The Pink Palace 2

by Marlon McCaulsky

  Shit! If that bitch Jasmine was lying to me, I’d make sure her ass didn’t see the sun rise!

  Just as I was about to signal for us to pull out, a barrage of gunshots rang out. Chaz was the first one to get cut down. His chest was torn open by hot slugs.

  I turned and saw a group of niggas approaching us from the next building on foot. I ducked out of the Hummer and returned fire with my Mac 11, spraying them pussyholes up! I hit two, maybe three niggas as my crew scrambled around their cars, taking fire. We were taken off guard. A few of my niggas got hit.

  Then I spotted that nigga Polo and I opened fire on his bumbaclot ass. “Kill these nigga!” I yelled as I busted my Mac 11.

  “I got ya, boss.” Bump went into the backseat of the Hummer and pulled out a rocket launcher, rested it on his shoulder, and locked his sights on Polo behind the crates. Bump fired the rocket, and a stream of smoke cut through the sky as niggas ran for their lives. An explosion erupted, and niggas and debris flew through the air.

  “I got ’em, boss,” Bump yelled as he took aim again, but before he could fire, a bullet tagged him in the shoulder and he fell to the ground.

  These niggas flanked to the right of us, trying to surround us. I jumped back in the armored Hummer, protected from the gunfire. I looked out the back and saw Ricky get hit in the head. Shit, that nigga was dead! This was turning into a bloodbath for us. We were out-manned. They were waiting for us. This wasn’t a drug deal; this was a fucking setup!

  Now it was all about survival. My niggas were either dead or injured, and they were closing in on me. I knew that nigga Polo must have got hit by at least some shrapnel from that rocket blast. I had to get out of there. The keys to the Hummer were still in the ignition, and I ducked down and started the beast.

  I glanced over and saw Bump still alive but in pain on the ground on his back. He grabbed the rocket launcher and aimed it at the niggas closing in, and he fired again. Another explosion erupted, and body parts hit the ground like we were in Iraq. He gave me the opening I needed, and I mashed down on the gas and ran over a nigga who was thrown to the ground after the blast.

  I burst through the metal fence and onto the road. Gunshots bounced off of the Hummer as I took off down the street. I had made it, and the only thing on my mind was vengeance. That bitch Jasmine was going to pay with her life for this shit!

  JASMINE

  This was not how this shit was supposed to go down. It had been almost an hour since Malachi left me with Reggie watching over me in his office. The club was empty and closed for business. I knew I couldn’t just sit there and wait for whatever to happen. My phone had been vibrating in my purse, but I couldn’t dare check it. Reggie was the key to my freedom. He was just sitting in Malachi’s chair, eyeing me up and down while texting on his phone.

  “So how long are you going to let Malachi bully you like this?” I asked him.

  “Shut up.”

  “Is that your response? C’mon, Reggie. How do you ever expect to be your own man if you keep on letting Malachi treat you like his little bitch?”

  Reggie glared at me. “I ain’t his bitch! He’s my brother and he looks out for me.”

  I chuckled. “Is that what you call it? That was fucked up what he did to you in here the other day. Why did he go off like that?” I asked, playing dumb. I knew Malachi had whooped his ass because of what I told him about Nikki and Reggie.

  “None of your business! And if you think you can talk your way out of here, then forget it,” he yelled.

  I sighed and leaned back. If he had half a brain, he would have listened to me and we could have cut a deal and gotten out there with some money. I knew Malachi had a fortune in that safe under his desk.

  I sat there for another five minutes, not saying a word, but then it hit me that I’d been trying to get at Reggie the wrong way. His weakness had always been pussy, and he’d wanted my pussy for months. I was wearing a white mini skirt, a pink low-cut midriff T-shirt that just covered my titties, and a cropped and fitted motorcycle jacket.

  I stood up and took off my jacket. “Mind if I get comfortable?”

  “Go right ahead.”

  I tossed my jacket on the sofa behind me and sat back down in the chair. Reggie’s eyes were glued to my body. I leaned back and opened my legs, placed my hand between my legs, and started touching myself. I bit my bottom lip, closed my eyes, and leaned my head back.

  “What are you doing?” Reggie asked.

  “I’m relaxing.”

  He stood up to get a better view. “That’s how you relax?”

  I looked at him. “I’m bored and horny. I just need to bust a nut and I’ll be good.”

  Reggie walked around from the desk, watching me, and grabbed his dick. “Need any help catching that nut?”

  I stared at him for a second as if I was contemplating it, and shrugged my shoulders. Reggie came toward me and slid his hands up my thighs, touching my pussy. “Damn, you wet.”

  I gave him a moan, letting him think I enjoyed his touch. Reggie bent down and kissed my legs. I pushed him back, stood up, and sat on top of Malachi’s desk. I leaned back and opened my legs, and Reggie stood between my thighs. He reached up my skirt and pulled down my thong, exposing my fat pussy lips to him.

  “Damn, I always love the way that pussy looks on stage, but it looks so much better up close.”

  “Why don’t you give it a kiss?”

  Reggie smiled and went down on me. He licked, sucked, and slurped my pussy. Damn, this little ugly muthafucka could eat some pussy real good. It was actually feeling real good, and I did cum in his mouth.

  Reggie was really getting into it, but before he thought I was gonna let him stick his dick in me, I spied Malachi’s marble ashtray on his desk. I grabbed it and cracked Reggie upside his head while he was eating me out. His head bounced off the desk, and he hit the floor, knocked the fuck out.

  I jumped up and looked at that fool and shook my head. Always a sucker for pussy. I grabbed my thong and put it back on, then went into Reggie’s waist and pulled out his gun. I walked back around Malachi’s desk and spotted his safe. I wasn’t no safecracker, but I knew how to fire a gun pretty good.

  I took Reggie’s Glock 23 and aimed it at the safe lock. I fired and I jerked back. The lock had a hole in it, but it was not open. I blasted it again, and it tore open. Bingo. I grabbed my black bag and started filling it with the stacks of money. There must have been at least $200,000 in rubber-band bundles. I had hit the jackpot.

  As I was emptying the safe, I saw some documents. I took them out and sat down in Malachi’s chair and looked them over. It was the quitclaim deed to The Pink Palace. My eyes lit up. I always wanted my own business, and here was a way to come up and own one overnight. Now, I may not have been a safecracker, but I was always good at forging signatures.

  I took a blank sheet of paper and studied Malachi’s signature and practiced it. It was close, but not perfect. I signed his name about five more times, until I had it perfected. Then I took the quitclaim deed and forged Malachi’s name on it, then signed my name on it, effectively putting The Pink Palace in my name. This wasn’t a fair exchange; this was robbery! Besides, Malachi was either going to be dead or in jail sooner than later. I might as well run shit.

  I quickly folded the paperwork and put it in the bag with the money. I dropped the Glock 23 in the bag and zipped it up.

  I started walking out of the office when the door flew open and a gun was pointing in my face.

  ANDRE “DRE” WADE

  Jayson and I had a bird’s eye view of the mayhem that had just gone down in front of the warehouse. Both Malachi and Polo were gunning for each other, and just like we planned, they fell for it.

  Jayson got on his radio and called it in. There were plenty of men either dead or injured all around the warehouse. But then I spotted a green-and-orange Pontiac speeding away from the scene, and I knew it was Polo.

  “Jay, that’s Polo! I’m going after him.”


  Jayson looked at me and knew what I was going to do to him. “Be careful.”

  I nodded and jumped in Jayson’s car and took off after Polo. Within minutes, I caught up to him as he turned onto the highway. If I was him, I would have been getting the hell out of Atlanta, but Polo turned onto 285 East. I followed behind him. He was pushing it, doing at least 80 miles per hour, until he exited onto Old National Highway in College Park.

  That son of a bitch was heading to my house to see Nikki! He must have known she set him up. But little did he know she wasn’t home. She was at the safe house, waiting for me. This traitor had tried to kill me. He tried to steal my woman.

  Soon he turned off of Old National into the Stone Ridge subdivision and was heading to my house. I took a back road so he wouldn’t see me coming. I cut my lights and parked down the street. I made sure my .45 was locked and loaded, and I hopped out of the car and cut through my neighbor’s yard, hopping the fence.

  I saw Polo at my back door. He kicked it in. I made a mental note to myself to get a storm door for the back. I followed him in, and I heard him upstairs.

  “Nikki! Nikki! Where are you, bitch?” I heard him bellow. “I’ma kill yo’ ass!” He was going room to room, looking for her.

  It was dark, and I waited in the kitchen with my gun in hand for him to come back downstairs.

  Polo jogged back down the stairs, and he froze in his tracks when he saw me pointing my gun at his head. My face was still concealed by darkness.

  “Whoa, hey . . . I live here,” he lied.

  “You wish you did, nigga,” I said coldly.

  Polo’s jaw dropped open. “Dre . . . is that you?”

  I took a step forward so he could see my face. “Who else would it be?”

  “But you . . . you’re supposed to be—”

  “Dead? You need to work on your aim, nigga. If you shoot a nigga, you better make sure he’s dead. I thought I taught you better than that. But you never were a fast learner, were you?”

  A panicked expression washed over his face. “Dre, Malachi made me do it. He, he said if I didn’t, he would send somebody to wipe out you and your whole family.”

  “Oh, so you did the humane thing instead and shot me in the fucking back in front of my girl and my kid,” I spit angrily. “You wanted Nikki so bad that you tried to murder me for her?”

  “Dre, c’mon, man. We can work something out here. Listen, we can kill Malachi and take over his shit. We can run this shit together,” he implored.

  I chuckled. “You such a bitch-ass nigga. I can’t believe I ever called you my friend.” I shook my head. “We set you up, nigga. Nikki and I have been playing you this whole time. Malachi was supposed to kill you tonight by the warehouse, but I guess you being the cockroach that you are, you slipped through the cracks. Doesn’t matter. I’d rather kill your ass myself.”

  Polo dropped to his knees. “Please, Dre! Don’t do this, man! I’m your nigga! We boys!”

  For half a second, I felt pity for him, and in that second of hesitation on my part, Polo raised his gun and took a shot at me. It hit the wall next to my head. I busted back, hitting him dead in his chest, right through his heart.

  Polo jerked back then looked at me in shock before his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped the gun out of his hand. He then slumped over on the floor as a pool of blood formed underneath him.

  I walked up to him and kicked his gun out of reach.

  “I told you, you needed to work on your aim, nigga.”

  22

  Battle of the Sexes

  Atlanta, GA

  NIKKI

  I’d been calling Jasmine for over an hour and she wasn’t picking up. After I kept on getting her voice mail, I called Gina the bartender. She told me that Jasmine had gone up to Malachi’s office, and a few minutes later, Malachi and his niggas raised up outta The Pink Palace. Gina said Jasmine was still up in there with Reggie when she was getting ready to leave. That sent chills up my spine. The fact that Jasmine was still up in there, especially with that nasty little wannabe rapist Reggie, was frightening.

  Gina told me she would leave the side door open for me when she locked up. I knew it was going to be dangerous, but I had to go there. Jasmine was in a dangerous situation because of me, and I wasn’t going to leave her there.

  I made sure I was packing the little 9 mm Dre had given me, and I was off to The Pink Palace. Twenty minutes later, I parked in the parking lot and went to the back entrance. Like Gina promised, it was unlocked for me.

  I took my 9 mm out of my bag and crept inside the dark club. I looked up to Malachi’s office and saw the lights on but the blinds closed. Chances were Reggie was armed and I would probably need to shoot his ass. I had no problem doing that.

  I went up the stairs and put my hand on the doorknob and made sure I was ready to blast in my right hand. I took a deep breath and turned the knob and swung the door open, pointing my gun dead ahead. To my surprise, I saw Jasmine walking out with a black bag over her shoulder.

  “Oh, shit!” Jasmine yelled.

  “Oh God.” I exhaled. “I thought you were in trouble.” I lowered the gun and put it back in my bag.

  “I was, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Girl, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she said, relieved.

  I spotted Reggie knocked the fuck out on the ground with a big knot on his head. “Damn, what the hell happened to him?”

  Jasmine glanced back. “Him?” She chuckled. “Just another sucker for pussy.”

  I smiled. “I’m not going to ask. Let’s get the hell outta here!”

  We made our way downstairs. “I see you got paid.”

  “That and then some,” Jasmine confirmed.

  As we turned the corner, Jasmine got hammered and flew into the wall. She dropped to the floor like a ragdoll, unconscious. I turned around and saw Malachi with a gun in his hand and a menacing glare on his face. He looked like he had just come back from a battlefield! His suit was soiled and he was sweaty.

  “Bitch,” he growled, grabbing me by the neck and starting to choke the shit out of me. He picked me up by my neck and I couldn’t breathe!

  “I’m gonna to kill your bumbaclot ass!” He tossed me onto a tabletop, and my handbag with my gun dropped to the ground, out of my reach.

  He was on top of me before I could even move. I was being choked so hard I couldn’t move anyway. He slapped the shit out of me.

  “You wanna bloodclot fuck with me? Well, I’ma fuck you!”

  He grabbed my belt buckle and tried to take it off. I tried to fight him off, and he hit me again.

  I was no match for him physically, but then I remembered my other weapon. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out my razor blade, slashing Malachi across the face. Blood sprayed across the club floor.

  “Aarrrrrrgh,” he yelled and grabbed the side of his face, giving me a moment to roll off the table and run.

  “Bitch!” Malachi screamed.

  I heard thunder explode behind me, and three shots barely missed me. I ducked into the back toward the locker rooms. As I was running, I saw a baseball bat in the corner that the security guys used when somebody got too rowdy in the club. I grabbed it.

  I could hear Malachi turning over tables, coming after me. It was dark, and that gave me a chance to hide behind the rows of lockers.

  “I’m going to kill you, bitch,” he roared, and my heart was beating like a jackhammer in my chest. “Then I’m gonna find that little bastard child of yours and slit his throat!”

  Now, that shit pisses me off. Fuck you, nigga! You threaten my child and I’ll kill you.

  But I wasn’t going to give him what he wanted, to yell back at him and tell him where I was.

  “I was going to give you the world, Nikki. I was going to make you wifey,” he said out loud. “But you betray me! Try to kill me!” I heard his footsteps come closer. “Now you gonna bloodclot die!”

  I readied myself because I knew I only had one chance. Hi
s footsteps were much closer. I could hear him breathing hard. As quietly as I could, I slipped around the locker. Then I saw the gun come first around the locker, and I took the bat and swung for the fences!

  “Aarrgh!” Malachi yelled as the gun flew across the room.

  I could tell by the cracking sound I must have broken some digits. I jumped from behind the locker and swung like A-Rod for Malachi’s head. That mutherfucka ducked, and I bashed the lockers.

  Malachi punched me in the jaw, sending me flying into the lockers behind me. I dropped the baseball bat. My jaw hurt like hell, but I had no time to acknowledge it because Malachi grabbed the bat on the ground, so I took off running.

  I headed backstage. I could hear Malachi right behind me, closing in.

  “Aarragh!” I yelled, feeling a blunt object whack into the back of my leg, sending me flying forward, sliding onto the main stage. Malachi had thrown the bat at me. I hit the stage floor hard, and I felt pain all over. I looked back and saw Malachi picking up the bat and then walking toward me. I started to crawl away as Malachi walked up on me.

  “I’m gonna bash your pretty little head in,” he yelled and raised the bat over his head. He swung down, but before he could hit me, thunder once again exploded in the club, sending Malachi flying backward, crashing on the stage floor.

  I turned and saw Jasmine holding a gun in her hands.

  “I always wanted to shoot him,” Jasmine said. She ran toward me and jumped up on the stage. “Are you okay?”

  I exhaled and smiled. “I am, thanks to you.”

  “I owed you one.”

  She helped me up, and I put my arm around her shoulder.

  “Is he dead?” she asked.

  I looked at him and saw his chest moving. “No. You hit him in his gut.”

  “I was aiming for his head.”

  “We’ll work on your aim later. Are you okay?”

  Jasmine touched her head. “I got a hell of a headache, but I’m fine.”