Ray Ray's Stoop

By Niz Thomas

Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Unfortunately, he never said it to Ray-Ray Horne.

As far as forgiveness went, you found none on the streets of inner-city Baltimore.

When drug dealer Ray-Ray Horne finds his turf stepped on, retaliation by any means dominates his mind. A ruthless, dangerous, and off-kilter mind.

For fans of The Wire, grab this lean and relentless drive-by short story through the chaotic life of Baltimore's criminals and experience the highs, lows, and heartbreaking warfare of street justice!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Throughplace Publishing
• Release date: Feb 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224854479

Book preview

Blurry photo of urban fencing in the foreground and a cross in the background.

RAY RAY’S STOOP

NIZ THOMAS

Throughplace Publishing

COPYRIGHT

Ray Ray’s Stoop

Made in the USA

Published by Throughplace Publishing

throughplace.com

Text copyright © 2023 by Michael Nisivoccia

All rights reserved.

Cover and Layout copyright © 2023 by Throughplace Publishing

Cover design by Michael Nisivoccia / Throughplace Publishing

Cover art copyright © wirestock_creators / Depositphotos

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

COPYRIGHT

Family Tree

Made in the USA

Published by Throughplace Publishing

throughplace.com

Text excerpt copyright © 2023 by Michael Nisivoccia

All rights reserved.

Cover and Layout copyright © 2023 by Throughplace Publishing

Cover design by Michael Nisivoccia / Throughplace Publishing

Cover art copyright © Robert Adrian Hillman / Shutterstock

This text excerpt is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

CONTENTS

Also By Niz Thomas

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Family Tree

Chapter 1

Also By Niz Thomas

About the Author

ONE

Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Unfortunately, he never said it to Ray-Ray Horne.

Before Ray-Ray even came around the corner of Eager Street, he could already tell something was wrong. Course down Baltimore way, something was always wrong--whether it be police raiding corners and breaking skulls or schoolteachers taking self-defense classes before getting re-certified in the curriculum. Something Wrong was practically Charm City’s motto. Most days, wrong hardly registered with Ray-Ray, the same way darkness don’t register with a blind man.

But today, something was wrong in the streets. Ray-Ray knew that sure as he knew anything. Smelt it in the air, in fact. Heard it in the frequencies, the vibrations of the day. Ray-Ray had a way of doing that. Seventh sense, was how he thought of it. Fucking batshit, bruh, was how everyone else talked about it.

Nobody else really got Ray-Ray. Which suited him just fine, since he didn’t much get anybody else, either. Wasn’t no mutual getting required to get out in these streets and hustle.

When he turned the corner he saw what he always saw: twelve stoops in total stretching over the next two blocks, seven real ones on the left, complete with five stairs and rusted, leaning railings, leading up to buildings that had long ago been abandoned and boarded up. The right side had five lean-tos–random scraps of fabric held up by boxes and sticks, covering a medley of chairs and stools lined up under barred windows of the Latrobe Homes, the windows cracked just enough for an arm to reach in or out of the darkness inside. A darkness that held all number of dead dreams just out of sight from the street.

Nineteen or twenty corner boys stood in their places on either side of the street, some manning the cash, some manning the packs, none manning stoop number four on the left side.

That was Ray-Ray’s stoop.

And nobody fucked with Ray-Ray’s stoop. Not anybody on this corner, at least. And probably not anybody on any corner in this neighborhood, they knew what was good for them.

But somebody had fucked with it, Ray-Ray could see. The first thing he saw, actually, when he finally made the turn. Nobody else seemed to notice what Ray-Ray saw. But that wasn’t no thing, really. He always saw shit that other people didn’t.

Ray-Ray