Her Sweetest Revenge (Delphine Publications Presents) (26 page)

“
That’s weird. Maybe she’s dealing with Pig’s family tryin’ to get him buried or something.”

“
Or maybe she’s somewhere distraught. I don’t know. All I know is I ain’t heard from her. She better come correct ’cause Li’l Lo talkin’ about blasting her ass if she don’t talk. He thinks she knows what happened. At least who shot him, but I don’t know.” Rochelle looked defeated.

“
Hood’s pissed at her too,” I validated.

“
I tried to tell Li’l Lo Charlene’s tryin’ to clear her head up right now because as far as I know she loved Pig. She may be greedy, but she was feelin’ him.”

“
I know. That’s what I told Hood.”

“
If anything, she’s scared that whoever murked Pig lookin’ for her too.” Rochelle sounded convinced.

“
Maybe,” I said, before we were interrupted by a knock on the door.

I looked out the peephole to see Hood standing in the hallway. “Baby!” I hugged Hood when I opened the door. He hugged me and held on tight. In fact, he was pulling me so close our pelvises were linking.

“
You a’ight?” he asked.

“
Yeah, at least now that I see you,” I grinned.

“
What’s up, Hood?” Rochelle said, getting up off the couch.

“
What’s up, Rochelle?” Hood replied back.

“
Where Li’l Lo at?” she asked.

“
He should be at the crib by now. That’s where he was headed when I left him about half an hour ago.”

“
His ass bet—” Rochelle was cut off by her ringing phone.

“
Hello. A’ight, baby, I’m on my way,” Rochelle said with a huge grin on her face as she ended the call.

“
I would stay and chat, but I gotta go.” Rochelle headed straight for the door without turning around.

“
I’ll call you later,” I yelled after her.

Hood headed over to the couch. I followed him, hot on his heels. I was following so close I almost stepped on the back of his red and black Jordans.

“
So what’s been up?” I said as soon as we sat down facing each other.

“
Been out puttin’ gats to niggas’ heads, trying to find out what the streets is sayin’. Got all my people workin’. Last couple of days I been over at Pig’s momma’s crib, helping her with shit to bury him. We got all that arranged now. Basically, I just been tryin’ to be there for her, you know? I’m like her son.”

“
That’s nice of you, baby. You know, being there for her and all,” I said sincerely, knowing exactly what she was going through. I was and still am sick from Li’l Bo’s sudden death. Every day I wonder if I would ever truly get over it.

“
He would do the same for me,” Hood assured me. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes.

“
Did I ever tell you how I got my name?” Hood said with a chuckle, but hurt was written all over his face.

“
No.”

“
Ever since I was a little man, I been running my block. My momma was a dope fiend. I mean, ever since I was four that’s how I remember her. This dope pusher who went by the name of Monster was her pusher and pimp. So every Saturday night, here comes Monster banging on our door looking for moms.” Hood stopped talkin’ for a minute with a killer look in his eyes. “Every Saturday night here comes Monster. That nigga would beat my momma all the way out of the house to the block and make her work the corner, and she would fight him every step of the way because even though she was a fiend, she hated selling her body. By the time I was seven, I had grown a hate so bad for him until it cut my breath off to look at him. One day I decided I had had enough. I was gon’ dead that nigga, and it wasn’t gon’ be no secret. I wanted everybody to know I took his life. Me, a little nigga. So the next Saturday when he came up the block, I was there waitin’ on him before he reached my building. The block was hot, and everybody was out. I stepped to him and without saying so much as spit, I pulled the trigger and hit him right in the heart. Monster dropped to his knees lookin’ me dead in the eye, and that’s when I put one between his eyes. That was the end of that nigga. When cops showed up, no one had heard or seen shit, and I had earned my respect. From that day forward, niggas off the block called me, Hood.” Hood finished with a distant look in his eyes.

“
So is that why you say Arizona is good for your moms?” I asked.

“
Yeah, she got clean after that situation though. Not long after that I started working the block stacking dough. I bought that house and moved us out of the projects. Right after that, she decided she wanted to move to Arizona to be close to her sister. She loves it out there. I think it’s good for her. I bought her a store because she loves clothes and design.”

“
Wow, she owns a store? That’s a big transition,” I said thinking about my messed up life. “Monica’s pregnant,” I blurted out.

“
Ah, damn,” was Hood’s shocked reply.

“
Yep. You know, Hood . . . it seems like my family has not been functional since my dad got locked up. I have a mom and a dad, yet still I feel all alone in this world. Most times I feel like they’re both dead. You are so lucky to have your mom back.”

“
Mya, you don’t have to feel alone. You have me, and even though things are fucked up for me right now, I’m still here for you and Monica. She’s like my li’l sister. I was an only child, so I know what lonely feels like. When I met Pig we instantly became brothers . . . blood brothers. Now I got to learn to live without him. Right now, I don’t see how that’s possible because inside, I just want to go and murk any and everyone I think may be responsible.” Hood’s jaws were so tight I could almost hear his teeth clicking. “Maybe Monica having this baby is a gift from God to your family,” he said, his voice full of grief.

“
I guess I never thought of it that way. I wish my mom was around to help us. You know, tell us what to do.” I shrugged my shoulders. Hood had made a point.

“
Speaking of your mom, I saw her yesterday when I was in the Brewster. She was carryin’ bags of groceries.”

“
My mother carryin’ groceries? Hood, my mother don’t buy food. Crack is her only meal, and it’s been that way since my dad got locked up,” I said sarcastically as I got up off the couch.

“
I think you should go visit her.”

“
I think we should get something to eat,” I changed the subject.

Go visit my mother?
I didn’t know what was on Hood’s mind. I was still pissed at her. I still blamed her for what happened to Li’l Bo because she hadn’t put us first in her life. She was selfish. But I was curious about her carrying groceries. I wonder what was really in her fucking shopping bags. I just hoped it wasn’t crack she had stolen from somebody. I couldn’t take somebody else close to me getting killed.

Chapter 41

I had been tossing and turning all night long. Different scenes kept running through my mind. I kept dreaming Rochelle was running through the Brewster naked, yelling for Tiny. I felt weird in my dream. I woke up twice and got some water. I didn’t know why I was having a bad dream about Rochelle, but I figured it was because I ate so much before going to bed. After talking with Hood yesterday, Monica had come home and he took us out to eat. We ate so much I thought I would bust, and after we got home, I called Rochelle like I told her I would. So maybe that’s why I was dreaming about her since I talked to her right before I dozed off to sleep on a full stomach. I was just falling back to sleep, but now my phone started ringing. I instantly reached over and grabbed it since it’s Rochelle’s ring tone, but it was only 4:00 in the morning.

“
Ahh, ahh! Help me, Mya! Please, help! Ahh!”

“
Rochelle . . . Rochelle!” I yelled back into the phone. Hood jumped up and grabbed the phone out of my hand.

“
Rochelle, put Li’l Lo on the phone!” Hood yelled into the phone. “Shit! It went dead! Let’s go!” Hood jumped up out of bed and we shot out the door with Monica in tow asking what happened.

Hood drove over a hundred all the way to Li’l Lo’s crib. When we pulled up, we saw lights flashing from about ten cop cars and two ambulances. We jumped out of the truck and headed toward the front of the crowd trying to get through.

“
Step back. You have to step back.” Some black cop tried to stop us, but Hood pushed him out of the way. Then the cop came back with more force.

“
Man, get the hell outta my way!” Hood pushed the cop on the ground, then five other policemen rushed him.

“
We have to get up there!” I yelled with tears streaming down my face. “That’s our family.”

“
Man, you have to stay back. There’s been a murder up there,” a light-skinned cop spoke up in a more soothing tone.

“
No, no, no!!” I fell to the ground and started yelling for Rochelle. That’s when I saw them bring a stretcher out covered up. I tried to run to it, but the light-skinned cop blocked me. Hood was on the ground, several men trying to contain him.

“
Mya!” I heard Rochelle yell my name as she ran toward me.

“
Oh my God! Are you okay?” I cried and hugged her at the same time. Quickly I stepped back a little to give her a once-over glance. She was covered in blood, but she appeared to be fine. So whose blood was she covered in? I didn’t have to wait long for my answer.

“
It’s Li’l Lo! He’s dead!” Rochelle started screaming again. By now, the cops had let Hood go and he came over.

“
Rochelle, what happened?” Hood tried to sound calm as he looked at all the blood Rochelle was covered in.

“
I do—I don’t know. We were lying in bed asleep. Next thing I know, two armed guys in masks were standing over us. Before Li’l Lo could move, they shot him like six times, maybe even more. They just kept firing at him. Then they ran out.” Rochelle started crying again and shaking uncontrollably.

“
That’s it?
” Hood looked like he was off in a distant land. “They just shot him and left? You know what? Fuck this. I’m out!” Hood yelled, and with that, he jumped in the truck and balled out. I stayed with Rochelle. She had to tell the cops what happened. Then Ms. Wynita pulled up. I started to get nervous. Shit was completely out of control; anybody could be next.

Chapter 42

It had been two weeks since we buried Pig and Li’l Lo, and nothing was back to normal. Charlene had finally resurfaced at Pig’s funeral, talking about she didn’t know what happened. I believed her because she was busted up, looking like she had been crying for months. At that point she just didn’t know what she was going to do. She claims someone had been following her. That’s why she hid out.

Hood hadn’t talked about the murders since the funeral. A couple of people had been killed in the Brewster. Word in the streets was that Hood had killed them for not telling what they knew. Hood didn’t talk to me about what he did with his beloved nine millimeter, so I didn’t bring it up.

Rochelle had been staying back in the Brewster with Ms. Wynita. She had been holing up in the apartment just about every day. I went by yesterday to hang out with her and did her hair, just to make her feel good. While I was over there I had the feeling I should go visit my mom, but I decided to wait until today so I could take Monica along with me because she needed to let her know that she was going to have a baby.

Standing outside of her apartment brought back memories of all the hurt and disappointment. I almost grabbed Monica by the hand and ran for the exit because what if we knocked on the door and she was not home? It would bring back too many old, hurtful memories for sure of our mother never being home. I didn’t want to get Monica’s hopes up because more than likely Mom was out coping some dope. Before I could act on what I was contemplating, Monica knocked on the door and to my surprise, it immediately swung open.

“
Hey,” Momma said with a huge smile on her face. Monica and I both paused for a minute. We had to because this well put together lady was not the Marisa we knew. At least not for a long time. This was the Marisa that we knew when Lester was around. One thing I knew for sure. There was only one way she could look like this and that was if she was clean. Hood knew. That’s why he told me to go visit her. Why didn’t he just tell me?

Tears started to pour down Monica’s face. She reached out and hugged Momma so tight that Momma stumbled back a bit.

“
Momma . . . you look so good. Wow,” Monica said shocked. She stepped back and did another all-over glance. “You really . . . look good.”