Street Fame (9 page)

M
ark and Jennifer were lying on a bed in the Westin Hotel. He had made love to her twice already.
She lay in his arms, enjoying his company. “So how do you feel?”
He avoided her eyes and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”
“Never had sex with a stripper, huh?”
“No.”
“A white woman?”
“No. Never had sex with my informant, either.”
“So this was a groundbreaking experience for you, huh, Pratt?”
“I wouldn’t exactly put it like that.”
“So, are you worried?”
“About what?”
She smiled. “That this will get out.”
“No, I’m not worried about anything,” he lied. He was concerned with what would happen if the agency found out that he crossed the line, and he thought about what his dad would say. This was not the type of woman he could bring home to Mama.
“So, did you enjoy it?” She rubbed his chest.
“I’m having a good time with you, Jennifer,” he said.
“Good. I enjoyed it, Pratt. For a guy who’s a square, you’re a good lover.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, but I knew it. You’re a Scorpio.”
“So what about Twin?”
“What about him?”
“Do you feel bad that you just had sex behind his back?”
She sat up on the edge of the bed. “Twin is fucking at least three different women other than me.”
“What? That is dangerous.”
“That’s the life … the drug life. It comes with the territory of being a drug dealer’s girl.”
“So why would you stay with him? Why would you stay with someone who cheats on you and obviously don’t love you?”
Jennifer got out of bed and slipped on her jeans. Then she turned and faced Mark. “Like I told you before, Pratt, I have no choice. He is the only man that loves me—the only man that understands me.”
“Twin is making money; he’s making serious money, and he still lets you shake your ass in the club for me. I don’t call that love.”
Jennifer made eye contact with Mark, and then her eyes got misty.
Mark didn’t like to see women cry. It did something to him to watch a woman cry. He sprang from the bed, walked over to Jennifer, and put his arm around her. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Jennifer.”
She jerked away from him. “Why are you being mean to me?”
Jennifer sounded like a child to him. He couldn’t believe that she was that sensitive. He thought about what he said to her and he realized that he probably made her feel low. She’d made some poor decisions in her life, but she still deserved to be treated with respect.
She sat on the bed and started crying aloud.
“I apologize, Jennifer. I’m really sorry.”
She looked up at him, mascara running and tears streaking her face. “You know what, Pratt? You’ve lived in a fucking bubble for most of your life. You don’t know what it is not to have nobody in the world you can count on, do you?”
“I haven’t had it good my whole life,” Mark said.
“You ever go hungry?”
“Yes,” he lied.
“Has your dad ever beat the shit out of your mom?”
“No.”
“Ever been raped or molested?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so, Pratt. You don’t know the real world.”
Mark sat beside her, grabbed her hand, and held it gently. “You’re right, Jennifer. None of these things have happened to me, but I want you to know that you can make it.”
“You think so, huh? What makes you think I can make it or, better yet, what makes you think that I ain’t already making it?”
“I mean, there’s a better life for you besides stripping.”
“Like what? Witness Protection after you bring Twin and his boys down?”
“No, I didn’t mean that, and I doubt if you’re going to need witness protection from Twin. These guys are punks. Nobody is a gangster in that crew.”
“What do you mean
there’s a better life for me
, Agent Pratt? I don’t have no education. What else can I do but take my clothes off for money?”
“You can go back to school.”
“I don’t have time to go back to school.”
“Quit making excuses, dammit!”
“You’re being mean again.”
“Listen, I’m sorry, but I want to help you.”
“Help me do what?”
“I want you to get away from this lifestyle.”
Silence.
“Why do you want to help me?”
“I don’t know… For some reason I want to help you.”
“Do you like me, Pratt?”
He closed his eyes for a moment. Finally, he looked at her and said. “Far more than the law allows.”
She laughed.

At the
South Beach Marriot
, Twin, JoJo, and Tommy sat at a table in Tommy’s suite. “So what’s the deal with Manny’s brother? Why hasn’t he called you back?” Twin asked Tommy.

“I don’t know, man. Your guess is just as good as mine.” “The muthafucka was telling us to come down, that everything was going to be okay. Now that we’re down here, we can’t get him to call you back. This is bad business,” JoJo said.
“I agree,” Tommy said. “I’ll try to call him again.” Tommy pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number.
No answer.
“Fuck this shit. Let’s go on the beach. Let’s go rent Ferraris and pick up some hoochies,” JoJo said.
“We not here for that. We’re here for business, remember?” Tommy said.
“Let’s go get something to eat. At least by that time, hopefully, Manny’s brother will have called you.”
“Cool.”
The Moon Room was crowded. Anna, the hostess, seated the crew at a table in the back of the restaurant. Twin and JoJo looked around at the beautiful Latina women who were walking around with pasties covering their nipples. “The shit is fuckin unreal,” JoJo said.
“I feel like I’m in a fuckin movie,” Twin said.
The waitress’s name was Penelope. She was a petite woman with a nice, toned body. She approached the table with a bottle of champagne.
“We didn’t order champagne.” Tommy said.
“That’s compliments of the gentleman up front.” She pointed.
Their attention turned toward the man who had sent an eighthundred-dollar bottle of Cristal to their table. He was alone at a small table.
Tommy asked Penelope, “Who is that guy?”
“His name is Juan.”
“Tell him thanks for the champagne,” Tommy said.
“I will,” Penelope said, then passed out three menus. “I’ll be back to take your orders.” She sashayed away.
Juan approached the table. “My friends, whatever you want just let me know.” He shook everybody’s hand.
“You’re Manny’s friend, right?” Juan asked Tommy.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“I’ve seen you with Manny in the past.”
“Really?” Tommy said, trying to remember Juan. But his face wasn’t the slightest bit familiar.
“Manny’s my cousin.”
“We’ve been trying to locate his brother,” Twin said.
Juan pulled up a chair. “So, you guy’s in town for business or pleasure?”
Tommy was about to answer but JoJo nudged him.
“We don’t know you,” Twin said.
“Okay if I was the police, seeing your boy here with Manny a couple of weeks ago, all I would have had to do was follow him back to the hotel and hit the jackpot.”
“Good point,” Tommy said.
Juan smiled then got Penelope to bring him a rum and Coke. “Listen. I want to make you guys millionaires.”
Twin’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
Penelope interrupted, took their orders, picked up the menus, and sashayed off again.
“Yeah. Manny was cool, but he didn’t give you enough room to grow.”
“Manny did me good,” Tommy said.
“Listen. I was Manny’s supplier, so I know my price is cheaper than he could ever give you.”
“You think so?”
“Did he give you kilos for ten thousand?”
Tommy didn’t answer. He started to think about all the money he had at the hotel room.
“Ten thousand dollars?” Twin asked, surprised.
Juan sipped his drink then said, “Shhh. There may be undercovers in here.”
“So when can we do this?” Twin asked excitedly.
“I don’t think we should be doing this. I mean, Manny has always been my connect, and I’ve always went through him. I wouldn’t feel loyal.”
“Right answer,” Juan said. “That’s why every time you do business with me, I’ll put something aside for him. Manny is my cousin, so you know my loyalty lies with him.”
Tommy liked Manny, and he didn’t want to seem like a business whore, but Juan was offering him the best price for coke.
Juan looked at Tommy. “So what’s up, big man? Are we going to do business or what?”
“Juan, we’re going to talk it over.”
Juan stood and smiled. “Well, I’ll be at the first table. You know where to find me,” Juan said as he eased away.
Penelope came with more drinks. She said, “Eat as much as you want. Everything is on Juan.”
When she left, they resumed their conversation. “We don’t know this muthafucka, man,” JoJo said.
“Hell, we didn’t know Manny, either, the first time we met him,” Tommy said.
“Tommy is right,” Twin said.
“Man, do you know how much money we can make off this shit for ten thousand dollars a key?” Tommy said.
“Yeah. In the past, Manny would give them to you and you would sell them to us. Now we all have a chance of getting the coke directly from the source,” Twin said.
Tommy hadn’t thought about it that way. He’d always made money off JoJo and Twin because he was the one with the connection. Now they would be getting the product directly from the source as well. He didn’t particularly like it, but he would deal with it because of the low price.
JoJo’s eyes were squinted. He was contemplating.
“So, are we going to do it or not?” Twin asked.
“I just get a funny feeling about this whole situation,” JoJo said.
“Nigga, our intention is to get rich, remember?”
“Exactly,” Tommy said, remembering that he needed a million dollars fast. “I’m going to take a chance at it. Fuck it. It’s only money.”
“I ain’t worried about the money part of it. I’m worried about going to jail, nigga. I hope you don’t think that just ‘cause the dude is Spanish that he won’t arrest our ass. I mean, cops and informants come in all colors.”
“I don’t think he’s a cop,” Tommy said.
Twin looked at JoJo. “Come on, man. If Tommy don’t think he’s a snitch, it’s gotta be safe, because that scary muthafucka thinks everybody is the police.”
JoJo ate a forkful of salmon but didn’t respond.
“So what is it? What y’all gonna do?” Tommy said.
“Lets go for it,” JoJo said.

Back at the hotel they counted their money. JoJo and Twin would spend thirty thousand dollars each. Tommy decided he would spend only a hundred thousand. He was being conservative, but he would profit the most out of the transaction. Their money covered the whole table.

Juan frowned. “Man, I got sixteen bricks in here; you think we got time to bust all this shit open for you?”
“I’m spending a $160,000 here, too. I need to see them all.” Alex passed the bag to Tommy.
Tommy slit them all and took a minute to taste the product. Twin assisted him. “It’s cool. It’s all coke,” Tommy said.
Alex smiled then collected the money. “Rather than count it, I will be the one to start our trust.” He shook hands with the crew.
“We’re going to do good business for a long time.”
“Hell yeah, as long as the price stays sweet,” Twin said.
“The price will only get better, my friend.”
“That’s what we want to hear,” Tommy said.

Tommy took a step back and pointed at the package on the table. “That’s coke on top but inside it is sheetrock.”
“I thought you tasted it, Tommy,” JoJo said.
“I did, and Twin did too.”
Twin silently paced the floor.
“Call that muthafuckin Juan right now. I ain’t going out like that. I refuse to take an L,” JoJo said.
“I know. I refuse to take a loss, too. Remember, I had a hundred thousand dollars invested,” Tommy said. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed Juan’s number. Nobody picked up. He tried three more times but got no answer.
“Nigga, you’ve caused me to loose thirty thousand dollars,” JoJo said.
Tommy stared at JoJo, tempted to pull the small handgun that rested on his waistband. At that moment, he wanted to shoot JoJo in the face. He’d done so much for the man. He was the reason JoJo had money in the first place. Tommy had had the connection, and he’d always helped JoJo by providing him with coke. Now, he’d lost a hundred grand and JoJo had lost a measly thirty thousand dollars, yet Tommy was taking the blame.
“JoJo, you was in there looking at the coke, too, nigga. You can’t blame Tommy. We are all in this together.”
“Fuck that! He was the muthafucka who decided to deal with Juan in the first place.”
“But nobody put a gun to your head and told you to deal with Juan.”
“Nobody has put a gun to his head yet,” Tommy said.
JoJo looked at Tommy. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Tommy pulled the small .380 from his waistband and put it up to JoJo’s temple. “Nigga, I will kill your punk ass.”
Twin froze. He’d seen Tommy mad only a couple of times in his whole life, and he knew things could get ugly whenever he was mad. Fatboy was nobody’s punk.
“So what are you going to do, blow my brains out Tommy?” JoJo said.
Tommy grabbed him by the throat, cutting off his wind. “I will kill you, nigga.”
“So … you wanna … kill … your boy ‘cause you … made a … mistake.”
“How? By helping you make money?” Tommy said.
“By picking up this bad shit.” JoJo’s pulse quickened and he looked faint.
“Let the nigga go, Tommy. He’s going to pass out.”
“Nigga, I made you into the man that you are today, and this is the thanks I get. Okay, you lost thirty thousand dollars, but it’s because of me you got a nice place to stay, a couple of vehicles, and probably a small stash.”
“You’re right … you’re right, Tommy. Please … let me go.”
Tommy shoved him to the floor as hard as he could. He dialed Juan’s number again. No answer. “I can’t believe this shit!”
“I can’t believe it, either, man. This shit is ridiculous,” Twin said.
JoJo stood. He avoided eye contact with Tommy.
“So what do you think we should do?” Twin asked.
“Let’s call Manny’s brother and see what he knows about this shit.”
Tommy called Hector.
Hector answered on the first ring. “Tommy, I’m glad you called. I lost my cell phone and I didn’t have your number. Are you still in Miami?”
“No, I left yesterday.”
“Sorry, man, for all the confusion.”
“Yeah. I met a guy named Juan. He said he was Manny’s cousin.”
“Stay away from that guy. He’s no good.”
“It’s too late. We’ve already dealt with him. He sold us sheetrock.”
“Oh no. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, me too. We lost a hundred and sixty big ones in the deal.”
“Come see me, Tommy. We’ll make it up.”
“I damn sure need it.”
“Hey, listen, man. My brother told me to take care of you, and that’s what I’m going to do. We will talk further when you get down here.”
Tommy terminated the call.
“So what is Hector saying?” JoJo asked.
“He said that Juan is no good, and he is going to make it up to us.”
“Cool. I feel a little better now.”
Twin looked at Tommy. “So, basically, that guy Juan beat us out of our money, right?”
“That’s what it seems like,” Tommy said.
Silence. For a minute, Tommy thought about the hundred thousand dollars he’d lost. He thought about what he could have done with the money. He could have bought a house with the money, property that he would have had for years to come. Instead, he’d gambled the money away. “We’re going to make it through this,” he finally said.
“That’s easy for you to say,” JoJo said. “You still got plenty of money in your stash. I’m low, man.”
Tommy extended his hand to JoJo. “What’s mine is yours.”
JoJo shook his hand, thinking of Nia. “And what’s mine is yours.”