Her Sweetest Revenge 3 Read online

  I lumbered down the hallway to the condo door, barely able to lift my feet. I yanked opened the door to find crazy girl Yancy looking like a maniac on the other side. Her eyes were bugged out and had dark rings under them like she hadn’t slept in days. Her hair was wild on her head. She had the illest look on her face too. Scary as hell.

  “Why the fuck are y’all playing games with me?” Yancy barked as she bulldozed her way inside. Shit, she slammed into me so hard I almost fell flat on my ass.

  “What are you talking about? I was sleeping. Lauren must’ve gone to run some errands,” I growled. “Fuck is you out here banging like the gotdamn police? You making it real hard to have a chill button around your ass.”

  “Run some errands? You let her leave? You can’t be that stupid, Matt,” Yancy spat. “Why would you let her leave without you? You really think she just went to run some fucking errands? I’ve been coming here since early this morning, banging on the door. I have been sitting outside and I haven’t seen her come or go.”

  At first her words didn’t quite sink in. “Wait. What?” I asked. I felt dazed.

  “You heard me. I’ve been here since like ten this morning. Banging. Sitting outside. I left and came back. Started banging again. You just now hearing me? There’s no way Lauren was here this morning and left.”

  I moved my head left to right, trying to shake off the fog that seemed to be looming over me. I looked around the living room and nothing seemed out of place. Then I checked the key hook and noticed that Lauren’s car keys were gone.

  “Let me call her,” I grumbled. “Because you bugging right now. You mad paranoid and shit. I told you she probably ran out for a reason. Damn.”

  I slowly walked back to my bedroom to get my cell phone. Of course, stress box ass Yancy was hot on my heels like she was going to miss something. She was mumbling and grumbling, but I wasn’t trying to hear her.

  I picked up my cell phone from the nightstand on my side of the bed. As I dialed Lauren’s number, I watched Yancy peek into our master bathroom, walk over to Lauren’s vanity, snoop on her nightstand, and finally walk over to our closet. She was like the fucking Feds on a search warrant, I swear.

  “It’s going straight to voicemail. Maybe her battery died. I’m sure she will be back in a few,” I told Yancy. Even though I was trying to act like I believed that Lauren’s battery had died, something in the pit of my stomach was telling me I might need to be worried. Lauren carried her phone around like she needed it to live, so she never let that shit go dead. I was still playing it cool in front of Yancy, though.

  Yancy squinted at me, folded her arms across her chest, and tapped her left foot impatiently. “Matt, she’s gone. I bet you she’s fucking gone,” Yancy said calmly, taking a break from her panicky octaves.

  “Nah. Where she gon’ go? I’m all that she knows. Lauren ain’t got the heart to leave me. You ain’t gon’ understand what I have with her, but I know she can’t stand to be without me,” I said confidently. But as the words left my mouth, I didn’t know if I even believed that myself.

  “You was all that she knew before we fucking stole three million dollars! I bet you that bitch is gone and I bet you even more that she has the fucking money too!” Yancy yelled, her face turning all sorts of shades of red. She started fidgeting her legs like she had to take a piss. “Matt, where did you put the money?” Yancy asked with panic lacing her words. “I want to see the fucking money. I want to see that shit right now, Matt. Where is it?!” she pressed.

  “It’s in my fucking safe, Yancy,” I retorted. I walked over to my closet and stepped inside. My entire body was cold. My head was pounding. I wasn’t up for this bullshit.

  “It’s probably gone,” Yancy taunted from behind me. “Every fucking dime is probably long gone. That bitch got us. I’m telling you she took it.”

  I didn’t know if she was trying to convince me or herself that the money was gone.

  My jaw rocked and I bit down on the skin inside my cheek. It was all I could do to keep myself from turning around and knocking Yancy’s ass out. She was getting on my nerves.

  I pushed my shoebox collection out of the way and moved the clothes I had blocking the wall safe. Nothing looked out of place to me. I punched in the combination code and listened for the beep. When the safe beeped and the lock clicked, I pulled back the small, heavy metal door. Yancy was still yapping from behind me, but all of a sudden I couldn’t hear her. My ears were ringing. My heart pounded. I rubbed my eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving me. Heat rose from my feet and climbed up my body until it exploded out of the top of my head.

  “Fuck!!!” I hollered. “Fucking bitch!!”

  The safe was empty but for a lone piece of paper. I reached inside with a shaky hand and grabbed the paper. It was a note from Lauren. I held it between my fingers, but I couldn’t even bring myself to read it.

  “No! I told you! No!” Yancy cried out. She snatched the paper from my hand and began reading it out loud.

  Dear Matt,

  I guess by now you’ve figured out that I’m gone and that I’ve taken the money too. You had this coming to you. I think right now you feel the same way I felt when I found out about you fucking Yancy. Yes, that’s right. I knew all along. I’ve been wanting to get back at you, and stiffing you for three million dollars is the ultimate fuck you.

  I hope you realize that you lost a good one. Maybe you can put that whore Yancy back out on the track to make you some money. You’ll never find another one like me, boo.

  Sending a big FUCK YOU to you and her.

  Lauren

  P.S. Life with these millions is going to be the shit! I hope you enjoy fucking that broke bitch for the rest of your life.

  Yancy stood stock still for a few seconds after she finished reading the letter. Then, as if someone had kicked her in the backs of her knees, she collapsed onto the closet floor.

  “No, no, no!” Yancy shrieked over and over. She started kicking and screaming like that possessed bitch from the Exorcist movie. I couldn’t even understand what she was saying, nor did I care.

  “I’m going to kill that bitch! I will find her and I will kill her!” I screamed. I began going crazy, swiping clothes onto the floor, kicking over shoeboxes, and finally sending both of my fists through the long mirror on the back of the closet door. I was so angry the pain from the glass cutting up my knuckles didn’t even register. I punched the glass over and over until there was nearly no skin left on my knuckles.

  “Lauren Kelly, you better hope I never find you. You fucked with the wrong man, you fucked with the wrong man,” I said over and over. I didn’t care if I died trying, I was going to find Lauren and blow her brains out.

  “You let this happen!” Yancy screamed at me. “You promised me that you would take care of it. You’re so fucking stupid!”

  Her words exploded in my ears like someone had detonated bombs in them. I grabbed a fistful of Yancy’s weave and pulled her up from the floor.

  “Get the fuck out!” I roared, dragging her toward the door. My hangover symptoms were long gone. I no longer had the pain in my head or the weak feeling in my body. I was feeling like the Incredible Hulk. My adrenaline was high and I felt like I could snap someone in half with my bare hands.

  “Get off of me! I’m not leaving until I get my money!” Yancy cried out. She swung her arms wildly, trying to break free. She twisted around, trying to bite, kick, and punch me.

  “You better stop and just get the fuck out!” I roared. With the anger I was feeling, I knew that if I really hit her, the blow would be fatal. Once we reached the front door, I opened it and tossed her out by her hair. She fell forward onto her hands and knees.

  “Matthew, you will see me again! This is not over!” Yancy cried. “This is not over! You motherfucka! It’s not over!”

  I wasn’t trying to hear none of that bullshit she was spewing. I had too much shit on my mind to even care what Yancy was yapping about. I slammed the door in her
face. Once I was inside my condo alone, I put my back against the door and slid down to the floor. I felt like a bitch sitting there with my knees pulled up into my chest, rocking back and forth. For the first time since my moms had had her head blown off right in front of me, I cried. I had not felt this kind of pain, grief, anger, and betrayal since that day, but now all of those emotions were back. I was crushed. Lauren had really hurt me. I wasn’t the type that could take this kind of hurt and just bounce back like shit ain’t happen. Nah, I still had pride. I still had an ego too.

  “This ain’t over. Somebody gotta die. Either you or me,” I said through clenched teeth, speaking to Lauren like she could actually hear me. “Somebody gotta die.”

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  1

  Mack

  I’ve been in the game a long time as a Vice Lord Flower and I’ve been a part of my share of some fuckery, but I have to admit, even if it’s just to myself, that nothing has prepared me for the shit that has gone down tonight. My girls Romil and Dime had joined forces to help the newest member of our crew, Ta’Shara, get her whacked-out sister, LeShelle, off of her back.

  Why the fuck not? The bitch has spent the past year tryna murk Ta’Shara first so it was the least that we could do. Of course it was only after the fact that we were drawn into killing two from our set: Qiana and GG.

  I’m still not trying to think about that shit too much. Their murders happened so fast, it’s still hard to wrap my brain around it. There was something about Qiana killing Ta’Shara’s best friend Essence and then her ass making some kind of deal with LeShelle, who was then threatening to kill her, too.

  Ta’Shara attacked Qiana with a bottle of Johnnie Walker and then pushed the girl into a table of candles or maybe she tripped. I forget which. All I know is that the girl ran out of my living room looking like a human torch before she keeled over in my backyard. By the time I got the water hose working, the chick was dead.

  GG, who’d brought Qiana’s ass over to my crib for help with her LeShelle situation, then turned in a rage toward Ta’Shara, but she never made it back into the house before Dime put two slugs in the girl.

  Dime claimed it was payback for Ta’Shara saving her life when a store owner went all jihad on them.

  Regardless, this left my ass with two dead bodies in my house that we had to get rid of. Now I’m not normally down for plugging our own, but Qiana did confess to killing a fellow Vice Lord Flower, Tyneisha, while doing a job for, of all people, LeShelle Murphy—so maybe there’s a case to be made that the bitch deserved exactly what she got. I don’t know. Street politics can get tricky sometimes.

  There was also one other piece of valuable information that Qiana gave before Ta’Shara lit her ass—the exact place she was supposed to meet up with LeShelle. Knowing when and where that bitch was going to be was like hitting the lottery.

  Still, when we rolled up into Hack Crossing, the shit didn’t go down like I thought it would. We had to play out a whole cat-and-mouse thing and take out two other Queen G bitches before we were able to snatch LeShelle. Ta’Shara’s ass went straight psycho on our asses. She didn’t kill her sister like a normal gangster bitch. She drew the shit out and tortured the bitch once we got LeShelle hogtied to a chair out in a warehouse building. Ta’Shara interrogated the bitch and blasted holes into the girl each time the bitch said something that she didn’t like. Ta’Shara ordered us to bring her boy Profit to the party because he needed to see the shit, too, since LeShelle had pumped a whole clip into his ass about a year ago.

  Profit wasn’t the only thing that Ta’Shara wanted us to bring back to that warehouse. I brought the can of gasoline, believing it was going to be something she’d use after she killed the girl. I had no idea that she was going to light her ass up while she was still alive. Hell. I can still smell the shit on my hands and clothes. The next few minutes were like something out of a horror movie. Ta’Shara doused LeShelle’s helpless ass with the gasoline and tossed a match on the bitch like she was getting rid of some unwanted trash.

  LeShelle’s screams are still fucking with my ass. It was different from the way Qiana raced out of here. I don’t know how else to describe it. The sound curdled my blood. I doubt that I’ll ever forget that shit or the satisfied look on Ta’Shara’s face.

  Clearly, there was no love lost between the sisters.

  We dropped Ta’Shara off at Profit’s crib. While he volunteered to get rid of the body, Romil, Dime, and I have been holed up at my place, marinating our livers and slicing up lines of this bomb-ass coke, tryna get as high as we can.

  After my third line, I still can’t get that bitch’s screams out of my head.

  “You gonna get that?” Dime asks, lifting up her big head from the arm of my couch.

  “Uh?”

  “Your phone. Don’t you hear it ringing?”

  “My phone?” I glance around and I’m slow to see my phone on the table next to the last line of coke. “Shit.” I fumble with the screen and answer the call before it goes to voicemail.

  “Yeah?”

  “Wake your ass up,” Ta’Shara says. “Come and get me.”

  “Where you at?”

  “Where do you think?”

  Fuck. She’s really going to leave that nigga. “You sure?”

  “I called you, didn’t I?”

  Aww. Shit. I look around for where I last placed my keys.

  “What the fuck?” Ta’Shara snaps.

  “What?”

  “Not you,” she says, sounding distracted. “Hey, Mack. Let me call you back.”

  Click.

  “You still want me to come and get you?”

  Silence.

  “Hello? Ta’Shara, are you still there?” When I still don’t hear anything, I pull the phone away from my ear and see that the call has been disconnected. “Well, shit.”

  “Who was that?” Romil asks, slurring her words.

  “Ta’Shara.” I toss the phone aside and lower my head back against my favorite La-Z-Boy.

  “What does she want?”

  “A ride. Looks like she and Profit are really gonna call it quits.”

  “Shit. She’s a damn fool,” Romil says, shaking her head. “Hell, if I was a few years younger my ass would give her a fucking run for her money.”

  I laugh. “You and me both.”

  Dime stands when her fantasy boo, Trey Songz, plays on the radio. The fact that her ass is off beat doesn’t faze her in the least. “So are you going to run over there and get her or what?”

  The fact that Ruby Cove is less than five minutes away is a plus right now. “I guess. You girls rolling with me?”

  Romil moans like she’s reluctant to un-ass her chair. “Do we have to? I mean. Damn. How many favors can a bitch ask for in one night?”

  “You ain’t gotta go—but somebody should make sure that my ass don’t fall asleep behind the wheel.”

  “I’ll roll with you,” Dime says, rolling her hips and snapping her fingers. I don’t know whether she’s trying to get tonight’s wild episode out of her mind or if she’s celebrating a couple of good kills tonight.

  I’m more concerned about the changes I’ve witnessed in Ta’Shara. When we met her ass, she was a like a scared rabbit about to take on some Queen Gs on lock down in the county jail. Now she’s dropping bodies like she was born into the life. I don’t know why that shit is bothering me—but it is. Deep down, I kind of wanted to see somebody make it out of the game—alive. Ta’Shara doesn’t belong in the life, but like it’s been since the beginning of time, the streets change muthafuckas. There is no getting out.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Co
rp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2016 by Saundra Jones

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  Published by arrangement with Delphine Publications.

  Previously published as Her Sweetest Revenge 3. First trade paperback edition: June 2014

  ISBN: 978-1-6177-3985-9

  eISBN–13: 978–1–61773–986–6

  eISBN–10: 1-61773-986-3

  First Kensington Electronic Edition: March 2016