The Clique, page 17
“Naw, I am.”
They turned around and came face to face with their past.
She was dragging a pink suitcase, and Ascada by the hair like a caveman, her gun pointed at them.
“You might as well throw your gun down. You’re outnumbered.”
“Not while I have this bitch in my hands. Y’all won’t risk her life.”
Emil could see Pepper from where she was standing, but Tonk couldn’t.
“Throw the guns down,” Pepper mouthed. “I’ll shoot her.”
Emil winked at Mo. “Okay, you win.”
They all threw their guns down.
“Which one of y’all hoes killed Philly?”
Royal was squatted down, creeping back around to where the Cadillac was parked. She was going to take her out. She aimed her gun and tried to shoot, but it was jammed.
Tonk studied their faces and saw that Brooke was the only one that didn’t look confused by the question. “So it was you?” She walked up to Brooke and punched her dead in the face.
“You ain’t forgot about that ass-whuppin’ at Walsh, have you?” Mo bravely moved toward Tonk. “We can serve you up again if you need a refreshing.”
Tonk raised her gun and prepared to shoot Mo in the head. “Bye, bitch.”
Pow! A bullet came from somewhere in the garage and hit Tonk in the chest.
Then all hell broke loose. The three Haitians tried to reach for their guns, but gunfire met them in their chest, heads, and backs. The gunfire wasn’t coming from Pepper, Royal, or Tonk, but from the black Suburban.
Ascada dropped to the ground, and crawled under the car, lying on her six-months-pregnant belly. She found out the day after she’d seen the AIDS brochure at Pig’s house and needed to be checked after fucking Hunter’s nasty ass. And when they ran a check for everything, she never thought she’d come up pregnant because she was still having her period.
Pepper’s body froze up. She couldn’t move because of who she saw coming toward them. The men rushed the Cadillac, shooting everything in sight.
As Brooke’s riddled body fell across the car, Mo and Emil hit the ground, grabbing their guns from the ground, shooting back, and hitting two of the men.
Police sirens echoed through the garage.
“Shit! Just grab the girls,” the leader screamed, dragging Ascada out by her legs, kicking and screaming.
One of the men ran back to help him.
“Take her.”
He grabbed Ascada and took her back to the truck.
The leader looked in the car, around the car, and finally in the trunk. He saw a woman lying on the ground wearing a diamond P like the one he’d given to Pepper. He snatched the ski mask off and saw her face. Then he pointed his gun at her head, ready to unload, but he couldn’t do it. He didn’t know if she was already dead or not, but he picked her and the dope up and carried them to the truck, and cautiously drove past the speeding police cars.
CHAPTER 56
Ascada brought Royal a cool washcloth. “Maybe she in a coma.”
“She ain’t in no damn coma!” Royal yelled. “She still responsive. Her body is just in shock.”
“I’m still trying to figure out what happened.” Emil nervously bit her nails.
“Wisdom,” Ascada said quietly.
The door to the hotel room opened and, Shilo, one of the men from the black Suburban, brought in bags of food. “It’s some turkey sandwiches, chips, and sodas in here.” He eyed Royal. “Anything else y’all need, let me know.”
“Yeah, she need a doctor, and we want to go home.” Royal stood up face to face with him.
Ever since he’d grabbed her at the parking garage and felt her soft body, smelled her sweet skin, and saw those crystal-clear eyes he was taken. He wished they’d met under different circumstances. “Well, miss lady,” he said, “everybody just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” and he walked out of their room.
“Fucker!”
Koi said, “Maybe if we make enough noise, someone will come up here and save us.”
“Yep. Save our ass right to the jailhouse. Our fingerprints are on those guns we left behind, remember,” Mo said. “Our best bet is to stay put for a while until we can think of a better plan.”
“So what are we going to do with the bitches?” Domino asked. He was second in charge and a real woman-hating, hard-ass bully. He already knew exactly what he was going to do with Koi when Wise left to go see his baby.
“I don’t know. Use them to rob some top dope boys.” Wise rubbed his hand over his head. “I wanna know what happened to that pink suitcase. We all seen that butch carrying it and put it down.”
“Man, it was so much gunfire in that place. Maybe it got slid under one of those cars.” Shiloh was the level head of the group, the nice guy that thought before he reacted.
“I got to make it back down south before tomorrow,” Wise said to his partners. “We need to set up some meetings to distribute these pounds.”
Domino rubbed his hands together and grabbed his dick. “I got everything under control.”
Wise went to the girls’ room to see if Pepper had woken up. He wanted to slap the permanent taste out of her mouth and kill her when he saw her on the ground, but his heart wouldn’t let go. “How she doin’?”
“Thanks to you, I don’t know,” Mo shot back.
“Can y’all go to the other room?” Wise asked nicely.
“Hell, naw! Why? So you can kill her for real?” Emil jumped in the bed and hugged Pepper.
The tall, powerful man came through the door, a gun in either hand. “Yo, Domino, take them to the other room.”
Domino smiled, showing his full platinum grill. “Come on, bitches.”
All the ladies, except Emil, got up. “I’m not leaving her.”
Domino didn’t ask her again. He grabbed her by the ankle and snatched her off the bed, causing her to hit her head on the floor.
“Ouchhhhhhh!”
He kept dragging her to the room, still holding her by the ankle.
Wise got in the bed behind Pepper and pulled her into his arms. He smelled her beautiful hair and kissed her on the neck. “Why do you persist on hurting and leaving me? You know how much I love you.”
And he fell asleep with her in his arms.
CHAPTER 57
The little girl sat on the fluffy, chocolate suede sofa. It was so fluffy, it looked like it was going to swallow her up. And that’s exactly what she wanted to happen. To disappear from this crazy lady. As she continued to miss her mother dearly, her little heart was slowly losing its tenderness and innocence.
“There you are, darling. I thought you would be in your princess room watching cartoons.” The woman sat the buttermilk pancakes, syrup, eggs, bacon, and chocolate milk on the table in front of the little girl. “Mommy made all your favorites.”
The little girl’s eyes lit up like light bulbs. “Mommy!” She took off running to the kitchen. Seconds later she returned with the same sad look on her face. “Where’s my mommy?”
Gabby pulled the table closer to the sofa. “I’m your new mommy.”
“You’re not my mommy! My mommy is black!” Kemoni yelled into Gabby’s face. Gabby brutally slapped the young child across the face, and Kemoni hit the floor, holding her face, screaming like a wounded animal.
“Shut up, you little ungrateful heifer!” She snatched Kemoni up by her shirt and slung her into the sofa. “That’s what’s wrong with y’all people. Don’t know how to respect someone trying to help you.”
Gabby grabbed her psychiatric medication and popped two of them. She was a diagnosed schizophrenic. And trying to convince this child that she was her mother was draining her.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and gave Kemoni the biggest, sweetest smile. “Now eat your food for mama.”
Kemoni was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. She’d been crying for three days straight. But she didn’t trust this crazy-ass woman claiming to be her mother. She stared into Gabby’s eyes and sternly said, “No.”
Gabby picked up a pancake with her hand and drenched it with syrup. She stuffed it into Kemoni’s mouth, damn near choking her. “I give up. Maybe if I starve you, you will eat for me. You just don’t know what I’ve done so that we could be together.”
Kemoni looked at the crazy woman with lost eyes. She’d started to go into her own mind to escape everything that was happening to her. She just wanted to be back at home with her mother and father.
CHAPTER 58
Pepper jumped up out of her sleep and realized she was laying next to Wise. He pulled his gun out from under his pillow. “What? What is it?” Their eyes met. She looked bright and fresh like nothing had ever happened.
“Just wanted to make sure you were all right.” Wise tried to jump up, but Pepper pulled him back to her and hugged him.
Domino was peeping through the crack in the door. He knew this nigga was soft, still catching feeling off some broad who had robbed him and left him hanging. Shoot that ho, put your foot on her throat, and bury her out back. That was his motto. And that was the kind of leader this team needed. Not some pussy that had a soft heart and too many issues.
Wise pushed Pepper off him and jumped out of the bed. “That shit is for the birds.”
“I’m so sorry, Wise. I—I—I don’t even know how to explain it.”
“Save it for the next man.”
Pepper jumped out of the bed, still feeling woozy, almost falling. “Please hear me out.”
He kept walking.
“I love you, Wisdom.”
He paused for a second and then thought about all the money she took, and his daughter being put on hold for her treatment because of it. Then he walked out.
The girls ran back in and hugged Pepper. “Chick, we thought you were dead.”
Pepper rubbed her head. “I did too.” She looked over her body to see where she was shot. “I wasn’t shot?”
“Nope. All hell broke loose. Bullets were coming from everywhere, a black Suburban pulled up, and we were here,” Mo explained to her.
“Who shot Tonk?” Pepper asked.
“I thought you did,” Emil said, puzzled.
“No, I froze up.”
“Well,” Mo said, “must have been Royal.”
“My gun jammed,” Royal told them.
“Koi?”
“No, my gun was on the ground, remember?”
“I’m just glad somebody did,” Emil said. “You hungry, Pepper? You haven’t eaten in three days.”
“No, I’m not hungry.” Pepper was confused. The single gunshot came from a direction other than where Wise and his boys came from. Somebody else was in that parking garage.
Mo turned on the television, and shock hit her body. The other girls surrounded the TV as well:
“No, Paul, the only information we have at this time is that it was a drug deal gone bad. Four are confirmed dead, and some women are missing. We are going live to our brother station in Atlanta, Georgia, with Jovan Mims. Jovan, go ahead.”
“Thanks, Paul. What happened at LaGuardia Airport’s parking garage has been a mystery since day one. The bags left behind show evidence of at least four more Atlanta women. It’s like they disappeared into thin air. Where are they? They could be kidnapped or possibly dead.”
Mo touched the screen. “I’m alive. I’m right here, baby.” “I’m Jovan Mims with CNN news.”
Jovan had at least two more minutes of coverage, but he spotted someone he desperately needed to speak with. “Mrs. Cantrell!” He ran after her. He knew everything there was to know about her and Mo. “Mrs. Cantrell!”
She walked faster the first time she heard him call her name, but he sprinted and caught up with her.
“I’m not doing any more interviews until this case is solved.”
He couldn’t believe this beautiful woman was the monster Mo had described to him. “Mrs. Cantrell, I just want to let you know that I am doing everything in my power to find Moses.”
She laughed in his face, swinging her blonde hair to her back. “She has gotten to you too? Boy, it must be in her genes. Why are you telling me this?”
“Gabby, don’t you want to find your daughter? Your grandchild’s mother?”
She looked around to make sure no one had heard him. “Look, I don’t’ know what kind of game you’re trying to play, but believe me, if you play one with me you will lose. That bitch ain’t my daughter.”
He stared into her dark blue eyes and saw nothing but evil and hatred. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cantrell. I had you mixed up with someone else.”
Gabby smiled like she’d never said anything wrong. “You have a nice day, young man.” And she walked away.
“Excuse me,” a light voice said.
He turned around and came face to face with a battered-faced young woman. He knew he’d seen her somewhere before, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
She was holding her hand over her mouth as she talked. “You don’t know me, but I know the girls you runnin’ the story on.”
Jovan took out a pad and pen. “What’s your name? I will contact you.”
“No, I don’t want to go on record.” She pulled him by his jacket arm over to a concrete sidewall and leaned up against it. “I know you love Moses, and you should. She’s a good person despite how the latest events in her life have made her act. I just wish we could’ve met under different circumstances.”
Jovan turned off his media mind and focused on finding Mo. “What kind of circumstances did y’all meet under?”
She dropped her hand from her mouth and looked toward the ground, resting her hands on her knees. “Lies, betrayal, men, money, drugs, murder, you name it.” She looked up into the bright sun, squinting her eyes and lips up.
For the first time, Jovan saw why she was hiding her mouth. She was missing her front tooth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his business card, scratching through his business number, writing in his cell and home number. “Here, call me if Moses contacts you or you hear anything. I want Moses to come home safe to me and her daughter.”
“After everything that’s happened, I hope she does too.”
“I have interviews with some of the family members of the missing women. I hope you will join us. It’s Wednesday night, and it’s going to be live.”
She closed-mouth smiled at him and squeezed his hand before walking away.
Images from the courthouse and the church flashed in Jovan’s head. In court, the day Cantrell was acting a fool, he’d written down the names of Spencer’s baby mothers.
Now he remembered where he’d seen her before. He stood up and yelled, “Nevada!”
CHAPTER 59
“Nevada!” Pepper yelled out. “That’s who shot Tonk.” She rubbed her neck. “And she stuck me in the neck with a needle.”
“She’s the one who saved me?” Mo asked, not wanting it to be Nevada who was responsible for saving her life.
Royal got up. “That’s why you were out so long. She shot you with that last batch of serum I made. It was double the dosage.”
“Her face was bloody. She looked wild, like she had been fighting.” Pepper shook her head back and forth, trying to remember everything that took place. “Come to think about it, she only had on a shirt that came to her thighs and no shoes. And her feet were bloody.”
“Her feet?” Mo asked.
“Yeah, both feet.”
Royal went to the bathroom and got a cool rag. “Maybe you need a little more rest.” She folded the washcloth and placed it on Pepper’s forehead.
Pepper slapped the washcloth away from her face. “I’m for real. We have to find Nevada. She must be the one that took the money.”
Bam!
Domino bust through the door. “Which one of y’all hoes givin’ up the pussy tonight?”
None of them answered. They just looked at him like he was crazy.
He pulled out his gun and cocked it. “I said which one of y’all givin’ up the pussy?” He already knew that he was taking Koi. He just wanted to put fear in their hearts to keep them in fear of him.
None of them still gave him an answer.
He walked over to Ascada and fondled her full breast. She hit his hand away, and he retaliated by slapping her face. “Don’t you ever touch a pimp.” He stroked his already hard dick and walked up on Koi.
“I’m on my cycle.” She gave him a cute smile.
He laughed like Jolly Saint Nick. “Let me see.”
She looked big-eyed at him, dropping her smile. “I—I—I—”
He put the cold steel to her head. “I said let me see.”
“How?”
“Drop them drawers, open up yo’ legs, and spread yo’ pussy lips.”
She sat back in the chair and did as he told her to do, exposing a pink pussy, minus the red.
The other women turned their heads, while Domino licked his hungry lips. Her pussy looked sweet and meaty. “Jus’ like I thought.” He snatched her up by her throat.
Pepper ran to Koi’s defense. She figured since he knew she was sick he’d have some compassion for her. “Look, she’s already ... we’ve already been through enough. Just please let her—”
Domino pimp-slapped Pepper to the floor.
The other women stood up to jump him, but he quickly pulled out another gun to join the one he already held. “I’ll either kill or maim y’all asses before you come close to me.”
When he knew he had control again, he put one gun up and took Koi to the other room.
Koi stood in the middle of the floor like a nervous child. Her mind was racing a mile a minute trying to figure out a way to get outta there. “What do you want me to do?”
“Everything.” Domino dropped his pants to the floor and grabbed his dick, stroking it with major force. “I like it rough and hard. Get over here on yo’ knees.”
As soon as Koi got within his reach, he shoved his dick down her throat.
Koi hesitated. Even though she was the biggest slut in hip-hop, she always made men wear condoms when she was giving head or sitting on their laps.
