by Mikal Malone
“I’m sorry, Nakato, but we must listen. Please call us later.” Efua said before both of the women hauled ass out of the laundry room.
When they were alone Yvette, Mercedes and Toi placed a washer in front of the door to prevent anyone else from coming in. Then Mercedes tied her hair into a ponytail and took her earrings off.
“Before I beat the life out of you, I wanna know what made you think you could fuck with my husband and get away with it? What made you think that you could continue a relationship with him, and I would never find out?”
Bucky knew there was nothing she could say to avoid the ass whopping that was coming her way. But the African blood coursing through her veins meant she could never go down without a fight, so she toughened up and prepared for the worse.
“I gotta say, as fine as Derrick is, I didn’t think about you at all when I got with him. Nor do I think about you now while he’s upstairs in my apartment waiting on me.”
Bucky removed the cigarette pack she stuck in her waist and lit one with the lighter tucked inside the pack. Then she inhaled and allowed the smoke to fill her lungs.
“What did you just say to me?” Mercedes said.
“You know why you’re having problems, Mercedes?” Bucky said blowing smoke into the air.
Mercedes took two steps toward her and said, “No, why bitch?”
“Because you wanna be the man in the relationship. You are so busy trying to be in control, that you thought that alone would help you keep Derrick in line. But when he comes to my house, and he steps across that threshold, I cater to him in every way. I am cooked meals, I am sex and I am relaxation. When he’s with me, it’s not just my pussy that reminds him that I’m a woman and he’s a man, it’s how I speak to him when I call his name.”
“Fuck that! Let’s crush this bitch under our boots.” Toi said.
Bucky laughed. “Yes, Mercedes, I’m fucking your husband, well. The thing is, I know you’ve always known.” Then she laughed. “Now haven’t you?”
“What the fuck do you have to show for sleeping with my husband? You could never be me, bitch. You will always be a trick bitch who get the scraps off of another bitch’s table. Derrick ain’t leaving me for nothing, not even you!”
“Are you sure? I mean, how did you find out about me? He had to tell you. That meant I was important enough to him, for him to let you know about me. Get a good look at me, because this is the face of the woman who has the best chance at stealing your man.”
“That may or may not be true,” Mercedes said trying to hide her tears. “I may be staring in the face of a woman who thinks she can take my man. But the thing about faces is this…they change. So let me see how much Derrick is feeling you after I change yours.”
They spent twenty minutes beating her like she couldn’t imagine and when they were tired they rested and beat her some more.
When Bucky hadn’t returned home after two hours, Derrick went to the laundry room to find her badly beaten. He felt horrible for putting her in that kind of danger so he carried her in his arms and out of the building. Everybody couldn’t believe how lovingly he acted towards a woman other than Mercedes as he rushed her to his car. He proved all the rumors true.
Once in his car, he drove her to the hospital and prayed she’d be okay. Little did he know that Bucky was in the back plotting on how she’d get Mercedes and Yvette back. She didn’t know who the other bitch was nor did she care. She would not take the ass whopping lying down.
“I didn’t believe my lie any more than I would think my friends would.”
Kenyetta
When I made it to my apartment in Virginia, I was surprised to see that my stuff wasn’t out on the lawn. I had allowed my life to get so far out of control, that I didn’t see a way back. Unlike Mercedes, Yvette and Carissa, I needed a man. I needed one to feel like I was a human and not some machine that was used to make money. Sometimes I wondered how life would be if I died and I even grappled with the idea of killing myself.
When I made it to my house, I opened the door, threw my purse on the floor and rushed under my bed. Then I removed the coke I had stashed and inhaled a few lines. I halfway snorted the entire package I had stolen from Emerald City and had been avoiding my friends. I don’t even remember how I got here, all I knew was that because of a habit Carissa started me on, my life was out of control.
Every dime I saved up was used toward the love of coke. And if I wasn’t doing coke I was doing my other addiction, Cheese. Carissa and I met Slack and Cheese at the same time. It was after the last big battle in Emerald City, that almost caused us our lives, and we decided to drop it all and board her five million dollar Yacht around the states.
The day we met them we had been all up and down the east coast. We’d meet different dudes, fuck them and just when they started to catch feelings for us, we’d drop them. But when we got back to DC, we threw another party for Carissa’s birthday. The moment Slack and Cheese walked in we were on pause. Immediately Cheese was attracted to me and Slack was attracted to her and since they were both friends, we double dated a lot. The only problem was, Cheese didn’t want a serious relationship and there was nothing I could say to change his mind.
Now all I thought about was getting high, getting serious with Cheese and having fun. I wasn’t feeling Emerald City anymore, even though it looked like I would have to move there permanently since I couldn’t afford my apartment any longer. After all of the money I earned, I was having to move back to my apartment in Emerald City next week, while trying to convince my friends I was doing so because I missed the ‘hood life’ instead of the truth that I was broke.
Picture that. A bitch like me, who had enough money at my disposal to buy people and things off, would miss the ‘hood life’. I didn’t believe my lie any more than I think my friends would. The truth was every dime of the couple hundred thousand I got a month, went to getting high and living fast.
I was on my tenth line of coke when my doorbell rang. It was Cheese, and I was excited to see him. I don’t know what it is about hood niggas that just do it for me.
“What up, baby girl.” He said grabbing my ass and throwing his tongue down my throat. “I been thinking about that tight wet pussy all night. What’s up with it?”
Cheese’s slender frame and smooth bald head turned me on as he followed me into my apartment. He was so fucking fine and I could never get enough of his swag.
“I thought you ain’t have time for me today.” I whined always giving him a hard time.
He took his hand, wiped my nose and looked at his finger. Some coke dust was on his fingertips and he licked it off. “Got anymore for me?”
I had to be careful with Cheese, because he was liable to take all my shit if I let him. “Yeah, stay right here, I’ma get you some.”
While he was in the living room, I shaved off enough coke from my stash to keep us high and horny all night. Then I stepped back into the living room, and we did line for line. The next thing I know, I was naked and had Cheese’s long fat dick in my mouth.
“Damn you feel good. I bet you none of them niggas would believe I have one of the Emerald City bitches sucking my dick.” He bragged. “Let me squeeze that throat,” he said wrapping his hand tightly around my neck. “Tell me you love my dick.”
“I love your dick,” I said, in between a mouthful.
“Naw, tell me you love my dick again, and I wanna hear you say my name.”
“I love Cheese’s dick.”
“Damn you sound so good. Now say…say this. Say, ‘I Kenyetta, boss of EC love Cheese’s dick.’”
“I Kenyetta, boss of EC love Cheese’s dick.”
After I said that, he stuffed and fucked me so long you couldn’t tell me nothing. As long as I had him and coke, I felt like I was in heaven, even if in our world heaven didn’t last always.
Mercedes Apartment
“Fuck took you so long?” Mercedes yelled the moment I opened her door. “And where have you been? You
’ve been fucking up lately.”
“I’m here but I can turn the fuck around if I gotta hear all that.”
“Kenyetta, come in and lock the door.” Yvette said.
Mercedes was still grilling me as I sat down at the kitchen table. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“Where is the package, Kenyetta? It never made it to EC.”
“I didn’t want to tell ya’ll, but I got robbed.”
“WHAT?!!!” Everyone but Carissa shouted. Carissa looked at me suspiciously.
“I was trying to make the money back, but I can’t do it. I’m low on funds.”
“Damn, why you ain't tell us?” Yvette said concerned. She gently touched my hand. “I’m sooo sorry. Are you hurt?”
“No I’m fine.”
Mercedes shook her head and said, “Damn! You get robbed, Black Water Klan trying to kill my son and now we have a problem with Dreyfus.”
“Why?” I asked.
“He not calling me back, we may have to find another connect.” Yvette said.
“But don’t nobody got product like him. In all areas, hands down, Dreyfus got the best coke, weed and dope. We can’t lose that connect and expect to keep our customer base.” I said.
“Well we might not have a choice.” Mercedes added.
“Not only that, but connects don’t exactly put out ads in the paper.” Carissa said.
“I know, but Dreyfus been giving me a hard time ever since we told him we weren’t fucking with Tyland. The last time I went to him and told him we were out, he took his time arranging a drop off for me.”
“So he’s a little slow. So what!” I said.
“That ain’t it.” Yvette said looking at all of us seriously. “I think Dreyfus may be trying to move us out of our city.”
“How?” Carissa said.
“By giving somebody else the package.” Yvette said. “The other day I gave Derrick a package to distribute to his crew and they moved it with no problem. But when I checked on our other lieutenants they say they weren’t able to move the weight. At first I thought they were trying to stiff us for our weight so I asked to see what they had left and it was all there. And you know we buy all of our product from Dreyfus straight up, so whatever we don’t move we stuck with. He’s already gotten the money off us and now he’s trying to flood us out.”
“So what we gonna do?” I asked feeling like doing a line.
“We gonna pull in our lieutenants, talk to them and let them know we gonna have to tighten up around here. And Kenyetta, I’ma need you to set that shit up.”
“I got it.”
“Tell them mothafuckas that the meeting is mandatory. They must be on time because I think Dreyfus is done with us.” She said looking at all of us. “And if that’s the case, we’re either gonna have to get another connect or get out of the game all together.”
“I can’t believe somebody would be slick enough to sell shit in Emerald City behind our backs. Don’t they know what we could do to them?” I asked.
“I’m just trying to figure out who would be so bold.” Mercedes said.
“I bet I know who it is.” Carissa said.
“Who?” Mercedes asked.
“C.” She said matter of factly. “You did say he wanted to be put on, and since you didn’t put him on, maybe he decided to branch off on his own.”
“First of all where would he get the weight from?”
“Come on now, we all know C been selling weed around here for the longest. He coulda got that shit from anywhere.”
“C may be making a little change with weed, but he would never move majorly on us,” Yvette said. “I don’t give a fuck what you say.”
“You keep believing that bullshit if you want to, but C just like his father.” Carissa challenged. “Sneaky.”
“And I said my son would never do no bullshit like that. So let’s be cool and think with leveled heads.”
Silence.
“Have any of you ever given any thought to the fact that maybe, it’s time to leave this drug bullshit alone? I mean, how far can we really get by living this lifestyle?” I said. “We made more money than any of us could ever have imagined, yet we lost everything and almost everybody we loved in the process.”
“You can’t be serious.” Yvette said. “Just what would we do, if we don’t pump in Emerald anymore?”
“I don’t know…maybe open up businesses or something.”
“Like what…the hair salon ‘Cedes tried to open that one time?” Yvette said. “Or what about the check cashing joint that Carissa started in the hood that was robbed so many times, our employees just started giving anybody who looked like they were about to rob the place the money? Oh…I got it; maybe we can open up the restaurant again like I did where we ended up getting so many people sick, we were sued for ten million dollars. This is it for us, Kenyetta. And we ain’t going nowhere.”
“I ain’t gonna lie. I been thinking about leaving, too.” Mercedes said.
“Please don’t say this is about Bucky’s ass. You beat her ass for points and if Derrick still wants to get with her with a face like that, you don’t need him.”
“So it’s confirmed?” Carissa said. I think it was the first time she asked her a direct question since the meeting and it was obvious they still weren’t on speaking terms. “He is cheating on you with her?”
“Yeah.” Mercedes said. I could tell she was trying to hold her feelings in.
“I’m so sorry, girl. I…I really wanted the rumors to be lies.”
“Well they’re not. And I ain’t tell you, ‘Vette, but he didn’t even come home after that shit. I think this bitch got him wrapped up for real. I lost him.”
“Well fuck him then! And everybody who looks like him!” Yvette said. “Chris left me too, it’s hard being in power and being in love. I mean…we still got each other.”
“Sometimes.” Carissa said correcting her. “Lately we’ve been acting like we hate each other, too. The pressure is tearing us apart.”
“Well let’s not let it.” I said.
Just when I said that, I saw them look at me with wide frightened eyes. Carissa was under the table pinching me and I didn’t know why.
“Kenyetta, your nose is bleeding!” Mercedes ran into the kitchen and returned with a cool wet paper towel.
I took it from her hand to wipe up the blood. “It’s nothing, the iron in my blood is kinda low. I gotta take iron pills and everything.”
Mercedes looked convinced but Yvette’s knowing eyes stayed on me the entire time. “You sure about that?” Yvette asked.
“Positive.”
When C came home five minutes later with some news that would change the course of everything, I knew suddenly the notion that I was possibly using coke wasn’t significant anymore.
“I’m glad ya’ll all here,” C said calmly. “I gotta talk to all of you.”
“What is it, C?”
“I don’t think you’re gonna like it.”
“Well give it to us straight, no chaser.” Yvette said.
“Because I write my own story, and in my book, my life don’t end like that.”
Lil C
After C told his mother his intentions of getting into the drug business with or without her consent, he met with Dreyfus. He imagined Dreyfus was about six foot something and very frightening, but when he actually saw him the fear he had diminished.
After Dreyfus gave him the bricks, instead of the two days Dreyfus gave him to deliver his money, C moved them in one and was meeting him to hand over his cash. They met at the Gaylord Resort at the National Harbor which was a few blocks from his house. When he got into the suite, he was surprised when he saw all the curtains drawn. It was completely dark with the exception of one light. C walked further into the room with Daps, Monie Blow and Mazon right behind him. Although it was three of them Dreyfus had ten men guarding him.
“He over there,” one of the men pointed.
“I can see that.” C laug
hed. He shook his head and walked closer to Dreyfus who was sitting on the couch. “Here’s your paper, like I told you, I moved all of ‘em.”
“Good job.”
“Come on now, give me my props. You just gave me three bricks and I moved all of ‘em in one day. That ain’t good, that’s great!”
Dreyfus laughed and said, “Like I said, that was good but I’m about the long run.”
Dreyfus was more reserved than C thought. He believed he saw a fire that looked like over time it was slowly burning away. “Where you move your work? In EC?” Dreyfus asked.
“Naw, I wouldn’t fuck with my moms spot like that. I know a couple of white boys who hang out with rock bands and shit like that. They had enough paper to lift all the work off me. And the moment I say the word, they got enough paper to lift whatever else I have, too.” C smiled.
“Sounds like you got it all planned.”
“You gotta understand, the game was breathed into me. Just ‘cause I have a baby face don’t mean I’m young in the game. Feel me?”
“You didn’t have to move any of this in EC?”
“Not one brick.” C wasn’t sure but it appeared that Dreyfus looked disappointed that he didn’t move the work in EC. “Is that a problem? That I moved the weight how I moved it?”
“Naw, but I wanted to see if you could move it in an environment like the one you’d be supplying for me. I didn’t expect you to…”
“Think outside the box?”
Silence.
“That’s not what I meant.” Dreyfus said. “I didn’t expect you to move it elsewhere.”
As Dreyfus spoke, suddenly C developed a new goal. And that was, to make Tyland Towers bigger than ever before and when he had done that, he’d overthrow Dreyfus.
“Dreyfus, I didn’t mean to make you think that by thinking outside of the box, I wasn’t ready to supply Tyland. To be honest, I don’t see why you can’t get anybody to do that shit.”
“What you mean?"
Daps, Monie Blow and Mazon stirred a little where they stood. They knew C could be reckless when he spoke his mind and hoped he wouldn’t talk himself out of an opportunity for all of them. After all, Daps had dropped out of school, Monie had betrayed Tyland to run with the competition and Mazon had put it all on the line just to follow C.