Hood Misfits, Volume 2 Read online

  “Damn!” I said as my uncle’s aggressiveness distracted me for a moment. I had no idea that nigga was that strong but he was.

  “Dodgy bloodclaat nigga’s are neva to be trusted you know that. These rassholes turned coat on mi woman. Did her dirty, so I’m making sure to remind ’em not to fuck with my power. Chaos law,” Phenom growled, his British accent fusing with his NYC and the island. It sounded crazy as fuck but it was dope.

  What had me respecting what he said even more outside of living what he had just said was that he calmly cleaned off his coat with one of the dead cats in front of him, and then coolly strolled out of the room. Dude was reminding me of my pops and once we talked, and we got level with this, I figured that he could be one nigga I trusted. Moving around the back office, I signaled to Phenom that it was clear, noticing that his eyes was still scanning the office. Something had that dude’s focus for real but that talk would be later. For now, it was time to roll the fuck out.

  I didn’t have time to be played and now that my interest was in this cop dude, the shit that the Jamaicans had going down, and taking Dante’s life, new plans were formulating. I was banking on a lot of heads rolling after all this shit finished. Just how I liked it.

  Chapter 5

  Ray-Ray

  I was sweating, running through some unknown part of London. I was barefoot and naked. Headlights behind me lit up the path to run. I had to get away. Needed to get away. He was not going to get me again.

  “Aww, come on, my Diamond. Don’t make me chase you,” Dame called out behind me.

  I started crying harder, running faster. Tears blinded me. Glass and the broken road cut up my feet.

  “Di gyal got speed, brudda. She fi mek me lots of pounds, eh? Yuh kill mi brudda, bitch, and now I kill you, but not before mi tek back what’chu owe.”

  That was Dante. His voice chilled me. It frightened me more than Dame’s because I didn’t know what he was capable of. I kept running but it felt like I was going nowhere. Felt like I was stuck in place. I started screaming frantically. Looking behind me caused me to trip over my feet and I hit the ground hard. I tried to crawl away but couldn’t. Something was holding me down. When I looked back up, Dame and Dante were standing over me. Two devils with the same face, one with the shape of a cross above his lip from a scar. I couldn’t even talk. All that would come from me were the screams that I had become so used to. Both men were dressed in white suits, only Dame’s wounds had bloodied his. The beating that Trigga had given had his face drenched in blood, too.

  Both of them had those canes in their hands and brought them down to start beating me. The pain was unbearable. Felt as if once again, my skin was being pulled off with each hit. I felt bones breaking in my fingers as I held my hand up and tried to lessen the blows, but they kept coming. Fear had me panicking, and I made the mistake of using my legs to kick. Dante grabbed my feet, unhinged his cane, pulling out a shiny silver sword. My scream got stuck in my throat when he brought it down and severed my foot. The pain was crippling. My whole body heated up like I was feverish. Slobber hung from my lips as my tongue felt like it had swollen and was choking me. That nigga laughed with a guttural growl that told me he wasn’t finished. He yanked me closer to him then, spread my legs as far as they could go and then some. Felt as if I had tried to do a split and couldn’t but was forced down to the ground anyway. The shit hurt so badly that I didn’t even realize he was about to shove his sword clear up my pussy.

  “Payback’s a bitch, my Diamond,” Dame said as he grabbed my throat and placed a gun against the temple of my head. “And then you die, bitch.”

  That was all I heard before the heat of the lead split my skull and the sword rip my pussy from the inside out. I was trying to breathe, trying to fight, trying to scream, but I was only chocking on my own blood. More hands grappled at me. I didn’t know where the strength came from but I was trying to fight back too.

  “Diamond,” a male voice rang out.

  I kept screaming and swinging. My nails clawed at his face.

  “Ray-Ray! Wake the fuck up, li’l shawty.”

  “Get off of me,” I yelled out.

  I heard feet running toward me. It wasn’t until the male picked me up and I melted into his hold that I became lucid enough to realize I had been having one of my famous nightmares. When I came to, Ghost and Gina were standing at my bedroom door while Trigga had gripped me in a bear hug from behind as he dragged me out the bed.

  “Wake up and calm the fuck down,” he growled against my ear.

  I finally took a deep breath and realized I was home in my flat and that I was safe.

  “Diamond, you okay?” Ghost asked me.

  I caught my breath and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes, Ghost. I’m fine. Now just leave me alone for a minute, okay?” I snapped at her.

  I hadn’t meant to. Ghost looked like her feelings had been hurt by my tone of voice. She looked from me to Trigga. I guess she was trying to understand why I had snapped at her. I didn’t even know myself.

  “Gina, take Chas to the front for a minute,” Trigga said from behind me.

  Gina averted her eyes like even she was embarrassed to see me in the state I was in. But she took Ghost’s hand and did what Trigga had asked of her. When the door closed, Trigga lifted me from the floor and tossed me on the bed. I bounced clumsily but didn’t have time to focus because he had moved as slick as a panther and caged me between his arms on the bed. It was then that I could see the scratches I’d given him to the face. And I swore it seemed like the spot that I clawed him in when we first met when Dame had killed my parents was one of the same spots I had clawed him again. The corner of his left eye had a slow trickle of blood leaking from it.

  “I don’t give a fuck what’chu going through right now; you ain’t to never in your fucking life talk to Ghost like that again or take that tone of voice with her. You don’t fucking lash out at the people you call family, li’l shawty. Like it or not, we all we fucking got. So fuck yo’ stank-ass attitude and fuck you being mad at the world. And motherfuck you being mad at the people who ain’t never did shit to you. Talk to her like that again and watch you be dead to me.”

  He’d said most of that through gritted teeth. I couldn’t figure out what scared me most in the moment, the fact that I had hurt Ghost’s feelings or the fact that Trigga was looking at me with same look he gave an enemy before he put them out of their misery. That blank, empty look of death, kill or be killed, was in his eyes. He left me there lying on the bed with my ghosts and future demons.

  I probably would have stayed locked in my room all day if I could have, but Trigga wouldn’t let me and neither would my aunt. Trigga didn’t even knock on the door; he shoved it open and told me I needed to come eat. He didn’t move away until I had dressed and was making my way from the room. Ghost wouldn’t look at me. Normally she would sit by me at the table but this time she sat closest to Trigga. I felt like shit. I did. I ain’t ever want Ghost to feel I didn’t love her. Didn’t ever want her to feel I was her enemy. So I made it my agenda to apologize to her because I did love her like she was my little sister.

  “Nice of you to join the living, Diamond,” Phenom said tome.

  He was sitting at the head of the table like usual with the Times UK newspaper in front of his face. The front page showed the face of a soldier who had been hacked to death in a place called Woolwich, South London.

  I didn’t respond to his greeting. I felt like all eyes were on me as my aunt set trays loaded with pancakes, bacon, sausages, homemade biscuits, eggs, and grits on the table. The radio was playing. The same music they played in the States they played in London. Phenom dropped the paper on the table.

  “We make moves today. We’re looking for something,” he said.

  I noticed the way he and Anika made eye contact when he said that. Something was going on that we didn’t know about with them. The way Trigga smoothly looked between the two le
t me know that he had peeped game too.

  “Check it, before we get to that though,” Trigga started as he snatched a piece of bacon and bit into it, “me and Jake scoped some of them Jamaican cats talking to some dude who looked like the law yesterday.”

  “A copper?” Anika asked. The way her eyes seemed to widen showed Trigga had told her something of interest.

  Trigga shrugged. “Yeah, a cop or whatever y’all call ’em over here. Nigga was jawing about his boon or protection was gon’ be over or some shit like that. Anyway, when a nigga hacked into the drive, I found more shit to match the notes and receipts I copped from the floor of those Jamaican cats’ place.”

  Anika completely stopped serving and rushed to stand by Phenom. Her hand squeezed his shoulder and she looked like she was about to cry. What the hell? That wasn’t the woman I was used to seeing. She wasn’t the cool, calm, and collected African queen who even had Dame in check. That wasn’t the woman who made every nigga in Dame’s house grab his dick and want to bow before her. I didn’t know who this fragile-acting woman was.

  Phenom had placed a hand over his mouth then rubbed it aggressively up and down his face. I was starting to think this shit was about more than money and drugs.

  “Show me what’cha got, nephew,” Phenom casually said.

  Trigga grabbed my laptop and then went to his hoodie where he pulled out all these receipts and cards and dropped them on the table in front of Phenom and Anika. The way they both didn’t hesitate to start looking through them told me my assumption had been right about it being more than money that they were looking for. Yeah, they looked at the money transactions but it was the locations and maps that they took most interest in.

  Trigga set the laptop on the table and started to talk again. “A nigga couldn’t get that far because like I said I ain’t no tech head but I can do some shit. Some of the other codes gon’ take a nigga a minute to get in, but this shit right here shows that money been passing through this network like water and then this shit,” he said as he clicked the mouse. “This shit shows a list of gangs I’m guessing. Something about code wars or some shit. Then you got some more names from something called Trident. Whatever the fuck that is a nigga know they ain’t talking about gum.”

  As soon as Trigga stopped talking a movement by the window then a loud bang and the yell of a kid made us all grab weapons. Even Ghost grabbed a bat as Gina grabbed her .45. Gina was quick in her movements. She grabbed Ghost’s hand and headed for the hidden hall closet. Jake’s big, hefty ass didn’t even stop chewing as he grabbed a pumped-up shotty from underneath his chair while Phenom and Anika both flanked either side of the window. Trigga was the only crazy motherfucker to go to the window. I guess that was what Phenom meant when he said you had to want to die more than the next nigga. If this was about to be a gun battle then Trigga had placed the target right on his chest. That nigga was clearly out of his mind.

  I was cocked and ready to shoot as soon as I saw the shadowy figure approaching the window. Before whoever it was could make a move Trigga’s gun was at their temple.

  “Aye, yo, wait a minute, bruv. It’s ya blood, yeah. Caught this lit’ul young-un snooping by the window,” Speedy said, quickly pushing his hood away to show his face.

  There was a little dirty boy who looked to be spooked out of his mind. He looked no older than Ghost. “Please don’t kill me. I was a lit’ul hungry and Ghost my friend. Was only wan’ing ta see if she would give me grub and munchies like before. I swear down,” the little boy pleaded with his little dirty hands in the air.

  “You know this kid?” Phenom asked me as he put his gun away and snatched the kid through the window.

  “Ay, you were right going to kill me were you, bruv?” Speedy asked wild-eyed looking at Trigga. “You’re mad, man. Madder than a hatter ya are, blood.”

  “I shoot first and ask ya name never, nigga. Better be glad you spoke up, bruv,” Trigga cajoled.

  He and Big Jake cracked up laughing at the look of terror on Speedy’s features. I knew Speedy was a killer like Trigga. Anika had told me. Only Speedy didn’t use guns; he was a shanker. But to be on the same level as Trigga you had have more than one way to kill because that nigga knew a hundred ways you could die.

  “Yo, Gina, bring Ghost in here,” Phenom called out.

  When they came from my room instead of the closet they had gone in, I knew Ghost had schooled Gina on the secret passages in the house. Ghost rounded the corner first then stopped.

  “Dillenger, what are you doing here?” she asked the little boy.

  “I only wanted munchies, swear down,” Dillenger said again. The look of fright on his little face showed he was scared shitless. His light eyes were watered and if he could have I was sure he would have pissed himself.

  “You know him?” Trigga asked her.

  She nodded but there was something else on her face that I couldn’t read. “I give the li’l nigga food sometimes because he told me he ain’t have no place to live,” she answered.

  “You better not ever let me catch you snooping around here again. You get me?” Phenom said to the little boy. “You want grub, you knock on the door, eh?”

  Dillenger nodded frantically. “I will. I swear down.”

  I was beginning to guess that “I swear down” in London was the same as “I swear to God” in America.

  “Get him some food, Chas,” Trigga told her.

  She did, but it was the way that she hesitated that gave me pause. I looked at Trigga and saw that he was watching her too.

  “I don’t think we should let him go. We shouldn’t let him leave,” I said to Trigga in a low tone, but all the adults could still hear me.

  “We don’t kill kids,” Trigga said to me.

  “Yeah, but—”

  “No buts, Diamond. We’re not killing a kid,” Anika said.

  “You gon’ kill the kid because he’s hungry?” Phenom asked with raised brows.

  “No, we can feed him, but we shouldn’t let him leave,” I said.

  “Why not?” he asked me.

  “Because who knows how long he was hiding there and who knows what someone could pay him to tell what we’ve been talking about?”

  “Pretty gyal has a point, Uncle. Street gangs pay lit’ul ones ta snitch all the time, yeah? You know this,” Speedy spoke up.

  I looked at Trigga to see if he thought I was crazy, but the fact that he was eyeballing the kids in the kitchen let me know he was thinking hard about what I had said.

  “Chas, take him to your room and let him eat. We’ll come get you in a sec,” Trigga told her.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though I had been a total bitch to him at least he was taking into account my theory.

  We didn’t say too much else out loud with the kid in the house. We spoke in codes; although sometimes Speedy didn’t understand what we meant, he quickly caught on. He reminded me of Gina. A little dense, but smart where he needed to be. Instead of leaving the house like we had planned in the beginning, Phenom wanted to wait until nightfall to move, so we did. Throughout the whole thing I would check on Ghost from time to time. She and Dillenger were playing her game most times. Strange enough, the little boy almost looked like he could be her brother or something.

  He was a cool kid. Head full of curly hair with gray eyes. It was no secret he was a rainbow baby, mixed with a little of everything. His clothes were a bit dingy and dirty, but oddly enough, his sneakers looked like they had just come out the box. Everything was going as planned until I went to Ghost’s room to check on them again. The window was up, curtains blowing in the wind, and they were gone. It was nothing for them to trail the metal ladder down the wall.

  “Ghost is gone,” I ran to the front room yelling.

  Trigga was the first to jump up from the couch. “What?” His eyes narrowed on me. He was angry but I could tell behind that anger was something I had never seen in him before: fear.

  “She’s gone. Ghost is gone,” I said
again.

  Chapter 6

  Ghost

  I may not know a lot of shit, but I was raised in the game. All I knew were tricks and schemes because that was all that had been taught to me. Even though Trigga was like my dad and shit, he even taught me ways to get over on people. But he only did it because he knew the game wasn’t gonna be nice to no misfit like me. I ain’t have no mama really and my daddy wasn’t shit. My mama woulda been a good mama had that nigga Dame not turned her out. She was still good enough to hide me so that nigga wouldn’t get to me. And she was friends with Trigga. My mama knew Dame was about to kill her because she gave me all my stuff like social security card, birth certificate, and stuff like that. She told me to give it to Trigga and I did.

  I cried when she died but not really ’cause I knew Trigga was gon’ take care of me, but I was still sad ’cause I knew she ain’t ever had no real chance at life. That nigga Dame had taken her when she was fourteen. She was twenty-four when she died. ’Cause of the shit I had seen I ain’t never been to trusting of any nigga ’cept Trigga. And especially not no bitch. Diamond had snapped at me this morning. It hurt my feelings, but I wasn’t tripping no more. My mama used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night too because of that nigga Dame. So I kind of felt sorry for her.

  Trigga had taught me to always pay attention to shit like my surroundings. That was why I knew Dillenger was lying about being hungry. We was walking down the block now. Had just jumped the gate to Springhill Park. Nobody was in the park that time of night but hoods and misfits like me. So nobody was paying attention to us hopping the gates and walking around. I told that li’l nigga that Trigga had hid some money down by the river. I knew he would go for it ’cause Dillenger liked to steal shit. He was always stealing stuff when we went to the stores around the area.