Christmas in the Hood by Nikki Turner Read Free Book Online Page A

the head, and naturally Joe fell second in command. Everybody on the block stayed on point when the Diaz brothers came through.
    Grandma knew the siblings well. She had babysat both brothers when they were toddlers. As a result, both men treated Grandma and her two grandkids as if they were family.
    Tall, rail thin, with a baby face, Chico definitely didn’t look like the monster people knew him to be. Greeting them with a warm smile, Chico planted a kiss on Grandma’s cheek and tossed Gigi a nod. “Hey, ma.”
    “Let me help you wit’ that, Grandma,” Chico insisted, taking the bags from Grandma’s hand. The trio disappeared into the building while Joe waited on the stoop, chatting it up with Andrew.
    Upstairs in the apartment, Gigi watched as Chico followed Grandma into the bedroom and closed the door. A few minutes later, Chico emerged from the room, waved at Gigi, and left the apartment.
    “He dropped off more bundles?” Gigi asked.
    Grandma nodded. She had been working for the Diaz brothers for the last five months.
    Gigi could remember the day Grandma first told her she needed to have surgery. Soon after, Gigi noticed things started to change. Grandma seemed to have way too much money. At first she told Gigi she had gotten an increase in her disability check.
    Gigi also noticed Chico and Joe had started stopping by more frequently than ever before, and they always went into Grandma’s room and closed the door. And right around that time, fiends from the neighborhood started popping up at the apartment looking for Grandma. Gigi knew the disability story wasn’t adding up. Grandma was definitely hiding something.
    The more Gigi questioned her grandmother about the strange visits, the more evasive Grandma became. Finally one day she broke down and told Gigi what Gigi had already figured out: Grandma was selling crack for the Diaz brothers. With Medicare covering only half the cost of the operation, Grandma had approached the two brothers about working for them, and they’d accepted her with open arms.
    *  *  *
    The next evening Gigi arrived home from work to find she had the house to herself. Figuring Grandma was still out for her dialysis treatment and her cousin Andrew was running the streets, she decided to give her new boyfriend, Mel, a call.
    “Hey, papi,” she said the minute he picked up.
    “What up, ma?” he asked.
    “Just thinking about you. I thought I’d call to see what you’re up to. I miss you,” she said.
    Final exams were the next week, and Gigi had spent the last few days studying.
    “You wanna get together tonight?” Mel asked.
    “That sounds good,” she said, realizing she needed a break. “You want me to come over to your place?”
    “Most definitely,” Mel said in his deep, sexy voice, and Gigi felt a tingle go down her spine. “I’ll come scoop you.”
    “Don’t be speeding,” she said. “You already have more than enough tickets.”
    Mel laughed. “See you in a minute,” he said before hanging up.
    Gigi was just about to change clothes when the phone rang. Sighing, she went to answer it and tried not to groan when she heard the familiar greeting: “You have a call from a prison inmate, Rasheed Hall. To accept the charges, press one….”
    Gigi reluctantly accepted the call and settled on the sofa. She hadn’t talked to her ex in a while. He was a drug dealer who had been sentenced to forty-five years in prison for murdering a set of twins, and she realized she hadn’t missed him.
    “Hey, mami,” Rasheed greeted.
    “Hey,” she said drily, studying her nails before she grabbed the television remote and began flipping through the channels.
    “You miss me?” he asked.
    “Why you always ask me that?” she said, avoiding the question. He laughed. “Yo, ma, I just wanted to check on you … make sure you didn’t need anything. You all right?”
    “I’m fine,” she said.
    “My boy, Big Ben, tell me you’re still refusing the love I’m sending you,”