TYCE 5 (13 page)

Peck rubbed his hands together. “We got your back bro, jus’ tell us what you want us to do.”

I stared at the black ocean as the tide rolled in. “I want you to pack up the money and be ready to leave in 30 minutes.”

“Alright.” Peck clapped his hands. “What else?”

I popped a red Skittle into my mouth and chewed real slow.

“I want you two to be on your toes and be ready for anything. Sway, you watch Angeli
que. Peck, you watch Khari. I’ll keep my eyes on every last person in that muthafucka. Nobody shoots shit unless I do. I ain’t tryna have a gun fight with them in the middle.”

“You got it.” Peck nodded his head.

“Yeah no problem. Come on Peck, let’s pack this money up.” Sway waved his hand.

As they walked in, Dal
las walked out to join me. The whole fucked up situation was weighing heavily on her mind.

“I feel so bad right now. I tried calling that nigga fifty times
, but he ignored my calls. I can’t get through to him. I need to let him know that he went too far with this shit.” She tapped the banister nervously.

I poured a handful of Skittles in my palm. “He knows he went too far. Right now he’s
thinkin’.”

Dallas hugged my waist tightly. “You know what I’m
thinkin’?”

“What’s that?”

“I’m thinkin’ we should take Khari to the San Diego Zoo next weekend.”

There she goes again making me feel better w
ith just her words. I swear, woman had a way of growing on a man like facial hair. In just that one sentence she managed to testify and boost my confidence in one shot.

I smiled slightly. “I think she will like that.”

“Me too.”

She stood on her toes and kissed my lips. Her
flower print sundress flowed in the breeze as she stole a purple pebble from my hand.

“Go
get ‘em. I’ll see you when you get back. Oh and tell Khalil I’m not comin’ to his funeral.”

The clock on my dash board read exactly three o’clock in the morning as my Range Rover came to a stop in front of the ancient house. The lights were on inside
, but I couldn’t see anyone through the windows because the curtains were closed. There was nothing around me but land and a wide field of corn taller than me. I came ready to pick up my daughter and her mother. I got out of the driver’s side door wearing a cream sweat suit with a Winnie the Pooh teddy bear in one hand and my chrome 45 in the other. Peck and Sway fell in line as I walked swiftly toward the front door. Sway had a two million dollar backpack in his hand and a mean look on his face.

“Stay sharp fellas.” I stepped onto the porch and tapped on the front door with the tip of my gun.

To my surprise, Khalil opened the door himself. I was expecting for him to be hunkered down behind a floor model T.V. or something, but there he was face to face with me.

“Right on time.” He walked backwards with his gun pointed at my chest. “Come on in…all three of you.”

I looked at his salmon colored silk shirt. I imagined putting bullet holes through it and staining it red with his blood. I didn’t have to ask nor wonder if my family was alive or dead because they were sitting in the middle of the living room floor. Khari was sitting on Angelique’s lap clutching her sweat shirt tightly in her chubby little hands. She was terrified. Warm tears flowed down her brown cheeks.

Angelique maintained a stern look as she held our baby tight against her chest rocking back and forth.
I noticed a slight bruise on her cheek.

“
Shhhhh shhhhh…it’s gonna be alright baby daddy’s here.” She kept staring at me choosing to ignore the vicious threat just ten feet away.

“Drop your guns
, or my man lets the dogs go. They haven’t ate today and I bet they’re hungry. They’ll be on ‘em in seconds.” Khalil’s eyes narrowed in on me.

The dogs strained against their chains trying to get closer to Angelique and Khari.

“I knew we shoulda killed them fuckin’ dogs.” Peck sucked his teeth.

“Drop
‘em!” Khalil barked.

I exhaled slowly keeping my eyes on the nigga holding the dogs at bay. He held the leashes in his right han
d and a gun in his left.

“Put
‘em down fellas. Can I keep the bear?” I let go of my gun and it bounced on the floor.

Khalil laughed in my face. “Yeah you can keep it.”

“Ya’ll alright?” I asked Angelique.

“Khari is fine
, but Khalil hit me in the face and kicked me in my stomach.” She answered quickly.

I suddenly got even angrier despite my cool demeanor. I knew she was in no condition to be physically abused.

“Only punk ass niggas hit women. Come try that shit with me.” I waved him over.

Khalil raised his hand. “Enough with
the reunion. Yeah, I hit the bitch, but I’m not a murderer like you. I’m a drug dealer and the big curly head nigga right there has my drug money. Toss it over!”

Sway looked at me to get the okay. He wanted to make sure I was willing to give up our only bargaining chip. I nodded my approval and he tossed the bag at Khalil’s glossy tanned dress shoes.

“Alright, you got your money, now let ‘em go.”

The starving canines paced back and forth as the tall man gripped the leashes in his hand. The room went silent as we all heard the sound of a toilet flush. Heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway. Peck never looked up…his eyes were on Khari. Sway kept his eyes trained on Angelique. I saw exactly who walked into the living room with a wide smile on his wicked face.

“Sorry I’m late, but I was in the John. I almost didn’t come out, but I had to see the look on your face when I walked into the room.”

I pointed my Winnie the Pooh bear at him. “Long time no see Detective Walsh. I see you found yourself a new employer.” I nodded my head at Khalil and returned his smile with one of my own.

“Yeah, you fucked up my last gig with Diego, but now the joke is on you boy. I have to admit you’re a tough son of a bitch. I sent Roman to kill you after I found out you two had a little school yard scuffle in the barber shop. Boy was he mad. He wanted revenge and I wanted revenge, so it was a win win. Except your lucky ass didn’t die!” He gritted his teeth. “No one does what you did to me and lives…no one!”

I put my arms out. “Let’s step outside then. We can fight like men. I’ll take all three of you on and them fuckin’ dogs I don’t give a fuck.”

Detective Walsh rubbed his swollen belly with both hands.

“I’m too old to fight. But, I tell you what I will do. I’ll let my Police dogs have your little tramp and your baby girl for dinner! Let the dogs go Bug!” Walsh shouted at the slender man.

“Noooo!” Angelique screamed.

I didn’t move a muscle and neither did Bug.

              “Shoot him.” I pointed at Khalil.

In one swift motion Bug swung his right arm into position and fired a bullet which hit Khalil in the side of his head. Blood spurted from his temple before his well-dressed body hit the floor. Peck took two quick steps and dove on top of the hostages shielding them with his own body. As soon as Khalil dropped
, I bent down to grab my gun. However, because of the wounds in my back, I wasn’t as fast as I once was. I only had time to fire one shot at Walsh before he took off running down the hallway. I started to chase him, but I was knocked down. I found myself wrestling on the ground with a male pit bull. I put the dog in the head lock as my daughter screamed loudly. I jammed the barrel of my gun against the animal’s stomach and fired twice. Sway dragged it off of me seconds later.

“Come on
, we gotta get that muthafucka! I think he went out the back!” He yanked me up.

As we ran down the hallway we saw a dingy white dress shirt flash through the back door. He slammed it shut to hold us up so he could make his escape. Sway ran to the door
, but I tackled him from behind.

             
“Get down!”

We both hit the ground as a powerful shot gun blast blew a gaping hole in the wood door. We covered our heads as wood chips flew everywhere. We looked through the jagged circle just in time to see Walsh’s car speed off with him firing at
the house again. That time he used a hand gun.

“Damn.” Sway looked at me as he took deep breaths. “Right on for saving my life.”

“Don’t sweat it. I knew that sneaky muthafucka would try that shit. I figured he had a gun posted up in the hallway in case he had to use it. That’s what I would have done if it was me. That’s why he closed the door so we couldn’t see him shoot.”

I quickly pushed myself off of the floor and trotted back into the living room with Sway right on my heels. The first thing I did was pick Khari up. Angelique was still sitting on the floor looking up at me.

“How you doin’ baby girl? Daddy’s sorry you had to see that.” I kissed her cheek softly. “You ok?” I stooped to help Angelique to her feet. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I shoulda been there for you. I’m so sorry. I mean it. I love you and I’m sorry I put you through this.”

Her eyes squinted and her face twisted up. She held her stomach and shook her head back and forth rapidly.

“I jus’ need to sit here for a second.” Her head dropped.

“What’s wrong? Is your stomach hurting?”

She took deep breaths. “It’s jus’ cramping up right now, but I’ll be fine.”

My concern for her health was growing by the second. However, I couldn’t let her know that I knew her little secret.

Peck’s hands shot up. “I know we gotta get the fuck outta here, but I need some shit cleared up before we go.” He pointed a finger at Bug as he tied the other dog to the banister. “Where’s the old man that lives here and who the hell is this dude?”

“If you mean Hamilton, they told him to leave as soon as we got here.” Angelique said weakly.

“Alright, now who the fuck is he?” Peck asked again.

I decided to clarify things a bit. I hated being kept in the dark about certain things
, so I wanted to bring everyone up to speed. I reached down and picked up the stuffed animal and gave it to Khari before I spoke.

“Bug is the man that told me where Thad was. He’s the reason
ya’ll found him so fast. Remember when I told yall I called in a few favors? Well, he was the man I called.

Bug joined the conversation. “Well, it wasn’t really a favor. I owed
Tyce.”

“How?” Sway looked at me.

I grinned. “Back when I was workin’ for Biz, me and Omar ran up on this crew out in Inglewood. We had instructions to clip everybody in the house and we did…except for Bug.”

“Why didn’t you kill him?” Peck turned his palms over.

I shook my head. “Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you. It was jus’ somethin’ about him. It jus’ didn’t feel right. He was jus’ in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Bug walked over to me with a sincere look on his face. “Look bro, I didn’t know Khalil was
gonna kidnap your people. He jus’ said he wanted to draw you out and make you come to him. He called me out here after the fact. I also had no clue who the fuck the cop was. I knew Khalil had someone in the precinct on payroll, I jus’ didn’t know who. He always met him out here by himself. I was about to call you when I went to get the dogs, but before I could you sent me a text. I did exactly what you wanted and waited for you to get here.” He turned to Angelique. “I wanna apologize to you also. I was jus’ playin’ my position. It was hard for me to sit here and watch you get hit, but I stopped it before it went too far. I didn’t wanna make Khalil suspicious plus it was two against one.”

“Yeah, I figured it was Walsh
that was behind this whole shit and he was using greedy ass Khalil like a tampon to clean up his mess.”

“Oh, I wasn’t even there when he rolled up on you in the parking lot either.” Bug’s eyes got big.

“Dog, you ain’t gotta explain yourself all like that. I know who’s tryna play me and who’s not. I appreciate your help though.” I turned to my crew members. “I’ma give Bug two hundred grand from my cut. He earned that shit.”

Sway cut into the conversation abruptly.

“Ay Tyce, she don’t look so good. I think we need to take her to the hospital.”

“I’m fine.” Angelique put her hand up.

Khari and I both looked down at her at the same time.

“Angelique, be honest and stop being stubborn like you always are. How does your stomach feel? Tell me the truth.” I stared at her.

She exhaled heavily as she battled with the deep internal pain. I could tell she didn’t want to tell me how bad she was hurting. She lowered her head as a defeated look spread across her face.

“Jus’ take me to the hospital please.”

It was hard as hell to just sit back and let Tyce go out to the farm. I wanted to go so bad that it hurt. I hated knowing that his daughter was in danger and I couldn’t do anything to help her. Okay, I was worried about Angelique also. I couldn’t stand the girl, but I didn’t wish death upon anybody because there was no coming back from that.