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Te’Qui lay in bed asleep with Kesha lying on his chest. He was snoring aloud and drool had run from the corner of his mouth, soiling his pillow. He was tired than a mothafucka. He and T.J. had been jacking and extorting niggaz all over the city. Them niggaz was hitting back to back licks. They were on a paper chase, and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. But the minute they decided to fall back and let the streets cool off, Te’Qui’s sleepless nights caught up to him.
Homie had lie across the bed to talk to Kesha about their plans, when he fucked around and fell asleep. It tripped Kesha out how he drifted off so fast. He appeared to be wide awake when he was talking to her, but deep down he must have been exhausted. She wasn’t surprised that he had crashed though. He had barely been home since he’d been on the grind trying to make sure their family had enough dough when the baby arrived.
Kesha’s eyelids twitched hearing the vibration of a cellular nearby. Once she peeled her eyelids open, she looked to the nightstand beside Te’Qui and found his cell phone. Leaning over him, she picked up the cell phone to see who was on the display. It was T.J. Seeing his name she knew what he was calling about and she wasn’t ready to let her boo go just yet. She wanted to be under him just a little while longer before she gave him up. With that in mind, she went to press the decline button, and that’s when Te’Qui woke up.
“Babe, who is that?” Te’Qui asked groggily, face fixed with a frown having stirred awake.
“Nobody, baby, go back to sleep.” she told him.
At that moment, Te’Qui took the cell phone away from her and checked the display. When he saw that it was T.J., he disconnected the call. He was as tired as a runaway slave and didn’t exactly feel like running the streets with him again.
“Man, I’ll get at that nigga later. I’m tired as a bitch right now.” Te’Qui confessed, sitting the cellular back upon the nightstand. He then lay back in bed and shut his eyelids. When Kesha lay her smiling face against his chest and shut her eyelids he wrapped his arm around her. The couple was drifting off to sleep when they heard someone beeping their car’s horn like they’d gone mad.
Beep! Beep! Beeep! Beeeep! Beeeeeeeeeep!
“Yo’, Te’Qui, it’s time to roll, dawg! Brang yo’ ass outside! Come on!” T.J. called out. He was so loud that his voice carried from the streets, to inside of Te’Qui and Kesha’s house.
Beep! Beep! Beeep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!
“Come on now, Blood, it’s time for us to shake and move! We got bitness to handle!” T.J. called out again.
Kesha shot up in bed, face frowned, lips twisted, as her individual braids hung over her face, little momma was hot than a mothafucka. “What the fuck, Te’Qui? Is yo’ fucking friend crazy?”
Te’Qui sat up in bed and looked to the digital clock on the nightstand. It was 2:30 A.M. “I don’t know, but homie better have a damn good excuse ‘fore showin’ up atta nigga crib at this hour for real, for real.” he blew hard and ran his hands down his face.
Beeep! Beeeep! Beeeeeeeep!
“Yeah, this negro done definitely lost his gotdamn mind!” Kesha hopped out of bed, slipping on her house slippers and grabbing her housecoat. The entire time she was putting her shit on she looked pissed off.
“Where you goin’?” Te’Qui looked over his shoulder at her with a crinkled brow.
“To check this disrespectful ass nigga!” she told him, pulling her dreads from out of the collar of her housecoat and letting them fall down against her back. She started her march towards the door, but stopped once he called her back.
“Hold up, Keesh. Limme go see what this nigga want. It could be about some serious shit.” Te’Qui said as he hopped out of bed and grabbed his Glock underneath his pillow. He tucked that bitch on his waistline and grabbed his hoodie from off the back of their bedroom door.
“If it ain’t life or death, get in that ass, bae.” Kesha told him as she stood by the door. Her brows were lowered and her lips were twisted, with her arms folded across her bosom. She was displaying mad attitude, like hood chicks do when they feel a nigga disrespected them.
“Fa sho’.” He kissed her on the forehead. As soon as he graced her forehead with his lips, there was pounding at the front door.
“Bae, you hear this shit? This nigga knocking at the doe like he goddamn police.” she looked back and forth between her man and the front door.
“Open up, nigga! I know you up in there ‘cause yo’ shit parked outside! Don’t make me kick this bitch down, Blood! You know I’ll do it!” They heard T.J. at the door. After he made his announcement, he continued to pound on the door.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
“Unh unh, my nigga doing too much, gimme yo’ strap, Te’Qui. I’m fitsna shoot this mothafucka!” Kesha tried to grab Te’Qui’s gun from off his waistline, but he grabbed her wrists and pinned them to her sides.
“Relax, bae. I got this, okay?” he looked in her eyes and waited for her response. From the expression on her face he could tell that she was on ten, so he wasn’t about to let her go until she told him that she was straight. Her eyes were focused on the front door and she was seething. Seeing this, he turned her chin towards him so that they’d have each other’s gaze. “Okay?”
Finally, Kesha took a deep breath and shut her eyelids briefly, calming herself down. She looked to the carpeted floor and then back up at her man, saying, “Okay. Go handle your boy.”
“Thanks, babe.” he gave her a quick peck on the lips and headed for the front door.
Bang, bang, bang, bang! The front door rattled from the pounding of T.J.’s fist.
“Come on, dawg, we gots shit to do! Crack this bitch open!”
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Again, the front door rattled from the pounding.
“Alright, nigga, I’m comin’. Hold the fuck on!” Te’Qui called out. All that mothafucking noise had gotten to him.
Te’Qui unchained and unlocked the door, pulling that bitch open. As soon as he did, T.J. started in over the threshold. When he looked up and saw Kesha’s scowling face, he greeted her.
“’Sup, Keesh?” T.J. threw his head back like What’s up? She responded by rolling her eyes and slamming the bedroom door on him. T.J. raised an eyebrow and looked to Te’Qui, pointing at the bedroom door. “Fucks wrong witcho bitch?”
Te’Qui’s brows slanted and his nostrils flared. He stepped to T.J. with hostility. He didn’t play that shit about Kesha. He’d blow a nigga’z brains out over her. “My nigga, my queen not gon’ be too many mo’ bitchez, ya hear? Watch cho mothafuckin’ mouth.”
T.J.’s face balled up and his lips slanted. He looked Te’Qui up and down like This is not what you want. He then waved him off, like he wasn’t tripping off of him. “Whatever, nigga, I ain’t even finna go there witchu. You know how I get down. I need you to bust this move with me. I know somebody that can tell me where that hoe-ass bitch Boo at. So, grab yo’ shit and let’s roll.”
“Nah,” Te’Qui shook his head. “I ain’t goin’ any where ‘til you apologize to my queen for disrespectin’ our home.”
“Blood, you serious?” T.J. narrowed his eyelids and angled his head. He looked him square in his eyes trying to figure out if he was playing with him. From the expression on his homeboy’s face he looked like he was dead ass serious about what he’d said.
“You mothafuckin’ right, I ain’t budgin’ ‘til you handle that.” he held his gaze. He had a straight face and he wasn’t bullshitting either.
T.J. stared at him for a minute. He nodded his head and licked his lips. He knew he was doing too much with that shit he pulled earlier, and if all it took for Te’Qui to roll out with him was an apology, then he’d give him that.
“Alright, fuck it. A nigga violated, I’ll give you that. Tell wifey to come up in here.” he motioned for the bedroom door.
“Bet.”
Te’Qui walked inside of his bedroom and told Kesha something that T.J. couldn’t quite make out. T.J. watched as Te’Qui searched his closet for something while Kesha got out of bed and came out into the living room. She stopped just outside of the doorway and folded her arms across her breasts, leaning the weight of her body on one leg. By the look on her face T.J. could tell that she wasn’t interested in anything that he had to say, but if he had to smooth things over with her so his homeboy would ride out with him, then fuck it.
“Yo’,” T.J. began as he placed his hand against his chest, “a mothafucking nigga apologize for blowing up y’all spot like I did earlier. That shit was mad disrespectful and it won’t happen again. On God.” he kissed his fingers and crossed himself in the sign of the holy crucifix.
“Hmmph,” Kesha looked him up and down like he wasn’t shit. She then headed back inside of the bedroom.
T.J. waved her off and sat down on the arm of the living room couch, folding his arms across his chest. He watched Te’Qui from where he sat. The nigga had just emerged from out of the closet, slipping on a bulletproof vest. Kesha helped him strapped it down to his body and slip his sweatshirt over his head. Afterwards, she gave him a hug and a kiss. With that out of the way, Te’Qui came out of the bedroom, pulling the door shut behind him.
“You ready to roll, bro?” Te’Qui asked him.
“Yeah, let’s go.” T.J. rose from off the arm of the couch and followed his right-hand man out of the house.
***
Boom!
Te’Qui kicked open the door and rushed in, with T.J. bringing up the rear. As soon as Broadway saw them, he went to grab the banga lying on the table beside the money he was counting up. Before his hand could grasp the handle of his weapon, Te’Qui was putting some hot shit through him. Bloom! The blast from the shotgun knocked Broadway’s chair over and made made his ass wince. His blood dotted up the wrinkle bills he was counting, and he made a loud thud when he hit the carpeted floor.
As soon as the front door had flown open, Tangela took off running towards the kitchen to get out through the backdoor. She’d almost cleared the kitchen doorway, when T.J. grabbed the floor runner rug she was making hurried footsteps on and gave it a strong tug. Tangela did a flip in the air and landed hard on her back, wincing.
“Fuck you think you going, bitch?” T.J. asked with a scowl as he approached her, tucking his banga into his waistline. He grabbed a handful of Tangela’s dookie braids and dragged her ass back into the living room, kicking and screaming. A pained expression was written across her face as she held tight to T.J.’s wrist and thrashed her legs. Her thrashing kicked off one of her high heel pumps in the process.
“Aaaaaaah!” She belted out with tears in her eyes, which spilled down her cheeks.
“Bitch, shut the fuck up!” T.J. pulled Tangela around and punched her in her mouth hard as fuck, bloodying her grill. He then grabbed a chair and smacked it down on the living room floor, planting Tangela’s ass in it, roughly. “Yo’, check the upstairs, it could be some mo’ bitchez up in here.” He called out to Te’Qui as he duct taped Tangela’s torso and ankles to the chair.
“Alright,” Te’Qui nodded and ran up the staircase. He kicked open the first bedroom door, but there wasn’t anyone inside. He then made his way down the hallway towards the only bedroom left. He placed his ear to the door and listened closely for any movement. Afterwards, he took a step back and kicked that bitch open with so much force that he nearly tore it off its hinges.
“Aah! Aaah! Aaaah!” One of the girls screamed.
“Please, don’t kill us!” a second girl cried.
“Y’all bitchez shut the fuck up, and bring y’all asses downstairs ‘fore I make shit bloody in here!” Te’Qui threatened. Having heard his homeboy barking orders, T.J. looked to the staircase. He found Te’Qui marching four half naked women down the steps at gunpoint. All of their faces were wet with tears and they appeared to be quivering.
“Make they asses get on their knees, right there!” T.J. pointed at the center of the living room floor, as he pulled a jar of liquid substance from out of the back pocket of his jeans.
“Y’all heard the man, get on yo’ mothafuckin’ knees, right there!” Te’Qui commanded the bitchez, pointing his shotgun at the exact spot T.J. wanted them to kneel. Once they’d done like they were told, Te’Qui went down the line of them looking at their faces. They were all fairly attractive, but he could tell that the street life was catching up to most of them. They looked disheveled and aged in the face. In fact, some of them even had track marks on their arms. Hell, one in particular wore denchers, but they weren’t in her mouth because Te’Qui hadn’t given her time to put them in. This was three of the women; the fourth and final girl didn’t look a day over sixteen. Although her body was developed like a grown-ass woman, anyone could clearly see she was a minor.
Te’Qui stopped at the young girl and looked down into her face. She was sniffling and crying like all the other girls. She quickly looked away from Te’Qui, not wanting to look him in the eyes for fear she’d give him the incentive to kill her.
“What’s yo’ name, lil’ momma?” Te’Qui asked.
“A-Asia.” she stuttered, making sure to keep her head bowed.
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen.” she whimpered.
Te’Qui shook his head like it was a goddamn shame, having heard Asia’s age. He then looked back at Broadway’s dead body. His eyes were wide and his mouth was stretched open. “That nigga’z a real piece of shit, Blood, pimpin’ this young-ass girl.” he then turned to T.J. and said, “Yo’, you know lil’ momma is only fourteen-years-old?”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I didn’t know, and now that I do, I can’t say that I give a shit.” T.J. whipped out his gun again. “My only concern is finding out where that bitch Boo is, and this skank scaliwag-ass bitch is gon’ tell me.” he yanked Tangela into him by her hair and drew a shriek from her. He gave her the evil eye and clenched his jaws, looking her in the face. “Ain’t that right, hoe?”
“Fuck you, nigga! I ain’t tellin’ you jack shit!” Tangela scowled and spit at him. A nasty gooey glob of saliva hit his ski-mask and dripped off the brow of it.
T.J. wiped the dripping goo off of his ski-mask with the back of his gloved hand. He then looked down at Tangela, smiling devilishly. “Oh, youa gangsta bitch, huh? Youa gangsta?”
“Yeah, nigga, I’m the most gangsta bitch up in here!” She mad dogged him, as he held a fistful of her braids.
“Hoe, the only G’s in here is me and my mothafucking homeboy! Bow down to something greater than yo’ self, trick!” T.J., still holding Tangela by her braids, took his gun by its barrel and beat her in the face with it. He grunted each time he crashed the hard metal into her face, dotting his clothing with her blood. T.J. was beating her so viciously, that the other hoes turned their heads, cringing. Once he finished whipping her ass, he took a step back and looked at her closely. Tangela’s face was bloody and dripping on her lap. One of her eyes was swollen shut and her nose was twice its size. Her good eye looked around aimlessly. She moaned in pain and spat out a bloody, broken tooth. “Now, who’s the gangsta, bitch?”
“I-I-I am.” Tangela managed to say with a smart-ass smirk.
T.J. looked back at Te’Qui and said, “I must admit, I respect this bitch’s G.” he then looked back to Tangela and shot her in the kneecap.
“Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaah!” Tangela whipped her head back, screaming bloody murder. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She brought her head back down and looked T.J. in his eyes, still talking that big, bad gangsta shit. “Fuck you, fuck you! Fuck you, you fucking bitch made-ass nigga!”
At this time, Asia was looking back and forth between T.J. and Tangela, wondering what he was going to do to her next. Tears were in her eyes and her heart was thudding. She was scared for the older whore.
“I salute cho’ gangsta,” T.J. saluted Tangela and pointed the gun at her forehead.
“No, don’t kill my sister!” Asian called out.
T.J. and Te’Qui frowned up and looked at Asia. They were shocked at the revelation that she’d made.
“Bitch, you were letting this nigga pimp out cho lil’ sister? Awww, man, neither one of y’all ain’t shit. But neither am I ‘cause I’ma ‘bouta do something that may guarantee that I won’t go to heaven.” T.J. wiped his blood stained gun off on Tangela’s clothing and walked over to her younger sister and the whores. Without warning, T.J. shot all three of the women that were on their knees in their foreheads at point blank range.
They fell flat on their face and their blood poured out of their heads. His action caused Asia to tremble harder than she did before. She squeezed her eyelids shut and tears jetted down her cheeks. Using the sleeve of his thermal, T.J. wiped the blood from the whores that had splattered against the side of her face. He then turned back around to Tangela who had a shocked expression on her face.
“What the fuck is the matter with chu, you fuckin’ monster?” Tangela hollered out as tears slid down her cheeks.
Te’Qui looked down at the dead bodies of the whores and then back up at T.J. He was as ruthless as they came, and he hoped that one day he didn’t have to turn his gun against him. But should that day come, he wouldn’t hesitate to take his head off his shoulders.
“That was just to let chu know that I’m not playing witcho ass. I mean bitness out this bitch!” T.J. said as he placed his hand on Asia’s trembling shoulder, walking around her until he was at her back. The young girl’s heart was thudding crazily and she found her palms growing moist. With her head bowed and her eyelids shut, she silently prayed to God to spare her life.
Wait a minute, I know this nigga ain’t ‘bouta do what I think he’s about to do, Te’Qui’s brows creased as he thought to himself. He had the feeling that T.J. was about to bust a cap in Asia’s head, and that wasn’t something he was down with. Bodying grown mothafuckaz was one thing, but killing little girls was another.
“Now, let’s try this again,” T.J. started over, placing his gun to the back of Asia’s skull. “Where the fuck is Boo? I’m not gon’ ask yo’ ass again.” He looked up at Tangela as he held his banga to the back of her younger sibling’s dome piece.
Tangela was silent. She didn’t say anything. She appeared to be mulling things over. It was hard for her to give up Boo because the two of them were as good as blood sisters. They’d been tight since the second grade. They’d never even had so much as an argument so it was hard for her to come up with a reason to sell her out.
“Times up,” T.J. went to put a bullet in the back of Asia’s head, but Tangela called out to him.
“Waiiiiit!” Tangela shouted. “I’ll tell you-I’ll tell you where she’s at, just don’t kill my sister, okay?”
Te’Qui sighed with relief. He didn’t want young Asia to get popped. She hadn’t lived her life yet.
T.J. took his gun from the back of Asia’s head and walked over to Tangela. Stopping before her, he said, “Talk.”
Tangela told T.J. the address where Boo was holed up at. As soon as she finished spilling her guts, he put a hot one in her brain.
Blocka!
Tangela’s head flew backwards and her braids went up into the air, blood spraying out of the back of her dome. Blood and brain fragments dripped out of the back of her skull, as she stared up at the ceiling, wide eyed, mouth open.
“Noooooooo!” Asia jumped to her feet and shoved T.J. aside, running up the staircase. Before T.J. could fall, he righted himself. He then aimed his gun up at Asia as she fled for her life up the staircase. He tried to draw a bead on Asia, but he couldn’t get her in his sights. Realizing this, he lowered his gun and charged up the staircase after her. Te’Qui chased after him, lugging his shotgun along the way.
Asia ran into the bedroom and tried to get push the window open. She winced as she struggled to push the window open, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to see how far behind the masked men were. They were right on her ass so she started screaming for help, hoping that someone would hear her and call the police.
Asia managed to push the window open. She was about to climb out of the window until she heard T.J.’s threatening voice behind him.
“Ah, ah, ah, lil’ bitch!” T.J. taunted her, pointing his gun at her back.
Asia knew that he had the drop on her. Therefore, she was at his mercy. Acknowledging this, she whimpered and put her hands up in the air, slowly turning around to face him. She was so afraid that she’d wet her panties.
“Please, don’t kill me. There’s no reason to, I haven’t seen your face! I haven’t seen your face!” Asia broke down sobbing, shoulders rocking back and forth.
T.J. pulled off his ski-mask and held it down at his side, revealing what he looked like beneath it, and saying, “Now, you have.” he told Asia and pointed his gun at her chest.
Blocka! Blocka! Blocka! Blocka!
“Nooooooo!” Te’Qui called out as he reached out to stop T.J. from shooting the young girl but it was already too late.
Asia’s blood splashed against the windowpane and she fell back on the carpeted floor. She lay there lifeless, staring out of the side of her eyes vacantly.
“What the fuck is yo’ problem, man!” Te’Qui shoved T.J. hard as fuck, causing him to stumble backwards.
“Yo,’ watch who you put cho fucking hands on!” T.J. shoved him back more aggressively, causing him to stumble backwards as he did. Both of the gangstaz had mad dog stares plastered across their faces, looking like they were ready to pop off at any moment then. “I don’t give a fuck about none of these bitchez up in here! That bitch, Boo, ran off with my money and my dope, now a nigga on one. The way I’m feeling, anybody can get it behind mine! You feel me?”
“Lil’ momma wasn’t nothin’ but fourteen, man, she was a lil’ fuckin’ kid.” Te’Qui reasoned as he walked over to Asia’s corpse, looking down at her. He crossed himself in the sign of the holy crucifix. Afterwards, he sat his shotgun down on the nightstand and snatched the white sheet from off the bed, draping it over Asia’s body. As soon as the sheet covered her body, her blood started seeping through it, leaving crimson stains behind.
“Come on, Blood. Let’s grab that money down stairs on the table and get the fuck from outta here.” T.J. told Te’Qui. He then pulled his ski-mask over his head and adjusted it so that he could see out of the eye holes of it. Without waiting for Te’Qui to follow him, he headed out of the bedroom and headed down the staircase.