A Sticky Situation (12 page)

When I stepped out of my car, I asked him, “Ay yo, son, I know you forked out at least a mill for this joint, huh?”

Mike smiled. “Nah, but you’re close.”

I followed him up the driveway.

I passed this pearl white Acura RL with wood grain and cream-colored leather interior. The shit was so plush, I did a double take. I didn’t know it, but Mike saw me through his peripheral vision. He caught me off guard when he said, “That joint is hot, huh?”

I smiled, nodded my head, and followed him into his crib. Inside, we were greeted by his wife Lacy. Oh my God, homegirl was fucking beautiful. She’d put you in the mind of an Asian and black chick. Her hair was long, black, and silky and her skin was flawless. What was even more appealing about her was that her five-two frame was so tight, you couldn’t even tell she was pregnant. I smiled at her and waited for Mike to introduce us.

“Baby, this is my man Seth. Seth, this is Lacy,” he finally said as he stood beside her. Looking at the both of them together was like looking at Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant’s wife. That’s how pretty Lacy was and that’s how big Mike was, towering over her.

She and I both said hello to each other and then Mike escorted me into the den area. “Baby, y’all want something to drink?” I heard her yell down the hall at us.

“Yeah, bring us two Coronas.” She brought us two cold beers before she asked Mike, “Did you need me to do anything else before I leave?”

“You getting ready to leave?”

“Yeah.”

“Where you going?”

“I’m going shopping with Megan.”

“A’ight, but don’t spend up all my dough.” Mike smiled.

Lacy looked back at him and said, “There are not enough hours in a day to do that.”

“You’re right, but I’m sure it’s crossed your mind.”

“My mother always told me never let your right hand know what your left is doing. So, I guess it’s best that I stick to that,” she replied and disappeared around the corner.

“Her mother’s right,” I commented and took a sip of my beer.

Mike laughed and said, “To hell with her moms because she ain’t nothing but a gold-digging bitch!”

After hearing him blast his wife’s mother like that, I didn’t know whether to laugh or act like I didn’t hear him. I was saved by the bell when his cellular phone started ringing off the hook.

“Yeah, what’s up?” he answered. “A’ight. Well, tell them that something came up and we ain’t gon’ set up shop until later.” He continued talking and then ended the call.

“Niggas getting impatient about that product, huh?” I inquired.

“Yeah, that was Melody telling me that a lot of fiends keep knocking on her door trying to score. I told her to tell ’em something came up and that we’ll set up shop later.”

“What time you want me to go out there?”

“I want shit to cool down out there first. I would hate for you to run right back into them cats while you got my shit on you.”

“Come on now, Mike. Do you honestly think I would let them niggas fuck with your shit?”

“I know you wouldn’t, but those niggas are on some bitch-type shit! They would set you up to get busted by the police in a heartbeat. That’s why I keep my distance from them.”

“Is that what the cat back at the barbershop did?”

“Hell, nah!” Mike said. “That was Melody’s baby daddy, Rick.”

“Word?” I said and laughed.

“Yep, that’s why I called you down there. I wanted you to see me whip his motherfucking ass for talking shit to me when he came by Melody’s crib about a month ago,” Mike explained. “Do you know that nigga threatened to call the police on the spot, because I had her selling drugs out of there?”

“Word?”

“Yep, he sure did.”

“So, why didn’t you straighten his ass then?”

“Because when I pulled out my pistol, the nigga hopped in his car and skated out of there.”

“So, those cats busting rounds at us were his peoples?”

“Yeah. I heard him popping shit to them on the phone when I was sitting in the chair, getting my haircut. From then, I knew I was going to have problems so I got on the horn and called Jay, but he didn’t pick up. Then I called you, and when you told me you were on your way, a ton of adrenaline started pumping inside of me.”

“Come on now, dawg, you knew I was going to come. You should’ve called me first.”

“I know. But everything is everything. We live and learn.”

“Yeah, that’s true. I’m just glad I was there to have your back.”

“Shit nigga, I was glad, too. I mean, you saw how those niggas came flying around that corner, emptying out their burners at us?”

“Hell yeah, I saw it. That’s why I was able to dive down on the ground behind that old Honda Accord, to keep them niggas from putting holes in my ass!”

Mike took a sip of his beer and said, “Yo, those cats were amateurs. They did all that shooting and didn’t hit nothing but the cars we dove on the ground behind.”

“Yeah, they were kind of sloppy because if it were me, I would’ve killed something on the first two shots.”

Mike smiled. “I would’ve murdered something too.” He stood. “Come here and let me show you something.”

I stood and followed him out of the den into a back room in the house. It was small, like a utility closet. The door to the room was made of that same kind of steel they used to create floor safes. It was at least eight inches thick. It would be very difficult for anybody to break into it, plus you could tell that it was soundproof. Mike told me the inside of it was made of solid concrete, so if anyone would ever get locked up in there he would have less than twenty-four hours to live because there was not an opening for ventilation. What was really slick about the joint was that there was another door inside of the room. As Mike led the way, I followed.

“What I am about to show you, I haven’t shown no one else.”

“Not even Jay?” I wondered aloud.

“Nope, not even him,” he told me as he typed a code into a digital keypad mounted against the wall. The door made a clicking sound and Mike pushed it open. I saw something that didn’t look real to me. I honestly thought that my mind was playing tricks on me.

“You see that shit?” Mike pointed to four piles of money stacked on top of a wooden pallet in the middle of the floor. “That’s my retirement money right there. As soon as I get rid of all that shit you see right there,” he pointed directly at a two–gallon, see-through plastic container filled with raw heroin, “I am going to get out of the game and take my wife on a six-month-long vacation before we settle down and make some real investments.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how much is that?”

“It’s two and a half mill,” Mike replied with pride.

“Why would you have that much dough stashed away in your crib like this? I mean, wouldn’t you feel safer with that shit in a bank somewhere?”

“Come on now, Seth, you see how this room is built. Couldn’t nobody get in here if they tried.”

“I see that, but don’t you think it would be a little wise to have it in a bank, so you could build some interest on it?”

“Hell, nah! Fuck that! I am not letting any of them crackers get rich off my dough. It’s gonna sit right here, where I can see it.”

“How long did it take you to rake that shit in?”

“Probably about a year. It would’ve been more, but wifey’s been dipping in it every chance she gets,” he continued as he turned the light switch back off.

I stepped back out of the room and into the hollow area and waited for him to close the door to the safe. He opened up the second door that led back into the hallway. Once we were back in the den area, Mike took a seat.

“I just want to let you know that the reason I took you into my safe is because I wanted you to see how serious I was about getting rich. If you’re serious, then you can have all of that too. Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression that I am some ol’ soft-ass nigga and I wouldn’t kill you if you ever got up the nerve to run up in here and try to take my shit from me; because I would, in a heartbeat.”

“Oh nah, Mike, that shit wouldn’t ever cross my mind,” I reassured him.

“That’s a good thing, because if we’re on the same page with this thing, you and I are going to be all right!” He took the last sip of his beer and sat it on the coffee table.

“Well, I’m definitely on the same page with you, because if I wasn’t, I would not have gotten down with you in the first place.”

“True! True!” Mike agreed. He stood up again and asked me if I wanted another beer.

“Nah, I’m straight,” I told him.

We continued to kick politics to each other for another hour or so, and then we broke it off when I got a call from Samantha. Before I accepted her call, Mike handed me a Ziploc bag of two thousand caps of dope and told me to head out to the spot. I stuffed the bag in my jeans and headed out the door. As soon as Mike closed his front door behind me, I pressed the number five button on my phone before the automated system disconnected us.

“Hello,” I said.

Sounding a little agitated, Samantha said, “What took you so long to accept my phone call?”

“I was taking care of some business.”

“With who?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I cut her off. “What’s good?” I hopped in my whip and headed toward the highway.

“Nothing but the fact that I’m missing the hell out of you.”

“And you don’t think I’m missing you?”

“I know you are, but it’s just so hard being in here and you’re out there.”

“Sam, stop doing that. You know you’re stressing yourself out when you do that.”

“Baby, I can’t help it.”

“Look, you ain’t got nothing but a few more weeks left and you gon’ be right out this joint with me, chilling. So stop tripping. Your time is almost up.”

“I can’t wait because I am going to show out when I see you. All those bitches out there, who’ve probably already fucked you or trying to fuck you right now, better recognize. When I step on the scene, they better not step out of pocket, because shit will get really ugly. Seth, you know I would kill a bitch behind you!”

“Baby, I know that. That’s why I ain’t fucking around with these hoes. They ain’t worth it. All I’m trying to do is get money, and that’s it.”

“I know whatchu trying to do, but if you’re out there where them hoes are, they are definitely going to try to holler at you. And you know I know, because that’s how me and you met.”

I laughed at Samantha after she made her point. Technically, she was right. Chicks out there had that type of radar, and they could tell if a nigga had a little bit of dough. As soon as they figured out how much you had coming in on a regular basis, they would offer their pussy up to you with the quickness. If you took them up on their offer, their next move was to lock your ass down. I couldn’t have that shit. Samantha wasn’t gonna have it either. I was going to continue to do me and get that cash. All that other shit wasn’t relevant, so I was going to keep my distance.

After she reminded me over and over again about how much she loved and missed me, our fifteen-minute conversation was up. I blew a kiss at her through the phone before we got disconnected, but we got cut off before she could kiss me back. I stuck my phone back in my pocket and continued to make my way back to Portsmouth.

Melody was dead in my face from the second I walked into her crib. I brushed her ass off because I wasn’t feeling her at that moment. Whether she knew it or not, her talk game was on zero and her pussy was whack, so all she could do for me is help me serve the customers. Now later on, I might want to fuck her in her ass, but until then, we didn’t have anything to talk about unless it was about helping me collect this paper.

While I was pushing those caps off on those dopefiends out there, Maxine called my phone over a dozen times. I started to answer it a few times and tell her to leave me the fuck alone, but I knew she would have something fucked up to say, so I left well enough alone.

SAMANTHA

Never Trust A Big Butt And A Smile

After I got off the phone with Seth, I stepped out of the phone booth and headed down the hallway toward my room.

“I’ve been looking for you,” a male correctional officer said while my back was turned.

I didn’t have to turn around to see who was asking me the question because I already recognized the voice. But to show him the respect, I turned around and smiled as hard as I could. “What, ya got something for me?” I wondered aloud and begin to walk toward him, admiring everything about him.

C.O. Rico Mendez was his name, and he was a thirty-eight-year old, handsome brother with a caramel complexion and curly jet black hair. Plus, he had the height and body of a gladiator. His nationality was Puerto Rican. But, he said that his mother was Puerto Rican and his father was black. It wouldn’t matter either way, because he had it going on, which was why I’d been fucking him the entire time I was at that prison camp. It was a lot of hoes there that were jealous of me because they knew I was fucking around with Mendez and he snuck a lot of shit in there to me from off the street and he put money in my account. So I told all of them to get a fucking life and find their own correctional officer to fuck with because they ain’t gon’ stop this parade. I had just a few weeks left in that hellhole, so I was going to ride that pony until the very end.

“Yeah, I sure do. And I can’t wait to give it to you.”

I smiled because I knew he was talking about his dick. But then he changed the subject.

“Who were you talking to?”

“My cousin,” I lied.

Mendez smacked me on my ass. “You better had been!” He smiled.

“I was, sweetie.”

“So, whatchu getting ready to get into now?”

“I’m going in the TV room and play a couple hands of bid wiz with my roommates.”

“Well, you know my shift ends at eleven, so I wanna get with you before I leave. A’ight?”

“We can get together later, but we aren’t going to be able to do anything because I’m on my period right now,” I lied once more.

“Come on, mommie! Tell me it ain’t so.” He sounded disappointed.

Truth of the matter was, I was about to be reunited with Seth and I couldn’t have him running up in me with my pussy all stretched and worn out. He’d definitely know I’d been doing something because Mendez’s dick was slightly bigger than his, so between now and then I’d have to use a couple of hot feminine douches and jump into my kegel exercises so I could get my coochie tight again. I wasn’t gon’ let Mendez fuck it up for me.