Hated by Many, Loved by None 3 (12 page)

I got up from the bed and began pacing the floor. Placing my hands in the pockets of my jeans, I thought about every possible outcome, every possible scenario of what can happen tonight and then it came to me. The idea I had in my head was a risky one, but if I executed it properly, it could work. Imran would have want he wanted in the end, Chino and Ray would be dead and gone, and I would be able to walk away with my life. It was my only option and there was no other choice but this one.

Nightfall had come quickly. B.B and I were set up and ready to go. My cousin, Turk, one of the OGs from the hood named Joe-Joe were with us too. Joe-Joe was Kira’s ex-boyfriend who always held on to the hope that they would get back together one day. He had dogged out her so bad when they were together that she would spit fire in that direction every time she saw that nigga. No matter how mean and evil she was toward him, it was always evident that she still had love for him. seeing how ready he was to ride with us on this, I could tell it was the same way for him.

I hated that I had to lie to them like this, but I couldn’t tell the truth no matter what. It was a secret that I would always keep with me and when I die, it was a secret that would be buried with me. I told Rain the same. She knew not to speak on Kira’s death or the events surrounding it.

“So, she already there or what?” I asked B.B. as I checked the clip on my .45. I picked up the chopper that my uncle Dom had given me and checked that too. I smiled at the beauty of that thing, knowing I could bust six rounds per second with this muthafucka.

“She said that her and this cat named Black will be there around eight, but she told the nigga Chino to be there at 8:30,” B.B. said as he walked around to the driver side of his Black Tahoe.

He popped the locks on the doors and I opened the door and placed the chopper underneath the passenger side seat. I hopped inside and quickly grabbed a cigarette to calm my nerves.

“So, what did she tell Tamar?” I asked and took a huge puff from the cigarette.

I wiped the sweat from my brow and turned the knob up on the air conditioner. I don’t know why I was so nervous, but I guess ‘cause I know shit could go either way. We had no idea how many niggas he was bringing with him or what type of artillery they had if any. They had to bringing something with them if they’d planned on setting this girl up and taking her for everything.

“She said that she didn’t tell him anything. He doesn’t even know that she’s handling his business from what Dom told me. I don’t know. It’s a whole bunch of craziness going on. He said that he didn’t want to get too involved in it, but felt like we needed to just step up and make sure we back her on this cause she’s obviously in over her head,” B.B. said as he pulled away from the curb.

“Damn, so he didn’t put her up to this? She just out there on her own?”

“That’s what it sounds like. We ain’t got time to worry about that though. Call up Rain and make sure she ready and shit make sure you ready. I see you sweating over there. Calm down. Everything gonna be alright.”

I checked the mirror and could see that my entire head was filled with sweat. I opened the glove compartment and grabbed a few napkins to dry my head and then took in a few breaths. A lot was on the line, and I was just ready to get this shit over and done with.

***

We had arrived at the meeting place about fifteen minutes before Rozalyn was supposed to be there. I reached under the seat and grabbed the chopper and hopped out of the car followed by Turk, B.B., and Joe-Joe.

“I don’t see nobody here yet, but I’m gon check around back,” Joe-Joesaid, cocking his 9 mili and walking away.

“Turk , go with him,” B.B. said and came and stood by my side.

We started walking around to front of the place, checking things out to be sure everything was legit. We had to be sure that no one was waiting to ambush our asses. I still only trusted Rain’s ass half-way and knew that everything she’d told me could either be the truth, half the truth, or just false as hell. This could be another one of her plots to set me up and bring me down even further than she already had.

Yea, she had been giving me all the dirt on that nigga Chino anytime she’d found something out, but that still didn’t mean that she wasn’t playing for the other side. Coming from her, there was only so much I could trust.

After we were done looking around, we saw a set of headlights coming from the road. A champagne colored Infinity with chrome wheels pulled into the parking lot and parked right next to B.B’s car. I watched in anticipation as the driver killed the lights followed by the engine.

I was able to see that it was Rozalyn and that she was alone. She stepped out of the car with her stilettos pounding the pavement like she owned the streets. She was dressed in a tight fitting black dress that wrapped around her small curves perfectly. She was dressed to kill even though she looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly if she wanted to.

This was worse than when Jahzara decided that she would move bricks to get money and make a statement. This game was not for women. Rozalyn’s little ass showed just how little she knew about this shit.

“So, y’all sure this nigga said he was gonna rob me?” Rozalyn asked with her accent on swoll. She looked me up and down and then met her eyes with mine.

“That’s what we’ve been told. I mean, we don’t know for sure, but like I said whether he is or not, that nigga won’t be making it out of here alive. So you’ll either get your money and keep them birds, or you’ll just leave with the same thing you came with,” I told her and tried to keep my eyes focused on her face.

Rozalyn crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. “I don’t know how I feel about this. This was a dude that a longtime friend put me in contact with. She vouched hard for him so I really hope he ain’t on no bullshit.”

“Well, what did your husband say about it?” I asked her searching her face for a reaction to see if what B.B. said earlier had any truth to it.

“Let’s go inside. I don’t want to be standing out here waiting around like this. I’m sure he’s somewhere watching. If he was smart, he would be somewhere watching.”

I nodded my head and followed behind her as she took us to the small office like building. She pulled out her keys and opened the door. B.B. and I followed behind her.Turk and Joe-Joe stayed outside.

“I thought that dude Black was gonna be with you,” B.B. said to her and began to walk around the office building.

“He’s here. I can’t tell you where because I have no idea, but he’s around,” Rozalyn took a seat behind the desk that was in the middle of the floor and leaned back in the chair.

“Where the work at?” I asked looking around.

“That’s here as well. Look, stop asking me so many questions. You’re making me nervous and I’m already nervous enough each time I do this. So I need you to calm down,” Rozalyn said. “Y’all walking around with these big ass guns like you part of some damn army or something. Just calm down.”

She looked down at her phone and then back at me. “It’s 8:30, so if he doesn’t show up in the next ten minutes. I’m leaving.”

I nodded my head and left out of the front of the office building in search for B.B.. I found him in a small room on the left side peeking out of the blinds with his cell phone on his ear. He said a few words into the phone and hung up.

“Aye, let’s go,” B.B. said.

“What you mean let’s go? That nigga ain’t here yet,” I said in confusion.

“Dom just called and said he heard from somebody that they setting this damn girl up. He said the place is most likely surrounded by DEA and the FEDs,” B.B. rushed out of the room and I followed behind him. “Rozalyn, let’s go.”

“Nah, I said I will give him ten minutes,” Rozalyn said nonchalantly.

“Look my bro just told me this whole shit is a set up and that the place is surrounded by the law. Let’s go lil mama. Like you said, that nigga here somewhere. Unless your pretty ass wanna be sitting in a cell for the rest of your life,” B.B. walked over to Rozalyn and pulled her out of the chair and headed towards the door. “Let’s go.”

Soon as I pulled the door opened, I was looking down the barrel of a gun. It was the nigga Chino. After all the pictures of him that Rain had sent to me, I would recognize his face anywhere.

“Drop it, nigga,” Chino said to me looking down at the chopper I held down by my side.

“I ain’t dropping shit,” I said and could hear B.B. cocking his pistol behind me.

I looked over Chino’s shoulder and saw the big guy that was about to kill Rain back in the lot of Maryland. He had Turk in front of him and a pistol to his head.

“I said drop it!” he yelled and shoved the gun in my face.

I closed my eyes shut tightly and then opened them again. I knew this shit could go either damn way. I had said it over and over again, which is why I was so nervous before coming here. I thought about Jahzara laying back in the hospital and wondered if she would ever wake up. I wondered if I would have a chance to see her again, sit by her side and hold on to her hand like I’d been doing for the past few weeks.

Before I could even make my mind up to do anything, Joe-Joe had set things off. He had blew a hole so big in the back of the big nigga’s head and caused everyone to react. I brought the chopper up from my side and swung it around, knocking Chino in his face. I pushed Rozalyn out of the way and started letting the chopper go.

Tat-ta-tat-tat tat!

I just shot, not really giving a fuck who I h
it at this point. Chino and Turk was caught in the damn middle with nowhere to go. They tried to run, but with Joe-Joe right behind them and me and B.B right in front them, they were like sitting ducks. Everybody was trying to duck and dodge and take cover, but there was none. Nobody’s life was spared. I kept shooting and ran behind the desk where Rozalyn had been sitting while B.B ran off to the corner.

The environment was so closed in that it sounded like we were in the middle of a civil war. This shit was
crazy as hell. I watched as Turk’s body fell and blood squirt from his mouth and from a hole in the center of her chest. Shit. I hated that shit happened to him, but

Bullets continued to scatter all over the place for a few minutes longer until everything had suddenly gone quiet.

“James, did you see that?” I heard my mama say.

“See what?” my daddy replied.

“Oh my God! James get the doctor! Get them quick!” she yelled as her voice cracked with tears.

I cracked my eyes open, but I was unable to see anything but darkness. I tried once again but it was still so dark and my eyelids were so heavy.

“She moved her hands. I saw her move her hands,” I heard my mama say; not sure what she had meant by that.

I moved my right hand and brought up to my face and that’s when I heard her scream.

“Oh Jesus! Oh thank you Lord!” she prayed.

Suddenly, I felt someone touching my face and a sticky substance peeling away from my eyes. I tried once again to open them and this time there was light. It was so strong that I had to quickly close them due to the brightness practically blinding me. Slowly, I opened one eye this time to try and get adjusted to the light before I opened the other.

My mama snatched my hand into hers and squeezed it tightly. Her face was covered in tears and her makeup was running down her face. I didn’t know why she was crying or why she looked like she was staring into the face of a ghost. She cracked a beautiful smile through all that watery pain and I tried to smile at her back when I realized I couldn’t. I pulled my hand away from hers and brought it up to my mouth and there was some huge plastic thing covering it.

I didn’t know what was going on. The last thing I remembered was sitting up in my hospital bed and my dad and I talking about the basketball game that was on. I didn’t have a tube my throat or any of this shit. I began to panic and pulled at the damn thing. I wanted it out of me. I wanted to talk and ask questions so that I could find out what was going and what happened.

“Just a minute. Soon as the doctor comes in we will take that out of you,” the nurse said to me and I tried to relax my breathing.

It seemed like forever had gone by before a tall black male with a long white coat had come to into the room. He placed the stethoscope that hung around his neck in his ears and then walked over to me.

“Well, look at here, out for six weeks and you finally decided that you had enough rest, Mrs. Simmons,” the doctor said to me and I wrinkled my brow in confusion.

What did he mean out for six weeks? Out for six weeks where?

“Sounds good. Sounds excellent,” he turned around and grabbed a pair of gloves from a box on the wall behind him. He then began to pull tape from around my mouth and tossed the tape onto the floor.

“Take a huge deep breath in and then blow it out as hard as you can.”

I did as I was told. It felt like one of my organs was being pulled out of my throat as he removed the huge ass tube from me. I began to cough, but that didn’t stop me from trying to speak. I had to find out what the hell was going on with me.

“Mama,” I said and my voice was all dry and crackly.

“Oh my God, Jahzara. Oh Lord, thank you so much,” she grabbed my hand and kissed it before showering my face with kisses. My dad walked around to the other side of me and began to do the same.