Against the Grain

by Freeze

  Then she cut him off. “How about I set it up so that he can have part of it when he’s eighteen to go to college, then only when he’s graduated from college, is when he can get the rest. That’s how I’ve done it for Lil ‘C’, Kaneeka, T-Kie, and Kelli’s trust fund.”

  Kay liked what he was hearing. He gave a little smile to show his approval.

  “Yeah, do it like that. That’s smart,” he said.

  “Anything else?” she asked as she walked out the bathroom in front of him. He popped her on her ass with the back of his hand. She was wearing a cherry red thong with matching bra.

  “Nah, that’s it, ma. Just don’t tell anyone our plans,” he said as he pulled her to him.

  • • •

  Kay told Mama, Lyniece, Tramaine, Caleek, and Sonia about the move to Atlanta. They were all with it. After breakfast, he had them all packed and ready to leave. He figured he’d go ahead and send them down, so that they would be safe. They could stay in the Swiss Hotel in Buckhead until Kay and Shu-Shu got there. Everyone had enough cash with them. Plus, Lyniece still had all the money she took out of Mike’s safe stashed in her Navigator. Lyniece, T-Kie, and Kaneeka were in the Navigator. Caleek was in his RX 300 with one of his girlfriends. Tramaine, Pooh, and Kelli were in his LX 470. Sonia, Mama, and Lil ‘C’ were in Kay’s CL 500. Kay walked to the passenger side and gave Mama a kiss.

  “Boy, make sure you get that wound looked at,” she told him.

  “I will, Mama.”

  Lil ‘C’ rolled down the back window, looked at his father and asked, “How long will it take you to come down?” Kay ran his fingers through ‘C’s curly hair, then knelt down to see him eye to eye.

  “Me and Shu-Shu will be there in two or three weeks. I’m going to think about you every minute until I’m with you, aiight.”

  “I love you, yo,” Lil ‘C’ said to his dad.

  “I love you, too, man.” Kay kissed him on the cheek. He looked at Sonia. “Drive safe. If you get tired, pull over and let Mama drive.”

  “I know, Arkadian Frost,” Sonia answered with a smile. He stood there and watched as they drove out the front gates.

  Kay got in the Bentley Hunadieres and headed for Baltimore. He wanted the city to see the car before he got rid of it. He drove around the city making stops here and there as people admired the exotic ride. He went to see his doctor friend and got his wounds cleaned and stitched. He needed to have a meeting with all his workers, so he told a few of them to get everyone together and meet him at the club in an hour. He stopped at Big Duke’s girl’s house for a minute, then rode around the way. He noticed a police car following him, so he headed downtown to the club. Why the fuck was this cop following him? He had them on the payroll and when he called his shorty, Officer Ayala, last night, she hadn’t said anything about the cops looking for him. He knew that the cops hadn’t found Mike’s body because after he dropped Nut off, he buried the body himself in the basement of one of his stash houses and covered it with cement. Then he dumped the carpet in a Dumpster behind Douglas High School and set it on fire. So what the fuck is going on? Don’t panic. That’s what Scatter taught me, he thought. Kay made a left and stopped in front of his club. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the police car keep driving straight. He exhaled and got out the car. He walked to the door and stuck the first key in the lock. Then he heard the screeching sounds of tires stopping. He turned to look and there were two unmarked cars and a van.

  “FBI, get down! Get down!” the agents yelled as they jumped out and pulled their guns on Kay. Kay put his hands in the air. They yelled for him to get down again. Kay laid flat on his stomach as he watched Feds run from around the corner and up the block on foot with their guns drawn. There must have been at least fifty of them. They rushed over and put handcuffs on him and stood him up. FBI Agent White walked up to Kay and said, “Arkadian Frost, I have a federal warrant for your arrest. You’re being charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin.” Then he quickly put Kay in the back of an unmarked car. Kay watched from the backseat as Agent White gave instructions to other agents to check the club thoroughly. Kay put his head down as the unmarked car pulled off because he knew that they would find the fifteen kilos of heroin he had stashed in the club. With all the drama going on Kay had gotten careless.

  They took Kay to the federal building and put him in a room by himself. After an hour or so Agent White and Agent Powell walked in with their FBI identification cards around their necks. When Kay looked up and saw Agent Powell, he said to her, “What’s up, ma? After I show you a good time at my party, this is how you repay me? I knew you was five-o, bitch. That’s why I didn’t fuck you.” Agent Powell walked over to him and sat on the table, making sure that she was directly in front of him. She hiked her skirt up just a little so that he could see that she wasn’t wearing panties.

  “Go ’head, take a good look. This is the last pussy you’ll ever see, nigga. You’re going to wish for many nights that you had this pussy. Cause you’re going away for the rest of your natural life. I promise you that.”

  He didn’t say anything. Her last words had cut into him like a knife. Everyone he knew and loved crossed his mind in a split second. Agent White cleared his throat to get his partner’s attention. She eased down off the table and pulled her skirt down. She blew a kiss at Kay and walked around the table and sat down. Agent White sat on the other side of the table. He opened a file and placed pictures of Kay’s whole crew in front of him. Kay looked at the pictures, then back at Agent White.

  “I want to know about each one of these people.”

  “Get the fuck outta here. I know my rights. You’re not even supposed to be asking me shit without my lawyer being present. Get me to a phone. Let me get my one phone call, I’ll be up out this bitch tonight!” Kay smirked. Agent White took each photo and prepared to put them back in his file one by one. When he opened the file, Kay got a quick glimpse of two pictures he hadn’t pulled out. One was Shu-Shu and the other one was Officer Ayala. Oh shit! Kay thought to himself.

  “Okay, if that’s how you want to play. Just know that nobody plays hardball the way we do. We don’t play fair, Kay,” Agent White said as he and his partner got up and headed out the door. Powell turned to face Kay when her partner was well ahead of her. She grabbed her breasts with both hands in a seductive manner, looked down at them, and licked her tongue out as if she was licking her own nipples. Then she looked at Kay and smiled as she closed the door behind her.

  “Bitch!” Kay said out loud. What the fuck is going on? They got pictures of everybody. I wonder if they got a picture of Joey? Fuck that! They ain’t got shit on me. They just trying to scare me. I gots dough, they can’t hold me. I’ll find out who told on me when I make bail. Whoever it is, I’m killin’ them and their family. Kids and all. That’s my word. Man, I wish they would come on and let me make my phone call. I’ve got to call my girl so she can call my mom on the three-way. Yeah, my mom will come and get me. I’m still her baby. . . . This is what Kay was thinking about as he waited in that room for hours without complaining once. He looked over at the big two-way mirror and said out loud, “I ain’t going to break.” Agents White and Powell looked at Agent G. Hardy who was the head of their office. He kept his eyes on Kay through the two-way mirror and said, “Give him his charges and let him make his phone call.”

  31

  Kay was charged with thirty-one counts of conspiring to run a continuing criminal enterprise, drug possession and distribution, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, ten million dollars in tax evasion, conspiracy to distribute 2,500 kilos of heroin, and murder. Kay couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He put his face in his hands. Two U.S. Marshals handcuffed Kay and took him to Central Booking. When he finally got to use the phone, he called Shu-Shu, who was already in Baltimore. She cried into the phone as she told Kay that she heard about it through one of the employees at work, who heard about it on the radio. She told him that the shit was all over the new
s and everything.

  She was with the lawyer and they’d been trying to track Kay down but everybody had been giving them the runaround. Kay told her that he was okay and that he loved her. She put the lawyer on the phone. Kay told him everything he’d been charged with and he told Kay that everything would be alright. They had to wait until Tuesday for a bond hearing. It was Thursday. Kay didn’t want to hear that so he told him to put Shu-Shu back on the phone. He told her that he didn’t trust that motherfucka and for her to hire the Dream Team if she had to. No matter what the cost. He told her to go home and he would call her in a little while. When the officer brought Kay his food—two hard-boiled eggs, a scoop of oatmeal, a slice of toast, and a carton of milk—he looked down at the tray and knew he wasn’t about to eat that shit. He told Shu-Shu that he loved her again, hung up, and went to his bunk to lie down for a minute. He put both hands behind his head and stared off into space. Damn, here I go with this bullshit again. I done fucked up for real this time, he thought to himself. Then he realized how hungry he was and could hear Scatter’s voice telling him, “When you get knocked and all the red carpet treatment stops, that’s when reality begins.” Kay smiled and dozed off to sleep.

  • • •

  Apache stood there smiling at Kay. He was dressed in a white button-down shirt and white jeans. Kahdijah walked up to Apache’s left side and he put his left arm around her shoulder. She looked good, clean, and healthy. She wore a white backless top and a pair of white capri pants. She smiled at Kay. Scatter walked up on Apache’s right side. It was more like a pimp strut. He wore a white two-piece suit, white shirt, white shoes, and a white pimp hat. He smiled and Kay could see that he still had his teeth. Apache took his right hand and held up the peace sign. Then he put it across his heart. Kay knew what it meant. Kahdijah blew a kiss to Kay, then she and Apache turned and walked away holding hands. Scatter just stood there and stared at Kay for a moment. Kay also understood that. Big Duke walked up wearing white jeans and a white hoodie. He stood next to Scatter and smiled. The four of them were telling him that they were at peace and they loved him. He loved them, too. Scatter looked over his left shoulder at Apache and Kahdijah. When he saw how phat her ass was in those capri pants, he looked back at Kay and pointed as if to say, “Do you see that?” He turned back to Kay and pointed at him with both hands. Then he made two fists and crossed his hands like an X and patted his chest twice. He turned and tapped Big Duke on the arm as if to say, “Come on.” And in a fast pimp strut, he caught up with Apache and Kahdijah. Big Duke put both hands in the big pocket on the front of his hoodie, showed Kay that he still had his burner, turned and followed them. Kay watched the four of them walk into the darkness until they were gone. He slept peaceful after that.

  • • •

  Kay went to the bond hearing Tuesday morning wearing a blue Sean John two-piece suit and a pair of blue ostrich shoes that Shu-Shu had dropped off at the jail the day before. When Kay was escorted in the courtroom he saw his lawyers, Warren Downs and Andrew Broccoletti, standing behind a table. Andrew Broccoletti was a high-powered attorney out of New York who had represented some very high-profile cases and won. A friend of Shu-Shu’s turned her on to him. Kay walked over and shook both lawyers’ hands. He thanked Broccoletti for taking his case. He turned around and looked at Shu-Shu, who was sitting in the first row of benches right behind the lawyers. She wore a sable-trimmed cashmere coat and brown suede over-the-knee boots, and a black wool beret. She looked beautiful. They blew kisses to each other. Kay turned to talk to the lawyers.

  “I’ve been looking over your charges, and I’m going to be honest with you. Your chances for bail are slim to none,” Mr. Broccoletti said.

  “Well, the probation lady came and talked to me about an hour ago. She asked me if the judge gave me house-arrest today, would my mother let them hook up a monitoring device to her phone? I told her yeah,” Kay told them.

  “Alright, just sit tight and I’ll handle this.”

  Just as Kay feared, the judge denied him bail. No matter how much Broccoletti argued, his status didn’t mean nothing to them. They said Kay was a flight risk. As the marshals escorted Kay to the back, he told Shu-Shu that he loved her. They put him in a holding cell behind the courtroom. His lawyers came back there to talk to him.

  “I’m sorry, buddy. You see that I tried my hardest,” Broccoletti said.

  “Are you alright?” his other lawyer, Warren Downs, asked him, because Kay kept his head down looking at the floor.

  “Listen, I’ve got to get back to the hotel so that I can study your charges some more. Plus I’ve got to make a few important calls. I took your case in the middle of a case I was doing for a famous rapper with a gun charge so I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” Broccoletti said.

  Kay never looked up from the floor. The lawyers stood there another thirty seconds without saying a word. It was an awkward silence. Then Broccoletti, trying to give Kay some hope, told him that he would file for another bail hearing and that he would see him in the morning.

  • • •

  Instead of taking Kay back to Central Booking, they took him to the supermax down on Madison and Greenmount Street. At the supermax they housed most of the inmates underground. Kay was put four floors down. This floor was considered the worst because that’s where all the hard, stupid, murderous niggaz were kept. All the inmates and officers knew who Kay was. The inmates cheered and banged on their doors as the guards escorted Kay to his cell. Kay wasn’t in the mood to make any new friends, so he didn’t answer as the guys yelled his name. They wanted to know if he needed anything like cosmetics, snacks, or stamps. When Kay didn’t answer them, they knew that he didn’t want to be bothered. They respected that.

  The next morning, Kay’s lawyers came to see him.

  “It doesn’t look good for the home team, Mr. Frost. There was someone inside your crew that was working for the Feds. They even got an eyewitness to a murder you supposedly committed. They got two bodies, Mr. Frost. One of them is Terry Miller, aka Magic. And the other is Michael Daniels,” Broccoletti told him.

  Kay knew he was through. But how did they find Mike’s body? Everyone was dead or left town. The last person to see me with the body was that nigga P-Nut. And Nut was there when I killed Magic. Oh shit! That nigga Nut is po-po, Kay thought to himself. Before Kay could say anything the lawyer told him that the FBI along with the DEA had been watching Mike and other members of their crew very closely before Kay came home from prison. When Kay came home and blew up so quick, they decided to try to build a case against him also.

  Kay looked up from the floor and asked his lawyers, “What’s the worst that could happen if I take it to trial and lose?”

  Broccoletti thumbed through his stack of notes, then said to Kay, “You’re looking at life for the thirty-one counts of conspiracy. They’ll probably give you life for the possession, distribution, and tax evasion. Life for the conspiracy to distribute 2,500 kilos of heroin. Probably twenty years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. And for the two bodies . . . the death penalty. That’s just a quick assumption. Nothing is written in stone.”

  Kay couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His thoughts immediately went to his family. Especially Shu-Shu and Lil ‘C’.

  Broccoletti interrupted Kay’s thoughts, “Mr. Frost, I think you should know that I’ve had three different agents call me at my hotel between last night and this morning. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. They want to talk to you. They know that you’re the middle man and they’re ready to make you a deal.”

  Kay got up and paced back and forth, then said, “I can’t be no snitch, man, fuck that! That ain’t the rules of the game. I’ve got to keep it real.”

  Broccoletti looked at Kay and shook his head. “Keep it real? Keep it real to what and to whom? Some motherfuckers on the streets, excuse my language, but some person on the streets that ain’t going to do shit for you and probably won’t remember your nam
e in ten years while you rot away in prison? I’ve represented wiseguys in the mob and even they knew when the deck was stacked against them. They knew when to hold them and to fold them. Now I’m not telling you to cooperate with the government. I’m willing to go to trial and fight this thing to the end, but I think you should also know that before you came home from prison, Michael Daniels was getting your mother to put a lot of shit he bought, like cars and houses he used for dope spots, in her name. So the Feds have a fugitive warrant for your mother’s arrest. They’re going to charge her with conspiracy. They’re also going to confiscate her house and all your sister’s hair salons because they feel like everything was bought and maintained with drug money.”

  Kay looked at Warren Downs, his other lawyer.

  “Don’t worry about your and Shu-Shu’s assets. Nothing has your name on it and I’ve done a good job over the years of hiding things through dummy corporations,” Warren told him.

  “The government is willing to forget about the charges against your mother if you cooperate with them,” Broccoletti said.

  “Shit! It ain’t nothing for me to think about. I can’t let my moms go to prison. Set up the meeting.”

  “Before you say a word to them, I want you to sign a plea agreement.”

  “A plea to how much time?” Kay asked.

  “I’m not sure, Mr. Frost. Give me some time to talk to them and work things out. I’ll get back to you in a few days.” Broccoletti got up and shook Kay’s hand, then headed for the door.