Frantic : An Original Novel by Dupacalypse Now!

[Duwop]

Kim made her way on the balcony as Mikey was smoking and reminiscing on the scene with Otis in prison knowing that he absolutely had to kill Gus. There was no question on that. He just still needed more time and more answers. He knew he would get none from Jimmy Waters who was also Rich’s land lord, but he might get something out of Sam Brown. Sam Brown always had a look about him that suggested he wanted to tell Mikey more about his father, but he never came out with it. Mikey was sure that it was about all this. Sam Brown had to know.

“Damn you getting started already, it’s not even noon yet” Kim said as she sat next to Mikey on the balcony. Mikey looked her up and down again. One of Gus’s girls he thought as he offered her some she declined.

“I need to eat something first, plus I gotta get to work by 1, you think you can take me there?” Mikey looked at Kim and thought to himself Maybe things will get started sooner than planned.

“What kinda stripper goes on stage at 1 on a Sunday afternoon?” Mikey asked her

“The kind that makes a killing during football season” Kim laughed “Yea our club is packed during the season on Sundays’. To me it’s even better than Saturday nights. When a guys team wins, they’re more willing to spend money than anybody else. Every week it’s a party. It just gets slow after the super bowl. I’ll probably switch up again soon”


Mikey got fully dressed and drove Kim to her house to change her clothes and then down to Passions. He decided to walk in with her once they there for his daily drink.. As soon as Mikey walked in the door, Ace, who was almost always with Gus, walked over to where Mikey had sat down at the bar. Ace decided this was a good chance to finally fuck with the kid since he knew Gus wasn’t here today. Normally Gus tells Ace to let the kid buy a few drinks and leave under his own power. Ace wasn’t sure If Gus was scared of Mikey, or what. The buzz on the streets was that the kid had made a lot of alliances behind bars. But shit was different on the streets Ace thought. He’s heard stories about the kid. And knew he had balls. But there was nothing that Ace heard about Mikey that would make him consider the kid a legitimate thread.


Ace was thinking, Yea he had a lot of friends in jail, so did mostly every funny joke telling nigga that went to jail. Sure he had a well-known daddy, but his pops died before having a chance to really raise the boy. Nothing about that gave Mikey any points in Ace’s book. Most of the stories he heard about Mikey were local stupid hoodrat shit. Beat up a few punks, catch a couple of bodies of nobodies, nothing Ace hadn’t done himself. Niggaz in the streets loved to blow shit outta proportion. It took almost nothing to get respect in the streets these days. The streets been going soft Ace thought. That was the reason guys like him and Gus ran things so efficiently. They put in real work. Niggaz had a reason to be sacred of them. Kids like Mikey were pissants. Nothing to him. He’s sitting over there at the bar like he’s the toughest nigga in the world, but never did shit. And now that Gus wasn’t here to tell Ace to chill he was going to go over and see what this punk was really made of.

“What’s up young blood? Anything I can help you with today?” Ace asked Mikey as he pulled up a seat next to him at the bar.

Without looking up or over at Ace, Mikey just cooly replied “I’m not a blood, I don’t do gangs”

“What’s that?” Ace said in a challenging tone.

Mikey knowing enough not to repeat himself, especially in a power play conversation with a guy like Ace, adjusted himself on his stool, turned to face the thug, took a sip of his drink then cleared his throat “Your boss Gus, is he around?”

“Oh so that’s why you keep coming here every day? You really think you just gonna walk in here and talk to Gus? Yea nigga I’ve seen you here every time you come in here, now you bringing the hoes to work too? Look, if you was looking for a job, that’s all you had to say. We can put you on the payroll to take the bitches back n forth and shit like that if that’s what you want.” Ace said to Mikey in a mocking tone laughing at his own wit.

However Mikey did not share any of Ace’s sense of humor and just rose from his seat, finished his drink, and said to Ace “ Next time you talk to that nigga tell him he ain’t gotta send his dog cuz he scared to talk to me himself, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

As Mikey began to walk past Ace, Ace stood up and reached to grab Mikey’s arm. He figured he’d had enough of the kid’s mouth, and wasn’t going to let him talk to him like that in his bar. There was no way he was leaving under his own power. Ace extended a retractable baton that made a very identifiable noise. Mikey instantly realizing that Ace was preparing to stand up and attack , immediately sent a sharp head bunt to the thugs nose.

Ace was a pretty big guy standing at 6’2 weighing well over 270 pounds. He also lifted a lot of weights which provided him with a very powerful, muscular, and over all intimidating frame. But Mikey was not intimidated. Mikey was much shorter than Ace, only standing around 5’9” himself, but given Ace hadn’t fully rose out of his seat yet, Mikey was in perfect position to follow the headbutt up with a bottle to the top of Ace’s head. Another area that was not protected by his muscles.

With first the head-butt to the nose, and then the bottle causing both alcohol and blood to run from his forehead into his eyes, Ace’s hands instinctively grabbed for his face dropping the heavy baton onto the floor with a loud clunk. Seeing and hearing this weapon fall, knowing that it was intended for him infuriated Mikey. Before Ace could have another chance to react Mikey had already picked up the baton and began to use it on Ace. He hit him right on the side of the knee which brought the big man down one leg. HE then hit him on the side of the head and neck with the long piece of steel until it bent hard enough to crack on the third hit.

Never one to come to a fight unprepared, Mikey reached in his coat to put on a pair of metal knuckles he had specifically made with skulls in each ring. Ace was already bent over on the ground moaning in pain, while holding his head. Mike stood behind him and gave him a hard hook to the body right under his arm feeling a rib crack as he delivered the blow. As soon as Ace held his head up to proclaim the pain he felt Mikey hit him with another hook to the side of the temple which effectively knocked the brute unconscious.

When Mikey looked up Kim, the bartenders and the other strippers were all looking at Mikey with their mouths collectively dropped, and pure utter fear in their eyes. Mikey recognizing the fear, took off the knuckles and slid them back in his jacket pocket and said “Look, yall ain’t got nothing to be scared about, this ain’t have nothing to do with yall” He looked right at Kim “None of yall, this shit was between me& Gus” Mikey then gestured to Ace’s slumped over body and said “this sleeping ass nigga over here tried to put his nose in our business” Mikey looked around the room. NO one would dare say a word. Kim had never been so scared in her entire life “Whenever Gus get back tell him Mike West wants to sit down and have some words”

The boldness of Mikey’s actions and weight of his words really delieverd a different impact to everybody, but they were all very shocked. Never would they ever have expected to see Ace knocked out by anyone. They have seen Ace fight groups of men at a time, knocking several out. They’ve seen him shoot people, stab people, even challenge police officers. But they never saw him dropped by anyone, and to be taken care of so quickly and completely just defied logic. And now this guy was calling out Gus too? Who is this guy ?!?! Kim couldn’t keep her silence any more. She had just spent the night with this guy, and she obviously didn’t know shit about him

“Mikey you do realize he’s going to kill you?” she said almost more of plea than a statement.

“Let me handle that sweetie, you just have a good day at work, I’ll call you later” Mikey said as he smiled and walked out the door

 

[Duwop]

9.

When Rich and Chilli pulled up to Passions what they saw was shocking to say the least. Ace was sitting up in the back of an ambulance with bandages around his head and a paramedic holding gauze up to his nose. They were shining light into his eyes. He looked like he was in a car accident. Normally Ace is a very intimidating and menacing powerful figure, today he looked vulnerable. Like he was the victim of a beating he himself handed out. “Oh shit “ Rich said as they walked over to the door where Kim was standing talking to the other paramedic that wasn’t busy helping Ace. Chilli knew from previous experiences that these paramedics were off duty and that no one had called the police or called the incident in at all. Gus was most likely Still in DC, and Ace was the last person she wanted to see at the club, but seeing him so messed up was a bit gratifying to say the least.

When Kim saw the two walking over to the club she ran straight to Rich and just began shouting “Yo!! What the fuck??! Your cousin crazy as shit yo!! Why the fuck you let me go with that crazy ass nigga!!”

“What happened?? Mikey did this?” Rich asked a worked up Kim

“Ummm yes, he came in here to drop me off and was sitting at the bar like a normal ass person, then outta nowhere him and Ace got into a fight, and next thing you know he standing over him beating his damn head in, it was the craziest shit I ever saw in my life!”

“Where is he now?” Rich asked suddenly more worried about his cousin than he felt he should be.

“ I don’t know, but I do know when Gus find out about this shit, he gonna fuck your cousin up you better tell him to watch his ass!” Kim shouted.

Rich looked around for Chilli, but she must have gone inside because she was nowhere to be found. He took his phone out of his pocket and tried to call Mikey but he got no answer. He was texting him when he heard Kim yelling “Oh shit Rich watch out!”

Rich turned around to see an angry Ace throwing a punch right at his face. Rich was able to barely dodge the punch, but the big man was right on him as Rich tried to push him away. Ace was clearly not 100% and while Rich is not much of a fighter himself, he decided to at the least throw a punch to defend himself since this would likely be the best shot he’d ever have at a guy like Ace. Rich returned Ace’s next rush with a punch of his own, it landed on Ace’s chin, but not committing to the punch prevented Rich from creating any distance with it. Ace went straight through Richs’s punch and tackled him to the ground, hard. The two men rolled on the pavement of the parking lot and eventually into the grass, trying their best to inflict harm on the other when Kim, other strippers, and the paramedics finally separated them

“Fuck you and that bitch ass cousin of yours, when Gus finds out about this shit he’s going to have both of yall asses!! You best believe that shit nigga!!” Ace yelled while still being held back

“Man I ain’t got nothing to do with that shit between yall!! I don’t even know what’s going on!!” Rich shouted back. Being the less aggressive of the two, the two girls and the club dj were able to let go of Rich and join the others trying to hold Ace back.


“Yea? You think I’m stupid?? First Mikey dropping bitches off for work, now you bringing by hoes that don’t even work here no more?? You think I can’t tell a set up when I see one?” Ace accused

Where was Chilli? Rich thought, she definitely was with him when he first started talking to Kim, but that was almost 7 – 8 minutes ago, and he was clearly ready to go. But what was Ace talking about? Rich wondered. Setting him up? Rich knew he wasn’t the smartest guy in the world but, he was far from stupid.

“Man what I look like trying to set you up?? I don’t even get down like that!” Rich said.

This was already too much. He had no idea what his cousin was up to, Rich had no idea where Chilli was even at. At this point Rich thought getting his money together and just getting out of town was the best play for him. This was the exact kind of shit he didn’t want to get caught up in. Ace was a guy that Rich never wanted to have an encounter with under no circumstances. And this was Mikey’s doing again. Mikey sure didn’t waste any time starting shit Rich thought. How long until he was in jail again? Or even Dead for that matter?

“Yea okay little nigga, I don’t believe your little bitch ass for a second, and don’t think Gus will either, not after I tell him about this shit” Ace said “Get off me!” he shouted to those around him as they slowly backed off away.

“If you ain’t got nothing to do with this” Ace continued “You needa comes straight out and tell us where that cousin of yours is at before this shit get outta hand”Ace demanded. He walked up to Rich and got right in his face. Both men were tall, but Ace was much more menacing than Rich could muster even on his toughest of days.

“Nobody other than your punk ass cousin needa answer for this. If you don’t got nothing to do with it, like you say you don’t, it shouldn’t be anything to you at all to let us know where he rest his head” Ace said

Even though his conscious was clear, giving up his cousin to Ace and Gus was never an option for Rich.

“Look man,” Rich started in “I don’t know why you want to see Mikey for again anyway, from where I’m standing, it looks like you had enough of him already” Rich said with a snarky smile creeping onto his face

“Oh you got jokes nigga?? Don’t get shot trying to be a comedian.” Ace fired back which seemed to really get Rich’s attention.

The stare off was broken up by one of the stripers running outside to get Ace’s attention

“Oh my God,! Oh my God! Ace! There’s a fire in the back!!”She screamed to him

“A fire?!?!!!” Ace shouted back….he gave Rich another look, “Don’t go nowhere nigga I still got some questions for your ass” Ace snarled as he tried to run back into the club still limping and moving slowly from his injuries.

As soon as Ace disappeared into the door Rich took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief from the whole encounter. However it was short-lived as he heard a car horn beeping. He looked up to see Chilli back in her car with the window winded down

“Come on babe, we gotta go, we gotta go!” Chilli shouted to Rich

“What’s going on ?” Rich asked her “Where did you go?”

“Rich….NOW!!” Chilli shouted as Rich ran to the car and hopped in. Chilli sped off as soon as Rich shut his door. Rich looked over at Chilli to see that she was breathing really hard with an excited smile on her face. Rich also smelled a strong odor of gasoline or lighter fluid or something like that.


“Chilli? “ Rich asked “What the hell is going on? Did you start a fire in the club??”

Chilli looked at Rich with a huge smile on her face “Look in the back seat” she said with a very excited voice of pure glee.

Rich looked in the back seat and saw a large duffel bag that wasn’t in the car when they first got in earlier. “What’s in here?” He asked

“Open it” Chilli said back to him. Rich opened the bag and couldn’t believe his eyes. The bag was stuffed with money, diamonds jewelry, weed, what looked like bags of cocaine, and even a few guns.

“WHA THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!!” Rich shouted “Where did you get this shit Chilli??” He screamed as he looked at her in disbelief “Is this Gus’s shit??” Rich asked as he tried to make sense of everything that happened. Okay Rich thought. When they pulled up Rich was so distracted talking to Kim and fighting with Ace, Neither he or anyone else was paying attention to Chilli. She must have used the distraction to run into the club and take this bag knowing what was in it. But Why? Rich asked himself. Why would she risk her life like this.?Then he thought about their conversation this morning. This was Chilli’s ‘lottery ticket’. The money Rich won was nothing compared to what they had in the back seat of the car. She was planning this the entire time. And now Gus would be gunning after both of them. And what about Mikey? Was Mikey in on this? Is that why he beat Ace’s ass? Did he know Chilli and Rich were going to come here?? Rich mid was swimming with possibilities. He was quickly becoming overwhelemed.

 

[Duwop]

“You see all that shit?” Chlli asked Rich happily “It’s all ours, we can take it and just go…right now, just go!! Just like we were talking about this morning, I bet you didn’t think it would all happen this fast hun? But it happened, we did it!!” she squealed obviously happy with herself oblivious to the danger she just placed them in. “And I got another bag in the trunk, but they both wouldn’t fit in there so I put this one in the back seat! Baby we’re rich!!”

“Chilli” Rich said calmly as he could “They’re going to kill us for this shit, we gotta try to give it back, we gotta just disappear, this is too much baby, we can’t try to get away with no shit like this” Rich tried to plead

“Try to?” Chilli asked back “Babe, we already got away with this..Gus ain’t calling no police, there will be no APB’s we can just drive outta town right now. Find somewhere to get fake Id’s, tour the country, in time get pass ports, and leave the country, it’s really happening!” Chilli said back to him

Rich felt a sickness in his stomach. He was trying to keep the butterflies down, but they felt like they would come up at any moment. “How long have you been planning this?” Rich asked as composed as he could manage” you couldn’t have just thought about this today..this morning?” Rich finally felt like he was thinking straight

“Months baby, months, you called it when you saw me at that McDonald’s. They had the same kind of safe that Gus had in his office. As soon as I found out that, I learned how to crack the safe in under a minute.” Chilli bragged “ I ain’t expect nobody to be at the club but a few girls and the DJ, but that shit we walked into was perfect. I got in and out while yall were outside arguing. It was perfect.” Chilli broke the entire caper down to her new boyfriend. She was full of pride while telling the story. Rich could tell she was very happy with herself, she felt no regret about stealing from one of the most dangerous men Rich had ever known.

“But what about Mikey? Was he on it too?” Rich was genuinely curious at this point.

“No,” Chilli laughed “Funny thing is, I just met your cousin for the first time last night. I don’t know what that was between him and Ace, but I’m sure he can handle himself. Shit if he can beat Ace’s ass, you ain’t gotta worry about that nigga, he good” Chilli assured Rich

Rich insisted “Yea Chilli, but whooping someone’s ass and stealing this kinda money from them is two complete different things” Rich thought that this was quickly becoming more trouble than he wanted to be a part of. Especially considering he also had an escape plan f his own that didn’t involve blood lusting gangsters looking after him. Sure it might not have It didn’t pay as well as her plan. And it might have taken them a few weeks to get paid. But it still woulda paid pretty good.

Rich sat there with his head down deep in his thoughts. He tried Mikey’s phone again, no answer. He was becoming worried. How would Gus retaliate if he thought Mikey had something to do with taking his money? Beating up Ace was one thing. That’s typical street shit. That would be handled between Ace and Mikey, and if anyone was keeping score Mikey was up 1-0. But if Gus thought Mikey took what is easily over a couple of million from him. How hard would he go? Especially if he thought both cousins were involved. Would Rich’s Aunt Tammy be in danger? Could he ever come back home to visit? Rich understood that to Chilli this was a dream, but for Rich it was a nightmare.

“Look Chilli, I gotta atleast let Mikey know what happened.” All the excitement was out of Rich’s voice. He wsa calm, and not yet thinking clearly, but his concern for his family was beginning to dominate his thoughts “ He’s gotta know what Gus is gonna think is going on. You never even told me what was going on, this is all too much too fast,” Rich said, he was holding his head down now. He has never been in this kind of trouble before. He didn’t know where this was heading at all.

“So you didn’t mean anything you said to me earlier? I asked you if you could just get up and go you said you would. Were you just saying that shit or did you really mean it?” Chilli asked Rich. All the happiness seemed to drain out of her voice. Rich didn’t like this Chilli. He did mean what he said, but he didn’t know it was going to be like this.

“Chilli, I meant every word of what I said, and I still do, I just had no idea you had something like this in plan” He said to her. Hoping for some kind of understanding.

“So what did you think I meant? Look Rich I like you a lot, a whole lot, I could have easily did this by myself. I was going to do this by myself. I wanted to do this by myself.And I still can do this by myself. I don’t need you for any of this shit, Okay?” Chilli was really serious now “ I do this baby, this is what I do. You’re in this car right now because I want you to be here, no other reason. I really do like you Rich. Yea I know I just met you But I really do like you Rich, and I made the decision to share this all with you. I could have kept going and left you outside that club. I started to leave you at breakfast. But I wanted you here with me.” She had tears in her eyes now “I know it sound crazy, but yea, I caught feelings that quick. I see now it was a mistake, and if you don’t want to be a part of all this, then let me know right now I’ll pull over and let you out” Chilli looked at Rich and her eyes were red and she was crying actual tears.

“Pull over” Rich told her

Chilli pulled into a diner off of the high way. Rich got out his door, and told Chilli to get out with him. She got out and he gave her a hug. She cried in his arms and looked up at him asking “Did I make a mistake about you Rich? I’m ready to start this new chapter in my life. I’m done in this city. I’m moving on. The new chapter…. it’s starting now. I just need to know if you’re going to be with me”

“Just give me a few minutes to think Chilli, this is a lot to take in” he looked at the diner “ let’s go in, get something to eat take a breather and let me try again to get a hold of my peoples.” Rich felt a little better, but was still uneasy “ If everybody is good then we can just go”

Chilli’s eyes lit up “ Just let me make sure first that my Aunt and cousin are atleast aware of the storm that’s coming, and if there’s anything I can do for them before leaving. I think they’ll understand. I hope” Rich finally said. Not sure if he was right or wrong, but he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

The smile came back and Chilli full on kissed Rich on the mouth. The passion in her kiss made him for a second forget all about the danger they were in and he started wondering how far away was the closest motel. But he realized what was more important was a plan.

“Iight let’s go inside and talk about this shit before we get distracted” Rich said to her after he was finally able to pull himself away.

Once they had a booth and started talking Rich had to admit to Chilli he was impressed. The girl had really done her homework. Her plan was solid. She had it all covered, and he realized meeting him really was more of a risk than anything. The smart thing for her to do was to just leave and never get Rich involved, she really had everything taken care of, and even had a plan on where to go. She already knew people in Pennsylvania that would set her up with a new identity. ID’s and passports. She knew of people in Delaware that would put her up in a house no questions asked for a few months until she was ready go further north. While up north she would make some more connects and find a way to skip the border into Canada. Once in Canada friends of her mom would certainly take care of her, she’d change her identity again, get another new passport, and set up some off shore bank accounts, and would be free to tour the world as long as her heart desired.

It would only take a few more dollars to get identities for Rich as well. And it actually made for a better trip because many people may try a girl like her if she was alone traveling like this. Chilli was more than confident she could handle herself, but Rich did add another level of comfort. It only took her about an hour or so of explaining but Rich was sold. He tried his cousin’s phone again with no luck.

Rich was able to convince Chilli to get a room. He absolutely had to talk to his cousin before he split. Yes the future was extremely bright, but his heart would never be in it if he didn’t at least talk to his cousin or get word to him before going.

Getting a room turned out to be a great idea. With all the excitement from fighting, taking Gus’s money and planning a future together, It seemed as if Chilli was even more open to Rich than she was last time they laid together. While he still had a bad feeling about everything that happened, Chilli was making it easier and easier to not give a damn at all.

 

[Duwop]

Everything was going well when Rich’s phone started ringing. He silenced it the first time because he didn’t want anything taking his mind off of what he was doing with Chilli, but when the voice mail stared beeping before the phone rang again, he felt he might as well see who was calling him.

He looked at the Phone and it was his Ex Shelly. Rich thought, “What the hell could she want?” And just silenced the call again.

Shelly left another voice mail and called right back. This worried Rich, because even when they were together she never blew up his phone. Never. So he looked at Chill and said “Okay I gotta take this” and answered the phone “Yea Shelly, this better be important”

What came back on the other end he was not expecting…genuine concern

“Oh…My…God….Rich!! You’re still alive?!?” Shelly shouted into the phone

“Alive? Why wouldn’t I be?” Rich asked as Chilli sat up in the bed

“I don’t know but the rumors are fucking crazy! Something about this guy named Gus and Ace looking for you, Jimmy came here with a bunch of niggaz I’ve never seen before and they all just went straight in your apartment tearing everything up, I’ve never seen him like that” Shelly was informing Rich

“Shit,” Rich said “So much for coming back hunh?” He looked at Chilli who just shrugged, laid back down, and turned on the TV

“Are you in some kind of trouble Rich?” Shelly asked “Jimmy even grabbed me up, he’s never been physical me before, asking me if I knew anything, if I talked to you”

“What did you tell him?” Rich asked

“Nothing, I told him I erased your number out my phone, he looked through it and everything” Shelly said

“So what you know my number by heart?” Rich asked trying to make light of the situation

“No dumb ass, I actually got your name saved in my phone under ‘Dumb Ass’. It seems to apply this time, cuz you still ain’t say nothing about what kind of trouble you in” Shelly fired back to Rich

“Well anybody else ask about me? You hear anything else?” Rich wanted to know

“How Rich? I don’t know anybody else, I don’t any of your friends, other than that hooligan Timmy, we’ve talked about this before” She said back to him annoyed

“Iight Shelly, don’t worry about it I’m good” Rich assured her

“Well will I ever see you again?” Shelly asked “Whatever that’s stupid, you’re stupid, you don’t care. Just whatever you do, be safe Rich”

“Thanks Shelly, I’ll do that” Rich said to her as he ended the call

He looked at Chilli again who had gotten up and went in the stolen bag and pulled out one of the large bags of marijuana that was inside. “You smoke Rich?” she asked

“Sure” Rich replied “But let me make another phone call, I’ll be right back”

“Okay babe, don’t take all day” Chilli said as she was sitting at the table rolling herself up a joint.


Rich threw on his jeans and t shirt and went outside down to the parking lot. He sat on the hood of Chilli’s car and started trying to call his cousin again. NO answer. Where the fuck you at Mikey? Rich thought. He signed and called his boy Timmy. Maybe Timmy would have some answers, he keeps his ears to the street fairly well. Timmy answered on the first ring

“Yooooooooo what the fuck is going on yo? (Ayo it’s the nigga Rich on the phone!!) “ Timmy was yelling to guys who were round him “ My nigga, there’s all kinds of buzzes going on around the way right now. Niggaz saying you and Mikey stuck up the nigga Gus, ran up in the spot beat the nigga Ace with guns n baseball bats n shit, had strippers running buck ass naked in the streets! Niggaz saying ya’ll cleaned out the nigga safe and burned the strip club down!!! What the fuck nigga !!! Where the fuck you at yo!!!! I ain’t know you had that shit in you my nigga, how you ain’t put a nigga down yo!!!”

Word obviously travels fast. It had been a few hours, but as Rich had feared Mikey was taking most of the heat for Chilli’s robbery. Which works out great for her, but could be bad for Mikey if he didn’t know what was coming at him. He was already not answering his phone. He could already be dead.

“Man you heard from Mikey?” Rich asked

“Mikey? Naw nigga I figured he was with you , I know better to call niggaz when they going to war especially with niggaz running up in your peoples house, I figured shit was getting real my nigga. Yall know where I be at, but niggaz was like Mikey prolly got it covered. Ya’ll really fucked Ace up yo??” Timmy asked with exuberance

“Wait, wait, wait, What you mean ran up in my peoples house Timmy?” Rich asked

“Yall Aunt Tammy’s house, I saw Ace n them run up in there like a hour ago, niggaz had guns out n everything” Timmy informed Rich

Rich dropped the phone and ran upstairs to the motel room. He went in the bag and pulled out one of the guns “What’s going on?!” Chilli asked

“Look Chilli I’m sorry, I really do wanna do this with you, but I gotta go back and make sure my peoples are good. You can stay here if you want, or you can go on without me, but shit got too hectic back at home, I gotta go back. I’m sorry”

Chilli stood up walked over to Rich, took the joint out of her mouth and handed to Rich. She grabbed another gun out of the bag. Rich heart dropped, he never for a second considered if he should be afraid of Chilli “You don’t have to apologize sweetie. I was just sitting up here in my thoughts. I knew the second I decided to bring you with me it wasn’t going to be this easy. “ Rich stared at Chilli in the eyes. They were the same they always were, but he could see the effects of the weed dulling her anxiety.

Chilli took a deep breath “I’m going back with you Rich.” Rich was surprised and relieved that he didn’t get a bullet in the head.


Chilli went on ”There ain’t one good thing in this life that ain’t worth fighting for. And you’re a good thing. So if you gonna fight, I’m going to fight with you” She kissed Rich and zipped up the bag. “Come on boo, we gotta put this bag in a locker or something. Even if this shit goes bad that bitch Gus ain’t getting his money back, fuck that”

Rich smiled and shook his head. His first thought about Chilli was that no woman looks that good without being a world of trouble. And she was proving him right every step along the way.

 

[Duwop]

10.

Mikey pulled up to Sam Brown’s street. He parked his car across the street and half the block down. As he sat in the car with the radio on, he lit himself a cigarette. The weather on this day was perfect, a nice breeze was starting to pick up. Mikey thought about getting out the car and leaning against it while he enjoyed his cigarette, but thought against it. This was a really nice neighborhood. Even sitting in the car too long would attract unwanted attention. These types of neighborhoods were quick to call the police on negroes that no one recognized. Mikey appreciated that type of community togetherness. He often wished that his own neighborhood would act in the best interest of those who lived there. That was one of the things he really wanted to work on now that he was out. Too many people were only thinking about themselves in his neighborhood. He wanted to bring folk together again. Mikey felt there was always power in numbers.

Mikey in fact had a lot of plans big plans that he was setting in motion even before his release. It was now Sunday, and Mikey had been released a full 6 days. So far things have been coming along well for Mikey. The only obstacle or distraction was this thing with Gus. Gus had questions to answer about his involvement with Mikey’s father Ronnie’s death. However getting those answers from Gus might prove difficult and time consuming. Mikey figured Sam would have those same answers, and the convincing wouldn’t be half as troublesome.

This also played into Mikey’s particular skill set. He was not at all naive to how well he was naturally like by people. He just never realized how much of a talent he had for it until his last year and a half in prison. Tough guys came a dime a dozen. There wasn’t much to separate tough guys from one another besides how far in ruthlessness they were willing to go. Mikey had plenty of ruthlessness to pass around, and more than a willingness to do so. However what set Mikey apart from most was how intelligent he was. Mikey always looked for the best ends to his means. Brute force was always on the table, but sometimes cunning served much better. Mikey was becoming very good at using his wits and intelligence to achieve his desired results. He quickly figured out that just being well liked often served him much better than being ruthless.

People were much more willing to work with someone as outspoken and ambitious as Mikey when they actually liked the guy. Given that and his strong rep for ruthlessness that followed him most of his life, he felt at this point he could not be stop or denied in anything he wanted. These traits served him extremely well in prison. While many guys needed gangs to survive in prison, Mikey’s set of talents placed him in the position where many of the gangs needed him for their survival. Or at least his contacts.

His trade was an elaborate system based on a favor for a favor.

Mikey observed the different gangs and groups in the prison. He saw where they were strong and where they were week. He noticed when things were running smoothly in the Prison, and when things weren’t going so well. The biggest problem was competition. The gangs fought over everything from everything from turf wars, to who controlled what narcotics. It didn’t matter who won, all that mattered to Mikey was that when two or more groups were competing, everybody suffered. And that’s where he saw is opportunity to make an impact.


Mikey West became popular in prison because an excellent mediator. He helped lay out territories, helped squashed beefs, even set it up for the more difficult people to be wiped out while smoothing things over with their crews to keep the peace.

His actions and moves were generally well received as many people were vocal about supporting the kid. It wasn’t long before even the CO’s took notice. Things were just more peaceful in the yards and chow areas with Mikey in the jail. There normal high tensions seemed to die down. There were less fights. Less beefs over contraband.

On the surface level things were eerily quiet, too quiet. The guards were sure a riot was about to spark off, but no day ever came. It begin to seem that if there were any beefs at all they were taken care of behind scenes. The guards might find an inmate stabbed in a corner. Once or twice they found someone beaten severely in their cell. But the new trend was very odd. There was never any witnesses, any commotion, and if anyone had to make a statement, it was always Mikey. And Mikey always seemed to find a way to satisfy anyone’s inquires, and left the staff with a satisfactory story that made their paper work easy.


The word was out fairly soon. Everyone would come to Mikey with their problems. And he did a great job in carrying out his favors, in exchange for an owed favor. And whenever Mikey called in a favor, inmates jumped at the opportunity to help him, because there was normally a reward that came with it regardless. Business began to pick up. It was to the point that his cell actually was being allowed to be used as an office. HIs connections were growing exponentially, and instead of keeping these things for himself he was freely sharing them with any and everybody who would do a favor for him.

This allowed Mikey to rise to a very powerful position without ever being tied to one particular group. Some people dubbed him the Black Lucky Luciano after the Italian that organized the modern mafia, bringing all the families of New York together under one syndicate called the commission. That was when the Italians started calling him Mikey Luciano. Some of the brothers were going to object to that name, but Mikey assured them it was an honor. Despite the title, he wasn’t looking for anything specific in return. He just wanted everyone to be able to operate while keeping the violence and exposure down to a minimum; which as a result keeps guys like them out of jail. To Mikey this meant more contacts on the outside. Which was his end goal from the beginning.


Mikey tried to help quite a few inmates figure out how to reduce their time. In his own original conviction, Mikey was to serve a minimum of 5 years on a 10 year sentence. But when a guy is as good at making friends as Mikey was, there was no surprise when he was allowed to be released after only a year and a half. There were a lot of plans being set in motion for him and by him. But first he had to sharpen his skills.

Mikey deduced that his talent was essentially sales. He was able to convince people to subscribe to a concept due to his ability to be liked and a sympathetic transfer of emotion. If people believe truly believed that he believed what he was saying, and he really had their best interests at heart, they gave him much more consideration. It was important to Mikey that people didn’t think he was just trying to con or get over on them like most criminals, he wanted people to really trust and believe in him. He knew he excelled in this area naturally, but he wanted to be learned as well.

Upon his release, Mikey would study the paper for simple sales jobs. Most door-to –door sales business will have you working the first day you show up for their sit in seminars. Mikey spent his first 4 days home going to these places and even going out to knock on doors. He always did well. The managers would praise him as a prodigy and claim they never seen such a natural. He also went to the library and picked up a few sales books by guys like Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy.

Mikey might have only been home 6 days, but his education was growing exponentially.

And while his education was very essential to his future aspirations, his current objective required the skill set that wasn’t as eloquent. Today, Mikey’s business was in revenge.

His target was Gus Briggs.

 

[Duwop]

Gus had a very strong controlling interest in a lot of neighborhoods on the west side. However many people were growing weary of his greedy and selfish ways. Gus kept people dependent on him. He hadn’t changed much in the past few decades. Gus kept everybody in debt, and this prevented anyone from growing large enough to challenge him.

Gus was also good at blackmail. He had a whole team of people who only job was to find out secrets about Gus’s rivals. Gus loved taunting to his peers that he knew about an illegitimate kid, or he heard about a side deal that would potentially put someone in bad graces with one of their friends or partners.

No one knew everything that Gus knew. No one knew who he might have been in cahoots with for this thing or that. No one had a clue on how Gus acquired or maintained any of his contacts. What dirt did he have on them? Who did he have killed for them? Gus had a vault of secrets. He kept everyone in the dark, and trusted no one. HE had everything set up so that he would have to be directly involved or everything would go to shit. Even those closest to him would be completely lost if Gus went missing for more than a day or too.

Mikey knew that he could provide light where Gus had casted darkness. He just needed to make sure the streets knew this. Gus’s time was up. Mikey saw sure to it. He knew he could call in favors. He knew that he could organize the right people against Gus. He knew that Gus’s future directly depended on not if, but when Mikey would make his move on him.


The groundwork was already laid out. Mikey had already had gained mountains of respect from guys on the inside for taking down Otis single handedly. His willingness to get his hands dirty once again by offering to take out Gus himself not only set a good example, it reminded people that he was more than just brains. He was just as vicious as anyone else on the streets. Mikey was gaining the resources daily to put together a crew to take out Gus. He had enough inside knowledge to know that those things were more than likely already in motion. But Mikey felt taking the initiative to go after Gus by himself sent a strong message.

It would set the standard that Mikey was not one to be crossed. Many people were aware of the tension between Mikey and Gus upon his release. Mikey’s dad was once former partners with Gus. Very few knew the full story, but many OG’s felt that if Ronnie West never died he would easily be in the spot that Gus was in currently. And with Mikey clearly ready to start spreading his wings, this would mean that Mikey was heir apparent to the throne. The stage was completely set for a showdown, and the significance of it was lost on no one.


Mikey was absolutely prepared for what must go down, but first he had to get some more information about what exactly happened 20 years ago. He stepped out of the car and stomped out his cigarette. That information that he needed to get would come from Sam Brown. And Mikey was sure Sam would be happy to share it.



Mikey walked up to Sam Browns house and was about to ring the bell when he heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked.

“I ain’t here for trouble Brown, I just want to talk” Mikey said instinctively, he knew Sam Brown was no killer and would likely hesitate long enough pulling the trigger for Mikey to act if he chose to. But Mikey wasn’t here to be the brute, he was here to get honest answers. And to get those answers he would have to build a relationship of trust with Sam, and letting him hold that gun on him was a good start.

“How I’m supposed to know that Mikey? And don’t give me that ‘If I wanted you dead you be dead’ line,…. I had eyes on you from the second you pulled up” Brown replied with strongly shaken voice. He had no idea what to expect.

“There’s no reason for you to die, you were a friend of my father’s and that makes you a friend of mines, I just wanted to ask you some things about him” Mikey said back to Sam. It was an honest enough answer

“What kind of things?” Sam asked with the gun still trained on Mikey, voice still shakey

“I’d love to tell you, but it’s kind of tough with you shaking that big ass shot gun in my face man” Mikey said while faking a nervous laugh

Sam Brown took the gun down, yet still looked at Mikey suspiciously. He knew that Mikey would come to see him one day, and he had no idea how he would come. As Mikey grew and got older he seemed to be just as bad if not worse than his old man. And while it was true Sam was good friends with Ronnie, he always felt uneasy around Mikey. There was so much he wanted to tell him, but he always knew he never could find it all out. He knew that if he ever did find out he’d surely try to kill him, Sam thought. And now he’s here, asking about his father, Sam thought. There’s not too many ways this can go well, he worried.

“May I please sit down? So we can talk?” Mikey asked cooly

Sam just stared at the young man for a few seconds. Observing how much he resembled his father. Only major difference was that Mikey had hair and a full beard where Ronnie was bald with no facial hair. Both were very dark, slim, and of average height. Very un-assuming from description, but they both carried a noticeable aura of illumination with them that immediately changed the climate of any room they entered. Mikey did or said nothing to intimidate Sam, but he was already sweating heavily.

Mikey observed this and began to wonder if he would be able to get the older man to relax. He took a chance and walked over to Sam brown, and put his hand on his shoulder. He then looked Sam Brown in the eyes and said as earnestly as he could “Look man, I’m only here cuz when I was locked up someone told me that Gus had my father killed, now if that’s true, I Know you probably knew about it, but I also know there has to be more to the story than that. I feel like you wanna tell me, but you’re scared of Gus. And while I can understand that, we still gotta talk Sam”

The look of shock on Sam’s face told Mikey was 100% on everything he said. Sam was so taken back from the words that he let the shot gun fall out of his hand. Mikey bent down and grabbed it before it hit the ground “Shit man you alright? This thing coulda went off and took one of our legs clean off man! You wanna go inside before someone call the cops on us?” Mikey asked to the Ex-getaway driver who was frozen solid.

It took Sam a few seconds to get himself together but he managed to respond “Yea man, we can go inside…..shit….I needa a beer…you drink beers man? You want one?” Sam managed to get out.

“Sure man, I’ll have a beer with you” Mikey responded as he looked around outside before walking into Sam’s house.

 

[Duwop]

11.

Sitting in the back of his Rolls Royce Ghost, Gus fell into a heavy thinking storm of anger and frustration as his driver sped back to Baltimore. “I shoulda had that little nigga popped the second he stepped foot in my club!” Gus snarled to nobody in particular. Even though the young woman Candy jumped at his declaration of violence, she knew not to respond to his outburst. Gus always blurted out random thoughts, but never expounded on them when asked to. He tried his best to keep everything that he knew to himself, though sometimes the stress and irritation that went along with trying to do everything himself got the best of them. He was even known to talk in his sleep sometimes, which is why always slept alone. Too many times he had to have women killed because of what he thought they might have head while he was sleeping.

As it was now, no matter who spent the night, Gus always sent them out of his room before retiring. He couldn’t afford to say something in his sleep that could be used against him.

Gus was a very powerful man. He was not shy of using that power for any reason. Violence was something he was used to his entire life. Even before hooking up with Ronnie West he would viciously beat and bully the children in his class rooms simply because he enjoyed it. He came from an abusive household, but so did his two sisters. However, they were soft and kind like his mother. She was beaten often and relentlessly by the children’s father. Many times right in front of them.

Gus’s mother finally escaped his father with the children to get rid of the constant abuse. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the beatings started again, this time from Gus. He would beat his little sisters bloody whenever they challenged him. By the time he was 12 he was also beating up his mother for money on her pay days. Gus always felt everybody owed him something, and if they weren’t going to give it to him it was his duty to take it by force.

When he met Ronnie West, things changed. Gus was used to just beating whoever crossed his path, but it was Ronnie who introduced him to the concept of making a profit while at it.
“What’s the point of shaking down kids for a few nickels and dimes when we can be making some real money instead man” Ronnie once said. While it was fun beating up kids in the neighborhood, Gus had to admit there wasn’t much money in it, so he gave Ronnie’s way a try. They started out running in 7-11’s and Rite Aid’s. Taking stuff off of the shelves, knocking down clerks on the way out, and selling it back to the kids at schools.

When the stores became hip, they’d catch the bus to ones further and further out. One day when Ronnie was about 13 he decided to bring his father’s gun to one of their store run-in’s. Once they started using a gun, taking candy off of the shelves wasn’t enough. They wanted the money in the register too. It wasn’t long before people began to take notice.

As the years past, Gus’s reputation in the neighborhood was simple. He just wasn’t the guy to fuck with. It could be with the fist, a knife, or a gun; it didn’t matter, as long as it ended with him being paid and someone being hurt. He made good money as an all-around tough guy or muscle for different outfits, but it was always those calls from Ronnie that Gus looked forward to the most.

A call from Ronnie meant that there was a big score coming up. Sure Gus could do things on his own. But he never knew how to put anything major together. It was only a few days or sometimes weeks, and he was broke again. But when Ronnie called, Gus knew that he would have enough money to really hold him over until something else big came up. When Ronnie called him about the big bank robbery Gus was literally salivating at the thought of a score that big.

Gus was working as a bouncer as a strip club. But the kind of money Ronnie was talking, Gus thought he would buy the strip club and go in business for himself. Nothing else seemed to make sense to him.

The best part about Ronnie’s plans was that almost no one ever got caught. But on the big bank robbery, it was Ronnie himself who actually took the fall. Gus was a little hurt at first, but when they started counting the money any sadness he felt for Ronnie getting pinched soon evaporated.

Gus, Jimmy, and Sam got away with close to $38.6 million in cash. Split 4 ways that was little over 9.5 million apiece. They would be set for life. How long would it take to spend that kind of money Gus thought. And how do you not draw too much attention to yourself? He had seen the movie ‘GoodFellas’ he saw that buying big purchases gets you caught by the cops. He knew that Ronnie would have a plan for the money, but Ronnie was in jail, what could he do for them now?

That’s when Gus made the decision that the only person that could be trusted was himself. He’d hold on to the money and the guys would just have to accept it. Jimmy would never cross Gus, and Sam Brown was too much of a coward to question it. Gus would just have to hold on to all the money himself till things died down. When he saw fit he would give the guys a little here and there. But he would be the one who kept the score. And he didn’t want anyone all up in his shit about it either.

He knew Ronnie wouldn’t go for that plan though. Even in jail Ronnie would try to get his hands on his share. He already was sending his bitch Rhonda up to the club where Gus worked (now owned) almost every day asking for money for this and that. Gus knew this wasn’t going to work. He had to get her to stop showing up. Ronnie was a good guy and all, but he was no help to Gus on the inside. And $10million was a whole lot of money to promise to a man who would never see the light of day. It hurt him to come to the decision, but Ronnie had to go.

Gus found out from a guy who had just gotten out of prison that it only costs $50k to a man’s family to have anyone clipped while inside. Shit, $50k was nothing to Gus at the time. Gus thought about that crazy motherfucker Otis Watson. Otis was the meanest toughest dude that Gus ever knew. Otis was probably the only person that ever had Gus shook. Once Otis made Gus stay at a dice game longer than Gus wanted to just so Otis would have a chance to win his money back. Gus pretended like it was all good, but on the inside, he always resented Otis.

Gus reached out to Otis’s family to see if he would do that favor for him and he would promise to bless his family with a small fortune. Once Gus spoke with Otis, it was done. He left $10K with them that night and would come back with the rest when it was done. Once it was done, he paid them a visit, but it wasn’t to pay the rest of the money. It was intimidation, what Gus does best. He told them to never contact him again, or he’d have the same thing happen to Otis that he did to Ronnie. He also knew that a guy like Otis would never let word get out that Gus shorted him. His rep inside meant too much to him. Everything was working out as planned.


Everything except for Rhonda. She kept coming to the club. Just kept coming. After Ronnie was killed it was even worse. Rhonda would sometimes come twice a day. And it was clear she was using. Gus had gotten into drugs this time, and he knew an addict when he saw one. He was in the process of trying to put as much money into the strip club and drug trade as he could without letting on to anyone how much more he really had. IT was a really delicate plan, and with a strung out Rhonda always showing up screaming about the millions of dollars he owed her, it was just too much. He arranged for her to get a hot dose, and that was the end of that. Yea he left the little bastard kid Mikey an orphan, but that kid was 5-6 at the oldest when it all went down. Gus never thought twice about it. Until Mikey started growing up.

 

[Duwop]

As the years past, Gus’s influence in the drug trade grew. He was able to push more and more money through the club as well as other ventures. He opened a few car dealerships. He brought a few vacant houses, and let Jimmy manage them. Gus would of course keep but he would give Jimmy an allowance every few months to keep him happy. He even did the same for Sam Brown. He helped Sam Brown get a lot with an old warehouse on it not too far from the old neighborhood. Us even paid to have it renovated for Sam Brown. All the paper work was shady at best, but Sam owned it all. He lived quite comfortably off of it too.

Gus wasn’t the greatest business man in the world, but he was able to protect himself and his partners while holding on to all his money. The drug trade was just as much of a cover as the strip club, but both were surprisingly profitable. It opened a lot more doors, and allowed Gus to position himself quite comfortably in the mix of the crime trade in the city. He considered himself a boss even if no one else consulted to him. He didn’t trust any of the other crews enough to go into business with them.

He already had more money than everybody, so what could they offer him? Why take a percentage Gus thought when he could take all. Ace was really good at recruiting soldiers, and Gus was really generous with buying them hardware. All his interests were well protected. Gus felt he was untouchable.

For Gus to consider Mikey West, Ronnie’s son, a threat was absurd at first. But there was a lot of chatter on the streets. Eventually some of Gus’s investigators began to bring him enough information to at the very least place a few more watchful eyes on Mikey. To see what the kid was really up to. He knew that Mikey was a little ambitious stick up boy just like his dad was, but that was no reason for alarm. It wasn’t until the past year that he heard something that caused him concern. It was when He heard that Otis Watson was killed in prison by Mikey for revenge on his father that Gus really started paying attention.

Everyone knew that Ronnie was stabbed in a prison riot, but no one ever knew who did it. It was mostly a direct deal between Gus & Otis. For Mikey to avenge his death over 20 years later and get to the right person placed Gus on alert. How much does this kid really know? Gus wondered. There would be no way to know without asking him himself. But He quickly dismissed those thoughts. Even if Mikey did know that Gus made the hit, this kid didn’t have the fire power to try Gus.

But there was more chatter on the streets. Gus began to hear whispers of truces between long beefing crews. A lot of territory battles were being settled mysteriously. There was a decline in requests for product across the city. In a matter of a few weeks most of his illegal business overall seemed to be taking a hit. Gus immediately thought a new supplier from out of state had shown up, and he was about to put Ace on it. However no one could find a buyer. All they could come up with was that a lot of street beefs were being settled in prison. It seemed that guys were starting to work with former rivals to strengthen both sides.

What was more troubling though was that in these deals, Mikey West’s name kept coming up. This kid’s name just kept coming up. How is he doing this? Who is he talking to? Is he trying to send me a message? Gus was wildly curious as to what it all meant, but was way too paranoid to let anyone on to it. He didn’t really need the money. As it stood Gus’s empire stood somewhere around $50 million. Money was the last thing he was worried about, but respect was everything. If anyone else thought this kid was squeezing on him, it would make him look vulnerable, and Gus couldn’t allow that. Gus decided that it was time to put his full attention onto Mikey West.

The first thing that he found out was troubling. He found out that Mikey was released from prison, and Gus had no idea as to where the kid would go first. He was kicking himself, because had he paid attention sooner, he might have been prepared for his release.

Gus was sitting in his office on a Monday afternoon talking to Ace about keeping an eye out for the kid when they both stopped and watched on surveillance as Mikey West, walked right into his club with not a care in the world. He calmly came in, went over to the bar, ordered a beer, looked around and walked back out. The fucking nerve of this kid Gus thought. Ace picked up on his bosses agitation and asked if he should approach the kid. Gus told him not to and just see if he does it again.

And of course he did it again, the very next day Mikey walked into Passions once more. He walked over to the bar and had a drink. This time Gus sent Ace down to talk to him, but Mikey wasn’t interested in chatting. He got up before Ace could get to the bar, and walked right back out. Ace wanted to follow him and jump him in the parking lot, but Gus told him to hold off.

Gus knew this kid was up to something, but he just didn’t know what. All these signs couldn’t be a coincidence. His drug trade was bringing in lower numbers every week. All his competitors’ seemed to be making truces and joining alliances. There was even a sudden surge of stick up robberies of some of his most trusted lieutenants.

NO one who worked for Gus had ever been the target of a robbery, but 3 of his guys were hit since this kid came home, and it has only been a couple of days.

This was not a coincidence. Gus wanted to know what was going on. Was this kid plotting on Gus? He couldn’t say for sure if Mikey was acting alone or if he had any backing.

Would Gus striking first put him at an immediate disadvantage? Gus had been in a lot of beefs, but they were always straight forward. He never had to deal with mind games before, and this was definitely throwing him his square.

When Ace called Gus to tell him everything that happened while Gus was at the basketball he was furious. Not so much at Mikey, but more at himself. He should have made the first move. He knew the kid was up t something, and he should have known he was going to strike soon. But he didn’t see it coming like this. He could feel his blood pressure rising.

 

[Duwop]

Gus made Ace tell him what happened 3 times before he was done talking with him. From what Ace was saying, Mikey comes to the bar and starts a fight with Ace to cause a big distraction. “A fight with Ace” Gus couldn’t believe his ears. Gus knew hard, cold men, killers, who wouldn’t even look Ace in the eye. This kid Mikey was starting fights with him.

Then in the middle of all the commotion, Mikey’s cousin Rich shows up with Chilli of all people. “I should have known that bitch was up to something “ Gus thought, but Ace said out loud. Apparently they were all in it together. Rich shows up with Chilli which causes another distraction. While Ace was trying to handle all these distractions, he said Mikey and Chilli must’ve found some way to get in the club and get to Gus’s safe. They hit it pretty hard too. A couple million in drugs and cash, was completely gone. And they set fire to the rest, it spread through the office, and some of the bar, but they were able to get the fire out before the entire club was lost. But the point was made. They hit Gus hard, and it only looked like the three of them, but Gus still wasn’t sure.

If it was only the three of them this is much simpler than Gus was making it out to be. IT was clear that this was all Mikey’s doing. Chilli and the cousin Rich were just in for the ride. If Gus took out Mikey, the other two would either be in hiding forever, or he’d catch them when they slipped up. But Mikey was the problem. Mikey had to be dealt with.

However that still leaves the question of how much the kid knows. Gus had to go back to the original crew. He instantly texted Jimmy Waters. He knew that Mikey’s cousin Rich lived in one of Jimmy’s houses. Gus told Jimmy to go in the kid’s apartment, and see if there’s any evidence of where they might be. It might be a stupid place to go, but one can never know with these kids. Then he told Ace to go to Ronnie’s old house where he stayed with his sister Tammy. Yea it was a bit much involving Tammy, but she knows how the game goes. Her boys hit Gus, Gus hit’s back. Gus told Ace not to hurt Tammy, but if she plays dumb it’s cool to fuck the house up a little, and then meet him back at the club.

Before going back to the club, Gus was going to make a stop of his own. He was going to see his old friend Sam Brown. Sam Brown was really good friends with Ronnie, and he’s pretty sure Sam had something to do with Ronnies girl Rhonda coming to his club like that all the time. Gus did give Sam some of his share, but he never gave him enough for any respectable man to be happy with. Sam was a chump, no doubt about it. Sam would never make a move on his own. But just like he hid behind Ronnie all them years ago, Gus was sure that Sam Brown would be the type to hide behind a hot head kid like Mikey out for revenge for his daddy’s murder. Sam Brown might just be the mastermind behind the whole thing. He probably talked the boys into stealing back the money Sam Brown was too much of a coward to come get himself. Gus knew that Rich worked for Sam for around 10 years now. And Mikey worked for him at some point too. It made sense that the two boys would take Sam’s advice especially if he told Mikey the entire truth about his dad.

It was approaching evening as they turned down Sam’s street. There was still light in the sky, but it was fading as rain clouds began to form. Gus got that anxiety feeling of butterflies in his stomach. This was unusually alarming as Gus never felt nervous before making a personal visit. No matter how violent that visit had the potential for, Gus was normally cool in these situations. But right now something was bothering him. He could feel it in the atmosphere.

Maybe it was all the mind games Gus thought. But even that was unsettling. Gus figured all the mind games Mikey were playing were to hide something bigger at works. Maybe that was all his imagination. Maybe the kid is just a bit crazy.

The hit on the safe, the decline in sales, the random visits at the bar. Crews teaming up. It was too many coincidences. He knew this kid was trying to make a name for himself. He’s seen it a dozen times. But something didn’t feel right. Sam Brown better have some answers Gus thought. The uneasiness continued as a now paranoid Gus opened the middle compartment of the backseat for a hand gun. He also handed one to Candy

“What’s this for?” His attractive assistant and sometimes deadly associate asked

“Shit might get real in here, you never know” Gus replied

“At Sam Brown’s? Are you serious?” the sultry woman replied with almost a desire to begin laughing

“Look, Ace just got jumped at the club, Sam might have something to do with it” Gus said as he looked Candy in the eyes “If he did, he’s gone”

“Hey if he has to go, he has to go, I never really liked the fat fuck anyway” Candy scoffed nonchalantly and she checked and readied the weapon he handed to her. Then casually placed it in her purse. Candy then pulled out her phone as she leaned back in her seat to take a selfie appearing oblivious to the pending violence the guns would likely be needed for.

Gus knocked on the partition and spoke to his driver.

“Yea pull up right here James” Gus said “Right behind that Acura, …….You got your piece on you?” Gus also asked his driver James.

“Never leave home without it!” James responded eagerly as he was breathing into and cleaning his eyeglasses on his shirt.

“Iight man, let’s see how this shit goes” Gus replied as the two men and woman exited the vehicle approached Sam Brown’s house.

As the three walked up the steps, James looked up at the sky. It was much too dark for such early evening. He felt a few solitaire drops of rain fall.

“Damn man, it’s bout to storm out here”

“Don’t tell me you scared of getting a little wet?” Candy mocked

“All the better, maybe nobody will hear the gun shots if shit go left” James replied

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that” Gus assured them as the three entered the house

 

[Duwop]

12.



Rich thought about his Aunt Tammy on the ride back into town. She never had any children of her own due to an accident she had as a teenager. Regardless if she birthed them, there was never one question of how much Aunt Tammy loved Rich and Mikey her two adopted sons. Aunt Tammy was possibly one of the funniest people Rich knew, and even as she got older her wit never died. She tried to be as hard on the boys as she could, but she was no stranger to the streets herself. She seemed to understand Mikey’s attraction to that lifestyle, so she was noticeably softer on him. But Rich always remembered her being genuinely concerned and worried about him any time he got into any trouble.

When Rich was 11 there was a bully named Rodney Franklin who wanted to beat up Rich because he walked home from school holding hands with Jennifer Parker. Jennifer Parker liked Rich, she was also one of the prettiest girls at their school. This made Rodney and Rich enemies, even though Rich was completely unaware.

Rodney, like most boys didn’t really know how to win a girls heart at 11. The best thing he could come up with was beating up Rich. However, Rich had enough friends at school to where the bully had to second guess his approach. Rodney tried to run up on Rich one day after school; Rich pushed Rodney back, and all of Rich’s friends stood by his side effectively backing the bully down. The beef however wasn’t over, as Rodney had an older brother who was a dope boy in the neighborhood. So later that afternoon after Rodney’s older brother felt Rodney was chumped, he brought him to Aunt Tammy’s house for a one on one showdown. Of course a 9 year old Mikey wasn’t having any part of a fair fight and went at both boys a baseball bat. Rodney older brother being 17 would have likely hurt or even killed one of the boys if Aunt Tammy didn’t come outside and stop all the commotion.

Rich was scared, but Aunt Tammy made him stand up and fight the bully Rodney while she did her best to keep Mikey from losing all composure. It wasn’t Rich’s greatest moment as he never really got the bully with any good shots, but he did as good as a scrawny 11 year old kid could do. The point was made, after a few minutes of breathing hard, and fighting as hard as they could Aunt Tammy finally broke them up and allowed the bully to leave. Rich had a busted lip and a black eye, and was really down on himself. Mikey wasn’t making it any better by antagonizing his older cousin, and declaring that he was going to find that bully and beat him up himself soon. Rich felt so embarrassed that his little cousin had more heart and less fear in those types of situations than him. But there was no shaking the feeling he had.

After Mikey finally went in the house Aunt Tammy sat down to Rich and gave him a talk. “You know Rich, I know you don’t feel like you won anything, but I can tell you one thing you definitely won today for sure” Rich looked at his aunt curious as to if she saw the same bruises on his face that he felt. “You won that kid’s respect; you stood up to him and fought as hard as you could. A It might not have been that good” Aunt Tammy laughed “ But you got that boy with enough hits that I can promise you he’ll never rush into a fight with you again.” Rich let the words and sink in and replied


“But I don’t want to fight him again either, I just want him to leave me alone. I’m not like Mikey, I don’t like getting hit”

“Mikey’s something different all together Rich” Aunt Tammy assured Rich “He’s just like his daddy, some people just like to fight, and some don’t. Actually when you think about it, most people don’t like to fight at all and that’s where bullies get their confidence. You know why kids don’t pick with Mikey?”

“Cuz he’s not scared of them?” Rich guessed

“That’s right” Aunt Tammy agreed” They know that anybody that steps to that crazy little boy, they’re in for the fight of their life. And while bullies act tough, they’re just like most people, they don’t want to really fight either. And that’s why no matter what you always have to be ready to fight. No matter what the situation, you never back down. If someone tries to push you around, no matter how scared you may be, you show them that you’re willing to push back”

When Rich went to school the next day, most of the kids had heard about the fight. They all knew that Rich got beat up. Of course Rodney was bragging about the fight and making jokes about how he beat Rich up. But anytime someone tried to instigate a rematch for all to see, Rodney played it off.

Rich found himself making more friends as well. People were coming up to him simply because they heard he fought Rodney. People didn’t seem to care whether her won or lost, they just wanted to be cool with a guy they knew stood up to the bully. People were still scared of Rodney, but knowing that Rich was brave enough to fight him made him less of a monster. Kids thought a fight with Rodney would be a certain death sentence. In the imagination of an 11 year old, one punch form a guy like Rodney would surely kill them. But Rich said he had taken several punched, right on the face, and never even felt close to death even once. It was like surviving an attack by a pit-bull, everyone was in awe.

Even the girls took noticed. They already thought Rich was a pretty boy with pretty eyes, but adding tough kid to his resume only increased his stock. Rich learned a lesson that day. He never was the fighter Mikey was, but he never backed down from a guy after that day.

Rich knew he was never the guy to go looking for trouble. But he was a firm believe that when someone pushed, you always pushed back. And that’s what he was planning to do now.

And that’s what he knew he had to do as soon as he heard that Ace and a bunch of guys ran into his Aunt Tammy’s house. Those were her words that were coming back to him, and he knew that no matter how big and tough Ace and Gus were, he had to push back.

Rich knew he was stepping way outside of his lane, there was no mistake. But he also knew that whatever was going on in the streets, his Aunt Tammy should have never been involved. Even if he was scared to death, and had no real plan, he would have to go at those guys with everything he had. This was Rodney in the front yard all over again, and Rich knew he was ready to fight back.

Rich was startled when Chilli tapped his leg “You okay babe?”. Rich realized his face must have looked pretty upset, as her face was full of concern. “I don’t know what we gonna do when we find those guys, but I gotta make sure my aunt is good first” Chilli looked at Rich and turned her head back out the window. She had placed the money and drugs into a locker at the travel plaza and was holding the key tightly in her hand. She was wondering if she should have ever come back out of the plaza at all. She could have easily just hopped on the first bus going out of town and never turned back.

This guy had no idea what he was going to do. It was really beginning to weigh on her better sense. Chilli knew you didn’t go against guys like this without any plan at all. It was a fool’s errand. But like most young women she also enjoyed the thrill. Chilli never had a male partner like this in any of her escapades. It was always just her and her mother against the world. Having a man who knew all about her and didn’t pass judgement was more comforting than she would have ever known. She was going to ride with him. That much was sure. IF they would survive was another question all together. But for the moment she was committed and that was all that mattered to her. She was startled when Rich returned the favor and put his hand on her thigh. She turned to him smiling. He really did have a nice smile she thought.

"You still with me Chilli?” Rich asked

Her normal wit escaped her as she just licked her lips and said “I go wherever you go”

 

[Duwop]

Across town in Sam Brown’s Kitchen, Aunt Tammy’s other adopted son was in Brown’s kitchen with a shot gun also remembering how his Aunt Tammy raised him to always push back. Mikey didn’t really need any reminders but he was outgunned 3 to 1. Even though he had the element of surprise on his side, Mikey couldn’t be unrealistic about his chances. Even if he moved quick enough to get two shots off, a shotgun was slow. They would have to be definite kill shots, and he still would have to face the third. Many people freeze up during gunfights. But Mikey wasn’t naive enough to think these three would.

He also realized that even though he was going to kill Gus, he still wanted some information from him first. Gus had to talk. There were things that Mikey needed to know in order to make sure his larger plans went off well. Sam had filled in a lot of the holes about what happened to Mikey’s mom and Dad. This did nothing to change Gus’s fate, but it did present a new interesting outlook on things.

Mikey knew this was probably the time to start making phone calls. The previous week before Mikey left prison, a small unimposing white guy sat down right across from him while he was eating and talking with some friends. The guys Mikey sat with during chow on a daily basis were no joke. And for this small white guy to be able to walk right through them without being touched or Mikey even being warned, led him to believe this guy was no joke either. He simply gave Mikey a number and told him to call when he was ready to set things in motion. They would give him several weeks to get organized but they would be expecting his call soon.

Mikey knew that all it took was a simple phone call to that number and Gus would be crushed totally. Mikey figured a neighborhood like this, there’s sure to be some heavyweights in the area. But mikey remembered his bold words to some of the guys inside. He claimed he would take Gus out solo. And he wasn’t ready to go back on that claim now. Mikey was thinking if he put his foot in his mouth, when the conversation between Gus and Sam took an unexpected turn


“So where’s the boy and the girl Sam?” Gus asked Sam Brown

“Look man I told you I don’t know nothing about no girl. You asked me if I talked to Ronnies boy, I told you yea, he came by asking about shit that happened damn near 20 years ago. I told him I never got into that shit, I went straight. He tried to push a little but I gave him nothing. He left man, he’s a good kid. I don’t know what else you talking about but I’m sure it can all be worked out” Sam pleaded

“Worked out?” Gus laughed “This little motherfucker beat my best man, then had the audacity to steal from me as well??? Naw man I ain’t no fool, either these boys are the boldest motherfuckers in the world or they had help. And from where I’m looking who else would have the motive to help him other than you Sam??” Sam look worried, but Gus looked determined

“Now I don’t expect you to give up Mikey, I’ll see that little shit in the streets. He can’t help but to face me, he’s just like his Daddy. But that lanky motherfucker Rich? You tell me where Rich and that bitch are with my money are at with my money right now Sam. or OI swear I’ll kill you right here in this living room. You know I mean that shit oo”

Sam believed Gus, but he was confused. He had no idea what Gus was talking about. Money? Rich? Rich was a good boy he wouldn’t have anything to do with this.

Mikey was also confused in the kitchen. “What the fuck is Gus asking about Rich for?” Mikey thought

He was shocked at first when Gus showed up. Mikey knew he wasn’t being followed. But what business would Gus have with Sam Brown today? Gus couldn’t figure that Mikey would come to Sam Brown after the shit from earlier. That couldn’t be it.

But all this talk about Rich and stolen money just didn’t make sense. Maybe Ace made up some shit just to get both cousin’s involved. Claimed he was jumped so that he wouldn’t have to admit to the ass whooping Mikey gave him. But would that mean he was really looking for Rich too? Is that why Gus was here? He knew Rich worked for Sam Brown. Would that mean he would be looking for anyone Mikey and Rich both knew? Does that mean Aunt Tammy could be at danger? And what’s this about money being stolen? That makes no sense.

It was clear the only way Mikey would get any answers, was if he asked Gus directly. But there was no way he could go out there and just talk. Bullets would fly and someone would likely die. But how was Rich involved in this shit?

Then it hit Mikey. That fine ass girl who had the pictures working in Gus bar! She had to have something to do with this. Gus asked for the girl too. Mikey didn’t believe she could convince his scary ass cousin do nothing too stupid after one night of fucking. But then again, that was some fine ass pussy Mikey was thinking. He’s seen pussy like that make men do some crazy shit for just a taste. But it just didn’t seem like his cousin to get caught up in no bullshit with Gus over a chick. Mikey was quickly losing his patience. There was only but so much longer he could stay back and not join this party.

 

[Duwop]

“Look Gus I promise you I have no idea what you talking about man, Rich ain’t got shit to do with shit. He’s a good kid. If you think he’s caught up in any of that shit his cousin is in, you got the wrong kid, those boys are as different as two sides of the globe” Sam said

“Naw that’s where you wrong Sam, they came from the same house with that crazy ass Tammy. Yea you remember Tammy, Sam. Ronnie’s fine ass sister. I know something is up Sam. And if you don’t tell me where the boys and my money is I’ll just get it from her.”

Mikey’s antenna’s went up immediately, he felt a rush of adrenaline hit his system. “Yea, I got Ace running in her house right now……” Gus continued boasting with the kind of confidence only someone who thought they were in full of control a situation would have..

Sam on the other hand knew better. At the mention of Tammy, Sam knew the time for talking was over. He instinctively went to duck to the ground as if he knew what was following. Sam’s instincts might have given Mikey away had he hesitated. Gus and his crew had very little time to ask why was Sam ducking for cover as Mikey, who was obviously done with listening, came out of the kitchen blasting.

The first shot lifted Candy’s small frame up in the air and clean through the front window of Sam’s living room landing her on his porch. James and Gus returned fire impulsively before they could even see where they were shooting. The quick jerk of his head caused James glasses to slide off of his face. He grabbed them quickly to re adjust. As soon as he was able to focus again he saw the end of Mikey’s shotgun barrel. Mikey wasted no time as James head exploded in a violent burst of blood, skull and brain matter.

Mikey then dove behind a couch and brought the gun back up slowly pointing towards where Gus was standing before he came out of the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to see Gus holding Sam Brown with a gun to his head. Sam had also been hit by cross fire and Mikey could see the blood starting to pool on his shirt. The portly man’s face was covered with sweat and his expression full of pain.

“Mikey…he don’t got long kid, why don’t you just help me out. Put your gun down tell me where my money is, and this whole thing is over” Gus said to Mikey hoping to get out this alive

“Fuck you bitch, I ain’t got your money.” Mikey said as he spit on the ground “But you got my aunt, now you tell me where she is or I swear I’ll shoot You and Sam dead right now and go find her my damn self” Mikey bellowed out of his mouth with a force that let Sam know there was no way he was making it out of this alive. Even Gus was shocked. Him and Sam Brown exchanged confused looks and Gus said “Look man, I know you don’t want Sam to die here do you?”

“I already told you man I can give a fuck less, I want my aunt and I want her now that’s the only way you get out of this shit alive” Mikey looked Gus directly in his eye not flinching once.

“But what about my money? You really think I’m going to just give you your aunt back when you funky ass cousin and that bitch CHilli is running around town with my money? You thought this shit was gonna fly?? You know who the fuck I am??” Gus demanded from Mikey

“Check this shit out bruh, I ain’t got shit to do with your money. That’s your problem. I don’t even think Rich even know what he got himself into with that bitch he rolling with. Obviously you didn’t either, if she got you out here fucking with Sam”

Gus thought about what Mikey said, and then he remembered catching Chilli in his safe. She had been planning this herself all along. “IIght I can buy that the girl did it by herself, but what the fuck was your cousin doing with her?” Gus asked

“What can I say? Rich like fucking gangster’s ladies, he been doing this shit for years, he gets off on it or something, you going to have to ask him when you see him.”

Sam who was in pain and need of immediate attention broke the conversation by saying ”Look man I gotta get to a hospital”

Mikey saw that his wound was definitely bad “Iight fuck it we all get in the car then. We’ll drop Sam off at the hospital, then you and me go get my aunt. I’ll try to find my cousin and get whatever that girl stole from you”

“Naw, naw man that ain’t the plan, this shit gotta be answered for right here, lines were crossed. Yall little nigga gotta show me respect!!” Gus yelled at Mikey

“Look man it’s that or I shoot both of yall niggaz right now, let my cousin’s bitch keep the money, then go looking for my aunt my damn self. Either way you done Gus. You think you gonna be able to warn your people I’m coming if you a dead nigga? “

Gus face was showing all the frustration of his thoughts. He was at a loss for words. Mikey smiled “Look Gus, you talk about shit being answered for, I mean you did have both my parents killed, you wanna answer for that shit now? Or you think it’s a good idea for me to find my Aunt first?”

 

[Duwop]

13.

As Gus drove down the freeway he couldn’t believe his predicament. Not only was he driving his own car with a shot gun to the back of his head there was a dying man bleeding all over the custom leather seats in his half a million dollar ride. He was pissed at himself for letting Mikey get the drop on him. He felt that if he could have done it again, he would have just shot it out with the kid. Gus thought he could get leverage by using Sam as a human shield. But the empty cold look in the kids eyes let him know that was a complete oversight. Mikey had no use for Sam Brown. He already told him everything. He even heard Mikey on the phone telling somebody that he had Gus and they on the way to his club. The nerve of this kid. This kid Mikey, who was he working with? It sure wasn’t Sam Brown. And neither of them had anything to do with Gus being robbed. It was all that thieving bitch Chilli. Gus couldn’t believe how bad his luck was going.

The thought that Chilli figured Gus as a mark was infuriating. She probably had Mikey’s cousin nose wide open too. A girl like that, and a loser kid like Rich, he didn’t have a clue what he was getting into. Rich had less of a chance than Gus did. Gus was thinking he wouldn’t be surprised if Rich was dead by now. He was sure that Mikey was considering that too. No way Mikey trusts that Rich will be okay with all of Gus’s guys looking for him and Chilli. Gus figured this might be enough to mess with Mikey’s plans. Things have gone far enough.

“Hey Kid” Gus said as he looked in the rear view mirror. Mikey was staring out the window and coldly turned his eyes to meet Gus’s through the reflection. “How’s Sam doing back there? You think he’ll make it to the hospital?”

“Sam been dead for like 5 minutes man, just head down to your club, I got some people meeting us down there” Mikey said right before taking his eyes away from Gus through the reflection. ‘People meeting you? At my club? Who the fuck do you think you are?’ Gus thought to himself.

“Look Kid, I’ve been doing this a long time. Longer than you been alive. You don’t think we should get rid of the body? Driving around with all these guns and a stiff??Nneither one of us can afford that kinda heat, you gotta realize that!” Gus pleaded

“Not in this car bruh. Every cop on the west side knows this car Gus, it’s your car! They’d rather pull over niggaz in a tinted out crown vic than to deal with your ass. Just keep moving” Mikey replied rather matter of factly

Gus looked forward as his rage grew. He was struggling with accepting his fate. The kid was definitely smart. There was no mistaking that, his dad was smart, so that was to be expected. But he never remembered Ronnie being this cool. Just sitting next to a dead man, a friend, like it was nothing? Mikey was a cold piece of work, that was true. But he was worried about his family. Gus figured he’d go with the Rich angle.

“Man you know your cousin probably dead by now” Gus said looking back in the mirror to see how the words would affect Mikey. Hoping for a frown or a look of worry, he was surprised and enraged by a smile across Mikey’s face “You hear me nigga?! You ever even meet that bitch Chilli? That’s a fine piece of pussy right there Mikey. NO way Rich is thinking straight. She used him as a patsy to rip me off. Even you can see that.”

Mikey didn’t interrupt Gus, so Gus took it as a sign to keep going “ Now that she has what she wants, she’s probably going to want to lose him on the first stop outta town. And with the kind of money I know she got away with, there’s no way she lets him live. You might want to rethink your course of action. My people might have already gotten eyes on them. “

Gus looked back at Mikey again. No expression change. Was he considering Gus’s words? There was no way for Gus to know, he just knew he had to lay it on thick. There was no telling what they might run into at the club.

“I can tell them to let Rich go and only worry about the girl. No need to let your cousin get caught up in this shit too. I already gave you my word your aunt going free, might as well extend that pardon to Rich as well” Gus was beginning to get desperate. It wasn’t that he was scared of Mikey, but at this point the kid was too invested personally. His parents, his aunt, his cousin, too many people close to him were involved. Losing family like that make a kid unpredictable. Gus could already tell the boy was damn near numb to everything. Gus just wanted to get out of this alive. There was no telling who was on the other end of that phone. Gus needed a way out, and fast.

“Come on man, you can’t think that shit funny” Gus said as his voice cracked. He normally had a very deep and commanding voice, but the pressure was starting to get to him and he didn’t know how this would all end.

“Man Rich be fine. Chicks love Richey boy. If anybody good, that nigga good. He got your money, your bitch, shit they prolly up in a hotel right now partying like rock stars. Let us get to your spot make sure my aunt okay, then we’ll decide where we going from here” Mikey said as he reached for his phone. He began patting his pockets unsuccessfully, then remembering he dropped it trying to get Sam Brown in the back seat of the car. Sam was so sore and in pain, it took everything to help him and keep his eyes on Gus. All while not drawing too much attention in the neighborhood. When Mikey heard the phone fall, he just forgot about it. Mikey already made the calls he needed to call. He wasn’t sure of the time window. But he knew he wouldn’t be at Gus’s club long before the cavalry arrived.

Mikey looked over at Sam Brown. Truth be told Sam was a good man. He just was in way over his head. He probably wanted to tell Mikey the truth for years. But how do you tell a child a dangerous man like Gus killed his parents without sending that kid on a death mission. Sam did the right thing. He looked out for Mikey and Richey all these years. And When the time was right. He told Mikey everything. That’s all that mattered.

It was then Mikey thought that Sam probably had Rich’s number in his phone. He patted the dead man’s pockets till he found it. He went through the phone and looked for Rich’s number. When he saw Rich’s number he sent the text “Call me on this phone, it’s MIKEY”

Mikey was about to put the phone in his pocket when the absolute last thing he wanted to see appeared behind him. Police lights.

 

[Duwop]

“Shit!” Gus expressed. He looked back at Mikey who was putting a phone in his pocket, and trying to to be too obvious looking behind him “You the man with the gun kid, it’s your call, but I can tell you now this car ain’t built for running”

Mikey tried to think fast. “Go head and pull over man” Mikey said as he slid down in the back seat. Gus exhaled a deep breath and followed the instruction.

As the car came to a stop Mikey slowly unlocked and then squeezed the hanle on the back door. The door was for all intents open, but kiey was holding it close so that if he let go it could fly open without a sound. If he was going to have to shoot his way out of this, he would have to move fast. If the cops could see him through the tinted windows, it would already be too late. Mikey wouldn’t have much time to act at all.

Now on the floor of the back seat wit the door barely cracked Mikey could make out two officers getting out the car walking over to the car with their flashlights out to see better in the approaching evening. “Shit !” Mikey said to himself

“Be cool kid” Gus said as he opened his door

“Gus what the fuck--?” Mikey tried to yell but Gus was already out the door

For a few seconds it looked like the police officers had stopped approaching the car. Mikey had to get another look to see what was going on. He poked his head up for a peek, and realized at once he was set up. The cops had their guns out, and Gus was standing behind them with his arms crossed and a sly smile on his face.

“Shit!” Mikey thought, these are Gus’s cops. He had to move fast. He shot out the rearview window with the shot gun while trying to hop in the front seat. Both cops took cover. They also returned fire. He looked for the keys, but Gus had taken them with him.

Mikey shot again through the back window and rolled into the back seat again. The guns from Gus’s people back at the house were on the floor. Mikey grabbed one of the extra guns he took from the house. He steadied the shotgun inside the opening in the back window, and began to shoot while doing his best to get one of the doors of the car open.

Once he was able to get out, he jumped onto the pavement and began to fire with a hand gun. The dirty police officers were taking turns returning fire. When one of them shouted “he’s out the car!”

The both popped up and fired nonstop towards Mikey as he sprinted right into the oncoming traffic flying down the freeway.

He didn’t think the police would shoot across the traffic and possibly hit oncoming drivers. However Mikey was wrong as felt a sharp pain in his thigh as he was ducking cars trying to make it across the multiple lanes of speeding cars.

The bolts of pain shooting up his leg forced Mikey to immediately drop down to the ground. Sam Brown’s phone went flying out out Mikey’s pocket. He was about to reach for it when he turned to see the approaching cops flashing their flashlights and guns at cars trying to get them to stop, as they made their way closer to Mikey. He fired off more shots until the hand gun was empty.

Out of ammo, Mikey pulled himself to the opposite side of the road, and tried to prop himself up. He pulled out his pocket knife. He was sure that a bullet would eventually find it’s way to him, he just wanted to make sure he stabbed the first person good who came to verify him dead. If this was it Mikey thought, at least he got to go out in a shootout with the law. To be carried by 6 instead of judged by 12. Mikey did think he would have a longer run though. He never thought he would die an old man, he just thought he would at least see this thing through. At least long enough to take out Gus first.

-

As Rich and Chilli turned the corner to his Aunt Tammy’s house, Rich pulled the car half on the curb, got out, and running straight into the already open door. Chilli watched Rich run off. She then made sure to see if her gun was loaded, and decided to atleast look around before getting out of the car.

She saw a few guys on the corner, but didn’t think they were anything more than just guys who lived in the area. They didn’t seem like a threat, but it was still all kinds of stupid to have the car parked all up on the curb like that. She walked over to the driver’s side and parked the car correctly. Then double checking again to make sure the gun she had was secure before walking up to the house

“Damn shorty phat as a whore!” Chilli heard one of the guys yell from the corner, and she just ignored it as she walked up to the house “Aye brown skin, I know you hear me!”

“Man cut that shit out, that’s Rich girl yo” Timmy called out from across the street. He saw the two pull up from the porch he was sitting on. He was making his way across to Chilli when Rich came running back out the house.

“Yo, Timmy! It looks fucked up in there, yall been in there?” Rich asked hurriedly

“Naw man, ain’t nobody been in there since Ace n them left, shit I’m surprised you came back nigga. I thought after that shit earlier I wasn’t never gonna see yall niggaz again” Timmy said to his friend

“Yea man but if they took my Aunt Tammy, how the fuck you think we wasn’t going to come back for her? Shit man. Anybody talk to Mikey yet?” Rich asked. Rich was trying to appear calm, but it was clear to anyone looking at him that his nerves had him on complete edge.

“Naw man, no body seen or heard from the nigga Mikey. Like I said, niggaz thought yall had all that shit planned out. I was type surprised that they even came up here and asked around, the last thing anyone woulda thought was that yall come back here. I guess yall ain’t think them niggaz was dirty enough to fuck with your Aunt n shit. This shit crazy man” Timmy said to Rich with real concern in his eyes

Rich tried to calm himself but he couldn’t think straight “Well fuck it then nigga, come on we gotta go down there and get my aunt, I mean if Ace came here then they prolly got her at the club”

 

[Duwop]

“Fuck you mean we?? Nigga that’s yall beef! I don’t want no parts of Gus, Ace and all them niggaz, that’s on yall niggaz man!” Timmy cried out changing his entire demeanor from one of concern to one of annoyance

“Our beef? Nigga you grew up with us! We been riding together since middle school. Aunt Tammy loved you like her own kid too! You really ain’t gonna help me?” Rich pleaded with his friend

“Not against some niggaz like that yo. I mean if you got beef with some little niggaz, yea I got your back. But niggaz like what yall into?? Man I ain’t built for no shit like that. Them niggaz deep and they crazy. If you already got the nigga money, you might as well dip and pray for the best yo.” Timmy tried to rationalize I mean I fucks with Aunt Tammy n all, but shit yo, this shit real as fuck yo.” Timmy said back to Rich.

Timmy was really trying to bring this point home to Rich. He felt like Rich wasn’t taking the threat the Gus presented realistically. “Shit wasn’t you just the nigga the other day that said he don’t even like getting in the streets all wild like that. Talking bout you ain’t even gonna fuck with the nigga Mikey when he got out. Now you talking bout running into Gus spot TWICE in one day? Naw nigga you must be out your rabbit ass mind you must forget how that nigga gets down homie”


Rich couldn’t believe what he was hearing “Nigga….are you serious? Man ain’t yall supposed to be thugs n shit yo?? That nigga bleed just like yall right? You got guns too right nigga,??come on yo! You gonna leave me hanging like this “

Timmy stood back and looked at Rich. “Come here yo” He said as he started walking across the street. Rich followed. They walked over to a parked car and Timmy reached under the tire and pulled out a gun.

“You see this? You know what it is?” Timmy asked

Rich looking confused “It’s a gun right? I mean what?”

“You know who gun it is?” Timmy asked again

“Yours I guess? I don’t know what you saying” Rich still not getting what was going on

“Aye Charlie, who gun this is yo?” Timmy asked one of the guys sitting on the steps listening to the friends argue

Charlie laughed “Nigga that’s everybody gun forreal…… whoever need it and know where it’s at”

“Exactly” Timmy said looking back at Rich, but still talking to Charlie “Yo when you think the last time it was shot?”

“Shit I don’t know like 2, 3 years ago when them stick up boys was popping up that one summer. Shit it even still got bullets in it?” Charlie asked as him and the other guys on the porch laughed as a large puff of smoke came out his mouth.

“That’s one gun Rich, the other one over in the alley, and that shit ain’t been shot since your cousin was beefing with them niggaz from cross the avenue, and I know you remember how long ago that was” Timmy said to Rich as he was pointing his hand towards the alley.

Rich stood there for a while without saying much. Then he finally just turned to Chilli and told her to come on.

As they got in the car Rich didn’t know if he should go straight to Gus’s place or not. Chilli was driving in that direction as Rich’s head was throbbing with pain. He was trying to focus and come up with a plan but no clear thoughts would to him. He picked up his phone and was going to try to call Mikey again when he saw that he had a missed text.

As he opened it, he saw that it was from his boss Sam Brown, as he read it he said out loud “Da Fuck?”. “What’s wrong?” Chilli asked as she looked over at Rich’s face. “Just pull over here”

Rich got out the car and called Sam Brown’s phone. After two or three rings Someone who was obviously not Sam or Mikey answered the phone. “This Rich?” The deep booming voice asked into the phone.

“Yea man, who’s this?” Rich asked in response

“It’s Gus Rich. I’ve been hearing some crazy things Rich, and I was hoping you can help me clear up some this shit we’ve seemed to have gotten ourselves into” Gus said into the other end of the phone.

Gus had never said more than a couple words to Rich in his entire life. Rich wasn’t a big fan of strip clubs, or any places in general where guys as tough as Gus hung out at. He was exposed to some things due to the environment he grew up around, but this was by far the deepest shit he’s ever been in.

“Look man“ Rich started but was abruptly cut off “Naw nigga you look” Rich felt his soul vacate his body in fear “If you want to see your Aunt Tammy ever again nigga, dead or alive, you bring my money and that thieving ass bitch Chilli down to my club by midnight tonight! You hear me little nigga?” Along with Rich’s soul, any hope or aspirations for a happy ending went out the window as well. He looked at his watch it was approaching 10pm he had time but very little to device any plan if he was even capable of such a thing.

He tried to talk, but all that came out were stutters and stammers “ Is…is…is.s..sh…she okay?”

“Yea she good for now, but that depends on how long it takes you to bring me back what’s mines” Gus told the boy obviously having much more fun talking to Rich than his disrespectful cousin. Who Rich thought of as well

“What about Mikey? Do you have him too” Rich asked but immediately regretted it, if Mikey was still in the streets, the smart play would to pretend that he was with Rich, if Gus knew that Rich was on his own, his chances were going to dwindle dramatically.

Instead of answering right away Gus seemed to be milking the moment before finally saying “Only family you need to be worrying about saving right now is your Aunt Tammy. And that’s only If you bring me my money, that’s all you need to concern yourself with right now and be done with all of this” And hung up the phone.

Rich thought for a second.

“Look let’s just give him the money back Chilli, he has my aunt” Rich tried to reason with Chilli, “After she’s safe we can still just leave and do us, as long as she’s safe first”

“How Rich? If we give him the money back we’ll have nothing to leave with and there’s no guarantee he won’t kill us all anyway”

Rich pulled the scratch off out his back pocket and handed it to Chilli. While she was looking at it he began “The funny thing is that I scratched that this morning before shit got all crazy, when we were talking in that diner for breakfast, and you were asking about running away, I thought you meant hypothetically. I had no idea what you were planning to do, but I already knew that I had that.” Pointing at the ticket “And while you were thinking about robbing from Gus, I was steady thinking that this ticket. We had the same idea, just different ways to go about it!”

As Rich looked up tears were running down Chilli’s eyes she was shaking her head trying to understand when Rich started

“I know I just met you and it seemed crazy, but from the moment I met you, you were like a dream come true. And I swear right up till all that crazy shit went down, with the guns and fires, and bags of money n shit, I figured what the hell, why not let the dream continue? Why not enjoy it? But that’s when everything turned into a nightmare”

Chilli was about to speak up in her defense but Rich stopped her “But even in the nightmare, I still was like fuck it. All we gotta do is get through this shit, and we can still have our dream. We can still do us, I can just take this money to Gus, get my Aunt, and you and me, we can still disappear. No one will think twice about it, shit they might even tell us to do the same thing”

Chilli started shaking her head “If you give Gus his money, he will kill you, me and your aunt. If you don’t’ give him the money he will kill you, me and your aunt. I don’t want to die”

“Then you take the ticket and go. I’ll go get the money, and I’ll drop you off at my apartment. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, just go” Rich said to Chilli

Chilli looked at Rich and said “ I can’t let you do that. It’s not fair, it’s my fault you got caught up in all this shit”

“You had a few chances to leave me, and you stayed. Yea you got me involved, but I don’t think it was guilt that kept you around. I think it was something more. I think you really feel something for me, and it’s kinda the same I’m feeling for you. We both have been doing some stupid shit for each other all day that don’t make any damn sense. But the fact that we still ain’t giving up on each other means there’s something here worth keeping.

Chilli thought about all the times she could have left Rich. Before the heist she could have just left him at her apartment and went on her own, and she could have left him at the club after it was done. She could have left him at the diner, the hotel, even the bus station. She could have left him outside his aunts house, she could even leave him now if she really wanted to she still had her gun tucked in her jeans, and his was left in the car. But she knew that she didn’t want to leave him. No guy ever had that kind of effect on Chilli, and she wasn’t ready to give up yet. Even if she did leave him she would want to come back, and he would certainly be dead if she left him this way.

“Okay, we’ll do it your way” Chilli responded as the two kissed before hoping back into the car.

 

[Duwop]

14.

Rich’s apartment was a complete mess when they got to it. In all the running around Rich had forgotten that Jim Waters had come in there looking for him earlier that day. “Are you sure it’s safe to stay here?” Chilli asked naturally

“We could go get another room, but I really want to get this over with quickly. I should only be gone an hour at the most, I don’t think anyone will come back here of all places. “ Chilli still looked worried

“Plus, the plan is for you to go back to that hotel off the rt24 if for any reason I don’t come back.” Rich reminded her

Rich walked to his fridge to get a beer. He then sat down with his beer at his card table. Chilli had only brought one of the bags she stole from Gus. She placed it against the front door, and met Rich at the table where he was drinking his beer. Rich pulled out a ziplock bag he had stuffed with weed earlier and started to roll up a few joints. Rich knew this situation was well over his head, and he wanted to try his best to ease his anxiety. Chilli noticing the tension in Rich’s face, walked behind him and started running his shoulders.

“You really think this will work?” Chilli asked again. She was nervous about this Rich’s plan. It was shaky at best, but she was still willing to be optimistic. Rich had given her a huge window to vanish if things took a turn for the tragic.

Rich lit his joint, and began to count out 100 dollar bills he had pocket from one of the stacks. He was sure that Chilli had cash stashed on her as well, but he still felt it was necessary to make the gesture. “Look if it don’t work out, you can lay low for a while. You got cash, you got the ticket. It shouldn’t take long at all for someone like you to disappear and be done with all this shit. “

The finality of things was settling in to Rich. He was realizing that not knowing what he was walking into was extremely dangerous. This could be the last time he talked to anyone. He wanted to make sure that any final impressions he left with Chilli were favorable. This was not a time to seem doubtful or afraid.

“I really think Gus understands that I didn’t really have anything to do with the shit. He just trying to make sure of that. He wouldn’t hurt my aunt. I’m sure of that. If I show up with a bag of money, he might have his boys tighten me up a little. But I think he’ll let us go.” Rich took a very deep inhale before making his next statement “ I think the only two people he wants is Mikey and you.”

Chilli finished rubbing is shoulders and walked over to Rich’s bed and sat down. She knew that this she shouldn’t be anywhere near this city by now. She should definitely be gone if she knew what was best for her. Rich got up and walked over to her. “Look Chilli, I mean I hate to say it, but Gus already won.” Chilli looked up at him

“Mikey texted me from this guy’s phone we both know. I called it back ,and Gus answered. That can only mean one thing. He already found Mikey” Rich eyes might have watered a little, but it was easy to cover up after he started coughing really hard from all the smoke.

“Yea he has my aunt, but that was probably just to get at my cousin. Me calling him just worked out. If I bring him back one bag of hit money, the whole thing is over with. I doubt the nigga even count the shit. “

It might have been a defeatist attitude Rich thought. But it was reality. This is Gus’s world. He is simply more vicious than Rich could ever be. If Gus wins, order is restored. Rich should be safe, Aunt Tammy should be safe. Mikey and Chilli might be in danger, but they live this life, They know the risks Rich thought.

“He prolly won’t even care if you gone, cuz he know you not coming back. I’ll tell him you pulled a gun on me the second I told you we had to go back. You grabbed as much cash as you could and had the gun pointed at me the entire time” Rich said assured Chilli

“This whole thing just about being believable. I ain’t gonna disrespect the man, he gets his money and drugs back, and my cousin just gotta face the music I guess”

“You really think your cousin is dead?” Chilli asked

Rich thought about it, and just shook his head. Mikey always played with death and lived dangerously. It was a matter of time before something caught up with his ass. Luck can only carry you for but so long, even if you are crazy as shit.

“My cousin lived for this kinda shit, when I see Gus I’ll just apologize and say I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t know how deep he was into it, I didn’t know what you were up to. I never knew what you were really up to. He’s got to believe it. I just want to get my aunt back. He’ll understand that.”

“And when I got her, I’ll text you our code word ‘MickyD’s’ to let you know everything is okay.”

“Me and my aunt will come back here to see if you’re still around. If you’re not I’ll catch up with you as soon as she’s somewhere safe” Rich signed and threw his hands up “ I mean I get it, this don’t seem safest place right now, but it’s close. If you really wanna still get out of town together tonight, I think this is the best place to wait.” Rich expressed before he sat back down next to Chilli and put his hand on her thigh.

He rubbed it slightly. Though it wasn’t his intention to arouse her, the move was just sensual enough. Her nerves were on edge as well, and she reasoned this might very well be the last time she saw Rich. Chilli leaned over to Rich and him and kissed him as passionately as she could while climbing over and mounting him. Rich leaned back on the Bed as Chilli took off her shirt and moved forward into him to continue kissing.

 

[Duwop]

Shelly was sitting in Jim Waters apartment watching TV when she started to smell the strong aroma of marijuana that seemed to be coming from inside the building. There were only 3 people living on the floor. Jim, Old Miss. Bessie, and Rich. She knew that it wasn’t Miss Bessie. And Rich really couldn’t be this stupid. Shelly had just talked to Rich earlier that day, and she explained the severity of men with guns looking for him. They were violently tearing and ripping shit up all over the place. She knew that she explained this to Rich. And then there was Jim. For the first time since Shelly started the older man, he put his hands on her. Jim grabbed Shelly by her face, holding her up against a wall asking if she had any idea where Rich was.

It was the most ridiculous question in the world to Shelly. She was done with Rich. Jim always seemed to take shots at Rich whenever he could. She never knew if it was because Jim just didn’t like Rich, or if there was something else going on there. Maybe it was jealousy. Shelly was well aware of how good she looked. While Rich never seemed to take notice, Jim would go out his way to compliment her every time she saw him in the building.

Jim just had more game than Rich, she thought. He knew how to treat a lady. He had experience. There was no way Jim could think Shelly would still be interested in Rich after all that Jim had exposed to her. She still had some feelings for him, but nothing serious enough for Jim to grab her up like that. There had to be more to the story.


Shelly began reflecting on her relationship with Rich. He was cute, and he was good in bed. That’s all she could come up with. At first she would brag to people that was her man, because it did seem that a lot of people knew who Rich was. But he never seemed to want to go anywhere to been seen with her. This was something Jim had no problem doing. He didn’t mind driving Shelly around, taking her places. He had no issues taking pictures with her, or showing her off to her friends. She loved the attention he gave her.

Rich was the total opposite. She couldn’t get him to go anywhere or do anything. In the beginning she had fun with him chilling and watching movies at his apartment. Things started off great. He was a glorified drinking and fuck buddy. It was only a matter of time before someone caught feelings.

But after a few months of the same ole routine, she became bored. She wanted something more. Rich didn’t officially consider himself Shelly’s boyfriend. He always claimed to hate titles. The last straw was Shelly’s birthday. She had made plans to hang out with her girls, and became extremely irritated that Rich never said one thing about it. She felt most guys should want to take their lady out for their birthday. Rich felt she wasn’t his lady, and she should want to hang out with her friends.

Shelly went out that night, and she never called Rich the next day.

One day while walking by Richs’ building, she stopped. She was thinking she should go and knock on his door, but got caught up talking to Jim Waters. The older man was just so smooth, and he offered to take her out to lunch. Shelly just shrugged and thought why not?

The worse part about it to Shelly was that she had been seeing Jim for weeks, and Rich never seemed to catch on to it at all. Sometimes she would even be as bold as talking to him loudly in the hallway before going in Rich’s apartment. He never even so much as poked his head in the hallway, and she knew he could hear her. It was maddening. This guy was taking her out to nice restaurants, taking her shopping, even took her to a comedy show once. And this was before she ever slept with the man.

However this evening changed things. As bad as Rich was, even he was never physical. She was getting a few of her things together. She had no idea what was going on, but she didn’t like it. She was worried about Rich. She didn’t want to be but she was.


Rich might be an idiot, but ultimately he was a good dude. She really wanted him to be okay.

.

She thought about the smell of weed again as it got a little stronger and wondered if he had finally came back to his apartment. Shelly stood in the hallway debating on whether or not she should knock on his door before leaving the building. Shelly knew that it was stupid to care about Rich at this point, but she had a soft spot for him. Those men had guns. And she’s never seen Rich with a gun.

After pondering on it for a few more minutes she figured what the hell she’ll just walk down there and check. If he’s there she’ll just let him know she was a little worried, and was happy to see he was okay. He might not care, but at least she’d feel better knowing he was safe. Rich might be a jerk, but she knew he didn’t do anything to hurt anyone. He just wasn’t that type of a guy. Plus she did want him to know what he gave up. Shelly knew Rich well enough to know no one else gave a damn about him.

As she got closer to his door, she started hearing a rhythmic banging sound something like an old dryer spinning a heavy load. The closer she got the banging was coupled with what was clearly a female moaning.

“Is this nigga really in there fucking another bitch?!?” Shelly thought to herself angrily.

Shelly quickly realized that she had no room to feel jealous, but this was still beyond stupid. Here this guy has people looking for him with guns, and he’s in his apartment getting some ass like it’s all cool? He couldn’t be this stupid. He just couldn’t. Shelly started to walk away. But her irritation couldn’t allow it. She knew she was being petty by interrupting them, but he had to know how stupid this shit was.


Shelly remembered that Rich’s door didn’t lock. Jim used to make jokes about not fixing her ex-boyfriends door, saying that now that Shelly was gone, Rich didn’t have anything of worth in his apartment anyway. She knew all she had to was push the door and it would open. She pushed into it, but it hesitated. She looked down to see that there was a large black bag on the ground holding the door closed. Shelly tried to slide the bag out the way as much as she could, and pushed the door open. When she was able to squeeze herself through the door she was shocked to be facing two hand guns pointed at her.

 

[Duwop]

One was being held by Rich, and the other by some chick she never saw before. She was frozen stiff by the sight of the two guns when Rich finally broke the silence

“Shelly what the fuck!!” he angrily shouted at her, “Shit it’s okay Chilli ….it’s somebody I used to mess with”

“Mess with?” Shelly asked irritated “And why the fuck you got guns pulled out? Who the fuck did you think I was?” Shelly also barked at the two

As if they didn’t even hear her Rich and Chilli began to talk to eachother

“Maybe you right, maybe this place isn’t safe” Rich said to Chilli “You want me to drop you off somewhere else?” He asked Chilli as he started putting his clothes on

“No you just go head, it’s getting way too late, it’s past midnight. Just go do what you gotta do. I’ll shower and get out of here. Just text me when it’s over” Chilli responded

Rich finished putting his clothes on and looked at Chilli for a long time. He was thinking if he should tell her he loved her or not. He knew it was way too soon for all that, but still he felt the urge. Chilli was also looking at him feeling and thinking the same thing as they stared at each other like they were the only two people in the world.

Awkwardly enough whoever, Shelly was still sharing the room with them and was tired of being ignored “Umm can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on??”

Both of them looked at her for a second, and Rich just shook his head “Shit I’m sorry, where are my manners? Shelly this is Chilli, Chilli, Shelly. Me and Shelly used to mess around for a while till she started fucking the land lord or whatever. Small world. But I’m going to go ahead and do this shit. “ Rich said as he was fixing his belt and reaching for a shirt. “Wait atleast an hour for my text. I’ll text you then no matter what iight” Rich said as he kissed Chilli on the lips before walking out the door. He was about to just turn and go when she pulled him close and said “Please be safe” she stared into his eyes “And come back to me”

Rich took a deep breath, turned around and nodded at Shelly then made his way down the hall with the bag of money thrown around his shoulders.

Shelly’s face was burning up. IF her complexion was any lighter, she would have been right red.

As soon as he left, Chilli turned to put the rest of her clothes on while Shelly watched in complete disbelief. After long enough time of awkward silence Shelly finally broke the silence and said “I guess it ain’t hard to see who got him into whatever trouble he’s in right now”

Chilli heard Shelly loud and clear yet decided to ignore her as she walked to the other side of the bed, sat down and put her shoes on.


“Just what kinda shit did you get Rich into? I ain’t never seen him with a gun before, and I’ve known this nigga for almost year ” Shelly demanded from Chilli

“I guess a year ain’t long enough for you to really get to know a person” Chilli laughed as she finally stood up and searched her room for all her belongings. She grabbed a stack of cash, and stuffed it in her bra, put the lottery in her back pocket, and tucked the gun in her waist before putting her jacket on. She then walked past Shelly to get her cell phone off the charger that was plugged in Rich’s small kitchen

“And just how long have you known Rich?” Shelly asked from Chilli, hoping to get atleast one answer from this woman who just treated her just as insignificantly as everyone else had been doing lately.

Chilli smiled “That’s the funny thing, we just met yesterday, but I really think it was love at first sight” She looked at Shelly for the first time directly in the eyes. She was pretty cute Chilli thought. It was nice to see that Rich did have nice taste outside of her. But Chilli knew she looked much better than Shelly. She knew Shelly knew it was well. Chilli was atleast a half foot taller than Shelly and much more endowed than Shelly in every way.

Shelly was no slouch in the looks department, but not too many men would pick her over Chilli. Recognizing the familiar look of insecurity in other women, Chilli continued to tease. “I mean I could call it lust at first sight, because there was a lot of lust” Shelly’s face looked as if it would change colors again “Rich definitely has a lot of lust to give, I know you know….but honestly I think in these 2 days we developed something more. I don’t know how you let one like that get away. But hey boo, that’s just how things work out sometime” Chill chuckled at herself and attempted to walk past Shelly

There was no reason for the teasing, but Chilli did feel a little frustrated at the interruption. She really might not ever get a chance to tell Rich how she truly felt, and Shelly barging in ruined that chance. She’d never see Shelly again either, so she might as well rub it in that her exboyfriend definitely up graded. Chilli bumped Shelly’s shoulders as she walked by her.

At this point it was just too much for Shelly. She was tired of being disrespected. Shelly grabbed Chilli by her long hair and tried to throw her on the ground with it. Shelly didn’t even know why she was so mad. But she was. From seeing those guys running in Rich’s apartment, to Jim grabbing her up and everything that happened up to that moment, it was too much. Shelly had reached a boiling point she had enough.

Unfortunately for Shelly, Chilli was much stronger than her. She also was prepared for a fight. She instantly turned to face Shelly and they began to wrestle with eachother getting through punches when they could. Chilli soon got the advantage and fell into Shelly pushing them both out of the broken apartment door and onto the hallway floor. Chilli was able to get a full mounting position on Shelly and was just about to reign down with punches when they both heard a gunshot go off in the hallway.

Both girls forgot all about the gun in Chilli’s waist line. Chilli started patting for it and found it covered with blood. She leaned against the wall holding the gun and looking down at herself trying to figure out where she had shot herself at.

The shot alerted Jim Waters and two guys who had just gotten out of his car in another attempt to sweep Rich’s apartment. When Jim saw Chilli standing in the hall with a gun in her hand, he wasted no time.

“Jimmy!!” Shelly shouted as Jim Waters fired off three shots in Chilli’s direction.

She was hit in the neck, face and chest. Chilli tried to shoot back, but the damage was too much. Her body fell on top of Shelly who was curled up under Chilli praying she would not be hit by a stray bullet. Shelly screamed frantically as she tried to get the bloody dead body from on top of her. She pushed and pushed with no avail until Jim finally pulled her from under Chilli. He stood Shelly up and smacked her hard across the face.

“What the fuck was she doing here? Rich in there???” Jim demanded from Shelly as the two guys with him ran back in Rich’s apartment

“I…..I don’t know…..she and Rich…I don’t know, they were here and I walked in. Rich left, he’s gone” Shelly tried to slide past Jim. She had never been this scared in her life.

Jim threw Shelly to the ground and went into Rich’s apartment to look if anyone was in there.

Shelly fell against the wall and just started to cry. Miss Bessie who heard all the commotion, opened her door and saw a blood soaked Shelly sitting against the wall crying her eyes out. The old woman reached out in concern “Oh my God sweety is there anything I can do for you? Are you okay?”

“She’s fine, just go back in your apartment old woman” Jim barked at her as he came back out of Rich’s apartment. The older woman took one look at Jim and the gun in his hand and slammed the door quickly “AND YOU BETTER NOT CALL THE POLICE EITHER!!” He yelled back at her.


“Ain’t nobody in there, where that nigga Rich Go Shelly?” Jim asked Shelly

Shelly didn’t know how she could be expected to respond, but she tried her best “I….I….don’t know, he just said he had to go somewhere, and he would text her later” Jim looked over the crying girl. He nodded as the two guys picked up Chilli’s body and began to take it down the hallway and out the front door.

There was no doubt she was scared as shit. And even though she probably didn’t know much, the fact that she seen Jim kill Chilli in cold blood was more than enough. Chilli and Rich were kill on sight. Shelly should be expendable. He picked up his phone and dialed Gus anyway.

“Aye man…..yea it’s me…..naw just the girl….no bag, no money……but yea my girl was here too, she said he just left……….yea he prolly coming to you now.…..yup……..yup……naw man she gone…..naw, I had to take her out…..yea man…..one up top, one dead center, she gone…..yea man I aint want to but she was strapped too…...you right,…..yea……hunh?......you sure?” Jim’s face didn’t change much, but it appeared he was colder now ”you sure on this one man? ……*sigh*.....c’mon man but I….iight…iight, I’ll take care of it…….yea I got it……yea send some guys, it’ll be done before they get here…iight man”

After Jim got off the phone he took a deep breath and let out a sign of reluctant frustration. He then looked at Shelly and apologized “Look Shelly, I’m sorry, You know I wouldn’t have wanted to do this, but this how it had to go” As he began to train the gun to Shelly’s forehead.

 

[Duwop]

Shelly’s eyes grew extremely wide. She never thought she would die like this, it made no sense. She just had to go to Rich’s door. She could still go. She would never say anything. Jim would have to know this. She could beg him. She wanted to beg him. But her stomach was too upset. If she opened her mouth she would throw up. She was covered with blood and tears already. She didn’t want to die, her body began to gag, and she threw up hard on Jim’s shoes

“Aww, you nasty bitch…..I should make you clean this shit up before I shoot you” Jim said more annoyed than anything


“Sup Jimmy, What you got going on here?”

Jim Waters looked up, and couldn’t believe his eyes.


Mikey West was standing in the hallway with 3 foreign looking men Jim never saw in his life. The men were holding powerful machine pistols.

“uh…..uh,…… oh shit. Mikey, shit man,…” Sam couldn’t think fast enough. He made one move only to be ripped up quickly from the gun fire. His body landed right in the same spot Chilli’s had been.

They started walking down the hall, Mikey with a noticeable limp, and Shelly grabbed a gun from off the floor and pulled it up “Don’t Move!” she shouted at the men.

Mikey turned to the other guys and told them to lower their weapons.

“Look sweetheart, I know you scared, but we mean you know harm. My name is Mikey. Mikey West. I’m just here looking for my cousin Rich Wallace. You know him?” Mikey asked calmly

Shelly’s jaw dropped. She had heard the name Mikey West before, one of her friends had said that Rich was related to him. She dismissed it as Rich never talked about him or anybody else in his family for that matter

“He used to be my boyfriend, I just wanted to see if he was okay!” Shelly managed to get out before bursting into tears again dropping the gun

Mikey bent down and gave her a hug “There, There, it’s going to be okay. Is he in there?”

“No I saw him with that girl, and then he said he had to go. He was going to call her later, then me and her got into it, and then Jim showed up and, then everybody started getting shot. Oh My God! Jimmy was going to really kill me!” Shelly was about to cry again when she begin to notice the smell of blood and vomit on her. She stood up and began to look at her clothes in disgust.

She quickly took the clothes off and put them in a bag that one of the guys with Mikey had. She took a quick shower in Rich’s apartment and put on some of his clean clothes. It didn’t matter at this time. She was ready to get away from everybody.


When she came outside, Mikey was standing by the open trunk of a car looking down at Chilli’s dead body. Even in death she still looked good Mikey admitted to himself, it was a shame to see her go. Mikey could already tell he liked her the second he saw her with Rich. She was fine and she was street smart. Mikey knew that girl had game with her, but he figured Rich could handle it. If anyone could Richey could, Mikey thought. He was planning on asking Rich how everything went with her next time he saw him, he knew they had a future

“Did Rich say anything about where he was going?” Mikey asked

“No. Atleast not to me, she seemed to know” Shelly said pointing at Chilli.

Mikey patted Chilli’s pockets down to see if there was anything in her pockets to see if her phone was in there. She would surely have Rich’s number in it. He pulled out the phone and saw Rich’s last message that came through only 2 mins prior. With all the shooting in the hallway, no one must have heard it.

“I’m at Gus’s now. Remember one hour if you don’t hear anything. Just bounce. I love you”

“Wow” Mikey said to no one in particular. “He really loved that chick, damn shame”

Even though she was in her emotions, Shelly heard Mikey’s words and it hit her that in 2 days Rich showed this dead girl more emotion than she got in over 6 months. He was going to be destroyed when he found out she was dead.

“Iight guys I know where he’s at. He’s pretty much where we shoulda went in the first place anyway. But you know, family shit” Mikey said as he slammed the trunk and hobbled himself into the car. His leg was heavily wrapped from where he was shot earlier, and he was still in considerable pain. But there was still work to be done

“ Is Rich going to be okay?” Shelly asked to his back

“What’s your name again baby girl?” Mikey asked Shelly as he turned to face her.

“Shelly” replied as she sniffed her tears hard

“I’ll tell Rich you asked about him, he’s going to need a pretty girl like you to help him get through this when all this shit is over. Just get yourself together, and make sure you don’t call the cops. I’ll make sure Rich is okay” He said to Shelly and then turned to his guy behind the wheel of the car and said “Come on fellas, let’s get outta here”

Shelly watched the car pull down the street. She must’ve been in shock because for what seemed like an eternity she just couldn’t move her legs. Her head was swimming. When she was finally able to move she walked half the block down to a bus stop. There was a bench there and she sat down on it. Shelly’s head was pounding. The nausea was coming back so she put her head in her hands. Her body began to shake violently and before she knew it she was crying again.

A 50 something woman was standing on the same bus stop. She wanted to say something but thought better against it. Another late night commuter walked up and also noticed the young girl crying on the bench. He looked at the woman who just shrugged. The gentleman places hid hand on Shelly’s shoulder and asked if she was OK

Shelly looked up at the man. She laughed. When she tried to stand up, her head was very light. Before she could take a step she collapsed into the man’s arms.

“I guess she just needed a nap” The woman said to the confused man holding onto the unconscious young lady.

 

[Duwop]

15.

When Rich came out the apartment, he began to jog down the alley adjacent to his building. Gus’s strip club was less than a half mile away. And he knew people would be watching for cars pulling up. He figured he should go through the alleys and back streets to get there. He didn’t want anyone to see him before he could get a good look at the surroundings. If it looked too dangerous he wasn’t sure he had the courage to go through with the thing. Rich loved his Aunt Tammy, and really wanted to get her out of harm’s way. But Rich also recognized that he might as well be one man against an army. The fear of being killed was so intense; it was literally causing Rich physical pain. As Rich walked up to Gus’s strip club, he stopped. HE was maybe a few hundred feet back. Rich took a very deep breath to try to relive some of the tension. He knew at this point there was no turning back. He tried to go over what he would say in his head, but he knew most of it was going to be improvised. He had no idea what to expect. If there was a situation Rich had been in that was more intense, he couldn’t remember. Situations like this were exactly why he tried to stay away from street life. His nerves just couldn’t take it.

Once he got closer to the club, he noticed that the lights weren’t as bright as they normally are. There was also a lack of cars in the parking lot. He then remembered the fire and figured the club might be closed for a few nights.

This worked in Gus’s favor and against Rich’s. No random customers or strippers would be there to say that saw Rich come in if police ever asked any questions. His body could easily be carried out and no one would see. Rich was also kicking himself for not asking to speak to his Aunt on the phone. That’s what they usually do in the movies. They demand to speak to the person being held hostage to make sure they’re okay before going through with the trade. Rich didn’t even have the smarts to do that. He was starting to think how Chilli might as well just leave him now. She was smart. The dumbest thing she had done since he met her was trust a guy like Rich. Rich knew he didn’t bring much to the table, but he had to try anyway.

He pulled out his phone and decided to send her a last text before going inside. He thought of leaving her there with Shelly like that. That was kind of unfortunate as well. He really hoped she got out of there quick. Shelly can be kind of hyperactive. Rich thought he probably should have stayed to make sure Chilli got on her way and Shelly didn’t do anything crazy, but it was getting way too late. He told Gus he would be here at midnight and it was almost 1. Rich was out of options. He began to walk up to the strip club and hoped for the best.

As he walked through the doors, there were several tough looking guys standing and sitting all over the place. The stage was dark, and there was no music playing. He assumed all these guys worked for Gus. Rich could feel his body shaking. His eyes began burning from the sweat running into them from his forehead.

His body began to feel extremely hot. Unusually hot, he went to open his jacket to try to get some cool air. The motion must’ve alarmed the guys watching because before he knew it there were several guns pulled out on him.

“iight nigga that’s enough movement. Put the bag down. Ty, go pat that nigga down” Ace ordered as Rich caught sight of the man he bumped into at the same place earlier that day.

Ace looked somewhat amused that Rich actually showed up. And Rich knew that would not work out well for him, as he was sure that Ace wanted to inflict harm on him.

Another big guy who obviously must’ve been Ty walked over to Rich and began patting him down. Rich himself was fairly tall, but this guy towered over him. He aggressively and very intrusively patted Rich down pulling out a gun from Rich’s waist line and handing it over to another thug

“What you thought you was gonna come in here guns a blazing?” Ace asked while laughing at Rich’s attempt to come to this meeting armed

“Man I was just scared, I didn’t know what I was walking into “Rich said honestly he almost forgot he even had the gun on him, even though it wouldn’t have done him any good. He was ridiculously out manned. Taking that gun from him possibly prolonged his life if anything.

After Rich was patted down, Ace motioned for him to sit on one of the couches in the lounge area that most of Gus’s guys were all sitting in. Too uncomfortable to share a seat with any of the guys, he sat as far on the edge as he could. Rich was careful not to bump into anyone even slightly. Ace walked over to the bag, opened it, and looked at all the money, and drugs inside. He wasn’t sure how much was taken from earlier, neither was Gus. Even so Ace, wasn’t expecting Rich to bring this much back. The kid must have been really been scared if he brought this kind of money back. Ace estimated at least 1 or 2 million in that bag. Anybody that was half smart wouldn’t bring that much back. Ace thought Rich more than likely stashed some for sure. But he wasn’t worried. This should satisfy Gus.

“I see the money’s here, but where’s the bitch?” Ace asked playfully. He, just like Gus already knew that Chilli was dead. He just wanted to see if Rich was going to lie or not about why she wasn’t there with him. Ace was standing by Gus when he got the call from Jimmy Waters that he caught the girl in Rich’s apartment, and took her out before she shoot him. It was a shame Ace thought. Not because he cared anything about the girl, but he would have loved to seen her killed right in front of Rich, but not before he had some fun with her first while Rich watched. That kind of humiliation goes a long way. If this thing was going to go off without any more problems, it would be best if Rich was completely broken down. Ace didn’t think they could afford to have any more wild cards.

“She split” Rich said unsurely “When I told her I was coming back she pulled a gun on me. I couldn’t stop her” He was hoping Ace bought it.

Ace smiled “And she didn’t take the money?” he asked knowing damn well that any woman leaving a man like that would absolutely take the money.