by Noire
“Yo, what the fuck are you doing with this Con Edison truck? You got a legitimate gig now?” Flaco shook his head and grinned. “Nah, fuck it. Don’t even answer that man, cause I don’t even wanna know. You’re a wild bastard, though. I’ll give you that!”
Wild Man chuckled in amusement. “C’mon, now. You know I never limit my game to just one hustle, baby. I’m a jack-of-all-trades, my G. A man who wears many hats. Now lemme see what you got for me, homey.”
Flaco reached into his jacket pocket and passed Wild Man a small object. “It’s on this flash drive, bro. It took a lot of pull to get this shit out of the evidence locker, but you know I always come through.”
Wild Man pulled his tablet out from under his seat and connected the flash drive to the port. He punched a few keys and waited for the data to load, then he stared at the screen as the color images from the security camera at the Fulton Street jewelry store came into focus.
Wild Man hawk-eyed the footage as he prepared to soak up every detail. The cameras had been set to record a single still frame every three seconds, and Wild Man stared at the screen as he saw the back door of the jewelry shop swing open.
Moments later, a young woman wearing a light blue pants suit and a big red hat that concealed her face appeared in the doorway, and she was carrying something in her hand.
The next frame showed her raising her free hand up at a balding old man who was sitting in a chair dressed in a plaid shirt and dark slacks.
Wild Man blinked for a quick second and suddenly the old man was crouched down on the floor like he was picking something up. And in the next frame he was up on his feet again.
The following frame showed the old man and the younger woman exchanging the items each of them held in their hands.
And in the very next frame Wild Man saw himself and the rest of his masked crew entering the camera’s frame.
They were dressed in all-black from head to toe and they were totally unidentifiable.
The flash of multiple popping muzzles lit up the next frame, but Wild Man wasn’t interested in none of that.
“Oh shit—gotta go back!” he muttered out loud. “Gotta go the fuck back!”
He swiped the feed-flow button backwards a couple of times and there it was. Right in front of his eyes.
The muthafuckin hand-off!
Wild Man stared at the still photo of the young chick who seemed to be snatching a big book away from the older cat. The book looked thick and white, and Wild Man woulda bet his left nut that it said, Basic Biology on the front cover.
He kept his eyes on the footage and in the very next frame it happened. The young chick slid the object she had carried into the shop into the hands of the older black man, and then she pointed somewhere off-camera.
“Well would you look at that pretty-ass monkey!” Wild Man spit under his breath as he stared at the image of the elderly man that his crew had straight-up murdered. In his last picture alive, the old dude was reaching out to accept the very item that had gotten him murked. A red briefcase.
That bitch! Wild Man fumed inside as he stared at the beautiful female who was half-pictured on the screen. That shiesty fuckin bitch!
Suddenly the footage went black as Jewelz aimed her pistol and shot out the security camera. Cursing under his breath, Wild Man snatched the zip drive from his device and handed it back to his manz.
“Yo, whassup?” Flaco asked eyeing him intently. “You know that chick? Can you make a positive ID on her?”
“Nah,” Wild Man lied, fronting his homey off. “I ain’t never laid eyes on that bitch before in my life,” he muttered.
But of course he knew who that jawn was. He knew how that trick tasted between her legs and how she smelled all up in her guts. She smelled like a monkey. A monkey with a red briefcase!
Ain’t this some high-level bullshit? Wild Man thought as his mind raced on a hunnid. He could still hear that pussy-nigga he’d poked full of holes in his basement crying clearly in his ears.
“The Queen sent me, yo! It was Honore!”
Now Wild Man knew dude had been spittin truth. So that bitch Honore had made a drop at the jewelry store on Fulton Street and she was all about diamonds too? She had asked him over and over again what was in that red damn briefcase, and now WiId Man knew why. Yeah, two and two had finally added up to four because homeboy outside his window had definitely been telling the muthafuckin truth! That bitch Honore was wearing a dual fuckin crown! She was the Queen of fuckin Diamonds, and she was the monkey with the red briefcase too! Wait till I tell Slick!
CHAPTER 27
Get In Where You Fit In
It’s ShowTime! Noodles thought as he made his way into the main area of the Jewish Recreational Center. For the past hour or so he’d been lurking on the low, blending into the shadows and making himself invisible as he scoped shit out and got a nose for who was in the building.
Right now Benny’s friends and family were taking their seats inside the huge auditorium. Everyone was having a good time and engaged in lively conversation. Little kids were running around playing underfoot, totally oblivious to the cluster of hardcore murderers, extortionists, gangsters, and thugs in suits that were sitting just a few feet away from them.
Noodles spotted a young boy who had been getting a lot of hugs and kisses from old ladies all day long. He figured him to be Benny’s son, the celebrated bar mitzvah boy.
Noodles moved discreetly from table to table, shadowing the waiter staff as he pretended to oversee their work. On his face was a professional expression, and in his hand was a miniature palm-held video camera that was connected to a thin wire that slid in and out of his shirtsleeve.
None of the guests even noticed him and they paid little to no attention to the catering team as they were consumed by their conversations while awaiting the ceremony. Noodles made his way around the room with his recorder busy gathering evidence and doing its job.
“Good evening, can I have everyone’s attention?” Benny’s wife tapped on the mic as she spoke from the stage.
“I’d like to thank all of our family and friends for your attendance at the bar mitzvah for our only son. We hope you enjoy the good food and the good company and we’ll be beginning the program momentarily.”
Noodles played the cut while the program got underway. Young Benny Jr. was happily showered with money and gifts as male members of the family got up on stage and spoke to the audience and welcomed him into the fold of manhood. Everything was flowing smoothly for the mobster and his family, but as the afternoon wore on Noodles’s hopes were slowly fading because it was looking like his suspicions were off the mark and probably wouldn’t pan out.
But then he peeped a tall guy dressed in a dark suit walk over and whisper something in Benny’s ear. Their eyes traveled to the right, and Noodles’s eyes did too.
Suddenly the auditorium doors swung open. Noodles’s gaze grew hard as fuck as in walked none other than his fake-ass homey.
Whitey Reynolds.
The palest member of the Zip ’em up Crew slid up in the joint looking smooth as peanut butter. He was accompanied by a nervous-looking fellow that Noodles knew from his surveillance to be the underground diamond trader they called Avi.
Backstabbing mutt! Noodles fumed at his manz from afar. Shittin on his whole fuckin click!
Avi looked hesitant as he made his way over to pay his respects to Benny, and then he gestured toward Whitey like he was introducing the two men.
Noodles stepped back further into the shadows to make sure he wasn’t spotted. He knew Whitey’s ass like a fuckin book, and no matter how innocent that snake looked he had eyes in the back of his head and he was always on the hunt for prey.
Frowning, Noodles glanced down to make sure his camera was recording that grimy turncoat live and in color, and when he looked back up again his eyes bucked open wide and he did a quick double-take.
The auditorium door had swung open again and the person walking in this time caught Noodl
es by surprise and damn near blew his mind.
What in the entire FUCK? he thought as he watched the fine-ass chick slide in looking like a million big ones sitting on a diamond-crusted platter.
Beauty on top of beauty, she rolled in fuckin ’em up from head to toe. Led by a tall gangsta-looking cat who was spiffed up in an imported suit and what looked like real snake-skinned shoes, the chick that Wild Man had just been tryna put him up on, the same chick that they had snatched outta that jewelry shop and tossed into their van that night, Slick’s brand new piece of ass, walked up to Big Benny and held out her hand so he could kiss her ring.
Noodles stared at the two of them, steadily recording and focused like fuck. Now if this ain’t some dirty underhanded bullshit that’s about to go down!
Benny stood up and the entire entourage, including his shady-looking boys, started walking towards a backroom where Noodles knew a meeting of the minds and a plan of the pockets was about to take place.
He also knew that there was no way in fuck he was getting inside that meeting room with them. But that was cool because he already had enough evidence on camera to bring a charge on that traitorous snake Whitey. And on that shady bitch Honore too.
Yeah, muffuckas! Noodles thought as his icy eyes followed them from deep in the darkness of the shadows. I got dat ass! Y’all bitches is cold fuckin busted! Wait till I tell Slick!
$$$$$
Eager to dip out and get back to Brooklyn, Noodles fell in step with a group of waiters who were carrying trays of dirty dishes back to the kitchen. They had just exited the auditorium door when one of Benny’s beefy-ass security guards backed into Noodles on accident.
Noodles stumbled forward and bumped into a serving girl. Her tray full of dirty dishes and his palm-held video camera both went flying in the air, and when the camera hit the floor it landed right at the security guard’s feet.
“Ay!” the thick-necked cat barked as he bent down and snatched up Noodles’s miniature recorder. “What the hell is this?”
Noodles shrugged and calmly went to reach for it but the guard snatched it back.
“Uh-uh,” dude said, shaking the recorder just out of Noodles’s reach. “What the fuck is this, wise guy? We specifically told your company no cameras or recording devices were allowed, Sambo!”
The guard peered closely at the device then started pressing its buttons. “What the fuck do you got on here?” he demanded, trying to access the video feed.
Noodles just couldn’t allow that shit.
In a flash he smashed the guard in his nose with a quick right fist that dropped the fat man to one knee. Noodles grabbed dude’s wrist and began wrestling for his tiny camera, but big boy jammed his hand in close to his body and belly-flopped down on that bitch, trapping both the camera and Noodles’s hand beneath his massive weight.
“Bennyyyy!” the man roared from his gut as frightened children and guests started screaming and scattering at the sight of the commotion. “Get a guard!” The man yelled, grappling for his gun. “Security! Security! Security!”
Noodles grabbed dude’s gun hand and clenched his thumb. He squeezed tight and bent it all the way back, breaking it. Dude howled and snatched his hand away and Noodles went to work. Digging under the man’s fat lard stomach, Noodles grabbed his camera and squeezed it in a death grip. Pushing through the crowd of startled waiters he beat feet through the kitchen, hauling ass like Usain Bolt.
Outta nowhere two security guards came at him from opposite sides and lunged at him. Noodles staggered and his knees buckled, but on the way down he gripped both men in headlocks and took them down to the mat with him.
His shoulder muscles bulged and his forearm strength was on a hunnid as he squeezed their necks against his massive chest until their eyes bugged out. Both men were throwing weak glancing punches at him but Noodles had them bitches caught in a steel vice-grip and he wasn’t letting go.
Dude clenched up under his left armpit was gasping and strangling and he slumped over first. Noodles released his death-grip and shook the cat’s body loose, then he slammed his left fist into the mug of the man he was clenching with his right arm. The man’s face was reddish-purple as he gasped in pain, but when Noodles eased up a bit and placed the flat of his palm against the cat’s head and pushed it sharply until his neck popped, the man collapsed without making another sound.
But there were all kinds of sounds and screams splitting the air behind him as Noodles scrambled to his feet and hauled ass again. Benny’s goons were breathing heat on his neck as he busted through the back door like a bat outta hell and exploded outta the Jewish Recreational Center and into the bright daylight.
“Shoot that son-of-a-bitch!” Noodles heard a white voice yell as rushing feet slapped against the pavement behind him.
Kicking it up a gear, Noodles jetted toward the corner and ran down the busy street like a track star, feet furiously flying as he headed for the rally point where his boy Wild Man would be waiting in the cut with the blicky on the ready.
Just like the rest of his crew, Noodles was in top physical shape and unless those fluffy pancake-eatin fatties chasing him were willing to start banging right out in the open, they wasn’t about to catch him.
It’s on now, bitches! Noodles’s mind raced right along with his feet. Wait the fuck till I tell Slick!
He couldn’t wait to expose that rat-ass turncoat Whitey, and to warn Slick about that grimy thot he was fuckin with too!
The corner loomed in front of him and Noodles took that bitch at a full-out sprint, putting even more distance between him and his pursuers as he headed toward the meet-up spot at the other end of the block.
But the moment he turned into the alley Noodles’s whole shit fell off.
The sight that greeted him made his heart drop straight down into his nut-sack.
The alley was empty.
He could see all the way down to the other end and there wasn’t no Con Ed truck, no Wild Man, no blickys, no nothing.
The fuck? Noodles thought in wild disbelief. Where the fuck is he?
Footsteps were thundering behind him and Noodles almost panicked.
Fuck!!! He started running again, hauling ass toward the far end of the alley, praying like a muthafucka for Wild Man to come speeding around that corner in his Con Ed truck with his burner spittin heat.
POP! POP! POP!
The sound of hot bullets whizzing through the air put Noodles’s ass in a whole ’nother gear. Benny’s shooters were gunning hard for him and without a gat he was assed all the way out.
Desperately Noodles yanked his cell phone outta his front pocket. He fumbled to hit the text key but his vision was blurry and hot rounds were flying left and right.
POP! POP! POP!
Noodles’s sweaty finger was slipping and sliding all over his fuckin phone. Wasn’t no way in hell he could send a text, so he ran as hard as he could and hit the first number he came to on speed dial.
“Whattup my nigga?” Slick said casually as he picked up on the first ring.
“Hhhhhhh!” Noodles screamed out in a long whisper. His feet were flying as his useless vocal cords strained to produce something that resembled language while hot bullets skipped off bricks right behind his head. “Hhhhhhh!”
POP! POP! POP!
Noodles zigzagged like a running back as he tried to outrun the zinging lead that was flying his way.
“Hhhhhhh!” he hissed into the phone again as he tried his damnest to communicate with his manz Slick. “Hhhhhhh!”
“Ayo Noodles!” Slick panicked as he recognized the unmistakable cracks of bullets popping off and the horrible sounds of desperate fear coming outta his main manz’s mouth. “What’s wrong? What the fuck is happenin man!?!”
With Slick’s voice ringing out in his ear, Noodle pounded his feet all the way to the very end of the alley. And then suddenly he stopped.
He glanced quickly to his right, praying like hell to see Wild Man rolling up in the cut, but the street
was empty. Wasn’t shit out there. Wild Man wasn’t there and his Con Edison truck wasn’t neither.
Fuck, Noodles thought, giving up in defeat as the sound of Slick screaming at him through the phone cut into the air.
That nigga played me, Noodles thought grimly as he accepted his fate and prepared to die. His only thoughts were of Ayesha and the kids, and the beautiful life of love and security that he would never be able to give them.
But then the bullets started flying again and the will to survive kicked into overdrive.
Noodles took off running again. Faster this time.
“Hhhhhhh!” he pressed the phone to his face and hissed out to Slick as he hauled ass toward the street beyond the alley.
“Hhhhhhhh!!! Hhhhhhhh!!!”
To be continued in…
EMPIRE
STATE of MINE$!
(It’s A Movie in A Book)
Episode 4
Boogie Down Bronx
A NOIRE & REEM RAW JOINT
“If it wasn’t for the Bronx there’d be no boogie goin down,
So let’s give it up for all the hittas in this town!”
#BookBinge #ESOM