Dead on Arrival

by Kiki Swinson

  “I guess all of us got bills to pay,” Edward joined in.

  “Well, after we handle this job, we’re gonna all be in a much better place,” I announced. Everyone standing in the huddle nodded their heads in agreement. After Edward said a few more words, we broke up the huddle and headed into our designated areas to start our work day.

  6

  DAWN

  I ended up going to the grocery store to pick up a few things after I left my parents’ house. What really pissed me off was how my sister, Alexia, kept throwing me under the bus. Shit, I thought she was on my side. She had never ratted me out in front of my parents before. I guess she felt the need to do it because of how Reese had treated her when she was at our apartment last night. I knew one thing, she better not throw me under the bus anymore in front of them. If she did, then I was going to cut her ass off, permanently.

  On my way to the checkout counter, my cell phone started ringing. I pulled it from my handbag, looked at the caller ID, and saw that it was Reese calling me. My first thought was to ignore his call, but then my heart overpowered my thoughts, so I answered it. “Hello,” I said nonchalantly. I wanted to project that I was still upset with him from last night.

  “Are you still mad at me?” he asked. I could tell he was trying to poke and pry to see what kind of mood I was in. He was famous for that.

  “I haven’t thought about it,” I told him, even though I was still a little ticked off with him. And it didn’t help that I had just come from my parents’ house, where they pulled the Band-Aid off the wound that I had gotten from the drama that had ensued while Alexia was at my house the night before. Was I not supposed to still be upset?

  “Well, if you’re still upset with me, I’m gonna give you some news that will put a smile on your face,” Reese insisted.

  I let out a long sigh. “What is it?”

  “I got a fifteen-thousand-dollar payday coming, and it’s gonna take care of all our problems.”

  “Oh Lord, I’m scared to ask you what it is,” I commented.

  “Baby, listen, I know you don’t like when I do my side hustles. But you’re gonna be okay with this because it’s not gonna require me to do a lot of work and I don’t have to sell anything,” he explained.

  “Wait, I’m confused,” I began. “If you’re not gonna sell anything, then how are you going to make fifteen thousand dollars?”

  “I’ll explain that part to you when I get home later.”

  I let out another sigh. “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you later.”

  “A’ight. I love you!”

  “I love you,” I said, and then I disconnected our call.

  I paid for my items and left the store. I headed over to Party City so I could pick up a few party favors for a surprise birthday celebration in Mrs. Powell’s honor. No one knew how old she would be tomorrow, since she’d never divulged her age to anyone in the office, so we were just gonna wish her a happy birthday by surprising her with a couple of balloons, a blinged-out birthday crown, and a dozen tasty cupcakes that I planned to pick up on my way to work in the morning.

  Pacing down the aisles of Party City got me to thinking about the conversation Reese and I had while I was at the grocery store. Was he fucking serious when he said he’s about to get a fifteen-thousand-dollar payday? And if so, what in the hell does he have to do to get it? While I love the idea of us getting out from underneath all the debt we’ve accrued, I don’t want him doing something stupid that he won’t be able to get out of. I just hope that whatever he was talking about, we won’t regret it somewhere down the line.

  * * *

  Reese made it back home from work around six fifteen in the evening. And when he walked into the house, he made a beeline for the kitchen because he heard me moving things around in there. He seemed extremely happy the moment he laid eyes on me. “Baby, things are about to start looking up for us,” he said as he grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. He held me tight and kissed me on the lips.

  I wanted to be happy for him, but something about this new hustle of his just didn’t feel right to me. So I went into question mode. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Before you say anything, hear me out first, okay?” Reese said, and then he released his embrace and took a couple steps back. He took a seat on one of the bar stools placed alongside our marble-top island.

  I folded my arms and gave him a head nod.

  “Okay, check it out. A rich Asian guy went to Edward and told him that he’ll give him and four other guys fifteen thousand dollars each if we grab two containers and hide them, so his people can come and pick them up.”

  I burst into laughter listening to his idiotic story. I mean, who shelled out that much money for two freaking containers? No one I knew.

  “Oh, so you think it’s funny?” Reese asked me as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a stack of one-hundred-dollar bills.

  “Okay, wait a minute, what’s going on?” I asked him with a puzzled expression on my face.

  “I’m trying to tell you, but you’re acting like you want me to play games with you,” he replied as he tapped the bundle of bills against his palm.

  “That’s fifteen grand in your hands?”

  “No, it’s five grand. I get the other ten grand tomorrow night,” he told me.

  “Have you checked that money out to see if it’s counterfeit?” Even though the money looked real, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea that some Asian guy wanted to pay him and his other work buddies fifteen thousand dollars each to pull two metal containers down from the merchant-seamen vessels and hide them until they could pick them up.

  “Dawn, the money is real. Here, look at it,” he instructed as he handed me the stack of bills.

  I examined it closely for a few seconds. I felt the texture of the bills. I held one of them up to the light to look at the watermarks and to see if the metal strip was intact. I even looked at the serial numbers to see if they were aligned correctly. After I covered all those areas, I was convinced that these bills were real. “So, what happens now?” I asked, while I continued to hold on to the money.

  “I pitch in to help Edward and the rest of the guys do the job and then we get the rest of the money that’s owed to us.”

  Still skeptical about the story that Reese was telling me, I probed him a little more because something wasn’t adding up to me. I mean, who gives someone fifteen grand to take two metal containers from the merchant-seamen vessels? There’s something he’s not saying. “Tell me what’s in the containers,” I demanded.

  He froze up for a moment like he wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to tell me. And that’s when I knew I had his back against the wall. I could’ve backed him against the wall even further, but I didn’t. I figured the best way to get him to talk to me would be to act like I wasn’t going to get mad, no matter what he told me. “It’s okay. I won’t get mad or give you the side eye,” I assured him.

  “You promise?” he replied, searching my face for the answer.

  “Yes, I promise.”

  Reese hesitated for another second and then he said, “There’s gonna be people inside them.”

  “People!” I repeated, not knowing if I heard him correctly.

  “Yes, people.”

  “What kind of people?”

  “What do you mean, what kind of people? Humans like me and you. But these people are coming from third-world countries like the Philippines and North Korea.”

  “Are you out of your damn mind?” I spat. I was losing my cool at the speed of lightning.

  “See, this is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you,” Reese expressed as he stood up from the bar stool.

  “Reese, I’m sorry for yelling, but this new hustle of yours is not going to work.”

  “Why do you have to shoot down everything I do? You always got something negative to say.”

  I walked over to where Reese was standing, grabbed both of his hands, and looked him straight in the ey
es. “I’m sorry if you think I’m being negative right now. But what you are getting into is called human trafficking. And if you ever get caught, that charge carries a lot of prison time.”

  Reese snatched his hands away from me. “But I’m not gonna get caught. The guys and I got a nice plan in motion, so everything is going to run smoothly. And after we hide the containers, the Asian guy is going to pay us our money.”

  “Yeah, and that’s what a couple of longshoremen said about ten years ago when they got caught doing the same thing. Human trafficking didn’t just start a couple of days ago. This has been going on for a long time. Speaking of which, who is this Asian guy? And where did he come from?”

  “I haven’t met him. Edward met up with him earlier today at one of his Chinese restaurants.”

  “Which Chinese restaurant?”

  “He didn’t tell me all of that. All he did was tell us what needed to be done and then he gave us the five grand,” Reese replied, as if my continuous questions were irritating him.

  “Reese, I don’t know about this one, baby. The last time a few longshoremen did that, they got busted by US Customs and got twenty years in a federal prison.”

  “Well, that ain’t happening to me. Edward and Todd got this shit planned out to a tee. So, we’re gonna be all right.”

  I let out a long sigh. “All right! All right! I’m done with this conversation. Do what you want to do,” I said, then I turned around and walked back over to the stove. “Your food will be ready in about ten minutes,” I continued as I turned my focus back to the food I was cooking.

  “A’ight, well, I’m gonna go and hop in the shower, so put the money away and I’ll be back when I’m done,” he said as he exited the kitchen.

  I couldn’t get my mind off the fact that he was about to involve himself in human trafficking. Was he freaking crazy? Human trafficking is a serious charge and it carries a lot of time. But no, he didn’t want to listen. He thought I was talking out the side of my neck and didn’t know what I was talking about. I’d been working at NIT for a very long time, so I was there when another crew of longshoremen got arrested for being involved with human trafficking. I knew one thing, if Reese decided to go through with it, he better hit it then quit it.

  7

  REESE

  After having that pow-wow with Dawn, I tossed and turned all night, thinking about what the chances were that the boys and I would get caught hiding the containers with Asian immigrants inside of them. Edward promised us that his plan was failure proof, so I was holding on to the hope that he was right. The thought of getting busted by US Customs and the port police and bringing shame to Dawn didn’t sit well with me, considering how her family believed that I didn’t deserve a woman of her caliber. Her parents were against me marrying her from the beginning, so getting caught wasn’t an option, which meant that I had to make sure that the guys and I dotted all our i’s and crossed all our t’s.

  After watching the clock on the DVR from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., I decided to crawl out of bed, since I wasn’t going to get at least six hours of sleep. Dawn must’ve heard me in the kitchen fixing myself a bowl of cereal because she joined me immediately after I took a seat at the kitchen table. “What time do you have to be at work?” she asked while I was pouring milk in my bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

  “Not until twelve o’clock,” I told her.

  “If you don’t go to work until six hours from now, then why are you up this early?”

  “Because I couldn’t sleep,” I replied between chews.

  “Is it because of our argument last night?” she asked as she took a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the table.

  “That’s part of it,” I said while I continued eating my food.

  “Reese, I may come off as a nag sometimes, but I love you and I don’t want to see you fall. So, when I got mad last night about that job you’re going to do tonight, it was coming from a place of concern. This is not the first time that a couple of longshoremen got paid under the table in exchange for allowing containers filled with immigrants to be smuggled into the country. So, please be careful.”

  I took one long look at her and said, “I really appreciate you for coming to me so we could iron this situation out.”

  “No problem, baby. Just know that when you win, I win too.”

  I smiled at her. “Come here,” I instructed.

  She smiled back but hesitated to walk toward me. “What do you want?” she asked jokingly.

  I stood up from the bar stool and walked toward her. I reached out and grabbed her face in my hands and brought it close to me. Instinctively, she and I closed our eyes while I placed my lips on hers and we began kissing passionately. Her lips tasted so good. I could feel my dick as it hardened and grew in size as I ground it against her pelvis, so I moved in closer. “Baby, I love you so much!” she whispered softly to me as we continued kissing. Next I put my hand on her breast and squeezed it gently. She let out a short gasp while my hands massaged different places of her body. “You make me feel so good,” she whispered while she kissed me around my neck and my earlobes.

  “You make me feel good too,” I told her while I thought about how I was going to fuck her. I knew I was going to bury my dick deep down inside her, but thinking about the position was critical.

  “Oh, baby! I can’t take it anymore. Fuck me now!” she begged softly as she ground her hips and pelvis against me, trying to press her clit on my rock-hard dick. I wanted to feel the inside of her just as bad as she wanted it. So without saying another word, I lifted up her pajama shirt and loosened her bra. A couple seconds later, the bra collapsed on the floor. Her C-cup breasts popped out and I put my mouth around a nipple. “Ohhh,” she moaned as she moved her head from side to side. Each time she moved, I sucked on her breasts harder and harder. I couldn’t control myself. “You got me so wet! I want you inside of me now!” she screamed out. So that was my cue right there to go in for the kill. I lifted her up and placed her on the countertop. I quickly pulled down my boxer shorts and then I snatched her panties off. I spread her legs open so I could get a good look at her creamy pussy.

  “Mmmm, baby, your pussy looks so good!” I complimented her and then I reached down and put my index finger in her pussy. I fingered it while Dawn watched me. This shit turned me on even more.

  “Baby, you’re making me feel so good,” she moaned once again as she grabbed my dick. “C’mon . . . give it to me,” she told me. So I pulled her to the edge of the countertop and hoisted her up against me. “Put your legs up around my waist and straddle me,” I instructed her. After she did it she held on to my neck while I guided my dick inside of her pussy.

  “Owww!” she screamed when I pushed my thick, solid dick into her. After I got the rhythm of my strokes, I started thrusting harder and harder. “Baby, your dick feels so good inside of me. Please don’t stop,” she begged me.

  “Damn, baby! This shit feels so good!” I growled. I felt like I was about to explode any minute now, so I stopped stroking her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked me, sounding puzzled.

  “I wanna hit your pussy from the back.” I helped her down from the countertop. Just like I instructed, Dawn slid down, and then she turned around and bent over. I rubbed my dick against her ass and then I rubbed it between her ass checks. A couple seconds later, I guided my dick to her pussy and pushed my dick back inside of her. The sight of my dick penetrating her wet pussy made my dick harder and made it throb. “Awww fuck!” I moaned and then I slapped her ass cheeks.

  “Fuck me harder!” she begged me as she threw her pussy back at me. The rhythm of my gyrating and the movement of her hips and ass mesmerized me. I don’t know if I was just horny or it was the fact that we were having makeup sex, but it sent me to cloud nine. A few moments later, I was about to cum. I wanted to slow my movement down so I could penetrate Dawn just a little bit longer, but the intoxicating feeling of her pussy wouldn’t allow me to stop. So I continued to pound h
er with each stroke. I stroked her a handful of times and then I exploded. “Agggghhhh!” I bucked and screamed. A thousand feelings erupted inside of me while I pumped my cum inside of Dawn.

  When I had emptied out all of my cum juices, I pulled my dick out of Dawn and stuffed it back inside my boxer shorts. Dawn stood back up, turned around, and smiled at me. “You did good,” she told me, and then she rubbed her hand across my dick.

  I leaned toward her and gave her a kiss on the lips. “You did good too,” I replied. I turned around and grabbed my bowl of cereal up from the kitchen table. It had become soggy so I walked over to the sink, dumped it down the disposal, and then I placed the bowl and spoon into the sink.

  “What are you about to do now?” Dawn wanted to know as she watched me.

  “I’m going to lie back down until about eleven thirty and then I’m gonna take a shower and go to work.”

  “Well, I’m about to get ready and go to work. So please be careful,” she warned me.

  “I will,” I assured her, and then I left her standing in the kitchen.

  * * *

  I promised my grandmother that I’d stop by the house to see her and bring her some fresh, fried tilapia from her favorite seafood shop. I let myself in her house with a house key that she gave me over twenty years ago. “Reese, sweetie, is that you?” she yelled from her bedroom.

  “Yeah, Grandma, it’s me,” I yelled back while I was locking the door behind me.

  “I’m in my bedroom, darling,” she yelled once again.

  I peered around the corner of her bedroom with the biggest smile I could muster up. She smiled back at me while she sat in her lounge chair, watching TV in her bedroom. She extended her arms to hug me when I got within arm’s reach. I kissed her forehead while she hugged me. “Is that mine?” she asked, still smiling.