Rayqelle's Revenge ---Book 1--- Special Holiday Edition (Ratchet) Read Free Page A

In fact, being with him put me around some of the most serious hustlas’ on the southside. He even gave me my first lesson in the dope game. I mean, sometimes I was right there watchin him cook it, cut it, and serve it up. Nobody ever suspected that I was the stepdaughter of a decorated police officer. Had they figured that out I probably wouldn’t be here today.
     
    My family never thought to ask who I was hangin’ wit’ when I was at my grandma’s. I’m sure they figured I had a little boyfriend at school or something. Nobody woulda’ thought that he was this hustle hard nigga from the southside wit’ a mouth fulla’ gold teeth, and who carried a nine millimeter in his waistband. After all, what would somebody like me be doin’ wit’ a nigga like Monty; a dangerous criminal from the hood, and the danger excited me! I was out of control and lovin’ it! I knew everything would be fine as long as I kept the hood girl separate from the good girl, which didn’t seem to be a problem.
    Monty thought the reason my daddy was never around was ‘cuz he was a truck driver and on the road all the time. I think that shit gave me some kinda’ rush. I felt like a double agent! I mean, I was a “hot girl” when I was out in the streets with Monty and this “good girl” at home with my step daddy (when he was there). My sisters didn’t even know what I was up to. Nobody did! I kept my grades up in school and pretty much did what was expected of me at home. The whole thing was tripped out! Crazy thing about all of this is I wasn’t even from the streets. I discovered the streets as a means of temporary escape from the shit I was goin’ through with my family. Everybody was so wrapped up in being worried about Ladybird and my baby sister Letah that they never even noticed how I was changin’.
     
    When I got with Monty I started dressin’, actin’, and talkin’ different. Being around Monty and his brother opened a whole ‘nother world for me. A world I never knew existed! Shit, I couldn’t help but change. I saw alotta’ ill shit first hand, like how muthafuckas’ would do anything fa’ money and how dope controlled people. Niggas was robbin’, stealin’ and killin’. The bitches be trickin’ and sellin’ them food stamps while their kids sat at home hungry. Whole neighborhoods full of muthafuckas walkin’ around like zombies; chasin’ crack cocaine and heroin. Sometimes it turned my stomach and at other times it turned me on. Monty and his brother used to say, “The hand that cooks the rock, is the hand that rules the world.” They were right. But Monty and his brother were not only involved in the dope game, they were major stick up kids too. They would rob anybody for anything. It didn’t matter if you were an old lady pushin’ a grocery cart or a young nigga pushin’ a Benz. If you had it and they wanted it, they were gettin’ it. They could be ruthless as hell! I once watched Monty shoot a nigga in the knee for bein’ short $20 on some shit he fronted him. Whatever Monty wanted he got.
    As always, Monty got what he wanted and eventually he got tired of me. He went and got himself a new bitch. Let’s keep it real. That was for the best, because about a month later him and his brother Melvin got shot to death by some niggas from Detroit that they were tryin’ to rob. The bitch he dumped me for was killed by a stray bullet in the crossfire. I guess Monty did me a favor. That coulda’ been my brains on the concrete. He never even knew that we almost had a baby together.
    I was doin’ anything not to have to be at home. Since I wasn’t kickin’ it wit’ Monty no more I started spendin’ a lot of my extra time at the library studyin’ and readin’. I guess that’s one thing that probably saved me too. The strange thing was, no matter how bad things got at home I always managed to keep my grades up. I remember Davis tellin’ us if we got a good education we could be anything we wanted to