by L. E. Newell
When she looked at Al, she sensed that he felt her fear or anxiousness or whatever it was he wanted to see and feel. She chose to let him think how he wished. It was right on point because his arrogant ass would feel more than obligated to offer something if he thought that she needed to be assured that everything would be okay.
He shifted around uncomfortably and pyramided his elbows on his knees with his fingers entwined and ran his tongue across his lips studying her. He squinted in concentration, trying to feel how she was taking the assignment because he didn’t need her acting all scary. He had too much riding on this.
Damn, it’s probably gonna take a little more than I thought. He considered other options. He had none. And with the pressure that RJ was putting on him, he had to come up with whatever the fuck it took, point blank. He knew that he had to give her only the basic information. The less she knew, the less she could tell if things did go wrong. Since he was limited on what he could tell her, thus curtailing his assurance, he decided to throw her a little better incentive. “Tell you what, sweetheart, you’ll get ten percent of the total haul, the same as CeeDee is getting. Whatcha say about that there?”
He expected her to get more excited, but she didn’t show any kind of reaction. Not good. And since he knew that his overall cut in the project would be in the six-figure range, he’d have to cement her interest; put her in a position where she had to commit.
“Tell you what, honey, since I believe that God blesses the child that has their own.” He slapped his knees with enthusiasm, stood up and walked briskly over to the closet. With no hesitation whatsoever, Al pulled back a rack of clothes to reveal a wall safe, one bigger than the one downstairs.
Mona’s heart jumped several beats, she had just found the golden goose. Now she and her sister would definitely have enough to disappear and go wherever they wanted to. Her eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when he unlocked it, reached inside and pushed what had to be kilos of dope to the side and revealed stacks of dollars. She knew that the nigga had dough, but godayum.
After regaining her breath, she placed her hand across her chest, quickly checking herself and remembering that the entire house was being monitored. She sat on the bed and forced herself not to show how excited she really was. Suddenly, a tingling ran down her neck and all the way down her spine when she thought of what was already on the tapes downstairs under the game room. She had to force back the bile that started to stir in her stomach.
Damn, I almost forgot that I’ve got to get my ass out of here before he sees that shit. Her thoughts were tortured as he turned to her with two stacks of bills clutched in his hands. Her brows cocked with curiosity when he didn’t even bother to close the safe, though he did push the clothes back into place.
The smile was creased deeply in his face as he casually walked back over to her and tossed both stacks into her lap. Stunned beyond belief, she forced herself to look down only once, not wanting to show she was overwhelmed. She willed herself to stay cool and gradually looked up at him.
Al’s next words were stern. “When you and CeeDee get into Henry County, give him one of them stacks; they’re ten grand apiece. Y’all will get the rest of it when the truck is delivered. He already knows where to go.”
She still sat there without saying a word. Damn, what more can this bitch want, fuck? he thought angrily. Time was running out. With the way that cracker was putting all this pressure on him, this had to be done tonight or his ass was in deep shit. He sat down beside her and put his arm across her shoulder. “Hey, you’re scared, aren’t you?”
The tone in his voice was too kind and she knew he was hiding his true emotions. She had heard too much now, way too much and was quickly becoming a liability; hell, had already become a liability. She looked over at him and even though he was smiling, she could feel a cold undercurrent of danger. Along with that video she knew she was as good as dead if she didn’t go along. What choice did she really have? None.
Mona swallowed nervously and nodded several times. “But, daddy, if I ride ahead of him, how could I be able to let him know if there’s any trouble and how will I know where to go anyway?”
Al wanted to jump for joy. Fucking mission accomplished, well, almost anyway. He smiled. “Walkie-talkies, baby, I’ll have one here as well, monitoring the both of you. And for security reasons I can’t tell you where the drop-off is until y’all are on the way.”
She nodded. Good enough as far as he was concerned. He slapped his thighs loudly, rubbed his knees a few times, anxious to get the show on the road. Sighing heavily, he got up and picked up the phone smiling brightly. Ten minutes later, CeeDee was ringing the doorbell.
Unbeknownst to any them, they had a very unwanted guest, Lt. Woo, parked several houses down the street watching as CeeDee entered the house. She had followed him out of curiosity when she had seen him leaving the Holiday Inn off of Wesley Chapel. She had been sitting in the Dairy Queen across the street to observe the in-and-out traffic because of the robberies she’d heard about recently.
Lt. Woo remembered CeeDee from the pool shakedown at the Red Roof Inn. He had been smart enough to dump his dope and other stuff into the pool when she had given him the chance. Smart of him then, dumb of him now. Not even checking to see if he was being followed. And since she had a few hours before she hooked up with her crew, she thought that she’d see what he was up to.
He was in the house for only a short time before emerging in the company of a pretty young woman. The woman seemed to be familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on why. She let them drive a few blocks ahead before she pulled out to follow.
When she felt comfortable they hadn’t noticed her, Lt. Woo picked up her mike from the middle console to call one of her boys to join her. “Whaddafuck,” she shouted to herself when they turned on I-20 in the opposite direction of Decatur. She hung up the mike. This was something she hadn’t expected. Her crooked cop vibes had kicked in and calling anyone now was out of the question. She was on her own; exactly how she preferred it.
With her curiosity growing more and more by the minute, she unconsciously slid her hand to her crotch. Her intuition told her that something exciting was about to happen.
Some twenty minutes later in the car up ahead, Mona’s mind was running a thousand miles a minute when CeeDee told her to turn onto a dirt road and cut off the lights. She had no idea whatsoever where she was or where they were headed.
How in the hell this fool expect me to see where I’m driving without no lights? Shit, I can’t even see my own hand, she thought as she took her foot off of the gas pedal. She rolled down the window and leaned forward. All she could see was the shadowy outline of the trees against the jet-black sky. No matter how much she strained her eyes, she still couldn’t see a damn thing. Thank the Lord she hadn’t lit up that blunt that Al had slipped her on the way out of the door. This shit here was spooky enough all by itself. God forbade if she was geeking, too.
“Ain’t that much further, girly, riiiiggght here, CeeDee whispered in his country drawl as if somebody else was around to hear him if he had said it any louder. As far she was concerned they were in a no-man’s land. He reached over to clasp her wrist on the steering wheel as she felt the branches scraping against her side of the car.
How the fuck could he tell I was going off the road in this pitch-black shit? She looked in his direction. She couldn’t even see his big country ass. She sighed. “Damn, man, it’s about time; jeez, talk about the fucking boondocks.” she growled with disgust. Luckily, she couldn’t see the expression on his face in the dark. If she had she would’ve probably jumped through the window.
He reached into the glove compartment and removed a small flashlight. “Let’s make sure that we are on the same frequency,” he muttered, then took two walkie-talkies from under the seat and synchronized them.
He handed her one and pressed the send button on the other one. “Breaker break 23, breaker break 23.” He put it to his ear. For several mome
nts all they heard was static and then Al’s voice started coming through, loud and staticky in the still night.
“Well, shawtie, I guess it’s on,” CeeDee said with a smile as he slipped out of the car and disappeared among the trees.
No way she was gonna sit in that dark car all by herself. She counted to a hundred and got out to follow him. To her surprise she had only taken a few steps of being snagged and slapped by twigs and branches before she was able to see the long line of trucks in the back of a long warehouse dock. She lifted the binoculars hanging across her neck and hunted for CeeDee. Shortly afterward, she was frowning because she couldn’t see him anywhere. Damn, I wish he would’ve told me which truck. But hell, he probably didn’t know where it would be himself. She didn’t even get the chance to finish that thought when the back lights of one of the trucks came on and it started backing up. “Oh shit, let me get my ass back to the car.” She started backing into the bush.
“Goddamnit.” She nearly screamed when she felt some upturned roots snag her foot. She lost her balance and fell into a briar patch. When she turned over to push herself up, she was assaulted by the sickening stench exuding from the ground. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
“Ugh.” She grimaced when the rotten foliage and mud spread on her mouth and tongue. Her stomach heaved a couple of times but nothing came up. She unzipped her jumpsuit and took the tail of her T-shirt to wipe the mess from her mouth, having to spit several times to get the taste out.
Grimacing and grunting, she was finally able to get to her feet—but not without getting caught up several times by thorns and other stuff, where she had to snatch herself free. Mona realized that she had dropped her walkie-talkie. Cursing under her breath, she dreaded the idea of having to muddle in that mess to get it. Sighing heavily, she reluctantly got on her hands and knees to start groping in the icky mess.
After several disgusting moments of frantically feeling around, in what she could only wildly guess, she reached into her pocket to get her cigarette lighter. As soon as she flicked it on, she heard a faint crackling sound that sent shivers through her whole body. She froze in fear. All her attention was now focused on the sound and what could’ve possibly caused it.
Visions of wild stray dogs, rabid rabbits or even worse, a slimy snake, all crept into her thoughts as she looked wildly around herself. After a moment, all she could hear was the sound of crickets and what she hoped were other harmless night crawlers and the rustling of air through the foliage. Anxiously, she wiped her brow with her sleeve and took a deep breath to release the built-up tension in her chest. She flicked the lighter back on and started looking around again.
She was already on pins and needles and the flickering flame made it that much more eerie.
“Oh my God.” She nearly screamed when the ground seemed to move, slithering. She fell back on her butt. A fucking snake. She was too scared to speak. Her eyes were bucked wide open with terror as she watched it crawl away. She trembled uncontrollably, when its path went right over the walkie-talkie. Chill bumps ran all along her shivering arms. Once the slimy bastard disappeared into the bush, she slowly reached down to pick up the walkie-talkie.
Ah fuck, he’s probably way up the road by now. She cautiously stepped through the woods. She finally reached the car and had cut it on before she realized that she couldn’t have the lights on. Reluctantly, she distinguished them and started forward until she felt the branches scraping the side of the car and remembered going off the road earlier. She slapped the side of her head and quickly shifted the car into reverse and slowly started backing up.
“Damn, woman, where the fuck are you, damn?” the staticky voice screamed over the airwaves, crashing the otherwise silent surroundings and caused her to jump nervously in the seat. She was concentrating so hard on backing up in the darkness, that she didn’t even make an effort to answer him. She let him continue to squawk until she had cleared the path.
CeeDee had repeated himself three times, voice full of anxiety, by the time she finally acknowledged him. Wheezing with tension, she reached on the dashboard and retrieved the walkie-talkie. “I’m here, I’m here, man. Hold your godayum horses. I was busy backing out of that fucking cave you put me in, nigga. I couldn’t stop, damnit, okay, oh fucking kayeeee. Fuck that, where you at?”
He let her know very harshly that he was waiting for her at the turnoff into the woods and that she had to hurry up. But she didn’t even hear the last part because she was already gunning down the narrow dirt road before he had a chance to finish talking.
Within a minute, she was waving at him as she turned onto the interstate. All he could do was shake his head and crank the truck back up and follow her.
What he didn’t notice was the car that pulled out of the woods after he had gotten about a half-mile down the road. Lt. Woo had parked in the woods when they had veered onto the dirt road. She couldn’t even explain it, but her instincts had told her that they had reached their destination. With her suspicious nature running in overdrive, she had jumped out of the car and run down the dirt road after them. She had arrived in time to see the woman get out of the car to follow him into the woods. She had worked her way through the dense foliage as he was backing the rig away from the building.
Having seen enough she headed back to the car to wait for the girl to come out. In her haste to leave she stepped on a branch and froze because of the loud sound it made and the sudden intake of the woman’s breath through the bushes. Knowing that she was only a few feet from the woman’s location, she proceeded cautiously through the remaining woods to the dirt road.
Lt. Woo realized that she was heading in the wrong direction when she rammed her shin into their car. The woman scrounging about in the foliage muffled her loud humph. She quickly righted herself, spun around and headed the other way. She didn’t even realize that she had been holding her breath until she had gotten back to the highway. She bent over to catch her breath and composure before she broke into a sprint for her car.
She was about to pull onto the interstate when she saw the headlights of the tractor-trailer in her rearview mirror. She was far enough away that she was able to pull off onto another dirt road and cut off her lights undetected by the driver. He pulled up on the side of the road, evidently waiting for the woman to join him, so she waited.
She remained crouched down in the seat, eyeing them through the rearview mirror, until both the car and the truck passed before she backed out of the woods and fell in behind them. She stayed a safe enough distance behind to be undetected and to keep the trailer’s taillights in view. The woman had pulled far enough ahead to be running interference for him.
She followed them all the way to Forest Park’s Farmers Market. This made all the sense in the world since there were no fewer than fifty other trailers there at all times. She parked on the side of one of the many warehouses and walked among the many rigs until she saw the car. From there she got on her hands and knees and crept under the remaining rigs until she got to the stolen one.
“Oh shit, whaddafuck we got here,” she mumbled and frowned from shock when she got where she could see inside the cab. The driver was no other than the deputy chief, RJ, sitting in the cab going over the invoices. After minutes of what seemed like tense negotiations, RJ finally picked up his cell phone, then punched some numbers. “Okay, buddy boy, we got an inventory of…”
That’s when one of the other trucks started cranking up, killing the rest of the conversation for her. She backed from under the rig and headed for the front so she could at least try to read their lips. But by the time she made it there and the noise of the other rig had moderated, there was another driver in the rig with RJ and they were preparing to pull out. She sprinted back to the other end of the truck in time to see the car rolling away. Lt. Woo took a deep breath, wheezed and sprinted for her own car, wondering which one she should follow. Damn.
CHAPTER SIX
The Freaks Come Out at Night
W
hen Aunt Rose pulled up at the red light at the intersection of Dunlap and Main Streets, she had a change of mind about going to open the store. She had just left the apartment at Dunlap II, one which no one, not even Don, knew about. Unlike the young hustlers of today, who lived in the same joints they trapped out of, she knew that she needed a hideaway all to herself. There was no telling when or if those gangsters in Miami would figure out her location.
Not only was stealing all those drugs and money from that pimp who had killed her pimp profitable, it was suicidal because dude had some far-reaching tentacles that had touched a lot of people she knew. The same day that she had walked away with all of dude’s goodies was the same day she had signed her own death warrant. The only link of them hunting her down was her nephew Don, who at the time, was a petty hustler and green to the drug game.
Now that she thought back on it, bringing his truly naïve ass to Atlanta had been a stroke of genius. After all she couldn’t have gotten on the streets and sold all that dope without drawing attention to herself even if she had the heart of a lioness. She’d given him a little at a time to let him prove himself, which he’d definitely accomplished. And now she was extremely proud of the way he had grown in the ranks of Atlanta’s top players with her as the real brains behind the scene. There was one thing she could say about the youngun: He listened to and obeyed her every wish. Of course his rewards were plentiful.
Then there was the role she had played to get the greedy, old junkie of a boyfriend of two months to buy in to and let her run the convenience store in Jonesboro. Her acting skills of playing the needy naïve widow with money to burn deserved the kind of award one only earned in Hollywood.
