by K'wan
“That’s what I keep trying to tell this hardheaded-ass nigga.” Tech thumbed at Animal.
“Come on with that.” Animal sipped his coffee. “Me and homeboy ain’t friends, we’re just kicking it about business.”
“What kinda business you got with that nigga? You ain’t no rapper,” Silk joked.
“He seems to think so, because he offered me like fifty stacks to do guest appearances on his artists’ tracks,” Animal said, shocking them all.
“Damn, Animal, let me find out yo be spitting and ain’t tell me,” China teased him.
“Nah, what I do ain’t really rap, it’s just me getting shit off my chest.” He went back to his coffee.
“Well, if he got fifty stacks to throw you like that, we might wanna see about snatching his ass. Tech, how much you think his people can come up with to get his trifling ass back?” Silk asked.
Tech could feel Animal’s eyes on him so he decided to fuck with him. “I don’t know off top, Silk, but for all the records the nigga is selling, I’ll bet they can come up with something respectable.”
“Man, I know y’all ain’t seriously thinking about doing this?” Animal looked from Silk to Tech.
Tech had been joking at first, but seeing the concerned look on Animal’s face made the idea seem more appealing. “And what if we were? You trying to tell me that if we wanted to snatch Don B., you’d have a problem with it?”
Animal put his coffee down and looked at his mentor seriously. “Man, I’ve been banging with you since I was a little nigga running around stealing food. You took me in, Tech, and gave me hope, so I’m with you, but if the question of my loyalty ever comes outta your mouth again, then I’m gonna have to invite you outside.”
Tech looked at him for a long while, and for a minute you could feel the threat of violence lingering. “Just checking.” Tech smiled and grabbed Animal in a playful headlock. “I thought them Big Dawg niggaz might’ve brainwashed you.” He mussed Animal’s hair roughly.
Animal broke the lock and scooted away. “Quit playing, man; I told you I had a headache.”
“Yo, but on a more serious note, we met with the Commission last night,” Tech told Animal.
“Y’all left me out the loop?” Animal sounded a little hurt that he’d been left out of the big meeting. China and Silk were skilled at what they did, but Tech and Animal were the most lethal of the bunch, which is why they tackled all high-risk situations together; it had always been that way.
“Chill, nobody was trying to snub you, but I needed you to make sure the young boys handled that business. You didn’t miss much,” Tech said.
“Nothing except Shai about to break Tech’s neck,” Silk said, laughing.
“That nigga laid his hands on you? Let me get my shit—we gonna ride on that muthafucka!” Animal said heatedly and started pacing the room.
“See, this is part of the reason why I didn’t take you, Animal: you’re always ready to shoot a muthafucka,” Tech scolded him.
“You’re damn right I am. Ain’t nobody gonna lay hands on my family and not get seen.”
“Animal, nobody put their hands on me, and people like Shai Clark don’t get seen.”
“Tech, for as long as I got eyes and guns, anybody can get seen,” Animal assured him. The idea of someone rising up against Tech didn’t sit well with him. The big homey had always protected him when he was too weak to look out for himself, and he had been trying to balance the scales ever since he’d gotten his first gun.
“Animal, you better than anybody should know that if I felt like a nigga violated, I would’ve handled it accordingly. Shit wasn’t that serious; they wanted to talk and the conversation got a little heated, that’s all.”
“Well, what did they want?” Animal scowled.
“The usual shit, trying to put restraints on how we eat. As it turned out, that faggot Bobo was in bed with Rico.”
“Didn’t he know he was the police?”
Tech shrugged. “I tried to tell him, but he didn’t want to take my word for it, like I give a fuck. The money was dropped and Bobo is history, that’s how I see it. Shai and them was just tight because we be dropping all these bodies and shit in other niggas’ hoods. You know cats with paper are squeamish about bloodshed.”
“That’s because they done got lazy and lost the killer’s edge that put them on top in the first place,” Silk chimed in.
“True story,” Animal agreed. “Tech, when them old niggaz agreed to break bread, I thought it would be a good thing, but I ain’t wit’ all these guidelines they’re trying to set without even making you a full member. It’s bad enough that we kick them five percent, but they wanna oversee how we hustle, too? Shit, I liked it better when we were bandits.”
“I’m with Animal on that one,” China cosigned. “Them dudes can dance within the rules because they’re large organizations and have several sources of incomes, but we’re street level and gotta get it wherever it’s coming from. All their rules are gonna do is starve us.”
“I say we whack that nigga Rico and tell Shai to go fuck hisself. Tommy Gunz was the real power behind the Clarks anyway and he ain’t much good to anybody these days,” Animal said.
“Nah, Swann is good people, and to get at Shai we’d have to go through him,” Tech said, shooting the idea down.
“So what do we do, raise our hands and ask permission every time we wanna go at somebody?” Animal asked sarcastically.
“I didn’t say all that, Animal. Shai is pissed now, but it’ll blow over in a minute, so until then we just gotta keep off his radar. In the meantime, we’re gonna move on that deal Rock Head was telling me about.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Animal rubbed his hands together greedily. “So are we gonna hit them before the deal and snatch the money, or after the deal and snatch the coke?”
Tech looked around the room at his team. “We’re gonna hit them during the deal and take it all.”
CHAPTER 22
Being that Tionna had spent most of what she had taking a taxi to Rikers Island, she had to rely on public transportation to get her back to the hood. She wasn’t mad at the long ride because she had a lot on her mind that she needed to sort out before dealing with the kids and the rest of the bullshit in her life.
The fact that Duhan was tight with her failed in comparison to the five thousand dollars she was going to have to get up. Duhan said he had it under control, but Tionna knew without him having to say so that he didn’t. When Duhan was home, they made it a habit to live beyond what they should’ve, and they had never really grasped the concept of saving. Reaching out for the money he had on the streets wasn’t working anymore because at this stage of the game, everybody was already betting on Duhan to blow trial. The only lifeline he had left was Tionna.
When she finally made it back uptown it was getting dark and she knew that Ms. Ronnie was going to be pissed. Her only hope was to find Gucci before Ms. Ronnie found her, which didn’t prove to be hard, because when she came up the block she found Gucci sitting on the stoop of her building with Tracy.
“Hey, y’all,” Tionna said sheepishly.
Gucci leaned on her knees. “Oh, I know you can do better than that.”
“I’m sorry, Gucci.”
“Sorry doesn’t even scratch the surface, Tionna. Yo, I’ve been checking precincts and hospitals all morning trying to see if you were okay. The kids were scared, Mommy was scared. The only reason that I even knew that you were still alive is because Boots and Tracy came by the house after they were released, which is what you should’ve done, too.”
“My bad, Gucci. My phone was dead or else I would’ve called. By the time they let me out I barely had time to make my visit with Duhan.”
Gucci looked at Tracy, who just turned her head as if to say she wanted nothing to do with the discussion, before turning back to Tionna. “So, let me see if I follow you: you mean to say that you left your kids with my mother for almost twenty-four hours . . .
”
“Without calling,” Tracy added.
“Without calling,” Gucci continued, “all so you could make a visit? I don’t believe I’m hearing this.”
“Gucci, I know I fucked up by leaving my kids on y’all like that and not calling to let you know that I was okay, but you can wear of a little of this blame, too,” Tionna said, trying to shift it.
“What the hell did I do?”
“I don’t recall seeing you at the precinct last night.” Tionna folded her arms.
“That’s because Animal got me out of there and took me home,” Gucci shot back.
“Oh, you was with the pretty little nigga all night? You left that part out of your story, tramp,” Tracy teased Gucci.
“I wasn’t with him all night, and mind your business,” Gucci told her. “Look, Tionna, my main concern is that you’re okay, but when my mother catches you she’s gonna whip that ass.”
“Is she that mad?” Tionna looked around nervously, as if Ronnie were going to spring from the shadows.
“Mad ain’t the word. I ain’t see her like that since that time she caught us in her bed with those two boys.”
“She beat skin off both of our asses,” Tionna recalled. “I gotta steer clear of her until I can come up with a way to make it up to her.”
“But now that your ass is back from your journey, what’s up with Duhan?” Gucci asked.
Tionna lowered her head. “It ain’t looking real good. The lawyer needs another five thousand for some shit he gotta do, and you know Duhan ain’t got it.”
“Damn, T, what you gonna do?” Tracy asked.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “The case is already looking shaky because of all the witnesses they have against Duhan. Any help we can get is a blessing, so I gotta try to get this money up so the lawyer can work his hand.”
“I got a few hundred tucked in the bank if you need it, Tionna,” Gucci offered.
“And when I get my check on the first, I can hit you with a little something, too. It won’t be much, but it’ll be something,” Tracy said.
“Thanks, y’all.” Tionna hugged them both. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Wind up becoming the whore of Babylon,” Boots said, rolling up on them. She had bags from McDonald’s in her hands and Tionna’s kids on her heels. “Where the hell did you disappear to?”
“Long story.” Tionna crouched down to hug her kids.
“We missed you, Mommy!” Little Duhan hugged her, followed by Duran.
“Mommy, did you have fun in the can?” Duran asked.
“What did you say?” Tionna looked at her son quizzically.
“I wanted to know if you had fun in the can. I asked Auntie Boots where you were and she said that you were in the can, playing with the other girls.”
“Oh, she did?” Tionna gave Boots a hateful look, at which Boots just smiled.
“Yeah, she told us that. Mommy, did they have toys in the can?”
“No, baby. I wasn’t in the can playing; I had to pick up Boots’s mother. They picked her up on a street corner.”
“Auntie Boots, is your mother a crossing guard like the lady who stands on the corner by my school?” Duran asked.
“Stop telling these kids that foolishness.” Gucci pulled Duhan and Duran close. “Listen, y’all go up the street and sit by Mr. Rayfield and them while you eat your food; we wanna have some girl talk.”
“Okay, Aunt Gucci. Come on.” Duhan grabbed his little brother by the hand and led him up the block.
“Boots, it’s bad enough that you played yourself last night, but don’t be telling my kids no bullshit, you hear me?” Tionna let her know.
“T, I was just playing with them; they don’t even know what a can is. Glad to see that you’re back amongst us. First Gucci disappears from the lounge, then you disappeared from the precinct. I was beginning to think somebody was abducting hood rats,” Boots said.
“Ya mama’s a hood rat, tramp,” Gucci replied.
“Her ass must be in a snippy mood because Animal didn’t give her none,” Tracy said, slipping into the conversation.
“You slid with Animal?” Boots looked surprised.
“I didn’t slide with anybody. It’s like I told this motor mouth,” Gucci nodded at Tracy, “he got me out of the club and made sure that I got home okay, that’s all!”
“I’d have fucked him,” Boots said honestly.
“That’s because you’re a slut,” Gucci said.
“I bumped into Rock Head when I was getting out of the cab, and you know he tried to throw salt. He comes to me talking about I shouldn’t deal with Animal because I don’t know what kinda nigga he is. The ones I know are the ones I usually avoid because I already know how they get down.”
“Well, with a name like Animal, you’ve got to expect something,” Tionna said.
“I don’t know . . . he must be somebody, from the way Don B. was treating him. I ain’t never seen him at a show or in a video, but everybody was acting like he was about something.”
“I overheard one of the girls say that they’d seen Don B. give him a bag full of money to sign a contract on the spot,” Tracy said, repeating what she’d picked up through the gossip vine.
Gucci twisted her lips disbelievingly. “That’s bullshit. You know how chicks gossip. He didn’t have no bag with him when he dropped me off.”
“So what, you gonna pursue it?” Tionna asked.
“I’d thought about it, T. He seems like cool peoples,” Gucci admitted.
“Let me find out you and Tionna are trying to get your own reality television show, The Real Housewives of Big Dawg Entertainment!” Tracy slapped her thigh, laughing.
“Tracy, you must’ve fell and bumped your head. I ain’t about to be a housewife to nobody but Duhan,” Tionna let her know.
“I know I ain’t the only one who saw Don B. all up on you. Bitch, I thought that nigga was gonna propose.” Tracy shoved her.
“He was jocking you, T,” Gucci agreed.
“Do y’all think about anything other than dick?” Tionna asked.
“Money,” they said in unison.
Their conversation was broken up when one of the neighborhood girls walked up on them. She was a pretty brown-skinned little girl that usually kept herself together, but that night she looked worn and her clothes were dirty. When she got close enough, they could tell that she had been crying.
“Y’all seen Rock Head?” she asked, wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve.
“No, thank goodness,” Gucci said.
“Well, if you see him, can you tell him I’m looking for him. I have something I need to talk to him about and it’s real import.”
“We’ll pass it along,” Gucci said as they watched the girl shamble up the block. “I don’t see how a bitch can let herself go all to pieces over a nigga like Rock Head.”
“Gucci, stop acting like you were never young and in love,” Boots said.
“Yeah, I’ve had my share of heartache, but there was only one guy I ever went to pieces of over, and he was a way higher-class of nigga than Rock Head.” Gucci was referring to her first real boyfriend. The streets had claimed him before his eighteenth birthday.
“I know one thing: if Rock Head don’t stop messing with these young girls, somebody’s daddy is gonna put a bullet in his trifling ass,” Tionna said.
“Church,” they all said.
“But back to the subject,” Boots picked up, “where’d you disappear to, Tionna?”
“I went to see Duhan.”
“You went to see Duhan still dressed in last night’s clothes? You’re lucky he didn’t try to knock your head off on the dance floor.”
“He was mad that I went out, but there wasn’t much he could do about it with that thick-ass glass separating us. Besides, that nigga ain’t crazy; Duhan know what time it is,” Tionna boasted, as if she hadn’t been shitting bricks about him flipping.
Boots took a seat
on the stoop next to Gucci. “Anything new with the case?”
“Nothing but the bastard lawyer asking for more money. I gotta get up five stacks.”
“That’s a nice hunk of cheese. How you gonna get it?” Boots asked.
“That’s what we were just sitting here discussing,” Gucci informed her. “T, you don’t have no old slides that you can reach out to?”
Tionna thought on it. All the dudes from her past were either dead, in jail, or just not fucking with her for the things she’d put them through on her way to becoming a boss bitch. Tionna maintained what her mother had always instilled in her—“a man is only as good as what he can give you, or what you can get him to do for you”—and took no prisoners when it came to the opposite sex. She would devour their hearts and their pockets, leaving little more than a shell in her wake. Other than Duhan, she had never felt love for any man.
“None that I can think of that ain’t gonna want some pussy in exchange for anything they do for me. Even if I do get in contact with one of my old pieces, I can’t just come back after all this time and ask them for five thousand dollars.”
“You could get it from Happy,” Tracy suggested.
“Did you not see what that clown-ass nigga pulled last night?” Gucci looked at Tracy like she’d lost it.
“Clown or not, I know his trick ass would up that five grand,” Boots added.
Gucci ignored Boots and looked at her friend. “Tionna, you’d be a damn fool to ask that piece of shit for anything, the way he tried to show his ass. Nah, we’ll find another way to get the money.”
“Gucci, you’re awful opinionated about this whole thing when it ain’t your situation; it’s Tionna who needs the money. Are you gonna give her the five thousand dollars?”
“I would if I could.”
“But you don’t, so she’s gotta explore all her options. Tionna, unless you got a job lined up or a hell of a lick, you might have to reach out.”
Tionna shook her head. “Happy would be the last nigga I reached out to. All that would be doing is shoving him further up my ass.”
