Money Is King: The Complete Series

by Nicety

  Quickly, I used a napkin from the glove compartment to wipe my prints from the gun thoroughly before tossing it as hard and far as I could amidst the darkness of the woods. I snatched up my clutch and headed down the road in search of a ride. Flava was left out there butt ass necked and as dead as road kill. It was a pathetic scene for such a pathetic person. There were still no cars in sight but I didn’t want to risk getting spotted by someone leaving the scene of the crime, so I pimped off with the quickness. My legs moved faster than a horse’s at the Kentucky Derby hoping that eventually I could hitch a ride from some unsuspecting driver. It was funny, though, cause now that she was dead, I couldn’t help but think about her. Hopefully when she met her maker, he would tell her the same thing so she won't come back next lifetime even more pathetic than the first.

  Chapter 12- Cesar

  Miami seemed even more beautiful than the last time I was here. The air smelled clean and the cool morning brisk on my skin felt like heaven. I didn’t know whether it was truly the city that I was feeling or the fact that I was in a damn good mood but either way all I could think about was getting in and getting out so I could hurry and get back to my baby. I still hadn’t seen my son or showed him the new house, but from the text that I sent him last night he was more than excited about it.

  “Welcome to Miami, Cesar. I am Bellany and I will be escorting you around while you’re staying here.” Bellany said walking up to me as I came off of the escalator from Arrivals at Miami International.

  “Uh, thanks. I wasn’t aware that anyone else would be here with me.” I said as she led me outside to the black Lincoln Towncar she had waiting.

  “Yes, we’re all here.”

  “All?”

  “Yes.” She spoke vaguely as she entered the car.

  I tossed my backpack in the car and entered as well to find two other females inside, one of which was the girl who said hi to me the last time I encountered the Cleaners. That’s when my guard had gone up because I knew who they were. I knew none of their names and only knew that they rocked heels and dressed in all black in whatever they did. Today, however, they were all in bikini tops and coochie cutter blue shorts never skipping out on the heels. The chick who was driving, Bellany, was of African or Jamaican decent, I couldn’t tell but she had a thick accent and was a beautiful chocolate skinned complexion. She had these long dark braids all down her back and if I was a different man, I would’ve tried to hit that thick ass booty she had and would have done it right there in front of her girls. I loved chocolate girls, there was just something about them.

  The other girl, who Bellany introduced as Kay, was an Asian girl who was very thin but had a set of tits that could stunt even the prettiest of chicks. She had a kind of Lucy Liu sexiness about her and her legs looked like they went on forever. The last girl, Cambria, was the one who flirted with me that day. I knew she didn’t know that I was taken so I didn’t hold her flirting against her. She was a longhaired, thick, redbone. I had a keen fetish for them type of women too, seemingly my favorite. She kind of reminded me of Mink with her go-getter attitude but she was subtler and knew how to play the field rather than throw her ass in the air. She could have been one of those plastic video chicks if it weren’t for the fact that her body looked way softer than theirs.

  “So we meet again, Mr. Cesar.” Cambria smiled as she turned her attention to the traffic outside.

  “Yes. Though, I don’t think we were formally introduced the first time around.” I laughed.

  “I suppose you’re right.” She smirked.

  These chicks didn’t laugh or have fun much it seemed. Life was way too short to be mean mugging folks all damn day. But of course they would be experts at knowing just how short life was. I felt it unwise to try to get them to lighten up seeing that they took this even more seriously than Yolo did. Cambria took out a piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to me.

  “These are the girls we will be picking up today.” She said as I opened it.

  “What is this their Facebook profile pics?” I asked staring at the small photos of the girls trying to focus in on their features.

  “Yes, I think so. They contacted one of our girls and said they were interested in work but they needed to provide pictures before we would meet them. They should be waiting for us at the Greyhound station in North Miami right now. It’s about twenty minutes away.” She stated as the Asian girl looked back at her smiling. “I trust Yolo has trained you well. Correct?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  “Good. Because he is expecting your call at this moment.” Cambria said handing me her phone.

  “Naw, baby. I gots my own phone.” I smirked taking out my Iphone, speed dialing his number. “Yo. What’s good my nig? I just touched down like ten minutes ago. In the whip now. What’s good?”

  “Got some unfinished business I need you to take care of down there, bro.” His voice was raspy and demonic. It didn’t sound like him at all.

  “What’s that?”

  “The girls will fill you in when you’re done with the other shit. But lay low. Don’t draw too much attention to yourself with that shopping shit. This ain’t pleasure, its all business my nigga. Ya heard me?” He responded.

  “Got you dude. All business, no doubt.” I said almost not wanting to ask my next question. “Aye man, you aight?”

  “I ain’t been to sleep. Flav ain’t come home last night. I don’t know if she’s out there with some other nigga or if she’s at her mom’s house.”

  That explained his weird sounding tone. He was bugging off that shit from last night. Some niggas can’t handle the heat when its dished out back to them. I never got in the middle of their business, never questioned the things that he did when we were kickin’ it. So I didn’t feel the need to give him any kind of advice on how to live his life now since I hadn’t done it in the past. Yolo was a grown ass man and sometimes niggas like him needed to find shit out for themselves whether it be too late or not. I didn’t want to tell him what I was thinking and that was that Flava was too good of a woman for him who probably finally realized that and left his ass, money and all.

  “Man dude she’s probably at her mom’s house with Mink, man-bashing you and shit. You know how that shit goes with them females. Let her blow off some steam then go check her out later on today or something.” I said trying to uplift his spirits as best I could.

  “Yeah…yeah you’re probably right. Four years of marriage and man I never knew sleeping in a bed alone could be so cold.” He stated showing the faintest amount of feelings, something I never knew this niggas was capable of.

  “Well now nigga you know what you gotta do to get her back. Don’t lose sight of that. Ya feel me?”

  “Yeah, thanks bro. Go handle that business. I’m gon’ hit you back.” He said hanging up the phone.

  I gotta admit I felt like that nigga was gonna go cry or something. He had a million frogs in his voice trying to clear them but it was working. Hell he was probably crying on the phone but just refused to let me hear it. His voice said it all though. He was broke up about what he did to Flava but once you hurt a woman and she’s fed up and much you can do about it but get on your knees and pray she lets you up for air.

  “We should be pulling up any minute now. The girls are each 17 years old and claim to be both turning 18 in a few weeks. They claim to be fraternal twins.” Cambria explained.

  “What’s their story?”

  “They are runaways. Their parents were too strict and would not let them out of the house to do anything. They were homeschooled and graduated top of their class so they are very well educated and are fluent in two other languages, French and Portuguese. Yolo wants them because they will prove to be very expensive when the time comes and right now they are certified pure.”

  “So why do they want to get into this shit then? Why not go to a shelter and find a real job or something?” I said shaking my head from her information.

  “I don’t c
are about that. But if you must know, they wanted a way to make easy bread and never once have to depend on anyone for shit. Their friend is already one of our girls and when she spoke to them she told them to feel free to join.” Cambria giggled. “Since Yolo has already sold some cattle he needs to re-up. Now will this be a problem for you?”

  Cambria reached down in her bag and pulled out two long black nines from the bag sitting in front of her on the floor and sat them in her lap. She looked over at me without a smirk or flinch in the world. I knew she was dead serious about shooting me if she needed to. Her eyes were frozen as solid as a glacier in the Antarctic and since I was next to her basically a sitting duck with no pistol or shit there was nothing more that I could do or say.

  “Naw. Not a problem at all shawty.”

  “Good.”

  Cambria tucked one of her guns back down in the bag leaving it wide open as if to prove yet another point but the other one she turned around holding the barrel, handing it to me trigger first. If I was a devious motherfucka, I could’ve grabbed it and pulled the trigger on her and both of her girls. But I wasn’t even about all that. I was just in my feelings for being punked by a female like that. That kind of shit doesn’t happen everyday, at least not to me anyway.

  “We’re here. I think I see them on that bench over there.” Kay said bobbing her head to get a good look around the crowd. “Those girls over there.”

  “Yes, I think you’re right, Kay.” Cambria agreed. “Okay, Cesar. You’re up.”

  “Oh, I thought they would get into the car and then we’d talk to them—“

  “No! No one enters the car until we are sure they’re ready for business. This is not a game and we don’t need some halfhearted bitches coming in this shit fucking our money up. There are too many thirsty bitches out here for us to be dealing with a few who aren’t ready.” Cambria replied like she was the head of the organization and not Yo. “Now go.”

  I shook my head as I exited the car, straightening my baby blue short-sleeved button down and jeans before checking out the scene. There were so many people standing around they didn’t even notice me walking up taking a seat in between the two girls. They did not budge nor did they even look at me. I could have been a robber or an abductor and they would have been none the wiser. They were so young and so feeble looking. They were both chocolate drops and even though they claimed to be fraternal twins, they looked identical to me. They were very thin like they hadn’t eaten in days. Just by looking at them, I could tell they had a couple of nice bodies on them but the fact that they were malnutrition and wore big baggy clothes that hung off of them, no one could tell that.

  “Which one of you is Asia and which one is Amy?” I asked staring off into the street as if I were talking to myself.

  “Hi, I’m Asia.” The girl to my left spoke, reaching out to shake my hand.

  I turned my attention towards the other girl ignoring Asia’s gesture. She didn’t even know better not to shake the hand of someone you didn’t entrust with your life. Yes, I was there to hire her but she still didn’t know me from Adam, yet she was eager to befriend me. The streets eat females alive that way.

  “Put your hand down girl. You don’t know me.” I said leaning back bringing my foot up to my knee, resting it there casually. “Anybody know where you guys are at?”

  “No. We left without a trace.” Amy said with her head hung low.

  “Alright, let me explain something to you. Once you’re in, you’re in. There’s no going back, no contacting people from your old life until a year after you’ve been in and even then you may not go and see them or tell them what you’re doing. You must tell no one where you are or who you’re with. If you run away you will be hunted and killed like fucking stray dogs. You may not recruit anyone unless given authorization to. And the final rule is, if you break any of the house rules, you’ll pay with your life. Understood?” I stated firmly to let these girls know that they were about to play a grown woman’s game.

  They both nodded their heads then simultaneously agreed vocally. At first I thought my words put a bit of fear in their hearts about this business. Actually a part of me wished that had. They were way too young to be getting into some shit like this and then letting the highest bidder pay for your virginity was crazy as hell to me. If I had a daughter I would beat her ass if she came to me talking about she wanted to get into this shit. But they weren’t my daughters and the truth was they were probably better off here getting paid for it then at home getting beat and then letting daddy run a train on them for free once he got tired of beating them.

  “You’re both pure?”

  “Yes. We’ve never played down there or nothing sir.” Asia replied.

  “Good. Good. That means y’all are going to make more money than any of the girls up in there right now.” I spat as their eyes lit up like kids in a candy factory. “Yeah, I can see y’all are gonna be right at home.”

  “Um, if I may speak. I just wanted to let you know that we also are willing to do girls, sir.”

  “What are you two looking to get out of this?” I asked confusingly.

  “We just wanna be able to take care of ourselves without nobody telling us shit. We don’t wanna ever have to depend on anyone to do anything for us.” Amy spoke.

  “Damn! I thought you were the quiet one. Now I see y’all are about your business. Well ain’t shit else to say but follow me to your future ladies.”

  Chapter 13— Mink

  I lied back on the bed while my son sat on the floor playing his video games as usual. He played whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. I never griped at him about sharing the TV cause I wasn’t much of a watcher anyway. Besides, I liked to watch him play Grand Theft Auto on his Playstation. He kicked ass in that game and the graphics looked nice enough that I felt like I was watching an ongoing cartoon.

  We rarely said two words to each other when we were together. He mostly did his thing and I did mine. Now more than ever I was trying not to be too in touch with him seeing as though Cesar had planned to take him away from me. My heart had been ripped to pieces enough lately, so I figured if I remained cold about that issue than it wouldn’t be able to rip a whole in my stomach. I planted my feet along with wall turning my head upside down to the TV constantly texting Cash to see if he would finally hit me back at some point. Forty-two. That’s the number of times I texted him without getting a response back and that was just in the last twenty four hours. I hated being played and he knew that.

  DING DONG!

  “Who the fuck is that?” I asked jumping up, heart beating like it was about to pop up out of my chest.

  “I don’t know mom. Why don’t you go answer it? You know grandma is at work.” CJ laughed shaking his head at me.

  “Oh…right.” I said playfully slapping him upside his head before getting up. “ Don’t laugh at me boy.”

  For that split second, I had forgotten that last night I truly lost my mind. I had forgotten that Flava was dead and that it was by my hand. It was crazy cause for that second that it took me to make it to the door, I anticipated it being her on the other side ready to box this thing out. In a weird way, I was fucked up by her passing. I felt guilty that she was gone, that I had spazzed out that badly and took her young promising life. But as much grief as I felt about it, I couldn’t bring myself to cry not once. My eyes couldn’t shed not one single fucking tear whenever I thought about it. Go figure.

  “Who…who is it?” I yelled, my voice crackling like a young boy entering puberty.

  “It’s Yo, Mink. Open up.”

  “Whew.” I exhaled closing my eyes. “What do you want Yo?”

  “Man, open up man. I need to speak to Flava. I know she’s in there cause she didn’t come home last night.” He said banging on the door like a wild person.

  “Dude!” I snapped unlocking the door before yanking it wide open. “She’s not here, Yolo. I don’t know where she is. She didn’t come home?”

  “That’s
what I said, genius.” He bellowed in sarcasm.

  “Excuse me? That’s how you talk to someone whose help you’re asking for?”

  “Naw, baby girl. Listen forgive me. Okay? I just need to talk to my wife. Can you hook that up for me please?” Yolo asked leaning on the door as if he was scared that I might close it in his face.

  “You know I wish I could baby but I really can’t. I honestly don’t know where she is. She isn’t here.” I replied picking at my nails.

  “Mink, I swear I will break this motherfucking door down and beat the fuck out of you and whoever else you’ve got up in here until I find her. Now I know she’s in here cause her credit cards aren’t used and she doesn’t carry cash so I know she’s not at any fucked up corner motel. So she has to be here.” If he had blown his breath any harder he probably would have blown smoke through his nostrils like an angry bull.

  “Yolo, you might wanna calm down on the threats and back the fuck up just a minute. You’re not scaring me with your bullshit honey. Trust me.” My neck popped with attitude. “Now if you had listened to me last night about her cheating maybe you’d be at a different doorstep by now.”

  “And whose doorstep do you suggest I should fucking be on then?”

  “Oh I don’t know. I would check Cesar’s house.”

  “Cesar? Really? Now why would I need to do that Mink? She’s not fucking him.” Yolo said as he turned his lips up at me.

  The only thing running through my head was that who better to take the fault than the motherfucka who started these chains of events, Cesar. I had yet to fulfill my promise that he would pay for what he’s put me through and done so there was no better way to fuck him up than with a bold face lie where I am the puppeteer. I could not wait to see the end results of this explosion. I couldn’t wait for him to come running back to me with open arms and shitty face graveling for me to take him back. It would be pure joy to see him crying because Yolo had left him broke, busted, and disgusted for what he supposedly had done to Flava.