Dutch (26 page)

“Take him, Nard, what the fuck is you waiting fo—”

The shot from Jeremy’s gun seemed unreal at first, a mistake, a misfortune, something that wasn’t suppose to be, a gap, a
space, time that needed to rewind. In slow motion, so slow, Jeremy felt Poncho’s body slump to the floor as Nard watched Poncho,
his main man, die right in front of him. Poncho’s blood, and fragments of his head, landed all over the wall and covered the
entire side of the room. His blood even splattered on Nard, all this within a matter of seconds.

Instinct moved through Nard, like a thief in the night, and like lightning, the bullet from that tiny .22 pierced through
Jeremy’s chest and threw him back several steps, as his body began to slump against the door. His fingers unable to grasp,
he dropped his gun and looked down at the blood pouring out of his body, then fell to the floor, lying on his back. He stared
up at the ceiling as his body stopped breathing. Jeremy didn’t even see it coming, it just happened so fast. Nard hit him
with the strike of magic and poof, just like that, Jeremy was gone.

“Fuck!” yelled Nard, holding his head in his right hand, his gun still in his left. “Fuck, god damn it. Fuck you come here
for, stupid-ass motherfuckers?” he yelled, angrily interrogating a dead Jeremy and a dead Lance. “Damn, what the fuck am I
gonna do now?”

He surveyed the room as he talked and cursed the dead bodies around him. “Motherfuckers!” he said as he kicked a lifeless
Jeremy.
What am I going to do? What the fuck?
He checked the three bodies lying on the floor for a pulse, starting with his man, Poncho.

“Damn, Ponch, man. I’m so sorry, man. I’m so sorry,” he said as he felt Poncho’s wrist. “I love you, man. I love you. Fuck!”
He started thinking about the consequences of what had just happened. “Fucking police, man. Fuck, what am I going to do?”

He just couldn’t think straight, his brain was overwhelmed, to say the least. He threw all the crack, vials, and other paraphernalia
into a duffel bag that was lying under the table and left the other one, which was empty lying on the floor. He looked around
the room, grabbed everything that belonged to him, tried to wipe off the table, doorknobs, and everything else he had touched
in the crack spot and quickly ran out the door and down a flight of stairs.

“Hey, Nard, be careful, they shooting in the building.”

He quickly turned around, his gun still in his hand, but tucked inside the front pocket of his hoodie.

“Hey, Shorty,” he said as he looked at a kid standing in the vestibule. He couldn’t have been more than nine, maybe ten years
old. He didn’t know the kid’s name, but this kid knew his. “Yeah, you be careful too, kid.”

He quickly brushed past him, threw his hoodie over his head, made his way out the door, and quickly walked down the street
to his car.

“DaShawn, get in here! Don’t you hear them shooting? Come on, boy!”

Nard looked up and saw a young black girl hanging out a window, hollering for the same young kid that Nard had just brushed
past inside the building.

“I’m coming, Ma. I’m right here.”

Nard could hear the little boy as he walked away from the spot.

Please tell me this kid ain’t no problem, or the window chick. Fuck, man, fuck! I need me an alibi. And where the fuck is
Sticks? Simon is gonna be heated, but at least I got his coke. That’s all I need to do is get at Simon. I got to get rid of
this gun, too. Yeah, that’s all I’ll need is an alibi and I’m good.

While working as a legal secretary for a law firm and juggling motherhood in Philadelphia, PA, Teri Woods completed her first
novel,
True to the Game
. Teri submitted her story over a period of six years to more than twenty different publishers, all of whom rejected it. In
1998, Teri printed, bound, self-published, and began selling her book from the trunk of her car on the streets of Philadelphia
and New York.

With support and encouragement of friends, Teri started her own publishing company, Meow Meow Productions, which later became
Teri Woods Publishing. In the fall of 2007, Teri joined Grand Central Publishing, formerly known as Warner Books, with the
re-release of
True to the Game
, as well as
True to the Game II
,
True to the Game III
, and Teri’s first hardcover,
Alibi
.

As the owner of Teri Woods Publishing, Teri has published twelve novels:
True to the Game
,
Dutch
,
Dutch II
,
Deadly Reigns I
,
Deadly Reigns II
,
Angel
,
B-More Careful
,
The Adventures of Ghetto Sam
,
Triangle of Sins
,
Rectangle of Sins
,
Tell Me Your Name
, and
Double Dose
.
True to the Game
,
B-More Careful
,
Dutch
,
Triangle of Sins
,
Rectangle of Sins
,
Deadly Reigns I
,
Deadly Reigns II
, and
Angel
have been featured on the
Essence
bestseller list numerous times collectively.
True to the Game II
and
True to the Game III
both hit the
New York Times
bestseller list.

Teri currently resides in New Jersey with her three children and is hard at work on her next novel.