California Connection 2 (Califronia Connection)

by Chunichi

  “Poppo, I’m going to ask you this, one time,” Jewel stated as she handed me a glass of Nuvo.

  She was dressed in a red wife-beater and torn, tight-ass jeans that looked to have been painted on her. And, gotdamn, that ass was phat! We definitely weren’t at my place or hers. Instead, it looked as if we were in one of those uppity expensive hotels like the Westin or Loews or something. The room was huge.

  I lifted my head from the king-size bed to see pink roses scattered all over the carpet. A Jacuzzi was to the right of me. A tray of all kinds of cheeses, meats and fruits were to the left of me on a table. Yeah, I could get used to this kind of lifestyle. Jewel was definitely high-class and high-maintenance, but a nigga wasn’t complaining. I was confident I could keep up with her and supply all of her wants and needs.

  “Thank you,” I responded as I took the glass from her and took a gulp of the sparkling pink wine.

  “Did you have anything to do with Calico’s death?” she inquired. “That nigga was found with a rat in his mouth, and his eyes were cut out. Everyone is in disbelief.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Now that he’s out of the way, I will take the throne and have you right by my side as my queen.” I rubbed her cheek with my hand.

  I thought back to the funeral that I’d gone to just to be nosy, and so that I didn’t look suspect. Dressed in all black and my Dolce & Gabbana shades, I was playing the part to the hilt. Calico had plenty of people from near and far there to see him off. His mother, baby mamas, and thousands of “side-bitches” were all trying to hang on to the casket as the funeral groundskeepers lowered it into the ground. He had so many bitches there, for a minute I thought a fight was gonna break out.

  “Like I said, Calico is gone. It’s time for us to get on with our lives,” I told her.

  “Let’s make a toast,” Jewel suggested.

  “To making money, happiness, and prosperity,” I said, touching glasses with her.

  “Well, I’ll drink to that!” Jewel grinned then took a sip from her glass.

  After she took several sips of her drink, she slowly took off her clothes, revealing a black lace teddy. She turned on the DVD player, and the song “12 Play” by R. Kelly came on. I had no idea how she knew this was one of my favorite songs. When she started dancing around and popping her ass in my face, my dick instantly got hard. One by one, she took off each piece of lingerie.

  “You hungry?” she asked.

  “A little.”

  Jewel began feeding me a little meat, cheese, and strawberries dipped in white chocolate.

  “Now, I’m very hungry,” she said before placing watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon all over my body.

  Afterwards, she started eating it off me. I’d never had any girl do this shit to me. Before I knew it, she began licking my balls and deep-throating my dick. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t help it and came right in her mouth. And she gladly swallowed.

  “Damn!” I woke up with my dick covered in cum.

  That was one of the best dreams I ever had. I took that as a sure sign that Jewel was going to be mine for good.

  Chapter 8

  “Snitch Bitch”

  Sasha

  “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!” I loudly recited the famous words of Martin Luther King, Jr. as I exited the confines of Virginia Beach jail.

  After spending three days there, a bitch was happy to finally get out. When I was originally booked on the lesser assault charge after speaking with the detectives, I went to speak to the magistrate about a bond. That bitch nigga denied me bond, claiming that I was a flight risk, since I lived out of state, so I had to wait to get a bond hearing. When I went before the judge, he granted me a $10,000 bond. I got in touch with a bondsman, and he let me out for a thousand dollars.

  I waited patiently for my cab to arrive and literally jumped for joy when I saw him pull up.

  “Yippee!” I skipped to the cab like a little kid and hopped in the backseat. “The Doubletree Hotel at Military Circle Mall in Norfolk.” I directed him to the hotel I’d stayed at during my arrest. I needed to return there to pick up my car.

  As soon as the cabby pulled up to the hotel, I paid him, hopped into my car, and made my way to the interstate, headed back to Columbus, Georgia to my parents’ crib to pick up my kids. I’d gotten my own little crib in Atlanta, but I rarely spent any time there.

  As I was driving, the scene from New Year’s Eve kept playing over and over in my head. The two things most disturbing to me were, one, I’d witnessed Touch getting shot by Calico, and two, I was so damn close to death myself. I knew in my heart that Calico would not have hesitated to put a bullet in me just as fast if he knew I was that chick that robbed him of his money. With that in mind, I began to reflect back on the agreement I’d made with Detective Tarver. What the fuck have I done? I wondered to myself, realizing I had made a big mistake. I’ve just given myself a death sentence. Calico is gonna fucking kill me. I’m never gonna make it to court.

  My brain started racing, and my nerves were starting to get the better of me. If Calico found out I was an eyewitness, and planning to testify against him, he would make sure I didn’t have a breath left in my body, come the trial date. As paranoia set in, I began constantly looking in my side-view and rearview mirrors to see if someone was following me. I was beginning to feel like a fucking lunatic fleeing from the crazy house.

  For a moment I could have sworn that a tinted-out black Tahoe was following me. I was so shook, my tank was on empty, but I refused to get gas. When I finally was forced, I circled the gas station two times to be sure no one was following me into the station. I pumped my gas and jumped back on the interstate in record-breaking time.

  As I continued to drive, my brain was constantly plagued by this whole Calico situation, so I decided to give Detective Tarver a call.

  “Tarver,” he answered on the first ring.

  “Hi, this is Sasha Williams. I just worked out a deal with you on that case involving the shooting at Club Encore in Virginia Beach.”

  “Hey, Sasha. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I was wondering if Calico would be informed that I will be testifying, because I’m a little worried about my safety.”

  “Well, we will inform him there is an eyewitness, but we won’t reveal who until the court proceedings. But you don’t have to worry. Once we get our hands on him, he will not be coming out, and until then, we will do all we can to make sure you’re protected. Don’t you worry.”

  “Okay,” I said, still not feeling any more confident than I’d felt before the call. Actually, I felt worse.

  I knew, after talking to the detective, there was no way I could go through with the deal we had negotiated. These days it was easier to beat the system than the streets. I could buck on court and be on the run and live to tell about it, as opposed to testifying against Calico and not even making it to court.

  Now that I’d made my mind up that I wasn’t going to court to testify against Calico, nor my charge for that matter, I had to put an escape plan into play. I knew it was nothing to change my look, get a new driver’s license and relocate. I could easily go someplace like Jamaica and live with no problem. I knew a few people there. Plus, I would be in heaven, with so much Jamaican dick to choose from.

  The only downfall would be leaving my family, baby daddy, and worst of all, my three- and seven-year-old sons, Malik and Jahad, whom I adored. I’m sure I could probably live without my sorry-ass drug-dealer-gonebad baby daddy, Rick. Hell, he was part of the reason I had to resort to the streets.

  I had actually stopped stripping at one point and was a working chick. I had a comfortable life, house, car, and even a rental property. Then this nigga’s drug game got fucked up, and he drained me of every penny, leaving me with two foreclosed homes. And soon I was back to stripping and living with my parents. It wasn’t until I bucked on Jewel for Calico’s one hundred grand that I was able to get back on my feet. So t
hat nigga, I could definitely do without, but it was the thought of being away from my kids that was killing me. Deep inside, I knew it would be too risky to have them with me while on the run.

  My plan was set. I just needed to execute. I still had about fifty grand left from Calico’s money that I’d tricked Jewel into giving me, but I needed about fifty more. I wanted to have at least a hundred grand cash when I dipped out of the country. It was time for me to get my hustle on, and by all means I intended to. My life depended on it.

  I called up my boy Diablo. Originally from Virginia, Diablo used to run drugs hard in VA but had recently moved to Atlanta when shit got hot, after a few young boys that he used as runners got locked up and started snitching. Although I didn’t formally meet him until I started working at Bottoms Up, a strip club in Atlanta, I knew of him in VA because his name rang bells. And, of course, like every other baller, little miss Jewel used to date him too.

  When Diablo hit the A, he started going even harder, making even more money, and eventually becoming one of the top suppliers in Atlanta. He used his drug money to open a club and started getting money from both angles.

  “What up, sexy?” Diablo said.

  “Hey, boo. I was calling to see if you were hiring,” I said, knowing Diablo would know exactly what I meant. I’d done some work for him before, so he knew I was game for whatever.

  “Not right now, baby girl. I’m waiting on some family to come up from out of the country. They should be here in a couple of weeks. Check with me then.” Diablo spoke in code, saying that he was waiting for his product to come in.

  “Cool,” I said then ended the call.

  The plan was set and soon to be in motion. I just needed to stay alive until then. I planned to use those couple of free weeks to spend time with my boys and let them know how much their mommy loved them, especially since, at this point, tomorrow definitely wasn’t promised.

  Chapter 9

  “Nurse Save-a-chick”

  Jewel

  Touch had become more and more independent within the past weeks, so I was able to leave the house a little more often than when he first was discharged from the hospital. I was actually to the point of leaving him home alone. He enjoyed the independence of being left alone; it gave him a much-needed ego boost.

  This particular day I’d chosen to take some time out for myself so I went to Starbucks. I was sitting in a booth there, sipping on a latte, using Starbucks Wi-Fi Connection on my laptop to look up some different wedding sites, and getting ideas about our wedding. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the Internet service or a computer at home. In fact, we had several, including the new HP TouchSmart PC. But I wanted to surprise Touch with how I set off our big date, so I didn’t need him looking over my shoulders every minute while I was surfing the Web on our home computer.

  I was planning on a major scale. I wanted a tailor-made Vera Wang dress, and a wedding setup to mimic a wedding of the royal court in England, with an aged mansion and horse and carriage to match. I’d even considered contacting David Tutera from the television show My Fair Wedding to guarantee that it would be a success. Our city wouldn’t expect anything less than a celebrity wedding. Hell, we’d already set the tone with our New Year’s party, so we had no choice but to continue the trend.

  Although we hadn’t set a date yet, I wanted our wedding to be the biggest event niggas in VA had ever seen, the wedding that would be talked about forever. I could already see the looks on the faces of all the haters when they see us stroll down the aisle. Our wedding was going to be the hottest shit VA had ever seen. We were definitely going down in history.

  Although I’d plan to have an invitation-only event with police as security because there was no way Touch or I could take a chance of a replay from New Year’s night, my guest list was already at five hundred. I was sure to invite all of the who’s who and keep out all of the “who’s you.” I was on some presidential shit. I was even checking out some of the pictures of Obama’s inauguration on the Internet, trying to get some additional ideas for entertainment, when I heard a familiar voice interrupt my concentration.

  “Jewel, is that you? Hey, girl!”

  I turned around in my booth and looked up from my laptop to see the nurse from the hospital, Misty. “Oh! Hey, Misty.”

  “How’s your boo, Trayvon?” Misty used the same slang she’d used in the hospital the day we’d first met.

  We both laughed, acknowledging that moment.

  “He’s great! He’s walking without his walker now.”

  “Wonderful!”

  “Misty, I just want to thank you for your kindness to us both while we were in the hospital.” I reached out to shake her hand.

  “That’s my job.” Misty flagged her hand in dismissal. “Damn, girl! Let me see that ring!” Seeing my unavoidable rock, she lifted my left hand. “Are you and Trayvon getting married?”

  “Yes,” I said, a Kool-Aid smile across my face. “We’re engaged.”

  “Congratulations! Dang, that rock is heavy. And that diamond’s almost blinding me. Whew! When’s the big date?”

  Before I could answer, my mouth flew wide open, and I put my hand over my heart. I gasped. I had seen Calico walk by the coffee shop in the shopping mall. I had heard he’d skipped town, and probably went back to Cali, but I knew this thing wasn’t over between him and Touch. I was sure that was Calico, and I couldn’t take any chances of him seeing me, so I ducked my head down in the booth where I sat.

  “What’s the matter?” Misty looked concerned.

  “I think I just saw this dude, Calico.”

  “Who’s Calico?”

  “The guy who shot Touch.”

  “Oh my God. He hasn’t been arrested yet?” Misty jumped in front of me in a protective manner as she scanned the area looking for Calico, and for a second, it looked like she was reaching for a gun on her hip.

  “No,” I said, kind of thrown by her demeanor.

  “We better get out of here.” Misty grabbed me by the arm. “Let’s slip out the back door, and we can take my truck. I’m parked in the back. I’ll bring you back to get your car later.”

  I lowered my head and tiptoed, with Misty blocking my body, as she walked behind me. She led me to a black Tahoe with dark tint. She opened the passenger door for me, and I scooted down into the front seat.

  Misty climbed in on the driver’s side and hit the gas pedal. “How about if we go to my place and kick it for a while?”

  I was surprised at just how cool Misty was. Sure, at the hospital she seemed like a down-to-earth chick, but I never would have expected us to click so easily.

  I examined her from head to toe. She was dressed in D&G jeans, sneakers, and light jacket to match. She had her hair pulled up in a curly ponytail. Based on her attire alone, I would have to say, she was my type of female. Even so, I was still skeptical.

  Generally speaking, I didn’t trust women, and especially after how Sasha stabbed me in the back. But since I was already in the truck with her and she’d practically saved me from Calico, I figured what the hell.

  “That’s cool. You stay near here?”

  “Yeah, not too far.”

  And not too far was right because, after a few turns and ten minutes flat, we were pulling up to some new three-story town homes off Independence Boulevard.

  “These are nice. I didn’t even know they were back here,” I said as we pulled into Misty’s two-car garage.

  “Yeah, they’re new. It’s not much, but it’s a cozy little spot, for me alone.” Misty walked in the basement of the house from the garage.

  It was a huge room with a sitting area, bathroom, minibar, and another area set up with workout equipment. I followed her up the first set of steps where the living room, kitchen, and the master bedroom sat. Giving me a quick tour, she then led me up another set of steps, where another two bedrooms were.

  “We can relax in the basement,” Misty said as she took off her coat and got comfortable.

&nbs
p; We walked back to the basement, and Misty flipped on the flat-screen television that resembled the exact one I had at home, and handed me the remote.

  “Watch whatever you like,” she said to me, and then headed to the bathroom.

  I used that moment as an opportunity to call Poppo. I needed to know what was up with our little arrangement. That run-in earlier was a little too close for comfort.

  I called Poppo’s phone over and over again, but he didn’t answer. Finally I decided to leave a voice message. “Man, what’s the deal with Calico? I just saw that nigga at the mall,” I said, trying my best to whisper. “Are you gon’ do this shit or what? ’Cause, on the real, it’s gonna get done with or without you. So you gonna be a player in the game or a fucking water boy?” I knew the exact words to say to get in his head.

  After completing my message, I rushed off the phone as Misty walked in.

  “Can I make you a drink? I don’t know about you, but I need a little something to relax my nerves.”

  “Ummmm, do you have any wine?” I asked, to see what kind of level she was on.

  “Sure. What would you like? White Zinfandel, Merlot, Pinot?”

  “How about Moscato?” I said, knowing she probably never heard of it.

  “Coming right up,” Misty said, surprising the hell out of me.

  Damn! I guess me and this bitch really can roll, I thought to myself, peeping her style.

  After a few drinks we both were quite tipsy. We spent the next hour chatting like we were two old biddies.

  “So, tell me, when is the big date? Are you aiming for this summer? If so, you only have a couple months to plan.”