TYCE II (6 page)

He cleared his throat, “Yeah, I’m coo, jus’ a lil tired; I didn’t get much sleep last night. Me and Ranae been arguing a lot lately that’s all.”

“I’m not about to see ya’ll on
Divorce
Court
am I?”
Sway laughed, “Naw man, we gon work it out, it’s no biggie. I gotta go meet somebody so I’ll see you later on tonight.”

“Alright, and don’t forget to bring everything we need.”

“You already know I’m on it.”

“Bet.” I shot back.

Moments later I was in my car heading to my next destination but before I made it there I needed to think. I had to stop to get my medicine so I cou
ld analyze this shit carefully.

             
The cool air-conditioned breeze hit me in the face as I walked into the corner store. A few people, mostly teenagers browsed the undersized isles snatching up honey buns and donuts. I however headed straight for the candy section. I returned to my Jeep with a whole box of
Skittles
under my arm…I bought all they had because I had a whole lot of thinking to do.

“
I understand why yu killed Silk but now we haf tu find anuther dealer for the Compton area. We need sumbudy we can trus
.” Diego calmly spoke.

Armando cleaned his gun at the patio table while his brother went over his appointment book.

“
But that es an issue tu be dealt with later…fur now we need tu turn up the heat on our little pest Tyce
.
Tell all of our people I will gif one million dollars to whu ever brings hem tu me
alive
.

Armado looked up with a surprised expression on his face. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“What the fuck are you throwing away money for? I can kill this bastard for free!”

“
Then why haven’t yu dun it yet
?” Diego raised his voice slightly.

Armando sighed heavily, “He’ll be dead by the end of the week.”

“
Yu better hope so
.” Diego closed the black leather book and stared at his brother coldly.

             
The night was moonless as me and Sway pulled up to the billboard and parked. Both of our cars sat in the next parking lot so we had to walk a little ways to get to it. It was a little chilly outside so I wore a light grey sweat suit to keep me warm, apparently, Sway had the same idea be
cause he had on sweats as well.

“Wasup man, you ready to do this?” Sway asked me as he popped his trunk.

“Oh yeah, most definitely.” I replied assuredly.

We walked across the parking lot toward the billboard, Sway had on a backpack, he looked focused and ready to handle some business. That’s just the way I liked it…business fi
rst, and all other shit second.

             
Two skinny towers stood on either side of the billboard, they were there to give support and gain access to the platform above. I went up first, followed closely by Sway. Once we were safely on the platform we knelt down to avoid being seen. It was just as dark up here as it was on the ground but we didn’t take any unnecessary chances.

“I’ll put the explosives on this side, and you put the rest of em over there. Set the timer for ten minutes to give us time to get back down and drive away. Sway instructed as he unzipped the backpack.
“You sure this is enough?” I asked as he handed me the petite black circular object.

Sway laughed, “Oh don’t let the size full you, these babies pack a mean punch. Just make sure you don’t push that red button after you set the timer or we’ll both be scattered all across the
parking lot down there.”

“Don’t push the red button…got it.” I nodded quickly.

“Alright let’s do it.” Sway crawled to the other side of the platform.

I went in the opposite direction and set my two chargers in the corners just under the billboard. I looked up briefly and remembered the day I took that photo. I was not happy and my face said that loud and clear. I had a ‘fuck you’ expression on my face and a ‘you don’t know who you’re fuckin’ with’ look in my eyes. That’s the exact same look I had in my eyes now.

“You finished?” Sway whispered
loudly across the way from me.

I gave him a thumbs up sign and proceeded to climb back down the tower to the ground below. When my shoes hit the pavement, I
heard a man’s voice behind me.

“What the hell are you doin’ up there?”

I turned around and saw three men staring back at me. They looked like fake as rappers who were about to put on a late night concert right there in the parking lot. They all had black beanies, baggy jeans and big ass white T-shirts on that looked like night gowns.

“Jus’ mind your business and keep it movin’ up the bl
ock, this doesn’t concern you.”

The tall stranger standing in the middle swatted his partner to the right in the chest, “He mus’ be talkin’ to you cuz.”

“Naw this pretty ass nigga aint talkin’ to me like he my daddy!
This doesn’t concern me
…
move up the block
! Nigga who the fuck you think you are? This
my
hood nigga, and I know you don’t be around this muthafucka everyday like me cuz if you was…I would know who the fuck you are!”

The third nigga stayed silent and watched Sway descend the tower. His beady little eyes squinted as he looked at my gigantic profile fifty feet in the air. The three stooges looked at each
other as Sway joined the party.

“What the fuck you niggas doin’ out this late, don’t you have curfew?” Sway chuckled rocking back and forth.

I shared the laugh because that shit was funny, I could appreciate a man that kept a sense of humor in tense situations. The truth was these niggas wasn’t senior citizens by any means but they weren’t teenagers either.

“Muthafucka you aint
Chris
Tucker
  and you aint
Mike
Epps
…as a matter fact, I think you’re Tyce Adkins.” The one who’d been gazing at my picture pointed at me.

My jaw clenched as I looked squarely at all three of them, “Yeah I’m Tyce…wasup?”

“You the million dollar man.” The tall one said taking off his beanie.

“What?” I asked confused.

“This nigga retarded cuz. Nigga Diego put the word out that whoever finds you and brings you in gets a cool million in cash!” He rubbed his hands together like he was putting on lotion and smiled.

The only one that hadn’t said a word was the one staring the hardest at me. He had a dark face and a braided beard; he appeared to be the leader of the pack. He took out a silver gun from his back and pointed it in my direction.

“A million cash sounds good to me.” He cocked his head to the side. “Where them jokes at now bitches?”
I smiled at the three of them, “See that’s the problem with niggas these days. It’s three of ya’ll and only two of us…what the fuck you need a gun for? Oh, I get it, ya’ll learned to shoot but never learned to punch.”

“Fuck you nigga!” The bearded one shouted. He placed the gun back in his waist and took off his white T-shirt despite the cool night. Jail house tats covered his muscular chest and arms as he balled up his fist.

Sway looked up at the sign, “Ay man we aint got time for this.”

“This won’t take long at all.” I said grinning.

“Alright man, we can dust these niggas off but we gotta make it quick.” Sway dropped his backpack on the ground.

“Naw man, I’ma handle these niggas myself…after all my name
is
Tyce Adkins.” I winked at him.

The two other men followed their leader and started to prepare for a fight. They began to move forward towards me. I motioned for Sway to move back a little to give me some room. Sway shook his head back and forth.

“Man let me help you with these fools.”

“Nope…a man’s gotta test his chest every now and then…see what he’s made of.”

Sway stepped back even more as the men surrounded me and began to raise
their hands and bounce around.

“That’s fucked up nigga, ya boy aint bout to help you!”

“I don’t need him.”

The shirtless one rushed me first; I leaned to the right leaving my left leg out for him to trip over. His momentum sent him tumbling over my shin and falling to the ground behind me. I ducked a left hook coming from his partner and countered with a crushing body blow. A piece of gum flew out of his mouth as the wind was forced from of his lungs. Before I could finish him off I was clubbed across my back with a stick. I whirled around grabbing the stick with my left hand and

punched the dude square in his nose with a straight right. Blood squirted everywhere as he screamed in agony. The man with no shirt on recovered from his fall and took a swing at me but missed. I countered with a fierce elbow that connected with his temple causing him to stagger. I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into my knee. As he fell to the ground, the third man regained his lost breath and came charging at me full speed. He dug his shoulder into my stomach and tried to pick me up, I sprawled wrapping my arms around his thick waist and hoisted his lower half up in the air. I grunted as I held the full weight of his body in my arms. I spotted Sway smiling hard as I fell backward and slammed his ass on the asphalt. I quickly got to my feet and surveyed the damage.

             
The dude with the broken nose had blood running all down the front of his shirt; it looked like a vampire attacked him. He had tears in his eyes, a natural reaction when your nose gets broken. The other two were taking a nap.

“I’m proud of you boy! I like that suplex you did at the end…I taught you well Danielson!” Sway bowed like a ninja.

“Ha ha ha…yeah that chunky muthafucka was heavy.” I rubbed my back. “Ay why didn’t you tell me he had a stick?”

Sway picked up his backpack, “You said you

didn’t need my help so I kept my mouth shut.”

“You coulda whistled or somethin’” I raised my hands up.

“Man let’s get the fuck outta here, we got like two minutes.”

I looked at the bloody bandit, “Don’t even think about grabbing your partners gun and shooting me in the back...tonight you jus’ got ya ass whooped…don’t get killed too. Ay, do me a favor and tell Diego I said Hola.”

“Fuck you nugga!” His voice had a nasally sound to it.

“You might wanna call an ambulance for yourself and your friends. I would get right on that if I was you…you know how long they take to show up in the hood.”

Sway and I left the scene of the assault in a hurry. We ran to our rides and jumped in peeling out of the neighboring lot and onto the street. The skyline lit up as the billboard exploded into a huge fiery ball. The sound from the blast was deafening causing car alarms to flare up.

So much for my 15 minutes of fame.

Fuck that billboard. 

And fuck a million dollars…I aint no damn lottery ticket.

             
I decided to give Angelique a break from the stove; I hired a catering company to provide the food for this special occasion. Everybody was excited that Pamela was coming for dinner; she would be our first real guest in the new set up we called home. The excitement coupled with anticipation made me a little nervous…and I never get nervous. I guess having your mom meet your girlfriend for the first time was hard enough, and here I was about to introduce her to
both
of mine.

             
Angelique was busy getting ready in her room. She’d disappeared in there four hours ago and still hadn’t come out yet. She would never admit it, but she was anxious to finally meet Pamela but at the same time apprehensive about the whole thing. The tragic story of how Pamela came to be my mother wasn’t new to Angelique and she knew all the details of the recent reunion. She recognized that this was a big day for me as well as my mom. Angelique knew Pamela was important to me and automatically that meant she was important to her also. That’s why she spent the last four hours getting ready for dinner…she wanted to make a good impression on her future mother in law…hopefully.

             
Dallas was equally involved in her own way. She wasn’t the type to get all jumpy over an introduction to anyone-that just wasn’t her style. She was the take me or leave me kinda woman and made no attempts to hide that fact what so ever. She showed her sensitivity to the situation in other ways. Earlier today she asked me what Pamela’s favorite flower was. I really couldn’t answer
the question, so I had to call her and find out. When Pamela told me yellow roses were her favorite, Dallas took it upon herself to order twelve dozen long stem yellow roses from the best florist in town. She took her time placing them throughout the house; she also saved a special bouquet to p
resent to her when she arrived.