For the Strength of You (12 page)

“Anshon, phone!” Wood C shouted from the kitchen.

“Speak,” Anshon said when Wood C handed him the phone.

“This Anshon?” a soft voice asked.

“Yeah, who dis?”

“This is Larrisha.”

“Look, your plan is taking too fuckin' long. You got somethin' or not?”

“Yes. I have a name.”

“What is it?”

“Kristi. Kristi Connelly. She drives a gold Lexus.” She gave Anshon Kristi's license plate and address. “Her sister's name is Constance Connelly. She's a prison guard. The ball is now in your court.”

As Anshon stormed out the door to his Chevy with Deck and Wood C on his heels, he could only think of revenge for his sister.

They stopped in Clayton first. Deck picked up his MAC-11, then the three moved on to Cary. Wood C had two glocks, and Anshon had his gorilla back in his lap.

“Stay within the speed limit,” Wood C cautioned as Anshon became heavy on the gas. “We don't need to get caught behind no bullshit.”

Once they reached Cary, it took them close to thirty minutes to find Kristi's place, and just as Larrisha promised, a gold Lexus E330 was sitting in the parking lot.

* * *

Kristi was in the kitchen talking to her sister, Constance, and making plans to tell Anshon the truth about Wallo and Teck.

Anshon knocked on the door. “Who is it?” Kristi asked politely.

“Somebody order pizza?” asked the voice from behind the closed door.

“Let me call you back, Constance.” After hanging up the phone, she looked through the peephole to see who she thought was a pizza deliveryman with his back turned.

They're always getting the duplex numbers wrong
, she thought.

Kristi opened the door, and before she could say a word, two masked men forced their way in. Wood C backed up and tossed the empty pizza box he had found in the dumpster to the floor, as he pulled his mask down.

Deck went to search the rooms with the MAC-11, as Wood C took up his spot by the window. Anshon had the gorilla pointed at Kristi's head, as Deck cased the place to make sure she was alone.

“Now,” Anshon said from behind the masked face. “I want some fuckin' answers, Kristi Connelly, and I want the right ones!” He pointed a black gloved finger at her.

Kristi was cringed up on her sofa with her eyes locked on the big gun stuck in her face.

“Now, question number one,” Anshon said. “Where do you work?”

“At . . . a bank,” she said, trembling.

“Is Constance your sister?”

“Yes,” she cried.

“Tell me what happened when the young lady in the white Mercedes truck was killed.”

“I don't recall.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Anshon cocked the hammer back, making the five-shot chamber slowly rotate. The loud click made tears fall from her eyes. Kristi buried her face in her hands.

“Bitch, you got Alzheimer's or somethin'? Now let's try this again.” He yanked her up by her hair and placed the barrel to her head.

“Please!” she sobbed. “Oh God, p-please don't kill me.”

“Don't kill you? Do you think the woman in the Mercedes truck begged for her life? Now shut up!” he shouted. “And answer my fuckin' question!” His voice was laced with anger.

Kristi slumped to the floor as he shoved her to the ground.

“Answer the question!”

“I went to work,” she cried, “at the b-bank that day.”

“And!”

“I . . . left w-w-work early.”

“Go on!”

“I called my baby's father.”

“Teck?”

“Yes.”

“And what?” Anshon said through clenched teeth.

Tears slowly fell from Kristi's eyes as she came clean. “It was Teck and Wallo. Not me . . . or my sister. I swear to God it wasn't us.”

“Bitch, if you wanna live, you better give me the right answer!” Anshon said with the gun back to her head. “Did dem clowns rob my sister?”

“Yo!” Wood C exclaimed, but it was too late. Anshon had slipped up and gave a clue to who he was.

“Anshon, please,” Kristi cried.

“Man, shit!” Deck cursed. They knew what had to be done.

“Please don't kill me,” she cried on her knees. “I didn't know they were gonna kill your sister. I was gonna call you anyway . . . me and my sister.”

“Let's go see them niggas!” Wood C said. “Fuck all this talk!”

Anshon took a deep breath to slow his heartbeat down. He glanced at Deck. Deck nodded his head.

“Please don't kill me, Anshon,” she pleaded. “Please, oh God,” she cried.

He slowly backed up, and she ran toward him.

“Slow the fuck down!” Wood C came up from behind, grabbed her chin, and placed a hand on her forehead, snapping her neck. Her body jerked around on the floor for a few seconds before she dropped dead.

A few minutes later, they were back in the Chevy with Wood C behind the wheel. “Which twin we gettin' first?” Wood C asked.

Anshon shrugged his shoulders with tears running down his face. “My sister told me,” he sniffed, “that you can take care of your enemies, but you need God to help you with your friends. She ain't never lied.”

“Let's do this shit right, y'all!” Wood C said. “Let's lay these clowns down on the low so we can still walk da streets. I ain't goin' to prison and ain't gonna go on the run, so let's think this shit through, a'ight?”

“No doubt!” Deck added from the back.

* * *

Wallo, who was still pretending to be Teck, woke up with a broken glass bottle to his throat. Fe-Fe looked him in the eyes. “I done been on the streets long enough to let a nigga know that I ain't the one. If I say don't fuckin touch me, don't fuckin' touch me.”

Wallo looked at Fe-Fe like she was crazy. “You got that, ma. You got that.”

* * *

The real Teck was in Redwood with Constance. He stood in her kitchen with Wallo's motorcycle helmet in his hand as Constance tried to call her sister Kristi for the third time.

“I don't understand why she's not picking up the phone,” Constance said.

“Try your momma's crib,” Teck suggested.

“I know she's not there.”

Teck glanced at his watch. “Find that bitch!” he spat. “And you better know where she is by the time I get back!”

Constance just wanted Teck to leave so she and Kristi could carry out the plan to tell Anshon about Teck and Wallo.

“Where you going?” Constance asked.

“Back to the storage to get my ride and park his.”

“Why y'all switch?” Constance pressed.

“Does it matter?” he said, putting the helmet on. Teck knew his brother was over at Fe-Fe's. The original plan was for Teck to kill Constance because she was beginning to talk too much.

When she had first started fucking with Anshon in prison, the plan was for her to find out where Anshon and Tammy kept their work and their stash; but for some reason, Anshon didn't let Constance get too close to him.

* * *

Constance figured she'd take a shower before she headed to Cary. She tried calling Kristi but was receiving no answer. Constance stepped out of the shower ten minutes later. She wrapped the towel over her breasts and tiptoed into her bedroom. She nearly slipped and fell on her ass when she found Anshon sitting on her bed.

“How did you get in here?” she asked. “Better yet . . . why are you here?”

“The door was opened up when I knocked,” he lied. He had come through the back door by picking the lock after creeping through the woods. “Me and my girl got into a fight.”.

“Oh.” Constance smiled. “Well, in that case.” She took the towel off and walked toward him. She made her breasts jiggle from side to side.

“So you miss me, huh?” She reached for his hand, placing it between her legs.

“Wallo ain't gonna show?”

“No, baby. He's in High Point.” She sat next to him and went to work at his zipper. “Baby, I miss this so much,” she purred, pulling his dick out and playing with it.

He didn't say anything as she buried her face in his lap and started sucking his dick. He was kind enough to hold her wet hair.

She really got into it, bobbing up and down with quick motions. “Mmmmmm!” she moaned as she took him deeper into her wet mouth, making him cum with the last stroke of her tongue.

“Drink that cum, baby,” he moaned as she lapped it up. “That's it.” He stroked her hair. “All of it.”

Once she was done and lifted her head up to ask if he had a condom so they could fuck, he placed the barrel of his revolver to her soft pink lips.

“Pretend that this a big black dick, like the one you just finished sucking on.” Slowly he stood up with the gorilla in her face as he fixed his pants. “Where Teck and Wallo?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“Bitch, you know the saying: If you can say huh, you can hear. Yeah, I know all about what you did to my sister!”

Constance slid back toward the headboard, shivering. “What are you talking about?” she screamed.

He tried to quiet her by smacking her upside the head with the gun. Just his luck, he did it too hard and opened a bleeding gash near her hairline. She was stunned.

“Where they at?” he hissed in her ear.

“S-storage,” she cried, frightened by the blood trickling down her face.

“What?”

“S-storage. . . . He's gone to get his van in Clayton.”

“Did the twins kill my sister?”

“Yes.” She nodded. The blood was beginning to collect in the corner of her mouth.

“They shot my sister the first time too?” He yanked her hair back.

“Yes,” she cried.

Anshon couldn't help the tears falling from his eyes. “Bitch, you could've told me about the twins. Then my sister would be alive!” Anshon pulled the trigger back and shot Constance twice in the head as she spent her last breath begging for her life. “And that's on the strength of you, Tammy,” Anshon mumbled. He spit on Constance's body on his way out. “Dumb bitch!”

* * *

Teck was halfway to Clayton when he realized he'd left the keys to the storage unit in Constance's bedroom. He made a quick U-turn then gunned the engine, bringing the front wheel in the air. When the wheel touched the pavement, he was going 91 miles per hour. He reached Redwood in record-breaking time.

He left his helmet on as he went up to the door and knocked. When she didn't answer, he opened the door with his brother's key. Once inside, he called out her name as he slid the tinted visor up. He ran up the stairs and called her name once again.

He opened the bedroom door. “Yo, Constance, I forgot—” He paused at the sight before him. “Constance!” he shouted “What the fuck! Constance!”

Constance's blood was flowing from the bed and covered half the floor. Teck pulled off his helmet and fell to his knees. “What the fuck happened?” he shouted.

He jumped up and raced out the door. Not knowing where he would end up, he knew he had to get the hell out. He hopped on his bike, and before he realized where he was headed, he found himself pulling up to Fe-Fe's.

Fe-Fe was still curled up in the bed when her doorbell rang. She jumped up and ran toward the door, praying it was Anshon. She looked at the person standing at her door and saw it was the real Teck.

“Oh my God!” she screamed. “Wallo tried to rape me.” She fell into Teck's arms. “Teck, can you believe it? He's upstairs!”

Teck pushed her away and started calling for his brother to come downstairs. “Wallo! Wallo!”

Wallo jumped up and ran down the stairs.

“I know what the plan was,” Teck said, “but somebody else killed Constance. It's some shit in the game.”

“What!” Wallo screamed.

Teck took a deep breath then explained to his brother how he had found Constance. Teck and Wallo were so upset about not knowing what the hell was going on that they didn't pay Fe-Fe any mind as she went to her bedroom. She called Anshon on his cell phone.

She quickly told Anshon that the twins were over and that some crazy shit was going down. Just as she was about to mention Constance, she heard the phone click off.

Fe-Fe quickly got dressed and quietly ran back down the stairs. She tipped into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. She wanted to sneak out the back door, but she was scared the twins might hear her and shoot her, so she just laid low with a knife tucked under the hoodie she had on.

In the living room, she found Wallo sitting on the couch with his face buried in his hands, crying as Teck paced the floor with his cell phone to his ear, trying to call Kristi.

Teck was shook. He couldn't reach Kristi. He pushed the
REDIAL
button for the third time.

“Baby, please pick up,” he said as he tapped his fist to his lips. After the ninth ring, he hung up. “I'm out. Stay here until I get back,” Teck instructed. I'ma go see Kristi.”

“Fe-Fe,” Teck said, looking around the room, “don't let him leave. And Wallo, don't fuck with her.” Teck headed for the door.

“Nigga, dis ain't Holiday fuckin' Inn!” she snapped. “Both y'all asses can step!” She pointed toward the front door.

Teck turned around and pointed the black .40 cal at Fe-Fe's chest. “You heard what the fuck I said! Now talk slick and see if I don't make light shine through your body!”

Fe-Fe wasn't stupid. She nodded her head up and down.