Tone knew he exercised poor judgment and this was bad timing. But he had to do what he had to do. He didn’t know when he’d see Sykes again. Tone thought about explaining the whole situation to her. Quickly, he changed his mind. He felt no matter what he said, Sonya wouldn’t understand. This was some street shit and a civilian would never understand it. There was no way he could ever justify the shooting. Tone figured Sonya would eventually get over it, she was a trooper.
It took every ounce of his willpower to bite his tongue and not get into an argument with Sonya. Out of frustration, Tone grinded his teeth together loudly. He had little else to say.
“Yeah, take me home!” he said aloud. This is the last time I try be nice to yo ass, he thought.
9
“What?” Tone spat groggily into the telephone. “Say that again.”
“This nigga Sykes came through and robbed a few workers and shot up the block,” Mann repeated. “It’s crazy hot out here right now. Mad police.”
“What about the stash?” Tone asked. “Did he hit the stash house?”
“Nah, we good on that,” Mann told him. “Shop closed.”
“Where you at?” Tone wondered.
“I took a hack to my lil Shorty house out in Cedonia,” Mann informed him.
Tone advised, “Stay right there, I’m on my way.”
Damn, I can’t believe this shit is happening...FUCK! Tone cursed, hanging up the phone.
Deep down inside he knew it was his own fault. Tone may have thought that he put the fear of God into Sykes, but that wasn’t the case at all. He had gotten overconfident after the shooting and had forgot to call anyone and make his team aware of what had happened. Sykes made him pay for that oversight. The very next day he had swiftly retaliated against them, hitting Tone where it hurt, in his pockets. He felt fortunate because things could have been much worse.
Sykes was proving nothing was safe as long as he was around. He was playing a deadly game of hide and seek, in which whomever got caught would likely wind up dead. On the streets there was always someone out to get someone else, especially in East Baltimore, that was nothing new. It was just the way things were. Tone realized if it weren’t Sykes, he’d probably have an issue with someone else.
Frustration simmered inside him. Sykes was becoming a big pain in his ass. To Tone he was more of a nuisance to the neighborhood, albeit a deadly one, than anything else. Tone jumped out the bed, threw on some clothes, and grabbed his gun. He hopped into his car and drove past the block before going to meet Mann.
Once again they strategized on ways to solve their problem, none of which sat too well with Tone. They discussed putting a hit out on Sykes, but he was sure that word would get back to him. They also thought about bringing down a shooter from New York to carry out the plot. Tone nixed that idea too, since there was no telling when or where Sykes would be seen again. With the shooting incident, Tone had proven to himself and Sykes that he had enough heart to get down and dirty whenever the situation called for it. More than ever the situation was calling for it now.
Besides Sykes, he had another problem. He had gotten some cocaine on consignment and he had to pay that bill as soon as possible. His connect didn’t want to hear about his beef, all he wanted was his money. He managed to stash enough money to live off for a few months, and also to pay for whatever amount of cocaine he had got fronted. But he didn’t want it to come to that. Quickly, Tone had to find a way to get it to him in a timely fashion. Or he had to face the fact that things might get worse before they got better.
In the days following the robbery, Sykes went on the offensive against Tone and his team. He launched assault after assault, doing everything in his power to disrupt his drug business. He began shooting at all of Tone’s workers, anyone who had anything to do with Tone. If Sykes had it his way, he would run Tone and anyone who dealt with him from around Ashland Avenue and Madeira Street for good.
One by one, local dudes from the area quit working for Tone until his team dissolved into just him and his cousin Mann. He couldn’t understand it, how was it possible that not one person from that area wanted to get money with him? He couldn’t believe how much Sykes had the whole hood under pressure. He suspected that he had verbally threatened more than a few people’s lives. And after what he had done to Shorty, no one was actually hanging around Tone to become his next victim.
In response to their cowardly actions, what Tone really wanted to do was call them out for being pussies. He had every reason and yet no reason at all to be pissed off at them. But something held him back from doing that. He couldn’t think of what advantage that that would gain him. After all, this wasn’t their beef, it was his. He just needed time to process things, to think this thing out. Tone thought time away from the block was the best thing right now. It was best to lay low until the drama died down. All this back and forth shit was taking a toll on him.
Tone glanced into his bathroom mirror, seeing the severity of his circumstances staring him in his face. He’d been staying in the house so much lately he didn’t know what to do with himself. He replayed the events of the past two days yet again. He needed a solution and he needed it
