Authors: Leo Sullivan
hustle on. Besides, I’m already paying his punk ass two grand a
week. What the fuck he sweatin’ you for? Something ain’t right.”
In so many ways Blazack said what I was already thinking.
Something wasn’t right with that cracka. I had a gut feeling.
I lit another cigarette, inhaled deeply, as Trina continued to
give me a disgusting scowl. Finally, she took the baby off my lap,
rolled her eyes at me and walked out of the door. I made a men-
tal note to have a few choice words with her afterward.
“
Twine, how many people you got on line workin’ for you?” I
asked. I watched as he thought for a second, did some quick math
with his fingers.
“
Seventeen, if you want to count Nina Brown smoke up all
the product ass,” he said. Someone in the room snickered.
“
What about you, Dirty?” I asked.
“
About the same.”
When it finally came down to it, everybody in the room had
enough employees to open up a chain of restaurants. They all had
traps bringing in major cash.
“
Ya’ll gon’ to have to step it up and grind hard, cause I think
the spot done got too hot. I’ma give ya’ll some extra cushion on
each bird, then we move out.” With that said, I searched the faces
of each man. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, except
Blazack. That’s what annoyed me about him most, I could never
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get a feel for his real sincereness. I couldn’t help thinking,
what is
wrong with this nigga?
I knew for a fact that he had more than a
few million stashed somewhere. To be truthful, I ain’t never trust-
ed that nigga. How could I? He was a cold-blooded killer.
After everyone left, Trina eased into the room. I sat in front of
the fireplace drinking Hennessy with my thoughts weighing heavy
on my mind. I had a bad feeling about Spitler, something he said
about me regretting I ever laid eyes on the town.
“
I’m leaving you.” Her voice was soft and mellow like an Anita
Baker song. I didn’t even turn around, just watched the security
cameras and heard the crackle of the flames. However, something
did dawn on me. I was in love with Trina, at least something in
my thug’s armor was telling me so.
“
When we first met, we had plans, dreams. We had a goal. Get
out of the game after a year. Now look at us! Look at you!” Trina
raised her voice, I could hear its tremor with emotions.
“
How much money is eee-nough!?” she screamed and began
to sob uncontrollably with a Black woman’s scorn. I cringed. Over
the years Trina learned how to get to me. In my heart and soul, I
knew she was right. Intuitively, all hustlers know when it’s time to
get out, like some damn premonition. That day I could feel it in
my skin. The only problem was, I couldn’t get out of the game if
I wanted to. Hustlers are just as addicted to the game like the very
fiends we serve, only worse. The money and the power was the real
addiction.
*****
Stressed the fuck out, I decided we needed a vacation.
Actually, I was looking for a way to persuade Trina to stay, at the
same time, trying to act hard like I wasn’t in love with her. Call it
my thug ego, but that’s how real gangsters roll. Feelings and emo-
tions ain’t part of the game. At least that’s what I kept telling
myself.
I broached the idea to Trina and Black Pearl as they were going
over some clothing designs. Lately, Trina had started to see the
brilliance in Pearl’s creativity. And it wasn’t just her, Pearl had been
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offered a scholarship to go to college to design clothes. Now, she
and Trina were going to start their own clothing line. To be truth-
ful, I wasn’t feeling none of that shit, in fact, I was starting to feel
threatened by Trina’s business savvy. I had no idea that she learned
so much in college with her degree in Business Management. She
had invented a phony corporation to wash millions of my money,
as well as placed liens on everything we owned in case the feds
started catching feelings for a nigga’s riches and wanted to seize
our assets. With everything having a hefty lien on it, if the feds
wanted to take anything they would be forced to pay off the liens,
which amounted to millions of dollars. Plus, Willie Falcon showed
me how to hide money abroad in Swiss bank accounts.
Reluctantly, I was able to talk Trina into staying. Actually, I
swallowed my pride and begged my woman to stay. I went out and
bought an eight carat Marquis diamond ring. Enough ice to make
her brain freeze about leaving me.
*****
The day before we were scheduled to leave, Trina decided we
should go shopping for vacation clothes and Louis Vuitton lug-
gage. Later on that day, Major pulled me to the side and pointed
to one of the security screen cameras. A yellow van was parked
across the street from my estate, directly overhead was a white man
wearing a construction hat. He sat perched on a telephone pole.
“
That yellow van been parked there every day now for the past
three weeks,” Major said with his voice filled with concern. I
shrugged him off; thought about asking him to go on vacation
with us, poor soul, the game had him paranoid, too.
“
Lemme find out you still smokin,” I joked, and playfully pat-
ted him on the shoulder as I smiled. Major didn’t smile back. He
had not smoked a rock since that day I saved his life from Blazack.
*****
May 26, 1995 there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, just a magnifi-
cent day. I was driving Trina’s Benz, headed for the Tallahassee
Shopping Mall.
Trina sat next to me in the car and for the past few days, she
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had been aloof and distant. In my heart I knew that I was losing
her. She just stared out the window like a beautiful caged bird
wanting to fly away, I imagined. Pearl sat in the back seat going
over clothing designs. Lil Man sat between Trina and me.
Playfully, he tried to take hold of our hands and place them
together, like he knew there was disharmony between us.
“
Aunty Trina, give me yo hand.”
Trina couldn’t help but to give him her hand as she smiled
allowing Lil Man to connect the three of us together. I don’t care
what anyone says, children are angels. By the time we reached the
mall, Lil Man had all us singing merrily, “Old MacDonald.”
I found a parking space. Lil Man quickly climbed into my lap
and nestled, clasping his arms around my neck. His way of saying
he wasn’t going nowhere without me.
I looked up just as a dark shadow casted ominously on my
window, a black SUV with smoked windows pulled up to the side
of our car. From that point on ever ything began to move in an
slow, surrealistic motion, as I stared up at the vehicle. It wasn’t
until I saw the masked gunmen dressed in all black leap out with
them tens–meaning AK47 assault weapons. Holy Shit! They
caught me slipping. Metal and glass exploded as my body experi-
enced a burning sensation like I was on fire. Trina’s blood curdling
scream only seemed too intensify, witnessing the horror of the
assassination on my life. Someone had sent professional killers at
me. Who? As best as I could, I tried to shield Trina and the baby
with my body. Just as quickly as the shooting started, it stopped.
My ears were ringing. I could feel the blood rushing from my
veins. I was hit several times. For some reason Trina stopped
screaming as I lay on top of her. In the distance, I heard one of the
gunmen say, “Shoot him in the head and let’s get out of here!” I
played dead. Prayed like a muthafucka. Someone walked up
and snatched the iced out platinum chain off my neck and then
placed the AK47 to the back of my head and pulled the trigger.
Click …Click …
The gun misfired.
I heard an urgent voice say, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” with
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the sound of footsteps retreating. I just lay there numb, scared to
death, soaking wet covered in blood. I could feel Trina shaking
underneath me.
Lil Man?
I thought. He was wedged between
Trina and me. My right arm was barely attached to my shoulder.
Them AKs ain’t nothing nice! Somehow I managed to pull myself
up off Lil Man and Trina. The gor y horror of what I saw tor-
mented me more then the pain that raked my body. The right side
of Lil Man’s face was completely blown off. All that was left was
skull with his brains spewing out. As I held him in my arms my
eyes filled with tears. His handsome face was gone, only to be
replaced with blood and brains. Then I remembered. Black Pearl.
I turned to look in the back seat. She was motionless, keeled over
on her face, crimson blood stained the interior. With it was an
awful smell that I will never forget.
DEATH. With my vision blurred, I looked over at Trina as she
got off the ground. A crowd of white people were starting to gath-
er around the car. Trina was crying hysterically as her hands trem-
bled, her face was spotted with blood. I could tell she was fighting
to take back control of what the armed gunman had nearly stolen
from her, her sanity.
“
Are you hit?” I managed to ask her. She shook her head no,
and reached out to see if Lil Man had a pulse. I passed out to the
sound of sirens in my ears, thought about all the niggas I touched
on the jack tip and now it finally came back to haunt me.
Yo u’l l
end up dead or in prison,
the intrusive voice said inside my head.
*****
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Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
“
Game Over”
–
Life –
I woke up in a hospital bed. My body was riddled with bullets. I
never experienced so much pain in my entire life. It even hurt to
breathe. My mouth was dr y, and my tongue felt like sandpaper. I
saw Trina sitting next to me. Her face was swollen and scarred, I
guessed from all the flying glass from the gun blast. I could hard-
ly recognize her.
“
L, you aight?” Twine asked. At first I did not see him stand-
ing over me. His eyes were red and bloodshot.
“
Where is Lil Man at?” My voice creaked barely above a whis-
per. Twine looked away and wiped at his eyes. In my mind I
prayed,
Lord, please let this all be a dream
.
Twine turned back toward me, “ They kilt Lil Man.” His voice
cracked. I closed my eyes and felt a piece of my soul die as I felt
Trina’s eyes bore through me. Her reservoir of love was gone, only
to be replaced by hate.