Jason laughed and gave Reese the evil eye while yelling out at her, “Don’t call on Him now! You got it twisted, Reese! Nobody’s coming to save you!”
Kev stood there speechless, watching the whole thing play out as if he were in the front row of some sold-out movie theater. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He knew about Jason’s fighting in the past, but this . . . this was something else.
Kev thought, then yelled out at Jason, “Jason, man, listen to me.” He pushed Jason back softly but Kev stayed in front of Reese, making sure she was in the bathroom safely. She balled up into a corner behind him in the tiny bathroom. The door stood open with Kev and Reese on one side and Jason standing in the hallway, pointing the gun at them.
There fell a dead silence before Kev spoke again. Kev took a big swallow, then tried to reason with Jason. “Jay, think about this, man. You know it ain’t worth all of this.” Kev flung his arms up, smiled, and looked around, as if to say, “This is small potatoes compared to where we lived in New York.”
Jason and Kev were from the Bronx. They were in Columbus, Ohio strictly for the dope game. The plan was to make money in Ohio, establish a drug cartel to stay there, run their business, and monopolize the city with their product. They figured if everything went according to plan, they would be leaving Columbus and heading back to the Bronx permanently within five years, and they were now on their fourth year in the city. It took time to gain the respect on the streets to take over a city.
Kev was trying to get Jason to see that there was no time for this foolishness, and with Kev being the mastermind behind their operation, he knew that they were close to having the city on lock. They could be headed home to New York for good in twelve months. In other words, Kev was saying, “Stop messin’ up!”
Jason listened to Kev for a moment, then looked over into the bathroom at Reese and got a little angrier. “Man, move!” Jason demanded, walking up on Kev but never crossing over into the bathroom. Jason stood there with his shadow from the wall bigger than life itself. He was six foot five and 240 pounds of pure muscle. He was gorgeous; from top to bottom he was beautiful. He kept himself well groomed with his double-dipped dark chocolate skin and his bald head. He had a pair of four-carat diamond earrings in his ears gleaming brightly, and plenty of heavy platinum around his neck and wrist.
“Kev, man move! I’m tellin’ you, she deserves it!” Jason ordered. “I ain’t gonna let that broad talk to me like I’m stupid. Now come on, Kev, you know me! I know she’s takin’ my money. How else is it disappearing? Huh? Who else could be takin’ it, Kev?” He looked a terrified Reese in the eyes. “Where’s the money you took, Reese?” He hit the wall. “Where is it? I know you got it!”
Reese covered her head and squirmed around a little as if she were trying to disappear, but she never responded to Jason’s question.
Kev shook his head and then intervened. “Jay, man, let it go,” Kev said as he walked into the hallway, closing the bathroom door behind him.
Reese stayed on the floor in the bathroom, balled up in the corner. She never said a word. She could hear Jason and Kev talking through the door, but she never moved. She stayed there trembling and crying, wondering how she had gotten herself into this mess and realized something had to change in her life. She knew she couldn’t go on like this. She cried on the floor and whispered softly, “Jesus.”
She thought how foolish she must sound to the Lord after walking away from Him years ago when she was a teen. She shook her head back and forth, feeling so unworthy to even ask Jesus for help. She was for certain that He would never hear her cry unto Him. So, she held herself and rocked back and forth on the floor, believing she didn’t have the right to ever call on Jesus again. She silenced herself and listened to Kev trying to convince Jason it was time to leave.
“Let’s go, man! We need to get out of here. Forget her, Jay. Besides, you need to think ’bout this, you ain’t find da money,” Kev reasoned. “Man, if you kill her and you think she took money, how you gonna find it if she dead?” Kev asked. “Think, man, use yo’ head! You don’t need this.” Kev put his hands on his head as if he was thinking and mumbled, “I don’t need this. Man, we don’t need this! We got too much to lose.”
Kev looked over to the duffle bag full of money on the floor by Reese’s bedroom door.
They kept their money there because they figured it was safe there and nobody knew where she lived besides the two of them. Not even their crew knew where she lived or where they kept their money. That made it less likely that they would get robbed... or so they thought.
Jason followed Kev’s eyes and looked over where the money was on the floor in the duffle bag. He knew that Kev was right. He was just mad.
Kev walked up to Jason and reached for the gun that Jason was holding, trying to get him to let it go, but Jason wouldn’t. He was too consumed by anger to back down, so he raised the gun and aimed it at Kev, as if he was going to shoot him.
“Put the gun down, Jay,” Kev hollered, but Jason didn’t, he kept pointing it at Kev. Kev gave him a grim look, then challenged Jason. “You gonna shoot me?”
Kev was huge too, with solid muscles. Even though Jason had a gun, Kev wasn’t scared. Kev was trying to hold it together, but he was tired of Jason and all the drama he kept getting in while they’d been in Columbus. Kev was way past frustrated with it.
Kev was all about his business, so Jason’s antics were really starting to distract them from their plans, and money. Kev knew there was a possibility that Jason could have blown some of the money without even knowing it because he knew Jason splurged a lot on foolishness, meaning other women. Kev knew Jason was possibly accusing Reese of taking some money to take the heat off of himself. For all Kev knew, this could have been a front.
Kev’s family was in New York and he didn’t get into any extra activities while in Ohio. He wanted to get money. His concentration was on building an empire, a cartel, not being a womanizer like his best friend had been. Getting involved with chicks had been the last thing on Kev’s mind, not that plenty of women in the CO hadn’t tried to get at him.
Kev’s complexion was light and he had beautiful gray eyes. He had a perfectly trimmed and crisped edge up on his facial hair and he sported waves. His daddy was Italian and his momma was black. So when looking at him, one could see his beautiful heritage from both of his parents.
Jason and Kev had been best friends since they were eight years old. “Friends for life” was their slogan. Meeting at the school one day, Kev heard a big commotion and ran over to a group of boys who were jumping Jason. When Kev saw what was going on he decided to jump into the fight and help. Kev hadn’t known Jason up until that point, but hoped that if it had been him getting jumped on, someone would have helped him.
They whooped the other boys together and became fearless in school and that behavior followed them to the streets of New York. That was the beginning of their twenty-eight-year friendship.
Therefore, Jason knew Kev wasn’t going to back down because Jason knew Kev didn’t play.
“Let’s do this then, man.” Kev grabbed the open end of the gun and pointed it into his own chest. “Shoot me, Jay.” His voice got louder. “Shoot me! But I am not gonna let you hurt her!” Kev clearly stated.
Jason hesitated for a minute. He watched Kev’s chest move in and out from him breathing so hard; and then Jason grinned, showing his dimples. “Naw, man, you know I ain’t gonna shoot you,” Jason’s raspy, deep, slow voice said, and he lowered the gun, put the safety on, and tucked it away. He then reached his hand out to Kev and waited for Kev to cool down and grab it.
Kev looked at him, then smiled and took Jason’s hand and laughed. “You a piece of work, man!” Kev grabbed the bag of money; then they gave each other pound and a brotherly hug as Jason followed Kev down the steps.
Jason looked around to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything before he left. He looked over at Kev and said, “Man, I ain’t ever comin’ back here!”
“Look at me real good when I say this.” Kev pointed at Jason and said, “Don’t!”
Kev opened the front door and went out, while Jason grabbed his jacket out of the living room closet and smirked. He went toward the door to leave, then stopped and laughed. “Oh yeah.” He turned around and yelled up the steps, “Jesus got you out of this one. You better be glad!” He laughed and slammed the front door.
Reese jumped when she heard them slam her front door, but stayed there on the soft, plush carpet, whimpering. She lifted her head and said, “Jesus, how did I end up here?” as her mind journeyed back to exactly how she had ended up there. . . .
Chapter 2
The Beginning
I went to live with my grandma and grandpa when I was eleven years old. Actually, me and Momma had lived with them off and on pretty much my entire childhood. But I went to live with them without Momma this time. Momma couldn’t come this time. Her boyfriend, Yellow, murdered her. I was there when it happened, heard the whole thing take place, but I couldn’t do nothin’ about it. I remembered it as if it were yesterday.
Momma had taken twenty dollars out of Yellow’s pants pocket the night before without him knowing. She did it so she could give me some money for my field trip to the Dayton Art Institute the next day. To be honest, I didn’t think I was going. I knew she didn’t have any money. It was the end of the month and her welfare check didn’t come until the first.
I went to her bedroom door the night before the trip and knocked. I was holding the letter from my teacher, Ms. Armstrong, in my hand. I figured the letter would explain how important it was to go. I knocked; and then I put my ear to her door to make sure she was alone.
“Ma, you in there?” I didn’t know why I asked that. I knew she was in there. I just didn’t know if she was alone.
She replied with her sweet, soft voice, “Hold on, baby, I’m coming.”
I could hear her talking to someone. Then I knew it was Yellow when he said, “Where you goin’?” I heard her telling him she’d be right back, to hold tight and to watch TV for a sec. I rolled my eyes to the back of my head when I knew he was in there.
