CHAPTER 18
Li’l Monk shoved the door of his apartment building open with so much force that it hit the wall and the glass cracked. As usual his father had managed to get into his head, and in doing so he forced Li’l Monk to face something that he had been trying to block out of his mind. Once meant you killed somebody; twice made you a killer.
He had recounted the story for Ramses, and again for Chucky during the ride back from the Bronx, but Li’l Monk hadn’t had a chance to process it yet. The scene had been playing on repeat all night and throughout the day in his head, the deafening bang of the pistol, the smell of gunpowder, the blood. It was the blood that stuck out more than anything. Li’l Monk could remember looking at the hallway floor and wondering who was going to clean up all the blood. Initially he thought that he’d be burdened with guilt after committing murder, but strangely enough he wasn’t. He felt neither good nor bad about the deed. It was simply something that happened, like stumbling on a broken piece of sidewalk, but not breaking your stride. What he’d learned was that the more you took life, the less complicated it became. It was the second person he had ever killed, and he knew he could do it again without reservations.
On the corner of his block, he saw Omega talking to Chucky. Chucky was one of the last people he wanted to see at that point. It was bad enough that Chucky already disliked Li’l Monk for reasons he wouldn’t say, but things seemed to get worse after what happened to Benny. Chucky hadn’t come out and said anything, but the way he glared at Li’l Monk and Omega the whole ride back from the apartment said that he held them responsible for what had happened to his friend. Li’l Monk walked up on the tail end of their conversation, but he didn’t miss the sharp tones being traded back and forth.
“Chucky, how many times you gonna ask me about this shit? I told you everything that I told Ramses,” Omega was saying.
“Maybe there was something you left out . . . something that you maybe told Ramses when you called to tell him about the murders,” Chucky said in an accusatory tone. When Chucky saw Li’l Monk approaching, he visibly tensed. He seemed jittery and his eyes were glassy. Li’l Monk had seen the look before, but kept the observation to himself.
“What up, killer?” Chucky asked sarcastically.
Li’l Monk fought back the urge to slap Chucky. “You tell me. I didn’t mean to interrupt your little chat.”
“Nah, you ain’t interrupting nothing. As a matter of fact, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been trying to get ya man Omega help me to fill in some of the blanks about what happened to Benny,” Chucky told Li’l Monk.
Li’l Monk shrugged. “It’s like my man told you, we’ve been over all this already.”
“Well, if I wanna go over it one hundred more times, muthafucka, we will!” Chucky snapped. His eyes were wild and the corners of his mouth were white with dry spit.
Li’l Monk took one look at Chucky and knew without a doubt that he was high off more than weed and not in total control of himself. He would be mindful of it, but he wasn’t going to allow Chucky to disrespect him any further. “Chucky.” He set his bags on the ground and gave Chucky his undivided attention. “I’m gonna tell you like I told Ramses, and let’s hope that’s the end of it. Some niggas came through to rob the spot, and me and O laid ’em down. Unfortunately, one of them was connected to your peoples. Now I can understand you being upset, but your problem ain’t with me. You need to direct that anger at whoever it is you’re really mad at because neither me nor Omega has done anything to you.”
Chucky’s face twisted angrily. “What you dropping your bag for like you wanna do something?”
“Chucky, I ain’t trying to do nothing. I’m just trying to tell you what it is. I don’t want no problems,” Li’l Monk said in as calm a voice as he could muster. His patience was wearing thin with Chucky, but he didn’t want problems with Ramses. He was too new to the crew to make waves. It seemed like his attempt at diplomacy only made Chucky more agitated.
“You’re damn right you don’t want no problems. I don’t care who you killed, I’m still the top gun around this muthafucka,” Chucky sneered. “You think because Ramses gives you a pat on the head like a good little dog, you got a voice at the table? I’ve seen a hundred little punks like you come and go and they all thought they would be Ramses’s new number one, but I’m still holding that spot! You ain’t shit but a soldier and that’s all you’ll ever be, just like your daddy!”
“Fuck you say about my father, nigga?” Li’l Monk took a step toward Chucky, but Omega stepped between them.
“Be easy, my nigga. Chucky is on one right now. He don’t mean nothing by it,” Omega whispered to him.
“Fuck that, don’t hold him back. Let him go so he can come get some of what I got for him.” Chucky pulled his gun.
“You think yours was the last gun they made?” Li’l Monk drew the gun his father had given him . . . the gun that had cut the man down in the lobby. He could almost hear it pleading with him to feed it more bodies.
Before the confrontation could go on an unmarked police car slowed alongside them. The window rolled down and Detective Wolf glared at them. “Everything okay, boys?”
“Everything is fine.” Chucky hid the gun behind his back. “Me and the young boys are just talking a little shit. Ain’t that right?” He turned to Li’l Monk.
“Yeah, just talking shit,” Li’l Monk agreed. His gun was pressed to the back of his thigh, ready to give it to Chucky or the cop, if either of them moved funny.
Wolf’s thick lips parted into a grin and he nodded, like he knew something that he wasn’t telling. “Why don’t y’all go talk shit on somebody’s corner? This corner belongs to me. Ain’t that right, Chucky?”
“You got it. I got shit I need to be attending to anyway,” Chucky told him. He turned back to Li’l Monk. “We’re gonna continue this conversation another time,” he promised and hopped in his car.
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Li’l Monk called after him as Chucky pulled off. A few seconds after he’d gone, the police car left too.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Chucky is a lieutenant out here!” Omega scolded Li’l Monk.
“I wouldn’t give a fuck if he was the president. If Chucky ever pulls a gun on me again I’m gonna kill that dude and take it up with Ramses after,” Li’l Monk said seriously. “What the fuck is his problem anyhow?”
“He’s probably going through the motions over what happened with Benny. That was some made-for-TV shit that went down.”
“True story,” Li’l Monk agreed. “What would make a nigga who is already in a good position fuck himself up like that?”
“Greed,” Omega said flatly. “It’s greedy niggas who are fucking the game up. A nigga like me, I ain’t hard to please. Pay me what I’m worth, according to what I bring to the table, and I’m good. It’s when niggas start feeling like they’re entitled to more when shit gets twisted and muthafuckas find themselves tied to chairs and shit.”
“I can’t even lie, I thought Ramses was gonna have that dude killed. I was surprised when all he did was exile him. Where do you think Benny is gonna relocate to?”
“Potter’s Field.” Omega laughed. “If I know Ramses, Benny is probably being committed to an unmarked patch of dirt as we speak.”
“But he said—”
“I know what he said, but with Ramses what he says and what he does can sometimes differ. That shit was mostly for Chucky’s benefit. I’m fucked up about what went on with Benny too, but at the end of the day he broke one of Pharaoh’s cardinal rules: he stole. To Pharaoh, a thief is damn near as bad as a rapist.”
“You think Chucky knows?” Li’l Monk asked.
Omega thought about it before answering. “In his heart, he probably does and I’ll bet it’s fucking him up. That would explain his behavior.”
Or whatever he’s on, Li’l Monk thought but he didn’t voice it.
“Let’s get up off this corner and make a move before Officer Dickhead comes back and gives us grief. I got a shorty who doesn’t live far from here, and we can shower and change at her crib, before we go pick Sophie and Tasha up,” Omega said.
Li’l Monk laughed. “Damn you on your pimp shit, huh?”
“Nah, I’m just living fast and young. We only got one life and mine will be lived with no regrets.”
“So, where we gonna take them?” Li’l Monk asked. He had never really been on an official date and wasn’t sure what the etiquette was.
“I know a spot downtown where they’re having a music showcase. One of the bouncers is a friend of mine, so we don’t have to worry about showing ID or getting in with our pistols,” Omega filled him in.
“Sounds good to me. Do you think I should hit Ramses up and let him know what went down between me and Chucky?” Li’l Monk asked.
“Man, fuck that shit for right now. When Chucky sobers up and crawls out of his feelings everything will be back to normal. Stop worrying so much, my nigga. Tonight is all about having a good time. Whatever troubles you’ve got will still be waiting for you tomorrow.”
Li’l Monk nodded in agreement with his friend. They had been promoted and it was cause to celebrate and he shouldn’t let other people’s bullshit steal his joy; still, he couldn’t help but to think of Chucky and how he had been acting. Had Chucky been anyone else, Li’l Monk would’ve given him a good beating already, but Chucky was a part of Ramses’s inner circle and laying hands on him might put him out of favor with Ramses. Li’l Monk saw the writing on the wall and Chucky was a disaster waiting to happen. He had already made it clear that he was going to be a problem, and Li’l Monk knew he would have to deal with him sooner or later, he just had to figure out how.