The Corner II (31 page)

Playing Both Ends Against The Middle

L
ucky and Frank’s stay in jail was longer than what the lawyer had told Tesha and Slim. Nevertheless, the two men had spent less than a month in jail and they were just glad to be free. While locked up, a couple of brothers, who were affiliated with the GDs, killed Rios. Lucky looked at it as if someone was trying to make it seem as if their crew had contracted it, and the word around the prison was that they had—a set up.

Lucky didn’t feel well the last three weeks he’d spent in the MCC and had felt a few lumps under his armpits when he was showering. When he got out of jail he went to see his doctor and had them checked out. Tesha had taken him with Jamel riding as security. When Lucky came out of the doctor’s office Tesha could tell that it wasn’t good. Lucky swore her to secrecy; he didn’t want Anthony finding out that he had cancer.

At Lucky’s home he met with Slim and told him that he was taking a break, that he needed time to rest. Slim pressured Lucky into telling him what was wrong. He could see the change in his attitude and wondered was he ready to get out of the game. Lucky decided to tell him about his cancer and made him promise not to tell anyone and with Slim a secret was as good as gold. Slim assumed that it was bad just by the way Lucky talked to him and the look on the old vet’s face—fear. Something Lucky never displayed in his fifty plus years of his life. Only this time he wasn’t fighting another person on the streets. He was fighting the big C and it was terminal.

*     *     *

It was the first weekend in December and Chantel had just picked up Tesha to head over to the Magnificent Mile do some Christmas shopping. They’d just left Tesha and Anthony’s house and were heading north. Chantel never paid attention to the Durango that followed her from her condo out north to Tesha’s house out south. When they stopped to get gas at the Shell station on 95
^th
that’s when the two men figured this would be their best chance. Dre pulled up behind the young woman and waited for the other two cars to leave the lot. Tesha was sitting on the passenger’s seat wondering why the two fools in the Durango didn’t pull up to another pump, but then her street sense kicked in and she slid her hand in her purse and took out her small .22 automatic and was about to yell for Chantel to get in the truck when a man startled her.

“Tesha, that you?” a brotha dressed in designer jeans, sweater and a leather coat that had to had cost him a grip asked.

“Shaun, what’s happening? How are you? Damn it’s been awhile,” she said as she eyed how fine her old friend was looking. She used to date him for a moment while they worked at a telemarketing service but with the way he was looking, the ice he was rocking and the big boy Benz he was showcasing, it was obvious he was putting in work.

“Just doing my thang. You still kicking it with that one kid I heard about?” he asked talking about Anthony.

“Yeah, that’s my boo.”

“I heard he’s Lucky son, is that true?”

“Yeah, why?”

He put his palms up saying, “Hey, you know I always got love for ya, but you know I don’t step on no toes. My best wishes and hey never tell that nigga we dated for a second ’cause one day I might need to get put on, these streets are drying up for real.”

Tesha looked back at the Durango then at Chantel.
Damn she must be fillin’ this fucker up!

“What’s up girl, you look nervous?”

“I think those niggas in the Durango are following us.”

Shaun, who likes to stunt a bit, could tell there were two youngsters in the truck. He was packing heat and so was his boy who was in the Benz keeping watch on him. So he decided that he’d show out for the women and if it was some shit in the game it could get him some cool points with Lucky since Tesha was everything to him.

Chantel was stepping in the truck when two shots rang out. The young soldier in the passenger’s side of the Durango hit Shaun in the shoulder with one shot and missed with the other. Shaun’s friend jumped out firing just as the driver jumped out firing shots at Chantel’s 4Runner.

“Go, go, go,” Tesha screamed at a shocked Chantel. When she didn’t pull off Tesha noticed blood soaking Chantel’s shirt and House of Dereon sheared mink coat—her friend had been hit. She screamed as shots continued to ring out. Shaun, who’d been knocked to the ground, was now bucking at the young gangster who was firing at Chantel and Tesha, while his boy was laying lead at the other assailant. The two then focused their attention on the two men as Chicago PD came screeching to a halt in the lot where people were ducking around corners and behind benches trying to find somewhere to hide from all the lead that was flying. The gangster who was firing at the women took off on foot without the police seeing him. He looked back and saw that they had his partner and the two captain save a hos surrounded. He also saw Chantel fall helplessly out of the vehicle and she was a bloody mess. He continued to run and hoped that Dre and Bone wouldn’t be angry that he didn’t hit both women. Little did he know that hitting Chantel with the rounds was all Dre needed for his plan to be effective. Both of them shot and wounded would have been fine and he didn’t give a fuck if they lived or not, the shooting was still going to have the effect on Noonie that he wanted.

*     *     *

LaDonna sat in her office on the phone with the special agent from the DEA she’d kicked it with. He told her that they needed to take a break, and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. When she asked about her application for employment with the federal agency he told her that he did all he could do for her, then he told her that he’d keep in touch. She hung up the phone and felt like a fool. She had given the agent most of her unit’s big cases and her sex. Now he didn’t need her anymore. He had Carlos Fuentes in jail and his empire was about to fall since he and his father were both taken from the streets in a matter of months. She sat at her desk looking out of her office at the detectives thinking how they had ways about them that she didn’t like, but they worked hard. She also thought about the detective that was in the field working undercover and how he’d requested to go back to patrol. She told him to think about it and to work the rest of the year out, and if he still wanted to go back to patrol she’d do her best and pull what strings she had to get him assigned anywhere he wanted.

LaDonna thought of a way that she could cheer up. She decided to call LaTanza and see if she and Carlita wanted to go shopping. They hadn’t talked much since Carlos’ arrest. LaTanza told her sister that it would be best if they just sat back for a while and let things cool off. Once it did she was going to move away and then she and LaDonna could get their lives back to where it was when they were kids.

LaTanza noticed that it was her sister calling. She had been avoiding the inevitable and figured it was time. Things were going the way she wanted them to. She was in control of the family; everyone knew it and agreed to it. It was the way Carlos ordered it so it was the way it was going to be. His cousin was to come to town after Christmas and help LaTanza with the running of the family seeing as how war was inevitable and Carlos wanted someone he knew that was savvy and worthy of helping lead his family.

“Hey sis,” LaTanza said dryly.

LaDonna picked up on it and figured something was wrong but figured she’d still ask if she and Carlita wanted to go shopping and to dinner. LaTanza was ready to hit the sister she despised with what she had prepared her for.

Nonchalantly, LaTanza said, “Look sis, I have a little something to get off my chest. For years I have wanted you dead. But that would have been too easy. So I have a little story I want to tell you.”

LaDonna sat on the other end staring at the old picture of her family that was on her desk wondering what her sister had to say.

LaTanza continued, “Speechless, huh? I can just imagine the look on your face. You really thought that I wanted to be a family with you? After what you’ve done?”

“What I’ve done?” LaDonna questioned. She was surprised and didn’t understand what her sister was talking about.

“Yes, what you’ve done. For years I’ve struggled with the pain of the memories of
your
dad molesting me. It would come to me in really bad dreams but what I couldn’t understand for the life of me is why my mother and my sister let it happen.”

“I—”

“Bitch don’t lie to me. My husband had me going to see this shrink and I must admit the bitch is good. It was something I was suppressing all this time and months ago she tried this hypnotic shit on me and I don’t mean the fucking drink! And when it was all said and done the hypnosis and Doc showed me that I’m the way I am because of what I was suppressing. That when
your
father was on top of me one day and you and mom came home early from one of your days at the mall he didn’t hear you two come up the stairs. He was too busy molesting me and both of you bitches saw him doing it. I turned my head and was crying. I even reached out to you two bitches and Mom just pushed you behind her but you had already seen—”

“I’m sorry,” LaDonna began to cry. She reached for the box of tissue that was on her desk.

“Fuck that! That shit went on for years after that. My mind just blocked out what I had seen. But before I killed Jack’s ass he told me that the two of you knew and I didn’t want to believe him!”

“You killed dad. It was you?” she asked. She now realized that it was LaTanza and was surprised that her sister had done it.

“It was the right thing to do. Me and Carlos, we killed him and made it look like a robbery.”

She screamed, “Daddy had an alcohol problem and he was unstable from what mom put him through, how could you kill him!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Look at you. You knew the truth and you hear me telling you that I’ve known it and here you are still defending him. You are a bitch.”

LaDonna, who really did love her sister calmly said, “Don’t say that, you need help. Let me help you get some.”

“Oh, sis, I don’t think so, and it’s no family shit for us. As a matter of fact don’t ever think of coming near Carlita.”

LaDonna was shocked but she knew she should have helped her sister, but she didn’t know how at the time. She was like a lot of people who just wish that problems would go away. Especially when it involves family member against family member. But in this case she was wrong. She should have protected her much younger sister and now her sister was as mentally unstable as ever.

“Oh, and before I hang up I just want you to know that I am the head of the Fuentes’ crime family and you helped me.”

Crying LaDonna screamed, “How, how did I help you?”

Styles and Smith were at their desk and heard their boss scream but with the door closed, they couldn’t understand what she’d said. Styles saw her crying and shook his head saying, “Must’ve got cut off from the DEA dick, good for the bitch.”

Smith looked at Styles’ uncompassionate ass and shook his head and continued to work on a search warrant for a house where DC kept a stash. Cat had made an anonymous call to the police and pointed them in that direction.

 LaTanza smiled an evil grin, “You arrested a man that I set up. That’s right, my husband was cheating on me and I wanted to get rid of his ass and take over as head of the family and I used super cop to do it. I’m the Queenpin now and it’s going to be hard to catch me cause I know my sis who turned a blind eye to my molestation wouldn’t put cases on me. It’s the least she could do—turn a blind eye again. Love ya.”

The phone went dead and LaDanna sat in silence for over fifteen minutes digesting what her sister had told her. She had played LaDonna to get what she wanted just as the DEA agent had—Carlos off the streets. She gathered herself and went to the bathroom to freshen up. She then went out on the office floor and commanded the attention of all the detectives.

LaDonna stood in front of all them and was back to her confident self, shoulders back and chest out. “I need you all to get everything you can on all the major crews in the city especially the Fuentes’. We are about to take it to them and I will give you all the resources you need to do that, and I will trust in what you all do. Equipment, manpower, whatever you need. We are going to make the biggest splash this city has ever seen on the drug game, and I promise not to give anything you get to the Feds. Do what you have to do, the way you do it. Let’s make it happen.”

And with that she walked out of the office ready to take the fight to the streets.

*     *     *

Dre got the news of the hit on Chantel. He figured that would get Noonie and the entire crew’s attention. And now he was going to get the Fuentes’ involved.

“Good job,” he told his man at the body shop as he looked over a vehicle while rubbing his goatee.

The Expedition looked just like Noonie’s from the year, to the grade of the tint, to the color and rims. Dre handed the short old man a stack of hundreds and the man didn’t bother to count it out. He knew that it was correct—ten thousand. Dre always paid him well for his work.

Dre got inside the truck and drove out of the Westside garage. He was headed to one of the Latin Kings’ neighborhood—to a video store near 51
^st
and Ada. He was on a mission to complete starting a war between the Fuentes’ and Slim’s crews. He put in his mixed CD and Beanie Segal, Scarface and The Game were spitting lyrics on the track
Never Snitch.
He lit his hydro and drove the speed limit as darkness overcame the city. He was only thirty minutes away from his target.