“We gon’ have to kill this nigga.”
“We didn’t wear gloves!”
“Shit!”
They looked around for a getaway, but it turned out that they wouldn’t need one.
“Aye! There ain’t nothing downstairs in the basement!” Rex yelled, coming back upstairs from the basement.
“Yeah, it gotta be upstairs!”
Lee would never know how he saved Mario and Demetrius’s lives because he paid for them with his own.
Bot! Bot! Bot!
Mario peeked around the corner just in time to see Ro place a bullet neatly in the middle of Lee’s forehead.
“Shit!” Rex yelled and tried to aim his own gun while attempting to go back into the basement.
Ro was firing shots, and Rex was ducking down and firing back. Soon, they were out of Mario’s sight, and all he could hear was gunshots in the basement.
“Go go go!” Demetrius urged, but he didn’t have to tell Mario twice. He was already halfway down the stairs.
Tesha almost had a heart attack seeing the two masked men running at her from up the stairs. Seeing the duffle bag of money on one of their shoulders, a look of alarm crossed her pretty brown face. She took a breath to yell.
“R-”
“Mmm!” Demetrius grunted sending a haymaker to her face and knocking her out cold. “Shut up, bitch!”
There were still gunshots going on in the basement, letting Mario know that Rex was still alive and putting up a fight. He couldn’t just leave him.
“Take the money and pull the car up.”
“Bro—”
“I ain’t leaving my fuckin’ nigga, man!” Mario tossed Demetrius the car keys and the duffle bag. “If I ain’t out in five minutes, drive off and drop off twenty Gs to my aunt.”
Mario didn’t give him a chance to answer before he took off toward the basement with his gun drawn. He took the concrete steps two at a time, trying to hurry up in case it wasn’t too late.
“Nigga, you thought you could just come up into my bitch’s spot and rob me like you was really about this life?”
Mario reached the bottom step of the basement just in time to see Rex scooting back, holding a gunshot wound at his waist. His gun was far away from him, like he’d dropped it when he got hit. The basement was cold and full of junk, boxes, and old furniture. Mario ducked behind one of the boxes so Ro wouldn’t see his shadow.
“You’re just a kid trying to play in a league with the big boys. Now, I’m about to split yo’ shit open like I did your friend upstairs for trying to steal my money.”
“Friends,” Rex corrected.
“What did you say, little nigga?”
Ro knelt down and snatched Rex’s mask from his face.
“I said, ‘friends.’ Plural, big nigga. You should tell yo’ bitch to not be so chatty and niggas like me wouldn’t have ran all up in her shit. I bet my niggas is around the block with your money right now. Ready to do it big.”
He laughed and spat blood right into Ro’s shocked face. Rex wasn’t ready to die, but if this was his time, he wanted to go down fighting.
“Stupid nigga,” Ro said, placing his gun to Rex’s temple and putting pressure on the trigger. “I done seen your face. And when I go upstairs and take that nigga’s mask off, I’ma see his too. Ain’t gon’ be nothing for my niggas to put two and two together on who robbed me. Yo’ homies can thank you for getting them killed when I catch them.”
“Nah,” Mario said, standing up from where he was hiding. “Real niggas don’t get caught.”
He fired his gun four times when Ro whipped around and tried to aim his gun. It was no use. Mario caught him in the neck twice, his chest, and his stomach. When Ro dropped to the ground, he was staring blankly at the ceiling with no life left in him.
“Damn, nigga,” Rex smiled dopily at his friend. “I thought you left me.”
“Nah, nigga. Never that,” Mario said, first grabbing Rex’s gun and mask from the ground. After he tucked them away, he helped Rex up. “I would cross hella other niggas, but never my niggas. Come on, Demetrius is in the car waiting for us. We gotta hurry up before that nigga pulls off with the money.”
Rex groaned as he limped up the stairs. They passed Lee’s body on their way out the door and Rex’s forehead wrinkled.
“He shot my dog, man,” he said, shaking his head. “What I’ma tell his mom?”
“She knew he was a street nigga,” Mario said bluntly. “This is the life we live; most likely will be how we die. At least he’ll have an open casket.”
Rex nodded his head and stepped over Tesha, who was still passed out in her living room right by her front door. Mario aimed his gun at her and squeezed the trigger twice, placing two bullets in her chest.
“No witnesses,” he said heartlessly.
“Fuck!” Demetrius exclaimed when the two men stepped out of the house. He unlocked the car doors. “I was about to pull off on you niggas!”
“Pop the trunk!” Mario instructed after Rex was successfully placed in the car. “Come help me get the body.”
He and Demetrius went back in the house to get Lee and put him in Mario’s trunk.
“A’ight, now, let’s go! Take me to my aunty. I can’t go to the hospital after this shit. That’s too hot. She can get the bullet out and patch me up. It’s just a flesh wound. That nigga ain’t have no aim on me.”
“Hell, yes. Aunty Dez be working wonders,” Demetrius nodded, knowing exactly who Rex was talking about. She was like a doctor to everyone in the hood.
They all drove in silence for a while. The hit had gone both good and bad. Lee wasn’t someone that Mario had been close to. The only reason he was able to ride with them in the first place was because Rex plugged
