“I don’t give a flying fuck about no white kids! All my life niggas been dying around me like flies and no one cared about them, but the moment white kids start dying there is a problem with that.”
“It’s you! And I know that it’s you flooding the town with dope. Look how you’re living.” For emphasis he turned and gestured with his arms doing a half circle. I saw his cheeks flush red with envy. He walked over to my black Bentley and spit on the ground in disdain.
“We’re going to have to make other arrangements.”
“Arrangements!?” I retorted.
“Yep. Arrangements for you to start paying me.”
“Payin’ you. I told you, I’m out of the business.”
“And I’m telling you, you’re going to start paying me again since you violated the terms of our agreement.”
“What fucking agreement? I don’t know what the fuck you talkin’ bout.”
“Keep the fucking dope out the white com –”
I lost my temper. “I don’t give a fuck about you and no cracka-ass kids. If I give you one fuckin dime, it will be over my dead mama’s grave. Now get the fuck off my property!” I turned and walked away.
“You’re going to regret you ever laid eyes on this town … you fucking nigger!”
I stutter-stepped in my tracks. His words stabbed me in the pit of my gut. I had never been called a nigger by a white man in my entire life, for some reason the shit hurt, those words would always have an humiliating affect on Blacks. The voice in my head told me to keep walking. Spitler was trying to bait me.
*****
That night I held an emergency meeting at my estate. I summoned everyone on the carpet. The two lesbians, Tomica and Evette were the first to arrive. Trina greeted them at the door. The atmosphere suddenly turned festive. I watched them on camera from the palatial confines of my study. As soon as Black Pearl walked in with Lil Man the rest of them women showered them with affection. I could hear all that damn commotion. Women!
Later the rest of the crew arrived, Gucci, Mad Ball, Twine and Dirty. Everybody was driving New Benzes or BMWs, except Blazack, he was driving a big-ass Hummer. Trust me when I say that he gave new meaning to the term, “body space” that was usually meant for luxury.
I invited everyone into my study. They walked in, in awe over the elegant beauty and décor, soft mahogany colors, lots of leather and leopard skin. A lion’s head adorned the wall to my left. Also on the wall were pictures of African women, warriors, nude, captured in battle at war.
I sat behind my desk smoking a Newport cigarette. Lil Man ran in and dived on my lap playfully, forcing me to break my train of thought. I cuddled him in my arms. He was like my adopted son.
With everyone seated except Blazack, I looked around and it kind of choked me up. I built an empire, and these was my niggas, common everyday folks.
As I talked Trina came and stood by my side like the First Lady.
“I called ya’ll here cause we got a problem.” I went on to explain to them the situation concerning Spitler. Even though I did not have my hands directly in the mix of things, other than supplying major weight from time to time to the crew and letting the girls do some trafficking, whatever Blazack and his crew decided to do with their profit was their business. In a lot of ways I was an outsider. I just wanted them to be on guard. Needed them to know and understand that we were still family.
There was one more issue, Tomica and Evette were working independently of each other trafficking Boy to three major cities: Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore. I tried to separate Tomica and Evette as best as I could to stop them from stealing my shit. There was a guy in Baltimore who just happened to be where Evette delivered. He owed me a hundred grand. He called to tell me he couldn’t come pay me my money because he was sick and that the only way he felt safe that I would get it, was for me to personally come pick it up. Not. Dude gave me a bad vibe. After arguing with him over the phone, I had a migraine headache, plus it wasn’t the first time he tried a stunt like that with my money. I knew that he had a bad gambling habit and liked to spend money on pussy. I decided to let him keep it, fuck it. Charge it to the game. I just threw it up in the air for the head to chew on. I guess to test my judgment.
Surprisingly Evette raised her hand. As usual, she was dressed to impress. She wore lots of jewelry and a light brown miniskirt with a matching see-through blouse and high heels with her toes exposed. She wasn’t wearing a bra and showed lots of cleavage, enough to capture a man’s imagination.
“If I go get the money can I have it?” she asked, hesitantly.
“Naw girl!” Tomica was on her feet. “I don’t trust that skinny-ass nigga from B-More further than I can throw him. About a year or so ago didn’t he leave his Cadillac in pawn to you?” Evette asked me. I thought about it.
“Yeah.” I nodded my head as I thought about what she said.
The two women began to argue back and forth.
Mad Ball said, “Something don’t smell right with dude all of a sudden wanting you to come pick up the money.”
Just then Trina bent down and whispered into my ear, “Don’t let that girl go get that money. I thought you called everyone here to officially let them know that you were out the game.”
“Shut up!” I yelled at her causing everyone in the room to turn and look at us. For the past year or so Trina had been bugging the hell out of me to get out the game. Often she would plead with me to the point of tears. What she didn’t know was her cousin placed so much faith in me, I felt a sense of loyalty to him. Hell, the man made me what I was. From the federal detention center in New York, he was still making major moves, placing me in key situations of certain operations. He never forgot about me, the young nigga that came up on the grind. Two weeks in the game and I made two million. He thought I was smart, told me so often. He thought it was me that called all the shots, made all the major moves. What he didn’t know was that Trina was the real mastermind. She always played her part, stood in the shadows and gave me that credit like I was the genius. I never knew that one day I would realize just how much I underestimated her intelligence. Only then it would be too late.
“I’m going to pick up the money,” Evette said as she nervously rubbed the palms of her hands on her thighs as she walked over to my desk. “I’ma be on the first thang smokin to B-More in the morning.” With that she strutted out of the door.
Tomica came and leaned on my desk with her jawbone showing from failure of controlling her anger in losing the battle of temperament. She spoke, “You greedy ass bastard! All that fucking money we made you and you’re going to let that girl take a risk like that?”
Tomica bit down on her lower lip fuming with anger. She continued, “Word is bond! You better hope that nothing happens to her.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked tempted to get out of my chair and slap the taste out of her mouth for disrespecting a nigga.
“Naw, it’s a fuckin’ promise!” she shot back, turned and abruptly stalked out of the door. I knew that she was headed to try to change Evette’s mind. Just that fast the atmosphere changed. Talk about a fucking bad apple, them New York bitches keep some shit going. I was denied what I had been trying to deny, the price that came with riches: mo’ money, mo’ bullshit.
The room suddenly turned quiet, the kind of silence that comes with the chaos in the aftermath of upheaval that people and their problems make.
Finally I said, “Fuck dem bitches! They been stealing my shit anyway, think a nigga don’t know, I just can’t prove it,” I reasoned out loud. I wanted Trina’s wannabe slick ass to know that I was talking about her, too. Trina’s body flinched like she had been hit with a body blow as she took a step back from me. I could feel her eyes burning holes in me. Lil Man was fast asleep on my lap. All of a sudden, everyone was talking at the same time.
“Hold up! Hold up!” Blazack shouted above the voices, getting everybody’s attention. As he took the toothpick out of his mouth, the diamond pinky ring
on his finger sparkled an array of brilliant red and blue colors, flickered images of his baller lifestyle.
“I’ma bust dat cracka’s ass if he try to stop us from getting our hustle on. Besides, I’m already paying his punk ass two grand a week. What the fuck he sweatin’ you for? Something ain’t right.”
In so many ways Blazack said what I was already thinking. Something wasn’t right with that cracka. I had a gut feeling.
I lit another cigarette, inhaled deeply, as Trina continued to give me a disgusting scowl. Finally, she took the baby off my lap, rolled her eyes at me and walked out of the door. I made a mental note to have a few choice words with her afterward.
“Twine, how many people you got on line workin’ for you?” I asked. I watched as he thought for a second, did some quick math with his fingers.
“Seventeen, if you want to count Nina Brown smoke up all the product ass,” he said. Someone in the room snickered.
“What about you, Dirty?” I asked.
“About the same.”
When it finally came down to it, everybody in the room had enough employees to open up a chain of restaurants. They all had traps bringing in major cash.
“Ya’ll gon’ to have to step it up and grind hard, cause I think the spot done got too hot. I’ma give ya’ll some extra cushion on each bird, then we move out.” With that said, I searched the faces of each man. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, except Blazack. That’s what annoyed me about him most, I could never get a feel for his real sincereness. I couldn’t help thinking, what is wrong with this nigga? I knew for a fact that he had more than a few million stashed somewhere. To be truthful, I ain’t never trusted that nigga. How could I? He was a cold-blooded killer.
After everyone left, Trina eased into the room. I sat in front of the fireplace drinking Hennessy with my thoughts weighing heavy on my mind. I had a bad feeling about Spitler, something he said about me regretting I ever laid eyes on the town.
“I’m leaving you.” Her voice was soft and mellow like an Anita Baker song. I didn’t even turn around, just watched the security cameras and heard the crackle of the flames. However, something did dawn on me. I was in love with Trina, at least something in my thug’s armor was telling me so.
“When we first met, we had plans, dreams. We had a goal. Get out of the game after a year. Now look at us! Look at you!” Trina raised her voice, I could hear its tremor with emotions.
“How much money is eee-nough!?” she screamed and began to sob uncontrollably with a Black woman’s scorn. I cringed. Over the years Trina learned how to get to me. In my heart and soul, I knew she was right. Intuitively, all hustlers know when it’s time to get out, like some damn premonition. That day I could feel it in my skin. The only problem was, I couldn’t get out of the game if I wanted to. Hustlers are just as addicted to the game like the very fiends we serve, only worse. The money and the power was the real addiction.
*****
Stressed the fuck out, I decided we needed a vacation. Actually, I was looking for a way to persuade Trina to stay, at the same time, trying to act hard like I wasn’t in love with her. Call it my thug ego, but that’s how real gangsters roll. Feelings and emotions ain’t part of the game. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
I broached the idea to Trina and Black Pearl as they were going over some clothing designs. Lately, Trina had started to see the brilliance in Pearl’s creativity. And it wasn’t just her, Pearl had been offered a scholarship to go to college to design clothes. Now, she and Trina were going to start their own clothing line. To be truthful, I wasn’t feeling none of that shit, in fact, I was starting to feel threatened by Trina’s business savvy. I had no idea that she learned so much in college with her degree in Business Management. She had invented a phony corporation to wash millions of my money, as well as placed liens on everything we owned in case the feds started catching feelings for a nigga’s riches and wanted to seize our assets. With everything having a hefty lien on it, if the feds wanted to take anything they would be forced to pay off the liens, which amounted to millions of dollars. Plus, Willie Falcon showed me how to hide money abroad in Swiss bank accounts.
Reluctantly, I was able to talk Trina into staying. Actually, I swallowed my pride and begged my woman to stay. I went out and bought an eight carat Marquis diamond ring. Enough ice to make her brain freeze about leaving me.
*****
The day before we were scheduled to leave, Trina decided we should go shopping for vacation clothes and Louis Vuitton luggage. Later on that day, Major pulled me to the side and pointed to one of the security screen cameras. A yellow van was parked across the street from my estate, directly overhead was a white man wearing a construction hat. He sat perched on a telephone pole.
“That yellow van been parked there every day now for the past three weeks,” Major said with his voice filled with concern. I shrugged him off; thought about asking him to go on vacation with us, poor soul, the game had him paranoid, too.
“Lemme find out you still smokin,” I joked, and playfully patted him on the shoulder as I smiled. Major didn’t smile back. He had not smoked a rock since that day I saved his life from Blazack.
*****
May 26, 1995 there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, just a magnificent day. I was driving Trina’s Benz, headed for the Tallahassee Shopping Mall.
Trina sat next to me in the car and for the past few days, she had been aloof and distant. In my heart I knew that I was losing her. She just stared out the window like a beautiful caged bird wanting to fly away, I imagined. Pearl sat in the back seat going over clothing designs. Lil Man sat between Trina and me. Playfully, he tried to take hold of our hands and place them together, like he knew there was disharmony between us.
“Aunty Trina, give me yo hand.”
Trina couldn’t help but to give him her hand as she smiled allowing Lil Man to connect the three of us together. I don’t care what anyone says, children are angels. By the time we reached the mall, Lil Man had all us singing merrily, “Old MacDonald.”
I found a parking space. Lil Man quickly climbed into my lap and nestled, clasping his arms around my neck. His way of saying he wasn’t going nowhere without me.
I looked up just as a dark shadow casted ominously on my window, a black SUV with smoked windows pulled up to the side of our car. From that point on everything began to move in an slow, surrealistic motion, as I stared up at the vehicle. It wasn’t until I saw the masked gunmen dressed in all black leap out with them tens–meaning AK47 assault weapons. Holy Shit! They caught me slipping. Metal and glass exploded as my body experienced a burning sensation like I was on fire. Trina’s blood curdling scream only seemed too intensify, witnessing the horror of the assassination on my life. Someone had sent professional killers at me. Who? As best as I could, I tried to shield Trina and the baby with my body. Just as quickly as the shooting started, it stopped. My ears were ringing. I could feel the blood rushing from my veins. I was hit several times. For some reason Trina stopped screaming as I lay on top of her. In the distance, I heard one of the gunmen say, “Shoot him in the head and let’s get out of here!” I played dead. Prayed like a muthafucka. Someone walked up and snatched the iced out platinum chain off my neck and then placed the AK47 to the back of my head and pulled the trigger. Click …Click … The gun misfired.
I heard an urgent voice say, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” with the sound of footsteps retreating. I just lay there numb, scared to death, soaking wet covered in blood. I could feel Trina shaking underneath me. Lil Man? I thought. He was wedged between Trina and me. My right arm was barely attached to my shoulder. Them AKs ain’t nothing nice! Somehow I managed to pull myself up off Lil Man and Trina. The gory horror of what I saw tormented me more then the pain that raked my body. The right side of Lil Man’s face was completely blown off. All that was left was skull with his brains spewing out. As I held him in my arms my eyes filled with tears. His handsome face was gone, only to be replace
d with blood and brains. Then I remembered. Black Pearl. I turned to look in the back seat. She was motionless, keeled over on her face, crimson blood stained the interior. With it was an awful smell that I will never forget.
DEATH. With my vision blurred, I looked over at Trina as she got off the ground. A crowd of white people were starting to gather around the car. Trina was crying hysterically as her hands trembled, her face was spotted with blood. I could tell she was fighting to take back control of what the armed gunman had nearly stolen from her, her sanity.
“Are you hit?” I managed to ask her. She shook her head no, and reached out to see if Lil Man had a pulse. I passed out to the sound of sirens in my ears, thought about all the niggas I touched on the jack tip and now it finally came back to haunt me. You’ll end up dead or in prison, the intrusive voice said inside my head.
*****
Chapter Fifteen
“Game Over”
– Life –
I woke up in a hospital bed. My body was riddled with bullets. I never experienced so much pain in my entire life. It even hurt to breathe. My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt like sandpaper. I saw Trina sitting next to me. Her face was swollen and scarred, I guessed from all the flying glass from the gun blast. I could hardly recognize her.
“L, you aight?” Twine asked. At first I did not see him standing over me. His eyes were red and bloodshot.
“Where is Lil Man at?” My voice creaked barely above a whisper. Twine looked away and wiped at his eyes. In my mind I prayed, Lord, please let this all be a dream.
Twine turned back toward me, “They kilt Lil Man.” His voice cracked. I closed my eyes and felt a piece of my soul die as I felt Trina’s eyes bore through me. Her reservoir of love was gone, only to be replaced by hate.
“L, Pearl is down the hall in a coma. I hope your ass is happy,” she said and began to cry, the tears streaked her cheeks.
Life Page 22