Diamond Lives, Platinum Lies

by Howard, Vonda

“I’ll check.” Just as Big J started to make his way down the stairs of the plane, out stepped Congressman Randall Frey. Darius hated the day he went to him and pulled him in this. At the time he needed the money to get things off the ground and knew from the Congressman’s reputation that he would be the one to go to get assistance on his ’projects’. Congressman Frey was what everyone thinks about government officials; he was greedy, a liar and a pervert. Darius tells J all the time that Frey is the greediest and most low down man he has ever met.

  “Shit. What is he doing here?” Big J turned and asked Darius.

  “I don’t know, but I guess we’re about to find out.”

  “So glad you invited me to the meet and greet, Darius.” The Congressman said from the bottom of the stairs with a large blue-eyed smile.

  “See, that’s the thing. I don’t remember inviting you.” Darius said as he made his way down the stairs.

  “Oh, now, I know you didn’t do that on purpose, because we both know that there is a lot of money at stake here we don’t want to make any mistakes.”

  Darius laughed. “You know, the only mistake that was made here was my agreeing to work with you.”

  “You agreeing?” The Congressman laughed out loud. “As far as I remember, Mr. D-Smooth, you practically begged me to help you with this. We both know you wouldn’t be able to pull off something this size all by your lonesome. So why don’t we save the bullshit and get to OUR meeting.”

  Darius burned with hatred as he watched an arrogant and self-assured Congressman Frey walk over and step inside the waiting limousine.

  “Coming?” The Congressman smiled.

  Darius looked over at Big J as walked over and stepped into the limo.

  After a silent twenty minute ride, they finally arrived at the entrance gate to Carmine’s palatial home.

  “Look,” Congressmen Frey scoffed, “Just let me do all the talking.”

  “Fuck you Frey!” Darius responded. “You let me do all the talking! If it wasn’t for me, this meeting wouldn’t even be.”

  “Oh yeah. I’ve been meaning to ask about your somehow ’sudden’ luck with the Esposito Family. They don’t usually talk to anyone, care to share, partner?”

  Darius chuckled. “Hell no.”

  “Look you hip-hopping bastard, you may think you are running things, but as long as I’m bankrolling this operation, you best keep me in the loop of whatever the hell is going on. Got that?”

  Darius just stared him down. “You must really think you working with a rookie here. Yeah, you are bankrolling this; but not because you have to, but because I’m letting you. Don’t get it twisted; I can bankroll shit that you on your two hundred thousand dollar a year government salary can’t even touch. So don’t sit here in this car and act like you a player or some shit. Rest assured, I’ll put my money in when I’m sure of this shit, and no sooner. We shouldn’t both lose money, right?”

  Big J and Darius laughed at the tight face Congressman as the limo pulled up to the driveway.

  “Now, seeing as though this is MY meeting, let’s let me do all the talking, huh?” He patted the pouting Congressman on the shoulder as he got out behind Big J.

  They all got out and walked up the stairs to the double doors. Right as Big J reached out to ring the doorbell the doors were pulled open.

  “Well, welcome, Darius is it?” Carmine stood in the door with an ear to ear smile that was almost a little frightening and extended his hand for a handshake. He looked exactly a Darius had pictured him. Tall, slender, olive colored skin, thick, dark eyebrows and thick black curly hair.

  “Please, call me Darius.”

  “Darius it is then. Please come in.” He gestured for them to come inside.

  “Damn. This house is fly!” Big J said as the entered the home. The foyer alone was laid with Italian marble floors and solid gold railings for the winding staircase.

  “You have a lovely home.” Congressman Frey added.

  “Thank you. You are?” Carmine said a little baffled.

  “My apologies, my name is Randall. I’m an associate of Darius’.”

  Carmine shook his hand. “Well, nice to meet you Randall. Why don’t you let my associate give you a tour of the house?”

  “Well, I’m not really here for…”

  Carmine signaled for one of his guards to come get the Congressman. “Oh, I insist.”

  Congressman Frey was about to protest further until he saw the size of the gentlemen that arrived to escort him out. He looked over at Darius as to make him insist that he stay.

  “Hey, you don’t want to offend anyone, do you?” Darius laughed as Congressman Frey was escorted into another room.

  “Hey man, my apologies. He was not invited to our meeting.”

  “No worries.” Carmine smiled. “Let’s go sit down for a drink, shall we?”

  Big J nodded and stood in the back of the room along with Carmine’s body guard Carmine escorted Darius into the large family room and sat down. Carmine made his way over to the white and solid gold bar and began to pour drinks for both of them. “I can say Darius, that I am very impressed with you. I truly didn’t expect you to follow through with what I asked.” He laughed. “I was expecting to have to do it myself.”

  Darius reached for the glass as he snickered along with Carmine. “It wasn’t nothing but a thing for me, man; collateral damage. If offing his ass is what was going to get me a step closer to what I want, so be it.”

  Carmine sat down and took a sip of his drink. “Well, accept my deepest thanks. Now, what is it you needed to talk with me about?”

  Darius leaned back on the sofa and took a sip of his drink. “Hybrid.”

  Carmine smiled behind his glass as he took a sip. “Sorry Darius, I’m not in the car business.”

  “Come on Carmine.” Darius smiled.

  “Come on, what? I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s Hybrid?”

  Darius laughed. “Okay, I’ll play along; Hybrid is revolutionary. It’s a hybrid mixture of heroin, cocaine and LSD that has an addiction rate ten times faster than crack. It has the ability to create dependency in twenty minutes, which brings the user back almost immediately for a second hit; which has also given it the street name of ’Boomerang’.”

  “Wow, looks like you’ve done you’re homework. Unfortunately, like I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My family is in the real estate business.” Carmine smiled. “Looking for a house?”

  “Come on C, we both know your family has the ’patent’ on the goods and I want a piece. Many people have tried to recreate the formula and failed. So, I wanted to come to the source.”

  Carmine sat up, leaning forward towards Darius. “Let’s just say we did, why are you so interested and furthermore, why should we give you anything?”

  “Why am I interested? Hybrid is the stuff of legends on the street! Undetectable by dogs, almost unshakable addiction, guaranteed dollars, man!”

  Carmine chuckled. “I’ll give it to you. You’ve done your research. You seem serious about all this.”

  “You damn right! Just like I know I have access to areas of DC you won’t. Think about that…DC…the Nation’s Capital. I can get my hands on senators, congressman, and their kids. This could be the new ’rich man’s drug’. I’m opening up a casino right on the new waterfront that will attract a shitload of new dollars for both you and me.”

  “I’m intrigued.” Carmine smiled slightly.

  “Good, because I can make you boatloads of cash; you could be the Rockefeller of the drug game.”

  “Rockefeller, huh?” Carmine chuckled.

  “Yeah.”

  “I tell you what. I like you Darius. As you know, our family doesn’t deal with outsiders, but I have been thinking for a long time about expansion. So, I’ll give you a try.”

  Darius was elated. “I knew you were a smart man.”

  Carmine put his glass down on the table. “We’ll see. How much ’product’ are you loo
king to acquire?”

  “One thousand kilos to start.” Said Darius almost frothing at the mouth.

  “Okay, jumping right in, huh?” Carmine snickered.

  “That’s right.”

  “Okay, well, just give me your one million dollar deposit and we can set up delivery.”

  Darius signaled for Big J to hand him a small deck of cards from his pocket. “Cool. I’ll get that deposit to you ASAP. I got the delivery part covered, too.”

  “What’s this?” Carmine had a suspicious look on his face.

  “This sir; is brilliance.”

  Carmine raised his perfectly shaped eyebrow. “A deck of cards?”

  Darius unwrapped the cards, slid them out of their box and shuffled them on the coffee table. “You’re right. To the average casino patron or anyone else for that matter, these are just cards; but if you look closely,” He laughed. “Well, they are just cards, but…”

  He picked up the wrapper off the floor. “This isn’t just a wrapper.

  Carmine was intrigued. “How so?”

  “This turns into this.” He pulled out a small tube of Chap Stick, unscrewed the top and dumped out a small bit of cocaine on the table. “This one wrapper once cooked in my own special blend, creates over five hundred single hits.”

  “Five hundred? How is that?” Darius handed the wrapper to very curious Carmine.

  “Well, just like you, it’s a trade secret. My mixture has also been proven to render any substance on it undetectable to dogs, cats whatever the departments and DEA are using these days and give negative results in field testing. Now, since Hybrid is already undetectable…you talking about double coverage here.”

  Carmine smiled and extended his hand for a handshake as they both wallowed in their orgasm of self satisfaction.

  Chapter 9

  Simone stepped into her hotel room exhausted. She had had a very full day of meetings with her manager, Roxanne, a few movie producers and realtors. She was tired, but didn’t mind. It was when she had full empty days that she would worry. Currently she was one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. She has received four Oscars, countless nominations, four BET Awards, three Golden Globes, and six SAG Awards. She makes an astounding ten million per movie. She makes sure to thank God every time she accepted a script or an award because she knows where she has come from. She grew up in a home with a father that was barely there and when he was treated her like dirt. She clearly remembers him telling her that “She was never ever going to be shit.” She carried all the things he told her around with her for most of her teen and college life. It showed itself mostly in her relationships. She went from one low life dirt bag boyfriend to the next until she thought she found ’the one’ in Trent. How wrong she was about that! She hated him for what he did to her, but she never wanted to see him dead.

  She couldn’t help but think about Darius. He was smart, sexy, fine as hell, but still something about him was slightly off. She just wasn’t sure…she just wrote it off to some inner issue with herself.

  She had just stepped out of her favorite bubblegum pink UGGs when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”

  “Hey beautiful.”

  “Hey Darius! How are you? A better question is where are you? I thought since we couldn’t get together last night, maybe we could tonight?” She smiled.

  “I would love to, but I can’t. I got held up here in LA. Can we get together when I get back in town?”

  “You know we can!” Simone said excitedly. “Just call me when you get back, okay.”

  “Sure thing! I just have a few ends to tie up out here and we can get back to where we left off.”

  Simone smiled ear to ear. “I look forward to it.” She hung the phone up and began to head for the shower when her hotel room phone rang. “Hello?”

  “I am so sorry to bother you Mrs. Carmichael, but we have a gentleman down here at the desk that says that he knows you.” Said the hotel concierge over the phone.

  “Who is it?” Simone responded in a annoyed tone.

  “A Mr. Terrence Swanson?”

  Simone was shocked. “Oh my God! Yes, I know him! Send him up!”

  She walked over to the mirror and straightened her hair and moved all the papers and shoes she had spread out all over the floor. Just as she quickly as she put away one of the last pair of shoes, there was a knock at the door. She ran over to the door and flung it open.

  “Now, how is it you that have gotten sexier?” Terrance gave her a tight hug. “Is that even possible?”

  Simone blushed as she gestured for him to come in. “Well…you know.”

  He took off his coat and laid it on the back of the sofa. “So how have you been, outside of the fame and fortune?”

  “I should be asking you the same thing! On tour with Beyonce? That’s huge! I always knew you were going to be big! Remember when you used to help Allison and me with our cheer routines?”

  Terrence laughed out loud. “Oh Lord, yes! You had two left feet.”

  “Hence, the reason I’m not a dancer.” Simone laughed.

  “By the way, I’m sorry to hear about Trent.” Terrance said tilting his head slightly.

  “Thanks. I just hate that he left this world thinking I hated him.” She went and sat down on the sofa.

  “I’m sure he didn’t. He knew you were just angry.”

  “I guess so.” Simone sighed.

  He sat down on the sofa beside her. “So, on to happier things, Allison tells me that you’re dating D-Smooth?”

  “She has such a big mouth.”

  “Well, we both know that.” He laughed. “So, tell me what I can do to steal you away?”

  Simone just blushed and looked him in his eyes. “You’re so silly.”

  “I’m being serious. You know I have always had a thing for you since we were younger.” He scooted closer to her.

  “T, we were kids.”

  “Well, we are adults now. I make sure I see every movie of yours; I have all your magazine interviews, and all of your DVDs. Every time I see you on TV or in the theaters, I still feel the same way I did when we were kids.”

  Simone laughed. “Umm…that sounds a little stalker-ish.”

  “I don’t mean to sound that way. It’s just that when Allison told me you were back in the area and she had made contact with you, I had to come see you when I got back in town.”

  “Well, that’s sweet of you. How long are you in town for?”

  “Why are you trying to change the subject?” Terrence laughed.

  “I’m not. I really want to know.” Simone chuckled uncomfortably.

  “I’m here for a while actually. I decided to take a little break before I got back to work.”

  “Well, good for you.” Simone patted his leg.

  “So, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how about you give me a chance to show you what I can do for you? I’ve seen you jump from dirt bag to dirt bag, and none of them can do what I can for you, especially not D-Smooth.”

  “Terrence…”

  “Do you really think he will be faithful to you? The guy has women throwing themselves at him hourly.”

  “I know, I know.”

  “Okay,” He ran his fingers along the side of her face. “Why not give a guy that is ready to give you one hundred percent of his attention and love to you a chance?”

  “Terrence…” She grabbed his hand off her face.

  “Also, isn’t he being investigated for this Ganja thing?”

  “He’s innocent of that.” She blurted out sternly.

  Dipping his head slightly, he said “You sure?”

  “Yes!” She exclaimed with irritation in her voice.

  “Okay, I’m just saying. They were at odds weren’t they?”

  “What does that have to do with anything? He didn’t do it!” She said as she jumped to her feet.

  “Okay. I’m sorry. I just want you to be safe.”

  “Well, I’m a big girl, Terrence. Frankly, you don’t know
him and I don’t appreciate you coming here and throwing around these accusations!” She said in a very firm tone.

  “I know you are. I’m sorry. Look, just give me one date.” He put his finger over her lips as she was about to speak. “Dinner? That’s all I ask.”

  Just as she was about to let him down easy there was a knock at the door, which she was relieved to answer.

  “Hey sis. What’s up?” Peaches said as she entered the room. “Terrence is that you?”