The Face That Launched A Thousand Bullets (The Cartel Publications Presents)

by Styles, T.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Jinx joked.

  “Ny, you straight?” Cray asked as the lights, camera and action overwhelmed him.

  He was so drunk off the Hennessy that in his mind he was spinning. Plus Monesha was threatening to tell Cooks, who was right beside him, about their baby if he didn’t give her more money. Giving her more cash he could deal with. He had plenty of it to give. What he worried about was the day when cash would no longer be acceptable. He knew what she really wanted, was him and he wasn’t up for sale.

  “That nigga Ny zoned out!” Jinx said pointing at him. “You aigh’t man. I know the B-More vibe may be too much for you to take. DC niggas got to handle this shit in sessions.”

  “Naw I’m good. This some wild shit man. I woulda neva thought I’d be in a Bmore club.” He said eyeing a few of the girls.

  “You’ll live. We got some of the baddest bitches on the east coast in Bmore.” Cray added.

  Cooks and Simon didn’t waste time mixing in until they heard, “Beat that bitch wit a bat. Beat that bitch wit a bat! Beat that bitch wit a bat!” the lyrics to an old Bmore club music classic.

  Nyzon, Royala, Cooks and Simon looked at the DJ, like he’d lost his fuckin’ mind.

  What the fuck is he playin? They thought.

  And just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse they heard, “Girl don’t waste my time. Cause I wanna fuck tonight!” Blaring threw the speakers.

  When the DC crew looked at their Bmore side of the family, they noticed they were in their element. With drinks in their hands raised in the air, they rocked to the music. It was a good thing they were leaving soon due to the Bmore spots closing early because Ny didn’t think he could take much more of it.

  “Yeah!!! The mothafuckin’ Kings of 295 are in the house!” Jason yelled drawing more attention to them. “Ain’t nobody gettin’ money like we gettin’ money! We the richest niggas alive!” The DC crew, grabbed their weapons on their waists just in case somebody got out of line. “Name one nigga in the room who can fuck wit’ us! Just one!” he continued with a drink raised in the air.

  “Calm down, yo.” Vic yelled tapping him on his shoulder.

  “Fuck that! We run the world! We run the city!”

  “Jason, relax.” Cray told him. “You makin’ access noise.”

  Everybody looked at him for a second and got mad. Lately he had been grandstanding and bragging about their status. He was the hype man for the Kings even if they didn’t want it.

  “Ya’ll a’ight?” Cray laughed directing his attention back at Nyzon and the DC squad. A waiter brought over two bottles of ACE of Spades champagne to the table.

  “We cool, but I wanna see what you got to say when we hit up Takoma Station tonight.” Cooks laughed.

  “Man I can fit in anywhere.” Cray responded.

  “We’ll see about that.” Nyzon joked.

  Takoma Station

  Washington, DC

  The moment the crew walked in deep, all eyes were on them. The sound of Congo’s mixed with familiar R&B hits filled the small club. Everyone was feeling the Rare Essence band that was performing.

  In the club for only five seconds, Nyzon and their crew gave dap to everyone they fucked with. They were respected. Their reputations proceeded them and with all of the money they had flooding in, they were superstars in their own right. Surprisingly Jinx, Vic, Jason and Cray bopped their heads to the groove. Nyzon was shocked they fit in so well.

  “You feelin’ this ain’t you?” Royala asked Cray as she spotted Simple, the girl she kicked it with in the middle of the dance floor.

  “It’s a’ight.” Cray said. “But I still like club music.”

  “Don’t fake,” Nyzon said. “You all ova this shit!”

  “I wanna be all over some pussy,” Cray told him. “If you really know your city, point me to the bitch who can suck dick the best.”

  “I’ll do betta than that,” he said. “Yo, Konya! Get over here!”

  A thick light skin girl with big titties, a phat ass and big lips walked over to them.

  “Can you give my man The Crucial?”

  She smiled and said, “Anything for you, Ny.”

  And just like that, she took Cray to the back of the club and handled her business. Nyzon laughed having realized that he was now partners with a man that at one time, he couldn’t stand. And now that he knew him, he saw they were alike. They both had aspirations and they both had dreams. It no longer mattered what city they hailed from.

  As they all spread out around the club, Royala became heated after seeing a dude palming the hell out of Simple’s ass. Simple and Royala were friends with benefits but they worked hard at being sure they never went to the same spot as the other at the same time. Royala was also mad because she claimed she wasn’t into dudes, but here she was playing herself off like a whore.

  Cray had gotten taken care of and had rejoined his friends.

  “Good look with that chick.” He told Nyzon.

  “I knew you’d like that.”

  “You had her?”

  “Naw. I heard she was too much for me. I knew you could handle her though.”

  Nyzon was really saying that he didn’t trust freaks.

  “I guess you know me already. But damn, who’s that?” Cray asked pointing to this female in a pair of tight ass jeans on the floor.

  Nyzon looked.

  “She cute but she ain’t badder than this broad I saw on the way to your house the other day.”

  “For real? What she look like?” Cray asked eyeing the female harder. Her camel’s foot shown between her legs like she’d done it on purpose.

  Nyzon was just about to give him the full details when he spotted Royala staring hard in Simples’ direction. He knew off the bat it was time to bounce. Royala was feeling that girl more than she wanted to admit it. And if they didn’t leave, she was about to crack the dude’s skull.

  “A’ight ya’ll it’s time to roll.” He told the crew.

  “I’m just feelin’ the music.” Cray said peeping the shawty he wanted to put in his bed later that night despite having a girl at home.

  “Naw let’s leave now.” He nodded in Royala’s direction. When Cray saw where his attention was at he also noticed the evil look in Royala’s eye.

  “This ain’t good is it?” Cray asked.

  “Fuck no!”

  Nyzon knew she’d been drinking all night and wasn’t in her right frame of mind. Cray got everyone together and decided to finish the party at another spot. When everybody was together and ready to leave, they realized they reached Royala minutes too late. She’d already grabbed Simple by her hair and had pulled her to the floor.

  “Fuck you doin’ up here huh? I thought I told you to stay in the house?”

  “Get off me, Royal!! Get off me!” She yelled trying to get away from Royala’s grasp.

  Nyzon and them tried to pull her off of Simple but she was drunk, pissed and strong.

  To make matters worse, Royala accidentally hit a tall light skin brown dude in the chest breaking his platinum chain.

  “Aw shit!” Jason yelled. “This nigga ‘bout to start trippin’”

  “Bitch, what’s your fuckin’ problem?” he questioned about to slap the fuck out of Royala.

  “My man, it was an accident. She ain’t mean to do that shit.” Nyzon explained.

  The entire crew was by his side and Royala was now fully aware of the drama she’d caused.

  “Well if she wasn’t out here tryin’ to act like a nigga, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Aye yo, my man said it was an accident.” Cray said ready to pop him if he made a wrong move.

  The dude looked at everyone they were with, and decided to step off.

  “So ya’ll gonna jump me?”

  “Naw. We gonna spare your life.” Cray told him. “But you gotta bounce now.

  “It’s cool. We’ll meet again.”

  “We don’t doubt it,” Nyzon said.

 
“You got it this time.” The man said before walking away.

  Everybody looked on and the band made an announcement about not fighting and how violence was the main reason why DC officials were trying to get GO-GO music banned.

  “Sorry ya’ll.” Royala said as they all walked toward the door, Simple at her side.

  “Ain’t no thing.” Cray said. “He was bullshittin’ anyway. I been lookin’ for a reason to bust my gun in DC and he wasn’t tryin’ to give it to me. ”

  Everybody said their goodbyes and walked to their cars. Nyzon and Cray stayed behind and talked about a few details of the business they had before them the next day.

  Cray was in his car when he remembered he had a sack of weed in Nyzon’s car that he wanted to fire up on the way home. So he shut the door and walked toward Nyzon’s car. Nyzon saw him in his rearview mirror so he didn’t pull off. But right before he reached Ny’s car, Cray’s phone rang.

  “Speak.” Cray said not recognizing the number.

  “Crayland Keon Mothafuckin’ Bailor!” An unfamiliar voice bellowed from the other end of the phone. Cray stopped in his footsteps.

  “Yo who the fuck is this?!”

  “Don’t worry bout who the fuck it is. Let’s just say, I got somebody you care about in my custody. And if you don’t call off your dogs, and stay away from our blocks, you’ll never see them alive again.”

  Nyzon seeing the look in Cray’s eyes from his rearview mirror got out of his car and walked up to him.

  Cray’s heart raced.

  All his boys had left and he wondered who he was talking about. And then he thought about Tiara.

  “And who is that?” Cray asked.

  “Your pops. And if you want him alive, I suggest you back the fuck off.”

  Silence.

  “You there, mothafucka?!” The caller yelled on the phone when he didn’t get a response.

  “I’m here.”

  “So what’s up?”

  “You got the wrong dude, yo.”

  “Fuck you talkin’ about?”

  “I ain’t got no pops.”

  When Cray hung up Nyzon said, “Everything straight?”

  “Neva been straighter.”

  In a rundown Baltimore City Row house

  Grimy Mike looked at the cellphone as if he didn’t hear Cray correctly. Cray’s father sat on the middle of the floor tied to a chair, his mouth gagged.

  “What he say?” Doles asked with the gun pointed at his father.

  “The nigga hung up!”

  “What?” James Factory said looking at him crazy.

  “He hung up.”

  Silence.

  They all looked at one another.

  “Damn, he really don’t give a fuck.” Doles said.

  “Exactly.” Grimy confirmed.

  “What we gonna do now?” James asked.

  “Kill his ass.”

  With that, they lit his father up like a tree on Christmas day.

  Kirk Bowler

  Common Ground

  Kirk parked his car and walked down the street with one of his white KYC captains in the D.C. police department. They were in the 7th district off of Southern Avenue. He was showing him one of his most crime ridden areas and his desire to put more patrolmen on the beat.

  Normally Kirk wouldn’t listen because he busied himself with consulting only with William Jamison. But now since he’d lost yet another mayoral race, and was told by his advisors that making a major impact on crime might win him office, he was willing to listen. He knew one major drug bust could help him a long way.

  “This is where I’d really like to have more patrolman stationed. I don’t know but it seems like the past year crime has saturated this area.”

  “So what are you doing now?” Kirk asked wanting answers.

  “Well we use the men we have to cruise up and down the blocks, and we’ve made a few arrests but nothing’s sticking. It looks like they have mostly juveniles selling hand to hand and taking the hit. And when we arrest them, they’re not saying a word. So we can never find out who’s really behind the money.”

  “If they do that enough they’ll run out of folks.”

  “Like I said they’re kids so we can’t keep them long. Eventually the system will spit them back out into the streets and they’ll be rewarded for not snitching.”

  “You’re saying they’re organized?”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about sir, there’s a new crew and they’re calling themselves, the Kings of 295. They’re much more organized than what we’re accustomed to seeing around here. In fact based on the information I have, they have the entire beltway from D.C, to Baltimore locked.”

  “Who are they?”

  “No one knows. Nobody’s talking.”

  Kirk was finally listening. If they were as big as he says they were, this would be the perfect case to break. With him as mayor, he could finally make good on his promise to a few big real estate companies who wanted to see DC clean by moving the niggers out. Since it was obvious they didn’t care for their city anyway he figured he’d help them on their way. He’d do this by knocking down the projects and making the cost of living in the same areas impossible to live in.

  “I didn’t realize how serious this was. What do you need from me?”

  “More black undercover officers on patrol. These drug dealers are smart and not for nothing, we stand out like sore thumbs around here. Look around.”

  When they did everyone was looking at them. Kirk swallowed hard and said, “You got it. But you better get me more info on this crew.”

  “Thanks chief!”

  “Thanks, shit! You got to get this block clean. Then we’ll have something to be thankful for.”

  Royala in her car across the street from them

  “Yo Ny, guess who was out here on the beat?”

  “Who?”

  “The chief of police!” She said to him on the phone. “That’s some funny ass shit dude! Niggas got ghost when they saw him and some otha white cop.”

  She was out there making sure her money was right from her runners. 7th District was her area.

  Nyzon laughed.

  “It don’t matter what they do, they can’t stop us now.”

  “You mothafuckin’ right about that.”

  Tiara Knight

  Owings Mills

  Sweet Stranger

  Tiara walked slowly to the college hoping to see her new friend. It was Thursday and he didn’t come yesterday as he promised. She’d gotten use to his presence and he was starting to be the highlight of her day. But most of all, she wondered why she even cared.

  “Tiara!” she heard a voice call out to her from a black Hummer. A smile broke across her face instantly. “Can I holla at you for a minute?” she peeped the DC tags and liked the idea of him not living around the way, plus her father was originally from DC.

  “Didn’t I tell you I have a man?” she tried to play hard to get.

  “And didn’t you tell me your name was Tishon?”

  “How do you know it’s not?”

  “Cause you answered to Tiara.” He smiled at her and the scent of vanilla from his truck rummaged through her nose. “Let me take you to get something to eat.”

  “No! Anyway I have to go to class.”

  “Play hookie with me.”

  “You don’t go to school.”

  “How would you know unless you go to dinner with me.”

  “You’re a bad influence.”

  She couldn’t stop blushing, there was something about him she liked.

  “I’ll be the best influence in your life. If you let me.”

  Her heart fluttered. It was the nicest thing anybody had said to her in a long time. Because truth be told, Cray had been an entirely different person since the money started pouring in. He never had time for her anymore, and when he did, he smelled of perfume. Still loyalty and fear of taking care of herself kept them together.

  “I got to go…bye str
anger.”

  “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “You said that before and didn’t come.”

  Silence.

  She realized that her feelings had shown through.

  “So you were waiting on me?”

  “Bye stranger.” She said before disappearing into the building.

  The Next Day

  “Tiara! Tiara!” Cray yelled from his movie room. “What’s up with these weak ass curtains?!! I don’t like this bullshit.”

  When Tiara came running down the stairs, she saw a girl sitting on her couch with her legs folded Indian style, and him taking the curtains down.

  “What happened to the black ones I ordered?”

  Tiara heard him but couldn’t get her eyes off the cute chocolate girl. She was wearing a T-Shirt, which read, DC’s finest. She knew they must have had some sort of past because she felt comfortable enough to take her shoes off and plop down on her couch. It was the girl he met at Takoma Station.

  “I put them in the closet. I wanted it to be brighter in here for you.” She said slowly waiting for an introduction. Is she his cousin? She thought.

  “Well go get em ‘cause I want those up instead. This a movie room so it’s ‘spose to be dark.”

  She couldn’t’ move. He was disrespecting her in the worse way.