“Yeah you right, I like dis right here though, I need to be looking at me one of these myself.” Poke laughed to himself, thinking he would get one even better sooner more so than later.
They pulled up at the Beautiful restaurant on Cascade Road and it was not crowded, which was a good thing. This used to be one of their favorite restaurants back in the day; they would have their weekly meeting here with the rest of the clique to catch up or be briefed on what was going on with everyone in all of the neighborhoods. It had some of the best home cooked soul food in town.
They walked in and were greeted like they had just been there last week. Most of the same people had been working there for years except for maybe one or two new faces.
“Hey Coach K. Hey Mr. Slow Poke, how have y’all been doing? I haven’t seen y’all in a minute.” One of the cooks said as she put more food on the line.
“How you been doing? You are still looking just as young and beautiful as ever.” Khalil told the older lady who had been a cook there since they first opened.
“Hey Ms. Evelyn, I swear you get younger every day. Please tell me you just put some fresh oxtails out here.” Poke looked at the food on the line and knew for sure that he was getting something to go so that he could have some later.
They went through the line ordering all of their favorites and when they got to the register to pay, Khalil pulled out his Black American Express card and paid for all four meals, since he decided to get a to-go plate also.
He wanted to pick Poke’s brain, so as soon as they sat at their table, he asked “What’s been going on my nigga? We have been talking over the phone but we haven’t had a chance to kick it in a minute.”
One of Poke’s down falls in the game of life is that he has always talked way more than he listened. He wasn’t a thinker. He was more of a doer.
“Man, don’t you know Gigi has flooded the entire city with some of the best cocaine Atlanta has seen since the BMF got banged up. She got the game on lock. Hopefully she won’t forget where she came from, cause you know these young niggas out here lurking. She better make sure everybody eat.” Poke stuffed his face with collard greens and candied yams at the same time ran his mouth.
“Gorgeous remembers where she came from. Most of her team is made up of niggas she grew up with. She got some of Westside’s finest riding with her. She knows how to look out.” Khalil said in Gigi’s defense. “But let’s remember, Black Sillk snatched her up when she was ten and she only visited the west side. She went to private schools and shit, so even if she didn’t reach back, she couldn’t be held at fault for that. She has lived two separate lives.”
Taking in Pokes’ skeptical look, Khalil continued, “She got the right ones on her team though. I know that for a fact. Black Sillk has been dead for over two years, but his legacy will forever live on in the city. No one in their right mind would cross out his granddaughter, the person he left in charge. He helped build this city. He took care of so many people. Trust me Gigi got people looking out for her that she don’t even know about.”
Khalil ate his baked chicken and dressing and pondered on what was really going on with Poke. But knowing Poke like he did, even if he didn’t outright tell him what was going on, he would definitely show him by the time he dropped him back off at his spot.
“Yeah, I go in her club every now and then. One thing I can say is that Sillk sure did teach her well when it came to running a business. She got a good head on her shoulders. She had to get that from Sillk, cause God knows she didn’t get it from Solitaire.” He wiped his nose as he felt it draining.
“Shit Solitaire was your boo back in the day; you stayed running up behind her, even though you knew she would never leave James. She was strung out on dope and you still wanted to be with her. Gigi might as well be your step-daughter.” Khalil mocked him.
“Dat other twin, Beautiful dance at Magic City. Now that is the one that act just like Solitaire. That girl right there is buck ass wild. She is fucking out of both of her panty legs. Every time I turn around I see her with another dope boy or rapper. They look just alike though, one just got blond hair and one got black hair. They don’t even speak. Ain’t that some shit? How are you going to have somebody walking around the same city that look exactly like you and you don’t have a relationship with them. Gorgeous is one of the richest young bitches in the city. If she was my sister, I would put all my differences aside and jump on that money train. Shit, if I was a young nigga I would be trying to slide right up under her as we speak. She don’t got no nigga. Every time you see her, she is either with your girl Truth or her body guard. You know dat big ol’ nigga use to play football for Georgia Tech? I can’t remember what his name is, but I remember when he got hurt playing. He was in a coma for almost a year. He act like he retarded now, I don’t even think he can talk. I know she don’t go nowhere without his ass though.” Poke just went on and on. His mouth was like a faucet, once it was turned on, it just kept running.
Khalil had finished his meal and was thinking about getting him some banana pudding for the road. He sat across from Poke just looking at him. He kept going on and on about Gorgeous. For some reason, he believed that Poke had something up his sleeve that concerned Gorgeous. He knew a little too much about her, for him not to be in her immediate circle.
Gorgeous was like his family. Solitaire had been a good friend to him and Beloved. Black Sillk had been one of his mentors and Solitaire was his daughter; even though no one found this out until after both of their deaths. No matter how much bad he did in the streets, Black Sillk taught him to sow as many good seeds as possible and you will reap a good harvest and that is exactly what he did. He was a good nigga, Gigi was always under him when she was a little girl, running errands on the Hill for him. When Dfacs stepped in to get the three of them, he made sure that he got Gigi. Handsome was placed with the Browns who he was with the majority of the time anyway, but there was no one that would take Beautiful in. She always was a handful.
“That sure hit the spot. I appreciate that my nigga. I haven’t had time to eat no real food, I have been busy doing my homework on this new lil’ project. I haven’t even been able to check on my kids and my baby mama.” Poke said as he got up from the table and rubbed his pot belly.
“Kids? Nigga you done had some more babies? All I know about is Pokey and that nigga damn sho’ aint no baby” Khalil said speaking of his godson Khalid that was on the west coast going to college at UCLA.
“Nawl, you know my old lady got two kids and I’m all they know as daddy so they are mine too. She stay getting mad at me every other day. That’s why I’m staying at the spot. I just let her and the kids have the house. I just go there to feed the dogs, check on the kids and change cars.”
As they drove back to Perry Boulevard, Khalil could feel Poke staring at him. He never took his eyes off the road though. He didn’t even want to look him in the face anymore because he had a feeling he knew exactly what kind of homework Poke had been doing. He didn’t have to do no homework where this is concerned because everything Poke knew, he learned from him so he was one step ahead of him. He had to have a meeting with the kids as soon as possible to let them know and see if they had seen or heard anything. Damn Poke was shooting real bad if he was plotting on fam’ now. He thought to himself “Friends, how many of us have them?”
Chapter 9: Dirty Sprite
Reality made it home and she knew sleep wasn’t coming to her anytime soon. She decided that she might as well stay up until the meeting with Pop-Pop later on. She had gotten her own place earlier this year. As a gift, Pop-Pop had purchased an old industrial warehouse in the Castleberry Hill area close to downtown that he converted to lofts for the girls. She liked having her own space but she hated being alone, especially when she was totally sober. She didn’t want to go to Pop-Pop’s because she knew that he could look at her and tell if something was bothering her. Honesty’s truck was not parked in the parking deck so she knew that she wasn’t at hom
e. She hadn’t spent the night at home in three days.
Reality walked into her bathroom and stripped off her clothes. Maybe a nice hot shower would help her unwind. She hit the switch on her sound system and her bathroom was flooded with the soothing sounds of Marsha Ambrosius. She climbed into the shower and stood under the massaging head and closed her eyes. She was thinking that if she had smoked another blunt earlier her nerves wouldn’t be so shot right now. Reality couldn’t help it, she always felt like she needed to be doing something. Even when she was sitting still, she felt like she needed to be on the go. Anxiety and Hyperactivity was hell.
The water went cold as she got out and grabbed a towel from the towel rack. She wrapped it around herself. Her crimson hair dripped water as it flowed down her back in loose waves. She didn’t even bother wrapping it in a towel as she slid her feet into her slippers. She went into her bedroom and looked into the ashtray on her nightstand to see if she had left any weed in it. No such luck. She shook her head. She was feenin. Her insides were churning and her heart was pounding. She needed some syrup. She shouted out “Fuck!!!!!!!” to an empty apartment as she thought about how D.J. had tried to handle her like she was a junkie or something. She padded around her place dripping water everywhere trying to think of a way to calm her nerves and soothe the craving that she had. She looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was just 8 a.m. She still had three hours before she was supposed to meet up with the family. She knew that sleep was nowhere in her near future.
Real put on her bathrobe and picked up her keys, she wanted to see if Honesty had some weed at her place. She usually did because she always bought a large quantity at a time. She walked down the steps and to the other side of the building where her sister’s loft was.
She immediately noticed that the door was off the hinges. She ran upstairs and grabbed her iPhone and her chrome 380 pistol and went back downstairs. Her first call was to her sister. Honesty’s phone went straight to voicemail. She didn’t leave a message. She texted her and told her to call her back A.S.A.P. it is an emergency. The next call was to Pop-Pop, he didn’t answer either. Reality put the phone in the pocket of her robe and pulled out her pistol. She barely had to push the door for it to swing all the way open. The door frame was splintered and wood was all over the floor. She stepped over it in her bedroom shoes and looked around the wide open space. Furniture was turned over, cushions on the floor, pictures were off of the wall, and all the area rugs that Honesty had decorating her hardwood floors were out of order. The oven, refrigerator and microwave all stood wide open. Reality walked into her sister’s bedroom, the mattress was off of the bed frame and had been cut open. All of the drawers on her chest were on the floor, some of them broken. Clothes were everywhere. As she looked around she could tell that they were definitely looking for something, because all of her sister’s electronics seemed to still be in place.
Reality’s heart pumped so hard in her chest that you could see it through her robe. She knew that Honesty was going to go crazy when she saw that someone had invaded her space like this. Reality pulled out her phone again and decided to call her sister one more time. She didn’t want to call the police because she didn’t know what Honesty might have in the house. Pop-Pop had always taught them to try to keep the police out of their business as much as possible. Her voicemail picked up again. She didn’t know who to call that could be of any help. She called her brother Killa; his voicemail came on too. Everyone was still sleep because they didn’t get finished working at the stash house until after four in the morning. Reality was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. She didn’t want to leave her sister’s place open like that. Then it hit her. She should call Jaimes. She dialed his number and he answered on the first ring.
“Hey, are you calling to apologize?” D.J. asked Reality in an attempt to hide his pleasure at hearing from her. She had been on his mind heavy ever since she left his place earlier. He didn’t want her to be mad at him, but he also didn’t want to be the reason that she was strung out on the Lean.
“Actually I need you. You are the only person that I could get in contact with that I can truly count on. I am so sorry about how I acted earlier this morning. Can you come over here to our building immediately?” Reality said as she stood in the doorway looking at her sister’s destroyed place.
“What’s wrong? Don’t worry, I’m on my way. I’m on the Westside so I can be there in less than ten minutes.” D.J. liked the fact that Reality had called him. She had her brother and her father, so she wasn’t short on men in her life, the fact that she called him made him feel special. He high-tailed it over to her building. He had been up since she left. He had to go and see the priest and get blessed.
D.J. pulled his Maserati up in front of her building. He didn’t park in the parking deck. He entered her code and rushed in. He didn’t wait for the elevator; he took the steps two at a time. D.J. reached the second floor and knocked on her door. He received no response. He reached into the waist band of his True Religion jeans and pulled out his pistol. He called out her name as he knocked on the door louder.
Reality heard Jaimes knocking on her door and calling her name from upstairs on her floor. She pulled out her phone and called him and told him to come back downstairs to Truth’s house. He was down the twelve steps in a flash, standing in front of her with his pistol in his hand. She looked up at him and they locked eyes for just a second. Both of their gazes said the same thing “I’m sorry.” He looked past her and at the door hanging off the hinges and the door frame that was in pieces.
“What the fuck happened? Are you alright, has anyone been in your place? Is your fam’ on the way?” D.J. flooded her with questions as he wondered to himself who had been up in Truth’s spot.
Reality’s eyes took him in from head to toe as the stood in the hallway in front of her sister’s door. Even though Jaimes face was disfigured from the burns that he suffered as a child, this man was still gorgeous to her. She loved the way he dressed. He had the beads around his neck that he called Elekes, which had something to do with his religion. He had on a form fitting blue True Religion v-neck t-shirt underneath a blazer with a pair of True Religion jeans that looked like they had been cut and sewn to detail his bow legs. Her nipples hardened under her robe and for a second she forgot why she had called him over. She snapped out of her reverie and answered him. “I’ve called everyone and nobody answered. I just can’t leave her place open like this.”
“Why the hell not? Your dad owns the building. It is just three lofts in here and the office. So just change the codes, lock the building up and leave with me. Your dad will have someone over here to go over everything and fix this shit. Its two things we know for sure. One, I’m not leaving you here by yourself and two, we are not calling the police.”
He had a point. She decided to leave everything as it was. Pop-Pop and Honesty will handle everything once they wake up. She didn’t feel her robe slip open to reveal her naked body. The weight of her pistol in one pocket and her cell phone and keys in the other had forced the robe to fall open. Reality dashed up the steps with D.J. behind her. She would just go ahead and get dressed for the day and pack her a bag because she knew that Pop-Pop wasn’t going to want her or Honesty back in the building until he had cleared everything up.
D.J. stared at her creamy skin through the partition of her robe. He could see her flat stomach and shaven pubic area. He smiled to himself as he thought about how bad he wanted her at that moment. She knew what she was doing because she had to feel some type of air on her letting her know that her robe was open.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out the door keys and opened the door. He followed her inside. Reality then realized that her robe was open. She didn’t rush to close it. She was going to give him a little taste of his own medicine. She went to her stainless steel refrigerator and pulled out a Sprite. “Would you like something to drink?” She twisted the top off of the twenty ounce Sprite, silently wishing th
at it was tinted pink because it was loaded with Lean.
He walked in front of her and took the bottle from her hand and drank some of the cold liquid.
“Ummmmm, delicious, but I bet I know what would taste a lot better.”
“Shit I do too, if that thing was Easter Pink, loaded with some Actavis. You know how I am about that dirty Sprite.” She said as she snatched the bottle from him and drank some of the soda herself.
He grabbed her by her waist and picked her up. The robe fell open completely. He sat her on the island in the middle of her kitchen. He grabbed her face and kissed her deeply. Her breath caught in her throat, she was shocked at first, but she returned his kisses; their tongues intertwining. His hands roamed under her robe, caressing her breasts. Grabbing her by her ass cheeks, he pulled her closer to him. A moan escaped between heavy breathing as he lowered his mouth and flicked his tongue back and forth over her nipples. She bit down on her lower lip as she ran her hands through his dreadlocks. Reality lifted his head from her breast and looked him in his eyes. “What are we doing? You know once we go, there is no turning back.” She said while trying to catch her breath.
Reality had never felt for someone the way she felt for Jaimes. She just didn’t want to do something in the heat of the moment that she would regret. She wasn’t a Goodie two shoes, but she took losing her virginity seriously. Even though Jaimes didn’t have a girlfriend, he fucked with a lot of hoes. She just didn’t want to get hurt.
What Da Lick Read? The Triple Cross Page 5
