Gangsta Boos: In Love and War

By Latoya Jamara Jackson

From the time they were introduced as little girls, Tee-Baby and India have stuck to each other like glue while nurturing dreams of going to college and becoming lawyers. Their lives seem to be in perfect order, until they make it to high school and are introduced to Cino, the captain of the football team. When his brother, Twon, is murdered by his Mexican drug connection, Cino sets down a dark path that eventually leads the girls to meet Shawnee and La-La, Twons two female hitters.

Soon, Tee-Baby and India are fully immersed in a street life fueled by drugs and murder. Although they are beautiful young women, they are gangstas in the making. After the four transform into cold-blooded, heartless murderers who will kill anyone who gets in their way, they decide to avenge Twons death by taking over all of his operations and eliminating those responsible for his murder. Now only time will tell who will live to tell about the perilous mission and who will make the ultimate sacrifice.

In this urban tale of drugs, crime, love, and loss, four women must each decide whether to give up a dangerous game or live an evil, corrupt street life forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532053535

Latoya Jamara Jackson

Latoya Jamara Jackson was raised by her grandparents on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. She is a healthcare aide who is currently pursuing a bachelors degree in business at the University of Phoenix. Latoya has three children, Ambria, Aniya, and Jayden, and resides in Matteson, Illinois. This is her first book.

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Copyright © 2018 Latoya Jamara Jackson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-5354-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-5353-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018908753

iUniverse rev. date: 07/26/2018

Contents

Chapter 1: How It All Began

Chapter 2: Taking Over

Chapter 3: Set It Off

Chapter 4: Ballin’

Chapter 5: One More Move before Tee’s Birthday

Chapter 6: What More Can Happen?

Chapter 7: Caught Up

Chapter 8: Catching Vicky

Chapter 9: Love, Trappin’, and School Bells

Chapter 10: Love and War

Chapter 11: The Final War

Chapter 1

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Bitch, you mad or nah? Shawnee taunted.

You damn right I’m mad! Vicky snapped.

What? You big mad or lil mad?

Tee-Baby, who knew exactly who Vicky was, couldn’t believe they had finally caught up with her. Naw. That ho lil mad, she said, stepping out of the car. Ain’t that right, Vicky?

Shawnee raised her eyebrows. Vicky? This that ho La-La was tellin’ us about?

Yep! said Tee-Baby. That’s the one!

Shawnee glared at Vicky. So you’re the one that snitched on our girl La-La and had her locked up, huh?

Fuck La-La! Vicky said, sounding full of herself and whiny at the same time. She sent her own self up shit creek. Next time, that ho gon’ keep her legs and her mouth closed. If you two don’t wanna be next, I advise y’all to move along.

Without any more words to be spoken, Tee-Baby went in for the punch. Shawnee followed with no questions asked. They beat that ho like a Hebrew slave—you know, one of those Rodney King ass whoopings. As she fell to the ground, Shawnee repeatedly kicked her, while Tee-Baby continued to throw blows at her face. Vicky would definitely have to take a trip to the hospital after this ass whoopin’. Their crew was known for breaking bones.

Luckily for Vicky, Tee-Baby came to her senses and remembered that Vicky was fuckin’ a cop who had it bad for them. That’s how their girl La-La had gotten booked in the first place. Now don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t that they were afraid of going to jail. They just had big plans and a lot of moves to make. The last thing they needed was a body on their name and cops looking for them. Besides, they had made a promise to La-La, and they were going to keep that promise. They never broke promises, especially not to each other.

As Tee-Baby ordered Shawnee to stop, she glanced at Vicky, watching as blood spilled from her mouth and gushed from her head. At that moment, she realized only one of two things would come out of this—jail or murder, which could lead to jail. And jail wasn’t an option—well, at least not at the moment. They knew that if Vicky turned up dead, they would be the first two on CO Jones’s list. So instead of bodying the bitch like they would normally do, they got in the car and left—but only after Shawnee had gotten some assurance that Vicky would keep her mouth shut.

***

Correctional Officer Edward Jones hated Tee-Baby with a passion. He’d told her that he couldn’t wait for her to die just so he could spit on her grave. For a long time, she had been like family to him—that was until his sister died of a drug overdose. He blamed Tee-Baby, saying she may as well have given his sister that needle herself. That’s not how things went down, though.

India had been the baddest bitch in Chi-Town. At least she was until she started fuckin’ with this nigga named Cino. She was madly in love with him. She would do anything for that clown-ass nigga. If he told her the sky was red instead of blue, she’d believe him. She was a fool in love.

After four years or so of Cino and India building their relationship, everyone began to notice a change in Cino. It was like he was slowly fading away. His face started to sink in. Instead of his normal muscular frame, he was now nothing more than skin and bones. Of course India followed his lead. It was a shocker to everyone who knew them—especially India. She was bold, she was beautiful, and she was also a gangsta.

India was more than what everyone thought she was. They said she was pretty; she was beautiful. They said she was scary; she was a cold-blooded killer. Where do you think Tee-Baby got it from? That’s right! India was the HBIC (head bitch in charge).

When Tee-Baby had first moved to the neighborhood, she had been introduced to India. They lived right across the hall from each other in a pissy, roach-infested high-rise project building called the Cabrini-Greens. They became close—so close that everyone thought they were blood sisters. They were tighter than a fat girl’s thigh squeezed inside some skinny jeans. They also resembled each other quite a lot—so much that even they wondered if they were somehow related.

From the time they were introduced at the age of seven, all the way through grammar school, their high school prom in 1999, and their plans for college, they stuck to each other like glue. They had dreams of going to college and becoming lawyers. They were good with their mouths and good at convincing people. They had it all planned out. That was until ’96 when they first made it to high school and were introduced to Cino.

Cino was the captain of the football team, and India was the head cheerleader. They had what every girl and boy their age dreamed of. India was the nice quiet type. At least that’s what everyone assumed. Tee-Baby, on the other hand, was loud and obnoxious and didn’t care what the world thought of her. She was a tomboy in the flesh. She was never into boys, skirts, and makeup. Her only concerns were basketball, money, being able to graduate, and getting out of the hood.

India started off having goals that involved living a good life. But, somehow, love came across her path and blinded her. Cino got into the street life because of his brother, Twon. Twon had a Mexican connect who would do a drop-off once a month at a secret location. The arrangement continued this way until Twon became greedy and was killed by his connect. He’d thought he could take everything, fuck over his connect, and not pay up. Nah! That’s not how it goes. Don’t ever bite the hand that feeds you.

After the murder of Twon, Cino had snapped. He had become a totally different person. Instead of going after the man who had killed his brother, he decided to break bread with him. He was the only one who knew the access code to Twon’s safe, and he decided to go to the Mexican connect and pay off his brother’s debt. He was also hoping for a new start. Maybe he and the connect could work things out and he could pick up where his brother had left off.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned. Instead, the connect had told him to get the fuck out of his face before he ended up like his brother. Cino didn’t like the tone of Pablo’s voice, but he decided to bite his tongue. Cino wanted to make a deal. Pablo and his crew thought it was a setup. I mean, who in his right mind would try to make a deal with the man who killed his brother? No one!

When it came down to it, Pablo didn’t know that Cino wasn’t the one he needed to be worried about. Who he should have been worried about was Tee-Baby. Although she secretly admired Twon (at least she thought her feelings were a secret), he was like her brother from another mother. Twon was the reason Tee-Baby, India, Shawnee, and La-La had survived the projects thus far. If it had been left up to their parents, they would have starved to death.

Twon had really loved kids. He’d just had too many trust issues that prevented him from putting his all into a woman. So he’d used his drug money to take care of all the kids in the projects.

He’d had it bad for Tee-Baby. He said she was a young thug in training. Ever since the day he was parked in the alley behind the school and saw Tee-Baby robbing a guy for his chain and shoes, he started liking her. He tried to teach her the right path. But all the right he taught her didn’t do any good. This was because she saw all the money he was making from doing wrong.

Twon would never let anything happen to Tee-Baby. He began to drop her off at school and pick her up just to make sure she stayed out of trouble. Since India was best friends with Tee-Baby, she got the same special treatment as Tee-Baby did. Once they hit high school, though, India no longer needed special treatment from Twon, because she had been introduced to Cino. They had it made.

It wasn’t long before Tee-Baby and India were introduced to Twon’s two female hitters, Shawnee and La-La. The two were always low-key. They weren’t allowed to be seen that much.

Once Twon got killed, though, all the gangstas came out. Everyone was talking about what they were gon’ do and how they were gon’ do it.

But the real gangstas—India, Tee-Baby, Shawnee, and La-La—never parted their lips. They were all action, no words!

Twon was killed during their senior year in high school. All he ever wanted was for his crew to graduate and be more than he was. He didn’t want his friends to become lowlifes, drug dealers, and killers; he wanted them to be doctors and lawyers. He wanted them to make real money the right way.

He never got to see that day, but they vowed they would make it happen. Tee-Baby, Cino, India, Shawnee, and La-La all graduated that year with honors. They knew Twon would be proud of them. Now that they had gotten that out the way, it was time to get down to business.

India had spoken to Tee-Baby about what she planned to do to Pablo. Tee-Baby had told India about her thoughts as well. They say great minds think alike. Neither one of them had forgotten about Twon. How could they put his murder behind them so easily? They couldn’t! His absence was especially hard to forget, given that they were reminded on a daily basis that they had nothing since he was gone. The projects were once again a hellhole. They had gone from having everything to having nothing in a blink of an eye. They were hungry—and not just for food; they wanted money as well. They refused to starve again. They were now on a mission, and they were out for blood.

Chapter 2

TAKING OVER

Now that Twon was gone, everyone wanted to replace him. It was still his supply that they were feeding off. Cino told the rest of the crew he wanted to take over his brother’s operation. They all knew he didn’t have the balls to do it. No one opened his or her mouth to tell him. Everyone just followed his lead. They all knew this wasn’t going to go as planned. Cino had never had the heart and guts of his brother Twon.

The crew arrived at one of Twon’s old trap houses. Cino made his way inside first. Thank God his bitch, India, was a hitter. She was strapped, and he didn’t even know it. As a matter of fact, he was the only one who wasn’t strapped. Now maybe I’m the slow one here, but who tries to take over an organization with no heat? Everyone knew this but him.

Tee-Baby, Shawnee, and La-La entered the house right after Cino and India. Cino blurted out, Hey, y’all! I’m running this operation from now on. So any money coming through here goes to me now.

Everyone inside the house thought it was a joke and began to laugh.

India glanced over at Tee-Baby. Tee-Baby nodded at India, giving her the signal to set it off. Tee-Baby turned to Shawnee and La-La and gave them the signal.

Cino said, This is not a game, and if I tell y’all—

Quiet! India interrupted. You talk too much. She pulled out her Glock and opened fire.

Of course her girls followed suit. There was so much gunfire you couldn’t even see through the smoke.

As Cino stood there with his mouth wide open, India turned to him and said, See, baby. That’s how you get shit done.

Cino looked over at the girls. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. He took off running out the house. He was running so fast they didn’t know if the smoke was coming from their guns or his tennis shoes.

The crew left the trap house to find that Cino was still waiting for them. They were almost positive that nigga had ditched them. He began screaming like a lil bitch. Hurry up! Get the fuck in the car.

They all got in. He wondered how they could be so calm after killing a roomful of people. He decided to ask them—after he stopped shaking and stuttering, that is. How the fuck can y’all be all relaxed and shit and y’all just murked like fifteen niggas? Huh? Can somebody please explain that to me? I mean, it’s like y’all used to this shit or y’all done this before. Is that it? Y’all done killed niggas before?

No one said anything. They just let him continue to talk until India decided she had had enough.

Didn’t I just tell you to stop talking so much? she said.

You know what, India, he told her. "I don’t even know who you are right