The Hill (Ch 24)

As the two sat down, they glared at each other. It was clear that if either could get away with it on camera, they'd throw a few blows right there. Carmen sat between them and began the session.

"First, I would really like to thank the two of you for coming together and meeting. You two are among the biggest stars in the industry and you're both role models to young people. We don't want conflict to destroy our communities and people seeing the two of you come together for a common goal can help remove the animosity that they may have between one another," said Carmen.

Reginald nodded in agreement. Spit Fye sat quietly in his chair.

"Okay, we all know why you two have this conflict. What we want to know is can the two of you forgive each other for the actions that you been a part of? Reginald, Spit already offered you his forgiveness on my show a couple weeks ago. Can you do the same for him," asked Carmen.

Reginald leaded forward in his chair and his eyes squinted a little.

"If you want me to be completely honest; no I cannot forgive him. A lot of things happened. And maybe at some point I will be able to squash this whole thing. But today, no I can't," said Reginald.

"How do you feel about that Spit," asked Carmen.

"I completely understand. I'll never forgive myself for what happened to Mike. I have to live with what I did every day of my life. But still, I forgive Reggie for his attacking me after the incident and I forgive him for the radio thing," said Spit Fye.

Reginald frowned and looked directly at Spit Fye.

"You forgive me for the radio incident," he asked. "I was minding my own business, just doing a show and all of a sudden you are on the phone talking crazy to me," Reginald said. "I didn't appreciate that and I didn't let you get away with it," he finished.

Carmen turned to Spit Fye.

"What exactly happened on the radio," she asked Spit Fye.

"I'm not sure. I was just informed that somebody called in using the alias Jamal Wilson, which is my name. They said some hurtful things to Reggie and Reggie responded in turn," said Spit Fye. "I had nothing to do with that call, it wasn't me."

Carmen turned back to Reginald.

"It was you. Only you and I knew about the meeting between you and my former manager," said Reginald. "How would some random caller know about that," asked Reginald.

"Spit," Carmen said inquisitively.

"Hey, I don't know how they knew. But speaking of that meeting, I didn't like how you sent him to threaten me. I feared for my life after that meeting. Mister Clemons is a very dangerous man. I mean, he wouldn't be in prison if he wasn't," Spit Fye responded.

"Oh, you wanna change the subject, huh," interrupted Reginald. "Look, let's get something straight. You are part of the reason he's in prison," Reginald said.

"No, he's in prison because he's a criminal," Spit Fye said.

"Okay gentlemen, it's time for a commercial, but we'll be back," said Carmen.

As they took the show into the break, Carmen was visibly frustrated. "Look guys, I don't want this to turn into another argument. You guys are here to end this feud and move on with your lives," said Carmen.

Reginald scoffed. "Carmen, no offense, but I didn't ask to be here. I was forced into this by Image. Nothing would please me better than to move on from this thing with Spit, but will he let it go? No, he won't. He's the one who continues to come after me. He sending crazy rumors to your TV station. He's calling radio stations and messing with me. The one thing I did to him was hurt his pride a little, with a punch in the mouth. And I didn't back down to him on the radio," said Reginald.

"Fuck that Reggie. You aren't on my radar, not even on my level. I'm offering peace and you shit on it. How am I supposed to react to that," asked Spit Fye.

"Knock it off guys," said Carmen. "Either squash this thing or leave, period," said Carmen. The cameras began to roll again and Carmen began to introduce the second segment of the interview.

"Thanks and we're back. So when we left, things were getting a little--," Carmen was interrupted by Reginald.

"This is a joke and it's bullshit," he said. "You can't say that on television Reggie," said Carmen. "This is all about ratings. Y'all live for this beef and to have it on television, live, this is getting you paid. I'm not going to be a part of this," Reginald said as he walked out.

Carmen was speechless. As Reginald walked out the door, there were several people standing by waiting to hear about the interview. Spit Fye came out the door right behind Reginald and grabbed his shoulder.

"Where you goin'," asked Spit Fye. Reginald instinctively turned and grabbed Spit Fye by the shirt and slammed him up against the wall. "Stay the fuck away from me," yelled Reginald. He let Spit Fye go and stormed off down the hallway.

The concert was set to begin in less than an hour. Several people were up to perform, including Reginald and Yvonne. Spit Fye wasn't on tab to perform, but he did have a five minute window to address the crowd. It proved to be a volatile situation as there were signs in the crowd calling for his arrest and incarceration. Some signs went as far as to ask for his execution.

Spit Fye sat quietly in one of the dressing rooms. He was all alone. A few make up and wardrobe people came by to make him look his best for his few moments in the sun. But he sat quietly, not saying anything. Deep in his heart, he knew that he had been wrong about everything he did. He knew that leaving Reginald alone was for the best. But he also knew that conflict sells records. He was torn, because nobody had ever stood up to him the way Reginald did. In his own way, he respected that.

No matter what his lyrics said, he had never shot anybody in his life. He had never even fired a gun until the night he killed Big Mic. He came from a good family. His father was a minister in Brooklyn and his mother a principle at a local high school. He went to a local university on full scholarship and got his MBA at the age of 22, graduating with a 3.8 gpa. Nobody would have expected him to become what he became.

He always enjoyed listening to hip hop, but he wrote poetry as a therapeutic tool. Eventually, his poems gained notoriety. Eventually he began to rap at local clubs and by the age of 25, he had become one of the hottest underground rappers out there. Eventually he signed to a major label and became one of the greatest of all time. He knew that in the end, he would have given all of that up if he hadn't pulled that trigger. Mike had pushed his buttons.

When Spit Fye was in college, several people thought he was gay. And eventually it was proven to be true when he was caught naked in bed at a Frat party with another guy. Even still, he had been with many women since then. What hip hop star hadn't? But his carnal desire wasn't for women. He loved men. And he loved having power over men who were on the down low. He didn't mess with openly gay men, only men who had something to lose. He knew that they would go as far as they could to conceal their secrets, so he knew as long as he didn't say anything, neither would they.

One of the first people he tried to fool around with was Big Mic. He tried to turn Mike, and Mike turned him down and threatened to expose him to everyone. Spit Fye didn't want to be exposed, so he gave Mike a large sum of money to remain quiet and Mike agreed to stay quiet. When Mike opened his mouth that night, all the anger from several years of ridicule as a younger man was released. He reacted and pulled the trigger.

"It's all my fault," said Spit Fye.

A production assistant stepped into the dressing room and told Spit Fye he had five minutes until he needed to be on stage.

Spit Fye had come to a decision. He was going to apologize and truly leave Reginald alone. He was also going to change his manslaughter plea to a guilty plea of murder. He wanted to do his time and pay for his sins. He had brought everything on himself and he knew that in the end, the money wasn't worth his soul.

Spit Fye stood up and turned towards the door. Someone was in the room. "Hey," he said just as he felt three burning shots hit him in the chest. He couldn't breath. He became light headed and his vision blurred and he fell to the floor. He coughed violently as blood began to climb from his throat into his lungs and into his mouth. He reached for the person in the room and his eyes closed. Jamal Wilson was dead.

The sound of the shots alerted security and several people ran to his room. They saw Jamal motionless on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

News of the shooting quickly spread throughout the building and throughout the music world. Speculation ran rampant. Many people pointed to the heated exchange that Reginald had with him earlier. Other people thought it was a suicide. Even still people pointed to the three shots in the chest and said it was an execution style hit.

That night, the authorities found Duane's sidekick, Earl, in the building. He had a .45 and a silencer. After a thorough check, the found no residue from a gunshot on his body. They also found that the .45 hadn't been fired. Still, he was arrested for his connections to Duane. He had come there to kill Spit Fye, however. That was part of him taking out the trash, as Duane had put it. In the end somebody did the job for him.

Reginald was questioned heavily about the incident. He had the most motive to kill Spit Fye. He even had a slight window to do it. His performance had been over for a while when they found Spit Fye dead. After hours of intense interrogation, they let Reginald go. The had done the same residue test on Reginald and found no evidence that he'd fired a gun.

Reginald walked out of the interrogation room in a Manhattan Police Station at 2 am. Yvonne sat in the waiting room the entire time, waiting for him to get out. The two of them hailed a taxi and went to their hotel suite.

"Are you alright baby," asked Yvonne. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a bit of a headache," he said as he walked into their suite. Reginald walked over to the bed and laid flat on his back. His eyes closed. He couldn't believe what had happened that evening. "I can see why," Yvonne said. "I know you didn't kill him," she said. She walked over to the bed and laid next to him on the bed. "Thank you for always believing in me," Reginald said.

He rolled over and they embraced and began to kiss. Only moments later, they were making love. Reginald had a difficult day and he needed a release of aggression and frustration. He needed to feel Yvonne's love and she gave that to him. Sounds of passion filled the room. Yvonne took everything Reginald had to give. She was very much in love with him, and she looked him in the eyes, never losing focus. As the climaxed together, Reginald said softly to her, "I love you." She smiled at him and kissed him softly. "I love you too," she replied. The two lovers laid in the bed, with Reginald holding her closely until she fell asleep.

When Reginald opened his eyes again, it was almost 9 o'clock. Yvonne was gone, but the bed was still warm with her body heat. "She must be in the shower," he thought. His head still throbbed with the headache from the previous night's events.

Reginald crawled out of the bed and walked over to the dresser where Yvonne's purse sat. He opened her purse to look for something to soothe his headache. He was shocked at what he saw. Yvonne had a .38 caliber gun. He took the gun from her purse and looked at it. There were three shells missing and the gun smelled like burning metal. "What the fuck," said Reginald to himself.

"Did she shoot him," he asked himself. He thought back to the diner.

"I've completely fallen in love with you. I would do anything for you, no matter what. I just want you to be happy," said Yvonne.

"Anything," Reginald said to himself. "Anything what," asked Yvonne from behind him. She was in the doorway to the bathroom in her bathrobe. Reginald turned, with the gun in his hand. Yvonne saw the gun, but she didn't flinch. "Did you," Reginald said before cutting himself off in disbelief. "I saw what pain he was causing you, and not only you, but me," Yvonne said. "I wasn't going to let him get away with that. Jamal was evil and he needed to be stopped," she continued.

"But, you killed him," Reginald said still in disbelief. "Yeah, I did," Yvonne said. "Nobody will ever know. I'll get rid of the weapon and we can live our life together with no worries," Yvonne said. "It's your gun Yvonne," said Reginald. "They'll find it and trace it back to you," he continued. "No, they won't. I bought the gun on the street," she said. "You forget, I'm from the street and I know how to take care of things," she finished.

Reginald sat the gun on the dresser and walked to the couch. "What are we gonna do," he asked. "There's nothing to do, Reggie. We just move on. Nobody will know anything," she said. "I'll know and you'll know. You can't just live with killing somebody on your conscience," Reginald said.

"Then I did him a favor," Yvonne said.

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Keep on the lookout for the epilogue...