Authors: Blake Karrington
“Don’t worry about anything. Just get what you need and we’re out of here.” Selena said, cocking a bullet into the chamber.
“Herman!” Lorraine called out once they entered the house. “Herman!” she yelled again, walking towards the stairs.
Herman wasn’t answering, but Selena wasn’t taking any chances. She followed Lorraine up the steps. Selena was given strict instructions from Brianna to shoot and kill Herman at any sign of aggression, and she wasn’t going to hesitate for a second, especially if he jumped out of one of those rooms like he was crazy.
“I don’t think he is here,” Lorraine said, walking into her bedroom. “He would have made himself noticed by now.”
“Alright Mrs. Lorraine, the quicker you get ya things, the quicker we can get out of here.” Selena said, looking down the hallway for any suspicious movement.
Lorraine went right to work, grabbing a trash bag from out her closet and filling it up with all the items she needed. Within ten minutes, she and Selena were loaded and heading out the door.
__________
Jonathan, A.J., and Kasy sat at the table in Jonathan’s dining room with a large mountain of money in front of them. This was the first time that any of the men had seen the proceeds from the lick. From the way that nobody really wanted to touch the blood money, it was obvious that this was a bittersweet moment.
“Yo, let’s count dis shit up.” Jonathan said, reaching over and grabbing a stack of money from the pile. “Kev’s cut goes to his family. I’ll take it over there later on.” he said.
Both Kasy and A.J. nodded their heads in agreement. It was only right that his money be given to his family, and Jonathan wasn’t going to see it no other way. He had really stepped up and become the heart of this crew. Even though Kasy was older and more experienced, he respected Jonathan’s leadership skills, and what he had put together.
It took over four and a half hours for them to count up the 5, 10, 20, and 100 dollar bills. There wasn’t a doubt in anybody’s mind that this was dope money. At the end, it came out to 1.2 million, broken down four ways evenly. Everybody came out with a nice 300K. The leftover change was put to the side to pay for Kevin’s funeral.
__________
Brianna pulled up to the courthouse, not knowing what was going to happen. From the evidence that was presented to the jury, one would think that a not guilty verdict was the right thing to do. However, when the majority of the jury was older, white, suburban people, anything was liable to happen.
“Everything is gonna be alright,” Charrise looked over and told Brianna after she finished parking.
Brianna had something else on her mind other than the trial. She was sitting there debating whether to tell Charrise that Herman was the one who set her up to be kidnapped. She didn’t know how her sister was going to react to it, but at the same time, it was killing Brianna not to confide in her.
“I need to talk to you about something.” Brianna said, turning to face Charrise.
“Sure, what’s going on, Bri, and why the long face?” Charrise asked.
Brianna took in a deep breath. “Please don’t be mad at me…” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not sure how to tell you this, other than to just say it. Herman was involved with you being kidnapped. Hakeem paid him to have you taken in order to draw me out. I was—”
“Wait, wait, what did you just say?” Charrise asked, snapping her head back with a twisted look on her face. “I know you didn’t’ just say that my dad was responsible for me being kidnapped,” Charrise snapped.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Brianna tried to plead, seeing how mad it had made Charrise.
The look she gave Brianna cut through her like a single edge razor. “You supposed to be my fucking sister and you hide some shit like this from me? You let this nigga walk around here day after day like he was my fuckin dad, holding me and comforting me!” Charrise yelled.
Brianna sat there in silence. There was nothing that she could say to make it better, nor was Charrise trying to hear anything. “You know what, Bri, it’s cool. I guess you weren’t my sister after all…” Charrise said, reaching into the backseat to get her Milly bag. “Dis shit between me and you is done. And don’t fuckin follow me!” Charrise said, opening the door and getting out of the car.
As bad as Brianna wanted to get out of the car and chase her down, she didn’t, knowing that Charrise needed her space right now. Bothering her would only make it worse. Brianna just sat there in the automobile and cried. She hoped that she didn’t lose her sister and best friend.
After twenty minutes of trying to decide if she had done the right thing in telling Charrise about Herman’s involvement, Brianna wiped the tears from her face and headed into the courthouse. Before she could sit down, Cowboy motioned for her to come to him.
“We got a problem, baby girl. Herman came to see me and he dug up that hidden treasure of ours.” Cowboy whispered in her ear.
“I already know, Dad, and I’m working on it, but I have a couple of other issues as well right now.”
Cowboy could see that she was in a daze. The whole courtroom was quiet as they waited for the jury to be brought in. Cowboy could not help but to notice that the stress in his daughter’s eyes was not only because of the body that Herman had.
“What else is wrong?” he asked, reaching back and tapping her on the arm.
Brianna snapped out of her daze and quickly tried to put a smile on her face, but Cowboy wasn’t going for that. He knew that it was something more. “Come on, spit it out,” he said, trying to get her eyes to meet his. “If it has anything to do with the …”
“Charrise knows about Herman,” Brianna said, cutting him off. “I told her and she snapped on me,” she said, shaking her head.
“Damn!” Cowboy exhaled, leaning back in his chair. “I knew dat shit was gonna come back and bite us in the ass. Does she know about the body?” he asked, referring to him killing Tank and burying him in Herman’s backyard.
“She didn’t even give me a chance to get to that. She jumped out of my car and told me not to follow her.” Brianna said as she began to tear up.
“All rise!” the clerk announced before the judge entered the courtroom.
Cowboy and Brianna quickly halted their conversation. This was the moment that everyone had been waiting for. Someone walked out into the hallway and made the announcement that a verdict had been reached. People poured back into the courtroom. For the first time in history, Cowboy had butterflies in his stomach. If he were standing up, he probably would have buckled at the knees.
“Ok, it seems that the jury has reached a verdict. Please let them in.” the judge said, taking his glasses off.
As the jury walked into the courtroom, all eyes were on them. The butterflies in Cowboy’s stomach had found their way into Brianna’s stomach as well. While all the others sat down, the foreman remained standing.
“I understand that you’ve reached a verdict,” the judge said.
“Yes, Your Honor… unanimously.” the foreman responded.
The judge looked down at the paper with the list of charges on it and began to read.
“In the charge of murder in the first degree, in count one of the indictment, for the murder of Hakeem Wilbourn, how does the jury find the defendant?” the judge asked, looking back up at the foreman.
“The jury finds the defendant … Not guilty!” the foreman announced.
As the judge continued to read down the charges and ask for the verdicts, the foreman continued to say not guilty to the very end. The mixture of emotions from both Cowboy’s supporters and the family of the victims filled the courtroom. It got so loud that the judge had to call for order.
Casteno leaned over and shook Cowboy’s hand to congratulate him. The feeling that Cowboy had was beyond anything he had ever experienced before, and the only thing he could do was smile. Brianna couldn’t stop smiling either as she leaned over and hugged her dad.
“We won!” Brianna joyfully proclaimed, trying her best to hold back the few tears that forced their way out of her eyes.
“Yeah, we did it, baby girl,” Cowboy responded, satisfied with the results.
__________
Jonathan sat on the front steps of St. Matthews Church listening to the many cries coming from inside the building. He took another swig of the orange soda bottle that was spiked with Ciroc and then looked out into the street where cars drove by, unaware that a real nigga was having his wake right now.
“Damn Kev… Why now?” Jonathan mumbled to himself, rubbing the top of his head.
Flashbacks of the time when Kevin took a puff of a cigarette for the first time brought Jonathan to laughter. He remembered Kevin choking for about ten minutes straight. Then he thought about the time when he, Kevin, and A.J. got drunk off a 40oz of Old English 800 they had convinced a junkie to purchase for them. Kevin threw up on A.J.’s brand new pair of Jordans, but only ruining the right shoe. A.J. still rocked the mismatched sneakers for a month before his mom bought him another pair.
Jonathan went from laughing to crying within seconds. As he sobbed, he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up to see who it was, he put his head back down in shame.
“Ya friend would like to see you one last time, Jonathan,” Ms. Matty said, pulling some tissue out of her pocket.
“Damn, Ms. Matty, I fucked up…” Jonathan cried, putting his face in his hands. “Dat should be me in there. He should be out here,” he continued, letting the tears pour out of his eyes.
“Come on inside, Jonathan.” Ms. Matty said, rubbing his back.
“I can’t, Ms. Matty. I can’t look at him like this.”
“Jonathan! Now if you say that you love my son, you’re gonna get up, wipe those tears from your face, and go in there and pay your respects to ya best friend.” Ms. Matty demanded, and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Jonathan could not believe it. After everything that had happened, Ms. Matty was still showing him love. Her son was lying in a coffin, partially because of him. And instead of shunning Jonathan, she did the total opposite. She helped Jonathan to his feet, wrapped him in her arms, and hugged him tight.
“I’m sorry.” Jonathan cried, resting his head on her shoulder.
“I don’t blame you, Jonathan. That could have easily been you, and I would want Lorraine to be doing the same thing that I’m doing right now.” she said, wiping the few tears from his cheeks.
“Now let’s go inside and see my boy.” She smiled, leading him into the church.
Charrise pulled up to the front of the church. She and Lorraine got out so that they could pay their last respects. Brianna pulled in right behind them, also coming to show her respect. By the time they had gotten in there, the line to view the body was kind of short. Lorraine walked up, kissed Kevin on his head, and then walked over and gave Ms. Matty a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Jonathan was sitting right next to Ms. Matty, so Lorraine gave him the same thing. They were all like family. Growing up, Lorraine used to watch Kevin on the days Ms.Matty had the night shift at the hospital. Likewise, Ms. Matty used to watch Jonathan after he got out of school until Lorraine got home from work. That’s just how close the two were, so naturally, the death of Kevin was a devastating blow for everyone.
Brianna was hoping that she and Charrise could have a conversation. However, she could tell that Charrise wasn’t open for it, and today wasn’t the time or place to push the issue.
__________
“Did you see anybody familiar?” Gwen asked Crystal and Ivory as they walked up and took a seat on the park bench right next to her.
“No, not really. But I did see …” Crystal paused, not really sure what she saw was worth mentioning.
At that point, any and all information was useful in Gwen’s eyes. She couldn’t figure out for the love of God who was responsible for robbing her. Not only was she robbed, another MHB crew member was murdered, execution style. The sense of urgency to track down the culprits behind it was felt throughout the whole crew. Gwen took immediate action, first by finding out the identity of the male body that was left behind after the shootout. After finding out that it was Kevin Miles, she sent Crystal and Ivory to the funeral to scope things out.
“There was this one guy who stayed outside for most of the funeral.”
“Then, this lady came outside and he began crying. I don’t know what was said, because we were sitting in the car at the time.” Ivory chimed in.
“Yeah, and when he did go into the church, he was sitting in the front row,” Crystal said.
“Hell, which could be anybody.” Gwen shot back, waving them off. “Is that all?”
“Oh, oh, and it was another guy that stood by the casket crying damn near the whole funeral.” Ivory remembered.
Gwen sat there and thought about it for a minute. The actions of those two men showed that they had a lot of love for the deceased. They had to have either been family members or close friends, and Gwen was willing to bet that they were friends. And if they were close friends, then nine times out of ten they knew something, or maybe even were involved in some kind of way.
“Did you get these guys names?” Gwen asked, hoping that they did.
“No, we didn’t get the names, but Ivory did write down a couple license plate numbers.” Crystal advised.
“Yeah, and I think that I did get one of theirs.” Ivory said, rambling through her back pocket for the piece of paper that she was writing on. “Oh, here it go.”
She passed the folded up piece of paper to Gwen who looked down at the five license plate numbers. This piece of information was more valuable than Crystal thought. Gwen was definitely going to pursue the two cry babies who performed at the funeral. Before the week was out, she was gonna make it her business to find out just how much love the two men had for their dead comrade.
__________
Brianna ran to Cowboy as he walked out of the jail. He picked her up and swung her around like she was a child, and she felt loved and protected.
“Daddy!” she said like a toddler as he carried her towards the awaiting Audi truck.
Brandon smiled as Cowboy placed Brianna back on the ground.