Payback Ain't Enough (29 page)

I gasped.

He rolled his eyes up into his head. “Mia, what? You gonna shoot me? I don’t have time for the drama bullshit. Hell, you don’t have time for it neither. I told you to pack yur shit and go.”

I raised the gun and pointed it at my temple. Briggen laughed in my face.

“You’s a dumb bitch. So now you want to kill yourself? You really think I care whether you live or die? You was just some convenient pussy.” He smirked, then continued. “And pregnant? You should be thanking me for getting you pregnant. Probably the best thing that ever happened to you. You got a gun, what? You hard now? Then pull the fuckin’ trigger, Mia.”

Listening to those words, my whole world came to an end and I was completely crushed.

“Do it, Mia, pull the fuckin’ trigger. Pull it, bitch!” he encouraged me.

Oh, this nigga thinks I’m playing. Well, I’ma show him.

I squeezed the trigger.

“Mia, nooooooo!” I found myself yelling for nothing. It was too late. She was already slumped onto the sofa. Her beautiful face torn in half, looking like something out of a horror movie. I stood over her frozen in place. The only thing moving were the tears rolling down my cheeks. “Mia, noo, damn it!” I looked at her stomach. Was she really carrying my seed this time? Or was she trying to threaten me into staying here with her? The one eye that was still in place was looking right at me. The gun dangled from her hand.

Did I love her? No. Did I have love for her? Of course. I backed slowly away from her.

It was hard but because of the seriousness in Briggen’s tone and urgency in his voice but I got myself together and went and picked up my son. I then sat up all night waiting for him to come home. By the time he walked through the front door, I had dozed off on the couch.

“Did you get Anthony?”

“Yeah, I got him. What’s going on?” I jumped up and followed him. I was dying to hear what we had to say and was loving seeing him sweat like this.

“Good. I want y’all to head for Canada first thing in the morning.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I want y’all gone first thing in the morning.”

“Canada? You want me to go to Canada with a baby? Without you?” I was acting as if I was petrified at the thought of doing such a thing.

“I’ll be right behind you. No more than 48–72 hours. Just like how you laid low here in the house, you can do that at a hotel.”

“But, Briggen, we talking about Canada, not this house or some resort. And what if you don’t come?” I found myself, to my surprise, tearing up.

“What do you mean, what if I don’t come? I’ma be right behind you.” I could tell he was getting agitated with my questions.

“I’m scared, Briggen. Can’t I wait for you?” I was the damsel in distress and he was loving it.

“No, baby, I got some loose ends that gotta be tied up. I need to know that you and my son are safe.”

“What about Keeta? Can I take her with me?” I flopped back down onto the couch, I was ready to accept my Academy Award.

“Shan, stop it. You can do this.” He got up in my face yelling. “We don’t have time, so stop whining and get the fuck off that couch and let’s go.” He grabbed my arm, and I stood up. He went outside to the car and was bringing boxes and suitcases inside.

Yes, I had a passport. But I had never used it before. I wanted him to believe that my main fear was—what if he never comes?

So I asked, “Well, what about Mia? Can she come with me?”

When I said her name, he froze and dropped the suitcases to the ground. He sat down on the porch and then he did something that I never saw him do. He broke down and started crying. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. He caught me completely by surprise. I stood there, scared to move.

A few minutes later, as if it never happened, he stood up and said, “Don’t worry about Mia. Just pack your shit and be ready to leave in the morning. Mia’s dead.”

What the fuck?
The thoughts ran through my mind about all this gangsta, drugs, and bitch shit, it had finally gotten to be a little too much for me.

“So what you gonna do? You gonna stick around or get your ass outta here?”

Mia was dead. I got the point.

I had been going around making moves and life was sweet. I had just come back from Oak Ridge. Them niggas was down
there grindin’ for real. They were gonna make me filthy rich. They handed over the cash and didn’t ask any questions. I assured them that I would recommend to Cisco that they all get a promotion.

As soon as I pulled up to my bachelor’s pad, I noticed the black narcs’ vehicle across the street and the white van parked on the corner. I pulled out my cell and dialed Sharia.

“Yo, I’m back. What’s been up?”

“Everybody lookin’ for you. That’s what’s up.”

“Everybody like who?”

“Baby mama.”

“Who, Lisha?” I got excited.

“Who is that?” I could picture Sharia frowning up her mug on the other end. “I’m talking about Stephanie. She—”

“Psst. I keep telling you, that ain’t my seed.” I cut her off.

“Then who is Lisha?”

“Who else been looking for me?”

“That’s all who actually knocked on my damn door. Undercover cars have been parked on the block just about every day. They got me scared to go outside.”

“That’s all they been doing is parking?”

“That’s it.”

“Hell, they could be out there for anybody.”

“That’s true, but I’m still paranoid.”

I hung up and sat there. I wasn’t going back to anybody’s prison. I’d hold court in the streets before that would happen. Just then someone banged on my window, startling the fuck out of me. I didn’t even see the muthafucka ease up.

“Mr. Hayes.” He flashed his badge. “I’m Detective Bennett.
Can I speak to you for a minute?”

I rolled down the window. “Do you have a warrant?”

“No, not yet.”

“Then what makes you think I’ma talk to you?”

“Because I know you ain’t got nothing to hide.”

“You damn right I ain’t got nothing to hide. As a matter of fact, hop in. We can take a ride.”

His partner had eased up behind him, and the one that was trying to get into my car went to talk to him. I already knew what I had to do. I cranked the ignition, threw my ride into drive and pulled off. I glanced in my rearview mirror, and the fools were running down the street to jump into their car. I whizzed by the van parked on the corner. It didn’t move, but the black car was moving.

I hit my cell. “Yo, tell everybody to strap up. I’m coming through with a white and black on my tail. Let these muthafuckas know what’s up!” I was leading them to my stomping grounds where I had foot soldiers down for whatever. I was doing eighty when a cruiser cut me off. The last thing I remembered was flipping into the air.

I got the call around midnight that they had Dark in custody, but he was in the hospital with a brain concussion and some broken bones. He was trying to outrun the police. There was nothing that I could do for him because I was packing up, waiting on my phone call to get out of dodge. I was ecstatic! It was finally payback time. However, I was trying to decide if I wanted to take a chance and go over to Dark’s apartment.
He had money at his spot and if I didn’t get it the Feds would. It was a chance I had to take.

I saw Shan and my son off. Shan was a nervous wreck and was fighting me every step of the way. I told her that I would be driving her ride to Canada to meet her. Thanks to the cameras I had installed I knew where she had hid her cash.

I was in the waiting area of the Trap Spot and Lucy, the chick who installed Shan’s traps, was showing me where all the spots were in her truck. After I left there I headed over to my crib and pulled up into the garage. I began opening all of the traps so that I could unload the cash that she had stashed away but was coming up empty. I must have spent damn near two hours tearing the truck apart. Finally, I came across an envelope and I opened it. The red sheet of paper said:

Briggen, “This is payback, muthafucka!”

Shan aka Redbone and Li’l Anthony.

And she had kissed it with red lipstick.

“You fuckin’ bitch!” I spat.

I couldn’t mull over that shit. I had much bigger fish to fry. I then went to the stash spots in my house to grab my three moneybags. I had shit under the floorboards under my carpet in the bedroom, in the walls in the basement and in the attic. After I did that I was ready to pick up Sharia and hit the road when the doorbell rang. I went to the window
and peeked out. There was a big fat white undercover at the door. He was by himself.

“Mr. Thompson, I know you’re in there. Why don’t you open up the door? I need to ask you a few questions. My partner is at your back door so you might as well open up. If you want me to call for backup I can do that as well.”

Game recognized game and this was turning out to be my lucky day. I cocked my .380-caliber Beretta, stood behind the door and said, “Come in.”

Big fat whitey came through the door. I put the burner to his temple.

“Thompson, you can put that away. Sherman already told me you were okay.”

“Then why didn’t you say that when you first made yourself known?” I put the burner away. Sherman was my man on the force. “So what are you here for? Where’s Sherm?”

“I figured you would make this your last stop before you made your attempt to flee. And I must say your timing is perfect. Your admirers at the FBI are hot on your ass.”

I laughed. “I’m not attempting to flee, I am fleeing.”

“We know that.”

“We?”

“Yeah, we. And we came by for our good-bye present. I’ve been camped out in front of your house for days. I need to take a shit and a bath. So, if you want to make it outta here, pay your dues. I’m here for Sherman’s share as well. And you got my partner at the back door.”

I didn’t trust this muthafucka as far as I could smell his funky ass. So I kept my guard up and raised my burner. “Get Sherm on the phone,” I ordered.

“C’mon, now. Do you think I’m bullshittin’?”

“Get Sherm on the phone.”

I waited as he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket. He dialed Sherm and went to talking. “Put him on speaker,” I instructed. He did.

“Sherm, what’s up? Where you at? Who is this muthafucka you sent here?”

“I have a family, man. I can’t be sitting around waiting on you to show up. The flunkies with no lives can do that.” Sherm started laughing. “Go ahead and take care of them. And get the fuck outta here.” The phone disconnected and just like that he was gone. Meeting him was one of the most solid moves I had made in this game.

“I told ya,” Fatty said.

“Grab one of those gray bags over there on the steps.” Fatty wobbled over there with a big-ass smile on his face. He opened the bag as soon as he touched it. I watched as he shuffled the stacks around and barked, “What the fuck is this shit?” He turned and looked at me.

“What the fuck you talkin’ about? Take the shit and get the fuck out. Greedy muthafucka. That’s more than enough. Look, call Sherm. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

“Oh, this is more than enough?” Fat Boy asked. He turned the bag toward me, and when I focused on the contents, I almost lost it. I rushed over to where he was standing and stuck my hand in the bag and came up with nothing but a handful of Shan’s cheesin’-ass, redhead-wearin’ promotional flyers. I dumped the bag onto the floor in a panic. I went for the other two which were filled with the same bullshit. This ho had to have at least 5,000 of them shits in there.

Fat Boy wasted no time. He grabbed his radio and barked, “Carter, come in now.”

Carter burst through my back door, weapon drawn. Fat Boy was already calling for backup. Next thing I knew, I was facedown on my living room floor getting iron bracelets on my wrists.

“Hold up, Fat Boy! Wait a minute. Let me think about this shit.”

“You facing kingpin charges, so you’ll be able to think about it for at least twenty to thirty.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ding… Dong…

I heard the doorbell ring as I was helping Tameerah out of the bathtub. I quickly wrapped her in a towel and ran downstairs. When I opened the door a young UPS guy handed me a big brown box with the prison address as the return label. My heart sank as I thought about this being the last of Forever’s things. I signed for the package, took the box and closed the door. I quickly sat on the couch and began to rip the tape off.

As I ruffled through the contents my hands started to shake. I took his shirt into my hands and put it to my nose as the tears welled up in my eyes. I thought of the last time I saw him and the pain on his face when he told me not to come back to see him. As the tears ran down my cheeks I could hear my daughter calling me.