Forever a Hustler's Wife (9 page)

CHAPTER 10

In One Ear and Out the Other

D
es sat across from Sister Khadija’s desk as she updated him about all the goings-on with the business. Although her mouth was going a million miles a minute, what she was saying was going in one ear and out the other. Des’s mind was focused on his case and on the Cadi rolling up on his car lot. The driver looked familiar and was someone whom Des knew from the inside. One of his salesmen walked outside to try to make a sale, but he returned quickly.

“The dude says he looking for you, boss,” the salesman said, tilting his head toward the man getting out of the passenger side of the Cadillac.

“Who is it?” Des asked, knowing that the person looked familiar, but not able to place him.

“He say he yo’ brother-in-law.”

Then it clicked. Yarni had mentioned that Bambi’s husband, Lynx, was coming by to get a car.

Des smiled and hopped up. He always openly embraced a thorough brother who had just been released from the belly of the beast, and it especially ran deep in the family.

Des walked out onto the lot as Lynx stood at the side of the Cadi. He wore a rose-gold chain around his neck and a two-carat diamond in his ear. He was a good six feet tall and looked like he had spent plenty of time in the prison gym. Lynx had known of Des before he did his bid, but he had never done business with him or talked to him. But now they were related, so it was mandatory.

Des gave him a brotherly hug. “What’s good, my man?”

“Just glad to be home.”

“Don’t I know that feeling,” Des assured his brother-in-law. “How much you do?”

“Two and a half.”

“B was holding you down, huh?”

“Fo’ sho,” Lynx answered. “Her and Yarni got some party they planned for me.”

“Yeah, we got ourselves two special sisters. The party’s at our house.”

“I ’preciate you letting them have it at your house. I know how that can be.”

“Don’t mention it. You family.” Des switched topics. “So, what you trying to do?”

“I need some wheels, and they say you the man to see.”

“They told you right. What you thinking ’bout?”

“I need something hot; and my wife paying.”

Des smiled. “I got you, my brother. You see anything you like?”

While Lynx looked around the lot, the driver of the Cadi got out of the car and asked, “How much you want for that white Porsche?”

“We can work something out,” Des said, before redirecting his attention to Lynx. Des was surprised that Lynx was rolling with Cook’em-up.

“Cook’em-up, this is my brother-in-law Des. Des, this is my man Cook’em-up.”

“I know who he is,” Des interjected.

Lynx was surprised. “Word?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you do a little bit at Greensville?” Des asked Cook’em-up.

Cook’em-up’s smirk left his face, and he nodded. “Yeah.”

Des searched his eyes. “You was cellie with Pompay for a minute, right?”

Cook’em-up silently nodded.

“Yeah, I thought that was you.”

Lynx knew both guys’ bios all too well. Des was a stand-up dude, and Cook’em-up was a stone-cold killer; if their two worlds ever collided, it wasn’t anything to take lightly. Judging by the tension, it was apparent that somewhere and somehow the two paths had crossed before. Sensing the propensity for fire, Lynx tried to ease the tension. He focused on why he was there: the cars.

“So what’s the deal, man? I need some hot shit.”

“You in safe hands. I got you,” Des assured his brother-in-law. “What you like? Benz, Beamer, Ferrari, Lex? If we ain’t got it, we can get it.”

“Ummm, I’ve been gone for a minute, so I’m not sho what I’m feeling. My whip game may be a lil’ slack.”

“It never takes long to get your car game back.”

Lynx looked around the lot. “An S Class could work, but I ain’t really feeling that one.” He pointed to a champagne-colored one with customized piped seats.

Des gave him a crazy look. “I wouldn’t put you in that anyway. A stripper just traded that in.” Des put his hand up on his chin. “I got something real special for you.” Des nodded as if a lightbulb had just gone off in his head. “A welcome-home, red-light special for my brother-in-law. I just bought a CLS Mercedes from a dealer. It was their demo—got only ten thousand miles on it. Brand-spanking-new. Son of a bitch ain’t never even been registered.”

Des had just given Lynx a hell of a welcome-home present, and Lynx was feeling it. “Good-lookin’,” he said as he extended his hand out to shake Des’s.

Just then they redirected their attention to a Yellow Cab that rolled up in front of the car lot. A teenage kid jumped out of it with his rose-gold forty-two-inch cable swinging from side to side, and he made his way over to the champagne-colored souped-up S Class. They all watched as he tried to keep up his baggy pants and carry the Gucci overnight bag in his hand.

“How much you want for this joint?” the youngin asked, adjusting his pants.

Des shook his head. “It was just traded, so we haven’t done anything to it.”

“You ain’t got no quarter to eights?”

“Yeah, I got a couple of seven forty-fives.” Des nodded.

The kid started walking, then another car caught his attention. “What about that?” He pointed to a late-model convertible six series BMW.

“It got a few miles, so I can do that for fifty-nine, fully loaded.”

“A’ight put the bow on that bitch, and I’m going to get my momma or baby momma to come back up here to put it in her name.” He tossed the Gucci bag to Des. “That’s sixty. Wash it and fill it up for me.”

“Wait a minute, partner.” Des put his hand up to stop the young fella. “Slow up, my man.”

“What? We need to make this transazzion go down, ’cause a nigga straight tired of pushing these Jordans.”

“Peace, I feel that, but you got to slow down, shawdy.”

Sister Khadija came to the door wrapped in her garb, holding the phone, and called out, “Des, Tommy’s on the phone from Miami and says he got a Bentley Continental GT in—an ’05. He says it’s pretty as a honey-roasted turkey on Thanksgiving. Are you interested?”

“Ask him to hold tight for a few minutes—got a couple customers.” Then he added, “Write up the paperwork for the new CLS that we got coming in for him,” he said, pointing to Lynx, “and give him some tags and whatever he wants to drive until we get it here.”

Sister Khadija nodded and obediently did what she was told.

Lynx and Cook’em-up walked inside the building while Des broke the game down to the youngster.

“Look, baby boy, you trying to send me and you to the penitentiary.”

“What da fuck you mean? I don’t know you, and you don’t know me.”

Des gave him a look. “You right, but listen here, you can give me nine thousand a week as far as I’m concerned, but you coming in here paying cash like that, that’s not going to work for me or you. I know you don’t know how it goes down, so I’m going to put you up on it.”

Des was trying to give Lil’ Man some jewels, but Lil’ Man’s thoughts were on one thing and one thing only…that BMW. And anything else was in one ear and out the other as far as he was concerned.

“You give me the whole fifty-nine, I gotta report every dollar of that to the IRS. That’s a red flag for you and your momma. You become a walking investigation straight up.”

“So what I’m supposed to do? Ride around in a Pinto?”

“My man, it’s always two ways to skin a cat.”

“Good, because a Pinto ain’t a good look for my image.”

In a matter of time, Des had Lil’ Man off heels and on wheels. Five sales in one day wasn’t bad at all.

CHAPTER 11

The Queen Protects the King

D
es went to scoop Nasir so that they could go see Felix. When Des arrived at Nasir and Lava’s deluxe condo, Lava let him in and informed him that Nasir was almost ready. She offered him something to drink, but he declined. Lava shrugged and headed to another room, and Des decided to follow her. Des thought she and Nasir must have had an argument because she seemed a little distant.

He looked around the condo and was pretty impressed with what the young couple had pulled together. The living room was decked out in a
Scarface
theme—soft, red leather furniture and
Scarface
mini-blinds featuring the classic Tony Montana picture. Built in the wall diagonally across from the
Scarface
reflection was a huge wall-size aquarium, which housed two piranhas—Nasir told him once that they had named them Bobby and Whitney. Off the living room was an enormous game room, which had a professional-size pool table in the middle of the floor, a large dart board with a police officer’s face as the target on one wall, and a flat-screen plasma television on another.

“Who did the decorating?” Des asked, continuing to look around the room.

“We both did.” Lava plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote. “We pretty much do everything together,” she added.

Des rolled a few of the balls on the pool table with his hands, growing uncomfortable with the silence. “Real nice art,” he said, nodding toward the collection of fictional and real-life people showcased on the walls. Every photograph had been carefully selected and professionally matted and framed. There were posters of films, television shows, and their stars:
The Sopranos, Goodfellas, The Godfather,
as well Tony Montana, Biggie, Tupac, and Suge Knight. Des was surprised they had some political figures mixed in, including Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. They had somehow managed to get hold of federal mug shots, with the inmate numbers underneath, for Baby-face Nelson, Cool C., Wayne Perry, and Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff. In the middle of all the photos was a huge portrait of Lava and Nasir dressed up like Bonnie and Clyde, holding street sweepers.

Des caught sight of a chessboard in the corner of the room. “Does Nasir play chess?” he asked, not recalling his nephew having an interest in the game.

“All the time,” Lava said, never taking her eyes off the six o’clock news to look at Des. “We both do.”

Finally Des could take the awkward silence no longer. “Lover’s quarrel?” he asked. He could see that something was clearly bothering Lava by the way she had her arms folded across her chest.

“No, Uncle Des,” she said, sounding annoyed as she sucked her teeth.

Nasir walked in the room and headed over to Des to give him a hug and a pound. “She’s just mad because she can’t roll with the big boys. She gets an attitude anytime my immediate plans don’t include her.”

“Uncle Des, it ain’t that,” Lava interjected, and hopped up off the sofa.

“I don’t care if he goes out with you, Uncle Des. We love and trust you. It’s just those other niggas…I don’t trust them. None of them, especially Felix. That nigga ain’t nothing but trouble.”

Des smiled as he listened to Lava. “I agree that you shouldn’t trust those other niggas. In the game, you always have to stay on your guard around everyone, male or female,” Des commented. Although he was starting to like Lava more and more, and believed that she was Nasir’s ride-or-die chick, he still didn’t like Nasir having her so deeply involved in his business.

“Uncle Des, he forgets sometimes that I’m a woman, and the fact that I have women’s intuition. Sometimes I sense things…and I just know things,” Lava shared. She stopped and thought about what Des had just said. “Wait a minute. Are you trying to say Nasir shouldn’t trust me?”

“Should he?”

Nasir shook his head. “Unc, we’ve already had this conversation,” he said.

“Oh what, y’all talking about me behind my back?” Lava asked, rolling her eyes at Nasir.

“Baby, it ain’t even like that…” Nasir said.

Lava ignored him and turned to confront Des. “You trying to say I don’t have my man’s back?” she asked.

Des looked directly into Lava’s eyes before he answered. “Do you?”

“You damn right I do. Just like Yarni has yours. Don’t you ever question my loyalty to Nasir.
Ever.
I love this man with all my heart, and I will die for him. Like I said, it’s just these niggas I don’t trust.”

Des saw the sincerity shining in her eyes, and he knew she had spoken with her heart.

“She’s more suspicious of me being with some niggas handling business than me being at a strip club with a room full of naked bitches,” Nasir said, shrugging his shoulders in amazement.

Des gazed at Lava, waiting to hear her side. She wasn’t embarrassed at all. “That’s right. I ain’t worried about no sweaty bitches on him. All they can give him is some stank pussy, and he ain’t tripping on that. It’s the niggas that I’m worried about. They so shysty.”

“Right.” Des tried not to smirk. Lava was slowly winning him over by the second.

“She thinks that anytime I don’t include her in the business I must feel that she can’t cut it. Let her have her way, and it ain’t nothing streetwise that she can’t do.”

“Clyde had Bonnie, didn’t he?” she said, as she made her way to the kitchen. “And she never let him down, did she?”

“No, baby, she didn’t,” Nasir said, looking at his Rolex. “It’s time to make moves.” He grabbed the Louis Vuitton overnight bag filled with money, and he and Des headed for the door.

But before they could exit the house good, Lava called out, “Boo, wait a minute. Hold up.” Nasir stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her.

“Sorry, baby. I forgot to give you a kiss, huh?” He moved to kiss her.

“Nope. It ain’t even that. You forget this?” She handed him his gun.

Nasir took the gun from her, looking a bit embarrassed. “Thanks,” he said sheepishly.

“Now you can give me a kiss.” She puckered up and shared a wet one with her man.

“Good looking,” Des commended Lava before giving Nasir a hard look.

“Ain’t nothing. I’m just playing my position. That’s what the queen is supposed to do. Protect her king.”

“You know the queen is the most powerful piece in chess, right?” Des said, as he shut the door behind him. Lava just smiled.