“Okay, let me go ahead and give you that so we can get up outta here then,” Earth said calmly.
“What?” Lite asked. “What makes you think I roll like that?”
“I don’t; I just asked.”
Her words caused a huge Kool-Aid smile to appear on Lite’s face. In all honesty, at one point or another, against her better judgment, Lite had rolled like that to make ends meet. She did not believe that she would make any more than another $100 or $200 in addition to the $600 she had made already. Here it was, she was being offered nearly twice that. She had left with men for less, so she had no problem with leaving with a woman, especially since she was bisexual. Without hesitation, she said, “All right, let me go get my things.”
“Don’t keep me waiting long. I’ll be parked out front in a green Benz truck.”
Earth gave a few daps and head nods to those worth acknowledging, threw her hand up in the air in the DJ’s direction as her name was announced by her hometown friend DJ Rit Rat, and made her exit out of the club. Since that evening, Keya and Earth had spent many nights together enjoying each other’s company the way they were doing now.
“You know I love you, right?” Keya purred, laying her head on Earth’s chest after they had just finished making passionate love.
“Yeah, you love me, all right. You love my paper,” Earth slyly remarked.
Keya’s head instantly shot up. “See? Why you gotta say some fucked-up shit like that?” Keya spit, now pushing off Earth’s chest.
“’Cause it’s true,” Earth replied nonchalantly.
“You know what, E? Fuck you!” Keya screamed, hopping out of bed.
“I already did,” Earth retorted.
Keya gave Earth the middle finger as she heatedly gathered up her clothing. “I already did that too,” Earth sarcastically stated, rolling over to retrieve the half blunt and lighter she had on the nightstand.
“I hate ya punk ass,” snapped Keya, hurrying into her powder-blue laced thong.
“One minute you love me, the next minute you hate me. Make up ya mind,” Earth replied.
“E, why are you actin’ all shitty to me all of a sudden?” Keya questioned in a whining manner.
For a minute, there was a brief pause. Earth lit the blunt, inhaled a mouthful of smoke, and then clouded the air with its residue.
“You really wanna know why, Lite?” Earth asked dryly, addressing Keya by her stage name, knowing that would irritate her.
“Oh, it’s Lite now, huh? Tsk! Ma’fucka, it ain’t been Lite in six months, so what’s changed?” she spit with venom.
“Nothin’, that’s the fuckin’ problem,” Earth shot back. “You still doin’ the same bullshit you been doin’ from six months ago.”
“Oh, I get it now,” Keya said, understanding. “Here we go with the bullshit again.”
“Whatever,” Earth stated in an uncaring manner.
“No, it’s not whatever. I told ya ass before that if you wanted me to stop dancing, then make me wifey and not ya bitch, but you the one that wanna be this muthafuckin’ gangsta and act like you don’t know how to love and shit,” Keya lased out, her New York accent now coming out. “Soooo, I’ma keep doin’ me until you start actin’ right. If you not gonna take care of me exclusively, then I’m gonna keep suckin’ and fuckin’ ma’fuckas until—”
“Bam!”
“Ma’fucka, no, you—”
“Umph!”
Keya never saw Earth fly off the bed, let alone throw the right hook that connected on her jaw while in midsentence, sending her straight to the floor. Semi-dazed, Keya attempted to lash out verbally, only to have her words cut short again with a kick in the midsection by Earth, causing her to instantly curl into a fetal position.
“Bitch, don’t you ever disrespect me in my own ma’fuckin’ house again like that,” Earth roared. “I don’t give a fuck who or what you do, but don’t try to throw that shit up in my face like I’m some ma’fuckin’ lame or something. I’ll kill ya dumb ass up in here, you hear me?”
Earth could see the fear in Keya’s eyes as she launched her assault and was unmoved. She also saw the blood that was beginning to trickle out of Keya’s mouth from one of the blows she had just delivered. “Bitch, get the fuck up off of my floor ’fore you fuck up my carpet, and I really have to hurt ya silly ass,” Earth ordered.
“Matter of fact, get your ass outta my fuckin’ house before you make me break your ma’fuckin’ neck.”
Keya could not believe what had just happened. She was stricken with both fear and hatred toward the woman she had professed her love to and wanted nothing more than to get as far away as she possibly could from her. After the first time the two of them left the club together, Keya had done her homework on Earth and found out more than she would have ever imagined, but the news of Earth being both a baller and a gangster did not deter her but rather intrigued her. Initially, she had set out to get as much money as she could out of Earth, but in the process of trying to do so, she fell in love with the female hustler. Now, here it was, all the love she thought she’d felt for Earth had quickly been replaced with hate. Slowly, Keya rose, never taking her eyes off Earth who stood in front of her motionless. Neither of the two uttered a word, but their eyes spoke volumes. Earth’s telling Keya it was officially over, while Keya’s said it was far from it. Keya snatched up the three-quarter chinchilla she had worn over to Earth’s home and made her way to the door with nothing but revenge on her mind.
Chapter Seven
“Whaddup, ma?” Le Le greeted Shell, pulling up in her red 350 ZX blasting the Remy Ma track “Conceited.”
“Qué pasa, mami chula?” Shell replied as she made her way over to the Z.
Shell was a deep, brown-skinned, medium-height mixture of black and Dominican, with a body stacked like a thoroughbred horse. Her short cut with the teased burgundy highlights accentuated her round, smooth face, quarter-sized eyes, and lusciously petite lips only heightened her beauty. Her sex appeal and street persona drove men crazy. She was the ideal woman for anyone who was in search of a down-ass chick, but Shell did not need a man, or a woman, for that matter, to do anything for her, nor did she want them to. She had been doing for herself since age thirteen, and now at the ripe age of twenty-eight, she was still holding herself down, thanks to Heaven and Earth. Meeting them nearly eight years ago at the Greek Fest in Philly at Fairmount Park was what Shell considered a blessing in disguise. Instantly, she’d hit it off with the two, and when opportunity was offered, Shell took advantage of it and had been on Heaven and Earth’s team ever since.
“You out here kinda early,” Le Le stated.
“Any money comin’?”
“It was, but then shit slowed up,” Shell replied. “I made like $900, but I guess that was that early-morning rush,” she added.
“I feel you. Let me park up. I’m coming out.”
“A’ight.”
“So what happened yesterday?” Shell asked. She was aware of the situation with Le Le and the kid from Remsen and had heard about someone getting shot on the block but didn’t know if the person who’d violated Le Le and the person who’d gotten shot were one and the same.
“What’chu think?” Le Le replied dryly.
“Damn, bitch, what’s with the attitude?” Shell snapped, taking offense to Le Le’s response.
“My bad girl, I didn’t mean to sound like that,” Le Le apologized. “It’s just that after that shit jumped off, Earth got all up in my shit, like I provoked that ma’fucka to do what he did to me.”
“So they did get the right dude, then?”
“Yeah, with his bitch ass. I wish I could’ve been the one to do it, but Earth wouldn’t even let me get out of the Jeep. She get on my nerves sometimes with all that he-man shit,” Le Le chimed in disgust.
“Tranquila, mami,” Shell interjected. “That’s family right there. I understand where you coming from, but you know how Earth is. She don’t be meaning no harm; she just be looking out fo
r our best interest and don’t want to see us fucking up or have something happen to us. It’s rough enough out here hustlin’, but then on top of that, we females,” she went on to explain. “You know dude ain’t feelin’ that on the real. The only reason we really getting it off is because of all the work Heaven and Earth put in around here to see to it that we got somewhere to eat, and there’s never a time when you can say that Earth never had your back, right? Wrong or indifferent. True, she may bark you out if you’re in the wrong, but she never left any of us for dead.”
“Tsk! Yeah, but—” Le Le attempted to protest.
“But nothing,” Shell cut her off. “Come on, Le, you sound real crazy right now. I mean, I ain’t tryin’a say that shit with that joker was your fault because nothing you could’ve done or said constitutes that ma’fucka putting his hands on you, but the way I heard it, you was shittin’ on ole boy extra hard, and knowing you, I can only imagine with your conceited ass.”
Shell’s words drew a laugh out of Le Le. Shell had hit the hammer on the nail. Le Le knew that day the wannabe balla approached her, she had deliberately gone out of her way to belittle and shine on him. That day, Le Le had been looking exceptionally good. She had just gotten eight neat cornrows going to the back put in her hair and was sporting a powder-blue BEBE velour sweat suit that hugged her 34-26-32 measurements like a glove and a crisp pair of white-on-white Air Force One Nikes.
When the dark-skinned bald-headed giant had first stepped out of the ancient Mazda Millenia on sight, Le Le was not feeling him, and she made it known from the door that she was uninterested, as she had done with so many other brothers in the past who thought they had a chance. Le Le had no idea that the brother who had introduced himself as Twan would react the way he had to her cold shoulder. She knew she had gone too far when she told him she had enough money to buy him, but she was too far gone to care.
When the incident had first occurred, Heaven was the first person Le Le had reached out to, knowing that she could have a fair shot at telling her side of the story. And she was right. Heaven had heard her out without judgment or prejudice, but when Heaven pulled up in her blue CLK 430 on the block Earth was riding shotgun, Le Le could see Earth looking stone-faced through the passenger-side window of the Benz and knew what was ’bout to happen next. Le Le prepared herself for the verbal reprimand Earth was about to hand down to her as Earth spilled out of the CLK with the ice-cold expression plastered across her face. Le Le knew she had a reaming out coming and secretly felt that she deserved it, so she took it on the chin the way she always did when Earth got on her about something, but Le Le did not understand why Earth felt the need to drag the matter out and bring it up again two days later. Although Le Le was in agreement with all Shell had said in regards to Earth’s methods and motives behind her madness, she still couldn’t help but to feel some type of way about how hard Earth had come down on her. Rather than going back and forth with her friend, knowing that Shell could not understand, especially when she could do no wrong in Earth’s eyes, Le Le decided to downplay the subject and let the matter go.
“You’re right, Shell, maybe I’m overreacting, but you ain’t had to put me out there like that, talking about I’m conceited,” Le Le added with a smile.
“Bitch, you are.”
The two of them broke out into laughter.
“So . . .” Le Le replied in between laughs.
A few hours had gone by with Le Le and Shell having the block all to themselves until another one of their partners came appearing out of nowhere.
“Hey, y’all,” greeted Sonya.
“Girl, where the hell did you come from?” Le Le asked, startled.
“From up the street,” Sonya replied. “I walked down. I ain’t parkin’ my shit all on the ave. like that, so it can get all hot. I just got my joint,” she added in regards to the new Infinity SUV she had recently brought.
“Cómo estás?” Shell greeted rather than asking.
“Tato, y tu?” Sonya responded in Spanish the way Shell had taught her.
“You know a bitch living. I can’t complain.”
“I heard that. What’s up? What’s the paper flow lookin’ like?”
“It’s kinda slow compared to normal,” Le Le said. “I been out here for about three hours and only made a G note. Shell’s been out here all morning and only made about $1,300.”
“Damn, where the hell is all the money at?” Sonya spit.
“I know, right?” Shell retorted.
“Let me go put this shit up ’fore the boys roll up on my ass, but what’s up, y’all? Wanna get a dice game started?”
“That’s what’s up,” Le Le replied.
“Bring it on, mamá,” Shell followed.
“There it is, then; I’ll be right back.”
Sonya was notorious for gambling. That was one of her side hustles that kept her ahead of some of the other females around her way, but at times had also been one of her downfalls. Depending on how you looked at it or who was doing the looking, Sonya’s gambling habit really caused her more harm than good. Wherever there was a dice game in town or even out of town, if Sonya came across it, she wanted in. Because of her beauty and only standing at the max height of four foot eleven, Sonya toted a very big gun, which she had no problem pulling out and using if she felt threatened, cheated, or disrespected. Every so often, someone would make the mistake of playing her for weak, so she’d have to prove just how thorough she was when she stepped outside her hood. Not only was she cute in the face, she had ass for days and tits to match. She was built like a mini stallion. Her dark, silky skin and light brown eyes mesmerized men. Those factors contributed to a few occasions when peaceful games ended in ugly altercations, ultimately bringing heat back to Seaman Street, where everyone knew she was from.
Le Le ran across the street to the Puerto Rican bodega and purchased two sets of dice along with two Phillies blunt cigars. Moments later, she, Shell, and Sonya were engulfed in an intensive crap game while rotating the blunt of Purple Haze throughout the three-female cipher.
“All bets good,” announced Sonya.
“I’m laying twenty dollars.” Le Le peeled a twenty-dollar bill from her money stack and let it fall to the pavement.
“I got twenty,” Shell followed.
“Bet,” Sonya confirmed just before she released the dice. One die landed on the number four while the other stopped spinning and landed on a deuce.
“Point six,” she said, then bent down and retrieved the dice.
“Fifty more you don’t hit your point,” Le Le increased her bet.
“Bet to you,” Sonya pointed at her while shaking the two dice in her other hand.
“Fifty more you don’t either,” Shell joined in confidence betting against Sonya rolling the intended number.
“Bet to you too. Jump Judy,” Sonya yelled as she twist her wrist, then released the dice and snapped her fingers twice.
The dice revealed the numbers three and two, so Sonya picked them up and began shaking them once again.
“I’m doubling up,” Le Le said, tossing another twenty and fifty-dollar bill onto the ground.
“Now strike ’em,” Sonya commanded the dice. The first die landed on a three while the other continued to spin on its tip.
“Quattro,” Shell called out, stomping her foot at the spinning die, hoping for the number four.
“Chill,” Sonya, said to her. “Let my shit breathe.” As the three of them continued to stare, seconds later, the spinning die came to a halt.
“Yeah, crap out. Pay me mines,” Le Le exclaimed, seeing the die land on the number four.
“Dame mi plata, tigre!” Shell said, telling Sonya in Spanish to pay her, her money.
Somewhat heated for crapping out, Sonya chucked off the $140 she had lost to Le Le for her initial bet and side bet, then handed Shell her seventy dollars.
They were all so caught up in the dice game that they hadn’t noticed the crowd of spectators forming around them
. There were at least eight drug fiend customers who didn’t want to interrupt the game the three women were playing. Le Le was the first to notice.
“What’s up, y’all?”
“Hey, Le,” a few of them replied. “Y’all doin’ something?” one of the fiends asked.
“Yeah, how many you want?” Sonya asked. Like a domino effect, everyone began to call out the number of drugs they intended to purchase. In total, there was over $400 in sales waiting to be served. Le Le, Shell, and Sonya split the transactions three ways and resumed their game, never noticing the two dudes who had just hopped out of the burgundy Chevy Tahoe.
“Bets down,” Sonya instructed. Le Le and Shell dropped their monies to the ground. Nine was the point Sonya had now rolled.
“Yo, ma, I lay $300 to $200 you don’t buck that Nina,” a short, stocky, light-skinned bald-headed male stated from behind them. Between his clean-shaved head and the lengthy and expensive-looking diamond chain with the bracelet to match that he wore, the kid was giving the sun a run for its money. He was the passenger of the Tahoe. His words drew the attention of Le Le, Shell, and Sonya.
Not recognizing either of the two dudes, Sonya shook the dice and rolled. Instantly, a five and a two revealed itself on the dice, causing her to crap out once again. She was fuming on the inside from the interruption of the dude that caused her to lose focus of her intended number, but she kept her composure.
“Yo, can me and my man get in?” the same male asked.
That was all Sonya could take. “Ayo, playa, can’t you see this is a private game? Ya money ain’t no good here,” she dismissed him.
“What?” he questioned with a puzzled expression on his face.
“You heard what I said. Your fuckin’ money ain’t no good here,” Sonya repeated more aggressive than the first time she had made her statement.
“What the fuck you mean my paper ain’t no good here, bitch? My money good everywhere.”
The unknown male’s last remark caused both Le Le and Shell to direct their full attention toward the two unknown men. They both had a bad feeling about the situation, especially knowing Sonya.
Heaven and Earth Page 4
