by Roy Glenn
“Stop the car! Stop the mutha fuckin’ car and get this bitch outta here!”
Hawkins slammed on the brakes. Barnes got out and opened the door. As he reached in the back seat to get the unconscious Venus out of the car, Sterling began kicking her until he got her out. Barnes started to take Venus to the curb, but Sterling wasn’t having any of that.
“Drop that bitch!” he yelled. “I said drop that bitch!”
When Barnes laid her body on the hood of a parked car, Sterling jumped out of the car screaming.
“I said drop that bitch!” he pushed her body off the hood and then turned and slapped Barnes in the back of the head as he passed. “When I say drop that bitch, I mean drop that bitch. Not lay her ho-ass on a car.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
It was Monday afternoon when Sterling and Barnes arrived at DP’s car drop. First thing that morning, he was awakened by a call from DP and asked if he would meet him there. It seemed that the events of the last few days had convinced him to reconsider Sterling’s offer. Not only had he lost control of all his illegal businesses to Rain, he found out that morning that he had lost his legal businesses as well.
His father, Milton had built quite an empire for them, an empire that included, Essco Construction Materials, Milton Real Estate, Milton Automotive Parts Company, that sold to the auto industry, a chain of Fish and Chicken fast-food restaurants with locations throughout the tristate area, and the porno film studio with worldwide distribution. DP had power of attorney and planned to liquidate his ownership interest into cash to rebuild a new life for himself. He had already gotten a new identity and a fake passport.
However, when he met with his accountant and lawyer, supposedly to finalize things and transfer the money to a bank in the Caymans, they had more bad news for him.
“All of your assets are frozen, David, including the accounts that were set up to facilitate the sale of your father’s businesses,” the accountant informed.
Now that the plan had changed from destroy to confiscate, Ryder decided that there was no point recreating the wheel. So, instead of going all gangster about it, Ryder called Carla. She knew that if Rain was all over this like she was, then Carla would be all up in it for her.
“Of course, I am,” Carla said when Ryder asked.
Knowing how The Family operated, Carla had been shadowing DP’s accountant and lawyer while they were putting together the deals to sell off the Petty’s assets and was poised to take it on Rain’s command.
“And the bank has opened an investigation into your activities as credit union branch manager,” the lawyer added.
“On what grounds?” DP asked, but he already knew.
“The auditors suspect the you were using several accounts to operate loan sharking businesses and launder drug money.”
That was Carla’s doing too. It didn’t take her long to track the activity and was more than happy to send the information to the auditors.
DP buried his head in his hands. “What do I do now?” he raised his head enough to ask.
“My advice, you should join your father in Venezuela as soon as possible,” the lawyer said, stood up and extended his hand. “Good luck, David.”
Now that his circumstances had changed drastically, DP decided to accept the money that Sterling offered and get out of the city quietly. Sterling got out of the car, opened the trunk, and took out the bag with the money he was able to put together. “Wait here. This ain’t gonna take long.” Sterling told Hawkins and walked toward the office. DP was in there while Prune Face and Itchy were sitting outside.
“What up, y’all?” Sterling asked when he passed them and went in the office.
DP had no time for pleasantries. “Did you bring it?” he asked.
“Yeah, I got you,” Sterling said and put the bag on the desk. “But all I could get you that quickly was a hundred and a half. When you get where you going, I’ll get you some more.”
“Thanks, I should have did this when you offered it the first time, so thank you,” DP said, looking in the bag.
Sterling laughed a little. “They got you on the run now, huh?” he asked smugly, and DP didn’t appreciate his tone.
“Heard they at you too,” DP said and turned to open the wall safe. He had fifty thousand in cash in there; he took it out thinking that two hundred thousand dollars would work if he kept a low profile.
“What you talkin’ about?” Sterling asked.
“Venus.”
Sterling said nothing.
“What? You don’t think I hear shit?”
Once again Sterling said nothing, but this time, DP laughed.
“What’s funny?”
“Them … taking our shit.” DP laughed. “They just took my money. But what they took from you is a bit more personal. I know Venus was your heart. I’ll get more money, but you’ll never get back what the mutha fucka took from you.”
“Whatever, nigga. I’m out,” Sterling said because he wasn’t trying to hear any more of that shit. “Let me know where you land, and I’ll personally bring you some paper,” Sterling said and hugged his oldest friend. “Be safe.”
“I will,” DP said, and he watched Sterling leave the office, get in his car and drive away. Prune Face and Itchy came back in the office and sat down.
“What now?” Prune Face asked.
“We’re out of here,” DP said and that’s when he heard the sounds of gunfire in the garage. He looked at Prune Face and Itchy. “Go see what’s going on.”
“Finally, some action,” Prune Face said, pulled his weapon, and rushed out of the office.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Itchy said, following him out the door.
DP shook his head. “Ready to die niggas,” he said, opened the safe again and took the gun out this time. He looked through the office window and wasn’t at all surprised to see Rain and Carter. In fact, he wondered what took them so long to find the place.
The reason for that was that Milton couldn’t tell them where exactly it was located, and Carla hadn’t found it. But they caught a break that morning when DP called Sterling. At that point, it was easy to follow Sterling and he led them there. Having absolutely no interest in getting involved in another mini-war with drug dealers, Rain decided to let Sterling leave before they opened fire.
Now that he was gone, Rain, Carter, Ryder, Hassan and Chee-Chee had entered the car drop and were shooting it out with DP’s men. He knew from experience, he had gotten his ass kicked at every turn, that this wasn’t gonna go well for him either. Ready to die niggas is gonna die, he thought of Prune Face and Itchy and knew that shooting it out was not an option. DP knew that he needed to take the money, get to a car, and get the fuck outta there, “Now,” he said, picked up the bag, gripped his nine tight, and made a run for it.
“There he goes!” Rain shouted when she saw him come running out of the office. She stood up, fired a couple of shots and ran after him.
“Rain, wait!” Carter yelled and went after her.
When DP made it to an Audi S4, he tossed the bag in the passenger seat, started the car, and sped away.
Seeing DP leave, and knowing that it was a good idea if he got outta there too, Prune Face fired his way to a Mazda Miata and was about to get in when Rain walked up on him firing. She hit him with several shots and his bloody corpse slumped over the car. Rain grabbed his collar, jerked his dead body off the car, got in, and went after DP.
Itchy fired his weapon at the Miata as it sped out of the garage as he hurried to go after her. He got in an Infiniti Q50, started it up and was about to put the car in gear when the car door opened suddenly. Carter shot Itchy in the head, jerked his body out the car, got in, and went after Rain.
Rain weaved in and out through the traffic in the Miata behind DP firing shots as she drove. The Audi S4 that DP was driving turned sharply, and it caused the cars to crash in front of Rain.
She slammed on her brakes. “Fuck!” Rain shouted, turned sharply, and con
tinued after DP.
Once she got close enough to him, Rain started shooting until she emptied the clip. She reloaded her gun and blasted away. One of her shots took out DP’s back window, but he kept going. Rain fired a few more shots at the Audi as it approached an intersection. DP weaved in and out and had to dodge a couple of cars, but he made it through the intersection. As traffic began to slow down in front of her, Rain floored it, but a car that was speeding through the intersection slammed into her Miata and she went into a spin.
Rain gripped the steering wheel tight and turned into the spin and brought the car to a halt just as Carter arrived at the scene. He jumped out, rush to Rain and pulled her out of the car.
“I’m all right,” Rain said and tapped her earpiece. “Tell me you still got him, Carla.”
“I got him,” Carla said calmly.
DP looked in his rearview mirror and was glad that he didn’t see Rain following him anymore.
“Yes!” he shouted, banging the steering wheel as he continued to weave in and out of traffic.
Even though he was sure that he had lost her, DP still drove around for a while just to be on the safe side.
He’d had another encounter with Rain Robinson and Carter Garrison, and he was still alive. DP had two hundred thousand dollars in cash in a bag on the seat next to him. His plan now was to drive to Florida and get out of the country.
With the fake ID and passport that he had secured, he had booked a cruise that was set to leave Port Canaveral the following day. Once he was out of the country, DP would get off in the Turks and Caicos and disappear. There was only one thing left to do.
Knowing that Rain was on his trail and he couldn’t go anywhere that he thought she would know about; DP had rented a condo in New Rochelle where he had a few checks that he had gotten from selling some of the stocks he and Milton had invested in. He would swing by there, pick up the checks and then he would be on his way.
When he got to the condo, DP parked and walked as quickly as he could into the building. Once he made it to his unit and unlocked the door, DP turned on the lights.
“Took you long enough,” Carter said and punched him in the jaw. DP went down, and his body hit the floor so hard that his head bounced.
“Damn,” Rain said and got up from the chair that she was sitting in. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
Carter knelt down and checked for a pulse. “He ain’t dead yet.”
“Good, he needs to suffer before he dies.”
When DP opened his eyes, he saw Rain and Carter sitting in front of him. It took a second or two to clear his head and realize that he was gagged and bound, standing on his toes, with his arms above his head, and hanging from a ceiling fan.
Carter smiled. “About time.”
Carter stood up and walked toward DP. He already had his gloves on, so he went right to work. He started punching DP over and over in the face and chest as Rain watched quietly with her gun on her lap until she got bored and told Carter to stop.
By that time, DP’s face was swollen and distorted and his clothes were covered in his own blood. Rain stood up and walked toward DP.
“You know what the sad part about all this is?”
“What’s that?” Carter asked.
“It was all because this nigga wanted to fuck me again,” Rain said and took a step closer to DP. “Yeah, your daddy told me that too before I killed him.”
“You bullshittin’?”
“Nope.” She got in DP’s face. “Why didn’t you just try posting up at the club. The dick wasn’t bad, so I might have let you have some.”
Carter shook his head. “Dumb move.”
Then Rain put her gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-eight
When Sterling left DP at the car drop and headed home, he had Venus on his mind. He sat in the back seat as his men drove, looking out the window, with DP’s words swirling around in his head.
I know Venus was your heart. I’ll get more money, but you’ll never get back what the mutha fucka took from you.
It was true, Venus was his heart, she meant everything to him, he trusted her, and she betrayed him with RJ and just the thought of it hurt, hurt him badly. But being the kind of man he was and having the position of power and authority that he did, he couldn’t show it. He had to appear tough, like the shit didn’t bother him. The truth was entirely another matter. But since Sterling was playing it like it didn’t matter, everybody around him took it the same way. And now that it was over, everybody had a story to tell.
“I thought something was going on between the two of them,” Barnes said.
“I used to see her going and coming out of his office all the time, but I didn’t wanna say nothing,” Hawkins chimed in.
“Venus used to be all up in his face every time you wasn’t looking,” Jamar gladly reported. “Playin’ your ass like you was a fuckin’ fool,” he added and immediately regretted it when Sterling took out his gun and shot him in the leg.
“It’s only a flesh wound, nigga; you’ll live,” Sterling said, and went to his room. He sat down, picked up his bat and twirled it as thoughts of Venus continued to bombard him.
How could she do that to me? With that mutha fucka!
The thought of it may have hurt him, but the knowledge of it was embarrassing. Everybody knew it. Everybody knew that Venus played him for a fool and cheated behind his back. The fact that his own people weren’t just talking about it behind his back, they were in his face with it and that made Sterling mad. He could hear them laughing, knew that they were laughing at him and that he had to do something to regain his honor. He stood up quickly and rushed out of the room and pointed.
“You two,” he said to Barnes and Hawkins. “Go find Venus and bring her to me. By force if necessary,” he said and went back in the room.
As for Venus, she was doing all right after her traumatic experience. Once she regained consciousness, Venus made her way back to The Four Kings and RJ saw to it that she saw a doctor just to be sure that she was all right. She felt free and glad to be done with him. That following Monday morning, Venus got up, showered, dressed, and went to class, determined to move on with life. She was a senior at city college, and when her last class was over, she and Patra were going to catch the train downtown to 34th Street with the intention of doing some shopping. But it wasn’t meant to be. Venus and Patra were walking down Malcolm X Boulevard when a car pulled up alongside of them just before they got to the train station at 135th Street. Barnes jumped out, grabbed Venus and dragged her, kicking and screaming back to the car.
Patra screamed and watched in horror as the car pulled off and sped away. She knew that she needed to call RJ, but she had no idea how to contact him. All she could do was head uptown to the club and hope that somebody was there.
When his men returned with Venus, they brought her to him. “I don’t wanna see that ho. Take her to the basement and tie her up. But don’t hurt her. I don’t want her damaged in any way, understand?”
“Understood.”
“Good,” Sterling said and picked up his phone to call RJ at The Four Kings.
When the call came, they were waiting for it. Patra had made it there and she had told The Kings what had happened and that she was sure that it was some of Sterling’s people that took her.
“I got Venus, and if you ever want to see her alive again, its gonna cost you.”
“Cost me what?” RJ asked.
“She a cheap ho, so I’m gonna let you have her back cheap. You get fifty g’s and then you and one man meet me on the top level of the parking garage on Broadway and West two thirty third. I’ll be there in two hours and I’ll just have one man with me. Bring the money or this worthless ho is as good as dead,” Sterling said and ended the call.
RJ hung up the phone and told his brothers what was going on. At first, there was silence in the office and then Marvin spoke up.
“This is just me playing devil’s advocate, and
I’m saying this not knowing how or what you feel for Venus. But, is she worth fifty G’s to you?”
“Whether she is or not ain’t what’s important. What is important is that I can’t let him disrespect me like this and I don’t do shit about it. So, I’m gonna get Venus back, and then I’m gonna kill him.”
“No,” Judah said. “We gonna get Venus back.”
“And then we gonna kill him,” Pills added.
In two hours, RJ and Marvin were at the parking garage, standing by their car, bag full of money at their feet, waiting for Sterling to arrive. Since he didn’t trust Sterling to come alone, Pills and Judah were parked close by in separate cars just in case things got wild.
When Sterling arrived, he was true to his word and only came with Barnes. They got out and as Sterling looked at RJ and Marvin, Barnes opened the trunk and helped Venus get out.
“I brought your ho; you got my money?”
RJ picked up the bag of money and began walking toward them. Once he was close enough, he tossed the bag to Sterling and he laughed.
“You can keep the money. I don’t need your money. This ain’t about that,” Sterling said and then he paused. But since RJ didn’t ask what it was about, he told him. “It’s about honor and respect. Two things you don’t know nothing about. So, you take that ho, I was done with her anyway,” Sterling said and pushed Venus toward RJ and she stumbled and fell.
She got to her feet and ran into RJ’s arms.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m all right.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, mutha fucka, I didn’t hurt her ass. I’m trying to tell you, nigga, this ain’t about her. It’s about you and me.” Just then, Barnes handed him two aluminum baseball bats. “It’s about what you tried to take from me.”
“I didn’t try shit. I took her from you.”
“Now we gonna settle this like men. We fight,” Sterling said and then he tossed RJ a bat. “Until the last man is standing over the others dead body.”