Durty South Grind

by L. E. Newell

  He smiled warmly and leaned toward Sissy. “Damn, you sure don’t talk too much, do you, little lady?” He leaned away when the vein in her neck expanded as she grunted something he couldn’t quite understand. He read her grunted response as plain bad attitude, stepped back and pressed the money into his pocket with the rest.

  With his business handled he felt no need to hang around, so he nodded at Slim and turned away to leave. The twins immediately rose from the bed and chair beside the radiator and nodded at Lisa as he opened the door to leave. Neither of them had uttered so much as one word the whole time, which he found really strange since that’s all they’d been doing before they got there. Oh well, whatever relationship they had with the masculine shawtie was none of his business.

  They’d barely stepped out of the room when three successive booms rattled the still night air. He felt both girls scrabble back into the room. Being used to violence, he calmly radared the walkway and saw two crouched figures sprinting to the corner of the building. The trailer got off two shots as an arm reached around the edge of the room pumping lead at the fleeing pair.

  He wasn’t surprised that the twins had darted at the first sound of gunfire for neither of them seemed to be the gangster type. He felt a small hand circle his leg, while a head brushed his knee. He smiled when he looked down to see one of the twins’ heads peeking around the edge of the door with her eyes bucked wide open in fear.

  It happened too fast for him to react like he normally would’ve. It wasn’t that he was frozen in fear or anything like that. It was more like he couldn’t believe what he was witnessing; especially in what appeared to be a quiet part of town, but you never know.

  The echoing sound of the gunfire was still ringing in his ear as he took a deep breath and rubbed the side of his neck checking the scene. A woman’s head briefly appeared at the door where the action had occurred and just as quickly disappeared. Then the door slammed. He scanned the rest of the area until he felt the stillness return. Only then did he look down at the twins and broke out in a smile at one of them still holding on to his leg. He reached down to lift her up by the armpits.

  “Ya’ll aight? Come on, let’s get out of here before somebody calls five-o,” he spat and headed for the car without waiting for a reply.

  “Hey, sweetie, can I holla atcha for a sec?” He looked around to see the Amazon smiling at him from the doorway. He frowned and gently urged the twins past him and headed back to the room.

  Lisa placed a piece of paper in his hand, gave him what he took to be her sexy smile. “Damn, hero, that didn’t bother you in the least, did it?”

  She was really impressed with his show of bravery. He heard the engine crank and looked around to see the car back out and head his way before he turned his attention back to her.

  “Naw, slim, not really, but was it supposed to. I’ve been around a lot worse than that.” The glitter in her eyes said it all: Long Tall was impressed by his don’t-give-a-damn attitude.

  She smiled sweetly and purred, “I guess not. Hey, call me when you get yourself a little air, aight?” Then she winked at him and quietly slipped back into the room, eyeing him seductively as she closed the door slowly.

  He cocked his head to the side, smiled and casually turned to get into the car. He almost burst out laughing at the expression on both of the twins’ faces. But he held it in. “Damn, ya’ll, aight, a little scared, huh? Hmmm, that’s interesting; now don’t go to speeding out of here. There’s no need to draw any attention to us under the circumstances.”

  Cherry nodded and slowly steered the car off the hotel’s parking lot, drove slowly to Wesley Chapel and then to the interstate.

  He waited until they were well on their way before he said in a quiet tone, “Looka here, girls, I ain’t had any sleep in well over a day. How about dropping me off at the crib? I’m about to drop out on my feet here. Ya’ll can snooze out too if you want to.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Cherry added, rubbing a hand across her mouth to stifle a yawn.

  When they got close enough to Candler Road to see the club sign jutting above the tree line, they noticed several red, blue and white lights flashing from the direction of the Red Roof Inn.

  The closer they got to the exit ramp, the more he was drawn to the scene. He shivered with the thought of being so close to being caught up in whatever was happening there. There were SWAT team trucks and vans positioned on each end of the building. He stared in semi shock at the ominous, black-clad policemen pushing people into the hotel’s pool. His mind immediately traced back to the confrontation with Chew Tobacco on the tier in Valdosta only a couple of days ago and the warning the hillbilly cracker had threatened him with. He shook away those visions and refocused on the activities that were happening down the slope.

  Was it the combination of coke-laced paranoia and physical exhaustion that caused the eerie sensation of the dreamlike tunnel vision he was experiencing? His attention was drawn to a small figure striding amongst the army of police. As he watched mesmerized by the scene, it became clearly evident who was in charge down there. Why was he able to see and feel that way from so far away? As they drove further down the ramp, he twisted in the seat, lifting himself up off the seat and stretching his neck so he wouldn’t miss a thing.

  “Hey, playa, you act like you want to be down there or something?” Sherry asked from the backseat. When he didn’t respond, she started waving her hand in front of his face. “Earth to Sparkle, Earth to Sparkle; come back, Sparkle, come back.”

  The distraction of her waving hand pushed him out of the daze he had sunk into. He stared at the hand for a few seconds before he shook his mind back to the here and now. “Damn, I’m sorry; that shit had me tripping.” He sighed and sat back as Cherry pulled up at the red light.

  When they passed the Pizza Hut on Candler Road, the phone started vibrating on his side. He reached down to lift the edge of his shirt and saw Dee’s number flashing at him. His head swayed from side to side as he searched for somewhere that he could use a telephone when it dawned on him that he was looking at a phone. Damn, this coke’s got me all fucked up.

  Cherry started feeling jittery with the way that he was acting. “Why you looking around all crazy for?”

  The smoke from his cigarette started irritating his eyes as he squinted across the seat at her. “Uh, I’m just looking for a phone so I can call this girl, Dee. She must need some more stuff or something.”

  She tilted her head away, wrinkled her nose and said, “So why you acting so panicky, man? We about to turn into Candler East right now. And then again, what’s wrong with the phone you looking down at? Yeah, man, you need some rest for sure; you tripping for a bitch, for real. Hell, call her or we can just go straight over to her spot.”

  Sherry placed her hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, dude, it ain’t like we on the other side of town or something.”

  He looked down at the hand and hunched his shoulders. “I must really be tired, whew!” He slumped down in the seat, realizing that he was indeed physically spent.

  Sherry shook her head. “That’s aight, playa; we know you tired. Whatcha wanna do; call her or just drop by there?”

  He knuckled the corners of his eyes, took a deep breath and twisted the cringles out of his neck. “Fuck it; money calls. Let’s drop on over there and see what she wants.” He sat back and wiggled his shoulders into the seat to shake off the weariness.

  “That’ll work,” Cherry spat and turned into the circular drive toward Dee’s.

  Sparkle sprung out of the car before it rolled to a complete stop and was on his way into the apartment. She opened the door on the second knock and chattered wildly. “Hmmm, that was quick; you must’ve been close by.” Beaming, she stepped to the side to let him in.

  Being as tired as he was, he got straight to business. “All that’s gone already?”

  She placed her hands on her wide hips and grunted, “Well, excuse me for your attitude, Mr. Man.” She stepped bac
k and ran her eyes up and down his obviously tired body.

  His exhausted expression let her know immediately that now wasn’t the time, so she eased up on the sarcasm. “I ain’t got but three dimes left and one of my big spenders called to let me know that he was on his way with a mint.” He sensed her eagerness to get on for whoever this guy was from that unmistakable junkie spark in her eyes.

  Sparkle rubbed his index finger across his nose and mumbled, “What ya call a mint, redbone?”

  She lowered her roaming eyes from side to side, uncertain of how he accepted this part of her game. Refusing to stand there feeling stupid, she said with just enough enthusiasm, “At least five big ones for a start.”

  “For real,” he said meekly.

  She probed around his lazy excitement before replying in a squeaky voice, “For real.”

  “Damn,” he sighed, lowering his eyes.

  “Whatcha mean by damn?” she said, as doubt crept into her thoughts. Now that really would be fucked up, shit, and I’ve wasted all this time trying to play it real with this muthafucka…mmmph, I should have called dude down the street anyway just in case some shit like this happened, she thought and started tapping her foot impatiently.

  Reacting to her vibes, he immediately reached for the dope. His tired mind perked up as well. Damn, this conniving-ass bitch was calculating moves that damn quick. Shit, JJ, hit this dirty-ass whore dead on the head. I got to stretch the handle on her ass from here on out. He gathered himself. “Hold ya horses for a second there, shortie. I gotcha; I’m just tired for a bitch, girl. My mind was stuck on something else; that’s all.”

  “Oh, my bad then.” She smiled down at the dope in his hand. She sighed heavily with the relief of his coming through for her. She really wanted to be able to depend on him; especially with her plans for their future.

  A shiny black BMW pulled into the parking lot with the speakers booming about T-Pain and Lil Wayne tossing money around the club.

  Cherry’s arms were wrapped around the steering wheel, with her chin resting on her hands. She was earballing their conversation when she heard the car pull up. Squinting, she did a double-take and twisted sideways. “Sherry, ain’t that that fat nigga Buster’s ride over there?”

  Her tone excited Sherry, who had been busy filing her nails with an emery board. With wide-eyed exuberance, she did a double-take. “I think, oh hell yeah; that’s his fat ass. Come on, girl; it’s about to be a party up in this bitch.”

  Cherry touched the door handle eagerly but paused to say, “Nggg, damn. Girl, what about that nigga there?” She nodded toward Sparkle heading for the car.

  Sherry turned her mouth down frowning. “Shiiiit, what about him? Didn’t he just say his ass was tired? Well, let him gon’ get some sleep. He ain’t about to give a bitch a damn thing no way,” she said as she was getting out of the car.

  Cherry stepped out and headed toward Sparkle while Sherry went to start their game with big boy. She had to stall him long enough to at least try to talk him out of whatever dope he had left. It didn’t take long as he was ready to give it up anyway.

  A few minutes later, Sparkle was dead to the world, snoring on one of the kids’ beds. One of his last thoughts before going to snooze land was wondering how word of the raid had gotten to Dark and Lovely at the Motel 6 so fast. As he fluttered his eyes in those last seconds of awareness, trying to stifle a final yawn, it dawned on him that he didn’t even know her name. Oh, what the hell, he was sure to find it out later. Fuck it for now.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The City Terrorists Make A Strike

  Lt. Woo strode up and down the walkway like a miniature storm trooper, gritting harshly at what she considered real vermin, ogling her menace from the chilly water of the pool. She lived for these moments of watching the frightened faces of the men and women, who by now were shivering because of the freezing water and thoughts of going to jail. It gave her an adrenaline rush like nothing else she had experienced.

  As she continued to pace before the crowd of scared dope pushers and users, a small smile creased the corners of her mouth. She felt like masturbating off the power rush she was feeling. She wondered if the fools in the pool; hell, even the fools who were standing around waiting for her instructions with their guns drawn and batons swinging had no idea of her future plans of getting that nut. That nut; was there anything better? If there was, she surely couldn’t think of what it could be.

  Looking up at the doors on the other tiers of the hotel, she wondered if there were any more fools who would make the mistake of venturing outside. Suddenly, feeling like she was in the crosshairs of a riflescope, she instinctively spun around and zoomed in on the traffic up the wooded slope toward I-20.

  “Lieutenant, whatcha wanna do with these muthafuckas?” Her trancelike glare at the cars lined along the thoroughfare was broken by the muffled voice of her second-in-command speaking to her through his helmet visor, as he nodded toward the people in the pool.

  Her slanted eyes blinked a couple of times as she frowned at him before running her gaze back over the fools amassed in the pool. It was time to scare them even more than they already were. So she nodded for the two nearest officers to follow her, as she started stalking closer along the edge of the pool.

  She waited in the middle of the throng of people, so everybody could get a good look at her. She wanted this display of power to have the full visual effect of pure fear. Menacingly eyeing her trembling prey, she bent down and waved her hands through the chilly water. While still in her crouched position, she gave a nod to the two troopers. Without a moment’s hesitation, they reached down and yanked a pair of hard-looking teenagers by the plastic cuff ties behind their backs and pulled them out of the pool.

  The pain on their youthful faces clearly showed how much force the officers were using. Their bodies ended up in awkward angles as they were slammed on the hard pavement. With their feet splashing desperately in the water, their mouths shot open wide in silent screams of displeasure as they arched their necks and shoulders from the impact. No sound emitted from their mouths for utter fear had taken over. All they could do was stare up into the angry faces of the cops.

  The shock was certainly not over when Woo grasped both of their chins in an iron claw grip, with her teeth gnashed and growled, “You muthafuckas think this is a joke, huh?” Her eyes flared like burning coals, searing right through their brains, as she stared down at them like she wished they were dead. Her arousal soared much more when she felt the dampness moistening her panties.

  The pair was so frozen in fear that it took a moment for it to register that she was talking to them. The vise-like grip that she had on their chins was so tight that they couldn’t even nod their heads. The look in their eyes showed pure fear and desperation.

  That pure fear turned into something else they’d never felt before, as the anger in her eyes glazed over into lust. She had dug her nails so deep into their skin that blood started to ooze around her razor-like fingernails. Her face spewed total hatred as she leaned in closer. “Let me tell ya’ll niggas this here: If I ever see either one of ya’ll hanging around any dope area anywhere, I’m gonna kick ya’ll faces and lock ya’ll asses up for so muthafucking long, that your own families won’t even recognize you no more.”

  Then, with panther-like speed, she jumped up and pulled the bigger of the two to his feet by his braids. A truly amazing feat by a woman so small in stature. She raised her voice for everybody within shouting distance to hear. “Ya’ll muthafuckas get one chance and one chance only to get whatever illegal bullshit off your asses.” She paused to scan the whole pool area, staring at each one of them with intense fire shooting from her eyes. “Me and my men are going to turn around and I’m going to count to ten, naw fuck dat, five. I’m gonna count to five and then whoever has the nerve to try to hold on to anything they ain’t got no business having, are getting dumped headfirst into that paddy wagon over yonder.”

  Without any further warning, sh
e raised her foot and kicked the teenager back into the pool, leaving him to right himself as he splashed aimlessly in the water. Not a soul bothered to help him. Even if they wanted to, their hands were locked behind them just as his were.

  And then she looked down at his partner. “Get your ass in the water. Now.” She had a sadistic smile on her face, as she watched the struggling youth. He slipped under several times before he was able to do so. The other one flinched at her psychotic mask as she stared down at his boy and, with perspirating fear all over his face, he scrambled back into the water.

  She frowned murderously at the others, raised her hand and rotated one finger. All the drug squad members immediately did an about face, the soles of their combat boots thundering loudly in the crisp morning air.

  Lt. Woo started counting. “One, two, three, four.” She took a deep breath before continuing louder, “Five.” The squad turned around, barking orders, and started prodding people like cattle toward the waiting paddy wagon. One by one they pulled drenched people out of the pool and patted them down. After the smart ones were released out of their cuff ties, Lt. Woo shouted into their horrified faces at point-blank range, “Run, muthafucka, run!”

  A total of six out of a possible thirty something were foolish enough to try to sneak some through the shakedown. Those unfortunate few were indeed slammed headfirst into the paddy wagon and secured with ankle ties as well.

  Shortly afterward, a group of officers used long-handled fishing nets to scoop the assorted drugs and other whatnots out of the pool and shoved them into large bags to be burned later on.

  She smiled down at the wetness in her panties as she started walking back to her squad car and pressed a call to Chief Johnson’s office. Before ducking in she took a quick glance around to see if anyone was paying her any attention. Satisfied that everyone was too busy wrapping up the commando scene, a prettier smile creased the corners of her mouth as she settled down into the seat.