“Maybe he don’t care about the money no more.”
“That’s what worries me, Nat. If Chilly don’t want the money no more, then Chilly’s gonna want something else. I told you we were fuckin’ around down there too damn long. We shoulda came back when we had all the money the first time, but your ass had to start smokin’ it up.”
“Me? I seem to remember you were there smokin’ right along with me, so don’t give me this shit about me smokin’ it up.”
“So, it wasn’t you beggin’ me to re-up so we could have a little piece to do? You know, just you and me. That wasn’t you?”
“You coulda said no.”
“And even if I did just say no, how many nights did I come back after being out all night making money and find you down in Grandma’s basement smokin’ up whatever your searchin’ ass could find?”
“Well, you shouldn’t have left it there for me to find!”
“Who the fuck you yellin’ at?”
“I’m not yellin’. I’m just sayin’ if it wasn’t there, I couldn’t smoke it. You shoulda took the shit out the house with you.”
“If that ain’t the stupidest shit I ever heard!”
Natalie got quiet when Bruce started yelling.
“What I look like out in the street with all the dope on me? An easy-ass mark, waitin’ to get his ass robbed or killed!”
“Well, maybe you shoulda just left me a little piece to hit on. Then I wouldn’t have to go searchin’.”
“I guess you don’t remember we tried that one night. And what did you do? Huh? What did you do? Your ass went searching though the house, tearin’ shit up until you fuckin’ found it!”
“What you expect me to do? That little shit you left me!” Natalie screamed.
“Fuck this. This shit ain’t gettin’ us nowhere, Nat. I just need to get this nigga his money before he sends somebody after us.”
“Us? What the fuck you mean us?”
“Us means you and me, Nat. Like it or not, we in this together. He come after me, he come after you too.”
“Does that include Brandy?”
Bruce thought about the question. He walked over to the window and looked out. Everything that his aunts and Me’shelle told him about getting Brandy away from the life he was living came rushing home. “I guess it does.” He started down the hall to tell Brandy to pack her shit; she was going to stay with Me’shelle.
“That’s fucked up. How you gonna drag us into your shit? That’s too fucked up, Bruce. I’m gonna need a little hit to take my mind off this shit,” Natalie said.
Bruce looked at Natalie for a second or two. He wanted a hit too. He went to get his stash out of the closet. He took out a box that contained two pipes and his cooking paraphernalia, and went in the bathroom. Natalie got up and followed him.
Bruce opened the box and pulled out a test tube, a single-edge razor blade, and a $25 bag of cocaine.
“Pretty skimpy quarter,” Natalie commented.
“Not much cut on it,” he replied, lifting a box of baking soda and a rolled dollar bill from the box. He laid the bill on the counter and emptied the contents of the bag onto it. “You wanna cook?”
“No.”
Bruce paused and looked in her direction, chopping lightly. “Nothing but a habit, huh?” Bruce laughed. “Maybe Me’shelle’s right. Maybe I do need to snatch the pipe out your mouth and slap you upside your head.”
“Fuck Me’shelle’s wannabe-a-saint ass,” Natalie said as Bruce shook a little baking soda onto the dollar then mixed it in with the razor.
Bruce lit a candle. A teaspoon of water followed the mix into the test tube. Bruce held the tube over fire, watching carefully as it began to sizzle. He moved the tube away from the fire, poured in a little more water and shook the test tube. “Me’shelle said she was datin’ some nigga.”
“Nobody wants Me’shelle’s think-she’s-so-fuckin’-smart ass. Not after they fuck her anyway. She’s so smart until she’s stupid,” Natalie said, taking a pipe from the box and adjusting the screens.
“She’s smart enough to know this shit gonna kill us or get us killed. Maybe we should try to get off this shit.” Bruce poured the water slowly out of the test tube into a strainer. He placed the white rock of cocaine on a small mirror and sat on the edge of the tub. “Came back nice for a skimpy quarter.”
Natalie didn’t comment. She picked up the razor blade and cut off a piece of the rock. “Got any torches?”
“No,” he said, breaking the rest of the rock into smaller pieces. Bruce took the other pipe out of the box. “Use a lighter.”
“No. I don’t like the way it tastes.”
Bruce put a piece of the rock in the pipe. He took a quick hit to light it then pushed a lighter in front of her. “Even if we did have torches, we don’t have anything to burn with except rubbing alcohol, and I know you don’t like the taste of that.”
Reluctantly, Natalie picked up the lighter and lit her pipe. She watched the bowl of the pipe fill up with smoke. She paused a moment and thought about Brandy before lighting the pipe again.
Bruce and Natalie stayed in the bathroom smoking for the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening. Bruce made several trips back to the closet to raid his stash until it was gone.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Why don’t you just take a couple of hundred that you got for Chilly and go get some more?” Natalie asked as she walked out of the bathroom and lay down on the bed.
“’Cause I ain’t tryin’ to live like that. Don’t you understand these muthafuckas ain’t no joke?” Bruce asked, slowly following her.
“Why not? I know you got more than you owe Chilly.”
“Did you hear what I been tellin’ you? I ain’t tryin’ to do that.”
Just then, a loud knocking at the front door startled them. “Go see who that is,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, but I still don’t see why you can’t take some of that money and go do what you gotta do,” Natalie whined as she got up to answer the door.
Bruce lay down on the bed, but got up immediately and went back in the bathroom. He checked to see if any pieces of rock had fallen on the floor. Not finding any, he began to think about getting some of that money and going to do what he had to do, as Natalie suggested. Then he heard Natalie scream.
“Stop! You can’t come in here like that!”
Bruce rushed out of the bedroom to find four masked men in the living room. Two of them were holding Natalie while she screamed her ass off and struggled to get free. One man was tearing up the living room. The other just stood there. “Shut her the fuck up,” he said as Bruce came into the room.
“What the fuck is this?” Bruce screamed. “Let her go!”
“Chilly sends his regards,” the man said then punched Bruce in the face. Bruce hit the ground hard, but got right up. The man hit him again, and Bruce went down. This time he stayed there.
One of the men who was holding a still struggling Natalie tore the shirt off her back, leaving Natalie naked except for her panties. He quickly ripped the shirt in half. He spun Natalie around and hit her hard in the face then used the shirt as a gag to keep her quiet. He tied her hands behind her back and started to fondle her breasts.
Brandy heard the commotion in the front room and immediately knew what time it was. She had feared this day would come. She locked her door and went into her closet to hide, quickly pulling clothes off the hangers and pouring all of her dirty clothes on the floor. She lay on the floor and tried to pull as many clothes as she could on top of herself. She lay there, shaking and listening.
“Where the fuck is the money, Bruce?”
“I got the money, man! There ain’t no need for all this!”
The man stepped up and kicked Bruce in the face. “Where is it?” he asked and kicked him again, this time in the gut. The man pulled out a.45 with a silencer and pointed it at Bruce.
Bruce screamed in pain. “It’s in my bedroom. I’ll get it. Just don’t hurt her,” he begged, watching the two men feeling on Natalie. His next thought was for Brandy.
The man with the gun signaled for the one who was searching for the money to go look in the bedrooms. He went down the hall and stopped in front of Brandy’s door. “It’s locked!” he yelled when he turned the knob. He kicked it in, then went inside and began to look around.