Country Girls 4 (Country Boy)

by Blake Karrington

  She walked away from the door without saying another word. She didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention to herself, nor did she have anything else to say to him. As she walked down the cellblock, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cell. She didn’t know what Gwen was going to say about it, but she definitely was going to let her know what was going on.

  “What’s the matter?” Tiffany asked Diamond as she joined her on the balcony.

  Diamond leaned over the rail with a glass of Moscato in her hand, looking out into the city. The bright lights reflecting off the glass buildings were a beautiful sight.

  “You thinkin’ about Ni?” Tiffany asked. She already knew how much Diamond thought about their sister, especially during good times.

  “Yeah. I wish she was here right now. I miss da hell out of her.” Diamond confessed.

  “Well, it won’t be that much longer. Two more months.” Tiffany smiled, leaning over the rail next to her.

  Everyone was anticipating the boss’ return to the streets. She was like the missing link, and although MHB was still running strong, it would have been a lot stronger with Niya leading the pack. Her presence was missed and needed.

  “Oh yeah, I set up the meeting with the Hearst Tower for next week. We have to bring proof of our business license along with our checkbook. A floor just opened up, so we gotta be on point,” Tiffany advised.

  Hearst Tower was one of the tallest office buildings in downtown Charlotte, and MHB was trying to set up shop among some of the most lucrative companies in North Carolina. This was all part of the plan to expand MHB. It would put the crew in a position to launder millions of dollars in drug money through their very own realty company. Houses, storefronts and open land were a hot commodity and the perfect cover to clean large amounts of money at one time. After getting the right office space, the next thing to do was start buying properties. That wasn’t going to be easy, especially in the cutthroat business of real estate.

  Other companies were like wolves when it came to buying and selling properties. It was easy to get run over, and be left with only scraps. Realtors who only ate scraps never seemed to last long. If MHB was going to have a chance, they were going to have to do what they did best… roll up their sleeves and get their hands a little dirty. Something neither Diamond, nor the rest of the crew had a problem doing.

  Chapter 2

  Chad spent the night at the police station, and then was shipped down to the county jail after not being able to post the fifty thousand dollar bail. He could easily pay it. All it would have taken was one phone call, but he was on another mission. So far, everything was going according to plan.

  “Alright, look guys. The faster we get this process out the way, the faster I can get y’all to ya assigned housing unit.” The correctional officer said as he walked over to the fifteen men, including Chad, standing against the wall.

  The receiving room procedures consisted of paperwork, fingerprints, pictures, strip search and a lice shower to make sure they didn’t bring anything into the jail. It took Chad and the rest of the men at least five hours to complete the process. Now, they were waiting to find out what block they were assigned to.

  “Yo, you gonna eat that?” A dope fiend asked, seeing that Chad wasn’t touching his bag lunch.

  Chad gave it to him; he really didn’t have an appetite for food. He was only hungry to kill, and Mayo was the only thing on the menu. He just hoped that once he made it to the cellblock, he would have enough time to do what he had to do before the police interview. Chad planned to kill Mayo with his bare hands. There was no question in his mind that he could do it. He had enough anger built up inside him to break every bone in Mayo’s body.

  “Everett!” One of the guards called out, motioning with his hands for Chad to come up to the front desk.

  He walked out of the holding cell with his bedroll and cup right up to the front desk. The officer looked into the computer screen then back up at Chad before speaking.

  “You can toss the bed roll in the hamper over there. It seems that you have made bail,” the guard informed him.

  “Bail? What do you mean I made bail?” Chad shot back with a bit of an attitude.

  “Look, you wanna go home or what?” the guard replied.

  Chad wasn’t trying to go anywhere except to where Mayo was, and that wasn’t on the streets. He wanted to do what he had set out to do. “I’m refusing bail,” he told the guard, determined to get to the cellblocks.

  “Hey, you can refuse bail, but for your safety, we’re gonna have to put you in the hole or protective custody until you go back to court.” the guard told him.

  Chad was frustrated, irritated, and down out right mad as hell. Going to the hole would defeat the purpose. He would never be able to get to Mayo that way. He had no other choice but to toss his bedroll in the hamper and prepare for discharge.

  Niya walked back to her housing unit from the visiting room, happy and thankful for Gwen coming out and staying for the weekend. She enjoyed the time they had to talk. It took her back to the better days when she and Gwen were best friends. They hadn’t laughed and gossiped like that in a minute. Friday and Saturday were all about fun, but when Sunday came around, it was all about business.

  Gwen broke down the status of the drug game and where MHB was concerning cleaning the money. She gave Niya the whole run down about the realty company and the plan to wash the money through businesses and the housing market. Gwen went into specific details about the laundering process, all of which was approved by Niya. In that aspect, everything was a go.

  “What da hell?” Niya mumbled to herself as she walked into the unit.

  The tension in the air was thick, and females were huddled up like it was about to be a riot. It didn’t help that all eyes were on Niya as she walked towards her cell. All the girls that were from Charlotte were standing in front of Niya’s unit. It was only five of them, including Melissa, Niya’s celly from North Philly.

  “What’s goin on?” Niya asked as she walked up to the cell.

  “One of dese dirty bitches stole my fuckin’ radio!” Melissa shouted as she stepped out of the cell so everybody could hear her.

  Melissa had her hair wrapped up and her boots tied up tight. She was amped up and ready to fight. She was a problem in the jail, and everybody knew Melissa could fight. People called her the problem child, and the crazy thing about it was that Melissa was the only female from Philly there.

  “All this shit for a radio?” Niya asked, looking around the unit at the many girls from different cities, standing around also ready to fight. “Come ʼere, Mel.” Niya said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the cell.

  Big Trina and the rest of the North Carolina girls remained posted out in front of the cell door.

  “How much longer until you go home?” Niya asked.

  “Come on Ni, don’t do—”

  “How much fucking longer?” Niya asked again, stepping in front of Melissa.

  “Six weeks.” she answered, putting her head down in shame. “But Ni, I can’t let these bitches try—”

  “Stop! “ Niya cut her off. “Yo, I fucks wit’ you, Melissa, and I’d be less of a friend if I didn’t tell you that dis shit here ain’t worth it. You know these miserable bitches be running around here tryin’ to snatch release dates. You about to fall into a trap, girl,” Niya told her. “You got six weeks left and I got eight weeks to go. Let’s finish up this time and get the hell out of here.” Niya said, sticking her fist out for a pound.

  Melissa needed that. She needed to be snapped back to the reality of her situation. As bad as she hated being in jail, it wouldn’t make any sense for her to mess up her release date now… especially over a $28 Walkman. The math just didn’t add up, and now Melissa was starting to see the wisdom in Niya’s words.

  “You right, Ni. I’m a leave dat shit alone.” Melissa said, giving Niya a pound. “You like a sister to me. I don’t
know what I’d do if you wasn’t here.”

  Melissa didn’t know the half of it. Everything Niya did had a purpose, and even when she was thousands of miles away from home, she continued to display her boss pedigree. Niya had bigger plans for Melissa, and she’d be damned if she was going to let a petty ass radio get in the way. Niya always had, and always would be smarter than that.

  Chad walked into the lobby of the police station with his things in his hand. He immediately copped an attitude when he saw Diamond standing at the front door with an obvious attitude of her own. When Rose couldn’t get in contact with Gwen, she gave Diamond a call, who in turn went and paid Chad’s bail. She still had some hate in her heart for him because of the way he had done Niya. He had been the originator of the beef between her two girls in the first place. Diamond had a good mind to leave his ass in jail. However, she also knew both of her girls still had love for him, so she went ahead and posted the bond.

  “You’re welcome, nigga” she said with an attitude when Chad brushed by her on his way out the door.

  “I didn’t ask for your help!” he shot back.

  “You know you don’t have to go about it like this. Gwen is taking care of that situation. You need to let her handle it, Chad.” Diamond said, following him outside.

  Chad stopped at the edge of the pavement and turned around. He had an angry look on his face, one that made Diamond stop in her tracks.

  “Y’all bitches stay out my fuckin’ business!” Chad said through clenched teeth.

  Diamond threw both of her hands up and backed away from him. This whole situation was a little too deep for her to understand. Gwen was the only person who could talk to him, so Diamond did the most logical thing and stayed in her lane.

  Gwen walked through Charlotte Douglas Airport with her luggage and nothing but relaxation on her mind. The hotel she stayed in was a little rinky dink spot that was close to the prison, so it didn’t have the luxuries Gwen had become used to. She wouldn’t dare take a bath in that tub, nor did she sleep comfortable with the thought of the motel not cleaning their linens properly. Today, all she wanted was a nice hot bath and a couple hours of sleep in her own bed to rejuvenate.

  As she walked through the double doors out onto the curb, Gwen could tell by the way Rose was leaning against the car and looking at her that the hot bath and the long nap were going to be put on hold.

  “How was your flight?” Rose asked as she walked up and grabbed one of Gwen’s suitcases.

  “It was long, and I’m tired as hell.” Gwen responded.

  “Well, I hate to make things worse, but I thought I should let you know that Chad got himself arrested last night. Robbery!” Rose said, tossing the suitcase into her back seat.

  “Robbery?” Gwen asked with a confused look. “Who da hell was he tryin’ to rob?”

  “See, that’s the thing. He was faking like he was robbing a gas station, just so he could go to county and hopefully end up on the same block as Mayo. He was going to try and kill him, I’m guessing.” Rose told her.

  Gwen exhaled loudly as she leaned against the car. Sometimes she really didn’t understand the things Chad did. She could understand how he felt about losing their son, but to put his own life in danger trying to get revenge didn’t make any sense.

  “So where is he now?” Gwen asked, jumping into the passenger side of Rose’s car.

  Rose followed and got into the driver side.

  “Well, last night I tried to call you, but ya phone was off. I called Diamond and she went to pay his bail a few hours ago.” Rose said, pulling out her cell.

  Rose called Diamond, but Diamond didn’t know where Chad had gone after he left the police station. The only thing she knew was that he was very upset at the fact that she had posted his bail.

  “Tell Diamond to get the girls together and meet me at the condo in two… make it three hours.” Gwen instructed Rose while she was still on the phone.

  Chad was on some other shit, but Gwen still had some business to take care of along with a few messages from Niya. It was time to take MHB to the next level of play, but before that happened, everyone had to be fully on board.

  “Can I get you something?” the bartender asked Chad when he walked in and took a seat at the bar.

  Chad kept his hand in his jacket pocket, clutching a P.80 Ruger, debating if he should pull the gun, shoot the bartender and then wait for the cops.

  He gripped the gun tighter, knowing that after he did this, there wouldn’t be a bail set. Ten times out of ten, the judge would reject administering any bail after already letting him out on one previously violent bond. It was a guaranteed one-way ticket to the county jail, and more than likely, a bed on the same violent housing unit as the enemy who Chad so desperately wanted to kill. He had to make his choice soon.

  The bartender was becoming a little suspicious, and he was packing a .357 snub nose himself. He didn’t care what Chad was going through. If he had gotten stupid, the bartender wouldn’t hesitate to use his weapon.

  “Can I help you?” the bartender asked again, reaching under the counter and placing his hand on the revolver.

  In a split second, Chad thought about his twins and what Rose had said to him while he was sitting in the cell. He loved his twins, and the more he thought about them, the more he eased up off the gun in his pocket. He wanted revenge, but going about it this way was going to land him in a worse situation than the one he was already in.

  “Let me get a couple shots of brandy.” Chad said, reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out his money.

  The bartender eased up off his gun as well. He could see the stress in Chad’s eyes, so instead of pouring the Crown Royal into the shot glass, he simply left the whole bottle on the bar for Chad to pour his own shots.

  “Just let me know if you need me to call you a cab,” the bartender told him.

  Chad nodded his head in agreement and then began to throw back shot after shot.

  Diamond, Tiffany, Portia, April and Alexus were all seated at the large marble round table waiting for Gwen to show up. They chatted amongst themselves for a few minutes before Gwen walked through the door. She had her new protégé, Kea, with her, a girl who she had taken a liking to over the past few months. Hell, the whole crew took a liking to her when they witnessed her struggle, along with her display of loyalty to MHB. She was family now, a spot she had very well earned.

  “Hey y’all!” Gwen said, coming into the kitchen.

  Kea greeted everyone before pulling a chair up to the table. Another brief conversation took place before Gwen brought the meeting to order.

  “Alright, look y’all. As you already know, I just came back from seeing Niya, and first and foremost, she sends her love to every one of y’all. I’ll get with everybody on an individual basis to relay her personal comments.” Gwen smiled.

  Diamond wanted to cry from just hearing that Niya had sent her love. She was really missing her friend. Out of everyone at the table, she probably missed Niya most. She just couldn’t understand why Niya chose not to contact her or send her a visiting form so she could go see her. It ate at her every day, so at times, she was jealous of Gwen for being Niya’s only contact.

  “A’ight, listen y’all. We got the green light from Ni to move forward with this realty company. I did some research, and the only way we’re going to wash this dope money under the radar is by moving it through businesses. Buying and flipping houses won’t be enough. We need store fronts, places that generate thousands of dollars regularly.” Gwen explained.

  “And how do you suggest we go about doing that?” Tiffany asked, wanting more clarity.

  Pretty much everybody at the table was wondering how they were going to start businesses that would generate the type of money Gwen was talking about.

  “We gotta start buying businesses that are already up and running; pizza stores, corner stores, hair salons, meat markets, clothing stores and any other small businesse
s that are doing good. Niya gave us a budget of three million dollars to work with, so we gotta buy as many businesses and properties we can at the cheapest price.” Gwen explained.

  “What makes you think that these people are going to just up and sell us their businesses?” April intervened.

  Gwen looked over at Diamond who had already concluded what had to be done.

  “So we about to be on some mob shit?” Diamond said, intrigued by the idea.

  “Yeah, we gotta make them offers they can’t refuse.” Gwen replied, looking around the room for everyone’s reaction.

  From the looks of things, they were all with it. No one objected to it, which meant that everybody agreed and understood. Just to be sure, Gwen went around the room and gave everyone the chance to voice their opinions, but nobody did. Nothing else needed to be said. Everything was a go.

  “Oh, I almost forgot. You know I had to bail Chad out of jail today,” Diamond said.

  “Yeah, I heard. That man is going through some shit I can’t help him with. We don’t even talk anymore.”

  “What about Mayo?” Rose asked. “Word down at the station is he supposed to be pleading guilty. I don’t know to how much time, but I do know his court date is in a couple of weeks.” Rose spoke.

  Gwen didn’t want to say anything, but she already had something in motion for Mayo. She kept her plan low key for now, only because she didn’t want to mess things up.

  “It’s being handled.” was all Gwen decided to reveal about the subject. It was better this way, and the whole crew would have to respect her decision.

  Chapter 3

  “Nigga, what da fuck did I tell you about playin’ wit’ my money!” Terrence yelled, pointing a metal baseball bat at one of his workers.