by Mikal Malone
Pitbulls In A Skirt 2
The Finale
Copyright © 2009 by The Cartel Publications. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission
from the author, except by reviewer who may quote passages
to be printed in a newspaper or magazine.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses,
organizations, places, events and incidents are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance of
actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009922312
ISBN: 0-9794931-9-6
ISBN 13: 978-0-9794931-9-5
Cover Design: Davida Baldwin www.oddballdsgn.com
Editor: Right Way Editorial Services
Graphics: Davida Baldwin
www.thecartelpublications.com
First Edition
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication:
This is dedicated to all the fans of Pitbulls In A Skirt.
I hope I did you proud.
Acknowledgments:
To everyone who has ever picked up my book and got it, this novel is for you.
What’s Good Babies,
It feels great to introduce Pitbulls In A Skirt 2 and we’re sure you’ll love it. A lot of energy went into bringing these characters back in a way you’ve never seen them before. We know you’ll appreciate how these women have grown and the challenges being bosses bring to them.
On another note, so much has happened since our first year in business. We are blessed to be experiencing the success we have and we’re eternally grateful. As always, we must pay homage to an author who’s paved the way. With that said, we’d like to show love to:
“Anna J”
Anna is a trailblazer author of our time. Her novels, My Woman His Wife, The Aftermath, Get Money Chicks and My Little Secret have caused quite a stir within the urban industry. Anna knows how to grab her readers and keep their attention! Anna keep penning the fire hits! We love what you do!
Stay Smart, Sexy and Strong!
T. Styles
President & CEO, The Cartel Publications
www.thecartelpublications.com
Email: [email protected]
Prologue
Aleed’s black Nike boots pressed against the grungy snow as he ran for his freedom. Having six warrants out for his arrest and a pocket full of crack rocks, he knew he’d be going down for a long time if the persistent cop caught him.
“Freeze! Stop running before I shoot!” the young-black-rookie cop yelled.
His loyalty to his job impacted his decisions. All he wanted was Aleed, the man whose picture was pinned against the police station wall he saw everyday.
“If you don’t freeze…I’m gonna fuckin’ shoot! I’m not playin’ wit you!” the cop taunted. “Stop runnin’!”
When Aleed saw the green awning over the gate in Emerald City, he felt a sense of calm. He knew that once he got over the gate, the rules the outside world lived by would not apply.
“This is my final warning,” the cop yelled as they ran down the dark sidewalk a few feet from the level of the fence. Aleed leaped over the fence.
And then the cop heard Aleed yell, “Ecilop! Ecilop!”
The cop thought the yell was weird but remained on his trail. He didn’t realize that “Ecilop” stood for police backward. It was the code word for Emerald city to lock down shop and get out of dodge.
Instead of hopping the fence like Aleed, he ran through the entrance gate, past the empty guard’s station and onto Emerald’s grounds. Once inside, he noticed that Emerald appeared vacant. As always the five buildings of Emerald City encompassed a large yard in the middle. It was pitch dark and no lights were on not even in the yard. Emerald City was in order.
“Aleed, get out here! Don’t make things worse!” his voice echoed and bounced back to him off the buildings. “Aleed! I know you hear me!”
The gun he was holding shook in his hand and the darkness and silence frightened him.
Then he heard, “What you doin’ here cop? What you doin’ on E.C. grounds?”
The officer heard the voice and it appeared to come from the top of one of the buildings but he couldn’t see the man or his face.
“I’m a police officer and I’m here for Aleed.”
“Well if you a D.C. cop you should know your laws don’t apply here. Leave now…while you still can.” The man’s disregard to his shield enraged the rookie cop.
“I’m not goin’ nowhere without Aleed! I’m the mothafuckin’ law!”
The person laughed and others laughed behind him, their voices hidden within the night.
“Check dis out, COP…right now, the choice is yours to leave. But when I count to three, the choice will be yours no more. We run fuckin’ Emerald City and everybody in it!” He yelled to the top of his lungs sending chills through the cop’s tender heart.
“One!” the voice began.
“I’m a police officer!” the rookie yelled backing up cautiously.
“Two!” was followed by a clicking sound of many weapons upon the rooftops.
“You can’t get away with this!” the officer continued.
But before he could say, three, the cop was gone. With his life in tote.
Welcome to Emerald City!
Mercedes
“We make this shit look easy.”
I can’t believe I’m runnin’ late! I am dodging in and out of traffic trying to make it to Emerald city on time. I should not have been fuckin’ wit’ Derrick’s sexy ass this morning. That man must’ve fucked me in every room in our loft style apartment at DC’s National Harbor. Lifting up slightly, I tug at the seat of my Seven jeans between my legs. They were rubbing against my pussy causing me discomfort, but damn does that boy have some good dick. It’s a good think my kids were with their father because I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to keep my voice down.
I thought I knew what love was when I was with Cameron. I couldn’t see the sun or the moon unless Cameron was with me. It’s amazing what separation and a near death experience can do for a relationship. Bottom line is this, now that I’ve been in Derrick’s presence, I know what real love is and I’m not willing to trade it for any man in the world…not even for Cameron.
When I pull up to the Emerald City gate, I am immediately transformed. No longer am I a girlfriend or a mother. In Emerald City, I’m a boss! Glancing at the five buildings with green awnings circling the open field, I respect its power.
“Good morning, ma’am,” says the security guard at the gate. “The other ladies just got here. They’re in the field.”
“Thanks, Jake. How’s the baby?”
“Growing bigger everyday,” he smiles. “He’ll be two tomorrow.”
“That’s right! It is his birthday.”
“Yes, ma’am, it is.”
“Well you can have the day off to spend with your family. I’ll get Amir to guard the gate for you.”
“Thanks, boss! I appreciate it!” I wait until the gates open and drive my new black Mercedes Benz G-Class truck inside.
Once inside, I see my girls standing outside with their cars surrounding them. Although cold outside, the sky is icy blue. As usual they’re draped in fur coats and diamonds and I can’t help but smile. We were the fly-est drug bosses in DC, hands down! We make this shit look easy. Yvette’s red Lincoln Navigator is parked next to Kenyetta’s silver Lexus LS and I pull up next to Carissa’s blue Porsche. I can’t wait to get out of my ride and
hug my friends.
“About time you got here, bitch!” Yvette yells, as my girls’ crowd around.
“Shut your short ass up! Better late than never.”
“No…your ass always late!” Carissa interjects.
“What is this…shorties gang up Mercedes day?” I laugh. “Kenyetta you got my back right?”
“You know it,” she smiles.
We embrace one another. Ever since we made a decision to move out of Emerald and run our operation from the outside, we saw each other less. We talked as much as we could, but we had our own lives. No matter what, we agreed to return and spend a week in Emerald City each month and no one knew but us which week we’d choose. We did this to remain spontaneous and leave nothing to chance.
I glance on the rooftops and see our shooters in place. Whenever we were in Emerald, security was tighter than security protecting the president.
“Fuck all that bullshit, look at that truck!” Yvette says. She traded her short spiky hair for a cute shoulder length bob. “When you get that? And what happened to the car?”
“I still got my car and if you would answer your phone sometimes, you woulda known I got this last Friday,” I tell her examining the black waist length fur coat she wore with her jeans and black Gucci boots.
“Oh here we go again,” she says, brushing me off. “Like you always answer your phone.”
“She’s tellin’ the truth, Yvette. You ain’t the same. Everything good with you?” Carissa questions as she tries to close her full length chocolate coat tighter. The wind was blowing harder.
“Don’t start with me because we all have personal lives, including me.”
“Yvette we’re still family and family keeps in contact. So you tell us, how are things really going with you?” Kenyetta asks. I notice her eyes seem sad. “You ain’t got no kids or no man so what’s up with you?”
Yvette looks at all of us and drops her head before brushing her hair out of her face. I feel bad for putting her on the spot but I care about her. I care about all of them. Just because we leave Emerald doesn’t mean that changes. We worth fuckin’ millions! Niggas would love to kidnap one of us just to make some cash. We have to watch each other’s backs.
“What’s up, Vette?” I persist.
“Can we just leave it alone, Mercedes? I just need to get into my apartment, grab a drink and relax. It’s cold out here.”
“Why you in a rush to go into that lonely ass apartment anyway?” Carissa asks beating her feet for warmth.
“Yeah, bitch!” I tell her, looping my arm through hers. “You do seem a little anxious. You sure you ain’t gettin’ high on our supply?”
“I’ma fuck you up, Mercedes!” she laughs. “I’ma do better about calling when we away from Emerald. And ya’ll betta take that because it’s all I can give right now. So can we please get out of this cold air and go inside. Carissa sound like she in a marchin’ band or somethin’.”
“Aight, bossy,” I tell her. “I’ma let you off the hook for now, but you gonna tell me what’s up with you.”
“Yeah…and if you do have a man we want to meet him,” Carissa adds. “I gotta tell his ass however many times he fuckin’ you, he betta increase that shit by three because you wound up!” We all laugh.
“Trust me, I’m gettin’ sexed more than all of ya’ll put together. I guarantee that.”
“Doubt it!” I laugh.
“That’s real talk! Way more!”
“Oh really…,” Kenyetta says. “I guess we better get inside our apartments, drop our shit off and finish this meeting so we can hear the juicy details.”
We chit chat a little longer and jump in our rides. As I pull off, I can’t help but think about Yvette again. Something is definitely up.
Yvette
“I love when we have drunk sex.”
I’m in love! And I didn’t think it would be possible after Thick died. I felt dead inside before her and all I wanted to do was see her face again.
I open the apartment door and smile when I smell the scent of fried chicken, cheese rice and broccoli simmering on the stove. My girlfriend Chris, or C. Wash as she likes to be called, spoils me to death.
Although the relationship has its high times, it’s not easy being gay. The stares from people and the comments from men who see us walking in public mess my head up sometimes. But when we’re alone, nothing else seems to matter.
I still remember the first day I saw her face.
About 2 Years Earlier
Yvette was driving down Benning Road in the Northeast section of D.C. headed toward Agatha’s, an old friend of her mother’s, house. Agatha cared for Yvette’s darkest secret, her strung out mother. No one knew except Thick, who Yvette killed a few weeks earlier that her mother was even alive.
Loretta was so strung out that she couldn’t care for Yvette and her two sisters. Loretta was a horrible mother. She proved it when she left Andrea, a baby, in laundry room during one of DC’s worst winter storms . She died a few hours later. It was also Loretta who pulled over on the side of a dark road somewhere in Virginia, to put her other daughter Cecil out because she couldn’t afford to feed her drug habit and both of her children. So she made a choice to nurture her broken veins. To this day Yvette didn’t know if her sister was dead or alive.
As a child, Yvette often had to lay in strange beds with her mother while she had sex for money. She still remembered how they tried to pry their fingers into her virgin womb because sleeping with Loretta was too atrocious by itself.
So when Yvette got old enough to understand that sex paid, she left the small bathroom she lived in with her mother for six years and headed to Emerald City. She couldn’t wait to leave the filthy conditions her mother’s pimp subjected them to in his four bedroom home.
The first day she arrived in Emerald, she hopped off the bus with all of her possessions in a blue torn backpack. It was a summer night and the tight blue jean shorts and white t-shirt she wore hugged her curves, exuding more sex appeal than a young girl should have. Off the bus for two minutes, her first trick pulled up next to her in a shiny blue Suburban and she was immediately attracted to him.
“You wanna take a ride with me?” he asked eyeing her huge breasts. “You don’t look like you old enough to be out here by yourself.”
Yvette, nervous at the man’s huge and powerful persona said, “Okay.”
“What’s your name, shawty?” he questioned when she got inside.
“Yvette.”
“I’m, Thick,” he said in a voice that made Yvette’s virgin body shiver.
“Thick,” she giggled. “I like that.”
“If you like that, I got somethin’ else you’ll love. I’ll tell you all about it.”
Thick, who was twenty one at the time, took a sixteen year old Yvette into his apartment in Emerald and molded her sexually and mentally. She couldn’t eat, sleep or breathe unless he told her to. And if she showed emotion, he’d beat her.
Over time the only problem he had with Yvette was her lack of cleanliness. She didn’t know how to clean because her mother lived a filthy lifestyle. After awhile, Thick dealt with the problem by never being home.
A year later, Loretta showed up on their doorstep needing help and Yvette almost fainted. She heard from drug dealers where Yvette lived and tried to extort money from them. But when Thick refused, she threatened to tell the police that he was molesting her underage daughter. Thick told Yvette to get her mother away before he placed what was left of her wretched body six feet deep. He also promised to put her out.
Yvette who discovered a new life in Emerald, friends and a man, didn’t want to leave the only family she’d grown to love. It took Yvette five hours to find her drug addicted mother a home. That’s where Agatha came in. For five hundred dollars, she provided a roof for Loretta and maintained Yvette’s secret by not letting anyone know that her mother was alive.
And now many years later Yvette was bailing her mother out of trouble again.
“Well you gotta hurry up! This bitch has gone too far this time!”
“Agatha, calm down. I’m coming,” Yvette said growing impatient.
“You said that two hours ago! This bitch done tried to shoot up through a vein in her eye ‘cause the ones in her arm so fucked up! Now I know you got that good job at the phone company, so you should be fine finding her somewhere else to live. But she gotta leave here today!”
Yvette took a deep breath and pulled up to Agatha’s house. She never told her she sold drugs because she didn’t want her asking for more money. For that reason, she told her that she was employed with the phone company. And since most employees were paid well working there, she bought her story.
“I’m here.”
“Good…she gonna be outside! Bye.”
Yvette got out of her car right before her mother was thrown out front wearing nothing but a blue nightgown. Loretta’s once smooth chocolate skin was now as dark as charcoal and uneven. Her body was frail and she looked older than her true age. Yvette desperately tried to rid herself of the pity she felt seeing her mother’s horrible condition.
“Where am I gonna take you?” she said to herself as she walked up the five steps.
She couldn’t even call on her friends for help because they didn’t know about her.
“Loretta, can you walk?” Yvette asked.
She was lying against the door with her legs wide open exposing her naked vagina. Yvette looked around to see if anyone was looking and everyone was.
“Loretta. Come on,” Yvette said as she helped her mother up. She was as short as Yvette.
They almost fell down twice because Loretta was off balance. When Loretta almost caused Yvette to fall, she released her and watched her topple down two steps and hit the ground.