by J. L Rose
“I want time with you.”
“Later.”
“No, now.”
“Later,” Dante told her repeating himself as he pulled down a fatigue colored Akademic, cotton hoody sweat suit while walking over to the bed.
Walking up behind Dante following him over to the bed, Angela reached her arm around him only to grip his manhood in her right hand caressing him. “Dante, I miss you Papi. You haven’t answered any of my calls and I’ve been calling you since Tuesday night. I even called when I heard that your friend Tony T was shot and put in the …”
“What the fuck you said?” Dante snapped, snatching away from Angela staring at her as if she was crazy. “What the fuck you said, bitch?”
“Dante, relax he’s doing …”
“Bitch, what happen?” Dante cut her off, staring hard at Angela.
Seeing the look on Dante’s face, Angela shook her head too as she went ahead and told Dante about the shootout with Tony T and unknown guy’s as far as she knew.
Hearing all he needed to hear, Dante began undressing and then dressing into the sweat suit that he had laid across the bed.
Chapter 9
Swinging the Kawasaki Ninja inside parkway hospital where Angela said Tony T were twenty minutes after leaving his apartment complex, Dante found a parking space, parked the bike, and headed across the parking lot hearing his cell phone ringing from inside his pocket. Ignoring it for a moment because Dante was pretty sure it was Angela calling him.
Once inside the hospital, Dante asked the nurse at the front desk what room Tony T was in since Angela wouldn’t tell him. Dante had to show ID, and then he was allowed to visit his boy, discovering he was on the third floor in room 310. Taking the elevator up to the third floor, Dante stopped off on the third floor, ignoring the two nurses who were at the call desks staring at him. Looking around and trying to locate 310, he found the room at the very end of the hall. Dante didn’t even bother knocking as he pushed the door open to room 310. “Dante,” both Kerry and Harmony said in unison upon seeing him.
Hugging Tony T’s baby sister, Kerry after she rushed to him, Dante then walked over to Tiny T’s bedside with Kerry hugged onto his side. He nodded to Harmony, and then looked to his boy who laid smiling a small smirk toward him. “How you feeling my nigga?” Dante asked.
“I feel how I look,” Tony T replied. “Fuck you been at?”
“Handling business out of town,” Dante answered. “What happened? Who did this to you?”
Looking to Harmony then Kerry, Tony T said, “Let me holla at Dante real quick.”
Shaking her head and rolling her eyes at Tony T, Harmony called to Kerry, “Let’s get something to eat.”
Watching both Kerry and Harmony leave the room, Dante looked back to Tony T asking, “How long you two been kicking it?”
“Probably since two days after the shit with Big Worm went down,” Tony T admitted, but then became serious. “I ain’t sure who these dudes were but I got word that all this shit was because of this bitch named Rachel.”
“Who the fuck is Rachel?”
“What I hear, this bitch out in the streets bragging about having her brother get at me for playing her like a hoe.”
“Okay, so who’s her brother?”
“Some chump named, Big Daddy.”
“Bigwhat?” Dante replied with a look of disbelief on his face. “You got to be kidding me ...”
“Nah, that’s what I hear he goes by,” Tony T replied. “Homeboy supposed to be the same major coke and heroin pusher out of Alabama.”
“That’s good news to hear,” Dante said smiling. “How long you gotta be in this shit?”
“Doctor’s trying to hold me until next week, but I’m leaving this place by Friday. Fuck a doctor.”
“You’ve grown. I’m going to look into this shit with this Big Daddy dude,” Dante told Tony T, and then added, “Don’t trip about this bitch Rachel, I’ma get that handled.”
“Bet my nigga,” Tony T told his homeboy, dappin him up.
* * *
Making it back to her townhouse after making a few sales and dropping off work with Amber, Alinna called Harmony and found out that she was at the hospital with Tony T after she found that Harmony was not at her apartment. Harmony told Alinna that Dante was also there with Tony T. Alinna walked inside her home as Vanessa drove away to go meet up with Dre at his place. Locking the front door then walking upstairs to her bedroom, Alinna changed into gray cotton sweat pants and an oversized white tee shirt that fell past her hips. She grabbed the backpack she had for Dante, and then headed back downstairs, dropping the backpack in the den and headed into the kitchen. Looking through the refrigerator for something to fix for her and Dante to eat, she caught herself smiling at the thought of Dante. Alinna decided to fry chicken wings, make some yellow rice sweat peas, and butter rolls.
Alinna was halfway finished with the food when she heard Dante’s motorcycle pulling up out front. She smiled as she moved the frying pan from the heat then found herself rushing for the door a small smile showing.
“What’s up, shorty?” Dante asked, bending to kiss Alinna’s lips. She hated how she responded so hungrily for him. Alinna rounded her eyes as she turned back facing the inside of the house. “Where’ve you been?”
“It smells good up in here,” Dante said, ignoring her question. He closed and locked the door behind him. “What you cooking us?”
“I’m cookingme something to eat,” she said, looking back at him from over her shoulder.
“Oh, something for you, huh?” Dante repeated with a sarcastic tone as he walked into the kitchen stopping behind Alinna and looking over her shoulder. He smirked seeing the amount of food she had cooked.
“Move Dante,” Alinna told him playfully shooing him away from the food.
“You better be really hungry with all that food you made for just your little ass,” Dante told her, laughing as he walked over to the fridge.
Still smiling while looking back at Dante as he made himself at home after going through her refrigerator, Alinna shook her head as she focused back on the food. “How is Tony T doing?”
“If you knew where I was, why did you ask?” Dante asked Alinna as he leaned up against the counter with a bottle of Corona in his right hand. “He is doing well though; he’s tryin to get out of there by Friday.”
“He tell you what happened to him?”
“Yeah, we’ll take care of that in a moment.”
“Who’d he say shot him?” Alinna asked.
“Some dude,” Dante answered taking a drink from the bottle then saying, “He said it’s some chick named Rachel who set the whole thing up. From what Tony T says, it’s supposed to be some clown out Alabama called, Big Daddy.”
“Bigwho?” Alinna looked back from cooking, stopping what she was doing to clarify.
Smiling at Alinna’s response, Dante said, “That’s the name Tony T said dude goes by. But come to find out that homeboy is supposed to be big time in Alabama.” Alinna could hear the change of tone in Dante’s voice. The tone and his body language let Alinna know he was plotting something.
She looked back to him and asked, “What’s up Dante? What are you plotting now?”
Quiet for a moment or two, following behind Alinna from the kitchen after taking his plate she had handed him, Dante walked into the den and sat down on the sofa. While Alinna went back into the kitchen, he turned on the 38’ flat screen.
“So, what’s up?” Alinna asked as she walked back into the den carrying two bottles of Coronas and sitting down beside him. Breaking down what had been on his mind since Tony T had told him about Big Daddy, Dante explained to Alinna how at first he just wanted to make that trip to Alabama and see exactly who this dude was, and how he wanted to watch Big Daddy to find out how he operates and run’s his shit down in Alabama.
“Dante, I don’t know nothing about no heroin,” Alinna told him once he finished. “You must know somebody with that mess because
I don’t.”
“We will deal with that once we have to,” Dante told her with a mouth full of food. “How long is that stuff from Giovanni gonna last until you gotta re-up?”
“With the work we already we already got and the shit from him it should be at least a month and a half before we will need to get more. That’s just until shit really starts to pick up once people find out we really pushing heavier weight,” Alinna explained.
“Perfect, that should be enough time for me and Dre to handle shit down in Alabama. But first I’ma need you to handle something for me,” Dante told Alinna, looking into her eyes.
* * *
Lying in bed next to a sleeping Alinna after twenty minutes of a mixture between fucking and lovemaking, Dante thought about his plans concerning Alabama and Big Daddy.
Hearing his phone ringing on the bedside table woke him up; he grabbed the phone and looked upon Alinna curled up beside him. She instinctively curled in closer under him, wrapping her arm around his mid-section.
“What’s up, braw?” he answered the call, responding to Dre as his name appeared on the screen.
“I’m outside.”
“I’ll be down in a second,” Dante responded and hung up.
Crawling from under Alinna, Dante climbed out of the bed, and put his boxers and sweat pants on. Then he grabbed the backpack Alinna had left for him in the den. He was walking toward the bedroom door when he heard Alinna’s voice. “You better be back in ten minutes and tell Dre I said hi.” He smiled as he turned back towards the door after listening in to Alinna’s request.
Walking to the front door, Dante unlocked the door and saw Dre leaning on the wall by the door, smoking a Newport cigarette. “What up Bruh?”
“What’s good fam?” Dre said, tossing the Newport and then stepping inside the house. Locking the front door behind Dre, Dante tossed the backpack onto the coffee table. “I need you to put that up for me. It’s a little over $10,000.”
“Oh shit, you trying to finally save some money now?” Dre asked jokingly as he sat on the left of Dante on the sofa.
“It’s for Alinna,” Dante told his boy in all seriousness as he cleared his throat and started over. “If something jumps off, I want her to be straight.” Surprised at the way Dante was talking, Dre listened and felt for Dante. He had never heard him talk the way he was at this exact moment.
Dre changed the subject. “So what’s up? What you wanted to holla at me about?”
“You went and seen Tony T yet?” Dante asked.
“Yeah I went earlier; he told me you had already came by.”
“So you know what’s up right? You know what happened to him?”
“Yeah he told me what’s up. So what we planning on fam, because I already know you been planning on something?”
“We are gonna take a trip out Alabama, pay this Big Daddy clown a visit.”
“We’re not just going to visit,” Dante finished saying, looking at Dre with a smile on his lips. He began to go into detail on what he had been plotting on and how things would be handled.
Chapter 10
Leaving the mall after a night of shopping, Rachel was going to Club Light with her girls, Stacey and Brittany. She headed out to her Cadillac CTS inside of the parking lot at Saw Grass Mills mall. Hearing her cell phone ring from inside her Coach bag as she walked up on the diver side of her car, Rachel unlocked her car, opened the door, and tossed her bag onto the backseat after retrieving her phone. Her phone read ‘Stacey’ across it. “Hey girl what’s up?” Stacey listened to her talk about some new guy she had wanted to introduce her to since she wasn’t messing with Tony T’s sorry lying ass anymore. Rachel smiled, thinking about Tony in the hospital for doing her that way.
Cranking up her car, Rachel put the C.T.S. In reverse, she was just backing out of her parking spot when she slammed on her brakes. A car had suddenly appeared right behind her. Hearing and feeling the slight bump she ended up still experiencing, she yelled, “Shit!”
Seeing the Spanish girl as she climbed out of the Lexus and noticing the Gucci outfit she had on and willing to admit the girl was pretty, Rachel got out of the car and walked around to access the damage that had been done. “I’m sorry,” the Spanish women told Rachel. “I was on the phone with my boyfriend and I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s alright,” Rachel told the girl not noticing anything wrong with her car. She smiled at the Spanish girl. “I wasn’t really paying attention myself. I was on the phone with my friend, talking about some guy.”
“I know how that goes,” replied the Spanish girl. “You look familiar; you talk to Tony T right?”
“Girl, not no more,” Rachel said rolling her eyes. “I had to get rid of him. Fuck that lying ass nigga.”
“I heard he’s in the hospital.”
“That is good for his ass.”
“Why you say that girl? Tony T is good people ...”
“Girl, his ass ain’t shit, and between you and me, I had my brother put his ass where he’s at. He’s lucky I didn’t tell my brother to kill him for all the shit he put me through.”
“Well I know how it can be with dudes,” she told Rachel. “I’m sorry girl, but I’m Alinna.”
“Rachel. I have heard your name before,” she told her. “Don’t you sell weed or something?”
“I use to sell just weed, but since I started messing with my boo, it changed a little. You probably even know my man ...”
“What’s his name?” Rachel asked.
“Ask him, he’s right there.”
“What?” Rachel turned around, and when she did, she felt a fist hit her in the face. Catching Rachel just as she was falling backwards, Dante scooped her up and put her in the passenger side of the C.T.S. Dante sat her in and strapped her seatbelt.
Turning around to Alinna who was holding the door for him, he said, “I’ma call you in twenty minutes. Once I am finished, you go ahead and handle your business.”
“I will see you later,” Alinna told Dante, kissing him then walking over to her car.
Watching Alinna drive off, Dante waited until she disappeared then walked to the driver’s side and got into Rachel’s car. Seeing the keys were still in the ignition, Dante started the car and reached for his phone. Backing out of the parking spot, he dialed Dre.
“Yeah what up fam?” Dre answered.
“Meet me at Alinna old spot, that apartment. I picked up shorty.”
“I’m on my way.”
Dante hung up the phone and looked over to the still knocked out Rachel. He smiled. Time for the next part of his plans.
Chapter 11
Two days after Dante, Dre, and Tony T left for Alabama, Alinna finally got in contact with Narcotics sergeant Miguel Ruiz. After spending nearly an hour on the phone talking to him, she calmed him down enough to agree to meet up with her them to sit down and talk alone. She also wanted to paint a picture that would make him believe that he would be getting some pussy once they met up.
On the night they agreed to meet, Alinna dressed in a tight body-hugging Gucci outfit that showed her every curve with a pair of stiletto heels.
Leaving her townhouse at 8:00 p.m., Alinna drove her Lexus IS350 while calling Miguel phone.
“Alinna?” Miguel answered on the first ring.
“Were you expecting someone else, Miguel?”
“Where are you?”
“That’s why I’m calling. What restaurant are we meeting at?”
“Change of plans,” Miguel told her. “We’re meeting at the Best Western on 62nd Street and 14th Avenue.”
“That’s a hotel, Miguel. What are…”
“Alinna look, you owe me for that bullshit in…”
“You know what I want? You’ve been playing with me for too long and now you have a choice. Give me what I want or I’m turning you in.”
“What about Dante?”
“Fuck him,” Miguel spit into the phone. “You don’t have to tell that piece of shit anythin
g.”
After a moment of silence, Alinna finally spoke, “If I do this, are we even?”
“Are you agreeing or what?”
“Miguel, I need to know if this will be over if I do this with you?”
“Alright yeah, give me what I want and I’ll forget all of the shit. Now are you coming or what?”
“I’m coming Miguel.”
“You will real soon, a whole fucking lot,” Miguel replied as he hung up the phone.
Hearing Miguel end the call, Alinna called Vanessa’s phone.
“Yeah,” Vanessa answered at the start of the first ring.
“Change of plans,” Alinna told Vanessa, going into a new plan that she came up with while talking to Miguel over the phone.
* * *
Pulling inside the Best Western where she was supposed to meet Miguel, Alinna found a parking spot, parked the Lexus, and then grabbed her Gucci bag and climbed from the car locking the car. As she walked from the Lexus, Alinna looked around the parking lot and spotted Miguel’s Chevy Malibu.
Once inside the hotel lobby, Alinna checked with the front desk only to receive a room key with Miguel’s room number on it.
“Room 107,” Alinna repeated to the desk clerk.
“Yes ma’am,” the clerk told Alinna. Smiling at her thanking the women, Alinna walked off then headed toward the back area where all the hotel room was, finally finding the room after a few minutes of searching.
Using her key, she unlocked the hotel room door, opened the door, stepped inside the room, and closed the door back behind her as she called out to Miguel.
Walking further into the darkened room, but seeing the shine from a single lamp, she quickly saw the light on the bedside table on, but also saw Miguel laid across the bedside wearing nothing but a pair of black boxers and smiling at her.
“I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Miguel told Alinna, as he looked her body over. “Take that shit off and get in bed.”
“Slow down,” Alinna told him with a smile. “Let me go freshen up and then I’m all yours for the night.”
