URBAN: Chosen By A Kingpin (52 page)

I heard the doorbell ring and I walked into the living room to see Romello. He dapped me off and looked at Candace.

“What is she doing here?” he asked.

“Oh she gets to watch,” I told him. No one was aware of my plan but me. Nothing in the original plan had changed. The only difference between this plan and the last plan is that Gunnah wouldn’t have to look for Kendale. Bringing Candace in the equation only sped up the process. Kendale would be standing outside when Gunnah pulled up. I knew Romello would ask questions so I would reveal it to both of them at the same time. I wanted Candace to know exactly what was going to happen to her brother. By the time she found out it would be too late for her to try to stop it. He would already be chasing Kendale into the apartment and she would be standing there when he ran in.

“Watch what?” she asked.

“Watch your brother get killed,” I said. “You see, I found out you were playing me the whole time. I heard you talking on the phone to your brother and figured you needed to learn a lesson too. You see Kendale is the guy your brother is looking for. Well, Kendale is posted up outside right now just waiting for your brother to find him. When your brother pulls up he’s going to chase Kendale into the apartment. Right when he thinks he has him, he’ll be shot, and you, my dear, get to watch the whole thing go down. In fact, he should be pulling up right now.

She reached for her phone and tried to call her brother but it went straight to voicemail. She tried again and got the same response. She kept calling desperately trying to get an answer. I figured he was already running this way but she kept calling.

“It’s no use love it’s too late,” I said. Just as I said that, my phone rang and I put it on speaker. It was Kendale.

“We coming Trell,” he huffed. “He’s right behind me and boy is he angry.” Candace screamed for her brother. She tried to warn him but I hung up. I told Romello to open the door and when he did in came Kendale. He pulled out a gun, grabbed Candace and placed the gun to her head.

“What are you doing?” she asked eyes filled with terror. She was crying but I didn’t care.

“I forgot one minor detail,” I said. “If he tries to run. You die.”

Gunnah ran in after Kendale and saw it was a trap. He looked at us pointing the gun at him, and then looked at his sister who was crying hysterically. He turned to run out the door, but his sister cried out and told him we were going to kill her if he tried to run. He turned back around and Romello stepped behind him to shut the door.

“What is happening?” he asked. “I thought I was coming to work things out. That’s what Candace said.”

“Well she played you just like she played me. She led you right into my trap,” I said. She shook her head and struggled to get away.

“It’s a lie!” Candace screamed. “He’s lying! He set me up!”

“She fell in love with me and needed you out the way because as long as you were alive, I would never be happy,” I lied. I wanted to get him mad. I wanted to anger him again. I wanted him to feel the pain I felt when he killed my brother. “Look at your sister. She’s a liar and a deceiver. She set you up to let you die.”

I walked over to him putting my gun down. I put my arms around his shoulder and we both stared at his sister. She was struggling with Kendale but couldn’t speak because he had his hand over her mouth. She screamed and then bit him. He hollered and took his hand off.

“You’ll die for that,” he said. Candace fought Kendale to get away and he struggled to get ahold of her. He pointed the gun to her face and she stopped…

“Enough Kendale! Grab her! You act like she stronger than you. You scared of her or something?” I asked and then focused my attention back on Gunnah. “How’s it feel to be set up by your own sister? He looked at Candace who tried to plead with him.

“It’s a lie. All of it’s a lie. I was excited because I thought you guys were finally going to work things out,” she said. “Why would I lie to you? I have never lied to you.”

“Okay, I was going to kill you anyway, but it wasn’t supposed to be today. Candace is the one that brought you right to me.” I admitted.

“He tricked me!” Candace cried.

Gunnah pushed off of me and charged for Kendale. I shot Gunnah in the back of his head and watched as he fell to the floor. As he fell, he made eye-contact with Candace. She screamed as tears ran down her face.

“You’re gonna pay for this Rell,” she said but I wasn’t worried. Everybody thought Gunnah was a bitch now. They wanted him dead, no one would come and find me. They think he got what he deserved.

I haven’t heard from Candace since her brother’s death. Some say she just straight up disappeared. Some say she went back to Georgia to bring her family back. Others say she couldn’t handle her brother’s death and killed herself. Honestly, I don’t care, she’s gone and out of my life and I’ve never felt more stress-free. I got me a new lady and a fine one at that. I wouldn’t be upset if I never saw Candace again in my life. I moved back in with ma, to keep her company. As promised, I bought her a new house a few blocks from the old one. She took Montrell’s death just as hard as I did and has been struggling to keep her composure. I’m trying my best to keep her satisfied. I’ve dedicated my life to doing any and everything to try to make her smile again. I’ve also been trying to better myself. I’ve left the street life behind and decided to pursue a degree in physical training. I want to become a coach and maybe be a father figure to other kids who grew up without one. Maybe I can help raise some more little Montrell’s.

I can imagine my father finally looking down on me and being proud of his son. I’m sure he and Montrell are having a blast up there. You know, since the last time he saw Montrell was when he was four. I’m sure he’s proud of the work I’ve done too. I took all of the pictures in the truck and hung him around my room. Just because they passed doesn’t mean the memories have to die too. I don’t have nightmares anymore and I’m happier than ever. Whenever I began to miss them I just imagine them looking down on me, and watching over me and mom.

Romello and I adopted Kendale into our little group. He may have been raised in the streets but I was going to show him the way out. He’s currently trying to walk onto the basketball team at one of the nearby colleges.

If anyone ever doubted the love I had for my family, they don’t now. I really will kill for those I love and I proved it when I shot Gunnah. Messing with my family is like asking to die. There’s no one who will keep me from protecting me and mine and that’s straight up.

***

I haven’t been the same since my brother died. He was really the only family I had left and watching him die was hard on me. I haven’t heard from Terrell since he murdered my brother and I wouldn’t be sad if I ever saw him again. I wanted him to pay though. As stupid as my brother was, he didn’t deserve to die. On top of that, Terrell used me to set him up. I led my own brother right into his trap. He used me as bait and I fell for it like a dumb ass. Part of me wanted to kill myself for being so dumb and foolish. I shouldn’t have never put myself in that position in the first place. It only made things worse.

I went to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I opened up the package and stared at it. I had been feeling strange lately and there could only be one reason behind it. I bought three of them and the first two were displaying the same result. Third time’s the charm, I told myself, and waited for the results to show. Just like the other two the test showed two lines. I was pregnant and guess who the baby’s father was. I had him now. He was stuck with me and I wasn’t going to let him out of it. I was planning to make his life hell.

I took out my phone and dialed his number, he ignored it the first time so I kept calling until he answered.

“What do you want Candace?” he asked and then added. “I don’t want nothing to do with you.”

“Too bad Rell. I’m pregnant and it’s yours,” I blurted out. He paused on the phone. I could just imagine the look on his face.

“You sure it’s mine? You were already just trying to distract me. You sure you didn’t sleep with anyone else since you faked your love for me,” he asked.

“Faked? I really did start to fall for you,” I yelled at him and then calmly stated. “Look, the baby is yours and I’m keeping it.

Then I hung up in his face. If Terrell thought he was going to get out of it that easily, he had another thing coming.

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LOVE & SOUL FOOD

Shantel Johnson

© 2015 Sensual Ink Publishing

“Damn, girl! You really put your foot in this!” Daneka exclaimed as she bit into her best friend's spicy fried chicken. The skin was crispy, it had the right amount of seasoning, and the meat on the inside was so moist. Bianca smiled, proud of her work and the reaction it got from her friend.

“Glad you liked it. I was trying something new with the spices, trying to get ready for the big day.”

The big day
. That was all Bianca could even think about. In just a few short days she would be cooking in front of the owner of the restaurant she worked at, Serenity. If she could get the owner to recognize her cooking talents she could be promoted to at least sous chef, but what she was really striving for was executive chef. Having the final decisions on menu planning and quality control of food would be a tough job but Bianca knew that she could do it. Through her experience of cooking for her family and the multiple restaurant jobs she had, to watching her favorite cooking shows, she knew she would be able to handle it. Bianca had even been planning new and exciting things for the restaurant once she heard that Vincent Hayes would be looking for up-and-coming chefs to promote at his restaurant.

“Are you worried at all? You must be pulling out all your hair tryin’ to make everything perfect,” Daneka said.

“Girl, you know I am. If I don’t get promoted, I’ll be stuck doing the same ol’ thing I’ve been doing for the past five years. Don’t, get me wrong—I love cooking—but our menu needs to be updated. We need to do something different every once in a while, or else we get the same clients, the chefs lose interest, and it just ends up being monotonous. And right now, all we serve is some uppity white people food. I need us to have flavor, some soul. Things that will get people coming in the door, saying that the food is high quality but feels like home. Something your mama did, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I get you. I can’t afford that nice place you work at but I would sure as well go if you had this chicken on the menu. You need to make, like, your bomb-ass cornbread too. You can make that shit real fancy, I bet. Like you could put all kinds of stuff in it! Write that down! that’s a good idea.”

Bianca laughed. “You got a point there, I’ll keep it in mind.” She took a bite of her own creation and sat back to savor the flavor. “You really think I got a shot?”

Daneka rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. You know you do. You a better cook than my mama—but don’t tell her I said that. I don’t need her whoopin’ my ass.”

Bianca laughed. She could just imagine what Daneka's mother would do if she found out that her daughter admitted than Bianca was the better cook. Though it was true. She was a better cook than most people in the neighborhood. She had her grandmama to thank for that.

Ever since Bianca could reach the stove, her grandmama was teaching her how to spice things, sauté greens, get the flavor from ham, and heat the oil so that it wouldn’t burn the chicken when it fried. Bianca even had a picture of her grandmama hanging up in her small apartment kitchen. Seeing her watching over the place she loved so much gave her inspiration and courage to do the things she wanted to do. And Bianca was damn sure her grandmama would be proud to see her wearing that executive chef uniform soon.

Bianca sighed and took a moment to imagine what her grandmama would say, when she would tell her the good news. It had been almost six years since her passing, but the longing for her love grew stronger everyday. Tonight, just before she went to sleep, she would pray that her grandmama would watch over her and grant her the strength to get this promotion. And she knew that Grandmama wasn’t gonna let her down.

***

Bianca’s stomach was doing sorts of flips and turns as she stepped into Serenity that day. It was only nine in the morning, but already the kitchen was bustling. Everything had to be prepped for the lunch rush that would be coming in just a few short hours. But most importantly, Bianca knew that the other chefs who wanted the promotion had already begun to work on their dishes to present to Vincent.

She rushed to the kitchen, moving past servers that were setting up tables, folding napkins, and placing silverware. A wave of spices hit her nostrils as soon as she got into the kitchen. The other two chefs, her competition, were hard at work. Hasmid, the Indian immigrant who was classically trained in France specialized in a weird combination of French and Indian cuisine that somehow always managed to work. His ideas were out-of-the-box and incredibly delicious. He was Bianca’s toughest competition.

On the other hand, there was Veronica. The two women never got along, not since Bianca stepped into the kitchen two years ago. The way Bianca saw it, Veronica was a money-hungry whore who wanted to fuck her way to the top. There ain’t nothing wrong with that, but Bianca was damned if she let Veronica win over her.

She didn’t work as hard as Bianca did. Bianca didn’t get the fancy French school—hell, she never even went to culinary school. All her food came from her heart, her soul, her culture. Every last bit of it was poured into her meals when she created something. She just had to put in a little extra love today to make Vincent see how incredible she was compared to the other two.

Bianca didn’t say a word, just got to work pulling down saucepans, cutting boards, and knives. She only had about three hours to get things ready. Once Vincent came and tasted the meals, then they’d be on the line cooking for the lunch rush. There were no breaks today. Bianca had to go hard.

The sound of flames rising from the stovetop excited her. When the oil hit the bottom of the heated pan, shivers went through her. Every time she cooked, she felt all the passion and excitement she ever had fill her up. Nothing could ever top that.