Dating Games

by RM Johnson

  “He’s doin’ what he got to do, since you won’t,” Rafe heard Smoke say over the commotion, as he felt Trunk dragging him over closer toward the bound officer. Trunk raised Rafe’s arms up toward the cop’s head.

  “No! No!” Rafe yelled. “Don’t do this, Smoke! Don’t make me do this!”

  Rafe tried to do everything in his power—kicking the big man, ramming his body into him—to get away, but he was like a stone wall. Rafe tried to free his finger from the trigger, but Trunk had one of his thick fingers jammed in the trigger’s ring up to the first knuckle, stopping Rafe from pulling his out. Rafe felt him starting to press down, trying to force him to pull the trigger, to kill this man, who was now moaning so loud Rafe thought he would go deaf by the sound of his muffled screams.

  “Please. Please, don’t!” Rafe yelled again, still fighting with all he had to keep his finger from being forced to pull that trigger, but he was getting weak, and he knew he couldn’t hold back too much longer, and then Rafe heard the explosion, heard the sound of something thick and wet splatter against the wall. Trunk released Rafe. His body slumped to the ground, the gun still in his hand, and when Rafe raised his tearstreaked face up, he saw that half the officer’s skull had been blown from his head.

  Smoke stood in the corner of the room, an odd smug look on his face. “So, like I said, you can walk away if you want to now, but I would strongly advise against it.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  ALLY, JJ, and Sasha had planned how everything was supposed to take place in order for these robberies to come off successfully. Ally had already taken care of the drugs, and each of them was supposed to carry some, so whoever had the best opportunity to slip the powder into the victims’ drinks would. They would always have to wear wigs, plenty of makeup, sunglasses, and colored contacts, just in case the glasses had to come off. They could never use each other’s real names and never speak about where they lived or anything in that area.

  The most important rule was that since there were only three of them, they could take on only two guys at a time—just in case something went wrong and, God forbid, they had to fight their way out of there.

  They all agreed that they would target clubs only on the opposite side of town, places more than thirty miles from where they lived, because even though they were wearing disguises, they didn’t need anyone recognizing them on the street. In the clubs, to keep things at a fast pace, the three of them decided that they would go their own way, looking for potential victims. If any of them found what she thought was a sure thing, she would go back to a previously chosen spot and wait until the others noticed her, then proceed from there.

  The morning of their first hit, Ally was looking over her outfit when her cell phone rang.

  “Hello.”

  “Ally, it’s Lisa.”

  “Don’t try and talk me out of this. We’ve already decided. Just because—”

  “That’s not why I’m calling,” Lisa said. “I want back in.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Meet me downstairs. I’m outside, in front of your place.”

  Ally threw on her shoes and went down to meet Lisa. When she approached her, she looked shaken, frightened, as if someone was after her. She told Ally that someone had broken into her place last night. She’d heard something break, woken up, and heard someone moving around inside her room. Her son was with her in bed, so she knew it couldn’t have been him.

  “I couldn’t reach the phone, so I just lay there, covering my son’s mouth so he wouldn’t cry or make no noise.” Lisa started to cry. “I watched that man move back and forth outside my bedroom door … and Ally … I was so scared. I thought I was going to die. I thought my baby was going to die. And I promised that if I got out of that alive, I was going to get me and my son out of there as fast as I could. I just can’t take being in that place no more,” she sobbed, brushing tears from her face.

  “He get anything?” Ally asked, comforting her friend, smoothing a hand across her back.

  “TV, stereo. It ain’t important, long as he ain’t hurt me and my son.”

  Ally looked at Lisa for a long moment. “I still don’t think you should get back in, Lisa.”

  “Why? What are you talking about?”

  “It’s something you didn’t want to do at first, so you shouldn’t do it now. Yeah, you should get out that place, but maybe you need to find a different way.”

  “There is no different way,” Lisa said, frantically. “I need to get out now! If you don’t want me in, then just come out and say it, but don’t be making no excuses.”

  “All right then,” Ally said, gesturing for Lisa to follow her up to her building. “Let me fill you in on everything you have to know for tonight.”

  AT 10 P.M., the girls stepped inside a darkened club, lights flashing and music blaring over the voices of hundreds of people dancing, laughing, and talking. They huddled just inside the door, nervous and uncertain. They all wore wigs; JJ and Lisa’s were black and short, Ally and Sasha’s long and brown. Their faces were heavy with makeup, and dark glasses hid their eyes, themselves disguised with colored contacts.

  Ally noticed that Sasha was looking over her shoulders and jumped when someone brushed past her.

  “What’s wrong with you!” Ally had to shout in order for Sasha to hear her over the music.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay,” she said, but she wasn’t, and Ally knew it.

  She grabbed Sasha by the arm. “Come with me,” she said, leading her through the crowd of dancing people, toward the restrooms. JJ and Lisa followed them.

  As soon as they got inside the ladies’ room, JJ said, “Why you draggin—

  “Hold it,” Ally said, and pushed open the doors on the four stalls to make sure that no one else was there. When Ally gave her the okay, JJ continued. “Why you draggin’ my girl in here like she stole something?”

  “Why don’t you ask her?” Ally said, looking over at Sasha who appeared shaken, sweat accumulating on her upper lip.

  “What’s wrong, baby?” JJ asked, placing a gentle hand on her face.

  “Nothing. I’m okay.”

  “She’s not ready for this,” Ally said, pacing away from them toward the sinks.

  “I told you, I’m fine. My nerves were getting to me just a little, that’s all.”

  “Dammit!” Ally slammed her purse down near the sink. “I told her back at your place that if she wasn’t feelin’ this, then she should just stay home. Now we gotta give the whole thing up.”

  “Fuck that,” Lisa said. “Sasha can just catch a cab back, and we can do what we gotta do.”

  “I told you, I’m fine!” Sasha said, raising her voice, pulling away from JJ. “I can be a little fucking nervous at first. But let me tell you, when it’s time to throw down, I’ma be straight.”

  “You better be,” Ally said.

  FORTY-FIVE minutes of dancing and getting groped, of smiling, drinking, listening to the game of weak wannabe playas, and trying to screen for the perfect victims was starting to wear the girls down. Remarks from guys like, “Naw, we don’t gotta get a room. I got my own place.” Or, “We can just go out to my car,” or, “It’s me and my three boys. You said you got three friends,” were all cause for instant disqualification. Ally knew the strict rules that they set had to be followed if they didn’t want to get their asses hurt or even killed doing this thing.

  Ally bumped into Lisa on her way to the restroom. “What’s up? Anything?” she asked.

  “Ain’t nothing. I almost had a couple, but they were just too damn big, and I ain’t tryin’ to take no chances, things get out of hand.”

  Suddenly she and Lisa were grabbed. They turned around to see JJ.

  “Look, over there!” JJ shouted over the music, tilting her head in the direction of the spot they’d chosen to stand if they found the right guys. Sasha was leaning up against the bar, two men on either side of her, their arms around her, both of them whispering in her ears.r />
  Sasha caught the girls’ glances and nodded her head as if to say that these were the lucky guys for the night.

  JJ and Lisa walked over and took Sasha’s place, and Sasha told the men she had to go to the restroom with her other girlfriend.

  “See? What did I tell you?” Sasha said, a little too excited for Ally. “See all the jewelry they wearin’?”

  “I see it, but do they have any money?”

  “Girl,” Sasha said, holding onto Ally, as if she felt weak in the knees, “they must be tryin’ to see who dick is bigger, ‘cause they both whipped out they rolls, tryin’ to be the first to buy me a drink, and them rolls look like they was too big to fit back in their pockets.”

  “All right, then,” Ally said.

  “So I did good?” Sasha asked.

  “Yeah, you did good. But don’t let it go to your head, ‘cause it’s just startin’.”

  TWO HOURS later, a couple of four packs of coolers, a six pack of MGD, a fifth of Remy, and one of Quervo were stacked on the dresser of a Red Roof Inn motel. The TV was turned to a porn flick one of the two guys had ordered. The music on the clock radio was turned all the way up, its tiny speaker shooting out nothing but distortion, but it was enough for Sasha and JJ to do their little routine to.

  Pete and Cool—those were the guys’ names—were both clutching beers in one hand, plastic cups filled halfway with liquor in the other, yelling at the top of their lungs as Sasha, stripped naked from the waist down, gyrated in the middle of the floor. JJ, naked from the waist up, kissed and sucked Sasha’s toes, working her way up her right leg, babykissing her thigh, and slipping her finger up between her legs.

  “Goddamn!” Pete yelled, setting his cup down, digging into his pocket, pulling out the thick wad of cash he had, peeling the rubber band from around it, tossing tens and twenties down at the two girls.

  Ally, who was sitting on the arm of Cool’s chair, shot a look at Lisa, who was sitting next to Pete, when the man set his cup down. This was her cue to slip him the drug. But when Lisa went for the little plastic pouch in her bra, he wrapped his arm around her waist, grabbed his cup, and took a huge gulp from it.

  “You want another drink, baby?” Ally asked, trying to pull the cup from Cool’s hand, even though it wasn’t near empty.

  “Naw. Don’t want you to go nowhere.” Cool fondled Ally’s left breast. “Matter of fact,” he said, setting down his cup and grabbing Ally by the waist, pulling her in front of him. “I wanna see that fat ass of yours,” and he turned her around so that her back faced him. He started unfastening the tight-fitting polyester pants that clung to Ally’s hips.

  “But don’t you want something else to drink first?” Ally asked, motioning for Lisa to go for his cup.

  “Fuck the drink,” the man replied, quickly peeling down her pants to her knees. “Damn!” he said, giving her behind a slap that stung. “Look at this ass, boy!” he yelled over to Pete. “Now give me a lap dance. And I want it to be the best one I ever had.”

  Ally halted a moment, wondering what the hell she was doing in this position. Was the money even worth it? She shot a glance at JJ, who seemed as though she was trying with her eyes to tell her to just go along, everything would work out, and then she heard JJ say, “Yeah, girl. Show that nigga what you got. Show him what you got, girl! You know how you do,” she urged, trying to pull Ally into the moment.

  Ally heard JJ shouting at her and thought that either she could quit now, walk away with nothing, or commit totally, do this thing the right way, and take these two sorry bastards for everything they had. Unless she wanted to live with her mother the rest of her life, there was no other way.

  As Ally looked over her shoulder at the cheesing motherfucker who had ripped down her pants, something inside her clicked, and then she said, “Oh, is that what you want?” giving her own ass a harder, louder smack than the one she had gotten a moment ago. “You want this ass?”

  “Hell yeah!” he yelled, reaching out for it.

  “You got it, motherfucker,” and Ally started bouncing her behind on the stiffness under his jeans. She heard him moan, felt him grabbing her, felt his hands going under her shirt, squeezing her breasts, but she kept on, ignoring him.

  “Like that?” she cried. “Like that shit?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well let me hear it, motherfucker!” she yelled.

  “I like this shit!” he yelled.

  “Want this pussy?”

  “Fuck, yeah!”

  “He wants this pussy, girl,” Ally yelled to Lisa, who was riding Pete the same way Ally was doing Cool.

  “Well, I wanna give it to ‘em,” Lisa called back.

  Ally rose up off the man and told them, “Lay your asses on the floor and take off your pants.”

  “On the floor?” Pete said.

  “On the floor!” Ally yelled, then said to JJ, looking her intently in the eyes. “And get us something to drink, ‘cause I want us all to be right for this.”

  She was sure JJ got the message. JJ went to the dresser and as Ally and Lisa were dancing over the two physically excited men, she saw JJ go into the waist of her pants while she poured the drinks. Ally looked back over a second later, saw JJ shaking the cups in her hand, making sure that the powder couldn’t be seen floating on the top of the alcohol.

  JJ passed the cups to Ally and Lisa, Lisa looking to Ally for instruction. Ally took off her bra, threw it across the room, kneeled down over the man, and took one of her breasts in her hand. “Wanna suck it?”

  Cool nodded his head frantically, a silly grin on his face. Then Ally commanded, “Open your mouth and take a drink.” Cool opened his mouth wide, Pete doing the same for Lisa, as both girls started pouring the drinks into the men’s mouths.

  “Now I can give you a taste of me,” Ally said, lowering her breast over the man, placing herself into his mouth, allowing him to suck and lick her nipple.

  “Drink some more,” Ally urged.

  “Yeah, we want you nice and fucked up,” Lisa said to Pete, and they poured the rest of the liquor into the men’s mouths, some spilling over the sides of their faces.

  “Here, get me some more,” Ally said, holding up her cup, but when JJ came to take it, Pete said, “I don’t want no more to drink. I want some pussy.” He grabbed Lisa and hoisted her up onto the bed. Ally whipped her head around to see Lisa being tossed about, the man forcing her legs open with his arms.

  “Hold it!” Ally shouted, trying to get over there, but was grabbed by the arm.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Pete told her, standing and pushing Ally down to her knees. “You need to worry about this right here.” He had his stiff penis in his fist, shoving it in her face.

  “Here, let me jerk that thing for you,” JJ offered, trying to come to Ally’s rescue.

  Sasha was trying to distract Pete from attempting to slide himself into Lisa, who was struggling as much as she could to get away from the man.

  Both men pushed the other girls off, Cool saying, “Ain’t said shit about jerkin’. I want this bitch’s fat lips on my shit,” and then he grabbed Ally by her hair, forced her face in between his legs, the tip of his organ pushing into her cheek and then into one of her tightly shut eyes.

  “I said suck it, bitch!” Cool commanded, and then all of a sudden, Ally felt the grip on her hair loosen.

  “What the fuck is happening to me?” she heard him say. A second later, the man’s hand fell away altogether. Ally felt a whoosh of air and then heard a thud as the man dropped to the ground.

  “What the fu—”, Pete said, turning, seeing what happened to his friend, still holding Lisa’s legs open. Then he too started to waver and lost consciousness, flopping over, his half-naked body falling in between Lisa’s open thighs.

  The girls said nothing. Their mouths hung open, eyes wide, bodies frozen. The blaring of the distorted music from the radio played, and the faint sound of voices moaning in sexual pleasure from the TV was all that was heard.r />
  Another moment of silence and stillness passed. Then finally Sasha said, “What we do now?”

  “We grab they shit and go,” JJ advised, and the girls did just that.

  AFTER THE hour-long cab ride back to JJ’s spot, the makeup rubbed off, the wigs thrown aside, and the money counted and split, the girls joked and drank wine coolers, celebrating their first night’s take.

  “Almost eight hundred dollars apiece,” Lisa said, holding her stack of cash. “They had more than three grand between them. What kind of fool walks around with that kinda money?”

  “Fools who wanna lose it,” JJ answered, holding each individual bill up to the light to make sure she could see its watermark.

  Sasha fanned herself with the splayed dollar bills in her hand. “This’ll buy some nice clothes.”

  “And some nice Vickie’s underwear,” JJ said, leaning over and kissing Sasha on the lips.

  “And we got to get at least a grand for all this jewelry once we pawn it,” Ally said, sliding the platinum rings, bracelets, and necklaces into a plastic bag. “But what was up wit’ that nasty-ass show on the floor, JJ? I almost gagged when I saw ya’ll rollin’ around like that.”

  “Naw, baby. What you almost gagged on was that nigga’s dick! Did ya’ll see the look on Ally’s face when he was poking her in the eye with that nasty thing? You are so lucky that stuff worked when it did,” JJ said, laughing, along with Lisa and Sasha. “Or you would’ve been doin’ the chicken head for sure.”

  “No,” Ally said, waving a finger. “Alize don’t suck no dick. I woulda bit that bitch off before I stuck that thing in my mouth. Trust me.”

  “Whatever,” Sasha said, and the girls’ laughing died down as they all looked down at the money they now held.

  “Tonight was a good night,” Ally said. “Is everyone still cool with doin’ this?”

  “Yeah,” JJ said.

  “But how long we gonna keep it up?” Sasha asked.

  “Until we don’t want to no more,” Ally said, looking to Lisa.

  “Cool wit’ me,” Lisa replied.

  “You sure?” Ally looked her intently in the eyes.