Get It Girls (20 page)

Jessica nodded her head, conveying that she understood exactly what her mother was trying to say to her. They embraced for the first time since she could remember.

Her mother stood up and said, “I’ve got to start packing, so I better get going.”

Jessica nodded.

As her mother was walking out her room she said, “Oh, yeah, your brother left a note under the door for you. It’s on your dresser.”

Jessica immediately stood up, ran over to the dresser, and picked up the letter up.

Jessica,

I’m sorry for what I did to you, taking your money and all. I feel real bad about it. This crack makes you do things you never thought you would do, and I have no control. That night I really wanted to go in rehab but the crack was calling me. I couldn’t help myself. The reason I’m writing you is because I saw you on the news and I’m scared for you because you’re messing with the wrong people. I don’t want to see nothing happen to you, so just leave it all alone. Do this for me. Daddy is gone and that hurt me in ways you can’t imagine, but if I lose you, I don’t think I can live no more. If you stop right now, I’ll let you come get me and we can go straight down to the rehab and check me in. Meet me tonight at ten o’clock. I’m staying in an abandoned building on 144th street, building 106 on the 4th floor. I love you, Jessica.

Jordan

**********

After Jessica finished bathing and dressing, all she could think about was the letter her brother wrote and meeting him that night. She arrived at Cleveland’s apartment, and the three other men were sitting around the table, hard at work devising a plan of action. The apartment had a thick stench of cigar odor looming in the air.

“Jessica, glad you’re here.” Cleveland smiled, placed his arm on Jessica’s shoulder, and said, “Good, let’s take care of business.”

He walked her over to the table and he showed her sketches and Polaroid pictures of buildings and faces of men. Jessica was amazed at how much information that Cleveland had obtained already. Cleveland smiled and knew she was impressed. He picked up a picture off the table and held it in front of her.

“This here is our boy, the infamous Bosco.”

Jessica stared at the evil looking man in the picture with thick dreadlocks that fell past his shoulders. He was very dark skinned and his body was tall and lanky.

“Fellows, we got our job cut out on this one, because he is a one mean son of a bitch. He has a reputation of killing off his rivals and wouldn’t hesitate killing someone without so much batting an eye.”

Shooter looked confused. “Why do we have to plan anything? Just let me get on a roof and I’ll take him out that way.”

Cleveland shook his head. “No, Shooter, it’s not that simple, what we want to do is smash his whole operation and take his drugs off the streets. You’ll have your chance to put in some work, trust me.”

Shooter looked disappointed, but agreed.

Cleveland continued, “Word on the street is that he likes women, plenty of women and sleeps with a minimum of two to three at a time.”

“My kind of man,” joked Doc. “Maybe we can have a little party before we kill him. What do you say?”

Cleveland waved him off and selected another photo. “I took this one at one of the several buildings that he sells drugs in. Some of them from what I gather are just areas where they store or cook up the drugs.”

Cleveland picked up several more pictures. “He has this building on 116th Street, this one on 118th Street. This one is right in this block across the street from where the three boys were murdered and the little girl was shot. This last one is on 144th Street right, around the corner.”

Jessica took the five pictures and examined them closely one by one. Her skin began to crawl when she looked at them, especially when she looked at the picture of Bosco—which gave her chills. Jessica continued to look over the picture as Cleveland continued to explain.

“These are some of his flunkies. Do you recognize any of them Jessica?”

She looked at the pictures and nodded. “Yes, this one, this one, and this one.” She pointed to one of the thugs who’d approached her at the grocery store.

“I thought so,” Cleveland said excitedly. “They’re the ones who are around him the most, and they might be his lieutenants.” He turned to Shooter and handed him the pictures. “Ok, Shooter, these four will be our targets. If we take them out, their whole outfit will fall.”

Jessica interrupted. “Do we really have to kill all of them? Can’t we just find the evidence and give it to the police?”

There was a loud grumble coming from the men as they expressed their dissatisfaction.

“I told you not to have her part of this, Cleveland. She’s gonna fuck everything up,” Johnson said angrily.

“Yeah,” interjected Shooter.“You know I’m not used to working with outsiders in the first place, and a kid at that.”

Doc joked, “She doesn’t look like a kid to me.”

“Shut up, Doc. I’m serious,” Johnson said coldly. “This ain’t no fucking game we playing here; this is real, and I’m putting my life on the line.”

“He’s right, Cleveland, the girl is green—she’s a rookie. She might not be able to keep up,” Shooter said flat out.

Cleveland looked at Jessica and was ready to defend her, but Jessica stepped forward to defend herself.

“No, it’s all right, Cleveland. Let me say something.” She surveyed the men eyes. “I was locked up for six and a half years for murder. When I got to prison I had to kill some more just to stay alive, and after that me and my crew ran the entire prison. A few days ago I was confronted by three of the guys in the picture, one of which I broke his nose. He tried to pull his pistol out, but I was faster and pulled mines.” She showed them the gun. “My brother is on crack cocaine and these guys know who he is, who I am, who my mother is, and where I live. I could have backed out of this long ago, like Cleveland said, but I stayed around to fight this till the end. Cleveland also said, ‘either you in for a penny, or in for a pound.’ I’m standing before you, so I guess I’m in it for the pound. Now before you judge me and call me a rookie, I happened to have read the Art of War by Sun Tzu, and he said that when you have no other option but to go to war, strike your enemy hard and fast and totally annihilate them, but leave some alive to serve as witnesses, only to make you more powerful. Forgive me if I offered you another option, but if I got to kill, I will annihilate them.” She stared at the men then said, “So, what it’s going to be?”

They stared in Jessica’s eyes and knew she was telling the truth. They then turned toward Johnson for his response, and he took the cigar out of his mouth and gave her a nod.

Cleveland smiled and said, “Since we got that out the way, all we got to do now is somehow provide bait, and that is going to be the hard part.”

Jessica stared at the pictures again. “I know how to get them where we want them, but I need my friends with me to make it happen.”

Shooter immediately said, “Oh, no, more people? Who is it now, the Girl Scouts?”

She smiled and said, “Close. My crew—the Get It Girls!”

Doc smiled widely and said, “Yes, more ladies.”

“So what’s your plan, Jessica?” Cleveland asked with excited interest.

She smiled. “The best way to catch rats is with some pussies.”

Cleveland nodded and snapped his fingers. “That might be just the bait we need to flush him out.”

“That might just work,” said Johnson.

They all looked at Shooter, who reluctantly nodded and said, “I still don’t know why we just don’t shoot all their asses and let that be that.”

“Like I said, you’ll have your share,” said Cleveland. He shifted his attention back to Jessica. “Anything else that might be helpful, Jessica?”

Jessica looked down at one of the photographs and then picked it up slowly. She squinted as she studied the photographs closer and said, “Oh, shit!”

J
essica arrived in the front of building 106 on 144th Street to meet Jordan. She had already gone with Cleveland down to the Times Square bus station to see her mother off, and she felt safe for her for the very first time since all drama had begun. The block was desolate as she looked around at mountains of abandoned, boarded up buildings without a soul walking around—it looked like a ghost town.

She stared cautiously up and down the dark, empty building and saw an orange light illuminating one of the apartments on the fourth floor. She grasped the gun that she had hidden in her jacket and proceeded inside the building and up the rickety staircase slowly. It was so dark in the staircase that Jessica couldn’t see two feet in front of her so she fished in her pockets and found a book of matches and struck one, giving her an instant burst of light, just enough to make it up to the third floor landing.

She looked up to the final landing above her and saw that there was a flickering amber light coming from one of the apartments. “Jordan?” She paused and awaited a response. She didn’t hear anything and called out his name again. “Jordan, are you up there?”

“Jessica?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Where you at?”

“I’m up here, come on up.”

Jessica stepped cautiously up the remaining flight of the stairs and when she finally made to the fourth floor she saw the apartment where the light was coming from. She peered inside and repeated, “Jordan, where you at?”

“In here. Come in.”

Jessica walked inside and saw several candles spaced all over the dreary apartment. She then saw Jordan sitting down on an old dirty mattress taking a hit from a crack pipe. He had his head down and blew out the thick, poisonous cloud from his mouth, avoiding eye contact with her.

“Jordan, that’s enough. Put that shit down so we can get out of here.”

Jordan was unresponsive and kept his head down.

“Jordan!” Jessica called louder. “Don’t you hear me? Let’s get out of here, now!”

He barely moved.

Jessica walked directly up to him and yelled even louder, “Jordan, look at me!”

He slowly raised his head, and it was then that she noticed tears falling from his eyes. He looked up at her with pleading eyes.

“I’m sorry, Jessica. I’m sorry,” he said through cracking voice.

Jessica assured him, “Don’t worry about the money, Jordan. We’ll talk about that later, but we have to get out of here now.”

From the corner of her eye, Jessica saw a shadow and reached for her pistol, but it was too late. Three men came from out of the kitchen with guns already drawn. They quickly disarmed her, and when they did she recognized them immediately as the men who’d threatened her at the grocery store. They held her arms behind her forcefully. The same short man with the afro, Li’l man, now had a bandage over the bridge of his nose. He smiled wickedly as he walked slowly up to her.

Jessica stared down upon him.

He said, “Your brother is sorry because he sold you out for some crack.”

She turned and looked down at Jordan, not wanting to believe what she had just heard. “Jordan, you did that to me? You did that to your own sister?”

Jordan, still too ashamed to face her, shook violently as he tried to steady himself to light his crack.

“Yes he did, bitch! He’s a crackhead and that’s what crackheads do.” Li’l man reached in his pocket and pulled out a thick cellophane bag full of crack and threw it into Jordan’s lap.

Jordan scrambled to retrieve it and scooted back on the mattress and opened the bag to smoke some more.

Li’l man felt his nose and began to grow angrier. “I tried to tell you to walk away from this shit, and you thought you could play with the big boys. Now look at your bitch ass.”

Jessica didn’t show any fear. “Fuck you, li’l man. I see your nose didn’t heal straight yet.”

Li’l man looked at Jessica and laughed, then punched her viciously in the mouth.

Jordan looked up, and in a drug-induced stupor said, “Hey, y’all said y’all wasn’t gonna hurt her!”

“Shut the fuck up, crackhead, ’cause you’ll be dying next.” Li’l man nodded to one of the men and pulled a weapon from his waistband and took aim at Jessica’s head.

Jordan suddenly rose up off the mattress and let out a harrowing scream as he raced toward the man with the gun and tackled him to the floor. One of the men quickly pounced on him and began beating Jordan viciously. Jessica was horrified and tried in vain to help her little brother, but the huge man holding her made it impossible. The man picked Jordan up by his thin neck and tossed him awkwardly back onto the dirty mattress.

Jessica gritted her teeth in defiance, and once again watched the killer raise the gun toward her face. The next thing Jessica heard was a faint cracking sound coming from the window. In an instant, the man with the gun to her face let out a loud gasp and collapsed suddenly to the floor. The man holding Jessica released her as he stood confused and watch his brethren in arms gasp for air.

From the corner of Jessica’s eye, she saw movement and quickly dove on the mattress by her brother and shielded his body with hers. The room came alive with gunfire and began to fill with the acrid scent of gunpowder and death. Jessica closed her eyes and protected her brother’s head as she continued to hold him down.

When the gunfire ceased, Jessica lifted her head and saw Cleveland, Doc, and Johnson standing with guns in hand as thick smoke rose in the air. She stood up and saw the two lifeless bodies of the men who had tried to kill her and Li’l man cowering in the corner with his hands held over his head as he shivered.

Johnson went over to Li’l man and kicked him viscously in his side and told him to get up. Li’l man rose cautiously to his feet and they threw him up against the wall and handcuffed him.

Jessica had already prearranged to have the men cover her back. She noticed in one of the pictures that Cleveland had shown her that this was one of the buildings used by Bosco on 144th street. When she looked at the picture a little closer, she saw the building’s address was 106—the same address that Jordan had written down on the note. That was then that she knew she was being set up.