by David Weaver
__________
“Bitch, what I tell you about approaching us in public?” Grimmer said as him and the rest of the Dirt Mob stood up to leave the strip club. “Shit… I hate when you do this shit sis.”
Grimmer was a lanky 6’4 and had long dreadlocks. His skin was midnight black, teeth were white, and he wore a white t-shirt, black pants, and white Air Force 1’s. He even had a zebra patterned diamond bracelet on his wrist where white and black diamonds glistening from it. He grabbed his cup off of the table and handed it to his brother, 5.
5 had stood up as soon as he saw Danielle head over towards their table. She was the youngest of the three siblings, so by him being the next oldest he was more quick to forgive her for forgetting the rules.
“Treasure… these are my two brothers, 5 and Grimmer. And that’s their friend, Meatloaf. Guys, this is my friend Treasure.”
Grimmer stood there staring at Danielle and Treasure as if they were retarded. He didn’t give a fuck about who her friend was, and he just wished like all hell that she would get the hell away from his table. Him and the Dirt Mob sat at that table every other night and did research on hits. They weren’t robbers, but if they had to; they would. They were hood hit men. They would point out the victims, then get their sister, Danielle to get them all of the information they needed on them. What he didn’t need though, was Danielle over at the table being all friendly and bringing them too much attention. He was just ready to leave.
“Didn’t I just meet you at the gas station earlier?” 5 said to Treasure, who had been paying no attention to the men, but watching her surroundings. She jumped when she recognized him.
“Well gottamn! If it isn’t the dude that calls himself a number!”
5 smirked as he drank the last of his Ciroc and placed the glass back on the table. “Well if it isn’t the broad that calls herself a letter!” He cracked back as he buttoned his pants back up.
Treasure frowned. “Oh, you’re a pervert. You’re sitting in the damn strip club with your pants unbuttoned! That’s horrible, a real turnoff. Why would you do some nasty shit like that? Go buy a damn porn movie. Uckk!”
Treasure was disappointed because she did see some potential in him before she saw him buttoning his pants back. Why are the best looking men so damn damaged!? She thought as she admired his tight and masculine body. She had seen him in the store earlier, but she was just trying to get from in front of those cameras and all of that daylight. There was no telling who was police, or who would spot her and call the police. And the next thing she knew, she’d have been in the middle of a standoff.
She shuddered at the thought as she took her time and let her eyes flow from one side of his sharp hairline to the next. She studied the structure of his cheeks and the plumpness of his lips. For the first time in many years, a man had turned her on. She was having feelings that she’d forgotten existed, and seeing the man button his pants back up had only made her feel even more.
Meatloaf and Grimmer laughed at 5 as they walked away from the attention that two women brought them inside of a strip club. 5 stood there staring at Treasure, even after he’d buttoned his pants back up. He inhaled deep, and Treasure couldn’t help but to stare at his chest as it filled up with air and released its hold. Filled with air, it still didn’t lose its muscular form, and even when the air was released, his chest still looked nice and strong. Danielle just stood there; amused at the way her brother and Treasure was acting, but didn’t say a word.
“Pistol.” He said to her, breaking her out of her daydream. 5 could tell that she had her mind somewhere else, so he went ahead and repeated it. “I said… I had to unbutton my pants because this pistol was too tight against my body.”
Pistol? Treasure thought as she immediately stared at 5 in lustful horror. She had already been turned on by his body and presence, but if he was toting a pistol on him also… well, there was no telling what she would do to a man like that. She blinked and turned her head, trying to suppress her smile.
“Why are you toting a pistol?” She asked shyly. Treasure hadn’t felt that way in so long that she’d forgotten the completion that came along with a man’s energy. She had not trusted another man with her heart for so long, that she’d forgotten that type of energy still existed. She was floored as she watched 5’s lips move in response.
She was in such a daydream that she didn’t even know what he was saying to her, all she could remember to do was smile at him while she stared. To Treasure, he was such an amazing man, and to be fair, she couldn’t tell if it was because she hadn’t had a man in such a long time or if he was really that fine. “Damn.” She tried to catch herself from verbalizing it, but it was too late.
“Damn what?” 5 asked her with a serious look on his face.
Treasure tried to play if off as best as she could. “Huh? Oh nothing… I was thinking about something, it’s nothing major.”
The way 5 looked at Treasure made her feel whole. It was a look that could not be mistaken for anything else but realness. And realness was something that she had been missing out on for a very long time. The last man that she could remember who had realness was Malcolm Powers. They weren’t dating, so his wasn’t the exact type of realness that she was looking for.
5’s realness was beyond. The power of his presence was that of a trained assassin, one who never flawed when he had to carry out a job. One who would kill a man in front of 10 people and still manage to sleep peacefully when he made it home. He seemed as if he was the type of man who could blow a man’s brains out while eating a sandwich, and not think twice about it.
“I… uhm… I –” Treasure started, stuttered, and stopped at the beginning of her statement. She wanted to say something to him, but didn’t quite know where to begin. Suddenly, a slight panic entered her body, and a matching light sweat misted her skin. She was trying to figure out some way to tell 5 that she wanted to see more of him, but she was at a complete loss for words. It had been many years since she’d had to express herself like that, and she felt like a fool for standing there stuttering in front of a grown man.
“5, are you ready? Let’s go man.” Grimmer came back in to get him. Grimmer had a scowl on his face that made him look like he was always mad at everyone breathing. He didn’t look very inviting, and didn’t seem to be a pleasant person at all. His aura was that of a bully; one who wouldn’t just torture the other kids, but would also torture the teachers if he had the opportunity.
5 stared into Treasure’s eyes for a second and took a deep breath. Treasure stared back into his, hoping nothing, but wishing everything. Abruptly, he nodded his head at Treasure and turned to leave. Treasure felt horrible because she thought that 5 would have at least asked more about her. Obviously he’s just not interested in me, she thought as she watched him walk away from her and out of the club. Damn…
“Treasure… you two like each other! Wow, that’s so amazing!” Danielle squealed as she stared at the obvious glow on Treasure’s face.
Treasure tried her best to turn her happiness into a scowl, but it was so hard to do. She couldn’t do anything except burst out laughing. “Wow Danielle… yea, I do think your brother is cute, I admit that… but 5 doesn’t like me!”
Danielle looked into Treasure’s eyes in disbelief. Something had to definitely be wrong if she couldn’t tell when a grown man liked her. Then she thought about all of the time that Treasure told her she’d spent without a man and it all made sense. To Danielle, Treasure would have to be an ongoing project. She would have to take Treasure under her wing so that she could teach her about relationships. She would have to slowly wean her off of the mentality that real love doesn’t exist, and help her to understand the concept a bit more.
She knew she certainly had her work cut out for her, but when she thought about the similarities between her and her brother; she just absolutely knew that they would be perfect together. There was no other woman who could match 5’s intensity except for the pretty lady who had ch
ased her all the way to the back of the strip club. She glanced at Treasure one more time, and when she saw the lingering light red blush still sitting on her cheeks as if they were brand new; she knew that it was a wrap.
“Treasure, I want you to come to my house tonight if that’s possible. There are a lot of things that I would like to talk to you about.”
Treasure smiled as she frantically checked around the club to make sure that she hadn’t slipped up. Her being in a trance for one minute, was giving the authorities one more minute in their favor; and she did not want that. For the most part, it seemed to be the same exact type of crowd that was in there every night. The only thing that was giving her reason for alarm, was the white guy who was staring at her from across the room.
She started reaching for her strap instinctively, but relaxed when she saw the man revert his attention back to the stripper on the stage. He had a hand full of ones and was seemingly enjoying himself.
“That’s Teel.”
“What?” Treasure asked.
Danielle grabbed Treasure’s hand and tugged her. “Let’s get out of here. You need some rest. And I said that the white man you were about to shoot was Teel. He’s cool people… Let’s go.”
Treasure sighed and shook her head. She knew that she hadn’t gotten that far in life by trusting each and every person in the world, but maybe it was time to relax just a tad bit. After all, what could happen in the small city of Columbus GA?
__________
Skye arrived at the strip club and started asking questions right away. “Excuse me… have you seen a girl named Treasure come in here? She would have been speaking to a girl named Danielle? Could you please help me?” She was asking every stripper who would listen to her, but it seemed that all they would do was listen. She had asked about eight women, and hadn’t gotten one answer. She was getting irritated, but she had to find out where her best friend had gone.
She was looking back and forth for someone who would help her, even if she had to pay for the information. She just regretted choosing her crazy ass sister over her best friend. Especially since she’d found that drug paraphernalia scattered across the desk back at the hotel room. That had shocked her and completely shook her from the depths of her inner being. She had never known her twin sister to participate in any type of drugs besides her annoying weed habit.
It irked her to no end to know that her sister was on PCP, weed, and coke. She could only hope that the paraphernalia that she saw in the bedroom were just the results of a robbery that Milan hadn’t told her about.
Just as she was about to walk out of the club, a white girl approached her. “You want a lap dance Mami?”
Skye looked up into the girl’s blue eyes and blond hair. “You want a black eye?”
The girl smirked and started chuckling. “No, I get enough of those damn things. My name is Snowflake and –”
Skye interrupted her. “Well hey Snowflake… have you seen a girl by the name of Treasure, or a girl named Danielle tonight?”
Snowflake smiled menacingly. “Well… that’s what I came over here to talk to you about.”
__________
Lena was completely confused. She was only robbing the pawn shop because her mother had told her to, but she didn’t remember the rules exactly, or what it was that she was supposed to be doing. The only thing she remembered in the heat of the moment was when Milan said “anybody jump wrong, waste em.”
She ran in the pawn shop and held her pistol up high like she’d seen in the movies. “Everybody be still. You! Put those guns in a bag, and you need to dump the money into a bag. Hurry up, I’m giving ya’ll 30 seconds, and then I’m shooting!”
__________
Milan sat there in the car smoking weed laced with PCP, knowing that she was a hot mess. She didn’t give a damn though, she was happy with herself, so she felt that other people should be too. She was very pleased with the way that Lena had listened to her and taken her instructions. She was very proud of her, and knew that with the type of determination and dedication that she had, she would perhaps be better than her one day. Hahahahaha! She laughed silently while thinking those ridiculous thoughts.
__________
The bag was filled with guns. The pawn shop worker set the heavy bag on to the counter using all of his strength, and placed his hands back in the air immediately. He didn’t want any problems at all. He had a young daughter at home that he was trying to make it back to in one piece. The only thing on his mind was just to cooperate with the young girl.
The manager, however, was seething hot. No one had ever had the guts to try to rob that pawn shop; so for it to happen after he’d just gotten hired to replace the previous manager – he just couldn’t take it. He hit the silent alarm with his knee cap while he kept his hands in the air. He took mental pictures of the girl, and knew that one day he would see her in a courtroom being prosecuted for this very crime. He was going to see to it.
The assistant manager filled a small bag up with money and sat it on the counter as well. Lena walked over to the bag of guns and lifted it. It had taken her all of her energy to lift that bag 2 inches into the air, and a couple seconds later, she knew that she would have to leave the guns behind. She was angry because that’s exactly what her mommy told her to grab… guns and money. A small tear leaked out of her eye, but she knew that she would have to dry them up and get out of there quick.
Another one of the workers had been on the floor the whole time. He had managed to grab a gun and load it while down there, and was about to let the girl have it. He looked up at his manager for the green light, but his manager, seeing that it was a little girl, couldn’t allow the worker to shoot her. As soon as she looked away, he shook his head frantically. The things that the misinformed young female had stolen could all be replaced. If they were to take her life in that shop, she would not be able to get it out of the pawn.
When Lena looked up, all she saw was the end of the manager shaking his head “no” to the worker with the gun. Remembering her mommy’s instructions to “waste em,” she did what she was told. She pointed the gun at the manager’s chest and opened fire. Wock. Wock.
She was shooting like the kid that she was. She missed the first shot, but hit his shoulder on the second try. From what she saw in movies, once somebody got hit with a bullet, they usually died, so she felt satisfied about what she had just done. She just knew that she had wasted him and that there would be no more issues coming from him. But she also knew that her mommy had told her to be out of there in no longer than 2 minutes. It was 2 minutes already, so she ran over to grab the bag of money and ran out of there as quick as possible.
When she turned her back to start running, the man on the floor with the gun stood up and pointed it at her. The other workers at the pawn shop saw him and closed their eyes. They were already in tears because a young black girl had come in there and shot the manager, and they were about to be even sadder now that the girl was about to lose her life.
But before he could squeeze, the manager shouted from the floor. “Clifford!” Clifford looked down for a second at the manager while keeping his aim. “What Dad?” Clifford asked, his voice trembling in anger.
The manager shook his head again. “Leave it alone son! I told you that already. There’s a time and place for everything, and we don’t want to be known as the pawn shop that kills people. The girl barely hit me. I mean… I’m thinking that the bullet grazed across the edge of my flesh and kept moving.” Suddenly he thought about how thin the walls were, and wondered if one of the bullets may have traveled through it and hit someone in his wife’s beauty shop. He sincerely doubted it; someone in that shop would have been one hell of an unlucky person to catch a stray bullet through the wall.
Clifford put the pistol down slowly, but he took his worker’s tag off and put it on the counter. “I’m about to go tell Mom what happened, Dad. I’m sure she’s over there trying to figure out what the commotion and noise over here is all ab
out.”
He walked out of the pawn shop and into the beauty shop next door. As soon as he entered, he knew something was wrong. There was a circle of women crowding around a chair, and the only thing that he could think of was Noooo!!! I know that bitch didn’t hit my Mom!!!!
He fought his way through the circle of women who were standing there in tears and disbelief. “Let me through, let me through!” He shouted as he cleared the circle one by one until he could get up to the chair to see if it was his mother or not. When he reached it, the body was slumped over in the chair sideways, and at an uncomfortable angle. The hairdressing cape was still around her neck, so it was unclear who she was since he only saw hair… and the hair was just like his mother’s. He took a deep breath, and then reached down to tilt her body and head up so that he could see who it was. A cold chill ripped through him when he placed his hands on her arm. It was a chill so cold, that it felt like death blew it. He held her arm without moving it for a while. Feeling the temperature of her body, and knowing the seriousness of the situation; he closed his eyes and said a prayer before he looked down to see whose face it was. After his prayer, his mother tapped him on the shoulder with tears leaking slowly down her face.
