Cornerstone: Rosewood

By Lakeith Woods

The story follows a young man that has lost his father through a violent death. And he swears to seeks out the truth, and get revenge! The story is filled with deception from family friends and foe. Its an intriguing journey of lies, hate and schemes, filled with pimps and hustler, displaying pure hot passionate desire to do everything to win. Events take place in St. louis, Denver, Detroit, and Miami.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481729093

Lakeith Woods

The enviroment I grew up in and people that have influenced me both good and bad. While incarated over 8 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. I was awaken to the fact that man can bound me physically, only to awaken the spiritual man inside. Throught writing I was able to escape solitary confinement. I live in St. Louis Missouri also known as number one murder capital in the nation. Everyday life is threaten with crime, drugs and murder. I am blessed with three lovely children of which I love very much. Thank you for choosing Cornerstone " Rosewood" the 1st in the Corernstone series.

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© 2013 by Lakeith Woods. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/23/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2911-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2910-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2909-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013904606

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter One: The Beginning of the End

Chapter Two: Jimmy’s Fifteen Minutes Of Fame

Chapter Three: Lil Rose Starts To Bud

Chapter Four: School Days

Chapter Five: The Birth Of Rosewood

Chapter Six: Now Comes The Rain

Chapter Seven: Rosewoods Independence

Chapter Eight: Play Time Is Over

Chapter Nine: Now It’s My Time

Chapter Ten: When I Made My Bones

Chapter Eleven: Perfecting My Hustle

Chapter Twelve: Rosewoods Close Call

Chapter Thirteen: Rosewood Return

Chapter Fourteen: The Take Over

Chapter Fifteen: The Truth

Chapter Sixteen: The Beginning Of The End

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my

lil brother

In memory

Alexander Angelo Bennett

(AKA) Smokey 1982-2000

you are a loved and missed brother.

Much love and Respect!

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Chapter One

The Beginning of the End

Rosewood:

Have you ever heard the saying what goes around comes around? Shit I didn’t believe those words were so true, until dude I saw what come with them. I couldn’t do nothing but be a playa about the situation, and take my hat of to them. I thought that I was the best at playing chess in the street, right now I may be in checkmate! I have been hit three times twice in the back and once in the elbow. Oh! By the way my name is Rosewoodd spelled with two d’s as I say for a double dose of pimping.

Shit these cats go me hiding like I’m seven years old again; damn I am bleeding like a mother fucker! I never thought that four cats could get a playa like me pent down like this, even though I can’t stand the police I wish they were here now. Shit they would charge me with burglary, since I did kick in this warehouse, dam I hear those cats.

One of the cats said. What’s up Rose mother fucken wood? My job isn’t done until I put two in your head. Rosewood.

At least let a playa die on his feet! Two of the cats picked me up and a third put his gun to my fore head and pulled the trigger, I heard a BANG! Then it happen… I saw my life flash before my eyes.

Rosewood Narrates:

That’s me in the back seat of my father’s 1965 continental with the kissing doors. My father was a player, the year is 1982 the place is St. Louis, MO. That’s my mama on the passenger side she’s pregnant with my little brother. The old dude was a mother fucker, I say that because of the shit that he use to do.

This nigga stayed clean like a white woman’s kitchen floor in the 50’s, and this nigga had ho’s everywhere. What made him a playa was that my mama knew about all the ho’s he had and she didn’t care, as long as she spent time with him. When my old dude and I use to ride I use to see him in the streets making it happen. He would tell me about the game and the playas. He uses to tell me about respect and honor from the pimps, and hustlers. He also taught me how to watch out for the setup. As he use to say "The set up comes in lots of ways, you have con men, gold diggers, set up ho’s, dope feens, and thousand of more games to the streets.

A playa gotta stay on top of all of the games and playas. He also has got to become a master of conversation; on the streets they call it selling a dream. The most important rule of all to the street life is dealing with killers and robbers in the game.

To be a true playa you must give them their respect, we call that a ghetto pass. At the time he was giving me the rules that I would end up living my life too many years later. As I said my father was a mother fucker, he had a bad side to him, he use to be on my mother if the wind blew to strong, shit I loved him I had to take the good with the bad.

I’m 14 years old, and today is a big day for my old dude, he has made his dream come true, He open his own club with his friend Jimmy. AI called him uncle JJ, he and my father go way back they came up selling tees and blues. Like I said before my pop had a mouth peace. The name of the club was the Apollo and I came there everyday after school. The club became a second home and it changed my life night by night.

I started to see the game in the raw, my father holding some of the biggest dice games in the city. As I went to school in the day learning the ways of the white people, I was so bored with the history of our country, I found myself falling in love with the schooling I had at night. Just think I was making more money at fourteen than some adults working good paying jobs. My mother and father always said to me that a man should always own his own! There are two kind of people in the world those that work, and those that have you work. That has stayed with me throughout my life.

My name was popping in the streets I had respect from pimps, players, and hustlers. That’s the cream of the crop on the streets white people call that life the underworld. At work at the club I found myself watching my father and uncle AJ all of the time, they were rolling with some big guys that had some real paper in the streets. One time a man from Detroit had his two boys in the club with him playing dice. They were about my age, when it was over these two niggas had about twenty thousand dollars! They broke them grown ass niggas! I was cheesing from ear to ear like I had put in some work The year was 1985 and the as I knew it, things would never be the same. This was the year crack hit the scene if you ask anyone in St. Louis, they would say in eighty seven that’s when it hit the streets. The real playas started using and putting ho’s on it in eighty five, when the so-called playa found out what was going on the game went south. That shit there took a lot of good playas out of the game it wasn’t about the money anymore it was about the high. Brothers didn’t have to be smooth anymore or clean, all he needed was the crack. One day after school I was working at the club, when I walked in on uncle J, it was cold outside and that nigga was sweating like he had stole something. The last few months Jimmy and my father had been having problems over money. My old dude was making it and Jimmy was smoking it up. My father’s life was the club now we lived off the money from the club.

Jimmy was still in the streets so he was living of the fat of the land. When my little brother was born my old dude began to slow down, he stopped messing with ho’s and low down dirty niggas. My mother use to tell him all the time if you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas. She didn’t like Jimmy’s ass at all, she always told my father that he was his down fall, and had many fights over that nigga,. As I look back on it Jimmy and my father came up from the streets together. My father kept growing and Jimmy was cool with the money from the streets. They were on two different levels in the game, my old dude tried to make Jimmy see the hold picture, but Jimmy was cool with the streets respecting his name. That wasn’t enough anymore for my old dude, he wanted and needed white people to know and respect him and to know his name. It took me years to understand that one there.

I will never forget this day, I skipped school and went to the club. I went through the basement window so no one would know that I was there. I heard a group of men talking in the back room, uncle J was in charge I heard him saying We have got to make some changes around here some of us think that they are better than the rest of us. The rest of the guys agreed with him. Then I heard one of the men say What are we going to do about this problem? Jimmy said I want say this out loud, you never know who is listening So I will write it down, so pass it around and the last person give it back to me. About five minutes passed the room was real still. I heard one man say I ain’t with that one! Jimmy got mad and said Mother fucker you work for me Bitch! I tell you what the fuck to do and when the fuck to do it! Do you understand? The man said, yes sir, Jimmy.

Jimmy then said you better understand mother fucker before I put your name on this paper. A few moments the room was silence, as I climbed down of the boxes of Hennessey that they stored in the basement of the club. I was confused about the conversation that I just over heard. I really wanted to know what was going on with uncle, Jimmy and the others. I wanted to know why my old dude wasn’t there, the conversation sounded real important. It sounded like they were planning a capper. My mama always said that I was always curious my old dude said the boy is just nosey just like you. My mama said this like clock work June fuck you nigga he would laugh and smack her on her ass. Later on that night at home my old dude was locked in his study, he used to call it his war room. When he was in there you couldn’t fuck with him it was about nine thirty at night. Knock. Knock. Knock, at the door was uncle, Jimmy. My mama told me to get my father. It felt like I was moving in slow motion, he was sitting at his desk with his head down counting that paper. For the first time I saw the safe open, he was smoking on a cigar and had a glass of crown royal on the desk. When he looked up he was real calm, that fucked me up, and usually when I came in like that he pitched a bitch and smacked me on the head, and would give me a speech on respect. This time he told me to come here, you see all this? I said yes sir, then he told me something that I will never forget, "A broke black man in this country has no voice in capitalist society. So if it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense!

Now what do you want? I said that Uncle Jimmy is in the front room. He asked me Rose did you understand what I told you. I said yes sir, Now tell Jimmy to give me a minute. I made my way back to the front room my mother was at the TV. With her back toward Uncle Jimmy, as he was sitting on the couch. I saw him looking at my mother like she was a piece of meat I guess he saw me out of the corner of his eye, he turned toward me and he told me to come here. Lil Rose what’s up with my little playa. I said nothing Uncle Jimmy, he asked me why I didn’t come by the club after school? I said that I had to cut this lady’s grass up the street. He said that he had Little Jimmy at the club, he has a son but we don’t see him that much. But I knew that the nigga was lying don’t forget that I was in the basement skipping school today. My mother asked about lil Jimmy’s mother, Ann he said you know that girl is crazy. My mama laugh and said she was crazy in high school, you said that’s what you liked about her. He said shit I did didn’t I.

Then my old dude hit the room, Jimmy said what’s up June? My old dude said shit you tell me playboy. Then uncle, Jimmy pulled up on my old dude and whispered something in his ear. As I watched my old dudes face it was something that concerned him. His first step was toward the closet to grab his coat. When he did that my mother told him to come here, they walked to the bedroom, they were gone for about five minutes or less. That left me an uncle Jimmy in the front room alone. I asked Jimmy what was up He told me that they had to handle some business in the streets.

Then my old dude came back in the front room, and told Jimmy let’s roll, My mother told my old dude that he shouldn’t go she didn’t feel good about that move. He said Ann I will be right back, as he walked out the door she yelled his name June! Don’t go! I heard him say Ann I love you! I was now two o’clock in the morning and my mother had not went to sleep yet. As I laid in my room I could hear her walking through the house, from the kitchen to the front room. I could hear her open the blinds over and over again. Then the phone rang it must be the old dude. Then I heard her say the police, she said that June is not here and she hung up the phone. The police was always two steps behind, a lot of them dug my old dude Then the phone rang again, they said Ann, we know now where he is, we need you to come and identify the body, the man said June’s body! I heard her scream and drop to her knees, and start crying.

I ran from my room and asked her what was wrong? She said over and over again, he’s gone, he’s gone, I asked her who’s gone? She said June is dead! I just stood there looking crazy, I was so confused my mama was crying my old dude was dead and life stood at a stand still. My mother finally got herself together and took me over to my cousin’s house on the north side of town. She didn’t want me to go with her to see the old dude like that. On the way over to my cousin’s house, my mother went from sad to mad. It messed me up the way she changed, she started thinking out loud, she said I told him not to go with that smoke ass nigga Jimmy! She said that over and over again.

We finally made it to my cousin’s house, his mother started to ask questions. Ann what happen? Where did it happen? Who was with him? Did someone shoot him? What kind of shit was he in? My mother told Kim Bitch stop asking me all of those god damn questions!! My man just got killed and you asking me all of those mother fucking questions! Like you work for channel 4 news". She asked Kim are you going to watch Rose are not? Kim said girl you know I am. My mother ran out of the door all I heard was rubber when she left. My mouth was open when she left, I had never seen that side of my mama, I mean I never had seen it. Kim was still hot after my mama had left, she tried to play it off, but you could still see that shit face behind that fake ass smile. She told scrap and I to go to sleep. We went to his room scrap asked me what was going on? I told him what I knew, it wasn’t much because my mama went off into here own world. My cousin scrap was cool people we were born a little under a year apart. When I use to spend the night over to his house we use to stay up all night talking about things like what’s this? What’s that? One thing I can say about the lil nigga was down for whatever, I mean whatever!

One time the nigga caught the bus over to my house from one side of town to the other, I know it doesn’t sound like much but the nigga was only five and the first thing he said when he got off was Rose, I didn’t have to pay!! The nigga was a rider for real. The only thing that I didn’t like about spending the night was the only thing we would eat was hotdogs and pork n beans. But that nigga and I use to be all over the city on the bus for free.

Shit we lived at the zoo, movies, and skating rinks. I finally went to sleep when I woke up I heard my mama’s voice in the kitchen talking to my cousin’s mama Kim. I overheard her saying that my old dude got shot seven times. Five times to the chest, and two times point blank shots to the head. They say he was shot by a forty five hand gun, the police said that someone else was with him but they ran away from the scene. The police said that eight shots fired at the crime scene. Someone called the police when they heard the shots around nine forty five last night. So he was killed right after he left the crib. My mama told Kim, Girl I told him not to go, when I saw him I didn’t see a face, I just knew that something wasn’t right.

She got on the phone and called Detroit that is where my old dude was from, she was on the phone with my grandmother. She told her baby it’s gonna be alright call me back in about a half an hour. See my old dude was a Detroit playa, niggas in St. Louis didn’t really dig my old dude for real. Begin out of Detroit he had dope lines to New York, a Miami, Atlanta, Chi town, Dallas, Las Vegas, and all through Cali. My old dude had three brothers, and all of them had a spot in the game. They use to call it a trade in the game, so when he use to say that he was from a long line of players, pimps, and hustlers, it was true. He was taught to live of the fat of the land. Later on uncle Jimmy shows up and told my mama what happen. He told her that he believes he knows who did it. And not to worry about Nothing! I got you and lil Rose, I’ll take care of you all.

My mama said, Jimmy you’re strong as a mother fucker, how the fuck you got me, when June had you! Your best bet is to sell that dream to one of them dumb ho’s you fuck with. Jimmy said Ann I know your mad! You damn right I’m mad I just lost my man the father of my son. I thought that you were his friend, Jimmy. He dropped his head and said I was. My mama said then why did