A Hustler's Promise 2 Promises Kept

by Jackie Chanel

  “Baby, I’m fine,” Rayshawn softened his voice. “I will be fine. I don’t want to stay here. I’m coming back. Don’t worry about anything.”

  “Okay,” Jaicyn whispered. “I just miss you.”

  “Believe me, I miss you too,” Rayshawn said. “And tonight we’ll Skype and I’ll show you how much.”

  Jaicyn laid back on the sofa and squeezed her legs tightly together as her body tingled. She smiled. Skype sex!

  “You’re so nasty,” she giggled.

  “You love it,” Rayshawn replied. “Now get to work and get rid of the phone. It’s garbage now.”

  “Sure thing,” Jaicyn answered, slipping back into business mode.

  “Love you, babe.”

  “Love you too,” Jaicyn answered and disconnected the call.

  “Three hundred fuckin’ keys,” she whispered. “How the hell am I supposed to get rid of three hundred keys?”

  Chapter 9

  “I’m pissed, that’s what’s wrong with me, Autumn,” Jaicyn yelledd into her cell phone. “King is fine. Rayshawn needs to bring his ass home.”

  Jaicyn walked behind her sisters through the Target aisles while they shopped for party supplies. Bobbie’s birthday was two weeks away and if Rayshawn didn’t come home, he was going to miss it.

  He said he’d only be in Washington Heights until King got out of the hospital but that two weeks had come and gone. Three months later, Jaicyn was holding down their business while Rayshawn held down King’s.

  “Well, what is he saying?” Autumn asked.

  “I’m not speaking to him,” Jaicyn answered. “I’m not talking to him until he comes home.”

  “Well, you better talk to him,” Autumn advised. “Washington Heights isn’t safe at all. You heard about what happened to Ramel, right?”

  “No, what?” Jaicyn expertly feigned innocence.

  “He’s dead,” Autumn sated. “Somebody ran up in his mama’s house on the 4 and shot him, Paco, and Manny.”

  “Damn! That’s fucked up!” Jaicyn commented. She made a face at the nosy old woman who was glaring at her for using such foul language.

  “I know, right,” Autumn continued. “The rest of the family went back to Puerto Rico after the funeral. You know that place isn’t safe if the entire Cruz clan can be run out of town.”

  “Wow,” was all Jaicyn said.

  “They don’t even know who did it,” Autumn continued. “My brother said that people thought Slim did it, but it wasn’t him. It was probably someone from out of town.”

  Jaicyn grinned. That was partly true. She was glad that the few people who knew what really happened were keeping their mouths shut. Washington Heights may have had the dumbest police force in the country but it still wasn’t a good idea to let too many people know your business. The city loved to gossip.

  “Well,” Jaicyn replied, “I can’t say I’m too broken up about that. You know how I feel about Ramel.”

  “Yeah, I figured that,” Autumn agreed. “But still, if that can happen to Ramel, Rayshawn don’t need to be there.”

  “I agree,” Jaicyn said. Her other phone started ringing. “Autumn, I’ll call you back later.”

  Jaicyn hung up with her friend and answered her other phone. Rickie and Bobbie rolled their eyes and continued shopping. Jaicyn’s BlackBerry was for business purposes only. Rickie and Bobbie caught hell if they even called that number accidently. They knew that if the other phone rang then their sister would be completely distracted.

  “This is Jaicyn,” she said into her phone while she fumbled around for her Bluetooth.

  “Jaicyn, this is Rick.”

  Rick Spentz was one of the three accountants Jaicyn hired when she and Rayshawn switched businesses. Rick was an expert at finding ways to clean up dirty money. As a general rule of thumb, Jaicyn didn’t usually trust white people but she was confident that Rick could be trusted. As long as he got a substantial cut he was happy.

  “What’s up Rick? Jaicyn said after she hooked her Bluetooth around her ear.

  “I’ve got bad news,” Rick answered. “Caliente is being audited.”

  “I’m being what?” Jaicyn asked. She didn’t know what audited meant but it didn’t sound good.

  Rick explained what auditing was and Jaicyn felt nervous. She knew that between lawyers, accountants, and herself, the money was well protected from even the most thorough IRS auditor. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder why this was happening or if she’d made some type of mistake. Rick informed that they had a week before the audit and that his firm would go over every record with a fine tooth comb but she needed to be there too.

  When she hung with her accountant Jaicyn gave Rickie her debit card and instructed the girls to finish shopping because she had to make an important call. As soon as she got in her car she called Rayshawn.

  “You need to come home,” was what she said when he answered.

  “Oh, you’re talking to me now?” Rayshawn commented.

  “Whatever,” Jaicyn said. “You need to come home.”

  “Jay-Jay, we already talked about this,” Rayshawn groaned. “I’ll be home in a couple of weeks.”

  “No, seriously, Rayshawn, you need to come home now.”

  Jaicyn told Rayshawn about her phone call from Rick but Rayshawn didn’t seem worried like his fiancée. King got audited all the time. It wasn’t anything to be worried about. He assured Jaicyn that she was reading too much into it. Jaicyn wasn’t convinced. She had a weird feeling that something bad was about to happen.

  ****

  For three days, Jaicyn’s stomach was in knots. Her shoulders felt heavy as the undeniable feeling that something bad was about to happen weighed her down.

  As she sat in the bleachers of the high school gym, she watched fifteen girls and three boys practice heel lift pyramids and basket tosses until she couldn’t keep her legs from trembling anymore. Jaicyn climbed down out of the bleachers and walked outside. After sitting inside the musky sweat filled gym, she was grateful for the blast of fresh air.

  The heavy gymnasium door slammed shut and Jaicyn was alone. She wanted to speak to Rayshawn but she knew that he wouldn’t have anything to say that would make her feel better, to make her feel safer. All she needed from him was for him to come home. His presence was the only thing she needed to feel safe again. Since she couldn’t talk any sense into Rayshawn, she decided to plead her case with his brother. Maybe Dayshawn could talk some sense into his twin.

  “What’s up Jay-Jay?” Dayshawn’s voice was tired.

  Fresh out of law school, he spent his days endlessly studying for the Georgia Bar Exam. In order to secure his position at the law firm where he was interning, he had to pass the exam on the first time. Jaicyn’s phone call was a much needed distraction.

  “Can you please talk to your brother and get him to come home?” Jaicyn asked, getting straight to the point of her interruption. Her straight talk wasn’t unusual. She never saw the need in beating around the bush and wasting precious time when she had something to say.

  “Why? What’s the problem? Do you need something?”

  “I need him,” Jaicyn stated. “Something feels wrong, Dayshawn. I have this horrible feeling that something is going to happen to him and I can’t shake it.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Dayshawn replied. “I can’t make you any promises though.”

  “I’ll take what I can get,” Jaicyn sighed. “Just talk to him.”

  “Alright, I’ll call you tomorrow then.”

  Jaicyn hung up the phone and went back inside the gym until cheerleading practice was over.

  ****

  Jaicyn heard the doorbell ring and looked at the time on her phone. It was almost ten o’clock at night and she wasn’t expecting anyone.

  “Jay-Jay, you got company,” Rickie announced as she led Johnny into Jaicyn’s office.

  Jaicyn rolled her eyes at Rickie’s butchering of the English language. She didn’t want her sisters taking like t
he ghetto girls in their school, another reason she wanted them in private school. Rickie and Bobbie were going to be different than her. They were going to have a different life.

  They were going to dress differently, talk differently, and live differently than she did when she was their age. They’d never have to worry about where their next meal was coming from or if they would have warm clothes for the winter.

  Never again.

  Jaicyn would sell drugs for the rest of her life to make sure of that.

  “It’s Jay-Jay, you have company,” Jaicyn corrected her sister. “Now get out of here and wash the dishes. We don’t have a maid.”

  Johnny grinned as Rickie muttered something along the lines of “I’m not the maid either” and stomped out of the room. He sat down on the other end of the cream leather sectional in Jaicyn’s office.

  “Why are you here?” Jaicyn asked. It was unusual for Johnny to come over to her house without calling. Rayshawn’s direct order when he sent Johnny to Atlanta was that he and Jaicyn never talk business in his house and this didn’t look like a social call.

  Of course she and Johnny still hung out. Johnny being in Atlanta felt like home. Occasionally, Jaicyn missed Washington Heights but now that King was doing better, she didn’t feel the need to go back…ever.

  “Did we have plans?”

  Johnny shook his head. “No, but I think you need to know that Rock’s stash house got raided early this morning. They locked up two dudes and APD is looking for him. You know that nigga ain’t gonna do no years for me and you.”

  Jaicyn rubbed her temples and moaned. She had a suspicion that something like this would happen. She didn’t have to be out there hustling to know that Rock was living recklessly. He was finally making the type of money that he thought he deserved and acted like he was big shit in Atlanta. Obviously he had never heard of keeping a low profile.

  He drove a fifty thousand dollar car and kept it parked in the poorest neighborhood in the city. He went to clubs and bought out the bar. He wasted money by “making it rain” on strippers. He had no real source of income. He wasn’t smart enough to have a legit job, if only on paper. He had no connections to get shit like that done. Atlanta police weren’t nearly as stupid as Washington Heights' police so of course they noticed his dumb ass. It was only a matter of time before they did something about it.

  “I knew that nigga was going to fuck it up for everybody,” Jaicyn grunted.

  She dug around in her purse until she found the new pre-paid phone she used to talk to Rayshawn. Although she wasn’t fond of having to buy a new phone every couple of days, the cheap Trac-fones were virtually untraceable. Better to spend fifty bucks a week than spend a lifetime in jail.

  “What’s good?” Rayshawn said when he answered.

  “Nothing,” Jaicyn said and relayed Johnny’s story.

  “And don’t say we’re trippin’, Rayshawn. This isn’t good and you know it.”

  “I agree, but if you and Johnny have been doing things like I said, Rock shouldn’t be even know where his dope is coming from. All he should know is that you’re out and Johnny is his new contact. No real names either.”

  “We’re sticking to the plan,” Jaicyn huffed.

  “Good. Then all we need is to send Johnny home before Rock gets locked up. He’ll be fine.”

  “That’s all?” Jaicyn questioned. “Just send Johnny home and forget about it? That’s all you got?”

  “That’s all that needs to be done,” Rayshawn insisted. “But if you want, I’ll get my brother to ask around and see if there’s any heat on us.”

  “Dayshawn? He’s not even a lawyer yet!” Jaicyn shouted. “We pay real lawyers for shit like this!”

  “Can’t bring the lawyers in right now,” Rayshawn tried to explain as quickly as possible for Jaicyn could start yelling louder. “A bunch of lawyers asking questions raises suspicions.”

  As much as Jaicyn disagreed with her man’s logic, she was happy that he said “asking” instead of “axe-in”. The boy was a slow learner.

  “Alright,” Jaicyn replied doubtfully. She didn’t agree with Rayshawn’s logic but she didn’t know what else to do.

  “You sound nervous,” Rayshawn said when Jaicyn took a big sigh into the phone. “Don’t be. It’s gonna be alright.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t be so nervous if I wasn’t dealing with this bullshit by myself.”

  Rayshawn heard the fear in Jaicyn’s voice and made a decision. It wasn’t the right time to leave Washington Heights. King was doing much better but he was still vulnerable. There were too many other dealers who wanted the south side and Rayshawn wasn’t sure how strong King’s people actually were.

  But he had to go. The crew could take care of themselves. He owed it to Jaicyn to take care of her.

  ****

  “Girls!” Jaicyn called down into the basement where a bunch of twelve year old girls were coming off their sugar high. Cake, ice cream, pop, candy, and any other junk food they could stuff their faces with were spread all over the basement.

  Bobbie’s Pajama Jammy Jam was off the hook. Jaicyn had managed to pull the party together despite the stress she was under and Bobbie was completely happy.

  “Y’all need to hit the showers and put on clean pajamas on while Rickie cleans up down there!”

  Cleaning up after Bobbie and her messy friends was Rickie’s punishment for skipping cheerleading practice to hang out at Lenox Mall. If she had asked, Jaicyn probably would have let her go. Instead, she was being punished.

  The patio door slip open and the twins came back into the house. They’d chosen to miss the chaos of the teen birthday party and had sat outside talking for the last couple of hours.

  “What have you two been doing this whole time?” Jaicyn sniffed the air around the young men to see if they’d been smoking without her. They hadn’t.

  “Sit down,” Rayshawn ordered. “We need to talk.”

  The somberness in his voice made Jaicyn sit down on one of the counter barstools immediately. She looked back and forth between the twins, waiting for one of them to speak. It didn’t matter which one.

  “I’ve got some information,” Dayshawn told Jaicyn.

  Jaicyn eyed Dayshawn. Before she met them the only way she could tell them apart was by the way that they dressed. Even now, as adults, their clothes were still the best way to tell them apart.

  Dayshawn was more distinguished than his brother. He even had on a sleek pair of Louis Vuitton eyeglasses despite having perfect vision.

  “Okay,” Jaicyn said, “talk.”

  “There is an investigation going on,” Dayshawn sadly said. From the look on his face, he’d already broke the news to his brother. “The FEDS want Cesar, but they’ll never get him. That means they’ll go after anyone associated with him, especially King and anyone connected to King.”

  Dayshawn had a hard time looking his brother in the face after telling him he might go to prison for a very long time. The bond the twins had was stronger than the normal “twin thing”. They depended on each other. Their family had turned their collective back on them a long time ago. The truth was, they only had each other.

  “Who’s conducting this investigation?” Jaicyn asked.

  “It’s a combination of different agencies but it’s being spearheaded by the FBI,” Dayshawn answered.

  As soon as Rayshawn told him about the heat coming down on the Atlanta dealers, Dayshawn jumped to action. There was a girl that he went to law school with that worked for the GBI. She had him in her sights for three years. He called Monique and she called her father, Special Agent Lamont Fuller with the FBI.

  All it took was dinner and a six pack to loosen the tongue of Special Agent Fuller. He was eager to impress Dayshawn, who had the potential to be an excellent husband for the agent’s scatterbrained daughter. Dayshawn told him he was studying RICO laws for the bar. Agent Fuller didn’t hesitate to give Dayshawn some real life examples of active investigations, all classifie
d of course.

  “What do we do?” Jaicyn asked. “We can’t just sit here and wait for the FEDS to run up in our house.”

  “We have to see what King wants to do,” was Rayshawn’s answer.

  “King?” Jaicyn yelled. “Why do we need to wait for him to tell us what to do? His ass is going to jail too!”

  Rayshawn shot Jaicyn stern warning glare but she ignored it.

  “All I’m saying is that they’re not going to arrest King before they arrest you. They’ll try to use you to get at him.

  “She’s right,” Dayshawn agreed. “You’re more at risk than King is. King has some of the best lawyers and cops on his payroll. Do you really think that he doesn’t know what’s going on? He’s probably already planning on leaving the country. He’s just waiting to see which one of you gets knocked first.”

  Rayshawn shook his head. “King wouldn’t do that to me. He wouldn’t put me out there like that.”

  “That’s what you think,” Jaicyn argued. “He’ll look out for his own family first. We have to look out for us.”

  “We are family,” Rayshawn growled. He was upset that Dayshawn and Jaicyn didn’t have any faith in King after all he’d done for them.

  “Y’all actin' like King ain’t never did shit for us!”

  Jaicyn rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying that. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of it all, I’m looking out for what’s mine, and I’m not waiting on King to tell me shit.”

  Dayshawn gave Rayshawn a questioning glance. Rayshawn was torn. Jaicyn didn’t understand why, but Dayshawn saw it. Her relationship with King was different than the twins’. Dayshawn didn’t want anything to happen to King but he didn’t want to see his brother locked up either.

  Rayshawn caught Dayshawn’s eye. “What are you thinkin'?”

  “You do need to talk to King and see what he knows. But ultimately, I don’t think you should be ready to take a fall for him.”