Invincible: A Novel (16 page)

“Fuck it,” he finally said.

Jake asked M.B. if she had any weed. He needed to get high to relax his nerves.

“You know I keep some weed. I can’t wait to smoke it,” M.B. answered. She pulled a rolled up dutch out of the console of the
rented Impala she was driving and sparked it up. Then, to brighten the convo up, she told Jake, “I can’t wait until you see your daughter, Jocelyn! She looks juuussst like you!”

———

At the same time Jake and M.B. were discussing their child and their future, Phil and Frank were headed to their meeting. Frank was eager to see the dudes who ran everything. Phil told Frank: “Don’t speak until spoken to and try to remember their faces. I have a feeling we are gonna have to take one of them out one day!”

“Why would you say that?” Frank asked.

“Because I get a feeling when I’m around those guys!”

Frank asked, “Where we going?” as he noticed where Phil was parking.

“Right in there,” Phil said, pointing to a church. “You surprised those who do the devil’s work meet in the church? Well don’t be! This type of shit has been happening since the beginning of time.”

Frank felt reluctant to go in. He wasn’t willing to sell his soul to get money. There was a lot he was willing to do, but he wasn’t sure about this. Phil, sensing what was going on with him, said, “Listen, Frank, all we doing is talking and that’s it. It ain’t like you selling out God or something. Come on, Frank.”

Against his better judgment, Frank said, “Okay, let’s go.”

Phil and Frank walked into the church. When they got to the room the meeting was in, Frank noticed there was a big square table with three king-size chairs at the head and about ten regular chairs around the sides. He figured whoever sat in the big chairs were the leaders. Frank felt kind of funny about being
one of the first people in the room, especially since he didn’t know anyone. Phil looked at Frank and said, “Stop worrying!” Then another man entered the room. Frank recognized him immediately and was shocked. It was CO Frazier. Frazier gave him a nod and took a seat as four more men came in behind him—Mitch from the gambling spot and three guys he’d never seen before. All the men greeted one another like they knew one another for years before taking seats at the table. One remained standing—his name was Albert Murphy.

“Who the fuck is this guy?” Albert asked, glaring at Phil.

“Hold it. Hold it,” Phil said. “We have company today!”

Frazier interrupted. “Easy, Albert. This is the guy who put Jake in that coma two years ago.”

“Thank you, Frazier,” Phil continued. “This is Frank Butler, and he’s my bodyguard—a black belt in three different martial arts. From now on, he’s working with me personally.”

“Yeah, but what the fuck does he need to be in our meeting for?” Albert asked, knowing good and well that Phil trusted him as much as he trusted Phil—not at all.

Frazier wasn’t feeling this pissing contest. “Butler! Welcome! That was some good work you put in on that guy. I’m surprised he lived!” Frazier turned toward the rest of the guys. “We could all use someone like him in our crew, agreed?”

“Agreed. And that brings us to our business here tonight,” Phil said. Frank was surprised how Phil took charge of the room, and while Phil was speaking Frank figured it out. Phil was the boss; he was the leader of the 300 Crew. When he spoke they listened—even Albert Murphy, who spoke next.

“You’re right. Let’s get to the point. This Jake Billings is becoming too big of a problem. We need him dead and we need it
fast. How can one guy be so hard to kill? On top of that several of our members are dead! Kim is gone and there’s no telling what she told this guy!”

Mitch interrupted him, “The bitch is dead because she didn’t follow orders! If she would have done what she was told we wouldn’t be meeting right now and she would still be alive.”

The first guy got irritated by what Mitch said. “You was around him, too, Mitch! You had plenty of opportunities to put him down yourself. You might be getting soft! So I wouldn’t be so cocky about talking about a bitch I killed, especially if I was fucking her! And what kinda dude are you to be fucking your nephew’s girl anyway?”

Phil spoke again. “We going to the next plan. We have to get to his mom or M.B. and her baby. Other than that we don’t stand a chance of getting to this guy. Any objections anyone?” There were none. “Well, everybody use your resources and let’s make something happen!”

———

Jake couldn’t believe how beautiful his baby girl was. “Damn, M.B., I can’t believe how much she looks like me!”

“Yeah I know. Looks like you spit her out. She has your demeanor, too,” M.B. said.

“I wish I was there when she was born. I can’t believe I missed so much of her life! I’m glad I’m here with her now, you know! Looks like you did a great job with her.”

M.B. smiled. “Why thank you, Jake! I appreciate you saying that! I have so many pictures and video footage to show you of her. I’m so glad you’re here with her, and me, too. I know it’s a
lot of things we have to handle, but first I want you and her to get to know each other.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jake replied as he spun Jocelyn around and she laughed.

“You know from the second I laid my eyes on this li’l angel I understood why God allowed me to make it and not die.”

“I feel you,” M.B. agreed. “It’s a beautiful sight to see you and your daughter together. I didn’t want to raise my child without her knowing her father. God made you pick up the phone and call me. That’s why we’re here together now!”

“I believe you’re right,” Jake said, still playing with his daughter. “But what if I didn’t call you? What were you gonna do? How long were you gonna wait around for?”

“Are you forgetting what I used to do?” M.B. asked. “I damn near had the key to the city. I would have found you one way or the other. And I didn’t expect you to call. I was there to get some insight of my own. I wanted to hook up with some old connects and see what I could find out. After I spoke to Phil and asked why he lied, and he wasn’t acting like a gentleman, I figured I needed to get to the bottom of a few things.”

As she was talking, M.B.’s house phone rang. “Hold on, Jake, let me get that. It’s probably my sister calling to let me know she got home safe.”

M.B. ran to the phone in the kitchen. “You thirsty or hungry? I can get you something while I’m in here.”

“Some juice, please,” Jake answered. Jake was looking around at M.B.’s house. It was crazy. He suspected she was living good but she was really sitting pretty. Her house could have been on “MTV Cribs.” She was only an hour and a half from the
hood, but Jake had never heard of this place. It was like they were somewhere people go to hide.

“You want lemonade, OJ, or cranberry juice?” M.B. asked from the kitchen.

“Whatever; it don’t matter,” he answered. Jake made a mental note that there was a phone in the room he was in and M.B. could have picked up that one to take the call, but she didn’t. Then he told himself that he shouldn’t be so paranoid. When she came back in the room she had a weird look on her face. Jake noticed. He passed it off as him being paranoid.

“Here you go! I mixed the OJ with the cranberry.”

“Thanks,” Jake said. “M.B., this house is extremely nice. You have great taste.”

As he was talking, someone knocked on the front door. By the look on M.B.’s face, Jake knew something was wrong. He handed Jocelyn to M.B. and grabbed the .38.

“No, no! It’s not like that,” M.B. said. “You can put that away. Please put it away!”

“What’s going on?” Jake asked.

“I think it’s my boyfriend.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” Jake asked. “You forgot or didn’t consider this would happen. I’m not feeling this!” Something just didn’t feel right.

“Listen, Jake, I told him I was leaving town and I would call him when I got back. I don’t know what made him come by.”

Jake looked M.B. in the eyes and said, “Listen to me! I’m tired of running. I’m tired of hiding. I’m tired of people trying to kill me and I’m tired of being double-crossed. Now I’m not sure if you’re trying to pull a fast one. I’m gonna give you the
benefit of the doubt because I don’t think you’re stupid enough to try something with this beautiful baby girl around.”

“I’m gonna go upstairs and put Jocelyn in her crib. Then I’m going to the front door and tell him to leave and I don’t appreciate him coming over without calling first. I’m a grown woman with a child and he needs to respect my space,” M.B. said.

“A’ight,” Jake said. “You do just that and I’ll be standing right behind the door. If that don’t work out and something funny happens, he gets it. Then you get it and I leave with my baby.”

“Jake, I’m not lying to you!”

Jake replied, “I hope for your sake you’re not.”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. M.B. and Jake looked at the door. “Go put Jocelyn upstairs and come back down and get rid of him.” Jake was starting to get a really bad feeling. He didn’t want anything bad to happen, especially to his daughter.

M.B. came back down the steps halfway with a terrified look on her face. With her cellphone to her ear and a nine millimeter in each hand, she waved for Jake to come to her. She was frantic and said in a whisper, “There’s four of them out there. One at the door and three around the house. It’s not my boyfriend. I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I don’t like it! I called nine-one-one already.”

The guy who was knocking at the front got tired of that and attempted to kick the door open. Jake had had enough. He wasn’t waiting around to be killed. He told M.B.: “Go upstairs to Jocelyn.” He took one of her two guns and walked to the door
with plans to let off two shots. The guy behind the door beat him to the punch and let off four through the door. All of them nearly missing Jake’s head, causing him to hit the floor. M.B. didn’t waste time and returned fire through the door. Then she ran upstairs.

Jake was in a trance. He felt stupid for even going with M.B. Why would he go in the vicinity of his child knowing that death was chasing him around? Nine-One was dead and so was Kim. The thoughts of his dead peeps made Jake say, “Fuck it!” He got off the floor, and since whoever it was didn’t shoot back after M.B. shot through the door, he opened it and stepped out with two guns up. One pointed to the right, the other the left. He saw no one. He ran around the sides of the house and the back and didn’t see a soul. Jake ran back to the front. He made sure to not catch one coming through the door so he yelled out: “M.B., it’s me coming in,” and went inside. “They’re gone!” he told her.

Jake knew at that moment he would never be able to have peace of mind. His only options were to kill or die. The events that had recently taken place in his life were getting to him.

“M.B., I’m sorry I called you and got you in this mess! I know you was trying to hold me down and help me out but you know as well as I do this shit that’s happening is crazy! Phil has to die and whoever Phat Murphy’s fam is has to die also, or I have to die. But somebody’s gotta go!”

M.B. responded as honestly as she could. “If you go back again you might not be as lucky as you were last time. But if you don’t kill them they’re gonna kill you.” M.B.’s phone started ringing. “It’s probably the police!” She picked up and terror enveloped her face as if the devil was on the other end.

Who is it?
Jake wondered. The voice on the other end asked her: “Were you scared? Did you fear for your life? If you and that bastard baby wanna live get the fuck away from Jake!”

M.B. screamed: “Who the fuck are you and why the fuck would you do that, you sick motherfucker?” The man told M.B.: “Shut the fuck up and just tell Jake to come home or next time things won’t be so nice. Matter of fact, pass the phone to him you fucking cunt!”

M.B. said, “Here,” to Jake and handed him the receiver.

“Who this?” Jake asked after taking the phone and putting it to his ear.

The voice said, “It’s me. I wrote you twice when you were in jail. I never got to carve you up, though, due to the fact you got put in that coma. But now that you’re up and at ’em again, I figured I would pay you a visit. I’m surprised you’re still alive. You have to stop running to your girls for help. That’s not a good look for you!”

“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want with me, you fucking pussy! First you write me letters in jail like a bitch and now you’re calling on the phone like it’s a joke! Why didn’t you come through the door, you fucking dick? I would have murdered you!”

The man on the other end of the phone, in a sincere voice, asked, “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re a fucking joke! Only reason I didn’t come through that door is because I didn’t want to kill that pretty young lady and her daughter. Plus I was just letting you know I’m back! You already have enough enemies! But I’m the one that’s going to finish you off.”

Then the mystery man hung up. Jake looked at M.B. and said, “This shit is unbelievable!”

“Who is that and why does he want you dead?” M.B. was frightened.

“I don’t know the answer to either question. All I know is that he wrote me letters in jail on how he was going to get me, but other than that I don’t have a clue! I was thinking it had to be Phat Murphy’s brother ’cause Kim put me up on the fact that he wants me dead, also, but that don’t make sense ’cause the only people who know about that is me, you, and Phil!”

At the moment he said it, the lightbulb went off in his head. He pointed his gun at M.B. and said, “Put your hands where I can see them,” with the voice of a drill sergeant in the military. M.B, understanding just how real it was, did exactly as she was told. “You don’t even have a boyfriend, do you?” Jake asked as he took the gun from her.

“No, I don’t,” she answered.

“Who was that you was on the phone with in the kitchen? Please don’t make me get nasty with you, M.B.! Please! I need the answers and if anyone has them, it’s you. There’s some things I want to know and you’re gonna tell me.”

“Listen,” she told him. “I have been honest with you until the moment I got in this house and that phone rang. When I picked up they told me they were here and said if I didn’t set you up to stand in front of the door they was gonna do things to me and my baby that I couldn’t imagine. He asked me whose life was more important to me, the baby’s or yours, and I only had a few moments to think about it. When I saw the guys on the monitors I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. I was too scared.”