Part 5 of Chapter 22 Three and a Half Months Later ( Gabos )

Flick said, “I just don’t understand why y’all let that nigga off the woman. She was already outta there nine times outta ten. She wouldn’t remember shit that happen.”

“Yeah, I feel that, but it’s a chance I couldn’t take, ’cause you never know.”

“So why keep Trirena alive? Why not off her too? What if she knew it was us,” Flick asked.

“Dog, I doubt that. But if she did, they gotta prove it in the court of law.”

“Nigga, y’all must forgot, y’all raped the woman,” Flick said.

“Man, listen, fuck all that. If she knew, she ain’t show it. And if she did and put the crackers on us, we all know ain’t no such thing as justice in a white man’s world. So I’m holding court in the streets.”

“So what’s up with Mr. Big?” Flick asked.

“Let’s just say he took a nice, unwanted vacation, a long one. He won’t be back no time soon. Blaka, blaka!” Pokey screamed, letting his friends know he handled business by offing Mr. Big. Once they pulled up in the projects, all six boys jumped out the ride, ready to see the profits of a hard day at work. “Y’all listen right quick,” Pokey said. “If the police ever come around asking questions and shit, y’all don’t know nothing.”

“We cool on that, ’cause we know loose lips, sinks ships.”

“Listen to this, the nigga said it’s close to a mil in this bag. We gone split it evenly. Then everybody go their way, till tomorrow, and we’ll hook up. That’s cool?” Pokey asked.

“Yeah, nigga, cool,” Lo-P said.

“Now let’s count this money, so we can see what we working with. All right be quiet, ’cause I ain’t trying to hear my momma talking shit,” Pokey said, walking into the house with all of the rest following him. “Good, we made it without being seen. Now let’s count this money,” Pokey said, dumping the money out the bag.

“Goddamn, we rich!” Flick screamed.

“Nigga, shut up,” Pokey said, punching Flick in the chest.

“Damn, nigga, my bad,” Flick said.

“Well, it’s gonna be easy to count this, being that they in stacks. Stacks of what though?” Fatboy asked.

“We just gotta find out,” Pokey said, grabbing a stack and counting it. “Damn, they in five-thousand-dollar stacks, so let’s count them by five.” Ten minutes later, they were done counting the money.

“What we got, man?”

“We got seven hundred thousand dollars.”

“Damn,” Rim said, “we get what?”

“A hundred grand apiece, plus some change.”

“Sweet lick, man. Just give us a hundred grand apiece,” Turtle said, “so we can bounce.”

“All right, huh,” Pokey said, giving Rim, Turtle, and Lo-P the money.

“Nice doing business with y’all,” Turtle said.

“Word,” Pokey said. “Remember we gonna get up with y’all tomorrow.”

“Word,” Lo-P said, walking out the house with a bagful of money.

“Damn, dog, we hit the jackpot!” Pokey yelled.

“Nigga, calm down,” Fatboy said.

“Look, y’all go get y’all book bags to put y’all cash in. We get 100,330 apiece. We rich, boy,” Pokey said, watching his two friends shake their heads.

“We rich, but in the end what will it cost us?” Fatboy said, walking out the room, with Flick on his heels.

“These niggaz tripping,” Pokey was thinking as they left.

“Seems like I been driving for hours,” Sico was thinking as he pulled up in his brother’s driveway. Looking at the house, he noticed all the lights were out. Getting out the car, walking toward the house, as he looked around, he saw all the cars sitting on flats. Now kinda scared, he ran back to his car, opened the glove box, and pulled out his 9mm. sliding the chamber back, he rushed up to the house, hoping for the best. But seeing the worst as a picture of his brother’s bloody body flashed before his eyes. Ringing the doorbell, he got no answer, so he tried the knob to find it unlocked. Hitting a light switch so he can see what happened. As the lights came on, reality came with it. What he saw broke his heart, as he saw his niece on the floor, holding her dead momma in her lap. As he walked toward her, she looked up with so much hurt and pain in her eyes that Sico couldn’t hold back his tears. As she whispered the words, “She’s gone, she’s gone, and it’s too late.” Trirena repeated this over and over until she felt her uncle removing her mother from her and placing her dead body on the couch.

“Trirena, I’m sorry, baby, we gotta go,” Sico said in a sad voice.

“No, I’mma stay here with my momma, she needs me!” Trirena screamed.

“Tri, listen to me, please. It’s nothing we can do for her. I wish it was, but it’s nothing we can do. Baby, I know this is hard on you, but your father needs you. He’s fighting for his life as we speak.”

At the mention of her father, she spoke up. “What you just said, Uncle Sico?”

“I said your father needs you. He’s in Shane Hospital, fighting for his life. I just left there, and they still operating on him. He was shot three times in the chest. Whoever did this tried to kill him, but somehow he’s still fighting. I think it will help if he can hear your voice.”

“Okay, I’mma go, but I gotta get these clothes off,” Trirena said, looking at the clothes that her mother’s blood now lived in.

“Baby, do what you gotta do. Just hurry up.”

“Uncle Sico, listen, please don’t call the police. I promised Momma I would handle this, and I gotta keep my promise to her or I couldn’t live with myself,” she said, walking toward the shower.

As he watched his niece head in another direction, he wondered if she knew something he didn’t, but he decided he would ask her when she got her mind clear. Ten minutes later, Trirena walked into the front room, fully dressed, rocking a Polo shirt and a Polo skirt, with a pair of all-white Air Force 1s. As she looked over at her mom, she blew her a kiss, then started walking toward the door. Turning the knob, she stopped and remembered.

“Uncle Sico, I gotta use your car. I remember them saying slash all the tires and unplug the phones.” As she said that, Sico said, “That’s why I couldn’t get through.” Digging in his pants’ pockets to get the keys, he said, “You right, all the cars sitting on flats,” tossing her his keys. “I’mma handle this,” he said. As she closed the door, he removed his cell from his belt loop and dialed a number. On the first ring, a voice said, “Talk to me.”

“Look, this Sico. I need y’all again, come to big Sterling crib ASAP.”

“We on our way right now,” the raspy voice said, hanging up.

“Well, that’s done,” Sico said, thinking of his niece. He knew his niece was a sweet girl, but if and when she felt crossed, he knew she would become coldhearted like her daddy. “I guess she had the streets running in her veins,” he was thinking. He got up and turned the lights back off, now wondering who could’ve did this. “I know now I gotta go holla at his son Pokey, but I’ll wait a few days to find out how my brother is doing before I step to him. Just in case my bro wanna keep the attempted murder on his life a secret. He just might know who did this and want whoever did this to believe he’s dead. If he pulls through this, which I know he will,” Sico was thinking, when he saw lights through the window. “Well, that was quick,” he said as he opened the door and showed the two black men the body they would be removing. Without questions, they loaded the body in a bag and walked to the van. Coming back after they put the body in the van, they walked up to Sico and said, “You know where to send the money!”

“I got y’all,” Sico said, closing the door and walking back inside the house