Blood Addicts Chapter Two

8/8/2019 Blood Addicts Chapter Two

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Chapter Two: Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From Ochoa

Sunday, September 17 th , 1:23 p.m.—Manhattan

Ricky Thomas and Hassan Cullen, Hudson’s lieutenants, were

making their way to his townhouse.

“Yo, did you see those two birds he left with last night?” asks

Hassan.

Ricky shook his head. “I wanted the one with the French name.

She look like a freak.”

“Yeah, she did. But Intensity looks like she can ride a nigga to

his birthday.”

They both laughed at that statement as they get through the

gate and on the townhouse’s stoop. Hassan rang the doorbell. No

answer.

“It’s bad enough he left us hangin’ last night, now he can’t

answer his damn door?”

“Just ring it again.” So Hassan did. Still no answer.

“’Ey yo, Grant!” Ricky yelled. One bang on the door and it

opened. “He didn’t lock the door?” he muttered to himself. They

started to walk in and were hit by an unbearable stench.

“Damn,” commented Ricky, his face screwed up in disgust.

“Smells like somethin’ died in here. Grant, when was the last time you

took out the garbage?”



“Yeah, did you take a shit and forget about it?” Hassan cracked,

only to hear the faint sound of cars moving outside. “Grant?”

They continued to search the house and call his name, holding

their noses the entire time. Ricky finally decided to check the

bedroom, and gaped at what he saw.

The two day-old rotting body of Grant Hudson was splayed out

across the bed. His flesh was open and bloody from the numerous

stab wounds that had become home to many maggots.

“OH SHIT!” Ricky yelled. Hassan rushed in and his eyes widened

to an unimaginable size.

“What the fuck is that?” his voice cracked as he pointed to a

piece of long, brown flesh on the floor. Ricky, afraid to take another

step, just leaned his head forward.

“Is that his dick?” The last thing he wanted to do was believe it,

but the circumcision scar verified his guess. He looked at Hassan, who

was holding his stomach and his eyes were drowsy. Ricky didn’t catch

on to what was going on until Hassan threw up all over his

Timberlands.

“The fuck, Hassan?!”

1:41 p.m.—Fort Lee, New Jersey

It’s amazing how Audrey’s sleeping and I’m not even though we

saw the same things, did the same things. We’re in another motel, in a

state we only go to for Six Flags and to visit relatives. I wanna renege



on the idea of staying with Aunt Jerry. She can see through any lie we

put her way. We might have to go farther than Jersey. I need a good

excuse to get out the motel and think about all of this before I break it

to her.

“Audrey,” I whisper.

“Hmm?” she groans.

“How much money we got left?”

Audrey reaches on the night table and pulls out the money clip.

She takes a deep breath and slowly sits up as she counts the money.

“1573.”

“Damn, how much money was in there?”

“1600.”

“Let me hold fifty. I wanna get us some stuff at the store.”

Audrey hands me a fifty-dollar bill and goes back to sleep.

“Thanks.”

“Mm-hmm.”

2:03 p.m.

I’m in the Quick Chek, going down the aisles, looking for things

we need. There’s nothing healthy here. Slim Jims. Cheez Doodlez.

Orange Slices. Normally, I’d do anything for food like this. But I need

better food now.

“Is there any other store ‘round here?” I say loud enough for

anyone to hear.



“No, this is it,” says the boy behind the counter. I exhale and

walk back down the aisle. I guess Sun Chips and Snapple are

considered healthy. After I get two bags and two bottles, I get ready to

go to the counter when I see this dude staring at me. Trying to ignore

him, I pay for my food while feeling his eyes burning in the back of my

head. Another look at him and he’s still looking at me . Time to get the

hell out of here.

I’m on my way back to the motel and I hear a voice say, “ Mami ,

wait up!” I keep walking, pumping my legs, scared out of my mind.

“Hey!”

I quickly turn around and take a good look at him. He is dark,

like Africa dark. Thick, curly hair. His eyes are black and shiny and

he’s medium height with a lean body.

“You were at Dark Delights on Saturday?”

I don’t answer him.

“Weren’t you?”

“Yes, why you wanna know?”

“What’s your name?”

“Shayla.”

“Shayla what?”

“Who the hell are you to ask me?”

“You look like somebody. What’s your last name?”



I sigh, “James.” I’ll say anything to get back to the motel without

getting hurt.

“Is Nicky your father?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh, I’m a friend of his. Milo Ochoa.” Oh, he’s a Latin? I

would’ve never guessed. “I saw you and your sister workin’ Hudson

last night. But you took away our chance of poppin’ him.”

I shook my head. “It’s already been--”

Milo’s phone went off. “Hold that thought. Whaddup? I gotta

take care of somethin’ in Paterson…Yeah?…What? Tomb got dumped

on? When this happen? They found him just a few weeks ago? Damn.

Well, I’m glad somebody got him. Too bad it couldn’t be me

personally. Holla back at ‘choo later.” Click. “Now what were you

gonna say?”

I curl my lips and do whatever I can from spilling my guts.

“Never mind,” I say, waving my hand.

“Now you sure?” Milo steps closer and he’s looking me in my

eyes, trying to feel me out. I remember someone telling me that if you

break a gaze, it looks like you’re lying.

I look right back at him, holding my ground and lie, “Don’t

worry.”

Milo looks at me for a few more minutes, then he nods his head.

“A’ight. Well, look. When you tired of runnin’ and you wanna get out



o’ them big-ass clothes, holla at me,” he offers, writing his number on

a piece of paper, then handing it to me. Then he walks over to his car.

Milo Ochoa. 973-555-2169.

“Peace, Shayla.” He drives out the parking lot and gets on the

highway. If he’s pushing a black Lincoln Navigator, then he can

definitely afford to help me and little sis out.

2:40 p.m.

“No, Shay. I’m not ‘bout to risk my life walkin’ in some guy’s

house.”

“But he had beef with Hudson and he’s willin’ to help us. Doesn’t

that tell you somethin’? This is perfect!”

Audrey furrows her eyebrows. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Audrey. Do you honestly believe that Aunt Jerry will take us in

and care for us if she finds out we killed somebody? Do you wanna go

from motel to motel for the rest of your life?”

“No, but I ‘on wanna no one pimpin’ me neither.”

“I ‘on think he’s a pimp ‘cuz he ain’t have a cane or furs or

nothin’.”

“They don’t sport that shit no more. They’re sneaky with it

now.”

I pick up the phone and get out Milo’s number. “Well, we’re not

gonna know until we find out.” I start dialing and continue, “He knows

our father, ‘Drey.”



“So did Hudson, and look what happened? What if--”

I hold up a finger to shush her.

Ring Ring Ring.

“Hello?” says a man’s voice.

“Is Milo there?”

“Who is this?”

“Shayla James.”

“OK, hold on. Mr. Ochoa…”

“Milo speakin’.”

“Hi, it’s Shayla.”

“Boy, you called quick. I’m assumin’ you need my help?”

“Yeah, we do.”

“Well, we’re too close to my house to turn around. I’m gonna

have someone pick you up. His name’s Trojan, he’s gonna be in a

silver Chrysler Crossfire. Expect him ‘round five.”

“Thank you. Thank you very much.” Click .

5:30 p.m.

Just like Milo promised, Trojan shows up in the parking lot. We

get in the backseat of the car and then he turns around in his seat and

gives us a warm smile. Which is surprising because he’s got a tattoo of

a dagger on his right bicep and a scar underneath his left eye.



“Hi, I’m Chance or Trojan, whichever you prefer,” he introduces

while getting back on the highway.

“Why do they call you ‘Trojan’?” I ask him.

“’Cuz when I was younger, my teacher’s computer got infected

with the Trojan virus and I was able to get rid of it with no pre-installed

programs or nothin’.”

“Then…how did you hook up with Milo?” asks Audrey.

“He needed to find someone who had double-crossed him with

some drugs. Dude gave him a joint laced with angel dust and Milo had

a seizure. His partner, Magali, practically turned over the entire town

of Harlem to rough up his grunts, but no one gave up his spot. Then

that crazy chick found me at Sylvia’s during my lunch break form

school, tellin’ me that someone had tipped her about my computer

skills and she’d pay me a grand to find this guy who was in hidin’. She

almost broke down cryin’ tellin’ me this. Magali’s a soldier, believe

that. But anyway, I agreed to help her. She gave me his name and

alias, and I went right to work. He had mad passcodes and I had to go

through flight records, but I broke through all o’ that. Turns out he was

chillin’ in Virginia Beach. After Milo got better, they rolled down there

and messed him up so bad that his whole right side twitched by itself

sometimes. I ‘on know exactly what they did to him, but he never

screwed anyone over again after that. Then Milo offered me a job as

his computer specialist and I took it.”



I’m shocked. I wouldn’t think of Milo as a kind of guy to fly off

the handle like that. Then again, I didn’t think of myself like that,

either.

Trojan looks at me through his rearview mirror and sees the

worried look on my face. “Don’t worry, I don’t think he’s gonna hurt

you. If he wants you, he probably sees some potential in you.”

I ask (more like whisper), “What’s his policy on killin’? Is he like,

ruthless?”

“Nah. Unlike these other crazy-ass wannabes out there, he’s

conservative with his. He believes that sometimes, killin’ somebody.

You can mess ‘em up other ways, and it’s not always physical, neither.

But if it’s necessary, then it must be done.

Why you so quiet, mama?” he asks Audrey.

“I got nothin’ to say,” she mutters.

“She gonna be a’ight?”

“Yeah, she’s just tired.” Audrey gives me an empty or sad look;

I’m not sure which. She’s always been loud, spunky. Now her

demeanor fluctuates. I take her hand, lacing my fingers with hers and

I mouth, “It’s OK, it’s OK.”

6:30 p.m.

“Shay, Shay,” I hear Audrey’s voice say as she shakes me.

“We’re here.” Then I hear the door open as I slowly open my eyes to



see Audrey get out the car with Trojan by her side. Even though it’s

only been an hour, I feel like I’ve slept for days. It’s a good feeling.

We stand in front of a big house with gas lanterns on either side

of a stoop. As we walk behind Trojan, I notice that he stops and

glances at the mailbox. Then he continues up the stoop, gets out his

keys and unlocks the big wooden door.

“We’re here, Milo!” Trojan yells.

“He’s in his office,” a young male voice yells back from the living

room. A light-skinned dude about my height, dressed in red/black

basketball shorts, black wifebeater and classic black Chuck Taylors

comes out.

“Hey, what’s up?” greets Trojan as he gives him a pound.

“Who’re they?” he asks, pointing to us. Trojan walks to him, says

something in a low voice and I can practically see a light bulb appear

over his head.

“Oh, a’ight.”

“I gotta take ‘em to him. See ya later.”

“Peace.”

We start walking up a long spiral staircase leading upstairs. I

turn my head back and see Audrey looking back downstairs, like she

wants to go back. We finally get upstairs and go in the third door to

the right.



Milo’s office looks very, very modern. The walls, ceiling and

furniture are silver and black. A plasma TV is flickering against the

silver wall, making a fuzzy reflection. Milo’s at his desk on the

computer with a serious look on his face. At the sound of our footsteps

he looks up at us and gives a little smile.

“We’re good from here, Troj, thanks.” Trojan nods his head and

walks out the room, closing the door behind him.

“You girls go sit on the couch, I’ll be with you in a minute.”

I motion Audrey to come in with me, because she’s looking

around in awe of everything. I’ll admit, his place is nice, but we’re

here on business. Can’t get comfortable until we know all about this

guy.

When we hear the “shut-down” sound come from the computer,

Milo walks over and sits down in the loveseat in front of us.

“Audrey, could you turn off the TV? The remote’s right next to

you,” he asks gently. Audrey turns off the TV and Milo thanks her.

“OK. First off, I just want you to know that I know what you guys

did to Hudson.”

My heart jumps in my throat and my face falls to the floor.

Audrey whispers, “Shit, we’re done. We’re done.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna turn you in. Actually I was souped

when I found out he got cut. He’s been disrespectin’ my crew for too

long.”



Has something good actually come out of this? “Whatcha

mean?”

“Did your mom even tell you why Nicky’s in jail?”

“No, she said she’d tell us when we turned eighteen. But…” I

trail off.

Milo leans in. “But what?”

“Hudson killed her. He raped her right in front of us, then he

killed her,” Audrey blurts out. A furious look crosses Milo’s face.

“What? He did that with you two standin’ there?”

“No…” I tell him everything that happened from Mommy rushing

us in the hall closet, to the big fight, and all the other things we saw

through those blinds. Then I tell him about out planning Hudson’s

murder, how we seduced and tricked him and how we were so happy

about killing him that it scared us.

Now he looks just like Audrey did in the closet. Shocked with

raised eyebrows. “That was pretty gutsy of you two. You’re definitely

Nicky and Leah’s daughters. But I’m shocked that anybody, even

Hudson would wanna do her like that.” Then he shakes his head and

looks to the floor.

Audrey says, “He said somethin’ about her snitchin’ and she

said, ‘It was either you or me, Grant. And I wasn’t gonna leave my

husband for no reason.’ He…He called her a dirty bitch.” Her voice is

shaking. If tears fall, it will be her fifth cry in the past two weeks.



“I won’t keep you waitin’ no more. I’m gonna tell you what went

down.

Me, Nicky and Leah all grew up on the same block in Harlem. Me

and Nicky would cop a few things from stores, and sell them

underground. We’d steal everythin’ from clothes to novelty items and

sometimes, jewelry. Leah would just keep track of our stuff, and

sometimes even be lookout.

Hudson came over from the Bronx by the time we hit high

school. He didn’t have a lot of money, so he wanted in with us. At this

point, we were pullin’ in 500 to a grand a week. We were suspicious at

first, but we figured just because we’re thieves, doesn’t make us

heartless. So we let him roll with us.”

I’m so drawn by this. It’s disheartening to know and hard to

accept that your parents were criminals. But at the same time, it

makes them look…interesting. Cool almost.

Milo continues, “It was pretty good. Especially in tenth grade.

We decided to take a risk and bump up to chronic. That went pretty

well. On top of that, Nicky and Leah were pushin’ up on each other on

the regular. He finally realized that she was a woman and vice versa.

They couldn’t deny it anymore. I think Hudson was kinda tight about

that because he was always tryin’ to roast on him. Even try to

compete with him on the dope sales. But Nicky’s swag 1 just couldn’t

be duplicated.1





Then a couple of years went by. We had graduated and were

sharin’ a brownstone. Nicky and Leah couldn’t be around because

they were pregnant with you, so business was on a plateau. Me and

Hudson had to take the reins. I swear to God, that nigga tried to go

toe to toe with me on the regular. I’m surprised we got any work done.

One issue came up. There was one dude in our crew, A.K. He

did somethin’ real foolish, I don’t even remember. Oh, yeah! He gave

up the wrong amount of our money at a poker game. We have a

separate account for gambling money. Now if you lose to a full house,

standard is you give up 100, 150 at most. This jackass went too fast

and gave up 300. Somethin’ in his head shoulda told him that was too

damn much. Hudson was furious and wanted to dump on him. I told

him to chill. That I’d just cuss him out and take some of his personal

dough as penance. Hudson was like, ‘Fine, I’ll leave his ass alone.’

Next day, A.K.’s laid up in the hospital with broken ribs, a black eye

and butterfly stitches. I ain’t gotta tell you whodunit.

We called a meetin’ back at the house and discussed the

situation and decided that Hudson had to go. He was stripped of all

rank, his earnings were distributed evenly among the crew and his

supply was taken. Hudson was talkin’ a whole bunch of shit, how we

ain’t nothin’ without him, forgettin’ the fact that we took him in. He

did somethin’ he wasn’t supposed to and that’s what he got.



Later, I was in the D.R. 2 to visit my family. On my second week

of stayin’ there, I get a call from Leah that she’s locked up for murder.

Now we had guns, but we only killed in self-defense or people who had

done somethin’ that was wrong even in our world. We ain’t a gang

who kills for territories or colors or all that bullshit. So I couldn’t see a

reason why Leah or anyone in our crew would get charged with

murder, unless they were dumb enough to get caught.

I asked her, ‘Are you the only one locked up?’

And she said, ‘No, Hudson is too. They copped us for bein’ at the

crime scene.’

‘What were you doin’ there with Hudson? Was Nicky there?’

‘No, he wasn’t. He can’t come ‘cuz he’s got double pneumonia,

that’s why I’m callin’ you. I was there to do some business and Hudson

just popped out of nowhere.’

‘Where was this?’ I couldn’t believe her. She’s was workin’ while

she’s pregnant!

‘A few blocks from the Apollo.’

‘A’ight, Leah, I’m comin’ back. But be honest with me. Did you

kill anybody? By accident or on purpose?’

‘No! I ain’t held a gun since I got pregnant! I ‘on want my

babies born in jail!’

I told her not to worry and I came back here. Her and Hudson

were bein’ held at a local precinct. But if I hadn’t come in time, she2 D.R.- Dominican Republic



would’ve been transferred to Sing Sing to await trial. Leah was there

because she’d seen who did the murder, but wouldn’t tell who.”

“Who was it?”

“Hudson. But the thing is, we follow a rule: Never, ever snitch.

Not even on the person you hate the most. Leah was holdin’ her

ground for two weeks. But she was eight months pregnant. Her and

Nicky hoped to give up that life to raise you two. Bein’ born in prison

wouldn’t’ve been a good start for you.

So she sang like a bird. Told them everything. I don’t blame her.

She was let off, he got 25 years. When he left, his whole operation

dropped. His whorehouse, gamblin’, everythin’. The only reason I can

guess for him getting’ out was parole.”

“But how did Daddy get locked up?” Audrey asks.

“I’m gettin’ to that. I ‘on know how, but three months after you

were born, the cops found a bunch of our supply under a small club

Nicky owned. I think someone snitched on us, ‘cuz that stash was

hidden too good for the cops to find on their own. They found 17 kilos,

so Nicky got 17 years. After that, Leah quit. She couldn’t take it

anymore and wanted to raise you in peace. I gave her my blessings

and she went off. She cut off all contact with us. I still have the

brownstone, but this house here is considered headquarters. I only got

twenty soldiers, three lieutenants and one co-captain. Everyone else is



either locked up, dead or they quit. But you parents were riders all the

way.

I take it she’s never mentioned any of this to you?”

“No,” I answer. “Not even a little bit. Do you know which prison

he’s in?”

“He was originally in Riker’s, but he’s been transferred so many

times. The warden won’t tell us where he is because he had too many

issues with the prison. If I knew, I’d take you to him right now. I’m real

sorry. You can stay here as long as you want. And if you ever feel like

helpin’ out around here, let me know. I’ll prepare you.”

“What you mean help out?”

“I—You know what, don’t worry about it for now. Just know you

have a place here.”

“Thank you so much.”

“I have to. You’re my best friend’s daughters so that makes me

your uncle, I guess.”

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Blood Addicts Chapter Two