by Noire
“We gone have us a damn good fuckin’ weekend!” Yoda had told Pearl on Friday when she arrived with her bags. She had one suitcase full of clothes, with her special gear hidden on the bottom, and another bag with shoes in it that also held tape, ropes, and three multiuse knives. The third bag was an oversized red Gucci purse with a thick black sweater bulging from the top. The sweater was just a prop to conceal the real deal, because the rest of the bag was packed with the miniature goodies that Carlita had helped her get through FBI supply channels. The hidden weaponry was lightweight and durable, but deadly and effective as hell.
Earlier, Pearl had waited anxiously in her filthy room until the messenger service called and said their deliveryman was downstairs and ready to pick up her packages. She’d given him a phat tip and told him to make sure her boxes got over to the Primero Hotel the next morning.
Yoda had left a key at the desk for her just like he said he would, and the moment she slid it through the lock and opened the door he pulled her close and began tickling her tongue with his.
Visualizing Menace’s smooth chocolate face, Pearl sopped up that tongue like it was an Astro Pop, sucking it and licking it and going along with the program like the professional she was. She felt no guilt behind letting Yoda touch her. In her mind the pleasure he gave her came from Menace’s hands, from Menace’s lips, and Pearl had no problem playing this part of the game. Yoda was her key to getting in Mookie’s vicinity, and if she played her hand right and didn’t fold that shit too early, by this time tomorrow Mookie would have a spiked joint so deep up his rectum that his nose would be bubbling with shit.
But to her surprise Yoda flipped the tables on her.
They’d ordered a huge room-service breakfast, then fucked for about an hour until they were both exhausted. After taking a long nap they showered and headed out for lunch at an expensive Chinese restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Yoda was all smiles as he held the door open for her and pulled out her chair. Earlier, he’d offered to carry her big red Gucci bag for her as they strolled down the city streets, but Pearl had quickly said no and switched it to her other shoulder.
They ate a light lunch then walked back to the hotel, talking about everything under the sun. Pearl was surprised at Yoda’s level of conversation. From what she’d read in her father’s private files, he was supposed to be a mental lightweight, somebody who was dumb as fuck and could be easily flipped. But the more they talked about everything from the war in Iraq to the slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the more Pearl realized that not only was Yoda intelligent, he was also very cunning and conniving.
“Nah, not that one,” Yoda told her, taking her hand. They were in the phat hotel lobby and Pearl was waiting for one of the five elevators to come down. She had looked up at the lighted floor indicators and saw that the last elevator was closest to the lobby and would arrive first. “That’s the penthouse elevator,” Yoda explained, pulling her gently back toward the first cluster of elevators. “You need a code just to get upstairs in that shit. I ain’t big enough to put you in that one yet, but trust, I will be one day real soon.”
There was something slick in Yoda’s tone that got Pearl’s attention, but the full extent of his craftiness became apparent later that night as they lounged in his suite. Yoda ordered lobster and champagne from room service and continued to treat Pearl like a beautiful black queen. He nibbled her toes and sucked her fingers, and pulled off her pants and licked all behind her knees. Pearl sighed as Yoda peeled her panties off and kissed up the back of her thighs until his nose was in her pussy. He licked her out from behind, holding her ass cheeks open with both hands as he thrust his tongue into her wetness and licked and sucked her clit.
Pearl’s stomach muscles clenched as her body melted. She closed her eyes and bit down on her lip, coming up on her knees so he could reach every inch of her. She was just about to get hers, and was humping and grinding her ass all over his face when someone knocked on the door. Yoda tapped her hip and pushed her away.
“Room service!”
Pearl scooped up her panties and jeans and ran into the bathroom as Yoda answered the door. Her nipples were aching and her pussy was still popping. The enormity of what she had to accomplish over the weekend had her stress level way up there, and it only took her a minute or so to finish herself off with her fingers as Yoda took care of the waiter in the other room.
Pearl left the bathroom calm and focused.
“Yo, check it. I gotta go to a meeting in a few minutes, okay?” he said as they ate dinner.
Pearl tightened up again. She had been planning to drop a few innocent questions on him about Mookie and his gambling habits, but she wouldn’t be able to find out a goddamn thing if this niggah left her in the room by herself. She forced herself to smile brightly and get herself together on the inside. No problem, she assured herself. She would simply adjust fire. She could use the time while he was in his meeting to take inventory of her attack bag and make sure everything was in order for the next morning.
“Cool, baby,” Pearl said sweetly. “Just don’t stay gone too long. I might miss you.”
Yoda grinned and took another bite of his lobster. They ate shit up, enjoying their meal. Yoda popped tabs on the Cristal and they drank together, with Pearl being careful not to down more than one glass of bubbly.
But one glass was more than enough.
By the time they were done eating Pearl felt herself slipping.
Her left eye was acting up and the room started getting hot. Yoda was looking at her funny. Whereas he had spent the entire day serenading her with sexy looks and sweet talk, it was nighttime now and Mister Yoda was talking big, stank shit.
“You know bitches these days is real slick,” he said, getting up from the table. He stretched for a second and then went to sit on the edge of the sofa. “Just a bunch of gaming-ass hoes. All they want is diamonds and pearls. But you know all about that kinda shit, don’t you, Karma? Diamonds and pearls?”
Pearl’s stomach lurched.
“I gotta go to the bathroom …”
Yoda laughed as she stumbled into the beautiful bathroom with the cool marble tiles. The room was spinning in sloppy circles and she had to concentrate extra hard just to get her fingers to turn the lock.
Yoda continued to laugh on the other side of the door.
Pearl staggered to the toilet and barely got her shorts down. She was in trouble, and she knew it. She had never felt this way in her life, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that “dumbass” Yoda had peeped her game and slipped something on her. Probably some kind of date-rape drug. Something to take her down without a fight. Her mind was working just fine but her body felt like it had been put on ice. With sweat beading on her nose and between her breasts, Pearl dug in her pocket for her cell phone. The only person she could think to call was Menace, but as soon as she flipped her phone she saw there was a new text message waiting from him.
It said: Yoda Green murked everybody. Where r u?
Pearl dropped her phone and almost fell off the toilet.
Every nerve in her body was on fire, and her heart pounded with rage. It took all her concentration to reach down and pick the phone up from the floor. Bracing one hand against the glass shower door, she barely managed to text Menace back. Primero 727. Come …
A deafening thud vibrated the bathroom door. The phone slipped from Pearl’s hand again and sickness rose up in her with a rush. She grabbed at the toilet tissue and tried to wipe herself but her fingers wouldn’t do what she told them to. Yoda kicked the door again. Her brain screamed out a warning for her body to get moving, but the drugs had her and she just couldn’t. Yoda gave the door a brutal final kick, and this time that shit flew open. He charged into the bathroom like a tornado, swinging blows at her wherever he could land them.
“Yeah, trick!” Yoda yelled as he pulled her off the toilet and dragged her into the living room by her hair. Pearl tried to scream as fire bit into her scalp. Her shorts
and panties were around her ankles and the skin on her legs and ass seared with friction burns as she was yanked across the carpet.
She couldn’t even scream as Yoda kicked her in the stomach, then reached down and flung her up on the sofa by her neck. She landed on her stomach, her face pressed into her Gucci bag.
“Every fuckin’ body thinks Yoda’s stupid!” he hollered. He flung her over on her side and capped her hard in the face. “Yeah, Miss Karma! Ya fuckin’ government name is Pearl! You’s Irish’s seed! N’Vee’s sister! You thought you could catch a niggah sleeping? Man, that niggah Scotch said you and N’Vee was twins but neither one of y’all ain’t no slicker than ya bitch-ass daddy was! That niggah was supposed to be hardbody but he never even saw me coming!”
Pearl lay there helpless and filled with disgust. Her father had trusted this niggah and ended up getting shit on in the ultimate way. Now he was about to shit on her too. She hadn’t missed the fact that Scotch’s name had come flying out of Yoda’s mouth either, but she couldn’t believe it. For almost eight years she’d been hoping and praying that niggah was worm food by now.
Pearl couldn’t do a damn thing. She could only moan and listen as Yoda’s whole personality changed and the maniac in him came out as he taunted her and described the details of how he had punked her father and banged her mother.
“That was ya shorty we put the flames on, huh? You shoulda heard how loud them little bitches screamed! And ya moms, that ho was tight! I dipped my dick all in that gray-haired puddy, girl! Just as hard as I banged it in yours! Yoda dee, yoda daa, yoda ah-hah! That old stuff ya moms had was so damned good! I fucked her while ya pops watched, and then I made her suck Mookie’s dick! Yeah, she sucked that niggah’s iron dick clean!”
Pearl was too sick to respond. She gagged and threw up all over the couch, her stomach wrenching violently. Dark spots were filling her left eye and her lips felt numb. She couldn’t bear hearing any more about her family’s torture, but Yoda wasn’t finished talking shit yet. There was more he had to tell.
“I put the hammer on that old bitch, too, ya heard? Mashed them fingers so good she called me all kinds of dirty muthafuckahs! That was before I rodded her throat, tho, nah’mean? After she sucked that iron dick she wasn’t tryna call on nobody but God!”
Even through the haze of drugs and the horror of hearing what had happened to her mother, Pearl’s fury was ever strong. She didn’t know how the hell Scotch had hipped Yoda to her game, but it didn’t matter. This motherfucker wanted her dead, and he meant that shit.
“You thought you was just gonna ride up in here and put that ill na-na on me and make me bite my own nuts, right? You thought I’d bitch out my boss over your sweet little pussy, right? Oh, ya shit is good, I ain’t gone lie, but it ain’t good as that poison I dropped in ya drink, lil skank. I was gonna let you lick my balls one last time but that spit around ya mouth got you looking a lil raggedy. So just chill right there for a minute, okay, ma? I’ma go cancel that meeting and be right back with the posse. Wait till I tell ’em who you really is! First I’ma let my man Donut bang that sweet gushy real quick, then I’ma let Mook get hold of you. That niggah gonna crush ya neck just like he did ya sister. Bash them little short brains in. Can’t no gutta bitch outslick a real hustler. Believe that!”
Yoda talked big shit as Pearl fought the sensation of suffocation. She gasped as she struggled for each breath. The room looped around her in crazy slow circles and the leftover lobster and butter clashed in her stomach and rose to the back of her throat, then came splashing out of her mouth again. Yoda had given her enough drugs to fuck her up for a minute. Pearl battled to hold on to her bowels. Drool slid from her mouth and her left eye twitched violently. She slumped over on the sofa, striking her head on something hard inside of her red bag. She closed her hand over it, feeling it on the sly.
Yoda was still laughing as he walked toward the door, and the sound seemed to come from a million miles away. He had just opened the door as Pearl slipped her hand inside of her purse and dug around sneaky-like.
“Ya daddy wasn’t shit,” he said over his shoulder, “ya sister wasn’t shit, and you ain’t shit neither, bitch. Wait till I get back and you gone see how fuckin’ with me and my manz can get a ho like you planted like a flower.”
Yoda turned to walk out the door and it was nothing but sheer will and determination that gave Pearl the strength to move. With the last bit of strength left in her body, and as the room grew dark and fuzzy, she reached into her Gucci bag and came out with her FBI special miniature crossbow.
With only a glancing aim, she seated her arrow and let it fly, and with fate and the ghost of her dead father’s hand guiding its path, the poison-tipped arrow penetrated Yoda’s back and pierced the killer’s treacherous black heart.
Sometime later—she couldn’t tell how long—Pearl heard her name being called and felt herself being cradled in strong, protective arms. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw that Menace was there. He was looking down at her with deep concern as he wiped traces of dried vomit away from her mouth.
“Pearl. Open ya eyes, baby. You okay?”
Pearl struggled to sit up, thankful that at least a little bit of the fog seemed to have lifted from her brain.
“I got your text. Lil Dray was dead on it. Yoda was the inside man. He did the murders too. But you handled him, Pearl. You took that niggah down and got some for your whole family. It’s done, baby. It’s done.”
Pearl looked around. Yoda was laying dead in the foyer, one arm sticking through the crack of the door. Menace followed her eyes, then walked briskly over to the body and dragged Yoda into the room by one foot, allowing the door to close. He locked it, then returned to Pearl and propped a pillow behind her back and covered her up with the blanket from the bed. Next he walked over to the bar and took some ice from the freezer and wrapped it in a washcloth and pressed it against her swollen jaw.
“Can you hold this while I take care of business?”
Pearl nodded, reaching for the ice and touching it to her face where Yoda had fucked her up. She watched as Menace unscrewed the long panel on the room’s air-conditioning vent. The suite had its own condenser unit and at first glance it looked just like a closet, except it had a ventilation grille on the door.
She was speechless as Menace removed the grille and looked inside.
“Yeah,” he said, mostly to himself. “That’ll work.”
Without hesitating, Menace went back to Yoda and grabbed his ankle again. He dragged the grimy bastard across the carpet on his face, handling him like the piece of shit he was. Moments later, Yoda’s body had been folded and stuffed through the grille and the front panel had been screwed back in place.
For the next fifteen minutes Menace scrubbed Yoda’s blood out of the carpet and cleaned up Pearl’s blood from the bathroom floor.
“Aiight,” he said when he was finally done. The room was pretty straight. Nobody would be able to tell what had gone down in there just by peeping in. “Time to go.”
Whatever Yoda had slipped on her was beginning to wear off. Menace helped her to her feet, and Pearl did her best to stand on her own.
“Whoa—,” Menace said as he reached out to steady her. Pearl was still wobbly on her feet, and she leaned into him gratefully as he propped her up. She blinked a few times, relieved that the dark spot had faded from the vision in her left eye. But with her vision clearing, Pearl was able to see something else. She saw the small vial of liquid on the coffee table. The one that Yoda had held up for her to see.
“I gotta sit down,” Pearl mumbled and staggered.
Plopping on the couch, she bent over and put her head down on her knees.
“You aiight?” Menace asked, worried. “You wanna lay down for a little while?”
Pearl shook her head. Hell no. Not with Yoda’s dead ass behind that vent. She was getting the fuck outta that room. Just as soon as she got what she needed.
“Nah, I’m straight. But I could use a
glass of ice water, though.”
The moment Menace turned his back Pearl went into action. Her hand snaked out faster than shit. She chilled as she heard Menace in the freezer getting ice again. Moments later he was standing over her, holding out the cold glass of water.
“Here, Pearl. Drink this so we can get outta here.”
Pearl drank gratefully, washing away the traces of sickness from her mouth. Between sips she asked, “How’d you find out about Yoda?”
Menace grimaced. “One of your father’s boyz put me down. A young kid who Irish used to look out for the same way he looked out for me. His sister used to hang with Diamond. She told him it was Yoda, Plus Piff, Tank, and Donut, three of Mookie’s other right hand manz who did your family.”
As weak as she was, Pearl straight-up ate the words coming out of Menace’s mouth. Piff, Tank, Donut. She had it. She finished drinking the water and handed the glass to Menace. “Okay,” she said. “I’m ready.”
They left the hotel all hugged up, with Pearl’s hair hiding the lump on her face as she stumbled beside Menace like a drunken partygoer. In his rush to get to her, Menace had parked his whip illegally on the curb and he was glad nobody had come by and towed his shit away.
“Where are we going?” Pearl asked. Somebody else had rented Menace’s old room above Nastee’s long ago, and Pearl sure as fuck wasn’t gonna let him take her to the grimy hot-ho motel she was staying in off Forty-second Street.
“I got a little spot here in New York,” Menace said as he buckled her in. “It’s right here in Midtown. That’s how I was able to get over here so fast.”
He took her to an old clothing warehouse that had been partitioned off into lofts. His crib was a two-bedroom palace with shiny wood floors and huge windows that would have been a blast to decorate.
But Menace wasn’t the decorating type. There wasn’t much of anything in his crib, other than a small sofa, a folding table he used to eat off, and a big-screen television.