Shannon

When my phone rang at two in the morning, I knew it wasn’t good.

I reached over and picked it up. “Hello?” I answered, all groggy.

“I need to see you right now. I am downstairs,” Bobby’s voice boomed through the receiver.

“I’m asleep. What time is it?” I said, sitting up in the bed, trying to wipe sleep out of my eyes.

“Come downstairs,” he barked, and hung up. I hadn’t seen this nigga in two days after he got all bent out of shape at me looking at his fucking security system. How he gonna just keep showing up at my fucking crib demanding me to come outside? This nigga really thought he was the biggest boss and shit. I got out of bed and peeked out the window. Sure enough, he was outside with his dark-tinted windows. At first I thought about ignoring him, but knowing him, he would just keep calling me and sit out there until I came out. Maybe he was just thinking about me in the middle of the night. That better be the fucking reason. I picked up my cell and called Bam.

“Change of plans. This nigga is at my house right now. I may already be at his crib. I will send the text when I’m ready,” I said on Bam’s voice mail.

I slipped on some jeans and a T-shirt, threw my hair in a slick ponytail, and went outside. Before I could get to Bobby’s car, the door swung open.

“What’s going on?” I asked, acting like I was still rubbing sleep from my eyes. “You can’t keep popping up on me like this,” I complained.

“I need to show you something,” Bobby said dryly. Without saying another word, I climbed into the backseat. After I closed the door, the driver pulled off.

“It’s two in the morning. It couldn’t wait?” I asked. It’s a damn good thing Lil Todd had gone to my neighbor’s house for a slumber party.

Bobby didn’t speak much on the ride like he usually did. I had the call in to Bam because I had had enough of the games. Bobby’s behavior was a bit strange. No calling me sweet pea, no long conversations, just silence. My hands were wet with sweat, and I could not control the urge to rock my legs back and forth. The silence was fucking unnerving.

We arrived at the marina near Virginia Beach, and the car stopped abruptly. Bobby turned to me, grabbed my arm with a little force, and said with a strange tone to his voice, “Sweet pea, I want to know if I can trust you.”

“Ahem … sure you can,” I said, trying to stay calm, placing my hand on top of his because he was hurting my goddamn arm.

“Good, then I want to show you something,” he said, summoning me out of the car.

“What is it, Bobby, that it couldn’t wait until the morning?” I asked, trying to act very annoyed to mask my fucking nerves. All kinds of thoughts were running through my head. What if he had had me followed? What if he had my phone tapped? I was paranoid as a bitch. We walked halfway down the pier, and that’s when I noticed her, and she obviously noticed me too.

“Shannon! Help me! Help me!” Satanya was screaming at the top of her lungs. Captain had his huge hands wound all up in her hair; her neck looked like it would break. My eyes almost popped out of my head.

“Shannon, tell them! Tell them so they will let me go!” Satanya screamed, her face filling with blood, taking on a maroon color, almost like the inside of a beet. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. My legs felt like they would give out, and I crossed my arms in front of my chest like I was mad, but it was really to keep me from throwing up.

“Bitch, what are you fucking talking about?” I screamed, squinting my eyes into little slits. “What the fuck is going on, Bobby? Make him let her go,” I screamed, playing it off big-time.

“Shannon! You know the plan! Tell them! They don’t believe me! Ahhh, pa-lease!” Satanya screamed.

I couldn’t believe this bitch.

“Satanya, what the fuck are you talking about? This bitch is crazy!” I yelled, turning away from her to look at Bobby.

“Well, she says you planned to have me robbed or something crazy like that,” Bobby said calmly, looking over his dark glasses so his eyes could meet mine.

“What?!” I shouted, crinkling my eyebrows. “Bobby, look, this bitch is obviously on some serious drugs. I don’t even know you like that to have you robbed. You know how I feel about you and this thing we are building,” I said, pleading my case. I knew Bobby had a soft spot for me and wanted to believe me. I could see it, even though he played hard that he was conflicted. I was in fucking utter shock at this bitch Satanya. We had been friends for years, and I thought for sure I could trust her with the biggest fucking secret I’d ever had.

“Shannon! Tell the truth or they will kill me!” Satanya continued as Captain dragged her down to the ground and took his other hand to punch her in the face. Blood spurted out as if her face were a popped cherry.

“Bitch, shut the fuck up! I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about!” I hollered. I had to save my own fucking life. This bitch had ruined her own. I wanted to just kick the shit out of her, but I felt bad about the way Captain was beating on her. Our lives were on the fucking line right now for no fucking reason. Why? Why couldn’t this fucking hoodrat bitch just have kept her fucking legs closed and her mouth shut? But this was my fault. I should have set this whole thing up alone. I had just been so nervous to do it all by myself. Now shit may be ruined for real.

“If I can trust you and you say she is a liar, then she has to die,” Bobby said, nodding at Captain, who opened up another assault on Satanya.

I closed my eyes; I couldn’t watch. I felt like a coward for not saving her. My ears started ringing.

“She has to die.”

It felt like his words were a loud bell up against my eardrums.

Captain kept his grip in Satanya’s hair, and she continued to scream. I could tell he was hurt and angry at the same time. He really looked like he was kind of fucked up over what was going on. But I also knew he was a killer. There were like six other niggas there; there was nowhere to run. Satanya’s screams kept echoing, and she kept pleading for me to tell them the plan. It was a good thing I had never given her any details or else the whole shit would’ve been over. They were not trying to hear shit.

“Well?” Bobby said.

“Look, Bobby, why are you talking crazy? When she dries out, she won’t be talking this crazy shit. Just let her go and I will make sure she never takes another drug,” I said, shaking up and down on my legs to emphasize my desperate plea. I could feel my ass cheeks shaking—that was how scared I was.

“I don’t fucking think you understand! If she’s lying, she dies. And if she’s telling the truth, then I’m gonna torture you until you bleed to death,” he growled, grabbing my cheeks forcefully.

Bobby gave me a hard look, then told Captain, “Take the girl home and clean her up.” But I knew that’s not what he meant. I was seeing my girl alive for the last time.

“You’re going home with me,” Bobby said forcefully, placing his arm around my neck. I looked back at Satanya and our eyes met.

Bobby waited for me to get myself together. I couldn’t help but look back at Satanya a few times.

“You all right?” Bobby asked.

“No! No, I’m not all right. You just threatened to kill me!” I screamed.

“Yeah, I threatened to kill you because Satanya came to me with all that shit,” he said calmly.

“Yeah, because your fuckin’ boy keeps her so skied up on shit that she is fucking hallucinating. She is harmless. If your fucking boy harms a hair on her head—” I started.

“What? Will you beat my ass?” Bobby asked sarcastically, chuckling.

“I want to go home,” I demanded.

“You will, but when I say you go,” Bobby said, grabbing my hand like I was a little kid and leading me back to his car.

We drove straight to his house. When we arrived, I was scared as hell all over again. But I guess if he wanted to kill me, he would’ve done it already.

Once inside, we went to his wing. Bobby loosened his tie and took off his shades. I couldn’t even bear to look at his ugly-ass face. I just sat all shook up on the end of the bed.

“Listen, I want you to understand—” he started, touching my shoulders gently.

“I can’t. This shit ain’t for me,” I sobbed. I cried for so many reasons. Because my fucking husband had put me in this predicament; because I knew the task at hand; and most of all, because my heart had grown so cold over the last few weeks that I didn’t give a flying fuck about anybody but myself. Bobby grabbed me and hugged me tightly. He began kissing my neck with his big soup cooler lips and then moved to my breasts. A feeling of disgust came over me, and suddenly I wanted him dead. I could feel Bobby’s hard dick up against me.

Bobby pushed me back gently on the bed. My mind was swirling with all kinds of mixed feelings. He started pulling off my jeans. I cried even harder. I knew that if I didn’t fuck him, he might think I was down with what Satanya had said. I let him undress me. Then I watched him undress himself. He walked back over to the bed, climbed over me, and stuck his dick straight up in me.

“Ahh.” I let out a loud sigh.

“You like that?” he asked.

Oh, he was so lucky I didn’t have a knife or a gun. It was like I had left my body. Bobby was like an animal. He grunted and groaned and sweat dripped off of him. He pounded on me like a maniac. I faked it and let out moans to make him think I was into it, but the entire time I thought about Satanya and Todd. I thought about how fucking much I hated Todd for putting me in this predicament because he had gotten himself locked up again after all of his empty promises that he would never put me through some shit like this again. I thought about how I was going to watch Bobby die because he was a ruthless piece of shit who thought he could do what he wanted just because he had money. I could feel his dick deep in my gut now. It was like he was trying to pull my pussy inside out. No fucking condom at all, and I just lay there and let him fuck me over and over again. I was basically no better than a prostitute right now, fucking for money, except Bobby didn’t know he was about to fucking pay. I was fucking for a means to an end.

True to form, Bobby was knocked the fuck out after he nutted twice.

I eased out from under his heavy dead-weight arm and sneaked into the bathroom. I sent the text that Bam and Black would have been waiting for. It’s on now. Then I hit SEND, returned to the room, and waited. I would have to keep Bobby occupied and away from the cameras. It would be dawn in another two hours, so these niggas needed to hurry up.

When I got a text right back, I started kissing this ugly motherfucker on his neck and face to wake him up.

“Mmm,” he grunted.

“Can you come shower with me?” I asked seductively.

“Hell yeah,” he said, pulling me down on top of him. I watched him look over at his security screens. This motherfucker was always looking at those things; that’s why I knew I had to get him into the bathroom.

“C’mon,” I said like a little whiny kid.

Bobby let me lead him by the hand into the bathroom. He had a big smile on his face. With the lights on and his shades off, I finally realized just how ugly he was. He was a cross between Biggie Smalls and King Kong. One of his eyes was doing its own thing, just roaming. I turned on his rainfall shower and climbed behind the glass door. I pulled down the detachable showerhead and put it up against my clit; then I pointed at him and used my pointer finger to summon him. I was fucking Shannon Fierce right now; I was somebody altogether different. Bobby smiled, grabbed his hard dick, and came behind the glass door with me. The steam was fogging up the entire bathroom, just what I wanted. I didn’t want him able to see mirrors, doors, screens, nothing. He came up from behind me and grabbed both of my breasts. I closed my eyes because I felt like screaming. He started kissing me roughly and breathing all hard. I was praying that these niggas were gonna make it there and get shit under way. I had told them what time Bobby’s security people changed shifts; I hoped they had the shit timed to a tee. Just as Bobby grabbed his dick to drive it up in me, all of the lights went out.

“What the fuck?!” he shouted, snatching back the doors.

Thank God, I thought.

“Bobby, baby, I’m scared. Don’t leave me,” I whined, knowing damn well what the fuck was up.

Bobby grabbed a towel and scrambled out of the shower. He couldn’t care less about my ass. I was close on his heels. He ran over to the wall with the screens—it was black. He then rushed over to his huge closet and pulled back a door. I started scrambling to get my clothes on. I was going to need to get the fuck out of there. I watched him rush into the closet and start doing shit in the dark. I was shocked. He started punching buttons and shit, and another door opened up. It was a huge gun safe.

Damn, I thought, how the fuck did he find those codes in the dark?! Shit! I was trapped with this motherfucker. He grabbed a huge rifle. I was crying and doing my best acting job.

“Oh my God. Bobby, what is going on? First Satanya, now this!” I cried.

“Shut the fuck up and take this,” he said, shoving what seemed like a long gun in my hand. I wish there were light for me to see. Then I saw a ray of light from a flashlight Bobby had picked up from somewhere. He shined it out the door. I couldn’t tell if it was light outside, because the way Bobby had his bedroom was like fucking Fort Knox—no sunlight in or out. My hands shook as I looked down at the gun. The shit said DESERT EAGLE on the side. I had heard Todd talk a lot about this gun. My hands were not the only thing shaking. I didn’t know if I should just shoot his ass since he wasn’t expecting it.

“Stay here!” he demanded. He raced over to his nightstand, picked up his cell phone, and called someone. Then he threw it across the room. Before Bobby could make it to the door, the shit came crashing down like a bomb had gone off.

“Ahhhh!” I screamed, genuinely scared. We had not gone over this. There were five niggas in all black with their faces covered. I wasn’t expecting this, and I was hoping that Bam and Black weren’t going to kill me and make off with the fucking money.

Bobby immediately started shooting. Tat, tat, tat, his gun went. One of the guys went down instantly. I raced for cover. More shots rang out.

Tat, tat, tat.

I was cowering in the corner. Next thing I knew, BANG! Bobby dropped like a fucking sack of potatoes. I could still hear feet coming toward us. It was more of Bobby’s team trying to get to him to save his life.

BANG! Tat, Tat!

There were so many gunshots going off I couldn’t even hear. Niggas were dropping like flies right in front of my eyes. What the fuck had I done? I had masterminded a bloodbath. I heard an explosion, and the door to the hallway with the rooms flew off the hinges. This shit was turning into a mess. I made a mad dash for the hallway. Finally, I saw Bam.

He lifted his mask and grabbed my arm. “Get to the first room and just grab boxes. There is a truck outside behind the last room on the left. There is an exit. We need to be out of here in five minutes.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, putting the gun into the back of my jeans. My chest was heaving. I raced for the hallway as Bam went along door by door, shooting off the Onity locks and taking out the cameras. Although all of the power had been shut down, he didn’t want to take a chance that Bobby had a backup generator on those cameras. I really felt like a renegade bitch. I wasn’t leaving the fucking house without enough money to set me straight. The first room was filled with boxes. I tried to grab more than one, but they were fucking heavy as hell. I started dragging one toward the door so I could get outside. Bam and the two dudes who were still alive grabbed boxes too. I couldn’t even think to ask where Black was. When I didn’t see him, I just figured he was a casualty of war.

“Wait!” I heard Bam call out. He stopped and used a knife to strip off the tape on one of the boxes. Sure enough, the shit was filled with neatly rubber-banded stacks of cash. He wanted to make sure we weren’t wasting our fuckin’ time.

“Go!” Bam screamed, and we raced outside toward the truck. I kept dragging my one box. As soon as we made it toward the front, more gunshots rang out. Two more of Bam’s dudes dropped. Now it was just me and him. I was too fucking scared to cry or scream. I just kept ducking and running for the truck. I had a warrior mindset, and I was gonna get the fuck out of here alive. I had a baby boy to pick up and start a new life with.

There was a dude in the driver’s seat of a black van. He got out and hoisted my box into the van. Bam was still struggling to get out with his boxes. The driver helped him, and Bam turned around like he was going back in.

“Where are you going?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“Yo, that ain’t enough,” Bam said, but as soon as he turned around, one last security guard was there. Bam and the guard shot at each other at the same time, and they both dropped.

“Ahhhhh!” I screamed, jumping into the van.

The driver sped away, the van swerving all over the road leading out of the estate.

“Oh God!” I screamed, and started crying.

“Shut up!” the driver barked. He looked to be no older than eighteen. He was shaking and could barely drive. He finally got the van to go straight and slowed up a bit so that we wouldn’t bring attention to ourselves. My nose was running, my heart was thumping, and the tears just flowed and flowed. I had done it. I had carried out the ultimate heist, and I was the only one left standing. Todd would’ve been proud of me. The little boy drove and drove until we were on the highway. The plan was that me, Bam, and Black were all supposed to meet at the Hilton across from Pembroke Mall on Virginia Beach Boulevard to split up the money. We also planned to lay low for a few days before leaving the hotel. Now it was just me and this little boy I didn’t even know.

“What’s your name?” I whispered, my voice hoarse from yelling.

“Little,” he said.

“Can I trust you, Little?” I asked, flashing the Desert Eagle at him.

“Yeah, I’m not telling shit. I ain’t going down over this shit,” he said, his voice shaky as hell.

Once we got in the parking lot of the hotel, I told him that we needed to go in separately and that he would go to the front desk to get the key under the name Bam had told me. I wasn’t trying to be up on no surveillance camera from the hotel. When Little returned to the van, we used a luggage cart to off-load the boxes.

“Can I help, miss?” a bellboy asked.

“No!” I barked, not meaning to scream at him but so fucking nervous I couldn’t see straight. We pushed the cart through a side exit so that we wouldn’t be seen in the front lobby of the hotel carting these boxes looking spooked as fuck. Once I was safe in the room, I asked the boy what he was promised.

“Yo, they said they were going to give me ten thousand,” he said.

How fucking stupid was he? He let them fucking promise him that tiny bit of money off of a big-ass heist like this. I opened one of the boxes and pulled out a stack of bills. The boy’s eyes lit up. I took the Desert Eagle out of my pants and pointed it to his head and said, “If you even breathe a word of this to anyone, I will not only put this entire shit on you, but I will also kill you.”

“You ain’t gotta worry about me. I … I … don’t even know your name,” Little gulped out as he swallowed hard, grabbed the money, and got the fuck up out of there. After he left, I opened the boxes and started spreading the money out. It was unbelievable how much money this motherfucker Bobby really had just sitting up in his crib. Just there, in boxes, while motherfuckers all over were hungry and homeless. I lifted stacks of it, sniffed it, and let it fall all over my head. Then I dropped to my knees and just cried and cried. Everything had gone wrong, and there were at least twenty people dead.

I stayed in the hotel for three days. I had called my neighbor and arranged for her to meet me on the border of Norfolk and Virginia Beach with my son. I’d paid one of the housekeepers to buy me two large suitcases so I could put the money in and leave the hotel like I was just a tourist. I stacked the money tightly in the suitcases. I was finally ready to face the world. I dragged my two suitcases down to the front lobby and let the bellboy call me a taxi. I hadn’t watched the news at all while I was in the hotel, and the first glimpse of the massacre I saw was a headline on the USA Today newspaper in the lobby: BLOODY MASSACRE IN PALATIAL ESTATE REVEALS HIDDEN MILLIONS OF COP-KILLING GANGSTER. Bobby was a cop-killing gangster? I thought to myself as I climbed into the taxi and told the driver where I was going. As we drove through the city, I knew I would be leaving the place I’d grown up. As we passed the Virginia Beach 2nd Precinct, I stared at the front doors, thinking about how dirty most of the cops were.

When I arrived at Shoney’s restaurant near the Norfolk and Virginia Beach line, I was so damn happy to see my little boy. He made all of the worries I had hanging over my head just melt away. He jumped into my arms, and I knew that I had something to live for. I thanked my neighbor and asked her to take me to the Avis rental car place. I hoisted my suitcases into her trunk.

“Girl, did you hear about your friend?” she asked as I sat in the back kissing my son profusely.

“Who?” I asked, stopping to hear what she had to say.

“It was in the newspaper. The girl I always saw you with. Satanya, I think the paper said she was identified as,” she continued.

“What about her?” I asked, but I already knew it was bad.

“She was found shot to death in her house,” my neighbor said, the words coming out of her mouth like bullets hitting me.

I put my hand over my mouth and immediately started to cry. I knew that motherfucker Bobby was still going to kill her. He probably was planning on killing me, too, but he wanted to fuck me first.

“I’m sorry—I thought you knew. I thought that is where you disappeared to,” my neighbor said. After a moment of letting me cry, she continued: “Jock came by looking for you. I told him I would tell you to call.”

I was surprised to hear that Jock was looking for me. I thought that nigga was gone for good. If I’d been able to get Todd’s stash from him, I wouldn’t have had to seduce Bobby to take care of myself and pay for Todd’s lawyer. For a moment I thought about not calling Jock, then decided to call him once I was on the road with Lil Todd.

When we finally pulled up to the rental car place, I dug down into the front of the smaller suitcase where I had put some of the money. I peeled off a few hundred-dollar bills, folded them, and placed them in the palm of her hand.

She looked at me, surprised. “You don’t have to. My son just loves to play with Todd—it was no trouble at all,” she said.

“No, you take it. Thank you for taking care of the only person I have left in the world and keeping him safe,” I said with feeling. “I need you to do me another favor. Take this down to the jail and put it on the books of Todd Marshall. Then mail this letter afterward,” I told her, and she agreed to do it.

I took a deep breath, looked around, and said my final goodbyes to life as I had always known it.

“Mommy,” Lil Todd called out.

“Yes, baby?” I answered.

“Cars,” he said in the cutest little voice.

His voice was music to my ears. Then I took my suitcases and my son and got me a car. I was going to drive and drive until I found a place that looked like it was where I wanted to be. I knew better than to try going through an airport with all of this fucking money. I convinced the clerk in the rental place to give me a car with cash, of course. I had to give her a little something because they wanted only credit cards. Those shits could be traced, and I wasn’t trying to be found. I pulled out of the rental place on my way to nowhere in particular with a trunk full of unmarked cash and with a new lease on life.