Project Queen II

by Teresa D. Patterson

  “Oh really?” Her brow rose.

  “Um hum. That day you and I did it for the first time you were wearing something tight and provocative. I remember.”

  “I don’t remember you complaining.”

  “I was mesmerized. You had me so hypnotized with that booty goin’ ‘round and ‘round,” he teased.

  Shae laughed. “Whatever.”

  “You think Viv wouldn’t mind babysitting?” he asked.

  “I’ll call her and ask. Why?”

  “I want an uninterrupted night alone with my wife.”

  “I like the sound of that. Don’t ask for more than you can handle,” she said lowly, licking her lips.

  “Oh, I can handle it. Girl, you might need a back brace after tonight. Cause, I’m gonna knock it out,” he bragged. “Okay. We’ll just have to see about that.” She smiled.

  They gazed into each other’s eyes, the love and passion rekindled. Larry leaned over, capturing her lips with his own.

  “I love you. Don’t ever forget that.”

  How could she ever forget? He’d proven how deep his love was when he’d killed a man for her.

  Chapter Three

  Toby sat in his Cadillac Escalade and waited for Della to handle her business. He didn’t want to get involved in her mess unless he had to. While she confronted the man about the DVDs, he counted his money. No one could see inside the dark limo-tinted windows.

  Stackin’ papers, that’s what I’m about, he said to himself. He looked at all the money in his lap and littering the seat, and sighed. It was said that the love of money was the root of all evil and he had to agree.

  His evil ass mother had tried to kill her family because of her love for money. Some three years later, he still couldn’t understand why Bertha had tried to poison him, his brothers and sister. He felt that the constant abuse she’d inflicted on him and his siblings had been unnecessary. They had been powerless to do anything about it.

  To this day, he still felt powerless about a lot of things, but no one would ever be able to look at him and tell. All of his money represented power. It gave him respect. In the hood, you couldn’t be lame and weak or you’d get squashed.

  He thought he’d be able to turn his life around, go back to school and make it out the hood the right way. But, in the hood, it doesn’t work like that. You’re either in the game or you’re lame. It’s just that simple.

  All of his friends dibbled and dappled in drugs to some extent. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t stay away from the lifestyle. Plus, it was easy money. He didn’t have to hunt for drug addicts – they found him. If he wasn’t the one selling them the poison they craved, somebody else would.

  He wasn’t proud of being one of the top drug dealers in the city. So far, he’d gotten by on luck. No one had attempted to rob him. He didn’t count the strung-out crack heads that got lucky and took off with a rock without paying for it. That was comical to him and he didn’t even bother to give chase. He figured they needed the hit more than he needed the chunk change.

  He knew of cats that had gotten taken out. They lost their lives behind drugs and shady dealings. He felt it was only a matter of time before something happened to him, especially with it being a recession. Hell, when wasn’t it a recession for black folk? Everyone was desperate, down and out. He really needed to watch his back.

  Just the other week, a guy named Levi who used to go to school with him was murdered. His body was found in a dumpster, burned beyond recognition. He couldn’t believe someone did that to Levi. But, Levi had gotten addicted to crystal meth and crack. He’d fucked over the wrong person, owed them money and couldn’t pay. It was sad and it sent a message to him. He needed to do something other than sell drugs. Unlike Levi, he wanted to live past the age of nineteen.

  Maybe an angel was looking down on him and protecting him. They say God looks out for babies and fools. Then again, it could be Ma Violet. Whoever it was that had his back, he owed it to them to turn his life around.

  Lately, he’d been thinking about giving it all up. It wasn’t like he needed the money. Maybe when he was younger, it gave him a rush. Now, it did nothing for him.

  He was tired of niggas looking at him sideways, and women trying to offer him some ass just because he had money. It was all a façade. If he wasn’t Big Tobe, he knew no one would even be checking for him but his family. It was time for a change.

  He exhaled and looked out the window. The conversation between Della and the guy seemed to be getting heated. It was time for him to intervene. He slipped a Beretta 9 mm handgun in the waist of his pants, and prayed he wouldn’t have to use it.

  * * *

  Della felt an explosion in her brain as she watched the DVD in front of her. It was her on the screen. The men were pawing her like she was a piece of meat. The footage was extremely vulgar and explicit. She couldn’t remember doing the things that the vixen was doing, but apparently she had. The video was proof.

  In a blink of an eye, she snatched the portable DVD player and smashed it to bits on the concrete.

  “What the fuck you doing, bitch? That’s my shit.” The street vendor tried to stop her from destroying the player, but it was too late. “You gonna pay for that,” the trunk salesman snapped, looking at the pieces left.

  “Motherfucker, I’m not paying you shit.” She kicked the broken parts for emphasis. “Fuck you.”

  “The hell you ain’t.” He grabbed her by the arm, shaking her. She snatched away and slapped him hard across the face.

  “Keep your hands off me, nigga.”

  “You can’t just fuck up my shit and think I ain’t gonna do nothing about it,” he yelled.

  “Nigga, I’ll fuck you up, too,” she said. The man drew back his arm, preparing to backhand slap her, but Toby stepped in.

  “Hold up,” he warned, towering above the man who cowered as soon as he saw Toby. “That’s my sister you’re manhandling.” The man quickly released Della.

  “My bad. She destroyed my shit.” He indicated the broken DVD player scattered in pieces on the ground. Toby shrugged indifferently.

  Della was about to go off. Her entire face was red, and her eyes bloodshot with anger.

  “I wanna fuck somebody up. Anybody,” she screamed. She suddenly hauled off and kicked the passenger’s side door of the man’s car.

  “Stop that. That’s vandalism.” The man was flouncing around like a chicken, his face flushed “You can go to jail for doing that.”

  “You think I give a fuck?” Della raged. “I want to know where you got those DVDs.” By then she’d made her way to the front of the car, where she beat on the hood. She grabbed the windshield wipers and broke one of them off. “Tell me.” She took a swing at him with the windshield wiper blade.

  “Get her, man,” the guy begged, looking toward Toby with fear in his eyes.

  “Tell us where you got those DVDs,” Toby said, ignoring him. “Start talking fast. You feel me?”

  “Big Tobe, I-I-I don’t want no mess,” he stammered. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just trying to make a living.” He took a step back, looking like he would piss in his pants at any given second. “I’m a reformed drug addict. I stopped smoking that shit and tried to get a job. But, you know ain’t nobody gonna hire me. So, I gotta do what I do to make it, man.”

  “I don’t give a shit about your life history, nigga. Just tell me where you got these DVDs,” Toby repeated, feeling the rage trying to surface. He hated when niggas tried to give him a sob story about the so-called hard lives they’d led. Hell, he’d lived a hard life too. He had the scars on his back to prove it. He had no sympathy for weak niggas like this crack head lying to his face about being reformed. He could bet if he pulled out a ten dollar rock, the crusty-lipped bastard would be all on it and hitting the pipe in mere seconds.

  “I got ‘em from a nigga named Lester; ex-pimp, turned hustler.”

  “I know the nigga you talking about,” Toby said. “He gave me a deal. I
bought a hundred at a discount price. I figured I’d sell them for ten dollars and make a profit.

  Hell, I didn’t know it was ya sister on the tape. I ain’t even look at it. I swear. I don’t watch porn.”

  Toby just smirked at him. The nigga was an awful liar. “Consider yourself out of business.” Toby walked toward the trunk and the man attempted to block his way with his thin body.

  “This is my livelihood. If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” he said pleadingly.

  “Nigga, I know yo’ crack smoking ass ain’t trying to quote scriptures at me. Step yo’ lame ass back,” Toby instructed, giving him a slight push. He grabbed the box of DVD’s, glaring at the man. “You’re lucky I don’t bust a cap in yo’ ass, nigga.” He lifted his shirt, showing the butt of the Beretta then let his shirt fall back into place. “You know of anybody else selling these?”

  “Nah.” The man shook his head nervously. “Lester said he was copying some mo’, and told me to holla at him if I ran out.”

  “Fuck nigga.” Della gave the man a swift kick in the balls, and he doubled over in pain. “You’ll think twice before you ever agree to sell anything with my face in it.” She slapped him up-side-the head with the broken windshield wiper.

  “Ouch. Stop hitting me,” the man whined, drawing up in fear. “Get her, man. She’s crazy.”

  Toby laughed and pulled Della in the direction of the Escalade. “Come on. Let’s go find that motherfucker Lester.”

  “When we do find him, I’m gonna fuck him up,” Della fumed.

  ***

  They drove around looking for Lester, searching all the places he usually frequented. The snake had slithered back under a rock because they couldn’t find him anywhere.

  “I’m going in here to get me something to drink,” Toby told Della as he pulled into a parking space at Ike’s Liquor Lounge. Even though he was underage, the manager of the store knew him. Toby had money to burn, so they sold him whatever he wanted, no questions asked.

  Toby went inside the store and Della remained behind listening to Lil Wayne rapping on a new single. Even though he seemed to be on everybody’s CD, just like T-Pain, she didn’t mind. Unlike T-Pain, Lil Wayne could rap. She sang along with the song, laughing at the lyrics.

  I like a long haired thick red bone. Open up her legs to filet mignon.

  She wondered how Lil Wayne came up with some of his lyrics. She’d heard that he free styled and didn’t write any of his stuff down.

  Cuz we like her and we like her too.

  She felt someone staring at her and glanced over at the chick. She was a brown-skinned woman, wearing a twotoned, purple and black, hair weave. Not recognizing the girl, she looked away. The girl kept mean-mugging her so she reacted the best way she knew how; with attitude.

  “What the fuck are you looking at?” Della snarled.

  “I’m looking at you. Ain’t you in that video circulating around? You look just like that girl.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Della wanted to sink down in the seat and hide.

  So, the video is out there and people qre watching it. Now, they’ll recognize me. Damn Lester to hell!

  “I bet.” The girl smirked. “You look just like that lightskinned bitch on there sucking dicks and doing all kind of other nasty shit. It’s called St. Pete.’s. Bitches Gone Wild. That’s not you in it?”

  “Bitch, I said I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Della repeated, getting loud.

  “I know you not getting salty, ho. You feeling froggy, then leap,” the girl egged her on, obviously drunk with courage.

  “Who the fuck you calling a ho?”

  “You, ho. Skanky ass dirty slut.”

  “Bitch, if I get out this truck, you best believe you’ll be wearing an ass whipping,” Della warned. The girl just rolled her eyes and curled her lips in disgust.

  “If that was you on that tape them niggas dogged yo’ ass out. You got exactly what you deserved, too. ‘Cause you got a fucked up ass attitude, bitch.”

  Della was out of the Escalade in a flash, leaping on the lady like cat woman. As she rode the woman’s back like she was a bronco, she snatched hands full of hair weave out of her scalp. The woman just screamed and tried to buck Della off.

  “Get her off me,” she screamed. “She’s fucking up my hair-do.”

  Toby came out the liquor store. Seeing what was going on, he shook his head. He decided to let Della relieve some of her frustrations for a minute.

  After putting his purchases in the truck, he walked over and pulled Della off the girl. Everybody else just stood around cheering and egging the fight on.

  “Bitch, I’mma fuck you up,” the girl who’d just received the ass whipping of her life, yelled. Tracks from her weave job lay in clumps on the ground. Some of her acrylic nails were broken to the cuticle. “I just got my fucking hair done. Damn.”

  “Let me go Toby. I wanna fuck that bitch up bad. I wanna cut her fucking face off.” Della pulled out a straightedge razor, like one they use at barber shops to shave customers.

  “Whoa. Put that shit away and get in the truck before you end up going to jail,” Toby said.

  “I don’t give a fuck. I’ll carve that ho up. I’ll slice that bitch’s lips off. She won’t be able to talk shit, then.” Della trembled with anger.

  “Della, come on,” Toby urged. “Get your ass in the truck so we can get the fuck out of here.” Toby picked her up and pushed her into the passenger’s seat of the SUV. He got in and sped off, putting the pedal to the metal.

  Della fumed. She closed the weapon and put it away. She curled up in the seat and began to rock back and forth.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, girl?” Toby yelled. “I leave you alone for a hot minute and you start some shit. You fucking with people that I know. Them my motherfucking customers. You stand a chance of staining my rep. I can’t have that shit. You better tell me something.” She continued to rock. “Stop doing that. You’re acting like a crack head, rocking and shit.” Della continued to rock and it annoyed him. “Stop doing that,” he repeated.

  “I can’t-”

  “Yes, you can. Sit still right now,” he demanded.

  It took a minute, but Della finally pulled herself together. She still had her arms crossed over her breasts, but she’d ceased rocking.

  “Now tell me what was you and that bitch fighting about?”

  “She said something that I didn’t like.” “What do you expect?” Toby asked in exasperation. “Huh? You go around fucking any and everybody. You end up getting recorded. People are gonna talk shit.”

  “She said I deserved it.” She suddenly burst into tears. “But, I didn’t deserve that. I didn’t deserve it, Toby.”

  “What are you talking about?” Toby hoped his sister wasn’t having a mental break down. He’d heard about mental illness running in the family, but Della had a different mama than him.

  “What they did to me on that tape. She said I deserved it.” She was crying so hard that he could barely understand her. “I didn’t even- I didn’t.”

  “Calm down and take a deep breath,” he suggested. “We’re almost home.”

  “Just because I agreed…to let one man fuck me, doesn’t mean…I deserved to be drugged and raped,” she finally managed to get out.

  “Who drugged you?” Toby tried to let what she’d said sink in. “And who the fuck raped you?” He felt the blood rush to his head.

  “That motherfucker Lester must have put something in my drink.” After fighting with the woman at Ike’s Liquor Lounge, everything came back to her. She remembered the details of that night clearly.

  “Hold up. Hold up. Tell me everything from the beginning,” Toby commanded so she did. Toby’s face hardened as she spoke. But she hadn’t gotten to the worse part.

  “I know you think I’m a slut and a whore. I’m not. I just like sex a lot, and I’m freaky. But, even I draw the line at having niggas run trains on me and nutting all in my fa
ce. That shit is nasty and degrading. And did you see what else they did to me?”

  “Hell nah,” he stated quickly. “I couldn’t watch that shit. When I recognized that it was you, I stopped looking. Don’t nobody wanna see their sister getting ran through and dogged out.” His lips curled in distaste.

  “Well, I’ll tell you what they did.” She stared at him with a crazed look in her eyes. “They fucked me in the ass. Fucked me until I shitted all over myself.” Her eyes darkened with hatred as she remembered.

  “Aw damn!” Toby hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “Fuck!”

  “I want to kill the motherfuckers,” she said with venom in her voice.

  “I don’t fucking blame you.” He just shook his head, still shocked by what she’d shared.

  “Toby, I know I put myself in a bad situation. But, what they did to me wasn’t right. And to think them entreponegros are profiting off of it, that makes my blood boil.”

  Toby pulled into the driveway. They sat in silence for a while. All that could be heard was Della’s sniffles.

  “We can’t get rid of the tapes that are already out there,” he finally said. “But we can stop that motherfucker from selling anymore of ‘em.”

  “You gonna help me?”

  “Shit, I hate to think about what happened to you. It’s foul. You didn’t deserve that. No woman does.” He ran his hands over his eyes. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “And Toby-”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry about what I did,” she said in a small voice. She had a faraway look in her eyes, as she stared at nothing. “You know, when I snuck into your bed and tried to-”

  “Girl, don’t ever bring that shit up again,” Toby said vehemently. “Never, no more in this lifetime.” He shivered in disgust.