Chapter 23: Of Iron And Foolishness
This is Jane Goodman. Yesterday the restaurant business turned into a chaotic scene as three women wearing black sunglasses and carrying lead pipes destroyed the Aardvark restaurant in Rockford Hills, wrecking havoc. Frightening and injuring numerous people.
Later on in the day, two of the women struck again. This time at the Holland Point in Richman.
Using machine guns the duo fired into the restaurant, miraculously missing the all patrons. A customer heroically attempted to stop them with a concealed firearm but was injured when one of the women shot him through the elbow. In the ensuing madness of the scene is the disappearance of the owner, Maurice Mackowitz. Mackowitz was last seen fleeing to the kitchen but hasn't been seen since. Law enforcement officials are growing more alarmed as the previous week an explosion tore through the Amsterdam Star winery which was blown up, in what they believe to have been a bomb. The growing fear is also believed by some in the department that this could possibly be related to organized crime. And there are growing fears this could turn into a full scale gang war.
If you have any information on the three suspects, contact the police department.
I'm Jane Goodman, reporting the news.
Geraldine finished twisting the braid of the second pig tail, she heard everything from the news. A part of her wonders if this whole thing with Dericourt is going to spiral into something that can't be stopped. A war in the streets is something that most people would want to avoid. The streets could turn into something from a war zone. All because he want's to wipe out a former business partner whose pretty much pushed his buttons to a certain extent. However this was going to end, it wasn't going to evolve sitting down and talking it over with tea and cookies. When you cross a certain line, you better prepared to fight tooth and nail to finish it once and for all. The thing about war isn't on how it starts but on how it'll end. But also on how far it's going to be taken.
Knock! Knock!
Reggie said that the day before that she needed help to sell those pills, she couldn't help her out yesterday as she was with Sunny and Chelsea doing that restaurant job. She remembered what Sunny had said to her, that she needed to sit down and have a talk with Reggie. But Geraldine knows that talking to Reggie would be like pulling teeth or talking down too an annoying brat who didn't listen or who didn't take no for an answer. Hopefully today she could probably talk some sense into her. And hopefully she'll get rid of those drugs. They were nothing more than trouble for the both of them. She opens the door.
"Hey girl, you ready?" Reggie asked with a smile, Geraldine frowned "Whatever man" she didn't seem to keen on the idea "Come girl, just relax. We're gonna make some paper with this, trust your girl". Geraldine shook her head in disagreement "Look Reggie, we gotta talk about this whole thing with us and those pills" she says as she put on her sunglasses "We will after we get our paper".
And just as she thought, Reggie dodges her attempt to try and talk her out of this "Besides, didn't I say to lighten up?" a familiar and irritating voice rang through her ear. Frank stood there with that arrogant cocky smile of his. "What the fuck is he doin' here?" Geraldine looked at Reggie as her blood pressure began to rise from all the contempt of seeing the one person that she hated the most "Well..." Reggie bit her lip "I kinda asked him to help us out". Geraldine grabbed her by the arm "What the fuck did you mean do you mean you asked?" she growled "Look I thought we could use some help selling these pills, so...I just kinda asked him if he wanted to help us". Already she wants to point to her gun at that scumbags head.
"If you don't want to work with me then I'll just work with Frank" "Nah, I'll work with you two but if he tries anythin' then I swear-!", Reggie put her hands up to her friend "Relax girl" she says with a smile "Ain't nothin' gonna happen".
"Besides, it's better than havin'-who the fuck is that?" she unexpectedly asked. Geraldine looked at who unexpectedly showed up. "What's going on?" Chelsea skips towards them "What the fuck are you doin' here?" she asked "What do you mean? I'm here to help you with your thing" Chelsea says with a friendly smile "Besides we're friends and that's what friends are for". Reggie looked at Chelsea and automatically was weirded out by her appearance. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend Gerry?".
"Reggie this is Chelsea, somebody I sort of work with..." she pained herself just introducing her new acquaintance "Oh come on, you got to do better than that" Chelsea came over and embraced Geraldine, who in turn squirmed her way out of it; she's not taking a chance with her. "Work with?" Reggie raised an eyebrow "Yeah! Me, her and our other friend Sunny!", Reggie looked at Geraldine with a hint of jealousy. "We recently just-" Geraldine violently yanked her hair "Ow! What the bloody hell did you do that for?". Geraldine gave her a scornful look, a sign to keep quiet about what the three of them were doing. "Right, I mean, we just hang out and fuck around like everybody else" Chelsea lied with a sneer at Geraldine for pulling her hair.
"Geraldine aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Frank walked over to them "This fool is nobody and I don't know why Reggie brought him here, when it supposed to be me and her doin' this" Geraldine rudely responded "His names Frank and Geraldine doesn't like him" Reggie corrected. Frank extends his hand for a shake, Chelsea snorts and hawks; a loogie lands on his shoe. "I don't like you" Chelsea said giving him a sour and distasteful look "You ain't the only one..." Geraldine mumbled. "Well, the ladies always like me but I think we should go" he says averting his gaze from Chelsea; he seemed intimated. Geraldine rather thought that was unlike him to be intimated. The way Chelsea looked at him was clear that she didn't like, let alone trust him from the start.
"So where we goin'?" Geraldine asked as she and everybody walked to the van "The iron works at Davis, we're goin' to see some Ballas fool. His names B Dog, he said that he wants to buy some of those pills" Reggie opens the door on the drivers door while Geraldine goes to the passenger side as Chelsea and Frank head to the back "Ballas? Seriously? We're gonna mess around with those fools?" she questioned, Reggie looked at Geraldine with some frustration in her eyes. "Come on girl, just give it a chance" Reggie says with enthusiasm "Ain't nothin' gonna go wrong".
...
The drive is quiet and by quiet, not somber quiet. Frank adverted Chelsea's gaze, she noticed as she kept her eyes on him. Geraldine noticed and part of her was rather gleeful. Seeing him intimated made her want to smile.
"So, er, Geraldine where'd you meet this girl?" Reggie whispered as low as she could "You don't want to know" Geraldine said looking back at her friend "I should tell you but believe me, you don't wanna know".
"What are you two whispering on about?" Chelsea popped into the conversation "Nothin', just bullshittin'" Geraldine reassures "Hey Frank, you gettin' along with Chelsea?" she mocked "Yeah, we're doing fine..." his lied, that voice spelled that he was really uncomfortable. Keep sweatin' fool Geraldine says in her mind "So Frank, I heard that you and Reggie got together a while back" Geraldine insinuates. Reggie slammed on the breaks, thankfully it was a red light. "Girl..." Reggie felt embarrassed "why you got to bring that up?" "That was...a one time...I mean it was so long ago" Frank stuttered "Oh my god! You two shagged?" Chelsea burst out laughing, Reggie felt even more flustered than before "Girl, why'd you have to bring that up?".
"What?" Geraldine playfully exclaimed "Chelsea wanted to know, didn't you Chelsea?", Chelsea continued laughing. The light turns green.
"Look it was a one time thing! Okay! Fuck!" Reggie grunted in embarrassment "Not just the one time..." Frank whispered, which made Chelsea laugh harder. "Can we just not talk about this? Alright, jeez" Frank uncomfortably says "What is it good?" Chelsea giggled "I'm not even gonna go there" Reggie quips "Probably half assed just like him" Geraldine mumbled.
After all the laughing was done, they finally arrive at the iron works. "This better go fuckin' right, no tellin' what this Ballas fool could do" Geraldine knew all about those scum, when she was a bounty hunter a majority of the people that she brought in were Ballas. At least the Families knew something about respect but the Ballas, every bit of them was dirty. Like rats they'll do whatever it takes to screw with somebody if it meant to make money. They really were one of the scummiest bunch to walk the streets.
"Got a bad fuckin' feelin' about this" Geraldine says with concern and suspicion, she knew something about this didn't feel right. She just knew something would go wrong "Girl you worry too much!" Reggie puts off her suspicions aside "I told you before, nothin' bad is gonna happen" she reassures her friend "You always that and bad shit always goes down" her friend retorts as she loads the Mac-10 "Well maybe it'll be worth something" Chelsea chipped in as she pulled out her Sig Sauer "See, even crazy girl here knows we can make some paper" Reggie expressed her gratitude to Chelsea for taking her side "Uh, I'm not crazy okay?" she smiled "Reggie's right, you just got to trust your friend" Frank also jumped in the conversation "Besides, Reggie's pretty smart" his compliment made Reggie blush.
"Nah, Reggie's smart but her stupid ass almost nearly get's us killed" Geraldine retorts as she cocked the Mac "Hey, give my plans a fuckin' chance motherfucker" she quips "Maybe if you changed your that attitude of yours, we wouldn't get any bad luck" Reggie shot at her friends attitude "That usually means that I'm fuckin' right and your stupid ass is wrong" Geraldine corrected "Look, let's just go in, do our thing and get lots of money! Easy as that!" Chelsea happily cocks her gun "Fine but I'm just tellin' you what the fuck is gonna as usual".
The iron works smelled burnt steel, another one was the scent of rotting eggs. It was still hot, it was like walking inside an oven. Geraldine's suspicions didn't seem make her feel better, a part of her knew something was going to go wrong. She could feel it in her bones. The managers office was in sight. They climb up the stairs "Alright, everybody keep quiet and let Reggie do her thing" Geraldine said as she readies her Mac. They cross the scaffolding and reach the door, Reggie opens and see's the two Ballas. One wearing a white shirt, jeans down to mid waist and with a purple bandanna; which was their signature color. The other one is wearing a purple and black letter mans jacket with a purple cap on his head tied with a purple bandanna underneath it, Geraldine looked at them with caution; she never liked Ballas. Just call it instinct if you will.
"You the ones with those pills?" the one with the letter mans jacket asked "You B Dog?" Reggie looked at him "Yeah," he replied "you got those pills?". Reggie tosses the bag containing both the Xanax and pain killers towards the one wearing the white shirt. He picks up the bag and pulls out the baggies with the pills. He examines them in texture, they seem to be legit. "Alright, you got the pills; give me the money" she demanded "Calm down girl, you gonna get your money" B Dog says "I just got to get a taste of this", he unzipped the bag of Xanax and swallowed a piece. After a moment, it starts to kick in "Man, that's good shit" he complimented "Alright, it's good; now where's my money?" Reggie impatiently asked for. B Dog motions his man to hand over the money.
Reggie grabs the bag and opens it. The money was there and it was real, not like before with those coupons. "How much exactly?" she looked at them "70 stack" he says "So we got a deal?". Reggie smiled "Yeah, we got a deal". Chelsea's ears hear something in the distance, footsteps and some voices; she slows flips the safety off. Geraldine looks at B Dog, her eyes look closely at the side of his head; a bead of sweat slides down. Her eyes widen, realizing (and of course her instincts were right once again) at what they just walked into. She raises the Mac and points at him "Hands up motherfucker!".
"Whoa! Geraldine! Calm down!" Reggie put her hands out to stop from squeezing the trigger "Get the fuck out of the way! This motherfucker set us up!" she shouts "Gerry's right, don't you hear those assholes sneaking around out there?" Chelsea kept her Sig Sauer trained on the two bangers "Man, everybody calm the fuck down!" B Dog pulls out his revolver and points it at everybody "Just shut the fuck up! Ain't nobody set-!". Bang! The bullet goes through B Dog's forehead and he falls on the ground. Smoke slowly rises from the .25 caliber pistol that Frank is holding in his hand. Geraldine looks on and wonders what just occurred. His man quickly grabs the bag containing the pills and runs out the door behind where B Dog now lays "Shoot these fools! They killed B Dog!".
Glass shatters as rounds fly on about, everybody ducks down.
"Oh yeah Reggie! Real smooth! I told your stupid ass everythin' was just gonna end up like this!" Geraldine shouts at her friend "Hey! Everythin' was goin' great until you started to freak out!" Reggie crouches next to Chelsea "Yeah bitch! Maybe because I'm always right about this and your stupid ass is always wrong!" Geraldine briefly get's up and fires her Mac at their attackers "You know, we may want to get the fuck out of here now!" Chelsea insisted. "We got to get down there and take out these wanking fucks!" Chelsea runs down to the iron works, bullets narrowly hitting hitting. Geraldine follows behind her.
"So much for your friends plan for going smooth!" Bang! Bang! Bang! Chelsea says as she squeezed off three shots at their attackers "That's the thing about about Reggie, she doesn't listen to a damn thing I tell her!" Geraldine fires the Mac at one of the Ballas striking him. "You go left! I'll take the right!" Chelsea suggested "Right!" Geraldine says as she runs to the left.
The Ballas see her, they start shooting at her. They carry sawed shotguns and some Uzis. Several rounds bounce off a piece of a machine that she taking cover. Geraldine unleashes the blast of her Mac, a few fall; the others keep on shooting. They don't want to give up. That's the problem about gang bangers, they never know when to stop. The rattle of the Mac fuels the unending rounds that goes into their bodies, one by one they fall. Bullets tear through flesh like bloody tissue paper.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Several bangers go down as Chelsea takes aim at another set bangers. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! She ejects the clip and inserts a new clip into the chamber, she takes at a couple of bangers in her sight. Bang! Bang! One is stuck in the chest and the other is struck above his left temple. Bang! One get's hit in the stomach. Bang! Bang! Bang! The last three go down with center mass shots to their sternums. Everything's gone quiet, except for a small moan nearby. Chelsea walks to the area, a gang member has a bloody hole in his leg. Bang! Bang! Two rounds are tapped into his chest.
Everything is now quiet. Reggie and Frank come out of the managers office "They dead?" she asked "Yeah, they're all dead!" Geraldine angrily shouts "And it's all your motherfuckin' fault!" she points the blame at her friend "My fault? Hey you're the one who freaked the fuck out!" Reggie shoots back "Oh really? Oh yeah! You got the whole thing under control!" Geraldine mocks "This whole fuckin' thing was a damn set up!" she asserts angrily "It wasn't a set up! At least we got the money!".
"Let's just go! I don't wanna be here anymore!" Geraldine turned around and head for the way out. Right now every fiber in her body is steaming red hot. She's beginning to wonder if she should take Sunny's advice and just tell Reggie the truth?
...
The drive back to Geraldine's house isn't exactly pleasant as the two friends argued at the whole debacle. It was like two school kids arguing over whose smarter.
"This shit wasn't my fault! If you just shut the fuck up and just relaxed and let your girl handle this, none of this would have happened!" "Yeah! You handle that real well! I say it again! It was a set up! You motherfuckin' stupid ass dum dum!" "Dum dum? You still act like I'm a fuckin' kid Geraldine! I'm not a fuckin' little girl Geraldine! I can handle anything that comes my fuckin' way! That includes the Ballas motherfucker!".
Chelsea patiently listened on in "But on the bright side, we got some money!" she adds in a chipper manner "See, crazy girl even thinks my plans a fucking great thing!" Reggie complimented Chelsea "Besides Geraldine, if I didn't shoot that guy, he would have done something bad" Frank says with a smile "You want some of this motherfucker?!" she turns around and threatens him with the Mac "Whoa! Whoa! Gerry calm down!" Chelsea quickly pushes the hand holding the Mac upward to avoid a shootout in the van. Geraldine breathes in and out with anger and frustration; the pot's boiling. She just wants to dump the contents onto whatever was in her way. "Look, we're almost home," Chelsea cheered her up a bit "let's just relax and enjoy the money that we got".
The van finally arrives at Geraldine's house. Chelsea and Frank exit from the back. "You know what motherfucker?" Reggie turns to Geraldine "Your problem is you got no vision, you got no motivation" she bellowed "Bitch please! I got vision, okay? I just know how shit really works out there!" Geraldine angrily retorts "I wanna make paper without my ass gettin' shot at!", Reggie pulls the bag from the bottom and brings it towards her "You don't want any of this money then I'm gonna keep it" Reggie practically insisted "Good, I don't want any of that dirty ass money; probably ain't gonna be worth shit anyways" Geraldine snides, Reggie unzips the bag "Good! More money-!". Pop! A sound similar to that of a firecracker echoes in the van and something blue was splattered on the windshield and windows.
Chelsea and Frank quickly ran to the front of the van. Reggie carefully exits with blue splashed onto her shirt and face, Geraldine slowly walked around the front. She didn't get the worst of the it, the left side of her face is stained blue with some bits staining her apple red hair and her shirt. Reggie panted unable to fully grasp at what just accrued. "Man, please tell me this isn't happenin'?" she was on the verge of tears, Geraldine's expression was just wordless with a lot of anger and if seen figuratively a lot of steam coming out of her ears.
Chelsea pulls out a small device out of the bag "Would you look at that" she grinned "A homemade dye pack, hmm? I guess Geraldine was right", Reggie looked like just lost the big one. "So what, this shits worthless?" she sadly wondered "Not necessarily" Chelsea looked at a stained bill "If we clean some of these up they can still be worth something, but we got to clean them asap, otherwise they'll be worthless" she suggest "How much are they gonna be worth...?" Reggie eyes her "You're not going too like this...twelve grand". Reggie's heart breaks, a small measly amount of money that could probably buy her a crappy looking car somewhere. "You know what-? Just-!" Geraldine looked like the blood vessels in her body wanted to burst and spill everything into the street. "Just clean that shit and take it out of here" she growled "Right, come on; we got work to do" Chelsea patted Reggie and dragged her back to the van "Uh right, I'm going to come along too" Frank tried to insist on coming with the two women "No..." Chelsea maliciously looked at him "you're not invited...you need to go home...now..." she had this menacing look in her eyes "R-R-Right...I need to go home..." Frank slowly backed away and went the other way. Maybe he really was scared of Chelsea.
As Chelsea and Reggie drove away in her van with the blue splashed on the windshield, Geraldine walked to her garage.
She entered the garage and closed it. Her chest heaves inward and outward, her anger and frustration seethes like she was on fire. She finally lets out a violent scream. The garage door finally opens, Geraldine walks to the front door.
Tiger lazily lifts his head, seeing his master covered in blue. He slowly puts his head back down and goes back too sleep.
Geraldine opens the bathroom door. She turns the hot and cold water on; the tub fills up. She turns off the water. She strips off her clothes, including her blue stained shirt. She lastly takes her panties off and undoes her braids. She lowers herself into the tub. Geraldine grabs the soap bar and dips it in the water. Gently scrubbing the blue off her hair, she's frustrated and pissed off. If Reggie proved anything to her it was that she was incompetent and didn't know a damn thing about what they were walking into.
As she finished scrubbing the blue off of her hair, Geraldine now ponders if she should break things off with Reggie for good. Sunny said that she should sit down and talk things over but now she wonders it's even worth it anymore. She takes the soap and throws it in the water. She sits there, boiling in her own anger and her reason for continuing to be friends with Reggie.
Chapter 24 is coming soon. Rate and Review.