The Grind Don't Stop (7 page)

Bertha's tweedy-bird voice brought a smile to her tension-creased face. “Hello, girl, how's things going? What, that little bitch still pulling those petty-ass stunts? She needs to cut that bullshit out,
for real. Fuck her, I wouldn't even let that shit bother me if I was you. She ain't gonna do nothing but scream and holler in front of her squad. All those idle threats ain't about shit. Of course I'm sure of that, otherwise, I wouldn't tell you so. Is my nephew there?... Damn, he should've been back by now. Girl, don't tell me that he's still crying about that little ho. He really need to let that there go, for real, yo. …Uh-huh, he just might be. Let me try over there then. I'll be through there later on. I'll see you then.”

She hung up and called Don's cell number. He picked up right away. “Yo, this be Don, who this?” he said as he put another scoop of coke on the scale before placing it in a baggie.

“It's me, nigga, where the hell have you been?” she said while making neat stacks of the money she'd dumped on her desk earlier.

The tone in her voice made him a little uncomfortable but he had to concentrate on Al, who was zipping another baggie closed before placing it in one of the two large suitcases on the table. He switched the phone to his other hand and rested it between his shoulder and chin. “I been handling my business out here in Lithonia. Why, what's up?”

“So you with that nigga Al right now, huh?”

“Yeah, I be handling that; you know I be on point with my biz, auntie,” he said, knowing Al was listening intently to every word.

Rose could tell that he didn't want to talk in Al's presence, so she decided to end the conversation. “Yeah, yeah, I figured that uh-huh, uh, don't worry about it. We'll talk later. I'm getting ready to leave the store in a minute. Is there anything you need me to handle for you before I go home?” She was hoping he'd feel the anxiousness in her voice.

He could feel that something was bugging her. “Naw, I can't think of nothing right off the bat. I shouldn't be here that much longer and then I'm heading for the club. I should be over there in about…”
He paused to take a quick peek at his Rolex. “…a little over an hour or so. I tell you what; how about grabbing me some of that beef fried rice from that Chinese joint around the way? Oh yeah, and get them to throw some extra shrimp off in that bitch, too.” She didn't respond right away so he started to repeat himself. “Hey, did you hear?”

She was about to tell him she would when she saw a head and a pair of hands pressed against the window. She couldn't see who it was, but whoever it was had to see the “closed” sign on the door. Her angry erupted immediately. “What the fuck?”

Don leaned away from the phone, puzzled. “Damn, auntie, why you cussing at me like that there?” All he could hear was her heavy breathing. “Aunt Rose, what?”

She squatted down, put down the phone, and crept along the floor in a crouch to the counter to get a better look. She peeked over the counter and saw two more figures pressed to the glass. Her nerves and anger were really shaken when she reached up beside the cash register and slid the cigar box off the counter. She swiped several beads of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She reached into the box to get the snub-nosed .38 she always kept there for occasions like this one. She ran her fingers along the cold steel. The hunter in her had taken over. She belly-crawled to the other end of the counter, took a deep breath and sprung up aiming at the window. There was no one there now. She blinked a couple of times, shook her head and pinched between her eyes, wondering if she was tripping or what. She jumped nervously when she heard a car crank up. She immediately went back into the crouch and eased toward the door. When she pulled the closed sign slightly to the side, she saw a dark-colored sedan pulling away from the curb.

The first thing to come to her mind was that some of her dead ex-pimp's
enemies from Miami had somehow tracked her down. She put her hand over her mouth measuring the gravity of such a thing happening. She suddenly remembered that she was talking to Don when she had spotted the intruders. She rushed back to the room and heard him yelling in a panicky voice. Wiping the sweat off her face, she picked up the phone.
There's no need to get
him all excited, too.
“Damn, baby, I'm sorry, I thought I heard some- body rambling around in the back, but it was just a hungry mutt scavenging in the garbage.”

“Whew, damn, woman, you had me ready to kill up a ton of bricks there for a minute. You aight then?” He wheezed a sigh of relief as he watched Al watching him.

“Uh-huh, yeah, I'm aight, those damn mutts. I told you to build a fence in the back. Maybe now you will some damn day. Aw, fuck the weak shit, I'm aight. That's fried rice with beef and shrimp, right?”

“So you heard me then?” He scratched his scalp.

“Yeah, I heard ya. See ya later.” She hung up. She was tempted to see if she could find the car those muthafuckas had driven away in but she knew too much time had elapsed. That, along with the busy traffic on Jonesboro Road this time of night, would make it virtually impossible. She finished counting up the day's receipts and put them in the safe.

Don was staring at the phone when Al cleared his throat. “You aight, dude? Didn't look like you was enjoying that conversation too much there.” He sniffled and folded his arms across his chest before he laid them across the table.

Don took a deep breath and muttered under his breath. “It taint nothing, dog; just some damn mutt in the garbage that had my auntie bugging for a moment there. She cool now.”

“You say she all right then, right?” Al said with a false pretense of concern.

Don nodded. “Yeah, she aight. Come on, let's finish this up so I can get out there where she at. There's no telling what some of these perverts around this city will do to an old broad by herself.” He scooped up some more of the coke and slid it on the scale.

“Yeah, let's do that.” Al glanced at the clock on the far wall and realized that he had to make that run out to Henry County.

Don was still scooping away when he heard Mona's voice shouting through the door. “Come and get it, y'all.” His mind was far away. He couldn't shake the feeling his aunt wasn't telling him everything. He started to scoop a little faster.

Al couldn't help wondering what was really bugging dude. Every since he had talked to him earlier, he felt that something wasn't right. Was it the pressure of the deadline for providing that furniture or was it something else that he couldn't put his finger on? “Be there in a minute, baby,” he shouted loud enough for her to hear. He counted out the rest of Don's share of the coke and put it in one of the suitcases. He slid it across the table. “Here, man, this is the rest of your share. I'll finish wrapping up the rest of mine later. I can see that you are anxious to split.”

Don nodded as he counted the bags Al was putting in the suitcase. Despite that they'd been dealing with each for a while now, he still didn't fully trust him.

Al spread his arms and gave him a questioning stare. Was he satisfied with the spilt or not? A quick nod from Don indicated that he was. Don picked it up and walked out of the door.

As he was closing the door, Al imagined bullets exploding inside his head. He blinked and tried to shake the thoughts.
Man, what
is happening to me? All these murderous ideals running through my mind.
Was he enjoying this killing stuff too much or what?

The sound of Mona calling him again snapped him out of it. Moments later she opened the door frowning with her hands planted sternly on her hips. It was hard to keep from smiling as
she stood there in a flowery print apron wrapped around her gorgeous figure.
Damn, maybe I can make a lady out of a whore after all,
he thought as he rose from the table and walked toward her.

“Put that stuff up for me,” he grumbled and slapped her ass as he passed through the door.

“You can help me finish bagging it up after we crunch some of this grub. Oh yeah, and don't let me forget to call Cede, aight.”

She rolled her eyes at his departing back, harrumphed and walked over to the table to handle the coke. As she was gathering everything, her eyes sparkled at all the money the coke represented. Her mind sparkled as well, on the thought of spreading her wet pussy and cumming all over Don's monster dick again. After handling the dope she joined him in the kitchen.

Al was in a sleepy haze after a night of passionate lovemaking when the phone started ringing. He covered his eyes from the morning dawn sipping through the curtains and picked it up to stop the irritating noise. He gritted at the sleeping Mona, who hadn't so much as fidget. He yawned and grumbled into the receiver. “Yeah, who this be? Damn, man, don'tcha think it's kinda early for this shit here? Okay, okay, godayum, how long will it take you to get over here? Shiiit, that's too soon, my nigga; make it an hour. Yeah, okay, see you then.”

He tossed the cover over Mona's inert figure and got up to go to the bathroom. After taking care of his morning hygiene ritual, he came out wrapped in his robe and threw a towel on Mona's head. She moaned, cracked her eyes a bit and rolled her back to him.

“Girl, get your ass up and go make us some groceries,” he growled as he pulled the cover from her head and tossed a wad of bills onto her face. She blinked a couple of times, forcing away the sleepy haze, gritted at his departing back and then at the money he had left all over her face and chest. Reluctantly, she sat up and stretched her arms yawning.

He got to the door and turned around and caught sight of her heaving breasts and the blanket sliding down one of her creamy thighs. He started rubbing his dick without even realizing he was doing it. But now wasn't the time to get up in that ass so he shook the sexy image from his mind and continued toward the kitchen to brew himself up a strong pot of coffee.

He was sipping on his fourth cup as he eyed Johnny B slap the wad of bills on the foosball machine in the game room. He was a little concerned about the agitated look on his face but chalked it up as early morning blues or the anxiousness of having to take care of business that early in the morning.

‘B' was wondering why Sparkle nor Rainbow hadn't called him since they'd separated the previous night at the club. He'd finally gotten home girl's name right—Mariah—after a night of kicking it with her, Yolanda, Violet, Mercedes and Stacy. They had all gotten blitzed on blunts til dawn. Matter of fact he had made plans to hook back up with them after he'd taken care of his biz with Al. They'd pulled out of the La Quinta Inn in Lithonia with thoughts of getting back together in a couple of hours.

He'd been unsuccessful in catching his boy Duke, so he had to rely on his third connection, Al, whom he really didn't care dealing with because he charged so much more than his other folk. But he was on his dick and had to get shit rolling whichever way he could. So, dealing with Al and the extra ends he had to kick out caused him to have plenty of attitude.

Al could care less what he was going through as he tightened the sash of his silk blue robe and adjusted the glasses on his nose with the back of his thumb. “Do I need to count this, man,” he grunted. He lifted the money off of the table.

‘B' blinked a few times and sniffled. “Huh, naw, dog, you know that it's all there as usual.”

Al eyed him over the rim of his glasses for a moment before he
smiled wickedly. “Yeah, I know.” He fanned the bills against his ear. Satisfied that dude wouldn't dare play any short money games with him, he nodded toward the bags of cocaine that were wrapped in red plastic Ziploc bags on the pool table. “You wanna try it out or what?”

‘B' squinted, pinched and wiggled his nose before he picked up the bags and placed them inside an Adidas tan leather riding bag. “Naw, dog, we good. Besides, I'm over here all the time at your rigged-up poker game. If there's something wrong, I'm sure you'll make it right.”

Al folded his big arms across his large chest. “I'd prefer you do it now, dog. It's a new batch of shit and I want to make sure that you are satisfied.”

‘B' tensed a little because he wasn't used to going through this routine. But to please Al and now himself as well, he scooped a pinch out of the bag, then dabbed it on his tongue before he snorted the remainder of the residue. He licked his lip. “Uh-huh, it's straight as usual, my nig.”

Al nodded grimly and turned toward the mini-fridge. He removed a couple of Colt 45 cans, handed him one and took a long gulp himself. He eyed him intently for a few seconds and took another long gulp, then aaahed. “Say, man, a little bird told me that y'all having some problems at some of y'all spots. What's up with that there, dog? Do I need to be concerned about y'all or what?”

‘B' cocked an eyebrow, twisted his neck and enjoyed the tingling sensation he received from the small crackling snaps. “Yeah, man, Rainbow was telling me about that last night. He thinks that your boy Black Don had something to do with it.”

Al showed no reaction.
Damn, this nigga ain't got any idea I be dealing heavily with Don. Fuck him, might as well let sleeping dogs lie. There's
no telling what I might have to do to this nigga or his boys,
He took a short sip of his brew and rubbed the back of his neck. “Aw, man, that's kinda rough on you, ain't it? You know, with some of y'all hoes dancing off in his joint over there on Lee Street and all.”

He considered drawing some of the attention off of Don but what the fuck; folk had to deal with their own problems. If those problems started to involve him, then he'd react accordingly. On the other hand, he didn't need any interference with his cocaine pipeline, which Don was a major part of. Especially now that the other deal was so close to being a reality.