Street Banditz

by CJ Hudson

  “It’s like I told you on the phone. That muthafucking suicide mission you sent a nigga on.”

  Red and Ray-Ray looked at each other in confusion. When Hank called Red and told him that he needed to see him ASAP, he didn’t tell him about what had happened. Sensing that his friends weren’t catching on quick enough, Hank decided to get rid of April before she started asking questions.

  “Yo, bae, you feel like going to the store right quick? I’m outta cigs.”

  Rolling her eyes at both Red and Ray-Ray, April walked out of the house and slammed the door.

  “She salty as fuck,” laughed Red.

  “She’ll get over it,” said Hank as he turned up the bottle of Corona.

  “Okay, what the fuck happened to you? And what the fuck you talking about a suicide mission that I sent yo’ ass on?” asked Red.

  “I just told her that shit ’cause I couldn’t tell her what the fuck happened fo’ real.”

  “Spill it then,” Red told him.

  “After I left the party last night with the white girl, we went back to her place and fucked half the damn night. Y’all was right! That bitch got a pussy like the Grand Canyon! I was trying my damnedest to touch the bottom of that shit, and I just couldn’t reach it! Where y’all find that bitch at?”

  “I told you that bitch was thorough. I picked her ass up at a bus stop. I didn’t know that she knew Cookie and that other bitch Tammy. I was shocked as fuck when she fell up in that bitch. But the ho knew not to say nothing. It looks like she got some kinda game about herself.”

  “Tammy?” Hank scratched his head, trying to remember. “Oh, yeah,” he finally said. “The bitch Bobby got all chivalrous with.”

  “Yeah, that’s her.”

  Hank noticed that Ray-Ray wasn’t saying anything. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Just got some shit on my mind,” Ray-Ray answered.

  “Get to the part that got you looking all fucked up and shit,” Red yelled. In his opinion, Ray-Ray was starting to act like a bitch, and he was getting tired of it.

  “After giving that bitch a little bit of sniff to let me hit that pussy again the next morning, we was getting ready to go pick up some McDonald’s and shit. As soon as I got out of the fucking door, this old white muthafucka attacked me! That muthafucka tried to swing on me, and y’all know that was the wrong thing to do!

  “I hit ol’ boy with a rib shot, and he folded like a bad poker hand. But here go the fucked-up part about the shit. When I was really getting ready to fuck him up, Nancy came back out of the house talking about Daddy this and Daddy that. Hell, after laying the pipe down the way I did, I thought the bitch was talking to me! Come to find out she was talking to that muthafucka! It was her father for real! I was shocked like a muthafucka! And while I was looking at that bitch, wondering what the fuck was going on, that muthafucka pulled out a piece and shot me in the fucking foot!”

  “I see yo’ shit all wrapped up and shit!”

  “Then the muthafucka hit me in the head with the hammer! If I ever see that bitch or her ol’ man again, they got to feel it!”

  “You shoulda told us this shit on the muthafucking phone. You almost got yo’ cover blown! Then yo’ broad woulda been cracking yo’ muthafucking head,” Red laughed.

  “Nah, I don’t play that shit.”

  “I don’t either. You girl gon’ really hate my ass when her cousin tell her that she caught me screwing Beverly.”

  “You bullshittin’! You got caught screwing another bitch?”

  “Hey, it is what it is,” Red said in a matter-of-fact tone. “If the bitch don’t like it, her ass can kick rocks. I got plenty of hoes who wanna kick it wit’ a nigga like me.”

  Looking at his watch, Hank started to get frustrated. “Where the fuck is this broad at?” No sooner had Hank opened his mouth than April came strolling through the door. “Damn, it’s about time. What the fuck did you have to do, make the damn cigarettes?”

  Instead of arguing with Hank, April tossed the pack to him and walked straight to her bedroom. Once she got there, she immediately called her cousin Cookie. April wasn’t as stupid as Hank thought she was. She knew instantly that there was something off about Hank’s “getting robbed” story. While Hank thought that she was on her way to the store to buy him a pack of smokes, April was busy listening at the front door. She didn’t have to go to the store because she had the Newports in her purse all along. She’d been pulling this trick on Hank for quite some time now, and when the time was right, she was going to put his ass out into the cold.

  * * *

  Armed with a pocketful of money and weed to burn, Ivory smiled as she headed back to Cleveland. She had just made a quick $5,000 and was itching to spend some of it.

  Although Darnell had told her that the weed she had was given to him on consignment, she saw no harm in treating herself to a few things. In her mind, she had earned it. She thought about the many hours that she had put in at Rite Aid the past few months, and she burst out laughing. It would’ve taken her three months to make this kind of bread at her old gig.

  “I woulda been slinging weed a long time ago if I’d known that it would be this easy to get paid,” she whispered to herself.

  Ivory jumped slightly at the buzzing of her cell phone clipped to her hip. “Sup, bitch?” she answered when she saw that it was Cookie calling her.

  “Girl, you ain’t gon’ believe what the fuck happened! I caught that no-good-ass man of mine in the bed wit’ Beverly’s trick ass!”

  “What? I know damn well they didn’t disrespect you like that! I hope you beat the brakes off that ho!”

  “You muthafucking right I did! I tried to kill that bitch!”

  Ivory just shook her head. She’d heard through the hood grapevine that Red was still messing around with Beverly, but because she didn’t have any proof, she chose to keep her mouth shut.

  “I need a fucking drink. I’m ’bout to head up to the bar. If you get a chance, stop up there.”

  “Uh, Cookie, there’s a million bars in the city of Cleveland. Which one you gonna be at?”

  “The Honey Doo, on St. Clair. April gon’ meet me up there too.”

  “I’ll try to make it up there. I can’t make no promises, though.”

  “Cool. I’ll holla at you if you make it up there.”

  Ivory knew before she even disconnected the phone that she wasn’t going to make it to any bar to hang out with Cookie. She didn’t feel like spending her newfound wealth in a bar. There were only two things she was in the mood for: a fat blunt and a stiff dick. And since Darnell wasn’t available, she was going to have to rely on her second source for the latter.

  Chapter 21

  Toi’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as Darnell feasted on her sweet loins like they were the last meal he would ever enjoy.

  “Right there, baby,” she cooed as she grabbed the back of his head and pushed it in deeper. The two of them had been sexing each other down from the second they checked into the Aloft Hotel.

  A twinge of guilt washed over him as he thought about Ivory. It quickly dissipated when Toi started grinding her pelvis on his lips. Darnell did care about Ivory. He just didn’t love her. The story he had told her about going to New York on business had only been half true.

  He was about to purchase thirty pounds of weed and a key of cocaine while he was there, but he was also enjoying the company of his chick on the side. Toi was the middle man who had hooked Darnell up with some major players in the dope game. They met at a rest stop in between Cleveland and New York during one Darnell’s business trips. They clicked instantly. Every other weekend, Darnell would make a trip into New York just to see her.

  During one such visit, Toi let it slip that her brother was the man to see if you wanted to cop some of the best weed from Manhattan to Harlem. Seeing an opportunity present itself, Darnell quickly let it be known that he was the top dog in Cleveland as far as weed went. He expressed how he would like nothing
more than to hook up with her bother and buy from him, provided that the prices were right. Darnell had already heard about how the price of weed in New York was far cheaper than the prices in Cleveland. He figured that if he played his cards right, he could make a killing in no time. At first he was just using Toi to get to her brother, but along the way, he started falling for her. It didn’t matter that he had a few women, including Ivory back in Cleveland. He would get rid of them all at the drop of a hat if he were ever forced to choose.

  Toi wrapped her legs around Darnell’s head and released a river of satisfaction onto his chin. “Ooooh, baby, that shit was the bomb,” Toi said. Smiling like he had just won the lottery, Darnell slid up next to her and lay on his back. He was more than happy to please his newfound love. Feeling his dick stiffen, Darnell climbed on top of Toi and slowly eased inside of her vagina.

  “Oh, yes, baby, yes,” she moaned in ecstasy. When Darnell developed a good rhythm, Toi wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper inside. Darnell tried in vain to hold out, but Toi’s loving was just too good to him.

  “Oh, shit, baby, I’m ’bout to come!” Darnell’s body shook with pleasure as he emptied himself inside of Toi. After cumming, he fell to the side of Toi and lay there, showering her with praise of how good he thought her sex was. All the while, she remained quiet. Darnell had been noticing for a while now that Toi wasn’t as talkative as she was when they’d first met.

  “You okay? You haven’t been yourself lately.”

  “There’s just something I have to do that I really don’t want to do. I mean, it involves my job, but I might have to hurt someone I care about.”

  “If it’s your job, then the person you have to hurt is just going to have to understand.” It suddenly dawned on Darnell that, although he had known Toi a little over a month, he had no idea what she did for a living. Maybe she’s a supervisor and has to fire someone she’s cool with. “I don’t know the ins and outs, so I’m not going to pry. But you said that it has something to do with your job, so I’m gonna assume that you have to give someone their walking papers. Am I right?”

  “Something like that.”

  “If you have to fire someone, then you just gotta do what you gotta do. If they don’t understand that, then fuck ’em! Now, I gotta go drain the main vein. When I get back, I want you to give me some of that good-ass head.”

  Darnell bounced off the bed, feeling like a king. He looked over at the satchel filled with weed and cocaine and felt like he was on top of the world. He had all the ammunition that he needed to pick up and leave Cleveland and lay roots elsewhere. He felt bad for Ivory, but she would just have to get over it. He liked her, but she was a drama queen, and Darnell knew it. He also knew that if he dealt with her long enough, she would eventually cost him either his freedom or his life.

  He knew her well enough to know that no matter what he told her about the weed he gave her being on consignment, she was going to dip into it anyway. Well, that’s her problem. I just hope she can deal with the consequences. Then he thought about all the fun he’d been having with Toi, and a knot formed in his stomach. He didn’t know for sure since he had never felt the emotion, but it occurred to him at this very moment that he may have been falling in love.

  After washing his hands, Darnell walked out of the bathroom on cloud nine. His euphoria was short-lived, however, when he looked up and saw Toi’s face. It was devoid of emotion and as hard as stone. Gone was the smile that he had come to enjoy. Replacing it was an icy glare that chilled Darnell to the bone. His heart started beating at an accelerated speed as he froze in his tracks.

  “What the fuck you doing? What the fuck is going on here?”

  With her hands trembling, her eyes watering, and her voice cracking, Toi cocked the hammer back on the nickel-plated 9 mm pistol she held in her right hand.

  “Darnell, I . . . I love you. And I’m sorry to have to tell you this. But you’re under arrest.”

  Darnell’s heart dropped to the floor as Toi pulled her shield out of her pocket and held it up.

  * * *

  Hakim staggered toward the bus stop like a tired marathon runner crossing the finish line. His legs felt like jelly and threatened to give out on him any second. Nikki and her mother had completely worn him out. As soon as he reached the bus stop, Hakim fell down on the hard wooden bench. His hair made a stain on the glass as he rested his head on the glass pane of the bus stop. Taking a deep breath, Hakim shook his head from side to side. The last thing he’d expected when he spent the night at Nikki’s was for her mother to slobber his dick down.

  Although he knew in his heart that what happened wasn’t his fault, Hakim felt like shit anyway. He felt even worse when his dick started throbbing through his pants, thinking about the world-class blowjob that Nikki’s mother had given him. Realizing that he hadn’t eaten anything all morning, Hakim eyed the Rally’s restaurant across the street. Then, after making sure that the bus wasn’t on its way, he darted through the traffic and made his way inside. Hakim was hungrier than he thought, as he finished off one of the double cheeseburgers in five minutes.

  As he unwrapped the second one, a young-looking woman with a small child came into the bus stop. Hakim became disgusted as he noticed the disparity of appearance between the two. The woman, who looked even younger than Hakim, was dressed very nicely. She had dark brown skin, and not one of her spiral curls was out of place. She had a diamond bracelet wrapped around her ankle and rings on each hand. The boy had on a dingy white T-shirt that looked more gray than its original color of white. His jeans were ripped and faded, and his Adidas sneakers were coming apart at the heels. To make matters worse, the boy’s hair looked as if it hadn’t been cut or combed in months.

  On top of that, Hakim noticed that whenever a breeze blew through, the boy smelled like he was allergic to a bathtub. Hakim spat on the ground in disgust. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand how some women could dress up and keep their hair and nails done but allow their children to walk around looking terrible. They didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but their mother made sure that he and Tammy looked decent. It was then that Hakim suddenly realized that the young lad was staring at his grub. A half-second later, the boy’s mother smacked him upside the head.

  “Stop staring at other’s people’s food like you ain’t never ate before!”

  “But, Mama, I’m hungry.”

  “I told you I was gonna fix yo’ ass some cereal when we got back home! Now shut the fuck up! I’m sorry, mister,” she said to Hakim.

  “It’s cool. Li’l man ain’t bothering me.”

  The woman smiled flirtatiously at Hakim. “What’s yo’ name?” she asked.

  Hakim was grateful that her cell phone rang so he didn’t have to answer her. Annoyed at her cell phone for messing up her groove, the woman popped her lips and snatched it off her hip.

  “This shit betta be good,” she spat into the phone without saying hello. “Canceled? What the fuck you mean, canceled? I’m only an hour late!”

  This bitch is berserk, Hakim thought.

  “Damn welfare muthafuckas make me sick,” she ranted as she clipped her phone back onto her hip. “How the fuck they gonna cancel my appointment because I’m only an hour late? Hell, a bitch like me got shit to do!”

  “But, Mama, I thought you told Uncle Tim that you didn’t have nothing to do today.”

  Hakim flinched as the woman slapped her son in the mouth.

  “Shut up telling my damn business!” Reaching into her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper and an ink pen, the woman jotted down her name and phone number. “Call me sometime,” she told Hakim just before grabbing her son’s hand and yanking him down the street.

  The woman wasn’t gone for five seconds before Hakim balled up the paper with her name and number on it and tossed it to the ground. “Trifling ho. She don’t even know my fucking name and talking about call her,” he mumbled. Two minutes later, Hakim hopped the bus and headed home
.

  The minute Hakim set foot inside of his house, he caught an instant attitude. The sight of Steve’s size-ten feet resting on the coffee table where he sometimes set his snacks almost caused him to snap. Hakim looked around for his mother, but she was nowhere in sight. He was half expecting her to come at him with a stick the way he left the house the previous night. As Hakim stood there fuming, Steve laughed at the television. He was so engrossed in the show he was watching that he never even heard Hakim come into the house.

  “Where my moms at?”

  At the sound of Hakim’s voice, Steve sat straight up. The sight of Hakim standing there with fire in his eyes had Steve completely shook. “Huh? Oh, I think she went to the store.”

  Without saying another word to Steve, Hakim went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Not finding what he was looking for, he slammed the door so hard the light bulb inside blew. Pissed off, Hakim stormed back into the living room.

  “Did you eat my fucking corned beef sandwich that I had in the fridge?”

  “Huh?” Steve asked, looking around.

  “The fuck you looking around for? I’m talking to yo’ ass.”

  “I haven’t touched anything of yours.”

  “You don’t even live here! How the fuck do you know what’s mine and what ain’t mine?”

  “Look,” Steve said, standing up, “I haven’t eaten anything in here since I got here.”

  Hakim could tell by the look on Steve’s face that he was lying. He stared intently at Steve. Steve took Hakim’s silence as a sign that Hakim was calming down. But nothing could have been further from the truth.

  “And why didn’t you call your mother last night? She was worried sick about you,” Steve said, faking concern.

  Hakim exploded. “What? Don’t be questioning me on where the fuck I been and why I didn’t call here! It ain’t none of yo’ muthafucking business why I didn’t! You ain’t got a fucking thing to do with what goes down between me and my moms, so you need to start minding yours! And another thing! You may have my mother fooled with all that nice-guy talk, but I know yo’ ass ain’t shit! And if I ever catch you spying on my sister again, my moms won’t be able to stop me from breaking yo’ muthafucking jaw! You got that?” Hakim asked Steve as he stepped into his face.