by CJ Hudson
Darnell quickly took it and stuffed it into his pocket. “Dwight? You still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
“I’m sorry about that shit, man. A nigga just had to take one of them monster dumps, though.”
“It’s cool. But peep game, though. I’m gonna probably need more in a few days. Think you can handle that?”
“Just holla at me. I’m sure we can do some type of something,” Darnell said, not wanting to say too much of anything on a cell phone.
“Bet. But you need to treat yo’ bitch to dinner or something. She stepped up for you for real.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I gotta go. I’m gonna get up with you later.”
After hanging up with Dwight, Darnell just stared at Ivory for a minute. Just as he was about to speak, the waitress came back and asked them if they were ready to order. Apparently, she’d gotten tired of waiting on them and wanted to know if the bickering couple was now ready to eat.
“Are you guys ready to order now?” she asked.
“Yeah, we ready.”
After they ordered, the two continued to stare at each other. Ivory folded her arms over her chest and gave Darnell a defiant look. She honestly didn’t know what he was so upset about. If it weren’t for her, his ass would’ve lost out on quite a bit of money. If anything, he should’ve been breaking her off a nice piece of bread.
After the staring contest lasted a full ten seconds, Darnell reached back into his pocket and pulled the money out. Then he peeled off $500 and handed it to Ivory. “Good looking out on that.”
“Thanks,” Ivory said as she took the money.
“Something wrong?” Darnell asked when he saw the look on Ivory’s face.
It wasn’t that Ivory wasn’t appreciative of the bread that Darnell had just broken her off with. She just felt that since she did all the work, she deserved a bigger piece of the pie. “Nah,” she lied.
As the two of them sat there enjoying their meal, Darnell seethed. The last thing he wanted was for Ivory to find out what kind of money he was making while grinding. Now she was going to stay in his pockets.
Meanwhile, Ivory was thinking that since she didn’t have a job anymore, maybe she could get her hustle on and make some money by slinging weed packs. She smiled as she thought of the quick cash she could make. She also thought of all the weed she could smoke if she had her own to sell. She would talk to Darnell about it later and see if he would put her on.
* * *
Red walked into the IMG jewelry store with mixed emotions. He hated spending money on women, but it was Cookie’s birthday. Deep in his mind, he felt it was enough that he was throwing her a party. He was spending a mint on the hall, DJ, and food. But Cookie had been begging him for the last three months for a diamond bracelet. Red smiled. The things that he was doing for Cookie would probably get him two weeks of the nastiest sex he could imagine. He just hoped that she would bring some friends to the party for his crew.
Red peered inside the glass case. He took one look at the bracelet and shook his head. Cookie had dragged him down to the store twice in an attempt to get him to get it for her.
“Good afternoon, sir. May I help you with something?”
Red looked up at the shapely saleswoman. His eyes lingered on her size-six hips and her jet-black weave that she had pulled back in a ponytail. Her skin was light brown in color, and her eyes glistened like glass polished with Windex. If he weren’t there to buy his main bitch a gift, he would have definitely tried to crack for her phone number. Red figured that she must’ve been a new employee since he didn’t see her there the two times Cookie brought him there. He made a mental note to try to get her digits the next time he came in.
“You sure can, Ms. Tasha,” Red answered, reading the name tag pinned to her shirt. “How much is that bracelet right there? I’m thinking about buying my mother an early birthday gift,” he lied.
The saleswoman picked up the bracelet and examined the price tag. “This particular bracelet right here is twenty-seven hundred dollars.”
“Price is no object,” Red said, waving his hand as if he didn’t know what the price of the bracelet was.
“Okay. Let me just ring this up for you, put it in a gift box, and you can be on your way.” Red continued to admire her frame as she punched numbers into the cash register. “With tax, your purchase comes to $2,900.16.”
Red reached into his pocket and pulled out a knot of money. He slowly peeled off thirty $100 bills and laid them on the counter. The look in the woman’s eyes told him that she was impressed. Red wondered how long it would take and how much he would have to spend to get between her legs.
“Here is your change, sir.”
As Red took his change, he rubbed her hand gently. The woman blushed and quickly looked around to see if anyone was looking.
“One day, I hope to meet a girl I can spoil with gifts like this,” he said to her.
“I have to go, sir,” she said as she walked off, blushing and smiling. “You’re going to get me into trouble.”
Red smoothly walked out the door feeling that it was just a matter of time before he was blowing her back out.
After jumping back in his truck, Red took off down the street. Before he got to the corner, he was dialing Bobby’s cell number. “Time to take care of that little situation that ran up on us earlier.” Red then hung up and smiled as he thought of the intense pain that he was about to cause his would-be jackers.
As Red got close to Richmond Road, he spotted a police car. “Fuck,” he screamed as he was caught by the light. The police car coming from the opposite direction turned in front of Red’s truck. The officer mean-mugged him as he passed. As the officer turned his head to look back at the road, Red gave him the finger. While sitting at the light, waiting for it to change, Red spotted a thick hottie sitting at the bus stop.
Normally, Red wouldn’t have given a second thought to a white girl, but the girl’s body was banging so loud it couldn’t be ignored. Damn, that bitch thick as fuck, Red thought as he eyed the girl hungrily. He quickly rolled down his window before the light could change, and he went into mack mode.
“Hey, baby. What you doing out here in this heat? This shit can’t be good for your pretty skin.”
“You talking to me?” Nancy responded.
“Hell yeah, beautiful. Why don’t you let me give you a ride and get you outta this heat?”
“How do I know that you not gonna take me somewhere and try to do something to me?” she asked flirtatiously.
“I ain’t like that. I won’t do nothing to you that you don’t want me to do.”
Nancy stood up and switched her way over to Red’s truck. Red hit the automatic locks and stared at her with lust in his eyes as she got inside. He ignored the blows of various horns as he tried to get a peek under the blue jean miniskirt that Nancy was wearing. But while he was trying to see Nancy’s goodies, she was looking at his Rolex watch, diamond-encrusted necklace, diamond-filled pinky ring, and hustler-style clothes, and she knew automatically that she was in the presence of a baller.
“Where you headed to, pretty lady?”
“Work. I work at JCPenney at Richmond Mall.”
“Is that right?” Red asked as he tried to figure out the best approach to try to get some ass. From the looks of Nancy, Red figured that she was a sack chaser. He just needed to know what her price would be to give up the good-good. “What time you get off? Maybe we can kick it later on.”
“Around seven,” she said with wicked intentions in her mind. “And since I ain’t got shit else to do, I will be glad to hang out with a nice-looking man like you.”
After giving Red her phone number, Nancy got out of Red’s truck and walked toward the mall. Just because she knew he was looking, she put a little extra shake into her hips.
Damn, that bitch got a body like a sista. I can’t wait to rip a hole in that pussy.
Chapter 13
Stars danced in front of Den
nis’s eyes. A blackout seemed inevitable as the pain in his right foot reached new heights. A wicked smile fell across Red’s face. With a cigarette dangling from his lips, Red raised the aluminum baseball bat high over his head. Then he paused for a few seconds to let his sadistic intentions take hold of his victim’s mind. Although Bear and Rick were still tied to their respective chairs, they would not have been able to move even if they were free. They were both far too paralyzed with fear. A half-second before bringing the bat down, Red looked at Rick and smiled. Bobby let out a satanic laugh as the bat came crashing down on top of Dennis’s big toe. No sooner had the sound left his mouth than it was cut short by a right hook courtesy of Hank’s deadly hand. The impact of his punch instantly broke Dennis’s jaw.
“Shut up all that bitch-ass hollering! Don’t nobody wanna hear all that sucka-type-ass shit,” Red scolded. After taking a long drag off of his Newport, Red blew smoke directly into Dennis’s face. “Did you actually think that you was gonna pull a fucking heist on me?”
Red backhanded Dennis so hard his pinky ring left a two-inch gash across Dennis’s cheek. Red ripped the duct tape off Dennis’s mouth, causing more pain. Tears flooded Dennis’s eyes as he began to beg for mercy.
“Oh God, please, man, don’t kill me! I’m sorry, I’m—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Bobby screamed. “Don’t ho up now!”
Red knelt down in front of Dennis. He was so close that Dennis could smell the cheeseburger he had for lunch. “I guess you trying to eat out here, huh? Is that why you tried to fucking rob us? ’Cause you hungry out in these streets? Well, you know what? I’m gonna feed yo’ bitch ass!” Red got up, walked over to a table, and grabbed a large roll of duct tape. “I’m gonna teach you bitch-ass niggas what happens when you try to rob me!”
“Come on,” Dennis continued to plead. “Think of my cousin. It’s gonna fuck him up if something happens to his family.”
Red, Bobby, and Hank all started laughing at the same time.
“Ray-Ray ain’t even yo’ blood cousin, and he don’t like yo’ punk ass anyway,” Bobby told him.
Red walked over to Dennis, tore off a large piece of tape, and wrapped it around Dennis’s eyes and head. “Open yo’ mouth, muthafucka! Since yo’ ass is hungry for cheese, I’m gonna feed yo’ ass something that’s close to it!”
Dennis was scared to death. He didn’t know what Red was about to do, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be pleasant. Still, whatever it was, it seemed like following Red’s orders was the only way he was going to get out of this. Hank snickered as Dennis obeyed Red’s order and opened his mouth.
“Wider!”
Dennis’s jaw was killing him. It was going to be a monumental struggle for him to open his mouth as wide as they wanted him to. Slobber and blood ran out the corner of his mouth as he agonizingly stretched his mouth open.
Red went back to the table and picked up a small white box. He quickly walked back over to Dennis, opened the box, pulled out the small rodent that was in the box, and shoved it into Dennis’s mouth. Before Dennis could react, Red slapped a piece of tape on his mouth. With his hands tied up, Dennis was powerless to save himself from the horror. He desperately shook his head from left to right in a vain attempt to free the tape from his lips. With nowhere else to go, the small white mouse traveled down Dennis’s windpipe and became lodged.
The three goons looked on in sadistic satisfaction as Dennis’s body shook violently before slumping over in the chair. When Bobby looked over to where their other two future victims were, one had passed out while the other one’s bowels had released.
“Nasty muthafucka. Bobby, shoot both of them muthafuckas in the head, and let’s roll the fuck up out of here,” Red ordered.
* * *
Tammy walked out of JCPenney a tired young lady. After hanging out deep into the night with Ivory for a second night in a row, all she wanted to do was go home and fall face-first into her bed. She was almost to the bus stop when a car pulled up next to her. She did a double-take and remembered that it was the same car Steve had been driving.
“Hey. You need a ride?” he asked in a way that made Tammy’s skin crawl.
Just as she was about to tell him no in a not-so-nice way, Ivory pulled up blowing her horn. “No. Thanks. I already have a ride.”
The look on his face said that he was none too pleased with the way Tammy blew him off. Steve screeched off with an attitude as Tammy got into Ivory’s car.
“Who the fuck was that?” Ivory asked.
“That’s the nigga who was screwing my mother when I got home that day.”
“Whaaattt? That’s ol’ sweet back, huh?”
“That muthafucka gives me the fucking creeps. I swear I think I’ve seen that nigga somewhere before.” The two rode in silence for a few seconds before Tammy suddenly realized something. “Whoa, wait a minute. How the fuck did that nigga know where I worked?”
“And what the fuck is he doing here to pick you up?” Ivory chimed in.
Tammy opened her cell phone and called her mother. When Janice answered, Tammy didn’t even bother to say hello. “Ma, did you tell Steve where I work?”
“Uh, hello to you too, missy. And yes, I told him.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Calm the hell down. I was just telling Steve how you had to catch the bus home, and he offered to pick you up. I didn’t think you would mind someone giving you a ride home. I would think you would be grateful.”
“I just met this guy. What makes you think I want to get in a car with someone I barely know?”
“I know him. He’s my boyfriend, and I would appreciate it if you started showing him some respect. Don’t think that I didn’t notice how you came in last night and spoke to me without speaking to him.”
Tammy was speechless. It had been a long time since her mother had gotten mad at her. How the fuck is she going to try to check me over some nigga she just met?
“And since you don’t seem to have anything else to say, I’m about to hang up.” Without even saying goodbye, Janice hung up in her daughter’s face.
“What the fuck?” Tammy screamed while looking at her cell phone. “She hung the fuck up on me!”
“You messing with her dick,” Ivory teased her.
“That shit ain’t funny!”
Ivory just shook her head and smiled. The second she heard Tammy use the word “ain’t,” she knew she had struck a nerve. “Damn, my bad. Don’t get all sensitive and shit. I was just playing wit’ yo’ ass.”
“I know. I’m sorry. There’s just something about that muthafucka that rubs me the wrong damn way. Thanks for coming to pick me up, too. I really didn’t feel like riding the damn bus today.”
Ivory looked at her like she was crazy.
“Why the hell are you looking at me like that?”
“Yo’ ass don’t need to smoke no more damn weed. Don’t you remember, girl? You asked me to come pick you up today.”
“Oh, that’s right. I totally forgot.”
“That old muthafucka got yo’ head fucked up like that? You betta keep an eye on that nigga then. He might be one of them tag-team niggas.”
Tammy gave Ivory a strange look. “What the fuck is a tag-team nigga?”
“You don’t know what a tag-team nigga is?”
“No. That’s why I asked.”
“That’s a damn shame. Yo’ ass ain’t up on shit. A tag-team nigga is a muthafucka who likes to try to fuck both the mother and the daughter. You know. Tag-team in that coochie.”
Tammy’s mouth fell open in shock. “ I wish that muthafucka would try some bullshit like that on me! I’d have Hakim stomp a mudhole in his muthafucking ass!”
“That old nigga gon’ fuck you and Hakim up,” Ivory instigated.
“You’ve got me and my baby brother fucked all the way up if you believe some shit like that! We’ll bury that muthafucka in Lake Erie!”
“I know that’s right,” Ivory agreed while giving her f
riend a high five.
“I just can’t shake the feeling though that I’ve seen his face somewhere before.”
“You sure it wasn’t at the free clinic?” Ivory cracked.
“Oh, you got jokes? You’re the only one around here in need of penicillin shots.”
The two friends laughed long and hard as they continued to make fun of each other.
“What’s up wit’ yo’ bad-ass li’l brother, anyway? What he been up to?”
“You said it right the first time. Being bad as fuck. He hasn’t said too much since my mother went upside his head with a spatula. I think it hurt his feelings more than anything else, though. You should’ve seen my mother’s face when she hit him.”
“What she hit him for?”
“I didn’t tell you? That silly-ass boy had the nerve to say something about selling drugs! In her house!”
“Whaaattt? I know that li’l nigga done gone crazy the way yo’ mom feels about drugs.”
“I know, right? But what really fucked him up was when she told him that she would bury him right next to our father.”
Ivory shook her head. “That’s some foul-ass shit to say right there.”
Tammy shrugged her shoulders. “I guess she thought that when he jumped up, he was going to hit her or something.”
“I doubt that shit. That nigga ain’t crazy.”
“Yeah, but you know how mothers are. They always think their kids are trying to test them.”
“Is your brother fucking yet?” Ivory asked out of the blue.
“What? I don’t know, and why the hell are you worried about some shit like that?” Tammy asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Calm yo’ ass down. I was just asking. When the fuck did you get so sensitive?”
“Hummph, whatever,” Tammy mumbled as she cut her eyes toward her friend. There was something in the tone of Ivory’s voice that didn’t quite sit well with her. Knowing that her friend had been around the block a few times, the last thing Tammy wanted was to fall out with her over her brother.
It wasn’t that she thought Ivory wasn’t good enough for Hakim. But Tammy knew that with Ivory’s experience and looks, she would have Hakim wrapped around her finger in no time. She definitely didn’t want to lose her best friend because she hurt her brother.
