Get It Girls (21 page)

Moments later, Shooter rushed in the apartment with his rifle drawn and scanned the area of the room until Cleveland waved him off.

“Good shot,” Cleveland said to Shooter. “You got him in the heart.”

Shooter looked down at his victim and said, “I had a close shot. I was just on the roof across the street—a five-year-old could’ve hit him.”

Cleveland looked at Jessica. “You ready?”

Jessica looked down at her brother in disgust as he put the stem to his mouth, trying to flick the lighter as he bled heavily. She walked over to her brother in a rage and knocked the stem and the lighter from out of his hand.

“Get the fuck on your feet, Jordan!” Jessica yelled.

He searched for his bag of crack and stood to his feet.

She snatched the bag out of his hand with contempt and asked, “How could you do this to me, Jordan? How could you?” It took every ounce of strength in Jessica’s body to prevent her from hitting her younger brother.

He was speechless. He never even noticed the blood leaking from his head and mouth. His shrunken and frail body was almost lost in his clothing, which looked to be three sizes too big. With all the drugs he was consuming he wasting away to nothing, but that meant nothing to him. He wobbled unsteadily as his pants suddenly fell to his knees and he fell flat on his face when he attempted to pull them back up. Everyone looked at him with pity as he tried in vain, but unsuccessfully to cover his naked behind.

The anger that Jessica once had for her brother was instantly replaced by compassion and empathy. Jessica looked at the bag of crack in her hand and then at her brother and aided him to his feet, then assisted him in pulling up his pants. She handed him back the bag of crack and looked him in his eyes and for the first time noticed that the person who stood before her was someone she no longer knew.

Jessica kissed her brother on forehead and hugged him tightly as she closed her eyes as she fought back the tears. She pulled away suddenly and then turned around to walk away not wanting to look back. As she was heading out the door, she stopped in front of Shooter and whispered in his ear and handed him her 25 automatic. He looked Jessica in the eyes to see if he had heard her correctly and she nodded slowly and walked out the apartment with Cleveland, Johnson, Doc, and Li’l man, right behind her.

“Come on, you son of a bitch,” Cleveland said to Li’l man, “we got something special in store for you.”

By the time Jessica reached the second landing, her body jerked when she heard the first shot. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and continued down the stairs as she heard three more shots.

**********

Jessica roamed the streets of Harlem until she found herself ringing Kenny’s doorbell. He embraced her when he opened the door and saw she was so upset and held her through the night while she slept a fitful sleep.

She woke up the next morning, as the sun rays beamed down on her face. She looked around and realized she was at Kenny’s place and he wasn’t in the room. She looked at the alarm clock by his lamp and realized how long she had slept. She knew that she had to meet up with Vonda, who she told to get in contact with Lynn and Tiny so she could take care of the second phase of the plan.

She jumped out of the bed and looked around for her shoes, found them, and put them on her feet. Just then, Kenny walked into the room shirtless, with food and orange juice on a tray.

“Oh, you awoke, perfect timing,” Kenny announced. “You must have been tired from staying over the other night,” Kenny joked, trying to get Jessica to smile. “I cooked you some breakfast, so sit down and enjoy.”

“I’m sorry Kenny, but I don’t have any appetite to eat anything right now, I really have to go.” Jessica put her arms through her jacket and began walking toward the door.

“Jessica, you got to eat. You are doing too much and you got to slow down.”

“Kenny, right now is not the time, I got something important that I got to do.”

“Like getting yourself killed!” Kenny screamed. “Can you just listen to me for a moment please?”

Jessica stopped in her tracks and knew that she had made a mistake by getting emotionally involved with him so soon. She turned on her heels to face him.

“Jessica,” Kenny pleaded, “you are dealing with some bad, bad people, and I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

She walked over to Kenny and placed a kiss on his lips. “I know that you love me and I love you, but I promise you that I will be ok and all of this will be over real soon.”

He wrapped his arms around her one last time before she walked out the door.

I
t was nearly 1PM when Jessica finally arrived at Vonda’s house via cab service. She looked over her shoulders several times because she knew she was a marked woman at that point so she became paranoid. Jessica rang the doorbell and heard someone’s footsteps approaching the door. When the door opened, it was Lynn standing in the doorway with a huge smile on her face, and she immediately began screaming for joy.

They embraced and continued to celebrate until Vonda walked up and joked, “Damn, y’all act like y’all ain’t seen each other in years.”

They pulled away to look at each other. “Damn, it’s good to see you again, Jesse!” Lynn shouted excitedly.

“It’s good to see you, and damn girl, you looking good. Macy’s must be treating you well.”

Lynn did a complete 360 and turned all the around, giving her a full view of her newfound fashion. “I don’t work there anymore; I resigned last week. It’s too many rich-ass niggas out here that want to take care of a bitch, if you know what I mean.”

“What you back to getting dick now?” asked Jessica.

Lynn smiled. “That was when we was in prison, and we only did two days in prison: the day we got in and the day we got out. Everything else don’t count, remember?”

Jessica gave her five. “I hear you. We had to do what we had to do.”

Lynn nodded and said, “Fuck all that other shit. I hear you got big problems?”

Jessica nodded. “Major problems.”

Vonda interjected and said, “Come on. Let’s go in my room and talk.” They walked inside Vonda’s room and for the first time in almost nine months she saw Tiny, who was sitting in the same chair as she always had.

Jessica was happy to see her also. “Tiny.”

She looked up from the armchair and smiled then stood up to hug her. When they embraced, Jessica felt nothing but bones. She looked Tiny up and down and instantly knew that she was still doing drugs by the gaunt look to her face. She still dressed well, but she wore a long-sleeved sweatshirt and it was the middle of the summer. Jessica thought it was rather odd, but she overlooked it and said, “It’s good to see you, Tiny.”

She nodded and said the same, “It’s good to see you too. When you got out?”

“About a month and a half ago.”

Tiny nodded again and said to everyone, “Yo, I’m going to use the bathroom for a minute. I’ll be back in a second.”

They watched her exit the room and felt real sorry for her.

Jessica put her head down and asked, “She still on that shit, huh?”

Vonda nodded, and you could see in her eyes how it was affecting her.

“Yep, what’s worse is that she got the monster too,” Lynn said in a sad low tone.

“The monster? What is that?” Jessica looked in Vonda’s eyes and saw that they were watery.

Lynn said, “AIDS. She caught the virus by shooting that heroin in her arms. That’s why she wears only long sleeved shirts, ’cause her arms are fucked-up looking.”

Jessica was stunned. Vonda turned away to hide her tears, and Jessica walked over to her and gave her a hug.

Jessica spent the next hour explaining to all of them everything that had gone down from the time she got home to the incident that happened last night. None of them could believe what Jessica had done to her own brother and were saddened and realized just how much trouble she was really in. After Jessica had finished explaining everything, they were all in awe and no one said a word.

“So there you have it,” said Jessica.

There was a long silence until Lynn said, “So what do you do now?”

Jessica shrugged. “That’s why I called y’all here today. I need your help.”

Lynn nodded and said with confidence, “Well, you ain’t saying nothing but a word. I’m in for whatever! That’s how we motherfucking roll. What do you say, Vonda?”

“You don’t even have to ask. You know I’m down.”

Jessica smiled and they all looked toward Tiny, who was looking up at the ceiling as she scratched her body. “What’s up Tiny? You in or what?”

She lowered her eyes. “I don’t know. I know that nigga Bosco. I brought plenty drugs from that nigga, and his Jamaican ass ain’t no joke. He would kill you if he even thought you was gonna cross him. And all that other shit you talkin’, Jessica, it sounds like you brought it on yourself, being all in the paper and shit like that, tryna be some motherfuckin’ hero or something. You are talking about kidnapping and murdering motherfuckers. If we get caught we can spend the rest of our lives in jail.”

Jessica had to admit that she was right.

Lynn countered, “Damn Tiny, you know that we are crew, and if one of us has a problem, all of us got a problem. That’s just how we get down.”

Tiny shrugged her puny shoulders as she nodded at the same time. “I hear you, but if I’m gonna risk my life it got to be at least something in it for me.”

They all knew instantly that Tiny had a motive behind her actions and that she wanted money if she was to come in with them. “You want us to give you money to get down with us, Tiny?” Lynn asked with disgust.

Tiny remained silent.

“Come on, Tiny,” Vonda said. “I have been giving you money ever since you got out. I damn near been supporting you, and you going out on me like this?”

Tiny knew she was right, but held her ground anyway.

Vonda and Lynn continued to tell her how selfish she was until Jessica said, “I’ll give you five thousand dollars if you want that.”

Tiny suddenly lifted her head and greed flashed across her flaming red eyes, hanging on to every word that Jessica was saying now, “I’ll give you half of it now and the other half when we are done.”

Vonda and Lynn looked at Jessica as if she were an alien.

“No, Jessica,” Vonda said, “that’s your money, and you shouldn’t have to pay nobody to be in with us. We three could pull it off.”

Jessica shook her head and said, “No, we are crew, and if we do something we do it together or not at all. Besides, I want her to have the money, and we need her.”

Vonda and Lynn just looked at Jessica and let it go because they saw the desperation in her eyes. They then shifted their attention back to Tiny and awaited an answer until she finally said, “I’m in, too.”

Jessica nodded. “Then that’s it. Let’s get busy.”

The girls spent the rest of the evening finalizing their roles and plans for the best way to catch Bosco at his weakest. Since Tiny knew him and had had contact with Bosco on a number of occasions, they decided to build the plan around her. They knew Bosco was a big trick and that pussy would be the answer. They decided to use Lynn and Vonda as Tiny’s backup to entice him into their web. To pull it off, they needed to gain entry inside his operation and get the upper hand when the assault would take place. They decided that Tiny would be best suited for that position. To make it happen, that person had to be buying a lot of drugs to gain the initial entry into the apartment. The hard part would be catching Bosco in the apartment at the right time, so they needed to put the plan in effect immediately and had no time to waste.

After they went over and everything, they went over it again till everyone knew their roles by memory. They couldn’t afford to leave anything to chance. Even Tiny was alert and on point, even though she took a break every hour to go take a fix in the bathroom. When they were sure of everything, Jessica and the other girls decided to go home and get ready for the following day. Tiny hit Jessica up for a small advance. Jessica promised she’d get the rest tomorrow, but warned Tiny not to let them down. Tiny agreed and scurried out the apartment to surely get high. With Tiny and Lynn gone, Vonda said that she had something important to tell her.

“What’s up, Vonda?”

Vonda was apprehensive about telling her, but knew she had to. “You remember that shooting on your block about three weeks ago when three boys was killed?”

Jessica nodded. “Yeah, how could I forget?”

Vonda eyed the floor. “Well, I think Chubby killed them.”

Jessica’s eyes widened as her body seemed to melt. “W-What? H-How?” Jessica stuttered.

“Yo, you know how much Chubby loves you. He loves you just like you were his big sister, and he just couldn’t accept those dudes stepping to you and threatening you.”

Jessica didn’t want to believe it, but then she remembered. “Oh, God, did he—”

Did he shoot the little girl?” Vonda shook her head. “I don’t know if it was him or one of the other guys.”

Jessica still felt responsible and sighed. She wrapped her arms around herself, not wanting to believe she’d put Chubby in the mix of her troubles.

“You know this for sure, Vonda? Did he tell out of his mouth that he killed them?”

Vonda explained, “The night it had happened, Chubby came home wearing all black—black hoodie, black pants, and black boots. I didn’t think nothing of it until the next day when I read in the papers about it, and they said that one witness reported seeing a very large man in all black walking away after the shooting. I went to Chubby’s room and asked him if he heard about the shooting, and he began avoiding eye contact with me and started rocking.”

At that moment Jessica knew without a doubt that it was Chubby who had killed those boys that night and critically injured a little girl.

**********

Jessica knocked on Cleveland’s door that night and he exhaled deeply when her saw her face, knowing that she had made it home safely. It was apparent to Jessica that he was equally paranoid because he had a large caliber weapon in his hand when he opened the door.