One Hustler's World

by Nikita Stewart

Candace, sensing Angel's uncertainty, intervened. "Excuse me, sir, since you like spinning women around like they toys, how about you introduce yourself."

  He kissed the high yellow beauty's outstretched hand. "I'm Sea Breeze. But yo homegirl already knows that."

  Candace was captivated by the powder blue diamond bracelet clasp around his left wrist and his platinum, powder blue encrusted Cartier watch. A Curly afro and light 5 o'clock shadow enhanced his soap opera sexiness. Her lips grazing his earlobe, she whispered. "Nice of you to introduce yourself. I'm Lynx."

  ”Ma, yo name strange but sexy."

  “Go ahead, give me that well-practiced line, why folks call you Sea Breeze."

  “Since the womb, all I play is Sea Breeze cologne. Plus, in Yonkers, nicknames like that the norm."

  Candace chuckled. "In New York, you Albert, down here Sea Breeze. Sure, you didn't get chased from up north?"

  “Only thing that chased me down here is bread. Virginia like a big ass candy store." He pulled Angel into his arms. Relishing her feign struggle, he eyed Lynx. "Keisha can tell ya bout my bread bizness." Sea Breeze’s lips grazing Angel’s cheek, he licked her mouth. "All this time, you were right under my nose."

  Angel, unable to pry his arms from around her waist, couldn’t prevent him from smooching her mouth. She whined. "What about Pierre? I know yawl still friends."

  “Too bad he ran to Maryland all them years ago. Since he forgot to take Megan Goode along, that means I can have her." Sea Breeze pulled Candace's bar-stool close, then smooched her chin as well. "I'm greedy, so what will it take for me to bounce with both bombshells?"

  Candace smiled mischievously. “You trying to be our sugar daddy?"

  Angel interjected. "That's all he ever tries to do. He doesn't care, I was with his best friend. He wants everything for himself."

  Candace licked her lips seductively. "My kind of man."

  Sea Breeze held both women around their waists. "I love blessing my items, so let’s see where this leads."

  “What I tell you, I don't do best friends. Not back then, not now. Not ever." Angel chastised him. Her defiance was conquered by his warm, alluring pout. She couldn’t resist his lips aggressively overtaking hers. Soon his one-way kiss became their passionate two-way.

  Candace took Sea Breeze by his face. Sampling his mouth, she indulged in an equally passionate kiss. Fishing his sweatpants pockets, Candance procured a rubber-band bound stack of cash. Her mischievous grin annihilating his apprehension, she gave the bartender a $50 tip. She placed the rest inside her Marc Jacob handbag then stood. "If we gone do this, me and Keisha need to get going before our men come looking for us. Because we told them this where we'll be."

  Sea Breeze eyed Angel skeptically. "Keisha, this not like you. Cheating on yo man was never yo style."

  Candace interjected. "Styles change. Especially for the right amount of cash... Now we leaving or what?"

  Sea Breeze had a beautiful woman on each arm. Relishing the other male patrons’ envy, he escorted the women from Club Allure into the early morning night. Into the parking lot, Sea Breeze led them to his Infiniti G35. He used a remote control to unlock the doors and start the ignition. Primed to help Candace inside, he spied a suddenly reluctant Angel. "Keisha, don't do this to a player. Long as I been thirsty for yo sexy ass, don't... not tonight."

  Angel stepped back. "Lynx, I don't think we should. We deserve better than his selfish, arrogant ass."

  Sea Breeze pressed Angel against the passenger door. "Keisha, one night... you still feel like going back to yo chicken shit man, whoever he is nowadays, at least we had a good time." From his sock, he retrieved a wad of $100 bills. He stuffed the cash inside her bosom. "Buy yo man something nice. That way, you can make up for fucking and sucking my brains out."

  Candace led Angel several yards away. "Don't mess this up for us. This guy can keep us swimming in cash, so let’s go swimming."

  “I can't."

  “K-Tizzy told us about your little stunt the night he and my baby got shot. Did I treat you any differently? No. Because we're the same bitch. We only have eyes for the big bread. You said this guy got whole loaves. I say we enjoy the bakery. All he wants is a lil ass. Yo, dude, a understand. Especially after you place a couple of stacks on the bed."

  Angel gave Sea Breeze his money back. "You two have a nice time."

  Incensed, Candace watched Angel maneuver her purple Pontiac Grand Prix out of the Club Allure parking lot. Helped into Sea Breeze's Infiniti G35, she marveled at the maple wood-grain dashboard panel, huckleberry Gucci leather seats, and electronic everything.

  Sea Breeze, behind the wheel, slowly drove out of the parking lot and said. "Keisha stupid ass always playing that goodie-goodie bitch role, like muthafuckas don't know she a snake. I gotta right mind to put my dude Pierre back on her ass. Cause he'll love to know that snake bitch back in circulation."

  Candace, capturing him within her seductive leer, squeezed his thigh. "We talking about her or where we headed?"

  "I need a reason to talk location."

  Candace eased his sweatpants and boxers halfway down his thighs. Ogling his maturing buttermilk manhood, she slowly stroked him to an erection. Hurling Sea Breeze into the excellence of her mere touch, Candance leaned into his lap. Her lips grazing his mushrooming helmet, she purred. "A hotel too dangerous."

  A pleasure-gripped Sea Breeze asked. “For who?”

  “My man like a damn, broke-ass private eye. He'll comb every hotel in Hampton Roads."

  Between watching the road and her lips teasing his manhood, Sea Breeze groaned. "My girl at our spot."

  “What else you got?"

  “What about a trap spot in P-town? It’s secluded, but we might have some company."

  Candace took him into her mouth. Slurping along his shaft, she savored Sea Breeze’s easily captured masculinity. Her tongue coursing his bulging, warm blood-filled veins, she eyed him she-devilishly. "If he half as sexy as you, I'm in for a crazy night."

  “Shawty, ya trained to go crazy hard."

  “Oh, trust me, you gonna make it worth my while." She gnawed his mushroomed helmet. "You can start by giving me that bankroll Keisha gave you back."

  ∗

  Yorkshire Apartments

  Yorkshire Road

  Portsmouth, Virginia

  2:15 am

  Fifteen minutes after driving his Infiniti G35 coupe through the downtown Norfolk- Portsmouth tunnel, into the Portsmouth, Virginia city limits, Sea Breeze parked along Yorkshire Road.

  Candace, quickly scanning the silent, early morning night, stalled his disembark. "Why you in such a hurry?"

  “Let’s go inside, so we can get it popping."

  “Your car so sexy. Let me have you right here."

  Sea Breeze was overwhelmed by this beautiful woman’s sexual appetite. He collapsed the top of her tube dress. Marveling her perfect, high yellow 34Cs, Sea Breeze suckled both mounds until her stout nipples pressed against his tongue. Taken by her enchanted moan, he opened his driver's door. "Hard as my dick is, I'll toss you anywhere. The thing is, my rubbers inside and I'on drive with the top down. Plus, my big homie gone wanna couple shots of yo fine ass."

  Her arms folded and lips curled, Candace pouted. "Let me have some fun in a luxury coupe. I promise you won't regret it.”

  Sea Breeze conceded to her childishly alluring eyes and closed his driver's door. He reclined his seat backrest then collapsed his sweatpants & boxers. "You welcome to taste more of this pipe.”

  Candace caressing his fully engorged shaft, happily took him back into her mouth. Saliva trickling along her experienced deep throat, she savored his manly groan and inability to withstand her fellatio. Feeling his manhood expand with a primed eruption, she flinched from both car doors being snatched open.

  Sea Breeze froze frighteningly. With a dark handgun jammed against his jaw, he eyed the dark, nylon masked gunman fearfully. "Please don't body me. Whatever you want yours."

  By her elbow
, Candace was snatched from the Infiniti G35 passenger side. A second dark, nylon masked gunman ordered her to get lost. She quickly straightened her Gucci tube dress and ran into the night.

  Sea Breeze, ordered out of his vehicle, was quickly searched.

  The larger of gunmen asked him. "Do I gotta ask what's in the whip?"

  "In the trunk, take the duffle bag."

  Utilizing the remote starter, the gunman watched the trunk rise. He procured a duffle bag. He winced from the torment of the strap going around his neck & shoulder. His chest throbbing with every breath taken, he slowly made his way back to the vehicle driver's side.

  The second gunman jammed a 9mm Ruger P89 against Sea Breeze's spine. "Walk us into the trap spot. If more than yo big homie inside you better tell us now."

  Sea Breeze eyed them suspiciously. “My big homie... It’s only him, that's word on my flag."

  “We'll get to that flag in a minute."

  Sea Breeze led both masked gunmen to his first-floor apartment. Keys in hand, he disengaged the locks. With the gun barrel now against the back of his head, he eased the door open. A drumming snore escaping the slow expanding doorway, Sea Breeze reluctantly ushered the gunmen inside his secret, 1 bed, 1 bath residence.

  The slightly shorter gunman acknowledged the morbidly obese man sleeping on a tattered sofa. Sea Breeze placed on his knees had his hands duct-taped behind his back. Powerless, he watched his big homie/business partner be rudely awoken by a rubber-soled boot stomp to his stomach.

  The man cried out. The ability to peer into a gun barrel ushered in the big homie's abrupt silence. He was quickly duct tape bound as well.

  The residence secure, the captives were led into the bathroom. Instructed to lay in the bathtub, Sea Breeze spat. "What else yawl fuckas want!"

  “Get loud again. You'll find out." The shorter gunman sat on the closed toilet seat lid. Unzipping the duffle bag, he eyed several large, powder cocaine-filled jumbo Ziplock bags. "We got the work, now where's the bread?"

  “Doggie, under the sofa, there's a key. It unlocks the living room closet. Take the shit and rollout."

  The eerily calm gunman watched his still wounded comrade struggle to carry the duffle bag from the bathroom. “Let’s talk about your flag. What sect yawl claim?"

  Sea Breeze’s glare sharp enough to pierce cement replied. "We Bounty Hunter Bloods."

  The gunman chuckled at the captive's brusqueness. Faucet on, cold water rushing into the bathtub, he watched the morbidly obese man struggle to keep his face from being submerged. "Okay, Blood... you were politicking witta Crip OG-loc not too long ago, explain that."

  “What, when? Nawh, never that!” Sea Breeze stuttered.

  The gunman placed his handgun against his nose and said. “One more lie.”

  "I got family on both sides. A couple of weeks ago, I ran into my lil cuz-zo, who a Crip OG-loc.”

  “Which sect?”

  “Insane Gangsta.”

  “Where did you run into this cuz-zo?”

  Sea Breeze eyed the gunmen evilly. “I think you already know.”

  The gunman shut off the faucet. "Two weeks ago, you were seen politicking with the same IGC OG-loc. A minute after you leave the area, dudes start shooting from a Grand Marquise. You know what area I'm talking about, so who am I talking about?"

  "Won't me, that's all I know. I heard the shot, but I was already out of the hood. Word on my flag, my hands clean.” Sea Breeze swore.

  Exhaustedly, the second masked gunman dropped the heavy duffle bag near the bathroom door. Winded, his chest throbbing. Agitated by his accomplice’s inability to get some real answers, he struggled to pull Sea Breeze from the bathtub. "Yo ass think we don't know you. That bitch Keisha told us all about yo tricking, high rolling ass. So, you better tell us something." Ignoring his accomplice’s piercing stare, he unveiled a butterfly knife. "Give us what we want. You can hunt the sheisty bitch down.

  A surprisingly calm Sea Breeze replied. “I told yawl what I know.”

  “Why didn’t the shooters in the Grand Marquise shoot at Ski-Beau and Meatball?’

  “If I knew who the shooters were, I could tell you.”

  Sea Breeze held firm against the slow-moving gunman caressing the butterfly knife against his throat. His hate-filled eyes scorching both gunmen, he spat. "Don’t believe the shit that bitch Keisha say. She always jacking dudes. That bitch jacked my main-man, then went to the police. That bitch can’t be trusted. If that bitch involved, it’s her you need to__."

  His throat slashed. Drowning on his blood, Sea Breeze toppled on top of his weeping comrade.

  The masked gunman snatched the obese man by his hair. The butterfly knife blade slashing through his throat, his gurgling screams were quickly silenced. The gunman wiped his bloodied knife blade on Sea Breeze's clothes. Ready to depart, he balked at his accomplice’s fiery glare. “What?"

  "Cut the fucking duct tape from their wrists."

  Duct tape strips retrieved, the intruders secured the duffle bag. The first to exit the apartment, the murderous gunman heard four gunshots thundering from within the residence. Seconds later, his accomplice trailed him into the death consumed night.

  ∗

  Fox Hall Quarters

  East Princess Anne Road, Norfolk, Va.

  1 hour later

  KT pulled his Oldsmobile Ciera into the Fox Hall Quarters parking lot. He led everyone through an unlocked hallway door. One apartment was on the ground floor. Ascending carpeted stairs, the group stood outside of the lone, 2nd-floor apartment. KT ushered everyone inside. Candace made a beeline for the bathroom.

  Dynamo spied a chic sofa & loveseat. A flat-screen and modest Sony stereo system comprised the entertainment center. He placed the Duffle bag on the coffee table. For the umpteenth time, he absorbed an incense sneer. "Fam, once again, my bad."

  KT blasted. "You knew what telling Sea Breeze about my shorty meant!"

  “That's why I handled that. We were gone with him regardless of what I said. So, it shouldn’t be a big deal."

  “The plan was to get the info we needed. Did we fucking get it?”

  “His eyes said he would've died before selling out his fam. He stayed true. He was a real G."

  “So, you can read eye language now! Dudes always play tough at first. That's why you set an example. That's why we decided to wait until after we found out he was taking Candace to the trap spot. We had all the time we needed.”

  “Either way, we won’t getting that info. Not the truth anyway.” Dynamo took a slow, agonizing seat on the sofa. “This the blueberry Kush spot."

  KT snapped. “Fuck that! You adlibbing shit gone fuck around and get us late! Once we set a plan, stick to it.”

  “Okay, fam, damn, you right. But don’t get it fucked up. Sea Breeze was pine boxed the moment he touched Candace.” Dynamo affirmed. “We already know who behind us getting shot. Who threw them slugs? Sea Breeze would’ve either lied about or didn’t know. So, fuck him.”

  KT shook his head pitifully. “If it was that simple, we should’ve just twist his noodle outside his trap spot. Cause everything else was a fucking waste of time.”

  Dynamo conceded to the stern chastisement. "Tell me about this setup.”

  Several deep, anger dispelling breaths later, KT replied. “I chose this locale because it’s quiet, and the neighbors mostly in our age range." He explained how after he found a crack addict with an acceptable credit score, he acquired the 1-bed apartment. The furnishings he purchased from the Goodwill Store.

  Five days ago, KT was outside purposely smoking a cigarillo. He was approached by the downstairs tenant, who was looking to purchase a jay of the enticing cannabis. KT gave the man a free quarter-ounce worth. Sharing his cigarillo, he privy his new neighbor to his plans of distributing a modest amount of marijuana from the upstairs apartment. All that was needed was for the downstairs tenant to turn a blind eye.

  Dynamo asked. “In exchange for?"

  "'Free quarter
ounce a week, and we pay his rent." KT set the duffle bag on the floor and placed the contents on the coffee table. Using a digital scale, the men verified the three large powder cocaine-filled, jumbo Ziplock bags were, in fact, three kilos. They also had a Tech 9 semi-automatic submachine gun and twenty individually rubber-band bound $1,000 stacks of cash.

  A toilet flushed in the near distance. The bathroom door creaking, an overly excited Candace charged into the living room. She secured one of the large, powder cocaine-filled plastic bags. “This one mine."

  Dynamo snatched it from her. By her throat, he threw her against the wall. His face tightened with agitation. He recognized her cocaine-energized state. He barked. "Why the fuck I catch you sucking that bitch ass Sea Breeze off!"

  Candace whimpered. "Dy, you said yawl lost his taillights when he turned into that neighborhood. If we went inside, I would've had to do him and his friend."

  “So. the fuck what!"

  “Think about it, baby... if we went inside, how would you know which apartment we were in?"

  “That's why I told you to leave yo damn phone on. We heard everything. So, all you had to do was say the apartment number."

  Candace, cautiously removing his hands from around her throat, kissed him. "Dy, I did what I had to do, to keep him where you could find him. Just like you wanted." Reaching underneath her tube dress, she gave him Sea Breeze's wad of $100 bills. "I want you to have my share."

  Dynamo gave KT half of the cash. "We still need to smoke out whoever dumped them slugs on us."

  KT second-guessed his decision to involve Candace and Angel in their ploy. Candace seems not to have a care in the world, despite her being culpable in a double murder robbery. He could only pray his decision doesn't bear future, unbearable consequences.

  KT gave Dynamo a manly embrace, then dropped a set of keys to the apartment in his hand. He placed his share of the booty back inside the duffle bag and said. "We'll figure out how to smoke the shooters out soon enough. In the meantime, I already put the word out on the blueberry Kush and passed out samples. By tomorrow afternoon, the ball should be rolling. Everything you need in the backroom. Two pounds already broke down, and you have the price scale."