Welfare Wifeys (38 page)

“You keep kicking the door and I bet I’ll call the police on you. Ain’t no telling what they’ll find if they run up in here. Go get all the pussy you want, Animal, because it’s a wrap for us.”

Animal was too hurt and too angry to keep arguing. “If that’s how you wanna play it then fuck you too, bitch!” He gave the door a kick for good measure.

He had been foolish to blindly trust Gucci when she couldn’t do the same. He had just lost someone as close to him as his brother
Justice and she was too busy throwing accusations at him to be sympathetic. Animal took a minute to change his bloody shirt and headed for the door. On his way out his phone rang and it was Chip on the line. Animal hit the ignore button and tossed his phone on the bed before slamming the door viciously behind him.

Gucci listened for a while to make sure Animal had gone before coming out of the bathroom. Her makeup was a mess and her eyes were swollen for crying for so many hours. Jada had tried to get her to come home with her, but Gucci declined. She was going to deal with the issue between she and Animal while it was still fresh. It took everything she had not to come flying out of that bathroom and cutting Animal but she knew that she would get weak and end up taking him back after she looked into those passionate eyes. She knew she had been a fool for letting him into her heart the way she did and now she was suffering the consequences of her actions.

She noticed his cell phone on the bed and couldn’t help but to play the devil and go through it to see if he had gotten any new numbers at the club. To her surprise it rang as she was doing so. “What?”

“Oh, I’m sorry I was trying to reach Tayshawn,” the woman said on the other end.

“This is Animal’s phone. Who is this calling at booty call hours?” Gucci snapped.

“I’m sorry to be calling you at this hour and Lord knows I wish I didn’t have to. This is Maggie. I’m one of the nurses at the home where Ms. Hanna was staying.”

“Hanna?” Gucci asked, trying to match the name with one of the jump-offs in Animal’s phone.

“Yes, Hanna is one of our residents at the seniors home on 106th Street.”

“That wouldn’t be 106th and Columbus would it?” Gucci asked, feeling the knot forming in her stomach.

“Technically between Columbus and Amsterdam, but yes that’s the place. I’m sorry, who am I speaking to?” Ms. Brown asked.

“Gucci,” she said, starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together in her mind.

“Yes, he’s been telling us about you all week. You know we owe you an apology for cutting into your quality time while Animal is here visiting,” Ms. Brown joked, but Gucci didn’t laugh. She was too sick to see the humor. “Anyhow, the reason I called was to tell him that Hanna had passed this evening. I figured he should know since they were so close. Animal did more for Hanna than her blood kin.”

“I’m sorry to hear about Hanna and I’ll pass the message along to Tayshawn,” Gucci said numbly.

“Thank you, Gucci, and I look forward to meeting you real soon. Take care now.” Ms. Brown hung up.

Gucci let the phone slide to the bed as all she could do was sit there with a stupid expression on her face. She had no idea that Animal had been taking care of someone in a nursing home. It was yet another secret in his life he hadn’t seen fit to share with her yet. His visits to Hanna explained what he had been doing on 106th, but it still didn’t dispel what she had seen in the club.

The ringing phone brought Gucci out of her contemplation. She grabbed Animal’s phone thinking it was him, but it was actually hers. She didn’t recognize the number, but she picked up anyway in case it was Animal calling from someone else’s phone. They had to have a long talk before she made any rash decisions. “Hello?”

“Gucci, this is Chip. I’m sorry to wake you, but I’ve been calling Animal for over an hour and he ain’t picking up,” Chip told her in a panicked voice.

“He was here a few minutes ago, but we had a fight and he left his cell phone here. Is everything alright?”

“Nah, shit is fucked up. They found Mimi dead around the
corner from the club. People saw them outside the club together, but Animal was nowhere to be found when the body was discovered.”

“Who was Mimi? One of his bitches?” Gucci asked.

“No, she was his niece.”

“What?” Gucci’s mouth dropped open. Chip went on to give her the short version of Animal and Mimi’s relationship and in the process Gucci was able to figure out that Mimi was the girl with the platinum hair she had seen him with.

“Gucci, you still there?” Chip’s voice came through.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Being that Animal pulled a disappearing act the police are starting to ask some real uncomfortable questions. We got some of the guys out combing the streets so hopefully we find him before they do. He knows we had a studio session tonight so me and Don B. are down here now hoping that he shows up.”

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Gucci chanted, trying to gather something to put on. “Chip, I’ll be down there in about twenty minutes, please keep me posted if you hear anything.”

“You got it.” He ended the call.

Gucci felt like less than shit for the way she treated Animal. He was trying to come to her for help and she couldn’t see past her own jealousy to be there for him. Her sympathy suddenly turned to fear as she realized the seriousness of what had been set in motion. Animal was wandering the streets, drunk, emotional, and armed. Things had gone from bad to worse.

Don B. looked like he had seen a ghost when Animal came skulking out of the shadows. He looked weary, more so than Don B. had ever seen him. “Yo, kid, we’ve been looking all over for you, are you alright?” Don B. inspected him.

“I’m good, man. Just tired, real tired,” Animal said.

“Yo, I got some bad news for you, B., Mimi . . .”

“I already know,” Animal cut him off. “Rico’s boys laid her down right before I laid them down.”

“Rico did this? Yo, that’s my word I’m putting some paper on that nigga’s skull. It’s going down and that’s on Blood!” Don B. declared.

“Where the fuck you been?” Chip came flying out of the lobby of the building that housed the studio they were working in. He hugged his friend for a long time. “Man, we were all worried shitless about you.”

“Thanks, but ain’t no cause for it. You know the Animal is always gonna be alright.” Animal raised his shirt and showed them the butt of his gun.

“What the fuck are you doing with that when you’re in enough trouble as it is?” Don B. scolded him. “Give that hammer to Devil or one of them to hold for you.”

“The last time I trusted another nigga to guard my life I lost Mimi. Giving up my strap is a mistake that I won’t make twice,” Animal said coldly. As the three of them stood outside debating about the gun two cars pulled up. One was a black sedan and the other was Gucci’s truck.

“Animal, we need to talk!” she yelled out the window before the truck had come to a complete stop.

“Fuck does this broad want? She better not come over here on some bullshit cuz I might run up in her mouth the way I’m feeling,” Animal said with an attitude.

“Animal, don’t start no Ike Turner shit out here,” Don B. warned.

“Nephew, what it is?” Remo called from the passenger window of the dark sedan.

“This nigga here,” Don B. huffed. “What you want, man? We’re in the middle of a crisis.” Don B. threw his hands up in frustration and walked toward the car.

“I ain’t beat for this shit,” Animal said when Gucci stepped onto the curb.

“Animal, please don’t walk away. I just wanna talk.” Gucci approached. At the angles they were walking at she and Don B. reached the sedan’s line of vision at about the same time.

Gucci did a double take as she noticed suspect movement in the back of the car. It only took a split second for her eyes and her brain to connect to send the message to her mouth. “GUN!” she screamed.

The word seemed to drip from Gucci’s mouth, but by the time she finished it Animal was already barreling down on her. Don B. stood frozen with fear as the guy in the backseat started shooting. Animal ran past and knocked Gucci to the ground before turning his rage and gun on the sedan in a hail of bullets. He could hear people screaming and the sounds of bullets hitting metal but he kept firing. He didn’t care who they were or where they had come from, but he knew that he would not let them have Gucci.

By the time his gun was empty the car was a smoking mess of holes and blood. Remo hung out the passenger window with half of his face blown off and dripping down the side of the car. The chick behind the wheel had a gaping hole in her head. The man who had been shooting at Don B. lay halfway out the back of the car with his chest opened. He was a brown-skinned kid who Animal had never seen a day in his life and would never see again.

“Drop that hammer, muthafucka!” Animal heard someone shout. When he looked up a half-dozen police cars had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Lay that pistol on the floor real slow,” Detective Alvarez said, keeping his gun pointed at Animal’s head.

Animal thought about holding court, but the pleading look in Gucci’s eyes stayed his hand. As slowly as he could he lay on the ground and allowed himself to be captured.

“You know, my partner bet me that if we laid on you long enough you’d do something stupid,” Detective Brown said, squeezing the handcuffs and yanking Animal roughly to his feet.

“Save the speech and take me in, pussy,” Animal capped.

“Wait, this has got to be some mistake,” Gucci pleaded with the detective with tears in her eyes.

“No mistake, baby. We caught your man at the scene and still holding the murder weapon. It don’t get no sweeter than this!” Detective Brown said proudly.

“Partner, you better come take a look at this,” Detective Alvarez called from where he stood examining the bodies. When Brown walked over to see what his partner was looking at his eyes got wide. “Do you remember this dude?”

“Hell yeah, for as much time as we’ve spent chasing him. That’s Shannon Jones, the brother of that little girl Dena who Don B. was said to have raped. Shit, had we known that we could’ve picked Animal up on a bogus charge earlier so that he couldn’t have been here to save Don B.’s maggot ass.”

Detective Alvarez looked over at Don B. “You are one lucky muthafucka.”

Don B. shrugged as if it was nothing, knowing that a few seconds prior he had been ready to shit his pants.

“Too bad we can’t say the same thing about your buddy.” Detective Brown yanked Animal by the arm. “And you”—he looked at Don B.—“we’ll catch you on the come around.”

“Do you want us to take him downtown?” one of the uniformed officers offered to transport Animal.

“Hell no. We’re delivering this one ourselves,” Detective Brown beamed.

“Oh, Animal, I’m so sorry, I was wrong about you cheating on me and I’m so sorry for ever doubting you.” Gucci sobbed as the detectives carted him away.

Animal smiled. “It’s all good, baby cakes. Sometimes this is just how it plays out for a nigga. I might be a minute so do you think you could find it in your heart to wait for me?”

“Forever and a day, baby. Forever and a day!”

“And let nothing short of God change that.” He winked.

“Get your ass in the car.” Detective Brown shoved Animal roughly in the backseat.

As they drove away from the scene Animal weighed his trip back to New York. One thing he could say was that it had been a colorful one. He had got to be a celebrity in his hometown, even if it was only for a week. Though he had crippled Rico’s organization, Rico was still out there somewhere. When he woke up the next morning he would probably read the paper and have a good laugh at what had become of his enemy. It didn’t matter though. Animal was going to prison for a long time but they couldn’t keep him forever. He would carry his grudge with Rico until one of them was in the ground.

He looked out the window at Gucci’s weeping face and felt a warm sensation in his chest. Even with the best lawyers he was going to have to do quite a bit of time for the shooting, but knowing Gucci would be in his corner would make it possible for him to stand strong no matter how much time they hit him with. They say that love conquers all and from what he had learned during his time with Gucci, Animal believed that very strongly.

It was back to basics for Jada after the drama at the club with Gucci. It had been fun hanging out with her cousin, but Gucci kept a little too much drama for Jada’s taste. She was looking forward to getting back to her grandmother’s apartment and getting a good night’s sleep. The next day it was back to business.

She was surprised when she got home to find the living-room light still on and her grandmother talking to someone, especially when she was normally asleep at that hour. She figured that it was one of the neighbors with some more of the drama that they loved to bring to the Butler house, but when she rounded the corner and saw who was sitting on the couch her jaw dropped.

“Mommy, Mommy, guess who came to visit us?” Jalen pulled her by the arm.

“Girl, I’ve been trying to call you all night to tell you to come home, you know it’s rude to have people waiting for you like that.” Ms. Pat was going on and on, but Jada was just standing there dumbfounded. “Well, ain’t you gonna say something?”

Jada tried to find the words but she just couldn’t.

“Yeah, ain’t you gonna show ya baby daddy some love?” Cutty asked, bouncing little Miles on his knee.

“Oh, hell nah,” Jada finally managed to blurt out before she fainted.

After the trouble with Solomon Malika decided she had had enough of Douglass Projects. Taking just a few personal items she packed her and her son up and went to have a long overdue talk with her parents. She had expected to have to whine and beg, but surprisingly her parents had missed her as much as she had missed them, especially her father. It was high time that he got to know his grandson and the woman his little girl had grown into.

That monday morning they laid Mimi to rest with a quiet ceremony that included just a few friends and loved ones from the block. She had no family, but an anonymous donor had made sure she had a beautiful homecoming. A carriage pulled by two white horses rode her through her projects one last time before she was taken to the cemetery in Linden, NJ. Mimi might not have been loved by many, but the few who loved her did so beyond measure.