“Hey Toni,” Justice said excitedly, hoping to set the tone for the conversation.
“Bitch, where have you been?” Toni shouted into the phone. Justice peeled the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen again to verify that she was talking to Toni. “I’ve been tryna get in touch with you for the past few hours.” Toni added.
“What’s up?” Justice asked with a little venom in her voice.
“Giiiirl, I don’t know if you heard or not, but Virgin, Precious, and Sincere got killed last night.”
“WHAT?!!” Justice screamed. She looked around and noticed a few patrons in the park were staring in her direction. She composed herself and continued to listen to Toni for details.
“Yeah. Word on the street is they agreed to meet up with some guys who was looking for some kind of orgy and they tried to set the niggas up to get robbed.”
“Get the fuck outta here!” Justice didn’t care whether or not she was disturbing anyone in the park.
“Yeah, fucked me up too when I heard it.”
Justice stood up and grabbed her Nook. “When you hear this?”
“Earlier. That’s why a bitch been blowin’ yo’ phone up.”
“Damn girl.” Justice sighed.
“I know, right.” Toni stated, and then added, “I hate to sound so cold-hearted, but I’m glad them bitches gone.”
“Me too,” Justice let it slip. She didn’t miss those bitches one bit, and she could picture her life at Phire & Ice being a whole lot easier.
“Well, you gonna like one of the new girls I got. She bad as hell!”
Justice could tell from the tone of her voice, something more was going on and decided to call her on it. “Toni, what I tell you about messin’ with the dancers.”
“No Justice, I got it under control. I saw this one before in Atlanta when I went on vacation last year, and we been talking through e-mail and on the phone for a while.”
“Aiight.” Justice exhaled. “I’m tellin’ you now, I don’t want no shit. You know how you be flirtin’, and you know how bitches quick to get in they feelings.”
“It ain’t gonna be no shit, I promise.”
“Well, you get back to watchin’ the club, and lemme know if you hear some more details about what happened with them girls.
“Aiight.” Toni sighed. “Man, karma’s a bitch, huh?”
“Yup. I’m just glad to be on her team.”
“Huh?” Toni asked.
“Never mind. I’ll holla at’cha later.”
Justice hung up the phone and a smile crept across her face. She loved it when a good plan came together! When her idea to get Travis, the local stick up kid to go along with her idea of robbing an old dope boy, she wasn’t sure if she could depend on the young man to handle the job. As it turned out, Travis had become very resourceful.
Justice had told Travis about a dope boy she knew that was a regular at the club who had it like running water. Instinctively, his thirsty ass antennas went up. She told him where the dude rested his head and where he reportedly kept the money and drugs hidden. When asked how she knew so much about the nigga, Justice told him that she had fucked him a time or two, and he had gotten comfortable enough to let his stash spot be located. He had gotten drunk one night and tried to impress Justice by going to a wall safe and extracting racks upon racks of dough, reiterating the fact that was Boss! Justice played along with him and acted nonchalantly about the money in the safe. However, her sheisty ass was doing somersaults as she schemed and plotted.
Hearing about all of the potential money he would get from this nigga, Travis already began spending it in his head. All Justice said she wanted out of the deal was five grand. She knew throwing an exact amount at him would make him think she knew exactly what she was talking about. Justice also told him that the dude was just like most tricks that frequented the club: He was a sucker for a bad bitch. And what better bitches to use for the job other than the two baddest that had once worked at the club. “You already know I don’t like them bitches, but Precious and Virgin would be perfect for that,” she had told him. “The only thing about it, you gotta promise you don’t mention my name, especially to them two.”
“Ah, Justice, you already know how I carry it. You done heard about my pedigree. I ain’t made it out here in this game this long by runnin’ my mouth,” he assured her. “Them bitches ain’t gonna know shit other than they goin’ to get some dough wit’ me. When I tell ‘em I’mma throw ‘em a few grand, they ain’t gonna ask no questions anyway.”
Justice told Travis everything he needed to know about getting into the dope dealer’s spot. What she failed to mention was the fact that he had security cameras and three ruthless niggas who busted nuts by squeezing triggers. No one had ever been able to touch this nigga, and the last ones that had tried to jack him ended up found floating in Lake Michigan. Justice was hoping that Travis didn’t know the dude, because if he did, there would be no way in hell he’d try to pull this off. From the conversation, she gathered that Travis did not know him.
Later, justice would find out that Travis had convinced Precious and Virgin to go along with him and his part-time girl, Sincere, to pull off the caper. Once the three girls had gained entry to the guy’s spot by enticing him, Travis burst through the door brandishing two pistols and yelling demands. What Travis didn’t know was that one nigga was hiding in the bedroom and two more were in the basement watching the scene unfold on the security monitors. Before Travis could get into the living room good, he was met with a hail of bullets from the guy in the bedroom. Moments later, the two men who had emerged from the basement also executed the three girls. The element of surprise! All four died right there in the dude’s living room, but were dragged into the garage and loaded into two SUVs. Kids who were playing hide and seek found the bodies the next day in an empty field.
She still had NO idea how those two bitches had known so much about her. However, now it didn’t even matter! Justice licked her lips and nodded her head as she began feeling a sense of rejuvenation knowing that her secret was now safe. She also knew now that her biggest concern was Tan.
CHAPTER TWENTY- FOUR
Red turned down the volume on the system and proceeded to get his mind right. It was time to get into murder mode. He was trailing Carlos’s Tahoe on I-85.
“Time to put this nigga on ice,” Red said as he saw the Tahoe get off Exit 52 heading into Huntersville. He sped past a slow-moving car and went from being three cars behind them to just one.
“Relax, babe,” Chris said as she started straightening out her wig in the rearview mirror and readjusting her glasses. “All we gotta do is follow this nigga to his spot and we in like Flynn.”
Red nodded his head and pictured himself putting two hot ones in Carlos’s chest. His mind was on murder as he drove west on Poplar Tent Road and made a left at the Huntersville-Concord Road light. The blue Saturn in front of them made a turn at the Skybrook Golf Club, leaving only asphalt between themselves and the Tahoe.
As they were directly behind the Tahoe, they continued to trail at a car length’s distance. Chris took out the Glock in the glove compartment and popped in the clip.
“I want this nigga to see my face.” Red said. All he could see was Cross lying in the back of that blood-splattered taxi two years ago. He wanted his revenge for that shit.
“Fuck that. We need to surprise this nigga,” Chris told him. “We gonna stick to the plan. Follow the nigga to his house, get the loot, then bust him in his ass and be out.” Chris’s mind was moreso on money than murder, but she knew death for Carlos was inevitable today.
Red exhaled. He knew the time was coming soon for him to put an end to Carlos’s life, and he was more than ready to get it poppin’. He continued to follow the Tahoe until they were in a secluded subdivision. He could see the waters of Lake Norman behind some of the houses.
Red watched the Tahoe make a turn down a long stretch of dirt road, which led to a house that sat on the lake. He gave the Tahoe a three-minute window before slowly creeping down the dirt road behind it. Once Red almost reached the end of the road they watched Carlos exit the Tahoe and enter the house.
“Damn, this shit too easy.” Red laughed. He and Chris simultaneously exited the car and quickly walked toward the house in which Carlos had entered.
Once they reached the house, Red and Chris both crept around to the back. The house sat alone near the woods that surrounded the large lake, which was perfect for robbing this nigga and leaving him leaking. No neighbors to hear the gunshots.
Red eased his way up to the back door and listened for movement. He didn’t hear anything, so he looked at Chris and gave the signal that he would kick the door in on the count of two. He rose one finger in the air, and as soon as he rose the second, the back door flew open and all Red could see was a flash of light. Then he felt the thud that hit him square in the chest, knocking him off the back porch. Red landed on his back in the damp grass. He heard a second shot that was not quite as loud, and heard a shrill scream that came from a voice he recognized as Chris’s.
Red’s chest was leaking blood like a faucet as he tried his best to roll over and crawl toward the pistol he had dropped. His limbs would barely move and his vision was becoming blurry.
Chris was on her knees trying to crawl to the side of the house, but the gunshot she’d taken to the side was too unbearable for her to stand it. She heard another shot and felt her limbs go numb as she fell face first in the grass. This bullet pierced her spine, instantly causing paralysis. The pain was gone, but her limbs were immobile. The wig had fallen from her head and her locs were now visible. Out of the corner of her eye, Chris saw someone walking toward her. As the person neared, she noticed he was carrying a wooden cane and had a slight limp. Preme recognized the girl from the barbershop just before he raised his pistol and let off two more shots that entered her head, ending her life.
Red was still lying in the grass, struggling to breathe as blood poured from his chest where the shotgun had blasted him. His vision was still blurry, but he was coherent enough to know that Chris was undoubtedly dead from the gunshots he’d just heard.
Preme walked over to Red and bent down to whisper in his ear. “Fuck nigga, you think my man didn’t peep y’all followin’ him?” He laughed. “We been doin’ this shit for years. We
stay
on point, bitch.” Just then, Preme felt a hand on his shoulder telling him to move aside.
Once Preme was out of the way, Red looked at the man who was now standing before him. Once Red saw the lines in the man’s eyebrows, he realized he had been following the wrong man the entire time.
War raised the shotgun and let it rip! The slug entered Red’s throat and exited out the back of his neck. He died instantly!
Good thing Preme was home when War had called and said he was being followed. If not, War would’ve had to handle this situation on his own. Preme limped back inside his home followed by War and made a phone call. Now it was time for the bodies to be disposed of.
CHAPTER TWENTY- FIVE
The young women walking past Carlos looked like they had just come off the catwalk as opposed to being flight attendants for his trip. He watched as their long hair danced off their shoulders and flew as if a gust of wind had blown by as opposed to them dragging their rolling suitcases to catch their next flight at the United terminal at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Had their skirts been a little bit shorter, those jiggling cheeks could have played peek-a-boo.
The phone vibrated in Carlos’s pocket. He pulled it out to see that Preme was calling him. “What it do?”
“We gotta problem, bruh.”
“What kinda problem?” Carlos wanted to know.
“This shit crazy as hell.” Preme sighed. “That nigga Red from back in da day . . .”
“Red?” Carlos cut him off. “Red who? Not the nigga who robbed my spot a couple years ago?”
“Yeah,
that
nigga.”
“You seen that nigga?” Carlos fumed.
“That’s what I called to tell you. Him and that bitch who just started comin’ to the shop wit’ Kim followed War in yo’ truck.”
“The cute bitch wit’ the dreads?” Carlos was confused.
“Yeah, but she ain’t that cute no more. They followed War, and War called me while they was behind him. I told him to come up to my spot on the lake just to see if they would follow him here. They did, and they got what they was lookin’ fo’,” Preme reported.
“You think they was on some robbin’ shit or what?” Carlos asked as he walked out the airport and stood on the curb.
“I’on know. But they both had ratchets and didn’t get a chance to squeeze.”
“Where they at now?” He wanted to know what happened to the bodies.
“I called ole boy an’ nem already. They on the way to clean this shit up,” Preme reported.
Carlos rubbed his temples and let a deep sigh escape his lips. “Aiight, tell ‘em I’ll pay him when I get back.”
“Get back? From where?”
“I just landed in ChiTown.”
Preme let out a sarcastic grunt. “Wow . . . damn, bruh. Lemme find out that bitch got you like that.”
“Nah, I just need to check some shit out. Tan pressin’ a nigga for info I ain’t got. I need to get that.”
“Yeah, aiight,
info,
” Preme stated sarcastically, and then added, “You know they prolly thought nephew was you.”
“Yeah, I just thought about that,” Carlos replied. “Hit me after they clean that shit up.”
“Aiight, bruh. One.”
“One.” Carlos ended the call. After he hung up he thought about what Preme had just told him and it confused the hell out of him. What was Kim’s friend doing with that nigga, Red? He went through scenario after scenario and couldn’t put the pieces together.
He realized that whatever their intentions were, they failed miserably and it had cost them. Carlos dismissed that situation and decided that he’d deal with it once he returned from Chicago.
***
Carlos pulled up to Justice’s block. He picked up the phone and scrolled down to find Sapphire’s number. As soon as he came across it, he pressed the TALK button. Sapphire answered within one ring. Carlos told her his location and asked whether or not she was sure Justice was home.