Country Girls Trilogy (Parts 1-2-3 Boxed Set): MHB Love Read online

  “Hey, guess who I just found? And guess what kind of car he has registered in his name? Yep, a black s550 Mercedes Benz.” She spat out before Butler was able to answer one of the questions.

  “That’s great! Text me his address, and I will meet you over there.” Butler added.

  Thirty minutes later, Rose pulled up to Mayo’s house. Her partner, Butler, had already arrived and was across the street at one of Mayo’s neighbor’s homes. He came walking back over as Rose got out of the car.

  “Well, we may have something. The owner of that house, a Mr. Carey, said he heard shots being fired from inside Mr. Harper’s house last night. He also said that he saw Mr. Harper and his girlfriend leave last night, not too long before he heard the shots,” Butler explained.

  Rose was about to go up to Mayo’s door and knock to see if he was home, but Butler stopped her “I’m not done, lastly Mr. Carey said Mr. Harper returned in the wee hours of the morning and the girlfriend was not with him. The neighbor also said he left back out about two hours ago.

  “Damn, so the neighbor saw all of this?” Rose asked Butler, with a curious look on his face.

  “Yep!”

  “Thank God for nosey neighbors.” Rose said with a laugh.

  “Yeah, thank God,” Butler added while nodding in the direction of the house across the street with an old, white man sitting on his porch.

  Chapter 2

  The number of people that showed up to the church was in the hundreds, all to see off a good friend and great person, Kiara Monique Thompson, also known as Prada. Prada’s grandmother was so surprised, she didn’t even know that her granddaughter knew so many people. Prada had touched a lot of people during her time on earth, and it was a known fact that the people who loved her, outweighed the few enemies she had made. It showed, because not only was everyone from Charlotte there, it wasn’t a set of dry eyes in the building. All that could be heard echoing in the church were expressions of grief.

  The small church which usually held 500-600 members and guest on Sundays. Was bursting at the seams. The older, light complected pastor stood up and requested for everyone to turn to the book of John 14 & 10. His voice was so low, that the usher’s had to ask the people whispering to quiet down. That didn’t last long, because it seemed that the more he spoke, the louder his voice became. Pastor Culbertson was no longer speaking the words, rather singing them. He began to talk about everyone having to get prepared for their day.

  “Don’t you cry for Sister Thompson, she’s in a better place! You better be worried about yourself, because everyone of us is going to have to follow Kiara. He continuously taught.

  “Her Grandmother told me just a couple of weeks ago, that Kiara told her that she was coming back to church. She knew she had to get her life together with God again, and I know she made it right with Jesus before he called her home.” All the church ushers and elders, who had seen Prada grow up, bore witness to the pastor’s statement.

  Even Niya felt some comfort from the words of the minister. Her and the girls were actually holding their emotions together quite well. That was until pastor Culbertson, turned and requested the choir to sing a song. The elderly choir director stood up first, then motioned for the rest of the choir to stand. They did as they were instructed, and began to slowly and soulfully sing.

  Never would have made it, never could have made it, without you.

  I would have lost it all, but now I see how you were there for me

  And I can say.

  Never would have made it,

  Never could have made it,

  Without you.

  I would have lost it all,

  But now I see how you were there for me, and I can say…

  I’m stronger, I’m wiser, I’m better,

  Much better,

  When I look back over all you brought me thru.

  I can see that you were the one that I held on to.

  I would have lost my mind a long time ago, if it had not been for you.

  I am stronger

  I am wiser

  Now I am better

  So much better

  The old man’s voice was deep, but very well-toned. The pain of his years of living, and the firsthand knowledge of the words he was singing poured out through his voice. Diamond was the first to break. She let out a yell so loud, and it forced all the ushers to come running to her aid. It was good that more than one responded because Tiffany was the next to go. and it was taking three women and one man to hold Diamond. Niya’s legs where shaking, and Chad could see that she was about to lose it. So he grabbed Jahmil out of her arms, and handed him to a lady sitting behind them. He did it just in the nick of time, because Niya totally lost it. She ran up to the casket, just as the funeral director was attempting to close it.

  “Prada!” she yelled. “Prada please, I love you sis. I love you… Get up Prada… Please… Please… God please…” Prada’s grandmother and Chad came up to get her.

  They were having a difficult time, because Niya was fighting them off, but finally her body went limp. Chad was trying to hold her up, and Mrs. Thompson wasn’t being much help. Chad could feel the presence of somebody walking up and standing right next to them. He looked over and couldn’t believe that it was Gwen standing there with a t-shirt on that had a picture of Prada on the front with the letters RIP over her image. On the back it had the letters MHB -4-Life, she also had on some black jeans and a pair of white AirMax. She looked so hood, but so good in the way she was representing a fallen comrade.

  She went over and motioned for Mrs. Thompson to let her help. She grabbed the other side of Niya. The whole time she stood there helping to hold Niya, she didn’t say a word. The pastor continued by asking the pallbearers to come forward. The men grabbed the casket and escorted it out to the awaiting car.

  __________

  After the body had been carried out, Prada’s grandmother thought that it was best for the girls not to go to the gravesite. No one argued, and Niya found herself in the church’s bathroom with her face in the sink. She picked her head up from the sink after splashing water in her face, just in time to see Gwen walking through the door.

  “What the hell happened to Prada? This shit got ya name written all over it,” Gwen said, leaning against the stall.

  Niya’s sorrow quickly turned into anger, and the tension in the room became thick in a matter of seconds.

  “Now is not the time for the dumb shit, Gwen,” Niya replied with an attitude, drying her face off.

  Gwen thought that it wasn’t a better time than today. She had some shit she wanted to get off her chest, and had been wanting to for quite some time now. The deaths of JR and Prada, and the fact that she knew Niya had something to do with it, was pretty much the breaking point.

  “I’ma ask you one time… and I swear it’s only going to be one time,” Gwen said turning around and locking the bathroom door. “Did you have something to do with this?” She asked with a dead serious look on her face.

  “I think ya best bet is to move from in front of that door and mind ya fuckin’ business,” Niya said as she attempted to walk towards the door.

  The confrontation went from zero to sixty in a snap of a finger, when Niya reached over Gwen to unlock the door. Gwen just took off, punching Niya in her mouth. Niya’s reaction time was on point as she returned the blows. It was an all-out fight. Gwen grabbed a handful of Niya’s hair with her left hand, and was punching her in her gut with the right. Gwen was landing punch after punch. She had an advantage, because of the way she was dressed in sneakers and jeans. She had come ready to fight.

  Right when it looked like Gwen was getting the best of Niya, the tables turned. Once Niya got out of her heels, instead of fighting against Gwen and pulling her hair, she stepped into it. She took her thumbs and jammed them into Gwen’s eyes.

  Ahhh… Bitch! Gwen yelled out, letting Niya’s hair go.

  Right, left, right, left, right, left. Niya wa
s whaling on Gwen, who could barely see. Gwen kept on punching too. They stood toe to toe going blow for blow for a good sixty seconds.

  __________

  “Let me go check on Niya,” Tiffany mumbled to Diamond.

  When she got downstairs in the basement where the bathroom was at, she could hear the thumping and yelling before she got there. When she finally did turn the corner, Tiki was standing outside the bathroom door eating sunflower seeds. She had seen when both Niya and Gwen left from upstairs, and was going to take the opportunity to talk to both of them together, but when she got downstairs they were already fighting.

  “Just let it happen,” Tiki told Tiffany when she walked up. “It’s better if they get it out of their system now then later.”

  Tiffany couldn’t do nothing but respect the veteran call. They both just stood by the door and waited for the fight to end. For females, Niya and Gwen had a lot of wind. They had been fighting and wrestling for over ten minutes straight. But the fatigue started to settle in, and the punches became slower until the point where neither of them could throw another blow. They finally broke, falling to the floor on opposite sides of the bathroom.

  Niya was the first to get to her feet, stumbling to the door and unlocking it. She was shocked and somewhat embarrassed when she opened the door and saw Tiki and Tiffany standing there. Tiki just shook her head.

  “Yall done with that bullshit? she asked. “Well clean up and get back upstairs.” She instructed the two women before turning around, grabbing Tiffany’s hand and heading back upstairs herself.

  __________

  Butler, Rose and DA Joseph Harrison sat in Joe’s office trying to figure out the best way to proceed with their main suspect, Marquis “Mayo” Harper.

  “Do we have enough for a warrant yet?” Det. Butler asked detective Rose, who was finishing up the paperwork to present to the judge.

  “We got enough to get a warrant for questioning,” she said, passing him the affidavit for the warrant.

  “I think we have enough information to bring him in for questioning, but I think that’s all we got,” Butler explained.

  He wanted to make sure the case was a slam dunk before he made the arrest, but the DA. already felt like he had enough to get a conviction.

  “Look, Detectives, I been doin this for a very long time” the DA began. “I got a neighbor who saw him leave the house with Ms. Thompson that evening. I got a truck driver who can, at the very least, identify the kind of car he watched a man toss her dead body out of. That car happens to be the same kind of car that’s registered to Mr. Harper,” DA Harrison broke down. “If that’s not enough for me to get a guilty verdict, then I shouldn’t be a DA.”

  After hearing it come out of his mouth, the case sounded a little more solid than before. Both Butler and Rose agreed. “So what do you wanna do?” Butler asked.

  “Bring him in,” Harrison said, then walked out of his office.

  “I understand what the DA is saying, however, I’m not gonna lie, Emma. I think we’re gonna need more,” Butler said, calling Det. Rose by her first name. “Once we get him in here, I’m not tryin’ to let him go. And looking at his criminal history, I’m sure he’s gonna lawyer up before giving a statement.”

  Butler was one hundred percent right about Mayo. He’d been through the wringer when it came down to the justice system. Butler knew from experience that guys like Mayo were hard to prosecute. Before he made the mistake of messing up this case, Butler was going to be sure that all his ducks were in line.

  Chapter 3

  Niya pulled up to the apartment building where she had rented a two bedroom for Alexus to stay. This was also Niya’s new stash spot, considering what took place with Chad finding the last one. Everything Niya took from Mayo was here, and this was actually the first time she’d had a chance to do inventory. Alexus was in the kitchen making something to eat when Niya walked in. Even though Alexus was still in her nightwear, Niya could see what drew Dro, and men like him to the young girl. Alexus had a small, long, shapely frame.

  She couldn’t have weighed more than 130 pounds, but she had an ass like a women twice her size. Her perky young breast sat high up on her chest, while her nipples protruded through the thin t-shirt she was wearing. Alexus had her long curly orange-brownish hair pinned up in a ponytail. She reminded Niya of Drea from Basketball Wives.

  “I see you’re getting used to doin’ for yourself,” Niya joked, entering the kitchen.

  “Oh, I’m sorry Ni. I got hungry, and saw the chicken in the freezer and—” Alexus spoke, before being cut off by Niya.

  “Girl, I was just joking with you. You better not be waiting around for me to come cook. Shit, you will starve to death,” Niya chuckled. She looked over at Alexus, who had her head dropped to the floor. “Lex, you do know this is your home, also. You can eat what you want, baby girl,” Niya added, now seeing that Alexus had taken her comment seriously.

  “Thank you Ni, it’s just that most of my life, I’ve lived with different people and family members, and I know how they can be about eating their food.”

  Niya could see the hurt in her eyes. She knew that although Alexus was young, she had been through a lot. She walked over to her and raised her head up until they made eye contact.

  “Lex, babe, we are family now, and I love you just like a sister. If there is anything you want or need, don’t you hesitate to ask me, and if it’s some food in this house or any of our houses you are more than welcome to it. You hear me?”

  Alexus shook her head up and down. Niya took her fingers and wiped the tears that were forming in Alexus’ eyes. She then kissed her on her forehead.

  Ever since the day Alexus had saved Niya’s life, they had gotten closer. Niya took her under her wing, and also looked out for her on the strength of Prada. It was something about Alexus that drew Prada to her, and the more Niya hung around her, the more she could see why.

  “Come on, I need ya help,” Niya said pulling Alexus away from the stove.

  They got to Niya’s room, where Niya pulled the large sheet from under the bed, containing the contents from Mayo’s house. Everything was separated first. The money was in one pile, the guns in another, and the drugs in another. Niya didn’t know much about the drug game, but figured the brick-like packages were cocaine. The smell coming from the packages was so strong Niya was becoming nauseous.

  “That’s heroin,” Alexus said, pulling her shirt up to her nose.

  “Heroin. How do you know that?” Niya asked with a curious look on her face.

  “That’s the same stuff Dro used to bag up before he took it around to the trap houses,” Alexus answered.

  “What da hell am I supposed to do with heroin?” she said, counting the packages. “So what is this supposed to be?” Niya asked, holding up a different colored package that was wrapped the same way.

  Alexus took the package and examined it. There was a little white residue coming from out of the side of it. She took some of it and placed it on her tongue. Her face looked like she had eaten a sour patch when she tasted it.

  “This is cocaine,” Alexus said. “Dro used to sniff this stuff twenty times a day. He got me to try it, but I didn’t like how it made me feel,” she said.

  Altogether, it was three keys of heroin and two bricks of cocaine. The guns included a MP.5 sub machine gun, an AR-15 assault rifle, an AK 47, two .45’s, two 9mm and a Glock .40. Mayo kept enough firepower in his house to take on a small army. Amazed by the size of the guns, Alexus stood in front of the mirror and posed with each gun, causing Niya to laugh a little; something she hadn’t done in a while.

  It took every bit of two hours for the girls to count up the money. It was broken down in every kind of bill. At the end, it was a little more than 1.2 million there, more money than either Niya or Alexus had seen at one time. They sat in the middle of the floor, just looking at the money for a while, before Alexus spoke.

  “I think you should gi
ve Prada’s grandmother some of this money,” Alexus said, breaking the silence. Alexus felt kind of out of place by making that kind of suggestion. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, don’t be sorry,” Niya said, cutting her off. “I think you’re right. Part of all of this is Prada’s anyway. I’ma give her a hundred thousand,” she said as she began separating the money.

  “Oh, I can’t forget about you,” Niya said, tossing Alexus a stack of money.

  It was 50k. Alexus looked at her curiously. “What’s this for?”

  Niya just smiled. “That’s so you can buy something to eat. O yeah, and for saving my life.” Both girls laughed at the comment.

  __________

  Gwen sat in the apartment staring at a picture of JR all day. His funeral wasn’t until tomorrow, but Gwen felt like it was happening right now, the way she was crying. The last time she’d been in love with a man was when her and Chad was together. A light knock at the door snapped her out of her daze. Even though she was mourning, she was still on high alert. People trying to kidnap her, folks breaking into her apartment, and a boyfriend who was just shot to death, all kept her on her toes. She had just dropped Zion off to Chad, so it was no reason for anybody to be knocking at her door, lightly at that. Gwen reached between the cushions of her couch and pulled the chrome .45 out, then tippy-toed to the door.

  “Who is it?” she yelled, pointing the barrel through the peep-hole.

  “Aye, it’s Mayo, Gwen. I need to talk to you,” he announced in a non-threatening manner.

  “Give me a second, Mayo,” Gwen said, running to her room to put some pants on.

  When she opened the door, she could see the stress written all over his face. Gwen figured it was because of the funeral tomorrow, but it wasn’t. It was something a little more serious. He didn’t even know where to begin, or even if it was safe to talk to Gwen, but at this point he felt like he really didn’t have anywhere else to go. At least nowhere else he would feel safe. Mayo could see the comfort that Gwen brought, just like JR had told him about. JR would always brag that he had the best of both worlds, because even though Gwen’s body was country thick with measurements of 36-24-42, she had the ability to show the demeanor of a caring young woman one minute, then fight and go hard like a gangsta who was 7 feet, 300 pounds the next.