Return of the Cartier Cartel (24 page)

Cartier laughed. “I told you that he doesn’t officially sign out until next week, but he was coming out so everyone could strategize about those losers. I told him what happened to me the other day when they shot up my car, and he went beserk. I was so scared that he might injure himself even more than he already was.”

Janet sucked her teeth. “Two tears in a bucket.”

Rf

Back at Janet’s, Cartier called Li’l Momma and Bam to come over. Tension was flying and Cartier was almost frantic that she couldn’t get in touch with Head. As everyone sat down, Cartier could feel uneasiness in the room, but she didn’t know where it was coming from.

“Why your face all twisted up?” she asked Li’l Momma, although, had she put up a mirror in front of Bam’s face, both would have been identical.

“Look, I’ma keep it real with you and say my piece. I’d appreciate if you keep it real in return.”

“A’ight, kick it.”

“I had a bad taste in my mouth for some time about how you handled me and Bam, regarding your residence. The moment you moved out of the hood, Bam and I got rearranged. We were no longer like sisters. You treated us like distant cousins by keeping your address away from us. I know in the hood, when you have beef, you have to watch those closest to you, but I never thought you’d carry me and Bam like that.”

“I hear you, and you’re right. Jason was around, and he was making all the rules, but there’s no excuse. I should have put my foot down, but I didn’t. I guess I was a little scared for the kids, not of you and Bam, but not wanting to start an argument, I gave in. Honestly Li’l Momma, I didn’t want Wonderful or Blake to know where we lived. You know I trust you and Bam with my life, but you know how niggas do. They ride for their niggas. You see what happened with Tarsha and Drac from Cypress. His best friend set him up and killed them both, put a bullet in the back of both their heads while she was six months pregnant. And what about Breezy and Jinx from Bed Stuy? Her own friend stabbed her numerous times for that paper.”

Li’l Momma shook her head. “I understand somewhat, but still . . .”

“I know. And I promise you that from here on out, no secrets. I don’t give a fuck who I’m with. Cool?”

“Cool. A’ight, so now tell me what’s up with Head and Jason.”

“Whew!” Cartier exhaled. “Jason is being officially released any day now. But hopefully today he’s coming through to spill his guts about Jalissa and find out if he has any clues that could lead us to Ryan and Marisol. And as far as Head, he left last night seeing what info he could find on Ryan. He doesn’t want me in this beef no more, so he has no idea I’m even meeting up with y’all, or Jason for that matter. He keeps talking about making an honest woman out of me, and to him that means no more toting guns, moving weight, fighting, or killing. And he wants to marry me.”

“Does he know you’re already married?” Li’l Momma raised her eyebrow quizzically.

“How could he not know? Didn’t you drop dime?”

“Oh, my bad.”

“He wants me to get a divorce.” Cartier stared directly into Li’l Momma’s eyes. Just talking about Head and not knowing where he was kept eating away at her.

“What do you want?”

Cartier blushed, thinking about the possibilities. “I want that too.”

After a full hour of getting nothing accomplished, Cartier’s focus returned to Head, who she’d still not heard from. She sat wringing her hands, pacing up and down the apartment. Trina tried to tell her he was all right, but she wasn’t buying it. And to make matters worse, she couldn’t get in touch with Jason.

“I’m ordering Chinese food. Do you want anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Cartier replied.

Cartier took a moment to put together her next move. What if they’re both dead? A slight chill ran down her spine. What if Ryan got the drop on both men in her life? Could he be that crafty? Cartier was definitely on edge. She continually dialed each phone, but both were going straight to voicemail.

****

That morning, after a long, sleepless night, Cartier woke up to take all kids to school, but not before calling Li’l Momma.

“Suit up. I have to take Christian to the doctor in an hour. After I drop her back off, we’re going uptown to handle Ryan’s moms.”

“What do you mean when you say handle?”

“She gotta go! That’s the only way—”

“What the fuck are you talking about? We don’t go around killing people’s moms just because you say so! Certain things are off limits. We hit his mom, and then he’ll hit yours, or mines!”

“You don’t understand. My hands are tied.”

“Cartier, I understand perfectly. You’ve lost your mind. Nothing is worth having his mother’s blood on your hands. It’s not gonna bring back Shanine or Monya. If you go ahead with this, you’re on your own. And that’s hard for me to say.”

“It ain’t that hard, ’cause you just said it.”

“You’re bugging. Yesterday you gave a whole song and dance about Head wanting you out the game and handling this for you. What happened to that? That nigga done bailed?”

Cartier sucked her teeth. “Unlike other muthafuckas in my life, he ain’t bail on me.” She choked back tears. “I think he’s dead.”

“Dead? Why you think that?”

“I just have a strong feeling in my stomach that something has happened to him and Jason. I haven’t heard from either one of them in over twenty-four hours.”

Li’l Momma said, “So they’re not returning your calls?”

“At all. And now both phones are going straight to voicemail.”

Li’l Momma’s two-way line clicked. “Cartier, that’s Bam. Let me fill her in on what’s going on. Take the kids to school, and Cee Cee to the doctor, and then we’ll meet you back at Trina’s.”

“Thanks, sis.”

Chapter 28

Usual Suspects

Cartier felt too antsy waiting around an hour before she had to take Christian to the doctor’s office. She called to see if they could squeeze her in earlier, and they could. Swooping up her baby girl, she jumped in Jason’s ride and aimlessly went straight to pick up Bam to see if she would ride with her.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ride with me to take Christian to the doctor’s.”

“But I thought you weren’t leaving for another hour.”

“I wasn’t, but shit changed. Did Li’l Momma tell you about Head and Jay?”

“You know it.”

“So, grab your purse so we could kick it. Mentally, I feel like I’m losing it.”

Bam hesitated momentarily, but when she saw the desperation in Cartier’s eyes, she grabbed her keys, and they were gone.

The appointment went by quickly, and before Cartier could fully understand what was happening, she’d dropped off Christian with Trina, and she and Bam were on their way to pick up Li’l Momma.

Once in the car, Li’l Momma made herself comfortable. “So, I take it, no word from Jason or Head?”

Cartier’s eyes welled up. “Nothing. I’m telling you they’re both dead.”

“Cartier, stop saying that until you know for sure,” Bam said. “You could be jinxing them.”

“Then where are they?”

“We can’t answer that, and you know it,” Li’l Momma said softly.

The whole car remained silent.

Li’l Momma continued, “Where are we going?”

“Hear me out, first. We’re not going to do anything, but I want to ride uptown and just perch close to his mom’s house. What if by chance he shows up? That’s all I wanna do. Just watch her crib.”

Both friends could hear her desperation. Cartier’s next outburst shocked everyone. She began sobbing her heart out. “I can’t keep living like this! This shit is taking too long.” She pounded on the steering wheel to drill home her point. “This nigga done killed everyone I love, and I can’t touch him? People get murdered in the hood every day. Why not Ryan? This is like some boring movie! Just drawn out for no reason!”

More tears, and then accusations began flying.

“And, Bam, what good are you? It’s been how long and you can’t get any information on Ryan?”

Bam wanted to say a few scathing remarks but decided against it. Cartier was just venting.

“Since day one I’m always the only one to step up to the plate and get things handled. But what are you and Li’l Momma really good for? Find me Ryan!” The last sentence came out in a screechy pitch as Cartier drove at a reckless speed over the FDR Drive.

Bam and Li’l Momma buckled up and silently prayed that their car wouldn’t be wrapped around a pole.

Shortly thereafter, Cartier began to calm down. Her breathing returned back to normal, and she wiped her anguish away. When she pulled at a safe distance on Ryan’s mother’s block, she turned off the ignition, and they all began the waiting game.

Four hours later, no one had said a word, taken a bathroom break, or had anything to eat.

When Cartier’s phone began ringing, her heart inflated with hope. Could this be Head? Or Jason? She couldn’t answer the phone quickly enough. “Hello?” she breathed anxiously into the phone.

“Yo, C, we gotta kick it.”

“Who’s this?”

“This is Wonderful. Where you at?”

Cartier hesitated. Why was Wonderful calling her? It had to do with Jason, she was sure. “I’m around.” She didn’t feel she could trust him with the information that she was laying low on Ryan.

“Are you alone?”

It wasn’t what he’d said, but how he’d said it. Instinctively Cartier tossed up her index finger, letting Bam and Li’l Momma know she’d be right back, and hopped out of the car. She knew this was a risky, life-threatening move, so she put her head down low, hunched her shoulders, and began walking.

Four blocks later, she sat down on a stoop and said, “I am now. What’s up?”

“It’s Jay. I don’t think duke is still alive.”

Cartier’s heart sank. “I have the same feeling. Is he not calling you back either?”

“I spoke to him two days ago about midday. He said he was gonna bounce, to come and meet you, to clear up that Jalissa shit. I told him that me and Blake might not be able to make it because we were driving back from OT on some business, but if we landed back in town, we’d hit him up. He told me what happened while you had the kids in the car. That shit was fucked up—”

“Thanks, Wonderful.”

“Anyway, he said after you left, he tried to think of any clues he could that might help, and he remembered a long time ago Jalissa had him drop her off in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. She told him she was going to see her aunt. Jay said he pulled off, only to circle the block. And the same building that she pretended to go in as soon as she thought he’d left, she backpedaled out of that block and proceeded to walk a few blocks down. He said he was going to go back to the area and see if he could find the block, and from there he was going to meet up with you.”

“Oh, my gosh! He never made it.”

“Well, sort of. He did go back to the area and find the block, and then he called and gave that information to me. He said there was one tenement building and a local bodega. The last call from him I received was that he was only a few blocks from you.”

Cartier was getting impatient. She wasn’t sure what his point was. “Wonderful, are you saying you think I have something to do with Jason missing?”

“Nah, Ma. I’m saying that I have Jason’s murder recorded on my answering machine.”

Cartier dropped her phone and almost died. Her hands trembled as she picked back up her cell phone. “Did you just say that Jason is dead?”

Wonderful was still shaken up. “Yeah, it seems so. There isn’t any way he’d survive what I just heard.”

Cartier was almost frightened to ask. “Who did it? Was it Head?”

“Head?” Wonderful questioned. When she didn’t repeat the name, he began to tell her all that he knew. “I’m not sure how it happened . . . if Jay was clever enough to dial my number, or if his phone dialed on its own. But my answering machine can record up to sixty minutes of conversation. It wasn’t until now that I had time to listen to my messages and, Cartier . . .”

“What?”

“It was enough to make a hard-core nigga like myself break down and cry. First off, that nigga Ryan and Marisol jammed him up. They tortured him, trying to get your location, but he wouldn’t give it up.”

Tears began streaming down Cartier’s flushed cheeks. This was surreal.

“They had him begging for them to just end it and kill him.”

Cartier had to cover her mouth to keep her from screaming out her pain.

Wonderful could hear Cartier sniveling on the other end. “Yo, Cartier, whatever you and Jason went through, that’s not my business. No matter what, you’re my man’s wife, and I know he loved you. But you gotta watch your back. You have a traitor in your crew.”

“My crew? What do you mean, I got a traitor in my crew? You mean, The Cartel?”

“All I’m doing is repeating what I heard. Before they killed Jason, they asked him if he wanted to know who’d set him up—”

Cartier interjected. “Wonderful, who was it?”

“That’s the million-dollar question. My tape ran out at that crucial moment.”

Cartier could think of a million reasons one or both of The Cartel members would betray her and Jason. Only, she truly didn’t want to. She thought about Ryan. He was probably just taunting Jason.

“Wonderful, for all we know, Ryan could have told Jason that I gave him up. I can’t believe that Bam or Li’l Momma could have set Jason up to get killed. Both of them are with me now, laying low to take him out.”

Wonderful hesitated for a moment. “As I said, I didn’t get a chance to hear a name, but it could be anyone, including me. And what about Janet?”

“Janet?”

“Yeah, Janet. Jason said she’s been beefing with him and called him at the rehabilitation center a few times threatening to kill him after she found out he was fucking around with Jalissa. Face it. anyone could have wanted to see Jason dead. Including Trina.”

“Trina? Hold up, Wonderful. First off, we don’t know for sure he’s dead. And, secondly, why would Trina want him dead?”

“No one will forgive him for fucking with that girl. Not Janet, because her daughter is dead. Trina, because once again, he humiliated her daughter. You, because he wouldn’t stop cheating. Bam, for rocking that Mike nigga. Li’l Momma, for Shanine. Weren’t they the closest?”