Flint; Book 4

Book 4: Flint

by Treasure Hernandez

Genres: African American Urban; Romantic Suspense

Synopsis

Malek and Halleigh were once innocent high-school sweethearts, but their lives changed drastically when they were separated by tragic circumstances and sucked into life on the streets. Now Malek has risen to the top of the drug empire and is running things after Jamaica Joe's murder. His rival, Sweets, has left town, so Malek has things under control on both the South Side and the North Side. When Halleigh finally escapes from the clutches of Manolo, her pimp, she and Malek are reunited. For a while, things are running smoothly, and Halleigh and Malek are like well-respected hood royalty--until Halleigh grows bored with her life hidden safely away in the suburbs. She ventures into Flint and meets up with her old drug-using partner, convincing him to enter the new rehab facility--the same place that's cutting into Malek's business by helping his customers get sober. To make matters worse for Malek, Sweets has returned and wants to take over his side of town again. As he struggles to hold onto his reign at the top, will Malek be able to keep Halleigh out of the crossfire?

Release date: March 1, 2011

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 192

Sample

Malek woke up with an aching pain in his chest. He looked over to his left and saw his mentor, Jamaica Joe, slumped on the steering wheel. It all happened so fast that Malek couldn’t believe it.

“Joe,” Malek whispered. He tried to shake him, but it was to no avail; Joe was already gone. The bullet-proof vest that Malek was wearing protected him from the bullets that the mysterious woman had shot at him moments before, but there was still a nagging pain in his shoulder that wouldn’t go away.

“Joe!” Malek managed to scream as he continued to shake him. He couldn’t grasp the reality. Shock took over his reactions as he tried his hardest to wake Jamaica Joe. Blood trickled onto Malek’s hand. That’s when he noticed the small hole in the back of Jamaica Joe’s head.

Seeing his big brother, mentor, and teacher gone was too much to bear. Malek let out a painful roar as tears welled up in his eyes, and his vision began to blur. Malek heard the sound of sirens as he looked in the rearview mirror.

As he reached for the door, an intense pain shot through his body. “Aghh shit!” he yelled out. He stumbled out of the car, and for the first time he noticed all of the blood on his own shirt. He patted his body frantically to see where he was hit. He was in shock and couldn’t pinpoint where the pain in his body was coming from.

An ambulance and police cars pulled up simultaneously as Malek fell to his knees.

“Put your hands up where I can see them!” the police called.

“It ain’t me! They got Joe! Joe in the car,” he muttered as held his body up by placing one hand on the ground. “Help Joe!” he shouted as he began to cough up blood. The paramedics rushed over to him and immediately began work.

“We have a bullet wound to the shoulder. Get me some oxygen and let’s start him on an IV,” the medic called out to his peers.

Malek felt weak, and the taste of blood in his mouth frightened him.

“We’re going to have to question him,” one of the officers stated.

“You’re going to have to wait until after he gets this bullet removed. If not, he’s going to bleed to death,” the medic stated sternly as he helped place Malek’s body on a stretcher. Malek was slipping in and out of consciousness and was losing pints of blood at a time.

As Malek’s head fell to the side, his eyes witnessed the police zip up Jamaica Joe’s body bag. “Joe,” he whispered faintly.

Anger ripped through Malek. Joe had been so close to his departure from the dope game. He had taken careful steps, crossing every T and dotting every I, to ensure that he made it out of the game alive and free. Unfortunately someone had other plans for him. On the night of his farewell party to the dope game, he said farewell to his life.

Malek knew that there was only one person who would be so bold to attempt a hit on Jamaica Joe. He knew exactly who was behind this hit, and vowed to make Sweets pay if he lived to see another day.



Halleigh sat by the window, staring blankly at the darkened city block, her heart aching at the fact that Malek was with another girl. But she couldn’t help it. She didn’t care if he had a thousand other girls besides her; she had to be a part of his life.

Her heart beat rapidly as she impatiently waited for Malek to show up at her door. She was furious with him, but she needed him. She was so close to having him. Where is he? she thought solemnly as tears fell from her face. Her anxiety was eating her up inside. Every time a car rode down her block, she would go to the door and hope that it was Malek pulling up to get her. She thought it was Malek every time a headlight shone through her window. Every rumble of an engine could’ve been him.

“Why isn’t he here?” she asked aloud. “He’s probably fucking with some bitch.” She checked the clock on the wall and noticed that it read 4:40 A.M. He was supposed to be here three hours ago. Her mind was telling her to give up hope, but her heart wouldn’t allow her to.

Halleigh sat in front of the window until dusk turned to dawn and the nightlife gave way to the bright sunlight, signifying the start of another day. “He’s not coming,” she uttered as she finally came to terms with her reality. She had hoped that things would go back to normal and that Malek could look past all of the things that she’d done since she’d last seen him, but with daylight came the realization that things could never go back to the way they used to be. Too much had happened. She had changed in the most drastic way.

“He doesn’t want me anymore,” she cried as she dropped to the floor next to her packed bags. Tears fell freely. She didn’t blame him for not showing up, since she wasn’t the same girl that he’d once cherished. She had turned too many tricks, taken too many drugs, acquired too many demons. She was definitely not the innocent teenage girl that he had known.

At nineteen, she had been through more than the average forty-year-old, and the mental and physical abuse that she had encountered over the past two years of her life had left her confused. She had been pimped, turned out, and left for dead.

“Why would he want me?” she asked herself.

Ring! Ring!

The screeching blare of the telephone startled her, and she staggered to her feet to answer it. She silently wished it to be Malek. She wiped her eyes and nose as she tried to calm down before picking up the phone.

“Hello?” she stated, her voice cracking in her attempt to sound okay.

“Halleigh! Oh my God, Halleigh, Maury got shot tonight! He’s at Hurley Hospital. The doctors won’t tell me anything!” Tasha screamed.

“What?” Halleigh responded in shock.

“Halleigh, just please come down here,” Tasha pleaded. “I can’t handle this by myself. He’s all I’ve got.”

The line went dead before Halleigh could reply, but she knew that she had to put her feelings aside so that she could be there for Tasha. Tasha had been the only person to stand by her side through her ups and downs, and she felt obligated to return the favor. She grabbed her coat without hesitation and rushed out the door.



Tasha stood in front of the nurse’s desk, impatiently waiting to receive news on her brother’s condition. “Is he okay?” When she didn’t get an immediate response, she yelled in frustration, “Why won’t you tell me anything?”

“You really should wait for the doctor,” the nurse told her. “He will help you understand what happened.”

“Fuck you mean?” Tasha stated in exasperation. “Understand what? What happened? Please just tell me that Maury is okay.”

“I’m sorry, miss, I can’t,” the nurse replied.

Tasha knocked all of the nurse’s papers off the counter and stormed out of the hospital in a pained rage. Her head felt like it would explode. I need to get some fresh air, she thought as she rushed out of the double doors that led to the emergency room parking lot.

Just as Tasha was about to sit down on the curb, she saw Halleigh running toward her. She stood and hugged her tightly.

“What happened, Tash? Where is he?” Halleigh asked with concern as Tasha sobbed in her arms. Halleigh didn’t know what to do. She had never seen Tasha like this. Tasha was the foundation of their friendship. She was the strong one. The leader. The roles had quickly reversed, and now Halleigh was the one trying to figure things out.

“I don’t know, Hal. They ain’t telling me shit. This is bad, Hal.” Then she added in a whisper, “We should’ve just stayed in New York. If we had, he wouldn’t be lying up in this hospital.”

Halleigh knew that she couldn’t cry. She had to be strong for her friend, but on the inside she prayed that Maury was okay. Halleigh and Maury had a relationship that only the two of them could understand. He’d made Halleigh feel worthy of love, always standing beside her, encouraging her to forget her past and live for the future. Halleigh couldn’t really explain her strong feelings for Maury, but to her it was one of those love-at-first-sight kind of things.

Halleigh had met Maury when she, Tasha, and Mimi decided to head to New York and sort things out after the three of them had set up their pimp, Manolo, to be robbed and arrested. The three of them were in on the robbery and had decided to come to New York, where they hooked up with Tasha’s brother Maury. He helped them move the bricks that they had received as part of Manolo’s setup and robbery.

After a long drive from Flint, Michigan to Brooklyn, New York, Halleigh, Tasha, and Mimi let themselves into Maury’s home because he wasn’t at home when they’d arrived. Halleigh was mad tired and had fallen asleep as soon as they made themselves comfortable in Maury’s house. She eventually awoke and decided to take a shower. At the time she woke, Maury still wasn’t home, and Tasha and Mimi had gone out to get something to eat. So when Maury finally arrived home, he was shocked to find a naked woman in his shower.

Halleigh smiled on the inside as she stood with Tasha, memories of the day she’d met. . .