Grand Opening 2 Read online

  “I’m not sure what this is all about, Mr. Mahogany, but Big Sam Bradford was a piece of shit whose death should be celebrated, not fought over. Now, I’m sorry if you lost a friend, but we had to deal with him, and it was either him or us. We chose him.”

  Mr. Mahogany snapped his fingers, and all of his men sat down. “I respect what you’re saying, LC, and Sam was more of an associate than a friend”—He looked toward EJ, who was breathing heavy and glaring at Larry—“although he and my son had some dealings that they did not know I was aware of.” I could tell from Mr. Mahogany’s voice that whatever he was talking about was deeply personal. EJ’s expression softened, and he too his seat as nonchalantly as possible.

  Mr. Mahogany’s eyes went from EJ to each of my brothers as he continued to speak. “Look, we don’t want no trouble with you boys. I’ve been watching you from afar, and I’m impressed. You’ve earned my respect. Matter of fact, that’s why I wanted to talk to you, LC. I’ve come to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime.”

  Larry

  2

  “I still can’t get over how beautiful that wedding was.” Nee Nee placed a well-positioned hand on my thigh, letting me know that I was going to get some that night. We’d just pulled up the driveway to the farm, and I was glad to be home, mostly because for the past twenty minutes, I’d been trying my best to listen but not listen to Nee ramble on and on about how spectacular Juan and Maria’s wedding had been. I loved that woman to death, but I hated how she tried to manipulate me, because what she was really trying to say was that she wanted to get married and have a wedding too. Nee was good for using reverse psychology on folks, me especially, but this was a little too obvious.

  “Come on now, Nee, you knew Juan was gonna go all out,” I replied, placing the car in park. “That flashy Puerto Rican thinks he’s a white boy for real sometimes. Do you know how much money they pissed away?”

  “Yeah, but that wedding was extra special. I ain’t never seen nobody have fireworks at their wedding. Even the white folks who ran the country club couldn’t believe that. It was like something out of a movie. Did you see the fireworks and the all-white horses pulling that Cinderella carriage?”

  “Yeah, of course I saw it. Everyone saw it.” The truth of the matter was that I spent more time watching that blue-black Mr. Mahogany and his snaggletooth son EJ talking my brother LC’s ears off more than I did anything else at that wedding. Something about those slick motherfuckers from Atlanta just didn’t sit well with me, especially that son of a bitch EJ. I probably should have just killed his ass when I had the chance, instead of just knocking over his chair. I was particularly concerned now that LC and Chippy were on their way up to Atlanta for some big, top secret meeting without me and Lou. I sure hoped Mr. Smarty-Pants knew what he was doing.

  “I swear that wedding was so beautiful, it was like something out of Disney World.” Nee shook her head, looking starry-eyed as she sighed. “I don’t even have the words.”

  “Or the money,” I said with a laugh. “I can think of far better things to do with that kinda money than piss it away on a wedding. He must have spent thirty or forty grand on that wedding, and in a day or two, folks won’t even remember that shit. It’ll be back to reality for the citizens of Waycross, Georgia.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Nee shrugged. “But it’s something the two of them will remember the rest of their lives, and that’s all that matters.”

  “I hear you. Good for them.” I reached for the door handle. “I’d still rather have the cash.”

  “You’re such a romantic.” Nee sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes, opening her door with a hard shove. I knew at that moment the chances of me getting any were slim and none, so I might as well keep playing my part.

  “Thank you,” I replied. I knew I was just pissing her off even more, but why pretend? I wasn’t planning on marrying her anytime soon. I didn’t need any white man’s piece of paper to prove my commitment to her. We had a son together, and that was commitment enough.

  “Hey, you think the boy is up?” The thought of seeing our son brought a smile to my face. I loved Nee and the rest of my family, but my son Curtis was my reason for living.

  Nee Nee glanced at her watch. “He better not be. But then again, you know your momma. She spoils those boys to death.”

  “She’s just being a grandma. We’ll see how you act when you’re in her position.” She laughed right along with me, because we both knew she would spoil her grandkids ten times worse than my momma ever could.

  By the time I got out of the car, Nee Nee was already walking on the porch. She opened the screen door and asked me over her shoulder, “You got your key?”

  I reached into my pocket for the house key, but when she put her hand on the door knob, the door opened up right away.

  “Got dammit!” I cursed, stepping up behind her. “How many times I gotta tell Momma about leaving that door unlocked?” It was one thing when Levi had his dogs there, but now that he’d moved into Big Shirley’s and taken the dogs with him, that door should have been locked at all times.

  “Relax. You know she ain’t used to locking no doors,” Nee said, stepping inside. She switched on the light and screamed.

  I rushed in and saw what had her so upset. The house was tore up from the floor up, like a cyclone had run through there, and sitting right in the middle of the mess were Curtis and Junior.

  “What the hell?” I thought it was cute the way my mother spoiled the kids, but even I thought this was going too far.

  “I’m sorry, but I am not gonna be this bad,” Nee joked, but I didn’t find a damn thing funny.

  I had to step over a couple of pillows and pick up a potato chip bag as I walked into the room. “Momma!” I called out.

  The boys were sitting over by the television. There was an empty tub of ice cream and two spoons on the ground. A couple of bottles of Nehi soda sat on the coffee table, along with a few empties on the floor. As Curtis picked one up and started chugging away, neither he nor Junior took their eyes off the cartoons they were watching.

  “Momma!” Getting no response, I headed toward the kitchen. “Ma—” My words halted when I saw that she wasn’t in there either.

  “She’s probably in her room drunk,” Nee said, shaking her head. “Mr. Byrd came by with some of that corn liquor he be making the other day. I bet she mixed it with some of that Nehi orange that she likes so much. She’s probably passed out on the bed.”

  I spun around and headed for Momma’s bedroom.

  “Jesus, Larry! Knock me down why don’t you?” Nee said when I smashed right into her.

  “Sorry, but something ain’t right.” I apologized but didn’t wait for a response as I made a beeline toward the bedroom. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

  “Momma!” She wasn’t in her room, so I continued to call out as I went from one room to the next in search of my mother. I finally stopped searching and walked into the living room where Nee had started picking up some of the mess.

  “She’s in there drunk, ain’t she?” Nee asked.

  I shook my head. “I couldn’t find her. I don’t think she’s here.”

  “What do you mean? She has to be here.” Nee Nee’s face finally revealed the same panic I felt. We looked over at the boys. “I know your mother. No way would she leave them here alone.”

  “I know,” I replied, “but where the fuck is she?”

  I stepped in front of the TV, staring down the boys, who looked annoyed when I turned off their Betamax tape. “Hey,” Curtis whined. “We was watching that.”

  “Where’s Grandma Bettie?” I asked sternly.

  “She’s not here,” Junior replied.

  “What do you mean she’s not here? Where is she?”

  “She gone,” Curtis answered, still trying to look past me at the static TV screen.

  “Yeah, she went with the men,” Junior said, clearly hoping it would be enough information for me to let them get back to
their show.

  A wave of heat ran through my body. “Men! What men?” I was not about to believe Momma left these boys alone while she went out with some men.

  Junior scratched his head as if he was thinking real hard. “Umm, one of them had a toy gun.”

  Curtis chimed in, “He let me play with it, and I was gonna shoot it, just like you, Daddy.” Nee and I glanced at each other, neither of us able to speak.

  “No, you wasn’t,” Junior snapped at Curtis. “He didn’t even let you play with his gun.”

  “Yes he did,” Curtis shot back, smacking Junior in the head. Junior started crying.

  “Curtis!” Nee yelled. Under normal circumstances, she would have whipped Curtis’s behind for hitting his cousin, but this shit was anything but normal. If what the boys were saying was true, someone with a gun was in my house, and now my momma was missing.

  Nee grabbed my arm, and I could feel her trembling. I’m not sure if she could see the terror in my eyes, but I sure as hell saw it in hers.

  “You think someone took her?” Nee asked as we stepped away from the boys to talk.

  “Sure as hell looks like it.” I felt about ready to break something in half.

  “Oh my God, Larry, what we gonna do?”

  “First I’m gonna get out of this piece-of-shit tuxedo. Then I’m gonna call my brothers.” I started walking toward my bedroom, already taking off my tuxedo shirt. “Then we’re gonna hunt down the motherfuckers who took my momma and kill they asses.”

  Bettie

  3

  Three hours earlier

  I’d been invited to Juan and Maria’s fancy wedding, but I chose to stay home with my grandbabies. I said it was to give their mothers a break, but mostly it was because I just loved those two boys to death and wanted to spend as much time with them as I could. Besides, I felt a little uneasy going to a wedding for two people I barely knew. I’d met Juan a few times since I’d been home, and he appeared to be a nice enough fella—hell, everyone seemed to like him, including Larry, who didn’t like nobody—but after being in jail so long, I didn’t do well in crowds. So I told them to wish Juan luck as I did everything I could to get them out the door.

  But that Chippy still resisted.

  “You know what? Maybe I’ll stay home with you, Miss Bettie,” Chippy said, taking off her shawl. “These boys are gonna be a handful for you to handle.”

  “No, they’re not! Now, you take your wiry behind with your husband to that wedding and have a good time. Grandma Bettie got this. Me and my grandsons have some ice cream and cake to eat, and mommies and daddies aren’t invited, so carry your asses.” I picked up her shawl and handed it to her.

  “But—”

  “Git!” I pointed at the door.

  Chippy looked at LC for backup, but he just shook his head before taking her arm and leading her out the door. She didn’t look happy, but I didn’t really give two shits if she got mad. She’d get over it. Besides, a woman is supposed to get mad at her mother-in-law at least one time in her life. I had to admit, though, that I liked the women LC, Larry, and Levi had chosen for themselves. Now, if I could only get Lou to settle down before I closed my eyes, I’d be all right.

  I glanced over at Nee Nee, who raised her hands in surrender and followed them out the door.

  “Bye, Momma.” Larry leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Lock the door behind us.”

  “Okay, baby. Bye-bye.” I closed the door, leaning up against it as I chuckled to myself. “Damn, I thought they’d never leave.”

  “What’s so funny, Grandma Bettie?” Junior, a pudgy little mound of joy, asked as he looked up from the Hot Wheels cars and tracks that he and Curtis were playing with. Junior was four months younger but almost twice Curtis’s size.

  “Your momma, that’s what’s so funny.” I was still laughing—until I realized what was about to happen. “Boy, if you don’t put that down, I’m gonna whip you with it until your momma and daddy come home.”

  “I didn’t do nothing,” Curtis whined, dropping the Hot Wheels track he had been holding. His slick ass was about to slam that track up against Junior’s head. It would have left a serious mark, which was the last thing I needed, considering Chippy was the most overprotective momma I’d met in my life.

  “You was about to.” I shook my head, and Curtis tried to play innocent, showing off his momma’s dimples as crocodile tears ran down his face. Bad as he was, that boy couldn’t help but melt your heart. He was so cute. “Who’s ready for a bubble bath and then some ice cream?” I shouted, and his tears instantly dried up.

  “And cake!” Junior added as both boys jumped up and ran toward the bathroom. All I could do was smile and thank God for giving me the chance to know them.

  Twenty minutes later, they were clean, but getting those boys cleaned up ’bout laid me out flat. Chippy wasn’t lying when she said they were a lot of work. But then again, I’d never been against hard work.

  “Grandma Bettie, you said we could have ice cream and cake, remember?” Junior announced no sooner than I’d slipped his pajama top over his head. He was one of the happiest and bubbliest kids I’d ever met. His sweet, gentle spirit reminded me of my son Levi. Levi was still a big ol’ kid to this day, trapped in a big ol’ man’s body. But that Curtis, on the other hand. He was wild and rambunctious, just like Larry. I mean, if that boy didn’t remind me of his father when he was a child, he didn’t remind me of anyone.

  “Yeah, we gonna have ice cream and cookies, right?” Curtis chimed in.

  “Son, there is one thing you gon’ learn.” I turned and spoke to Curtis, who was already in his PJs, sitting on the toilet seat, waiting for me to finish up with Junior. “And that’s that your Grandma Bettie is a woman of her word. If I say something, I mean it. Now, let’s go get some ice cream and cake.”

  “Yay!” the boys shouted in unison then darted out of the bathroom.

  “You boys sit down and watch TV. I’m coming, I just gotta clean out this filthy tub first,” I said as I grabbed a rag and some Comet. I swear there was so much dirt left in that tub, those boys must have had half the dirt in Waycross on their bodies. It took me a little longer than I expected, but once I’d finished straightening up, I headed down the hall and into the living room.

  It was quiet, and the boys were nowhere to be seen. I figured they must have been in the kitchen. Still, that silence didn’t sit well with me.

  “Curtis? Junior? Where y’all at?”

  “In the kitchen, Grandma Bettie,” Junior hollered.

  “So, are you boys ready for some ice cre—“ I entered the kitchen but froze dead in my tracks at the sight before me. I honestly could not believe my eyes. Junior was sitting at the table, eating ice cream directly from the carton. Meanwhile, Curtis was sitting on the lap of a man I’d never seen before, holding a huge hunk of uncut cake.

  “As you can see, they’ve started without you.” A piss-yellow man smiled at me, showing a mouth full of rotten teeth.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you have ten—I mean five seconds to get the fuck out of this house.”

  “Why such a party pooper?” the man said, leaning over to take a bite of Curtis’s cake. “Look at ’em. They’re all happy and shit. It would be a shame to disturb their moment. So why don’t we spare traumatizing these kids by you taking a little drive with me?”

  “I ain’t going nowhere with you.” I whipped a pearl-handled. 38 from my apron. Lou had given it to me as a homecoming present. “Now, get the fuck out my house.”

  He sat there, staring at me like I had two heads at first; then he busted out laughing. “Whoo-wee, Granny is gangster! Now I see where your fathers get it from,” he said to the boys, who were so wrapped up in eating their sweets they seemed oblivious to what was happening in the room.

  “Yeah, she’s gangster all right,” I heard a voice say from behind me. The next thing I heard was the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked. Then I felt something pressing against my spine and hot
breath against my ear. “Heard she took out two white men without even giving it a second thought, but if you don’t put that goddamn gun down, I’m gonna take you and those little brats out without giving it a thought myself.” He pressed the gun harder against my back.

  I looked at Junior and Curtis, who weren’t the least bit scared, as they were having a pretend sword fight with their spoons over the tub of ice cream.

  The man at the table nodded toward the man who was holding the gun at my back.

  “Think about it, Granny,” the man with the gun said. “Would you rather put that gun down and come with us, or get your brains blown out in front of your grandchildren?”

  I couldn’t even answer before he was making an even worse threat.

  “Or better yet, watch your grandsons’ brains get blown out? Doesn’t matter to me. I get paid either way.”

  He made his way from around the back of me to stand near Junior. I had to admit that after the life I’d lived, I didn’t give a shit about getting shot, but those babies were another story. They still had a long life ahead of them. It was because of me my own boys didn’t get to live the childhood they should have. I could not be the reason why my grandchildren didn’t get to live at all.

  “What is this about? Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  “I bet if you think long and hard, you’ll figure it out, Miss Duncan.” There was something about the way he spoke that seemed awfully familiar. He wasn’t like his rotten-tooth friend. This man had some polish to him, and there was no doubt he was in charge.

  “Well, kiss my ass. You’re his son, aren’t you?” I said when it came to me.

  “Can you see the family resemblance?” He grinned as he aimed his gun in the direction of Junior’s temple. “Now, drop the gun and let’s go. You have a date with destiny, and I’d hate for one of your sons to show up and ruin it.”

  I dropped my gun to the floor.

  “Junior, Curtis.” They both looked up with ice cream–covered faces, and I wanted to cry. “Grandma Bettie’s gonna step outside with these men for a minute. You boys finish your ice cream and cake and watch some TV, okay? I love you.”