by Carl Weber
“Good. You have a lot of potential, Niles. Let’s put it to good use.” She stood up, and I followed her down the steps and into the park, where lots of people were having lunch or moving through the park to get to their next destination. She found a bench, and we both climbed up and sat on the top.
“All right, so what are we doing? Surveillance, botany, bird watching?” As far as I could see, nothing was happening, but then again, you could never tell with Bridget. She was like Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid with her unorthodox teaching methods.
Bridget reached in her pocket and pulled out a sheet with a bunch of blue dots on it. I looked down at the dots, the only test I just could not pass for some reason.
“It’s been a month. Time for you to put your money where your mouth is. That is, if you think you can do it.” She smirked at me, which only made me more intent on getting it right, just to wipe that look off her face.
“How about a thousand dollars?” she challenged.
I took a deep breath then cracked my neck as I stretched, biting my bottom lip. “Make it two thousand and you’ve got a bet.” I took out a piece of mint gum and stuck it in my mouth like I didn’t have a care in the world. Inside, I was hoping I wasn’t about to lose two thousand hard-earned dollars.
“You’re awfully confident.” She looked pleased.
“I’ve been practicing.”
“Humph! Okay, let’s see what you got. So, you see those three women right there?” I followed her eyes until I saw three twenty-somethings off in the distance moving toward us. She handed me the paper. “Let’s see if you can hit the target at least once without being detected. Hit two and you win the bet.”
I took the paper. “Nah, I’m gonna hit all three or you win the bet,” I told her then got up and slowly moved in their direction.
I made a subtle motion toward the long-legged redhead dressed in an attention- getting black mini skirt and motorcycle boots. It happened to be one of those beautiful spring days in New York, when it hit 80 degrees and everybody got half naked in Central Park. People were out in full force to soak up the sun, especially the suits taking a lunchtime stroll before they headed back inside the stale-aired office buildings off the park.
I palmed the tiny blue circle and moved stealthily through the crowd, until I was right next to them. Swiping my arms up, I grazed the back of her neck before bringing my hands back to my sides. Yeah, I got this, I thought as the woman turned and checked me out, no doubt alerted by my close proximity. Instead of ignoring them, I smiled flirtatiously and moved closer.
“Afternoon, ladies.” I smiled wide, like I was about to ask one of them to the prom. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
Their flirtatious smiles told me they had no inkling of what had just happened. “Y’all have a nice day,” I said as I passed by them. I leaned against a tree and watched as they passed Bridget, who got up from the bench, cracking the fuck up.
“What the hell am I going to do with you?” she asked, still chuckling. Not only did I hit the target behind one woman’s neck, but I also put stickers on each of the nipples of the second woman, and right between the crease of the third woman’s camel toe.
“How about you pay me?” I laughed, sticking out my hand.
“How about I give you something better than two grand?” She smirked seductively.
Ten minutes later, we were in the Rolls, headed west on the Henry Hudson Parkway toward the George Washington Bridge.
“Where we going now?”
“Well, remember how I said you are going to need a complete makeover?” she asked, giving me a once-over that made me feel uncomfortable. I thought I was killing it in my new custom-made suit.
“Yes?” I hesitated to say more, wondering if this was going to be something I liked—not that it mattered, because I knew I didn’t have a say in the matter.
“Let’s just say that what I’m about give you is very personal and will make you happier than you’ve been in years,” she answered cryptically before turning her attention to her iPad.
We crossed the GW and got on Route 1–9, into the heart of New Jersey. When we exited, I glanced over at Bridget, who looked way too pleased with herself. She still said nothing to me, until we pulled into a BMW dealership.
“Winston and I can’t drive you everywhere, so I think it’s time we got you some wheels,” Bridget informed me when she finally spoke.
She exited the car, leaving me with my mouth hanging open. I got out and headed straight for the M3 convertible in cherry red, the dream mobile parked in a sea of Beamers. I ran my hands over the pristine paint job, noting the fine lines and excellent workmanship. Damn, if those Germans didn’t know what the hell they were doing, ’cause this ride was tight. It made me wonder what the next test would be as I started running possible scenarios in my head.
“This is me,” I boasted to Bridget, who had followed me over and was watching me with a pleased expression.
“You like that?” she teased. “You would really look good in it. That is, if you were getting the kind of car that made every single person you passed stop and stare.” Her tone told me everything I needed to know.
“But it’s fast and powerful. With a car like this, I can do damn near anything you need,” I pressed, not ready to let my dream die.
“Attention is good, but you must attract the proper attention at the proper time. Always remember, class over flash. You remember that, and you’ll be able to fit in everywhere. Go back to your sniper days. Would you want the enemy to notice you before you took the shot, or do you want to blend into the background? Like a sniper, in our line of work, that can be the difference between life and death.” Her words were sobering because I knew they were true. There was no way I could fly under the radar in that car. Damn.
She waved to a well-dressed salesman and then motioned me over to a black 750i sedan, the mack daddy of cars. Whatever temporary loss I was feeling about that red car dissipated as I slipped inside this baby. Yeah, now this was everything: luxury, style, class, and a whole lot of power.
“We’ll take this one. When can we pick it up?” Bridget asked the salesman as she opened the car door so I could slide in. “You’ve done well today, Mr. Monroe, and you deserve this car, but you still have a lot to learn.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I replied, gripping the steering wheel.
Whatever this new world was I had just entered, it happened to be a hell of a lot more high-end than I was used to, but something told me getting used to luxury would be the easy part. Eventually I’d have to start killing people.
Keisha
28
“What do you think about this color?” I held up a body-hugging sea green dress for Tanya to give me a yeah or nay before I tried it on. She had her hands full, carrying the pile of clothes I had asked her to hold for me while I grabbed one more dress.
She leaned in to get a better look. “I like it, but you need to try it on. It’s not about how it looks on the hanger. It’s about making sure your man wants it on the floor.”
“You got that right.” I said in agreement as I headed into the dressing room. “Tanya, pick something out,” I called out through the door. “Aren’t you and Willie going out tonight? I’m sure he wants to see you all turned up.”
“Well, he’s going to have to settle for something out of my closet,” she said in a snippy way that I didn’t take personally because I knew she was stressed about money. “The way they keep fucking with my hours at that job, before I know it there won’t be no hours left. Last week they cut me from forty to twenty-five, and now they’re threatening to cut me even more. I don’t know how I’m going to keep my place unless I find some other job.”
I stepped out of the room in the dress, now more worried about my friend than how the dress fit me.
“That looks good on you.” She beamed at me.
Tanya was the hardest working friend I had, so it pissed me off that the people at her job were taking advantage of her. Sh
e had loved taking care of people ever since we were little, so it made sense when she decided to go to school and get an associate degree as a medical assistant. She thought it would guarantee her steady employment, but I guess not.
“Let me treat you to a new outfit, and we’ll get our hair and nails done. The whole thing,” She was one of the few people I knew who never let anybody do things for her. She was the opposite of a gold digger.
Just like I expected, she shut me down. “Keisha, I can’t let you go buying me things.”
I cut my eyes at her. “Why? It ain’t like it’s even my money,” I said with a laugh.
“Yeah, well, Majestic wouldn’t take kindly to you spending his money on me. That money’s for you and MJ.”
“I ain’t answering to him, and once this is gone, I’m not taking any more money from him. Besides, I don’t hardly go nowhere anyway. You can be the first woman he spends money on who’s not fucking him. Let me do it for once. Please,” I begged. Tanya had always had my back for real, and right now she needed to be reminded how important she was to me.
She didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Now, just pretend for five minutes that you’re one more money-hungry chick,” I joked.
“If I was, I certainly wouldn’t be going all crazy for Willie, ’cause he ain’t got a dime.” She laughed. “But I really like him.”
“Well, if he’s anything like his nephew, he’s a keeper. I wonder where they’re taking us tonight.”
I glanced over at Tanya when she didn’t answer and saw that same worried look on her face she used to get when we were teenagers and had stayed out past our curfew. It started to make me nervous, so I asked her, “What?”
“Now, don’t get mad. I’m not trying to ruin your excitement, but aren’t you even remotely worried about Majestic finding out about Niles?”
“Fuck him. Hopefully they’ll keep him in the jail for the next twenty years. Just because I have his baby doesn’t mean that he can control my life,” I said, taking a stronger stance because there was no way he could get to me. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna tell him that we’re over, and I mean it.”
“We both know he’s not try’na hear that. Let’s face it. Majestic is cray-cray, and he’s not going to let you ride off into the sunset with some other Negro,” Tanya said ominously.
I shuddered, but I shook my head defiantly. “Niles is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. I’m not about to let nobody, including my baby daddy, ruin it.”
“You realize we’re not talking about some nice, sane guy with common sense? We’re talking about crazy-ass, shoot-and-ask-questions-later Majestic and his Deputy Dog, Bruce. Oh, and lets not even bring Pooh into the mix.”
“Yes, I know.” I sat down in the dressing room and stared at her. “I can’t just walk away from this. I’m falling in love with Niles. I know you probably think it’s too soon, but it’s like I’ve always been in love with him. I’m not ready to give him up.”
Tanya stared at me. “Maybe you won’t have to. Maybe Majestic will fall madly in love with one of those other women he’s with and let you go. Maybe he’ll get somebody else pregnant.”
I shook my head. “He won’t do it. Over the last year, I’ve heard stories of women trying to get knocked up by him, but he’s smart. For some reason, he chose me to bear his child. While we were dating, he begged me to have his baby. If I had known he was fucking all those hoes, I would have never agreed to it, but you know how charming he can be when he wants something. He made me think I was the only woman in the world and not just the one at the front of his harem. With Niles, I would never worry about him cheating.”
“I know. That’s how I feel about Willie. He’s so kind and interested in my life. He says he wants to help me, even though you know I won’t let him. It’s really nice to have a man want to put that kind of focus on only me.”
“Course I know your ass wouldn’t take it.” I laughed at her. Tanya was such a good girl.
“Well, if we’re married, that’s different,” she said as calmly as if she were discussing accessories for our dresses.
“Marriage?” I shouted out in total shock.
“Well, there is something about him. I don’t know. It’s just that when I look down the road, I can see a future with him,” she said, grinning like a lovesick teenager.
“Me too. That’s how I feel when I think about Niles,” I said quietly, but instead of being excited, I was starting to feel a sense of dread.
Bruce
29
I entered Phil’s barbershop on Straight Path in Wyandanch, stepping right into the barber’s chair. My boys Fred and Pooh posted up in two chairs on either side of the shop, while Shorty stood by the door.
“You want the regular?” Eddie, my barber, checked as he tied a smock around my neck to catch the hair. I’d been coming to Phil’s ever since I was six years old. My moms would drag me down there every Saturday so he could cut all my hair off. Back then Phil, the owner, was the only barber. Funny thing is, I ain’t let Phil touch my hair since he fucked up Majestic’s fade when I was thirteen, but me and his son Eddie have been strong ever since.
“You know what?” I told him. “Take just a little more off the top. I been so busy I can’t get here as often.”
“Okay. So how’s Majestic holdin’ up? I was real sorry to hear about his brother. Please send him my condolences,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, he took Rodney’s death real hard. It’s tough for him not being around for his family, especially at a time like this, but he’s all right. Quiet as it’s kept, his sentence just got reduced. He’ll be home sooner than you think.”
“That’s good. Real good. Folks start to act up when they think they can get away with it. I’m glad he’s coming back. Hell, you two are my best customers,” Eddie gushed.
Shit, when Majestic was out, Eddie would clear the shop whenever we came in. Of course, the way Majestic tipped him made it worth it. We could talk business in the shop, and nothing ever got out. Eddie was a real stand-up guy.
“Yeah, he’s gonna need your skills as soon as he’s released. You know he likes to keep it together,” I said, giving Eddie a fist bump.
“Hell, all the pussy that guy gets, I don’t blame him.” He laughed. “Don’t want to have it in your beard and shit.”
We both looked up when a disheveled woman in her early forties came into the barbershop. Shorty stopped her, but we could both hear her getting loud with him. Raised voices always caught my attention. You had to be ready in case some shit jumped off. Shorty, convinced she wasn’t a problem, left the woman and came over to us.
“Yo, that lady says she needs to talk to you, Bruce. Something about she knows who really killed Rodney. What should I do?” he asked me.
I glanced in the mirror at Pooh, who was waiting for my response. I nodded, and Pooh sent Shorty over to retrieve her. Girlfriend looked tired, like she had just aged a decade. She had bags under her eyes, and they were red and puffy-looking, along with a real sadness. She looked like she might be on that shit.
“Ok, ma, what’s this about you knowing who killed Rodney?” I already knew who killed Rodney, but I wanted to hear her out. I raised my hand to tell Eddie to give me a moment before I addressed this crazy-looking bitch.
“That I can’t say, but I know who didn’t kill him, and that’s DaQuan Braithwaite,” she said. Her voice was a bit shaky, like she was fighting to hold it together. I glanced at Shorty, giving him a What the fuck is this shit? look.
“Is that right?” I sneered, about to tell her to get the fuck out of my face, but no matter how old I got, I didn’t like disrespecting women that were close to my mother’s age.
Immediately her expression hardened. “You fucking killed him, didn’t you?” she screamed, making me sit straight up in the barber’s chair.
“I didn’t kill Rodney!”
“No, you killed DaQuan. Everybody knows that, and the whole damn block i
s talking about it. Said you blame him for killing that boy Rodney that lives over on Eighteenth.”
“I hear you. Now, do you have any proof, or are you just coming at me with some bullshit rumors? ’Cause I can’t do nothing about rumors!” I said, returning her glare. She was really starting to piss me the fuck off.
“Well, for your information, that was three weeks ago, and my boy could not have killed nobody three weeks ago,” she insisted.
“Look, I know how it is. No mother wants to think the worst of her own kid, and you’re not any different. I’m sure that since your son was dealing drugs, there were a whole lot of people who wanted to see him dead. Drug dealers make a lot of enemies in their line of work.” I turned to Shorty. “Will you get her the fuck out my face?”
I turned away from her. At least that way she could slink out with some semblance of her dignity.
“But my son was not around that day. He wasn’t. I swear!” she shouted, grabbing my arm desperately to get my attention.
I snatched my arm away and turned back to her. “What you try’na say? ’Cause you ain’t said nothing that makes me convinced that your son is the only innocent dead man in Wyandanch,” I snapped at her. “How can you be so damn sure that your drug dealing son wasn’t a murderer?”
“I know because he was stuck on Rikers Island. They caught him with some weed, and it took me over a week to get the money to post his bail. Rodney was killed on the eighth, and my son was locked up on the seventh and didn’t get out until the tenth—the same day you killed him. So it couldn’t have been him.”
She reached into her waist to grab something and came out with a pistol. Shorty jumped up and snatched the gun out of her shaking hand. It made her fall back and down to the ground. I was about to get up and stomp the bitch, but Eddie raced over, grabbing the woman up then putting on quite the show.
“You crazy bitch! What the fuck is wrong with you? Trying to kill somebody in my place of business. Get out! Get the hell out of here! And don’t you ever come back! You stupid whore!” Like I said, he put on quite the show, and probably saved her fucking life. I’m just not sure if he did it for the woman’s sake or the sake of his shop, but he shoved her out the door.