Trust No Bitch

by Nene Capri

  Huffing, she settled in her seat.

  “What happened to the whip you was pushing the other day?” he asked.

  “It’s at the house. Why?” she questioned him back.

  “I hope you’re not out here flossing and shit. Fuck the shine, it’s about the paper and the power.”

  Lissha felt like she was being scolded. Within the few days she had been away from Kiam his whole attitude had changed. It was evident that he was settling into his new role and was not tolerating games. This only made her more nervous about the interaction he was about to have with Gator.

  Kiam cruised through the streets with her directing the way. He took a careful eye to every block. Different faces, same game. The streets he had left had not changed at all. His intentions were not to come in shaking things up all at once. He was going to make a few good examples and the mouth pieces he would leave behind would spread his reign of terror.

  Pulling into the condos out in Beachwood where Gator rested his head, Kiam parked and slid down in his seat. “Sup? Is this nigga going to be a problem?” He asked.

  “Not really, but he may resist a little. Daddy told me to tell him a few weeks back about the change in power. But I figured I would let you do that so I could see where this nigga’s heart is at. A man can’t hide under the element of surprise.”

  “I hear you. But do me a favor and don’t try to figure shit out. Me and Big Zo already did all the figuring. Just do what we tell you.” He looked over at her.

  Lissha was literally biting down on her lip to keep from responding with something slick. She knew how to play her position but she was not a punk. Gauging her body language, Kiam added, “No disrespect, its business, not personal.” He popped the locks and got out.

  Lissha checked her guns and got out, lightly slamming her door. For the first time she was caught off guard. She knew she had slightly fucked up and would probably have to deal with Big Zo later, but for right now she had to get into character. In the time it took for them to walk up on the porch the transformation was complete.

  Gator opened the door bare chested with the butt of his fo-fifth peaking up from the waistline of his jeans. His shoulder length dreads were tied back in a ponytail.

  “Hey, LiLi.”

  He looked over her shoulder at Kiam as he reached in and gave her a half hug.

  “What’s up Gator?” She reciprocated. Breaking the embrace, she introduced, “This is Kiam, the brother Daddy told you about.” “Welcome home, little bruh.” Gator extended his hand.

  “What’s up?” Kiam shook his hand but maintained an icy face.

  Gator picked up on Kiam’s coldness and adjusted his attitude as well. His brows became one and his mouth morphed into a tight line.

  “Damn nigga, move back and let us in. It’s windy as hell out here. And you need to put a shirt on before you be laid up in somebody’s hospital with pneumonia,” Lissha chastised.

  Gator gradually backed up allowing them to pass him, keeping a careful eye on Kiam as he closed the door. “So what brings you to my neck of the woods?” he asked Lissha.

  “You know me, always about this paper.” She took a seat on Gators all white couch.

  Every time Lissha came over it always boggled her mind how this blue black gorilla had all white furniture throughout his whole house.

  Gator flexed his chest muscles before snatching his t-shirt off the back of the sofa. He sat across from Lissha while Kiam chose to stand behind her.

  “So what’s good?” Gator took a few swigs of his drink.

  “Daddy told me to come out here and make the introduction so you can get Kiam familiar with how shit is ran. I’m stepping back,” she announced, leaning forward in her seat and looking Gator right in his eyes.

  Gator looked at her, then up at Kiam, then back at her. He moved his glass in a slow circle causing the ice to clink from side to side as his face hardened. “Let me get this straight. So Big Zo told you to bring him to me and for me to show him how shit go?” “Yeah,” she replied.

  “Then, what?”

  “Don’t answer that shit, Lissha,” Kiam broke in, taking over the meeting, and changing the whole tone of the conversation. “He heard what the fuck you said, and he can figure out what it means. As a matter of fact, wait for me in the car. Let me holla at this man.”

  One of Gator’s eyebrows went straight up. “She ain’t gotta go no fucking where. This is my shit. I say who goes and who fucking stays.” He tried to flex his dwindling authority.

  Lissha stood up. “I’m good. I’ma let men do what they do. I’ll hit you later.” She exited.

  “Yeah, you do that,” Gator spat, now heated from his first interaction with the man that Big Zo had spoken so highly of. He hadn’t known Kiam a full five minutes and he was ready to kill him.

  Once Kiam heard the door shut he went into beast mode.

  “Let me explain something to you. I ain’t no bitch made nigga. I don’t make friends and I don’t have time to fucking babysit. Big Zo gave me a mission and I’ma handle it. Period.” He sliced his hand through the air in one swift motion to finalize his declaration.

  Kiam paused briefly to let his words sink in and to scale Gator’s reaction. He looked him in the eye and spoke clearly. “Now this is how this shit is going to go. I’ll call you later tonight with a time and a meeting place. We’re about to set the tone amongst our own. Don’t get held up in traffic, I hate a late muthafucka. Secondly, everything from here forward goes to me and comes through me. Last, but definitely not least, it’s business as usual. Handle your end and don’t come up short.”

  Kiam stood staring into Gator’s eyes as if he was reading his soul. He had heard that the nigga had a few notches on his belt, but he wasn’t impressed because if Gator was truly about that life, Big Zo wouldn’t have needed him to step in and run things.

  Just as he suspected, Gator had the scent of pussy on him. He knew that there was no way a real thug would let another man stand in his house and talk noise without making the ten o’clock news real interesting.

  Inside Gator bristled, he thought about wetting Kiam’s shirt, but he figured he needed to go along and see where things would end up. At the end of the day he held a trump card. He intended on holding, then slamming it on the table when it was time to collect. But still, he wasn’t about to get chumped off.

  “Bruh, you come up in my shit talking real breezy, like you think I wear a thong. If Big Zo didn’t tell you, you better find out some other way—I’m not that nigga to handle like a pussy. Now we can make this transition smooth or we can make it bloody. Really, I don’t give a fuck, I do or die for mine,” Gator let it be known. His hand was inches from his tool.

  “You talking but I ain’t felt no heat, so what you saying?” Kiam disarmed him with words that did as much damage to a man as hollow points.

  As Gator looked at Kiam he fought back his rage and pasted an accommodating look on his face.

  “You done?”

  “For now.” Kiam left.

  When Kiam got to the car, Lissha was sitting with her legs crossed, smoking a Black. “Put that shit out,” he ordered.

  “Hold the fuck up. This is my shit,” Lissha quickly responded.

  Kiam cut his coal black’s over at her. “Don’t make me ask twice,” he said real calmly as he pulled out the parking spot.

  Lissha looked back at him and wrinkled up her nose. The tables had turned and the change of power was now in Kiam’s hand. His air of confidence and leadership was sending a surge throughout her body. Daddy had warned her about Kiam but he did not prepare her for the feelings that would develop once she saw him in action.

  Lissha took one last pull, blew the smoke in the air, then plucked the Black out the window.

  Coming to a stop at a red light, Kiam calmed the situation a bit.

  “Thank you. You’re too pretty to be smoking anyway.” Lissha pouted her lips and looked out the window.

  Kiam put his hand on her leg. “We go
t a lot of work ahead of us, you need to be focused and on point. There is no place for weakness on this level. I interpreted a look in your boy’s eyes back there that don’t sit well with me. If he shows the slightest sign of shade I’ma get him a headstone, so I hope you haven’t been fucking with the help on the side.” The strength of his voice commanded that she look at him. When she did, he looked directly into her eyes.

  Lissha saw in his face that he was sincere. Just as she was about to respond he flashed her that sexy smile, causing her mouth to turn up at the corners. “I’m just saying,” he stated, leaving it hanging out there.

  When the light turned green, he removed his hand and placed it back on the steering wheel. The sexy smile evaporated in a flash, as if it had never existed. Lissha frowned again.

  “Don’t take shit so personal,” said Kiam, observing her expression. “It’s not even like that with me. I’m on some business shit, point blank. I don’t have time to fuck around or to cater to anybody’s feelings.

  “Shit is about to get serious real fast, so either you’re built for this shit or fall to the side. I’m not placating you because you’re Pop’s daughter, you’re in your feelings or on your cycle. So get that in your head right now.” He glanced over at her again.

  Lissha remained monotone.

  “Do I make myself clear?” he asked, returning his eyes to the road.

  “Humph.”

  Kiam didn’t acknowledge her grumble; he allowed silence to make his point.

  “I understand,” she replied through tight lips.

  “Good, because I’m going to need that for something. I don’t know what y’all have been doing out here but apparently it’s not good enough or Big Zo wouldn’t have asked me to step in and take over. As I understand it, business has leveled off. A few of our spots have started coming up with short money, and other squads are out here feeling themselves. All of that is about to change.”

  She wondered if he was insinuating that because she was a female she couldn’t handle the business. If that’s what he thought, he had the game twisted. She had just shown him the other day that her gun popped off just as lethal as his.

  He was pissing her the hell off. But at the same time he turned her on. She had always been attracted to a nigga that knew how to take command of things.

  “Who is our fiercest competition?” he asked.

  “Wolfman,” she answered without hesitation. “He has the biggest name in the city right now?”

  “He had the biggest name,” Kiam corrected.

  Lissha nodded her understanding. She had wanted to get at Wolfman for the past two years but Gator forbade it.

  “Tell me everything you know about him, and watch me make the nigga disappear.”

  Kiam’s confidence was music to Lissha’s ears. She eagerly dispensed with the information that she had compiled on Wolfman, the city’s largest drug dealer. When she had reported all that she knew about him she outlined the rest of the hierarchy.

  Some names were already familiar to Kiam through Big Zo. These were people that had come into hood prominence after Big Zo’s demise. Dontae, Money Bags Carter, Frank Nitti. He knew their names but the only one of them whom he knew personally was Frank Nitti and he had never liked that bitch.

  Kiam listened in silence until they pulled up to Lissha’s condo out in South Euclid. He had already made up his mind that he was going to rearrange everybody’s position. Muthafuckas could accept it or get wiped out completely.

  “What time you need your car, I got some shit to do?”

  Lissha cocked her eyes at him as if he was crazy. “Hold up. So you just gonna talk shit to me all day,” she counted out on her fingers, “boss me around then take my car? Where the fuck they do that at?”

  Kiam didn’t budge. “You didn’t answer the question.”

  “You know what; I’m not doing this with you right now. Just bring me my shit in the morning.” She hit the locks and got out.

  She closed the car door and leaned in the window. “That ho must have fucked you good last night. Because you up this morning with an S on your chest. Today was free; the next one will cost you.” She stood up to walk away.

  “LiLi,” Kiam yelled out. “Be good.” Lissha turned to watch him drive away.

  Kiam went right back into game mode; he could feel his adrenaline pumping. Wolfman and all the others that sat below him were about to have their worlds shook up.

  Kiam’s first stop was at the Verizon store. He bought himself a prepaid cell phone then hit the important people with the number. Afterwards, he cruised his old stomping grounds up and down Miles Road. He wanted to see things through his own eyes, without Czar’s commentary.

  He stopped at the tire and rim shop on the lower end of Miles Road to holla at some other homies that were hanging out there. Most of them were the same faces from years ago. They were still stomping the hood and hustling the blocks.

  Everyone told him that DeMarcus was doing it big. Kiam took that information in and pondered its implications. DeMarcus hadn’t shown him any love while he was away, that didn’t bode well for him at all.

  Back at the hotel, Kiam mapped out his strategy. He was sure that word would get back to DeMarcus that he had touched down, but he was not stepping to the nigga until he had decided his fate. He was going to let him shake in his boots while trying to figure out what state of mind he was in now that he was back.

  Kiam undressed and got a few hours of rest because starting tonight he was putting niggas to sleep.

  Gator pulled up at the meeting spot with a few minutes to spare. That was a good look because Kiam was in beast mode and wouldn’t have excused tardiness. As soon as Kiam saw him pull up in the black Nav’ that he had described, Kiam walked up to the passenger door and slid in.

  “Where we headed?” Gator asked over the thump of the music coming out of his speakers.

  “Wherever the first problem is that needs to be fixed.” Kiam turned the music completely off.

  “What kind of problem are you talking about, cuz?”

  “I’m talking about in-house problems. The situations with the short money. We have to take care of home before we can regulate anything outside of it. Big Zo told me that we have a spot on 102nd and Sophia that constantly comes up short. Either those niggas can’t count or they’re on some grimy shit. What’s your take on it?”

  “I don’t think the dudes that run that spot are stealing from us, if that’s what you’re asking.” Gator pulled out of the lot and the dark truck blended into the murky night.

  “Big Zo does.”

  “No disrespect to Big Zo, my nigga, but he can’t see what’s going on from where he’s at. Losses are part of the game. I’ve known the niggas that run that house for ten years, they don’t get down like that.”

  “Well, explain to me how the trap is coming up short five and ten racks a week?” Kiam countered testily.

  “Mistakes happen,” Gator defended.

  “Oh yeah?” Kiam wasn’t buying it. A nigga that couldn’t count cheated himself; if he cheated you, he could count damn good. “Take me over there so I can have a talk with these fools.”

  “Alright, but I’m telling you before we get there that Vic and Cantrell has been loyal to the team from day one. You can ask Lissha.”

  “Lissha’s not calling the shots anymore, and neither are you. So just drive and shut the fuck up before I start thinking that you got something to hide.”

  “Hold up, Bleed! Fuck you talking to? This Big Zo’s shit so I play my position, but ain’t nothing soft about me. Check my street resume.”

  “I already did.”

  The statement left Gator wondering if it was a compliment or a slap in the face. He knew that he had put in work but for some reason Kiam didn’t seem to respect his gangsta. It was all good; the cemeteries were full of niggas that had slept on the next man’s G.

  They rode on in silence until they reached the crack house. Gator called inside and they were let in
as soon as they reached the side door. They followed Vic into the kitchen where Cantrell was whipping crack in the microwave. Two of their young workers were seated at a round glass table bagging up rocks.

  Gator made the introductions all around. “Kiam has something he wants to talk to y’all about. Whatever he has to say is not to be contested.”

  Cantrell looked at his cousin Vic. They both had the same question in their eyes. Who the fuck is this nigga? And why is Gator acting like this muthafucka run something? Kiam was about to answer that question real soon.

  “Rest your feet,” he charged.

  Vic sat at the table with the two younger boys, but Cantrell chose to remain standing. He leaned against the refrigerator and folded his arms across his chest.

  “Fam, you hard of hearing or something?” Kiam grilled him. Cantrell looked at Gator, but Gator looked away. “I don’t like to have to repeat myself.” Kiam said.

  Reluctantly, Cantrell took the last empty chair at the table.

  Gator leaned back against the sink and watched Kiam in action. “I’m already in a foul mood so don’t nobody test my patience or this meeting is gonna end with some bodies sprawled out on the floor,” he began. His hand went to his waist as he looked from man to man. Nobody said anything but their expressions spoke loud and clear.

  “I don’t know how things have been done up until now,” Kiam continued. “But from this day forward a short trap is unacceptable. Anything missing comes out of your pay to make it right. I don’t tolerate stealing or disloyalty. Is that clear?”

  Vic waited to see how his cousin was gonna play it. Cantrell spoke his mind.

  “Bruh, I have a problem with you walking up in here talking to us like we’re your do-boys. Up until five minutes ago you didn’t even know me, and you damn sure don’t know what’s been going on over here. I mean, who the fuck is you? How in the fuck you gon’ just pop up out of nowhere giving orders and shit?”

  Kiam chuckled. That hinted something real ugly was about to go down, but those boys didn’t know his ways so they were at a disadvantage that they couldn’t even fathom.