Her Sweetest Revenge (Delphine Publications Presents) (24 page)

At that point Monica and I really started freaking out, but I chilled so I could be strong for her.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

We all looked at one another because what if it was the cops with bad news? Hood walked over to open the door. It was Rochelle, Charlene, and niggas from the Height Squad.

“
Everybody we talked too, even them niggas he trap with, say they ain’t seen him,” Rochelle said with tears rolling down her face.

“
But he’ll come home. He might just be out with some chick. He is at that age,” Charlene threw in and shrugged her shoulders.

“
I hope so,” I said, shaking my head back and forth.

Hood was talking with his crew, then he headed back over to me.

“
I’ma go back out, talk to his trap partners myself. They got respect for me.”

“
A’ight.” I gave him a hug.

To try to get my mind off Li’l Bo, Charlene and Rochelle started talking about the club the night before to get me laughing. Charlene made some sandwiches so we ate that and drank some wine. Monica went to her room for a nap. The wine gave us all a buzz because before we knew it, we all had dozed off. I woke up to banging on the door.

I looked out the peephole. It was Hood. After all this time we had been dating he still wouldn’t use his key. I used my key to his crib all the time when I went over to visit him, but he never used his key over here. When I opened the door Hood had a strange look on his face.

“
They found him,” he said in a muffled voice.

I was confused. “They? Who found him? What do you mean found him? Where is he? Did you tell him to bring his ass home? Did you tell him I’m pissed?” Tears started rolling down my face.

Tears started progressing down Hood’s face too.

“
NO, HOOD!” I yelled. “NO, NO!” I started pounding on his chest.

Monica ran out of her room crying. “OH, GOD, NO! WHERE’S MY BROTHER AT, MYA? NO!” Monica fell to the floor crying. “LI’L BO, AWWW!” Monica continued to scream. I rushed over to her, and we held each other and cried.

Rochelle and Charlene were trying to comfort us while Hood was trying to get us off the floor. My worst fears had come to pass.

Chapter 37

Li’l Bo had been found behind one of the buildings he trapped in front of over in the Brewster-Douglass Projects. He had been shot five times, and no one heard anything. Because that’s the way it goes in the hood. Closed mouths. All we knew was that all his money and dope was gone. They had even taken his shoes. According to homicide, it was a robbery gone bad, but the truth was he was just another young black dope boy that they didn’t give a fuck about.

Today was the day of the service. I had made all the plans by myself because my momma was nowhere in sight. I hadn’t seen her, but I knew she knew about it. Avoiding real-life issues was one of her natural talents. Monica and I had been up to prison to tell my dad, but he already knew when we got there. They had to put him on lockdown because he had lost it. The warden wouldn’t even allow him to come to the funeral. My dad had threatened to kill all of them, the guards and warden included. The pain was even deeper for me and Monica. No comfort from our mother or father, but we got dressed and prepared to go see our only brother for the last time.

Hood had barely left my side since everything happened. Squeeze had offered to pay for everything, but I refused to let that nigga pay for anything that had to do with my brother. As far as I was concerned, it was his fault for letting Li’l Bo work for him.

When we made it to the service, there was our mother dressed up, looking the part of a mother mourning her only son. Her face looked terrible; her eyes looked like they were swollen shut from all the crying she had been doing, but I couldn’t make myself go to her. Deep down inside I was angry with her, and to my surprise, Monica didn’t leave my side either. She stayed close to me.

After the services, we had rented a hall for the people to eat, but Monica and I chose to go home instead. Hood came home with us, and Rochelle and Li’l Lo came over. We hung out and got fucked up.

****

Two weeks had gone by since the funeral. Monica and I tried to get back on schedule, even though we both needed a boost. We were sitting around doing laundry when our mom all of a sudden showed up. Monica let her in.

“
Hey, Mom.” Monica gave her a big hug.

I didn’t say anything. I just continued to fold clothes.

“
Hey, Mya,” she spoke.

“
Hey,” I said tight-lipped.

“
How are y’all getting along?”

I didn’t answer so Monica started talking. “We’re doing OK. I went back to school trying to keep busy, and Mya went back to work. So we’re doing all right,” she lied.

“
That’s, that’s good,” Mom replied as she cleared her throat with a gurgling sound. “I been missin’ y’all a lot.”

None of us said anything for a moment. It was quiet. I tried to remain cool because the pure sight of her made me so damn angry.

“
I’ve been thinkin’ about getting clean.”

After that I couldn’t take any more of her babble bullshit.

“
You been thinkin’ about getting clean?” I mocked her. “You been thinkin’ about getting clean?” I repeated. “Well, God bless America! Your fifteen-year-old son is dead, lying in his grave, and you thinkin’. . . about gettin’ clean. You are
so
pathetic.” I got off the couch and lunged at my mother fist first. Monica grabbed me and held me back.

“
All you have done is ruin our lives. Li’l Bo wouldn’t be dead if you had been a real mother to us. That’s right, he’s dead because of you,” I pointed at her with a flood of hot tears pouring down my face.

“
Because you would rather suck on a glass dick then be there for your kids, all because a man got locked up. Please, get over it. Men go away all the time,” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “You know what? I hate you. I hate you. I
hate
you,” I screamed from my shattered soul. “Now I want you to get out of my house and never come back. Stay away from me and Monica. We no longer have a mother,” I said huffing in short hurried breaths with my fist still balled.

My mother stood looking defeated, tears progressing down her face. She turned and walked slowly toward the door. “I love you, Mya.” She turned around to face us again with her hand on the doorknob. “No matter how much you hate me, I love you and Monica. I’ma do what’s right because it ain’t too late.” She turned and walked out the door.

“
YEAH, WHATEVER!” I screamed at the closed door.

Chapter 38

“
Bitch, I told you not to play wit’ me.” Squeeze had his sweaty hands over my mouth while I twisted and turned trying to break free. I needed air. I was suffocating. My hands were tied behind my back, and my feet were strapped to a chair. I was pleading with my eyes for him to let me come up for air, but he just made his grip tighter over my mouth.

“
I’ma kill you, motherfucka, if you don’t let my sister go,” I could hear Li’l Bo yelling, but his face was nowhere in sight. As Squeeze’s grip got tighter my breathing came less, and Li’l Bo’s voice started to fade. I was dying.

“
Li’l Bo!” I screamed and sat straight up in bed.

“
Mya, it’s only a dream.” Hood tried to comfort me.

I looked around the room and noticed I was at home in bed. Hood was right there with me. I had been dreaming again. I had been having these dreams for about a week, and each time I woke up with a racing heart, drenched in my own sweat.

“
Whew,” I said panting, “I had another dream that I saw Li’l Bo.”

“
It’s all right. That’s normal.” Hood wiped my forehead with his hand.

“
Baby, can you get me some water?” I asked him. “My throat is dry.”

“
Whatever you need.” Hood got out of the bed and headed straight for the kitchen. He came back with Dasani water. I drank long and hard since I was so thirsty. I tried to relax for a while, then lay back down to sleep. No sooner than Hood’s head hit the pillow he was off to sleep again. While my mind felt exhausted, I couldn’t go back to sleep so easily. For some reason, I felt like Li’l Bo was trying to tell me something, and the more I thought about that, I wondered about Squeeze. He had been so willing to help out when Li’l Bo died, but I’d never forgotten what Phil’s snitch ass had said about Squeeze.

Phil had told me that Squeeze thought Li’l Bo was stealing from him. Li’l Bo had me convinced that everything was legit, and that he was making that money for putting in extra work, so I stopped tripping. Now I keep having all these dreams about Squeeze trying to kill me. What if that nigga had Li’l Bo killed? Or what if he knew what happened to Li’l Bo?

I needed to find out what his grimy ass was up to.

****

The next day when I finally got rid of Hood, I rolled over to the Brewster to see what was up in the projects. Maybe I could get a peek at Squeeze, you know, see what his ass was getting into. Normally his nasty ass would be hanging out trying to pull with some young tramp, but today, I rolled up on him and he was checking with his young crews making sure they didn’t forget he would pop a cap in their ass.

I had been watching him for about two hours, and it started getting dark, then he got a call on his cell so he walked off from the crowd. He was all smiles, showing off that nasty-ass gold in his mouth, so I figured he was either on the phone with a bitch or talking about money. Either way, when he jumped in his money-green Bentley, I was right on his trail. I had to see what this nigga was up to. If he had anything to do with my brother getting killed, it was lights out for him. No questions asked.

I had been following Squeeze for about an hour all the way on the other side of Detroit when finally he pulled into the Marriot Hotel. What was he doing here? This nigga had a mansion out in the hills with the white folks, or so I had heard. Why would he need to meet a bitch at a hotel? Unless he was on some business, but usually coke deals didn’t go down at the Marriot, not with niggas like Squeeze. Either way, I had to know what was up so I was going to hang around.

Riding around the parking lot, Squeeze finally pulled inside a spot next to a car that looked just like Charlene’s candy-apple red Benz. That was confirmed when I saw the plates, QUEEN B. Oh snap! Why would Squeeze be parking next to Charlene’s car at the Marriot? This had to be a coincidence. Squeeze jumped up out of the Bentley and disappeared into the hotel.

I know Charlene’s ass couldn’t be sleeping around with Squeeze because if she was, Pig was going to kill that bitch. Then there was going to be a war between crews. But I could just be jumping to conclusions because I haven’t seen them together.

I didn’t have to wait long for my answer. I saw Squeeze pimping out of the hotel, and he headed straight to Charlene’s Benz. When he reached the Benz, he grabbed Felicia by both her ass cheeks and tongues her down. Felicia popped the alarm on Charlene’s Benz, jumped in, and balled out. Not before I saw Squeeze go into his pocket and hand her a wad of stacks.

I had to duck down cause Felicia blew right past me. Soon, my heart slowed back to normal. I thought Charlene had fucked up, and Felicia is a ho just like I thought. I know Charlene knows what that bitch is up to, but if Pig finds out Felicia’s using the Benz he bought for Charlene to go meet Squeeze in, he’s going to fuck Charlene’s ass up anyway.

Squeeze finally jumped back in his Bentley. I thought about following his ass some more, but after that shake-up, I think I’ll take my ass to Hood’s crib ’cause he’s waiting on me.

Chapter 39

It had been two days since I had followed Squeeze, and to be honest, I couldn’t get that picture with him and Felicia out of my mind. At this point, I didn’t know what to think. I wanted to talk to Rochelle about it, but she had been MIA for a minute. I didn’t want to mention it to Hood because I know he wouldn’t like the idea of me following Squeeze and putting myself in harm’s way. So for now, this information was just stuck in my head. I couldn’t help but think Felicia was a ho just like we thought she was. That bitch would sleep with anybody for some money. Either way, I didn’t see any suspicious acts from Squeeze regarding Li’l Bo, but I would be watching his ass.

I have to get this situation off my mind. It’s time to get out of this bed and kick today off instead of lying here thinking about this bullshit. I was supposed to have class today, but the shop was closed for some electrical repairs. Rochelle and I decided to grab lunch and do some shopping. We were finally gonna hook up today, but I think I’ll leave the bit about Felicia out of the conversation. I didn’t want to piss her off talking about Felicia. Because right now, she still got heat for her.