Blood, Sweat and Payback

by Wahida Clark

  • • •

  Nick smiled as he pulled off looking straight-ahead. “Fuckin’ amateur.” He chuckled, thinking that whoever had put a tail on him hired the worst.

  He had been aware of the tail every time they tried to follow him. He gripped his .40 cal, resting it in his lap. He wouldn’t flip the script yet. Not just yet.

  • • •

  Briggen sat on the other side of the glass holding the phone while his lawyer Rudy Harrington explained the situation. Rudy had fought every one of Briggen’s cases. From the early days of him catching petty drug charges to the more serious crimes like attempted murder to murder. And each one of them he won. He was more like family than his attorney.

  “So basically you’re tellin’ me that this whole case rests on that bitch Demetria,” Briggen summed it up.

  “Minus the legal jargon, more or less,” Rudy affirmed. “Everything comes down to her.”

  Briggen ran his hand over his face in frustration. To be so close yet so far away. Pushing a button on that bitch Demetria should be so easy, but he had burnt one too many bridges. He no longer had a decent team or decent money, especially after paying Rudy so much for his case. The Feds already confiscated his home, a few cars, and two bank accounts. He had to face reality. Things weren’t like they were back in the day. His money was running low, his crew had been dismantled, and the clock was ticking.

  “A’iight, look . . . I need you to—” Briggen finished the statement on paper, writing. Find my man Silk.

  Rudy looked at the paper, then back at Briggen. “Calvin, I’m an attorney, not a private detective, okay? I do not—cannot—I will not be involved with anything—”

  “Fuck that!” Briggen growled, cutting Rudy off. “For the kind of money I’m payin’ you, you should be sending me thong shots! Make some fuckin’ calls, and if you don’t get him, find him!”

  From the look in Briggen’s eyes, Rudy knew it was best to appease him. “I’ll do what I can,” Rudy answered, jotting down the number.

  “Yeah, you do that.”

  Rudy stood up, but before he hung up, he said, “Listen, Calvin, how long have I been your lawyer? Have I ever failed you? Then give me a little credit, okay? I’m on the case,” Rudy assured him with a cocky grin.

  Briggen sighed and let off a little steam. “Yeah, man, I hear you. I’m stressed the fuck out.”

  They both hung up. Rudy left, and then the officer on duty came to escort Briggen back to his unit. When he got back, his celly was asleep. Briggen woke him up.

  “What up, though?” his celly groggily asked.

  “Lemme hold that Jack,” Briggen told him.

  His celly reached in his stash spot and pulled out a small flip phone and handed it to Briggen. With one ear listening out for the guards, Briggen dialed a number by heart.

  “Speak on it,” Keeta, his first cousin, answered. Since he could remember she had always been closer to his brother Forever.

  “Yo, Keeta, what up? This Brig,” he whispered, looking over his shoulder.

  Keeta sucked her teeth. “Boy, you know I know who the hell this is. What you hidin’ under your bunk?”

  Briggen chuckled. “Man, fuck you. What up, though? You find Silk?”

  “Naw, baby. Niggas all sayin’ he went back to New York.”

  Briggen shook his head. “Goddamn, Keeta. We gotta find this nigga, ASAP!”

  “I hope you don’t think I’ma go lookin’ for his ass, not with this stomach,” she snapped, rubbing her baby bump.

  Briggen shook his head. Now it came down to Wise. He was his only hope. He couldn’t trust anybody else to take care of Demetria, or anyone else who would do it, for that matter.

  “A’iight, yo,” he said, not waiting for a reply before breaking the connection.

  Keeta felt for her cousin, but what could she do? She was four months pregnant, and she wasn’t a killer. She was simply the cousin of two kingpins. She couldn’t help who she was related to. Her baby daddy, Mo’Betta, rubbed her naked back, as he reclined on the two pillows behind his neck. He was basking in the afterglow of good sex.

  “Who was that? Briggen?”

  “How you know my cousin?” she asked.

  “Shit, ma, who don’t know yo’ cousin? I was at his brother Forever’s funeral,” Mo’Betta explained.

  Mo’Betta was an up-and-coming hustla, born and bred in Detroit. Hearing Briggen’s name made his ears perk up because he was looking for a come up.

  “Oh,” was all she said as she got down onto the floor where he was. They were in the living room of his unfurnished house. She went to straddle him again. “Now . . . where were we?”

  Goddamn, this bitch is a nympho, he thought. Playing it off, he pushed her off him. “Goddamn, li’l mama, let a nigga catch his breath.” Pregnant pussy may’ve been good, but goddamn! “Naw, I’m sayin’, what’s good wit’ cuz?” he questioned.

  As soon as he asked, Keeta was hipped to what Mo’Betta was fishing for. She didn’t want to expose too much, but she knew if Mo’Betta could help solve Briggen’s problems, he’d put him in a better position. And being his baby mama, she stood to eat too. They both were plotting.

  “Ain’t too much, he just lookin’ for his man. He holdin’ some money for him,” she lied.

  “His man who?” he probed.

  “Damn, nigga. Nosy, ain’t you?” Keeta was just testing where his head was before she brought him up to speed.

  He palmed and caressed her soft, ample ass in an attempt to soothe the answer out of her. Little did he know, she was only looking for a reason to give it up.

  Angles.

  “Listen, ma, we ’bout to start a family, and your cuz yo’, he family. So therefore, his beef is mine. So let a nigga know what’s good, and I’ll handle it,” he assured her.

  She looked at him a few moments and then said, “Silk.”

  “Silk?” he echoed. “Silk, Silk, the cat own Full City? That whole strip is rakin’ in the dough.”

  She nodded.

  “Shit, since them indictments started droppin’, niggas been gettin’ ghost. He might be in goddamn Mexico speakin’ Spanish.” Mo’ chuckled. “Naw, but on the real, let me see what I can do,” he said, as if it was going to be difficult. Deep down he was amped because he knew exactly where to find him. Silk had been fucking his little sister Tee-Tee.

  “Uh-huh. Well, now that we got that straight, you think I could get some of my dick now?” Keeta purred.

  He gave her the sexy gaze she loved so much. “You can always get it, li’l mama.”

  She massaged the base of his half-hard dick until it stood up fully, and then she slid it up inside her. “Ssssss,” she sucked her breath in, feeling him fill her up. Her pussy walls twitched with each stroke.

  Her pussy was sloppy wet. Mo’Betta gripped her by her hips and pumped himself in and out, longer and harder.

  “Ohhh, yess, big daddy. That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Keeta groaned, playing with her own clit while Mo’Betta long dicked the pussy.

  “Cock your leg up,” he growled at her.

  He grabbed her left knee and pulled it forward, positioning her where she was half-squatting on his dick. The angle had her leaning to the side, so he lifted his hips and began to pound away, his dick hitting her spot every time.

  “No . . . no . . . no. Oh yeah,” she gasped, scared of how good it felt from that angle. It made her feel like she had to pee, and she tingled all over.

  Her squeals got louder as Mo’Betta went into a line, beating the pussy with the stamina of a nigga working on a second nut.

  “Oh my God! Mo! I’m squirtin’! I’m squirtin’!” Keeta squealed as the clear, juicy liquid shot in spurts from her pussy. She had never squirted before.

  Mo’Betta pushed himself as deep as he could go and came hard and long, his body jerked three times before his seed was spent.

  Keeta collapsed on his chest and covered his face with kisses. “Goddamn, I love you, baby,” she barely g
ot out in between breaths.

  “I love you too,” he replied, but his mind was on other things. Because the whole time he was digging up in Keeta’s guts, he was putting together a plan to dig in Briggen’s pockets.

  Chapter Two

  Yo, Kay-Gee, man. Please, yo. Tell this nigga it wasn’t me,” Silk begged, banged up in the middle of his own garage. “I don’t know nothing about no restaurant shooting.” Silk was one of Briggen’s most trusted soldiers but now his loyalty was being tested.

  He lay in a pool of his own blood, his ribs broken and several teeth gone. Born, Kay-Gee, Slim, JoJo, and Teraney surrounded him. Born held a golf club while everyone else had guns.

  “If he don’t believe you, fuck make you think he gonna believe me?” Kay-Gee joked, and the rest of the crew laughed.

  “Gee, I told you I’ve been practicing my swing, yo. You can’t be a corporate nigga if you don’t play golf,” Born explained in a maniacal tone that Silk feared more than the pain. “But it’s all in the swing!” Born grunted as he swung the G iron club dead into Silk’s nuts.

  Silk let out a sick moan, his eyes rolled up in his head, and his whole body shuddered right before he threw up.

  “Oooooh!” The crew collectively cried, all of them grabbing their nuts.

  “Goddamn!”

  “Now that hurt!”

  “You wrong for that, dawg!”

  Silk tried to speak, but it was so low the words came out in a hoarse whisper.

  “What was that? Speak up,” Born taunted. He crouched down and leaned into Silk.

  “I . . . didn’t . . . set you . . . up,” Silk swore with all the strength left in his body.

  “Then why you ain’t show, huh? You was ’posed to be there, then at the last minute you don’t show? Really? Now you wanna play with the God’s intelligence? Huh?”

  “It wasn’t—”

  “Man, this fuckin’ fag sound like a broken record,” Born spat. Then without hesitation he stood up, rearing the golf club back and commenced to beating Silk’s head into a bloody pulp. Gray matter oozed from his eye sockets.

  “Goddamn, Born! If he ain’t dead by now, you can’t kill ’im,” JoJo cracked, looking down at the bloody mess that used to be Silk’s head. “Born. Born. He done, God!”

  The sound of JoJo’s voice brought Born out of his zone.

  “Fuck that, maine. Niggas tried to body me, so nobody in this city sleeps until I find out who,” he vowed. He looked at Teraney and said, “Burn this muthafuckin’ house down to the ground.”

  • • •

  As soon as Dark walked through Crystal’s front door, she was all over him. “It’s almost ten and you ain’t even dressed. I thought we were goin’ out,” he asked, while at the same time enjoying her raging hormones.

  “Mmmmm, I want you in—” she shot back, kissing and sucking his bottom lip. “My mouth, my pussy . . . my ass,” she added, yanking off his coat.

  Crystal looked at Dark as her knight in shining armor. She couldn’t get enough of him ever since he had pulled her to safety in the hit attempt at Benny Thrillz. That same night she didn’t want to be alone and found herself bent over Dark’s couch getting fucked like never before. The two of them had been inseparable, and Dark had been fucking her ever since. He was her new addiction. For Dark, it was a win-win, fucking his connect who had a killer head game.

  Crystal dropped to her knees as she pushed him back against the front door and lowered his True Religion jeans. His dick popped straight out. She wasted no time running her tongue around the head, giving it a firm squeeze so she could taste his precum. Then she ran her tongue tantalizingly along the shaft until she reached his nuts. She sucked from one nut to the other, her right hand jacking his shaft and never losing eye contact.

  “Put it in your mouth,” Dark demanded, his voice raspy with lust.

  She didn’t hesitate to please him. Crystal slid his dick inside her warm, wet mouth and began to greedily slurp him, like she knew he loved. He placed his hands on the back of her head, and he began fucking her face as she deep-throated him with no hands.

  “Stand up and bend over,” Dark told her. He knew he was about to come, but he wanted to fuck that tight pussy first.

  Crystal crawled seductively to the stairs and planted her knees on the fourth stair. Leaning upward, she braced her hands on the sixth step as Dark plowed into her, spreading her ass cheeks so he could watch himself beat that pussy.

  “Fuck me, Dark! Fuck your pussy!” she urged him, bucking back to meet him thrust for thrust.

  Not only did she have killer head, but Crystal had to have one of the tightest pussies Dark had ever had. If he wasn’t all about money over bitches, he could’ve easily fallen in love.

  “Oh, Daddy, I’m comin’, I’m comin’, I—” Crystal gushed as she creamed all over his dick, making her pussy that much juicier and causing Dark to explode inside of her.

  He sat down on the stairs, pulled her onto his lap, and kissed her passionately as he caught his breath.

  “You tryin’ to turn a nigga out or something?” Dark teased with a skeptical grin on his face.

  “Ummmm. Nigga, you know you already open!” Crystal giggled. She was definitely feeling Dark. Not only was his dick game on one thousand, he was so fucking gangsta that she always felt secure around him. A part of her had been traumatized by the hit attempt. She still had nightmares about it. But she had Dark, and psychologically, he calmed her fears. Besides, she used his team for the muscle, so all she had to do was keep him supplied and sit back counting money. Fair exchange was no robbery.

  “So, I guess dinner and a movie is out, huh? What we gonna eat, ’cause you damn sure ain’t cookin’.” He chuckled, remembering the last time she tried.

  Crystal playfully hit him. “Boy, I can cook!”

  “Yeah, just not in the kitchen!”

  They both laughed.

  “I talked to Daddy today,” she told him on a more somber note.

  “How is he?”

  “Not good,” she answered, holding back tears as she once again pictured the frail figure that was now her father.

  Dark shook his head. He really didn’t give a fuck about Big Choppa. He just wanted to make sure the dope would keep pumping even after Big Choppa’s heart didn’t. “Wheneva you talk about Big Chop, it always makes me think, you know. Like . . . this life is all we got, and it ain’t long, you know? So when you find happiness . . . you gotta hold on to it,” Dark remarked, running game like a pro.

  The way he said it and the words he used made Crystal’s heart jump. Her heart knew what he was trying to say. He was going to ask her to be his wife, but her mind wanted to be sure. “Wh-what are you saying, Dark?” she asked, looking into his eyes tenderly.

  He looked back, softening his gaze as best he could without laughing at how truly easy it was to lie to someone who wanted to believe. “You know what I’m sayin’, baby. Even though I have a son and a baby mama, I don’t want you to ever trip about that or feel threatened. It ain’t about her. It’s all about him. I have to do right by him. But now . . . this ain’t planned or rehearsed. I’m sayin’,” he paused, putting her hand in his. “I’ve never met someone who was so much like me. I know you not like the rest of these chicks tryin’ to come up off of my money. You really fuck wit’ me, and I really fuck wit’ you. But I’m trying to take shit to another level. I do a lot of dirt in these streets, and I need somebody stable in my corner. Crystal, I want you to be my wife,” he announced as he gazed into her eyes.

  Crystal didn’t respond.

  Fearing she was going to reject him, he said, “I’m sorry. I know I don’t have a ring, and I will get you one. But shit, you got a thousand rings upstairs, and I know and you know that you don’t need a ring to be my wife.”

  Crystal’s whole body trembled, and she covered her mouth with her hand as tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh my God, baby, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” She squealed, wrapping him up in a big hug and almost knocking them
both down the stairs.

  They laughed as Dark pushed off the wall to right their balance.

  “I love you, Crystal.”

  “I love you, Jerome,” she responded, calling him by his government name. She gave him a quick kiss. “Love and all, I still want my ring!”

  They were both ecstatic, but for different reasons. Because for Dark, the only thing better than fucking the connect was being married to his daughter.

  • • •

  “Janaaayyyy!” Crystal screamed into the phone. “He went there! My baby went there!”

  “Crystal, who went where and why are you screaming?” Janay peered over at the clock on the nightstand. 3:12am.

  “Jerome, girl! Jerome! He proposed to me, Nay. He really proposed. I am getting married!” She squealed out in excitement.

  “Who is Jerome?”

  “My man, silly. Dark. Jerome is his government name.”

  There was silence on the phone.

  “Nay, he’s my man. And he proposed to me. Can’t you be happy for me? Damn. Say something.”

  “You don’t want to hear what I have to say, Crystal, and you know it.”

  “What do you mean I don’t want to hear it? What can you possibly say? You don’t even know Jerome like that.”

  “Exactly. And you don’t either. But even a blind man can see that the nigga has motive and is just going through the motions. He’s not going to marry you, Crystal. He’s just using you. And that’s all I have to say because you’re going to do you anyway. So, congratulations.” Janay hung up, leaving a stunned Crystal on the other end.

  • • •

  The next day when Choppa called Crystal he got more than he anticipated. “Married!”

  “Daddy, don’t start.”

  “No! You don’t start,” Choppa shot right back, breaking into a coughing fit. He may not have had his health, but he still had his fire. “That boy in love with me, more than he is you, Crystal! I know you ain’t that goddamn stupid!”

  Hearing her daddy’s objection only made her resent him and want to marry Dark even more. She wanted to spaz, but she remembered who she was talking to, took a deep breath, and replied, “Daddy . . . This is my life. I’m not asking you for permission to live it, but it would be nice if you could be happy for me.”