For The Love Of A Goon: A Miami Hood Love Story

by LadyJ

  Their morning had started off perfectly. They left their hotel room, in Jacksonville, bright and early to meet up with the plug and made the transaction in a timely manner. They’d been on the road for two hours and was less than four hours away from making it back home to Miami.

  “Shit! Calm down lil bro, let me think.” He said snatching his pistol off his hip and sliding it underneath his seat. Nino saw him and did the same. Meek thought about turning the car around and bailing out as he turned his head and looked out of the back window. There were far too many cars and he was stuck. He tried to relax but all he could think about was the dope and pills he had hidden in the trunk of the rental car. The line of cars ahead of him moved slowly, and the closer they got the more Nino began to sweat. “Just chill lil bro, we good.” Meek assured him but as soon as they approached the two officers at the head of the crew shit got real.

  “License and registration, sir.” The officer said as Meek rolled down the driver’s side window. He opened up the console and handed the officer the identification he’d requested.

  “Sir, do you have an ID on you?” The officer on the other side of the car asked Nino. Nino slowly reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Nervous as hell, he slightly trembled as he handed his State ID to the officer. “Ranimous Brown? That’s an odd name. Miami huh? You fellas sure are a long way from home.”

  “Umm, yeah officer. We just visiting,” Meek butted in.

  Nino tried his best to keep calm but the officer had already sensed the tension. He pulled out his flashed light and shined it around the car. He cut the flashlight off, then walked back to his cruiser where his partner was. “Whew, man I bout pissed myself.” Nino finally opened up his mouth to say something. “Your ass ain’t got no warrants or no shit like that do you?” He asked Meek.

  “No, I’m good blood. Yo, be cool, here they come.” Meek said watching the two officers coming back there way. The officer walked up to the driver’s side and tapped on the window.

  “Ranimous Brown.” He held Nino’s ID in his hand.

  “Yes sir?” Nino answered.

  “Would you mind telling me what’s that on the floor board underneath your leg.” He shined his flashlight in the car and down at Nino’s feet. Meek and Nino both turned their attention to the floor. Nino’s heart nearly escaped his body when he saw the butt of his gun playing peek-a-boo from under the seat. “Ima need you fellas to step out of the car.” The officer ordered.

  Meek cut off the car and slowly exited the car with his hands up in the air. Immediately, they were thrown to the pavement and handcuffed. All kinds of things ran through Meeks head while watching the cops go through the inside of the car.

  Nino laid flat on his stomach with his face buried in the grass. Meek began to feel the knots tighten on the inside of his stomach when one of the offices yelled, “Pop the trunk!” He knew that the work was hidden underneath the spear tire and soon they would too.

  “Bro, if they find that work we’re done my nigga. They gon hide our ass. ” Nino whispered lifting his head to the officer’s remark. “We fucked, we fucked mane.” He panicked.

  Meek remained quiet and tried to hold it together for the both of them. His little brother had never been in trouble with the law and he knew he didn’t do well under these conditions.

  “Look at what we have here.” The same officer said pulling the duffle bag out from underneath the spear tire. He unzipped the bag and peeped inside. “Well, well, well.” He cut his eye at his partner then at Meek and Nino laying in the grass. He then zipped the bag back up and tossed it to his partner.

  “Well, what is this here?” He asked unzipping the bag. He dumped the contents onto the hood of the car, then he walked over to Meek and Nino and help them both stand to their feet. “Alright now fellas, I am going to give you one chance to tell me who does all of this belong to before I haul both of you off to jail.”

  Nino looked at his big brother with eyes full of pity. He wasn’t sure if he should open up his mouth or not. Meek knew he couldn’t let his lil brother go down for this. He looked over at the two loaded pistols, the bag of weed, and the dope and pill sitting on the hood of the Ford Focus, Damn! He thought. He cleared his throat then spoke up. “It’s mine officer, it’s all mine. My brother didn’t even know it was in the car.” Meek had just done the realest shit ever by taking full responsibility for everything so his little brother could walk free.

  Ten

  Carmen rushed to her front door and ran to the top of the stairs; at the bottom stood Moe. Her face was wet from the tears sliding down her cheeks. Carmen had spotted her from her living room window and when she saw her face, she ran to her aide. “What is it?” Carmen asked staring down at Moe at the bottom of the stairs. Moe looked up at her with her big beautiful brown eyes full of hurt and pain.

  “They got him Carmen.” Was all Moe said as she slowly made her way up the stairs. Her mascara was running down her face and her eyelids were puffy. Carmen could tell she had been crying all day. Carmen walked half way down the stairs to meet her. She grabbed Moe and hugged her as she broke down on her shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I gotta get him out of there,” Moe sobbed.

  “Come on. Let’s go inside.” Carmen took her by the hand and led her up the stairs inside of her apartment. “Tell me what happened, Moe?” She handed her best friend a roll of toilet paper to wipe her tears away and blow her runny nose.

  Moe blew her nose then tossed the tissue in the trash. She paced the floor for a while in a daze not sure where to begin. She stopped moving, then fell to the floor in a dramatic fashion. “Why, why, why!” She screamed out kicking her feet up and down.

  Carmen rushed to the floor to calm Moenisha down. “Stop this right now Moe and tell me what in the hell is going on.” She demanded.

  Moe set up and stared Carmen in the eye blankly as if she was out of it. “Meek is locked up in the County. They hit him with a trafficking charge.” She began to cry again.

  “Wait, what? When? How?” Carmen questioned confused by the news.

  “They left yesterday morning, C. I had this feeling something like this was going to happen so I practically begged him not to take the trip. I don’t know what I’m going to do. What am I going to do Carmen?” She rambled. “How the hell am I going to come up with all that damn money to post his bail?”

  “Well, you know Trent and I will do all we can to help. How much is his bond?” Carmen asked.

  “Hell, I don’t know. I just know it will have to be paid right away. I can’t leave my man in there like that. I know he wouldn’t leave me.” She turned to face Carmen and wiped her tears away. “I don’t know what I’ll do without him.” She said as one tear slowly traveled from her eye and down her right cheek.

  Carmen lifted her hand and wiped the single tear from Moe’s face, “I don’t know either, but we’re going to get him out, don’t worry Moe.” She kissed her forehead and got up from the sofa. Carmen grabbed her cell phone, went to her room, and closed and locked her bedroom door. She called Trent to find out if he knew about what was going on. “Hey, what’s the word?” Carmen asked when Trent answered

  “Man, I don’t know Ma. I just got off the horn with Nino and he say Meek took the fall for everything. That’s one real ass nigga. I know my dawg probably in that bitch bout to spazz out tho. I know we got to get him up outta there. You talked to Moe yet?”

  “Yeah, she’s in the other room. She hasn’t stopped crying since she got here.” Carmen responded to his question. “So, how much you think it’s gon take to get Meek out of the county?” she asked.

  “Not sure. Just tell Moe to see if she can come up with ten grand by the time he goes to court. They ain’t gon let him out without seeing that judge first. Tell her to come with the ten and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Okay. I love you Trent.” She said.

  “Umm, Okay. Bye.” The phone hung up. Carmen looked at her phone and twisted up her face. />
  Da fuck he hanging up on me like that, she thought. Tossing her cell phone on her bed, she exited her room, and walked back to her living room where Moe was still curled up on her sofa sobbing like a baby. “Yo, Trent said be at court Friday morning. That’s when Meek will have his bond hearing.” She flopped down on the couch and picked up her TV remote. She flipped the channels and stopped at the news. “Oh yeah, he said bring about ten thousand dollars with you.” She added.

  “Ten thousand?” Moe’s head popped up and she dried her blurry eyes. “I don’t have ten thousand dollars, Carmen. Hell, Meek handles everything. I mean, he throws me a few grand to blow at the mall every now and then but I don’t have that kind of money.”

  Carmen got up to retrieve Kira’s baby bag. She unzipped the small front pocket and counted up the remaining money she had from the roll of cash Trent gave her. Out of the ten grand he gave her she had only spent four. She counted out a thousand and stuffed it back into the baby bag. She sat back down on the couch and slid the other five grand into the palm of Moe’s hand. “Now, you only need five.” Monisha leaped over, grabbed Carmen, and hugged and kissed her cheeks wildly. “Eww Moe, you’re slobbering all over me.” She wiped Moe’s slob from her cheek.

  “Thank you so much Carmen. I will get it back to you as soon as I can.” Moe grabbed her purse and cell phone from the sofa. “Now, I have to see where the hell I’m gon get the rest from. I’m bout to bounce Carmen. I gotta hustle up on this other five grand.” Moe ran out of Carmen’s apartment and hopped into her car. She had no real ideas of how she was going to get the other half of the money so she took out her cell phone and call Nino.

  “Yo, sis-n-law, you okay over there?” Was the first thing Nino asked when he answered his phone for Moe.

  “Hell no bro, I’m about to go crazy without my baby. We got to get him out of there.” Moe replied. “Trent told me to be at court with a least ten grand. I got half now; I need to come up with the rest. What should I do?” She asked then waited for Nino to give her his best advice

  “Sis, I got a little work over here but I know Meek will kill me if I let you get out here on this block with me,” he said.

  “Man, fuck all that. I’m about to come through. Fix me up a pack.” Moe ended the call and headed straight to the new trap spot to see what Nino had for her. She pulled into the yard of the abandon home they had fixed up to look pretty nice. She ran up the three steps leading to the front door and banged twice. “Yo, Nino, it’s me.” She yelled then banged two more times. The door swung open and Nino was standing there holding the pack she had requested.

  “This is enough to make the five g’s you need.” He placed it in her hands. “You know how to break that shit down?” He asked.

  “I’ve been with your brother long enough to know everything about this hustling shit. I got this bro.” She hugged him, then took off to handle her business.

  Nino stood in the door way was watched as Moe sped out of the yard. “That girl know she can’t drive.” He said while laughing out loud as the tires on Moenisha’s car screeched as she recklessly turned the corner. He walked back into the house and locked the door. Taking his seat, he began to bag up the lil work he had left after he had split it with Moe. He hated giving it to her, but he knew she would’ve acted a fool if he had of said no. He separated the few hundred pills he had into bags of fifty and he sacked the dope into twenty dollar bags for a quicker come up. This was all he had left and since him and Meek never made it back with the re-up, it was grind time. The cops had took everything they had on them including their cash. Nino was released without a dime in his pocket.

  All afternoon he posted up in the trap serving fiend after fiend until he had sold every crumb he had. Nino flopped down in a chair and counted up all the money he had made. He tossed the bills on the table top and put his head down. That little chump change wasn’t nearly what he was used to making. As he sat and thought about how he was going to jump back he heard a knock at the front door. He peeped out of the window and saw Trent’s car parked outside.

  “Blood! It’s me, open up the door.” Trent yelled from the other side of the door. “It’s hot as fuck out here mane.” He added. Nino rushed over to open the door and let him in. Trent looked around the room then back at Nino. “It’s just you in here? Where your help at blood?” he asked.

  “I sent everybody home. Hell, I didn’t have shit to work with for real. That’s all a made off that lil shit.” He huffed then nodded his head towards to the table where the small wad of cash and the two bags of Molly pills were sitting. Trent waked over to the table and glanced at the money and pills.

  “This all you made?” Trent shuffled around the small bills and pills on the table.

  “Hell yeah. I didn’t really have shit to work with after the folks took all my damn money. Plus, I gave Moe half of what I had so she could come up with the five Gs’ she need.” Nino answered.

  “You did what? Nigga are you crazy?” Trent threw his heads up over his face and shook his head. “You know Meek gone kill our ass when he finds this shit out.” He took a seat on the table top. “Naw, fuck that. He gone kill yo ass. Ima’ tell him I ain’t have shit to do with it.”

  “Well, what else was I supposed to do? You know how Moe’s demanding ass is. She made me give it to her.” Nino tried to defend his self. “Besides, she trying to get up the bread to get his ass out. He shouldn’t be too mad.” Nino concluded.

  “You was supposed to tell her ass no and hustle that shit yourself.” Trent lifted up his t-shirt and pulled out the half of key of coke he had tucked down the front of his jeans. “Here,” He said handing the dope to Nino, “I got like one more key of that shit at the crib but after that’s gone, we out. We gone have to make that trip soon homie.”

  “Man, I can’t do it. That shit with me and Meek still got a nigga spooked.” Nino admitted.

  “It’s either we make the trip or we starve. You choose.”

  Eleven

  “Dameeko Brown, you have been charged with trafficking illegal narcotics into the city of Miami. How do you plead?” The judge frowned down on Meek from the bench.

  Meek’s lawyer whispered something into his ear, and he shook his head in agreeance. “My client pleads not guilty your honor.” His lawyer spoke for him.

  “Well, I guess he’s going to try his luck at trial. Bail will be set at two hundred and fifty thousand.” The judge bought down the gavel, and court was dismissed. Meek turned to take a peek at his woman, and his brother, and his boy Trent before the hauled him off back to his cell. Trent threw his head up at him while Nino showed no emotions; holding a cold mug on his face, and Moe was crying like a baby as she watched the guards drag him away, “I’m going to get you out of here!” She yelled through the pain she was feeling in her aching heart.

  “A quarter mill? What the fuck man!” Nino yelled once they were outside of the court house. “Man, I know them bitches was gon try to railroad my nigga.” He was mad as fuck at how the system was designed to fail young black men in our society. It was like they just couldn’t catch a break for nothing in this world. This was Meek’s very first case and they still painted him out to be this big time drug smuggler when what they had was only enough to make a few hundred grand. “Man, they talking about hitting my nigga with fifteen years.” Nino rocked back in forth in the back seat of the car unable to keep calm. “What we gone do?”

  Moe was still in tears. She hadn’t spoken a word since they left court and Trent was thinking of a quick flip to get the two hundred and fifty thousand in bond money. “I don’t know yet.” Trent replied. “All we can do is what we do best. I say we take the trip tomorrow. I’ll hit up the plug and let him know we’ll be coming down in the morning. In the meantime, Moe, you can get rid of what’s left back at the spot.”

  Moe shook her head in agreeance. She was so lost at how fast things in her perfect little life had seem to change in the blink of an eye. She was hurt imagine going fifteen years of
her life without Meek by her side. She would do anything to get him off from behind those bars. Trent smashed down the highway in a fiery rage. He pulled into his yard and ran inside of his house. Returning with the last Key of cocaine he had, he placed it in Moenisha’s lap.

  “That’s all that we have left. Move that while Nino and I take this trip tomorrow. You think you can handle that?” Trent asked Moe who seemed to be lost in space. “Moe!” He tapped her shoulder to gain her attention.

  “Oh, yeah. I got this.” She replied. “Take me to my car so I can go hit the block.” She said as if she had been hustling for years. She was so confident that she knew just what she was doing.

  “Hell no Moe.” Trent said. “You ain’t hitting no blocks. Point, blank, period. Your ass can sit in the spot and catch every lick that comes through there, while me and Nino work the corners” He fussed with his forefinger pointed in her face as if he was chastising a hardhead child.

  “Who you think you talking to Trent?” Moe spat giving him the evil eye. “I am a grown ass woman. Not even my mother tells me what I ain’t gon do. You may talk to Carmen’s ass like that but not Moenisha Hayes.” She snapped. Nino set up and popped his head in between the two of them from the back seat. He looked at Moe then at the blank expression on Trent’s face.

  “Oh, so you ain’t got no come back for her blood?” Nino said instigating the situation.

  “Nino, sit yo ass back and shut up!” Moe yelled, “Take me to my damn car.” She demanded. Trent started up the car and did as he was told. When they pulled up at Nino’s place, Nino and Moe hopped out and went their separate ways.

  “Moe!” Trent let down his window and yelled her name before she could pull off. “Watch yourself out there. If you need anything hit my phone line.” He said.

  Moe tossed her head back and sped off in a hurry. She had other things on her mind and that was her man being locked behind bars. She few down the avenue trying to make it back to their condo, then out to the projects by sun down. Moe stepped inside of her house and broke down at the door. She was overwhelmed with how she was feeling. She felt like she didn’t try hard enough that morning to get him to stay home with her. Now all she could do was get out there and try her best to keep her word she gave him in the court room.