“I know all that!” Pluto barked angrily. “Niggah stay with me! Keep ya head in the game while I draw this line. Trust me, it links from Nooni to Juicy to Trey…and then to what all of us really want.”
“And it starts with
Nooni?
” Ace smirked and shook his head. “Yo, son, we lost our pawn just now, remember? That bitch dipped out the door! We ain’t got shit left to bargain with. How we gonna put the squeeze on Juicy with Nooni gone? That bitch is free as a breeze.”
Pluto shrugged. “So what? Manhattan is an island, slime. She ain’t gone but so far, my dude. All we gotta do is go get her ass. I got some sons in my pocket who can go in hard on that bitch and bring her ass back.”
Ace still wasn’t with it. “But you tryna draw a line between Nooni and Juicy and Trey and—”
“And ultimately to the
one person
who knew every fuckin’ thing in the world about G. To include who his connect was.”
Ace frowned and looked confused. “Who you talkin’ about man,
Salida?
”
It was Pluto’s turn to smirk. “Please,” he said shaking his head in disgust at his boy’s stone-blind inability to see. “Niggah,
please.
”
CHAPTER 28
After scrubbing herself from head to toe in the longest shower she’d ever taken in her life, Nooni had dried her hair and put on some clean underwear and a pair of Tweety Bird pajamas.
Paranoid like hell and coming down off her high, she’d peeked out all the windows and checked the locks on the door about twenty times before Rita made her go lay down in her bedroom.
“I wanna talk to Nooni,” little Chub had whined as Rita stopped her from entering the bedroom where Nooni was trying to rest.
“Sorry, Chub. Nooni is tired, and plus you already saw her. Go back to your room and play with your friends, okay? They’re gonna be leaving early in the morning so y’all better play and have some fun while you can.”
“Well, can we have a snack then?” Chub asked hopefully.
Rita sighed. Not only was the little girl eating her outta house and home, she was gaining weight so fast it was scary. Dutchy had told her he’d caught Chub sneaking out the bed and creeping in the kitchen to raid the cabinets at night, and Rita believed him. She’d gotten rid of almost all the snack food she had in the house, but Chub was an indiscriminate eater. It didn’t matter if it was cookies or kernels of corn straight out of the can, the little girl would eat any damn thing and it seemed like she had a bottomless stomach.
“How about an apple?” Rita offered her gently. Chub’s doctor had suggested that she give the girl healthy snacks as opposed to denying her everything all the time. Rita kept fresh fruit in the house but Chub would grub non-stop on that too.
In the kitchen, Rita rinsed off three apples and sliced them, then put the shiny red chunks on a large plate and handed it to the little girl.
“Okay,” she reminded Chub. “This is your last snack for the night, okay? Once I put you guys to bed you gotta stay there, do you understand me?”
Chub nodded.
“That means no getting up and sneaking in the fridge, or rambling through the cabinets while everyone else is asleep,
comprende?
” Rita held out her fist for a bump.
Chub grinned. She liked it when Rita spoke Spanish to her. She didn’t know very many Spanish words, but she wanted to learn more.
“
Comprende!
”
They bumped fists and Chub took the plate of fruit into her bedroom to share with her friends, while Rita went back in her own room to check on Nooni.
To her relief the girl was fast asleep and clutching her pillow. Every few seconds Nooni’s body would hitch and jerk, like she was reliving a terrifying nightmare in her dreams. Rita felt horrible for what she knew her sister had been through. She had wanted to call the cops and send them over to the G-Spot to shut that fuckin’ joint down, but Nooni had begged her not to call anyone.
She’d babbled some nonsense about how the cops were after her for killing a man in Atlantic City, but Nooni seemed kinda spaced-out and paranoid and nothing she was saying was making a bit of sense.
Rita wanted to know about everything that had happened while Nooni was gone, but she knew it wasn’t time to press the girl yet. She remembered how Juicy had described her time as a prisoner in the G-Spot. She had no idea how Nooni had managed to survive for as long as she did, but she was grateful that her sister had made it out of that hellhole alive and in her right mind.
Taking her cell phone from her night table, she tiptoed out of the room to call Dutchy. They were supposed to get together for some hot sex tonight, and since Chub had Lucie and Charlize over, Dutchy had agreed to wait until the kids were asleep before coming over to slip in bed beside her and get up in that gushy.
But Nooni was laying on his side of the bed right now, and she sleeping fitfully too. There was no way Rita was gonna put her sister in her own room by herself, and there was no way she wanted any man, even her good one, in her sister’s space until she’d had a chance to recover a little bit.
Dutchy was supposed to drive her to a job interview in the morning, but he was gonna have to chill at his own crib for the night. He was a real good dude and Rita knew he would understand.
She quietly closed the door to her bedroom and went next door to Nooni’s room. The bed was made and the room was neat, but it somehow felt cold and empty, like Nooni’s essence was still missing from the house. Rita clicked on her cell phone and hit a number that was on speed-dial.
As she waited for Dutchy to answer her heart flooded with relief. Nooni was home. Her baby sister was back, and she couldn’t wait to give Dutchy the good news. He answered the phone on the second ring, and for the next thirty minutes Rita told him everything that had happened since Nooni had stumbled through the front door.
And just as she thought, Dutchy understood completely.
“Take care of your sister, baby. You and me got plenty of time to do our thing, okay? Plenty of time. And don’t worry. I’ll be there first thing in the morning to pick you up for your interview. I love you, Rita, and I’m glad your sister came back home, baby.”
Rita hung up the phone with a small smile playing on her lips and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. Something told her that life was about to get real good for her. She had her sisters with her, a shot at a damned good job, and the love of a good-ass man. She was looking forward to sleeping next to Nooni tonight, but a big part of her was looking forward to seeing Dutchy in the morning too.
$$$$$
It was slightly after three a.m. and the rumbling of her empty stomach woke Chub up from a deep sleep. She lay under the covers between her friends Lucie and Charlize, recalling every word her big sister had said about sneaking out the bed and stealing food in the middle of the night.
Moonlight streamed in from her window and she heard the faucet dripping in the bathroom sink. Chub tossed and turned, sandwiched between her sleeping friends, and trying hard to ignore the terrible gnawing in her growling belly.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she forbid herself to get out of bed, and tried to will herself back to sleep. She didn’t want to disobey her sister, and the poor girl fought her hunger pangs for a good half hour, but as usual, she gave in to her overwhelming yearning to eat.
Moving slowly, she inched her way out of the bed, being careful not to make any noise. She was good at this, Chub was. Sneaking and creeping through the dark house while everyone else snored in their beds.
Mouse-quiet, she slipped out of her room and made her way down the hall. She paused outside of Rita’s bedroom, where both of her sisters soundly slept. Chub continued on her journey, undeterred by the lack of light to illuminate her way. She knew every bump of the wall by heart. Every sharp edge of furniture, every squeaky floorboard, was imbedded in her memory.
In the kitchen she paused to debate whether or not she should risk opening the fridge. The last time she’d tried it Rita’s boyfriend Dutchy had woken up and caught her, and she didn’t want to see that disappointed look on her sister’s face again.
Chub decided to go for the treats that were in the cabinet. Since Lucie and Charlize were staying over, Rita had relented and bought a box of white powdered donuts and a Louisiana Crunch cake. She’d also bought a box of red, white, and blue bomb pops, but Chub had already decided the fridge and the freezer were off limits.
Crouching down to the floor, she opened the bottom cabinet and reached into the darkness. Her hand had just closed over the soft bag of powered donuts when she heard heavy footsteps and knew someone was coming.
Panicked, Chub jumped to her feet and rushed from the kitchen. The footsteps were directly outside the front door, and she stopped in her tracks. Dutchy! Spinning on her heels, she waddled back into the kitchen as fast as she could. She glanced at the table, and considered yanking the chairs back and scooting underneath it, but there was no time as the front door opened violently and light spilled in from the hall.
Biting her lip, Chub snatched opened the broom closet and jumped inside. Using one finger, she pulled the door closed and then pressed herself as far back into the corner as she could.
She listened closely, breathing hard. Dutchy had brought company over. She could hear several men moving through the apartment, and they were moving very fast.
The first shot sounded like a car backfiring. But then one of her sisters screamed, and Charlize woke up and started crying.
The next two shots came back to back, one right after the other.
There were more screams after that. Terrified, frantic screams. It sounded like they were beating her sister Nooni and dragging her down the hall. Chub squeezed her knees together so she wouldn’t pee, and then she pressed her fist deep into her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud.
Moments passed. There was no more screaming or crying now, but Chub could hear men cursing, and it sounded like her sister Nooni was begging and praying real loud. She wanted to go out there and see what was going on, she wanted to go help Rita and Nooni, but she was frozen in place with fear pounding through her veins with every beat of her young heart.
Suddenly there were more footsteps, and they were a lot closer to her now. Chub wheezed deeply as somebody walked into the kitchen and paused only steps away from where she was hiding.
“Ay! Let’s get the fuck outta here!” she heard a man yell in the distance.
Whoever was in the kitchen answered him back.
“Hold up, niggah. I got the munchies.”
Chub’s wheezing grew deeper and louder. She lost control of her bladder as the sound of the man opening and closing cabinets reached her terrified ears. He was right on the other side of the door, and she trembled when she heard him say, “Ooohh, white donuts. These are the shit.”
The bag of donuts made a crinkling sound as the strange man picked them up and stomped out of the kitchen holding them in his hand.
It seemed like forever that Chub waited in that hot, dusty closet, but she was far too terrified to move, even after the house grew eerily quiet in the early morning dawn.
Chub fell asleep, and she had no idea how many hours had passed before she awakened to hear footsteps, and then voices again.
“Rita!” a lady called out. It sounded like their next-door neighbor. “Marguerita! Why you go leaving your front door open for?” the Cuban lady yelled. “You want people should come in and rob you?”
The footsteps faded and disappeared down the hall toward the bedrooms. And then suddenly there was a loud scream.