“Jazelle, don’t come over here with that shit, girl! All these people in here tonight. We’re trying to get everybody served as quickly as possible,” the bartender snapped back, and right when I turned my head, so that I could stop looking, and just look ahead of me, I noticed that Ari was standing directly in front of me, and that goofy ass smirk was back on her face, that I wanted to quickly wipe off.
“I knew it was a reason you came with Demi. I was going to drive myself crazy trying to figure out what the reason was. You wanted to see what the bitch looked like in person. I already told you that she wasn’t prettier than you. You wanted to see that for yourself?” Ari asked, stepping closer, and she put her knee in my lap, as if she had to be touching me to get the truth out of me.
“You just be saying shit,” I waved her off, not going to let her know that she was spot on with what she was saying.
“Saying shit that’s facts. I don’t think her, and Dolo are fuckin around with each other anymore. She was in here crying the other night, telling one of the girls in the locker room that he’s been acting funny lately. Since then, she’s been in a shitty ass mood walking around here. She almost got her ass beat on multiple occasions by different girls because she keeps talking to people crazy. She knows who to play that shit with though. The second she say some crazy shit to me, Ima pop her right in her mouth,” Ari spat, and I believed her.
My cousin would beat a bitch ass to the ground just like I would, but her temper wasn’t as bad as mine. She could control herself a little better than I could.
“Hmm,” was all I said in response to that.
Ari told me that she was going to come right back because she needed to check on her section, and then she walked away.
I was such in my own world, with my head down, looking at my shoes, that I didn’t even pay it any attention when someone walked over, and they took a seat next to me. At first, I was thinking that it was Demi coming back, but it wasn’t. It was Elijah coming over and sitting next to me. Seeing him, all I could think about was the fact that him, and his brother ran dem 9 boyz. Those were the niggas that were responsible for me almost dying last night.
Usually, I could tolerate Elijah just enough to tell him to get the fuck from around me, but this time, it was best for him to get the fuck from around me because a nigga that was the reason why I almost died didn’t have any business sitting beside me.
“Yo, let me ask you something,” he said, getting right to it.
“Fuck nigga don’t ask me shit! I’m a wild bitch, and you know that. I don’t think about the shit that I got to lose in the heat of the moment. Get the fuck from around me!” there was no hint of me just joking around with him, either.
I was dead ass serious, and he knew that shit, which is why he shot me a look, glaring down at me like he wanted to kill me in this moment, just as much as I wanted to kill his bitch ass.
“I don’t even gotta ask you what I was going to because you just told on yourself. You is running with them niggas, huh? I ain’t take you as the stupid type, Riot. That’s why I tried to give you an opportunity to eat with me, and my crew when you came home from jail. Isn’t the goal to stay the fuck alive, now that you’re a free woman again? You walking right into a trap. You gambling with your life, beautiful. As pretty of a bitch that I think you are, I will shoot your ass down just like I will the rest of them niggas. I don’t think you picked the right side, love,” he spat to me, and like this was a joke to me, and as if nothing about that little threat that he just dished out scared me, I laughed right in this niggas face.
I turned my body in his direction, looking him in his eyes because I wanted him to feel me, and understand where I was coming from with this next part.
“I was in the car the other night when you sent those weak ass niggas to shoot at Dolo. You sent close to twenty niggas. Look at the ratio of that shit. Your twenty, versus two. I walked away without a scratch on me. Only thing hurting is my trigger finger from having to let that motha fuckin gun ring as many times as I did. You sitting here telling me that I picked the wrong side? Your side was never an option. Weak ass nigga, you had to send your runners to handle Dolo. You talking all this big shit, if the beef was really that deep, why the fuck you ain’t get in the field on your own, and handle that shit? I don’t want to be working under no nigga that can’t handle his dirty work. I bleed once a month, and I still got a dick bigger than yours. Damn near a hundred shots sprayed that car last night, and I’m still alive to talk about it. Send a better nigga to handle it next time. That shit was too easy,” I finished, my voice going up a little bit because he’d pissed me off with that threat that he just made.
He smiled a smile that was forced. I know my words bothered him, but he wasn’t going to show it. He nodded his head, pulled on the little bit of chin hair that he had, and he stood up.
The jeans that he was wearing, he was slightly sagging in them, so he pulled them up, and before he walked away, he turned to look at me. I was waiting for him to say something else to me, but he never did. I guess it was one of those things where his silence was supposed to speak for him. I didn’t fear Elijah, or any other nigga that he ran with. I truly believed that he was just looking for a problem. He was looking for a reason to beef with Dolo. It made him look good. To say that he was at war with the biggest drug organization out of Miami right now looked good for him, and his crew.
He came down here, talking all this tough shit, but he never got down to the reason why he put his niggas on Dolo’s corners in the first place. He didn’t have a reason. That’s why. I’m convinced he wanted to be a member of MBM, and that’s why he kept coming for them the way he was.
Chapter 13
Uzi Reaves
We were almost finished with today’s class. Today was a tough day. A lot of different emotions were running high this morning. The past couple of classes, I’ve been getting the women familiar with the gun, so today, my team and I were able to bring them out back, behind the warehouse, where I had all this land, that was deep into a wooded area, and I was letting the girls shoot for the first time. For a lot of them, this was their first-time shooting. Some of them never heard a gun go off before, so for the first few minutes, it took them awhile to get used to the loud roar.
Not everyone was going to become a perfect shooter overnight. This was the kind of skill where it took a lot of repetition. We were going to have to have a lot of classes out here, or inside the gun range to get these women to become perfect shooters, but right now, they had the basics, and that’s all I cared about.
We had the girls set up in different groups. Each group had one of the trainers with them, but ultimately, I was walking around, giving direction too. Right now, I was with a group ofabout five women, talking amongst them, but there was a loud commotion that was taking place towards the end, so I took my eyes off the women that I was standing in front of, so that I could turn and see what was going on.
There were three different women, and they were going at it with one of the ladies. I was praying to God that it wasn’t Riot that they were going at I with because ever since I found out about her, she’s been someone that I would think about often, wanting her to stay on the straight and narrow, especially since I knew that she was freshly home from jail. Sure enough, it was Riot that the women were going at it with, so I quickly walked over, wanting to see what was going on.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking from the three women to Riot, trying to understand what all the yelling and shit was about.
“She coming over here with all this attitude because Bernay used her earmuffs. Bernay and I had been sharing because she left hers at home. We saw that Riot walked off to use the restroom, so Brenay used her earmuffs while she was gone, and she came back doing the most. It ain’t that fuckin serious. Ain’t no way I would have did all of that over some cheap ass headphones,” one of the girls said to me.
Her name was Shayla. Her, Bernay, and Dreya were a click that stuck together. I would often try to keep the three of them separated because I didn’t want this to be the kind of program where everybody clicked up. I wanted the girls to bond with each other and meet new people while they were here. The three of them came in already knowing each other.
“Man, I don’t give a fuck about none of that shit that you saying. Don’t touch my shit. You don’t know me well enough to be touching anything of mine. The fact that you’re having a hard time understanding that is crazy to me. That’s just like me walking over to your space, picking up your phone, and using itbecause I left mine at home. Fuck wrong with you? Don’t touch my shit!” Riot snapped.
I knew that Riot had that side of her, but I haven’t seen it yet. I could say that she’s been biting her tongue and really trying to control her temper. She could have snapped on her first day when a few of the girls were laughing at her when she announced that she’d just come home from jail. She could have snapped last week when some of the other girls were talking shit amongst their breath, saying that Riot was showing off when she shot her gun in the range, but she didn’t. She kept her cool. I wanted her to continue keeping her cool, so here I was, about to try to dissolve this situation quickly.
“Bernay, next time you forget something at home, just let me or one of the other instructors know, and we’ll supply you with whatever you need. We have plenty of earmuffs here. Nobody needs to be touching each other’s shit. Cool?” I asked, hating this shit because I felt like I was breaking up a fight between my damn kids.
