by Dutch
Karrin bucked wildly, tightening and loosening her muscles around Ty’s dick. It felt like his dick was getting a pussy massage.
“Tell… tell me when you cummin’, daddy!” she urged.
“I’m about to,” he replied.
Karrin pushed him on to his back and wrapped her pouty lips around his shaft. She jerked it with one hand as she sucked and licked the head. When she felt his dick begin to twitch, she deep throated him, allowing Ty to cum deep in her throat. He grabbed her by the back of the head, making sure she swallowed every drop.
As he lay on his back with Karrin kissing up his chest, all he could think about was the consequences of what they just did if it ever got back to Kev.
“Damn,” he whispered to himself.
Hello, you’ve reached Karrin Simmons.
Sorry, I—
Click.
Kev had called her four times and she hadn’t answered. He decided to text her and was relieved to see she texted right back.
Sorry Baby, I was sleep. Hurry home.
He smiled and text.
No doubt. Keep it tight.
Always.
Kev flipped his phone closed and nodded his head to the music. He was in the Q club in Goldsboro meeting with his young team. Ever since the hospital incident, Kev’s head had been in a whirl. Karrin had lied to his face. The look she gave him she had used many times, so the next logical thought was, how many other times had she lied?
Kev loved Karrin with all his heart, but he wasn’t about to be anyone’s fool. Why couldn’t she get Ty out of her system and the bigger question, why couldn’t he get his wife out of his system? He was young, rich and handsome, he could have damn near any woman he wanted… except Karrin. Kev thought to himself about the old saying, the ones we want never want us.
“Yo, Kev,” young Hardy said, sitting next to Kev in the booth, “you good, big homie?”
Hardy brought Kev out of his own world. “Yeah, yo, I’m good,” he replied, sipping his drink.
He looked around the hole in the wall club. It was definitely a hood spot, the kind of spot that ended with a shootout almost every night and closed in three months. It wasn’t his type of spot at all. Yeah, when he was younger and had something to prove, but he was twenty-eight and on his grown man shit. He had only come through to check his little mans and them and give them status being seen with Kev Simmons.
“I’m tellin’ you, Kev, we got the jungle on smash! Can’t nobody move shit out there if it ain’t us. This kid tried me, but I pistol whipped that nigguh so bad, I promise you he won’t be back!” Hardy bragged. He looked up to Kev like a big brother because it was Kev that gave him a chance to eat. He was aware of the old Hardy-Simmons beef, but to Hardy it was just that. Old!
Kev was doing it big while most of the Hardy boys had become dope fiends and crack heads. All except Brah, but he had been locked up for twenty years or more, and he came home to nothing. At eighteen, Hardy was seeing more money than his uncles had ever seen. He was jeweled up and his crew was buying out the bar with the baddest bitches in the club drooling all over them. Hardy felt like he was on top of the world.
Kev saw the same thing, but he saw it differently. He saw a bunch of young boys making themselves hot fast.
“I feel you on that cat out in the jungle ‘cause sometimes you gotta make examples, but that,” Kev said, gesturing to the bar, “that ain’t necessary.”
“What you mean, dawg?”
“Look at your mans and them, tell me what you see?”
Hardy looked at his crew and smiled. “Them nigguhs ballin’!” he chuckled.
“Naw, lil’ homie, they makin’ enemies,” Kev schooled him.
“Enemies??” Hardy barked, looking around and gripping the handle of the nine in his waist. “I wish a nigguh would bring that shit to me and mine!”
Kev shook his head. “Naw, they ain’t gotta bring it like that. When these other muhfuckas see you wit’ the money and all the pussy, that breeds envy. And you can’t see that shit until the Feds is kickin’ in your door ‘cause a muhfucka made a call. This shit ain’t for show, lil’ homie, the game is only a steppin’ stone to greater things. Stack yo’ chips, stay under the radar and if a muhfucka try and test, handle the shit. But that ballin’ shit is overrated. All it brings is heat.”
Hardy nodded, taking in the jewel. “I hear you, big homie, and I got you. Don’t worry… we gonna tighten up.” He gave Kev dap.
Kev’s phone rang. He saw the number and smiled. It was his Wolf Pack mole. “Yo.”
“Kev?”
“Speak on it.”
“Vee back in town.”
Kev smiled. “Then let’s make it happen.”
“I’m on it. I’ll hit you back soon.”
“You do that,” Kev said, thinking, stupid ass nigguh. Kev hung up and returned to his conversation with Hardy.
Vee was definitely back in town. As soon as Mike called him and told him in code about the Ty situation, he was headed for Durham, but not before Cat caught feelings.
“Victor, you’ve only been here a week!” Cat stressed, holding a crying Taheem.
Vee took Taheem in his arms and kissed him. He instantly stopped crying. “Cat, some shit went down un-expectedly,” Vee explained.
“So why Mike and them can’t handle it?”
“They need me.”
“We need you, nigguh! You runnin’ off to that bullshit and your family is all alone,” Cat spat angrily.
Vee sighed. “Baby listen. I—”
“Don’t baby listen me! Gimme my damn son! You ain’t gonna be here to stop his tears so he might as well get used to it!” Cat huffed, taking Taheem from Vee. As soon as he was out of Vee’s arms, he started crying again and reaching out to Vee. It was like he could sense whenever Vee was about to leave.
“Kionna… don’t do this,” Vee said softly.
“No Vic, you don’t do this. Why can’t you just leave that shit alone? It ain’t like you ain’t got money. You can do anything you want. Why you gotta keep playin’ the game?” she questioned, tears running down her cheeks.
Vee came over and embraced her waist and played with Taheem’s hand. “That’s something I’ve been thinkin’ about, but now ain’t the time. I can’t leave Mike and them out there like that when shit get hot,” Vee said, trying to make her understand.
“Yeah I forgot, they need you,” she remarked sourly. “Then go.”
Vee tried to kiss her but she turned her head.
“Just go, Victor.”
“I’ll be back soon,” he told her, and he meant every word.
As he drove back to Durham, he thought about Ms. Sadie and wondered if this was what she meant about it costing him all that he loved. He and Cat were drifting apart so he knew he had to tighten up. He told himself as soon as shit calmed down he would take Kionna on a month- long vacation.
When he got back to Durham he told Mike to meet him at the mall. Ten minutes later, he changed it to the McDonald’s on Pettigrew Street. Both times he watched Mike pull up. Vee wanted to make sure no one was following Mike. The Simmons had caught him slippin’ once, but they wouldn’t do it again.
Vee got out of the Bentley and got in the passenger side of Mike’s Benz CL500.
“What up, dawg? Welcome back,” Mike greeted him.
“So what went down?”
“It was some spur of the moment shit, man,” Mike admitted, “but I figured, fuck it ‘cause it was a golden opportunity.”
“Mike, just tell me what happened,” Vee replied a little impatient because Mike was beating around the bush.
“Yo, I was wit’ this bitch in Raleigh. I’m ridin’ wit’ her on our way to the mo’. We come by Charlie Goodnite’s and I see Ty’s caddy. I wanted to hit ‘em right then, just park and wait. But I had that bitch wit’ me so I was like, ‘yo, take me home.’ She bitchin’ or whateva but she do it. When I get there I call up them lil’ nigguhs from Hoover. They follow me out to Raleigh and put
in the work, but they missed the nigguh and ended up hittin’ his girl.” Mike broke the whole thing down.
Vee shook his head because it was a bad move. Ty would know he didn’t hit his father, so he was the one factor Vee was counting on to bring some clarity to the situation. Of course Vee planned on getting Ty, but that would’ve come later. After he rocked Kev to sleep and made him think shit was sweet. Now he knew the hit had only succeeded in doing one thing, putting Ty in Kev’s camp with both feet.
Vee sighed. “What about the spots?”
Mike shook his head. “We lost a lotta muhfuckas. Here, Greenville and the Port City. Ty holla’d back the same night,” Mike replied, knowing he had messed up not hitting the nigguh right. Vee would’ve had a plan, and more than likely he wouldn’t have missed.
Vee sat back and thought about his next move. Now he had both brothers against him. Of course Ty would support his brother, but if Vee had played his hand right, he could’ve got at Kev and then had only Ty to worry about. The Simmons may not have been his caliber but their money was entirely too long to go to war with.
The only good thing to come out of it was Mike had confirmed what Vee had assumed. He definitely wasn’t the rat in the crew. So that left only Rome and Banks. Vee had thought about how to smoke out the rat while he was in B-more so he knew what he would do. Now that Mike had proved solid, he only had to set two traps instead of three.
Vee went to Rome’s house and told him, “Look, we goin’ hardbody at these nigguhs, you feel me my nigguh?”
“No question! What up?” Rome answered.
“We takin’ it to Guy! We gonna send a team of nigguhs up in that hospital and finish that nigguh off,” Vee told him.
Rome nodded. “I’m wit’ you, dawg.”
“But check it. Until the day we do it, I ain’t tellin’ nobody but you, you understand? One of us is takin’ info back to the Simmons and I know it ain’t me or you! Mike and Banks been actin’ a little shaky… so, Rome under no circumstances do you tell anybody! You got me?” Vee asked.
“Yeah, yeah, dawg, I got you.”
“Nobody, Rome. If it get out I know it can only be you,” Vee explained.
“Come on, dawg, you know me. My lips is sealed,” Rome assured him.
Let’s hope so, Vee thought.
Next he went to Banks’ crib and told him, “Look, B, we goin’ hardbody on these nigguhs, you wit’ me?”
“Nigguh, you know me! It’s whatever!” Banks barked full of bravado.
“Aiight, this the plan. Kev man Dino gettin’ married next Saturday. That’s the 23rd, right?”
Banks looked at his diamond bezeled Jacob. “Yeah.”
“Kev the best man so we know he gonna be there. Dawg, we goin’ up in there and turn that shit from a wedding into a funeral! Feel me?” Vee chuckled.
“Hell yeah! It’s the perfect time. The nigguh won’t even see it comin’,” Banks nodded with a smirk.
“Exactly, so that’s what it is. But, B, I need you to keep this between me and you.”
“Why, what up, dawg?”
“It’s Mike and Rome. Them nigguhs been actin’ shady to you?”
Banks shrugged. “Naw, Vee. I ain’t see nothin’”
“Yeah? Maybe it’s just me. Regardless, until I know for sure, keep this shit on the low, aw-iight?”
“Okay, Vee,” Banks replied.
“Banks, I’m dead ass, yo! The only two gonna know until we roll on them nigguhs is me and you. So if Rome or Mike find out, I’ll know who told ‘em,” Vee explained, looking Banks in the eyes.
“That’s what it is then, dawg. I got you,” Banks assured him.
Let’s hope so, Vee thought to himself then bounced.
“You just can’t let go, huh?”
Gloria looked up from the novel she was reading to see Debra standing in the door. Gloria humph’d then returned her attention to the book.
“Why is it every time I come to see my husband, you here?” Debra questioned as her six-inch Donna Karen heels clicked against the hospital floor.
“I guess ‘cause I get here first,” Gloria remarked, still reading her novel.
Debra stopped at the foot of Guy’s bed, not three feet from where Gloria was sitting. “You got all the sense, don’t you? Well I’d appreciate it if you used that sense to stay the fuck outta my family affairs!” Debra accused with her voice raised.
This time, Gloria looked up. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me…,” Debra hissed through clenched teeth, “tryin’ to belittle me in front of my son. Tellin’ him all about Brah Hardy and my past.”
Gloria smirked. “Why? You ashamed of it?”
“It wasn’t yo’ damn place!” Debra spat back.
Gloria nodded. “You’re right. I’m woman enough to admit when I’m wrong. Ty asked me about him in connection with what happened to Guy, so I told him what I knew,” she explained.
“What you oughta be tellin’ is what the fuck you was doin’ out there that night? How you miraculously appeared just seconds after Guy got shot,” Debra replied. “I wouldn’t put it past you if you had something to do with this.”
Gloria closed her book, uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Look, Debra, believe me I would like nothin’ better than an excuse to beat yo’ ass after all these years, but now is not the time or the place. Right now, my only concern is Guy and with you bringin’ all this negative energy it ain’t helpin’ the situation. So, if you’ll excuse me.” Gloria grabbed her purse and headed for the door while Debra glared at her.
“No, Guy is my concern, not yours! And as for beatin’ my ass, bitch anytime you wanna try. But I’ll tell you this, if I find out you had something to do with this I ain’t gonna beat yo’ ass… bitch, I’m a kill you,” Debra vowed.
Gloria stopped and looked back at Debra. She wanted to go set it on Debra right then, but seeing Guy laying in the bed fighting for his life took all the fight out of her.
“Don’t worry, Deb, you may get your chance sooner than you think,” she replied calmly then walked out of the room.
“Bitch,” Debra mumbled as she sat down in the chair and took Guy’s hand in her own.
Chapter 11
Guy and Gloria drove back to New York in an eerie kind of silence most of the way. Gloria attributed his tenseness to the fact they were leaving. We gotta come down South more often, she thought. But it wasn’t that. Guy had the plan in his mind.
For him, it had to go right. Too much was at stake. All four men Po’ Charlie had told him. To make sure he was well equipped to handle the job, he had Hawk Bill and Scatter on a Greyhound on their way to New York at the same time. They were two of the most feared men in Goldsboro. Scatter was a high yellow dude with a pocked face. He got his name because he was known to pull that pistol on a nigguh, so when he came on the set, that’s what hustlers did. Scattered!
Guy was back in Vietnam; the mentality of hunting the enemy down and killing him. Not once did he think about what it would do to Gloria or the children Eddie was leaving behind. He’d take care of Gloria, her lifestyle wouldn’t miss a beat. As for Eddie’s kid, well that wasn’t his concern. He was on the verge of landing the deal of his life, and nothing would stand in his way. The deal would be signed in blood.
He dropped Gloria off at her mother’s house. When he got his bags on the porch, Gloria turned to him and asked, “Baby, is there something wrong?”
Guy smiled. “Naw, sweetness, just… got a lot on my mind.”
She moved closer to comfort him, caressing his face. “Wanna talk about it?”
He knew he couldn’t be evasive with Gloria because she knew him so well. So he decided to tell her enough of the truth to appease her. “I was just thinkin’, you know, with the baby on the way, I don’t know, maybe we could move down south. Get away from the rat race and really settle down, you know?”
Gloria searched his eyes, hoping it was true. If a woman truly loves a man, there’s nothing she would like more than to
see him get out the game.
Just then Eddie pulled up playing Heatwave’s “Ain’t No Half Stepping.” He came up on the porch, hugged Gloria and shook Guy’s hand. “What up, playa? Welcome back. How was the trip?” Eddie beamed.
“Good, good,” Guy replied quickly, avoiding eye contact with Eddie, “just tired. Glo, I’ll talk to you later. I’ma get some rest.” He gave Gloria a quick peck then left.
Eddie noticed how Guy avoided eye contact and was acting jittery, but he didn’t think twice about it as he helped Gloria get in the house.
Guy told Hawk and Scatter to catch a cab up to Harlem. He gave them the address to the same boarding house he stayed in when he first came to New York. As he climbed the rickety stairs, he thought about how far he had come since then.
He knocked on the door. Hawk answered it in his t-shirt, smoking a cigarette. He and Scatter were playing cards for money when he came in.
“So this New York, huh?” Scatter remarked in his syrupy thick country accent. “Where we at? In Brooklyn?”
“Naw. This Harlem,” Guy corrected him.
“Guy, you shoulda seen this country ass nigguh.” Hawk chuckled. “I thought he was gonna break his neck lookin’ up at them tall ass buildings.”
Guy laughed and Scatter even snickered.
“Man, fuck you fat nigguh, play cards,” Scatter replied.
Guy was truly at home with his two childhood friends. If the deal with Po’ Charlie would’ve involved killing either one of them, he would’ve told Charlie to kiss his ass. Hawk and Scatter were two of the best cats he knew. They’d give you the shirts off their backs. But if you were the enemy, you’d be lucky to get away with the shirt on your back.
“Y’all nigguhs ready?” Guy questioned.
“Nigguh, fo’ fifteen grand a body, I was about to ask you the same thing,” Scatter quipped.