Girls From Da Hood 10 Read online

  Oh my God! Jakki held Lena even closer after seeing what she knew was a laser beam shine in the confines of the makeshift cave and on the girl’s bare leg. In a matter of seconds both their fears were tragically confirmed. Jakki gouged her curved fingernails deeply into Lena’s jaw line pressing down even harder over her mouth as three gunshots rang out inside the store. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! was all she could think before, during, and after hearing the gunfire. Feeling Lena’s skinny-boned body jerk and her head tilt back, Jakki knew the girl was hit.

  Lena suffering from an anxiety attack or even going to jail was now the least of her problems. There was a gaping hole the size of a nickel ripped through the flesh of her skin striking a main artery. In excruciating torment, her mind blacked out. Her short life flashed before her tear-filled eyes. Wanting to yell for help from the very people who she’d victimized, she couldn’t as Jakki callously still covered her mouth and now had her much bigger entire body holding hers still. The intense burning sensation, coupled with the heavy amounts of blood now leaking from the wound, was more than the young girl could stand. Traumatized, she felt warm piss run out in between her inner thighs as her body grew limp. Before Lena could ask God to forgive her for all of her sins, just like that it was lights out; her lifeless body slumped over in Jakki’s cruel tattoo-covered arms.

  Damn, now what? Shit! Where is the police when you need they dirty asses? Jakki, convinced she was also on her way to get called home, closed her eyes waiting for what was gonna ultimately happen after what came next.

  Chapter 2

  Maino lowered his gun after getting a closer look. “Ahh naw! A stray alley cat! You gotta be kidding me.” In spite of the current situation with the electricity being cut, the police who had yet to show up and the tires and front grill of a truck crashed through his rear storeroom, the fact that his girl mistook a burglar for a four-legged feline that must’ve come through the open hole was hilarious, not only to him but his homeboy as well. “It’s a sin and a shame. You done fell all the way off. I thought you was still trained to straight go!”

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! It’s bleeding to death all over the floor!” she screamed holding both hands to her face as the innocent cat squirmed fighting to live. “I can’t believe this. I just can’t.”

  “Well believe it.” He laughed sideways at his “always down for whatever” rider who ran toward the front of the store and stood in the open doorway. “Your crazy, pilled-up self done assassinated a cat. You hit him right in his hip.” Maino used his cell phone for light as he yelled over his shoulder. “So I guess that solves the big mystery of what the noise was over here huh?”

  Not realizing one of the three bullets had struck not only the cat but one of the women who’d caused the late night chaos as well, Maino had his boy grab a few plastic bags, some gloves, and a shovel from the rear of the building. Taking the still very much alive but suffering animal out to the Dumpster all three of them decided to hit a joint to calm their nerves while leaving the front door wide open.

  Appreciative she was spared, at least for the time being, Jakki silently thanked God. Having been through numerous times of being caught up in some wild Detroit street, tonight definitely topped them all. Still holding Lena’s deceased body in her arms, a rightfully paranoid Jakki waited until she heard the shovel scoop up the injured cat that saved her from taking the next deadly bullet of the night. She finally exhaled hearing the three voices head toward the alley.

  Peeking out from the clothes rack once more, Jakki saw the front door was open and the bright streetlight beamed in. With School Boy continuing to blow up her cell, she knew her grimy-intentions cousin was still close by if nothing else. Family ain’t about nothing. How that asshole gonna play me of all people? Something told me not to do this caper. How he ain’t got me? Of course she wondered why her first cousin hadn’t burst through the door, guns blazing to save her from harm’s way, especially after hearing gunshots, but now was not the time to figure that part out.

  Quickly coming to the realization she was on her own and her life was on the line, Jakki wasted no time getting her mind back right and focused. Allowing Lena to fall over in the still growing puddle of her own blood and urine, she sighed knowing there was nothing more she could do for School Boy’s jump off. She was gone. With the eerie feeling of death looming in the air, Jakki knew this was her time to make a move. It was now or never if she wanted to live to see daylight.

  Being mindful that one or all of the three could come back inside the building at anytime and change her future for the worse, Jakki silently moved the hangers aside. On her knees, she stuck her head back out making sure the coast was clear. With a blood-soaked skirt and saliva- and mucus-covered hands, she emerged from their hiding place. Cautiously she stood to her feet feeling wetness on her toes as well, which had to be more of Lena’s blood. Still hearing the lighthearted teasing of the girl shooting the cat by mistake and one of the men choking on what smelled like the truth, Jakki looked over at the open door judging the distance she had to go to make it to freedom. Acting as if they were giving away free cheese, butter, and honey to the first twenty people in line, Jakki took off running. Only a few yards from making a clean getaway, the frantic female stumbled to the floor tripping over the same pillowcase filled with stolen items she’d dropped earlier. Scrambling desperately to get back on her feet, Jakki heard one of the men yell he’d heard a noise back inside of the store.

  Damn I’m about to get killed too! I know I shouldn’t have broken into this spot without doing my damn homework! This is so messy. At the same time she heard the sounds of footsteps rush through the back entrance she saw a set of high-beam headlights in the front of the building coming her way. Lord please let this be School Boy’s backstabbing, double-crossing ass! Please!

  Chapter 3

  A Week Earlier

  Ruben was getting old or, as he called it, a little up in wisdom years. Having been in the game of nickel and dime hustling since he was a youth, the gray-haired man had no problem whatsoever still putting in street work. Never having a steady nine to five without it being demanded by a probation officer he was the head of household ruling with an iron fist. Teaching his kin nickel and dimes added up to dollars and cents, and dollar and cents added up to power and respect, not only in your own community, but wherever you went; he was proud of the man he was. Encouraging his family members to do the same, never working for anyone outside of their immediate bloodline had become a Crayton Clan badge of honor and a symbol in their prison-drawn code of arms.

  Being cursed, as he often voiced to his loyal wife, with two girls and no boys, he spent a lot of time with his deceased brother’s son nicknamed School Boy. Ruben took him under his wing at an early age despite resentment from the boy’s mother who wanted something better for her son. As the years went by Ruben’s intentions were obvious even to Ray Charles. Grooming School Boy to take over his spot at the head of the family and make the major decisions if need be unfortunately was not going as planned. Ruben was a man who sat back observing situations before reacting. Studying School Boy was no hard task. Being stubborn, vindictive, jealous, and all in all out for himself instead of the general good of the family was more than a problem in Ruben’s eyes. On more than several occasions, School Boy had dropped the ball causing great financial strains on the Crayton Clan general fund. Ruben didn’t mind paying out medical or legal fees if one of the family members got injured or locked up, but cashing out on the sheer stupidity School Boy was becoming infamous for was more than a problem.

  “Look, you young fool!” Ruben shouted across the crowded street. “Bring your dumb, ignorant self here. This don’t make no type of sense.”

  Hesitantly, School Boy waited for traffic to clear before slowly making his way toward the house. He knew what Uncle Ruben wanted, but wasn’t in the mood to endure another one of his long, drawn-out speeches in what he was doing wrong. “Yeah, Unc, what’s good this morning?”

  “Don’t ‘
what’s good this morning’ me, you shiftless idiot. I got a wakeup call at six this morning informing me that you and some skinny little broad from around the way was roaming the streets beating dudes I used to run with out they pension checks.”

  “Listen, Unc—” School Boy started to take a cop but was immediately interrupted.

  “Shut your smart mouth, boy! I’m talking and you listening, you dig!” Ruben’s chest stuck out daring his deceased brother’s son to grow some real balls and jump bad. “I done told you time and time again, the Craytons don’t shit where we sleep. But apparently you like forget me and the family!”

  “Naw, fall back some, Unc! It ain’t like that!” School Boy, feeling embarrassed of being chastised by his uncle, slightly raised his voice trying to impress a small group of passing females.

  Grabbing him by the throat, Ruben rushed his nephew against the concrete wall of the family home. Fed up with his blatant contempt for the rules of the game, Ruben applied more pressure to the boy’s neck than he probably should have. “How many times I gotta tell you not to disrespect me, young buck? This right here I’m telling you ain’t a joke and neither am I! One day you gonna step in the wrong pile of shit out here in these streets and get your ass handed to you!”

  “Ruben, Ruben, don’t!” His wife bolted out the front door with his oldest daughter, Jakki, following closely behind. “You’re gonna mess around and kill him. Take your hands off that child, please! Don’t go to jail for the likes of him!”

  As School Boy fought to break free from his uncle’s tightening grip, Jakki gave him the “I told you so, dumb nigga” look. Realizing her cousin was near death as his eyes bulged, she too stepped in begging her father to let him go. “Dad! Dad! Stop it! Let his stupid butt go! I keep telling you he ain’t ready for what you need him to be!” Her judgmental but justified words rang out on the block they called home. “It ain’t in him, it ain’t. And we all see it but you!”

  Hearing his firstborn’s voice and words of wisdom, Ruben reluctantly loosened his chokehold allowing School Boy to fall to the ground like an old rag doll. Towering over him, he watched his wife fake pamper the boy checking his neck for any signs of immediate bruising. “Jakki, you probably right. Matter of fact I know you are, but what choice do I have? It’s this idiot’s rightful place we talking about.”

  Jakki had just about enough of her father’s biased attitude toward women and their place in the crime-minded Crayton family. Angrily she voiced her opinion loud enough for the entire block to hear. “Look, Dad, no disrespect to you, Uncle Ronni, Uncle Tim, or grandfather’s legacy, but ever since I was little, I’ve been breaking my neck to show y’all that I wasn’t like mom or my little sister who chose to go away to college.” Glancing over at her mother, Jakki gave her a faint smile reassuring her that the statements she had said and was about to say was nothing personal. “I’m not saying I’m as hard as y’all or even as smart, but I can hold my own out here in these streets and you know it. I make moves all the time to bring money to the table but all you see is School Boy. Female or not, I do’s my thang,” she proudly announced daring either of her family members to dispute her gangsta or raw street credibility. “It ain’t nothing personal against him. I love my li’l cousin like everybody else, but dang, Pops, you not seeing the obvious, the bigger picture. School Boy might be blood, Pops, but you can tell he ain’t cut from the same cloth as us. He built to fold. Can’t you see that? He’s a reckless mess! You gotta see it!”

  Catching his breath, Ruben was still heated but knew not at least hearing his opinionated daughter out was not an option. “And, Jakki, what exactly is that? What am I missing?”

  School Boy was now on his feet and could easily tell where his cousin’s impromptu conversation was headed. Not wanting to be cut off from what he as well as his Uncle Ruben felt was his destiny, he spoke up while rubbing his sore neck. “Yeah, Jakki, you fake hater, what is you saying he missing? You got me all the way messed up! I hold my own too. You bugging!”

  “Watch your mouth!” his aunt demanded ironically now ready to choke School Boy out herself. “You know better to address any woman in this family like that, especially out in public!”

  “Naw, Auntie, she straight outta line! You hear her on that snake tip!”

  “Shut your goddamn mouth; all of you,” Ruben interjected holding his right hand up to his chest. “I’m tired of all this back and forth bickering. For months you two have been at each other’s throats about this, that, and the other thing. Well I’m sick of the bullshit! Jakki, no one is saying you don’t do more than your share, sometimes more than I think you should risk doing, but this family . . .”

  Before Ruben could finish his statement, he clutched his chest falling toward the handrail. Rushing to his side, Jakki’s mother desperately screamed out for someone to get help for her husband. With complete pandemonium erupting throughout the block, Jakki quickly dialed for an ambulance while School Boy stood back frozen in fear that his beloved uncle, mentor, and family patriarch had taken his last breath. When the medical technicians finally arrived, they did all they could possibly do on scene and ran for the transport gurney. As they roared off, sirens blaring, lights flashing, heading toward the hospital, the likelihood that Ruben would survive the trip seem bleak.

  After several medical tests were run, Ruben thankfully was soon resting comfortable in his private hospital room. Having had some of the most respected physicians in metro Detroit examine him, he was easily diagnosed having weak valves in his heart and would require surgery. Doomed to bed rest for at least seven to ten days before the procedure could take place, Ruben knew the beat had to go on with the family enterprise. With his wife and daughter posted at his side, Ruben finally gave in to Jakki’s wishes allowing her as well as the proven to be irresponsible School Boy to equally share the responsibility as the potential bread winners for the infamous Crayton Clan. Instructing his wife to relay the terms of the joint hustle partnership to an obviously missing in action School Boy, Ruben closed his eyes hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

  Chapter 4

  “From this point on, you get your bread and I’m gonna get mine,” Jakki eagerly proclaimed. “And, School Boy, try not to be a hater when I come up on you either.”

  “You, a backstabbing nothing female, come up on me? Imagine that jumping off.”

  “Remember, fool, like I told my father, you was built to fold! At the end of the day, that’s who you are and who you always gonna be.” With both hands planted firmly on her hips, she laughed knowing she was going to end up on the top in the long run.

  Going in their separate directions, Jakki’s female intuition told her undoubtedly before her dad regained his health and was able to take his rightful place back at the head of the table her older cousin was going to give her hell to pay. Wasting no more time, the trained to go female dipped into her bedroom grabbing a spiral notebook. Writing down the single number zero beside the date, she vowed to make her family proud.

  Calling a few of her homegirls who’d been riding with her ever since second grade, Jakki instructed them to sit down at the picnic table located in a remote area of the park. Promising them a certain uplifting change their financial situation if they’d help her bring School Boy down, all three were happily on board. With the distant carefree sounds of kids playing tag, Jakki laid out her game plan. Within hours, they were ready to put in work.

  Nightfall came. Jakki, always calm, cool, and collected, strangely bit at the side of her fingernails. Wanting nothing more than to prove the point she was ready to stand at the head of the table, she was determined this first caper would go off without so much as a hiccup. “Okay y’all, first things first. I already got word from my boy who drives the UPS truck. He let me know the regular package they get over on McGraw and Third was delivered a few hours ago. So I know they still holding heavy in that son of a bitch.”

  “Whoa, that’s what’s up, Jakki.” Paulette smiled knowing her girl stayed
on point with the 411. “Then the rest is gonna be easy as one, two, three. Shiddd, I got some bills to pay.”

  Jakki was confident as well but didn’t want to be overly cocky. She’d been raised in a family who taught the hard life lesson things could and would go wrong at any given moment when you dealing with the unknown. “Girl, say that shit; from your mouth to the great hustle God’s ears. As soon as Faye and Carla get here, we’ll be ready to put thang in motion.”

  No sooner than the crew showed up, they agreed that their choice of clothing was perfect for the game plan Jakki had in mind. Cutoff shorts, small, fitted T-shirts, and of course high-top sneakers to give them that around the way girl look but also double as a good running shoe if need be; all was well.

  “Okay, Carla, like I said earlier, they don’t know you in this neighborhood, so you the point person to get us through the front door as smooth as possible. Trust me when I tell y’all my boy knows these thirsty fools around here like the back of his hand. He told me the old guys who run this spot is just like that simple-minded cousin of mine School Boy. As soon as they see some new kitty cat on the set they gonna break they necks to try to front and hit the skins first, like they gonna get a trophy.” Jakki looked her homegirl up and down handing her a small . 22-caliber just in case things went haywire. Sure she wanted to beat School Boy and prove her father and the rest of the men in her family wrong, but her friends all seeing daylight was her first priority.