Chapter 97

After finding everything in the closet, I found a silver aluminum baseball bat. I looked at Titus and smiled. He gave me a funny look as we emerged from the closet with the goods.

“What’s up?”

“That nigga in here lying, T. He gave up his stash too quick. I know he got some more cake in here somewhere. This little shit might just be his throwaway stash.”

“How you gon’ get him to tell you about the other so-called stash?”

“Just watch my work.” I winked and swung the bat so hard through the air that it began whistling while slicing through the airwaves.

“I’ma bag this shit up while you go do what you do,” he said as I left the bedroom to indulge in a little practice.

“What’s up, Slim? Everything cool?” Jawbreaker asked me as I entered the kitchen with an angry look on my face.

“Naw, this bitch-ass nigga lying,” I stated. I touched the victim’s left kneecap gently with the tip of the bat two times before reeling back. “Nigga, give dat shit up!” I said and swung the bat with all my might.

“Aaaaaaaaiiiiiiie !Aaaaaahhhhh!” He hollered bloody murder after the bat shattered his kneecap. “Man, I sw-swear to God…that’s….that’s everything…I swear!”

“Don’t lie to me!” I yelled. “Don’t you lie to me! You gave that shit up too quick! Ain’t no nigger doing no shit like that unless he got a back-up plan or more shit to hide!”

“Man, I swear, I got so - ”

I swung the bat again, cutting him off with a direct hit to his right knee.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh, you motherfucker! I’m telling the truth…I’m telling the truth! Okay, okay, I got some bread out in the streets that a few niggas owe me, but that’s all man, I swear. You got everything. You got everything,” Vincent cried and Jawbreaker believed him. He tapped D.C., signaling that the time had arrived for them to depart the house.

“Let ‘em live, Slim, he ain’t gon’ hold back after that. Ain’t no nigga gon’ hold back no shit like that,” Jawbreaker said as Titus appeared clutching two pillowcases.

Titus looked at Jawbreaker and gave him a nod. “He wasn’t lying, Slim. Everything’s in here,” he said, holding up the red pillowcases.

“Your little Librarian be lunchin out like shit, Slim,” D.C. joked as he headed to the front door with Jawbreaker.

As Titus followed them, I looked back at the injured victim and didn’t want to leave him alive. Going against my gut instincts, I reluctantly followed the trio to the front door.

Before they left the house, D.C. turned and asked the victim, “Ay, don’t you know Fat Man who be Uptown on Clifton?”

D.C’s question chilled Vincent to the bone and he instantly knew that this wasn’t an ordinary home invasion. He still tried to lie his way out of the situation, hoping for the best.

“Naw…naw, I don’t, Slim.”

“Stop lying, you hot-ass nigga!” D.C. said as he rushed back over to the rat. “Your hot ass knew him when you snitched on him, Safari Washington. Ricardo Epps my man, fuck you think, he wasn’t going to hip me to your bitch ass? He told me to holla at you, but you disappeared before I could get the chance.” He backed up two steps. “So go ahead and snitch on this!” D.C. said. He raised his gun and shot the rat several times in the head.

“That nigga was hot, huh?” I asked D.C. as we headed out of the house.

“Yeah, his bitch ass ate the cheese,” Zetta’s uncle replied before we separated.

Titus threw the pillowcases in the trunk of the DST and we got in and pulled off. After we turned on Brightseat Road, we waited until the Burgundy 350ZX got in front of us and sped up the road.

Titus followed the car to the Boulevard. The place we parked in used to be the old Capitol Center, but it got a make-over. Now the place had a lot of little stores, the twelve-screen Magic Johnson movie theaters, a Sports Authority, and Lavar Arrington’s Sports Bar

After getting out of the car, Titus opened the trunk and waited. Second later, we were breaking down $120,000 evenly four ways. The other pillowcase had eight kilos inside. I didn’t want to be greedy, so I gave the two kilos they offered me to Titus.

As we headed inside the sports bar, I saw the rat that snitched on Lance “Big Six” Applewhite, a good man I knew who had to do ten years because of this bitch ass heading my way.