The huge man never gave Vonda a second glance as he ushered her in and barked over his shoulders, “Somebody get Sweets and tell him his people is here.”
Once inside, the first thing Vonda did was survey the entire lobby and count the number of armed workers and where they were positioned. She counted five, including the man at the door. She stood off in a distance as she awaited Sweets and watched the full operation take place.
One man sat a table with a triple beam scale atop of it. The customers would tell him how much they wanted in grams—one gram was going for thirty dollars, half a gram was fifteen—which they weighed and wrapped in aluminum foil. The reason that customers patronized The Castle of Greyskull by the hundreds was because it was the cheapest and the crack was the most potent. It was a quick and simple operation, Vonda thought as she watched addicts buy their drugs and rush out in less than a minute.
Sweets finally came down from upstairs and greeted her and took her to the head of the line. You could hear a few grumbles of resentment coming from the addicts behind them, but they dared not go further than that and risk not being served. As she stood in front of the table, an older Dominican, in his forties, stared at the girl who stood before him with one of his workers. Vonda tried her best to avoid eye contact with him and simply gazed at a spot on the ground.
Suspicious, the Dominican man asked Sweets, “Who is this?”
Sweets stuttered and answered, “Oh, this is my friend, she going to buy something and then I’m gonna take her up and we gonna do our thing, you know what I mean, Tony?”
Sweets tried to keep his composure too, but was failing badly. Tony stared at her closely and questioned Sweets, “She smoke?”
Sweets chuckled and said, “Hell, yeah, she smokes. We smoke all the time.”
There was a long pause until Tony stood up from his chair to get a closer look at her. He looked her up and down slowly then finally asked one of his men who was behind him something in Spanish that neither Vonda nor Sweets understood. Vonda’s heart skipped a beat when she realized what he had asked him for—it was a crack pipe! When Sweets realized what he had in store for Chubby’s sister, he nearly panicked and stammered, “Tony, man, she don’t like smoking in front of all these people, she ain’t been smoking but about a month now.”
Tony paid no mind to what his underling had to say and clipped off a small piece of crack and pressed it into the stem. He added one more piece to ensure that she would smoke every bit of it and extended it out to her.
Vonda thought back to the chilling words Tiny had said just days earlier, “If you ain’t a smoker or a tenant they ain’t letting you get into the building. And even if you do get in to cop the drugs, if they don’t remember you and become suspicious they make you hit the pipe right in front of them to be sure. And trust me; none of y’all want to hit that glass dick.”
Vonda stared at his outstretched arm and saw the plan falling apart. She had to make a decision quickly, so she took the glass pipe from him and put on a false smile. Sweets attempted to make a final plea but was quickly cut off by Tony.
“Shut the fuck up and go back to you post!”
Sweets reluctantly followed his orders and walked away slowly.
Tony turned his attention back to Vonda and extended her a lighter. Tension began to mount as all eyes were glued to her.
Tony reminded her, “Now, take a deep, long pull, my dear.”
She never saw anyone smoke crack before, so she decided to follow his instructions to the letter in order to convince him. She put the stem in her mouth and flicked the lighter and inhaled deeply. It took but seconds for Vonda to feel the powerful effect of the potent drug as it raced through her bloodstream and register in her brain.
Tony smiled when he saw Vonda eyes light up like a Christmas tree and said, “Yes, my dear, I got more where that comes from.”
Tony spoke to one of his workers to take over serving the customers and gave him a devilish smile and said, “This one here is still fresh, and I want some of this black pussy.”
Vonda could no longer hear or feel a thing as she stood stuck in place, unable to move as the drug took over her being. Sweets stood by petrified, unsure what to do next as he watched Vonda be led away by his boss and up the stairs to one of the rooms. He cursed himself for not being man enough to stop it, but he knew he had to do something to protect Chubby’s sister if he wanted to live to see another day.
**********
The four men crouched patiently on the dark roof, eagerly awaiting the door to be opened so they could take action. As time ticked away, doubt was becoming a factor with each fleeting second as they kept in close communication with Shooter, who was on another roof eyeballing the front of the building.
Vonda took unsettling steps up the stairs with Tony’s assistance as he held her closely in his arms. It went right back to business as usual as the addicts were relieved and waited long enough to get served. Suddenly, from the bottom staircase, Tiny, who was watching the entire episode go down, emerged.
Sweets could no longer stand still and realized that it was now or never and had to make a life changing decision, so he ran up stairs to retrieve the guns that Chubby had given him. Sweets entered the empty apartment where he’d stashed the bag of guns and checked them to see if they were loaded—they were. Sweating profusely, he quickly put two guns in his pockets and one behind his waist and was about to stand up and run out the door when he turned and saw Tiny standing behind him. He nearly lost his bowels as he collapsed backwards and fell into a wall.
Tiny put her finger to her lips and whispered, “Be quiet, it’s me.”
He adjusted his eyes and when he saw who it was he was relieved. Tiny looked over her shoulder at the entrance door.
“We got to stop that motherfucker from raping my girl!”
Sweets nodded and whispered back, “I know, that’s why I came up here to get some guns to try to stop him.” He showed Tiny the guns.
Tiny quickly snatched one of them. “We can’t shoot him because if we do, they going to hear it and we are fucked!”
He agreed and asked, “So what we gonna do?”
Tiny looked around the room for a moment and said, “I got it.”
Inside the room, Vonda was still in a zombie-like state as trails of saliva leaked from the side of her mouth. Tony smiled wickedly as his penis hardened at the thought of being in total sexual control. He felt Vonda’s breast and then lifted her sweatshirt over her head. She offered him no resistance because the drug he gave her was too powerful for a first-time user. He marveled at the size and perkiness of her breasts, and he stood up to unbuckle his pant. Just as he was coming out of his shoes Tony heard a knock on the door and immediately yelled, “Go away, I’m busy!”
“But, it’s me Tony, Sweets.”
Tony frowned and yelled again, “I told you that I’m busy.” Tony thought that was the end of it, but Sweets persisted.
“I know, Tony, but it’s a matter of life and death what I got to tell you, man.”
Tony reluctantly zipped up his pants and walked toward the door in a huff and opened it. “Now what the fuck is so important? And it better be quick.”
Sweets quickly looked inside the room and saw that Vonda still had her pants on and thanked God silently. He turned his attention back to his boss. “Yeah, I got somebody you need to talk to before you touch her.”
Tony was suddenly confused and asked, “What are you talking about?”
Sweets edged closer and spoke in a whisper, “This girl came up to me after she saw you take her upstairs and told me that she knew her.”
“Knows her how?” Tony asked.
“She said that girl gave her the virus .”
Tony turned around and looked at Vonda. Not wanting to believe it he asked Sweets, “What girl told you this?”
Sweets stepped back and waved to Tiny, who approached the door. Tiny looked inside the room and angrily said, “Yeah, that’s that bitch!” and charged ins
ide the room wielding a bat that she had hidden behind her.
Tony grabbed her before the small, wiry girl could get close to his guest. Sweets looked down the hall to ensure they didn’t attract anyone’s attention and stepped in the room and locked the door behind him.
Tiny struggled to be released and cursed, “Let me go, Tony, I’m gonna beat this bitch ass!”
Tony overpowered her and snatched the bat out of Tiny’s hand and tossed it on the floor. “Now, calm down and tell me what happened,” Tony said as he released her.
“This bitch is the one who gave me H.I.V. when she let me eat her pussy last year. And I been looking for this bitch ever since,” Tiny said convincingly.
He looked over at Sweets and asked, “Sweets, did you know this bitch was burning?”
Sweets expressed a surprised look and answered, “Hell, no, Tony, I’m scared to death now because I fucked her before.”
Tony waved him off and walked over to where Vonda still sat frozen on the bed. Tony looked down on her in disgust and spat on her. Just as he was about to turn around, Tony was hit with a vicious blow to the side of his face with the bat by Sweets. It knocked him out instantly.
Tiny and Sweets quickly began working on Vonda, trying to get her to snap out her drug-induced stupor by slapping her face.
“Yo, Tiny,” Sweets said in near hysteria, “we got to get her straight because she’s the one who supposed to take care of those explosives on the roof and open the door for them niggas to get in here.”
“She supposed to do what?” Tiny asked, in total surprise.
Sweets nodded as he wiped the sweat that was pouring from his forehead on his sleeve.
“Yeah, Chubby told me they taught her how to remove them without getting blown up and I was supposed to watch her back.”
Tiny shook her head and knew Vonda wasn’t in any condition to walk, much less disengage some explosives. Tiny thought quickly and said to Sweets, “Yo, go in the bathroom and run some cold water and find a bucket and fill it up and bring it back!”
Sweets had no choice but to follow her orders and ran to the bathroom and turned on the cold water in the tub and looked around for something to fill it in. Moments later, Sweets returned with a bucket full of water and Tiny laid Vonda back on the bed and ordered Sweets to empty the entire bucket on her face. Tiny moved out of his way and Sweets walked up to her and followed her instructions and poured it all on her face. In an instant, Vonda sat upright and began to gasp for air.
Fifteen minutes had passed and Tiny had Vonda on her feet walking around the room to clear her head. Sweets had taken the time to tear up the bed sheets to tie Tony’s arms and legs together and gag his mouth. When the cobwebs finally cleared, Vonda returned to her normal self.
“Tiny, I thought you were supposed to be in the hospital?”
“Yeah, I’m supposed to, but I had to get out of there and . . .”
Sweets interrupted them said sternly, “Yo, we ain’t got time for a discussion. Tony gonna be coming out of it soon, and you still got to take care of that shit on the roof!”
It suddenly occurred to Vonda that too much time had elapsed and she still had a job to do. She panicked. “Oh, shit, we got to go!”
The three of them rushed toward the door and Sweets opened it slightly and peered out. It was clear and he waved the girls out and they headed up the seven flights of stairs as quickly as they could. When Vonda turned around, Tiny was winded and on her knees, gasping for a breath.
“Tiny? Vonda asked. “Are you ok?”
Tiny nodded and waved her hand forward and said, “Don’t . . . don’t worry about me. Take care of what you got to. I’ll be up in a minute.”
Vonda was reluctant to leave her, but Sweets’ reminded her of the time and she raced to the roof. The roof landing was dimly lit, and Sweets was already prepared and handed her a flashlight from his back pocket. Vonda closed her eyes to remember what Johnson had taught her and proceeded up the landing slowly as she scanned every inch of the area that might be booby trapped.
After five minutes, Vonda spotted five of them and whispered to Sweets, “Listen, I found them, now go back downstairs and get Tiny while I clear them out.”
Sweets nodded and quickly ran back down the stairs to get Tiny.
Vonda slowly and methodically began dismantling the explosives one by one by removing the blasting caps. It was just like Johnson had told her, and when she finished she pulled off her bandana and placed them inside it and laid it carefully off to the side. She began to breathe easier and rushed to the roof door to open it, but the latch would not budge—it was rusted shut.
Sweets ran up to Tiny, who was still on the stairs gasping for a breath. Sweets was in a near panic when he saw that she hadn’t moved an inch since he left her. “Tiny, what are you doing? Why you still on the ground? We got to get out of here!”
Tiny simply could not answer him and waved for him to come closer. He kneeled down beside her and she handed him an envelope and managed to say, “Give this to Vonda.”
He took the envelope and stuffed it into his pocket just before she began to convulse and tremble. Sweets could not believe what he was seeing. She shook violently. Unsure what to do, Sweets was aroused out of his daze when he heard several banging sounds coming from the roof and picked Tiny up and carried her back upstairs with him.
When Vonda saw Sweets carrying Tiny’s body in his arms she screamed, “Is she ok?”
Sweet s shook his head and laid her on the ground and into Vonda’s arms. Vonda tried to get to answer her, but there was no response.
Sweets looked downstairs and wiped the pouring sweat from his brow. “Why didn’t you open the door yet?”
Through tears, Vonda answered, “It’s rusted, and it won’t open.”
Sweets was livid as he examined the door and attempted to open it. But it would not budge for him either. He had come too far, he thought, to let a mere door come between him and his safety, so he backed up and with all the strength he could conjure, ran toward the door. With one thunderous kick, he broke the door open. As soon at the door was opened, the door was ripped opened wider and the four awaiting men rushed inside. Sweets nearly collapsed in tears from the sight of them and knew he would live to see his unborn child.
Chubby rushed over to his sister and asked, “Vonda, are you ok?”
Still in tears as she cradled Tiny in her arms, Vonda answered, “No, I think she is dying!”
Chubby quickly yelled for Sweets to come over. “Carry Tiny and take my sister across to the other roof, the door is open and get in a cab and take them to the hospital and don’t leave them till I get there. You hear me?”
Sweets was more than ready to comply with his orders and exited the roof landing as he carried Tiny in his arms with Vonda right behind him. Sweets suddenly turned back around and said, “Yo, Chubby, it’s a dude who tried to rape your sister. I got him tied up in apartment 23. She’ll tell you about it later, but I don’t need nobody walking around who is going to recognize me.”
Chubby nodded and waved him on. After Chubby knew his sister was out of harm’s way, the four heavily armed men nodded to each other and stealthily headed down the stairs to complete the final phase of their bloody mission. As they crept down the steps, Cleveland pointed to the door that was supposedly the money room. He put his back toward the wall and nodded to the three men to proceed with their mission. Doc took lead and became the point man, and crouched down lower as her proceeded down the steps that led to the lobby. From his vantage point, Doc saw a total of four armed men in plain sight, with high caliber handguns. He signaled to his men above with his fingers, directing their location as well.
Doc accessed the best time to strike was when the last addict was served. He would signal them to blind side them at their weakest moment. Cleveland’s job was to blast the door lock with his shotgun as soon as he heard the first shot fired, and the three remaining men were to kill anything that moved or offered any resistance.<
br />
Doc watched the last addict leave and counted down with his fingers. 3, 2, 1. . . The fury of hell was released as the three men blasted everything in sight. The hapless victims never saw it coming. Their bodies twisted and turned from a volley of automatic weapons that pierced through them. It was over in an instant, and the three men surveyed the wreckage, ensuring no one was a threat any longer. As quickly as they appeared, the three men ascended back up the stairs and accessed the money room where Cleveland was.
To their surprise, when they entered the room Cleveland was standing before them with a wicked and almost sadistic smile on his face. What the men saw next made their jaws drop to the floor. Four green duffle bags, filled to the hilt with money. All the men smiled and shouted in jubilation except Chubby, who only frowned and seemed uninterested.
He had other things on his mind and told the men, “I’ll meet you on the roof,” and proceeded down the hall in search of a room.
The men soon realized that it wasn’t the proper moment to celebrate and each grabbed a duffle bag and left the room and made their exit, but they refused to leave a man behind and followed Chubby to watch his back as he settled a score. Chubby eyed each apartment door with fury until he finally came across the door with the number 23 on it. He slowly opened the door and entered it as if he hadn’t a care in the world. He saw his victim was still on the floor, tied up, yet conscious.
Chubby circled the man as his 45 automatic dangled loosely from his hand. Chubby stopped suddenly and squatted beside him then removed the gag from out of his mouth. “So, you like to take the pussy, huh, mother fucker?”
Tony screamed as loud as he could for help, but his cries would go unanswered. Tony quickly began to make a plea for his life. “Go to apartment 15, that’s where all the money at. And, right next door, in apartment 17, that’s where we stash the drugs. You can have it all. I got the keys in my pocket.”
Harlem Girl Lost 2 Page 24