Authors: Blake Karrington
When Kasy walked into the dining room and saw all of the guns out on the table, he glanced over at Jonathan with a surprised look on his face. It kind of caught him off guard to see Jonathan with all that heavy artillery.
“What the Fuck is y’all lil niggas about to do?” Kasy asked, looking around the room at A.J. and Kevin who were locked in and loading their weapons.
“We about to take something down, old head. I got a nice lick lined up right now,” Jonathan told Kasy. “I could use an extra man on this one. That’s why I called you.”
Kasy stood there, shocked to hear this coming from Jonathan. It wasn’t all that long ago that Jonathan graduated from high school and was supposed to be a college boy. This was a major step up in the street life for him, but from the looks of things, it seemed that he was all in. One thing Kasy hardly ever turned down was the chance to make some quick money, so it didn’t take much convincing from Jonathan to get Kasy on board.
“Y’all lil niggas is crazy,” Kasy said, picking up the blunt out of the ashtray. “Tell me what da lick read,” he said, taking a pull of the weed.
Jonathan broke it down in the lowest degree on what was about to transpire. The homework that he did on this take down was perfected to the tee. He had precise timing and accurate locations of where he wanted to strike. Anyone who got in the way of what he was trying to accomplish during the lick were subject to be shot. This was the kind of work that was right up Kasy’s alley. Jonathan even reminded Kasy of himself when he used to take down money getting niggas back in the day.
“Look, lil nigga. Ima ride wit you on dis one, but you better not say a word about this to ya sista,” Kasy smiled, throwing a playful jab at Jonathan.
They all busted out laughing at the joke, but Kasy was the first one to stop laughing. “Nah lil nigga, I am serious about ya sister,” Kasy said, looking around the room to make sure he had everyone’s understanding on what he had just said.
“Yeah, I got you,” Jonathan responded, nodding his head in agreement. “Now, let’s get dis money, my nigga,” he said, grabbing the Backwood from Kasy and taking a pull.
__________
Lorraine stood in the bathroom mirror looking at the bruises on her face. The cut on her top lip looked like it needed stitches, but Lorraine wasn’t about to be sitting up in the hospital looking stupid. Southern women were tough as nails, and most of the time, domestic disputes were handled in house. If a man put his hand on a woman from the south, he sure as hell better sleep with one eye open for a while. Lorraine didn’t show it much, but Herman knew that she was a little crazy. That’s why he hadn’t been back in the house since he left a couple of hours ago.
“Who in the hell is that?” Lorraine mumbled, hearing the house phone ring.
She walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom and grabbed the phone off her nightstand. “Hello!” she answered, looking out her bedroom window for any signs of Herman.
“Hey Mom,” Brianna responded. “Is everything ok? You sound tense… I was just calling to see if you was coming today?”
“Coming where, baby?” Lorraine asked, patting the cut on her lip with a warm washrag.
“To court, you know the D.A. is going to cross examine Charrise today!”
Lorraine was silent. She had forgotten about the trial after the drama with Herman.
“Mom! Are you still there?” Brianna asked, noticing the dead silence.
“Yes, I am still here, baby. I don’t think I am gonna make it today. I want to, but Herman was supposed to be taking me somewhere in a bit,” Lorraine lied. “Just call and let me know how it goes.” she suggested, looking into the mirror mounted on her dresser.
There was no way in hell Lorraine was going to let Brianna or any of her kids for that matter, see her face bruised the way it was. She knew that Herman would be as good as dead if they found out that he put his hands on their mother. Lorraine wasn’t justifying Herman’s attack, but she had to admit to herself that she was out of pocket for going to Cowboy’s trial. At the end of the day, she was still married to Herman, and her loyalty was supposed to be with him.
“Alright then, Mom. I’ll call you later when I get some time,” Brianna said, before hanging up the phone.
Lorraine hung up the phone and then sat on the bed, trying to figure out how she was going to deal with Herman when he walked back through that door. She was still debating on whether or not to bust him upside his head with something for putting his hands on her the way he did, or just leave it alone and give him a pass on account that she was part of the problem that got it to that point. Whatever was going to happen would totally be up to Herman’s actions when he came back home. If he walked through the door still on his bullshit, Lorraine was going to make sure her face wouldn’t be the only face that was bruised up. But if he came in humble, sober, and apologetic, it was a good chance Lorraine was going to try to work things out. The choice was his, and if he knew what was best for him, he had better choose the latter instead of coming back home drunk.
__________
Brianna, Charrise, Selena and Chatima all rushed into the courtroom just in time to hear the clerk yell, “All rise!” as the judge entered the courtroom.
Cowboy turned and looked back at them and then over at Casteno, who looked back with concern on his face. Today, Charrise was supposed to get back on the stand so that the D.A. could cross examine her about her testimony.
“Is the state ready to proceed?” the judge asked, lowering his glasses to the edge of his nose.
“Yes, Your Honor,” the D.A. answered and then looked over at Cowboy’s table. “Are we good?” he leaned over and asked Casteno.
Before he got a chance to answer, Charrise put her bag down on the bench right behind the defense table and walked up to the stand. She was sworn in by the clerk and then the D.A. went right at her like a lion on a zebra in the Sahara. He questioned her truthfulness about the whole kidnapping and whether or not she was really pregnant. He tried everything, hoping to get her to contradict herself or flat out lie.
Charrise did not bend or fold to the D.A.’s tactics. The hardest thing about trying to get somebody to lie, is trying to get somebody to lie when they’re actually telling the truth. It was easy for Charrise to do her thing and to crush any doubts about whether or not she was pregnant. She brought the abortion receipt to prove it. That really crushed the D.A., so much so that he became frustrated and decided to end the cross examination early before it got any worse.
“We’ll have a short recess and then we can have the closing arguments from each side,” the judge said before getting up and heading back to his chambers.
Casteno requested that Cowboy remain in the courtroom during the break, which was granted by one of the Sheriffs that he knew.
“Thanks Charrise, for everything,” Cowboy began. “You really took a chance by taking the stand for me, and I want you to know that I am grateful for that, no matter what happens.” Cowboy told Charrise with the most sincere look in his eyes.
“I guess that makes us even. You saved my life, and now hopefully, I saved yours,” Charrise responded with a smile.
Once the recess was over, closing arguments lasted a little more than an hour. The D.A. tried to tell the jury not to believe Charrise’s because it didn’t make sense. He then went on about the evidence that was found at the scene of the crime, and how evidence proved that Cowboy had killed at least two of the three men in the house. At some point during the closing arguments, the jury looked like they had been persuaded by the D.A. and what he had presented, but then Casteno took the floor.
Casteno went off. He presented nothing but the facts that were established during the trial. One being the fact that Cowboy did kill two of the three men in the house, but the reason why he did it was in self-defense. Casteno used the testimony of Charrise who said that Cowboy found her from the address that the kidnappers gave him. He told the jury that once Cowboy got to the location where Charrise was at, he was fired upon first. He said that Cowboy returned fire only in self-defense. Casteno not only made it look like self-defense, but he also made Cowboy looked like a scared father trying to save his daughter.
By the end of the day, Cowboy looked like a hero instead of a murderer. It was getting late in the day, so the judge gave the jury the rest of the day off and postponed deliberations until Monday. That was crazy because everyone in the courtroom was hoping to get a quick verdict. Now, they would have to wait until after the weekend.
__________
Jonathan and A.J. sat in the black Chevy Caprice with tinted windows waiting on the white Aston Martin to pull out of the Arlington Condominiums parking lot. Kevin was in a stolen burgundy Plymouth, already waiting inside the same parking lot, while Kasy had taken over the tollbooth at the entrance/exit point. Everyone was in position, locked, loaded, and ready to go.
“Look alive, y’all.” Jonathan spoke through the walkie-talkie. “She should be coming out any second,” he said, looking down at his watch.
Like clockwork, three black females got off the elevator and walked out onto the second level. Kevin could see that at least one of the women was armed as she rested her hand on the butt of her gun while looking around the badly lit parking lot. The other two women stood by the elevator door, while the one female scoured the parking lot for any danger.
Kevin sank as low as he possibly could in the driver seat, damn near to the point where he was on the floor. The armed female walked right past the car and didn’t notice Kevin inside. Moments later, the same women walked back over to the elevator where she had a brief conversation with the other two females. For a minute, Kevin thought that he had been spotted. He sat back up in his seat and took the safety off both of his handguns.
“Alright girl, I will see you in a few hours,” the main female said as she walked over to the Aston Martin.
One of the other females got into the car while the armed female stood and waited for the elevator. As the Aston Martin pulled out of its spot, Kevin started the engine to his car and then crept out of the parking space. He followed behind the car at an unnoticeable speed, watching as she pulled up to the tollbooth.
As soon as the car same to a stop, Kasy pulled the mask down over his face. The driver of the Aston Martin didn’t even notice the masked man until she looked up from getting her parking pass out of the bag.
“Oh shit!” she yelled, seeing the ski masked bandit.
She threw the car in reverse, but slammed right into Kevin, who pushed her car forward. The driver reached into her bag, wrapped her hand around a 9mm Taurus, and then fired into the booth at Kasy.
Bullets crashed through the Aston Martin window and went right into the booth. Kasy got low to the ground and then kicked open the back door of the booth and began firing back at the car.
The loud roar from the .50 Cal rang out through the parking lot. Both females rolled out of the car, one shooting at Kasy while the other shot at Kevin.
It was an all-out shootout nearly at close range. Jonathan and A.J. pulled out of their parking spots and spun into the entrance of the parking garage. The female driver turned around and threw a few shots at the black Caprice, hitting the hood of it.
“Damn!” the female yelled out in the elevator as she heard the shots in the parking lot. “Come on, come on.” she said, smacking the elevator button for the ground level.
Jonathan ducked the bullets that hit his windshield and hood of the car, and hopped out with the AR-15. He let it rip.
Both females jumped behind a parked car off to the side. The large assault rifle knocked holes the size of softballs in the car. The female driver popped out her clip to find that it only had one bullet left. The female passenger was all out too, but knew that if she could make it back to the car that she could grab another clip.
“I got one shot left,” the female driver said, looking at the passenger.
She went to get up and let off her final shot, but ran right into the back of Kasy’s gun. Craaack!
He hit her right across the top of her nose, knocking her to the ground. He quickly turned the gun on the female passenger. “Bitch, you better not move,” Kasy threatened, pointing the gun directly in her face.
Kevin ran over to assist Kasy, grabbing a handful of the female passenger’s hair, he lifted her to her feet. Kasy did the same thing, grabbing the female driver by the back of her collar and lifting her to her feet as well. They led both of the females to the back of the Caprice where Jonathan had the trunk already open.
The third female got off the elevator firing. Jonathan lifted the large AR-15 waist high and let off about ten shots in her direction. She ran behind a parked car trying to get out of the way of the hot balls.
“That’ll hold her.” Jonathan said, opening the driver side door and jumping out of the car.
Kasy slammed the trunk of the car on the two females, but when he was about to get into the backseat, he looked over and saw Kevin lying on the ground.
A.J. noticed it too, jumped out of the car, and ran over to him. Jonathan looked from the driver side.
The third female had gotten off a better shot than she’d thought. One of the bullets hit Kevin in the side of his head, killing him instantly.
The female jumped up from behind the car and let off several more shots. Kasy returned fire, forcing her to duck back behind the car.
“Come on!” he yelled out to A.J., who was standing over Kevin like he didn’t want to leave him.
The sounds of sirens blared in the far distance. Kasy knew that he did not have a lot of time before the cops got there. He grabbed A.J. by his arm and pulled him into the car. Jonathan slammed the gear in reverse and sped out the parking lot onto the street.
The female let off a few more shots as the Caprice pulled off down the street. She walked over to Kevin, stood over top of his body, and let her last shot off into his head.
__________
“Yo cuz, you might spank dis shit.” Cowboy’s celly, Booda, said, standing over the sink washing out a t-shirt. “If homegirl did dat for you, it ain’t no way the jury gone find you guilty.”