Chapter 2
The heavy bass on the Bluetooth speaker rattled the table in the garage. I had pulled my car out to change the oil and give it a good wash. The Houston highways were rough on my car with the back and forth to get all my stuff. Aunt Dee said it would be cheaper to load up the cars and make a couple trips instead of renting an overpriced storage vehicle since they charged by miles driven.
Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III was a classic. I could listen to that album for days without ever getting tired. I bobbed my head to “Got Money” featuring T-Pain. I removed the cap on the oil and let it fall into the bucket underneath. While the oil fell, I scooted from underneath the car and admired my baby. I grabbed a seat from the garage and sat down.
The black-on-black Dodge Charger was a menace in the streets. I was sixteen with a Hellcat, and couldn’t nobody tell me shit. I’d gotten my first six-figure deposit when I hit a lick for my uncle Merlot.
Uncle Merlot was my mother’s brother. He had an infamous business in the hitman business. I joined the business when I was thirteen, and child protective services sent me to his home when my mother had her first overdose. Unfortunately, Uncle Merlot was deemed unfit to house me when I’d missed more than thirty days of school. The state ordered me to be sent to Uncle Chance’s house instead since they were the only other option.
Marquita Lennox had a gentle heart, but the drug addiction was too strong—especially when the man who supplied the drugs had given her a child and kept her high and useless.
The smell of something citrusy filled my nostrils and interrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see the neighbor standing a few feet away from me. I took in her appearance. She was young as hell, but she was thick. She had a decent sized bra size and some thick hips.
She had deep brown almond-shaped eyes that did not look at my face. I could tell from the stupor she was in, she’d gotten tongue tied ogling over my shirtless frame. It wasn’t uncommon for women of all ages to fall victim to my physical appearance. She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth as she fiddled with her fingers. She wore a pair of shorts and a graphic tee. Her hair was in braids that fell down her back.
A breath released from my lips. “What? You need something?”
“I, um, I…”
I chuckled and leaned forward. My arms rested on my knees while I licked my lips. “Spit it out.”
She cleared her throat. “Hi. I’m Honey.” She waved shyly.
“I know yo’ name, ma. What you want?”
She laced her fingers together and shrugged. “I know you’re new to the area, and I wanted to make sure you’re settling in good. Um, your aunt shared a little about your situation. Although I don’t know the pain of losing my parents, I know the pain of losing a father figure. When Pawpaw passed, I took his death kind of hard because he spoiled me bad. I know grief can be a cruel bitch sometimes, so I wanted to let you know I’m here for you if you need a friend.”
The silence after her small ramble session was deafening. I stood up, and my six-foot frame towered over her. Her head tilted back to look into my eyes. My tongue slid across my lips.
“No offense, but I don’t give a fuck about what you got going on. I don’t need no young ass girls being my friend.”
Her smile fell into a hard frown.
“I know you don’t mean to be mean, so I’ll let that slide. However, I’m not no young girl. I’ll be sixteen on December 24th,” she explained.
“You’re too young for me.”
“You’re barely seventeen. Don’t piss me off.”
I chuckled. “You can’t get mad if a nigga doesn’t want to accept yo’ fuckin’ friend offerings, shawty.”
“Okay. You’re right. I will not beg you to be my friend, but I won’t take the offer back either. I know grief can be isolating, and I’m letting you know I am available to be your friend when the pain is too hard to bear on your own.”
“You are cute and all, but I don’t think you need to be trying to offer your pussy up to me like that,” I stated.
She blinked in surprise. “How the hell you get that from what I just said? Boy, don’t flatter yourself. You’re not my type.”
“You can keep telling yourself that lie, but those eyes don’t lie. You ain’t got to front with me either, Honey .”
“Boy, bye!” She tried to walk away, but I was too entertained now.
“Nah, where are you going? Your young ass looks like the type of girl who be sneaking into your mama’s book collection. You be reading those Zane books, huh?”
She giggled. “Boy, the books I read are a lot nastier than those Zane books. She’s a goat, for sure. But I got some authors who make her scenes look real vanilla.”
“Freak ass. You probably ain’t ever even took some dick before.”
She scrunched her nose. “Ew. Of course not. I’m waiting for the right guy. I refuse to waste my first time with a boy who doesn’t know what he’s doing. When I get old enough, I’m going to find a man who can take my virginity and make it special.”
“Yeah, you read a lot of books. Keep that innocence, for real.”
“Sweet Tea!”
We both craned our necks to the sound of the voice.
“That’s my daddy. I gotta go. Listen, I stand by everything I said today.”
“Me too.”
She gave a short wave before she turned and jogged across the grass to her house. I shook my head at the sight of her retreating frame. Our age gap wasn’t bad; however, I wasn’t trying to live a fairy tale lifestyle with her. I didn’t even plan to be around when I turned eighteen. I counted down the days when I could move out on my own and do what the fuck I wanted to do.
* * *
“You settled in?” Uncle Merlot asked on the phone.
“I guess.”
“You able to move how you need to? I got a job for you.”
My palms itched at the possibility of getting into the streets. I hadn’t had a talk with Aunt Dee and Uncle Chance about their house rules. I didn’t give a fuck either way, but I needed to know if I could leave out the front door or climb through the window. I wasn’t afraid of them, but I didn’t want to deal with them questioning me and what I got into.
“I’ll figure something out. When you need me?”
“Tomorrow night. If you can meet me at the spot today, we can do a briefing.”
“I’ll head that way in about an hour.” I looked at my oil-stained clothes.
“Good shit.”
The call ended. I had just washed the car when Uncle Merlot called. I’d been outside for hours. Time flew by when I was in the zone. I would have been a mechanic in another lifetime if my circumstances hadn’t gotten fucked up by my parents.
Drug dealing daddy and crackhead mama made a hell of a backstory. Not only had my father been the one to give my mother the lethal dosage of drugs to kill her, but he also ran away like a pussy. I wanted the mothafucka dead, and so did Uncle Merlot. We both had our ears to the streets, ready for the day that nigga slipped up.
“You’ve got that car looking brand new.” Uncle Chance observed as he walked up the driveway.
“Thanks.”
“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” he asked as he examined my work.
“I was actually about to pull up on Uncle Merlot.”
Uncle Chance frowned. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.
“I’m not an idiot. We all know what type of business your uncle conducts. If you’re going to be in this house, you need to know we don’t tolerate that street life shit. We worked hard to get all the shit we have. I’ll be damned if I let your gangster ass activities put this family in danger.”
I remained silent as he spoke. Once his small rant was over, I let silence fill the space until I found the words to use as a response.
“Man, you think I asked to be raised by a fuckin’ crackhead or a drug dealer? You think I asked to have to kill and steal at a young ass age because the mothafuckas that made me couldn’t raise me? You think I asked for any of this shit? I’m a product of my mothafuckin environment, dawg. Ain’t much I can do at this point. I only know how to kill and steal. It’s in my blood.”
My voice betrayed me. I sounded like a bitch. If anybody knew I’d just shown that side of me, I’d be a walking target.
“Marquise, look?—”
“I really don’t care what you got to say, Unc, on some real shit. Look, I can promise you my shit ain’t gon’ ever interfere with what you got goin’ on in yo’ house. If I didn’t have social workers on my ass, I wouldn’t even be here. Soon as I turn eighteen, I’m out of this bitch for good. You got a year and a couple months. I won’t be in y’all shit, and you ain’t got to be in mine.”
Without another word, I turned and headed into the house. The next year and a half would be long and tiresome. I was going to stack my paper, though. I wanted to apply to any spot and get that shit with straight cash. I was tired of being moved from house to house, family member to family member. If Unc and nem didn’t want me, CPS would get involved again, but the next time I’d end up in a group home. I refused to let that be a part of my story.
* * *
“Are you good, nephew?” Uncle Merlot asked when I entered his home.
“I’m cool. What’s the job?”
“We got an informant of your dad’s in the backroom. I figured you’d want to be the one to handle that.”
“You could have said that from the jump. Let me see the mothafucka.”
Merlot chuckled. “Be calm. We got to get information before you kill anybody.”
“Right.”
My heart raced at the thought of catching a body tonight. It was something powerful about releasing all my emotions onto the body of a nigga who didn’t deserve to live. The idea of watching the life leave their eyes made my body quake with excitement. The power and control I felt when my bare hands squeezed the life out of a nigga was almost better than an intense nut. Almost .
“I know how hot headed you can get, Marq. Don’t lose control before we can get a location on yo’ Pops.”
“I hear you.”
“I’ll whup yo’ ass my damn self. Don’t go overboard.”
“Whatever.”
The walk to the backroom was long. The room was located underground and built with thick steel walls. The concrete flooring was cold and hard. There was only one light in the center of the room.
When my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, I saw the man tied up in the middle of the room with his mouth gagged. I looked at his scared features to put a name to a face. The dark skin and dreadlocks clicked in my memory.
“I know that ain’t you, Yosohn.” I chuckled.
The man in question fought against the handcuffs as he tried to break free. The sight of him pissed me off. Nigga always had something slick to say when I used to be around Chandler’s bitch ass. With no words, I punched him in his stomach four times. My jabs were short and powerful, as if I were using a punching bag. He coughed and sputtered against the rope around his mouth. I stepped back and watched him throw up on himself.
“What the fuck?” Rell stared in disgust. I hadn’t even seen him in the room until he spoke.
“Look, I got a little carried away.” My shoulders lifted into a careless shrug.
“I don’t even want to touch the shit now. That’s so fuckin’ nasty.”
Rell was a member of Merlot’s crew. He handled the physical jobs Merlot coined beneath his scope of expertise. Merlot stood near the doorframe and watched as Rell removed the rope from Yosohn’s mouth.
“Where’s Chandler?” I asked Yosohn instead of continuing that useless conversation with Rell’s whiny ass.
“Man, I don’t fuckin’ know!” Yosohn exclaimed.
“Bitch ass, you know something.” This time, I punched him in the jaw. I held back from using my full force. Last time I used full force on a punch to the jaw, the dude’s mouth fell apart… literally.
“Fuck! I said I didn’t know shit.” He cried out in pain.
“If you don’t know shit, your life has no other purpose. I’ll kill yo’ ass right now.”
He trembled with fear like the bitch he was. He shook and cried as he begged me not to take his life. Merlot stepped forward with an expressionless look on his face.
“Man, it’s hard to keep young niggas in check. They do shit their own way, and it gets messy. Save us both the hassle of dealing with Marq’s crazy ass. Where is that mothafucka Chandler hiding out at?” Merlot’s voice was even.
Yosohn sighed. “I don’t know, man! I told you, when Kita overdosed, he took that shit hard. She might have been a crackhead, but that was his first love. He didn’t want her to die. He cut all of us off and left town. I want to find him, too, because he took all the money with his bitch ass.”
“Man, Unc, let me kill this mothafucka!”
“Marq, go take a walk. You fuckin’ up the plans. I don’t know why I thought your hotheaded ass could be cool enough to handle shit.”
I smacked my lips.
“I’m cool. I just don’t understand why we are still wasting time with Yosohn. He ain’t got no information for us, and it looks like he not important enough to keep in touch with Chandler.”
“I got this. Fuckin’ with you, we ain’t ever gon’ get shit done. I’ll call you when I got something for you. For now, go back to yo’ folks’ house and let me handle this.”
“But—”
“Go!”
My face staled. I looked everyone in the room over and spit at Yosohn before I turned and made long strides out of the room.
Adults pissed me off with that shit. He thought I was some crybaby ass little boy when I’d caught more bodies in my teenage years than he’d ever had the balls to in his old ass age. If he didn’t want me to help, that was fine. However, I wouldn’t rest until I fed Chandler Kent to the swine. His actions resulted in my life being a pile of shit. His actions made me a product of the streets. The only form of payment I would receive as compensation was his head on my mantel.