Country Girls 4 (Country Boy)

by Blake Karrington

  “Please don’t make this hard.” Diamond mumbled to herself as she walked towards K’s hair store.

  There were still a few customers in the store when she entered, so she browsed around until they left and the store was empty except for the female cashier who was well aware of what was going on. In fact, she gave Diamond the nod to let her know where Mr. Kwan, the owner of the store was.

  Diamond walked to the back of the store to the manager’s office, looked around the store once more then walked through the door. Mr. Kwan and the manager were sitting at Kwan’s desk counting money. The old grey haired Chinese man and the female manager both looked up to see Diamond watching them.

  “Can you excuse us?” Diamond said to the manager.

  The young female was well aware of who Diamond was and the reasons why she was there, so she attempted to get up and leave, but was stopped by Mr. Kwan.

  “No, stay.” he said, pointing to the manager.

  Diamond smiled, walked over and took the leather Bulgari satchel from her shoulder then placed it on the table where the manager and Kwan were sitting. They both looked up at Diamond like she was crazy. Mr. Kwan was more concerned about how she got back there.

  “Can I help you?” Mr. Kwan asked, raising one eyebrow.

  Diamond ignorantly moved some of the money to the side then took a seat on the desk. She looked at the manager, and then looked at the door, indicating she wanted her to leave. Already knowing where this was going and anticipating her arrival, the manager looked over at Mr. Kwan, then got up and left the room.

  “I see business is good, Mr. Kwan,’’ Diamond said, grabbing a stack of 20s and looking at it then throwing it back into the pile of money.

  Mr. Kwan started to say something, but Diamond cut him off.

  “You had this store for a little more than twenty years. Hell, I even used to come here when I was a young girl.” Diamond spoke calmly.

  “I don’t know what you want, young lady, but I think you better leave!” Mr. Kwan demanded.

  Diamond wasn’t about to be dismissed that easily. She reached into her bag and pulled out a large manila envelope.

  “A’ight, let’s get straight to the point.” she said, pulling papers out of the envelope and tossing them onto the table in front of him.

  “My proposition is simple. This store, equipment, products, along with popularity in this community, is worth an estimated 1.2 million, wholesale value. You been here for a very long time, so I’ll even throw in a little extra for ya longevity.” Diamond told him.

  “What in da hell are you talking about?” Mr. Kwan snapped looking at the sales agreement paperwork she gave him.

  Diamond took off her glasses, put them in her bag then shifted her hair over her right shoulder.

  “Look, Mr. Kwan, one or two things is going to happen today.”

  “Yeah, and what’s that?” he asked in an irritated way.

  “Today, I’ma buy this store from you. I’m going to cut you a check for 1.3 million dollars, and then you’re going to sign over the deed. You can continue to run this place however you’d like, and all of your employees can keep their jobs. But at the end of the day, you all will work for me,” she explained with a serious face.

  Mr. Kwan sat there and laughed at Diamond like she was doing a stand-up comedy show. He wasn’t taking her serious at all. This wasn’t the first time somebody had tried to buy his business. Just months ago, a realtor offered him 1.5 million to sell, but Mr. Kwan declined the offer. Now, here was Diamond, offering less money than the last, and she was demanding for it to be done as if he didn’t have an option.

  “And tell me, little girl, what happens when I get up out of my seat… grab you by that expensive weave you got in ya head and throw you out of my store?” Mr. Kwan threatened.

  Diamond went to reach for her bag, but Mr. Kwan leaned over and grabbed it first. He didn’t know if she had brought a weapon with her and he wasn’t going to take any chances. He turned the bag upside down and emptied all of the contents out of it. As he scattered the items on the table, he was oblivious to the fact that Diamond had reached into her front waist and pulled out a compact .45 automatic.

  “Now, the flip side to that coin is a little bit different.” she said, resting the gun on her lap.

  After hearing that, Mr. Kwan lifted his head up from the table to see Diamond sitting there with the gun in her hand, looking down on him as if he were her prey. His eyes shifted slightly to the right where he could see his large chrome .357 Magnum resting under his desk. Diamond was well aware of the gun, courtesy of her MHB sister sitting outside the room at the register.

  “Don’t be stupid!” Diamond said, taking the safety off her gun. “I’ll empty my whole clip in you before you could get ya hands on it.” She got up and walked around to the back of his desk.

  Mr. Kwan snapped. He started yelling and screaming in Chinese, slamming one hand on the table and pointing at Diamond with the other. His whole face was red and his blood pressure shot straight through the roof. The one thing he didn’t do was reach for his gun, not even when she reached under the table to retrieve it. Diamond kept him at gunpoint the whole time, and wouldn’t have hesitated to squeeze the trigger had Mr. Kwan tried to do anything crazy.

  “If you choose not to sell, I can guarantee you won’t make another dollar in this store. I’ll make it so hard for you to sell anything, you’ll need to borrow money from the bank just to keep the lights on.’’ Diamond said.

  Mr. Kwan wasn’t fazed at all with Diamond’s threats. He wasn’t about to let a woman walk into his store and tell him what he was going to do with his business.

  “You hear me clear, little girl. You do whatever you want. I’m not selling you shit. You haven’t got the slightest idea who you messing wit.” Mr. Kwan said, shaking his head. “Now get da hell out of my store before I make you use that gun.”

  They stared at each other for a minute before Diamond tucked her gun back in her waist. She reached over and grabbed her bag off the table, along with her belongings that Mr. Kwan had dumped out. She tossed Mr. Kwan’s .357 in her bag as well, then she casually walked out of the room without saying another word. She felt like nothing else needed to be said and everything else would be communicated by actions.

  Chad looked around the cemetery before tilting the bottle of Crown Royal up to his lips. Zion, his son, had been dead for almost two years, but the pain he felt made it seem like it all happened yesterday. Visions of how Zion’s lifeless body felt in his arms haunted him day in and day out.

  “Damn, lil’ man…” Chad mumbled, squatting down in front of the tombstone. “I failed you, son.” he whined, taking another swig of the firewater.

  He missed the hell out of his boy. Zion was his first child, and it wasn’t that he loved him more than he loved the twins, but it was something about the first child that made it hurt just a little more.

  While Chad was kneeling down, he could feel and hear somebody walking up from behind. His instincts made him reach for the gun that was jammed in his waist. He pulled it out, and was about to get up and turn around, but then he heard her voice.

  “I miss him too.” Gwen said, easing her way forward.

  He didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. He didn’t say anything, instead, he took another swig from the bottle and took his hand off the gun. She walked up and kneeled down next to Chad in front of the tombstone.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, looking over at him.

  Chad didn’t say anything. He just took another swig. Since they had broken up shortly after Zion’s kidnapping and the whole hospital ordeal, he and Gwen hadn’t really spoken much. As much as he tried, he couldn’t seem to stop blaming Gwen for their son’s death. Instead of trying to stay and work things out, Chad felt that the best thing to do for both of them was to split.

  “You don’t have to say anything. I just need you to listen to me for a second.” Gwen said as she
turned to look at the grave. “I want you to know that I’m sorry. The reason that we’re sitting here in front of our son’s grave is me. I take full responsibility for that, and this is something I have to live with for the rest of my life. I think that’s punishment in itself,” she said, wiping the tears that fell down her cheek.

  “I truly understand how you feel, and you have every right to be mad at me. But at the same time, I need you to let me deal with Mayo. You have two other kids who need their father right now. If you end up in jail or even dead, you’re no good to them. I don’t think that’s fair to the twins or to yourself.” Gwen explained.

  Gwen didn’t want to admit it, but she still loved and needed Chad. She loved her son, but at the same time, she loved the man who helped create him. To lose Chad would be just as devastating to her as losing Zion.

  Right before she was about to say something else, her cell phone rang. She didn’t answer it the first time, but then it started ringing again. She stood up, reached into her pocket and grabbed it. A picture of Diamond popped up on the screen. If it was anybody else, she wouldn’t have answered it, but seeing who it was made her feel compelled to take the call. She still had a business to run, plus, she wasn’t really sure what else she could possibly say to get through to Chad.

  “Did he sign?” Gwen asked when she answered the phone.

  “Nah, he didn’t sign, but I think he’s gonna see things my way.” Diamond said as she sat in her car right outside of Mr. Kwan’s store.

  Gwen stood up, leaned over and kissed Chad on the top of his head. “I love you, boy,” she said before walking off.

  “I’m taking care of that situation as we speak.” Diamond said, watching as her little hit squad walked across the parking lot towards the store.

  “Yeah, but no blood.” Gwen said. That meant that she didn’t want Diamond to kill Mr. Kwan. That was the main thing she wanted to avoid.

  His death would defeat the intended purpose of getting him to sell his business. If he died, it would be even harder to purchase the property from whoever was in line to get it next. Right now, the takeover had to run as smooth and as quiet as possible. Unnecessary attention was the last thing Gwen wanted.

  “Yo, my nigga, come look at all these new mafuckas.” Mayo’s celly said, calling him over to the window.

  New guards came into the jail often. It was like a revolving door for them also. County was one of the worst jails in the system, mainly because everybody that was beefing in the streets came through there and continued beefing on the inside. The more violent the inmates were, the less safe the staff was. There were some who quit, and then there were others who transferred to the penitentiary where it was less violent.

  “Damn, shawty got a fat ass.” Mayo said, watching the only female guard walking through the yard with the male officers.

  “I’ma kick it wit shawty as soon as I get the chance. She look like she’ll move out for a nigga.” he said, watching her disappear back into the building.

  Mayo knew that it was on a first come, first serve basis. Half the inmates in the jail was gonna be trying to get at the new guards. That’s how most of the drugs and cell phones got into the jail. All one had to do was manipulate the guard and finesse his way into making them become mules. It all boiled down to whoever had the best mouthpiece. Whoever was lucky enough to have a guard was considered to be the man in the jail. Mayo definitely was trying’ to be that man, and had more potential than 90% of the jail population to make it happen.

  Diamond’s crew went straight to work when they entered the hair store. One person held Mr. Kwan and the workers at gunpoint, while three other females ransacked the place. They spray painted all the hair that was lined up on the wall, knocked over racks, and poured premium gas from a five gallon can over everything. They busted out the counter glass, damaged hair care products and stained the carpet with red paint.

  Mr. Kwan watched as they ruined his store and damaged thousands of dollars in product. It was killing him to see his store be destroyed. When he attempted to stop the girls, he was smacked in his mouth with the butt of a gun, knocking two of his front teeth out.

  It took the crew less than 15 minutes to destroy just about everything in the store. One of the girls walked up to Mr. Kwan, who was standing behind the counter spitting out the blood that kept flowing into his mouth. He looked at her with a more submissive stare.

  “If you call the cops, we’ll kill you,” she said reaching into her pocket and pulling out a lighter. “And if you don’t sell, we’ll burn dis bitch to the ground and then kill you.” she threatened, flicking the lighter and waving the fire in his face.

  The heavy aroma of gas, plus the knowledge of it being all over the store had Mr. Kwan too scared to do anything other than nod his head. He wished he could have sold the store right then, but he actually wasn’t in the position to do so. He had investors who had financially helped him a while back when his business was about to go belly up. He was in deep with a prominent realty company, and wasn’t going to be able to do anything until his debt was paid off… with the interest the company had him locked into.

  Whatever the case was, he was going to try to make something happen. He loved his business, and he didn’t want to lose it like this, so he was going to do everything in his power to save it.

  “Tell ya boss we can work something out.” Mr. Kwan said, lowering his head in humility.

  Desks, chairs, fax machines, printers, tables, computers and all kinds of office furniture were delivered to the 17th floor where MHB Realty was located. Gwen and Niya had agreed to use MHB as the name, but instead of flaunting its true meaning, they made the name sound a little more professional. Mortgages, Homes and Businesses is what MHB stood for now.

  Gwen stood in her office looking out of the large floor to ceiling window, taking in the sight of the city. Everything was coming together nicely. Tiffany, Portia, Alexus and April were all out and about, trying to buy up every property available in Charlotte. Diamond, on the other hand, was taking a more mobster approach with trying to get already established businesses to sell. She gave two options, and that was either sell or lose the business altogether. Ironically, it was working, because within a couple of days she had muscled in and bought several storefronts.

  “Gwen, Auntie is here to see you.” Deja, Gwen’s personal secretary said as she entered her office.

  “Send her in.” Gwen responded.

  Moments later, Auntie walked into the office. She had a huge smile on her face when she walked over and gave Gwen a hug.

  “You moving up in the world.” Auntie said, looking out the window at the city.

  “Yeah, well, I think it’s time to take dis shit to another level. What’s the point of making money when the government won’t let you spend it unless they know where it’s coming from.” Gwen said, walking over and standing next to Auntie by the window. “What about you? How are things looking in the gulf?” Gwen asked, referring to recently beefed up security on the coast.

  “Everything looks good right now. You know all The Coast Guard want is more money. That’s something else I need to talk to you about,” Auntie said, turning to face Gwen.

  Whenever the prices of shipping the goods into the United States went up, the cost of the product went up too. Over the past year, the prices of heroin had gone up and down like a rollercoaster. One thing about that, is Auntie made sure Gwen wouldn’t feel the hit too much. Sometimes, while everyone else paid close to double, Auntie allowed Gwen to continue buying at the regular price. Not with this shipment though.

  “I have to go up to 50k per kilo,” Auntie said. “My hope is that everything goes back to normal by the end of next month. And just so you know, everybody else has to pay 60k a kilo.”

  “Come on, Auntie. You don’t have to explain all that. I know you’ll take care of me when you can. You always do.” Gwen smiled.

  The ten thousand dollar hike in the prices wasn’t bad, espe
cially since Gwen was making well over one hundred grand from each kilo. The profit was still crazy, and Gwen was still going to benefit from it. She was a genius, and knew how to capitalize in situations like this. If everybody else in North Carolina had to pay between 60 and 70 grand for a kilo of heroin, a lot of business was about to come Gwen’s way, and she was ready for it.

  Mayo pulled up on the new correctional officer in the hallway on his way to the laundry station. He couldn’t help himself once he saw her. Even though she had on the standard correctional officer uniform, her ass still sat right in her pants. Her long curly hair dropped down past her shoulders and her size five feet looked cute in her work boots.

  “Damn, Ms. Nealy…” Mayo said, looking at the name that was on her shirt. “How you like the job so far?’’

  “It’s cool. I’m not really feeling where they got me at right now,” Ms. Nealy responded.

  She wasn’t the stuck up type like some of the female guards that worked there. She actually was a little friendly. Something Mayo picked up on from the very first words that came out of her mouth.

  “Now look, make sure you stay out of trouble in here,” he joked. “You already know niggas is gonna be tryin’ to talk to you. Just tell them you’re my girl and nobody will say nothing else to you.” he said with a smile.

  Ms. Nealy smiled back. “Oh you the charmer, huh? What block are you on?” she asked, looking up and down the hallway at the few inmates who were either going or coming from their units.

  “I’m on D-block cell 122.” He checked out her body while she continued looking down the hallway.

  Three guys huddled up by the kitchen area caught Ms. Nealy’s eye. She put a stop to the conversation her and Mayo were having and walked off to confront the men and send them back to their unit.