by K'wan
“So how’d everything go last night with lover boy?” Chucky asked.
Persia thought about telling him how Ramses had shown up and ruined their date and how he was likely hot on Chucky’s trail to kill him as they spoke, but instead she answered with a shrug. “Nothing fancy. He took me out to eat, but the food didn’t agree with me so he took me home.”
“Did you fuck him?” Chucky asked.
Persia rolled her eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you Vaughn and I have never had sex? For as ashamed as I am to admit it, you’re the last man I was with.”
Chucky grinned. “Don’t nobody lay pipe like old Chucky.”
Maggie snorted like she was about to say something slick, but Chucky’s cold eyes silenced her.
“You know if I ever plan on getting more than dinner out of him I might end up having to fuck him,” Persia said offhandedly. “You can’t ever expect something for nothing. You taught me that.”
“Well you hold off on giving homeboy that sweet pussy of yours for a minute. I intended to have you bleed him, but there’s been a change of plans,” Chucky said.
“Oh great, another one of Chucky’s plans,” Maggie said sarcastically.
“Maggie, if you keep opening that big-ass mouth of yours I’m gonna put something in it, and it ain’t gonna be my cock,” Chucky threatened.
Maggie got ready to say something else, but Rissa placed a calming hand over hers. Maggie looked at the worried expression on her sister’s face and swallowed her words.
“Smart girl.” Chucky winked at Rissa. “Like I was saying, in light of recent developments we’re gonna have to speed things up a bit. I need y’all packed and ready to blow town at a moment’s notice. After this last robbery, we’re outta here. For now I just need you all to kick back and lay low while I handle the details.”
“Are we done here? Because I’m ready to go,” Maggie asked with an attitude. She hadn’t gotten high in a few hours and felt her itch coming on.
“Yeah, we’re done,” Chucky told her, getting up from the table.
“Hey Chucky, I rode out here with Rissa and really don’t feel like fighting with the bus. Do you think you can give me a ride?” Persia asked sweetly.
Chucky recognized the look she was giving him. It was a look he hadn’t seen in a while and it caused his lower regions to stir. “Sure, I can do that.”
“Oh hell no!” Maggie spoke up. “I need to get right and ain’t nobody got time to be making no detours while you drop Ms. Prissy off. Let that bitch follow the yellow brick road back to Oz.”
Persia’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I ain’t gonna be too many more bitches, Maggie.”
“I just call it like I see it,” Maggie said smugly.
“So do I, thirst monster!” Persia snapped back.
“Look, I’ve had about enough out of the both of you. Maggie, you can ride back to the pad with Rissa while I drop Persia off. Here.” He dug in his pocket and tossed a small bag of cocaine on the table. “This should keep you calm until I get back.”
Maggie and Rissa both scrambled for the bag of cocaine. In the end it was Maggie who came out victorious when she delivered a sharp elbow to her sister’s gut and snatched the cocaine. Maggie cradled it in her hand like it was the most precious of things, oblivious to the fact that she had just knocked the wind out of her sister to claim it. If she hadn’t been so preoccupied with the bag of cocaine she would’ve noticed the murderous look her sister was giving her.
CHAPTER 20
Persia sat in the passenger seat of Chucky’s BMW watching the traffic. Every so often she would glance over at Chucky, who couldn’t seem to stop playing with his nose. Whenever he would catch her looking, she would just offer a weak smile. She couldn’t help but to wonder if he knew how bad she wanted to shove him out into traffic. Being around Chucky repulsed her, but she had to play nice in order to get what she wanted and that was to be rid of him.
“So you gonna tell me the real reason you cracked on me for a ride, or you gonna keep with that ‘I don’t feel like dealing with the bus’ lie?” Chucky asked as he dipped his car in and out of traffic.
“You swear you know me, huh?”
“Of course, I know you inside and out.” Chucky laid his hand on Persia’s leg, expecting her to move it, but she didn’t.
“To be honest, I wanted to get some time to talk to you alone. Since you’ve been back them two junkie bitches you roll with are always glued to your hip,” Persia said.
“Maggie and Rissa are okay. They’re a means to an end,” Chucky told her.
“Seems like more than that to me, especially with that Maggie broad. She acts like you belong to her. Is that your new girl?” Persia asked, but Chucky didn’t answer. “Now it all makes sense. No disrespect, but I never would’ve figured her for your type. You’ve always liked ’em young and fine, not old and washed up.”
“Call it what you want, but Maggie done held a nigga down through some rough times,” Chucky defended her. “And since when did you care who I keep time with? You act like you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Chucky. I just can’t stand your ass,” Persia said with attitude.
Chucky laughed. Persia trying to act tough always amused him. “I see you’ve developed a stink-ass attitude since last time we ran together.”
“Getting left to die in a crack house has a way of souring you on certain shit. And we ain’t running together; you’re blackmailing me,” Persia corrected him.
“Blackmail is such a dirty word. I’m just helping you to help me.”
Persia shook her head. “You can be such a dick sometimes. I don’t understand how I ever fell for a muthafucka like you.”
“Because you were used to fucking with little boys and I came and put this grown man dick on you,” Chucky boasted.
“You sure are big on yourself, huh? I ain’t gonna lie and say the sex wasn’t good, but it wasn’t the only reason I was with you. You were everything I wanted in a man: handsome, charming, and about your paper. I can still remember the day you first got at me, looking all good in your shiny red car and matching sweater,” Persia recalled. “You couldn’t tell me shit when I was riding shotgun through the hood with you. We were the envy of everyone on the block.”
Chucky silently reminisced about the kinder days when he was still on top of the game. He was the man in the hood, but had fucked it all up because he had gotten greedy and sloppy. He looked at his reflection in the rearview mirror and what he saw staring back at him hurt. “Funny how shit can change overnight.” He sighed.
“My mom always says the people you see on the way up are the same ones you see on the way down.”
“Don’t be so quick to count me out, Persia. I got plans, big plans,” Chucky told her.
“I hope your plans are bigger than this nickel-and-dime shit you’ve been pulling with those two zombies you’re running around with,” Persia said sarcastically.
Chucky looked at her. “Make fun of me all you want, but this shit here is only a temporary arrangement.”
“For as fucked up as it sounds, I actually believe you,” Persia said to Chucky’s surprise. “Chucky, you might be a shitty boyfriend and a scumbag of a person, but one thing I can’t take away from you is the fact that you know how to get money. Remember that time when you took me with you to make that big pickup for Ramses? Man, that was the most cash I had ever seen at one time. And after that you took me to that strip club in the Bronx. When you walked in the room they treated you like a superstar.”
Chucky recalled the moment, almost to the point where he could see the flash of the strobe lights and smell the whore stink. “Yeah, that was a good night.”
“That was the first time we ever had sex in your car.”
“Yeah, and you were screaming so loud that cop rolled up on the car like I was in there killing you.” Chucky laughed as he recalled the incident.
“I was screaming because you were trying to destroy my insides with that hor
se cock of yours. Long before I was a slave to any drug, I was a slave to that third leg.” Persia rested her hand on Chucky’s lap and let her fingers brush across his dick. She could feel his hardness through his jeans. “For as ashamed as I am to admit it, even with all the rotten shit you’ve done to me I still get a little wet when I think about your dick.” She gave it a little squeeze and felt the car swerve a bit.
“Cut that shit out before you make me crash, Persia,” Chucky warned.
“You used to like for me to play with it while you drove and now you’re acting all scared,” Persia teased him while undoing his belt. His dick was so hard that she had trouble pulling it out of his pants.
“What the hell are you doing?” Chucky asked nervously, trying to focus on the road.
“Fucking with your life like you’re fucking with mine.” Persia spat in her hand and gripped his dick tightly.
When Persia tugged at his dick, Chucky’s dick involuntarily tapped the gas pedal and the car lurched forward. He had to quickly change lanes to keep from rear-ending the car in front of them. “Persia, you’re going to get us killed!”
“No, I’m not. You’ve got it all under control like always, right?” Persia began stroking him with both hands. Persia could tell by the strained look on his face that he was almost there, so she turned it up and began stroking him feverishly. “That feel good to you, baby?” she whispered in his ear, licking his lobe.
Chucky wanted her to stop, but her warm hands wrapped around his cock felt so good. His eye began to twitch as the blood rushed into his penis. A car horn blared behind them when Chucky drifted into the center lane. “Please stop.”
The minute Persia heard him say “please” she knew she had him on the ropes. “Why should I?” she taunted. “Isn’t this what you want, a woman willing to risk it all in the name of pleasing you? Admit that I’m the best bitch you ever had. Tell me you love me!” Persia demanded, running her thumb over the pre-cum that had started leaking from the head of his dick while keeping up her stroke.
“I love you! Sweet Jesus I love you!” Chucky cried out as his dick exploded in a spray of thick white jizz. Chucky yanked the wheel to one side, skipping over three lanes of traffic before skidding to a stop on the shoulder of the road. He sat there, foot still pressed firmly on the brake and panting. “I always knew you were kinda off, but now I’m convinced that you’re just plain crazy. What the hell has gotten into you?”
“The devil,” Persia replied, smiling sweetly while she wiped the cum from her hands onto the carpet of his BMW.
The rest of the ride back to Long Island City was a relaxed one; at least, it was for Chucky. He wore the unmistakable look of a man who had busted a nut: glassy eyes and a slack-jawed grin. He no doubt felt like the man, and that’s exactly what Persia wanted. An overconfident man was more prone to mistakes.
She had Chucky pull over at the bus stop a few blocks away from her house. It wasn’t like he didn’t know where she lived, but she didn’t want her mother or Richard seeing the car and asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer just yet. For a few minutes she and Chucky sat in silence, listening to the quiet purr of the car engine.
“Thanks for the ride,” Persia said.
“Nah, I should be thanking you.” Chucky looked down at the dried cum on his pants. “For what’s it’s worth, I really do still care about you and I wanna make things right between us.”
“I honestly don’t see that happening. I’ve changed and so have you. You’re not the man I fell in love with anymore,” Persia said sadly.
“But I can be,” Chucky declared. Feelings and plans be damned, there was no way he was letting Persia slip through his fingers again. “Dig, I know you look at me and all you see is a strung-out nigga who used to be somebody, but I’m about to crawl out of this hole. This last robbery I got planned is gonna be the start-up money for me to get back where I need to be and that’s on top. I want the throne again, baby, and I want you to be sitting on the one beside me.”
“I got a good life now, Chucky,” Persia told him.
“And I wanna give you a better one! Persia, you been with me, you know me. All I need is a strong backbone and I’m right back in the game.”
Persia sat there in silence, measuring Chucky’s words. When she looked into his eyes they were pleading, begging her for another chance to fuck her life up. It was a rare moment of vulnerability for Chucky and she had no intention of wasting the moment. “What about Maggie and Rissa?”
Chucky shrugged. “Some people come into your life for a reason and some a season, and it’s looking like Maggie’s and Rissa’s seasons are about to pass. You say the word and after this job they’ll disappear.”
Persia read between the lines of what he was saying. She wasn’t sure if she was flattered or afraid of the fact that Chucky was willing to kill for her. It sounded good, but the fact that Chucky was so willing to kill the last two friends he had left in the world told her that he was still the same selfish bastard who was only concerned with himself. It was at that moment that any reservations Persia had about what she was planning for Chucky were put to rest. He deserved what he was about to get and then some.
“We’ll see,” Persia said, neither committing to nor rejecting his offer.
“I won’t disappoint you. I promise. When we pull this last heist, we’re gonna blow town and set up somewhere nice,” he promised.
“And what is this latest caper you keep talking about? If you mean what you say then you can’t keep secrets from me like I’m one of your crack whores.”
“I thought you’d never ask; especially since you’re gonna play such an intricate part.” Chucky smirked.
There was something about the look in his eyes that made Persia nervous.
“We gotta blow town quick so this piecemeal shit ain’t gonna work anymore,” Chucky continued. “So instead of plucking apples, we’re gonna make off with the whole tree and you’re gonna provide the ax to cut it down.”
“You said you were gonna pull a robbery; what’s this other shit you’re talking about?” Persia asked, not sure she really wanted to know.
“I’m talking about a home invasion, baby girl. One thing I’ve learned watching these young athletes is that they ain’t too smart. The first things they blow their money on are jewels and cars. I’ll bet where Vaughn lays his head is a treasure chest of shit waiting for a hungry nigga like me to come and take it from him. We’re gonna hit your boyfriend’s pad and you’re going to help us,” Chucky revealed.
“Wait a second, Chucky. Trying to milk Vaughn out of a few dollars is one thing, but setting him up to get robbed is going too far. I won’t do it. I don’t care what kind of dirt you have on me at this point or what you do with it, but I won’t let you hurt Vaughn,” Persia told him.
Chucky laughed. “Baby, you think them pretty words and that near fatal hand job you gave me give you some say-so in what I do? Nah, shorty. Just like I gotta prove I’m committed to you, I need you to prove you’re committed to me. Now there’s two ways we can go about this: the first involves you just showing me where Vaughn rests his head and I take what I want quietly, or I run down on this pussy in the streets and do it noisily. Me and Vaughn might get to talking and it’ll come out that you and I got a dirty history. Maybe our little home movie even helps to reinforce the idea I put in his head that you’ve been helping me plan it all along.”
“That’s a damn lie!” Persia shouted.
“Yes, but who do you think Vaughn is gonna believe: the quiet girl he thinks he knows or the one he sees on camera sucking an eight-ball off my dick?”
“But I don’t even know where Vaughn lives,” Persia pointed out, hoping to derail his plan.
“Which is why after your next date you’re going to get him to take you back to his house. He’s going to invite you in, expecting to deflower you and that’s when I’m gonna stick that little rich nigga for everything he’s got.”
“You haven’t changed at all!”
Persia accused him.
“Oh, but indeed I have.” He clamped his hand around Persia’s jaws. “The one thing I’ve learned during my time in exile is that words are no longer enough to prove loyalty; it’s deeds that bind us.” He kissed her roughly on the lips then pushed her away. “I’ll be in town for a few days getting shit ready, but don’t keep me waiting too long for your answer. With or without you that nigga is meat.” He threw the car in gear and peeled off.
Persia had a lot to think about on the walk from the bus stop where Chucky had dropped her to her house. Once again Chucky had proved to be two steps ahead of her. There was no way she planned on helping Chucky with his plans to hurt Vaughn, but he had to believe that it was a possibility in order to buy some time. Finding out Persia was an ex-addict was something Vaughn might’ve been able to get past, but that video tape of her fucking and sucking for drugs going public would be a catastrophe of nuclear proportions. It would not only hurt Vaughn’s heart, but there was no telling what effect it would have on his career. Persia had seen enough athletes in the news to know how nasty the press could be, and she refused to subject Vaughn to that. Chucky was playing dirty pool and as a result she was forced into a place of desperation.
CHAPTER 21
When Li’l Monk finally came back outside he found Droopy right where he left him, guarding the stoop. He didn’t notice Li’l Monk come out of the building because he was preoccupied trying to gain the attention of some young girls who were walking by with a series of catcalls. One of them turned around and gave Droopy a dirty look before throwing her head back and continuing on her way.
“Fuck you too, bitch!” Droopy yelled after her.
“Why you curse that girl out like that?” Li’l Monk asked.
Droopy sucked his teeth. “Stuck-up bitch acting like she’s all that.”
“Why, because she didn’t want to stop and talk to you? If I were a girl I wouldn’t stop and talk to a nigga making all kinda funny noises to try to get my attention. Women are people, not house pets,” Li’l Monk scolded him.
