Grand Opening

by Carl Weber

  “Larry, calm down, bro. We’re going to get them, but we need a plan.” LC was trying to defuse Larry’s rage to no avail. Larry snatched him up by the collar, and I swear it looked like he was going to punch him.

  “Larry, Larry, let him go!” I shouted.

  “I don’t wanna hear it, Lou. Just get the fuck in the car! I don’t got time for no plan. I ain’t got time to be talking. Just get in the car, ’cause that bastard’s got my woman and my unborn child.”

  “Oh, shit! Nee’s pregnant?” LC blurted out, and just like that, Larry broke down, falling in a heap of tears into our little brother’s arms.

  “We gotta get her, LC.” Larry wept. “I didn’t even get a chance to tell her I loved her or that I wanted the baby. We gotta go to Sam and get her.”

  LC held him. “Larry, we can’t just walk into Big Sam’s. Lou’s right; it would be a trap. We don’t even know if he’s holding them there.”

  “Maybe that’s not a bad idea.” Chippy, who’d been relatively quiet, surprised me with that. She seemed pretty smart for a woman who made her living on her back, but what she had just said made no sense.

  “How the hell we gonna do that?” I asked. I couldn’t see any way to just walk into Big Sam’s that didn’t end with us all dead.

  Chippy’s face broke into a devilish smile before she answered. “I say we walk right up to the front door—or to be clear, I walk right up to the front door.”

  LC, who clearly didn’t like the sound of that, stepped in front of her. “No, that would be too dangerous.”

  But Chippy had already made up her mind. “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. NeeNee’s my friend, LC, and so is Shirley. If I can help them, I’m gonna help. You know what I’m capable of when I’m mad. I ain’t afraid of Sam. In fact, he should be afraid of me.”

  Chippy

  56

  “Chippy! Girl, you back.” Little Momma shouted out as I stepped into Big Sam’s, looking fly as hell in the new clothes Alejandro had bought when he took me shopping. I’d left most of the other clothing behind, though. I knew better than to bring all my new goodies up in this house, ’cause my future plans had nothing to do with me staying longer than I needed.

  “Yep, I’m back.” I smiled and went right to Little Momma. She was just the right person to give me the lowdown on everything that was happening. Nothing—and I mean nothing—went down at Big Sam’s without her knowing about it. Of course, it never took much to get information out of her, ’cause that girl lived to hear and spread gossip. She was our very own Rona Barrett, and nobody could be mad at her, because it was just her nature.

  “Sam’s been gone all day, but I know he’ll be glad to see you,” she gushed, checking out my suede hot pants, matching fringe jacket, and knee-high boots.

  “Let’s get a drink,” I suggested, knowing that all it would take was one rum and Coke to help loosen those lips. Looking around, I noticed there were a few new faces, mostly men, the big muscle-types who you could tell were packing guns underneath their jackets, ’cause it was too hot to have them on inside for any other reason. I pretended not to notice them, but their presence told me one thing immediately: Sam was worried about retaliation, or else he was trying to hide something—or both.

  “Dennis, could we have two rum and Cokes?” I asked my favorite bartender, who slid two drinks across the bar. We clinked glasses, and before I could even get halfway through mine, she had downed her whole drink and was looking for a second.

  “So, where were you? And that guy musta been a big deal, ’cause that’s the only way Sam would’ve let you go. Hell, you make more money than two or three of us combined, so you know his greedy ass must’ve made that guy pay big.”

  “Yeah, he had a whole lot of green, and he didn’t mind spending some of it on me.” I laughed. “Wasn’t bad in bed either.”

  Little Momma licked her lips. I swear she actually enjoyed the sex she had with most of the johns who came through there. “That’s what I’m talking about. Just ’cause they paying don’t mean they shouldn’t know what the hell they’re doing. Did he put your needs first?”

  “Hell yeah, and he treated me like a princess,” I admitted, thinking about Alejandro for the first time since I’d left him.

  “Then why the hell you come back here? I woulda made his dick so desperate for me that he kept my ass. You would have never seen my black ass again. All you’d know was that I was somewhere riding that dick to the bank.” She laughed, slapping herself on the knee. I figured she was good and sauced when Dennis placed the third drink in front of her and she downed it.

  “So, what the hell has been going on around here? Besides the obvious,” I said, motioning to the bodyguards.

  Just like I’d hoped, she took the bait and leaned in close. “After what Sam done to Levi Duncan, he’s treating this place like Fort fucking Knox.”

  “Really? You mean the bodyguards?”

  She shook her head. “Nah, I’m talking everything. Some of the customers are being patted down when they come in here if we don’t recognize them . . . and there’s something else.” She glanced around, all suspicious, like she didn’t want anybody to hear, then leaned in close to whisper to me. “There’s something happening in that cellar.”

  “Like what?” I asked, acting like this was just regular old gossip, but my reasons were way less pure.

  “I don’t know, but Sam’s been going down there a lot. Those bodyguards been taking food and other stuff when they don’t think nobody is looking, but my ass sees everything.”

  “You think maybe they’re just having meetings?” I questioned her innocently.

  “Uh-uh. You know Sam takes all his meetings in his office. He likes people to see his fancy desk and shit. I tried to find out firsthand what was going on,” she said then lifted her sleeve to reveal a bright reddish mark on her arm. “Sam damn near took my arm off just for trying to get a peek.” She stopped suddenly when the front door opened.

  “Ooh, I got to go get that money. My quota is so low today, and I ain’t try’na catch his temper.” She downed the rest of the drink and sped over to the door to meet a new customer.

  Our little chat had definitely proved to be enlightening, just like I thought it would be.

  “Dennis?” I motioned for the bartender.

  He grabbed the rum and came toward me. “You want me to top you off?”

  “Nah, I just wanted to ask you something.”

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “You keep all the liquor down in the cellar, right?”

  He shook his head. “Not lately. Sam moved it to a hall closet and put a lock on it. That cellar is off limits.”

  “When did that happen?” I asked, growing more convinced that NeeNee and Shirley were being held downstairs.

  “’Bout four or five days ago. I was trying to restock, but he told me the new guys would bring whatever I needed upstairs, and then next thing I knew, he had the entire liquor locker put up here.”

  Bingo! I thought.

  “No telling why Sam does the things he does, right?” I said innocently to Dennis.

  He smiled at me. “You know that’s right.”

  That night, or should I say early the next morning, I tied a scarf to the window to give the Duncans the signal that the girls were being kept in the house. I couldn’t take a chance on calling them or leaving the house, so I figured I’d wait until noon and make some excuse to go into town. In the meantime, I wanted to see for myself. I opened the door and crept into the hallway and down the stairs. The house was dead silent, just as I’d figured it would be. Nobody rose before noon, so the coast was clear. When I saw one of the bodyguards sleeping on the sofa in the living room, I tiptoed past him into the kitchen and through the small hallway, where I could reach the door to the cellar.

  “What you looking for?” Big Sam’s voice stopped me in my tracks. I pulled my hand away from the doorknob like it was flaming hot. He was glaring at me, his anger starting
to boil over. I hated that I knew him so well.

  “Nothing, Sam,” I said as sweetly as possible, trying to put him at ease.

  “It wouldn’t have anything to do with what’s in the cellar, would it?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of me.

  I went over and started rubbing on his leg, willing to fuck him if that was what it took to calm him down and distract him. “I was looking for you. Alejandro told me to let you know that he had taken care of the Duncans.”

  “Oh, is that so?” he said, and I couldn’t read his tone to know if he believed me. I had no choice but to continue trying to seduce him. Hell, if I could get him into bed, I could probably slit his throat in his sleep and end this whole thing.

  “Yeah, that’s half the reason I’m back.” I gave him a big smile.

  “Half the reason? What’s the other half?” he asked as I felt his dick growing hard beneath my touch.

  “I kind of missed you.”

  “I thought it was just business between us,” he said with a hint of suspicion in his tone, although he didn’t stop me from stroking him through the fabric of his pants.

  “It is, but when a girl wants some really good dick, Big Sam Bradford is always the one to call. And I’m horny as hell.” I could see him puff out his chest a little after that comment. No one had a bigger ego than Sam.

  “Is that right?” He chuckled and allowed me to keep giving him a hand job while he went back to our original conversation. “So, Alejandro’s guys killed the Duncans, huh?”

  “That’s what he said.”

  Suddenly, Sam grabbed me by the hair with one hand and used the other one to open the door to the cellar.

  “You a bald-faced liar, bitch! My men already told me the Duncans are back in town and that you were with them. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know your ass is part of it.”

  In one swift movement, he tossed me down the stairs like a sack of dirty laundry.

  LC

  57

  “I see three, four, five men out front,” Juan said as we drove past Big Sam’s in an old van, wearing baseball hats and sunglasses, hoping to get some type of reconnaissance and see a signal from Chippy. Larry had wanted to go, but Lou and I thought he was too wound up and might do something stupid. Sure enough, flapping in the upper window was a bright purple scarf, just like Chippy had promised she would leave if NeeNee and Shirley were in the house. I briefly wished that I could get her out of there first, before she got caught in the crossfire, but I had to I remind myself that she could take care of herself.

  “You all right?” Juan asked, noticing the expression on my face.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” I said, loosening the grip on my .45 as we exited the Oak Street strip.

  “Man, you’re usually the most honest guy I know, but right now I can tell you’re lying through your teeth. It’s Chippy, isn’t it?” Damn guy must have been reading my mind or something, because I hadn’t stopped worrying about her ever since she left Ms. Emma’s house to go back to Sam’s.

  “Chippy and I are just friends. I’m worried about her. That’s all,” I lied, hoping he would leave it at that.

  Juan turned to me with a big smile on his face. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. I also saw the way you looked when Alejandro kissed her good-bye. You’ve got it bad, my friend.”

  “Hey, I said that I care about her, and I do, but it’s not an easy situation I’m in, either.”

  “Of course. It’s difficult when you’re in love with one woman and engaged to another,” he said. “You don’t look at Donna the way you do Chippy. Why is it that everyone sees this but you?”

  “I see. I just don’t know what to do about it.” I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Look, I can’t concentrate on that right now. We got a real problem that needs to be solved, and it’s bigger than my love life.”

  I pulled up at the spot Lou had gotten these two girls he messed with to lend us for the day, so that we could get all locked and loaded. Larry had hired three of his military buddies, who came strapped for battle and were ready when we walked in.

  “It’s there!” I announced as I entered the room.

  Larry was pacing the floor like a madman. “C’mon, let’s go!” he yelled.

  I shot a look to Lou. It was our job to calm him down before we did anything.

  “Relax, man. You got to relax, Larry,” Lou ordered, but Larry was past being able to reel it back in. He just wanted his woman back.

  “Man, that motherfucker is dead. You hear me? You can take my money, my car—hell, even my life, but you take my woman? Are you fucking serious? You might as well rip my heart out with your bare hands. If he harmed one hair on her head, I will kill him and burn that place to the ground,” Larry ranted, still pacing frantically.

  “If there wasn’t so much good pussy in that place, I’d have to agree. Hoes need a roof over their heads too.” Lou, ever the protector of women, chimed in. We may have been going on a rescue mission, but I knew that if there was a way for Lou to wind up with his dick deep inside one or two of Sam’s girls by the end of the night, that would happen. If Lou was one thing, it was consistent. Even at a time like this, when the pressure was sky high, he was still thinking with his little head.

  I could see that Larry wasn’t feeling Lou’s humor, so I stepped in to keep everyone’s minds on the mission. “Larry, we need you to have your men ready.”

  “We stay ready!” He looked to his men for their agreement, and everybody nodded, clutching their weapons and looking eager to go shoot somebody. Larry snatched up two guns with enough artillery to start a war—which was good, since that was what we were doing. Technically, Sam had thrown down the gauntlet when he took the women, but the Duncans were putting an end to his bullshit.

  “Then let’s go!” Lou stood up calmly, as if he were going to the diner to get a bite and not into battle.

  Larry faced his men. “Once NeeNee and Shirley are safe and out of there, you can do whatever the fuck you want to those motherfuckers. But until my lady is back with me, we need to be careful. You understand?”

  “As long as I get the second half of my ten grand, I’ll do anything you say,” one of the men, a white guy with red hair, said.

  “Okay, then it’s time to ride.” Larry was the first one out the door, with the rest of us following, each loaded with at least one firearm. When we got into the van, my heart was pounding. Even though I knew we were going to rescue NeeNee and Shirley, I wasn’t leaving that place without Chippy.

  Chippy

  58

  “Oh my God! Chippy!” Through the fog and the pain of my fall, I heard Big Shirley’s voice not far from me.

  “Is she dead?” NeeNee rushed over and grabbed me up in her arms. When I opened my eyes and blinked, it made her jump damn near across the room. Even with the physical pain and the messed-up situation we were in, I couldn’t help but burst out in laughter at her reaction.

  “Um, guess she’s alive.” Donna spat the words out, sounding like the bitter, jealous bitch I knew she was.

  “How’d they get you?” I asked Donna, shocked to see her there along with NeeNee and Shirley as I sat up. “Ouch!”

  “Same way they got all of us. The element of surprise—unless you don’t know what that is,” she answered, all salty.

  I stared her down, ready to take her on. “Oh, I know what it is, and I use it when I want to whip somebody’s ass without them expecting it coming.” I almost laughed again when she took a few steps back, just in case.

  “How’d they get you?” Big Shirley asked. “Hell, I thought you had left this place. At least that’s what the girls told me last week when they stopped by the shop.”

  “Well, I came back with LC.” I stopped there, just wanting to stick it to Donna. I was happy to see from her sour expression that it bothered her to hear that LC and I had been together. “And Lou, Larry, and Juan.”

  “Who’s Juan?” Shirley asked.

  “It’s John. Now he’s Ju
an,” I answered. When she gave me a puzzled expression, I said, “I’ll explain later.”

  NeeNee jumped in, bringing the conversation back to the important details. “So they know we’re here? Does Larry know that Sam took us? I swear Larry will kill him.”

  “Yeah, and believe me, when he found out that Big Sam had taken you, he was insane with rage. But we needed to be smart and not have them walk into a trap. They sent me in here to find out if you were in the house before they came in.”

  “So did you tell them?” Donna snapped. She was getting on my last nerve. “Or did you mess that up?”

  I nodded, refusing to let that bitch make me feel like I was less than her. “Yeah, I told them. We had a signal that if I found you—meaning NeeNee and Shirley—then I’d leave a scarf tied to my window. Of course, none of us knew that you were even here,” I said, hoping it made her feel like the outsider I viewed her to be. Just to add salt to the wound, I said, “So, I guess LC hasn’t tried to go see you yet, ’cause otherwise he would’ve known you were missing.”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “He will. I know you got your eyes on my man, but you can forget it. He’d never leave me to be with anyone like you.”

  “Hey! Hey!” Big Shirley interrupted. “I’m too busy worrying if that Negro upstairs is going to kill us ’fore we can get out of here alive, so I’m not that interested in you two arguing over a man. Besides, neither of you will be alive to ever see him again if we don’t get out of here.”

  She had a good point, so I would leave the bitch alone for now. I glanced around the cellar. There were no windows, and just a tiny bathroom.

  “So how come none of you tried to get out? You ain’t tied up, and if you bang on the door real hard, somebody is bound to find you,” I said.

  Donna took a step toward me. “We tried that, genius, but those twins came down here with guns and said the next time we knocked on the door or tried to alert anybody that we were here, they would blow our brains away. So, you can see how having a gun shoved in your mouth can stop any stupid plan.”