“What’s good?” He looked at me suspiciously.
“I got into it with a gyal in the club, and I end up cutting her. Now they’re after me.”
“Oh, word. Get it in, yo.” He looked around.
I was about to get in the car when Sophia grabbed my arm. “Who is this? You know him?” She was looking at me suspiciously now.
“This is the same youth that I was telling you about. The other man. Come on,” I said.
We all got in the car, and he pulled off. He drove past the club, and the crowd was gathered around the entrance, but we couldn’t see anything else. This was some bullshit.
“Yo, what happen in there with you and the bitches?” he asked once the club was in his rearview mirror.
“Yo, I come up here to compete in the dance contest. This gyal that I beat three times have it in for me. She jump up in my face, along with her friend. I tried to ignore them, but the bitch start disrespecting. So I pull the razor out my mout’ and slice di gyal in her face. A long time, I give that gyal. Whole lot of passes.”
“Yo, goody, I’m sorry I was late. ’Cause, trust mi, if I was there, that gyal couldn’t come up inna yuh face like dat. Trust me,” Sophia said. I could tell by her tone that she was pissed off.
“I didn’t know you is a bad gyal, mon.” He burst out laughing.
“Why you laughing like it’s a joke thing? What if they call the police? I’ll be locked up,” I said in an annoyed tone.
“Yo, relax . . . A Jamaica this, so them bitches ain’t callin’ no police. If anything, you just have to be prepared to fuck them up again.”
“I’m not afraid of these bitches. I’m angry because tonight I’m s’pposed to get fifty grand if I won. This is how I make my money. I’m an independent gyal, and this gyal come fuck with me and fuck up my thing. Yo, I’m vex bad.”
“Yo, chill out, babes. Fifty grand? That’s nothing, babes. Just easy,” he said.
He was saying that shit ’cause he probably got money, but I didn’t have money like that. I made a few dollars at the bar, but dancing was my thing to get me up out of the ghetto.
“Y’all ladies going home?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. Drop me home please. I ’ave this gyal blood all ova my clothes,” I said.
The rest of the ride was quiet; I was too fucking upset to keep on talking. With the anger that I was feeling right now, I could definitely kill that bitch. Why the fuck would she decide to mess with me? I was not a troublemaker. I made my little money and took care of myself. Tears wanted to flow, but my pride wouldn’t let me cry in front of a nigga that I barely knew. So I used everything in me to hold it in.
Twenty minutes later he pulled up at the house. But wait, how the fuck did he know exactly where I lived at? Hmm. Let me find out this nigga been doing his homework, I thought.
“Here you go, ladies.”
“Tanks,” Sophia said and jumped out.
“Thank you. I appreciate it,” I told him. I was about to exit the car when he grabbed my arm.
“Yo, B. Take my number and link mi.”
“Come on, Gaza. Mi appreciate what you just do for me, but I just tell you I don’t want no man.”
“Camille, fuck that nigga that hurt you. I’m a man, not him. Yo, take this number and link mi,” he said in a serious tone.
Chapter Four
Gaza
Ever since I had laid eyes on the catty at the bar a week ago, I couldn’t seem to get her off my mind. The first thing that had caught my eye was her phat ass. I had blinked twice to make sure I wasn’t tripping. She was a little cutie, too. As I took a sip of my liquor, I’d scoped her out from head to toe. To be honest, there were a lot of bad bitches in Jamaica, but she was sexy, with a hot look.
I ain’t goin’ to lie. I’d been kind of irritated when she turned me down. Either she had a man or she was playing hard to get. Being the nigga I was, though, I wasn’t goin’ to sit around and beg no bitch to be with me. Shit, everywhere I went lately on the island, bitches were hollering at me. I had shot her a look and had walked out of the bar. In due time she would come to her senses. I hoped she didn’t wait too long.
I was so busy ripping and running and trying to get this money rolling in, I barely had time to sleep. Money was on my mind hard. Shit, a nigga could sleep when I hit a couple of million, US, of course. Shit. I ain’t seen my dawg Gio in a few days, so I decided to get dressed and go link him. I pulled on a shirt and shorts and gave him a call.
“Yo, mi genna, you at the spot?” I asked when he picked up.
“No, mi daddy. Mid eh dung by Waltham Park Road. Mi a eat a fish enuh.”
“Oh word. Yo, mi hungry too enuh. A’ight, mi a cum link yuh.”
“A’ight, mi daddy,” he said before we hung up.
I got in my car and head toward Waltham Park. I could hear my belly growling from being hungry. I loved how everything was working out, and I just needed to rap with my nigga, since he was my partner and right-hand man. I was still new in the place, but he had been here and was more familiar with a lot of shit that went on. He even have a few police on his payroll. That was definitely a plus, because we needed to know ahead of time when shit was about to hit the fan.
I spotted Gio’s car when I pulled up at the little fish spot. I parked beside him and got out. I walked in the restaurant and immediately caught sight of him.
“Whaddup, son?” I greeted him when I reached his table.
“I’m here, Father,” he said, stretching his hand out. We exchanged daps.
I took a seat beside him. He waved to the cook to come over to us.
“Yo, give mi brethren the biggest fish that you have,” he told the cook when she reached our table.
“Let me get a Guinness too,” I added.
After the cook handed me a cold Guinness, Gio and I sat there, just rapping about shit in general. We were in a restaurant, so we were careful not to discuss no personal shit. I had taken a glance around when I first sat down, and had seen that motherfuckers were sitting around, just being nosy and shit.
My fish was done in no time, and I wasted no time in digging in after the cook placed it in front of me. I really didn’t realize how famished I was until now.
“Damn. You is starving, mon. You need a woman over at the yard to cook for you,” Gio observed.
“You see it too?”
We burst out laughing. Shit. I ain’t never been shy about no food, and I wasn’t going to start now.
After we finished eating, we sat there drinking a few more Guinness. Then we left out.
“Yo, get in real quick,” I told Gio as I motioned to my car.
We both had the same plan to take over the Gully and surrounding areas. There was a lot of money to be made if we just stayed on top of our shit. We had decided to put our minds together and get shit accomplished.
Once we were both seated in my car, I turned to my right-hand man. “Yo, Gio, fuck these niggas out here. We ain’t new to this shit. Matter of fact, we been doing this shit for a minute now. We goin’ to show these niggas how it supposed to be done.”
“Yo, Father, I love how you thinking. It sound good, but we might have to strong-arm the spots and be ready fo’ war,” Gio said.
“B, I’m ready fo’ whatever. These niggas have no idea, we natural-born killers.”
“True. This is a new ball game. Since the scamming thing start, it’s like bloodshed everywhere. These niggas are on some other shit. We can’t trust none of them, Father.”
“Yo, you is my brother. You is the only nigga I trust.” I gave that nigga a serious look so he would know how dead ass I really was.
“From day one, you already know, a family we say.”
I knew taking over these areas wasn’t going to be an easy task, but we had the manpower and the guns, and in due time we’d have the paper to secure all those spots.
“Yo, I need a favor from you,” I said.
“Anything.”
“Yo, the catty t
hat work in your bar . . .”
“Who you talking ’bout? Camille? I know you checking for her.”
“Yeah, mon. The other night some shit pop off at the spot she was at, and she beg me for a ride home.”
He looked over at me. “Nigga, those type of gyal are top notch. You have to come correct.”
“I don’t have no problem with that. I want her bad.”
He just laughed at me. This nigga must not have noticed that I was dead-ass serious.
“Yo, son, I need to find out what clown she fucks wit’. Not that it matter, ’cause I’ma take her from that nigga.”
“She don’t ’ave no man. She used to mess around wit’ a nigga, and the nigga ran off with another gyal. She took it real hard still.”
“I got her. I’m not going to run off. I just need you to put in a good word for me,” I said.
“I got you. A’ight, I have some moves to make. We can link up later.”
“A’ight, yo.”
He got out of the car, and I pulled off. That nigga thought I was fooling around, only ’cause he knew my reputation back in New York.
* * *
Time waited on no one, so I returned my focus to what I knew best. I couldn’t let pussy get in the way of what I was trying to accomplish. Even though I was feeling the catty, I wasn’t desperate. Lately, I had had different bitches spending the night with me. Also, I knew once I started stacking this bread, bitches were goin’ to be there.
Shit started rolling. I was shipping keys of coke off to Miami and New York almost every week. My people out there was loving it. The thing was, it was a risky business, and costly, just to get it on the boat without getting on the radar of the Coast Guard. I knew sending shit to the United States was also dangerous. The Feds could be the ones to intercept the cargo, and shit could get sticky. I swear, I had to be extra careful, ’cause going back to prison was not an option I was trying to explore.
The demand for the raw coke had us working overtime. There were days when I barely slept or made it in the house. I was also fucking with the ganja. I had found a ganja farmer out in St. Elizabeth, and I had started getting ten pounds. I really didn’t do a lot of business as far as selling shit to the locals. The police was hot out here; plus, the weed market out here was oversaturated.
I walked in the office we had set up in the back of the bar. The two dudes and the chick was working the phones. So far, we had collected over eight grand US from people who thought they were sending money in order to receive their winnings. I was new to this, but I fully understood how it worked now. This was way easier than I had thought. If they continued like this, that business would soon be booming too.
I sat down and started going through the books, checking the numbers. I did not realize that shit was about to get sticky.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
I heard gunshots ringing out. I grabbed my burner from my waist and ran out of the office. When I got to the front of the bar, I saw a nigga lying on the floor. I ran past him and outside. All I could see was a CBR bike speeding away from the scene.
Fuck! I rushed back in to see who the fuck that was that was lying there on the floor. By then the people that were in the bar had surrounded him.
“Somebody call a taxi! Please this man a-go dead right now,” I shouted.
The scene was horrible. I realized the victim was a guy named Ratty, one of the little soldiers that was on our team. Shit. I knew I had to act fast.... In no time the police would be storming in here. I needed to get him up out of here fast.
“Aye, you got a ride?” I said to a nigga that was standing around. “Here. Two hundred US dollars. Run him down by the hospital.”
“He’s not going to make it, Father.”
“Yo, I never ask you no fucking question,” I snarled. “Take the man out of the place before the bloodclaat pigs them come through. We don’t need this kind of heat up in here right now.”
Without saying another word, a few niggas grabbed Ratty and carried him outside.
I looked around at everybody that was standing around. “Yo, I’ma need y’all to keep y’all mouth shut,” I shouted, with venom in my voice.
I then rushed to the back. “Yo, we need to shut everything down right now. Ratty just got shot, and we need to move out before Babylon come through. Grab di computer them and put in my car. Operation shut down till further notice.”
“A’ight, boss man,” said one of the dudes who had been working the phones.
I then dialed Gio’s number, but he wasn’t picking up. I didn’t have time to hang out around here when shit was about to get real. I cleared everybody out of the building and locked the grill. I then jumped in my car and pulled off. On my way out, I saw a few police cars pulling into the lane. I held my head straight and kept driving. I had my burner on me; plus, I had all these computers with numbers on them. This shit alone carried a lot of jail time.
My phone started ringing.
“Yo, Father,” Gio said as soon as I picked up the phone.
“Yo, I’m on the way to the crib.”
“Cool. I’ma link wit’ you in a few.”
I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was aware of what had just gone on. I already knew how he got down, and I knew shit was about to get real sticky. I made it to the house, put the code in at the gate, and pulled in. After I came to a stop and turned off the car, I jumped out, grabbed the computers, brought them into the house, and stashed them in one of the spare bedrooms.
I walked into the kitchen and poured me a glass of Hennessy. I then rolled a blunt while I waited on Gio to pull up. My mind was all over the place. It had been years that I’d seen a nigga shot. But I just knew that we were goin’ to have to go to war over this shit. There was no way we could let that shit slide like that.
Gio’s car pulled up to the gate. I unlocked the grill, went outside, and opened the gate for him. He parked, and then we both walked in the house.
“What’s good, Daddy?” he said. We exchanged daps.
“Yo, you hear what happen to Ratty?”
“Yeah. ’Im sister just call mi phone. Ratty didn’t make it,” he said, choking up.
“Dawg, you serious?” I lowered my head. “Yo, di shit happen so fast. I come through and passed Ratty out front. I went to the back to check on the workers them and to see how things were going on. A few minutes later, I hear gunshot, so I reach for my burner and run out front. By the time I got outside, I see the pussy them car speeding down the lane, but too much people was on the lane, so I couldn’t even bust at them. By time I go back inside the place, I realize say a Ratty them shot up. That’s when I pay a youth to transport him to the hospital. I hurry up and lock up di place before the pussy them show up.”
“Jah know, star, Ratty is family. Why ’im even a live this lifestyle, you know? Yo them pussyhole niggas going to pay with their lives. From them mother to them rass pickney, they’re going to pay,” he yelled in a cold but fierce tone.
“Yo, you already know say, if a blood you say, then that’s what it is.”
“Yo, Father. I feel like it’s the bwoy them from First Avenue. It’s been a minute since them niggas been trying to get at us.”
“Yo, my nigga, soon as we find out which pussy do it, we gonna handle that. If they violate one, then they violate all of us.” I paused for a moment. “Yo, hit da blunt here, and calm down. The place is hot right now, so we need to lay low for a few days. We ’ave too much to lose right now.”
“Yeah.”
I knew he was hearing me, but I had no idea if he was taking me seriously. Gio had always been a hothead. I was the one that remained calm in the midst of war. It wasn’t always this easy for me, but over the years I had learned that in order to get shit done, you had to plan and then execute when the time was right. Yeah, we could go to the Gully and shoot up everything and everybody, but what good would that do if the niggas were not around? All we would do was bring heat to us, something we couldn’t afford. I got a one-tho
usand-US-dollar business running right now, and running around without a plan intact would only fuck up our money and have the police all over our shit. We had to move differently.
We kicked it for about an hour before Gio left out. I knew he was angry, and before he left, I tried my best to talk some sense into his head. I could tell he had murder on his mind. The thing was, he was my brother, and if he was going to war, best believe my ass got to go to war also. The thought of that bothered my mind. Here I was, trying to get rich, and now beef was about to kick off.
After he left, my phone started ringing nonstop. I was tired of picking it up, but I did, anyway. People were just hearing about what had happened earlier, and most of them wanted to know what the fuck we were going to do about it. After the first ten calls, I was pissed off that they were hitting me up, so I kept pressing IGNORE, but the phone continued to ring.
“Yo!” I yelled into the phone after vowing that this would be the last call I took.
“Sorry. I must reach you at a bad time.” The sweet, sexy voice of Camille rang through my ear.
“No, beautiful. I didn’t realize it was you. How you doing?”
“I’m good. I heard what happen to Ratty today, so I call to check on you.”
“Yo, I’m good, babes. The pussy them violate still. But you know, we good. So when am I going to see you?”
“When you wan’ to see me?”
“How ’bout right now?”
“Right now, you know I’m in the Gully. Are you coming to pick me up?”
“Nah, but if you grab a taxi, I’ll pay the fare,” I said.
“All right then. Text mi your address. I’m going to bathe, and then I’ll be on the way.”
“A’ight, bet,” I said before hanging up.
Yes! I knew it was only a matter of time before she came around. I knew she knew I wasn’t going to chase her ass around anymore. I took a quick shower before she came over. Kingston was burning up, and even though the AC was running, it was still humid. Sometimes I missed the wintertime in America. Speaking of America, I had been thinking about it lately. This was where I had spent most of my life. I had a brethren that was telling me about a link he had that could get me back in the United States through the Mexico border. The shit cost a lot of money. I wasn’t ready to check that out yet. I got shit that I needed to handle out here. Plus, life was good right now.
Carl Weber's Kingpins: Jamaica Page 4