Here's sneak preview of first chapter of my new book. Still needs work, but it's looking good.
Chapter 1
Brooklyn
The night was cold. The neighborhood risky. They couldn’t be caught here with what they had in the car. It would be a death sentence.
The heater was blasting full throttle as three young men in a black Land Rover pulled up and parked in front of a pawn shop on Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick.
They were in Crips territory. A bad place to be if you were a Blood. Really bad.
That’s why none of them had worn their signature gang red.
The driver, DeShawn, glanced in his rearview mirror to see if Tyson, the youngest of the three and the least experienced, looked ready. He didn’t like what he saw. The muthafucker’s wound up tight. He ain’t up to this shit. I shoulda known.
DeShawn then looked over at his bud, Marvin, riding shotgun. Now he be cool, thank god. Marvin had made this run with him many times.
As he turned off the engine, DeShawn noticed Marvin pull up one leg of his baggy jeans and unsnap the ankle holster holding his Ruger semi.
“Yo, Marvin,” DeShawn said. “Why you be unstrappin’? Told you ain’t going to be no trouble. Edgar’s cool with us.”
“Maybe so, but I still don’t trust him.”
DeShawn laughed. “Man, like, who do you trust?”
“You. Nobody else.”
DeShawn surveyed the street a minute. No Crips in sight. Good so far.
“Okay, let’s roll,” he said. “Tyson, you stay in the car. You see trouble, beep the horn twice.”
“Oh man,” Tyson griped, “why I gotta stay out here all by myself in Crips territory?”
“Cause somebody gots to protect our stash.”
Tyson blew out an anxious sigh. “Okay, I’m down. But if, like, I see trouble, do I shoot first or beep the horn?”
What a numbnuts. “Just beep the fuckin’ horn, okay, Tyson?”
“Got it, boss man.”
As DeShawn and Marvin stepped out of the hot car into the brisk night air, they could feel the cold cut right through them like a knife.
Both were wearing brown cargo pants and black hoodies. But even without any red clothing, DeShawn still felt uneasy. The Crips knew what he looked like. He pulled his hood down over his face as far as he could and tied the string really tight.
DeShawn walked to the rear of the car, swung the backdoor open, lifted out a medium-size black duffle bag, then closed the door. His dark eyes glanced up and down the street once more. Still no sign of Crips.
Slinging the duffle strap over his shoulder, he led Marvin into the pawn shop. The walls were lined with glass cases filled with all kinds of bling. DeShawn didn’t get why people paid good cake for this used crap. When his boys wanted bling, they knew how to get it without paying jack shit.
DeShawn stared at Edgar standing behind the bulletproof glass counter until he caught the Rican’s attention. The shop owner had just slid a gold chain under the slot in his window to a babe packing the kinda sweet butt DeShawn coulda warmed up to.
Just not tonight. This was business.
Spotting the two Bloods, Edgar turned away from the window and said to a woman examining a bracelet under a microscope, “Trini, take my place a minute.”
Then Edgar nodded to DeShawn before disappearing through a backdoor.
Here we go, DeShawn thought, and tensed up. Even though he was down with Edgar, he knew people did all kindsa funny shit when it came to money. Especially Ricans.
They walked to a steel door next to one of the display cases and waited for it to buzz. As soon as they walked through it, the door closed behind them. Taking a deep breath, DeShawn put his hand in his pocket to touch his Smith & Wesson semi for reassurance.
They found Edgar sitting behind his desk with both hands visible on top of it. Just as I told him to.
“Yo, Edgar,” DeShawn said. “We got some goodies for you.” He plopped his duffle down on the desk with a clunk.
Five minutes later DeShawn and Marvin hustled out of the pawn shop. The black duffle he had carried in was gone, replaced by a green one. DeShawn fired up the engine, slapped it in gear, and drove off fast.
“How’d it go?” Tyson asked.
“No problem,” DeShawn said. “Two more fuckin’ stops, then we can get our butts home. Safe and sound.”
“Let’s do it fast,” Tyson said. “I be hungry.”
“You’re always hungry.”
“I’m a growing boy. Yo. DeShawn. Put on that new Eminem CD. It’ll take my mind off food.”
“No music. We working.”
A block from the pawn shop, an old woman with a cane suddenly stepped into the street from between two parked cars.
DeShawn didn’t see her until the last second.
“Look out!” Marvin shouted.
But it was too late.
DeShawn slammed on his brakes, but the car was travelling too fast to stop on a dime. It smacked into the woman with a thud and launched her flying like a rag doll through the air. She landed on the roof of a parked car. She didn’t move.
It took another twenty feet before DeShawn was able to stop his car. He slammed his fist against the dashboard. “Motherfucking stupid old bitch!”
“Yo, bro, why we stopping?” Marvin asked. “Let’s get our ass outa here fast!”
DeShawn floored the pedal.
“That old broad musta been, like, mental, ya know, Marvin? I hope she didn’t dent my front end. Do you think anybody saw us?”
Before Marvin could answer, they heard a siren closing in fast behind them.
“Aw fuck!”
In his rear view mirror, DeShawn saw a black Chevy Caprice racing toward them with a red bubble light on its roof and its high beams flashing.
“Maybe it’s not for us,” Marvin said. “Let’s pull over and let them pass.”
“You whack? We ain’t stopping now for nuthin!”
Not even red lights.
Just as DeShawn closed in on a traffic light, it turned Bloods red. He had no choice but to try and plow through.
And he almost made it.
But another SUV flying into the intersection, clipped the rear end of his Land Rover and sent it into a wild spin. DeShawn tried frantically to straighten the car out, but it slammed hard into a parked pickup truck and stalled out.
The damn engine wouldn’t kick over.
He kept trying.
They were stuck.
DeShawnHe gH saw in his rear view mirror that the pigs’ car had stopped twenty feet behind them. Three men in suits sprang out of it and crouched by their vehicle with guns raised.
A sudden, eerie calm came over DeShawn. He knew in an instant their fate had been sealed.
He looked at Marvin and then back at Tyson. They understood, too.
Only one option left for them.
Slipping out his Smith & Wesson, DeShawn said, “Let’s do it.”
Chapter 2