I Can Touch the Bottom (16 page)

Leela was onto something entirely different. She went into the woman's bedroom and searched through her drawers once more. Finding a fresh clean pair of granny panties and an old religious-themed T-shirt, Leela stripped down and went to take a long, hot bath. Refreshed, but tired, she curled up in the woman's bed taking a nap.

* * *

While Rank and Leela were out committing petty crimes and home invasions on the elderly, Stackz and Ava had grown closer. Stackz had got behind Ava in her side hustle. Allowing her to make top dollar, he'd helped her step up her game up by sending people her way for phony paperwork and scripts that had major funds to spend. Business was good for Ava. Not only was she bringing in big money, Stackz was still giving her the world. Ava's money was hers to do with however she pleased.

After she had come home from the doctor's office, she and Stackz had a long talk. Stackz asked Ava if she felt she had enough money saved up to feel comfortable. Letting her know that although he sent customers her way, he still didn't want to keep running the risk of her one day getting caught up. Getting that understood, Stackz then revealed he felt it was time for them to take things to the next level; all the way. He was ready for her to meet some of his and Gee's immediate family; not his street family, but blood. His first cousin's little girl was having a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese in a few days. Telling her to bring Leela's kids, her nephew and nieces, Ava was elated. She was beyond happy Stackz was letting his guard down more and more with her; showing his affection was as genuine as hers.

Thirty-nine hours had passed since Rank and Leela had brazenly taken over Mrs. Baines's longtime home. They had cruelly put the old woman in the spare room, tying her up to the metal bed frame at night. It was late Saturday evening, and Leela was feeling charitable. With a glass of water in her hand, she'd opted to give the old lady her medication she claimed she needed.

In that moment in time, the elderly woman reminded Leela of her grandmother when she was just a small child. Strangely, it was if Mrs. Baines was reading her mind. Even though she'd been ordered by both Rank and Leela to keep her mouth shut, she began talking to her friend's granddaughter about the good ole days; the days when she and Ava were young children and how different their personalities were. How her friend always seemed to favor Leela over her spoiled younger sister. The old woman's memories were touching Leela's rotten-to-the-core spirit.

Leela knew what she was doing was way out of order. For the first time since they'd invaded Mrs. Baines's home, she felt her conscience kick in. Lowering her head in shame, Leela quickly walked out of the room, leaving the old lady still tied up with the TV on so she could watch it to keep herself company. Back in the living room, Leela found herself once more staring at the family photos of the old woman's grandkids on the mantle. Feeling some sort of way, she maternally thought of her own kids and the unborn child she was carrying by Devin. Not wanting to face the reality that she was no more than an unfit mother and a monster, Leela began laying all the various framed pictures facedown on the mantle.
Get it together, girl. I'm just emotional and fucked up in the head right now! I been down this road before! Being pregnant will do that to a bitch.

Taking his attention away from a movie he was watching, Rank studied Leela's movements closely, sensing something was off. “You, crazy bitch, over there. Fuck is wrong with you? What you going through?”

“Nothing, nosey nigga, what's wrong with you?” Leela snapped back, ready to go on the defense over her gloomy state of mind. Wanting to have a small bit of privacy, she went into the bathroom. After turning on the water in the sink, she pulled out her cell phone. Saying a prayer that she could hold her temper down to a bare minimum, the wayward daughter dialed her mother's number again. Despite what people said about her over the years, Leela was not a total monster. She was human like the next person. If you cut her skin, she bled red blood like the next man. Leela was unable to keep holding out from at least talking to her kids and her disrespectful mom any longer. It had been weeks since she'd spoken to any of her family members, including Ava's two-faced snake ass. Leela felt her mother and kids were one thing. She was still very much mad at her sister and didn't care if they ever spoke again. To Leela, Ava was dead.

* * *

“Leela, what the fuck is wrong with you? I swear you the most selfish bitch I've ever known in my life. I can't believe I gave birth to your trifling ass. When you gonna do right by these damn kids and get your shit together? I keep telling you those streets don't care about you or nobody else, but you just won't hear me, will you?” Leela's mother unleashed a verbal tirade into the phone, not giving her daughter a chance to even say hello.

“Well, damn, hello to you to, Momma,” Leela sarcastically got a word in. “I didn't call you to hear no sermon about how you feel about me or what I'm doing wrong in my fucking life. I'm good with me. Now could you please put my oldest on the phone?”

“Naw, bitch, I can't!”

“Oh, so it's like that,” Leela raged. “You not gonna let me speak to my own damn kids. That's messed up for real! Yous a real bitch for that, Momma!”

Leela's mother had just about enough of her firstborn running off at the mouth. This was the first time in weeks she had a free moment to herself and was going to celebrate with a bottle. “Look, you selfish whore. Trust me, I don't have no problem whatsoever with you being a mother to these kids. Shit,
you
had them, not me. But you soon gonna find out what happens to unfit little hoes that abandon they kids!”

“Whatever, Momma, just let me speak to my damn kids and stop playing with me,” Leela demanded, not trying to hear shit else.

“Look, girl, they ain't here. And even if they was, I doubt they wanna talk to your silly ass. They gone to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with Ava and that boy, what's his name she been seeing for the last few months. They just walked out the door. I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd think them was your sister's kids, as much time she spend with them and do for them since you call yourself disappearing. When you gonna be more like your sister Ava?”

Leela heard her mother sipping something liquid and knew off rip she was drinking alcohol as always, and she was probably drunk. “And when you going to stop drinking, lady? Can you answer that before you come on me like you done lost your mind?” Leela had no respect for her elders. She was heated because her mother was going in on her; yet, she keeps a bottle of liquor glued to her mouth like it was a glass dick that she gets paid to suck. “Know what, dear Momma? I'll get my shit together when you lead by example. Until then, stop preaching at me like your shit don't stink.”

Her mother laughed out loud. “Okay, girl, you can talk about me drinking all you want. But I bet I wasn't drunk in court Thursday; me or Ava. I bet that much!”

“Court? What in the fuck?” Leela paused, not knowing what her mother was talking about or why she was back bringing up Ava's name.

“Yeah, you smart-talking little thang. Like I already said, you'll see what happens to hood rat mommas that abandon their kids. You done fucked up this time for sure! Now let me go drink to that damn fact! Bye, bitch!”

The infuriated daughter pressed the button ending the call. Picking up a bottle of lotion that was sitting on the sink, Leela smashed it against the bathroom mirror. Watching the shattered, sharp, shiny pieces fall to the ceramic floor, Leela was past a hundred and counting, thinking about all the things her mother had said and claimed. Not only had she not spoken to her kids, she'd found out her sister had them out, showboating, having a good time with the man who murdered her soon-to-be born child's father.

Her touched-by-an-angel remorseful spirit Mrs. Baines had invoked was gone. Just like that, Leela was back to herself after speaking to her mother; vindictive, hateful, and spiteful. Bolting out of the bathroom, she ran down the hallway and straight up to Rank, interrupting his time in front of the television. “Yo, it's now or never! Nigga, you tired of running, and I am too. So peep game, I know where this nigga Stackz is at right damn now!”

* * *

Leela put Rank up on game, informing him that her mother had dry snitched on Stackz and didn't even know it. In the middle of all her insults, berating Leela, the fact that she revealed Ava and Devin's murderer were at Chuck E. Cheese was as good as signing Stackz's death warrant. Quick thinking, Leela told Rank that her no-good fake sister and that ho-ass buster were either at the location on the far West Side or the deep East Side, seeing as there were only two in the city. “Look, all we have to do is take the old woman's car and hit both of them real quick. They at one or the other, and I know his truck when I see it.” Leela was in full snake mode, counting on Rank to be rolling off E-pills and not being able to control himself catching Stackz off guard at the right time and right place.

Rank rubbed his chin in deep thought. After having flashbacks of the night Devin was killed, he closed his eyes and saw Mickey lying on the floor with his eyes wide open and his tongue hanging out of his mouth to one side. He remembered the pain and seemingly fresh wounds of his own caused by the hands of one man: Stackz. And now, thanks to Leela's drunken, loose-lipped mother, he knew where he could find him to get his revenge. Rank nodded his head, agreeing with her. “Yeah, you right; it's now or never.”

And just like that, once again, Leela had pulled Rank's strings to do her bidding. She knew it would be dangerous to go with Rank on his sure-to-be-murderous melee, but she said fuck it. Why not ride shotgun and get a ringside seat? After putting the play into motion, she wanted to see the look on Stackz's face when he got what was coming to him. And better than that, to bear witness to Ava's little sad, cracked face when the new man in her life, that meant more than their sister bloodline bond, was lying dead facedown in a pool of his own blood.

Swallowing a few of Rank's “get a nigga right” pills, Leela was hyped, still thinking about the hate her mother was putting in her ear. She was so bent and in the zone that she didn't care if her sister or her kids were smack-dab in the middle of the tragic situation. They could get longtime therapy later for what was about to pop off.
Fuck 'em all!
Leela's heart, or what was left of it, had gone completely cold as ice.

* * *

Trying to decide what to do with the old woman until they came back from their mission, they tossed ideas back and forth as they went to the spare room. Leela went in first, and Rank followed closely behind.

“Hey, Mrs. Baines,” Leela called out to the old lady who didn't respond to hearing her name. Going over to the bed, she harshly shook her shoulder. The woman's body was flimsy, and she didn't move an inch. “Hey, wake up, old lady; don't play fucking sleep. We don't have time for no games. Not now. We got shit to do, places to be.” Leela shoved the elderly woman yet again, this time harder and in the spine of her back. Mrs. Baines still had no response.

Rank moved closer toward the bed to investigate the situation. Taking the woman's wrist in his hand, he checked to see if she had a pulse. Rank felt nothing. Letting her wrist go, it flopped down lifelessly back onto the bed. Leela and Rank simultaneously looked at each other with an
oh . . . shit
face. Already in too deep by home invading the old woman's house, now the treacherous pair could add kidnapping and premeditated murder to their résumés. At least, that's how the police, judge, and jury will react if and when it was ever discovered that Leela and Rank had been in her house uninvited.

Neither of the two had any real remorse for clearly causing the old woman's early retirement from life. In a fast-paced attempt to try to cover their tracks, they decided to straighten up the place the best they could. Hopefully, if they untied Mrs. Baines and staged her body just so, they could have it appear that she was old and just died in her sleep.

Leela and Rank hurried so they could hit the streets and tend to the business of ruining Stackz and Ava's good time.

Stackz and Ava picked up Leela's three kids and were headed to the birthday party for Stackz and Gee's first cousin's daughter. Ava had bought all the kids brand-new outfits to wear and got the girls' hair braided and her nephew's haircut. She made sure the kids would represent the Westbrook clan's name to the utmost.

When they got to Chuck E. Cheese, Ava reminded them to please be on their best behavior. Stackz watched his girl interact with the kids and thought to himself,
Yeah, I'll put a seed up in her ass. I see she knows how to handle the little shorties.
They entered the building, and Stackz looked around for his family. Once he located them, they turned the kids loose to join the other children who were playing with the birthday girl.

Stackz introduced Ava as his wifey to his family. The women praised him for finding a beautiful lady that looked like and carried herself like she had good sense, not the other tramps they'd seen him with from time to time. The adults were having their own party, drinking liquor they'd put in pop bottles, and going outside occasionally to smoke some weed.

Ava was happy his family accepted her and made her feel comfortable. Stackz noticed Gee, his small son, and the boy's moms coming in the building. He went and greeted them and hugged his nephew's mother like they were best buddies. Introducing her to Ava, she felt awkwardly put on the spot because, A, she didn't even know Gee had any kids, and B, Ava knew Gee had spent countless times over at her house laid up with Leela like it wasn't shit.

It was almost time to cut the cake and the birthday girl's father still hadn't arrived yet. Stackz asked his cousin where Pissy was at.

“That asshole just called saying he got held up on some business and he was on this way with my baby's new bike she's been asking for. He better have it because you know that fool is full of shit and games!”

* * *

It was nearing two hours later. The happy birthday song had been sung, the cake had been cut, and the adults had about enough of the kids. They started gathering them up to leave, but there was still no sign of Pissy. The little girl asked her mother if her daddy was here yet with her big surprise, and she disappointedly had to tell her no.

Family fun time had come to an end for the street loyal brothers. Stackz and Gee had some business on the floor that couldn't wait. Gathering both their girls and the kids, they said their farewells and headed toward the door. Seemingly in a deep conversation, Gee and Stackz walked side by side discussing how they were going to handle this and that. Gee's baby moms, Ava, and the kids followed a few feet behind the men so they wouldn't be in their mix.

Stackz was still talking to Gee as they went out the door. Distracted by what was out in front of the building, Stackz stopped dead in his tracks. Blocking the doorway crosswalk was an obviously freshly custom-painted burnt-orange Jeep Commander. As he stood speechless alongside of Gee, Stackz knew he had to be seeing things. He knew he had to be wrong. His mind
had
to be playing tricks on him.

Slowly walking around the truck, he saw the same small dent on the rear quarter panel as his Jeep and the same nick on the passenger-door handle. Stackz knew for certain when he saw the guts were the same color, this was his motherfucking truck, and this slimeball Pissy had done the unthinkable. He'd done the complete opposite of what Stackz had told him to do. Stackz warned Pissy not to be up to his shiesty ways he'd do to others and slick tag his truck instead of having it melted down as told.

Pissy hadn't seen Stackz because he was preoccupied pulling the small-size bike out of the rear of the Jeep. When he finally looked up, it was like he'd seen a ghost. “Oh, hey, Stackz,” he stumbled on his words. “I didn't know you was coming to a kid's party. I mean, I ain't know you had any kids.” Pissy didn't know what to say. Spending an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese didn't seem like it would be in Stackz's DNA seeing how he had no kids, so Pissy thought the coast would be clear, so to speak. He would drive the truck just for today and have it shipped out West where he had a guaranteed sale. Now, here, he was busted; caught red-handed having had done dirt.

Stackz was infuriated that Pissy had crossed him after being warned. Heading straight for Pissy, the vein in the side of Stackz's neck bulged and started to jump. “Nigga, did you just meet me or something? What did I tell your dirty ass to do?”

“Cuz, fam, hold on. This ain't what it look like.”

“Naw, nigga, it's
just
what it looks like!” Stackz ripped the bike out of birthday girl's snake-ass father's grasp. Seeing red for having been not only betrayed, but disobeyed, he threw the bike as hard as he possibly could up against the brick wall of Chuck E. Cheese.

Gee had the women go get in the vehicles and take the kids with them that had started to cry. Gee's son's mother was used to this type of drama popping off at the end of most of their family functions and get-togethers; however, Ava was shocked to see Stackz transform back to the beast he was the day she first laid eyes on him at the restaurant. Without saying a word, she did as she was told, taking her nieces and nephew to Stackz's truck.

“Look, ho-ass nigga, ain't nothing to talk about. You done fucked up the church's money, cuz. Now run those keys before I send you on your way right here and now.” Stackz had Pissy collared up against the building, shaking him up until the truck keys dropped from his hand.

Stackz signaled for Gee to come get the keys and help him get rid of the truck before he murked Pissy right on the spot for going against the grain.

“Bet. I'll have my baby momma drive my shit, and I'll drive this. Don't worry, bro, I got you,” Gee replied, stepping over the frame-bent small bike, not believing the nerve of Pissy.

“Family or not, you can't cross the king and expect to keep breathing,” Stackz raged with malice in his tone, letting Pissy go. Knowing he needed to calm down before he caught another body, Stackz walked away.