by Erica Hilton
Poppy couldn’t help but laugh at Jimmy. Black Justice motioned for Poppy to turn the music down.
Jimmy’s heart was coming out of his chest as he stood there with his hands still in the air, the dogs still barking loudly.
“Pull your muthafuckin’ pants up!”
Jimmy felt somewhat relieved, but he knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet. He quickly scooped his shirt up from off the basement floor and put it on and pulled up his pants.
“The lowest I’m going is three hundred thousand for the nine kilos,” Black Justice said. “Have the cash tomorrow. I’ll have Poppy hit y’all up to arrange the location.”
Jimmy kept quiet, and Jasmine said okay.
Poppy held open the basement door that led upstairs to the kitchen, and Jasmine and Jimmy both headed toward the stairs, Poppy following behind them.
“It’s disrespectful not to roll up a man’s weed for him when you in his spot,” Black Justice said out loud, a sinister grin on his face.
Jasmine, Jimmy, and Poppy made their way up the stairs and out.
“No muthafuckin’ games! Word up!” Black Justice shouted out to Jasmine and Jimmy.
Jasmine and Jimmy made it through the restaurant’s kitchen and then out the front door. They had never been so happy to see daylight.
“I’ll hit y’all and let y’all know what’s up,” Poppy said to Jasmine and Jimmy just before they walked out of the restaurant.
As soon as they got in the car, Agent Gosling asked Jasmine with a real stern voice. “Where is his fuckin’ stash house?”
“I told you to step up your swagger, and you up in there haggling like you at a fuckin’ car auction or some shit. He tell you thirty-five, you suppose to roll with that number.”
“Where the fuck is the stash house, Jasmine?” Agent Gosling hollered.
Jasmine screamed back at him that it was in Yonkers and that they would have to drive to it and she would be able to point it out.
“Gosling, it’s weed we’re talking about. Everybody knows how to roll up weed. Oh, my fuckin’ God!”
“Look, shut the fuck up!” Gosling was seconds from slapping her. He had just gotten punked by a drug dealer and didn’t need Jasmine in his ear.
Gosling drove off, and they headed toward Yonkers. After he had driven about two miles from the restaurant, he pulled the car over, got out, and left it running. He told Jasmine he would be right back.
Gosling called Agent Battle and told her what had just happened at the restaurant. He then told her that he was heading over to Yonkers to drive by Black Justice’s stash house and that he would call her back in an hour. He also told he needed her to get a judge to sign off on three emergency warrants—one for the stash house, one for the restaurant, and one for Black Justice’s residence. He then cautioned Agent Battle against telling the New Rochelle Police Department about the raids on the stash house and Black Justice’s house until all of the FBI teams were in place and were ready to storm the locations.
Gosling was taking a major chance that Jasmine would be right about the location of the stash house; otherwise, it would not only make the FBI look really bad, but it would also put Jasmine’s life in jeopardy on the streets of New York. He was going more on emotion than intellect because Black Justice had just played him. He no longer wanted to wait until the next day and show up with the money to do the deal and then make the arrests. He wanted to get Black Justice off the streets that same day for punking him.
Twenty-Seven
Jasmine was shocked when Gosling told her that Black Justice, Poppy, and ten other members of Black Justice’s drug organization had been arrested. She didn’t feel one ounce of guilt or remorse for the role she played in setting up Black Justice, but she did have doubts about whether major charges would stick. The feds weren’t able to catch him red-handed with major drugs, nor were they able to directly link him to the stash house because the house wasn’t in his name, but they did catch him with an illegal gun and four pounds of marijuana when they nabbed him at the Dominican restaurant.
Jasmine had expressed some concern that Black Justice would quickly beat his charges, and, within a year or so, be back on the streets looking for her. But Agent Gosling tried to assure her that there was enough rock-solid evidence on Black Justice to get him indicted and convicted on a federal conspiracy charge and send him away for a very long time.
It didn’t take long for Jasmine to forget about Black Justice. In fact, three days after he had been arrested, Jasmine was reimbursed by the feds for the money she had spent buying the half-ounce of cocaine, and she received another twenty-five-hundred-dollar installment payment. On top of the money, she also had the keys to a ninth-floor loft apartment in the trendy SoHo section of Manhattan.
Jasmine couldn’t believe her eyes when she walked into the pristine, newly furnished apartment in a building with a doorman. It was way more than she ever could have imagined.
“You like it?” Agent Gosling asked.
Jasmine was beaming. “Are you kidding me?” She knew that only high-end doctors and top runway models could afford to live in SoHo, and here she was a drug dealer’s girlfriend and an FBI snitch, living just as good as them.
After Jasmine had finished touring the apartment, Gosling had to bring her back to reality.
“The apartment is nice, but remember, you have a job to do, so don’t let the apartment become a distraction.”
Jasmine nodded.
Gosling reminded her of her next two targets, Prince and Homicide. He gave Jasmine a rundown of the different intelligence reports the FBI had accumulated on them, including the cars they drove, the clubs where they hung out, the restaurants where they ate, and the different women they were fucking.
Jasmine took in everything that Gosling was saying, and she told him to give her a few days and she would come up with a plan to get close to the two targets.
“I got faith in you,” Gosling said.
“Oh, now you got faith in me? A few weeks ago you couldn’t stop reminding me about how I was going get locked up and all that shit.”
Gosling chuckled. “That was before you proved yourself.”
Jasmine sucked her teeth and playfully rolled her eyes.
“Seriously though, you’re a talent that is hard to find and hard to cultivate, and we really value you.”
Those words made Jasmine feel good because she liked being praised for things other than her good looks and her pussy.
“I’m serious,” Gosling added.
“Thank you,” Jasmine replied.
“But listen. Be smart, and be very careful out here. These guys are wolves, and you can’t take anything for granted.”
Jasmine gave Gosling a funny look. “You learn how to roll weed yet?”
“Fuck you,” Gosling jokingly shot back.
Jasmine walked up to Gosling and innocently began to massage his shoulders. “I’ll be smart. I know how to maneuver.”
Gosling liked the way Jasmine was massaging his shoulders. He felt his dick starting to rise, so he stood up from the love seat he was sitting on.
“Okay, so I got some work to do. I’m going to head in to the office. I’ll check in with you in, say, seventy-two hours.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“I just told you to give me a few days to formulate a plan, and then you tell me you’re going to check in with me in seventy-two hours? You don’t have to micromanage me.”
“Like I said, I’ll check in with you in seventy-two hours.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes once more.
“But call me if you need me.”
“Good-bye, Gosling.”
Gosling made his way toward the door, but he didn’t leave before asking Jasmine about Nico.
Jasmin
e told him that Nico had called her the day before just to check up on her and to ask her to visit BJ in the hospital.
“Did you go?”
“No, not yet. I’ll get over there probably today.”
Gosling was about to say something else, but Jasmine cut him off.
“Good-bye, Gosling!” And then she playfully pushed him toward the door.
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. And, seriously, you be careful out there.”
“I will be.”
Twenty-Eight
When Jasmine entered BJ’s hospital room, she was surprised to see Simone in the hospital room with BJ’s homeboy Ish.
“Hey, BJ.” Jasmine’s smile was mixed with genuine compassion as she walked up to the head of BJ’s hospital bed carrying ten get-well-soon helium balloons and a box of chocolate candy. She bent over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Jasmine, what’s good, baby girl?” BJ replied with a smile.
BJ was slowly getting his strength back with each passing day, but he still wasn’t able to eat on his own and had to be fed through IV. She noticed he had lost a lot of weight, but she didn’t comment on it.
“I know you all hard and stuff,” Jasmine said, “but you better take these balloons and candy.”
BJ chuckled and told her it was all good. He thanked her for the balloons and candy and told her where to put them.
“What’s up, Ish? And, Simone, what the hell you doing here?” Jasmine gave both of them a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m with my baby.”
Jasmine laughed and shook her head. “BJ, I introduced these two at the strip club and, I swear, they been attached at the hip ever since. Every time I call this heifer, she talking about, she’ll call me back, because she’s with Ish.”
“That’s how us Ghetto Mafia muthafuckas do,” BJ replied. “He put it on her the same way Nico put it on you.”
Ish laughed as he walked over to BJ to give him a pound.
“Here we go. See, you ain’t even hurt. Get your ass up and get dressed. We taking you home right now,” Jasmine said.
BJ asked Jasmine, “What’s that shit on your neck?”
“It’s my new tattoo. You like it? And look at the one I got on my hand.”
BJ looked at it and responded in the same manner as everyone else whenever they saw it, repeating what the tattoo said. “Love is cursed.”
“Yup. That shit is hot, right?”
BJ nodded, but it was easy to tell he was reluctant. He asked Simone and Ish to give him a few minutes alone with Jasmine.
Ish and Simone told him they were going to step out and go to Wendy’s on Jamaica Avenue and then come back.
As soon as Ish and Simone were out of the room and out of earshot, Jasmine looked over at BJ like she wanted to cry.
“Oh, BJ, I didn’t want to say nothing, but you sure you okay, boo?”
BJ could see the tears beginning to form in Jasmine’s eyes. “Yo, cut that shit out. There ain’t gonna be no fuckin’ tears up in here.”
“I know, but I don’t like seeing you up in here like this.”
“Jasmine, I’m gonna be all right.”
Jasmine bit down on the inner part of her lip to prevent herself from crying. She really cared about BJ on a human level and loved him like a brother, so her feelings of sadness and concern were genuine. Flashbacks of when she’d almost died added to her sadness.
“So what the hell happened? I mean, I been hearing all kind of shit from the street, but you know how that goes.”
“I don’t wanna talk in here. I’ll be home next week, though. When I get out of here, we’ll talk.”
Jasmine nodded, but at the same time she was hoping that BJ would start talking because she had her recorder going from before she walked into his hospital room.
“Okay, no problem. So you are coming home next week? That’s good.”
“Yeah, but I been fighting with these doctors. They been telling me that it’s a fifty-fifty chance that I’m going to need a colostomy bag for the rest of my life.”
“No way.” Jasmine covered her mouth with her right hand. “BJ, don’t say that.” She couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face.
“They had to remove part of my large intestines.”
“But they did say it’s a fifty-fifty chance, so that means that maybe you won’t have to.” Jasmine wiped some tears from her cheek, trying to maintain emotionally for BJ.
“That’s what I’m hoping. I told them niggas I would pay whatever, just as long as they fix my shit up right. Word is bond, they might as well kill my ass if I have to walk around with a fuckin’ bag attached to me.”
Jasmine shook her head and she wiped more tears from her eyes. “They probably was just giving you the worst case scenario to cover themselves. But, believe me, from what I learned in nursing school, as long as you can pay, they’ll fix you up right. But let your ass be poor or up in here with a damn Medicaid card, and you would be ass out.”
Jasmine wasn’t trying to be funny, but her words made BJ laugh.
“It’s true,” she added with emphasis.
“Yeah, I know. Money talks.”
Jasmine walked over to a chair underneath the TV in the corner of the room and sat down.
“I’m gonna be all right, though. Niggas is gonna die behind this shit. You better believe that.”
Jasmine looked at him and nodded.
“So what’s up with you? Nico, told me to make sure you was straight.”
Jasmine sucked her teeth and blew air out of her lungs.
“What’s that about?”
“BJ, it’s like I don’t even know Nico anymore. I don’t see him, I don’t speak to him. It’s like—”
“Jasmine, just hold the nigga down. You know how shit go sometime.”
“I mean, I am holding him down. It’s just I don’t know what we got anymore.”
“Whatchu mean by that?”
“I mean, am I still wifey or what?”
BJ chuckled. “Jasmine, that nigga love you. Trust me when I tell you. And you know Nico’s like a brother to me, so I know what’s up.”
Jasmine smiled. “I know he loves me, but he don’t trust me like he used to.”
“It ain’t you, Jasmine.”
“Well, then what is it?”
“You see where I’m at right now? Laid up in a fuckin’ hospital with half of my intestines missing and shit. And you seen on the news how the feds just nabbed Black Justice and caught forty bricks in the process. That’s what it is—he’s trying to stay one step ahead of death and jail. You feel me?”
Jasmine thought about just how smart Nico really was to have been avoiding her; otherwise he would have likely been facing the same fate as Black Justice. “I feel you, but I still need to—”
“You still need Nico to make you feel like a woman and all that lovey-dovey shit, right?”
Jasmine smiled. “No, it’s not that.”
“Yes, it is. You wanna feel like wifey, like you just said a minute ago.”
“What I mean is, I don’t want to come across all needy and shit like that. I know how to play my position. I know what I signed up for. I just need Nico to trust me and be straight up with me. That’s all.”
“If Nico caught a charge and had to do time, would you do the time with him?”
“Of course, I would.”
“You full of shit.”
“No, BJ, really I would, because if he was in jail, then I would know where I stand, and I would know what’s up.”
“Well, listen. Between me and you, I told Nico to stay outta New York for a while. And if anybody wants that nigga in New York right now, it’s me. I want Nico here going to war for me, but I know the game, and I know the s
treets. This shit is like playing chess. And right now, you got the feds coming at us, you got NYPD coming at us, we got snitches in Ghetto Mafia looking to snake us, we got other crews coming for our throat, and we got confidential informants helping the feds build a case on us. So it’s coming at us from all sides right now. I know that, and Nico knows that. So for right now and for the time being, it just makes sense for us to get this bread outta town. And we getting it right now in Miami. And when the time is right, Nico will be around, and you’ll be feeling like wifey again and all that. But for right now you just got to hold the nigga down just like if he was doing a bid or something.”
“I understand.”
“You ain’t hurting for nothing, right?”
“No, I’m good.” Jasmine made sure not to say anything about her new SoHo apartment.
“You keeping your shit tight for Nico, right?”
Jasmine gave BJ a look that told him not to even go there.
“I gotta ask.”
“No, you don’t. You already know the answer to that question.”
BJ chuckled. “Nico will be around when he’s around. But we trying to stay off them phones, and we staying off the radar until the time is right. When all these dumb-ass niggas out here go to prison, we gonna be the only smart ones still getting it. You feel me?”
“You leaving town too?”
“Me and Ish gonna be right here keeping an eye on your slick ass.”
“What you mean by that?”
Jasmine was already feeling self-conscious about the comment that BJ had made earlier about confidential informants.
BJ chuckled. “I’m just fuckin’ wit’chu. I gotta deal with these surgeries that I got coming up, so I’m here.”
“I’m sorry about what had happened to Lo.”
“This is our life. You know how it goes.”
Jasmine didn’t immediately reply to his words, but she definitely understood where he was coming from.
“This is our life, baby girl,” BJ repeated. “Just hold your tongue.”
Jasmine immediately looked BJ square in the eyes but didn’t say anything, and neither did he. She moved closer to him and kissed him on the forehead before telling him that she had to go.
