Changed Man

by Roy Glenn

  “What happened with Dexter?” Andre asked.

  Even though I had all Andre’s money, that nigga was still mad as hell when I told him a much wilder version of what really happened with Dexter and them.

  “Mike, I told you specifically that I wanted Dexter alive.”

  “I know you did, but they shot first and …”

  “I know, I know, what were you supposed to do.” Andre shook his head. “I thought I told you to take Bobby with you.”

  “Couldn’t find him or The Kid, so I went alone and took care of your business for you.”

  “Get outta here, Mike. Get the fuck outta here,” Andre said, and I got up to leave his office. “You need to get your head together.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “No, Mike, I’m serious. You need to get your shit together. I can’t have you kill everybody I send you to collect from. You need to take some time off. Get out of the city for a while. Go to L.A., Miami, Vegas or someplace and don’t come back until you got whatever this shit is you’re going through out of your system.”

  Chapter Seven

  L.A., Miami, Vegas … shit, I wasn’t feeling going to any of those places. What the fuck was I gonna do in any of those places that I couldn’t do right here in the city.

  Fuck that.

  I ain’t going no damn where and there damn sure wasn’t shit wrong with me. So I killed a few people. It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t like none of them niggas no way.

  When I left Andre’s office, I was feeling good. Thinking about what I was gonna do with the time off and more importantly, who I was gonna do.

  “I know how we gonna get Andre his money,” Bobby said as soon as I got in the car with him.

  “I’m in.”

  “Don’t you wanna hear what it is?”

  “Yeah, but unless it’s some ridiculously stupid shit …”

  “Which you know I ain’t gonna come at you with.”

  “Or some insane, risky shit …”

  “Which we both know that I am more than capable of,” Bobby said and turned on the avenue.

  “You and me both.” We both laughed.

  “But it ain’t nothing like that,” Bobby assured.

  “Then I’m in.” I paused. “Because I don’t have anything going that we can make a quick thirty G’s on. So let’s hear it.”

  “I was at Andre’s spot last night, when Lamar and Marlo came in,” Bobby began.

  “What they want?”

  “Came to do business.”

  “Without Charlie Rock?”

  “Told Ricky they were steppin’ it up.”

  “With Charlie’s money.” I shook my head. “Nigga’s ain’t shit. I guess they ain’t got Charlie’s blessin’?”

  “Oh, hell no. Before he left, Lamar steps to me and says, I know you and Charlie is cool and shit, but you know like, can we keep this between us for a minute.”

  “Niggas ain’t got no fuckin’ honor or loyalty and now he wants you to be a disloyal, stab-a-nigga-in-the-back mutha fucka too,” I ranted.

  “Yeah, but only for a minute,” Bobby said as we got to Roscoe’s. We really did need to stop calling it that since Cynt killed Roscoe.

  Roscoe’s was actually a strip club called Passion that ran gambling in the basement. He was one of the few people that we didn’t have to threaten, beat or kill to take over his spot. One visit from Nick and Jamaica and he rolled over quickly.

  The place was always packed, and it had become a gold mine for us. Since she was too busted up from the beating she took to dance, I let Cynt tend bar, but I very quickly found out that she had other skills that would prove to be more valuable in the long run.

  Cynt was gangster.

  I found out that she had already been running the dancers when she killed Roscoe. In the few months since, she had taken over the place and had a few things going to get her paid. I liked that, respected it.

  We went in the VIP Room that Bobby had built just for us, and Cynt sent in four dancers with drinks. While the women danced, I got Bobby to finish telling me the plan.

  “Andre tells Ricky that he don’t want nothing to do with it, ’cause the shit ain’t right.” He said and passed the bob.

  I hit it once and passed it back to him. “Damn right, it ain’t.”

  “But he tells him to send Lamar to Rocky.”

  “Who gets his shit from Chilly, who gets his shit from Jimmy Knowles and Charlie Rock.”

  “So Andre still makes the money. He’s just a couple of steps away from it.”

  “It’s the smart play.” I paused. “Niggas ain’t shit, but it’s the smart play. But what does any of that have to do with us getting Andre his money,” I said, and Bobby just looked at me like I was Boo-Boo the Fool until I figured it out. “How much money we talkin’?”

  “Sixty grand.” Bobby smiled. “We pay Andre and split the rest. He want points?”

  “He didn’t say, but you know he does.”

  “Still. He’s off our backs and we got a good hit.”

  Now I was smiling. “A damn good hit. Like I said, I’m in. You know when it’s going down?”

  “Andre had Ricky set the whole thing up,” Bobby said and motioned for the girls and all four flocked to us.

  “When’s it goin’ down?”

  Bobby looked at his watch. “In about two hours. So,” he said as Jenae sat on his lap. “Relax and enjoy yourself.”

  And I did relax, or at least I tried to relax. I mean, I did enjoy myself. Lo-Lo and Anya danced and did all the other shit I usually enjoy, but I still felt tense and on edge and it wasn’t because of the thirty I owed Andre or the job we were getting ready to do to get him his money. The whole time, I kept wantin’ to ask Bobby what time it was; is it time to go yet?

  I wanted to get out of there and do something.

  No.

  I fuckin’ had to do something. Something to occupy my mind, not just get my dick hard; something Lo-Lo could do on her worst day, fuckin’ fine as she was.

  When my mind is still and quiet, thoughts of Vickie ease in. It makes me wonder if her coming to sleep with me those nights before I killed her was her way of asking me to save her?

  See how fucked up I am. Help me, Mike!

  I knew that Bobby was right. I needed to stop being consumed by this guilt. I knew that I couldn’t change things by constantly saying it’s my fault and that I killed her all the time. I needed to deal with these fuckin’ emotions over Vickie and move forward.

  But it’s hard because I have so many memories of Vickie; happy memories that I can’t share with anybody because she’s gone. I remember when I first moved on the block. First person I met was Bobby and on the first day of school, I met Vickie.

  While Anya shook her titties in my face, I found myself thinking about the day I was locked out because I forgot my key. I was sitting on the steps waiting for my mother to come home when Vickie came out to play. She lived across the street and was playing in front of her house. I waved to her and she waved back. After a while, she came over.

  “Why you just sitting there?” Vickie asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m locked out.”

  “My mommy makes me put my key around my neck, so I don’t lose it,” she said and showed me her key hanging from a silver chain.

  “I didn’t lose it. I left it inside.”

  “Oh.” Vickie paused and got this look on her face like she was trying to make sense of what I just said. It’s something she did, and it was so adorable until it got annoying. “Wanna play with me?”

  “Sure,” I said with excitement. “What you wanna play?”

  “Dolls,” she said and held two up. She was about to hand one to me, when her mother came out of their house and called her for dinner.

  “You gotta go?” I asked sadly.

  “Yeah, I gotta go eat dinner.”

  She dropped her head and turned to leave, but she turned back quickly with that big ass Kool
-Aid smile of hers.

  “Wanna have dinner with us?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let me make sure it’s all right with my mommy first,” Vickie said and took off running across the street.

  Her mother said it was all right and I went over to her house and ate dinner with her family. Her father called my mother at work and told her where I was. After dinner, we played in her room until my mother came to get me.

  “Mike!”

  “Huh?”

  “Let’s go,” Bobby said to snap me out of it.

  I stood up.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I said as I pulled some money out of my pocket. I was about to count off a few bills, but then I handed the whole roll to Anya and headed for the door. Seeing that, Bobby put his money away and followed me.

  On the way, me and Bobby talked about how we were going to do it. We knew all the players involved and knew how they liked to do business.

  I sat back in my seat, suddenly relaxed. “All we need now is a feat of legerdemain and a degree of intrepidity.”

  Bobby looked at me. “Fuck is that?”

  “A display of skill and resolute fearlessness.”

  “Where you get that shit from?”

  “Captain Spock.”

  He shook his head and kept driving to a place called Club Garage, that’s where the deal was going to happen. We got there early, parked the car and waited. It wasn’t too much longer after that when Rocky and Jesse arrived in a T-Top Trans Am and went inside.

  “There’s the dope,” Bobby said and right on cue, I saw Lamar and Marlo get out of a Bonneville that was parked down the street.

  “And there’s our money,” I said, and we watched them go inside. Since the money was just sitting there in the Bonneville, our plan was to simply take the car while they exchanged keys. Simple and easy; right?

  We had just got out of the car, when Rocky and Jesse came out and headed for the Bonneville.

  “That was fast,” Bobby said, and we got back in the car.

  “Yeah. Now we gotta do this the hard way,” I said and reached for the pump in the backseat. Bobby started the car and we went after them.

  “Looks like they’re heading for The Spot,” Bobby said. It was the after-hours spot that Rocky ran. “You ready?”

  “Let’s do it,” I said, and Bobby sped up as I rolled down my window and readied the pump.

  “Hold it steady,” I said and leaned out the window with the pump. I took aim at the back tire and fired. My first shot hit the bumper, but my second shot hit the tire and sent the Bonneville into a spin. I fired again just because and their car slammed into the cars that were parked along the street.

  Bobby brought the car to a screeching halt and we jumped out. While he covered Rocky and Jesse, who were still shaken up in the car, I stepped to the rear of the Bonneville and blew the lock off the trunk. I grabbed the bag with the money and backed my way to the car.

  As Bobby made his way to the car, the passenger door opened. Jesse got out and raised his weapon, but he took one from the pump before he got a shot off.

  We got back in the car and Bobby drove us away from there. It wasn’t simple, but since it wasn’t our first time doing something like that, it was easy.

  “Where you goin’ now?” I asked Bobby as he drove.

  “Andre’s, why?”

  “Let’s roll by Lamar’s first,” I said and opened the bag.

  “Why?” he asked, and I looked at him like he was Boo-Boo the Fool until he got it.

  He smiled and shook his head once he got it. “You a greedy mutha fucka.”

  “Not greedy, just thorough,” I said, and Bobby drove to Lamar’s apartment. When we got there, he parked down the block from the building; we went inside and rode up in the elevator.

  “So, what’s the plan? You just gonna knock on the door and ask them to give you the dope?”

  “Something like that,” I said as we got off the elevator and I put my silencer on my gun. Bobby looked at me, shook his head, and then he put his silencer on his gun just as we reached the apartment. I knocked on the door.

  “Who that?” I heard Marlo yell.

  “Mike Black and Bobby Ray.”

  “Fuck is you doing?” Bobby asked in a whisper.

  I put my finger over my lips. “Shhh.”

  It took a moment, but he finally cracked open the door.

  “What up, Black?” Marlo asked with the chain still on the door.

  “Andre sent me to make sure that you got taken care of.”

  “Okay.”

  “Ain’t you gonna let me in, Marlo?”

  “Yeah, yeah, Black. Hold up a second,” he said and took the chain off the door.

  “Thank you,” I said, and Bobby and I walked in the apartment. Lamar looked surprised to see us and I couldn’t blame him. I mean like, there they are with the keys they just bought on the table, and here we come. He had to know that this couldn’t be good.

  “What up, Black?”

  “Andre sent us to make sure that you got taken care of,” I said, put my hand in my coat pocket and my finger on the trigger.

  “You tell Andre it’s all good. And thank him for lettin’ us step up to the plate.”

  “Step up on Charlie’s back, you mean,” I said, pulled my gun and shot Lamar in the head. Then I turned and put two in Marlo’s chest.

  “How’d I know you were gonna do that?” Bobby asked as I put the keys back in the bag.

  “You didn’t just meet me.”

  “So I guess you wanna go by Cielo’s?” Bobby asked as I followed him out of the apartment. “See if Charlie Rock wanna buy some keys cheap?” Bobby laughed.

  I laughed with him. “Yeah, how you know?”

  “I didn’t just meet you.”

  Chapter Eight

  When me and Bobby fell up in Cielo’s, the room got quiet. The buzz was suddenly gone and other than the music playing, there was silence. We knew just about everybody in there and everybody in there knew us. They also knew that nine times out of ten, if we were there, we had come to deliver pain.

  It was then that I saw Charlie Rock, but his back was to us, and we started walking towards him. Mellow tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. He smiled and put his hands in the air.

  I took my hands out of my pockets and opened my coat as I continued walking. I put my hands up and smiled. We stepped to each other and we hugged one another. Me and Charlie were cool; we went back years. Me, him and Leon were altar boys together, if you can believe that.

  “Charlie, what’s up?”

  “What’s up, Mike?”

  “Let me holla at you for a minute.”

  He looked at Bobby. “What’s up?” he asked.

  “I got something you might be interested in.” I looked at Bobby and he tapped the bag. “Someplace we can talk?”

  “Come on,” he said and headed for the door. Two of his boys fell in behind us. Once we were outside, I told him what I had for him and what it would cost him.

  “You interested?”

  “I am. I just don’t have that kind of paper right now.”

  “What you got?”

  “I can have thirty down here in fifteen minutes,” Charlie said.

  “Let’s do this. And you remember that you owe me one.”

  Once we had completed our deal with Charlie, me and Bobby headed for Ricky’s after-hours spot to see Andre. He was in his office with his two coke-hoes, Joya and Lucinda, when we got there. While Joya blew Bobby, I stood in front of his desk and counted the money out in front of him.

  “Thirty grand with points,” I said and stepped back.

  Andre didn’t say anything for a minute. He just looked at me for a while and then he turned to Lucinda and nodded. She quickly gathered up the money into one neat pile in front of Andre. He waved his hand and she picked up the money and then walked over to the wall safe. Lucinda opened it and put the money in while Andre continued
to stare at me and I wondered why his coke-hoe had the combination to his safe.

  “Thank you, Mike.”

  “Anything else you need me to do?”

  “No.”

  When I turned to leave, Bobby tapped Joya on the head and she stopped.

  “Mike,” Andre said before I got to the door.

  “I heard Rocky got robbed tonight.”

  “I hadn’t heard that,” I said and reached for the doorknob.

  Andre laughed. “Bull shit! You hear everything.”

  “Yeah, but I’m on vacation, remember?”

  I left the office laughing and me and Bobby went to The Late Night. We put in our work that night and had twenty-five grand a piece in our pockets, so believe me it was on.

  I really can’t tell you much of what happen once we got back to the club or how I ended up in that hotel suite with those four women in bed with me; well, one was passed out on the floor, but there I was.

  Now, what I’m really not sure of is how Wanda knew where I was or how she got a key to the suite. But there she was, standing in the doorway of the bedroom with her hands on her hips.

  “Really, Mike?” Wanda said shaking her head in disgust.

  “What are you doin’ here?”

  “I need to talk to you,” she said and walked out.

  I got out of the bed, and since I couldn’t find my pants, I got the hotel robe from the bathroom and went to see what Wanda wanted.

  When I came out of the bedroom, Wanda was seated at the table in the suite with papers laid out in front of her. I now knew what she wanted, but I still had questions. I sat down at the table.

  “Four of them, Mike?”

  “Not so loud.”

  “Was that really necessary?” She asked louder, but she did it with a smile.

  “Honestly, I don’t remember how I got here, much less them,” I said and put my head on the table.

  “Is that supposed to make it better?”

  “No, but it’s the truth.” I could feel Wanda’s disapproving eyes on me. “How did you find me?”

  “Freeze always knows where you are.”

  “How did you get in here?”

  “It’s amazing what you can do with money,” Wanda said, and I just looked at her. “I gave the maid a hundred dollars and told her that my cheating boyfriend was in here.”