Months passed. My money and reputation grew steadily. I couldn’t be sure if the police had gotten a whiff of me yet, but by me knowing just how jealous niggas are, not to mention the rat ass niggas that would snitch out their own mamas to keep from having to do 30 days, let alone a real bid, I figured they just may have. Shell had a straight up dope habit. He’d started juxing niggas on the regular. It seemed like every few days, same broad or some nigga would see me and be like “Yo! Shell robbed such and such from the South Side!” or “Damn, Shell robbed everybody on the block in Liberty Street last night!” The shit was coming to be expected. He never told me about any of his…. “capers,” but he would always show up and just throw me jewelry, work, etc; even though he knew my paper was straight, and that I knew he was robbing niggas for the shit. The way I saw it, better for me to take the shit, before he tricked the shit off or sniffed it up his damn nose. Although I’d stopped hustling on the block, I was still in the projects a lot. Monique played her position like a true gangsta bitch. She knew I was still fucking lots of chics. The shit came with the job. I never disrespected her and that was all she needed to know. She was happy with that. She was my wifey, and she knew all other broads came after that. It was what it was, she could take it or leave it. She chose to take it. But as all my real niggas know, nothing ever stays sweet for long. There’s always a calm before the storm, and in my case, the storm came outta nowhere.
It was Friday night and I was putting in a lil quality time with Monique before I went out to the club later. Hood was doing thirty days in jail for probation violation, and Keisha had begged me to come and spend the night. I promised her I would, but only if I could fuck her on the back porch. Just for the freakiness of it. Quickly she replied “Okay.” I’d planned on eating Monique out extra good, and fucking her to sleep before I stepped out. It was about eight o’clock when Monique and I pulled up to the packed parking lot of the Angus Barn. “Damn baby it’s a lot of people here. You wanna go somewhere else?” Monique asked, even though she’d just told me earlier that she wanted to go to Angus Barn because she’d never eaten there.
“No. You said you wanted to eat here, so this is where we’re going.” I told her as we continued around to the back, where we finally located a parking space. We checked ourselves in the mirror, got out and started across the huge parking lot, walking arm in arm. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black Lincoln Navigator came to a screeching halt in front of us, just inches from running us over! Out of the Navigator, jumped two niggas with ratchets in their hands. One of them was a short dumpy looking cat with dreadlocks, and the other was the fattest, blackest, ugliest motherfucker that I’d ever seen. I reached to my waistband and immediately thought of how I’d just got caught slippin. I’d left my gun in the car.
“Well, well, well. So, this is the infamous Teddy Banks. Don’t look like much to me.” The fat nigga grinned, as he walked toward me with his pistol aimed at my head.
“Joe please don’t! …. “SMACK”! Fat man backhanded Monique to the ground!
“Motherfucker!” Off instinct, I jumped to try and get at fat man, and immediately saw a bright flash of light, as I was hit in the back of the head with the butt of dumpy dreadlocks pistol! Warm blood ran down the back of my neck as I landed on the ground hard beside Monique. Instinctively I struggled to rise, only to have short dread press his foot to the back of my neck, and his gun to the back of my head. Furiously I watched while fat man snatched Monique up by the back of her neck, blood dripping from her nose like heavy rain drops! I was boiling inside and couldn’t do shit! Only a foolish motherfucker would try to fight a nigga with a gun empty handed. And in this case, two guns! With gritting teeth, Fat man snatched Monique to him like a rag doll, lifting her off her feet holding her up to his eye level with one hand, as she choked and kicked with her eyes bulging unnaturally!
“I see you done forgot who the fuck I am black bitch.” Fat man breathed into Monique’s face, before finally flinging her against a white Ford Contour, leaving her gasping greedily for some much - needed oxygen! Grabbing Monique by her hair, fat man half walked, half drug her over, and stood on top of me while short dreadlock pushed his gun tighter against my skull. “You know what Banks? I don’t really give a fuck about this tar baby right here. She’ll always be my slut. I taught her everything she knows. All that shit you enjoying, I taught this bitch that shit. My slut.” As he spoke, he snaked his hand slowly up Monique’s skirt, while Monique screamed uselessly, reaching down to try and stop fat man’s progress, only to have fat man smack her three times back to back so hard, it almost rendered her unconscious as her legs went limp! “Now, as I was saying. Big Joe could care less about a bitch. Even wit niggas saying you took her from me and all that dumb shit, when in reality, I used the bitch up and threw you the leftover scraps when I was finished.” Big Joe? Suddenly, as the fact of who fat man actual was came to the light, my eyes boiled red with rage! I was beyond furious! The entire time he talked to me, he kept his hand digging around underneath Monique’s skirt! When he finally removed his hand, he examined it, then licked his fingers while staring down at me smiling. I wanted to kill this nigga! But I knew if I made a move, it would probably prove fatal for Monique and me. “Go ahead. Try it.” Big Joe mocked me. Monique who had slowly regained her legs, stared at me with tears running down her face, mixed with the blood that ran from her nose and mouth. She knew what I was thinking, but the terrified look in her eyes begged me not to. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. The bitch aint worth it. Trust me, I know.” Big Joe grinned and pushed Monique down on the ground beside me. “But on some real shit Banks, this shit aint even about me and you. Or that trick you sporting around wit you for that matter. Nah, this shit right here is about your bitch ass homeboy Shell. That ho ass nigga robbed me last night, and now he gotta die! So, tell me where I can find him and I won’t kill you and your tramp.”
I couldn’t believe this bullshit! I was playing fair with niggas. Getting money and letting other niggas eat too. Now out of nowhere, this nigga was causing me to get off my square, because of the simple yet unavoidable fact, that if Joe didn’t kill me, he was no more to me than a dead man walking. Either him, or me would have to go. There’s no way we could co-exist on this planet! He had disrespected me to the point of no return, and in a sense, I think he knew it. I was skeptical about coming out of this situation alive. The crazy shit was, we were sitting in the
parking lot of this huge ass restaurant, and nobody had as much as driven by! For some reason, I felt it just wasn’t my night. “I don’t keep up with Shell’s whereabouts. He’s my homeboy not my bitch. He does his thing and I do mine.” I looked the nigga square in the eye, just to show him that my anger, had overcome and surpassed any fear he may have been searching for.
“Yo Ish, what you think? This pussy telling the truth?” So that was dreadlocks name? “Ish.” Quickly I stored it in my mind for later use.
“Joe please! He doesn’t kno….”
“Shut up trick! When I want you to open your mouth, I’ll stick my dick in it! “Big Joe cut Monique off.
“Hey, what’s going on back here?” I heard a preppy sounding voice ask.
“Start the truck Ish!” Big Joe ordered without haste. “When you see your boy, tell him to go ahead and start planning his funeral.” Big Joe barked as he reached down and snatched my Cuban link from my neck! Without another word, they ran back to the Navigator, jumped in and rocketed off into the night. Monique helped me off the ground, as a slender white guy with wire rimmed glasses and a plaid sweater, approached us with concern.
“Holy crap!” The man threw his hand over his mouth at the sight of our appearance. “Stay here I’m going to get help!” He yelled over his shoulder as he ran off in the direction of the restaurant.
“Come on. We gotta get the fuck outta here!” I definitely wasn’t sticking around for no question asking cops, as I grabbed Monique and ran to the car, wiping blood and tears from her face with the sleeve of my shirt. Looking in the mirror as we pulled out of the parking lot, I saw that a group of people had gathered at the spot we had just vacated. No, I couldn’t let the police be involved with this shit. I looked over at Monique’s busted nose and swollen lip and banged my fists down on the steering wheel. “Motherfucker!” Monique jumped like I’d just fired a pistol inside the car!
“It’s okay baby. I’m fine. Were okay baby.” Monique tried to calm me with soothing words and pleading eyes. She knew that only sinister thoughts were running through my mind. She might as well have been talking to a brick wall. I was a soldier, and that fat motherfucker had just declared war! I looked at Monique and she dropped her head into her hands and cried. She knew this shit wouldn’t be over until either him or me was dead. Out of nowhere, the calm had gone and the storm had arrived.