Prelude

“What?” I said in disbelief over the telephone. I was talking to my partner N. He was about to come home in a few days. Well, at least I thought he was. Apparently another rat was willing to come to court and testify against him. “Slim, you sure it’s him?” I asked again because I was shocked. The person he was accusing of telling on him had me jive messed up in the head, because I would have never thought that he would switch sides like that. Everybody loved the nigga.

“Yeah, homeboy,” N said. “Slim, I’m too close to be getting beat down at the finish line. You need to holla at that nigga for me.”

“Ay, say no more. I’ma come over the jail and see you in a few days, a’ight.”

“A’ight, bet. Oh, and Riff-Raff say good looking out on that thing. He should be getting some play in court any day now.”

“A’ight, well look, Moses. I got my lil man with me right now, so I’m gone. Love you, nigga, and I’ll see you in a few days,” I said.

“Love you too, nigga,” N said and ended the call.

I couldn’t believe that after close to twenty-eight months of being out of the game, it jumped up and pulled me right back in. I had been lying low after doing a lot of killing in the city because I messed around and got caught on a surveillance tape by the feds while I was kidnapping a rat lover. The tape was weak, but I wasn’t taking any chances, so I just lay low all together. Now I was a father of a healthy two-year-old son, co-owner of a nightclub, CEO of Omerta Press (a small publishing company that specialized in urban literature) and engaged to marry my baby Markita, the sister of a rat who I had to kill a few years ago. Hopefully that skeleton never got out of the closet.

We moved out to Alexandria, Virginia into a nice $400,000 Toll Brothers home to be closer to the nightclub. I made Markita quit college after she had the baby. I had enough money to hold us over for the time being, plus the nightclub was jumping, bringing in tons of money on a nightly basis. I even allowed a few go-go bands to play out there, which really got the club notoriety from people in the city. Now I had to jeopardize losing all that to help out a good man who I really felt deserved to be back on the streets.

This time I would definitely be moving with caution. A few years ago I was reckless and just didn’t give a fuck, which cost me my best friend, Aaron. He was murdered because he was close to me and the rat that wanted to kill me dogged him out just to get me to come out of hiding. Aaron’s death still hurts to this day because he wasn’t in the game. He was just an ordinary Moe – a working man. I knew what I was up against now and I had no plans of going back to prison for nobody. I done tied up all my loose ends so I could finally live a peaceful and normal life, but just like an old timer told me one day, “You never get outta dis shit once you in it, young nigga. The only way out is the graveyard or getting an asshole full of time in the penitentiary!”

I been there and done that asshole full of time in the pen, and believe me, it was nothing pretty at all. I got a second chance after getting back on appeal on a technicality. After handling my business, I just finally got around to living a normal life - until I got N’s disturbing phone call. My loyalty to the game and rectifying all the wrongs done to it by rats and fake motherfuckers had me ready to jump back into it full throttle. I knew if I let this rat live, I wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night. I know it may sound crazy to some, but the way I came up in the game, staying true to it was the only thing that mattered to me.

If you feel where I’m coming from, then buckle up your seat belts and take a ride with me through a city where it goes down at. A couple dudes are real, but for the rest…yeah, they low down rats.