
G-Spot 2: The Seven Deadly Sins
An Urban Erotic Serial Tale Told in 7 Parts
BETRAYAL: The 2ND DEADLY SIN
"Little Black Books"
by Noire
Urban Erotic Noire Publications
P.O. Box 3443
New York, New York 10185
G-Spot 2: The Seven Deadly Sins, BETRAYAL: The 2ND Deadly Sin is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Noire
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excluding brief quotes used in reviews.
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"Little Black Books" by Noire are available for quantity/bulk discount by contacting the publisher at: GSpot2Series@gmail.com
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OF NOIRE'S BLOCKBUSTERURBAN EROTIC SERIAL TALE!
Juicy-Mo's dreams have all been shattered!
Drama and danger continue to follow Juicy and Gino!
On what should have been the happiest day of their lives the beautiful young lovers, who fled the streets of New York City, are once again marked for murder!
With Ace, Pluto, and Money-Makin' Monique determined to get their hands on G's stash of doe, will Gino and Juicy realize their dreams of marriage and a lifetime of happiness? Or will the wrath of the streets sneak up on them to collect the debt they owe?
Find out more in...
G-SPOT 2: THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Betrayal: The 2nd Deadly Sin
The Urban Erotic Serial Saga Continues!
ALSO BY NOIRE
URBAN EROTIC TALES
G-Spot
Candy Licker
Thug-A-Licious
Thong on Fire
Hood
Hittin' the Bricks
Unzipped
URBAN EROTIC APPETIZERS
Baby Brother (with 50 Cent)
Maneater (with Mary B. Morrison)
(coming soon)
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless(with Kiki Swinson)
URBAN EROTIC QUICKIES
From the Streets to the Sheets
www.GSpot2.com
www.AskNoire.com
A Note from Noire
To My Loyal Readers, Thank you for enjoying Pride: The 1st Deadly Sin, and for taking another step down the urban erotic path by ordering Betrayal: The 2nd Deadly Sin! I know the month-to-month releases build crazy anticipation for some, but so many have contacted me with mad appreciation for bringing something new to the game that it makes it all worthwhile.
A serial novel, by definition, is one complete story told over a short period of time. G-Spot 2: The Seven Deadly Sins is not a book series or a collection of short stories. It is one extra-long novel told in 7 parts, and I think a month between each installment is the perfect length of time to keep you tuned in and in suspense!
The combined sins of Pride, Betrayal, Greed, Envy, Lust, Trickery, and Revenge run the length of almost three full novels, and the theme of each segment breathes life into an urban erotic principle of The Seven Deadly Sins.
If you've been on Facebook and Twitter lately then you know I've been having a blast and hanging out with my readers and friends as we chat about what they've read so far, and share our predictions about what might happen to our favorite characters in future segments of the serial novel.
The suspense is nail-biting, and with danger and mayhem lurking around every corner almost anything is possible! And that's why my "Little Black Books" have become favorites with those who enjoy reading in all genres. There is something for everyone on the pages of this serial tale, and I invite you to swing by for some of our Facebook discussions where we share the anticipation and curiosity that every good serial novel should bring.
I'm sending big ups and mad love to each and every one of my friends and loyal fans, and I appreciate and respect all reviews that relate to the story that I've written just for you.
Now let's keep this urban erotic train rolling as we dig into BETRAYAL and find out why it's the 2nd Deadly Sin! And oh yeah, when you're finished getting your read on, don't forget to leave your review!
Noire
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WARNING!This here ain't no romanceIt's an urban erotic taleA hater's on the looseAnd the situation's frailFrom out of townThey gunned them downThe lovers took a fallA gwap is on the line and G's homeboyz want it all!So if the script gets flipped, down-side-upAnd you can't tell foe from friendWatch your back and trust no man'Cause BETRAYAL is this Sin!
Praise forG-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale#1 Essence Magazine Bestseller
"The Coldest Winter Ever meets ADDICTED!"-- Jamise L. Dames, Bestselling author of Momma's Baby, Daddy's Maybe
"Freedom comes with a price in Noire's sexy, gritty urban melodrama. Noire's heady brew of lethal realism and unbridled sexuality should spell 'hot and bothered' for erotic fiction fans." -- Publishers Weekly
In the beginning...
Have you ever rolled over in the middle of the night and been so damn thankful you just broke down and cried? Did you praise God for delivering you from a grimy Dungeon and blessing you with a tiny taste of heaven? Did you wake up every morning chillin' in the arms of the one you loved? Snuggled deep in the sheets like nothing could ever hurt you? That shit felt perfect, didn't it? So perfect, that you let your guard down and stopped looking over your shoulder, right? But then...did you get caught slippin? Did you start waking up in the darkness gripped by fear? Your body trembling in terror? Did you lay there paralyzed, with prophecy lurking over your head and holding you prisoner? Did you feel doomed to a punishment that you knew you didn't deserve? Did you search desperately for a way out, but no matter how far you ran, you just couldn't outrun your fate? Come hang out with me for a minute, y'all. Sit down and get comfortable as I tell you what happened when I hauled ass outta Harlem and ran smack into my destiny. My name is Juicy Monique Stanfield. I escaped from the G-Spot, and this is the rest of my story...
My wedding guests never did get to see me in my white designer bridal dress. Instead, two days after I was supposed to get married I woke up in a hospital bed wearing a plain old cotton nightgown.
I opened my eyes in a state of total confusion. Machines beeped all around me. I had tubes coming out of everywhere. I tried to sit up but my body felt weighted down, and a white-hot bolt of pain drilled into the deepest part of my stomach.
I held my breath, sweating through the agony. The beeping machines scared me, and I closed my eyes again. My thoughts were hazy and all over the place. Nothing was making sense, and I figured I must've had one of those crazy dreams again.
But this dream had taken place in my bridal suite. Gino had snuck up on me while I was praying. He was trying to get him some, and he had just pulled up my dress and pushed his face between my legs when I heard somebody coming. Gino had stood up to listen too, and then out of nowhere the door busted wide open.
In a flash, Gino spun around and damn near jumped on top of me. A popping noise exploded in the air, and then something hot thumped deep in my belly.
The next thing I knew we were on the floor. Gino's body was covering mine and he was holding my hand. I felt myself fading off. Gino was whispering softly in my ear, but I couldn't stay focused. Everything started going black.
The beeping machine cut into my thoughts and I opened my eyes and saw a nurse walking out of my room. And that's when I knew my dream was actually my reality, and suddenly I was wide-awake. Now I remembered! I remembered it all, and immediately my heart reached for Gino.
Gino!
I actually heard myself gasp as he fell on top of me. I felt his body jerk when the bullet sank, first into him, and then into me, piercing my stomach like a spear. I felt us falling together. And then the ground jumped up to catch us like it was a brick mattress. Gino's body was all dead weight as he covered my heart with his.
Please God, I prayed as I lay in that hospital bed more scared than I had ever been in my entire life. The searing pain in my belly was now throbbing all the way down in my booty.
Lord, I know I ain't been right. I'm trifling and I'm a sinner. I admit that. But if you gotta punish me, if you gotta take something away from me, let it be the baby! Take it. Just take it. Me and Gino can have us another one. Just please, I squeezed my eyes closed and prayed so hard my whole body trembled. Please don't take Gino. Please don't take my man!
I must have fallen back to sleep because the next time I opened my eyes there were two doctors looking down at me. I struggled to sit up, and one of them took my hand and told me to hold still.
"Try not to move," he said, gently. "You're in the hospital and you're safe. We have a security guard outside your door, and everything is going to be fine."
My back hurt like hell and my gut was just crazy sore. I slid my hand over my belly and I was shocked to feel the thick bandages that were taped to my skin. But as bad as I was aching, I didn't give a damn about myself. I could still feel Gino pulling me into his arms as the gun boomed behind him. I could feel his lips, wet on my ear, as he used his body like it was a shield just for me.
"Gino..." I whispered as the other doctor came closer and stood beside my bed. She had red hair and big blue eyes. She reached for my hand and her skin felt soft and cool.
I licked my lips and my eyes searched hers.
"Where's Gino?"
She squeezed my hand.
"He's here," she said softly. "I'm sorry, but the bullet passed straight through you and it caused quite a bit of damage. You're having a boy, Juicy. We operated on both of you, and we hope your son will cooperate by staying in your womb for a while longer so he can develop more fully."
"Where's Gino?" I cried out as loud as I could, but my voice was barely a whisper in the room. I'd heard what the hell she said about a baby boy and an operation, but couldn't she see I didn't care about none of that?
"Gino?" I pleaded weakly. My eyes darted all over her face. "Gino!"
"He's in intensive care," she finally told me. Her blue eyes looked so, so, so sad, and that scared the hell out of me because doctors weren't supposed to get emotional, even when shit was real bad.
She said, "Gino was shot in the back. The bullet passed through his body and into your stomach. He suffered severe damaged to some of his internal organs."
She shook her head and sighed as she continued. "We have a fine team of surgeons here and they repaired things as best they could. But I won't lie. It looks pretty bad. Right now it's touch-and-go. We'll know more about his condition over the next forty-eight hours. For the time being, all we can do is wait. And pray."
Wait and pray. Pray and wait. I closed my eyes and that's exactly what I did. All those long nights that Grandmother had kept me and Jimmy on our knees were about to pay off. I knew how to pray.
And I knew how to beg too.
I begged God for Gino's life.
There wasn't a drop of shame in me as I kissed up to the man upstairs. My lips moved frantically as I gave Him a list of all the reasons why Gino's life had beauty and promise. Why his soul was special and worthy.
I didn't give a damn about myself. And at that moment I didn't care about my baby boy, neither. I just wanted my man to be okay. I wanted him to live. There was no way I could make it without Gino. I didn't even wanna think about being in a world without him there to love me and keep me warm. For the first time in my life I knew what it was to really, really need somebody. And not just to set me up in a fancy crib, or to splurge on me at expensive restaurants, or to keep me laced up lovely with designer shit on my back neither.
Nah, I needed Gino the way the sun needs the moon. The way a flower needs rain. The way a woman needs her man.
Please God...
I begged and begged, over and over again.
Please God...
Don't take him. Please, touch him. Heal him!
Please God...
I'll do anything. Anything! Just don't take him.
Please God...
With Gino's name on my lips, I drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Please God...
$$$$$
The next time I opened my eyes Renata was standing there.
"Where's Gino?" I asked hoarsely. She had been right by my side, holding my hand as I slept.
Slowly she shook her head. "He's still fighting, Juicy. The police think it was a robbery attempt. Somebody must have snuck into your dressing room. Most of your guests were already upstairs in the chapel, and it was your friend DarQuese who found you. She walked in and saw you and Gino lying on the floor covered in blood. She ran upstairs screaming and Frankie heard her and called an ambulance."
DarQuese. The sound of that bitch's name filled my whole body with rage and I started trembling under the sheets.
"Did they catch Pit?" I whispered. It took every bit of strength I had just to speak, but right then nothing could have kept me quiet.
Renata frowned. "Pit?
"DarQuese's man. The midget. He was outside the church getting high with all those young girls last night, remember?"
She shook her head. "It was dark out there, and I didn't get a good look at him. But the police questioned everybody." Renata shrugged. "But you know how it is. Nobody saw anything."
"Uh-huh!" I shrieked. I tried to raise myself up on one elbow, but my stomach muscles screamed, burning like they were on fire.
"DarQuese saw something!" I insisted as I remembered how anxious she had been to get out of my dressing room. She had claimed she needed to go upstairs and get something real quick, and now I knew that something had been her man!
I inhaled deeply, trying to breathe through my pain. "Quese saw who shot us, didn't she?"
Renata shook her head again. "I don't know, Juicy. I didn't get a chance to talk to her. All I know is that she came running upstairs to Frankie. She was crying and screaming that you and Gino were both dead. And just like everybody else, she claimed she didn't see anything."
That was some bullshit and I knew it! As bad as I was hurting my blood was on boil. DarQuese was a low-life schemer! No wonder that bitch had two sides to her face! She was the one who had brought Pit up to the church to shit on my rehearsal dinner, and I knew damn well she'd brought him to spray me and Gino at our wedding too! I closed my eyes as my body was racked with waves of pain. Wasn't nobody fuckin' stupid. Quese could stunt all she wanted to, but that bitch knew exactly who had shot me and Gino.
"So where is she?" I asked, opening my eyes again. I had been laying in this bed for a minute now, and the only familiar face I'd seen so far had been Renata's. "Has Quese been up here to see about me?"
Renata shook her head. "I really don't know where she is, Juicy. I haven't seen her at all. But you need to relax, cara. You've lost a lot of blood, and the doctors aren't sure what's really what with you just yet. And besides, you have your baby to think about too. Congratulations! We were all surprised to hear that you were expecting. I'm told you're having a boy."
I nodded. "Gino doesn't even know yet," I said sadly as my heart filled with regret. "I was gonna surprise him with the news right after we got married."
"Well, there will still be plenty of opportunities to tell him later," Renata said. "I don't want you to worry about anything, okay? There'll be enough time to figure everything out when you and Gino are both a little stronger."
I was still mad and scared and gripped in sorrow all at the same time, but I was doped up and in crazy pain too. I opened my mouth to rage some more, but that groggy sense of heaviness settled over me and once again I fell off into a deep sleep.
I had a couple of new visitors when I woke up. Two white cops. DTs from the violent crimes division, they said.
"How are you feeling?" the younger one asked, and I could tell he really wanted to know. They were both dressed in street clothes, and they looked like pure white boys.
"Shitty," I answered. My mouth was dry and my lips felt crusty, and when I frowned after licking them, the younger cop took a cup of water from the night table and held it gently to my mouth so I could take a sip.
"You know why we're here," the older cop said. He stared at me intently, like the shooter's name was about to appear on my forehead.
"Tell us everything you remember about what happened before you and your boyfriend were shot."
My fiancé! I wanted to scream. Gino wasn't just my boyfriend! He had been about to wife me. He was gonna be my husband.
"It was real hectic," I whispered, remembering how excited everybody had been for us. "I was downstairs in my dressing room, and Gino---" my voice caught in my throat, "Gino was supposed to be in his dressing room too."
"So you two were alone?" the younger dude asked, as he scribbled on a small white pad. "It was just a few minutes before your wedding, and there was no one else in the dressing room with you guys?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "My bridesmaids had already gone upstairs to get lined up. My maid of honor had just stepped out to check on something, and I was in there by myself. Praying. Until Gino knocked on the door."
"And then what happened?"
I tried to shrug my shoulders but even that slight movement hurt like hell.
"Nothing happened," I lied, remembering how Gino's lips had felt on my thighs, and how his hands had been all up my dress and between my legs as he tried to lick me out.
"We were just standing around talking, and the next thing I knew the door banged open and then Gino jumped all over me. He covered me up. He was holding me close to him when I felt his body jerk, and then my stomach got real hot and we both went down to the floor." A tear slipped from my eye. "I guess that's when we got shot."
"Did you see anyone?" The older cop was still staring at me hard. "Can you identify the person who shot you?"
I shook my head.
"No," I told him as my mind whirled fast on rewind and I recalled all the drama that had gone down over the past couple of weeks. "I didn't see anybody. But I know who it was."
"So who was it?"
I didn't even hesitate.
"It was this dude named Pit. He's a midget gangsta from Compton. Either he shot us, or he got one of his boys to do it. But it was my homegirl who set us up."
Just thinking about DarQuese cut my heart like glass. In just six short months I had really trusted Quese. Loved her and trusted her just like a sister, and in return she had betrayed me.
"Friend who?" the cop asked.
"DarQuese Middleton." I spit that two-faced, long-legged scheming bitch's name off my tongue. "My so-called maid of honor."
$$$$$
I was exhausted again by the time they finished grilling me. They wanted to know everything, and I wanted them to know everything too. I didn't hold anything back. They told me a cop had been posted outside my door ever since they brought me in, and that I was safe and could speak to them freely because L.A.'s finest was there to protect me.
I almost laughed behind that one. I'd seen the way G used to buy and pay for cops in New York all the time, so I knew all that protection talk was a joke. But I didn't care. I told them all about how Pit had been riding me. How him and Gino had scrapped when Pit tried to shit all over my engagement ring.
"Where's the ring now? In patient property?" the older cop asked, lifting my hand. "You were probably unconscious when they brought you in, so you might not remember. I can check your inventory sheet."
I shook my head.
"Whoever shot us took my ring," I told them. "Me and Gino were on the floor when somebody said 'give up your ring' and then snatched it off my finger. I think I passed out right after that."
"You said you didn't see anyone, but did you recognize the voice? Would you be able to identify it if you heard it again?"
I shook my head once more. It hurt like hell to move but I fought the pain.
"I doubt it. Gino was heavy on top of me and everything was happening so fast. It seemed like the voice was coming from miles away."
Before the detectives left I gave them the address to DarQuese's beauty shop, and told them Pit owned an urban clothing store right across the street. In fact, I told them everything I thought might help them. Forget all that 'stop snitchin' nonsense. That was for honor between thieves. Me and Gino were innocents. It was nothing except greed and envy that had made Pit come at our throats. And for him to just gun us down like two stray dogs, and almost kill our baby too?
All that bitter grief was too much for my heart to hold. I lay there twitching. Crying and twitching. Tears just ran from my eyes like water. I tried to say a few more prayers for Gino but my words seemed empty. Like I was only begging and praying because I was in trouble and needed help. I wondered if God was even paying me any attention, or if this was the wrath of the Lord that Grandmother used to speak of when she was whipping my ass for being sneaky and grown.
My whole body felt like it was on fire. I trailed my fingers lightly across my stomach, and moaned at the swelling and throbbing soreness. I thought about Gino, laying somewhere in this same hospital, yet out of my reach and so far away.
The white female doctor, the one who had been standing over me the first time I woke up, came to see me a lot. Her name was Doctor Atgrove, and she seemed to have a lot of sympathy for me. "I can't tell you a whole lot right now," she'd said just a day or so earlier, "but there is some concern about Gino's spinal cord. The bullet shattered two vertebrae in his lower lumbar, and even if he survives his soft tissue injuries there's a possibility that he could be paralyzed from the waist down. But we won't know much of anything unless he comes out of his coma."
I refused to even hear that. I didn't even care about the possibility that he might be paralyzed. I just wanted Gino to live. I wanted my man to hold me in his arms again. To be with me. To flow through life with me. If he ended up paralyzed it wouldn't mean a damned thing to me. I just needed Gino to fight and fight hard.
I needed my man to stay alive.
Monique was getting her gushy on. While the dog was away the alley cat was damn sure out to play. She leaned over the buff, high-yellow young dude whose dick she was riding, and licked his pink nipple until it stiffened under her tongue.
Monique grinned. She was a maneater. She craved meat. Young, hard, muscled-up meat. She glanced down at the big-boned tyke as they fucked. He was Pluto's nephew. A young'un. A light-bright redbone too. He was no more than eighteen, and that's just how she liked 'em. She kept a crew of come-up niggahs just like him on a string, using them to pull all kinds of devious capers that she concocted when she was being sneaky and slick.
Technically, the young crew worked for Ace and Pluto, slanging rock and banging heads out on the streets. But Monique had found a way to stimulate their fragile egos and manipulate their juvenile, impressionable minds. She simply gave their young asses for free what hundreds of grown men were required to pay top dollar for.
"Oooh, goddamn!" the boy muttered below her as she bucked around on his juiced-up dick. It had been a minute since she'd had anything so long and stiff up in her, and all them dildos and other stage props she used in her freak 'em routines didn't hardly count.
She pressed her titties to the young boy's chest and smashed them up. He slid his hands up from her bodacious ass and hugged her tight in his arms as he pumped his dick up inside her and expanded her inner walls. He crossed his arms behind her and hugged her shoulders.
They rocked it like that for a few seconds, but then Monique broke free and reared back again. This wasn't nothing but a fuck, and she needed his young ass to know it. All that hugging shit was too damned tender. It was nice, but it was still tender.
"Fuck me from the back," Monique demanded as she dislodged herself from the young hood and got on her hands and knees. Who the fuck did he think he was hugging on? Didn't this fool know she was his Uncle Pluto's bitch?
And speaking of Pluto, Monique wondered why the fuck he hadn't called her yet. By now him and Ace shoulda snatched all the feathers outta those two stupid-ass lovebirds in California! Getting married! Tryna be all extra. They was already fucking. Why the hell did they need to get married just to do more of that?
She couldn't wait until Ace and Pluto got back to New York with G's money. She got off just thinking about the stacks of crisp cash that they were gonna steal back from Gino.
And Juicy.
Monique giggled as she gyrated. Juicy's stupid ass was gonna get sliced up. Monique had instructed Ace and Pluto to bring that run-through trick back to Harlem right along with the doe. There was an extra-sharp razor blade and a real pissy mattress waiting downstairs in the Dungeon, and Juicy's name was written on both of them.
Monique gasped as dude slid his wet dick deeply up in her. This was just how a young dude was supposed to fuck, she thought with approval. He'd been banging her for the past thirty minutes, and aside from the sweat running in rivers from their bodies, he didn't seem tired and he was still holding on to his nut.
The bed rocked beneath them and Monique moaned as her nipples scraped against the sheets. She pressed her chin to her chest, then stuck out her tongue and licked her third, most sensitive nipple.
Taking her hint, the corner boy reached beneath her and rubbed her stomach, then brought his hands up to weigh her full breasts. He twisted her nipples and Monique went wild. He moved his hands back down until they cupped her round hips, then he slapped her bouncy ass and sent a thrill shooting all the way up to her little titty.
"Do that again!" she bossed him, tooting that na-na up to meet his frantic thrusts. She reached between her legs and squeezed her dripping clit, then arched her back and sighed with pleasure.
"Yeah," she muttered as he inserted his thumb deep into her ass and fucked both her holes. He ain't half-bad for a young'un, Monique mused as his other hand cracked like a whip on her ass cheek and he spanked-fucked her toward another nut. "Do that shit again!" she demanded. "And again and again and again..."
$$$$$
While Monique was busy getting fucked, her man Pluto was ready to fuck somebody up. Instead of buying a truck and driving back to the East Coast loaded down with cash like they'd planned, Pluto and Ace had been forced to catch a red-eye flight and sky up outta L.A. with a quickness.
The temperature had gotten real hot on the streets after Gino and Juicy got popped. Some crazy shit jumped off with the Mob that had even the most seasoned hardbodies looking for a safe hole to crawl into.
"I told you," Pluto said for the hundredth time since they'd jetted to the airport and hopped on the first plane smoking back east. They had just touched down at LaGuardia Airport, and the thought of going back to Harlem and telling Monique they had failed to complete their mission was giving Pluto some serious heartburn.
"We shoulda used our own squad," he fussed. "We coulda flown Swish or Domni or one of them other level-headed soldiers out to Cali, and no shit like this woulda went down."
Ace looked at his longtime boy like he was a two-year-old idiot.
"How many times I gotta tell you it wasn't us? That wasn't our shit, man! Zero didn't get nowhere near Juicy and Gino in that church! He told you that. Even Izz believed him. That niggah Zero is a patient, but he ain't stupid.
"Besides," Ace shrugged as they walked from the airport terminal to the parking lot. "You saw how shaky shit got out there on them L.A. corners. Even the Crips and the Bloods went into hiding."
"That's because them Cali niggahs fucked shit up!"
"Yo," Ace exploded with frustration. "It wasn't us! Rabb already explained that shit, niggah! How many times you gotta be told the same damn thing?"
Ace's cousin Rabbit had been real nervous when they swung by his crib to tell him his manz had fucked up their job.
"Word, my niggahs didn't fuck it up," Rabb had insisted. The thick-necked, brawny killer had snatched Ace and Pluto off his porch before they could ring the doorbell, and they had sat dumbfounded in his darkened living room as he peered out through his closed venetian blinds like a scared little bitch.
"Somebody beat my dudes to it, that's what happened," Rabbit told them. "Word on the block is that ya boy Gino made some enemies around here. He caught the attention of a click outta Compton. They prolly the ones who put him down."
Ace had bucked. "So what? Y'all niggahs suckin' Compton dick now? Them niggahs got you peeping out ya window and holding ya nuts now?"
Rabb had frowned and shook his head. "Nah, fuck them sherm-ass Compton niggahs," he said quietly. "Don't nobody give a fuck about that set. It's them white boys everybody is checking for right now. Them mafia niggahs. I heard they out there stalking dudes. Them fools is on the prowl."
"Over what?"
"Not over what. Over who. They looking for ya boy's shooter, man. And when they find him they gonna lay him and his whole posse down. Ya boy Gino was they niggah. He was protected. Wasn't nobody supposed to touch him."
Ace and Pluto had given each other a smirked-out New York look. Neither one of them believed that bullshit. G had always been in deep and smoove with several Mob families, and Gino wasn't big enough to spark their interest or their protection. It just didn't make no sense.
Nah, this wasn't that type of crime, Pluto concluded as they walked around the airport parking lot searching for their whip. If the boyz they hired didn't do it, then the local click that was gunning for Gino prolly did. Yeah. The bullet that hit Gino had some Cali niggah's fingerprints all over it. He was almost sure of it.
Mad as hell didn't even describe what Monique was when Ace and Pluto came back to New York by airplane. The plan had been for them to leave their whip at the airport and fly out to the West Coast. Once they got their hands on the cash, they were supposed to buy a truck and transport G's money back home.
But a quick call to Pluto verified that once again, all Monique's dreams had been slain. Them niggahs had just flown in on a plane to LaGuardia, and Monique knew there was no way in fuck they had rolled outta L.A. carrying more than half a million dollars in their check-on luggage.
And that meant they had failed.
Monique was past mad. She was furious. She shoulda known better than to send two stupid men to do a smart woman's job! Them bumbling-ass niggahs had gone all the way to California just to come home empty-handed. And not only didn't they get the money, they didn't get that bitch Juicy neither.
The death-look on Pluto's face should have been enough to check her tongue when he walked in the front door, but Monique was too far gone to value her life.
"What do you mean somebody shot him?" she demanded when Pluto told her Gino had taken a hot one.
"Just what I said. That niggah got popped. He's in the hospital. They got po-po posted on him and ere'thang."
Monique's eyes narrowed. "And what about Juicy?"
Pluto shrugged as he took off his shoes and wiggled his cheesy toes around in the air.
"She's in the same hospital. She got hit too."
Monique couldn't bear to believe this shit. What had she done to deserve this? Why couldn't she get the things she wanted out of life? What kinda fucked up luck did she have?
"So, you mean to tell me that all that money..." she breathed heavily in anger. "All that fuckin' money they stole from us...they still got it?"
Pluto didn't answer. He picked up his shoes and started walking toward their bedroom.
But Monique wasn't finished. Hell no, she wasn't.
"Hold up," she said, walking behind him. "So, you telling me that after all that work I put in, fuckin' with that crazy-ass Salida, pumping Nae-Nae's dumb ass for information and then calling every fuckin' florist in L.A., ...after all that fuckin' work, you and Ace lose ya heads and shoot Gino's ass, but neither one of y'all is smart enough to make him give up the cash first? Damn, Pluto! What the fuck is wrong with you? You was supposed to have this shit all planned out!"
She didn't even see the first blow coming. Pluto had already walked past her when he swung. That big-belly niggah pirouetted on his toes like a fleet-footed ballerina.
His four fat knuckles drilled into her temple, dropping her to her knees. Monique could only clutch her head and gasp for air. The scream she wanted to let out was pushed back down her throat by Pluto's knee as he brought it up and thrust it into her mouth. Her front teeth sank into his flesh drawing blood, and Monique shrieked and fell over backward. She lay there helplessly, knees bent, arms outstretched, and her blood-filled mouth open wide.
"Bitch, don't you ever," Pluto panted in rage above her. "Ever! As long as your black ass is alive and licking my balls, tell me nothing about planning shit out! I'm the master fuckin' planner up in here. And you better not never forget it!"
There was no mistaking the killer intentions in his eyes, and Monique had enough sense to roll over real quick and cover her face.
Pluto's next blow came down hard in the center of her back. It almost stopped her heart. But there was no sense in screaming. Wasn't nobody gonna come save her no way.
Monique balled up and protected herself the best way she could. She understood why Pluto had to check her for getting outta pocket. And in a perverse way, she knew she deserved it too. But she had meant every damn thing she said! Them niggahs shoulda stuck to the plan!
Scurrying all over the floor, Monique took her ass-whipping like a natural woman. And the whole time Pluto was beating her, she didn't even cry. She couldn't. She was too busy scheming and conniving and formulating some grand, brand new plans of her own.
I was dreaming again, but this time it wasn't no nightmare. I was back in New York with Gino.
He was sitting on a bench in Central Park, and I was across the street on the corner, waiting for the light to change.
It was wintertime, and a deep layer of snow was on the ground.
"Hurry up, Juicy," Gino hollered, grinning with his fine self. My heart started beating real fast. Gino wasn't shot! There was nothing wrong with him! He had on a bad-ass gray wool coat and some jeans and a pair of Timbs. He got up from the bench and walked toward me. Still grinning, he picked up a handful of loose snow and packed it between his palms. He laughed at the scared look on my face and waited till a car sped past, and then he threw the snowball softly in my direction.
I hollered like his little flimsy snowball was a giant asteroid about to take me out, and Gino cracked up laughing. Then he gave me a sexy wink and ran into the park.
"I'ma get you!" I yelled, trying to act like I was mad. The traffic light changed and I ran across the street and chased after him. Gino was still laughing but he kept getting further and further ahead, pulling me deeper into the park.
The snow sucked at my feet. Gino was straight dusting me, even though he was walking normally and I was booking.
"Wait up!" I called out to him. "Hey Gino! Wait up!"
"Catch up!" he turned around and yelled with a big grin. "You gotta run faster, Juicy. Faster!"
The distance between us grew much greater. Gino was turning into a shadowy blur against the winter whiteness of the park. He was getting so far away I could barely see him.
"Wait for me..." I whined as my legs pumped harder. I lifted my knees and my feet came down hard in the slurping snow. "Gino...wait..."
I was whimpering now. It had gotten darker outside. Much darker. Like somebody had pulled a blanket over the sky. My chest felt tight. Like my heart had swelled up. The air had turned so damned cold I could barely breathe.
Then suddenly the world went completely dark.
Ahead of me, where Gino should have been, was just an endless black road. I was running blind. I could feel his presence just up the way, but no matter how fast I moved I just couldn't catch up with him.
And then I heard his voice. He spoke to me as clear as day in my head and in my heart.
Juicy, he said sadly. Ahh...Juicy. My baby. I love you, girl. I'll always love you.
"Gino!" I screamed and ran deeper into the heavy darkness.
That's right. Come closer to me, baby. I wanna hold you so bad. I wanna feel you just one more time. I'm right here, Juicy. Can't you see me?
It was pitch black and he was so far away! My legs wanted to move faster, but I was freezing like never before, and I was tired. Oh, damn, was I tired.
Juicy! My man's voice bounced all around me in the darkness.
I'm waiting for you, baby. I'm holding on...I'm trying, Juicy...I'm trying...
"Juicy."
I need you, Juicy, Gino said. I could feel his heart reaching for me across what seemed like an ocean of ice-cold miles. Juicy, I need you...
"Juicy!"
I opened my eyes. Renata was standing by my bed and she looked worried.
"Juicy?" she said my name again. "You were crying out in your sleep, honey. Are you in pain? Do you need more medication?"
"Gino," I muttered. My body trembled from head to toe. The coldness in my dream had been real. I realized I'd brought it with me to wakefulness as I lay there crying and shivering, my teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Oh my God! You're shaking," Renata soothed me with her strong, even voice. She pulled an extra blanket from the end of the bed and spread it out over me. She smoothed my hair back from my forehead and took my hands in hers. "So cold, Juicy," she said gently. "Your hands are so cold."
"Gino," I muttered again. "I gotta see Gino."
Renata shook her head and patted my hand.
"Not yet, Juicy. It isn't safe for you to move around yet. But don't worry. Frank has been sitting with Gino every day. In fact, he's with him right now. Gino's condition hasn't really changed, but at least he's still alive."
"I gotta see him, Renata!" Fear had me whining like a baby. "He needs me."
The icy terror from my dream was pounding deep in my bones, and all I knew was that I had to be by Gino's side.
"Please help me," I begged her. "Take me to him, Renata. Take me to my man."
Renata gave me a look and opened her mouth like she was gonna tell me no, then she closed it again and nodded.
"Okay," she said, and I was lifted by the glare of determination that had entered her eyes. "I understand how bad you want to see him, Juicy, and I think you should. It might do you both some good. I'll go down to the nurse's station and talk somebody into taking you upstairs to the ICU."
$$$$$
Renata had done her part in talking to the doctors, but all those fools could bark about was the liability they would face if I got out of bed and something went wrong for me or the baby.
Why couldn't they understand that I didn't care about any of that? Two doctors and a nurse rushed up in my room when Renata came back. I guess they figured if they rolled up on me like a gang it would be easier to get me to accept them telling me no.
"I'm sorry," one of the doctors said, crossing his arms. He was the ob-gyn doctor whose job it was to make sure that me and Gino's baby stayed alive. His tight-ass wouldn't even let me get out of the bed to go sit on the toilet and pee. Instead, I had to lay flat on my back and use a nasty bedpan.
"It's just too risky, Juicy. Your body is still traumatized. Your cervix is very dilated. Even if we were able to transport you upstairs, the trauma of seeing Gino in his condition is likely to cause both you and the baby a lot of distress. I just can't recommend it."
The other doctor backed him up with a nod. She was the surgeon who had operated on me.
"He's right, Juicy. I understand how concerned you are about Gino, but right now your baby's health is our priority. You simply cannot leave your bed."
I cut up like a true project chick up in there.
"This baby is your fuckin' priority!" I screeched. I was spitting mad. Sweating bullets and slinging hot tears all over the room. "My priority is Gino! Y'all can't keep me away from him! You don't have the right to keep me away from him! Gino needs me. I need him. I don't care what I have to do. I'm seeing him!"
The cop who was posted outside my door stuck his head inside, and ignoring the doctors, asked me if everything was okay.
"Oh, it's about to be okay!" I snapped, wiping my nose with the end of the sheet. I struggled to sit up in the bed and winced in pain as I tried to slide my legs around. "'Cause I'm getting the fuck outta here!"
"You can't be serious," the male doctor said.
"Oh, she's serious," Renata answered.
I grilled both those damned doctors down.
"Bring me my papers! Bring me my mothafuckin' papers! I'm signing myself out!"
That got their attention.
By the time I scooted my naked butt to the edge of the bed and my feet were dangling down about to touch the floor, everybody in the room understood that I was not bullshitting! The nurse rushed over to my side, and both doctors started backpedaling, eating all the words they had just spoken.
"Okay, okay," the surgeon said. She put her arm around my shoulder and lifted my legs back onto the bed. "Don't do this," she said softly. "Please don't hurt yourself like this. We'll take you to see Gino. Let me get the staff to bring us a wheelchair and I'll have an attendant get you seated in it safely."
But the ugly man-doctor still wasn't having it. "I don't advise that," he said sharply. "The fetus---"
The female doctor shut him down with just one look. "It doesn't matter what you advise. Her fiancé and the father of her child is upstairs fighting for his life. He's fighting for their lives. Do you have any idea what this must be like for Juicy? To have to lie in bed helplessly while Gino fights his battle alone? We're taking her upstairs. In my personal and professional opinion, by his side is exactly where she needs to be."
My whole body hurt as they placed me in the wheelchair, but I took the pain without even flinching.
While Renata had been downstairs with me, Frank had been visiting Gino, so she jetted upstairs to tell him to leave so that I could go in. She told me there was a cop posted up to guard Gino too, but since Gino was up there with the critically ill patients he could only have one visitor every other hour.
"Are you cold?" the hospital attendant asked me kindly. He was a heavy-set, freckle-faced white guy, and I was thankful that his hands had been so gentle and compassionate when he lifted me off the bed.
I waved away the blanket he was offering me. I was shivering and goose bumps had popped up all over my skin, but there wasn't but one thing on my mind, and that was getting close to my man.
Gino needed me. This I knew for sure.
I could feel him calling out to me with his heart, and every ounce of me was focused strictly on getting up there and answering that call.
The attendant turned the wheelchair around cautiously, and pointed me toward the door.
"Can you move a little faster?" I asked him. Both doctors gave him a look, and I got even more pissed off when they both shook their heads, no.
I waited while they signed the papers giving me permission to leave the floor, and then we bounced.
My police guard walked behind us as the attendant pushed me down an endless hall and through several sets of double doors. When we got to the elevators I saw we were on the third floor. Renata had told me the intensive care unit was on five, and if I could have jumped up outta that chair and ran up those two flights of stairs I would have.
Finally, the elevator came and we got on. We only had to go up two floors, but in my mind it was taking us forever. I closed my eyes and started praying again. I didn't open them until I felt the elevator stop on the fifth floor.
The intensive care unit was all lit up. Family members of the sick and dying were standing around in the hallway pushing coins into vending machines, and talking on cell phones while they waited to see their loved ones.
Down the hall, I could see Renata and Frank standing outside of a room across from the nurse's station, and my heart started pounding real hard as we got closer. Even with the seriousness of our situation I was hyped with the anticipation of seeing Gino again.
But just as they were wheeling me toward his room, Renata peeped us coming down the hall and she rushed over to stand in my path.
"What's going on?" I asked, frowning. There was a commotion going on in the room behind her and I peered past her and tried to get a look inside.
"Is Gino in there?"
Renata nodded. I didn't see the cop that was supposed to be standing guard over Gino, but now a bunch of medical people were leaving the room with blank expressions on their faces.
"What's going on?" I asked her again. "All them doctors wasn't in there for Gino, was they?"
Renata didn't answer. She just stared at me with a real funny look in her eyes.
I glanced over my shoulder and barked at the dude who was pushing my wheelchair. "Push me in there, please! Take me in that goddamn room!"
But Renata stood in front of me like a mountain. She was blocking hard, and I wasn't having it. I leaned forward to push her out the way, and that's when the first pain hit me. It was real low in the bottom of my stomach, and it shot out of my tailbone like a ball of fire.
"Ouch!" I yelped and doubled over, my chest almost touching my knees.
"What's wrong?" Renata said. Her eyes went from looking sad to looking worried quick fast.
"Nothing," I gasped. Suddenly there was pressure building inside me like I needed to use the bathroom. I pressed my hands to the seat of the wheelchair and lifted my butt up a little bit, trying to relieve the pain.
Gino.
"Get outta my way," I muttered to Renata. I had come to see Gino. Why the fuck was she standing in my way?
My stomach cramped again. Harder this time. Hard as shit! I needed to use the bathroom, and my whole body broke out in a sweat from trying to hold my bowels in.
"Renata, move!" I tried to raise my voice, but I was hurting so bad that all I could do was whisper. "I gotta see Gino. Get out my way."
"Please don't go in that room, Juicy," Renata said softly. "Gino is not there anymore."
"What?" I glanced around, confused. We'd gotten off the elevator on the right floor. The pain rocking my stomach was messing with my head.
"He's not in there? Then where the fuck is he?" I demanded loudly. The hallway got real quiet. A few people who were standing around stopped talking and stared at me, but I didn't give a damn.
"He..." she started. "He...he..."
Tears slipped from Renata's eyes and ran down her cheeks.
Fear pounded in my heart and I straight wailed.
"Renata!!! Tell me where my man is!!!"
"He's dead, Juicy!" she blurted. The words slipped from her mouth and felt colder than the blood that was now rushing through my veins.
"His blood pressure fell and his heart just couldn't go on. He didn't make it, cara. Gino is dead."
Grief washed over me in a giant, suffocating wave. It snatched all the air from my lungs. I felt like I was being smothered under an enormous pillow. But then, a searing pain and a numbing dizziness overtook me. I gripped the arms of the wheelchair and trembling, I pushed myself to my feet.
I staggered over to the doorway, and almost fell inside the room. Wasn't nobody rushing around anymore. I took one look at the patient, and then that blistering pain shot through me again. I almost collapsed, but Renata was right by my side, catching me before I could fall.
I stepped deeper into the room and stared down at the man who was stretched out in the hospital bed, but I didn't recognize him. He wasn't Gino. He wasn't my Gino.
His features looked stressed and puffy. Tubes was all in his mouth and nose. The last time I'd seen my man he was smiling and dressed in a fly tuxedo. His haircut was fresh and shiny, his slight goatee had been trimmed real tight, and his eyes had been full of promise for the life we were gonna build together.
The guy laying there on the bed looked way different. His moustache was growing in, and his beard was thicker. His curly hair looked dry, but his eyelashes were still long and beautiful.
"Gino," I whimpered. I leaned over him, and then collapsed with my upper body across his legs. In my mind I knew it was Gino. The dude I loved with everything in me. But my heart...my heart just couldn't, just wouldn't believe it.
"Please, ma'am," the attendant said. He had rolled my wheelchair over to the bed, and now he urged me to sit down.
"Gino...wake up..." I whispered quietly. I pressed my cheek tight against the fading warmth of his arm.
"I'm pregnant," I finally told him. "You're gonna be a father. We're having a baby, Gino. A little boy."
I reached over and pushed my trembling hand under his still one. I was praying he would take it and acknowledge me and what I'd just said. Praying he would squeeze my fingers just one more time. But his hand never moved.
"Wake up, baby," I urged him in a whimper. My soul was one big ball of pain, and I couldn't tell if I was hurting more in my stomach or in my heart. "You can wake up now, Gino. I'm here. I'm right here."
"He fought hard," Renata whispered softly. She settled both her hands on my back and began rubbing my shoulders gently. "He fought very hard, Juicy. But he just couldn't make it."
"Nooo..." I moaned loudly. I shook Renata off then stretched out across Gino again as I prayed to God and kissed his cheeks and squeezed his lifeless hand. "He ain't gone...he can't be gone..."
Suddenly, my stomach felt boxer-punched. I gasped, then everything inside of me caved in as hot, bitter liquid rushed up from my throat.
I gagged and wretched, unable to breathe. I didn't even wanna breathe. Renata and the attendant were all over me as they tried to get me to sit back down in the wheelchair. They called my name, held my shoulders, and patted my tear-streaked cheeks. Everything around me was spinning, but I held on tight to Gino. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't think. I was caught in the middle of another nightmare. Just another stupid crazy nightmare that would end if I could just wake the hell up.
I squeezed my eyes shut tight, but when I opened them again Renata was still there. She was trying to pull me off the bed. Her face was wet with tears too.
"No, please," I whimpered softly, clutching Gino's muscular thigh through the sheets as I fought to hold on to the only guy I had ever loved.
"Don't let this be true, Renata. Please, God. Don't let this be true! I NEED HIM..." I wailed. "I need him...I need him...I need him..."
My voice grew soft and tiny. My eyes silently begged her to make this not be true.
"I need him."
"He's gone, Juicy," was all Renata whispered, and as her words crashed down and shattered my heart, a puddle of warm liquid burst out of my coochie. I lay back against Gino's body and gapped my legs open wide.
My bowels heaved, and I didn't have any other choice except to bear down and push.
I need him.
There was a crazy knot bulging between my legs, then a ball of something hot and mushy slid right out of me. I was terrified. I glanced at Renata. I glanced at Gino.
And then I closed my eyes and screamed.
Pluto couldn't stand smart bitches, which was why he had hooked up with Monique in the first place. The only lips he wanted to see flapping on a chick were her pussy lips, and the sight of Salida all of a sudden strutting around the G-Spot tryna run the joint like a capo was starting to really fuck with him.
"We can be broke as hell, but we ain't gotta be nasty," she had chastised him one day as he came out of G's private bathroom. It had been two weeks since him and Ace had come back from Cali empty-handed, and outta nowhere this broad had been underfoot 24/7. "You just take your grown-man ass right back in there and flush that toilet and wash your hands," Salida bossed him.
Pluto had wanted to put his foot up in her ass, but instead he went back inside the bathroom and did exactly what she said.
He just didn't fuckin' get it. Somebody musta told Salida that since she was G's wife she was entitled to run shit, because suddenly that bitch thought she was in control. That whipped niggah Ace had called some bullshit-ass emergency meeting and let Salida stand up there and talk shit like she was a true Queenpin. Ace had sat there staring at her like Salida was his kinny-garden teacher or something, and Pluto was stunned when his manz let it be known that he would check the first muh'fucka to get outta pocket with her too.
"I don't know how Granite was running things when he was alive," Salida said with her nose turned up, "but his ass is dead now and this situation is critical."
She had spent the past week going through every single file cabinet in G's office, and examining his computer files with a magnifying glass too.
"It's a whole lot worse than I thought it was around here," she said, giving Ace and Pluto both the snake eye. "You two done fucked the cut room up so bad it's almost dry. Y'all also missed the last two payments to the chief of police, and now it's going to cost us double just to keep the cops in our pocket.
"On top of that," she pressed on, rubbing shit in, "since neither one of y'all were smart enough to find out who G was getting all his dope from, your lil boys on the street are running out of product and sending our loyal customers jetting over to the competition."
She glared at Pluto. "Did you know the liquor license had expired?"
He shook his head dumbly.
"Well it did, genius. And from what I've learned, it takes big-time money to get it renewed under the table."
She got on Greco next.
"I guess pussy ain't selling at a premium no more, huh? Tell me why our girls are never fully booked? Every time I look up them hoes are watching movies, eating cookies, and running off at the mouth. This ain't no damn sorority house! Hell, the IRS is hounding us for back taxes, and if we don't make a payment soon we're gonna have to walk away from some of G's other businesses too."
Salida paused to let that sink in, and then said, "So, we're about to make some big time adjustments around here. We're going to start with the cut room. It's mine now. I'm gonna run it." She held out a sheet of paper. "But I also made of list of some other things that are gonna have to change..."
Pluto sat there on boil as Salida spouted off at the mouth. Disbelief spread over him as she read from her shitty little list. Not only was this throwed-off bitch tryna completely get rid of the cover price at the door, she wanted to overhaul the G-Spot so that it catered to a set of young musicians, rising ballers, and come up playas and pimps.
"So yeah, we're gonna have to kill the cover charge altogether," Salida declared, taking a seat behind G's great big desk and propping her slender legs up and crossing them at the knee. "That's the only way to get customers to come back. Then once they get to liking all the new set-up we've got, then we'll raise the door charge back up again. Hell," she chuckled evilly, "we'll double it."
Pluto almost jumped on that bitch over the next thing outta her mouth.
"So tomorrow morning, Pluto, I want you to go get me some of those dumb-ass boys you got working half-days selling crack. Send their asses upstairs to the cut room. We're about to turn this mutha out."
Later that night Ace shrugged shit off when Pluto bitched about Salida's long list and her grand plans for the cut room. Ace thought she was right on point.
"Salida's got some real live ideas, ak," he told Pluto as they shot a game of pool. "Times are changing, man. Me and Greco was just talking about that shit the other day. The old heads are falling off. It's all about the tykes and the young'uns now."
"Hell, nah," Pluto protested ready to put Salida's 7:30 mental ass on a bus straight back to the nuthouse. He was about to line her up in his crosshairs, and he was truly itching to pull the trigger. "She's fuckin' everything up," he insisted. "That broad is tryna do too much."
"I don't think so," Ace disagreed. "Look around, niggah. You see any fuckin' body large chillin' up in here? Bizz is bad, man. If anything we gotta do more. We done walked away from the bakery and the rib shack. The cleaners, the fish joint, and the check cashing place are gonna be dead in a month. Yo, Salida got a nose for sniffing out business, and I think we should let her use it."
Pluto jumped off his stool and shook his head. "We don't need that bitch! All we need is a big buy, ak! If we can just flood the streets with product like we used to do, there'll be so much doe rollin' in it'll bust down the fuckin' door!"
"Yeah, flooding the streets would work," Ace admitted calmly as he lined his cue stick up and tapped his ball into a corner pocket, "but me and you ain't got the connections to be making that kind of quality buy. If Salida wants to restock the cut room with club drugs, then I say we should go for it. We can't dominate in every sector no more like G used to do, man. Them come-ups is getting their hands on big-time product at cut-rate prices while we over here just scraping up the crumbs. Fucking with these lil low-level suppliers is gonna cost us in the long run, ak. Our territory done already been reduced by more than half. Remember, we gotta pay them taxes and pay our crew too, my niggah. So, if Salida can run the cut room half as good as G did, then I see it as more doe in our pockets and more power to her."
The next morning Pluto had reluctantly sent a few members of his street crew upstairs with brooms, mops, and bottles full of Lysol. The cut room was in shambles, but not a single one of those corner boys had bitched or complained as Salida worked the shit outta them. She had them scrubbing floors and washing walls like they were a crew of janitors, and she watched over them like a jailer the whole time.
Later on that night, Pluto snuck upstairs to see what he could see. Standing in the middle of a complex room that had once been a bustling, vibrant hub of drug activity brought it all to a head for him. The G-Spot was his home, and a sad realization washed over him as burning tears of rage came to his eyes.
Things were never gonna be the same again. They had gone from the mountaintops down to the grimy gutters, and if they didn't do something drastic they risked losing everything.
The fucked up part was, as bad as he hated to admit it, Salida's vision was probably dead on. They were gonna have to make some desperate moves just to survive, but that didn't mean he was gonna lay down and roll over for G's old piece of pussy, though.
Pluto figured he would play Salida's game for as long as it took to get their cash right. But once their business was back on the map and the cream was once again stacked mile high, Salida was gonna be lined up in his crosshairs for real, and all grimy bets would be off.
Cara. Aunt Ree. Grandmother. Dicey. Jimmy. And now Gino and our precious, unborn baby boy, too.
You would think I'd get used to losing the people I loved, but Gino's death and my miscarriage cut me so deep that I didn't think I was ever gonna be right again.
Back in downstairs in my own room I stretched out flat in that hospital bed and just soul-cried. I grieved so hard that I was literally trying to die. I was just begging God to take me. Begging him. I couldn't see anything except a big black hole of emptiness where my life had once been. All that madness I'd survived in Harlem...losing Grandmother, the rapes and beatings, Jimmy blowing his brains out all over me...None of it even came close to touching what I was feeling now. Seeing Gino stretched out in that hospital bed like that...all swole up and with no life left in him. It just hurt so bad. I prayed to God to please just make my heart stop beating so I could escape my pain too.
Renata came to visit me a lot.
Most of the time I didn't even talk to her. She still came. She would sit beside me and stare out the window, while I laid in the bed staring at the wall.
Sometimes she held my hand. Sometimes she just let me be. Sometimes I cried. And sometimes she cried too.
At some point she asked me what I wanted to do about planning a funeral for Gino. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even think about putting my man in the cold ground.
So Big Frank handled it. He called around and made all the arrangements and said The Organization would pick up the expenses.
None of this is real, I told myself a week later as I sat in the chapel of the same church that me and Gino had planned to get married in. I had been out of the hospital for two days, and Renata had taken me straight to her plush crib and set me up in one of her caked-up guest rooms.
This is just another one of them crazy-ass nightmares, that's all, I told myself. And as they rolled Gino's casket down the aisle, I closed my eyes and pictured me and him holding hands and walking down that same aisle. Together, the way we had planned. With a wedding song playing, and all our guests smiling happily at the promise of our union of love.
This is just another bad dream that'll go away as soon as the sun comes up.
Organ music played softly in the chapel as our friends walked past Gino's royal blue grand deluxe coffin to pay their last respects. It was a real small crowd. Just a few people that me and Gino had met over the past few months. There was security out the ass though, and of course all the staff at The Organization had showed up to say goodbye with their families.
I understood why most of the people who had shown up for our wedding were missing-in-action for Gino's funeral. Wasn't no lobster and barbeque ribs being served afterward, and most of them were scared to come in case the church got shot up again. But still, for somebody as large and full of life as Gino had been, I felt like the whole place should have been packed out.
But what really hurt me to my heart was that none of Gino's family was here to see him laid to rest. Instead, with his mother and father both dead, my man was going to be buried way out in some lonely cemetery in Cali. Where almost nobody really knew him except me.
"That's the way it has to be," Renata had told me when I started crying because she wouldn't let me call Gino's aunts and tell them he'd been killed.
"His aunts love him! They deserve to know what happened to him!"
"Tell me," Renata had asked bluntly, "where is Gino's mother?"
I shrugged. "I guess dead. She disappeared when Gino was just a kid. A lot of people say G killed her."
"Okay, there's your answer. You don't think the people who are loyal to G might find out that Gino's gone and come after you too? That's the main thing Gino was worried about, wasn't it? Protecting you?"
"But they're his aunties. They love him," I insisted weakly. "The least I can do is call them."
Renata shook her head with a quickness. "You're gonna have to trust me, okay Juicy? I know it's hard for you to think straight right now, but please trust me. Whoever you and Gino were running from six months ago is probably still after you today. In fact, they're probably more of a threat to you now than ever before because Gino isn't around to protect you."
I got defensive. Renata was real cool, but she didn't know me like that.
"What makes you think we were running from somebody?" I asked her with my New York attitude showing. Right from the jump me and Gino had agreed not to confide in anybody about our troubles back home in Harlem. "I told you we came out west so Gino could find a job."
"Yeah? Well, Gino told Frankie a different story, Juicy. In fact, Gino told Frank the truth about everything. But don't worry. We're not here to judge you. Nothing about our lives is squeaky clean either, so your secrets are safe with us. But we can't keep you safe if you don't listen to us."
"But his family..."
Renata's voice was firm. "I know it hurts, but you've gotta leave the past in the past, Juicy. You can't tell anybody that Gino is dead. Absolutely nobody. In fact, you should forget about New York City and everybody in it. I did, and I'm surviving. Gino was smart enough to get you out of there. I'm sure he loved his family, but he knew better than to tell them where you guys were hiding. There was a reason for that."
I was so hurt and weak that I just gave up. She was probably right anyway. After all that ducking and dipping me and Gino had done trying to make sure we didn't leave any tracks leading back to Harlem, we had run smack into the same kind of trouble we had been running away from in the first place.
And now, as I watched the last few mourners file past Gino's coffin, a big fat tide of tears flowed from my eyes.
"Juicy," Frank said softly. He was standing over me, holding out his arm. "Come on, dear. It's time to say goodbye to Gino."
Somehow I reached out and clutched Frank's warm, steady hand. My feet felt like rubber noodles as I took small, shaky steps toward the front of the room.
Dear God. You know how much I need him.
I pressed my hand to my empty stomach. My baby was gone, and my man was too. My whole body started shivering, and the closer we got to the open casket the colder the air around me got. It was like I could feel the chill coming off of Gino's dead body. All the heat in his big heart, all the comfort and warmth in his strong arms and in his big smile, was gone.
It's just another crazy nightmare, Juicy. Everything will be cool when the sun comes up.
But as I listened to the funeral music being played on the organ and gazed at Gino's body stretched out stiffly in his casket, I knew that was a lie. The sun was never gonna come up over my head again. No matter where I went, or what I did, the sun would never, ever shine on me again.
Tears bubbled up outta me from a place I didn't even know I had.
I need him.
They dripped from my eyes and slid down my face.
I need him.
They splattered on my breasts and wet up my hands.
I stared down at my man with anguish radiating from my eyes. Gino looked just like he was sleeping. He was dressed in a navy blue French-cut suit that he had planned to wear to a formal dinner during our honeymoon. His skin was chocolate-smooth. His wavy hair was jet-black and shiny. A sparkly diamond glittered from his ear, and the onyx wedding band I had bought for him was on his ring finger.
I moaned and gasped.
"Let it out, Juicy," Renata whispered softly. She stood on the other side of me and used her handkerchief to wipe my snotty nose. "It's okay to let your pain out."
But I couldn't let it out, and I couldn't keep it in neither. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't think. All I could do was feel. And what I felt was a pain so deep and so fuckin' unbearable that it nearly split me down the middle. I felt my chest tearing in two. My throat clogged. My skull throbbed and my knees gave away.
I need him!
I reached for Gino. I mean I really, really, really reached for my man. And the moment I touched him all my pain disappeared. The room got quiet and my whole body went numb. The coldness swallowed me up, and the last thing I felt was my knees bumping hard against his casket.
And then God was finally merciful to me.
I didn't feel anything else. I passed out.
"You like this shit, don't you baby? You want it like this? Or you want me to stroke it right there?"
Marguerita Gonzales was in poon-poon heaven. Her man Dutchy Gaines was hittin' her sweet brown pussy from every angle imaginable.
"Right there, papi...ooowie...oh yes!" She crawled onto her hands and knees and backed her shapely hips up to meet his powerful thrusts, "Fuck me right there..."
"I got you!" Dutchy panted, spreading her brown ass-cheeks and widening her sopping pink slit. Her small titties jiggled under his onslaught as he pounded her so good her head bounced off the wall.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Rita squealed. Her forehead was getting dented, but she was steady pumping her hips, loving her joy ride and refusing to let a little pain slow her down.
"You want me to quit?" Dutchy teased, slowing his grind. He revved his hips behind her, stirring her juices with his love stick. Her snatch was warm and soft like a fresh-baked bun. "You still with me or you need a break?"
Rita shook her head furiously.
"Don't stop!" she moaned, pushing against him forcefully with her soft, fluffy ass. "No breaks, baby. Just fuck this pussy. Bang this pussy up!"
Rita loved the feel of Dutchy's heavy balls slapping against her wetness, and there was no way in hell she wanted him to stop. "Keep going," she ordered him as he gripped the base of his dick and slowly pulled it from her sucking cave. Tendrils of sweet juice dripped onto the sheets as he rubbed the erect, helmet-shaped head of his dick between her ass-cheeks and probed her sensitive hole.
Rita sucked in her breath at the tingling sensation his slippery dick created as he slid it from her wet pussy and up to her puckered starfish. Aiming low, Dutchy stuck the head in her pussy, then quickly extracted it and probed her asshole. Groaning, he swiped his dick downward again and shoved the head right back into her gaping pussy, and then he quickly withdrew and pushed gently against her back door again.
Rita began humming with glee as her asshole got creamy and wet from her sticky pussy juices. Over and over again Dutchy probed her asshole just enough to stimulate her without actually entering her, and just the thought that he might stretch her out back there excited Rita to no end.
Sensing her orgasm building, Dutchy licked his thumb, and then rubbed it around her booty hole. Without warning, he slipped it deep inside her ass while plunging his dick into her pussy at the same time.
Rita yelped as the odd sensation turned her out. Reaching between her legs, she massaged her swollen clit with two fingers as she clenched his thick thumb with her anal muscles, and milked his dick with her pussy muscles too.
"Oooow, papi! Yes, ouch! Oh papi...go deeper."
Sparks flew through Rita's body as her clitoris pulsated and her asshole got ruffed out by Dutchy's finger. She swirled her hips frantically, then bucked backward to take Dutchy in deeper as his hard dick slammed against her cervix.
Withdrawing slightly, Dutchy bucked his hips and pounded his rod deeply inside her again. His pelvis smacked into her ass hard enough to break her tailbone and she loved every stroke.
Rita felt sparks shoot up her spine and out of her pointed nipples. "Ooowie, ooowie, ooowie!" she screeched. She reached up and pinched one of her breasts real hard. Electricity surged through her. She stuck her fingers between her legs and caught some of the syrup that was spilling from their bodies. She sniffed her fingers and moaned, then stuck them in her mouth and sucked greedily. The sweetness blew her mind. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her nut was just about to pop off when her cell phone jangled and vibrated on her night table.
Licking her lips, Rita slowed her rhythm for a moment.
"Fuck that phone!" Dutchy barked as he gripped her hips and banged up in her with deep, wet strokes. He rocked his pelvis from side-to-side, allowing his dick to sweep every corner of her inner cave.
The phone rang again, and when Rita strained to see it, Dutchy cupped her breasts and pulled her toward him until she was upright and on her knees. With her back pressed to his muscular chest, he inhaled the glorious scent of her sweaty hair, then bit down gently on her shoulder and sucked her soft flesh in passion.
The phone rang a third time, and as good as she was getting fucked Rita just couldn't help it. School had just started back up and her baby sister Chub had been coughing a lot, and her other sister, Nooni, had been cutting classes and getting high. The call could have been coming from the school nurse, or maybe from a pissed-off teacher.
Rita scooted close to the edge of the bed as Dutchy ignored the interruption and continued to beat her pussy up deliciously from the back. She squeezed her thighs together and rotated on that dick. He was almost there and so was she. Wrapped up in her own pleasure, Rita was just about to say fuck the phone, when it rang again. She took one more peek and finally caught a glimpse of the name flashing on the caller ID.
It said, Naughty Girl, and just those two little words were enough to dry Rita's pussy up and cold-stop her on her knees.
Dislodging herself from her man's pumping dick, she yelped and lunged for the phone. And when she clicked the talk button and breathlessly yelled hello, she found out that it wasn't the school nurse on the line, like she'd feared, and it wasn't no damn teacher calling about her hard-headed, hot-in-the-ass little sister Nooni, neither.
It was Juicy.
$$$$$
Fifteen minutes later Rita was rushing down the streets of Harlem with her heart aching in her chest. In the eight months since Juicy had dropped a gwap of cash on her kitchen table and then dipped out of New York, she had only heard from her girl one time.
Once.
And even then, she hadn't really been sure it was her. Rita remembered it like it was yesterday. Juicy and Gino had been gone for almost a month when she got a call from a number that had a California area code. When she answered the phone there was nobody on the line. At least nobody was talking.
Something in her gut had told her it was Juicy on the other end. Calling to let her know she was okay. And as hot as the streets had been after G got ganked, Rita had understood why her girl was playing it so safe.
Rita knew firsthand the kind of danger Juicy had faced in Harlem. She'd jumped between Juicy and G up in their crib on Central Park West one day, and that homicidal niggah had cracked their foreheads together and tried to make an omelet out of their brains. When Rita finally came to her senses G said if he ever saw her face again her family would be reading about her murder in the newspaper.
It didn't even sound like a threat, it sounded like a promise, and Rita had believed that shit too. Yeah, Juicy was smart to lay low and stay outta range. No matter how much bank she was holding, if G's niggahs ever caught up with her, her life would have been worth less than two cents.
Acting on her hunch, Rita had saved the strange number in her contact list under the name, "Naughty Girl." She'd chosen that name because she had taken Juicy to her very first sex toy party, and it had been funny as hell to watch her girl getting wide open on a bunch of fake dicks.
But now, after talking to Juicy and hearing the raw agony in her voice, and finding out that Gino had been murdered and her girl was ass-out and all alone, couldn't nothing stop Rita from getting out to the West Coast.
The minute she hung up the phone she had jumped into her clothes and hit the door. Dutchy had been dazed like, 'what up with that?' but he was a good dude, and the look on her face must have told him that shit was critical.
"Where you going, baby?" he'd asked, stroking his still-hard dick.
Rita splashed some water on her crotch and pulled on a pair of jeans she found on the floor as she thought about how to answer. Dutchy was big-time in law enforcement. His whole family was. His father, four uncles, and two aunts had all worn uniforms. And every last one of his six brothers were either cops, or detectives, or corrections officers, and Dutchy himself worked as a New York City probation officer. Rita decided against putting him down on anything just yet. Giving him too much info about Juicy's situation could be a bad thing. For both of them.
"I gotta run up to the high school."
"Something up with your sister?" he asked.
Rita had nodded, and it wasn't a total lie. Her teenaged sister Nooni was a habitual hell-raiser who was forever getting in trouble. Rita was going up to the school to get her, but not because the girl had done anything wrong, though. She was heading out to pick up Nooni, and then swinging by the elementary school to get her youngest sister, Chub, so she could drop them both off with the Cuban babysitter who lived down the block.
Rita promised herself she would explain more to Dutchy later, but right now she had to roll and roll fast. Because Juicy really needed her, and no matter what kind of drama was going on in her own world, she had to catch a flight to California so she could be there for her girl.
$$$$$
"But I don't want you to leave," Chub whined. Her bottom lip was poked out and she followed Rita from room to room singing her sad little song.
Rita stuck a tube of toothpaste in her Fendi travel kit, then zipped it up and put the bag inside her matching suitcase. She turned and ran her fingers through her baby sister's hair. Chub's smooth skin looked like dusty cinnamon, and her hair was jet black and crazy curly, just like Rita's.
"I won't be gone for long," she promised. "Probably two weeks. Maybe three."
Rita eyed the gear she'd neatly placed in her suitcase and checked off a mental list to make sure she had everything. She wasn't taking a whole lot. Wasn't no need to. This wasn't a socializing or sightseeing trip, so she wasn't going to be partying or hanging out, or doing anything except taking care of Juicy.
Juicy.
Rita's heart ached when she remembered how gutter-scorched her friend had sounded over the phone. All the life had been gone from Juicy's voice. She sounded like somebody who was already dead, but had lost her way crawling toward a dark, muddy grave.
Rita checked her wallet and made sure her two credit cards and her driver's license was good to go. She had already stopped by the bank and taken out enough cash to pay the babysitter for a good minute, and now all she had to do was throw a few more items in her suitcase and grab a jacket to wear on the airplane.
"Are you going back to Puerto Rico?" little Chub asked suspiciously. "Cause if you are, that's not fair because you promised I could go with you again."
The little girl had poked her finger through the belt loop on the back of Rita's jeans and was leaning backward, her weight almost dragging Rita down.
Rita laughed, then turned around to face her.
"Nah," she said gently, cupping her hands around her baby sister's fat cheeks. Chub was a little eat-o-holic. She had been placed in a foster home after Rita had knifed their father to death and gotten sent to jail. By the time Rita had been cleared of the justifiable homicide charges and had come back home to take care of her sisters, the damage had already been done. Chub was hoarding food and sneaking candy and snacks like crazy. In just one sitting the nine-year-old could suck down enough grub to make a grown man fat.
Rita kissed the child's smooth forehead.
"I'm not going to Puerto Rico. I would never go without you," she reassured her sister. "I promise."
Chub frowned, then chewed on the collar of her yellow and green shirt.
"Then where are you going?"
Rita shrugged.
"Somewhere else," she said. "To check out a friend. But don't worry. Mrs. Moreno is going to take good care of you. You'll get to stay with Lucie and Charlize every night and have lots of fun, okay?"
Chub was clingy and nervous. The doctors said she overate and hoarded food because she suffered from a fear of abandonment.
Rita was concerned about the little girl, but nowhere near like she was worried about her other sister, Nooni. That chick was like a shooting star. Aiming fast and reckless, and at all the wrong targets.
"I'm almost eighteen and I don't need no babysitter," Nooni had bitched, poking her lip out when Rita told her she was going away for a few weeks and her and Chub would be staying with Mrs. Moreno.
"Besides, Mrs. Moreno is stinky. Her house smells like old lady pussy, and her bathroom is nasty."
"If you don't like the way her bathroom looks then clean it up," Rita told her.
"But why can't I just stay home?" the teen protested. Her jet-black curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she had on a t-shirt that had pink bulls-eye targets over both of her bulging young breasts.
"I'm not no little kid, Rita! You don't have to pay nobody to watch me. I'm old enough to watch my damn self."
Bullshit, Rita had thought. To be so cute and prissy Nooni was real loose with herself. She had some wide hips and a tiny waist like Rita's, except she had an even plumper bubble-ass to go along with them. The girl was all attitude and no street sense. All it took was one whiff of her fresh pussy and a street niggah could actually smell how naïve she was. The scent of young, dumb, stupidity just floated straight up out of her crotch.
Rita wrapped a bottle of shampoo in a plastic bag and placed it in her suitcase. She knew Mrs. Moreno was no match for Nooni, but Dutchy had promised to check on the girls every couple of days and make sure Nooni stayed in pocket.
Rita knew she was lucky to have a dude like him to support her, but Dutchy didn't know everything about her past and she liked it like that. He was the type of dude who wanted his woman to be hot and seasoned, but not ghetto and funky. Rita was afraid that if he knew about all the shit she had gone through with her father he would look at her differently, and probably not in a good way either.
But she couldn't worry about any of that right now. She had to make sure Nooni was straight. She planned to take all the house keys with her when she left, and double-lock all the windows too. That way Nooni wouldn't be able to get back inside the apartment while she was gone. She could just see the girl trying to scheme and con Mrs. Moreno into letting her come back to the house to pick up a schoolbook or something else she supposedly "forgot." That would be all she wrote. Mad dudes would be crawling all over the crib, and Nooni and her hood rat little girlfriends would be up in there partying like guttersnipes and having naked-twister orgies out the ass.
Rita was real nervous about the whole situation. Ever since her sister had started fucking with a cut-throat young drug dealer named Maleek, the girl had been dabbling in all kinds of trouble. Stealing, getting high, skipping classes, even sneaking out the window and climbing down the fire escape at night. Anything to get in the streets and roll around with the sleazy little dogs on the corner.
It had all come to a head when Rita came home early one afternoon and busted Nooni and her thugged-out boyfriend getting bizzy in her living room. That long-legged street niggah Nooni was so in love with had her naked and on her knees sucking the skin off his dick, while he reclined on Rita's brand new leather sofa with his hands propped behind his head like he was up in his own damn crib.
At first Rita couldn't believe what she was seeing. Maleek was moaning his ass off as Nooni's head jutted like a pigeon and she gave up that wet neck pussy like a natural hoe.
Rita had blacked out. She knocked the shit outta Nooni and told her to get up off her knees and put on some clothes, while Nooni screamed that Rita wasn't her damn mother and couldn't tell her whose dick she could suck.
Throughout it all, Maleek had stayed calm and moved real easy, like his ass wasn't pressed out and he wasn't in no kind of rush. It was hard to believe that he was even younger than Nooni was with his baby face and ice-cold killer glare. He had the nerve to let his eyes roll all over Rita's hips before he gripped his hard, wet dick and wiped it dry on her favorite sofa pillow. His soulless eyes never left hers as he slowly maneuvered his wood around and tucked it back inside his drawers.
"Look at that piece of shit!" Rita had screamed on her sister as Maleek sauntered his tall, skinny ass out the door without saying a word to either one of them. "You over here putting his raw dick in your mouth after he just pulled it outta some stank bitch's ass! He's too young for you anyway! That piece of trash don't give a fuck about you, Nooni! He don't love you!"
"He do so love me!" Nooni had screamed. "And he ain't got no other bitches! Maleek is my man and I'm his fuckin' boo!"
Rita had been too done. They'd actually come to blows behind that shit, and for the first time ever Nooni had swung on her and punched her in the face.
Rita got hot just thinking about that punch. She had fallen back against the wall and then got up and kicked Nooni's ass straight in. She'd beaten her sister so bad that their next-door neighbor had to come over and pull her off the youngster. Rita didn't know what was going to happen in a few weeks when Nooni turned eighteen and she could no longer legally control her wild ass. It was probably gonna be on and poppin' up in their crib 24/7.
Yeah, it was a real bad time to be jetting off and leaving Nooni with nothing but opportunities to fuck and connive on her hands, but what else could Rita do? Juicy needed her, and she had to be there for her girl. She just had to. She sighed as she zipped her suitcase closed and lifted it off the bed. She was only one person, and she had to give of herself where she was needed the most.
And right now, that was definitely out in California. Her sisters would be cool until she got back. Everything would work out fine. Nooni was just gonna have to go along with the program. No matter how grown the girl thought she was, she was just gonna have to stay her hot little ass at Mrs. Moreno's crib and chill until Rita got back.
Her big sister hadn't even made it outta Harlem good before Nooni started trippin'. She jetted out of Mrs. Moreno's apartment with the sounds of the old lady fussing in Spanish ringing in her ears. Feeling free as a bird, she walked down the streets of Harlem swinging her hips and enjoying the attention her tight jeans and sexy, curvaceous body attracted from the young boys on the block and the grown men in their shiny new whips.
Fifteen minutes later she ran up the stairs to her friend Cheyvon's project apartment and knocked on the door. The two girls caught the train uptown to 149th Street and spent the whole day boosting cheap outfits and eating pizza slices and Italian-style heroes.
It was getting dark outside by the time they returned to Harlem with their stolen goods. Nooni had picked up a couple of pairs of jeans, two skirts, and an ultra-sheer white mini dress that had an open slit from the neckline to right below her navel. Cheyvon had boosted three skirts, a cute dress, and a cheap bottle of perfume for her grandmother.
The thrill of stealing was physically exciting, and it had Nooni's coochie nice and slippery. Maleek was heavy on her mind, and the last thing she felt like doing was ending her night by knocking on Mrs. Moreno's front door.
"You staying in the house tonight?" she asked Cheyvon.
"Hell no," was the answer she got.
"Good, 'cause there's gonna be a real hot party over at T.C.'s Place. Maleek and his set are gonna be up in there. He thinks I'm on lock down with a fuckin' babysitter tonight so I wanna roll up and surprise him."
Cheyvon frowned. "T.C.'s Place? You mean that pool hall over on St. Nick where Thug and the 'Licious Lovers used to spit? Where all them people got killed?"
Nooni nodded. "Yeah. That was Trust Chambers and his wife, Miss Lady. Thug-A-Licious was their godson. My hair dresser, Miss Vyreen, used to work for T.C., and she got shot up in there too."
Cheyvon frowned some more. "And they opened that place back up again?"
"Oh hell yeah," Nooni shrugged, trying to sound much growner and wiser than she really was. "Why not? They got all the dead bodies up outta there and besides, it's the only place in town where the cops won't come fuckin' with us about underage drinking and stuff."
"Then that's what's up," Cheyvon agreed. "Yeah, okay, I'll come. Maybe I can do like you did and hook me one of them thug dudes with the knotty pockets."
"Cool," Nooni said, "but I ain't tryna go all the way home and then come all the way back over here, though. Can I take a shower and get dressed at your crib?"
"Uh-huh," Cheyvon answered. "Hell yeah. But hold up. What you wearing? One of them hoochie-ass outfits you just stole? You know I can't let you roll up in no club pulling all the good looks away from me!" Cheyvon laughed, but she was serious about that shit. Hanging out with Nooni was fun, but most dudes couldn't even see her when her girl was on the scene.
Nooni giggled. "Chey, please. You can have all them little club pups for yourself. Maleek is my man, and the only eyes I want checking for my booty are his."
"Oh, I didn't know you and Maleek was still kickin' it like that," Cheyvon said innocently. "I thought he was messing around with that real bowlegged girl named Ashanti from 145th Street."
Nooni's eyes narrowed as her heart fell. It was Ass-Almighty Ashanti this week, it had been Big Titty Tameeka last week, and it would probably be Dick-Sucking Dominique next damn week. Maleek was down with a strong street crew, and even though he was young, he balled so hard that females just pulled off their thongs and dropped them at his feet.
Nooni rolled her eyes as Cheyvon's words sank in. Maleek was a pussy hound, but he was real jealous and controlling too. He messed around behind her back like mad, but just let him catch her even thinking about another dude. His ass would go gorilla. He'd stretch her and the niggah she was scoping straight out on the ground.
"I said," Cheyvon repeated, cutting into Nooni's anguished thoughts, "ain't Maleek with Ashanti now?"
Checking herself, Nooni smirked and chuckled. "Hell no he ain't with her," she said, playing her role. "His ass is with me. Ashanti ain't nobody special. Maleek don't mess with that nasty, camel-toe hoe." Nooni laughed. "You didn't hear what they said about her? That trick gave Dirty Legs the crabs! She had his ass on itch mode. I know Maleek is a hoe, but he ain't stupid enough to be digging around in no ass-dumpster like her. I don't care how fat her booty is. My pockets is puffed up too!"
Cheyvon looked doubtful, but she nodded and agreed anyway. "C'mon," she said as they walked around the corner and toward her project building. "Forget Ashanti. Her booty is big, but her teeth are shot out. You got me ready to party now! Let's go cop us a little piff so we can slip into our new gear and hit da club."
$$$$$
It was warm for September and T.C.'s Place was busting at the seams. Young Harlemites who wanted to feel and act grown, but couldn't get past security at other clubs pushed into the newly re-opened pool hall in droves.
On paper, T.C.'s Place had been re-classified as a youth development center, but in reality it was run by a powerful Harlem drug sect, and it was a hot spot for everything an underaged teen could hope to get into.
The pool hall had lost its liquor license when its owners Trust and Lady Chambers were gunned down in a brutal robbery, but that didn't stop its young patrons from sneaking in alcohol and other forms of get-high by the bagful.
Nooni and Cheyvon got cleared through security and the metal detectors and paid their five-dollar cover charge, and then stepped inside. Styling their boosted gear and letting their long hair swing down their backs, they knew they looked good and the appreciative comments and stares from the young trap boys on the scene just confirmed it.
T.C.'s Place had been partially remodeled. One whole side of the hall had been cleared of pool tables and replaced with tables, booths and bucket chairs. The other side of the room was still set up the way T.C. had left it, with ornate pool tables positioned in a long row, and endless pool cues racked against the wall. A small dance floor sat in the middle of the room, and couples were out there moving hard to all the latest cuts.
Nooni and Cheyvon shook their hips to the loud rap music that blared from the speakers as they looked around for some familiar faces to click up with.
"It's time to get buzzed," Cheyvon declared, passing Nooni one of the small bottles of rum she'd stashed in her purse. Security frisked for guns and knives and shit at the front door, but they didn't give a damn about liquor. The entire club was getting lifted. Yay was in the air big time, and a few chicks were popping X and sipping on colorful liquid they had poured into empty water bottles.
Nooni took the small bottle of alcohol from her girl and cracked the top. Taking a deep breath, she turned it up to her lips and throated the liquid fire straight down from the first drop to the last.
"So is ya man up in here?" Cheyvon sipped from her bottle and hollered over the music. Her head was on a swivel as she tried to spot Nooni's infamous young baller, Maleek, a cat so brutal he had dudes twice his age giving him mad respect. "Do you see him?"
Nooni froze in place as her eyes scanned the crowd. "Yeah," she muttered, swallowing hard. "I see his ass."
She narrowed her eyes and angled her chin toward the VIP booths. "He's over there with the willies, see him? He's got on a red fitted."
Cheyvon stared in that direction. "Oh, I see him now. Yo, who's that bitch sitting all up in his lap? She looks just like that crab-ass chick, Ashanti!"
Nooni felt flushed as the alcohol burned in her stomach and slowly buzzed her head. She stared at the scene in the booth. There were some major drug dealers and hustlers surrounding Maleek, and that bitch Ashanti was right in the thick of it, laughing and grinning and bouncing all around in Maleek's lap.
Nooni sighed. Once again her man had broken her heart and betrayed her trust. He was so disrespectful! He'd told her the only reason he was coming out tonight was to take care of a little business, yet here he was ballin' in a booth with a 'rilla bitch riding his dick. Well, disrespect was a two-way street, and Nooni was about to show him that.
"Let's walk around," Nooni told Cheyvon as she strutted through the crowd and rolled her ass in her see-through white mini dress. Underneath it she had on a bright red thong, and no bra. She plastered a big smile on her face and made sure she bumped her hip against almost every horny dude she passed.
All eyes were glued to her smooth brown skin, wavy hair, and vicious young curves as she switched over to the VIP area. Ignoring Maleek, she flashed a sexy grin at a few of his boys who were secretly clocking for her, and then moved down to the next booth where a crew of hoods from the other side of Harlem sat puffing sticky and getting toasted.
"What's up, y'all?" she cooed. Giggling, she draped her arms over the back of the booth and the ballers sitting there turned around in surprise.
"How y'all doing tonight?"
Before they could answer, Nooni sashayed around to the front of the booth and struck a sexy pose. Her silhouette of plump breasts, a tiny waist, and wide, curvy hips made all five dicks in the booth jump on instant rock.
"We good, beautiful," replied the guy sitting closest to her. He took a pull from his blunt, then extended his hand and passed it to Nooni. "What's your name, baby?" he asked, rising to his feet.
"I'm Nooni. I saw a bunch of fine ballers sitting over here without no chicks, and I started wondering if I was in the right place tonight."
They laughed with her as their hungry young eyes roamed the curves of her body.
"We was talkin' a little bizz and just waiting for a dream like you to float by," joked the guy who had slid her the yay. Looking down at her, he grinned and sized her up with lust leaking from his eyes.
Nooni gave him a once over and dismissed him right away. He was tall and kinda cute in the face, but he was also light in the ass and had a goofy air about him. Not only wouldn't Maleek get jealous over a sherm like him, he would sense the lack of competition and smash dude with absolutely no remorse.
She scanned the other four dudes in the booth and zeroed in on one. He was light-skinned and had real pretty eyes. He was built solid and had a rugged look about him, and while his gaze let her know he liked what he saw, he sipped his beer coolly, like he wasn't really all that interested.
"You wanna dance?" Nooni hit on him with her softly stated question.
He paused with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth, then shrugged. "Yeah, aiight. I'll dance witcha, baby."
His manz on the left got up to let him out the booth, and when dude stood up Nooni was damn pleased by what she saw. He was real tall and real buff too. He looked a little bit older than her and niggah was packing muscles all up under his gear. His hair was curly and under the glow of the club lights his eyes looked like they were light gray. He grinned down at her and she was almost blinded by his ultra-bright smile. His hand snaked around her waist and slid up to her hip. Without a word, he turned Nooni toward the dance floor, and then grabbed her hand and confidently led the way.
Chillin' in the next booth with his posse, Maleek had Ashanti's nice warm ass in his lap and a clear view of Nooni as she gyrated her hips on the edge of the dance floor with some niggah from across town.
His boy Grip nudged him and then nodded toward the floor.
"Sup wit' Nooni?"
Not a trace of emotion or even a flicker of expression crossed Maleek's face. No, the danger surging inside him was visible only in his eyes, and if Nooni hadn't been so busy cheesing up in that yellow niggah's face she woulda seen that.
"Ain't nothing," he told Grip calmly. "She just out there playin' that's all."
Ashanti squirmed around and dug her ass deeper into his groin. The erection she'd been enjoying had almost completely subsided.
"Playin' my ass," she giggled as she peeped Nooni's game. The sun-baked Puerto Rican chick was out there getting vicious on the dance floor. Her hips were crucial, and she was swiveling them shits and booty-rocking her partner like they were about to get bizzy. "Them two look ready to start fuckin' out there!" Ashanti joked loudly.
Maleek scowled and stood up abruptly.
"Hey!" Ashanti hollered as she tumbled out of his lap. "You ain't gotta chase behind that bitch!" she yelled at Maleek's back as he strode toward the dance floor. "She just tryna make you jealous!"
Maleek stormed right past Nooni and her dance partner as they bumped their bodies to the sexy beat. Nooni had backed up against the dude, prompting him to reach down and grip her hips as he bounced with the bass and grinded his dick on the sweet mound of ass she was offering him.
From the corner of her eye, Nooni caught a quick glimpse of Maleek as he strode past. His gaze was aimed straight ahead, but she peeped mad rage in the set of his jaw and knew somebody's ass was about to get treated!
"Hey," she turned around to face her dance partner and gave him a nervous smile, "I gotta go to the bathroom real quick, okay?"
Sweat ran down his sand-colored face and buff neck, and he flashed his pretty grin down at her before pulling her into his strong arms.
"You ain't gone just leave me out here dancing all by myself, are you?" he asked, grinning sexily. His hands slid down Nooni's back and cupped her thick ass. His hard wood pressed through the slit in her dress and into her toned stomach. "The track is almost over. Let's finish what we started, girl."
Nooni had just opened her mouth to protest when she glanced past him and saw Maleek running up on dude from behind.
There was no time to warn him, no time to even scream.
She watched helplessly as Maleek seemed to move in slow motion. He leaned back on his right leg, then threw his weight forward and swung his arm around in a large arc.
The first pool ball he hurled struck dude square on the back of the head. He lurched forward, stumbling into Nooni, who ducked instinctively and pressed her face into his broad chest for cover. Dude shook his head in confusion, and when he turned to look over his shoulder the second pool ball caught him on his temple, bursting his skin, and sending bright red blood splattering from a spot above his eye.
All hell broke loose as thugs and hoods rushed over from tables and booths to stand with those in their set. Nooni got knocked on her ass as one of Maleek's goonies bum-rushed the guy she'd been dancing with, and then there was nothing but screams, grunts, swinging pool cues, and deadly pool balls whizzing through the air.
"Bitch! Get your fuckin' ass up!"
Fire was burning in her tailbone, and with her cute lil dress riding up over her hips, Nooni looked up and saw Maleek coming after her with a killer glare in his eyes. She flipped over on her stomach and grabbed some niggah's pants leg and pulled herself up as she tried to get away.
Chaos had broken out on the dance floor, and every table and booth in the joint had been abandoned as hood nigs got theirs in.
Ignoring her pain, Nooni tried to yank her mini dress down below her ass and run at the same time, but Maleek was on her. He swung his foot and planted it square in the crack of her ass, sending pain shrieking through her lower back and causing her to land face-down on the ground again. She was bracing herself for the death-blow she knew was coming, when the thick end of a pool cue cracked across Maleek's head and spun him around, drawing him back into the fight.
"C'mon!" Cheyvon was suddenly crouching down beside Nooni as she tried to help her friend get up. "These fools is wildin'! We gotta get the fuck outta here!"
Led by Cheyvon, Nooni stumbled toward the door with a wave of other young chicks. They pushed their way outside, and as Cheyvon supported her, Nooni clutched her aching booty-bone and staggered around the corner toward the housing projects.
"What you go over there and stunt with that yellow dude like that for?" Cheyvon yelled. "Look at what y'all started! That niggah Maleek was about to be on your ass!"
"Maleek is the one who started it," Nooni muttered under her breath. Her heart felt broken as she rubbed the sore spot on her back. "He don't love me like he says he do," she wailed in grief. "It's all good for him to fuck with other bitches, but he gets real stupid whenever a dude acts like he wants to fuck with me!"
"Uhhhh-huh," Cheyvon pursed her lips and agreed. "I know exactly what you mean. But that's the way these Harlem niggahs roll, girl. That's just the way they roll."
$$$$$
Even though she was heartbroken, Noni actually went to school the next day, although she didn't stick around for long.
"Uh-uh," her good friend Bubbles told her as they strutted out of their third period science class and headed toward the school's lunchroom. "We outta here girl. I heard about the big fight that went down at T.C.'s Place last night," Bubbles said as she grabbed Nooni's arm and swung her around in the opposite direction.
Nooni winced as she thought about how Maleek had kicked her up the ass in the club, and then probably spent the rest of the night getting his bone waxed by that cootie-coochie bitch Ashanti.
"Where we going?" she asked gloomily as she followed her friend. They were both juniors when they should have been seniors, but after cutting so many classes they'd come up short on credits.
"Don't worry about it," Bubbles said mysteriously as she strutted in her hoe heels and switched her ass down the school's corridor. A sick and sexy stunna, Bubbles stayed pressed out in the latest fashions, and like Nooni, she was prissy as hell and meticulous about her hair and nails.
But unlike Nooni, Bubbles was an only child, and her single mother worked two nursing jobs tryna keep her daughter looking fresh and feeling good. That left Bubbles with a whole lot of time to do whatever she wanted, and usually that included getting high and hanging out in the streets with grown men.
"I texted my friend," Bubbles said with a sneaky smile. "Friend who?" Nooni asked.
"One of the guys who was fighting up in T.C.'s Place last night. I hate I missed that shit! My moms took the night off from work and I couldn't sneak out. My friend is fine as hell girl, and he's waiting for us outside."
"He got a car?"
Bubbles smirked. "Hell yeah he got a car! What I look like? I don't be fuckin' with no busted niggahs, Nooni! Bitch you know me better than that."
"Yeah, what-the-fuck-ever!" Nooni couldn't help but giggle as they waited until the security guard's back was turned, then cut across a hallway and dipped out of a side door. Laughing, the pair hauled-ass down a stone-lined concrete path, swinging their back packs and hoping security wouldn't spot them before they could make it off school grounds.
A beat-up two-door black Honda was waiting for them at the corner. It had Jersey license plates and a chrome bumper, and the right front fender was dented and painted gray.
"Damn girl, don't tell me this is your friend," Nooni said, eyeballing the busted ride with her lips turned down and her nose turned up. "Uh-uh, Bubbles. Hell no. I ain't getting my gear all grimy riding around in that lil piece of shit."
"Shut up! I don't see your boojie ass coming up with no plans or no rides!"
Nooni was still frowning when she followed her friend over to the car. It was some kinda throwback hatchback. A young, light-skinned dude with gray eyes and cute dimples was sitting behind the wheel with his seat pushed all the way back, low-riding. A Band-Aid halfway covered a bruise over his temple, and another large, egg-shaped bruise stood out like a hill on the back of his head, courtesy of Maleek.
Bubbles opened the door, and the guy reached over and popped a lever letting the passenger seat flip forward. Nooni was embarrassed over the scene she'd caused in the club the night before, but she wasn't gonna let him see it. She smirked and stepped carefully into the back row. The pleather seats were ripped and belching foam. She was straight disgusted as her feet sank into a thick pile of empty soda bottles, fast food wrappers, and all kinds of random trash that had been dumped on the floor and on top of the badly stained seat cushions too.
Nooni rolled her eyes. Her stolen designer gear was about to be straight filthy and she shivered when she went to put on her seatbelt and saw how stained and nasty it was.
Releasing the lever, she said fuck buckling up. She was so skeeved out she couldn't even bring herself to sit all the way back, forget about letting the seatbelt touch her. She was about to climb her ass right back out the car, but then Bubbles pulled the front passenger seat upright and plopped down in it, grinning up in the driver's face like he was pushing a Porsche.
"Sup, baby?" the dude said to Bubbles as he pulled out into traffic. His seat was leaning back so far that Nooni felt like he was riding in the back with her.
He glanced at Bubbles, then nodded at Nooni and flashed her a handsome, thuggish grin. "Hey, gorgeous. How you doin' today?"
Bubbles giggled. "Nooni, this is Truth. Truth, Nooni."
Nooni smirked again. "Yeah, we already met."
Truth glanced over his shoulder at her again. She'd looked damn good when he was buzzed in the club last night, but he was really seeing her now. His gray eyes roamed over her smooth brown skin, high, firm breasts, and the spread of her curvy thighs.
"We sure did, and you still lookin' fine, baby," he grinned and nodded. "Real fine."
Truth turned the music up mad loud. He drove with one hand as he sparked up a blunt. He puffed on it a few times and then passed it to Bubbles. She took a couple of long tokes, then sent it to Nooni in the backseat.
The trio rode around getting nice and lifted. Before long, Nooni felt herself relaxing. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to unwind. She even sat back in the grimy seat. And even though her feet had sunk ankle-deep in the pile of stanking trash, she was steady patting them to the music's banging beat.
It wasn't long before Truth and Bubbles started getting it on in the front seat. Nooni puffed a fresh blunt as she watched Truth steer with one hand and unbuckle his belt with the other. Moments later, Bubbles had dipped her head in his lap. As Nooni watched, they rode down the busy streets of Harlem with Bubbles bobbing and slobbing on Truth's long, yellow joint.
After a while, the cush had Nooni high and horny too. Forgetting about her heartache over Maleek, she thought about how Truth's big hands had felt rubbing all over her in the club while they were dancing, and she couldn't help but stare jealously as her girl throated his thang like it was a sugary bomb pop. It was rock-hard and glistening wet with spit, and Truth moaned as he drove, palming Bubbles' head with his free hand as he rotated his hips and fucked up into her mouth.
It didn't take him long to bust his nut. By the time Bubbles swallowed his load and was coating her swollen lips from a tube of cherry-red gloss, Truth was sliding her a yard that he'd peeled off a knot he'd taken outta his sock, and they were pulling up outside of a nightclub.
"What's this?" Nooni asked, peering out the dirt-caked window as Truth turned off the ignition and opened his door. "Where we going?"
"This is my chill joint," he replied smoothly. "They call it the G-Spot. Whattup? You was feeling that lil kiddie action over at T.C.'s Place last night, but you too young to handle a grown man's club?"
Nooni smirked as he moved his seat forward and she followed him out on the driver's side. She stood up and made a show of wiggling her succulent ass around as she hiked up the waistband of her tight designer jeans. "I ain't too young for a damn thing," she said, eyeing Truth's crotch. She was drooling for the cash in his sock, and for that snake she'd seen him tuck back inside his pants too. Truth grinned and slung his arm over her shoulder. "So you ain't got no problem chillin' wit' a niggah like me for a minute?" he said as they walked toward the nightclub's front door.
"Nah," Nooni shrugged, feeling herself. "I ain't got no problems with nothing," she said, her gaze lowered, her eyes still glued to his dick. "Except for one thing," she giggled, ignoring the hater look on Bubbles' face. "The next time you feel like driving me and my homegirl around I'm riding up in the front."
Even though it was early afternoon the G-Spot was alive and kicking and everything about it looked spectacular to Nooni's untrained eyes. She didn't see the filthy windows, the grime on the floor, or the greasy fingerprints and smears that were all over the once-glistening fuck poles.
There were people walking around drinking, smoking, and doing all kinds of other illicit shit. Led by Truth, Nooni and Bubbles pranced into the club strutting in their tight jeans and high heels like they were grown women who hung out in titty joints every other day.
Truth took them over to a booth near the bar. Bubbles sat on one side of the crusty table while Nooni and Truth slid in next to each other on the opposite side.
"What you ladies drinking?" Truth asked smoothly.
They looked at each other and bust out giggling. Sneaking a little Pink Champale into school was one thing, but drinking real liquor at a bar on a school morning was even better.
"Y'all got some Ciroc Coconut?" Bubbles asked, sticking a piece of gum in her mouth.
"We got whatever you want."
Bubbles grinned. "Well that's what I want!"
"I want me a Ciroc Dragonberry," Nooni said.
"Yo, Bizz!" Truth hollered at a skinny dude behind the bar. "Let's get the liquid luvin' flowing over here, my slime! Nah'mean? For the ladies!"
$$$$$
"Bitch, are you sure that's her sister? Don't be playing with me! You know I can't stand that fuckin' chick."
"That's her! I'm telling you. That's her."
Monique stood in the doorway of the G-Spot's closed-down kitchen and eyed the two teeny-boppin' chickenheads who were getting tipsy with her young stud, Truth.
The little hoes couldn'ta been more than seventeen, if that. Monique couldn't help but chuckle inside. If G could see these two sweet pieces of jailbait sitting up in his spot that niggah would be bitching about his liquor license and kicking a hole in his coffin!
Monique peered closely at the beautiful young girl they were scoping out.
"She do look like her, though. Same skin color. Same hair."
"That's because they're sisters!" Honey Dew insisted. "Rita is the oldest, this chick here is in the middle, and then they have a real little sister too."
Monique's lip twisted. "So where the hell is Rita while her sister is playing hookey up in a damn club?"
"I ain't seen her in a minute," Honey Dew said, grilling the two young girls over Monique's shoulder. She tipped her beer up and slurped from the neck, then shrugged. "The last I heard, somebody said Rita moved outta her old apartment. She got a new place now. I think she moved in after Juicy and Gino dipped."
Honey Dew took another sip from her bottle. "She's still right here in Harlem though, so she didn't go too far."
"Oh, hell yeah!" Monique whispered gleefully as the young chick stood up and walked out on the dance floor with Truth. "That's her! That's Rita's sister 'cause they shaped just alike. That bitch got a real cute ass. What's her name again?"
Honey Dew frowned and shook her head. "Fuck if I remember. Nah-Nah. Nu-Nu. Nee-Nee." She shrugged. "Some stupid shit like that."
Monique couldn't take her eyes off the stunning young brown thing. She was a cocoa-colored Puerto Rican. Obviously mixed with black. The young girl who had come in with her was pretty too. She had real light skin and silky hair down to her ass.
Look at these lil hot mamas, Monique laughed inside. They were gorgeous all right. And grown as hell, too. They had their hot asses up in a men's club when they shoulda been sitting up in school tryna learn something. Monique loved it.
"You sure that's her, right?" she asked Honey Dew again. She just couldn't believe something this good could be falling right into her lap.
Honey Dew sighed and passed Monique her beer. "Bitch, look at her! She looks just like a little Rita. Plus, I already fuckin' told you. It's her. I know 'cause she used to hang out with a girl who stays next door to me. Some young chick named Bashira. Rita used to pick her sister up from there all the time."
Monique nodded, a cunning look glowing in her eyes.
"I sure hope you right 'cause I owe that bitch Rita one. She tried to get my brother Maurice locked up over some bullshit back in the day."
Honey Dew nodded right back. "My next door neighbor can't stand Rita neither. She came home and caught this here chick---Nooni! Yeah, I remember now---her name is Nooni---giving little Bashira dick-sucking lessons with a banana. Trust me. That's her."
Monique took a swig from the beer bottle and watched the girls dance and suck down free liquor from the bar.
"Oh, I know that lil bitch can suck some dick," she nodded. "That's how she got my brother knocked. Rita caught her giving Maurice some head and called the fuckin' cops. Like he was raping her or some shit. I oughtta beat that lil bitch's ass right now."
"You oughtta start thinking, is what you oughtta do," a silky, but strong feminine voice said behind them.
Monique and Honey Dew both whipped around. Salida had snuck up on them and dipped on their conversation without either one of them realizing it.
"Hey Mizz Salida," Monique said sweetly. "What's going on?"
Salida smirked, turning up her pretty lips.
"The cash register, baby. That's what's going on." Salida nodded toward the teenagers who were out on the dance floor getting loose with Truth.
"I heard what y'all was saying just now. Why you wanna kick that baby's ass?"
Monique ran the situation down real quick. "The one in the white shirt is Nooni. Her sister, Rita, used to run real tight with Juicy before G got killed."
"Is that right?" Salida asked, perking up at the mention of Juicy's name.
"Yeah. That lil bitch got my brother knocked when Rita caught them fuckin' and called the cops on him."
"And this girl, Rita, you say she's Juicy's friend?"
"Yeah. They partners. Homegirls. Juicy used to bring Rita around here every now and then when G was alive. Her and her little college friends would sit up in G's VIP booth looking stupid and acting like they was the shit."
"So, Juicy and Rita are tight, but are they friends?"
"Yeah, they friends," Monique shrugged. "As much as two bitches can be friends anyway."
"Uh-huh."
"Matter of fact, Rita was the one Juicy went running to the night her brother shot G."
Salida stared. "How do you know that?"
"'Cause I followed her ass! I came down here even though Ace had kicked my ass and told me to stay home. At first I was sitting in my car in the alley out back, and I watched them take off with G's body in the trunk of his Benz. When I drove around front I got the shit shocked outta me when I saw Juicy come busting out the door. She was asshole-naked with just a sheet wrapped around her."
Honey Dew shook her head sadly. "It was a shame the way they did Juicy. They had that girl tied to a pole down in that Dungeon for days. I can still hear her screaming. How the hell did she get out?"
Monique shrugged. "I don't know, but I saw her jet. She jumped in a bootleg taxi, and when they pulled off, I followed they asses."
Salida asked, "And where'd they go?"
"I just told you! They went to Rita's house! I saw that bitch open her front door and let Juicy in!"
Salida nodded. "So Rita and Juicy look out for each other like that, huh? That's good. That's even better than good."
"Yeah. That's why I was just telling Honey Dew I should go over there and bust Nooni's lil ass. Give her something to take back to her sister."
Salida waved her hand and shook her head real fast.
"Nah, nah, nah, darling. Forget about busting her ass. That's not how you win at this kind of game. Like I said, you need to start thinking!"
"A bitch like me," Monique snapped, "is always fuckin' thinking!"
"Then think on this," Salida said slickly. "We've got us a cute young goose who can lay us a fat golden egg, and all you can think about is kicking her ass."
Monique shrugged. "Then maybe I'll put her out on the track, or throw her young tail in one of the fuck rooms and make her flatback for some dollars instead. That's what G woulda done. Headlined her ass. We gotta take the Spot back to what it used to be. That's the only way we gonna get our pockets back right again."
Salida disagreed.
"Listen, can't no one chick sell enough ass to get this place back up on its feet. I don't care how hot her pussy is. But what we can do is use her. We can use what we got, to get what we want!"
"And how we gonna do that?"
"Oh," Salida said mysteriously. "There's more than one way to kill a cat. But first we're gonna go fishing. And that little hottie sitting over there is gonna be our prime piece of bait."
"Hmm..." Monique mused as Salida took her aside and broke it all the way down so she could understand it. The more Monique listened, the more impressed she was with Salida and her plan. No wonder G had locked this scheming bitch up way outta the country and tried to throw away the damn key!
Salida strategized like a man. She was way slicker than G was. Far more ruthless. If G hadn't drugged her up and stashed her in that nuthouse Salida woulda had his black ass out on the track turning tricks and bringing her the money!
"So," Monique said, trying to wrap her head around the crazy-ass scenario Salida had just dropped on her. "You saying there's a way we can use Nooni, and get her to use her sister Rita, so we can get our hands on some big-time money?"
"That's correct. About two hundred grand to start."
Monique shook her head at the thought of all those zeros. "I just don't see it, Mizz Salida. That bitch Rita ain't paid. She ain't got that kind of cash."
"No, she doesn't," Salida coldly agreed.
"But her good friend Juicy does."
Nooni mighta thought she was street slick, but she didn't have nothing on Money-Making Monique. At seventeen-years-old, she was miles behind the seasoned stripper, but she admired her swagger on sight.
Monique wiggled her delicious body over to the table where Nooni and Bubbles now sat chatting with Truth.
"Hey, cutie."
"Sup, Mo," Truth joked, raising his chin and wincing as he tossed down a shot-glass full of straight gin.
"Shut up," Monique said playfully, popping her chewing gum between her back teeth. "You cute, Truth, but ain't nobody talking to you." She flashed Nooni and Bubbles a bright smile.
"I was talking to her," she said, nodding at Nooni. "Welcome to the G-Spot, cutie. Look at your pretty eyes and all that curly hair! You're gorgeous, honey. What's your name?"
Nooni swallowed hard. She couldn't believe the beautiful lady with the butter weave and bombastical body was giving her props. She was awestruck and flattered, and Bubbles had to kick her under the table to get her to answer.
"N-Nubia," she stuttered, smiling back. "My name is Nubia, but they call me Nooni."
Monique slid into the booth next to Bubbles and sparked up some chocolate sticky.
"So why y'all not in school?" she asked, puffing first and then passing the blunt across the table to Nooni. "All that reading and writing shit is boring as hell, ain't it?" she added quickly, just so they knew she wasn't tryna preach to them or chastise them for playing hookey and cutting classes.
Nooni could barely speak. She was overly impressed by Monique's flawless brown skin, perfect false eyelashes, and three-inch diamond-studded fake nails.
Monique was sucking up the adoration with glee. She liked being admired by young girls. She liked tickling their ears and dumping dog shit in their empty heads. Salida had been right. There was more than one way to skin a cat. It was much smarter to use Rita's little sister as their tool than it was to get mad and beat her ass. She spent the next two hours happily wooing Nooni and Bubbles, soaking their throats with liquor and filling their heads up with whimsical nonsense. The kind of dumb shit that young girls loved to hear.
"Check it out," Monique said, feeling a little bit tipsy herself after matching Truth drink for drink. "I know y'all got school and homework and studying and all that type of bullshit going on. But are either one of y'all interested in making some extra money?"
Monique laughed inside as all four bright eyes in the two guttersnipe faces lit up.
"Yeah," both girls said together. "Hell, yeah!"
"See," Monique explained, lying her black ass off, "I'm a party planner. I put together erotic events for paid niggahs who got swole pockets. Can y'all young heffahs dance?"
Heads got to bobbing up and down.
"Well, we don't do no whole lotta freaky shit or nothing like that. You know, no fucking or dick sucking is required. But you will have to strip. And you'll have to shake that ass a lil bit too. You know, it ain't nothing serious. You just wiggle outta your panties and smack the crotch under them niggah's noses. Humph. After that, their old asses are usually straight for the rest of the night."
"Both of these honeys got plenty of ass," Truth laughed. "I believe they can handle that."
Monique nodded. "True, true. Problem is, I only got one opening left. Most of our parties are way out in Philly, or sometimes down in Atlantic City. I can only fit one more girl in my whip."
She looked from Nooni to Bubbles, then back to Nooni again.
"So who's it gonna be?"
Monique snickered to herself as the girls damn near brawled trying to get chosen, "Me! Me! Me!"
She gazed thoughtfully up at the ceiling for a moment, and then batted her false eyelashes as she looked from girl to girl.
"Y'all both real cute. But stand up and lemme see who got the best shape."
The young girls almost broke their necks as they scurried to get out of the booth. Standing in front of Monique, they struck pose after pose, tooting up their asses and arching their slender backs trying to make their high, young titties look even bigger.
Monique laughed.
"All right, all right. It's gonna be hard to decide. But since I have to choose, I pick.... Hold up. Hey, Truth. You a street playa, so what you think? If you had to fuck either one of these two honeys, which one would it be?"
Truth grinned, his sexy eyes red from weed and alcohol as he peeped Monique's shiesty game.
He licked his lips. "I'd pick her," he said, pointing not at the girl who had slobbed his dick down in the car on the way over, but at her girlfriend, whose pretty eyes and sexy grin had promised she would do much, much more.
"Nooni," he said with a big grin. "Yeah. I'd pick Nooni."
It was a windy, overcast day when Rita touched down in Los Angeles. She had never been on an airplane before, and she spent the entire flight worrying. Not about the pilot, or whether the plane was gonna stay up in the air like it was supposed to. Nah. She was worried mostly about Juicy, but also about the two younger sisters that she had left back in Harlem.
She caught a taxi from the airport to an address in a plush neighborhood where Juicy was staying. She was surprised when a white chick answered the door.
"You must be Rita," the white lady said.
Rita nodded.
"I'm Renata. Juicy's upstairs. Come on in."
The crib was just as plush as the neighborhood, and Rita couldn't help but admire what she saw. She was a Harlem girl, born and raised. She'd never been inside a house this grand before. Because of Juicy's generosity, Rita had been able to move her sisters from the shabby tenement their father had raised them in, to a nice, spacious apartment building not too far away. Her new place was laid out, but it was nothing like this.
She followed Renata up a winding staircase. The steps were made of marble and the handrails were carved from deep, dark cherry wood. She was led to the doorway of an airy bedroom with high ceilings and two skylights, and her breath caught in her throat when she looked inside.
Rita knew life had been real hard for Juicy lately, but nothing could have prepared her for the actual sight of her girl.
Juicy was a wreck.
She had lost so much weight her collarbone stuck out like a rail from one shoulder to the other. Her cheeks were flat, and her eyes looked lost and sunken deep in her head.
But it wasn't her physical appearance that startled Rita the most. It was the pain coming out of her friend's soul. It overflowed from Juicy's eyes, and Rita had never seen anything like it before.
She rushed over to the bed where Juicy sat, and they hugged and cried. Rita made soft, comforting noises as Juicy clung to her like she was drowning.
"I'm so glad you came," Juicy said through her tears. "I couldn't call nobody else. I couldn't even tell nobody that Gino was dead. There was nobody else I could really trust."
Rita rocked her friend in her arms. "I'm glad you called me, Juicy. You should have called me sooner, though. I can't believe you waited almost two months! I would've jetted out here right away if I had known. You didn't have to suffer by yourself all this time, girl. I could have been here for you."
Juicy wiped her eyes. "I wasn't alone. Renata made me come home with her straight from the hospital."
Rita glanced toward the door. "Who the hell are these white people?" she asked in a dropped voice. "Why they doing all this for you?"
Juicy sighed. "They're a group of businessmen from New York, and they're some of the best people I've ever known. Gino worked for them. He got real tight with his boss's nephew, and since we were out here by ourselves with no friends they just kinda adopted us and started treating us like family."
"That's real unusual for Italians," Rita said, doubtfully. "Especially the ones I know in New York."
"I know," Juicy said, nodding. "But they're good people, Rita. Like you said, it's been almost two months and they've been taking care of me the whole time. The Sanveneros might be Italian, but they're legit. They loved Gino, and he loved them back."
"Well, I'm glad somebody out here had your back," Rita shrugged, then nodded. "Going through all that stress by yourself would have been ten times worse."
Juicy hadn't been back to her crib since Gino was murdered, but she told Rita she was ready to go home so she could try to pick up the pieces she'd left behind.
"Cool, I came out here strictly for you," Rita said. "So whatever you wanna do, wherever you wanna go, it's all good with me. Just say the word."
Juicy said the word, but Renata wasn't trying to hear it.
"I have another bedroom that you can use, Rita," she said. "You're welcome to visit as long as you like, but Frank and I both think it's best if Juicy continues to stay with us. We can keep her safe here. We can protect her."
But Juicy wasn't down with that.
She wanted to go home. Home to the bed that she and Gino had slept in every night, and home to the unfulfilled promise of what their lives would have been like together if he had lived.
Slick Sallie hugged Juicy real tight before she left, and Big Frankie gave her what looked like a pink cell phone.
"It's a stun gun," he told her. "Believe me, your problem has already been taken care of, but I want you to keep this near you at all times."
Juicy nodded. "I appreciate everything you and Renata and Sal have done for me," she told Frank as she picked up her small bag. "Y'all looked out for me and treated me better than people I've known my whole life. But I can't hide out here forever. I have to figure out my next move. I've gotta make some decisions."
Renata jumped in and protested a little bit more, but in the end she respected her friend's wishes. There were tears in her eyes as she drove them to Juicy's house. She held Juicy in her arms for a real long time before saying goodbye, and Rita could tell the white chick really had mad love for Juicy in her heart.
Settled down in Juicy's crib, Rita had a sense of déjà vu. She remembered the night that Juicy had escaped from the G-Spot like it was yesterday. She remembered how torn-down her friend had looked when she jumped out of that taxi, raped and beaten and wearing nothing but a sheet.
Juicy looked almost as bad as that now.
Not only was she grieving for Gino and the baby boy she'd lost, she was still recovering from her surgery and barely eating enough to keep any meat on her bones.
"It's gonna be alright," Rita whispered over and over as Juicy walked around the crib whimpering and touching Gino's things. It was all just the way he had left it. From his toothbrush on the sink, to his shoes under the bed. Gino's spirit was definitely in that house. The essence of him was in all the stuff he had left behind, and it made Juicy break all the way down to know he wasn't coming back.
Rita followed closely as Juicy roamed the house just crying and touching. Rita let her be, simply reaching out to catch her friend when her legs got too weak and she couldn't stay on her feet. She had never seen anybody cry so hard or so long, and there was no way to stop the tears of sympathy from falling from her own eyes.
Juicy's grief seemed to know no end. She told Rita that the two months since Gino's death felt like two short hours to her heart. Hiding away at Renata's crib hadn't given her a proper outlet to mourn, and seeing and touching and smelling Gino's earthly possessions made something inside her die all over again.
Rita did her best to be strong and supportive. She turned the hot water on in the shower, and helped her girl get undressed. Juicy stood there in front of her naked, and Rita winced at the sight of the stitched-up bullet wound right below her girl's navel. It was twisted and purplish, and she could tell how bad it had hurt just by the way it looked.
"I lost my baby," Juicy wept pitifully. She pressed her hands to her empty womb as Rita stared at her surgical scar. "I wanted that baby, Rita. I wanted him so, so, bad."
Silently, Rita poured shower gel on a cloth and smoothed it over Juicy's back, breasts, and arms. She squeezed suds all over her, then she propped Juicy up in the shower and washed her hair, angling the showerhead so she could get a good rinse. She had just gotten Juicy out of the water and was gently drying her off with a big fluffy towel when her girl began talking again.
With trembling lips, Juicy opened her mouth and told her friend everything that had happened. From the moment her and Gino left New York, until the day she watched her man get put in the ground.
Through it all, Rita just couldn't believe what she was hearing. The lost hopes and dreams...the senselessness of it all was just heartbreaking.
"So all of this went down just because some guy was jealous and wanted to push up on you?"
Juicy shrugged her shoulders miserably.
"I don't know. I've been thinking maybe it wasn't just about Pit, though. Maybe it was my fault. There's something fucked up about me, Rita. I make niggahs act crazy."
"That's not true, Juicy. You can't blame yourself for what that psycho fool did."
Juicy sniffed, her eyes and nose were both red. "But I do blame myself. There's something about me that attracts bad energy. The way I look. How I dress. How I walk... Maybe some kind of vibe I be giving off. I can't explain it, Rita, but it's there. It's like I have bad luck or something."
Rita shushed her with a hug. "Juicy, you don't have no control over what some fool-ass niggah decides to do! All you want is the same thing every other chick like us wants. A good education, a nice dude to chill with, some friends to hang out with, and to have a little fun. It's not your damn fault that men like G and Pit want to control a bitch's next breath! And it ain't bad luck when you catch a lot of fucked up breaks in life, neither. It's just life, Juicy. Life. Pit musta been fried in the head to do what he did. That's probably why somebody took him out."
Juicy wiped her eyes on her towel and sighed. "I don't know who got to him, but I'm glad he's gone. Renata said the cops found him hanging in his own shower. His throat was slit and somebody had chopped off his right hand."
"Damn..."
"I know...Renata thinks somebody left Pit's body like that to send a message. Two of his homeboys got took down too. Execution style."
Rita shuddered. "So, what happened to his girl? Your so-called friend? The chick who was doing your hair?"
"I don't even know," Juicy shrugged and shook her head. "I guess she skied up. I sent Renata looking for her a few weeks ago, but she came back and said Quese's shop was boarded up and she was nowhere to be found."
Rita sighed. No matter which way she looked at Juicy's situation it looked real bad for her girl. She was out on the West Coast all alone, with no real friends or family, but she couldn't go back to New York either. Not while niggahs were still gunning for her head.
They spent the next two weeks just chilling and lounging around at Juicy's crib. Rita cooked a bunch of different dishes, but Juicy barely ate anything. She was sad and she cried a lot. She went back and forth between feeling guilty about everything, to wanting to die so she wouldn't have to feel anything at all.
"I begged God to take me," Juicy confessed one night as they walked on a beach. "I asked Him to either strike me dead, or give me the courage to take myself out. And you know what, Rita?" she asked, her voice full of misery. "I'm so fucked up that God doesn't even want me."
There was no self-pity in Juicy's words. Only sorrow. But instead of trying to find ways to comfort her all the time, Rita held back and let her girl just get it all out. Shit, if anybody had a right to feel sad, it was Juicy. She had suffered a whole lot to be so damn young.
"It's gonna get better," was all Rita could think of to say. And in her heart, she believed it. On the real, with all the crazy shit that had happened to her girl lately, it for damn sure couldn't get no worse.
"So what now?" Salvatore McCain asked his uncle. He'd been pacing back and forth in front of the window ever since Renata left the house with Juicy and her beautiful Hispanic girlfriend who was visiting from New York.
Frank shrugged. "Nothing changes, Sallie. We keep an eye on Juicy, and we help her out the best we can. Oh yeah," he added. "We tell Fat Paul to set up some security around her condo. If she needs us, we're there."
Sallie frowned. He was still mad about being run out of New York City. The weather was a lot better in California, but his friends---and his hustle---was on the East Coast, and that was where he wanted to be.
"We're there for how long? C'mon, Uncle Frank. It's over! Gino's dead, and the trash that killed him got put down for a nice long nap. We paid our debt, and now it's over."
Narrowing his eyes, Frank stared at his nephew. The kid was a half-Irish bum. If Sallie wasn't his sister's son Frank would have knocked some principles into the boy's head.
As the leader of his family Frank wasn't gonna tolerate having his decisions questioned by some snot-nosed little asshole. He had moved twenty-seven members of his immediate family from one coast to the other in the blink of an eye. He'd arranged new identities for everybody, and set them up with legitimate jobs and front businesses so they could re-establish their normal criminal activities. Keeping the family running smoothly was a full-time occupation, and Frank didn't need a spoiled little shit like Sallie adding to his troubles.
"It ain't over until I say it is," Frank said with firm authority. "We made a deal and we're sticking to it. That's how The Organization does business, Salvatore. No matter how long it takes."
"But you made a deal with a fuckin' moolie!" Sallie shot off. He despised Blacks and his entire family knew it.
Frank's patience was growing thin. Like most of the family's younger soldiers Sallie was near-sighted and hotheaded. His generation, if left to their own impulsive devices, would buck the time-honored traditions and run La Cosa Nostra right back into the barren grounds of Italy where it had originated.
Of course, Sallie wasn't a member of the ruling council, but Frank sure was. He had vivid memories of the night The Organization was tipped off to an impending federal sting. It was a full-scale, complex operation that involved several federal agencies, and within a matter of days it would have crippled and taken down his entire clan.
Most ignorants believed the mob had all but disappeared from New York City, and that's exactly what Frank and the other members of their ruling council wanted them to think. Over the past twenty years La Cosa Nostra had adjusted and adapted to the new criminal landscape. They'd gone deep undercover while maintaining dominance in the drug trade, and the idiots who thought they were irrelevant were the same idiots whose money they gladly raked in.
So, when Frank got word that the Feds were sniffing at his door, he and the senior members of The Organization had been grateful for the advance warning. They'd gone to work hiding assets and destroying damning evidence. And as a result of their quick actions they'd not only eluded the Feds with their finances intact, they'd escaped with their lives and their freedom too.
"I'm serious," Sallie pressed the issue. "I say fuck the moolie."
"Look, you fuckin' retard!" Frank exploded, snatching his nephew in the collar. "Did you forget that 'moolie' saved your miserable little life? Do I have to remind you about the caches of guns and the warehouse full of dope we moved? And what about all the money we hid away? If it wasn't for that moolie we'd be spending the rest of our lives in a federal fucking pen! He looked out for us like a man. And we're going to respect him. Like men."
Even with the meaty fist at his throat Sallie still disagreed. "I understand all that, Uncle Frankie, but we already did our part! Our deal ended at Gino's funeral. I say we send this guy a couple of blood oranges and then we call it even. It's done! Juicy can look out for herself."
Frank trembled, he was very close to the edge.
"Our deal included Juicy," he spit. "She's under our protection. And she's going to stay that way! End of discussion."
"But what are we getting out of it?"
Frank barely controlled his temper. "That man could have been killed for what he did for us. Looking out for the girl is the least we can do. Besides," he said, releasing Sallie and running his beefy hand through his mop of jet-black hair, "Juicy's a nice kid and Renata likes her. She likes her a lot."
Nooni felt like the winning contestant on a television game show. She was finally getting over her love for Maleek, and for the past two weeks her and Bubbles had cut out of school every day to jet over to the G-Spot to hang out with Truth.
Drinking, smoking, and fucking was all they had on their minds, and it didn't even faze Nooni when Mrs. Moreno fussed her out in Spanish for coming home way after midnight and waking up late for school every day.
Nooni knew her shit was veering off the chart, but she didn't care. There was too much fun shit going on to worry about school or anything else. There was always a shopping trip with Monique to go on, or nice restaurants to floss at, and ballers out the ass to rub shoulders with when she went to live parties with some of the dancers at the G-Spot.
Her sister Rita had been blowing her spot up like mad, though. She left worried messages on her cell phone day and night, but as soon as Nooni saw her number on the caller ID she'd hit ignore, and then text Rita and give her some bullshit story like her phone was dying and she couldn't find her charger.
Nooni was playing a dangerous game and she knew it, but what she didn't know was that somebody else was playing their own little dangerous game too.
A game of cat and mouse.
She was sitting on a barstool between Monique and Bubbles when Truth walked over from the DJ booth where he'd been jamming.
"Whaddup," he said, eyeing her with a sexy grin.
Nooni blushed. The swagger on this dude was amazing. He stepped up on her and kissed her, snaking his tongue deep into her mouth.
Monique puffed on a blunt and watched as her young lover slobbed Nooni down. She crossed her legs and grinned at the sight of his tongue slithering all over the stupid chick's eager lips.
Nooni's knees damn near buckled just from his kiss. Truth had been laying that yellow dick down on her deep and hard, and Monique completely understood why the young girl was bent and strung out on that good shit.
"Yo," Truth said breaking the kiss. A hot look was in his eyes as he bit his lower lip. "We gonna holla, Mo." He took Nooni's hand and they headed toward the fuck rooms. "I gotta take care of some bidnizz with my girl real quick."
Monique was shivering with excitement as Truth led Nooni away, and she couldn't stop herself from giggling when he winked over his shoulder and gave her a swagged-out grin.
"That low-down Puerto Rican bitch!" Bubbles muttered, crushing her cigarette out on the bar. "I was sucking Truth's dick first!"
Monique turned to the pretty young girl and let out an evil laugh. "Shut up, chicken. You ain't special. Every hoe up in here done sucked Truth's dick. And that's the truth!"
$$$$$
While Truth was busy soldiering hard for Nooni, Salida had made a true soldier out of Monique. Although Ace and Pluto had come up short during their trip to California, Salida had looked at the situation from a completely different angle and devised herself an alternate plan. She'd been off her medication for a minute now, and while she still had a few fucked up periods of hazy thinking, she was becoming more and more like her old self every day.
"The only way to get our hands on some quick money is to think and plan, you hear me?" she schooled Monique. "Think and plan!"
Monique agreed, but she kept quiet. Hell, she had already done her thinking and planning when she sent Ace and Pluto after Gino and Juicy. But she knew better than to tell Salida that. Shit, if Salida ever found out that Monique had sent the goonies to California to pop her only son, she would probably pull out a tool and shoot Monique right between the eyes. Salida was just that throwed off.
"If we play our cards the right way," Salida continued intensely, "then Rita, Juicy, and the money will jump straight into our hands without us moving a muscle."
"How the hell is all that gonna happen?" Monique wanted to know.
"Trust me," Salida told her. "You'll know my plan is working because you won't have to approach Rita at all. That bitch will walk straight up to you and start talking."
Monique had rubbed her hands together in anticipation of that big day.
And while Monique was anticipating, Salida was busy thinking about their future operations. She had already decided to use part of the money they were gonna pull in to get the G-Spot's cut room back up to full operations. But not the way it used to be. After just a few weeks of watching television, surfing the internet, reading blogs, and hanging out in chat rooms, Salida had decided that the era of selling drugs G's way had passed.
The color of Harlem was slowly changing, and so were its tastes. Crack would always be king to a certain group of addicts, but Salida planned to upgrade the G-Spot's drug operations to include the kind of club drugs that were cheaper and easier to get than cocaine. She was interested in the kind of drugs that more and more young people were beginning to like.
Quaaludes, ecstasy, roofies, special k, and especially meth, were all the rage with the kids who were starting to hang around Harlem today. Salida wanted to include all that shit on the menu at the G-Spot, and she had even figured out how to cook up the meth herself.
Monique knew what she wanted to do with her share of the take too. She also knew what she was gonna do to Juicy once she got her razor blade against that bitch's throat. And it wasn't gonna be pretty, neither. Nah, it wouldn't be pretty at all.
But they had to do all of the first things, first. Divide and conquer, is what Salida had instructed Monique to do with their two new protégés, and she set about getting Bubbles outta the picture in a hurry.
The tough little chicken didn't appreciate getting cut from the squad, though. She nutted up and made Truth get physical when he tried to shake her off, and he ended up having to mush her face into a light pole so she could get the message.
With Bubbles mad as hell, but gone, Monique instructed Truth to concentrate all his efforts on making Nooni feel comfortable so she could let her guard down.
She told him to keep the girl as high as possible, and to fuck her little lights out so that when it came time to put the moves on her she would bend in whatever direction they wanted.
That same night, after he busted Bubbles in the grill and left her staggering near the corner of her block, Truth took Nooni back to the small apartment where his Uncle Pluto lived with Monique.
"Don't you put that young heffah in my bed," Monique had warned Truth earlier. "Y'all can eat anything you find in the house, and you can fuck her in whichever room you wanna fuck her in---except mine."
Truth and Nooni made themselves at home in Monique's living room on her sleeper sofa. They partied at the G-Spot most of the time, and stayed out of Pluto's way whenever he came home to eat or sleep.
Nooni had never known a dude like Truth before. She had only fucked with a handful of guys in the past, but other than Maleek, none of them had been about the streets the way Truth was. For one thing, he was only two years older than she was, but he wasn't no regular come up. He was certified. Already he had made a name for himself that was ringing bells on the streets, and he was down with one of the leading sets in Harlem.
Two days later, Nooni walked out of Mrs. Moreno's apartment, never to return. She waited while Truth stuffed her small suitcase into his junky-ass trunk, then she climbed into the car beside him and sipped on his pineapple soda as he drove her back to Monique's apartment where they had been chilling off and on for days.
"Yo, shawty, you said you wanna be wit' a niggah, right?" Truth asked, squeezing her thigh as he drove.
Nooni nodded quickly. Damn right she did. Truth was nothing like that jealous, cheating-ass, Maleek. Her sister had been right. Maleek was too young and immature for her anyway! But this cat Truth was the bizz. He was so cold she wanted to be with him every single fuckin' day and sleep with him all night too.
"Then lemme hear you say it," he demanded. "Don't be nodding your head like no baby, Nooni. I'm a man and you a woman. Tell me what the fuck you want."
"I wanna be with you," Nooni declared. "Yeah, I do. I wanna be with you."
"Good," Truth said. "Then you better act like it. If anybody asks you any questions, you tell 'em you got put outta that old lady's crib and I helped you find someplace to stay, aiight? Act like you wanna be with ya niggah! Ya heard?"
Nooni was all for it.
Monique was in the kitchen frying chicken livers and stirring grits when they walked in. She fixed a plate for Pluto real quick, then turned off the pots and teetered into the living room on her six-inch stilettos and posted up in front of the young lovers who were sharing a set of headphones as they listened to some N.J.S. cuts by Reem Raw on Truth's iPod.
"What's good?" Monique asked, posing magnificently before them with her hands on her sexy hips.
Nooni's eyes went back and forth between Monique and Truth, like what the fuck. Monique was damn near naked. She looked like a piece of Pepto-Bismol coated chocolate. All she had on was a hot pink push-up bra and a matching fishnet-and-lace thong, but she wasn't the least bit pressed out about Truth's eyeballs rolling all her delicious cocoa-puffed ass.
"Oh," Monique laughed, busting Nooni's look. "I'm a stripper, honey," she waved her hand and grinned at the young girl. "I take my shit off for a living. I grind my pussy on a pole every night, so Truth done already seen everything I got." She didn't tell Nooni that Truth had also tasted and fucked everything she had too.
"Yo, Mo," Truth said, nodding at the suitcase he had dropped near the door. "Nooni ain't got nowhere to go. Her sister went outta town and left her with some old lady. The old bat started trippin' when I went to drop Nooni off, and then she told her to get all her shit and get the fuck out."
Monique faked a look of concern.
"For real? She put you out? That's messed up! So, where did your sister go? When is she coming back?"
Nooni bit the bait.
"She went to California or something. She said she had to go see about one of her sick friends."
"And she left you back here with some old lady who put you out in the street knowing you ain't got nowhere else to stay?"
Nooni looked up at Truth. He took a hit from the blunt he had just lit and then passed it to her.
"Yeah," the young girl said. She toked the chronic and nodded her head, remembering what Truth had told her to say. "Yeah," she squinted as she slowly exhaled the heavy, acrid smoke. "That's exactly what that old bitch did."
$$$$$
Nooni had been born to hang out in the G-Spot. She loved the excitement and the vibe. The strippers and hoes were all real cool, and lounging around drinking and smoking everyday made her feel loose and free.
The only thing that made her nervous was being around the beautiful older woman Salida. Nooni straight stuttered and lost all her lil cool if Salida so much as looked at her. It was obvious that Salida was a boss bitch, and Nooni felt like the femme fatale was peering through her eyes and seeing straight into her brain, and it was intimidating and very confusing.
"Don't pay her no attention," Monique had whispered when Salida rolled up on them while they were watching skin flicks in the XXX cinema room. Salida had barked on all the hoes to get their asses back to work, and warned them that she would be collecting their liquor tabs out of their nightly pay.
"She's a mean-ass bird, but she's smart and she definitely got a mind for business," Monique had confided as she sat cross-legged on a sofa and smoked yay from a bong.
Monique was playing a role for Nooni, but she really meant what she had said about Salida being smart. That bitch was psycho-smart. They had become partners of a sort, and it delighted Monique to see how crafty and conniving Salida was, and how little respect she had for Ace and Pluto.
"Both of them buffalo butts are dumb as hell," Salida had declared a couple of days earlier. "You better decide whose team you're on right here and now, Monique, because when the drama goes down it's gonna go all the way down!"
Monique had wasted no time assuring Salida that she was on her team. Shit, loyalty to Pluto wasn't even on her mind. If the right opportunity floated by that niggah would drop her on her head and step on her neck.
"Mizz Salida is pretty," Nooni told Monique as they watched the elegantly dressed woman with the upswept hair saunter regally around the club. As low-down as the G-Spot had sunk, Salida carried herself like she was a high-society hostess catering to bankrolling clientele in a luxurious Las Vegas nightclub or something. "But she's scary, though. Real scary."
"No," Monique said, playing from the script that Salida had made her rehearse earlier, "what's scary is what's gonna happen if we don't get some big-time cash up in here real soon."
"Oh yeah?"
"For real. The G-Spot is in serious trouble. We owe a lotta back taxes, and if we don't pay them shits the government is gonna come put padlocks on the doors. Mizz Salida just don't wanna see us get shut down, that's all."
"Damn," Nooni exclaimed, looking around at what had practically become her new home. "I sure hope y'all don't have to close up. It's mad cool up in here. I like it."
"Yeah, but do you like it enough to help us keep the doors open?" Monique asked, passing the young chick her bong.
Nooni shrugged, then smoked. "Yeah. But what can I do? I ain't got no ends."
Monique picked up her glass of gin and juice and swirled it around until the ice cubes clinked together.
"Oh, I know you don't have no money, baby girl. You just a real sweet kid. But I bet you know somebody who has exactly the kind of heavy bank we need."
"Oh yeah?" Nooni asked, looking puzzled. "Who's that?"
"Don't worry about who it is," Monique said slyly. "Just worry about how you can help us get our hands on it. You think you can be down for that?"
Nooni nodded, and then she remembered what Truth had told her about speaking up like a grown woman.
"Yeah," she said boldly. "I'm down."
"That's what I'm talking about!" Monique grinned with excitement. "You's a real soldier, Nooni-baby. You the kind of hood chick who can make an old bitch real proud. Thanks to you, the G-Spot is gonna get saved and every last one of us is about to be paid. Now listen up, cutie-booty. This is what we need you to do..."
Rita had been on the West Coast with Juicy for over two weeks and she had been worried about her sisters the entire time. She called Mrs. Moreno every couple of days to check on the girls, but she could only seem to reach Nooni by text message, and even that was sometimey.
Every single night after Juicy fell asleep Rita would get on the phone and talk to Dutchy for hours. She didn't tell him none of Juicy's personal business or nothing, but she did talk to him about how bad she felt for her friend, and about how worried she was about Nooni.
"She's been texting you from her own phone, right?" Dutchy asked.
"Yeah," Rita said. "But that's not the same as speaking to her. Every time I call her it goes straight to her voicemail. Then she'll text me hours later and say her battery died, or she wasn't near her phone, or some bullshit like that."
Dutchy said, "I've been by there a few times myself, but I can never catch up with her either. But you know how teenagers can be, Rita. They don't like to talk on the phone, but they'll text them little fingers down to nubs."
Rita knew Dutchy was joking so she could stop worrying so much. But it wasn't working. Rita had been a parent to her sisters for so long that she'd developed a mother's instinct. And it was only two days later that she got the phone call that she had been dreading.
It was six o'clock in the morning L.A. time when Rita rolled over in Juicy's guest bedroom and reached for her cell phone. Mrs. Moreno was babbling on the line, and she was crying so hard that Rita almost didn't understand what the old lady was trying to say.
"What do you mean Nooni went away?" she asked sleepily.
"She gone! She been gone for days!" the old Hispanic woman fretted. "Nubia, she no listen to nobody, Marguerita! That girl, she just no listen! I tell her to stay inside, and poof! she disappear! And just now on the tellyvision it say the police find a dead girl in the trunk of a car! I afraid, Marguerita. I afraid for you sister! I have young children here. I cannot look for her. I don't know what else to do."
"Okay, okay, calm down," Rita said. Her heart banged in her chest and she was scared as hell too. "Don't worry, Mrs. Moreno." Rita found herself breathing fast and her mouth was bone dry. "I'm on my way home. I'll be back in New York before the end of the day."
Rita felt bad for leaving Juicy so suddenly, but she had to go. Juicy offered to fly back to New York with her and help her look for Nooni, but Rita told her that would be like going on a suicide mission.
"I feel really bad about leaving you here all by yourself, Juicy. I swear I do. Promise me you'll try to think positive and relax, okay?" Rita pleaded. "I'll be in touch. And as soon as I find Nooni and put my foot up her little ass, I'll come back and see you again."
"Don't hurt her," Juicy said with a small smile. "You know I love me some Nooni. She ain't a bad kid, Rita. She's just like I was when I was her age. Dumb in the head and hot in the tail."
"That girl is wild," Rita said, exasperated. "Crazy wild."
Juicy offered to drive her to the airport, but Rita had already put her bags near the front door and called a cab. "Nooni is trying to grow up way too fast. I'm sure she's just hanging out at one of her friend's houses, but I gotta go home and see what's really going on. As soon as I get Nooni straight and I'll come back and stay with you for a few more weeks, okay?"
Juicy was trying real hard not to cry when the taxi pulled up outside, but Rita saw her tears anyway.
"Thanks for always being there for me," Juicy whispered, hugging her tightly. "You're my best friend in the world, Rita. The only person I know that I can truly trust. I love you, girl."
Rita tried to sniff back her own tears, but it didn't work. "I love you too, Juicy. And I swear I'll be back. I promise. As soon as I get everything straight with my sister, I'm coming back to California to see you."
Rita rushed out to the cab, wiping her eyes. She'd meant every word she'd said to Juicy, but little did she know the promise she had just made was straight empty. It would never come true. Rita would never return to California to see Juicy again.
$$$$$
Back in Harlem, Rita went on a manhunt. She'd wigged out up at the precinct when she went to report Nooni missing, and Dutchy had to smooth shit down so his boys wouldn't put the cuffs on her. The problem was, Nooni had been in trouble so many times that the cops were treating her disappearance like a typical runaway case, and they refused to list her as a missing or endangered minor. There was so much criminal shit going on in Harlem they weren't about to put no whole lotta energy into looking for some fast-ass teenager who probably didn't wanna be found anyway.
But Rita knew different. Nooni had her troubles, but she wouldn't just run off to parts unknown while Rita was all the way across the country. No, something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Rita could feel it deep down in her bones.
With Dutchy's help, she searched high and low for Nooni. They hit all the local strip clubs, the drug houses, the back alleys, and the late-night bars. Under the cloak of darkness Rita walked up and down the track, praying that some old predatory pimp hadn't snatched Nooni up and turned her out on the streets.
During the day she went up to Nooni's high school and talked to some of her friends, but they were no help. Dutchy had even flashed his badge a few times and threatened to haul some asses down to the precinct, but nobody cracked. Either they knew where Nooni was and they weren't gonna snitch on her, or they were telling the truth and Nooni had just disappeared.
Either way, Rita was devastated and way past desperate when she ran into an old ghost from her past.
"Hey!" she yelled, sliding to her feet. After searching Harlem for hours, she had bought a slice of pizza and was sitting on the hood of a parked car eating it when she noticed the chick.
It wasn't hard to spot her because with her fly hair, stylish gear, and the 'for sale' sign in her strut, she stood out in the afternoon crowd.
Rita abandoned the dusty old Toyota she'd been sitting on and hurried to catch up to the girl. The chick was dressed in shimmery shades of gold from her sunglasses all the way down to her designer sandals, and she walked like she was laying down in the bed fucking.
Rita couldn't stand the bitch, but she had to give it to her. She was ice-cold from the tips of her glittery fingernails to the smooth satin of her designer mini-skirt, which flapped like a flag under the mound of her stacked hips and gyrating ass.
"Hey Monique!" Rita yelled, catching up to her until they were walking side by side.
Monique gave Rita a shitty look out the corner of her eye and kept on working it down the block.
Rita swallowed her pride and walked faster. Here was a bitch who had her nose to the ground. If anybody knew the seedy underbelly world of Harlem, it was Monique. But Rita had to be careful. Monique was a well-trained dog. Just one sniff of desperation would make her snap and bite. Ordinarily Rita wouldn't give this twisted chick no energy, but wasn't nothing ordinary about her seventeen-year-old sister getting swallowed up in the sewers of Harlem and vanishing without a trace.
"I don't mean to bother you," Rita said calmly, "but I'm looking for my sister. Her name is Nooni. She used to mess with your brother, Maurice, remember? Have you seen her around?"
Monique strutted sexily and pretended not to hear Rita, but inside she was squealing with glee. Salida had been right! All she had to do was show up in the vicinity and this bitch had come running straight to her! Monique didn't show it, but she was so happy she wanted to jump in the air and click her heels together.
Instead, she kept her eyes aimed on forward as she maintained her evil aura and her funky strut.
"Monique, please," Rita begged. "I know you don't like me and that's cool. But Nooni is a child. She's a child and she's missing! Can you just tell me whether you've seen her or not?"
Despite the plea ringing in Rita's voice, the coldness of Monique's chill flowed off her in waves. She only had two sentences for Rita, and they offered no help at all.
"I'm an old hoe, Rita," Monique sniffed, aiming her nose way up in the air. "And it ain't my job to be keeping track of none of these young ones."
$$$$$
It was Friday night and Rita had just put Chub to bed when she got a call that came up blocked on her cell phone. She clicked the talk button quickly, praying it was Nooni, but the caller shocked her by laying down a line from an old Wu Tang Clan rap.
"Hello?"
"It's ten o'clock, hoe! Where the fuck is ya sister at?"
"What? Who's this?"
"I said where the fuck is ya sister at?"
"My sister? Who is this?"
Rita heard the sound of flesh being slapped, and then a girl screeched and cried out in pain.
"Don't worry about who the fuck I am. Just know I got somebody here that you really wanna get back."
A commotion sounded in the background, like somebody's ass was getting kicked. A girl shrieked loudly again. But this time she called out a name.
"Margueritaaaaa! Help!"
Rita went cold inside.
It was Nooni. There was no mistaking her voice.
"Oh my God," she whispered as she envisioned her sister tied up in somebody's basement being beaten and tortured and abused.
"Please," she begged, tears springing to her eyes. "Don't hurt her. Please don't hurt my sister!"
"That's up to you," the male voice said coolly. "I can slump this bitch right now, or you can have her back for two hundred grand. You got 24 hours to get it."
Rita screamed, "Two hundred grand? Are you fuckin' crazy? How am I supposed to come up with that kind of money?"
"I don't give a damn how you get it. But if it was my sister I'd be looking for some help from my friends. Whatever you do, don't call the cops, because if you do I'll pop this bitch and leave her dead ass burning in a garbage can. The next time you see her she'll be so fuckin' crispy you'll wanna pour barbeque sauce on her. Now, listen close and pay attention 'cause here's what I want you to do..."
$$$$$
By the time dude finished running shit down Rita was in a panic. Before he hung up there was another slapping sound and Nooni screamed again, and then the line went dead.
Rita's first thought was to dial 911, but then she checked herself.
Call the cops and I'll pop this bitch.
Rita stood there trembling and staring at the cell phone she gripped in her hand. Suddenly the reality of what was going down hit her, and it hit her real hard.
Two hundred grand...
In her head, she quickly calculated the worth of everything in her apartment, all her jewelry, and every dime in her savings account. The amount she came up with was laughable. It came out to way less than what she needed to get her sister back.
With the memory of Nooni's terrified voice echoing in her ear, Rita jumped into action. Her hands were sweaty as she punched some numbers into her phone. The first person she called was Dutchy.
You got 24 hours to get it.
And when her man's phone rang and rang until his voicemail finally picked up, Rita knew she had no other choice but to make another call.
She took a deep breath and dialed her girl.
She called Juicy.
$$$$$
Nooni was stretched out on Monique's sofa holding a sock full of ice cubes high on her right cheek. Truth had knocked the piss outta her. For real. The first time he swung she'd screamed out in fear and surprise. The second time he'd dug his fist deep into her eye. His third blow had made her pee on herself as she cried out in pain for her sister, and she lost count of all the blows after that.
"You're okay," he told her as she lay there shivering and hiccupping. Her nose was red from crying and he bent down and kissed it on the tip. "I wasn't tryna hurt you, baby, but we had to make it seem real, nah'mean?"
Her screams had sure as hell been real. Nooni closed her eyes behind the ice pack and forced herself to be chill. She was grateful for Truth's affection and his small kiss, and she told herself that was more than Maleek would have given her after he kicked her ass.
Truth had practiced what he was gonna say to Rita about five times before he actually called her, and not one of those times had he told Nooni that he was gonna really smash her, or that the beat-down Monique had filmed with her cell phone so she could sent it to Rita was gonna be the real thing.
Nooni's eyeball throbbed in her skull where he'd capped her, and she wondered if getting Juicy's money was worth all this. She knew shit was crucial and they had to pay the back taxes on the G-Spot, and that was all good. But the only reason she had really agreed to go along with the plan is because Truth said he had a lot of expensive warrants that he needed to clear up. If he didn't pay his fines he was gonna get locked up, and Nooni couldn't bear to think about him going to jail and leaving her by herself.
"Lemme see it," Monique said, taking a seat on the sofa beside Nooni. She pulled the sock gently away from the young girl's face, then sucked her breath in real quick like the sight of Nooni's bruised eye really hurt her.
"Oh, he straight fucked you up," Monique moaned, hyping the situation up. "It's already bloodshot and you gonna have a black eye too. Word."
Nooni felt another wave of tears rising in her. She talked shit to the chicks she went to school with, and she rose up a lil bit on her sister every now and then, but she wasn't no street fighter. She was delicate, built for loving, and she damn sure didn't like getting boxed around by no man.
"Don't worry," Monique told her. "You can stay with us until the bruises go away. I'll send a note to your teachers and shit. That way they won't send no truant officers out looking for you."
Monique made a sympathetic noise and pulled Nooni's head to her breast as if to comfort her. "Don't worry, baby girl. When your sister makes the drop on that money we're gonna tear you off enough to make you forget all about them little love taps Truth gave you. For real," she said, stroking Nooni's soft cheek and loving how the girl felt snuggled all up in her arms. Lying and scheming made Monique horny, and right now her pussy was popping off like a whole packet of firecrackers.
"Yeah, don't worry," she told Nooni, steadily stroking the girl's tender flesh. "Mo-Mo gonna make you forget all about Truth's mean yellow ass."
I got up early in the morning to get ready for my overnight trip to New York. I won't lie. I was scared shitless, and I knew I was taking a really big risk with what I was about to do. But Rita had called me in a panic. There was nobody else she could turn to for the kind of help she needed, so I had to go to her.
She had been totally hysterical last night when she told me Nooni had been kidnapped and some fools were holding her for two hundred grand.
"I feel like shit even calling you when you've already been through so much, Juicy, but I just don't know what else to do!"
"Do you think somebody really has her," I asked, "or is she just hanging out and scared she might get in trouble? Did it sound real?"
"Yes," Rita had whimpered. "It sounded real as hell and they texted me a video of her too. Check your phone when we get off, I just sent it to you. Nooni was all busted up. She was screaming for me, Juicy! Somebody was beating the shit outta her! Oh, my God...two hundred grand? What the hell makes them think I have that kind of money? I just don't know what to do!"
"Calm down," I told her, and for once it was me doing the soothing instead of her. "Don't worry about the money, I got that. We're gonna get her back, Rita. Nooni's gonna be okay because we're gonna get her back."
Rita told me the guy who called had warned her not to go to the cops, but that was a no-brainer because neither one of us trusted the police to look out for Nooni anyway. They would have labeled the situation a stupid teenage prank instead of a crisis, and that would have been the end of that.
But Rita had been convinced that Nooni was in real danger. We'd stayed on the phone for over three hours putting our heads together as we tried to figure out the best way to handle the situation. Giving Rita the money she needed wasn't an issue for me, but how to get it to her was going to be tricky.
Sending it through Western Union was out because not only wouldn't they accept or pay out such a large amount for a wire transfer, if we even tried to move anything over ten grand we'd be throwing up a red flag and leaving a paper trail that could get us busted for wire fraud and failure to report income to the IRS.
Mailing two hundred grand worth of cash in a box was a dumb idea for obvious reasons, and we nixed out sending it by carrier pigeon too. We were both getting exhausted, and Rita was at the end of her rope with fear. It took some trying, but I finally convinced her to do things my way.
"Uh-uh, Juicy," Rita told me over and over again. "You can't come back here!" she insisted. "It's too much for you. You haven't even healed up from your surgery yet. Besides, New York is way too dangerous. Niggahs got long memories on these streets. You know they're still gunning for you, right? Please, let's do this my way, okay? I'll catch a quick flight out there and pick up the money, and then I'll come right back and make the drop."
What she was suggesting just didn't make any sense to me. Rita had it backwards. I was the one who was all alone in the world with nothing and nobody to lose. If I got caught the Feds would automatically assume I was transporting drug money, and since every dime of the loot had come from G, most if it probably was. But still, if I got caught it would only be my ass on the line. Rita had two younger sisters to think about. If she got caught taking two-hundred-thousand dollars worth of dirty money across state lines then all three of them would be ass out.
"And what if the crew that snatched Nooni tries to call you back while you're on the airplane? You still don't know the drop spot," I reminded her. "How are you gonna answer the phone to find out where it is if you're up in the air? Besides, they said Nooni would be dead in 24 hours, didn't they? That doesn't even give you enough time to fly out here, pick up the money, and then catch a flight back. Nah," I told her, shaking my head. "We have to do this my way, girl."
When we finally hung up I watched the video clip that Rita had forwarded me, and my heart broke wide open for Nooni. She was getting pounded for real. It reminded me of all the beatings I had suffered through when G chained me to that pole down in his Dungeon. I was even more determined to help Rita save her sister after seeing all that.
I used my cell phone to make a quick airline reservation, then I climbed up on my dresser and removed the ceiling tiles to get to the safe that Gino had stashed up there. Using the combination that he had told me to memorize, I removed several bricks of hundred dollar bills and left the rest in there. It wasn't a whole lot left, but it was enough.
I had fallen asleep thinking about the stacks of cash that Gino had locked away in another safe and left with Sallie. Shit, between that money and what I was holding there was more than enough to get Nooni back. Two hundred grand was just a drop in the bucket.
I'd gotten up so early that my stomach was too nervous to even think about eating breakfast, so I took a shower and dressed in loose clothing. In the safety of my bedroom, I re-counted the money out twice, and then I wrapped two thick towels around a hundred and fifty thousand of it and stuck it in my Gucci travel bag. I spent over an hour breaking the rest down into small stacks and taping them to my stomach, down the front and back of my legs, under my titties, and as far up my back as I could reach.
At eight o'clock I walked out the house and past Gino's SUV, which was still parked in our driveway. I climbed into my BMW and drove to a nearby Walgreens where I did a little shopping. Twenty minutes later I was on my way to the airport. I parked in the long-term lot and then sat in the Green Gotcha and began putting on my disguise.
I was shitting bricks by the time I limped into the terminal to checkin for my flight. With a brace around my neck, another one on my leg, and my left arm in a sling, I looked like a straight-up car wreck victim. I got sympathetic glances from quite a few people, but I was still paranoid as hell. It seemed like random strangers were taking extra-long looks at me. I kept peeking around, swearing all out that somebody was following me. I finally hobbled into the bathroom to put some water on my face, and when I glanced in the mirror little Juicy-Mo from 136th Street looked scared as shit and guilty as hell.
But as bad as I was shaking, I walked through the metal detector and made it through the security screening with only one small problem. The body scanner beeped twice. It scared the shit out of me until I remembered that I had forgotten to remove my necklace before putting on the brace.
The TSA dude waved me over to the side, and since I could only use one arm he was nice enough to help me unsnap my neck brace and take off my gold chain. That was the only item he required me to remove, and when I walked back through the scanner again, I was good to go.
I had only checked in one small suitcase, and I kept my cash-heavy travel bag between my feet during the entire flight. The last time I had been on a plane was when G took me and Gino on a trip to Hawaii. I couldn't help but remember how me and my man had made sweet love in paradise, and how he had given me my very first dick-induced orgasm. I also couldn't help but remember how bad G had kicked my ass the next night, or how ashamed I had been when he made me dance butt naked on a coffee table right in front of Gino. I had been so humiliated!
I boarded the plane and sat next to a young black chick and her cute baby girl. I told her I had been in a car accident, and she told me her husband was serving in Iraq and she was flying to New York to meet him for his R&R.
Listening to the love in her voice as she talked about her man, and watching her take care of her daughter was so damn hard on me. It took everything I had not to sit there and cry my heart out. I thought about Gino and our unborn son, and I knew I would never have what this girl had. Never.
But as bad as I was hurting, I knew I was doing the right thing by helping Rita and Nooni. For the past few months my life had been all about grief and rage, and totally without purpose. By forcing myself to go out into the world, even though I was scared out of my mind, I was really helping myself too.
The flight was all good and we landed in New York right on time. I texted Rita and told her I was on my way to baggage claim, and after saying goodbye to the young mother and her baby girl, I played my role and rode one of those transport carts all the way to the luggage area.
Holding my carry-on bag tightly, I stood right at the front of the crowd and waited for my suitcase to come out. I was ready to get moving, but of course I wouldn't be going anywhere near Harlem. The plan was for Rita to pick me up at baggage claim and help me out to the car with all my braces and bandages, and then she was gonna drive me to a hotel that was right next to the airport. Once we were securely behind a locked door I would hand over the money, and she would take it to Harlem so she could make the drop and try to get Nooni back.
I had made a return reservation for a flight back to Cali for six the next morning, and that meant I would be on New York soil for less than twenty-four hours, which was cool with me.
It was taking forever for the luggage to come off the plane and down the chute. My back was itching from the hundred-dollar bills that were taped to my skin, and all I could think about was getting in that hotel room so everything could be over with.
There were a whole lot of tired, anxious-looking people gathered around waiting for their luggage. I kept scanning the crowd searching for Rita, but she was nowhere in sight. New York City traffic was unpredictable, and I figured she was probably running a little late. I checked my phone to see if she had texted me back, but there was nothing.
No calls, no messages. Nothing.
A few minutes later I almost jumped outta my neck brace when I saw my designer suitcase coming toward me on the conveyor belt. Since Rita was nowhere around, I decided to grab my bag and go outside to wait for her. But just as I reached over and gripped the shiny gold handle on my suitcase, my whole world got straight fucked up.
"There she is!" A high-pitched voice rang out behind me and a heavy hand of authority landed on my shoulder.
"That's her! Arrest her, officer! That chick is transporting! She ain't nothing but a money mule, and every dime she's holding is dirty!"
I stood up looking shocked as shit. When I turned around I coulda sworn I was in the Twilight Zone.
Because standing between two NYPD cops and pointing her accusing finger in my face as she tried to bury my ass deep in a New York City trick bag, was the last person in the world that I ever thought would betray me.
It was my number one homegirl. The sister I'd never had. It was my very best friend in world.
It was Rita.
TO BE CONTINUED...OrderGREED: THE 3rd DEADLY SIN atwww.NoireStore.com
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PRAISE For G-Spot 2: PRIDE
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME
I read G-Spot 1 and 2 back to back. pt.2 started off where pt.1 ended. I couldn't put my kindle down. I was happy Juicy and Gino got together, and she was loved the way she deserved to be. I don't want to tell too much, the book was just AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By MSP
Read very carefully to learn the truth!!!
Noire brought back the G-Spot with a bang!!! This book is just like a movie where the plot is so thick sometimes you have to rewind because you blinked and missed something. In Pride we continue looking at the lives of Juicy and Gino after G's demise. What will become of these two? And does anyone have their backs? Only the next episode of the seven deadly sins which is betrayal can expose and give more hints of what will become of the madly in love couple and their future. Noire will take you on a ride with Pride that will make you continue to ask questions until Betrayal is released. The excitement is very tantalizing yet you will want the days to pass by sooner rather than later so that the mystery of what's to come is no more. One of the best series I've ever read!!!---Dawn Chambray
2 hotttt!
She did it again!! Noire has written another banger that has left this fan eagerly anticipating the next book in the series! just when it seems like Juicy & Gino are drama free, even more drama pops off! I love the idea of a serial novel which is why i'm not upset that just when I was really getting into PRIDE it stopped! Can we say ' leave your fans thirsting for more'? I hope that Betrayal comes out a like earlier than expected because I am dying of anticipation over here! Noire keep up the great work!!! ---Miss Drenna
Read more about JUICY and MONIQUE inFrom The Streets to the Sheets: "That Bitch Juicy"
Monique never could stand Juicy's ass. She'd known her from 136th Street, and used to tease her retarded brother Jimmy in school all the time. Juicy's grandmother was sanctified, and used to look down her nose on Monique's mother because she had ten kids by ten different daddies and couldn't control none of them...
Have You Read G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale?
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Have you ever laid down with a man and wasn't sure if you'd ever get back up? Tossed the sheets with a bone-knocking fear that only a cold-blooded hustler could produce? Sexed him like your life depended on it, because in reality, it did?From Thong on Fire: An Urban Erotic Tale
Have you ever scratched and schemed your way into somebody's heart? Laid some ill na-na on a gangsta and then hustled him straight outta the game? Traded your goodies for even more goodies? Committed acts so grimy that even God looked down on you and cried?
From Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale
Have you ever wanted something so bad you was willing to crawl over bodies to get it? I mean, feened for it so hard it didn't matter who you hurt, how low you had to scrape, it was gonna be yours? That's what music and balling did for me. They were the fundamentals behind my rise...and the perpetrators of my fall...
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Have you ever been shitted on? Nah, not no regular everyday street shit. I'm talking that low-down grimy diarrhea shit. That kinda shit that no matter how much you try to make it right, it still stinks? 
From Unzipped: An Urban Erotic Tale
Have you ever had everything you loved snatched from you in the blink of an eye? Do you know what it's like to watch helplessly as those you cherish burn to a crisp in a cruel, merciless flame? Did you hear a cry for street justice and realize that the only person left alive to heed the call was you?
From Hittin' the Bricks: An Urban Erotic Tale
Have you ever been betrayed by those you love? Violated and abused in the worst kind of way? And no matter how hard you tried to fight your way out of a trick bag, no matter how tall you tried to walk, did the cold streets of life lead you right back to your grimy destiny? 
www.AskNoire.com
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