Anatomy of a Girl Gang (9781551525303) (15 page)

Uh-huh.

One of them had a toque on. A black toque.

Come on, Sly! You just described ninety-nine percent of the guys down here! How the fuck are we supposed to find them off that!

Take it easy, Kayos. I'm sure she'll recognize them when she sees them, Mercy said.

The other guy had a Canucks hat on. It was blue.

Alright. Well, at least that's something. What kind of hair did they have?

I dunno.

Yo, try to
remember!

I squeezed my eyes shut. Why was she being so mean to me? It should've been
her
out there slingin that night. And me all
cozy up in the restaurant. I felt bad for thinkin that, but it just wasn't fair, you know?

Let's cruise past Oppenheimer, Mac said.

Everyone on the street looked mean that night. The rain began to fall in thick sheets of grey, and I couldn't see shit.

Is that them? Z pointed to two guys standing around a grocery cart with a bunch of other skids. One wore a black toque, the other a Canucks cap.

I rolled down the window to get a better look.

Well?

Yeaah, that's them. I felt my throat closing up. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe.

Mercy reached for my hand. It's going to be okay, Sly. We're not going to let them hurt you again, okay? You stay in the car. Don't move, alright?

I nodded.

She turned around to the back seat. Ready?

Born ready.

Let's do this.

I watched through the windshield as the four of them approached the guys, actin all friendly. The guys were smilin and laughin and snakin their arms around Mercy and Mac. I swallowed some puke that came up my throat. The girls led them away from the group of people they were with and toward the SUV. I saw how Mercy and Mac patted the guys down, but made it look like they were just casually touching them. It was like they were pros at this. They led them around to the other side of the vehicle, I guess so their friends couldn't
see, then Mac, Mercy, and Kayos pulled their guns. Z stuck duct tape over the guys' mouths, and wrapped up their wrists behind their backs. Then Kayos took out her bear spray and sprayed it right at their faces. The guys jerked around, trying to wipe their eyes on their shoulders, each other's backs.

Mercy opened the back door.

Get in the fucking truck, Kayos said.

They got in.

Don't move, you fucking maggot. Kayos levelled her gun at Canucks guy's forehead, while Z wrapped his ankles together with duct tape, then did the other guy.

They were whimpering and moaning as I stared at them in the rear-view mirror. Part of me wanted them dead, and part of me didn't want to be doin this at all. My heart was explodin in my chest. I held my head in my hands and tried to make my breathing normal.

MERCY

I backed into our driveway and let the girls drag Sly's attackers out of the SUV. They used the sheet method, like Mac and I had with old Blue Eyes. Then I parked a few blocks away and ran back to our house.

When I got back, they had carried the guys down to the basement, and Kayos and Mac were wailing on them with their new bats. Sly Girl sat huddled in a corner, trembling. The single bare light bulb that hung from the ceiling gave all of us long, weird shadows, and darkened the circles beneath our eyes. I stepped in and gave both guys some good hard kicks to the stomach and ribs. They cowered on the cold cement and tried to shield their heads with their arms.

Get in here, Sly Girl! Kayos yelled.

Sly shook her head.

Come on, it feels good! She bashed the toque dude in the face, and his eyes went crossed. She laughed and ground the bat into his belly, hard. What do you want us to do to them, Sly?

Sly shook her head, shrugged. I dunno.

Yo, come on! This is for you! This is your chance for revenge! She turned back to the dudes. You wanna fuck with the Black Roses? Hey? You filthy pieces of shit. You're gonna get fucked. Here, hold this. She handed me the bat and raced upstairs.

I took a few cracks at their taped-up hands, because I knew that would hurt.

Z kicked them both in the junk, and they screamed like drowning puppies. They were both crying and pleading
through their duct tape. The skin around their eyes was red and puffy from the mace.

Shut up!
Mac yelled. You think it's okay to attack someone? Leave her for dead in an alley? Thought you were gonna get away with that? You fuckin idiots. You're worthless bags of skin and don't deserve to live. She whacked each of them across the face with the bat.

Kayos ran back down the stairs holding my curling iron like a sword. Her eyes were wild, and she was grinning like a mental case. She plugged the curling iron in, took the bat back from me, and started smashing their kneecaps to smithereens.

I watched as the curling iron began to glow red hot.

Pull down their pants, Kayos said to me and Z.

We looked at each other.

Do it!

Kayos … what are you—

An eye for an eye, bitches.

I looked at Mac standing in the shadows.

Yo! What are you waiting for? Kayos yelled. Pull their fucking pants down right fucking now!

I pulled down toque dude's jeans and boxers while Z did the same to Canucks guy. I stood back and stared with disgust at their pimpled hairy asses. I felt like gagging, but I swallowed it back. Sly Girl was rocking herself back and forth in the corner and staring at the wall. Her eyes looked like they had a layer of waxed paper over them.

You messed with the wrong girl, Kayos said. And then, she did it.

Toque guy screamed and flailed around on the ground. He bashed his head against the concrete floor.

Oh my God, Z said.

Kayos, Mac said.

When she slid the curling iron out, smoke was coming out his asshole. He lay motionless on the floor, his eyes closed. You could smell the burning flesh, and then I did gag.

Kay—

She rammed the curling iron up the other guy, and he let out a high-pitched, inhuman noise. He bucked and humped against the ground, but that probably only made it worse. I covered my ears and looked around the room. It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion. Sly Girl rocked, covering her eyes with her hands. Mac and Z stared, their faces pale as concrete. Kayos removed the curling iron and plunged it into him again and again. You fucker! You fucker! You fuck!

I went over to her. Tears were streaming down her face. I touched her shoulder, and her arm went limp. She turned away and sat down on the floor with a thud. She put her head in her hands and sobbed. The curling iron was still sticking out of the guy's ass. It made a sizzly sucking sound as I pulled it out. I set it down on the floor. Neither of the guys were moving.

Jesus Christ. Let's get them outta here, Mac said, nodding to me.

I made my way back to the Explorer like I was walking through Jell-O. Z, Mac, and Kayos loaded the guys back into the SUV and I drove around for a few minutes till we spotted an open dumpster with no one around. I backed up to it, and
the five of us heaved their bodies into the dumpster, let the lid fall closed with a bang.

No one said a word on the way home.

We all flopped on the couches when we got back to the house. Kayos started rolling a joint. That was awesome, she laughed.

That was way too fucked up, I said.

Yo, we're a gang, right? We gotta represent. We gotta pull a little hardcore shit out every now and then. It's the only way we're gonna survive out here. For real. Right, Mac?

Mac pressed her lips together and nodded slowly.

Anyway, we didn't give them anything they didn't deserve. Feel better, Sly?

Sly shrugged. I dunno.

I smoked two joints with them, then went into the bathroom to shower and gargle with Scope. The smell of charred flesh had lodged itself in the back of my throat, and as much as I tried, I couldn't get rid of it.

MAC

I didn't know whether to be proud or ashamed of my girls that night. Yeah, they'd shown they were hard—without a doubt—but now, we were just as evil as the crack fiends we'd blackened.

But like my Uncle Hank always says, what goes around comes around.

It had been confirmed, we weren't playing no kids' game. The Black Roses were the real McCoy, bad-ass gangster motherfuckers.

The crack fiends were still alive when we dumped them. I know because I checked for a pulse in both their ropy necks. That meant that if they didn't die in the dumpster that night, they could come after us. We'd blinded them with the pepper spray so they wouldn't have been able to see where we were going and wouldn't know where the house was. Unless they had excellent mental maps, and, let's face it, crackheads aren't really known for their spatial memory. But they'd seen all of our faces, which meant none of us was safe.

It was time to beef up security at our little house on Cordova. The cost of cheap gats had tripled recently because of a Mexican gun-run that had gone sideways. I was thinking more along the lines of recruiting a new member, a canine G.

VANCOUVER

They are slippery shadows in the night. They are beasts in bandanas. They are ruthless. They are cunning. They are brutally violent. They are born ready. They are armed. They are taught to kill or be killed. They are wanted. They are marked. They are hunted like dogs. They are respected and feared. They are angry. They are hungry. They are not taking no for an answer. They are trained professionals. They are numb to suffering. They are harder than the hardest. They are self-reliant, self-sufficient, and self-serving. They are entitled to everything. They are afraid of nothing. They are heavily armed and extremely dangerous. They are seeking revenge on the world. They are here to search and destroy. They are not sorry. They are the future. They are children, lost to my city, doing what is necessary to survive.

SLY GIRL

I think it's gonna rain forever.

Z

when Mac came hOme w/ a dawg i nearlee choked on my apple!!! i nevr wuda thought $he wuz a dawg per$un. den dere wuz di$ lil thing $kittering all ovr da hou$e. but he wuz $o cute & $o pre$hu$ & ju$t wanted 2 love u$ all up. da look on $ly Girl'$ face, man, U $huda $een it. it wa$ lyke $umthing in$yde her ju$t crAKed open & $he $myled w/ her whole bodee. he ran in circlez cheking all of u$ out, $niffing our a$$e$. he ran around evry room, den came bak & peed in da middle of da kitchen.

Oh Jesus, Mac $ed, handz on her hipz.

Don't worry. I'll get it, $ly Girl $ed, grabbing a wad of paper towelz. It's alright. It's alright, she laffed. It's just pee.

da dawg wuz a tan pit bull puppee & da mo$t adorable thing i have evr laid eyez on. i wi$hed he wuz all myne, but i knew dat Mac had gotten him 4 $ly Girl. & aftr wat $he'd been thru, $he de$erved it.

after $he cleened up hiz pee, $ly $cooped him up into her armz & nuzzled into hiz face. It's okay. Don't worry, little doggie. I'm not mad at you. $he lookd @ Mac. Do we get to keep him?

we all looked @ Mac.

What do you think?

Yeah! we all $ed & gathrd around $ly Girl 2 pet da lil $tinker. i watched Kayo$ out da cornr of my eye az $he cooed & babee-talked to da dawg. her face $oftened & it wuz lyke all her rage ju$t melted away. @ dat moment, i could imagine her az a
lil kid, wearing a pink frillee dre$$, $kipping rope, a long wayz away from da hardcore G $he wuz 2day.

where'd U get him? i a$ked Mac.

A breeder my uncle knows on the island.

Wow, he's a purebred? Kayo$ $ed.

Of course. A hundred percent American Pit Bull Terrier. Got his papers in the car. His Mom was a champion fighter.

Sick, yo.

How much did he cost? Mercy a$ked.

Enough so that we have to take really good care of him, and not let anything happen to him. Ever. Agreed?

How much? Mercy $ed.

Three.

Hundred?

Grand.

Mercy whi$tled thru her teeth. Shit, Mac, don't you think this is something we should've discussed as a gang before you went out and spent all that money?

Mac blinked az if $he'd been $lapped in da face. I wanted to surprise you guys, I … I mean, we need this dog for other reasons, Mercy.

What reasons?

Security, for one.

Oh yeah? What's it going to do? Lick intruders to death?

we all looked @ da dawg being cradled lyke a lil babee, licking $ly's fingr lyke it wuz a $au$age. Mercy wuz ryte. it wa$n't eXactly da mo$t viciou$ thing on 4 legz.

Well, that's why I got a puppy, so we could train it to be
friendly with us and mean with everyone else.

Mercy sighed & looked on az me, Kayos & $ly $mothrd da pup w/ luv & ki$$e$.

Alright, you're right. I'm sorry, Mac $ed. We should've talked about it. Made the decision together. But if you really don't want him, I'm sure the breeder will take him back.