Hard Candy Saga by Amaleka McCall Page A

growled, getting close to June Bug.
    June Bug opened his mouth to answer, but before the words could leave his mouth, Broady raised his gun hand high and cracked June Bug in the mouth with the butt of the gun.
    â€œOh shit!” June Bug howled as blood and two teeth shot from his mouth. He doubled over, holding his mouth, dark red blood seeping through his fingers.
    â€œNow who’s the bitch?” Broady placed his finger on the trigger and pulled it before he could even give it a second thought. He wanted to prove a point that night, consequences be damned.
    June Bug’s head exploded like a pumpkin being thrown off of a tall building and smashing to the ground, making one of the men vomit instantly.
    Broady had gray brain matter all over the front of his coat. He didn’t know what to do next. He contemplated killing everybody in the room so he wouldn’t leave any witnesses, but he was already spooked. He whipped around like a paranoid nut and then bolted from the basement onto the street. Broady knew he needed to call his brother, because he didn’t know what to do next. Junior would take care of it; he always knew what to do.
    * * *
    â€œCandy, your ass been acting funny all night! Let me find out you’s a quiet drunk and shit. You ain’t hardly say shit to Razor all night. Girl, that is Broady’s best friend in the whole world and his second in charge. I wouldn’t hook you up with none of his other little flunkies. You better stop playin’ and treat a nigga right,” Shana rambled on, eyeing Candice like she was disappointed in her or something.
    â€œI’m good. I don’t get drunk, first of all. What did you want me to do? Jump up and down and hang off of Razor’s neck? I mean, he seems nice and everything.”
    Shana perked up when Candice gave Razor a halfhearted compliment, figuring that was a start. Shana had a very important stake in Candice and Razor hooking up, and she wasn’t giving up that easily. If she could hook Candice up with Razor, it would make her life easier because she would be able to use Candice to be around Broady more often.
    â€œWell, come to breakfast with us. We always go out after we leave here. Sometimes the fuckin’ party even spills over to our place, even though I hate that shit,” Shana said, her words beginning to slur. Shana had had a lot to drink tonight.
    Candice looked over at Broady and Razor and their entire crew. They were drinking, laughing, and being rowdy as usual. They really disgusted her.
    Candice was about to decline Shana’s invitation when she spotted a man who appeared to be gliding on air. He walked like Barack Obama, and people seemed to move out of his way as he walked by with his six henchmen in tow. Candice was blinded by his jewels, even from a distance. Her toes balled up in her shoes, and she clenched her fists so tightly, her knuckles paled. He looked much different than the picture she had of him on her corkboard. He seemed older and had grown a mustache and goatee, just like her father had worn for years. Candice wondered how much he had changed since he had committed the heinous crimes against her family.
    Suddenly her ears burst with the sound of her father’s voice. “Junior, don’t you ever fuckin’ question any of my executive decisions. I’m the boss. Remember that shit. If you don’t want to be excommunicated and shut out of this hustle, you better do what the fuck I said to do . ”
    When Shana noticed Candice looking past her in a daze, she turned around in her seat. “Oh shit! Here the fuck we go,” Shana said, turning back around quickly and taking another glass of poison to the head. Shana was acting as if she’d seen a monster.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Candice asked, her eyebrows furrowed. She knew who the man was and his so-called street reputation, but she wanted to understand why Shana seemed so spooked by his