Queen Hustlaz

by Falicia Love

  “I’m waiting on that,” Zack said as he stood next to Dana.

  Keith gave Dana the code to the safe and told her where the key was located. Brittany got Keith’s house keys out of his pocket, and she and Dana went to his house to get the other key and discuss what they were going to do with him after the robbery. Zack stayed behind with Keith.

  After Brittany and Dana left Keith’s house, they headed over to the east side to pick up Jeryca and the rest of the girls. It was a little after twelve in the morning, and they had to finalize the last few details of the robbery.

  Dana figured that Farrah could stay with Keith while they went to collect their “dues.” Zack and his two cousins, along with Brittany’s nephew, had volunteered to help them.

  Zack, Brittany, Dana, and Minx, one of Zack’s cousins, were going to hit the warehouse, while Jeryca, Stephanie, Brittany’s nephew Deondre, and Zack’s other cousin, Pete, were going to hit the trap house. Brittany and Dana also decided that Debra shouldn’t be involved in the robbery, because she was nervous from the first mention of robbing the guys. They didn’t have any time to hold her hand if she got spooked. They wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.

  They pulled up on Farrah first. They wanted to explain a few changes in the plan that affected her.

  When Farrah got into the car that they had rented two days before, she spoke to both ladies.

  “What’s up, chick?”Dana said.

  “Shit, girl, just getting myself pumped,” she replied.

  “That’s what’s up. Listen, I wanted to run something by you. It’s a minor change in our plans,” Dana said as they pulled off, heading to pick up Jeryca.

  “Speak.” Farrah laughed.

  “Well, we were thinking that you might be better off staying with Keith while we go on our spree,” Dana explained.

  Farrah immediately got defensive. “Why should I stay with Keith? I’m just as capable, if not more, as any of you to help with the robbery.”

  “Farrah, that’s not why I wanted you to stay behind,” Dana started.

  “Then tell me why the hell I should stay behind,” Farrah asked, interrupting Dana.

  Brittany answered instead, annoyed that Farrah even questioned their reasoning. “Farrah, I know we don’t get along, but this decision was made solely for your sake. You have a son that depends on you, and we all know that there are risks that we are taking. If we get caught down bad, at least you will be out of harm’s way. It’s all for the best.”

  Farrah sat in the backseat quiet for a while, then finally agreed to stay with Keith.

  After they picked up Jeryca and Stephanie, they headed back to Dana’s house. When they walked in, Stephanie and Jeryca headed straight for the kitchen to get a drink, while Farrah followed Dana and Brittany into the bedroom to help load the guns.

  Stephanie looked at Jeryca and turned her head. She couldn’t stand being around her, but she was going to deal with her until after the robbery. Before Stephanie could open up the Corona she had grabbed from the refrigerator, she heard a low scream. She dropped the beer and took off running with Jeryca on her ass.

  When they got to the living room, they saw Farrah standing with her hand over her mouth. Stephanie looked in the direction Farrah was staring at and immediately took a step backward.

  “What the fuck!” she cried.

  Dana ran outside to see if she could find Zack. She should’ve known he would do something crazy to Keith. Hell, she hadn’t thought shit out all the way through, which was why she saw the logic in Zack killing Keith. But why did he have to do it there and in the manner that he did it? Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would come home and find Keith hanging from her closet rod. How were they going to get rid of the body, the smell, and the memory of death from her home? She had seen dead bodies before, but not that close up.

  When she rounded the corner to where his car was parked, she saw Zack pulling plastic from his trunk.

  “What the fuck, man?” she growled angrily.

  “Dana, we both know that it had to be done, so I did it while you were handling other things. I didn’t want you to concern yourself with it. It’s cool. He didn’t put up much fight,” Zack said as he continued pulling things out of his trunk.

  At that moment, Dana fell to the ground and vomited. When she looked up, Zack was standing next to her, rubbing her hair.

  “It’s okay. You got to be strong. Now ain’t the time to fold, sweet cheeks.”

  Dana knew he was right, so she collected herself and helped him take the supplies he had gathered out of the trunk inside the house. When she walked in, she looked around at everyone.

  “If anyone has a problem with what you are seeing, please go into a different area. But we do need some help if someone is willing to help.”

  Brittany, Stephanie and Farrah all assisted Dana and Zack with getting Keith out of the closet and wrapped up in the plastic. Zack told Dana to clean up the room while he and Brittany went to dispose of the body. Dana did as she was told.

  Jeryca, who stood back watching, felt somewhat disgusted by Dana’s demeanor. Over the course of a week or so, Dana had become rude, abusive, bossy, and hard. That wasn’t Dana’s character, and she was curious as to why the sudden change. Jeryca was all for the robbery, but killing people wasn’t her thing, and she wasn’t going to have any part with cleaning up somebody’s blood.

  The girls finally dozed off to sleep. They had a long day ahead of them, and they needed to be well rested. Zack called Dana and left her a message saying that he had gotten rid of Keith’s body and would see her later. Dana felt horrible about Keith, but she couldn’t stress about him at that moment. She had other things to plan out.

  The Day

  After the girls woke up, got dressed, and ate breakfast, they headed over to a rest stop, where Deondre and Zack’s cousins were meeting them with a big rig that one of Zack’s cousins drove. They were going to use it as a tool to gain entrance to the warehouse.

  Minx, who had been driving trucks for years, was the driver. He started out delivering furniture for Colfax Furnishings and graduated to delivering drugs up and down the East Coast for a few bigwigs in the street game. Minx was ready and more than willing to help Zack get even with Thad. It was a smart move on Zack’s part, because he was getting even with Thad in a way that wouldn’t land him in jail, unless shit went south and someone got killed, which was a risk everyone took daily. What really amazed Minx was the fact that chicks were organizing everything. It was a rare event.

  When everyone got to the rest area, they all spoke and separated into their groups. Dana looked at everyone before they got into their vehicles.

  “Yo, ain’t no turning back now. If anyone is having second thoughts, now is the time to say so. I ain’t got time to babysit somebody else’s nerves.”

  “Damn, when did she get so hard? She got to be talking to one of y’all, ’cause I’m a grown woman, and if I didn’t want to be here, I know how to leave,” Jeryca whispered to Stephanie.

  Stephanie looked at her, rolled her eyes, and walked over to Dana. “I’m ready to do this,” she said as she dapped Dana.

  “That’s what I’m talking ’bout,” Dana said, smiling.

  “So are we ready?” Brittany asked.

  “Hell yes!” Zack yelled as he walked up behind Dana and nudged her.

  “Stop playing, negro!” Dana laughed, playfully punching Zack.

  “Okay, you two, you can pass love licks later. Let’s do this,” Brittany said.

  As everybody got into their designated cars and trucks, Jeryca couldn’t help but see how Stephanie had been treating her as of late, and she was going to find out why. She just hoped that Chris hadn’t told her what happened between them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was ten o’clock, and Thad and his crew were heading out to meet Orlando. They were three cars deep with six men in each. They were tailing three empty U-Haul trucks.

  As they traveled do
wn the highway, Thad and Toby discussed their plans to take the drug and gun game to the next level. They had gained a well-established and well-deserved reputation as being ruthless yet trustworthy businessmen, so much so that they had caught the attention of some very important men in the drug world. This particular shipment they were picking up was the first of many trades they were going to oversee.

  With the money that they had already gotten and the money that they still had to collect, the result of this play was going to be extraordinarily huge. Thad felt relaxed; excited as well as powerful. If the play went off without a hitch, Thad was going to make more money than he could ever imagine having—not to mention he would then become the number one man on the East Coast.

  They pulled up to the warehouse building owned by Orlando, who was waiting with three of his men at the gate for Thad and his boys. As they all rolled into the gates, two of the warehouse docks doors raised up slowly. There were several guys standing, preparing to load all three hundred crates onto the three U-Hauls that Thad and Toby had purchased.

  “What’s up, Orlando?” Chris said as he got out of the first truck.

  “Shit, nothin’. Y’all ready to get started?” Orlando asked, looking from Chris to Thad, and then to Toby.

  “Yeah, let’s get going. Time is money,” Toby replied.

  As they began loading the truck, Thad, Toby, and Chris stood on the empty dock talking to Orlando. A movement toward the back caught Chris’s eye.

  “Man, I thought the building was going to be cleared for this pickup,” he said.

  “What are you talking ’bout? It is. There is no one here but your men and mine,” he answered.

  “Then who the hell is that back there?” Chris asked.

  As all the men turned, police officers jumped out from everywhere.

  “Everyone freeze! DEA!” a few of the officers screamed with their rifles drawn.

  Everyone scrambled to get out of the building. Thad ran behind Toby. He wasn’t concerned about anyone else. As long as he and his brother got out of there, he was good.

  As they hit the fence, Thad yelled for Toby to follow him into the woods across the street. The DEA had the area locked, and once Thad and Toby had run far enough down in the woods to take a quick breather, Thad looked at Toby.

  “Man, what the fuck!” he asked breathlessly.

  “Man, it was a setup. Either Orlando played us, or someone on our squad has turned on us. Either way, somebody gon’ answer for this, man.”

  Before Toby could say another word, they heard rustling behind them. They both pulled their guns out and moved slowly and close to the ground. When they saw Orlando run by, they looked at one another and gave chase behind him. Toby caught up to him first and dove on him, knocking him to the ground. Orlando’s head missed hitting a log by mere inches.

  “Damn, man! You scared me,” Orlando panted.

  A few seconds later, Tim, Orlando’s right hand man, was running through. Thad tripped him, and when he hit the ground, Thad turned him over, placed his hand over his mouth, and put the barrel of his gun to Tim’s head.

  “How many other muthafuckas came this way?” Tim mumbled with fear in his eyes as Thad slowly removed his hand from Tim’s mouth.

  “I don’t know who all ran this way, but man, there are feds and DEA agents all in the warehouse,” Tim sputtered.

  As the two men got to their feet, Thad kept his gun on him and looked over at Toby, who was holding Orlando. “Man, let’s go before someone else come through. We need to figure out a spot to go, ’cause home ain’t it right now,” Thad said.

  “Yeah, I know. Let’s get safely out these woods first. I know where we can lay low until we know exactly what’s going on,” Toby said.

  The four guys made their way through the woods safely. Once they made it to the street, Toby called the only person he knew who could hide them.

  * * *

  Zack, Brittany, Stephanie, and Minx arrived at Thad’s warehouse and began to back the truck up to the dock. Stephanie got out and used the key she had copied to gain entrance to the building. Once inside, she raised the door of the dock so that Minx could back the truck up to the door.

  As everyone got out of the truck, Stephanie led them to the office where they kept the guns, drugs, and money. When they walked down to the cellar, they were in awe of all the crates that were filled up. They started moving the crates out, but none of them contained money.

  “Aye, li’l momma, where the cash at?” Minx asked.

  “Shit, hold that thought. Come on, Brittany, I got to show you this,” Stephanie said.

  Stephanie led Brittany to a room that was located in the back of the cellar. When she unlocked the door, Brittany stepped in, and Stephanie walked to a steel cabinet. She tried each key until she heard the click. As she opened each drawer, Brittany was taken aback. She figured she was looking at $300,000 in each drawer. In the last drawer, there were jewelry containers. Brittany looked at Stephanie, who was cheesing hard.

  “Shit, let’s get to bagging this loot. We ain’t leaving shit behind.”

  As they were finishing up, Minx walked in. “We been in over ten minutes. Let’s get the rest of this stuff so we can head on out.”

  “Yeah, you right, let’s finish this. But there’s one more room left,” Stephanie said.

  “All right, well, point me to it,” Minx replied.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, Dana, Jeryca, Deondre, and Pete were at the trap house tearing it up. They found two women in a back room counting the money that they had made.

  “Go on and hand that money over, ladies,” Deondre said as he pointed his .357 at them.

  “Oh, shit! Don’t shoot! Here, take it,” a prostitute named Cassie yelled.

  “See, cooperation goes a long way. Now, you hand your money over also,” he said, talking to Brenda.

  Brenda bucked immediately. “I’m not giving you a damn dime of my money,” Brenda snapped.

  “Bitch, hand it over now before I blow your fucking head off,” he hissed.

  Before anyone could say another word, Jeryca, who had forgotten to use her voice box, came in. “Don’t shoot her. That’s not why we came here.” Before she could finish, Brenda looked at her with a puzzled expression

  “Jeryca, is that you?”

  Jeryca stood stunned for a second, then glanced over at Deondre, who was cussing and pacing the floor. Dana walked in, followed by Pete, to see what the commotion was all about.

  “What’s going on?” Dana asked.

  “This bitch done came in here talking to me in front of this ho, and she ID’d her. I’m not going to jail behind this simple-ass bitch!” he yelled.

  “Well, she just made a mistake, bro. Chill out,” Pete said.

  “A mistake? We can’t afford to make mistakes! Do you know who house we are hitting? These niggas don’t play, and I for one ain’t going down bad over a mistake,” Deondre replied.

  Dana took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m not either.” And with those three words, she shot Brenda and Cassie in the head. “We’ve gotten everything we came for. Let’s get out of here,” she concluded.

  Jeryca staggered out to the garage and opened the back door to the car. She lifted the trunk but said nothing to anyone. She helped them load the money and bags into the car, and before they pulled off, Dana got her confirmation text:

  We are leaving the spot now! Successful. See you soon.

  She looked at Deondre and smiled. “We’re good to go.”

  They pulled off and headed to Brittany’s office. Once they arrived at Brittany’s office, they noticed that Minx and Brittany were standing outside the truck, smiling as they were all unloading the truck.

  “What’s up?” Dana asked.

  “Girl, I can’t believe that this actually went down without any complications.” Brittany laughed.

  Jeryca walked by the two ladies without saying a word and frowning fiercely.

  “Well, not everything went accord
ing to plan, but it is what it is,” Dana said, shaking her head at Jeryca.

  “Lord, what happened?” Brittany asked.

  “Shit, one of her friends recognized her because she forgot to use the voice disguiser, so when she asked Jeryca if she was Jeryca, I had to handle it,” Dana explained.

  “Handled it how?” Brittany asked.

  Deondre, who had walked up, spoke. “She smoked those bitches!”

  “Damn, Dana, I know you must be shook,” Brittany said.

  “Shit, y’all, let’s go check on Farrah and take a load off. I’m kind of tired,” Stephanie whined.

  Deondre and Minx stayed behind unloading the truck, and everyone else went inside to get a drink and rest for a little while. When they walked in, Farrah was sitting in Dana’s office with a strange look on her face.

  “What’s wrong, baby girl?” Stephanie asked as she walked into the office with Dana and Jeryca behind her.

  “Nothing really. I’m glad that you all made it back safely,” Farrah replied.

  “Naw, something is wrong. Are you still sour about not going out with us? I told you—”

  Before Dana could finish her sentence, a loud bang sounded off in the office, and there was a lot of shouting.

  “Get on the floor, muthafucka! Bitch, put that goddamn phone down before I shoot it out your hand. You got to know what this is! It’s a fucking robbery! Now, I’m going to keep you company while my guys load up your truck, and we will be on our way. If any of you bitches try anything, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Do we have an understanding?” A man dressed in all black with a face mask stood in the middle of the office screaming.

  Everyone followed each of his commands, and they were bound and gagged. The men left, but only after pushing Deondre and Minx into the office as well. The masked men didn’t take the time to tie Minx or Deondre up, but they told them that if anyone came out of the office while they were leaving, they would be shot on sight.

  * * *

  Austin, Toby’s best friend, picked him, Thad, Orlando, and Tim up and took them to his guesthouse in Manhattan. Once everyone’s nerves were somewhat settled, Thad took a swallow of the gin that Austin had poured him.