The Hustler's Daughter Volume 2

by Pinky Dior

  As I was planning and setting things up, I met you and I fell in love with you. Mercedes, when I first looked into your beautiful green eyes, I knew you were special. I wanted to have you all to myself, but I knew if Vicente found out about you, he would have planned to get you killed, so that’s why I never told him about you. I didn’t give a fuck about your father or the rest of the family. Vicente killed your father, but I laid him to rest. I had no choice.

  I know you won’t ever forgive me, but you have to understand. I didn’t want to lose you. That’s why I killed your Uncle Roy - because he was going to tell you what I’ve done and I couldn’t live with you walking out of my life. And as far as your mother, I had to keep her quiet, so I attempted to kill her too.

  Vicente told me about a safe, saying there was millions of dollars in it along with his product, and he wanted to me to find it. If I didn’t, he would kill me. I wasn’t supposed to kill your mother, but that day I lost my mind. All I cared about was getting the money. Basically, he set me up. He wanted me to kill your father so the debt would be settled, but then he wanted me to find the safe and bring him all of the money and the drugs. I know I fucked up, Mercedes, but I truly love you and want to marry you. Will you forgive me?

  A single tear slid down her cheek. She held the glass of wine next to her lips and in the other hand, she pressed the letter against her chest. She couldn’t believe the confession he had just given her. The letter was breathtaking, but the hate she had for Emilio would be carved in her heart forever. She didn’t condone what he did, but it was life. It is what it is. That’s how the game was and people didn’t play by the rules, because after all, it was a game. Play it well, because if you don’t, you will lose everything.

  Chapter Six

  Best friends

  After pulling up to the curb, Mercedes parked her Benz and took off her Chanel glasses. She noticed there was an exquisite house for sale. It captivated her; it was the same one that she had seen in the paper. The landlord was holding a viewing of the house today. There was a big white and red “for sale” sign that sat on top of the freshly-cut green grass.

  Mercedes hopped out of the car and walked over to the house, gazing at it from a distance as she nodded her head up and down. Mama would definitely like this house, Mercedes thought to herself as she continued walking up the path to the house. She stopped in her tracks when an older African American man came out of the house. He turned his back to Mercedes as he locked up the front door and walked down the stairs, stopping in his tracks as he noticed her standing before him.

  “Hi, how are you?” Mercedes smiled and greeted him with a gracious smile.

  “I’m fine, and you?”

  “I’m doing lovely.”

  “Are you here for the open house?” he asked.

  “Yes, why, is it too late?”

  “Yeah, I already had three people come to look at it and they loved it,” he informed her with a smile on his face. “I mean, the open house was earlier this morning and I’m afraid that the house may be sold.” He smiled nervously when he saw that she looked let down.

  “Oh, okay. Thanks anyway.”

  Mercedes turned to walk away, but stopped in her tracks when the guy yelled out, “Hey, I can still let you see it, but it has to be really quick.”

  Mercedes didn’t know what the point was, since he said the house might be sold already, but she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Alright, thank you.”

  Mercedes followed him back up the steps. He opened up the door and she walked into the house right behind him. Mercedes immediately fell in love with the home as soon as she stepped foot into it. The house had high ceilings and nice smooth marble floors. Shit, I bet you I can skate on this damn floor! Mercedes thought to herself as she walked across the floors. They were so smooth and shiny. She walked into the living room and the walls were white. It had an exquisite fireplace and over by the window was a little bench where you could sit and look out the windows. She knew her mother also loved to cook, so when she headed into the gourmet kitchen, she nodded her head, knowing her mother was going to fall in love with it. There was a granite counter, beautiful white cabinets, and it also came with a refrigerator.

  Mercedes examined the rest of the house quickly. She knew her mother would love this house, and if she saw it, she would cry to have it. When Mercedes walked back into the foyer, the realtor was standing in the middle of the floor.

  “So what do you think?”

  “It’s beautiful.” Mercedes smiled, nodding her head in approval as she looked around.

  “Thank you; I’m glad you like it.”

  “I’ll take it,” Mercedes simply stated with a cute smile on her face. “How much is the down payment?”

  He was startled by her tone. He unloosened his tie and cleared his throat. “The down payment is a little high…”

  Mercedes cut him off, knowing that he didn’t have anyone else with her kind of money ready to give him that day. “How much is the down payment?” she repeated.

  “Um, it’s twenty-nine thousand for the down payment and the mortgage on the house would probably be somewhere around two thousand a month.” He smiled graciously, thinking that Mercedes would just say never mind and leave.

  “Okay, so when can we get all the paperwork filled out?”

  “As soon as you’re ready to head to the bank to fill it out and apply for the mortgage.” He smiled. “How about first thing in the morning, so we can get the process started immediately?”

  “That’s fine.” Mercedes extended her hand and they shook hands. She headed out of the home. She walked on the grass and picked up the “for sale” sign. She turned around and pushed it against the realtor’s chest. “You won’t be needing this anymore. And call up the people who were supposed to be buying the house and tell them Mercedes Carter bought it,” Mercedes said arrogantly. She smiled at the realtor and walked around to the driver’s side of her Benz.

  The realtor just stood there, appalled. Mercedes smirked at how much of a Carter she was.

  ***

  Mercedes was sound asleep and comfortable in her cozy bed. Her cell phone started ringing, jerking her out of her sleep. She gripped her sheets and rolled over, reaching for her cell phone on the nightstand. Mercedes grabbed the phone and flipped it open, placing it up to her ear.

  “Hello?” Mercedes whispered into the phone. Mercedes quickly sat up in her bed and reached over to turn on the light on the nightstand. She could tell it was her best friend, Candy, on the other line. She was crying and she could barely talk straight. “Calm down, Candy, what are you saying?” Mercedes asked.

  “He…he beat me up!” Candy cried into the receiver. “P-please come get me, Cedes.”

  “Where are you at?” Mercedes asked as she shot up from the bed.

  Candy told her the address, and Mercedes quickly ran over to her closet and pulled out the first outfit she could find to put on. She grabbed a pair of sweatpants, threw on her wife beater, grabbed her pink hoodie, and quickly got dressed. As Mercedes was trying to talk to Candy, all she could hear was the guy in the background yelling and Candy crying.

  “Candy!” Mercedes yelled into the receiver.

  She got no response. All she heard was a beeping noise, indicating that the call had been dropped. Mercedes shut her cell phone and slid it into her pocket. She opened up her safe, grabbing her gun. She snatched her keys off the nightstand and headed off in her Benz. She rushed over to Candy’s and she got there within minutes. Mercedes pulled up in front of the little apartment building in Queens and parked her car. She ran into the building and tried to call Candy, but it kept going straight to her voicemail.

  “Shit!” Mercedes hung up the phone and hopped up the stairs. She heard loud cries coming from the upstairs level. She quickly ascended the steps and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Mercedes turned to the side as she ran up against the door, but it didn’t work. She pulled out her gun and shot at the door, popping the lock instant
ly. She kicked in the door with her gun drawn and entered the apartment. She pointed it towards a locked door when she heard small cries and sniffles coming from the room. Mercedes pushed the door in, positioning her gun, but then she quickly put it down. Candy sat on the couch crying, her body wrapped up in white sheets. Her hair was all out of place and her face was bruised up. She had a busted lip and a black eye.

  “Oh my God, Candy, are you alright?” Mercedes asked. She rushed over to Candy, touched her face, and grimaced. Mercedes gently gripped Candy’s face with both of her hands as she gazed into her eyes. “Why did he do this to you?”

  “He got mad because someone told him I was fucking around on him and he beat me up,” Candy said as her raspy voice cracked.

  “Come on, Candy, let’s go. Where’s your clothes?” Mercedes asked, looking around.

  Candy pointed to her clothes on the floor in the corner. Mercedes picked them up and helped Candy get dressed.

  “Candy!” The bathroom door swung open and a man walked out wearing a white bath towel around his waist.

  Candy looked up and noticed her boyfriend, Jamal, coming out of the bathroom with a mean face on. He was about 6’2”, medium built, with a short fade and big lips.

  “Who the hell are you?” he bellowed at Mercedes. “And what the fuck you doing in my place?” He inched towards them as his nose started to flare up.

  “I can explain…” Candy began, but he quickly smacked her across her face, knocking her to the floor. Candy grimaced in pain as she held the side of her face.

  “Nigga, I don’t think you want to do that again,” Mercedes assured him with a serious tone and a stern look on her face. She pulled out her gun and pointed it at him. He held his hands out for her not to shoot. “I promise you, I will pull the fucking trigger if you do that shit again. I promise you!” Mercedes sang.

  Jamal stared into Mercedes’s eyes, trying to picture where he knew her from, and he finally remembered she was Don Carter’s daughter. “You don’t have the heart,” he said smartly. “You probably don’t even know how to shoot that shit. Let me show you,” he said with sarcasm, inching towards her.

  He stopped in his tracks when Mercedes cocked back the gun and turned her head to the side. “You don’t know me! Come an inch further and I will push ya fucking wig back, bitch-ass nigga!” she threatened, staring him directly the eyes. “You think you know me?”

  “Mercedes, please, let’s just go.” Candy pulled on her arm, trying to get her to leave, but Mercedes wasn’t having that. She pulled her arm back and continued talking.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Candy!” Jamal yelled. “So get your ass back here and stand by ya man’s side!” he demanded.

  Mercedes screwed up her face at him and looked over her shoulder. “Candy, don’t listen to this clown-ass nigga! Go wait in the car for me.”

  “Mercedes…”

  “I said wait in the car!” Mercedes demanded, getting impatient with her. She looked down at Candy and brought her attention back to Jamal. “I’m coming!” Mercedes barked as she watched Candy pick up her bag off the floor. Mercedes glanced at Jamal, looking him up and down. “No good nigga!” Mercedes’s nose flared up. She lowered her gun and turned around to walk away.

  “You will never be like your father, bitch!” Jamal spat as he started laughing. “Who does this bitch think she is? Don Carter?” He laughed hysterically as he looked up to the ceiling, as if he was talking to God.

  Mercedes titled her head to the side, enraged by the comment. She quickly turned around and without hesitating, let off four rounds into his chest. He grabbed his chest as his jaw dropped, staring Mercedes in her eyes. Candy stopped in her tracks and turned around, watching as her boyfriend’s body jerked up and down.

  “Don’t you ever speak my father’s name, motherfucker!” Mercedes stood over his body and shot him one last time in his chest, emptying the clip. When she turned around, she saw Candy standing in the doorway with her hands covering her mouth, crying. Mercedes picked the shell casings up off the floor and slid them into her back pocket. She wiped down any and everything that Candy might have touched when she was in there.

  “You got ammonia and Pine Sol?”

  “Yeah, it’s under the bathroom sink.” Candy sniffled as she stared at Jamal’s body sprawled out on the ground. His blood stained the cream-colored carpet. Mercedes emerged quickly from the bathroom, almost tripping over the threshold. Within seconds, Mercedes poured the ammonia and Pine Sol all over the floor, covering the fact that they had ever been there.

  “Let’s go.” Mercedes walked past Candy. She stood there shaking as she watched as her boyfriend lay there lifelessly with four bullet holes decorating his chest.

  “Come on, we got to go!” Mercedes yelled as she grabbed her up.

  They ran down the steps and got into the car. Mercedes looked around, hoping no one had seen her, and her tires made a screeching noise as she peeled off.

  Mercedes drove home and the car was filled with silence. She looked over at Candy and noticed she was very quiet. She laid her head against the window as a tear crept down her cheek. Mercedes hoped Candy didn’t have any hard feelings against her for killing her boyfriend.

  “Candy, I hope you don’t have any hard—”

  “You killed him!” Candy said bluntly as she stared straight ahead, blinking away the tears in her eyes.

  “I know, Candy, but he beat you. Do you see your face?” Mercedes bellowed, raising her voice. “No man should ever lay hands on you, no matter what the fuck happened in there. That nigga deserved it, and I don’t let anyone disrespect me or the Carter family. He disrespected me, so that nigga got what was coming to him!” Mercedes said coldly.

  “That’s beside the point. I understand all that, but what if you get caught again and you end up doing life, for real?” Candy looked over at Mercedes with a serious look on her face.

  “No evidence, no case.” Mercedes pursed her lips together as she pulled up in front of her house, got out, and helped Candy into her place. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Mercedes walked into the bathroom, grabbed a few items out of the bathroom cabinet, and set them on the sink. Candy sat down on the toilet, still shaken up—not from the beating, but from Mercedes killing Jamal.

  “This might sting a little bit.” Mercedes took a cotton ball with alcohol and dabbed it on Candy’s swollen, bruised face.

  “Ouch!” Candy flinched.

  “Come on, you can’t walk around with all of this blood on your face.”

  Mercedes continued cleaning off her face. Candy grimaced in pain, trying to pull back, but Mercedes’ grip on her chin kept her from making any movements. Mercedes smiled as she tossed the drenched cotton balls filled with blood and alcohol into the trash. She emerged from the bathroom and walked into the kitchen. She grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer, reentered the bathroom, and handed it to Candy.

  “You can stay here,” Mercedes said and showed her to the guest room.

  “Nah, Mercedes, I can’t. This is your crib and I—”

  “Candy, we go way back since Cadillac’s.” Both of the girls chuckled.

  “You’re so silly!” Candy smiled.

  “So you can stay with me, Candy. I don’t mind. You’re my best friend and that’s what best friends do: they look out for each other.”

  “Aww, thanks.” They hugged each other and Candy cried into her arms. “Best friends forever,” Candy said as Mercedes just continued hugging her.

  Mercedes wished she could say it back, but she couldn’t. Mercedes knew for a fact that “forever” didn’t always mean it would last forever.

  Chapter Seven

  Clubbin’

  Since it was Candy’s nineteenth birthday, Mercedes picked up the girls in her Benz and they headed out to the mall in Queens. Mercedes had the money…why not take her girls out and treat them to something nice? Mercedes had plans all set for Candy’s birthday that night. She was throwing her a bi
g surprise party at a club in Manhattan. Mercedes warned the girls to keep their mouth shuts about Candy’s surprise party. She knew how big Shateeya’s mouth was, and Shateeya was quick to run it.

  The girls headed to her mother’s salon. Mercedes treated her girls to get their hair done. The girls sat in the hair salon, looking through magazines, picking out their different hairstyles. After getting their nails and feet done, they were off to the mall. As they entered the mall, all eyes were on them with their fly hairstyles. They knew they were the shit as they made their grand entrance into the mall. The girls quickly went in and out of the stores, their hands loaded with shopping bags. They were trying to pick out the perfect outfit for the night. Mercedes smiled as she watched the girls going crazy in the stores. The girls were more than excited as Mercedes pampered them and bought them whatever they wanted.

  Mercedes finally sat down on a bench in one of the stores and dropped her shopping bags to the ground. She had to sit down, because they’d been shopping for hours and she was exhausted, especially since carrying the heavy bags made her arms sore. The other girls had their outfits in their arms as they sat down next to Mercedes.

  “Where’s Candy?” Chamari asked, looking around the store for her.

  “She’s in the fitting room trying on a dress,” Mercedes said.

  They watched as Candy stepped out of the fitting room in a red dress. The girls screwed up their faces, shaking their heads in disapproval, indicating that the dress wasn’t popping.