As Mayo watched her walk off, he grabbed a handful of his dick through his pants, imagining what it would be like if he could fuck her from the back. Her ass bounced with every step she took, bringing back the sad reality of what Mayo was missing out on in the streets. There were thousands of women just like her, and some even badder, on the other side waiting for men like Mayo to come home. The fact was that Mayo had to do at least the next ten years in prison. That was a long time, and once he was shipped out to his prison, everything was going to change. He would be surrounded by nothing but big, red neck, tobacco chewing, steroid eating correctional officers who weren’t nearly as friendly as Ms. Nealy.
If Mayo wanted to make a move on Ms. Nealy and try to get her in pocket before he left, he needed to get on his job. Once he went to court and pled guilty, it was only another 30 days before he was sentenced, and then another eight weeks before he was packed up and shipped out. That meant he only had twelve weeks to do his thing, which was more than enough time, as long as he could get to her when she was alone.
“How can I help you today, Mr. Kwan?” Terrance said, closing his office door and walking back over to take a seat at his desk. “Is everything alright?”
Mr. Kwan reached into his bag, pulled out a couple of wads of money and placed them on the desk. It was the exact amount of money he owed Jackson & Johnson for the loan he took out back when his business was struggling. Terrence looked at it and raised an eyebrow. He was curious to know what was about to follow.
“I-I… just wanted to pay the rest of the loan off so we can p-part ways now.” Mr. Kwan said as his eyes darted around the room.
Paying off the loan was cool. It was the parting ways part that got to Terrence. He wasn’t sure if Mr. Kwan had forgotten the agreement they had at the outset of the loan, but he sure as hell was going to remind him about it.
“Did you forget our arrangement?” Terrence asked, pushing Mr. Kwan’s money back to his side of the table.
“I remember what we agreed on, but I will not be able to sell you my business.” Mr. Kwan told him.
Terrence chuckled without humor. It took everything in him not to reach across the table and punch Mr. Kwan in his mouth. Terrence didn’t even get the chance to say what he was about to say, because his office phone started ringing. He gave Mr. Kwan the evil eye as he answered it.
A brief conversation ensued and Mr. Kwan could tell by Terrence’s facial expressions that whoever was on the other end wasn’t giving him any good news. Mr. Kwan even thought about getting up and leaving the office, and for a second he even attempted to do so.
“Have a seat, Mr. Kwan.” Terrence said hanging up the phone. “Now, explain to me why you won’t be selling me the business?” He sat back in his chair and interlocked his fingers over his stomach.
“Because I already sold it.” Mr. Kwan said, putting his head down like he was ashamed for doing it.
“What did you just say?” He had heard him the first time, but he just wanted to hear it again to be sure.
“I sold the business already. I didn’t have any other choice.” Mr. Kwan started to explain.
Terrence wasn’t trying to hear any excuses. The only reason he loaned Mr. Kwan the money was so that he could eventually buy the property from him. That’s how his company was built and that’s how he sustains it to keep the public eye off his other business.
If Terrence didn’t have other important matters to attend to, he would have dealt with Mr. Kwan in another way. The phone call had saved him.
“Get da fuck out of my office!” Terrence said, grabbing the two wads of money and throwing them at Mr. Kwan.
Mr. Kwan looked at him in confusion, wondering why Terrence wasn’t taking the money.
“I’m not done wit you yet. Whoever you sold the store to, you better give the money back.” Terrence snapped, pointing to the door.
Mr. Kwan got up and left, passing Randy, Terrence’s right hand man, on his way out the door.
Randy came in and took a seat, unenthusiastic about the bad news he had to tell Terrence.
“What happened?” Terrence asked, still a little irritated by what Mr. Kwan was trying’ to pull.
“Some motorcross kids found Dink’s body by the dirt bike trails early this morning. He was shot in his head twice.” Randy said, shaking his head.
Terrence’s blood began to boil instantly. Dink was his sister’s baby father and a major part of his organization. He trafficked dope all around the outskirts of Charlotte, mainly in Gastonia, Rockhill, and Belmont, but often flirted with the idea of cutting in on some of the money coming from out of Charlotte. That’s what had cost him his life.
“I told that nigga not to be messing around with those niggas out in Charlotte. Do anybody know who did it?”
“Nah, but some kid who was out there riding his bike told the cops he saw a couple of chicks jump into a truck right before he came across the body,” Randy explained.
Terrence sat back in his chair, resting his chin between his thumb and his index finger. He went into deep thought, wondering if the females had something to do with the murder, and if so, for what reasons they would want to kill Dink. All kinds of scenarios ran through his brain, but none of them could wrap around anything that was remotely close to the truth. It was one of the disadvantages Terrence had, being from Atlanta. He didn’t know too much about anything that was going on up top, and he definitely didn’t know anything about MHB, or how they ran the streets of Charlotte. It had gotten ugly, and if he didn’t let it go, it could get even uglier for him or whoever else interfered with what was going on in the city that belonged to a group of females who weren’t taking any shorts.
Gwen stood by her office door, waving at Auntie who was getting onto the elevator. Immediately after watching the elevator doors close, Gwen closed her door, locked it, and closed the blinds on all of her windows so that nobody would be able to see inside.
The day after Gwen was approved to move into the new office suite, she had a walk-in safe built inside her office. It took two days to complete, and once it was done, Gwen began to move most of MHB’s money into the safe. She didn’t do it because she didn’t her crew. It was done because she wanted to have easier access to the money instead of having to travel an hour and a half outside the city where their major stash house was located. Not just that, but the money was more secure right there in her office than it was stashed previously. The building was like a fortress in itself. The security was tight, and no one could just walk in the building without having a reason for being there. It was like having a safe within a safe.
Gwen punched in her 8-digit code then placed her thumb on the key pad for finger print recognition. After a series of beeps, the door slowly swung open. She could never get tired of stepping into that room and seeing shelves of money right before her eyes. The scent of the money alone gave her a natural high. It wasn’t everything, but Gwen had a little more than 15 million dollars sitting in her office, ready and at her disposal.
She slowly walked into the 6x9 safe, letting her fingers glide across the piles of money on the shelves. She shook her head, amazed at how far she’d come in the game, and all the things that were sacrificed for her to make it to this point. Gwen stood there for a moment, reminiscing to herself, but came back to earth once she realized she had a job to do. Five million dollars was the cost of the shipment of dope scheduled for delivery by tomorrow morning. Gwen had to have the money counted out and in Auntie’s hand before the day was out. Right now, that’s the only thing she really had time to do, and frankly, that’s the only thing she wanted to do.
Chapter 7
Mayo looked down at his watch as he continued to jog around the track in the yard. Ms. Nealy walking across the compound was unexpected, but he saw her, Mayo sped up, hoping to catch her eyes before she disappeared into the building. Mayo was constantly working out, so his body was ridiculously cut. He wasn’t huge and bulky, nor was he thin and rippe
d like Bruce Lee. His size was close to perfect, standing 6’1,” weighing 215lbs.
“Hey, Ms. Nealy.” Mayo said, slowing his pace once he caught up with her by the front gate.
She couldn’t help but to notice how sexy his body looked, seeing that all he had on was a pair of sweat pants and some running sneakers. The sweat dripping off his body made him look even sexier, but Ms. Nealy couldn’t draw too much attention on herself by looking at him so hard. Although it appeared that no one was watching, they were. The guards in the towers were watching along with the guards who were in the rec yard. More importantly, the inmates were watching, trying to see how much of a connection Mayo and the new guard had. If it looked like Mayo had her locked in, nobody was going to shoot their shot at her, but if the vibe between the two wasn’t where it was supposed to be, the wolves would come out.
“I’ll be working ya block today, so I’ll talk to you later.” Ms. Nealy said before turning off the walk and heading for the units.
Mayo didn’t have to say anything and didn’t want to at that point. He didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention either. Since she was working his block this shift, he had all night to holler at her, and having her in a more isolated area was better anyway.
“Feliciano! Come to the office!” the guard yelled over the speaker. “Feliciano! Come to the office!” the guard yelled again out into the common area.
Melissa took one ear bud out of her ear when Niya gestured to her. “The police want you.” Niya told her, looking up at the TV to see what she was watching.
She passed Niya the Walkman and walked over to the correctional officer’s office.
“Yo what’s up?” Melissa asked standing at the door.
“I need you to pack ya shit and head down to R&D,” the officer told her.
“For what?”
“Look, the lieutenant called up here and told me to tell you to pack ya shit.”
Melissa just walked away and headed back over to where Niya was. She didn’t know why she was packing up so early. Her release date wasn’t until next month, and as far as she knew, she didn’t have any open cases pending in Philly.
Niya noticed the distraught look on her face. “What happened?” she asked Melissa, taking the ear bud out of her.
“The police just told me to pack my stuff up and go down to R&D…” Melissa explained. “I need you to walk me up to the lieutenant’s office so I can see what’s going on.’’
“Girl, 9 times out of 10, if they told you to pack up, then ya ass is going home.” Niya said with a huge smile on her face. “I’ll walk you up there, though.”
When they got to the lieutenant’s office, Niya was right. Melissa was being released to a halfway house early. Sometimes when the system got over crowded and female prisons needed the bed space, those who have months to go tend to get released early, as long as their case didn’t have anything to do with violence. Melissa had 365 days for bank fraud, a white-collar crime that wasn’t violent at all. She fit the criteria perfectly.
Melissa looked at Niya, almost not wanting to leave her new best friend behind. Her eyes began to fill up with tears. Niya seeing the hurt on her girl’s face quickly made a joke to ease the pain. “Shit, if it was me, girl I would be crying and packing at the same time.” Melissa laughed and they embraced one more time before Niya turned and headed back to her cell.
Right before the institutions’ 4:00 count, Melissa was taken to the bus station and released. It was on such short notice; she didn’t have time for her family to send her money so that she could get a plane ticket. The bus ride all the way back to Philly was going to take a couple of days, but Melissa didn’t mind. She was so happy to be free. She couldn’t care less about how long it was going to take her to get home. As long as she got there, it made no difference.
“Rachel, I told you I was on top of it.” Terrence said into the receiver. “No… No I don’t know yet!” he yelled.
Terrence pulled his head back from the phone, not wanting to hear his little sister yelling at him about something he had no knowledge of. It wasn’t just her that was snapping out about Dink’s death. Damn near the whole city of Atlanta, Georgia, was in an uproar about the situation. Bottom line, people wanted answers, especially his family who was far from the streets.
“Rachel, just give me a couple of days.” Terrence said. “I’ll let you know something as soon as I hear anything.”
He sat back in his chair and put both of his hands on top of his head. He looked out his office window into the cubicle area and made eye contact with Randy who was flirting with one of the female workers. A simple nod of the head from Terrence got Randy to stop doing what he was doing and make his way to the office.
“What up, T?” Randy said, coming into the office.
“Yo, you didn’t hear anything yet about that situation with Dink?” Terrence asked, leaning up in his chair.
“Nah, not really. Everybody I know keep talking about some bitches that supposed to be running this city. They call themselves MOB… MHB or some shit like that,” Randy answered. “They got a bar in the city somewhere. Me and Mike supposed to be goin’ through there to see what it look like.”
“Nah, nah, don’t take Mike. Take Tianna wit’ you. If it’s a chick bar, she might can find out more information than you could.” Terrence directed.
Tianna was from the hood for real, and she didn’t mind putting in work if necessary. She was born and raised in North Philadelphia but migrated to South Carolina with her mom and step pop after her stepfather shot a man in his head in broad daylight in front of the whole neighborhood. Tianna was one of the many people who witnessed it. Since then, South Carolina was her home, but North Carolina was where she worked with her uncle, Terrence.
“Oh yeah, and I need you to take a look at something too when you come in tomorrow. I’m losing a couple of businesses and I’m tryin’ to figure out why.” Terrence said shuffling around some papers that were on his desk.
“No problem, T. I’ll check it out first thing.” Randy responded. “I’ma go jump on this shit wit Dink tonight, and I’ll call you later and let you know what happened.”
He gave Terrence dap then left his office.
“Yo, homie, let me holla at her for a minute.” Mayo said, tapping the guy on his arm who was standing in the doorway of the c/o office.
For a second, the guy acted like he wasn’t going anywhere, but that only lasted for a second because when he turned to see that it was Mayo, he did what he was told. Over the past year, he had really made a name for himself. After he got stabbed and was almost killed, Mayo turned around and had several brutal fist fights that ended in his victims being sent to the infirmary. Not too many people wanted drama with him or the lil’ crew he had riding with him.
“You ignorant.” Ms. Nealy said with a smirk on her face.
“He wasn’t talking about shit anyway.” Mayo responded, looking over his shoulder at the guy sitting down at the TV. “So where you from out there?” he asked, changing his tone to a calmer one.
His ruggedness was attractive along with everything else about him, but Ms. Nealy was there for other reasons.
“Boy, you know you ain’t supposed to be asking me where I’m from. I like my job,” she smiled.
“I like ya job too. Whatever we talk about stays between us. Scout’s honor.” Mayo said, raising two fingers in the air.
Ms. Nealy thought Mayo was cute, and he didn’t seem like the type who would go running his mouth to other inmates. She felt comfortable for some reason, and it showed, because all the way up until lockdown time, she entertained Mayo’s conversation. They talked about many things they weren’t supposed to talk about and Mayo even managed to get her to flirt with him a little.
This is how it all started, and it looked as if Mayo was going to get all the time he needed, because Ms. Nealy would be working his unit for the next quarter. If he got this far in one night, there wasn’t no tell
ing what he could accomplish over the next eight weeks.
Gwen took her glasses off and rubbed the corners of her eyes. She’d been looking at paperwork all day, and still couldn’t understand the legalities of running the realty company. It was too much work, and it was taking up a nice amount of her time trying to figure stuff out.
Within a few weeks, Diamond had tackled five major stores in Charlotte, including one supermarket, two check-cashing places, and a steakhouse. She wasn’t even done yet. She had her eyes on a few other businesses that generated large quarterly profits.
Tiffany and her boyfriend, Toast, tore down the auction, buying just about every property that went up. In a week’s time, they bought more than 15 houses for very cheap prices. Most of the houses were fixer uppers, but Toast didn’t mind doing the work so that the houses looked good enough to sell.
Alexus’ job probably was the hardest. She had to buy land. It was different than buying a house. Location was everything, and Alexus had to strategically purchase acres of land that had the potential to generate a lot of money, whether it be by developing something on that land or by selling it to someone who wanted it more than she did. So far, Alexus had purchased over 100 acres of land, mainly in the city because she found that it was easier to buy vacant lots nobody ever used. She’d already pitched the idea of building houses in some, and turning vacant lots downtown into parking lots.
Everything from Diamond’s businesses to Alexus’s parking lots were sitting on Gwen’s’ desk, giving her nothing but a vicious headache. A knock at her office door snapped Gwen out of it.
“Gwen, there’s a Mr. Johnson out here to see you.” Deja said, peeking her head into the office.
“You can send him in…” Gwen let out a deep sigh. “Oh, and Deja, can you bring me some coffee?”
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