by L. E. Newell
They all shouted at her in unison, “Fuck you, you old biddy!”
“Ugh, such nasty manners from ones so young. Begone,” she said with a flip of the wrist as she pranced over to the table to give Rainbow a big hug. “Honey, toss me a couple of them there bags so I can see what these good boys are working with anyways.” She pushed her ass out in an enticing angle to fuck with them.
Rainbow pushed the crystal ball to the edge of the table and she scooped out a hand full. “Ya’ll boys stay good now.” She smiled at them as she and Princess disappeared down the hallway, with their asses jiggling and their mouths giggling.
Rainbow pushed away from the table and stood up to stretch the cramps out of his neck, arms and legs before he addressed the boys. “Yo, fellas, it was really nice having ya’ll over for some entertainment, but I’m gonna have to call it a night because me and the girls have got to get ready to make some runs.”
Reluctantly, they all rose, mumbling amongst themselves and headed for the door. Stack-a-dime was the last to leave. He turned to face Rainbow as he was about to close the door and said angrily, “My man, I don’t know exactly what you’re doing but you’re doing something.”
Rainbow pinched his nose and rubbed his chin as he stared the youngun down. Seeing that tactic wasn’t doing any good, he forced a smile. “Youngun, I’m betting my scheme; that’s all.”
The anger in Stack’s voice was undeniable, as his eyes narrowed and his nose flared. “Scheme, my ass. Sooner or later, I’m gonna bust your ass and when I do…” He edged a little closer to him.
Rainbow stepped toward him and gritted. “And then what, muthafucka, and then what?” He inched his hand to the small of his back for the ever-present Glock braced in his waistband. Instant death stared at the youngun.
Stack instantly knew that he had overstepped his boundaries and recoiled as his eyes lowered to Rainbow’s hand movement. Despite his tingling fear, his gangster wouldn’t allow him to be outright punked, so he maintained his menacing stare. “Just keep your shit tight, partner; just keep it tight.” He gently backed out of the door.
Rainbow knew that he was scared and was maintaining his killer swagger for the sake of his crew and his own self-esteem. “Whatever dog, whatever,” he spat with fire in his eyes as his hand eased off the trigger.
“Uh-huh, yeah, whatever,” Stack spat back and spun around to follow his buddies with his coattail swinging angrily in his wake.
Rainbow slammed the door behind the angry stud and thought, Man, these muthafuckas must think that I’ve gotten soft or something. He headed for the bedroom. With the same steam boiling in his brain, he rapped sharply on the door. There was a quick muffled reply. This fired him up just that much more and he kicked the door, shouting, “Girl, what the fuck you got this damn door locked for? Them younguns are gone. Bitch, open this muthafucking door.” For a brief second he considered kicking the door in.
There was a shuffling of feet and more mumbling before the door was snatched open by Princess, her face creased in a frown.
“Splack,” the sound of the slap upside her head echoed in the hallway, as Rainbow viciously slammed her against the door. She boomeranged from the force of the blow into him like a rag doll. Still very much pissed off, he grabbed her around the neck and hair and slung her into the bedroom dresser.
His longtime pimping instincts had his foot raised in the air to deliver more punishment as Lady screamed out at him, “No, Rainbow, no!” She rushed over to grab him by the waist. The pleading look on her face curbed his anger. He took a deep breath and gently lowered his leg. Still, he felt compelled to let Princess know that he wouldn’t put up with any defiance whatsoever.
“I’m chill, baby. I’m chill,” he said evenly. Lady looked up with tears running down her cheeks to see the calmness on his face and unwrapped herself from around his waist and placed a trembling hand on his shoulder.
He gave her a weak smile, gently brushed her hand off of his shoulder and bent down to carefully lift Princess’s face. His smile was warm but his eyes were blazing fire. “Baby girl, don’t ever approach me in that manner again.” Her ogling fear let him know he was in full control. “You feel me, baby girl? I said, do you feel me?” She nodded shyly. Grimacing, he lifted her up by the armpits and walked her over to the bed. Damn, why these hoes got to keep testing a nigga? Why? He gently sat her down on the bed and left the room.
He walked calmly into the living room and took a seat on the couch, picked up the remote and clicked on the porn video. He unzipped his fly and motioned toward his newest addition to his constantly revolving stable of hoes. As she gently wrapped her juicy red lips around his massive dick, he casually succumbed to the sensation, thinking, Damn, playa, you must be getting too old for this game; you can’t even remember this bitch’s name. He wiggled his ass enough to unstick his nuts from his thighs, smiling at her bobbing head. What the fuck difference does it make? A nigga can’t be expected to know all these muthafuckas’ names, as long as they prove to be money-making machines. Aaaaaah, do your thang, girlie; do your thang.
Beverly was consumed with pleasant thoughts of preparing a scrumptious meal for her beloved nana, as she watched the elevator lights blinking down to the garage floor. It had been a pretty okay workday, except for the disturbing report of the overzealous Lt. Woo on her drug excursion into DeKalb County. She felt sorta icky because it was one of the areas her boys operated; she really didn’t want anything to do with it. True enough, Woo had curbed the drug traffic in a positive sense in Fulton County. Even though she was a bit uncomfortable with some of her tactics, she had to smile at the results. From the police’s point of view, the little monster’s tactics definitely worked.
Her thoughts shifted to Sparkle when the doors opened and she headed toward her car. As she cruised along the pavement in her pigeon-toed stride, she wondered when she would get the chance to see him. And as usual she felt her heart flutter with the excitement of possibly feeling herself melt in his embrace. Why can’t that fool see that I love his hard-headed ass? Whew! I pray to God that I can convince him to give up the street life this time, she thought as she inserted the key into the ignition.
Plack, plack, plack. She jumped nervously from the sudden rapping on her windshield. Before she could adjust her senses, there was another. Plack, plack, plack. A second tingling ran down her spine as she swerved her head to locate what was causing the noise. Her anger surfaced immediately when she recognized the face of the deputy chief, looking like Norman Bates, smiling dumbly at her.
The nerve of this mutherfucker. She reached for the door handle and intentionally shoved the door hard into his midsection. “Man, what the fuck is wrong…” She caught herself before she could finish the statement and got out of the car. She stood there for a moment, pinching her eyebrows to regain some of her composure. She responded in a chilly tone and with clenched teeth, “What is it, Deputy Chief?”
R.J. Madison III set his briefcase on the pavement, then rotated his neck and shoulders backward. “Chief, please excuse me for scaring you like that. I didn’t mean to upset you, but you did tell me to keep you abreast on the townhouse you were interested in.” He leaned his elbow on the roof of the car. “I tried to catch you in your office but your secretary told me that you had already left. And when I saw the elevator door closing, I guess I got a little overanxious and ran down the stairs. I certainly didn’t want you to leave before I let you know that one will be available in about three weeks. Most of them are going to be furnished, but I figured that you’d want one that you could do yourself. Am I right to assume that?” He blinked several times, looking very sincere.
Only then did she notice that his chest was still heaving from the exertion of running down the stairs to catch her. That made her start to feel sort of guilty for slamming the door on him so abruptly. She ran her hand from her forehead down to squeeze her neck before she shut her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “Excuse me, R.J., for being so jumpy. I’ve been through a very stres
sful day. I’m sorry for blowing my fuse on you like that.” She was too damn tired to smile.
He hunched his shoulder as if to say that’s okay, that he understood, before he adjusted his tie. “Yes, ma’am; apology accepted. I surely can understand the stress…hell, I go through it myself, but anyway I wanted to inform you that you can at least start the paperwork whenever you want to. I realized how badly you want to move your grandmother out of the hood.”
This pompous bastard. How dare his pampered white ass talk like my old neighborhood ain’t fit for living? she thought. “Uh, thank you, Mr. Madison. I’ll get my banker on it first thing in the morning. Uh, please don’t let me forget, okay?” she said sweetly with a glittering smile that she was finally able to force, even though she didn’t feel it. She closed her door, put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking facility.
As he watched her drive away, he reached into his suit pocket to get his cell phone and punched some numbers. When the phone wasn’t picked up right away, he immediately repunched the numbers. He waited five more rings and was ready to snap, when he heard a soft female voice answer demurely, “Excuse me, but Al is rather busy right now. May I take a message?”
R.J. held his face away from the slightly familiar voice and contemplated delivering a threatening message before he thought better of it and clipped the connection. He mumbled to himself as he headed for his car on the far side of the garage, “That motherfucker knows godayum well he was supposed to let me know about that furniture delivery today. Who the hell does he think he’s playing with? Black bastard’s probably got his ugly-ass face stuffed up in some stanky whore’s pussy. Damn, I should’ve known better than to trust a bastard like him,” he mouthed angrily as he snatched open the door.
As he was pulling out of his parking space, he spotted that bitch Lt. Woo walking toward her small compact car with her head bent down as she dug into an oversized purse. He smiled at himself as he felt a sudden impulse urging him to drive right over her publicity-seeking ass. Instead, he honked his horn and waved at her. At least he got to enjoy the look of shock on her face from being caught in his high-beam headlights. He veered around her and out of the garage, pleased with himself for letting that little bitch know that she was vulnerable.
Lt. Woo squinted at his departing car, wondering what she’d done to him to encourage him to try to scare her like that. The little smirk he had on his face as he drove by certainly gave her that impression. Little did he know that she wasn’t the least bit scared of his antics. After all, she was extremely confident in her ability to avoid danger. Little did he realize that he had really piqued her curiosity, which was really dangerous on his part. Now she had to investigate his ass as a promising enemy. It’d only prove to sharpen her wits when it came to dealing with him from now on. She smiled as she settled behind the steering wheel, knowing that she always came out on top of all of her enemies.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Boosting Queen Gets Her Man
Sparkle had little time to admire the lavish surroundings of Al’s game room when Debra led him to where the poker games were really getting it on. The aroma of the combination of cocaine and reefer assaulted his nostrils immediately as they entered the room; bringing back memories of the other night when he had banged Al’s head real decent. The three poker tables were full of players chunking money and talking shit.
In the center of the room, sitting up tall in his bamboo chair shaped like a throne, was Big Al in a black fedora munching on a big cigar jutting out of the side of his mouth. Percy and one of the twins, along with three other people, were bunched around the table concentrating on the cards they had been dealt. It was evident who was doing all the winning because of his cheerful attitude, much different from the last time that Sparkle was over there kicking his ass.
An over-smiling Al greeted them with a cheesy grin. “Well, how ya’ll doing? About time ya’ll jive asses got back. My man, Sparkle, let’s see how your luck runs tonight. I’m on a real roll here. As you can tell by the look on some of these folks’ faces, they’re probably wishing they asses had chosen something else to do instead of fucking with Poker King Al,” he finished in a husky Barry White tone.
JJ saluted him. “Do your thing, big man; do your thang. I’ll be there in a few to rattle your money chain; believe that there.”
“Yeah right, like you hope to do every time you enter my lair,” he groveled like Vincent Price in one of those old monster movies before his attention was drawn back to the action at the table.
“Godayum, a nigga’s luck be running like donkey shit around this here bitch.” The familiar voice of his nephew, Stacy, drew Sparkle’s attention to the far end of the room, as he slammed his cards on the table.
Sparkle shook his head. Damn, this boy ain’t learned a thing I’ve taught him.
Then he looked around the table and spotted his boy “B,” which got him to thinking about Violet. He smiled as he watched him pick up the deck and start to shuffle the cards, talking plenty of trash. Moans and groans erupted around the table as one of the two girls at the table snatched up the deck from him and started reshuffling them.
Sparkle walked up to stand behind Johnny B. “Yo, black, I don’t appreciate folk taking advantage of my nephew again.”
“Who da fuck,” he said before he looked over his shoulder and recognized his boy. He put on one of his most brilliant smiles. “Nigga, I was wondering when your ass was going to get back around here. Fuck this game; we need to talk.”
“B” got up from the table, grabbed his shoulders, then held him at arm’s length. “Man, why you didn’t let me know that you was coming over this way?”
Sparkle hunched his shoulders. “Shit, dog, I didn’t really know myself until Sis there caught me getting off the bus on Candler Road. So what’s up?”
The commotion drew the attention of the people at the high stakes table. “Come on, JJ, Debra and you, too,” Al said. “‘B,’ I see you raking coins over there. Your black ass is welcome over here, too.”
“I’m on my way now, big timer!” Debra shouted as she reached over Sparkle’s shoulder with her palms up, wiggling her fingers.
Sparkle looked down at her hand. “What…what’s that for?” He arched his brows with curiosity.
Debra spun around. “Damn, Bro, you hit up really good over here the other day. Give a bitch a few coins to chunk at these greedy muthafuckas.”
Sparkle’s eyebrows shot up in mock surprise as he smiled down at her. His thoughts immediately shot back to the days when he had first revealed to Debra the art of cheating. Ain’t no way her ass was still in training and thinking that he’d go for that okeydoke move. He knew that she had bank in her purse. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so anxious to get over here in the first place. But she was Baby Sis, so he gave in, reached into his pocket and eased a couple of hundred into her palm.
There were things he wanted to kick around with Johnny B anyhow. She batted her eyes and gave him a smirk of a smile and turned to the table. “Hold up there, playa. Can a bitch get a cut of them cards there? I ain’t like a ho; trust any of ya’ll dogs, know what I’m saying.”
“Girl, your ass need to be paying attention instead of running your mouth at folk who ain’t even tossing bills in that bitch!” somebody shouted. She ignored whomever it was and picked the deck up to reshuffle herself.
Al removed the thick cigar out of his mouth and mumbled, “Nigga, you know damn well that you need to let folk cut the deck whenever they want to. Uh-huh, yo dirty ass probably trying to sneak one of your deals in, but that ain’t about to happen. Is it, girls?” His tone was gentle but persuasive.
A chorus of “fuck you” erupted around the table. Sparkle smiled at the banter and began studying the players to see whatever cheat tactics they were using. However, he would never reveal anything if he saw one of them doing something. That was straight-up taboo as far as he was concerned. Besides, it would only wire them up that he had those abilities, too.
Shortly afterward, he felt “B”’s gnarled hand grasp his shoulder as he whispered in his ear, “Yo, partner, we got a lot of updating to do, so whatcha say we go get a couple of foosball games in. Shit, this game is nearly done anyways.”
Sparkle told him that he wanted to get in only a few hands just for show, which he acknowledged with respect. After getting off a few rounds, in which he won three hands without having to use any of his cheat tactics, he pushed away from the table and joined his boy at the mini fridge in the corner where they got a few cans of Olde English before they headed to the game room.
“Well, what have you settled into, partner, and have you caught up with Rainbow yet?”
Sparkle shook his head. “No, I haven’t had the chance to see him yet.” He put the beer down on the coffee table, belched and added, “I’m aight as far as aight goes. What I do need though is the rundown on a bitch I met.”
“B” rubbed the stubble on his chin with the back of his hand. “That’s all. Shit, depends on what ho you talking about. Let’s see, I’ve already told you about that bitch Dee.”
Sparkle took a long swig of the beer, picked up the remote off the arm of the chair and flicked until he settled for a video on BET. “Yeah, you have and…”
“B” interrupted him as he leaned back, laughing. “Yep, man, I remember her little ass from back in the day when we was trapping and robbing in Buttermilk Bottom. I know you can recall back when she used to try to get us to buy reefer and those bootleg tapes at the poolroom beside the 617 Club.”
Sparkle joined in the laughter and leaned forward on his knees. “Uh-huh, her little tomboy-ass bitch thought cowgirl boots were the only way to go.”
“Yep, but hell, that girl ain’t nowhere near little no more. Mmmhh, whew, that thang done grew into a brick house from the old school.” “B” smiled, visualizing that fat ass of hers.
“Oh hell yeah, she definitely ain’t,” Sparkle joked before he got serious. “Anyways, I done gave her some shit to work with for me.”