Chapter 1
LOSS: TWO YEARS LATER DEXTEN KINGSLEY AKA DEXZ
“Yo, bro, shit is getting crazy around here, yo,” Dexten’s best friend, Lunden, said as he looked up the block. They were watching a man get arrested right across the street from the brownstone apartment he lived in with his mother.
“Yeah, I know, and so is this weather. I can’t wait until my mom gets home so she can turn on the air conditioner,” Dexz replied as he wiped the sweat from his face with a wet cloth.
It was a hot summer day in Harlem, New York, and he hated it.
It was humid and smelled like rain was coming.
His mother thought he ran the air conditioner too much, so she didn’t allow him to turn it on until she got off work.
“I’m going to ask your mom if I can stay at your crib tonight. We don’t even have AC.” Lunden shook his head.
At that moment, he saw his mother, Liza, walking up the street. She wore a business suit, with a Gucci messenger bag dangling from her arm. Liza was walking faster than usual, so he stood up to greet her.
“What’s up, Ma? You okay?” he asked as his mother walked towards them.
“We have to go in the house and stay there. It's your dad. Lunden, you have to leave,” Liza said as she grabbed Dexz by the arm to walk into the house.
“But I wanted to spend the night,” Lunden said, disappointed.
“Not tonight, bro. I’ll call you,” Dex mumbled to his friend while he kept his eyes on Liza.
Liza grabbed Dexz and pulled him into the house. Once she made sure the door was locked, she met Dexz in the kitchen.
“What’s up, Ma? What happened?” he asked as he fixed his eyes on his mother as she paced the kitchen floor.
“Your dad is in a lot of trouble. We’re going to have to pack a few things and leave for California tonight.”
“He owes the Dominicans money, and we have to run? Why don’t he just pay them?
” Dexz frowned. He knew about all his dad’s dealings, and it irked him to the core that Dexten Sr. was dishonest. He knew his dad was getting huge amounts of cash as loans from the Dominicans that lived in their neighborhood for gambling.
They were known for loaning people money, but they were also known for killing anybody that didn’t pay them back within thirty days.
It had been almost a year for his father.
“Don’t you ever repeat what you said to anyone, boy. Now go in your room and pack all your important documents and some clothes. Your father will be here soon, and we have to be gone by eight. Your dad thinks you’re blind to what is going on, so keep it that way.”
He stood up. “Yeah, a’ight.”
Dexz walked off to his room and closed the door. He was pissed they were moving to California so suddenly. New York was his home, and he had no desire to visit California for anything, but he knew it was the only way his dad would be comfortable running from his problems, so he started packing.
After he packed his bags, he sat in his bed and googled Southern California.
He couldn’t lie; it looked nice, but he still wasn’t feeling it.
It was so far away, and he was leaving a lot behind, like his best friend.
Dexz sighed and then stood up to grab his cellphone from his dresser to call his best friend, until he heard a loud thud.
Before he could open the door to his room, his mother stormed in and locked the door.
“Son, get in the closet! The Dominicans are here to get your father,” Liza frantically screeched.
“What the fuck? Do they have guns?” Dexz asked as Liza pushed him towards the closet.
“Yes, and they don’t know we’re back here. Now get down and be quiet.” Liza shut the door.
Dexz was furious and felt defeated. His dad was in the living room about to be killed, and here he was in the closet with his crying mother.
He always wanted a gun in his room, but Liza insisted he was not to bring any weapons into her home.
He could hear Dexten Sr. shouting and begging for his life while they beat the shit out of him.
His closet faced the kitchen, so they could hear everything through the wall.
“Please don’t shoot me, man. I can get the money to you next week, I promise!” Dexz heard his father shout.
“You’ve been saying next week since last year. Your time is up, buddy!” One of the men shouted.
Liza covered her ears because she knew gunshots were coming, and sure enough, they did. Dexz stood there with a mean mug on his face as he counted the shots in his head. They let off at least ten shots into his father.
They heard people running out of the house, and then it became silent.
They stayed in the closet for another five minutes, and then Dexz opened the door.
Liza trailed behind her son, holding his shirt as he made it out of the room, and headed to the kitchen.
The floor was covered in blood when they walked in, but Dexten Sr.’s body was nowhere in sight.
He figured they must have taken his body for a trophy, and they might be getting pieces of his flesh in their mailbox soon.
He heard plenty of stories about the Dominicans, so he knew their get-down.
Dexz stood in the puddle of blood, still angry.
His father was dead and now missing because of the poor choices he made in life.
It upset him that he was left to protect his mother alone.
Liza was weak and couldn’t stand on her two feet, so he knew he had to be her provider.
He knew his teenage years were now gone, and so was his life in New York.
“Oh my God! Where is my husband’s body?!” Liza shouted before falling into a chair at the dining room table. She was light-headed from seeing the pool of blood on the floor. It was so much that she could smell the metallic stench that reeked from it.
“I don’t know, but the plan needs to stay as is.
If we’re going to California, we need to go to the airport now before they come back and get us.
When we get to California, I’m buying guns and cameras.
I don’t want to hear anything about no guns in the house, Ma.
They just came in and killed your fucking husband, and I couldn’t do shit because we can’t have guns in the house.
If you want to live, you gotta listen to me now because I’m not dying over my pop’s bullshit,” Dexz stated boldly before his mother said anything that would put them in harm’s way.
She had done enough talking for him, and he was tired of her treating him like a little boy, so he was manning up.
“Okay, I’ll go get my things, but we have to clean this blood. Your father was going to sell the house so we could afford a home in California,” Liza said sadly. There was nothing she could do. Dexten Sr. was gone, and her only family was her son. Therefore, she was going to let him take charge.
“How much did he owe, and do we have money?”
“The house is worth fifty grand, but we only have twenty grand to take with us. He owes the Dominicans three hundred thousand dollars.” She put her head down.
Liza always told her husband that his addictions were going too far.
She knew he was overboard when he started taking loans from locals, but he always told her he was investing the money so they could have more. But clearly, he lied to her.
Dexz shook his head. “Call us a cab. I’ll clean up.” He found bleach and a mop and started cleaning up his father’s blood.
After they packed up, he called Lunden and told him he was skipping state with his mom and that his pops was dead and missing. Lunden was fucked up about his homie leaving, but Dexz promised that as soon as the smoke cleared, he would be back walking the streets of Harlem.
$$$$$
Ten hours later, they were in California, checking into a motel in Los Angeles. They had enough to live in a nice hotel but had no income coming in, so they had to live in something run-down until their house was sold.
After they were settled and Liza was asleep, Dexz left the room to walk the dangerous streets of Los Angeles.
They were in East LA, but Dexz wasn’t scared.
He walked into a neighborhood he had no business being in, fearless and desperate.
When he saw a group of guys and a few girls, he knew walking up to random people was dangerous, but he needed protection.
“What’s up, cuz? You lost or somethin’?” One of the men asked as he stepped out of the crew and approached Dexz.
“Aye, my nigga… Me and my mom’s in some shit.
I’m from New York and was wonderin’ if y’all knew somebody I could buy a strap from?
” Dexz asked, wasting no time telling the dudes what he wanted.
He had dealt with gangsters in Harlem and had heard they were nothing like Cali thugs, but he was taking his chances; he had no choice.
The gangster squinted his eyes as he looked Dexz up and down.
“You the police or somethin’, lil’ nigga? You better get from around here before I blast you.” The gangster pulled his gun from his waist and pointed it at Dexz.
He eyed the gun that was pointed at his face. “Nah, I ain’t the police. I just need something like what you totin’. I’m serious, bro. I got cash.”
Dexz reached into his pocket and pulled out a few hundreds.
The gangster eyed the money. Seeing that he had cash, he put his gun down.
“What’s ya’ name, lil nigga, and what kind of trouble you in?” the gangster asked.
“My name is Dexz.”
“Yo’ name Dex like Dexter or Decks like some cards, my nigga?” The gangster chuckled.
“Decks like the cards, my nigga, but it’s spelled D.E.X.Z.” He didn’t want the gangster to know his birth name.
“Well, what’s ya story for this strap?”
“Me and my mom’s on the run from some Dominicans in New York. They smoked my pops in cold blood and took his body with them, so I need some shit to protect my moms, maybe two.”
“Damn,” a girl said who was standing in the crowd. “Sell that nigga a burner, cuz.”
“God must have sent you to me because they call me the burner man. I stay right here. Let’s go over there and talk business. Sorry about your pops, lil nigga,” the gangster said.
“Ain’t no thang, man. He brought that shit on himself.” He shrugged.
When Dexz came out of the gangster’s house, he had a .
40 Glock and a 12-gauge rifle. He even bought a half kilo of cocaine to get on his feet.
The last thing he was going to do was struggle.
He knew all about getting money and how to sell dope.
Before his dad became an alcoholic and gambler, he pushed big weight.
Dexz watched him do everything and always remembered the dope game, just in case he had to get into it.
Gangsta, whose name turned out to be Burner, took Dexz back to his motel and gave him his phone number.
“Aye, if y’all are looking for a house, my mom’s is renting out a low-income spot around the corner from me. Call me. I can get y’all hooked up.” Burner wrote his number on a piece of paper and gave it to Dexz. He nodded, knowing him and his mother were going to need a house soon.
When he went back into their room, his mother was still asleep. So, he locked himself in the bathroom and started breaking down his cocaine while thinking of his next move…