DEADLY DECISIONS III: The End (14 page)

“Good, I’d like to speak to him.” Keisha walked with Cameron to the baby’s incubator.

After the nurse gave Keisha special instructions on changing the baby, she gave Keisha the green light to change him.

“He’s so soft and warm.” Keisha began cooing to him. “Mama’s here, baby. I love you,” she continued as she removed his diaper. She noticed something strange. “I don’t remember him having a birthmark on his thigh. I remember it on his back.”

“His birthmark is on his back, Cameron interjected. “My other son, the other Cam Jr., is the one that has a birthmark on his thigh.”

Both of them having the same name went straight over Keisha’s head as she focused in on the birthmark on the baby’s thigh. After she realized that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, she looked up at Cameron with wide eyes and said, “Cam, he has a birthmark on his thigh, not on his back.”

“What?” Cameron thoroughly examined his son’s back and thigh when it hit him that the Cameron Jr. that was lying in the incubator wasn’t his and Keisha’s son, but was in fact his and Monique’s son.

__________

“Goodnight, Monique. I’m happy that I was able to put a smile on your face tonight and make you feel better,” Dime said as he pulled up in front Monique’s parents’ Huntington Beach home.

“You really did make me feel better. Thanks so much, Dime. I don’t know what I would have done without you tonight.” Monique opened the door to get out after gulping down the remainder of the bottle of wine that Dime had purchased for her. She was tipsy and feeling good.

Before Monique got out of the truck, Dime grabbed her by the arm. “Can I get a kiss or something before you hop out?” He pointed to his cheek. “Give a Crip some love for all that work I just put in,” he said seriously.

Monique leaned over and gave Dime a kiss on his cheek. “Scrap is going to kill us.” Monique reached in her purse to see if she had any missed calls from Cameron.

“Well, next time cuh should be paying more attention to his beautiful wife instead of that no-good-ass bitch Keisha Cones,” Dime continued.

Monique agreed as she dug deeper in her purse for her cell phone.

Dime’s cell phone rang, interrupting his next set of words. When he saw Cameron’s name flash across the screen, he told Monique to hurry up and go inside. “If Scrap so happens to ask you, I brought you straight home,” he said as Monique climbed out of his limo-tinted Chevy truck.

“I know,” Monique smiled. “Our little secret night - shhhh!” She pressed her index finger against her full, luscious lips before making her way to her parents’ front door and letting herself in. Monique hadn’t seen her son since the night of the shooting and she missed him deeply.
I wasted all that precious time away from my baby to be there for Cameron and his son, just to get choked, cussed out, threatened, blamed, ignored, and dismissed for his trifling baby mama Keisha - for nothing!

Monique dumped her purse out on the couch to continue her search for her cell phone.
We could both hurt each other now, Cameron, especially since I have your best friend right where I want him. He’s eating out of more than just the palm of my hand.
A vengeful smirk spread across Monique’s face but it quickly vanished when the upstairs light popped on and then seconds later her mother appeared at the top of the stairs with the cordless phone to her ear.

“Hold on, Cameron,” her mother Silvia shot with an attitude and then called down to Monique. “Come get this phone and speak to your godforsaken, gangster husband. I hope you’re considering divorce,” she stated seriously and then complained about how the baby had been fussy most of the day as Monique made her way up the stairs. “The baby is in the bed with your father and me. I just got him to go to sleep. I have a headache, so I’m going to bed, goodnight.” Her mother passed her the phone and then headed back to her room.

Monique thanked her mother and then watched her make it down the hallway and into the master bathroom before she got on the phone.

Hello. Is Tiger alright?” Monique hoped for the best, wondering where her cell phone was.

“I been calling your cell phone for over two hours! Are you just getting in?” Cameron replied in a low and undetermined tone.

“I’ve been here,” Monique replied. “I think my cell phone is dead. I can’t find it.” She started back down the stairs to look for her phone. “Besides, I wasn’t expecting a call from you, I mean, especially since Keisha’s in town.”

“Maybe you left your cell phone in Dime’s truck!” Cameron shot. 

The way Cameron said Dime’s name made Monique feel uneasy and guilty. “I don’t think so,” Monique quickly replied. “How is Tiger progressing?”

“You don’t know yet, huh?” Cameron accidentally thought out loud.

“I don’t know what?” Monique cringed with fear of the unknown.

“I’m down the street from your parents’ house. Come take a ride with me. We need to talk,” Cameron said urgently.

Oh God, please let Tiger be alright!
Monique’s gut began tie in knots. “I’ll be outside by the time you get here, Cameron. I just have to let my mother know that I’m leaving,” Monique said before disconnecting the call. What Monique didn’t know was that Cameron was already parked outside of her parents’ house and had been in just enough time to see his homeboy Dime turn off her parents’ street.

This bitch getting sneakier and sneakier,
Cameron fumed.

Having cocaine withdrawals
,
Keisha was being chauffeured through the city in a presidential
S
uburban as if she were a politician. Sitting behind limo tint, several identical vehicles trailed behind and in front of the vehicle she was traveling in with heavy artillery, causing her to stick out like a sore thumb. Everything about the way they were approaching Compton, the
H
ub
C
ity
,
screamed Keisha Cones. She was an elite in the cocaine game, the Godmother from Compton
,
and there wasn’t another
q
ueen
p
in nor
k
ing
p
in in west coast to ever do it like her
except for
the most powerful drug lord of the west
:
Carter.

Uneasy about it all
,
Keisha told the head hitter,
who was
driving
,
to pull over
,
res
ult
ing in the rest of the SUV’s
slamming
on their br
akes
and pull
ing
over at the curb. Keisha removed her hoodie from her head
,
revealing her custom
-
stitched beanie
. S
he had
“
Hub City
”
sewn on the side of
it
.

“What’s up, K.C
.
?”
t
he head hitter asked. 

With a fiery attitude
,
Keisha shot, “I’m not feeling the way we’re rolling right now. It
’
s screaming way to
o
much attention. Piru
,
we hit the Hub like this
,
everybody gon’ know I’m back in the bity and I’m tryna be low key, feel me?” 

“It’s a precaution to keep you safe, K.C
.
,” the head hitter explained
.
“And it’s also a direct order from Big Pope Dog
-
”

“Fuck all of that
!
” Keisha dismissed the conversation. “Get Big Pope on the horn
.
I need to holler at him
.
” Keisha fell back in her seat
,
dismissing the conversation. She was already fucked up in the head that Cameron’s son was on the brink of death
as a
result of her. 

The head hitter got Big Pope Dog on the phone and passed it to Keisha. Keisha explained the situation. “The security has to be lighten
ed
in the city perimeters, loved one. Shit gon
’
announc
e
my presence in the Hub and that’s what I’m not tryna to do, Piru.” The two conversed briefly before Keisha passed the phone back to the head hitter.

In moments
,
everything had gotten resolved. The head hitter excused the other SUV’s before pulling of
f.
Keisha tapped the driver on the shoulder
.
“Pass me a burner
-
a .38 preferably.” It was a preference that she stayed with a pistol in the Compton.
The head hitter passed Keisha a fully
-
loaded
.
38 revolver. 

When the SUV pulled into the Westside of Compton in
Li’l
Boo’s neighborhood
,
Keisha peeped the neighborhood gunners on the watch just as
Li’l
Boo had told her they would be. Gangstas were on every block
. S
ome were lying low in cars, and others were posted on the roof of homes accompanied by sniper artillery. They were protecting their neighborhood
and their hood icon that still resided in the hood,
Li’l
Boo.

I know
there’
s a ticket on my head
.
I see you niggas!
Keisha called
Li’l
Boo so that he could open his garage. When they pulled up on his street
,
the automatic garage
door
opened and they
pulled inside. After the garage
door
closed
,
the head hitter climbed out
of
the SUV and opened the back door for Keisha to exit the vehicle.

Li’l
Boo greeted Keisha at the rear door, happier than words could express to see his baby mother and the love of his life
’s
face. Ey
e
ing her security suspiciously,
Li’l
Boo immediately felt Keisha’s pain
upon
looking in her eyes.
Li’l
Boo was dressed fresh as usual
. H
e stepped out the door to offer Keisha a hug
;
he knew she was in need of it.

“You looking good
,
my nigga
,
”
a
teary
-
eyed Keisha fell into
Li’l
Boo
’s
arms
and
exclaimed. Seeing
Li’l
Boo
was
what Keisha needed. A
lthough he was the
victim of her deadly decisions, he offered her hope that God had not totally abandoned her. “I love you,
Li’l
Boo. I’m so glad to see you doing so well
.
”
S
he beg
a
n to observe how good he looke
d - a
bit thinner, less muscular, but good.

“Thanks,
b
aby
m
ama
.
”
Li’l
Boo examined Keisha
,
thinking,
Damn
,
my bomb
-
ass baby
m
ama is looking undernourished and rough.
Expecting
Poo Baby
,
Li’l
Boo asked where she was.

Keisha explained. “I had to tri
ck
her to go to her mother’s house.
That’s
my bitch, but I keep telling her that I don’t want her involved in this bullshit. So before I was escorted to the hospital
,
we stopped at her mother’s house,
and
when she went inside to say hello, I left her there.”

“A lot of people love
Li’l
M
ama
. B
ut call Poo Baby and tell
her you’re
good now, and that your baby daddy got you.”
Li’l
Boo hugged Keisha once more. “Now come inside and let me put some food
i
n your belly
,
gangsta girl.”

Keisha followed
Li’l
Boo to the door
. T
hey had a lot of catching up to do. “Is my people cool posting in the garage
? T
he couch and TV should keep him entertained
.
”

Li’l
Boo stopped at the door and turned to Keisha
.
“Naw, I don’t know that
nigga
,”
Li’l
Boo put emphasis on the word nigga, mea
n-
mugging Keisha’s armed
bodyguard
. “He can come back for you in the morning.”