Gangsta Divas (30 page)

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Authors: De'nesha Diamond

BOOK: Gangsta Divas
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47
Ta′Shara
″
A
ll is well. ” That's all that Profit ever says nowadays. Somehow we both have made it through hell only to become ghosts in our own lives. If you can call what we do now as living.
I don't.
Love sustains our hearts while revenge consumes our souls. It's been months since the Vice Lords lowered their leader, Fat Ace, into the ground. And since then, Profit hasn't missed a Saturday where he would come out to his brother's grave to shed a few tears and give the proper respect.
Him and Lucifer.
They are a solemn pair; Profit with his broadening shoulders and mounting muscles and Lucifer with her growing belly. More than once people have mistaken them for a couple and more than once I've wondered if I'm out of place for remaining by his side. I can't bring a smile to his face or hope to his heart anymore—hell, I can't even do that shit for myself.
There is chaos in the streets. The Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords have the entire city on lockdown. The minute the sun goes down, scared citizens run into their houses and lock up their shit. The rest of us spill into the streets, hunting each other down like animals.
And I'm no different.
Once I dreamed of escaping this life, these streets, and now they feel like a second home. While Profit busts his ass making moves, I'm right by his side, proving how much I deserve to be his ride-or-die chick. If I don't do it, another bitch will.
It's not to say that I don't have to watch my own back. I've racked up plenty of enemies in a short time.
I close my eyes while the rain pelts my body. Add the cold February wind and you'd have three potential Popsicles on the verge of catching their deaths. At long last, Lucifer is the first to turn away from the gray tombstone to slosh her way back to the waiting vehicle. I glance over at Profit and have to reach out for his hand to try to bring him back to earth with me.
“Baby, let's go.” I might as well be talking to myself because I'm sure that my words don't penetrate. Stepping back, I gently tug his hand. After a few tries, he turns toward the car.
“It's time,” he says, barely above the sound of the accelerating rain. “I'm ready.”
His words are like an ice pick to my heart. It's not that I didn't know that this moment was coming. I did. It's that the stakes are so high and, being honest, the odds are stacked against us. After all, Python is a legend out here, and his killing Fat Ace has elevated him to icon status.
“Are you sure, baby?” I ask.
Profit pulls his hand from mine so that he can walk to the other side of the SUV and climb in behind the wheel.
Sighing, I climb into the vehicle as well without looking into the backseat where Lucifer stares out the window toward Fat Ace's grave. I don't know why I thought that Profit and I would resume our conversation, but after he turns over the engine and pulls off, I see that I'm sadly mistaken.
During the drive back to Ruby Cove, there is just the soft, steady whirl of the car's heater, struggling to fill the thickening silence. Again, I find myself stealing glances over at Python and seeing the same rock-hard expression, the same intense stare, and the same raw anger.
I understand that anger. I've lived with it for months now . . . and I'm exhausted. I twitch in my seat, wanting to say what's on my mind, but not in front of Lucifer. Then again, the times that she's not with us are few and far between. She has taken it on herself to train Profit to get him ready for some big showdown that they both claim is inevitable.
For months now I've watched Profit train. Nearly all the bullet holes LeShelle had scarred him with are now covered with tattoos; five stars, bunny rabbits, pyramids, but most importantly the name MASON stretched across his heart.
Niggas eyeball him and whisper about how he should take Fat Ace's place as the people's leader. Others still think the title belongs to Lucifer, pregnant or not.
We turn down on Ruby Cove and pull up outside Lucifer's crib. When she doesn't jump out, Profit turns to look back at her. “We're here.”
He says it gently enough to jar her out of her little world. And without saying a word, she climbs out of the vehicle.
I watch Lucifer as she slowly walks toward her house.
That's going to be you if anything ever happens to Profit.
I've lost count how many times that thought has crossed my mind and each time that ice pick chips another huge chunk away from my heart.
“Baby, we need to talk,” I say, turning back around in my seat.
Profit sucks in a small breath as he cruises down to Da Club ten minutes out.
Since he doesn't stop me, I take it that his silence is a cue for me to spit out whatever it is I got on my mind.The problem is that I have so much that I don't know where to start. “Let's just leave,” I say.
I reach across the seat and take his hand into mine. “I know and understand that you want—”
“No.” He looks over at me. “I don't want to do anything. I need to murk that ugly nigga Python. He still slithering around out there and killed my brother.” Venom seeps into his voice. “I know blood don't mean shit with you and your family, but it's a little different with mine.”
That jab hurts.
“Smokestack will be out soon. Let him handle it.”
Profit pulls his hand from mine. “What the fuck? Do you think your nigga is a punk or some shit? You want me to run out of this city with my dick tucked in between my ass and let other niggas fight my battles?”
“No.That's not what I meant.”
“That is what you meant. Be woman enough to admit it.”
“WHAT?”
“Don't think that I don't know that you've been plotting and planning to dump this emotional bullshit on me. Your heart has never truly been down for this shit. You're walking the walk and talking the talk but it's all bullshit.Your heart ain't VL.You ain't no true Flower.”
“How the fuck can you say that shit to me? After what I've been through to be with you? What we've been through. Now your entire world is running with the Vice Lords? Shit. Whatever happened to us not wanting to be sucked into this street bullshit?”
“My fucking brother died that's what happened! All that other shit is squashed. If you're down, you're down. If you're not . . .”
My shock grows. “If I'm not what?”
Profit jerks his gaze away.
“No. Finish your muthafuckin' sentence. If I'm not what, Profit? You want me to go? Leave? Then maybe you and Lucifer can hook up since clearly she's the fuckin' kind of bitch you like?”
“Ta'Shara—”
“No. Fuck you, Profit!” I jerk the car door open and race through the pouring rain and into Da Club. However, the minute I run in, an army of guns jerk up and point at me.Two seconds later, Profit runs in behind me.
“Ta'Shara, I didn't mean . . .” He freezes, seeing that we're surrounded. He goes for the gun on his hip.
“Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah,” a low baritone warns. “I wouldn't do that, if I was you.”
Profit stops, waits, and then heeds the warning and let his hands fall back to his sides. “What the fuck y'all niggas want?”
A man steps forward. My eyes are instantly drawn to his big, bulky frame donned in ink black. But it's the man's face and that damn forked tongue slithering across his thick lips that get my blood boiling and my hands balling into tight fists.
Python smiles as he locks gazes with Profit. “Hey, Superman. I heard that you've been looking for me.”
“Then you heard right,” Profit growls, his hand still itching to go for his gun.
Python's thick, rubber-band-like lips spread while he flicks his forked tongue at us. “Well, here I am. Speak your mind.”
“I'm not interested in talking. I want you dead.”
“A lot of muthafuckas want that shit. What makes you so special?”
“I'm going to be the one that actually does it.”
Python snickers. “Is that right?”
“That's right.”
The room grows stifling hot while I feel myself choke on the tension. I don't know what Profit is thinking, baiting this muthafucka while we're outnumbered.
Python lets the words hang in the air for a long time while his black gaze burns a hole in Profit's skull. Just when I'm ready to beg one of them to say something, Python's smile returns. “Well, what do you say that we go ahead and settle this now?”
“What—so your boys can do your dirty work?”
“Nah. Just me and you—some old-school cowboy shit.”
I don't like the sound of that. “Profit, don't.” I tug on his arm, but he shrugs me off.
“Your boys are just going to let me kill you and then walk away?”
Python's smile widens. “Sure. You have my word.”
He's lying. “Profit, don't do this.”
“Then let my girl go first,” Profit negotiates.
Python's gaze slithers toward me and I physically become ill. “A'ight. Deal.”
“No! I'm not leaving.” I grab Profit, but then someone else snatches me by my waist. “Let me go! Profit! PROFIT!”
He refuses to look at me.
I kick and scream as I'm dragged to the door. “PROFIT! PROFIT! PROFIT!”
 
“PROFIT, NOOOOOO!”
“Baby, baby. Wake up!” Profit rattles me by my shoulders.
I bolt up in bed, unable to catch my breath.
“Baby, what is it?”
I'm confused by the darkness and unable to remember where I am.
“T?” Gently, he pulls me over into his arms. “You must have had a bad dream.”
A dream? The graveyard, the rain, Lucifer being pregnant—all a dream?
“But it all seemed so real.”
Maybe it's of things to come.
Python's sinister face surfaces in my head and then the next thing I know, I dissolve into tears.
48
LeShelle
T
he moment the Douglases' house comes into view, my clit starts thumping. Every light in the place is out and from what I can tell there's no nosy neighbors milling about. My only concern is my girl, Kookie, twitching in her seat.
“What the fuck is up with you?” I snap.
“Nothing,” she lies, looking around again. “Are you sure that you want to do this?”
“I have a debt to settle,” I tell her, shutting off the engine and killing the lights. “And I always settle my debts.” I peek over my shoulder to see my babysitters pulling up behind us. “Let's do this.”
We climb out of the car, pop open the trunk, and hand out gas cans over to June Bug and Kane. At least they know how to follow orders.
Kookie still looks jittery as shit.
“Don't tell me that you're scared.”
“Bitch, please. How many times I done rode dirty with your ass? How are you going to ask me something like that?”
“Then what's up?”
She shakes her head and spits out that lie again, “Nothing.”
“Well all right then. Grab a can.”
I remember the kind of bullshit locks the Douglases have on the house and I get past them easily. It turns out that they haven't changed the security password since I moved out.
Stupid muthafuckas.
“Nice place,” Kookie whispers, looking around.
I press a finger to my lips and then direct June Bug and Kane to splash off around on the bottom floor, and then direct Kookie to follow me upstairs. I head straight to Ta'Shara's bedroom, feeling my clit pump in double time. Outside the door, I set down the gas can and pull out my gun.
I got you, bitch.
Opening the door, I flip on the light switch.
The room is empty.
What the hell?
I walk into the room and look around. I check the closet and under the bed before turning to Kookie. “I thought you said that she was released.”
Kookie shrugs. “That's what I heard.”
My cell phone rings.
Damn.
Shit!
I rush to shut it off, but it's too late.There's a rustling down the hall.
Fuck!
“Ta'Shara, is that you?”Tracee races out of the master bedroom to Ta'Shara's room.When she spots my ass, she gasps and pulls up short.
“Surprise.” I level my gat at her.
A second later, Reggie comes rushing in behind her, tugging on his robe. He doesn't look up until he crashes into his wife's back. “What the
fuck
are you doing here?”
“I thought it was past time for us to have a little family reunion.” I smile as I edge closer to them. “Where's Ta'Shara?”
Neither one of them speaks.
“Don't make me shoot you.”
Tracee swallows. “She moved out with her boyfriend.”
“Oooh. Did she now?” My blood pressure climbs. “Tell you what—why don't we go back into your bedroom?” I wave my gat, but neither one of them moves.
POW!
A single bullet rips off the lower lobe of Reggie's ear.
He jerks back with a roar. “Aaargh!”
“REGGIE!”Tracee rushes to her husband.
“He's fine,” I tell her, bored by her melodramatics. “It's just a little bee sting.” I gesture to my own chewed off lobe. “Believe me. He'll live.”
For a few more minutes.
“Now move your asses.”
Growling through his pain, Reggie glares like he wants to put paws on me. I laugh in his face and then blow him an air kiss. “You don't want to look at me like that. It's turning me on.”
“You're fucking crazy,” Tracee says, shaking her head. “Ta'Shara was right about you.”
My smile melts off of my face as an image of Ta'Shara charging toward me flashes in my head.
“DIE, BITCH. DIE!”
Pain rips through my chest as if those damn needles are stabbing me all over again.
“LeShelle,” Kookie hisses and elbows me.
I snap out of my trance and then try to shake the whole thing off.
June Bug and Kane's heavy footsteps hit the stairs and at the sight of my new goons, the Douglases finally scramble toward their room. That shit kind of hurt my feelings.
Am I not scary enough?
I follow them into the room but then I'm thrown off guard when I see Tracee going for something on the nightstand.
“Watch out!” Kookie bumps me out the way just as Tracee spins and fires.
POW!
Kookie falls back.
What the fuck?
I return fire and manage to shoot the gun out of Tracee's hand.
“TRACEE,” Reggie roars and dives for his wife.
June Bug and Kane rush in with chromes cocked and ready to blast.
“DON'T SHOOT,” I order in time before they turn the Douglases into Swiss cheese. There's not going to be any merciful killings on my watch. I want this shit to go down as slow and painful as possible.
I glance over at Kookie. “You cool?”
A red flower blooms at the side of her blue shirt while she nods bravely. “I'm good,” she pants, leaning against the door.
Reggie pulls his wife into his arms. “What the fuck do you want with us?”
I return my attention to him and smile. “I need you in order to send a message to my snitching sister. Don't take any of this shit personal.” I flash one last smile and then order June Bug and Kane, “Tie them down to the bed.”
“What?” Reggie looks alarmed as the men come at him.
They scrape for a while. But Reggie is no match for these raw dawgs. After delivering a few body blows, the Douglases are tied down. I even stroll over to the bed and check the rope. “Nice and tight.” I take my gun and slide it down Tracee's face.
“Pleeaassse. Don't do this,” she begs. More fat, watery tears roll down her face.
They look so perfect that I can't help but lean down and lick one up.
“Nice and . . . salty.” I wink. “Delicious.”
I stand up and go and retrieve my and Kookie's gasoline cans from the hallway. “Do it up,” I tell June Bug and Kane, handing them cans.
They splash that shit everywhere: the curtains, the bed—across the carpet.
“Ohmigod. Ohmigod,”Tracee sobs.
Reggie tries to console her, but he sounds as scared as she is.
Once the gasoline starts burning my nose, I edge back toward the door.
“Please, LeShelle don't do this. Please don't.”
“I'm sorry, but I have to. Let's roll.”
“LeShelle,” Kookie says, slumped onto the floor. “I think I'm going to need some help.”
June Bug steps forward.
“Leave her,” I tell him.
Kookie's eyes widen. “Wh-what?”
I squat down next to her. “I have a question for you. Why was McGriff doing an unauthorized drug pickup with Python's connect the night he died?”
“What?” She looks confused. “How would I know?”
I shake my head. “See now. I'm not quite buying that.You wanna know what I think?”
“LeShelle, please—”
“I
think
that you and McGriff were tryna make moves while Python and I were underground, tryna hustle your way onto the throne.”
“Girl, don't be silly.” Sweat beads along her hairline. “You know me and McGriff would never do anything like that.”
“That's just it. I
do
know you—and I know that you're the kind of bitch who would stab her own momma in the back if it would get you ahead.”
“LeShelle, don't do this,” she pants heavily.
I stand back up and shake my head. “You'd think that of all people, you would know that I'm not the bitch to cross.” I glance over at June Bug and Kane. “Let's go.”
“LeShelle, wait,” Kookie cries out.
“I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL,” Reggie roars at my back.
“I'm sure you will. I'll be the bitch sitting on the throne.” I toss him one last wink and then head out. Downstairs, I listen to their cries while I take a final look around. “A little gift from me to you,Ta'Shara.”
I light a match.

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