by L. E. Newell
No sooner had the words left his mouth, when the door pushed open and a crew of five flashy honeys strode through the door. Led by Lady and Clara, all talking at the same time, they spread all around the room flopping tiredly on couches and chairs. Once settled they took guns from different parts of their bodies and placed them beside their hips.
Rainbow harrumphed and swept his arm around the room. “Answer your question? I think these bitches will be aight.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Stacy said as he eyed the deadly looks in their eyes. He was to stunned to say anything else.
“Yeah, they’ll be aight.” Rainbow repeated as he thumped him with a backhand to the chest and followed it up with a quick wink.
Stacy accepted the slight blow with a leery smile. “Mmm-hmm, but what about Mercedes? That little bitch still be acting like she pissed at me for pulling that fake robbery on her.”
Sparkle turned his mouth down. “She aight.”
Stacy was doubtful. “She aight?”
Sparkle pushed him on the shoulder. “Yeah, and stop repeating everything I say, damnit.”
Stacy laughed. “Aight, so what y’all gonna be doing while I’m…” He paused to cross his arms across his chest. “While I’m playing babysitter with these grown-ass women?”
Rainbow shook his head disgustingly. “Aw, youngun, can you please stop bitching so much? We’re in the middle of setting a trap for this nigga that he ain’t gonna be able to slither out of; rest assured of that there.”
Stacy smirked. “Yeah, like y’all did out there in Jonesboro, huh?”
Rainbow’s eyes shifted toward Sparkle. Naw, he didn’t let him know about that shit. He turned full faced to him, ran his eyes up and down his body and hunched his shoulders.
Sparkle gave him a weak smile, licked his lips and opened his mouth to try to explain before swallowing his weak excuse and lowering his eyes to the floor.
Just in time to rescue him, Violet, Yolanda and Mercedes came strutting through the door like Rip the Runway models with their arms full of shopping bags. Grinning like Cheshire cats, they walked up to Sparkle. Violet lifted his face and kissed him on the chin. “Ugh, somebody needs to shave. Whatz up, sweetie? I got you a little something.” She froze, mouth agape when she saw the look on his face. “Aw damn, what have I done now?”
He stared at her with unblinking eyes, took the bags out of her hands, placed them on the floor and motioned them to take a seat.
Yolanda set her bags beside the couch, sat down on the arm of the couch and crossed her legs. Mercedes set hers down as well, but stood there with her hands on her hips staring angrily and pouting at Stacy. “Whaddafuck he doing here?”
Stacy looked at Rainbow and Sparkle and hunched his shoulders with a “I told y’all so” expression on his face.
Sparkle cleared his throat loudly. Mercedes kept gritting on Stacy. He picked her up like she was light as a feather and placed her on the arm of the love seat. Not too rough but with enough force to let her know that he was dead serious. She got the message but that still didn’t keep her from pouting. She blinked with blurry eyes but he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t in the mood nor did he have the time to put up with her female ego.
Once he’d stared her down into submission, he started pacing back and forth. “Okay, sweethearts, this is what’s going on.” Sparkle continued to pace but was forced to hold back a smile that threatened to crack his face with all eight girls’ heads following him like they were watching a tennis match.
He flicked his arms at Rainbow for some help. Rainbow twisted his mouth to the side and looked away. He was trying to keep from laughing with the way that he kept clenching his jaws. You on your own, dog, Sparkle felt him saying with his eyes.
So he took a deep breath. “Stacy here is gonna hang with y’all for a while.” He paused when he noticed their faces turn from one of curious puzzlement to straight-up anger. He didn’t let that deter him though. “Ain’t no need for y’all looking like that. Ya’ll ladies belong to us so you might as well get those pouts off your faces. That’s right, you, too, Yolanda. Not only that, y’all are our best friends too and we ain’t about to leave y’all all by y’all selves, pure and simple as that. And that is until we handle some things we got to take care of.” One by one they lowered their eyes.
Rainbow finally came to his aid and stood up beside him, bringing his pacing to a halt. “All y’all got to do for a couple of days or so, uh, maybe even a little longer, is go on cell phone calls. Four of y’all ride with Stacy here; four stay here, unless we need y’all for a role or two.”
Violet, being the veteran hustler that she was, raised her hand like a schoolkid. “Hey, man, all due respect and all to Your Pimp- ship.” She could hardly keep a straight face as she cut her eyes at his girls sitting around praising his very existence. “Okayeeee, and I feel ya on this, really I do, but I ain’t about to hide in no shadows while my star nigga here is out there dodging bullets. This honey here don’t roll like that, sorry.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows across her knees and directed her attention at Sparkle. “Of all people you know damn well that I’ve got to be with you regardless.”
Sparkle stood staring at her, feeling good that old gal was ready to ride and die with him, but he knew he needed her to run herd over the girls. He knew she was gonna take over anyway.
The look on his face let her know that she had struck a nerve, but the look in his eyes let her know that she wasn’t going with him either. He ran an index finger under his nose. “Baby, I know how you feel and everything but I can’t let ya roll on this one here.”
She sighed her disappointment, but when she when she looked at Stacy and then the girls, she understood. “Okay, man, I feel where you’re coming from.”
Yolanda, who had been quiet the whole time, finally spoke. “Hey, I know that shit done damn near run its course, but does that mean that we can’t go get the last of that free money at the skin house?”
Rainbow burst out laughing. “Naw, Yo, it don’t mean that. Y’all just make sure that y’all stay together. Ya feel me?”
Sparkle could see Mercedes’s devious little mind working overtime. She wouldn’t oppose him in front of everybody, but there was no doubt she was anxious to get him alone to work some of her female magic. He’d have to disappoint her this time though, because he and Bow were going to get out of there before she got the chance to do so.
Rainbow patted Stacy on the shoulder and headed for the bedroom to get the saddle bag containing the coke they needed to cook up along with their guns and jackets. He came back in the room directing his attention toward Stacy again. “Yo, partner, now that we’ve got that settled, we really gotta roll. You cool, right?”
He didn’t wait for a reply and tossed Sparkle one of the jackets and turned to Yolanda. “Where is your man, girl?”
Yolanda traced her index finger along her bottom lip, pursing them and popped them a couple of times. “Playa, your guess is as good as mine. I thought he was with y’all.”
Sparkle and Rainbow frowned at each other, gave the girls one last grit and headed for the door. Those remaining sat around mumbling in groups for several moments before Stacy said, “Shit, ain’t no need for us to sit around here looking all crazy and shit. Violet, break out those cards, girl. Anybody down for some Spades?” Oh hell, did that ever get them excited.
Several hours later, Violet was lounging on the couch with her legs crossed, relaxing between games, trying to concentrate on Erica Kane’s umpteenth excuse for getting another divorce on All My Children. It wasn’t an easy task because of the constant bickering coming from the loud-ass Spades game between Stacy, Mercedes, Yolanda and Lady. The other girls were lounging along with Violet watching the soaps and passing joints of speed ball. Everybody was trying to kill some time and ease the boredom.
Violet thought about going to Joyce’s beauty shop to get some stuff done but she didn’t know if she was still out working those Jamaican drug dealers in Colleg
e Park. “Damn, that girl must like living on the edge. That’s a really dangerous habit she’s got of ripping folk off. One of these days…” she mumbled under her breath. She didn’t want to think of the consequences of what might happen if baby girl ever got jammed doing that crazy stuff. She had to admit that girly was sho nuff good at her game. She worked that innocent image to perfection and those fools never even suspected that she was the one that got them.
The boys had been gone for quite awhile now and Violet was beginning to wonder why none of her regular customers hadn’t called. She raised the corner of her blouse to make sure the batteries were charged on her cell phone. They were. Flipping her wrist she peeked at her ladies Omega watch, amongst the gold, silver and ivory bracelets adorning her arm, sighing in resignation to the boredom that was starting to get next to her. Her eyes shifted restlessly between the television, card game and toying with her jewelry. She started waggling her legs apart, bumping her knees together, thinking that something had to give before she went stir crazy worrying and bugging.
Out of the corner of his eye, Stacy watched her getting more and more agitated by the minute. Peeking at his diamond-studded Longines, he silently cursed the hour since they hadn’t heard from his uncle or any customers.
“Damn, man, you on brain lock or something? Whatcha gonna do, use the card, dish it, pluck or whatever. You holding us up here,” Mercedes squealed.
Clara, who was on a steady pout waiting for her turn to play, threw her two cents’ worth in. “Yeah, dude, your mind must’ve gotten all froze up on that ganja gangsta weed you stole form yourself when you was play shitting in the bathroom a little while ago.” She batted her long lashes to egg him on.
Stacy turned his attention away from Violet, removed the Swisher Sweet cigar from between his clenched teeth, snorted his disapproval of them rushing him and flipped a card on the table. “Hold y’all damn smelly thongs in place.” He paused to snatch up the book they’d won. “Have any of y’all been paying attention to Violet lately? Damn, she antsy for a mug over there,” he said in a whisper and nodded toward her on the couch. All four heads turned in the direction simultaneously.
Mercedes reached across the table to pat Yolanda’s hand daintily and rubbed the corner of her open mouth with her baby finger, then rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Uh-huh, looks like old Queenie there really needs something to do, don’t she?”
Clara was ready to get anything started herself as she cleared her throat. “Yep, what y’all figure we should do about it?”
Stacy cranked his neck, started rotating and rubbing it, revelling in the tension-relieving kinks he felt go snap. “Yolanda, do that ring-back thang with the phone. I got us a plan.”
“Uh-huh, mmph, one of ya schemes again, huh?” Mercedes sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
“Ah, kill the ’tude, Kung Fu shortie. Let’s see what he’s come up with. I’m tired of sitting around this bitch, too. Of course unless you wanna keep sitting here all night pitching pennies around the table,” Clara snapped and poked her eyes out.
As expected, Mercedes’s reaction befitted her impish attitude. She sat back in her chair with her arms folded across her chest and her lips set in a deep pout.
Stacy muttered under his breath, “Damn brat.”
Her head snapped immediately in his direction. “I heard that you, you..”
He pssted her off and walked around the table on his way to the bathroom. He was about to twist the knob when the phone started to ring. Damn, she quick, he thought as he made a quick U-turn and dashed to pick up the phone. He made it just ahead of Violet.
She mugged up and down his body, making it hard not to laugh as he went into his pantomime. “Yeah, who this? Where you at? Damn, that’s all you want. Shit, you expect me to come all the way out there for that?” He cocked a sneaky eye at Violet to see how she was reacting to his animated conversation. Her facial expression said she wasn’t paying him any attention, but her eyes and the way her knees had stopped banging together let him know that she was honing in on the conversation.
He angled away from her to hide the smile that was threatening to show as he continued. “Okay, man, we’ll be there in a few and yo ass had better have the exact cheddar, too. Don’t bug about who I am, you want it or not? Okay, I’ll hit you back when we’re about to get there. Okay, in a bit, soldier.”
He hung up, expelled a gust of hot air and stood with his hands on his hips. “Aight, ladies, who ready to ride with a nigga?”
Mercedes couldn’t help digging in his ribs, if only for a little bit. “I know good and well you ain’t talking about all of us going. Sho didn’t sound like no helluva buy to me. I’ll stay here.”
Stacy realized right off the bat what her little ass was trying to do. Uh-uh, baby girl, ain’t gonna work. He braced his shoulders, walked to her and reached down to pull her chin up to face him. “Looka here, china doll, Jap doll, Vietnamese doll, whatever the fuck you are, everybody in this crew was down with that robbery scam on your evil little ass. Hell, Rainbow and them tested each and every one of us, so you can quit with that personal pout.” He stared her down until she lowered her gritty gaze. Then he sighed and turned to Violet. “Queen Bee, we got a buyer out there on Wesley Chapel. All he wants is a fifty slab. Whatcha wanna do?”
Violet ogled at him over the rim of her granny glasses perched on the tip of her nose. “What!! What I wanna do? Hell, I wanna get out of this damn house; that’s what I want to do. Give me a second to throw something on.” She sprung up from that couch like a hyped-up Slinky toy and nearly trotted to the bedroom. Snatching a jacket off the chair beside the bed and a package of ready rock out of the shoe box in the closet, she was ready to roll.
When she returned, they were whispering to themselves. The way that they stopped when she came back in caused her gaming antennae to shoot up. It dawned on her that some game was going on but she didn’t give a fuck. She needed to do anything to keep her mind off her man, so she led the way out of the door. They felt the tension ease as they crowded into Violet’s Mustang. It really felt good to get out of the house, as evident by the way the girls were clucking. Lady and Yolanda got into a argument of why Lady wouldn’t show her any of her card-cheating scams. Clara bitched about how no one wanted to give her the ups on paper hanging. And Violet was schooling Stacy on the do’s and don’ts of shoplifting. Their babbling went back and forth and around in circles all the way to Snap Finger Road.
They were all so caught up in their kicking it that no one noticed when the dark sedan pulled alongside of them on the narrow twisting thoroughfare. They didn’t feel the presence of danger until after they were forced off the road. The terror didn’t stop there as the little coupe bumped along for thirty yards in a ditch full of water until they crashed into a thick row of hedges. It jarred them to a nerve-jolting stop.
Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt; stunned and bruised for sure, but thankful to still be alive. Stacy was the first to shake off the shock. He kicked the door open and staggered up the ditch to the road in time to see the car speeding around a bend in the road and out of sight. He strained his eyes into the distance, but was only able to see part of the license. Even though still in a little bit of a shock, he was able to lock that portion into his memory.
He felt like he had seen the car somewhere before. For the life him he couldn’t remember where.
He turned his attention to the girls and was relieved that at first glance, they all appeared to be okay. They looked a little bit woozy, which certainly had to be expected. He looked up and down the road for anybody that may be able to assist them and also to ensure that the car wasn’t coming back to finish the job. Seeing neither, he opened the front passenger door and bent down to pick Violet’s handbag off the floor. He leaned into the car and asked them if they were all okay.
It seemed like they all responded at the same time, as he tried to hone in on calling Sparkle to let him know what had happened. It rang about five times
before he decided to redial, with the same results. He placed the phone back in the bag, puzzled, angry and swearing to almighty God that somebody was gonna pay for this. Oh, how somebody would pay.
After wearing thin with all the whining from the girls, who were still in shock, he began pacing back and forth along the road in an attempt to cool down. After a couple of trips he reached back into the car to get the cell phone again. Clicking in his sister Kim’s number, he told her boyfriend, Jerome, Yolanda’s son, about what had happened and where they were. He promised that he’d be there in a jiffy to get them out of the ditch. He sat down on the hood and wheezed. Boy, was somebody ever going to pay.
CHAPTER TEN
Dealing with Scoundrels
The persistent ringing of the bedside phone had roused Sparkle out of a deep sleep he had desperately needed. He reached over a snoring Violet to pick it up, sighing in relief that she and the rest of them had come out of the crash all right. He didn’t want to split up with Rainbow but they both knew the girls needed additional protection now more than ever. They’d been roaming around the city uneventfully for damn near three days nonstop. As hyped up as he was to get to the bottom of who those predators were, even he had to admit that they needed some rest.
Cursing under his breath at the midnight disturbance, he answered the phone in a sleep-hazed growl as he rubbed the crust out of his eyes. “Yeah, who dis be?” He groveled as he peeked at the digital clock radio on the dresser. It read 3:15 a.m.
He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to believe that someone would be calling that time of the night. He was also very irritable from getting high on coke to stay awake and alert for those three days. He told himself for what had to be the thousandth time that he had to give up this lifestyle. When the caller didn’t respond immediately, he asked in an even more agitated voice, “Godamnit, you gonna answer me or what? Fuck it, fuck you.”
He removed the phone from his ear preparing to hang it up when a female voice purred, “Fuck, man, you got to answer the phone so damn nasty?” He couldn’t pinpoint who the caller. He cleared his throat to say something exceptionally filthy but the voice said impatiently, “Nigga, is my Aunt Violet there because you acting stupid as hell.”
