by Jacob Spears
* * *
Sue Rabbit stepped out of the shower at dawn after a long and busy night at the trap house, where he was assisting the new cooker with preparing fifty kilos. Their cooker was an old-school woman referred by Big Mitch before he was arrested. It was someone Big Mitch had told Sue Rabbit would be suitable in case a rainy day ever came. Her name was Cookie, but she preferred to be called Auntie. She didn’t have a touch like Amanda, who no one had seen, but she had what it took to keep the fiends and clientele coming. And that’s all that mattered to Sue Rabbit and Guru.
Sue Rabbit dried his face and head while standing in the mirror. When he looked in the mirror, he almost jumped out of his skin when he saw Roxy standing behind him.
“Damn, baby! You can’t be doing that,” Sue Rabbit said, pulling Roxy into his arms. “Plus, I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was until I smelled your aftershave,” Roxy said as she caressed his smooth baby face.
“Oh yeah?” Sue Rabbit replied as he began sucking on Roxy’s neck, making her giggle from his titillation.
“Boy, you know that shit tickles and turns me on!”
“Shit! What you think I’m trying to do?” Sue Rabbit said as he resumed sucking on Roxy’s neck.
“Mmmm!” Roxy moaned, letting her robe fall to the floor, revealing her flawless nude body.
Roxy reached down and began stroking Sue Rabbit’s erect cock with both hands. Without warning, she squatted and began sucking on his dick.
“Damn!” Sue Rabbit moaned as he looked down at Roxy sucking his cock with great passion.
“Mmmm!” Roxy moaned, twirling her tongue around the head of Sue’s throbbing cock.
Roxy knew that she was doing her thing and making Sue Rabbit’s head spin. He then grabbed the back of her head and began fucking her mouth.
“Mmmm!” Roxy moaned out as Sue’s cock hit the back of her throat.
Before he could come to his climax, Roxy pulled away and stood to her feet. She turned around and ran out of the bedroom.
“Hide and go fuck!” she screamed.
Sue Rabbit followed after her, hopped in bed with her, and buried his head between her legs. He sucked on her throbbing clit and had her coming five minutes later.
“Damn, Trayvon. I love you!” Roxy purred loudly.
“I love you too, baby,” Sue Rabbit replied.
After sucking up her juices, Sue Rabbit climbed on top of her and slowly entered her wet mound.
“Mmmm! Daddy, fuck me!” Roxy demanded, wrapping her legs around Sue Rabbit. “You love me, Trayvon?” Roxy asked in a purr.
“Yes, ma! I do,” Sue Rabbit replied as he increased the strokes, going deeper with each thrust.
Every time he was inside Roxy, he felt like the luckiest man in the world. He dumped all his sideline sexual partners to be with her, and he was now ready to take it to the next level in life. He was ready to leave the game alone, but before he did, he wanted them to be financially stable for generations. Sue Rabbit knew that the dope game wasn’t a job that would last forever. The statistics of trying it and failing were higher than succeeding.
Roxy felt Sue Rabbit deep in her womb and thought about what his reaction would be when she told him the news—the wonderful news. Just then, a tear escaped her eye and rolled down her face. When Sue Rabbit saw the tear, he licked the side of her face and kissed her as he continued to make love to her.
“Us against the world, baby!” Sue Rabbit whispered into Roxy’s ear.
As if on cue, they both came to an electrifying orgasm together.
* * *
As soon as Smooth awoke, he did his hygiene and then dug in his locker for a quick breakfast. He never ate the jailhouse food. China kept his inmate account loaded to the point that he could pay for the entire jail’s breakfast if he wanted.
Smooth grabbed himself a honey bun and a package of apple-flavored oatmeal. He took a peanut butter squeeze and squirted it all over the honey bun while he waited for the water to boil. As he ate the honey bun, he thought about Amanda. She was no longer picking up the phone.
She must have changed her number, Smooth thought, shaking his head.
It was crazy, and it made no sense to him how a woman could declare her love for a man but scatter at the first disappointment. Smooth remembered of all their good times, and seeing her smile always brought joy to his heart. It confirmed that despite their age difference, he was doing something good and not wrong. She had made a lot of money with Smooth by being his cook girl.
Is that what it was? The bitch saw that a nigga couldn’t profit her like I could if I was out? Hell no! I can’t see her playing a cutthroat game like that, Smooth thought as he swallowed his oatmeal and then walked over to the phones.
He dialed China’s number and got her on the second ring. China accepted the call after all the automated prompts.
“Good morning, daddy,” China’s sexy voice spilled into Smooth’s ear, putting a smile on his face.
“Good morning, beautiful. What’s up with you? You sound like you’re in a good mood. Tell me about it,” Smooth said to her in code.
“Everything went well. I don’t want to go into details, but we still have work to do.”
“What do you mean?” Smooth asked.
“I did her. He decided to do him on a later date,” China explained.
The line was silent, and China could sense that Smooth was completely lost.
“Baby, don’t rack your brain! Just let us handle this shit out here,” China said at the same time the crack baby started to cry.
What the fuck! A baby? Smooth thought.
“China, baby. Whose kid is there with you?”
“Let’s just say right now he’s ours if I decide to keep him. Like I said, I handled her, and he decided to handle him at a later date. Now let’s get off this subject. How do you like your lawyer?”
“He made it clear that we need him handled.”
“And he will, baby. I promise.”
“I know,” Smooth replied, letting China know that he trusted her to make sure Ham was dealt with.
He still had no clue that China had ripped a woman’s baby from her womb a month before the baby was due, after cutting her throat.
“I miss you so much, Smooth,” China said while feeding the baby a bottle of milk.
“Don’t worry, baby. Daddy will be back out there. Listen, I need you to drop off a payment for my boy Stone Bolt. Can you do that for me?” Smooth asked China.
“Yes, baby. If that’s what you want me to do. I will handle it after I go pick up Zorro and grab the rent money from Jane,” China told him.
“Appreciate it, baby.”
“How much do you want me to drop on him?”
“Drop $1,500 in his account and tell him to keep his head up,” Smooth directed China.
“Okay, baby. I will.”
“You have sixty seconds left,” the automated voice announced.
“I love you, baby, and tell GaGa and Roxy that I love them too,” Smooth said.
“I will tell them, baby. I love you too.”
“Thank you for using GTL,” the automated voice said before disconnecting the call.
Damn! I can’t wait to get up out of this shit! Who the fuck’s baby does China have that she’s contemplating on making ours? She says she handled her. Her? Oh shit! Ham’s baby mama, Tina! Smooth concluded.
The pieces were coming together now and were transparent for Smooth. To confirm his speculation, he was eager to pick up the phone; however, this time he dialed Spencer’s number and got him on the third ring, after going through the prompts.
“What’s up, Smooth?”
“Shit! You tell me what’s going new? I hear you was in contact last night,” Smooth said, getting straight to the point.
“So, you’ve already talked with China!” Spencer said.
“Yeah, and a toddler was doing all the damn talking. Please enlighten me.”
Before Smooth could finish,
Spencer exploded in laughter.
“What’s so funny, Spencer?” Smooth inquired.
“Because, I don’t know how to tell you that your girl has me beat when it comes to pulling the truth out of people,” Spencer admitted.
“I’m still lost here, Spencer. Talk to me!” Smooth said, growing agitated.
Spencer stopped laughing and thought of the best way in which he could tell Smooth about a murder over the phone.
“Your girl did her first hands-on delivery, bro!” Spencer said, getting a silent line for half a minute.
“Damn!” Smooth said with a sigh.
“Yeah, bro. That’s what I said. She definitely has me beat!” Spencer said, biting into an apple.
“So I’m guessing you have plans for buddy?” Smooth asked Spencer about his intentions with how he was going to handle Ham.
Spencer swallowed his chewed apple and then spoke. “Yeah. I have good plans for buddy. Just know that everything is under control, Smooth,” Spencer said as he took another bite. “I’m going to have fun with buddy.”
“Good, bro. I knew that I could count on you.”
“I’m here, Smooth.”
“You have sixty seconds left,” the automated voice announced.
“All you need to do is work out and think about the first thing you’re gonna do when you come home.”
“Thank you for using GTL,” the automated voice said.
“Shit! The first thing I’ma do when I come home is make sweet love to my baby,” Smooth said as he walked into his cell where he found Rosco praying on his knees.
Rosco prayed every morning his feet hit the ground.
Smooth silently climbed on top and lay down. The moment he closed his eyes, a CO came over the loudspeaker.
“Johnson visitation. Booth number twenty.”
Who the hell is this? It’s gotta be Meka because China is in Miami, Smooth thought as he climbed back down from the top bunk, put on his boots, and then walked out of the cell.
Rosco was still in prayer, and Baby Dread was waiting for him to finish up.
When Smooth made it to booth twenty and saw his visitor, his heart dropped, and anger quickly overtook him as he snatched up the phone.
“Amanda, what the fuck is going on with you? Why aren’t you accepting my calls and then—”
“Changed my muthafucking number on your ass? Smooth! You lied to me! Yo’ ass was about to be a father, and you couldn’t be a man to tell me about it.”
So that’s why she tripping! Smooth thought.
“Don’t ask me what’s wrong with me, Smooth! What’s wrong is that I gave the wrong nigga my heart, and now it’s costing me my damn life!”
“What the fuck you talking crazy for? Yo’ life’s not worth the wrong speculation!” Smooth snapped.
Amanda began breaking down like he had never seen her do before. It was evident to Smooth and anyone who was looking in on the duo that she was hurt.
“Baby, listen.”
“No, Smooth. You listen! For years, you’re the only man I’ve been sleeping with, loving, and caring about,” Amanda said, putting up her fingers one, two, three. “And I’ve run all my friends off because I was too caught up in playing number two to a man who would have never made me his number one. All for what, Smooth? For my checkup test to come back positive for HIV!”
The words hit Smooth hard. HIV! he thought, now seeing why Amanda had lost weight. Oh shit! That means I could be infected.
“Amanda, are you kidding me?” Smooth asked.
Amanda looked up at him and laughed, and then told him straight up, “Go get tested and thank the bitch who gave it to you. And by the way, thank you for taking my life away. Have a nice life, Smooth,” Amanda said as she hung up the phone and walked away without looking back.
Smooth was speechless and, for the first time in a long time, scared.
17
WHEN SMOOTH RETURNED to the dorm, Rosco could see the discomfort all over his face. Other inmates also noticed that his visit was the shortest ever. When he walked into the cell, Baby Dread and Rosco continued to play chess and eat honey buns with peanut butter topping. Like Smooth, neither Rosco nor Baby Dread woke up early to eat the jail’s breakfast, even though it was better than most in other jails in Florida. Smooth hopped on his top bunk and leaned back against the wall.
Amanda’s HIV positive, and she claims it came from me—her reason for avoiding me, Smooth thought, replaying the visit in his mind.
Seeing Amanda walk away, Smooth just knew that he would never see her again.
Lord, how can this be? Smooth asked the Most High as a tear rolled down his face. Could China be infected if I’m infected? No! The doctors would have told China during her pregnancy if she had HIV, and after she lost the baby. If China doesn’t have HIV, that means I caught it from someone after her, but who? Jane? Smooth thought, after realizing who it was he had sex with other than Amanda and China.
Everything was coming back to him. He had stopped having sex with random women when China came home. He was only involved with Amanda. The last woman he had sex with other than Amanda was Jane. He and China had been on bad terms despite getting back together, but he never made it back to her to have makeup sex.
That’s why China isn’t HIV positive, Smooth concluded. But could Amanda be blaming me as the one that infected her to take the burden off of her?
I sexed Meka too. I gotta get tested! Smooth thought as he wiped away the tears that inevitably fell from his eyes.
He had written to Jane last week requesting that she send him some bikini pictures, but she hadn’t responded yet.
Damn! How the fuck did I let this happen to me? Smooth wanted to know. When he reflected on all the many women he had unprotected sex with while China was in prison, he had no one to blame but himself if he had HIV. It was hard for him to accept that there was a high change that he did.
But how could I not be if Amanda is? he thought.
* * *
Guru had pulled up to the 7-Eleven gas station on the far side, away from the cameras. He saw that his client hadn’t arrived, so he sparked up a phat-ass dro blunt. Emanating from his radio was an old throwback hit by Biggy Smalls. Ten minutes had gone by, and his connect still wasn’t at the station.
“What the fuck! He was supposed to be here already!” Guru said as he looked at his Rolex.
Guru pulled out his iPhone and called his client, who picked up on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Man, what’s up? I’ve been at the station almost fifteen minutes, bro. Are you near or what?” Guru asked his client.
“Yeah, I’m pulling up now, homie. Just chill!” Guru’s client told him, right when he pulled up alongside Guru.
Guru’s client was a fisherman from the Keys named Cranmer, who was a six foot four, 225-pound Russian in his sixties, who caught sharks for a living. He stuffed the sharks with bricks of cocaine and trafficked them to another fisherman out of state. Sometimes, Cranmer would ship the stuffed sharks by water to other islands.
Guru had met him at a seafood restaurant at which Landi and he were eating, and Cranmer expressed his interest in cocaine. At first, Guru moved cautiously with Cranmer, just in case he was the FBI. But when Cranmer assured Guru that he wasn’t a cop and offered to sell him weapons, Guru took the chance. When Cranmer got out of his SUV, he opened up Guru’s passenger door and hopped inside with two duffel bags of money.
“Damn! It took you long enough, old man!” Guru said as he passed his blunt to Cranmer, who took it and inhaled deeply.
“I had to ditch a Metro-Dade cruiser. He wouldn’t get off my ass until I started following him,” Cranmer said. “I can’t afford a stop in Miami. I hate coming through here.”
“Don’t worry. The next two drops, I’ll come to your neck of the woods,” Guru said.
“Good! That’ll be great. I’ll have some good shark meat for you and your girl. I speared one of them fuckers today, and I tell ya, that boy has
enough meat on him to feed Haiti alone,” Cranmer explained.
“That’ll be nice, Cranmer. We’ll be down there the end of the month,” Guru promised as he reached into the backseat and retrieved two duffel bags, each stacked with fifteen kilos of cocaine each.
He tossed the bags onto Cranmer’s lap and tossed the money into the backseat.
“I’ve run across some more AK-47s too, so when you come, make some room for them to go back with you.”
“How many do you have?” Guru asked.
“Fifteen of them are yours, buddy,” Cranmer promised.
“That’s why I like you, old man. You’re always coming through for the boy,” Guru expressed.
“Hey, you’re always looking out, so I have to show the same back. It’s all appreciative business and washing each other’s back.”
“Hey, I ain’t washing yo’ hairy back, old man!” Guru said, causing Cranmer to chuckle.
“Nice one, bud. See you at the end of the month,” Cranmer said as he passed back Guru’s blunt and then exited his SUV.
Guru and Cranmer were both satisfied as they pulled off in opposite directions.
Guru showed up at Roxy’s restaurant in time to get some breakfast. He ordered takeout for two separate orders, one for him and one for Landi, who was waiting for him to return to their condo. Roxy had prepared his order and thanked him for choosing her restaurant. Guru got back into his Lexus, opened up his bag, and stuffed his mouth with a hash brown.
“Now that’s a hash brown!” Guru savored it.
There was no doubt that Guru had the munchies from the dro blunt. As he pulled out into traffic, he turned up his music, never seeing the black Suburban two cars back.
When he came to the red light at the intersection, he was sandwiched between two cars. The Suburban pulled up, and it all happened too fast for Guru. He could only duck from the rapid shots of the AK-47 that rang out from the Mexican who was hanging out of the passenger window. The Mexican sprayed into the Lexus SUV, hitting a ducking Guru in his back and legs. Guru had no chance to respond. The shots stopped, and he could hear tires burn out.
