by Hood Rich
I stood up and held her face. “Baby, look at me. You are doing just as much for me as I am for you. You have no idea how much I appreciate you, and that’s my fault because I gotta get better at showing you just how much. The fact that you thought I’d be saddened by this news says a lot. So, I apologize, and I promise I’ll get better at things, so I can be there for you.” I hugged and held her for about two minutes, loving the feel of her in my arms.
She broke our embrace and rubbed the side of my face. “I don’t know why, God, blessed me with a good man like you. But I am very thankful. I know that once you leave those streets alone, we’re going to have a happy life together. I was talking wit’, Kesha on Facebook. She was saying that Atlanta is the place to be. We could move there and start all over. Get away from this city that has brought us so much pain and agony. Raise our family under a new umbrella, in a new setting, you know?”
An older white man walked past with his German Shepherd on a leash. He waved at us and kept right on walking. He had on a big pair of sunglasses. His legs looked sun cooked, and on the verge of peeling. I turned off the water hose and laid it beside the tire of my BMW. Took, Aaliyah’s hand and escorted her toward the house. We sat on the porch steps, luckily there was shade from the big tree in my yard to cover us. A nice breeze sailed through.
“Baby, all my money is tied up in this city. It’s gon’ be at least a year before I’m able to venture anywhere else. I’m not saying it’s not in the cards, but it’s down the line some.”
She lowered her head between her legs. Her thick thighs were exposed by the small, white, Fendi shorts she wore. Her skin was oiled and popping, and she smelled good, too. It was one of the reasons, I was falling for her. For me, there was nothing sexier than a well-kept woman. Everything stayed tip top on Aaliyah, her hair, nails, and clothes. I couldn’t see it any other way.
“Baby, I just got a bad feeling deep in my gut. It’s telling me that something bad and devastating is about to happen to us. I don’t know what it is, but some nights I stay up, so I can watch you sleep. I put my hand on your chest as it rises and falls. I place my finger under your nostrils to remind me that there is air coming out of your lungs. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you. You’re my everything. I wish we could leave everything behind. Please.” She laid her head on my chest and wrapped her arm around my neck.
I could smell her Dove deodorant. I sighed and held her close. “Ever since we’ve been a part of each other, Aaliyah, your gut has never been wrong.” I placed my hand on her stomach and rubbed it in a circular motion. Then I kissed her neck and inhaled her. She smelled so feminine, it was like food to my soul. There was nothing like the essence of a woman. It made life make sense to me. “Baby, let me just go hard for the next three months. Then we’ll get out of here. We’ll move down to Georgia with, Kesha, get married, and raise our child the right way. I feel like it’s time for me to turn over a new leaf, just as much as you do. We’re going to be parents. It’s time I act like it. I love you, Boo.”
She hugged my neck harder and started to whimper. “Are you serious? You’re going to marry me?” She looked into my eyes with her big brown ones and a tear dripped down her cheek.
I wiped it away with my thumb and nodded. “It’s always been you, Aaliyah. Even when I tried to fight it, and keep it buddy between us, I couldn’t. You’ve always invaded my fantasies. It gotta be you, I love you too much!” I kissed her lips and slid my tongue into her mouth.
She closed her eyes and gave me the most passionate kiss she could. After breaking it, she wiped my lips with her thumb. “Baby, why don’t you give Andrea a pass? You ain’t gotta kill her, even though, I know it’s gone be hard not to. But, I think we should move on with our lives. Just let God get her back, Karma is a bitch. If it’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that.”
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “As much sense as you’re making, I can’t let that shit slide, she took my first sister away from me. I can’t honor that, everybody that had something to do with, Keyonna being hurt gotta pay the piper. That’s how that has to go. I consider Andrea, unfinished business. I will never be able to sleep until I make her answer for her sins. That’s the real.” I stood up and scanned the neighborhood.
The two white, jogging women, from before were on their way back pass our house. Once again, they waved at us and kept going. I saluted them, while Aaliyah waved back.
She stood up and hugged me. “Well, I will hold my peace on this. But, in three months I expect to be out of here. We have to start over. All of our sins are here.”
"Three months, Boo. We’ll be out of here by mid-June. I’ma make it by bitness." I kissed her lips and cuffed that big booty.
* * *
I turned up the bottle of Patron, guzzling like it was water, before handing the bottle back to Porky. “Porky, hold this, bruh.”
He handed me the big can of Peanut butter. I walked in front of a tied, Andrea. She sat with her hands behind her body, duct tape around her wrist and ankles and tears streaming down her face.
I felt nothing as I ripped the tape from her mouth. “You ready to talk now?” I growled, scooping out four fingers full of peanut butter.
She shook her head. “Rich, I ain’t have shit to do with your sister being killed. You know I wouldn’t lay a finger on that girl. I been there for y’all ever since your mother passed away. I love y’all—arrgh!”
I stuffed the glob of peanut butter into her mouth. Then forced it as deep into her mouth as it would go. “Swallow this shit bitch. Swallow it before I have the homey blow yo’ muthafucking brains all over this basement.” I scooped out an even thicker portion as I watched her struggle to chew and swallow.
She smacked loudly with water running down her cheeks. She shook her head and breathed through her nose loudly. Snot bubbled out of her nostrils. I could hear her wheezing. She extended her neck and tried her best to get the peanut butter down. “I can’t breathe, Rich,” she gasped.
“Bitch, tell me what happened with my sister. I’m giving you a chance to save your life and you’re blowing it. Now tell me!”
She swallowed and coughed, then shook her head, crying. “Rich, I didn’t mean too. Fax had me watching over her, and then she said she’d tell you what was good. I wouldn’t let her do that, so—" she stopped and started crying harder, shaking her head from left to right.
“So, what bitch?” I grabbed her hair and force another glob of peanut butter into her mouth and another.
Macho handed me a metal bowl of crushed Saltine crackers. I grabbed a hand full of them, ready to force them into her orifice.
She stomped her tied feet on the ground. Her eyes were bugged out of her head. She coughed, and a huge portion of the peanut butter came out and landed in the lap of her Burberry, cheerleading skirt. “Ack—ack! Fax, made me tie a rope around her neck and kill her. He forced me to. After I told him what she said, he told me to or he was going to kill me. He’s crazy,” she cried, choking on her spit.
I grabbed her by the throat and leaned into her face. “Bitch, after all, we been through, you had the nerve to kill my baby sister? You took her away from me!” I began to shed tears and lowered my head.
I imagined Keyonna’s face, the first time I’d held her when she was a baby. All the times she reached up for me to pick her up as a kid. Then I flashed back to our last argument. I’d spanked her, and she’d stormed out the house, never to return. It had been all my fault. I should of done more, I should have protected my sister and forced her to stay home. Made sure that she was good, but I hadn’t. Now she was gone killed by the hands of an overt enemy.
Y’all hold this bitch head for me,” I said barely above a whisper.
Macho and Porky took a side and held her head in place. They looked me over closely with understanding
“Please don’t do this, Rich. Please, I’m so sorry. I am begging you, please have mercy on me,” she pleaded.
I dug out a glob of
peanut butter and stuffed it into her mouth again. She tried to spit it out, but I kept stuffing more and more. I dug deeper and got it into her mouth while she cried. Next came the crackers, I shoved at least half of the bowl into her mouth, while she cried. When her cheeks were puffy I slapped the duct tape back over her mouth, pinched her nose and held it hard. She shuddered in the seat and started rocking back and forth, kicking her legs. Her face turned bright red, and then it slowly turned a dark blue. Andrea was a Puerto Rican, and Black mixed chick. So, her skin was fairly light, but I didn’t care at this point. I put my hand over her heart and felt it pounding in her chest. She attempted to swallow but could not, this really got her to bouncing around. I held her nose tighter, she passed gas and laid back, shaking. A vein busted in her right eye. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, as she gave one last kick and went limp. I held her for two minutes and stepped back. I looked down at her feeling sick to my stomach.
Macho came over and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Bruh, don’t worry about the body. We’ll take care of that. You feel any better?” He looked me over with a concerned face.
I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. "I don’t know man. I feel like I fucked up, that’s all."
He stepped in front of me and gave me a hug. “It’s life, big homie. Being part of this game, we’re destined to lose people. Even ourselves in a matter of time. All we can do is get smarter and try to master the game while we’re playing it. Live by the sword, nah’ mean?”
Porky yanked, Aaliyah’s dead body from the seat and tossed her over his shoulder. “This bitch was trifling. It’s gon’ feel good to cut her ass up,” he scoffed.
* * *
That night, Paper hit me up, and we wound up meeting at, Subway, on thirteenth and Wells street. I had a car full of my hittas roll close behind me. I didn’t know what this nigga was on, and I just wanted to be prepared for anything. It turned out that he’d wound up murdering the skinny nigga’s brother that I’d hit up a few months back over some missing heroin. The skinny nigga had nigga had gone M.I.A. and was vowing revenge on Paper and myself. At least that was the word I’d heard from Chasity.
I hadn’t fucked with, Paper ever since that night, he’d killed Heaven. I didn’t see any need to, he was doing his thing and I was flourishing doing mine. I was enjoying the feeling of being alone, being my own man, and making decisions I felt were the right ones. Plus, I liked to lay with women and I didn’t some nigga telling me I was being too lovey-dovey or tricking. I hated hearing that shit. I was who I was. I loved to spoil, spend quality time with, and fuck my women.
When I got into the restaurant, Paper was already seated. I noticed four of his hittas sitting in a booth not far from the table he was sitting at. I had two .40 Glocks on my hips. I sized them up real fast and made notes of how I would hit they ass up after I domed, Paper if need be. I slid into the booth, as my hittas walked into Subway, and sat on the other side of the booth where they could see me.
I nodded at them. “What’s good, bruh? Long time no see.”
Paper was so skinny by this point, I could see the bones in his face. His eyes were bloodshot and dreary. He smelled of musk and that scent that comes from between your thigh and ball area after you’ve been walking around all day. His hair was nappy, and there were specks of lint all in it. He twitched and smiled at me. I could already smell his breath before he said a word.
“I’m surprised you showed up mister big shot. Thought you was too good to come and fuck wit’ a nigga.” He scratched his inner forearm. I could see track marks up and down it. It was sad, to say the least. “Shirley dead, she overdosed. Happened yesterday, she still in the attic. I ain’t moved her yet.” He sucked his teeth and sighed.
“I’m sorry to hear that, bruh. Why you bring me out here?” Seeing him in that state was killing me. I was seconds away from my eyes misting up. I still had love for the homie. I couldn’t believe how far he’d fallen, I was glad, I didn’t allow him to lead us nowhere.
“It’s Bradley and Shaw. They snatched me up and took me down to the station. Got to asking me all kind of questions and shit. Stuff that happened in our crew. It fucked me up how they knew.” His breath smelled so bad I was holding mine.
“Shit like what, Paper?” I felt my stomach turn, I was gonna be sick. On the verge of puking. I exhaled and inhaled through my mouth.
“They asked me about Fax, his son, Maxwell, and them other niggas that got stanked a few months back.” He picked up the cup that was in front of him and sipped out of it.
I exhaled loudly and looked him over. “Well, what did you say?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I ain’t say shit. I told them that I didn’t know what they were talking ‘bout. You know I would never get down on you like that. All of them fools had to be dealt with. I supported your decision handling them the way they were handled. It is what it is.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I rubbed my chin and looked over my shoulders at his hittas. They looked just as grimy as he did. Their dreads were nappy at the roots. Their eyes were red and glossy. They looked like they stunk. “Bruh, I find that awfully strange that all of the sudden Bradley and Shaw wanna fuck wit’ us. They coming at you about murders. If shit was that serious, why they ain’t been snatched us up?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “You were running the show, Rich. You said them niggas had to be done in so that’s what happened. I know how you get down. Your temper is horrible, had shit not went down the way you said, ain’t no telling what you would have done.” He sucked his teeth and stood up. “Look, I’m just giving you a heads up on what’s good. Hold ya head and be careful. Them people lurking. I’m sure they’ll be hollering at you soon.”
I watched him leave out of the door. I sat there for a minute trying to clear my mind. I got the feeling that three months was going to be too long of a time to stay in that city. I had to get Aaliyah out of there sooner. She was pregnant with my kid. I owed her my life, from there on out.
Chapter 9
Three weeks later, we opened another club a few blocks from downtown. Chasity had been recruiting a lot of white and Spanish girls to come over to our team. I decided to put most of them in the Garden of Eden downtown, and that was a great idea. Them white folks ate they asses up. They traveled from all around the world and abroad to pay homage to our girls. In less than a month we were seeing no less than thirty thousand every single night except, Sunday. That was a slow day, so I started allowing the strippers to take that day off.
I used that day to have the club thoroughly cleaned. We restocked our alcohol and often held meetings with a few of our outside partners that had made the transition aside for us. Any idea Chasity had I tried my best to Implement them. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that it wouldn’t be long before she was running it by herself anyway. I wanted to get out of that city as soon as I could. I started laundering a hundred thousand dollars a week and sending it straight to my Swiss account. I’d opened one in the Caymans for Aaliyah.
One week I’d send a hundred thousand to mine, and the next a hundred thousand to hers. I tried my best to get as close to that quota every single week. My father plugged me with eight kilos of pure China White Heroin. He told me it was mine, and I didn’t owe him one red cent. He said he wanted me to master my mafia and get on the way I was supposed to. He’d had the product stuffed into eight mattresses that were delivered to the furniture store in my hood. I was in cahoots with the owner, but not so much so much that he knew what I was getting. His job was to take the five thousand, and call me when beds arrived, which he did with no problem.
I took the eighty kilos, and turned them into a hundred and ten, by mixing them with Fentanyl, and a lot of lactose. When it was all said and done my crops were pure and potent. I flooded the hood right away and kept each one of my traps open twenty-four-hours a day. I didn’t shut down shop until whichever trap my workers were rocking out of went completely dry. A few hours later, a delivery was made, and that s
ame trap was back jumping like LeBron.
Around this same time, the Misfits had completely taken over, Hillside Row houses. They’d kicked in doors, and reigned down terror on the residents that stayed there. After they’d completely rid it of the Spanish Flies they cornered the drug market on every angle. They placed an order to me for a hundred kilos of heroin at a price of ten gees a piece, and fifty of The Andrea. That was my mix of Meth and Cocaine that Andrea taught me how to whip up. I let it be known, that they didn’t owe me a penny up front. I would pick up my money every Friday, as they made it. Before long the Misfits was going hard and making money hand over fist.
My father had me sit down with a cartel Boss by the name of, Cabo. He was a well-known, dark, and jitty drug lord from the heart of Mexico City. Everything coming into the United States via Mexico, Florida, or Canada, he had his hand in the middle of it. He was a short man with a bushy mustache and small eyes. His skin was brownish red, and he spoke with a strong accent. For the meeting, my pops flew us out in his private jet to Brazil. I sat back in the soft leather seat, the chair vibrated, and massaged my shoulders.
I’d had a nice piece of triple cheese Lasagna and garlic bread. Then washed it down with a bottle of Ace of Spades. I followed that up with a blunt of Veracruz Weed from the heart of Mexico. Two, beautiful, Mexican women made sure me and my father were, well taken care of, as we sat on the plane flying over the states below.
My father took a sip from his glass, then he pursed his lips, and set it back down. “Son, this will be your first official meeting with a true Boss. Now that you are moving as much dope as you are. You must get the permission from Dons across the map. You have my blessing, but even I have to answer to men in this underworld. Everyone has somebody to answer to. It’s a completely different ball game. One that you must respect the rules of, or it can cost you your life, and the lives of the ones you truly love.”