fine until I deviated off the plan.”

Markise was listening but you could tell he was fucked up about Jason being involved in all of this. He felt he wasn’t strong enough to be involved in the game.

“This nigga’s out of his league.” Markise interrupted. “And I can’t believe you tied up in this shit eitha. So please tell me…how did you fuck up more than you already have?”

“Everything was going fine until the white girl Carolyn comes over one day and catches her co-worker Lisa leaving my house. She flipped! She started slashing my tires, banging out the windows to my car and everything. She started to put sugar in my tank but I ran out there and turned my gun on her ass and she ran off. I wanted to ring this bitch’s neck out but I couldn’t touch her. We needed her too much.”

“Let me guess, she thought ya’ll were exclusive?”

“Yeah….Cray’s gonna flip when he hear this shit. He already think I can’t hold my own and that he can’t trust me. And now this bitch been runnin’ around tellin’ anybody who’ll listen what happened. Now we already got the info we needed from her so for real, she’s disposable.”

“Don’t talk like that, Jason. I’m not tryin’ to hear that shit from you. Murder not your thang.”

“I’m just keepin’ it real. If word get back to Cray that I got wit Lisa before he got that block info, he gonna cut me off, yo. I just know it.”

“You got to tell him.” Markise said straight up. “That nigga is a time bomb waitin’ to explode. If you gonna play this game, you got to man up. Don’t forget about that shit with Kris when we were kids. That nigga been murderin’ mothafuckas since before he was legal.”

“I know…I know. That’s why I’m coming to you.”

“All I can say is that you need to tell him. You don’t want somebody else doing it for you. They not going to care about ya’ll bein’ friends since E-School. They gonna tell him to get in good with him. And if that happens, it’s not gonna be a good look for you. Other than that, you’re on your own. Cray’s more dangerous now than ever before.”

They walked over to the ramp and looked at the water from the harbor. Jason didn’t go too close having been afraid of water all his life. Still, Baltimore city was a sexy ass city.

“I feel you. But somethin’ has to give, before it’s too late.” He said giving him a pound. “ Well…let me get back to work. Keep me posted.”