Queen Hustlaz

by Falicia Love

  “I told you to go on and do what you got to do, Thad,” Jeryca said.

  “Get the hell off the phone and let’s go. I don’t give a damn about your attitude. Don’t make me say it again, Jeryca.” She realized that Thad was getting angrier by the second, so she did as she was told. When she got into the truck, Thad looked at her.

  “Didn’t I tell you to fucking behave? You just wasted ten minutes throwing a tantrum. Jeryca, don’t keep testing me,” he said quietly. Jeryca didn’t say a word; she looked out the window as they drove off.

  * * *

  Chris and Keith were at the trap house waiting for Thad to get there. The house was in a low-key suburban neighborhood on the west side of Brooklyn. It was a nice huge brick house, and the prostitutes that worked there were very classy women. They neither dressed nor behaved like regular street women. Thad had the perfect hookers.

  “Brenda, we got an easy three hundred dollars for you. Thad needs you to do him a huge favor. Do you want the money?” Chris asked their number one ho.

  “Maybe. What’s the job?” Brenda asked.

  “Well, come in my office and let’s chat,” Chris said as he motioned her to the back office.

  Chris and Brenda had been in the office over ten minutes when Thad and Jeryca walked in. They all exchanged hellos, and Thad ushered Jeryca toward the back as well. Jeryca was amazed at how beautiful Thad’s house was. She looked around and noted everything she would’ve done differently. Just as Thad and Jeryca reached the office door, Brenda and Chris emerged.

  “Hey, Thad!” Brenda said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

  “What’s up, baby?” Thad asked as he hugged her tightly.

  Jeryca shook with anger. She couldn’t believe the nerve of Thad taking her somewhere where he had another bitch waiting. Jeryca turned to leave, but Thad held her firm.

  “Jeryca, I’d like you to meet my sister Brenda,” he lied. Jeryca almost stopped breathing. His sister, she thought. Yeah, they do look alike. Jeryca smiled as she shook Brenda’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “Same here, girl,” Brenda said with a smile.

  They immediately started talking, and went to the kitchen and sat at the table. They seemed to connect instantly, and Chris was amazed at how well Brenda played at being Thad’s sister. Thad walked up behind Chris and gave him a nudge to get his attention. When Chris turned around, Thad gave him a smile and a thumbs-up.

  “We got a winner, baby!” he whispered.

  “You might be right. This plan you devised might be on the money,” Chris said, patting Thad on the back as they both turned and walked back down the hall.

  Brenda wasn’t a stupid ho, either; as a matter of fact, she was quite educated. She finished college with a high GPA, but with all the economy issues that had developed, she found that her current employment was satisfying. She made good money, received benefits, and was respected by all the boss pimps. She wasn’t sure what Thad’s plans were for Jeryca, but it wasn’t any of her business. She was just going to play her part.

  “So, how long you been seeing my big brother?” Brenda asked Jeryca.

  “About seven months, I’d guess. I’m so happy he brought me to meet you,” Jeryca confided.

  “Yeah, you must be special if he brought you here,” Brenda said as she patted Jeryca’s arm.

  Jeryca smiled. Just when she was beginning to think Thad was an absolute monster, he proved her wrong.

  Chapter Three

  Monday afternoon, Stephanie and Chris rode around for hours. He decided to take her on a run that he had to make for Thad. He trusted her enough to have her tag along with him while he handled business. She had counted drug money, gun money, and made a run for him and Thad once before, so he knew it was cool.

  “Aye, baby, can we stop for lunch after you take the guns back to the warehouse?” Stephanie asked.

  “Yeah, but it’s not going to the warehouse, and put your dang seatbelt on, girl. How many times do I have to tell you that when we riding dirty?” he said as he pointed to the seatbelt latch.

  Stephanie put the seatbelt on and grabbed a blunt. “Nigga, you don’t be saying shit when we smoking and riding dirty. Matter of fact, I’m ’bout to roll up a fatty now.”

  “My fucking ride-or-die chick!” Chris said as he kissed her.

  “You better know it and love it.” She laughed.

  “I do. Trust that,” Chris said. He didn’t quite love Stephanie, but he knew she was a down-ass chick, and he respected her for that.

  “I love your ass also, babe!” Stephanie said as she lit the blunt up.

  Chris was quiet because he really never thought Stephanie would come out and say she loved him. As the thoughts of how he could use her love to his advantage floated across his mind, he smiled and grasped her leg, giving it a squeeze.

  “We got this.”

  As they rode down Foster Avenue, they turned down a side road a pulled up to a church on Flatbush Avenue. Chris pulled the van that he was driving around to the back of the funeral home and parked.

  “I’ll be right back,” he whispered.

  Stephanie put the blunt out and cringed at the thought of being at a funeral home. She turned the music all the way down and waited for Chris to come back. About thirty minutes later, Chris emerged with three guys who were wheeling out a box that was the size of a casket. After they placed the box inside the back of the van, they disappeared back inside; a few minutes later, they came out with another box, but this one was a bit smaller. Chris shook the three guys’ hands and got back in the van.

  “You ready to ride, my lady?” he asked in a playful British accent.

  “Yes, I am.” She laughed. The two drove away, and as they passed back across Foster Avenue, Stephanie turned the music back up and lit the blunt, sat back against the seat, and relaxed.

  Stephanie sat up and looked around as they pulled up to a warehouse that she had never been to before. It was huge, and the parking lot was full of cars. She didn’t understand why they would be pulling into the warehouse; they didn’t have any room to load any more boxes. Once they stopped and Chris turned off the van, he looked over at her and told her to get out. Stephanie got out of the van, stretched, and looked around. She pulled at her pant leg and followed Chris into an office. Chris had four guys also accompany him into the office. They looked at Stephanie curiously at first, but Chris assured them that they could talk in front of her.

  “Look, Devon, I need you and Rick to get the smaller box out the van while Neil and Patrick will get the bigger box out, and then bring them in here. Me and my ride-or-die here will count and log the inventory. Tell Mike to call our connect and schedule a time for the meet up,” Chris ordered.

  “We got you, boss!” Devon replied.

  After both boxes were in the office, Chris opened the smaller box first, which, upon first glance, seemed to be full of straw, but as he dug deeper, he pulled out large plastic freezer bags full of marijuana. He counted twenty-one bags in all; then he lifted a cardboard plate, and under it were twenty-five more bags filled with pure cocaine.

  Stephanie had helped him log drugs in before, but not that much at one time. Chris gave her the tablet where they kept count of what came in, and told her to do what she was good at. Chris handed Stephanie a scale, and she set it on the desk. She pulled the blinds down further and started weighing each bag. She wrote down each bag title and the weight. She then grabbed another bigger bag where she would place the logged marijuana and slid it to Chris, who then instructed her to count the cocaine. Once the last bag was weighed and logged, she turned the tablet over and waited for them to open the other box. She informed him that she had logged twenty pounds and one quarter-pound bag of green and twenty-five kilos of white.

  Rick and Devon took a wrench and opened the larger crate, and when they opened it, there were several different types of guns. Stephanie saw M60s, Glocks, and AKs. He gave her a second tablet and told her yet again, “Do what you do,
miss lady!”

  After counting the guns and packing them separately, Stephanie was ready to go. She was amazed at how many guns she saw logged in the book over a period of only four weeks. They placed the logbooks and merchandise in a small room that was down some stairs inside the office.

  Stephanie had been there all day working and was ready for her pay. She grabbed Chris’s dick as he walked up to her and said, “All work and no play makes me a very bored girl.”

  “Well, shit, let’s go,” Chris whispered into her ear before licking it.

  * * *

  Jeryca and her sister were helping her mother cook dinner. Her mother was shocked at how much time she had been spending at home. Jeryca had been there for three days straight, but she knew the weekend was approaching, and Jeryca would be out with either her friends or that boyfriend of hers. She hadn’t met Thad, but Jeryca had told her a lot about him, and based on what she had heard from Jeryca and other people around the neighborhood, she didn’t have a lot of respect for the boy. If Jeryca meant anything to him, he’d have introduced himself to her.

  After the lasagna was placed in the oven, Jeryca pulled the lettuce and other vegetables out for a salad, but before she could cut up the cucumbers, her cell phone rang. She immediately excused herself.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “Hello, baby,” she said, smiling.

  “What’s up? What you doing?” Thad asked.

  “Shit, just helping my mother cook dinner. Why, what’s up?” she asked.

  “Trying to see if you want to come and hang out with me and the crew for a while. Maybe spend the night,” Thad replied.

  “I’m cool with that. But give me about an hour or so. I want to eat dinner with my family,” Jeryca replied.

  “Well, Brenda will pick you up, okay? Do you want me to get you a bottle?” he asked.

  “Yes, get me some Jose,” she replied.

  “Okay, I will see you when you get here,” he said before hanging up.

  “Well, Mom, I’m going out later on, but I’m not going until after dinner,” Jeryca said.

  “You be careful messing around with that boy, Jeryca. Something isn’t right about him,” her mother said.

  “Mom, don’t start that! He is a good guy,” Jeryca said, frowning. Her mom noticed that she struck a nerve with Jeryca and decided to fall back.

  “Okay, Jeryca. Just remember what I said.”

  “Yeah, Ma!” Jeryca replied, rolling her eyes.

  Twenty minutes after they ate, Brenda was there to pick her up. She ran out to the car and jumped in.

  “What’s up, sis?” Jeryca asked.

  “Nothing, just came to get my bro’s sweetheart,” Brenda replied. Jeryca waved at her mom and sister as they pulled off. Her mother barely waved as she stood in the doorway, shaking her head.

  Jeryca and Brenda laughed and talked the whole way to the upper west side of Brooklyn. They listened to music, and after talking to Jeryca for a little while, Brenda couldn’t understand why Thad wanted to fuck her over, but it wasn’t any of her business. She was just going to continue to play her part.

  When they pulled up, Thad and all the guys were posted up on the porch. He had his two favorite pets outside, slithering around on the ground—his boas. He had a yellow and white snake and a red-tailed Colombian boa. He loved his snakes to death. He had purchased them both for close to $600 when they were young and small. They both now weighed close to two hundred pounds together, and were each twelve feet long.

  Jeryca knew he had the snakes, but she had never seen them. She didn’t want to get out of the car, but they picked on her until she finally got out. She walked up on the porch, keeping her eyes on the two monsters that lay in the grass. She kissed Thad and sat on his lap. He gave her the bottle of Jose Cuervo, and whispered to Brenda to get Jeryca in the house. Once she was in the house, Thad looked at Chris and Larry.

  “Let’s get started, boys.” Thad gathered his pets and put them back in their cages, and they all disappeared in the house, closing the door behind them.

  * * *

  “Hi! What’s going on, mommy?” Stephanie asked as she answered the phone.

  “Nothing much. Have you heard from Jeryca?” Farrah asked.

  “I haven’t seen or heard from her in a while,” Stephanie replied.

  “Girl, I called her, her mother, and Thad, and her mom said she hasn’t seen or talked to Jeryca since she left with Thad two weeks ago. Thad isn’t answering his phone, either. Larry hasn’t really been talking to me lately, and I don’t know why. I am concerned about J,” Farrah said.

  “Well, don’t get worried yet. She is probably with Thad trying to spend up some of that money,” Stephanie said as she rolled her eyes up in the air.

  “I wouldn’t worry if this was a pattern, but Jeryca would never pass up the opportunity to brag about what Thad was doing for her. You know how Jeryca is,” Farrah cried.

  Stephanie sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Let me get Chris on the phone and see what he knows. Are you going to be home all day?”

  “Yeah, I don’t have any money to go anywhere,” Farrah announced.

  “So Larry really is on the bullshit, huh?” Stephanie inquired.

  “Girl, yes. He has been over several times, but he picks up Travis and takes him out to buy him whatever he needs or wants,” Farrah replied.

  “Chris has been acting kind of weird also. Let me call him, then I will come over and we can try to figure a few things out,” Stephanie said.

  After the two girls hung up, Stephanie’s phone rang again, and it was Dana.

  “What’s up, slowness?” Stephanie answered.

  “I’m just trying to see what you guys are up to,” Dana replied quietly. Dana was getting really sick of them calling her everything and anything they wanted. She was the only one out of the group that actually held down a real nine-to-five. She worked as a paralegal at Shaw and Associates law firm in New York City. She drove a little over an hour each day commuting back and forth to work, but it was worth it to her. She enjoyed her job; she had helped defend some of the most dangerous criminals that had graced any courtroom. She was very proud of her accomplishments, no matter how small or trivial they seemed to her friends. Lately, Dana had been feeling that her so-called friends were hating on her, and she couldn’t continue to hang around them if all they were going to do was put her down.

  “Girl, we can’t seem to find Jeryca. No one has heard from her in a couple of weeks. You haven’t talked to her, have you?” Stephanie asked.

  “No, not since that day we were all over there. I hope she is all right,” Dana muttered worriedly.

  “Damn, what the hell is going on?” Stephanie whispered.

  “I’m going to ride around for a bit to see if I can find her,” Dana told her.

  “Okay, call me if you find her or hear from her,” Stephanie replied.

  “Got ya, mommy!” Dana said before hanging up.

  Dana rode around every area known to her where Thad and his boys hung out. She saw no sign of them or Jeryca. She was getting more and more concerned. “Where are you, Jeryca?” she whispered aloud. Dana called Stephanie, who was now with Farrah.

  “Hey, no sign of her or anyone else. I don’t know where she could be. Damn it, I hope she is okay,” Dana told Stephanie.

  “I’m on my way over to you guys. Don’t go anywhere,” Dana said.

  “We will be here, baby girl,” Stephanie said. Dana couldn’t imagine what was going on with Jeryca, but she was worried.

  Dana pulled up at Farrah’s house fifteen minutes after getting off the phone with Stephanie. When she walked through the door, Travis ran up and jumped in her arms.

  “Hey, Auntie D,” he said as he squeezed her neck.

  “Hey, T-man! Give Auntie D a peck on the cheek,” she said as she leaned her face over. Travis gave Dana a kiss, jumped down, and ran to his room.

  “How you doing, Farrah?” Dana asked as she sat down on the loveseat.<
br />
  “I’m good, sis. Just trying to find Jeryca’s ass.” Farrah sighed.

  “I looked everywhere I could think of, and I didn’t see any sign of her,” Dana said.

  “I called Chris several times, but he won’t answer my calls, period,” Stephanie chimed in. Just then, Farrah’s phone rang.

  “Hey, Larry,” she said into the receiver.

  “What’s up? I see you’ve called me a few times,” he replied.

  “We just wanted to know if you knew where Jeryca was. We haven’t heard from her in a while, and the last we heard she was with Thad. Thad isn’t answering his phone, so I just figured you might know something,” Farrah explained.

  “I’m sure if Jeryca wanted to get at you she would. I’m not her keeper. But trust me; if she is with Thad, she is in good hands. I will tell her to give you a call if I see her,” Larry said, laughing.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, Larry? You been acting funny for a while now, and I don’t like it!” Farrah said.

  “Bitch, who the hell are you talking to? You are nothing more than my son’s mother. Don’t get it twisted that you’re anything more than that. As a matter of fact, have my son ready in an hour. I’m ’bout to come and take him home with me for a few days. No need to pack him a bag. I will buy him whatever he needs,” Larry ordered.

  “But—” Farrah started, but was cut off by Larry.

  “Do what I said! Ain’t no ‘but.’ You have my son ready, or else,” Larry said in a firm tone.

  “Fine, he will be ready,” Farrah said quietly before hanging up.

  “I don’t know what the hell his problem is, but he been acting funny for the last week,” Farrah said as she slammed her phone down on the table.

  “Chris has been acting funny also. He don’t come around or call like he used to. Every time I call him, I get the voice mail,” Stephanie said.

  “Travis, come on and let me get you dressed before your daddy pull up. I don’t even want that asshole in my house!” Farrah said angrily.

  Dana sat in silence as she watched and listened to Farrah and Stephanie whine about their guy troubles.

  “Yeah, I haven’t had a decent pedicure in a while, and I don’t have any extra money for anything I want or need to do,” Stephanie cried.