by Noire
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There was always some kinda drama popping off on The Rock, and the commotion playing out in the visiting room wasn’t out of the ordinary considering you were up in a jail.
Trey had done hard time and he knew everything about the jailhouse scene was a trial of mental toughness and victory over misery.
His visit with his sister had started out all fucked up. A drug dog on the bus had sniffed him up and down as they came over the bridge, a guard had made him go to the back of the line because he was slow pulling out his ID, And for some reason he was patted down twice at every security check on his way into Rosie.
But Trey took it all in stride. He was a big dude, and no matter how tastefully he dressed or how calmly he carried himself, that element of danger that lived in him always seemed to shine right through.
He visited his sister like clockwork every Monday, and today he was planning to ask her to come live with him when her time was up on The Rock. His baby sister was real smart, but all that pill popping, smoking blunts, and the in-and-out-of-jail-on-minor-charges shit wasn’t a good look for her.
He wished he woulda caught somebody selling drugs on the street to his sister, but the slangers were like roaches out there. If you saw one you knew there were at least a hundred more that were hidden in the darkness.
They camouflaged their operations in check cashing places, deli stores, dry cleaners, and one pretty major playa was rumored to be dealing his candy out of a day care center.
Hell, the streets were full of people like his sister who couldn’t get their shit together, and as Trey sat in the visiting room watching the drama jump off he wasn’t surprised by who was making all the noise.
He studied the fine yummy from 136th Street as she barked on the guards and demanded to be returned to her cell. His eyes roamed over her body from head to toe. She still had it. All of it. Even her baggy prison gear couldn’t hide the fact that she had some phatty pockets in the back, a nice pair of titties, and a tight waistline too.
“That’s Juicy,” his baby sister said, following his gaze and nodding toward the chick who was now being escorted out the door. “You remember her, don’t you? She went to high school with me, then she hooked up with that grimy niggah G McKay—”
“I remember her,” Trey said, cutting Chiney off. His eyes hardened. “If she was stupid enough to fuck with that niggah G then I ain’t surprised she ended up in here.”
Just hearing G’s name brought back some real hostile memories for Trey, and this Chiney knew and understood.
“Juicy ain’t that bad,” she said, noting the dark thunder that had entered her brother’s piercing eyes. “She’s just a cool chick who made some fucked up decisions about men. The same as Charlene did. The only difference is G killed Charlene, and Juicy got away with her life.”
Trey nodded. Granite had been a wily black muthafucka. It still burned his heart that his brother Cooter had stayed loyal to G even after their sister had gone missing and was obviously dead. To sit up drinking and partying with a niggah like that night after night after night, knowing he’d put your own flesh and blood in the ground was unthinkable to Trey. And as much as he had loved his brother Cooter, G had come between them and stayed between them until the day he died.
But all that was in the past now. Cooter had made his mistakes and Trey had made his share of them too. There was nothing left to do but let the dead rest in peace and keep the living focused on living.
An image of Juicy as she was led away by the CO flashed through Trey’s mind. Backwards ass. From what he remembered, she’d been a real flirt back in the day, but her grandmother had kept her on church-girl lock.
It was strange the way people turned out sometimes. Those who started out on top could fuck around and end up on the bottom. And sometimes, those that life shoved down into the gutters managed to rise to the top. But not Juicy Stanfield. She had gone from the G-Spot to The Rock.
What a chicken, Trey thought, shaking his head. Such a fuckin’ waste.
Putting all thoughts of the beautiful and sexy inmate out of his mind, Trey discreetly adjusted the knot that had risen in his pants, and then shifted all of his attention back to his little sister.
CHAPTER 16
“Williams! Visitor!”
I got called down for another visit the very next day, and this time I was ready to do just about anything to get out of that little ass cell. But instead of being led into the room where everybody else had their visit, the CO took me into a private booth. I wasn’t surprised to see Rita waiting there, but in my heart I still felt the same way I had felt the day before.
I sat down at the table across from her. My lips were straight up twisted and I felt grimy, busted, and torn all the way down.
Rita had always been neat with her game, and today was no exception. Everything about her was perfect. Her gear was uptown and pressed. Her skin and hair looked real fresh and shiny. Like she had just showered and brushed olive oil cream through her curls.
“Juicy,” she spoke first like she wanted to plead her case from the gate. “Please don’t be mad at me,” she begged. “I know how bad it looks but I can explain everything.”
I gave her a shitty ass look. Where I came from when somebody swore all out they could explain away their dirt, it really meant they didn’t have a good excuse for none of it.
“I swear on my dead mother,” Rita continued.
I smirked. That dead mama shit didn’t mean a damn thing to me. I had a dead mother too, and swearing on Cara’s grave didn’t hold no significance to me one way or the other.
“Listen to me,” she said, leaning toward me. “I didn’t set you up, Juicy. I was just trying to keep you alive. It was Monique. Monique from the G-Spot. Them muthafuckas put a bounty out on your head. A big one.”
“What?” I broke my silence as fear and confusion banged in my chest.
“Monique is the one who snatched Nooni,” Rita said miserably. “Her and the crew. All this shit was a set up. From the beginning to the end. They took my sister because they knew me and you were tight. They cooked up a scheme to use me to get next to you and your money.” She gave a pained chuckle. “And it worked.”
For the next ten minutes I listened as Rita ran shit down to me. She told me that Ace and Pluto had put a bull’s-eye on my forehead. A target on my back. They had put my picture out all over the community and every corner boy in Harlem was gunning for me. The first person that found me was supposed to drag me into the G-Spot, and get a nice chunk of change as a reward.
By the time she finished talking I was more terrified than ever. How was I supposed to watch my back and stay alive out there when total strangers were looking to snatch me up?
“The G-Spot is all fucked up,” Rita said. “Without G’s muscle they practically ran that shit into the sewer. They need that money you and Gino took, Juicy. They’re saying y’all stole almost a million dollars of G’s stash and they’re desperate to get that shit back.”
Rita told me her man Dutchy had a lot of cops in his family. One of them had been talking to some snitches that were on the police payroll. They had given him some crazy-ass information and Dutchy and Rita had stayed up late nights piecing together the scenario, and now the puzzle was forming a clear and complete picture. That grimy set wanted my ass.
I sat there trembling and bewildered. Deep inside I had known this day was coming. I had never felt safe. Even way out in California. Of course G’s goonies still wanted his fucking paper! They would never stop looking for that kinda cash. They knew I had it, and with Gino out of the picture it was just a matter of time before they moved in on me to get it.
“So, let’s take this from the beginning so I can make sure I’m following you straight. Ace and them figured if they put a high enough price on Nooni’s head that you would ask me to pay it, right?”
Rita nodded. “They made a calculated guess. Who else was I gonna turn to for that kind of bank?”
“But how di
d they know I was gonna come back to New York? How did they know you wasn’t gonna come pick the money up yourself like you wanted to? I didn’t even get the ticket in my real name.”
“That’s probably why they only gave me twenty-four hours to make the drop. Like you said before, they knew I wouldn’t have time to get all the way to California and back and still meet their deadline. Dutchy scoped them watching my crib, and then they followed us. My dumb-ass led them straight to the airport. But the good thing is I peeped Monique when I was coming to meet you at baggage claim.”
“I just couldn’t let them get to you, Juicy. Not for the money, and not for Nooni neither. All I could picture was them niggahs dragging you back inside the G-Spot, and on my own life, I couldn’t let that happen. So instead, we brought you out here.”
“So that’s where the two hundred grand went, right?” I had already figured out that CO Allen had kept the hundred grand I had taped on me I just didn’t know where the other half had gone. “You and Dutchy paid off the cops to arrest me, and the guards to keep me here?”
Rita nodded. “Some of it. I still have some left. But we paid them to keep you safe, Juicy,” she said. “We paid a whole lot of people to keep you safe.” She was crying now, and all I could do was sit there and cry with her. Once again I was wrapped in a blanket of never-ending fear. Just knowing what was waiting for me on the other side of the jail walls made my tiny little cell look real good.
“So can you just get me to the airport?” I asked. “That way I can get a ticket and fly back to Cali. I left my car parked at the airport and I’ll just go back home from there.”
“Juicy…” a look of pure terror crept into Rita’s eyes. “If your car was at the airport then I’m not sure it’s safe for you to go back there.”
“What do you mean? Why you say that?”
“I saw something on the news the day before yesterday. It was all over every channel, and CNN reported that the threat level was going up because of it. A green BMW blew up in the airport parking lot in L.A. It was rigged with a car bomb, and they said two people got killed.”
“They blew up my damn car? And people died?”
The blood in my body ran ice-cold. I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t know who to trust. Everything was all jumbled up in my head, and now I had even more crazy doubts and suspicions about everything and everybody. Including Rita.
“So what now?” I sniffed. No matter which way I looked at my situation I was fucked from one end to the other. “I’m supposed to just stay locked up in here until Ace and Pluto forget about me and the money?”
Rita shook her head quickly.
“No, chica. Hell no. This was only a temporary fix. I’m getting you out of here. Believe me, I’m grinding for you, and I’ve got a little something in the works.”
She leaned closer and confided. “I’ve been talking to some pretty strong playas who have a lot of manpower. They got someplace safe for you to chill, and best of all they gots no love for the G-Spot crew. They’ve agreed to help you lay low until we can find somewhere for you to go, cool?”
“Who are these people? More gangstas? And what about your sister? How are you gonna get her back?” As bad as I wanted to get the fuck outta jail and ditch everything about New York, I was worried for Nooni too because I knew what lay ahead for her.
A cold look came across Rita’s face.
“We’ll talk about that later. I don’t want you to worry about none of that right now, Juicy. You just hold on while I work shit out for you, okay? We’ll take care of everything else in due time. Right now my focus is on getting you outta here and finding you someplace safe to stay.”
CHAPTER 17
“One of y’all niggahs is lying,” Salida pointed her finger as she stood in front of the open safe in G’s office. They’d just done a countdown and over ten g’s was missing from the cash box. Since only the three of them could get into the safe, and only a handful of people ever came into the office, the pool of suspects was real small.
“Yo,” Pluto said, swelling up on her, “don’t point ya fuckin’ finger over here, a’ight? I’m telling you now. I ain’t been in that safe in a good minute, so whoever left the shit sitting wide open needs to figure out where the fuckin’ money went.”
Ace held up his hands. “Chill, y’all. That doe didn’t just walk up outta here, we all know that. But on the real Salida, me and Pluto ain’t got no reason to dip in the cash box. We’d be stealing from ourselves and from each other and we ain’t never got down like that.”
Salida shrugged. “Who said it was y’all who stole the money? I said one of y’all forgot to lock the safe up and maybe somebody else came in here and stole it. Now somebody cop to that!”
Ace shook his head. “I been lockin’ this safe up for years. Why would I all of a sudden start forgetting?”
“Well who else has been in here besides us?” Salida demanded. “I mean, Monique comes in here all the time, but she’s family.” She shrugged. “Nooni’s been in and outta here too. Sometimes I send her back here to get a file for me or something like that, but she’s definitely in here by herself a whole lot.”
Pluto was silent, but Ace bit hard on that shit.
“You think that young girl been sliding her hands up in our doe? Yo, she got the heart for that kind of hustle?”
“Hell, no,” Pluto shook his head. Nooni slept on his fuckin’ pullout couch every night. He’d seen how shook and nervous her little ass was. “She’s a mouse,” Pluto said firmly. “A scared little mouse.”
“I’on’t know man…” Ace frowned. “You never know. Sometimes them real quiet mousy-types is the ones you gotta watch out for. Nah’mean?”
“That chick is slick,” Salida nodded in agreement. “Slick and sly. I think she got us. I really do.”
Pluto waved his hand like get the fuck outta here! “Man, that little girl ain’t take that money! If she did she woulda dipped off my couch by now!”
“Well if you know for sure who didn’t take it,” Salida challenged, “then why you don’t know for sure who did?”
“Man, I see how y’all living. Y’all tryna set that girl up!”
“That’s bullshit. She did it,” Salida lied, even though she knew damn well that she was the one who had dipped in the G-Spot’s cash box so she could put a down payment on the club drugs she was about to start selling.
Her connect had promised her a shipment of ecstasy and zannies, with another shipment of ’ludes, special k, and roofies coming right after that.
Salida was covering all her bases. She’d used the cash she’d stolen from the safe as a down payment on the pills, and she’d had Truth and Bilal pull a lick on a neighborhood store so she could have enough money to buy all the ingredients she needed to manufacture her first batch of crystal meth.
And she’d gone down to the courthouse and transferred all of G’s businesses that were making money into her name too. Just in case she had to flip them for some extra cash.
“Nooni ain’t even grimy like that,” Pluto insisted again. “This shit smells just like a set up.”
“Why would we want to set that poor girl up?” Salida glared at Pluto.
She turned her back on him and spoke directly to Ace. “Nooni took that money, baby. She’s been acting real sneaky lately, and every time I look up she’s either modeling some new clothes, or she’s walking around showing off some new phone or some other fancy electronic gadget. Where’s she getting the money to buy all that expensive new shit, huh? Lil Mama is a thief, y’all. Trust me, I know one when I see one.”
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Salida slammed outta G’s office as Ace and Pluto continued to argue over Nooni. They didn’t know it, but she was standing right outside taking delight in every heated word they spit. She pressed her ear to the door and tried to hold back her laughter as the two fat fools went at each other’s throats over the changes and upheavals she had set in place.
Salida knew exactly what she was doing. It w
as all about dividing and conquering. She didn’t give a damn which one of them got the win, or came out on top in their little bitch-fest. If they couldn’t find a way to bring in some big-time cash then there was nothing either one of them could say that would slow her stroll.
Salida was all about her paper. In fact, she was on her way out right now to hook up with her broker. Her connect was a determined hustler who operated his business from the basement of a funeral home of all places.
They’d made a few deals, and already Salida respected his ambition. He reminded her of another hungry hustler she had known pretty good back in the day.
She listened until Ace and Pluto finished talking all that shit. Then she sauntered out the side door and into a
whip parked in the alley, where Truth was waiting to take her to Three Brothers Funeral Home.
CHAPTER 18
Two days after Rita’s visit, the COs came for me again. It was CO Allen with the birthmark on his nose, and of course CO Gaines.
“Let’s go, Williams,” Gaines said real loud, making a show of it. Rita had told me she was Dutchy’s sister-in-law and that she was one of the guards who was helping me hide out, but I still didn’t like her. “You just made bail, girl. Grab your shit. It’s time to roll.”
Rita had kept her word. I hollered goodbye to Chiney, then walked out of that cell light-footed and empty-handed because there wasn’t a damn thing in there that I wanted to take with me.
I had to go through the whole process of waiting in a stinking little area while I was being processed. Next, they took me to another area where I waited with some other chicks who were getting sprung too.
“How long is this gonna take?” I asked a skinny Hispanic lady who looked like she had been inside multiple times.