The Messinger Sisters

Together, the eight of them walked into the gym where a basketball game was going on. “What’s the plan, Bobby?” Jerry asked.

“We’re wingin’ it Jerry.”

“We’re always wingin it,” Jerry complained.

Jay smiled slightly. “They sound like my sisters,” She whispered to Jack.

“We’re gonna get killed,” Jack stated after smiling back at Jay.

“What do ya mean, ‘we’, white boy?” Angel shot back.

“You ready?” Bobby and Bella went out on the court together and Angel and Andi went a separate direction.

Bobby took the ball from the referee and started dribbling it. Jay scanned the spectator stands quickly. A ball player came up to Bobby and he hit the guy in the face with the ball and pulled the guy to the floor. The rest of the ball players crowded around Bella and Bobby then backed up suddenly.

“No need to grab! This’ll only take a second! Now shut up and listen!” The two of them had pulled out their guns and were pointing them at the surrounding players. Jules and Jerry ran out onto the court to them.

“My name’s Bobby Mercer and this here is Bella Messinger. Some of you might’ve known our parents and some of you know they were shot about a week ago across the street. Sixty-two and….”

“…. sixty-four years old, murdered in cold blood!” Jay couldn’t hear what Jerry or Jules said to them “We’re lookin’ for the witness. Ballplayer, big guy.”

“Supposedly never wears a coat. Dog lover, ring any bells?” Jack nudged Jay and the two of them followed the kid who’d gotten up and was leaving the gym.

“Hey! Hey, kid!” Jay shouted after him. He broke into a run and they ran after him.

“No running in the halls!” He slammed into the door and Jack grabbed a hold of him as Angel and Andi walked in through the door.

“Man get off me!”

“Why you running?” Jay demanded.

“Get off me man! I don’t know nothing!”

“Why don’t you shut up?” Jack spoke up.

“You got something to tell me youngster?” Angel asked, towering over the kid.

“Here, back him against the wall. Jack, you go get the others,” Andi instructed. Jack nodded and left to get the other four. “Now kid, now is not the time to mess around. What’s your name?” Andi asked.

“Keenon,” He answered after a moment.

“Now Keenon, when the others get here, you damn well better answer their questions,” Angel advised.

“What do we got here?” Bobby asked as the five of them walked out of the gym.

“Bobby, meet Keenon. Keenon, this is Bobby and Bella.”

“Something tells us he was on his way to deliver a warning,” Angel explained.

“What’s his name, Keenon?” Bella asked.

“Damian. He’s my brother man.”

“He’s your brother? No shit. These are my brothers and her sisters.”

“No dog, he’s my real brother,” Keenon stated after looking around at the group.

“Yeah, these are our real siblings. I’m Bella, that’s Andrea, Jewel, and Jayden.”

“This is Angel, I’m Bobby, this is Jack and Jeremiah. So what about you and Damian? You guys still close?” Bobby asked.

“Does he live at home with you?” Bella followed quickly.

“Yeah, but I ain’t tellin’ you shit else.”

“I wouldn’t sell out my brothers either,” Angel stated as Bobby grabbed the kids bag. He handed the bag to Jerry and Jules to look for something useful.

“Just calm down, okay? Look we just wanna talk to him,” Bella assured him.

“We just wanna ask him a few questions. Is he gonna cooperate?” Bobby asked.

“Hey, we got somethin’,” Jules stated, pointing to something on the paper she was holding.

“Address?” Bella asked.

“He lives in the Gardens, right over there,” Jerry pointed to the opposite side of the hallway they were standing in.

“Enjoy the rest of the game, okay? Don’t worry about it,” Bobby tried to reassure the kid.

They left then, Jack and Jerry making fun of the necklace the kid was wearing as they did.

“Guys, I can’t stay. I gotta get Sam to his martial arts class,” Jules stated.

“Damn, Jules. Kid’s only what, 7?” Bella turned to her.

“Papa enrolled him in it, I will have you know. Let me know what happens, got it?” They nodded and she took off.

“You guys sit in your car, we’ll be in mine. When we see him, we’ll go in one way, you go in the other to try to corner him, got it?” Bobby explained the plan.

“Yeah,” Bella nodded and she, Jay, and Andi made their way to her car. Jayden starred out the window of the backseat of the car, humming one of Jack’s songs to herself while her sisters talked about Vegas in the front seat.

“Guys, he’s here. There he is!” She caught sight of Damian as he walked into the building.

The three of them jumped out of the car as the boys, minus Jerry, got out of theirs. “You take that door, we’ll take that one!” Bobby shouted to Bella and they went to each side entrance.

By the time the girls got inside, Bobby and Angel were nowhere to be seen and Jack was standing in front of the elevator. “Go up the stairs, I’ll tell you where it stops,” Jack told the girls. Andi and Bella rushed past him and up the stairs. Moments later, the elevator stopped. “Six! It stopped at six!” He shouted up the stairs to the others.

“Should we follow?” Jay asked after a moment more.

“Yeah. Come on,” The two of them started up the stairs behind their siblings.

“Where’s Jerry?” Jay asked.

“He had to take his girls to gymnastics.” Jack explained. They were almost to the 6th floor when Bella, Bobby, Andi, and Angel came back to the stairs.

“Come on, on the elevator. He’s outside, downstairs,” Bella told them.

“Bobby fucked him up. Cut the rope he was trying to climb out the window with,” Andi explained to her sister’s confused look.

Jay just nodded and the six of them rode the elevator downstairs. “Which door?” Jay asked as they stepped out.

“This way,” Bobby and Bella led the group to where Damian was laying in the snow, leg split open.

“Man, you must be freezing,” Jack called to Damian as they approached him.

“You won’t be needin this no more, playboy,” Angel picked up his gun where it’d fallen on the snow.

“You know why we’re here, Damian?” Bella demanded.

“Come on, man, call me an ambulance.”

“An ambulance? For what, my dog bites? I’m gonna be okay. You give us a name and we’ll call,” Bobby said.

“We wanna know who shot up that liquor store, now,” Bella demanded.

“Man, I didn’t shoot no one.”

“Speak up, can’t hear you, playboy. It’s hard to hear you out here with all this wind,” Angel smirked.

“If we leave, ain’t nobody else gonna hear you out here either,” Andi stated.

“You ain’t goin far with that leg either,” Bobby stated, looking at the aforementioned leg.

“Look, man, these two fools said they'd pay me a few dubs if l said l saw some gangsters shoot up the place, all right? But I didn’t hurt no one!”

“Well, turn into a fuckin fudgesicle.”

“Hey, come on man! I can’t say nothin’!”

“Fair enough. You’re gonna die right here,” Together, the six of them turned to leave. Jay kept her eyes away from him and that fucked up leg of his. Jack kept glancing back at him. He kept shouting to them as Bobby and Angel talked.

“I’m callin his bluff.”

“Think he gonna break?” Angel asked.

“With that sparerib hanging out of his leg? It’s only a matter of time,” Bella answered first.

“You sure?” Andi question.

“Wanna put money on it?” Bobby shot back.

“Are you sure?” Angel clarified.

“Turn around, dick lips,” Bobby hit Jack and they headed back to Damian. “Give me a name,” Bobby instructed.

“Where can we find him?” Bella asked.

“I don’t know his name. All I know is he’s got a braided goatee and you can find him at the Casino Restaurant. He said he’s not usually there until about 8 o’clock,” Damian told them.

“That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” Bella rolled her eyes. “Call him an ambulance, Andi.” After the ambulance was called, the six of them left him lie there.

“Let’s go to our house for a few hours, guys. There we can wait until it’s time to go to the restaurant.”