Authors: Leo Sullivan
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was plenty of cats like that, real gorillas with a gun, but hoes when
it came to their fist. Major whimpered again for me to help him.
I bent down to untie him. Blazack dropped the iron and grabbed
my arm, I shoved him. My instincts told me to go for my heat.
“
Don’t make me havta bust your ass in here nigga,” I said, feel-
ing the adrenaline rush of a fight.
“
My nigga you really ain’t tryna see me,” Blazack’s mouth said,
but his body spoke a different language as he took a step back, siz-
ing me up, his eyes registering the surprise of my boldness. From
the corner of my eye I saw the rest of the crew, watching, waiting.
I guess the jury was still out with them in choosing whose side
they were on.
“
Yeah, you right, I ain’t trying to see you. You need to go! I
ain’t paying your bitch ass five G’s a week to be runnin’ round here
torturing and killin’ niggas,” I said, pointing a finger in his face. I
went to finish untying Major, at the same time, I kept my eyes on
Blazack.
“
I’ma be the muthafucka putting the fear of God into these
niggas,” Blazack shrilled angrily. “Nigga, you couldn’t sell a fuckin’
bird until I got here!” With one swift kick, Blazack sent the chair
with Major still in it toppling over onto the floor. Major got up
and ran to the stairs. I told him to meet me at my car. He needed
medical attention. There was no way in hell I was going to let him
leave looking like a creature from the horror show.
“
You think we don’t know how much money you makin’ and
that Brooklyn bitch breakin’ ya. Trina playing ya like a sucka.
While you paying us fuckin’ pennies, you got the bitch pickin up
the drop off.” I held my temper in check while Blazack vented. As
he talked, I was surprised to learn this was some shit he wanted to
get off his chest.
“
Ever y day, I give that bitch five or six hundred G’s, and some
days more, and you trustin’ a bitch like she sincere.”
A sacred rule of the dope trade is to never let the right hand
know what the left hand is doing. They didn’t know that it was
because of Trina that I was not only locked in to a major dope sup-
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ply, but she organized and carefully set everything into to motion,
including her advice on how much I should pay my workers. I
wasn’t going to tell him that.
Right then as I looked around at the crew watching me, wait-
ing for my reaction, I could smell the larceny simmering in the air
like a hot pot of treason about to boil over. Also I understood
where Blazack was coming from, but I could not let him get away
with all the senseless shit he had been doing.
“
Yo, you gotta to go, or stop the dumb shit,” I said coldly.
“
Dat nigga beat us for ten G’s in dope,” Blazack said, dis-
gruntled.
“
Naw he beat you for ten grand in dope. You knew the nigga
was a smoker in the first place,” I reasoned, took a step closer and
dropped the bomb on him. “Beside, you been taxing niggas. I
believe you been servin’ my dope and the dope you takin’ from
niggas, too.”
Blazack just looked at me as he ran his tongue around the dia-
monds in his mouth like he was searching for the right words. I
caught him off guard. But now he knew that I knew he was play-
ing both sides of the street. From the look in his eyes, I could tell
he was trying to figure out how in the hell I found out. The room
became quiet. This was a standoff.
From there on out, the events that took place in that basement
would seal my fate. I tried to let my mind catch up with my
thoughts, appraise the situation for what it was worth. Quickly,
with Blazack staring me down, my assessment went to damage
control. My ship with a small crew of niggas was taking in water
like the Titanic with a hole in it. I had to plug the hole, fast!
“
The reason that I came here was to give ya’ll niggas a big raise
in pay,” I lied. The whole time I kept my eyes on Blazack. I went
on and told them about the plan I had for operating out of safe
houses. Each one of them would be assigned a house with a crew
under them that they would be responsible for. When I told them
I had the cop, Spitler, in my pocket, they were all happy to hear
that. Spitler could be a royal pain in the ass for a dope boy. With
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some of the tension gone, I turned to Blazack.
“
Dig yo, you can bounce my nigga if you got a problem with
what I’m asking you to do. But if you do decide to get your shit
together, you get ten grand a week.”
It wasn’t no military secret, Blazack was the glue that held us
together. Every team had to have an enforcer, a man that didn’t
mind getting paid in blood. Blazack smiled at me.
“
However.” I continued, “You’re suspended for two weeks
with no pay.” The smile died on Blazack’s face as his eyebrows
knotted together.
“
Gucci, you’re going to take Blazack’s position until …”
I let the word hang in the air as I gave Blazack a look that came
with a silent threat.
He cursed. Called me a bitch-ass nigga under his breath. I
acted like I didn’t hear him.
That day when I walked out of that basement, for the first
time in my life I won the entire respect of the crew, including
Blazack’s.
*****
“
What do you want to drink?” I asked Major, trying not to
look him in the face as we got into my car. He looked like he stood
in front of a train.
I knew he was in great pain as he mumbled, “Whatever.” I saw
the tears in his eyes. Eyes of a defeated man. A mere husk of his
former self. Major had not one, but two college degrees. He was
in the Marines and had the pleasant demeanor of a soft-spoken
Southern gentlemen with manners to match. I knew how bad he
wanted to get off the dope, but the demons wouldn’t let him. He
talked to me about it on several occasions.
We drove through Frenchtown, the place looked like the walk-
ing dead. Junkies tried to flag down my car hoping to buy some
dope. Nina Brown stood in the middle of the street like she had
an ‘S’ on her chest looking like a zombie. I almost ran her over. I
knew if I stopped they would rush my car like starving Africans do
missionaries.
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As I drove, casually I asked Major where was the dope was that
he stole from Blazack. I didn’t really expect for him to be truthful
with me. When he told me that he had it stashed over a female’s
crib, and the only reason he did not tell Blazack was because he
was afraid Blazack would kill her, too. We stopped off and picked
up the dope. I took half and gave him the rest. I pulled into a
drive-through liquor store, bought a bottle of E&J, a bag of ice
and coconut cream to cut it with. I flirted with a sexy redbone
cashier that looked like Sade.
Drinking and driving, sipping on juice with my system boom-
ing, I pulled into the mean strip on FAMU College campus. Even
though it was raining a light drizzle, females, honeys galore, were
jocking my ride. College girls be on dope boys like groupies on
rappers.
At 11:04 a.m., I was looking for Trina’s car. It was still raining.
I found her car in the parking lot. Moments later, as scheduled,
she came out of the building wearing blue jeans and a gray FAMU
sweat shirt with a black leather jacket that had NY stenciled on the
back in big purple letters. She wore my Chicago Bulls baseball cap
pulled down over her eyes as she walked to her car with umbrella
in hand. I honked the horn. As soon as she saw me her face lit up
and she gave me a mischievous grin. I know what was on her
mind. Sex. Occasionally I would pick her up from school and we
would go back to her place right off campus and have sex. She
hardly ever stayed there, so I also thought it was an ideal spot to
hide the money since it was her job to pick it up daily. Trina could
get so animated when she was happy, maybe that was the Spanish
side of her. She approached my car like she was dancing in the
rain. The bounce in her step had her ponytail swinging like a devi-
ous kitten. With all the vibrance of a young woman ready to set
out to conquer the world, no one would have ever thought she
could be the brainchild to a million dollar drug ring. A Brooklyn
chick.
I rolled down the window and she kissed me with enough
tongue to hang a man with, she then looked in the car at Major.
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“
Ouch, what happened to him?” she asked. I shrugged my shoul-
ders as if to say,
I dunno
.
I got out of the car and walked under her umbrella to her car.
We sat inside. I told her about our new living arrangements in
Quincy. I talked as the rain pelted the car windows like soft music
to my monologue, a conspiracy between lovers. I told her about
the plantation mansion I was going to buy and remodel. She lis-
tened intently. Afterward, she asked about Black Pearl, I detected
a real bond of sisterhood there. We both knew that Pearl was due
to have the baby any day now.
Ever so gently, Trina leaned over and kissed me passionately,
sucking on my bottom lip as her fingers walked down my thigh
until she reached my fly. She eased her hand inside. “Papi,” she
crooned breathily as her hand stroked me. I closed my eyes just as
the windows in the car began to fog.
“
Papi, I want to go to Freak Nic in Atlanta, me and the girls,”
she said as she licked my neck with hot saliva and took my joint
out of my pants. I was about to say yes, and then she added, “I’m
going to stop by the prison and visit Mike.” Right then, for a fleet-
ing second, I saw a gleam of something in her brown eyes. She was
talking about her ex-boyfriend. My instincts tried to tell me some-
thing, but jealousy was a barrier as I thought,
damn, this nigga in
prison, but he’s out here in my girl’s mind.
“
No.” I answered Trina’s question flatly. She looked up at me
with optic slits that were hard to read, but the message was con-
veyed, she still had feelings for him, and I was jealous and seething
with the rage that came with it.
“
That’s your fuckin’ problem, you and your frat sistas party
too damn much,” I snapped. Trina shook her head and craned her
neck the way a woman does when she is trying to understand her
man.
I tried to soften the blow, hide my feelings like a fire under the
bed, but the smoke was smoldering in the dark recess of my eyes.
“
Ma, this weekend we s’pposta fly out to meet wit yo peeps,
remember?” I said with the timbre of my voice softening. She did-