Tears of a Hustler 2 (16 page)

“Damn what the fuck happened to you?” G-money asked, noticing all the scrapes and bruises on Knowledge’s face.
“I punched that bitch ass Detective Nelson in his mouth, then him and his home boys jumped me,” Knowledge said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Why were you arrested?”
“Muthafuckas been following me around all day,” Knowledge said. “And they got our phones tapped. That faggot Detective Nelson played back a recording of me andyou talking on the phone.”
“That phone shit is dead,” G-money said, tossing Knowledge a beeper. “We taking it back old school.” “I feel you,” Knowledge said as he examined the beeper closely.
“007 means to meet me here and 008 means to come straight to Pauleena’s crib, a’ight? The only people who have this number are me and Pauleena.”
“A’ight, cool. Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell you while I was in the can, I ran into this clown who say he used to work for Rell.”
“And?”
“And he told me that Rell got a safe in his girlfriend’s house, holding a couple hundred thousand.”
“Who’s this girl?” G-money asked in a calm voice.
“Some white girl. I got the address if you wantit.”
“Nah, hold on to it. I want you and Shorty to go over there get that money and bring it back.”
“What about the white girl?” Knowledge asked.
“Kill her,” G-money answered with no trace of emotion. “I tried to let by gones be by gones, but this muthafucka don’t know when to stop,” G-money paused. “He dropped Suge, so one of his gotta fall.”
Knowledge wanted to tell G-money it was his fault that Suge got murdered, but decided to remain silent and let Rell take the blame. “A’ight, I’mma go get on that right now.” “A’ight when you done, swing by Pauleena’s club.”
“Say no more,” Knowledge said, quickly making his exit. “Why the fuck would somebody rob their ownfriend?”
“You have to remember Christie is not the one thinking. That crack is doing all the thinking for her,” Coco said, taking a long drag from her blunt.
“Yeah I know. But fuck all that, she gotta get her ass whipped for this shit,” Nancy said as she watched Coco get dressed. “Damn where’s the rest of your outfit?”
“My man like’s to see his boo in as less as possible,” Coco said with a wink.
“Well I hope ya’ll have fun cause I don’t think I’m going.”
“What? You have to go. I already told James youwere coming,” Coco declared.
“Don’t you mean The Terminator?” Nancy said, rolling her eyes for extra emphasis.
“Damn, you still tripping over that shit that happened to Spanky?” Coco asked dryly. “James isn’t the one who killed Spanky, Spanky killed Spanky,” she said reminding Nancy.
“Yeah, but that’s easy for you to say because you not the one engaged to Spanky’s brother,” Nancy pointedout.
“Damn, it ain’t like I’m trying to hook you up with one of his friends. I’m just asking you to go out with yagirl for a couple of drinks.”
“I don’t have nothing to wear.”
“I got you covered,” Coco said as she headed into her closet. When she returned, she was carrying a silver tube dress. “Here I haven’t even worn this shit yet. Try not to stain it all up. I know how you do,” she joked.
“Now that you mention it, I think I do need to get out the house,” Nancy said, holding up the dress.
“Trust me you going to love this spot,” Coco said with a smirk.
* * * *

“You think it’s gonna be mad bitches at the club tonight?” Shorty asked, putting on some rubber latex gloves.
“Pauleena stay with mad bitches in her club,” Knowledge replied as he threw on his hoody and drew the strings. “You ready to do this?”
“Yeah I’m tryna hurry up and get to the club,” Shorty said as he quickly loaded his revolver and slid out of the passenger seat of the stolen Buick. As Knowledge walked up on the house he noticed the “ADT” security sign outside the door.
“We got 10 seconds to find this bitch,” Knowledge said, nodding towards the sign.
“I’ll take the down stairs,” Shorty replied as he aimed his revolver at the front lock and shot it off. Once inside the house, Shorty quickly ran through the living room with his pistol in hand in search of the woman, while Knowledge quickly raced up the stairs taking two steps at a time.
When Knowledge reached the top of the steps, he kicked in the first door he saw. Lucky for him, he saw Heather sitting up looking startled with a book in her hand. “Get your ass up,” Knowledge snarled as he grabbed a hand full of Heather’s blonde hair.
“What do you want from me?” Heather asked in a weak and shaking voice.
“First I want you to answer this phone and say everything is okay,” Knowledge whispered as he placed his 9mm tothe white woman’s head and passed her the ringing cordless phone.
“Hello?” She answered.
“Hello ma’am, my name is Scott and I’m calling from “ADT” home security. I see your alarm just went off. Is everything okay?”
“Yes I’m fine. I just got home and I must of triggered the alarm by mistake.”
“Okay ma’am. Would you like me to send a patrol car through there just to make sure everything is alright?”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Heather said, trying to remain calm.
“Okay ma’am. Enjoy the rest of your night.”
“Okay you too,” Heather said as she hung up. “Okay now what’s this all about? You want money?”
“Nah bitch, we want Rell’s money!” Shorty growled as he entered the bedroom.
“I don’t know what you talking about,” Heather lied with a straight face.
“Word?” Knowledge said as he quickly slammed Heather down on the bed and placed a pillow over her face.
POOOOW! Knowledge’s 9mm barked as he let off a shot two inches away from Heather’s head. “I’m gonna ask you one more time, where’s it at?”
“Alright, alright. It’s down in the basement, in the dryer,” Heather sobbed.
“You better not be lying,” Knowledge said as Shorty headed downstairs towards the basement.
“I’m not lying. Just please don’t kill me,” she pleaded.
Five minutes later, Shorty came back upstairs holding a garbage bag.
“We good?” Knowledge asked.
“Yes sir,” Shorty replied with a smile.
With that being said, Knowledge quickly turned and placed the pillow back over her face and pulled thetrigger again, but this time he didn’t miss.
“Let’s get out of here and hit up the club,” Shorty said as he and Knowledge fled the murder scene.
G-money pulled up in front of the club two trucks deep. He slid out the back seat of the Expedition looking brand new; he wore all black so his jewelry could stand out more.
“G-money my main man, how you feeling tonight?” the bouncer at the front door asked, trying to make small talk.
“So far so good,” G-money replied as he and his entourage brushed past the bouncer and headed inside the club. Once inside the club G-money and his crew headed towards their regular V.I.P. section. To G-money’s surprise, Pauleena was already sitting on one of the couches with Malcolm standing behind her looking over the crowd.
“Glad you could finally make it,” Pauleena said with a warm smile.
“Wasn’t even sure if I was going to come out tonight. I been on my depressed shit lately,” G-money said, taking a seat next to Pauleena.
“What’s on your mind?”
“I’m just trying to adapt to walking around without my strap, smell me?” G-money said as he took a long drag from his blunt. “I’m not used to depending on someone else to protect me, you dig?”
“It’s all apart of the game,” Pauleena said as she kept her eyes on a husky man who stood over by the bar.“When the heat is on, we gotta get low. Remember we playing chess, not checkers,” she raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t get it twisted. I ain’t tripping; I just think I need a vacation.”
“Don’t we all,” Malcolm cut in.
G-money didn’t reply. Instead, he just gave Malcolm a dirty look before he continued. “Like I was saying,” he huffed. “This heat is making it extra harder for me to movearound how I want to.”
“Yeah them muthafuckas got it out for you hard!” Pauleena agreed. “You know that husky nigga over there standing by the bar?” she asked, pointing towards the bar.
“Nah, why what’s up? You want me to go over there and check him out?”
“Nah, you don’t need no more attention drawn toyou. Remember?” Pauleena said, shooting G-money a private look.
“Yo, money standing by the bar…get him the fuck outta here. He’s giving me the creeps,” Pauleena ordered as she watched two of her Muslim soldiers head towards the bar to handle their business.
“You paranoid or something? That man was just over there minding his business, trying to get his drink on,” G-money said, popping open a bottle of champagne.
“I don’t give a fuck what he was over there doing. He was giving me a bad vibe so he gotta go,” she said, holding out her glass so G-money could re-fill it. “Plus, I been having nightmares for the past couple of days.”
“Nightmares?” G-money chuckled.
“Yeah for the past couple of nights, I’ve been having some real bad dreams.”
“Word? With all the security you got, you scared of a little bad dream?” G-money said laughing. “Don’t worry baby, I ain’t gonna let nothing happen to you,” he teased.
“In my dreams, you are the one always getting killed…not me,” Pauleena said in a serious tone.
G-money’s smile quickly faded away. “Damn that’s crazy.”
“I know.”
“I knew you liked me, but I didn’t know you was having dreams about the kid,” G-money joked.
“That’s your problem; you always joking,” Pauleena said as she watched her soldiers escort the husky man out of the club. “It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”
“I can dig it,” G-money replied as the two touched glasses and continued to exchange words.

“Come on girl, James is outside waiting on us,” Coco yelled out.
“Damn, can I make sure my lip gloss is poppin before I go out?” Nancy said with a slight attitude.
When the two stepped foot outside, Nancy saw a stretched limo park in front and immediately wanted to hit a u-turn. “Stop acting like that. Let’s go and have a good time,” Coco said as the driver got out and opened the door for the two beautiful sistahs.
“Hey boo,” Coco sang as she slid in the limo andkissed The Terminator on the cheek.
“What’s good? Who’s your friend?” The Terminator asked, looking over at Nancy.
“Damn, gimme a second. This is my best friend Nancy, Nancy this is James.”
“The Terminator,” he corrected her as he kissed the back of Nancy’s hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Nancy said, giving him a half smile as she jerked her hand back.
“And this is my bodyguard, Rodney,” The Terminator said, nodding towards the six-nine monster.
“Damn Coco! Why you ain’t tell me your friend was so fine?” Rodney said, openly undressing Nancy with his eyes.
“Because she already got a man.”
“A real man,” Nancy cut in.
“You tryna say I ain’t real?” Rodney asked.
Nancy didn’t answer. Instead, she just stared blankly out the window.
“Bitch you don’t hear me talking to you?” Rodney snarled.
“Bitch? Nigga you must be high right now talking to me like that,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes. “You better get this big, ugly ass nigga out my face. I’ll make one phone call and get ya big ass smoked.
“You threatening me?” Rodney’s voice boomed as he inched over towards Nancy.
“Rodney you better not touch her! That’s my word,” Coco said as she grabbed Rodney’s arm so he wouldn’t hit her friend.
“Get ya hands off me bitch!” Rodney growled as he backslapped Coco. Coco’s head snapped back so hard that both of her earrings flew out of her ear.
Nancy reached in her purse to grab her pepper spray, but before she knew what was going on, Rodney’s massive hands was around her neck.
“That’s enough!” The Terminator yelled out. “Yo pull over.”
Once the limo driver pulled over, The Terminator spoke calmly. “Ya’ll bitches get the fuck out. I can’t stand no ghetto bitches,” he said in a disgusted tone as he openedthe door.
“That’s how you gon do me James?” Coco whined with tears in her eyes.
“Get the fuck out,” he said coldly.
“Fuck him! We don’t need this bullshit,” Nancy said as she grabbed Coco’s wrist and exited the limo.
“Stupid ass bitches!!” Rodney yelled out the window as the limo pulled off.
“I can’t believe them niggaz just tried to O.D. on us,” Nancy said, shaking her head.
“It’s all your fault,” Coco said, giving Nancy an ugly look. “I know you mad because your man is in jail, but that don’t give you the right to fuck up my shit.”
“Excuse me?” Nancy said, placing her hands on her hips.
“You heard me; you didn’t want me with James cause of what happened to Spanky.”
“Oh, so that’s why he called you a bitch right?” Nancy said sarcastically.
“This kind of shit always happens to me,” Coco said as she broke down in tears. “I’m never going to be able to find a good man who just love’s me for me.”
“Just be patient,” Nancy said as she pulled Coco close to her and hugged her.
“I’m sorry for coming at you like that,” she sobbed.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s get us a cab before we freeze to death out here,” Nancy said as she noticed a black Benz heading straight for the curb. “Watch out!” She yelled as she and Coco quickly hopped back on the curb.
“What the fuck ya’ll doing out here?” Knowledge said from the driver side of the Benz.
“Hey Knowledge, we need a ride home,” Nancy said, walking towards the Benz; not waiting for an answer.
“Damn, where ya’ll coming from dressed like that?” Shorty asked, noticing Nancy’s thick sexy legs andfresh pedicure toes.
“We were on our way to that new club a few blocks away.”
“Oh word…that’s where we was going too. Ya’ll sure ya’ll want to go home? We just right around the corner from the club.” Knowledge said, looking at Nancy through the rear view mirror.
“Nah me and my girl had a rough day. I think we should go home.”
“Nah, fuck that. We already here so we might aswell do the damn thing,” Coco said, drying her eyes.
“Damn, what’s wrong with you? Your man whipped that ass?” Knowledge chuckled.
“At least he didn’t knock me the fuck out,” Coco shot back.
“Fuck you! That bitch ass nigga snuck me,” Knowledge protested.
“Again, right?”
“Nancy you got too much class to be hanging around with trash like this,” he said, talking like Coco wasn’t sitting right there.
“Well don’t talk to me since I’m so trashy,” Coco sucked her teeth.
Knowledge pulled up in front of the club and as usual, it was flooded with people. When the bouncer saw Knowledge, he quickly gave him a pound and let him, and who he was with enter the club and walk around the metal detector.
“Oh shit, G-money and Pauleena already up in here,” Shorty said, pointing towards the V.I.P. section.
“I’m not going over there,” Coco said, looking at Nancy.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to see G-money,” Coco said shamefully.
“I understand,” Nancy said as she reached out and tapped Knowledge’s arm. “We gon just chill right here.”
“What!?” Knowledge said, looking confused. “We bout to go straight to V.I.P., you know how we do!”
“We’ll be over there in a little while,” she lied. “Me and my girl about to hit up the dance floor,” Nancy said as she rocked back and fourth to the beat.
“A’ight, you want me to send a bottle your way?”
“Nah, that won’t be necessary. We straight,” she told him.
“A’ight, I’mma be right over here if you need me,” Knowledge said as him and Shorty snaked their way through the crowd.
“Prime time, what’s goodie?” Knowledge joked as he gave G-money, then Pauleena a pound.
“G-macking and g-stacking,” G-money replied smoothly. “How did that other thing play out?”
“Like taking candy from a baby,” Knowledge smiled. “Got that bitch ass nigga for 20 stacks,” he said, not mentioning the 30 thousand that him and Shorty took off the top.
“When is that old school ass nigga going to realize he can’t see me?”
“When you kill his ass!” Pauleena cut in. “That’s the type of nigga that every time you see him, it’s going to be a confrontation. And that’s not good for business.”
“That nigga don’t want no problems with us,” Knowledge said, helping himself to a drink.
“Oh yeah? What do you think Suge would say about that?” Pauleena said as she got up and walked off, not waiting for a response.
“Yo where you going?” G-money called after her.
“I gotta pee,” she yelled over her shoulder as Malcolm and two other Muslim brothers escorted her to the ladies room.
“Man! That bitch don’t know nothing about the streets,” Knowledge said once Pauleena was out of earshot.
“She knows more than you think,” G-money said as hegrabbed a bottle of champagne, popped open the cork, and took a deep swig. “She’s a straight go getta.”
“Speaking of go getta’s,” Knowledge paused briefly to take a look at the ass of some Spanish chick. “I picked up Nancy and Coco on my way over here.”
“Say word?” G-money said in disbelief.
“Dead ass, they over there,” Knowledge said, pointing towards the two sexy divas.
“Why you ain’t bring them over to the V.I.P. section?”
“I tried but Nancy said they was good on the dance floor,” Knowledge explained.
“I’ll be right back,” G-money said as he got up and headed towards where Nancy and Coco stood.
One of Pauleena’s Muslim security guards cleareda path through the crowd as G-money followed closely behind him like a running back.
“Ahw shit,” Coco sighed. “Here this nigga come.”
Nancy looked up and saw G-money approaching. “Long time no see,” she yelled over the bumping music.
“What’s goodie?” G-money smiled, opening his arms for a hug.
“You,” Nancy replied as she slid in G-money armsand gave him a hug.
“Yo let me holla at your girl real quick. We got everything in the V.I.P. section,” G-money said as he watched Nancy squeeze through the crowd heading for the V.I.P. section.
“So what’s good?”
“Nothing!” Coco replied in a nasty tone.
“The terminator is over there. Why you ain’t over there with him?” G-money said, pointing towards the V.I.P. section on the other side of the club.
“Because I’m not,” Coco growled, still feeling the effects of getting played.
“Well you’re welcome to join me and the fam if you want,” G-money offered.
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m cool right here,” Coco answered, looking down at the floor.
“Why the fuck you acting like this for?” G-money asked, clearly disappointed.
“You know why,” Coco yelled as her eyes got watery. “We both out here dealing with people we don’t wantto deal with, because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants!”
“That’s what this is about?” G-money asked looking in Coco’s eyes.
“That’s what it’s always been about Gerald,” Coco said, trying to make a point. “I ain’t never been with one guy my whole life until I met you. You changed my whole way of thinking. For once in my life, I felt loved,” she sobbed.
G-money looked at Coco’s make up running down her face from the tears and felt bad for her. “You wantto give this another try?”
“I want to, but I know you ain’t never going to change.”
“We going to make this work,” G-money smiled warmly. “What ever happened in the past is the past,” he told her.
“Okay, I missed you so much daddy,” she sobbed burrying her face in G-money’s chest.
“I missed you too,” G-money said cupping Coco’s ass while he hugged her, drawing lustful looks from some of the club goers nearby. “Let’s go get us a drink,” G-money exhaled as the two headed for the V.I.P. section.
Knowledge and Shorty eased their way threw the crowd searching for something to slide, when Knowledge saw a familiar face. “Yo is that the Terminator right there?” He asked, pointing towards the V.I.P. section.
“Hell yeah that’s that bitch ass nigga!” Shortyreplied, heating up the already hot situation. “What’s good, you want me to clap that fool?”
“Nah, you wilding. That shit will get Pauleena’s club shut down,” he reminded Shorty. “But I am going to go over there and say hello,” Knowledge said, unable to drop the fact that another man had knocked him out cold.
Rodney sat next to The Terminator entertaining a couple of young tenders, when he noticed two men heading for the entrance of their V.I.P. section. “Whooooa, whoooa can I help you brothers?” Rodney asked, stepping in front of the two men.
“Yeah you can start by moving the fuck out of myway,” Knowledge huffed as he attempted to brush past the six-nine monster.
“Nigga is you crazy!?” Rodney barked as he grabbed Knowledge by the throat and shoved him back a few feet. Before Rodney could release his grip on Knowledge’s throat, Shorty had already had his revolver trained on the big man. “Put ya motherfucking hands up,” he warned.
Rodney looked in the young man’s eyes and could tell he wasn’t bluffing. Knowledge quickly regained his balance and snatched his 9mm from his waistband. “What’s up now big man?” He said in a calm voice as he proceeded to bash the big man’s face in with the burner, while Shorty kicked and stomped on the big man’s ribs until four big bouncers came running over to break up the fight.
Pauleena sat in the V.I.P. section having a wordwith Gmoney, when she noticed people on the dance floor shift to one side of the floor. “Somebody over there getting itpoppin,” she said, shooting to her feet.
“I hope it’s not one of our peoples,” G-money said, looking for Coco and Nancy just in case they had to make a quick dash for the exit.
“More than likely it is,” Pauleena said, standing on her tip toes trying to see over the crowd. Seconds later, Pauleena and G-money saw a bouncer escorting Knowledge and Shorty out of the side door of the club.
“I’mma go check on them. I’ll be right back,” G-money whispered in Coco’s ear as he headed for the exit. Once again, the Muslim guard cleared a path while G-money followed close behind.
Once G-money was gone, Pauleena sat right next to Nancy. “So you’re Ali’s fiance huh?” She asked, looking Nancy up and down. “Yeah is that a problem?” Nancy asked defensively.
“Not at all sweetheart,” Pauleena said as she crossed her legs getting more comfortable. “I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Pauleena,” she said, extending her hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Nancy said as she shook her hand with little to no effort.
“And I take it you’re G-money’s girl,” Pauleena said, facing Coco. “Or at least one of them,” she smirked.
“No, I’m his main bitch sweetheart,” Coco shot back, rolling her eyes.
“I bet you are,” Pauleena chuckled as she helpedherself to another drink.
Coco sucked her teeth. “Listen bitch, I don’t know who you are but you better watch your little mouth or else,” she warned.
“Or else what?” Pauleena asked as she slid her .380 from her handbag and stood over Coco. “Yeah you ain’t talking that tough shit now,” she chuckled. “Don’t let the dress and heels fool you. I will abuse both of ya’ll bitches up inhere.”
Nancy and Coco shot Pauleena nasty looks, but neither one said a word.