by David Weaver
Treasure was so confused, she couldn’t think straight. Kidnapped? That bitch Milan is fuckin’ me up! Damnnn! Her thoughts bounced around in her head like a pinball, and her emotions and fear level rose to frightening heights. Now she was in a position where she felt that she had to fight the entire world just to keep her man loving her the same way. And if that’s the fight she had to make, then she would surely declare war.
There was no way that she could allow 5 to see or hear these false truths about her. She needed him to be on her side until the wheels fell off. And when hers fell off, she needed his to carry both of them. No man had ever made love to her like him. No man had ever touched, pleased, kissed and caressed her the way he did on a daily basis. He was her freak, and she was his, despite her lack of sexual experience. He had been so smooth and gentle that it hooked her from the first stroke.
A few minutes after the news segment on her went off, 5’s cell phone began to vibrate. He’d left it on the bed when he went to the store up the street to grab some Tylenol for her slight headache. She glanced over at the caller ID and saw Grimmer’s name pop up. Her and Grimmer were cool, so she answered 5’s phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey Treasure… where’s my man at?” Grimmer asked while trying to hide the small inkling of concern that was in his voice.
Immediately, Treasure thought for a second that Grimmer had seen the news segment. “He’s at the store. You want to leave a message for him?”
Grimmer was silent after she asked the question, instantly making her nervous. She knew how bad she wanted to be with 5, and knew that any conflict with his brother would simply prohibit that from happening. She couldn’t afford to be on anyone’s bad side at all!
After a short silence, Grimmer laughed slightly. “Well… I just wanted to tell you two that you are my favorite couple in the world. I also wanted to find out when the two of you are going to get married. With a love like what you two share, I really do expect for it to happen in the next few months. You have my blessings love, and I hope this happens.”
Treasure smiled from ear to ear. She was truly blessed to have a man that loved her and a family that respected her even more. For a minute, she had gotten scared and thought that Grimmer was calling her about what had just been spread on the evening news, but that was not the case. She should have known that he was more stand-up than that, and given him more credit.
“Thank you Grim.” She said as she hung 5’s phone up. As soon as she hung up, another call came in. It was Danielle.
Treasure answered it without a second thought. Right before she could open her mouth Danielle was on the phone screaming. “5!! Did you see the news??”
Immediately Treasure hung the phone up and ran to grab her shit. She had to get the fuck out of dodge immediately, with or without 5. She would only wait another 2 or 3 minutes for him to return, and if he wasn’t willing to just get up and leave with her without any explanation, then so fuckin’ be it. There was no possible way that she was just going to sit around and wait for his family to send her to prison for the remainder of her life.
Fuck that! She thought as she grabbed a duffel bag that she kept stored and locked away. Inside of it were 3 guns, and a few hundred thousand dollars in cash. She had it put up for a rainy day, and on that day, it was a fuckin downpour. As much as she loved 5, she just knew that she wasn’t about to go through the bullshit – at all!
She took her duffel bag and cell phone charger to the living room and looked around the room one last time. She knew that she’d had quite a blast just lounging around and being happy with her man, but she also knew that for a girl of her caliber and lifestyle, living a life like that was not realistic. She had taken a break for half a year and knew that even though 5 and the Dirt Mob had continued working, she had still fired way more shots than all of them combined.
She shot pistols like a maniac when she was with Milan and Skye, and she had become a street legend parallel and akin to that of her good friend Malcolm Powers. When she stated that she would do it as big as the Bankroll Squad, she had no clue that the extent of her consequences could possibly match the severity of theirs. The only flipside was that she felt she had to be stronger than Malcolm in order to survive.
She had to be stronger because Malcolm had an entire crew helping him out, as well as a stand-alone ride or die chick who would cross hell or high water for him. Treasure only had herself, her cleverness, and a set of pistols. She already had it in her mind that she would not lose. She would hide, run, and swim until she was again anonymous and living her life. She was not planning to run overseas, she was planning on living right where the fuck she was at!
She checked the time on 5’s phone and saw that a minute and a half had already passed. She glanced out the window and saw nothing, then heard the phone rang again. This time she saw Meatloaf’s number on the caller ID. She exhaled and thought about not answering it at first, but she really wanted to see where he was at. She answered it without speaking.
Meatloaf also picked up the phone and didn’t speak. They were having a mental tug of war, both winning against the other person; but both losing against their own personal questions. After about 30 seconds on the phone, a sound was made. It came from Meatloaf, and it was an eerie sound. It was the one thing that she hadn’t expected to hear coming out of his mouth. It was sarcastic and telling. And it was only one word… “Hmmph!”
Lena
“Damn bitch! You painted the whole got damn Wal-Mart parking lot red!!” Lena screamed to Tarra as they mashed the gas, flying down the expressway. Their vehicle was going 90 miles per hour, in and out of lanes, dodging minor bumps, and one pothole away from skidding out of control and ending their lives. But they were too happy to slow down.
“You know how we do that shit Lena!!! Lipstick Cliqued that whole shit! I sprayed my fake ass Dad, sprayed his wack ass bitch, sprayed the security guards, and just randomly sprayed some shit just on GP! Fuck that shit, we ain’t taking no bullshit no more!”
“Whooooooooooo! Whoooooo! Whoooooooo!” Lena screamed as they rounded the curve going 94 miles per hour. They had both been holding on for dear life as they made their getaway. “Damn Tarra!! You know we didn’t even get a chance to rob nothing girl! We didn’t get no got damn money! That’s some wild ass outlaw shit you just did girl!”
“Wheeeeewwwwww! I don’t give a fuck! I can’t believe he did that shit to me and my mother, then had the nerve to be French kissing that white bitch in public. Man, this on everything! I knew I wasn’t about to let that nigga breathe another second! Lipstick Clique bitchhhhh!”
Lena let her window down and repeated the mantra. “Lipstick Clique bitchhhhh! Not nann ho in the city want it with us. Not nann nigga want it either. Folks in these streets always acting like they hard; singing rap songs about what they gon do with a pistol. Rapping about how an AK works. I wish they would sooooo stop with all that flexing Tarra.”
Tarra looked over at her and smirked. “If they stop flexing, then what would be our entertainment? Let them sucka bitches keep flexxxinggg!”
__________
Lena and Tarra had been amped to the max that night when they sprayed the Wal-Mart parking lot. Now, days later, they had been getting so much news coverage that they were afraid to walk by a window. They had switched apartments since then, and only a handful of people in the streets knew where they stayed. If Lena would have had it her way, nobody would have known, but she had to trust someone in order to make sure that she had someone to sign the lease for the apartment.
She didn’t have a job and was afraid to show her face in public, so the person who was helping them came right on time. It was someone that her homegirl Tarra had known for over five years, and someone who Tarra also swore up and down would never tell the authorities where they were, no matter what. Many times Lena had wondered how she could be so sure that her friend was so solid, but didn’t feel like getting into an argument about something that didn’t matter.
“Shit! I’m hungry as hell Lena,” Tarra said as she stood in the refrigerator door looking at a potential echo effect. They had consumed everything out of there except for a half gallon of milk and a few slices of cheese. They had eaten the last few ham sandwiches that morning and had been purposely trying to avoid having the current conversation.
Lena exhaled. “Man… Tarra, you see what those people are saying about us on the news! They got us looking like we’re part of that prison escapee’s shit; the Treasure girl. And that’s some bullshit, because shittt… we don’t need to be charged with her dirt too! We do enough shit on our own! I need them to separate us from her like ASAP!”
Tarra was deep in thought while Lena spoke. She knew that deep down, the only reason Lena was pissed about it was because she wanted all of the destruction credit for herself. She didn’t want to share the spotlight with anyone, in any form. Even when Tarra herself had done something destructive, Lena would come right behind her and try to outdo her. The one time she’d left it alone was when she sprayed the Wal-Mart parking lot.
“Lena… you know what? I think that there is potentially an upside to having us affiliated with Treasure Brown’s name. The main one being that, if we get caught, there will be less pressure on us. We can just act like she was forcing us to do all of this shit. And oh… what was the news talking about you being a minor???”
Lena frowned at Tarra. “Bitch, miss me with that shit! They got they information fucked up the same way they think we’re with Treasure.”
Tarra nodded her ahead in agreement. “Yea… they stay fucking up the facts, but I guess they just want a juicy story. That’s whassup though.”
Lena and Tarra sat in the dark living room in silence for a while. Then Lena spoke. “Hey… you’re going to have to call your homegirl and trust her to drop us some food off.”
Tarra laughed. “So now you want to trust my homey? After all of this going back and forth about why we shouldn’t… now we should?”
Lena rolled her eyes. “O.K. Tarra, are we going to ask her or what?”
Tarra laughed again and hugged Lena. “You’re my homey for real, you know that? I’m about to call her right now.”
Milan
When the FBI released Milan from prison to work for them, they gave her a “rumor packet,” and it basically contained various hypothetical situations for her to go off of. A few of them she knew for a fact to be completely wrong, but several of the myths she knew just had no other option, but to be true. The agent had given her one “free week” in order to get herself together without them interfering, but it had only taken her a couple of hours.
In no time, she’d hit a strip club, scoped out a medium sized dopeboy, and ran up in his house like she forgot her keys. She had hit a lick for $60,000 on the first night. The next day, she proceeded to get her wardrobe up to par. She’d also purchased a used car. That was a strange experience for her. Out of all of the cars she’d ever owned in her life, from the new ones to the old ones, this was the first one she had ever gotten without stealing. She was proud of it, her first real car; a used Ford Mustang GT. She needed the extra speed so she could ride how she needed to.
Knowing that she had a free week, she couldn’t resist going by Gigi’s spot and buying some PCP and weed. She’d sought out GiGi the very moment that she arrived in Columbus GA and had been purchasing weed, coke, and PCP from her ever since. Right off the bat, when they first met, she let her know the deal.
“Bitch look… I’m a robber, but I’ll never rob you because I need good weed, coke and wet. Can you make that happen as long as I got the money?”
And she did. She supplied Milan with everything she asked for, as long as it was within reason and as long as she could afford it. Being honest and truthful with Gigi had proven to be a power move for Milan, who ended up needing way more help than she expected. That day, she had an entire list, and needed info.
“Gigi… I got some questions baby.”
Gigi was about 300 pounds and dark-skinned, but there was no denying that she was a beautiful woman. Her heart shined through her exterior and her hustle spoke for every area that her shine couldn’t reach. She was once a homeless teenager herself, but now she was living in a home valued at a half million dollars. It was all paid for from street revenue.
Gigi sat down on her comfortable leather couch and stared at Milan head on. “Come on with it. You know how I operate. If you got some money, I got some answers.”
Milan nodded her head and pulled out five thousand dollars. She sat it on the table and looked at Gigi, who wasn’t flinching. Milan bit her tongue because she should have known that amount wasn’t going to be enough to convince her to talk. She pulled out 15 thousand more dollars, spread it out, and set it on the table.
Gigi looked down at the money and grinned. She crossed her legs and sat back against the sofa. “O.K. I got answers. Let’s go…”
__________
5 couldn’t be happier if his life depended on it. He was in love with Treasure, and wanted nothing else but to spend the rest of his days with her. He respected her so much because even though his first love was money, she never attempted to get in the way of his hustle. He had expressed to her on many occasions how he felt about not having money, and she had agreed with him wholeheartedly.
There were several occasions where she had even asked him if she would be able to assist him and the Dirt Mob on some of their missions. He had always firmly told her no, but just knowing that she would be down for him if he needed her; moved him greatly. That was one of the things that kept his interest in her so powerful. Her realness.
He walked out of the convenience store carrying her box of Tylenol in his left hand. He had his keys in his right hand, and was tossing them up in the air when someone accidentally bumped into him. “Hey… watch where you…”
He cut his sentence off and stared at the girl for a second. She looked familiar, like someone he needed to remember, but he couldn’t place her exactly. “Do I know you?” He asked the girl as he reached down and picked his keys up off of the ground.
The girl had on a hoodie and was acting quite nervous. He quickly scanned his surroundings so that he could make sure that she wasn’t on some type of set-up time. Since he knew that there was no way that he could figure that out quick enough, he started reaching for his pistol. The girl saw him reaching for his pistol and just stood there. She didn’t object to him reaching for it, and didn’t say a thing when she saw him wrap his hand around it. She just watched.
Her watching and not reacting made him feel more at ease. He let go of the pistol and stared some more. “What is it?” He asked her, sensing that something was amiss. He just didn’t know what it was.
Slowly, the girl pulled a small tablet computer out of a grocery bag. The video that she wanted to show him was already on the screen and waiting for her to hit the play button. She turned the computer towards him and started streaming the video from AmericasMostWanted.com. The video implicated Treasure Brown and the Lipstick Clique as one of the most sought after group of criminals in the United States. Treasure’s capture was a top priority.
5 couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He really wanted to beat the girl in front of him to a pulp, just for knowing that he was the person to approach with that video. He was angry, and knew that he was in danger of putting his entire family in harm’s way. The only thing that he could do at that point was flee the state until he could get his mind together. He didn’t know how he felt about Treasure’s background, but what he did know was that he still loved her to no end.
He pushed the laptop back into the girl’s chest and sprinted to his car. He cranked it up and hurried back to his home with wild thoughts running through his head. He just didn’t know what to think about the woman that he was supposed to be marrying. Things are never what they appear to be, he thought as he tried to apply that sentence to this scenario.
Milan grabbed a pen and pulled her checklist out.
At the top of the list, she crossed out TREASURE BROWN, then skipped number two and crossed out DIRT MOB. She knew that she had planted enough bait to kill two birds with one stone. She expected 5 and the Dirt Mob to kill Treasure, and she had already alerted the FBI, so that they could have around the clock surveillance on the address that she had given them.
Damn… this is going to be easier than I thought. Only two more people on this list; the Lipstick Clique and the Bankroll Squad. This shouldn’t be difficult with the information that has been given to me. Yesssirrrr!
Lena
Lena and Tarra had broken down and started eating those last slices of plain cheese and drinking glasses of milk. Tarra’s homegirl didn’t come through with the food, so that left them in an extremely horrible predicament. Tarra had suggested that they at least wait until the following day to go back outside. By then, their mugshots would at least be one day old. She figured that going outside at that very moment, after they had just been shown on the news, would only increase their odds of getting caught.
