New York's Finest (13 page)

“
That was a hit, baby girl,” Damian said in a low voice. “And I’m wondering who in the fuck was bold enough to run up on me like I didn’t matter,” he continued. “This wasn’t just about you, it was about us. They wanted me gone just as bad as they wanted you gone.”

I was driving and I looked over at Damian, and he returned the look. This wasn’t just about me, or Damian. This was about hurting Reggie.

Silence once again captured my truck. And of all the thoughts that came to mind, I thought about Damian and the fact that he called me—baby girl. I absolutely loved when Damian called me baby girl. It always sounded affectionate and warm when he called me that. It was evident that he loved me and my heart knew that I would take him up on his proposal just as soon as this whole ordeal was over. I mean, who knows, I may even retire myself. I’d love to go away with Damian and start a family.

We were two minutes from the Polo Grounds when I surprised Damian with a question. “Do you think you killed any of those guys you shot back there inside of the parking garage?”

He looked at me with a bit of shock on his face. Just by the gleam in his eyes, I knew he didn’t want to talk about this. “Naomi, that’s not an appropriate question to ask a man, and that’s the perfect way to become a witness to a crime. And you wouldn’t be ready for that.”

“
Yeah, a’ight,” I said and then I left the subject alone. And the rest of the drive was done in complete silence.

The great thing about the spot where Ben and Dre lived was that you could get lost inside one of the towers. Although the Polo Grounds wasn’t as big as all the other projects in the city, its size still created its own massive maze. When I pulled up to the first tower I noticed cop cars as well as news station vans occupying the parking lot. As with anything else that happened in the hood, the hood chicks were all over the place as well. It was obvious that whatever happened, occurred in tower one. The same tower I was held up in. The same tower Lucky was killed in.

When we arrived, Ben and Walt met us in the door and another one of Reggie’s guys I barely knew held the elevator door for us. Walt didn’t make eye contact with me. I didn’t know if he felt ashamed for the shit that happened to me, or was just afraid to say anything to me because of the shit that went down. He looked haggard, run down. Something told me this wasn’t the gig for him.

When we reached the tenth floor, the elevator stopped and we all got off. Ben told Walt to man the elevator, and we proceeded to Ben and Dre’s place. Ben knocked on the door two times, hesitated several seconds, and then rapped the door three more times. At that point, Dre opened the door and we all walked inside.

I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes when I walked deep inside the apartment. In the kitchen was a young brother, maybe in his late teens or early twenties, tightly tied to a kitchen chair with duct tape. He also had duct tape over his mouth. His face was puffy and bloody from the beating he had endured from probably both Ben and Dre. To make matters worse, there was plastic underneath the chair and spread out over the floor. All of that signified one thing—his death was numbered in minutes, not days, or hours.

“
I’ll be damn, say it isn’t so,” Damian stated.

“
What?” I said out of curiosity.

“
You don’t recognize the kid?” Damian asked.

I looked at the young blood again and couldn’t make out the face. His face was too fucked up for me to make a proper identification.

“
It’s Lil Man,” Damian volunteered. “We’ve known this nigga since he was about thirteen. We took his ass underneath our wing and taught him how to fight and take care of himself.”

I did remember the kid Damian was talking about. I was surprised at how he had grown. He was still short, maybe standing about five six, but his body had filled out.

Dre took the stage and told us what had happened. In three minutes or less, he had told us that Candie had missed one of her check in times, which was something Reggie had required everyone to do after what had happened with Lucky and I. Candie had no problems with the new rule. In fact, we never had a problem with her sticking to the rules. She was supposed to check in every hour on the hour. Up until now she had done just that, so everyone who held down this particular tower became suspicious. Ben and Dre immediately went to her place and saw the door kicked in. And that’s when the shooting began. Come to find out, Lil Man’s accomplice almost escaped but he had been shot at least six times. He ran down the staircase and died in front of the tower. Lil Man wasn’t shot, but when he ran out of bullets, Ben and Dre beat the shit out of him, and brought him to their apartment. If anyone saw them dragging him from one building to the next, they knew not to say anything. That was the power of being in power.

Unfortunately, Lil Man and his accomplice had beat Candie half too death. I had mad respect for the woman because she refused to give them motherfuckers the money she had made.

Damian had me dial Reggie’s number and Reggie told us he would call us right back on my phone. His theory was if the cops were bugging anyone’s phone, they wouldn’t bug my phone. I was an innocent . . . or so they thought. When the phone rang right back, I didn’t know the number but I answered anyway. It was Reggie using one of the nurse’s phones. Why wasn’t I surprised?

My phone was on speaker. Damian explained quickly what was going down and it didn’t take Reggie any time getting in the mix. “Damn, Lil Man, we treated your ass righteous. Made sure no one fucked with you, and even gave you money to help out your family. We made sure your ass stayed out of trouble and this is how you pay us back.”

I could actually hear the disappointment in Reggie’s voice. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. We had passed crazy as hell a long time ago. This was some surreal shit and I couldn’t believe I was here in the middle of it. Usually, I just heard about all of the real crazy shit that happened in our business. Now I was a witness.

“
So tell me, Lil Man, who are you working for?” Reggie asked.

Dre pulled the duct tape from Lil Man’s mouth. He let out a yelp and it took him several seconds to get himself together. Then he surprised the shit out of us when he said, “Com’ on, Reg, you know who put me up to this. Who else do you think I would do some crazy shit like this for? It was your homeboy, Damian! That’s who!”

I damned near jumped out of my skin when Lil Man made that announcement. That was the last thing I expected him to say. Damian was shocked by his answer to. He acted like he was two seconds from whipping his ass like Ben and Dre had just done. But I was glad Reggie didn’t buy what he was selling.

“
Help me out, Lil Man . . . what am I gonna do with you?” Reggie said jokingly. I noticed I was the only one shocked or took what Lil Man said seriously. “This is what we are gonna do. Dre, get the kit out.” Dre went into the bathroom, while Reggie kept talking. “Last time, Lil Man. You know I don’t like asking the same question twice, but since we have history, I will be nice and nicely ask you again, who are you working for?”

I noticed the sweat that had formed on Lil Man’s face. I saw a slight glimmer of confidence in his eyes. He actually thought he was onto something.

“
I told you, Reg, and I wouldn’t lie to you, you know that man. It was your fucking homeboy who is trying to play it cool right now. Your right hand man, Damian.”

I noticed Damian didn’t open his mouth. But he looked like he wanted to hurt Lil Man really bad. If it was me and I was innocent, I would be screaming at the top of my lungs that this motherfucker was lying. But Damian just stood there and looked at Lil Man. They were having an old-fashioned stare down, and I wondered who would blink first.

When Dre came back, Reggie said, “Damian, you know what to do. It’s your show, my brotha.”

“
I got it, Reggie,” Damian said without hesitation. He was calm, cool and collected. With each minute that passed, my respect and admiration grew for Damian. And I still didn’t know what that was about.

“
Last chance, dumbass, who paid you?” Damian asked.

Lil Man smiled and told Damian to go fuck himself.

“
Say no more nigga!” he replied sarcastically and then he turned his attention to Dre and instructed him to pull out the hedge clippers and cut off the trigger finger on both hands.

Lil Man’s eyes got big and he was about to scream, but Ben beat him to it. Ben hit him hard across his lip, possibly hitting his teeth because his gums started bleeding and then re-taped his mouth. Then I stood there and watched as Ben held his hands still, while Dre cut off Lil Man’s fingers. First, the right hand, then the left. Then Dre pulled out salt from the makeshift first aid kit that they aptly named the kit. This was so far from a first aid kit. After pouring the salt on his wounds, Damian then pulled out the rubbing alcohol and poured half the bottle over the two cut fingers.

If Lil Man hadn’t almost killed Candie, then maybe I would have had some sympathy for him. But I didn’t. For all I knew, he was probably the one who had shot Reggie. That thought alone made me want to pick up something and fuck him up.

I noticed the tears running wild down Lil Man’s face. I could only imagine the pain he was feeling. And they were just getting started.

“
Pull the tape from his mouth,” I said to no one in particular.

Damian looked at me but he didn’t say anything. He did what I said.

“
Lil Man, I do remember you. You were a nice young man. I remember you eating over our house and running errands for my dad. Whoever is behind all this, are they really worth you dying? Hell, what you gonna do now. You have no trigger fingers and you know these motherfuckers out here will try to make an example out of you.”

“
It . . . it . . . it was Wa . . . Walt.”

Immediately, Ben and Dre ran out the door to get Walt, but they returned within a couple of minutes. Walt was nowhere to be found. They called his number and it went straight to voicemail. They called and talked to the guys downstairs and everyone else in the four towers, and no one had seen the motherfucker.

Reggie told Damian to do what was necessary. It was then I noticed everyone had latex gloves on except me. I didn’t know if Lil Man could hear the clock of death ticking loudly in his head, but I sure could.

Damian asked him a couple more questions and I believed Lil Man told the truth. Walt was the front man, not the HNIC. Someone else was calling the shots. Plus, he swore that he wasn’t involved in Reggie’s shooting.

When Ben was about to put the tape back over Lil Man’s mouth, he said, “Damian, this ain’t right, man. You don’t know what you are doing.”

“
How so?” Damian asked.

“
I’m a member of AFH and they won’t let me die in vain.”

“
So, that’s the reason no one has heard from you in a while,” Damian stated. “So you are one of them motherfuckers, huh? Well, I guess all of fucking Harlem is at war . . . and guess what, round one goes to us.”

With that, Ben put the tape over Lil Man’s mouth, then Damian, Ben and Dre huddled up around each other. I heard Damian talking but I couldn’t make out what he said.

When we left, Lil Man’s eyes were filled with tears and I understood his fear. I asked Damian who and what was AFH?

“
AFH is short for Assassins For Hire,” he replied. “They are a gang of about fifteen young cats who kill for money, usually in Harlem only. But maybe they are branching out. I think I shot a couple of them niggas in the parking garage.”

Inside the elevator, I couldn’t help but draw near him, so I walked over to him and laid my head on his chest and he hugged me. I knew now that he was my security blanket. I had objected when Reggie first told me that Damian would be by my side from here on out because of the shit that happened. Now I wanted him to never leave my side. I felt safe with him around.

New York’s Finest Kiki Swinson

Once again, we were back on the road, but this time we were en route to Reggie’s place. I asked Damian what would happen to Lil Man. I don’t know why I asked. I knew whatever they had planned would end with one result—Lil Man’s death. When Damian told me they would wait until later, then take Lil Man to the roof of their tower and let him sail downward while still tied up to the chair, made me realize I really was in deep.

I didn’t know how to feel. I was numb. My own brother, Reggie, was the kingpin of this operation—and I was his partner, along with our best friend, Damian. Now we were being hunted, and worse, we were killing folks as well. Whatever happened to this being a simple operation? What happened to just a little supply and demand? That’s how Reggie sold me on this crazy ass shit, a little supply and demand.

Trying to take in the shit that happened to Lil Man and then heading over to Reggie’s apartment to have the meeting with Miguel had begun to take a toll on me. Luckily, I had taken time off at work. I knew if I hadn’t, then I’d be a nervous wreck trying to service our airline’s passengers and deal with the other bitches I worked alongside with. On many levels I took my job seriously, so I was very fortunate to be able to take a leave of absence for a few days to handle my affairs at home.

When we arrived at Reggie’s building, we had valet park my SUV. Then we headed up to the penthouse floor. To my surprise, Vanessa was very pleasant with Damian and me when she answered the door.