THE SOLITARY SHADOW: OF LOVE LUST AND BLOOD PT. 4

Regina: 

Regina's crew:

      

Regina stiffened in my arms, half in surprise and half in hate-powered, revolted denial of me. She'd been plotting feverishly, fervently to kill me probably since that day more than a month ago that I sent Styck upstate. The open palms of her hands flew to either side of my face and smacked me hard enough to make my flesh burn like acid had been poured on it. Instinctively she seized both sides of my face and pried our lips apart.

That's when the klikk-klikk of the shotties registered on her consciousness. That's all the hint that she needed to know that the cops were going to blast us to kingdom come if they didn't buy us kissing.

Without breaking the flow of her movements, she twined both of her arms behind my head and pulled me to her. We were now in a much better position to kiss, so her smacking the living crap outta me and repositioning me [ hopefully ] looked like she was resetting me so we could kiss with greater ease. Her full lips opened mine and her warm tongue flashed into my opened mouth, dueling wetly. Her whole body strained into me, turning my previous impromptu peck into a 'dayamn-lookit-THAT' Broadway-plus-professional OnlyFans production number of a passion fueled pairing of lips,lashing tongues, panting breath, heaving chests, sweat glistening skin to skin kissing chocolate flesh...enfolded in halogen powered pools of argent light.

"I said: FREEZE!" a menacing male voice shouted.

"Stand down!" this was a different voice. A woman's voice. Tough voice. When I say:"Tough?" Not kidding. She is the first and still only person who would go up and lay hands on OG Big Maniac's car or OG Big Maniac himself if it came to it. That kinda "don't choo neeeva eva mess with me" tough. Strong. Still feminine. Latin flavored.

That could only be one person: Sgt. Gomez. Oh, thank GOD!! With her fine self lookin like a darker skinned, buffer version J. Lo on MONEY TRAIN.

She's one of only 2 uncorrupted cops that regularly patrol the hood. The other is...

"You heard her," Officer Moon--the only half-Asian, half-Native American cop probably in all of Southern California--spoke up. Relief washed through me and I would have felt other stuff too but I was too busy enjoying this ever deepening kiss with Regina.

OFFICER MOON 

The police officers moved in, surrounding us, closing on Krazy-K. They removed the gun from him, and one of them called out:

"This asshole needs a ambulance."

"Carter, call it in." Sgt. Gomez ordered.

"Yes Sarge!" Officer Carter promptly replied. And immediately called for an ambulance.

OFFICER CARTER

"Break it up, Ras." Sgt. Gomez pried Regina and I apart, then took a look at Regina."Oh it's YOU! You're with RAS now?! That's a far cry from CripStyck." She turned a plainly disbelieving gaze upon Regina, which Regina ignored by trying to kiss me again. I was all for it. Sgt. Gomez wasn't havin none of it.

"Talk tuh me Ras, or it's downtown cell time." Sgt. Gomez wasn't playing either. Officer Moon unobtrusively took up position several feet off of the blind side of my left shoulder. I couldn't see him but I could feel him. He's good. Glad I never had to run from him.

"That muthaFUCKAH--" Regina started to say, while pointing at Krazy-K.

" I said: 'Talk to me RAS, not YOU, Regina. You'll get your chance, mija." Sgt. Gomez cut Regina off.

"You already know things went down in the PJs," I began while looking at Sarge. She nodded. "My girl..." smiled at Regina, touched her-- and Sarge stopped us from kissing again.

 "Stay FOCUSED on what happened!" she admonished us." If I have to ask again? It will be after you've cooled off in cells for the night."

"My girl," I took the thread of the story back up again, " was supposed to meet me out here so we could bounce somewhere without all the drama that was happening. I was supposed to meet her here. That's when that fool tried to roll on my girl with a gun and do things to her. She was fightin him and I saw her. Then we double teamed him. Beat him down."

"Moon?" Sarge asked without once taking her falcon like gaze off of me.

"We got a gun. Unregistered. Serial number filed off. Was in the L.P. flag [ that's Lincoln Park gang colored bandanna for you non-ganxta lingo havin folks ] but it had no bullets." Moon responded tersely.

Sarge looked the question at me.

"Glad his psycho butt didn't have bullets in his gun," I jumped on the unspoken question." That dude is Krazy-K. We have beef  'cause I won't join his gang--he's Syndo Mob, Lincoln Park, L.P., Leprechauns. You already know they're different names for thle Lincoln Park gang. Well, they tried to make me join their gang. I absolutely refused. So I guess the O.G.s decided they'd jump me on and told Krazy-K to do it. But when he tried to jump me on? I beat him down. If he had bullets? I'm pretty certain that he would've shot me and raped my girl."

You're welcome, Krazy-K. I just saved you from a cold blooded murder plot. You're only lookin at possession of a firearm, and a sexual assault charge that would probably drop to a misdemeanor because you didn't rape Regina; PLUS the fact that you got hospitalized is working in your favor. But I'm sick of seeing you so you gotta chill in the county for at least 8 months. 

Beats loungin in the pen for 8 years.

Sarge was staring at me. Hard.

I looked back at her. I believed every word that came out of my mouth and was trying to convey that to her. It was the only way we were staying out of jail tonight.

"Regina," Sarge asked. "Ras never banged or smoked or drank in his life. He never liked ganxtas. He's a square: exactly what you hate. School boy. Book smart. Don't stay out late. A nerd. Good at karate. Doesn't carry guns. Talks nerdy. What in the hell makes you think I'd believe some lie about you being Ras' girl?"

"That's zackly it," Regina said. Serious look on her face. "After all that time messin with them ganxta niggas...what'd I get? Lies and people I love getting shot, stabbed, beat up, put in jail, or in the hospital for doin too much weed or alcohol. Niggas tryin to put they hands on me. I was getting tired of it before I broke up with Styck." 

Whoa, she's good. Even I almost believed her. 

"A square ass nigga that can fight might do me right and make sure that nothing happens to us, neither. He can get a job instead of slang some weed or crack or guns or something." Here Regina paused, looked soberly at Sarge, then back at me. She kinda smiled. "And you know what? I could do alot worse than fuckin with Ras." She looked deep in my eyes. "Never had nobody like him before." 

Yep. She's gonna kill me first chance she gets.

Sarge looked at Regina. Hard. Then back at me. Harder.

"You're lying," she stated flatly.

UH-OH!!

"...but lucky for you? I can't prove it right now." She continued. 

OhmygodthankyouJEEZUS!!

"Get outta here. If I see you around a crime scene again..."

We were gone and out of sight before she could finish the sentence. 

We'd hit two corners in The Cuts and the police were swallowed up by the night. We were cloaked in inky blackness so intense that we couldn't see. We had to use our other senses of smell, hearing, and feeling the ground under our feet combined with our memorization of every twist and turn of The Cuts to navigate this section for the next 40 yards. Ahead of us? Moonfire splashed down from the heavens, illuminating a slice of The Educational Cultural Complex about 200 meters from Ocean Boulevard.

I thought Regina would make her move here. Predictable as ever, she did. I felt her fingers slide over the shuriken pouch strapped on my right wrist and remove a shuriken from it while we were suckin face in front of Sarge and the SDPD. Just like I thought, she'd try to kill me right here as she felt me straining to keep her up and help her walk. So I pretended that she was far more of a load than she actually was, and decided that her wrist had to go if she tried to shank me with my own shuriken.

And here she is, pulling out the shuriken near my ribs and...

"...You're not slick as you think you are.I gotcha ninja thing," she said. "Here. Put it back in your ninja purse."

I covered my surprise with a retort.

"It's not a PURSE, Regina. Jeezus. It's a special weapons pouch that..."

"Nigga it's a PURSE." She interrupted. Laughed.  "A ninja purse for your WRIST. Put your ninja jewelry back in it."

Not winning this argument. I put my ninja jewelry back in my wrist purse...that's a pouch. A very manly pouch, I might add.

We walked the rest of the distance to her house in silence. Aware that something had permanently changed. 

"Walk me to my room," Regina said. "The back door to my room is at the back of the house. If my momma saw me lookin like this? She'd go batshit. My uncle Roo-Roo [ don't look at me, I looked at her the same way you just did when she said that ] and her is prolly gettin fucked up with their friends in the living room cuz the music's loud like always. But if they see me? They gone get atchoo. Plus they know I hate you. So help me walk through the backyard."

"The backyard?" I asked. Not lovin it.

"Yeah. Whassup?"

"You got big dogs back there..." I began.

"They chained up. Stop being scary. You're supposed to be the karate man. How stupid you look now? Beat 5 niggas with guns, scared of two chained up dogs."

"I was lookin out for your dogs [ translation: I was protecting your dogs because I would have hurt them if they attacked me ]," I said. Unconvincingly.

"Mmmhmmm." Regina didn't buy it.

She unlatched the back gate's lock with her key. 2 very deep growls wafted into the night air from beyond the gate. Two chained rottweilers were flanking the gate. Regina petted and cooed at them and they loved it. At her inviting gesture, I walked her into the backyard and the dogs didn't love it. Barks of unlove ensued.

"Shut UP!" Regina ordered. And shut up they did. Whew. I wasn't scared or nuthin,  though.

I walked her away from those dogs faster than I walked her anywhere. Still ain't scared though. Ahem. Sure enough, there was a door at the back of the house fully accessible to the backyard. It was a door that opened onto a large bedroom. As soon as we opened the door, a strong Black female voice called:

"Girl izzat you?"

"Yeah it's me Momma!" Regina promptly responded.

"Aight," Regina's mother responded. And went back to laughin drinking and playing backgammon in the living room...without once coming to Regina's room to check on her. The other people in the living room were in the full swing of things with Regina's mother.

"You can leave now," Regina said to me without preamble. Then turned on the light to her room. Big room. Big bed. Big mess. Clothes everywhere. Big TV that was turned off, but she turned it on to mask our conversation. "I still don't like you, nigga." Regina stated. Street edge in her voice. She was telling the truth.

"You don't hate me either," I responded smoothly. "You didn't have to try to kiss me a second time with Sarge."

She looked daggers at me. "I don't like you." Honest again. "But you cute, though, in your nerdy ass karate way. I'll give you that."

"And you don't hate me." I repeated.

Regina remained silent.

"I don't hate you either," I said.

"Sheeit you BET not!" Regina retorted.

We both laughed as I exited.

I was still chuckling as I eased by the [ growling ] rottweilers and hit the street. I was still chuckling as I got to the corner. I was still chuckling when...

"...yo!" It was Preston, my manz P-Rock from the Logan PJs. The brutha who I left my sports bag, snickers, chips, sodas, comics and martial arts weapons with. "Ras!"

"Whassup P-Rock?"

"Beans is at your grandmother's house. They sweatin your brother lookin for you!"