Fast Money and Cold Hearts

by Ghost

“Daddy. Daddy. I missed you so much.” She cried, and wrapped her little arms tightly around my neck.

  The first thing I noticed was that she smelled rank. It smelled like she’d spent most of her time in a basement, or maybe even an attic. She had on the same blue jean dress that she’d had on the last time I’d seen her.

  I kissed her, and rocked her in my arms. Tears gushed out of my eyes.

  “I missed you too baby. I missed you with my whole heart. Everyday I was trying to find you. I promise to never allow anything to happen to you again. Do you hear me Goddess. I’d rather die first.”

  “Okay daddy. Just please don’t leave me again. I’m so scared without you. You have to protect me.” Shante buried her face into the crux of my neck and cried a bit harder, It seemed as if she was nowhere near ready to settle down.

  Kamya came and rubbed my back.

  “I been hollering at him cuz. He thinks its sweet. He’s supposed to be back in town in a few days. When he get back I’ma take care of him, just to show you how down for you I really am. I hate his punk ass.” She whispered into my right ear canal.

  Shanté slowly calmed down. “Daddy I’m so hungry. Can I have a pizza?” She said hiccuping, and crying at the same time.

  I continued to bounce her up and down, patting her bottom just like I did when she was a little kid. It was the only thing that used to calm her down. “Yeah baby. I’ll have Kamya order you one from Domino’s. Just calm down baby. Daddy is here.” I kissed her soft cheek again.

  It took me a complete hour to calm my daughter down. Once she calmed down, I gave her a bath and put her into some clean clothes, fed her, and rocked her to sleep. I couldn’t help dropping a few tears over the feeling of her in my arms. She felt so amazing. Shanté was the one and only true love of my life. The fact that Mikey had plans of taking her from me made me so angry that I wanted to wipe his entire bloodline off of the map. What type of man went at a nigga’s eight year old daughter? Yeah he had to pay for all of this shit.

  As I settled on to the couch, Kamya sat beside me. “How you holding up baby?” She laid her head on my shoulder

  It was three in the morning and I was wide awake. “Man I thought I’d lost her. I can’t even begin to tell you what that feels like. I still don’t know where Toya is. Mikey swearing revenge for me getting Alicia pregnant, and I don’t even know where me and her stand as of yet. My brain is all screwed up. I gotta get my shit together though. There are so many moves to be made. Damn life is a bitch.”

  Kamya raised her head, and rubbed her cheek against mine. “Phoenix you aren’t alone. I hope you know that. I’m willing to ride beside you, and do whatever I can. I hate what they’re taking you through. I know that some of it is self inflicted, but at the same time I don’t care. I just love you so much, and I’m ready to ride out.”

  What is a person in this world for if they can’t ride for the people they love?” She asked, rubbing the side of my face.

  I sat back on the couch, and pulled Kamya on top of me. I could feel her weight and her heat as she placed her face within the crux of my neck and inhaled my scent. My hands palmed that ass.

  “I love you too, shawty. I hope you know that. I appreciate you for looking after Shanté while I was up against the ropes. I’ll never forget how much you be holding me down. I mean that. Gimme some of them lips.”

  She pulled her head back, looked me over, and smiled. “I wanna waste that nigga for you cuz. We gotta find out how you gon let me do that. I wanna be the one to put him down. Do you understand that?”

  I smiled. “Yeah boo, I hear you.” I kissed her lips, and held her more firmly.

  Kamya moaned, closed her eyes, and turned her head side ways as she returned my affection. Her tongue shot out of her mouth again and again. She used it to trace all over my lips. Then our digits were wrestling with one another’s.

  “I just love you so much Phoenix. I love you so so much. I’m ready to handle my bidness for you baby. I swear to God I am.” She kissed all over my neck, and sucked on it hard, before resting her face there.

  Those were the kind of words I needed to hear. In that moment I just needed a rider, a right hand. I knew that if I could trust anybody, I could trust Kamya. Our bond had always been strong. Unbreakable. I was ready to put her to test and see if she really had that killa shit in her.

  ***

  The next morning, I ducked Kamya and Shanté off at the Four Seasons in West Memphis. I paid for the whole month, just in case it was goin take some serious grinding on my part to accomplish what I was trying to. Shanté threw a fit when it was time to leave her there with Kamya. I had to wait until she cried herself to sleep before I left. On my way back from the hotel, Smoke met up with me, along with two of his hittas. They pulled his Chevy Caprice beside my whip and he jumped out, and got in mine with two duffle bags.

  “What it do, Potna? I got a hunnit bands in this bitch that belong to you. The Mound still jumping like double Dutch, and we need some more of that good Rebirth. I’d say I can handle at least twenty bricks in a week now with no effort.” He unzipped one of the duffle bags, and showed me that it was filled with a bunch of ones, fives, tens, and twenties. Trap money for sure.

  I nodded my head at him. “That’s what’s good. Now we starting to eat a lil bit. Shit finna get a whole lot better though. Mark my words. I’ma call in a order and make sure them bricks get to the Mound in a orderly fashion. You can believe that. But before we do any of that, I want you to call up your closest hittas, and I wanna use some of this cash to splurge on you niggas. This y’all day. So we gon hit up this mall and the cellphone place. I’ma pay some rents, gas bills whatever Mane, I just wanna show my love and appreciation, you feel me?”

  He looked shocked. “Mane, you serious?”

  “As a heart attack. Holla at cha boys, Playboy, and let’s get it in.”

  Smoke looked over his shoulder. “You see that black van following us with the Mississippi plates, and tinted windows?”

  I looked into my rear view mirror, and sure as shit stinks we were being followed. “Yeah I see it.”

  “Well dem my real killas. I’m talking niggas that a buck some shit down for me in a heart beat and you too because they know you be the head, and I fuck wit you the long way. All them niggas in that van starving. Struggling to make ends meet. Going through their own challenges and all that shit. If we gon splurge some cash we need to pay some bills. Get these niggas some cheap whips until we can get some classy ones. Do some grocery shopping. Mafuckas really out here starving, Mane. If you save these niggas, they gone be about that life for you.”

  “Den that’s what we gon do, Playboy. We gon feed these niggas the way you say, and every time that money get a lil better we gon do it again. Its time to take this Cartel to the next level. Send bruh nem a text, and let’s handle this bidness.”

  “Word, I’ma do just that.” He started texting away on his phone. ‘‘Man I already know they finna go crazy about that. Ain’t nobody trying to reach for us niggas in the Mound man. Our family’s out here starving. Mafuckas been hustling for five years straight and still ain’t got a pot to piss in. You wanna establish some true thorough bred killas, these the fools you feed.”

  And that’s what we did. I took the first day back from Russia, and used it to get my troops right. For the niggas in the van, I paid up all of their rents, utilities, and put five hundred dollars worth of groceries in their cribs. I gave them ten thousand dollars apiece, and had a nice long chat with each of them while we sat at the Barbecue Pit restaurant. The owner was paid a hefty amount to close the doors to his store for the four hours we needed to get an understanding. The restaurant was packed with nothing but our killers. Niggas that were born and bred in the Mound. Cats that had been there through the wars, and raids from the dirty ass law enforcement who made heir quotas by robbing us for the paper that we’d hustled for. They assaulted our men, and abused a women in more ways than one. These men were the heart and soul of the pro
jects. I bought the Pit out, and told these killas to feast. I’d never seen niggas eat so ravenously. All I heard was smacking, laughing, and the sound of bottles being placed back on the tables after some killa downed half of it to wash down the barbecue.

  Mid way through the meal, Smoke stood up with a bottle of Patron in his hand. “Say Mane, everybody listen the fuck up right now. I wanna make a toast from the heart, and I don’t do this shit often, but under the circumstances I feel like I just gotta say something.”

  Slowly but surely the restaurant quieted to a whisper, and then it was almost silent altogether. I could still hear the sounds of utensils on plates, somebody smacking, or a mafucka burping. But for the most part Smoke had everybody’s undivided attention.

  “Mane, I’d like to make a toast to the big homie Phoenix for doing some shit that we ain’t seen done here in the Mound. Mafuckas come up in the game and all they do is think about what’s best for them, whereas the Homie done came through and made sure that all of our homes were in order first. He put a nice amount in our pockets, and pledged to keep that shit consistent. I don’t know about you niggas, but I’m ready to rock my trap to the fullest, and bust my gun for this real nigga on thus Duffle Bag shit. If a mafucka cross him, they cross the whole cartel. That’s just that. Now let me be the first to say that from here on out I’ll go hard for you Phoenix. Morning, noon, and night. You got my loyalty, bruh. Let’s take this shit to the next level. Who’s with me? Stand up and pull them guns out.”

  “I’m wit you homie.” Said a heavy set, dark skinned nigga with a bald head. He stood up and pulled out two chrome forty fives.

  “Ride to the dirt nigga.” Said a caramel nigga, with a bunch of muscles. He took a twelve gauge off of his lap and stood up.

  “We that cartel over here boy!” Said a tall, skinny, dark skinned nigga. He upped two Glocks, and pulled a half ski mask around his face.

  All around the restaurant men began to stand, brandishing their weapons. Every nigga was cocking them and pledging their loyalties to the cartel. It seemed as if everybody was strapped and ready for action. The sight was enough to make me smile and feel real confident about where I could take this unit.

  Smoke held his bottle high in the air. “Say Phoenix, come on up here and say a few words, Mane. Let the fellas know what shit finna be like.” He waved me to the front of the barbecue joint.

  I stood up and all of the homies got to rooting for me like we was in a high school cafeteria or some shit. When I reached the front of the restaurant I held my bottle of Grey Goose in the air.

  ” Memphis killas. What it do baby boys?”

  They began greeting me in different phrases. The entire cartel was clapping their hands together, and making all sorts of howling calls, before settling down so I could speak.

  “Say Potnas, I know mafuckas been starving in the Mound for a long time, but all of that shit about to change. If you don’t know who I am then you ain’t from Orange Mound. Even if you do allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Phoenix Mitchell. I was born and bred right in those project slums. No matter how much money I make or where I wind up in life, Orange Mound is my home. You know what they say, home is where the heart is. My heart bleeds the Mound fellas. I’m looking at all of you niggas and I know you fools starving. Y’all ready to get money. To eat like them suckas over in Black Haven, am I right?” I scanned the room. Every head in here was nodding including Smoke’s.

  “Well we finna eat more than they is. As long as you niggas keep shit one hunnit wit me I’ll make sure that that broke shit stay as far away from you as China. I’m loyal to the niggas that’s eating wit me. I wanna watch my niggas burp, and walk away from the table with guts as big as a pregnant woman.” I paused to scan the crowd again.

  “But on the contrary, if you cross me, or step outside of this family I ain’t got no other choice than to wipe out whole bloodlines. I ain’t playing neither. We live for each other, and we die for each other. We are our brother’s keepers. Y’all got that?”

  There was more nodding around the room. All eyes were trained intently on me. I liked the attention. Yeah, a nigga loved the way everybody was paying strict attention because I meant everything I said.

  “With that being said, eat up, and get ready to see more money then you’ve ever had in your entire life. Let’s eat, and show mafuckas how to look good while we doing this hustling shit. Bottles up!”

  “Bottles up!” Smoke, and the rest of the crew repeated holding their drinks in the air.

  “And bottoms up.” I began downing my liquor, swallowing it like a fish in water. A few minutes later I stood back and watched as the rest of my crew did the same. It was time to turn all the way up.

  Chapter 13

  I don’t know how, or where it came from, but a week later Natalia had a couple big Russians dudes pull up on me while I was coming out of the Four Seasons on a bright and sunny day in March. I was about twenty paces from my Cadillac Escalade, when the a Dominos Pizza delivery van pulled up, and slammed on its brakes in front of me. My first instincts were to jump backward, and up both of my cannons. I cocked them and aimed at the passenger’s side, ready to blow his ass to Smithereens wherever that was. It was a good thing the passenger’s window was rolled down.

  “Wait. Wait. I have a few packages here for you courtesy of Princess Natalia.” The white man with the heavy accent said.

  I stepped behind one of the cars that was in the parking lot. “Man who the fuck are y’all?” I was curious. The night before Natalia and I had stayed up on the phone having a long discussion about business and how long it was taking her to get things in order. That night she’d promised me that she had a gift for me that was coming straight from somebody in our blood line. She wouldn’t tell me what it was, only that I needed to do my thing with it before she met up with me in the States. Maybe this was the gift she was talking about.

  “Our names don’t matter.” The driver said, before opening his door.

  A black BMW pulled up behind the van. Both men got out of the delivery van, and got into the BMW. Before they rolled away the driver threw me the keys.

  “You may want to unload it right away. The streets have too many eyes.” The BMW pulled away from the parking lot.

  I looked both ways, and got into the pizza delivery truck. After pulling it into a parking space, I crawled into the back of it. There were ten duffle bags on the floor in the back of it. They were stuffed and looked deformed. I pulled one closer to me, as the sun from outside beat down on my neck. Without hesitating I unzipped it, and revealed that it was packed with bricks and bricks of what I assumed to be the Rebirth. I was sure of the contents only because these bricks had the same packaging as other shipments from earlier bundles. One by one I began to unzip all of the bags to reveal the treasures inside. When I got to the last one and surmised that each bag held about twenty bricks apiece, I knew that not only was this the gift that Natalia had assured me to come, but that I was about to turn the city out.

  ***

  I gave Smoke fifty birds and told him that after he and his Orange Mound crew popped the first forty for me, the last ten was all his. It would be that way from here on out. He went nuts. We went from having just four traps in the Mound to ten there, and fourteen in North Memphis. The objective was nothing but ten dollar hits. We sold no less, and no more. Weight was not apart of the equation. You see by popping nothing but small quantities we would be able to maximize our profits. Any hustler knows that the more weight you sell the more of a loss you wind up taking. The only benefit to moving weight was that you could get rid of the product a lot quicker. For me time wasn’t really a factor. I needed the money. I had a lot of niggas eating off of my plate that depended on me to put food on their families table. Since I knew how it was, and what was expected of me, I refused to fail them. I made sure that I distributed my goods strategically, kept it potent, and accrued a nice cash flow from all sides.

  Smoke and I had a trap house that was use
d strictly for breaking down bricks of the Rebirths and for foiling. We had another one that was used as a bang house.

  After the Hypes copped our product, the feens would pay us ten dollars to come into the bang house so they could shoot their work, and mingle with the other fiends. Sometimes a feen could pay ten dollars to come in after copping a small quantity from us and they wound up using a hundred dollars worth of work just from networking on the inside. Most of them used the bang house to do their work and to fuck. I very rarely spent time inside of the house because of how bad it smelled.

  If you could imagine the fragrance of dirty pussy, dick, musk, and ass, all mixed together with the smell of dope, and humidity, then you could understand why I stayed as far away from this sucker as I could. But it was a money maker. On average a minimum of a hundred addicts visited this spot a day. To be able to come inside was a thirty dollar Rebirth purchase minimum, and the ten dollar cover charge, so you can see how that quickly added up day by day. We supplied new syringes and condoms. Everything else they had to bring on their own.

  Occasionally I would come through this spot with bags of Kentucky Fried Chicken, or subs, or cheese burgers. This group of addicts got to me the most. I couldn’t tell you why that was, but it was the truth.

  The Mound was rocking so hard, that I went from paying Links and Jack ten gees every week, to fifteen and the pay didn’t even hurt my pockets because we were doing so well.

  By the third week I was taking Smoke and his inner circle shopping for Sports Utility Vehicles. There was this one hype by the name of Don Summer who owned a Cadillac dealership. He told me that if I gave him a nice play on a large quantity of the Rebirth, he would plug my niggas and we could walk on the lot and buy our trucks off of it with cash money, and he would look the other way. So in the last week of the month. Me, Smoke, and eight of his homies walked onto the Escalade lot and bought ten 2020’s in an array if colors. I dropped a hunnit bands and a half thang of the Rebirth. Don Summers hooked up the paper work, and we wound up rolling off of the lot one truck after the next.