Time is Money

by Silk White

  Dana pulled into the driveway of the house that Ghost used for meetings. The only thing this house was only used for other than meetings was addressing anything that went wrong on a job. If something happened, this was the meet up spot. Other than that, the house was never used for any other reason.

  Dana stepped foot in the house and the first person she saw sitting at the round table was Dougie. Dougie was always the type to be laughing, dancing, and joking around. When Dana saw the serious look on his face, she knew she was in big trouble. The next person she saw at the round table was Randy. In his hand, he held a cigarette and in front of him, sat a glass of dark liquor. As usual, he had a nonchalant look on his face. The truth was Randy envied Dana because he felt that since she was the only woman on the team, she should have been the driver instead of him, but that decision wasn’t up to him, it was up to Ghost. Last but not least, Dana spotted Ghost sitting at the round table. He wore a custom made fitted grey suit with a slim tie to match. Sitting in front of him was a glass of dark liquor.

  “Listen Ghost I know you’re upset but....”

  “Sit yo ass down!” Ghost’s voice boomed cutting Dana off. He was so mad with her that if she wasn’t his sister he might have put his hands on her.

  “So far we have successfully robbed four banks,” Ghost began. “Thanks to my perfect planning and Randy’s great driving skills,” he paused for a second. “When I came up with these plans, I don’t think murder was a part of it,” he said with his gaze falling on Dana. “We are not murderers and we only use our weapons if we have to, if we’re forced to, or when we’re left with no other choice.” He paused to take a sip from his drink and to look at Dana. “Four bank robberies and you’ve killed six people.”

  “Ghost I know you’re mad with me, but you have to give me a chance to explain,” Dana said. “When we go up in these banks, everyone needs to know that we ain’t fucking around,” she said. “And when those clerks pushed the silent alarm, I felt as if they didn’t respect us, so I did what I had to do so the next time we walk into a bank, the clerks will know that we are not fucking around and think twice about pushing the silent alarm.”

  “We’re not taking down banks for a reputation! We’re taking them down so we can get paid!” Ghost reminded her. “The more you use your gun during a job, the more the cops are going to be gunning for us, and instead of them trying to arrest us; they’ll be trying to put us down.”

  “Fuck the police!” Dana spat. “Since when did we start giving a fuck about them?”

  “I don’t give a fuck about the police and you all know that. You guys are the only family I got and I’m not trying to lose y’all because we’re known as the armed and dangerous bank robbers,” he pointed out. “Now if the cops force our hand, then that’s different. We’ll air their asses out in a heartbeat, but until that time comes, do not use your gun during a job again unless you are left with no other choice.” Ghost glared at his little sister. “Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes,” Dana mumbled with a slight attitude. She hated how cautious Ghost was. He always wanted to plan and be prepared for things, but in there line of work sometimes things didn’t always go according to plan.

  Ghost stood up and neatly stacked the money in front of each member that sat at the table. He sat Randy’s money down in front of him and said. “A big part of our success is you and your driving skills. I know sometimes you want to go inside the banks with us where all the action is, but you are the best driver I know and I need you behind that wheel.”

  Randy nodded his head. “It’s all good Ghost. I’m pretty sure I’ll get my chance to get a piece of the action one day.”

  “One day,” Ghost smiled. “You all know the rules. Don’t go out spending like crazy and making big purchases. We stay low key and under the radar.”

  Dougie looked down at his share of the money, hopped up and broke out into a dance. He was smiling from ear to ear as he did the latest dance moves that the young kids were now doing these days. Before Ghost had recruited Dougie, he was working at a fast food restaurant. When Ghost would walk into the restaurant he would always see the hunger in Dougie’s eyes and one day he decided to give him a shot in the big leagues and Dougie had been rocking with Ghost ever since. Dougie’s job was to collect the money while Ghost and Dana did all the dirty work. “I love you Ghost!” Dougie said as he hugged Ghost and tried to get him to dance, but of course, Ghost was too cool to dance. Ghost was strictly about business most of the time.

  “What’s next for us?” Dana asked. She was still in kind of a salty mood, but she continued to keep her face neutral.

  Ghost smiled as he reached under the table and pulled out a blueprint. “Next we take down an armored truck.”

  “Are you serious?” Dougie asked. He was no longer laughing and joking. He was now dead serious.

  “Yes, I’m as serious as cancer,” Ghost continued. “We’re going to catch them when they make their last pick up for the day downtown. I’ve been scoping out their routes for the past two weeks and everything is like clockwork,” he smiled. “There are three men to a truck. The two guards in the back carry shotguns and the third man is the driver.”

  “Sounds like a suicide mission to me,” Randy said, stumping his cigarette out and helping himself to another glass of liquor.

  “We have a four minute window to make this happen,” Ghost told them. “These guards are trained to shoot first and ask questions never, so this job may call for us to use force,” he said looking over at Dana. “If we all stick to the plan, I can promise you all that no one will get hurt; well at least not any of us,” he chuckled. “Who all in?”

  Ghost watched his entire crew all raised their hands. “Great! This job will require us to use two cars. Half the money will go in one car and the other half in the other. We get away safely and we meet back up here. If anybody gets caught, keep your fucking mouth shut and we’ll hold your money. I’ll be riding with Randy on this job and Dana you’ll be riding with Dougie. We taking this truck down in two days so be ready.”

  Chapter 4

  I Need a Drink

  After the meeting was over, Dana hopped in her car, merged onto the highway, and just drove. Whenever she needed to escape life, get away for a second, and think, the highway was her answer. It was something about driving, listening to calm R&B music that relaxed Dana’s mind and put her at ease. During her ride, Ghost’s words replayed repeatedly in her head. He had a few good points but Dana still felt as if she had done the right thing by shooting the clerks at the bank. All over the radio and on every T.V. station they were talking about the armed and dangerous bank robbers. From what Dana was hearing the cops had no clue as to who the bank robbers were. In the type of business Dana was in, that was a good thing. No news was always good news. After driving around for a little over an hour, Dana came across a nice low-key looking lounge. She wasn’t really the partying type, but tonight she could really use a drink and she wouldn’t mind listening to a little music either.

  Dana exited her car and headed towards the entrance of the lounge where a bulldog-looking dike looked at Dana as if she couldn’t wait to frisk her. Dana was 5’6” and weighed about 150 lbs. People said she favored the actress Lauren London.

  “Spread your arms and turn around!” the female bouncer said with authority as she proceeded to frisk Dana. While frisking Dana, the female bouncer made sure when she reached Dana’s curves that she gave them a little extra attention.

  After being semi-molested, Dana was finally allowed to enter the lounge. She hadn’t planned on going out so she wasn’t properly dressed for the occasion. While all the other women in the club wore tight fitting skimpy attire, Dana strolled in wearing a pair of tight black jeans and a black wife-beater. On her feet, she wore a pair of flat, open-toe sandals, her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and a pair of oversized designer shades hid her eyes. Not really in a party mood, Dana headed straight for the bar. She sat on the only available open stoo
l and ordered a shot of Vodka. Dana downed the glass of liquid fire in one gulp and raised her hand to flag down the bartender so she could order another drink, when out of nowhere the man sitting next to her shoved his bottle of Pineapple Cîroc towards her.

  “Help yourself,” the man who sat next to her told her.

  Dana looked the man up and down. She had to admit he was definitely easy on the eyes and the type of man that she would give the time of day, but of course, she had to put up a front. “Excuse you, but I can afford my own drink,” she said in a snappy tone.

  “I never said you couldn’t,” the man countered in a smooth tone and proceeded to fill Dana’s glass up anyway. “They say it’s not good to drink by yourself and from the looks of things,” he said, giving Dana a once over, “you can use this drink just as much as me.”

  Dana looked at the handsome man and smiled. “First of all, I don’t drink with strangers and second of all there’s no telling where your mouth has been.”

  “Stone,” the handsome man said extending his hand.

  “Dana,” she said shaking his hand with little effort.

  “Now that we’re no longer strangers,” Stone paused to down his shot. “Drink up.”

  “Haven’t been doing anything with your mouth that I need to know about; have you?” Dana teased as she downed the shot and then made an ugly face.

  “There are plenty of things I can do with this mouth and if you be nice, I may even give you the Stone special,” he said, openly flirting with her.

  Dana smiled and refilled her glass. “You’ve got my attention. What’s the Stone special?”

  Stone returned her smile. “I said if you be nice.”

  “Well I’m about to be on my best behavior,” she joked. It had been a long time since Dana had laughed like this. Due to her work, she usually was in a bitter and serious mood. In her line of business, there was no time to joke or laugh. It was all business all the time so tonight Dana decided that she would take a night out to enjoy herself.

  Stone smiled. “You have some nice lips.”

  Dana licked them seductively. “You think so?”

  “Thinking is for people that are not sure,” Stone replied as he stood up, grabbed Dana’s hand, and led her out to the dance floor. “This is my song.”

  “No,” Dana weakly protested, but finally gave in. For a moment, Dana felt as if her and Stone were the only two in the lounge. Stone pulled her close to him and gripped her hips as the two made love on the dance floor with their clothes on. Dana wrapped her arms around Stone’s neck and swayed her hips to the beat pumping through the speakers. During the dance, Stone put his lips on Dana’s neck and began to kiss slowly. Dana closed her eyes and lightly moaned. She knew what was happening was wrong, but for some strange reason it felt so right. Stone’s hands felt perfect on her body.

  Out of nowhere, Dana grabbed Stone’s face and kissed him. When she realized what she had done, she quickly apologized. “I’m sorry! I’ve never acted like this and I don’t know what came over me!”

  “Nothing to apologize for.” Stone smiled as the two made their way back over to their stools. Stone placed his hand on Dana’s thigh and gave it a slight massage. “I like you.”

  Dana sucked her teeth. “You don’t even know me and don’t think because I let you kiss me that you getting some pussy either.”

  Stone smiled. “I would love to get to know you; maybe take you out if that’s okay with you.”

  “That may be able to be arranged,” Dana said, playing hard to get, but the truth was she wanted Stone way more than she wanted to admit.

  “I’ll be right back. I need to go use the restroom,” Stone said as he got up and headed towards the restroom. Not even twenty seconds after Stone left, a man with a baby afro and a Hulk Hogan mustache sat in his seat.

  “I’m sorry, but my friend was sitting there and he’ll be back in a second. He just went...”

  “Listen baby you move ya feet and you lose ya seat,” the man with the afro said in a quick pimp like tone. “You’ve talked to the rest now talk to the best.”

  “Are you serious?” Dana asked. She wanted to make sure this wasn’t a joke before she hurt the man’s feelings.

  “As a heart attack baby,” the man with the afro said. “I’m saying though; why don’t we get out of here and make some history tonight?”

  Before Dana had a chance to reply, Stone walked up right on time. “Excuse me fam,” he said politely. “But I think you’re sitting in my seat.”

  The man with the afro turned and looked at Stone as if he was crazy. “This is a free motherfucking country so I can sit where I damn well please!”

  Without warning Stone turned and slapped fire out of the man’s hand. Before he got a chance to recover, Stone kicked the stool from up under the man and watched him crash down to the sticky lounge floor.

  “You come over here trying to disrespect my shorty?” Stone growled as he raised his foot and stomped the man’s head down into the floor. He did that repeatedly until two beefy bouncers came over and roughly escorted him out of the club.

  Dana looked down at the man with the afro, raised her foot, and stomped his head down into the floor one last time before heading outside to go catch up with Stone.

  Chapter 5

  Night Cap

  Once outside of the lounge Stone was getting ready to start a fight with the two bouncers that tossed him out when Dana quickly persuaded him to let it go.

  “Don’t let them ruin our night,” she said, intertwining her arm with his. They walked down the block until they reached Dana’s cocaine white Benz.

  Stone looked at Dana as if she had lost her mind. “I’m not letting you drive in this condition. I’ll call you a cab.”

  “And what about you?” Dana asked. “If I can’t drive, then you can’t either. You’ve had more to drink than me.”

  Stone smiled. “I think there’s a motel around here somewhere that I can crash at for the night.”

  “Boy please,” Dana said shaking her head. “I’m not letting you stay at no motel. We can both just take a cab to my place and crash there for the night,” she suggested.

  “You sure that will be alright?” Stone asked. “Because I don’t have time to be fighting off no old crazy boyfriends; not tonight.”

  “Thankfully for you, I don’t have a boyfriend or no crazy ex-boyfriends. It’s just me, myself, and I,” Dana said smiling as she flagged down a cab. Stone and Dana piled into the back of a cab and made small talk for the entire ride until the cab pulled up in front of a baby mansion.

  Stone stepped out of the cab and looked up at her home. “Damn this is a nice place,” he pointed out.

  “Why thank you,” Dana said as she intertwined her arm with his and led him to the front door. Instead of using a key, Dana typed in a code on the keypad and the door opened. “Okay make yourself at home,” Dana said as she kicked off her shoes and walked through the house barefoot.

  Stone walked through the house admiring its beauty and all of the expensive things inside. He would have to work one hundred years to ever be able to afford a place as nice Dana’s. “This is a nice place you have here,” he complimented.

  “Yeah my parents left me and my brother a nice piece of change when they died,” she lied.

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s okay. You want a sandwich or anything?” Dana asked, quickly changing the subject.

  “Nah I’m good. Just show me to the couch and I’ll be good,” Stone said. He had to get up early and begin working on the bank robber’s case. Stone was eager to sink his teeth into the case and take them down.

  Dana laughed. “I do have a guest bedroom you know.”

  “Yeah I know. I just didn’t want you to have to go through no extra trouble or...” Stone was cut off when Dana invaded his personal space and kissed him once more.

  Stone and Dana’s tongues did a slow dance as Stone’s hands explored Dana’s ass. While the two kissed, Dana h
elped remove Stone’s shirt. Dana’s eyes lit up when she saw how chiseled and cut up Stone’s body was. He had the body of an athlete. Stone scooped Dana up in the air and she quickly wrapped her legs around Stone’s waist as he carried her over to the couch. Stone roughly tossed Dana down onto the couch and removed her clothes. When Stone saw Dana’s freshly waxed fat pussy looking up at him, he could no longer control himself. Stone got down on his knees, opened Dana’s legs as wide as they could go, and dove in face first. He started with slow wet kisses that turned into licks. Stone licked Dana’s pussy, like a cat drinking milk, as if her juices would somehow better his life.

  “Oh my God!” Dana moaned good and long. She moaned as she moved up and down, her movements slow and intense. She grinded her hips as her legs automatically locked around Stone’s head. After Stone felt Dana’s leg shiver, he slid in between her legs missionary style, face to face and tongue to tongue. The two kissed like sloppy animals as Stone eased himself inside of Dana. From how tight Dana’s box was; Stone could tell that she hadn’t been sexually active in a while. “Harder!” Dana demanded in a low growl. Stone sucked on Dana’s bottom lip as he pumped in and out of her walls. Dana’s moans told him that she wanted more and Stone gave her just that.

  Stone moved Dana from the couch down to the floor, forcing her to lie on her stomach as he entered her from behind. He fucked her as hard as he could. He could feel sweat gathering on his neck and back and he continued to fuck her the way she kept telling him to, harder. “Like that?” Stone spat as he slapped Dana’s ass with force.

  Dana moaned and then whispered. “I’m about to come again.”