King Divas by De'nesha Diamond Page A

Peaches was looking to turn her life around. It’s not unusual after a traumatic experience. You understand?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œPeaches attended a couple of services, but when I saw her this morning, I was surprised.”
    â€œDid she come to talk to you?”
    â€œNo. Actually, I found her in the sanctuary praying.”
    â€œPraying?” I repeat. The image is hard for me to get my brain around.
    â€œDon’t get me wrong—that’s what the church is for. It was . . . out of the ordinary. I talked to her and told her that she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted. It’s just that when I was talking to her . . . I don’t know. She seemed to have a lot on her mind.” He draws in another breath. “I don’t understand who would do something like that—at the church of all places.”
    â€œWas she the only person there when you left?”
    â€œYes—wait—no,” he waffles. “When I was leaving a church volunteer was arriving. She helps out in the office a couple of times a week.”
    â€œOh? What’s her name and how can I get in touch with her?”
    â€œJosie. Josephine Holmes.”

15
    Shariffa
    Tupelo, Mississippi
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    E verything has to be perfect.
    I step back and survey my bloody handiwork. Trigger’s chopped-up body has been strategically staged around the living room. It’s important that I make sure this shit is a replica of Lucifer’s handiwork when she killed Crunk at Crunk’s Ink tattoo shop and my girls Bricka and Shacardi at Shacardi’s crib. I have every detail, even down to Trigger’s head spinning around from the ceiling fan. On the walls I write my name in blood with the ominous message:

    You’re next.

    Next to that a five-pointed star and the single letter L .
    â€œPerfect.”
    I have no guilt about this shit. The bitch got what she deserved. She didn’t know that I’d learned the truth about her and my husband, Lynch. I made such a fool of myself for ever allowing that bitch into our bed. A harmless ménage à trois to keep the spice in our marriage. I thought that the bitch was my homegirl. She knew how to keep our fuckin’ business out of the street. Both of those muthafuckas played my ass. Turns out, Lynch and Trigger went waaay back. Shady nigga Mc-Shady had even proposed to her before he met me. He’d even got her and her friends to befriend me in order to give me more street cred with the Grape Street Crips. None of those muthafuckas ever forgot that my ass used to flag for the Gangster Disciples as Python’s main bitch and how I fell off my throne when Python learned my ass was creeping in the streets like he was. The shit almost cost me my life.
    But it didn’t. I crawled out of the gutter and climbed my ass up the Crips’ ranks and landed the head nigga. When the war between the Gangster Disciples and the Vice Lords got wild, I seized the opportunity to bring Lynch’s Kool-Aid gang into the mix. I found out the hard way that these niggas ain’t got no heart to do no real battle. Me and my supposed crew—Brika, Shacardi, Jaqorya, and Trigger—took shit too far. A money hit at the Vice Lords’ joint, Da Club, went seriously left and Lucifer’s brother, Bishop, was gunned down. Now the most feared woman in the streets started tracking our asses down one by one, like Freddie Krueger.
    Lynch couldn’t even step up to protect us. When he tried to arrange a truce, Lucifer shot his ass in the foot and promised his ass that she’d finish me and Trigger off. Instead of going to war for his own wife, Lynch stashed me and his mistress out here in Tupelo to wait for the heat to die down. Only Trigger and I got into it and I killed the bitch myself. Now, I’m the last bitch in my crew standing. If I want to survive, I have to beat Lucifer at her own game.
    Done, I strip out of the bloody clothes and rush to