GOON CANDY
A Shamar Phillips Story
Chapter Two
"EVEN GOON'S CRY"
It wasn’t unusual for a crowd of niggas to hang out in front of Goon’s warehouse.
His spot wasn’t like the usual drug dealer hideout that you saw in the movies. It wasn’t rundown or looked like an old, abandoned industrial building that was used for what it was turned into. It was done up like a legitimate business: game room, bar, lounge, private dance rooms, the whole nine.
Normally, when he went to the warehouse, everything was all good. His nights were set up to handle shipments, connect with new dealers and connects, count money; whatever needed to be handled on the B-side of things. That night, however, the vibe and the crowd in front of him were eerie. The guys were huddled in a circle, looking down at the ground like they had killed something, or someone.
They were so locked in on what they were looking at that none of them even heard Goon walk up.
“What got you niggas huddled up like y’all on the field instead of the clock?”
Niggas jumped like they heard a ghost. The looks on their faces wiped Goon’s smile off with a quickness, intensifying that anxious feeling he had before he left the house.
“What up, G?”
Kane stepped to the front of the group and gave Goon a pound, seemingly shielding the view of what had their interest. There was blood on his shirt and a look of despair in his eyes that Goon had never seen before. Not on a ruthless nigga like Kane.
“What’s up? Who y’all had to put down tonight?”
Goon’s eyes shifted from one nigga to the next, hopeful for an explanation that wasn’t as bad as the tension felt.
“G,” Kane lowered his head momentarily. “This shit ain’t something you gon’ wanna see, dawg. We ain’t have nothing to do with it; we just rolled up to the scene.”
The crowd of niggas slowly parted, making room for Goon to push through. He didn’t have to see the entire body that lay on the ground before knowing right away that it was Candy. The small feet sticking out of the bottom of the blood-stained sheet were a dead giveaway. He knew her from head to toe, but she lay unrecognizable. Covered in blood, bruises, dirt, and grime. Track marks and a large pregnant belly replaced the gold accessories she used to wear.
She looked dead. At least, that’s what Kane thought. But the minute Goon knelt to her and she felt his familiar touch, she gasped for air like she had just clawed her way out of a grave.
“Candy! Baby? What the fuck?” Goon’s mind raced, and his heart shattered all in the same beat. “What the fuck happened to her!?” he shouted at every nigga around him. “Somebody call a fucking ambulance! Why the fuck you just standing there!”
The niggas who stood around scattered like roaches to get to their phones, while Kane stood over Goon, watching him ache and grieve the woman he thought was gone forever. He had never seen Goon cry before, not even when they were kids. Not even when his dad walked out of his life, but he cried like a baby as he held Candy in his arms, pleading with God for answers. And while the others were frantic, eager to help Goon save the woman he loved, Kane stood aside with an evil smirk on his face that he thought had gone unnoticed.
“Fuck the ambulance,” Kane finally spoke. “It’ll be quicker to drive her there.”
He called for the crew of niggas to bring a car and get Candy to it immediately. Goon was so distraught and scared to let her go again that he wouldn’t let anyone touch her. Kane had to pry her from his grip so they could get her some help.
“Come with me,” Kane said calmly. “We’ll meet Rocky and Slim at the hospital after we get the shipment. This a lot of work hitting the dock tonight. Can’t let shit distract you from that.”
“Fuck the shipment! I’m riding with her.” Goon yanked his arm away from Kane and jumped in the truck with Rocky and Slim. “You stay here and collect. Have one of them niggas help you load it if you need to.”
The venom in his voice made Kane’s eye twitch. He was used to pushing back at Goon whenever business was involved, but with Candy back in the picture, he knew shit was going to be different. Goon’s vision was always cloudy with her around. And Kane hated it.
“Slim, you better push this mothafucka like your life depending on it,” Goon ordered. “We going to Kingsbridge. Don’t stop at nothing.”
“Say less.”
Slim sped through the warehouse gates with every intent to get Candy to Kingsbridge as fast as possible. Ever since the day he met Goon, he had been eager to prove himself and his loyalty. He felt like he should’ve been Goon’s right-hand instead of Kane, because Kane was always challenging the boss and doing some creep shit behind his back.
But as a soldier who was still fairly new in the camp, Slim had to play his role, sit back, and watch. He had nothing to bring Goon as proof that Kane was a snake, but after seeing his smirk while Goon cried over Candy, he was sure some old, shed skin would slither to the surface.
“Baby, what happened? Where you been?” Goon cradled Candy in his arms while Slim floored the highway like Baby Driver.
Candy was too weak to reply. She was in pain, and her belly was contracting like the exorcist. Blood and water were seeping from between her legs, letting Goon know the baby was on its way.
He looked down at the wounds on her body, considering her pregnant belly one of them. He knew how she felt about having kids, so he knew the baby nestled inside had been put there against her will.
It took everything in him not to pass judgment—to believe that Candy hadn’t just run off and lived a wild year without him like Talia said she did. But he knew her better than he knew himself, so he knew that wasn’t possible. She loved him too much.
“Nolan,” Candy muttered. “Please, help me. I don’t wanna die.”
“I got you, baby. I got you. You gon’ be alright,” he assured. “Slim! Get us there now, nigga. The baby coming!”
Slim looked at Candy with panic in his eyes and chest. One thing he loved was his truck, so having blood and baby juice all over his seats wasn’t something he wished for. Even though he was a gangsta and had killed more niggas than he could count, seeing blood and guts made him queasy.
“We almost there,” he replied. “I’m getting off the exit now. Just hold on a sec.”
He squealed into the emergency pavilion minutes after, and both he and Rocky rushed inside to grab help.
Goon was climbing out of the backseat with blood all over him as doctors and nurses came spilling out of the automatic doors. He was afraid to look away, in fear that Candy would somehow disappear again, but he knew she was in good hands where he’d taken her.
When he turned around to get out of the way so she could get the treatment she needed, he stood face to face with Dr. Vanness Carter, chief of surgery, one of the most respected trauma surgeons in all of Texas. She was shocked to see him standing there covered in blood, but she was on her job and ready to jump right into action.
“Nolan?” Her eyes widened with fear, looking at all the blood on him. “What happened? Are you hurt? Did you get shot?”
Completely ignoring the figure in the backseat, she frantically canvassed his body for any signs of trauma, but got the shock of her life when he told her who the blood belonged to.
“I’m fine.” He turned his head to hide his tears. “It’s Candy. She needs help. Now!”
Dr. Carter’s heart dropped when she saw Candy sprawled out in the backseat with the crown of a baby’s head peeking between her legs. She couldn’t believe it. Goon hadn’t stopped talking about her since the day she went missing, and although she heard him cry and had comforted him the best way she knew how, she honestly believed Candy was gone forever.
“Get her on a stretcher and take her to labor and delivery, stat!” she ordered her team. “Dr. Garcia, take the lead on this until I get upstairs. Mom’s name is Candice Maxxine Little, from Bellville, Texas. Make sure you document everything and don’t make any calls until I’m there, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Garcia nodded.
Everyone jumped into action and did as they were told, while Dr. Carter waited until the coast was clear before she asked Goon any more questions.
She noticed the track marks on Candy’s arms and knew she had to play clean up right away. Otherwise, the baby was in jeopardy of being taken.
“Nolan,” she spoke sternly with her eyebrows raised. “What the fuck is going on? Where did she come from?”
Goon couldn’t speak. He was in shock. His body trembled with nerves and anger for whoever had hurt Candy, and also because he didn’t know what to believe was true. He felt like a lost child who needed his mom to tell him what to think, what to do. But before she could ask another question about what had happened to Candy, he fell into her arms and wailed harder than he did the day she pushed him out.
“Mom!” he cried, holding onto her for dear life. “She can’t die. I need her. She can’t.”
“Aw, baby. I know, son. I know,” Vanness cried for her son, wishing she could take away his pain. “I need to know what happened, Nolan, so that I know how to help her.”
She held him like a baby, even though he was several feet taller than her.
She had warned him time and time again to leave the streets, go to New York, and be with the woman he loved. He didn’t listen. She didn’t want to be the one to say, I told you so. And she didn’t have to. He already knew.
“This is my fault! I don’t know what happened,” he sobbed. “I went out to Sealy tonight. When I got there, she was there. Kane and the guys found her. Said she was there when they got there. Nobody knows where she came from or who dropped her off.”
“No. Don’t you blame yourself for this. Somebody knows something,” Vanness said. “She didn’t get there by herself. Not in the condition she’s in. Somebody left her there.”
Goon was so distraught he could barely catch his breath. His words stumbled on top of each other, and his thinking wasn’t as crisp as it normally was. Vanness had to spell it out for him—someone who hated him or someone who hated someone in his camp was responsible for what happened to Candy. She couldn’t say who, but she knew how private her son was and how much he covered his tracks, and although she knew he played a dangerous game, she had taught him how to play correctly.
“Who knows where to find you in Sealy?” she asked. “Who do you have issues with? That’s where you start looking. And if no one knows where to find you, then somebody you have around you did this. Or they know who did.”
Slim’s attention was piqued. He didn’t know much about who Goon did business with or who his enemies were exactly, but he had the damnedest feeling about Kane. He couldn’t just come out and accuse Kane of being the one who had hurt Candy, but something in his gut told him that he had something to do with it.
“What am I supposed to do, Mom?” Goon cried. “Is she gon’ be alright? What about the baby? Whose baby is it!?”
“I don’t know how bad she is, Nolan, but I’ll do everything in my power to save her and the baby. I gotta get upstairs so that I can assess what’s going on. You can come up and wait if you want. But I can’t say how long the wait will be.”
“I’m staying.” Goon wiped his tears and tried hard to pull himself together. “I’m not leaving her.”
Leaving wasn’t even an option. As badly as he wanted to go on a killing spree to avenge what had happened to Candy, his priority was being by her side until she was well enough to tell him what happened.
No matter how long the wait was or how bad his heart hurt, he wasn’t leaving. Not until he knew she was alright.
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