Grand Opening 2

by Carl Weber

  “Okay, love you too,” they said in unison.

  I was escorted out of the house and into a black sedan, leaving my grandbabies alone to fend for themselves . . . but alive.

  Lou

  4

  “Hijo de puta! Con cuidado, papi! Eres enormo!”

  I don’t know what was turning me on more—the way this chick was moaning in Spanish, or her watermelon-size ass bouncing around as I fucked her doggy style. There was nothing like some Latina pussy. This mamacita could take some dick, and trust me, I was packing a monster. I yanked her hair with one hand and smacked her ass with the other.

  “Nadie me lo da como tú!” Rosa, who happened to be Juan’s new sister-in-law, continued what I assumed was dirty talk, turning me on even more. I couldn’t translate what she was saying, but I really didn’t care, because her accent was making me rock hard. I tightened my hands around her waist and slammed into her, forcing her to cry out in a mixture of pleasure and pain. I closed my eyes just as I felt myself about to erupt. I swear, if this wasn’t some of the best pussy I’d ever had, it was damn close to it.

  “Yeah, that’s it! Take all of this, mami!” I said.

  BAM! BAM! BAM!

  The sound of banging on the hotel room made me lose my rhythm for a second, but I was determined to nut, so I kept my eyes on Rosa’s massive ass and continued what I was doing.

  Rosa turned and looked at me from the corner of her eye, “Que, papi?”

  BAM! BAM! BAM!

  “Lou!” Someone shouted my name.

  “Turn the fuck around. Don’t worry about that,” I said, enjoying the feeling of her wetness and still set on reaching my goal.

  “Lou, open the fucking door!”

  “Fuck!” This time I recognized the voice as Larry’s. I knew that he wouldn’t stop until I let him in. Knowing him, he was probably drunk and Nee Nee had kicked his ass out for the night.

  I slipped out of Rosa, grabbed my tuxedo pants, and covered myself as I walked over to the door and snatched it open just wide enough to peek through.

  “What the fuck do you want? I know you could hear this bitch in here screaming all the way down in the lobby, so you know I was busy,” I said.

  He pushed his way past me and stepped inside the room. “Get dressed. We gotta go. Now!”

  “I ain’t going nowhere. I’m in the middle of something.” I turned to look at Rosa, still in the bed. She had pulled the rumpled sheets over her fine-ass body, trying to shield herself from my brother’s view. “You do see I got a naked woman in here, don’t you?”

  “I don’t give a fuck! Get dressed! Now!” Normally, Larry wasn’t the type to get in the way of me getting some pussy, so I knew that something must be very wrong. I took another look at him and realized he was covered in sweat and his eyes were full of terror. I instantly sobered up. There weren’t many things in this world that could scare my brother Larry.

  “What is it, Larry?”

  “She’s gone!” He sounded out of breath.

  “Who? Nee Nee?” I shook my head. Those two were forever fighting over dumb shit. “Please, she ain’t going nowhere. But you do need to start treating her better.”

  “No, not Nee Nee,” Larry said, sounding panicked. “Momma! Someone’s got Momma. She’s gone.”

  “What the fuck do you mean she’s gone? Someone grabbed her?” I was already snatching up the rest of my clothes and putting them on.

  “When Nee and I got to the house, she was gone. Kids was there, but Momma was gone. Curtis and Junior said she left with some men with play guns. But I don’t think they were so play, if you know what I mean.”

  I balled my fists and pressed them on the sides of my head, understanding now why Larry was in such a panic. “Fuck! Who would do this shit?”

  “I was thinking it could be Norman Tilman. You know that nigga is crazy enough to do something like this, and he hates you. Larry was pacing back and forth.

  “Why you trying to pin this shit on my shoulders, man?” The fucked up part was that he was probably right. Norman had been promising for almost a year to get my ass back for fucking his wife. The damn pussy wasn’t even that good.

  “Don’t act stupid, Lou. More of our problems come from you fucking these bitches than anything else, and you know it,” Larry said.

  No way was I owning up to that one, even if there was some truth to it. “What about LC and Levi?” I asked to move the subject away from me.

  “I got Levi in the car. LC’s halfway to Atlanta by now, following behind that black motherfucker Mr. Mahogany. By the time word gets to him, Momma should be ’sleep in her bed.”

  I nodded. “Either that or half of Waycross is gonna be on its way to Fluker’s Funeral home, ’cause I will tear this town apart if anything happen to Momma.” I leaned over and kissed Rosa’s cheek as I removed my gun from the nightstand.

  “Where you going?” she asked in her thick, sexy accent. I tried not to stare at her nipples which were showing through the thin sheet.

  “Sorry, mami. Family always comes first.”

  * * *

  My Benz screeched to a halt in Norman’s driveway, and Larry and Levi pulled in right behind me in Larry’s blue Caddie. We got out of our cars and headed for the house. I was carrying my new Dirty Harry .44 Magnum, while Larry carried his signature sawed-off shotgun. Levi wasn’t carrying a gun, but then again, when you’re six foot eight and four hundred pounds, you don’t need a gun. I pointed at the front door, and Levi went barreling toward it like a runaway train. He hit it full speed with his right shoulder, and we heard the sound of splintering wood as the door came off its hinges and fell sideways into the house.

  “D–d–did I do good, L–L–Lou?” he asked as Larry and I stepped past him into Norman’s living room.

  “You sure did, big guy. Now, go back to the car. We don’t want you getting all shot up. Larry and I will handle it from here.” My stuttering brother might have been as big as an ox, but that just made him a bigger target for bullets, so whenever I could, I liked to remove him from the action.

  Levi quickly did as he was told, which was a good thing, because just as he stepped out of the house, Norman came running out of a back bedroom with his gun drawn. His wife was not too far behind him.

  Boom!

  Before I could blink, Larry’s sawed-off exploded, and Norman fell to the ground.

  “Oh my God! You killed him! You killed him!” His wife started screaming.

  “Shut up, bitch!” Larry yelled, kicking Norman in the ribs. “He ain’t dead. I just shot him in the leg. But he will be dead if he don’t tell me where my momma is.” Larry grabbed Norman by his Jheri curl, keeping the shotgun raised in his other hand. “Where is my momma?”

  “I don’t know what you talking about.” Norman looked more scared than I’d ever seen a man. “I been here all day painting. Ask Debbie.”

  “You’re a liar!” Larry spat, raising the gun higher, as if he was about to smash it into Norman’s face.

  I turned to Debbie, who was crying.

  “He’s telling the truth. Go look for yourself. Please, Lou,” she begged.

  I gestured for her to lead the way. She reluctantly started moving but didn’t take her eyes off Larry. She definitely didn’t trust him alone with her husband. Neither did I.

  “Lou, why are you doing this?” she asked me as we entered the hallway.

  “Because that piece of shit husband of yours took my momma, that’s—” The familiar sound of fists pounding on flesh, followed by Norman’s screams, stopped me mid-sentence.

  “Jesus Christ, he’s going to kill him!” Debbie yelled at me. “He didn’t do anything. He’s been here with me all day. Look for yourself. He’s been painting the baby’s room all day.”

  The room she was referring to definitely did smell like fresh paint, and the can and paintbrush were still in the corner on a small tarp. Another corner held a crib.

  “He didn’t take your mother, Lou. He’s been here with
me all day. I swear to God. We are having a baby.”

  In spite of the fact that I’d fucked her a few times, I didn’t really know Debbie all that well. Still, when I looked in her eyes, I knew she was telling me the truth.

  “Shit. Larry! Larry!” I ran back to the living, grabbing my brother’s arm just as he was about land another blow to Norman’s already bloody face. “Stop, Larry. Stop!” I had to wrestle with him for a few moments, but he finally calmed down enough for me to get through. “He didn’t do it! He didn’t do it!”

  “Then who did?” Larry asked, panting hard from the exertion of beating the shit out of Norman.

  “I don’t know, but we gotta find out. Let’s go down to Melvin’s. I’m sure someone knows something down there.”

  “They fucking better, or I’ll crack every skull in the place,” Larry said, and I had no doubt he meant every word.

  I nodded silently at Debbie, which was as close to an apology as they were going to get, and then I led Larry out of the house and back to our cars.

  “Wh-what happened?” Levi asked.

  “You don’t wanna know,” I told him. “You drive. Larry needs to calm down for a minute. Follow me to Melvin’s.”

  * * *

  I was going so fast that I almost missed the driveway of the hit house sitting behind the trees. The tires screeched as I swerved into the makeshift parking lot out front, which was full. There were old beaters, newer model sedans, and even a shiny new Corvette. Any other time, I would’ve taken the time to check it out, but I was on a mission and didn’t even give it a second look.

  I jumped out and popped open the trunk to get my baseball bat. Larry was right by my side, grabbing a tire iron. Wasting no time, we hopped the porch steps, and Larry snatched the screen door so hard that it came off its hinges. In that same instant, I burst in the front door with such force that everyone inside froze.

  “Where the fuck is she?” I exploded, my eyes scanning the room for any signs of my mother. My heart was pounding, and the anger had me seeing red.

  “Lou, man, what the—” A guy jumped up, and before he could finish, I punched the shit out of him. He fell backward and hit the floor hard. Two other guys jumped up to his defense, but Larry punched one and then kicked the other one in the stomach. That was enough to deter anyone else who might have been thinking of stepping in. I flipped over tables; cards and money flew in the air. There was an old radio blasting music in the corner of the room, and I smashed it with the bat.

  “Somebody better tell me something in this muthafucka!” I roared.

  No one moved, even though the room was filled with some of the most hardcore, deviant characters in Waycross. Everyone from dope dealers to bank robbers frequented this house that we secretly owned. All eyes were on me as I circled the room, waiting for someone to tell me something.

  I reached over and grabbed Vernon, a guy who had been talking shit about me around town for the past few days because, like Norman, he found out I’d been fucking his wife. He stood six foot six and was built like an NFL linebacker, but I wasn’t intimidated.

  “I know yo’ bitch ass did this!” I held the bat up near his face, preparing to strike him. “Where the fuck is she?”

  Beads of sweat began forming on his forehead, and a vein popped out of his neck. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! I swear!”

  “Lou! Larry!”

  I turned around to see Melvin running over to me. He was a friend of Larry’s, which was probably the only reason he was brave enough—or stupid enough—to approach me when I was in this state.

  “Bro, you need to calm the fuck down! What’s wrong?” he whispered in my ear.

  I stared at him, breathing hard. “Get the fuck back, Mel. We handling business.”

  “Naw, bro. You fucking shit up, and nobody knows why.” Melvin frowned. “At least tell him that before you smash him.”

  I tightened my grip and stared into Vernon’s terrified eyes. “Somebody went into Larry’s house and took something that belongs to us. Something very important.”

  “I . . . I ain’t take shit. I swear. I been here since this afternoon.” Vernon choked the words out.

  “He ain’t lying! He been here!” someone yelled. Larry found the owner of the voice and grabbed him.

  “Shut the fuck up,” he hissed.

  Melvin tried again to be the voice of reason. “Whatever it is they took, y’all know we gon’ get it back. But these muthafuckas in here been here all damn day. Ain’t nobody leave except for me, and that was to go over to Big Shirley’s to get some change.”

  My eyes turned to Larry’s, who was staring at Mel. If it had been anybody else, things probably would have gone a different way, but Mel and Larry had been boys for a long time, and we trusted him. I let Vernon’s big ass go.

  “I want my shit back! If none of you muthafuckas took it, chances are you know who did, and I’m gonna fuck shit up until it’s returned. I mean that shit. So, y’all better help me get back what’s mine!” I announced before storming out the door, stepping on broken card tables on the way.

  Larry was right on my heels. As we made our way back to the car, we took turns using our weapons and striking whatever we could reach. Headlights, hoods, windshields, and windows of vehicles were destroyed.

  “Yo!” Mel came running out of the house just as I opened the door to get into the car.

  I paused long enough for him to reach us. “Not now, Mel.”

  “What the fuck is going on?” he asked. He was just as ready for action as we were. Mel always was. “What the fuck did they take?”

  I stared at Larry and waited for him to answer.

  Larry looked over at Mel and finally said, “My mother.”

  “Shit! What the fuck you gonna do now?” Mel asked.

  I looked at Larry and told him, “We gonna go find the college boy, and then we can fuck up the rest of this town.”

  LC

  5

  “You sure about this?” Chippy asked as she slipped on her sunglasses. We’d just stepped out of the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, where we were staying compliments of Mr. Mahogany. We had driven up directly after the wedding so that the two of us could talk business in a more suitable setting.

  “We don’t know anything about this man other than he was supposedly friends with your father, and now we’re going to his house like we’re old friends. Maybe you should have made Lou come with us, or stopped by and talked to your mother first.”

  “I probably should have talked Ma, but its too late now. Besides, Lou was drunk, and there was no way we were dragging him away from Maria’s sister. You know how he gets when he thinks he’s gonna get some new—” I stopped myself from saying what I was thinking, but Chippy finished my sentence.

  “Pussy, LC. The word is pussy. You don’t have to act like I have virgin ears all the time. I used to work in a whorehouse, remember?”

  I shot her a look. “Used to being the operative words,” I told her. It was true that when I met her, my wife was working at Big Sam’s, but she’d been tricked into that life, and as far as I was concerned, it was ancient history. She was a queen, and there was no reason to dredge up a past that no longer mattered.

  “I love you. You know that?” She leaned over and kissed me, her big, pregnant belly rubbing up against my thigh. “You’re going to protect my honor until the day you die, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, and from the grave, if I have to.”

  She took hold of my arm and squeezed it affectionately. As we waited for the valet to bring my 1957 Corvette Roadster, she let out an exasperated sigh.

  “Shit. I can’t believe I forgot to call the farm and check in on Junior. My poor baby. He must think I’m the worst mother in the world.”

  I could feel her pulling away from me like she was about to go back inside the hotel and make that phone call.

  “Relax, baby,” I said, holding on to her so she couldn’t go anywhere. “I’m supposed to check in with Larry
and Lou at noon. I’ll check on him then.”

  She was still agitated. “We didn’t even tell your mother or Nee Nee what hotel we were staying at. What if something happens?”

  “Like what?” I asked skeptically. “We haven’t even been gone half a day. What could possibly happen?” The valet pulled up, and I led her toward the car, helping her in to the passenger’s side.

  “You’re right,” she said as she settled in. “I just miss my son.”

  “I miss him too, but we’ll see him tonight. For now, let’s just enjoy ourselves in the big city. How about I take you shopping after my meeting?”

  “I’m going to hold you to it.” She gave me a big grin and leaned back in the seat.

  The beaming sun was inviting as we drove down the busy streets of Atlanta. Maybe it was the anticipation of my meeting, but to me, even the air was better in this city. I looked over at Chippy, who was finally smiling as she took in the sights. Her hands were tenderly placed on top of her swollen belly. There was something so damn sexy about her being pregnant that turned me on tremendously. Her breasts were fuller, her hips wider, and I swear, when she smiled, she had the glow of an angel.

  “This place is so nice. One day I’d like to live in a big city,” Chippy said as she gazed out the window.

  “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  “Hmmmmm, I guess it’s true what they say, huh?”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Great minds think alike.” We laughed together.

  I was following the directions to the location Mr. Mahogany had given me for our nine o’clock meeting. The sounds of the Doobie Brothers on the radio drifted through the speakers as we traveled on Peachtree through Five Points, then downtown, finally arriving at our destination on a busy highway right outside midtown. I double checked the address to make sure I was at the right place.

  “I though you said we were going to his house,” Chippy said.

  “That’s what he said.”

  “That don’t look like no house.”