Copyright©2003 by Franklin White
All Rights Reserved
7
The VIP section was popping inside. Ass, tits, bodacious bodies standing
on stilettos were everywhere, in every corner of the section waiting to serve
those who had enough to pay what it cost for the goodies inside. I only had one
complaint; there wasn’t enough lighting so I could see all of the fine woman
who were lounging about on the cream-colored leather chairs playing host in
their thongs. There were clans of shapely females who were much too fine to
touch the brass pole out in front of the club waiting for the next baller to
stroll through the door of VIP. They even had large pillows sprawled across the
room as players sat with girls in their laps, some even on their backs; no doubt
being tongue serviced for a fee as they sipped champagne and stiff drinks.
Passion finally stopped at a booth lined with curtains and pulled them back.
“If
it isn’t my grand jury,” Rossi said. This muthafucka looked as though he
didn’t even have a case hanging over his head. He didn’t seem worried one
bit that he could be another step closer to prison in a matter of days.
“C’mon in, you two.”
Rossi
was dressed to a tee: in a nicely tailored deep blue, pinstriped suit with open
collar. There were three women sitting at his table. The chick sitting closest
to him was white: almond eyes, blonde hair with a nice tan and she didn’t have
on a shirt. Her nipples were hard and long— saying hello to me. The other two freaks, one black
who I could tell—had
eaten plenty of red beans and rice coming up because her body was hitting on all
cylinders. The other girl was mixed but yet still fine as hell, with silky, blue
black hair—sat
very close together.
Rossi
noticed Lauren’s hesitance after his invite to sit. “It’s okay,” he
said. “Everyone here are guests of mine. I even own the small bar tonight. Can
I get you anything?”
After
I made sure he knew our names, I told him whiskey and he talked Lauren into
getting a steak and baked potato to munch on. After a few minutes of small talk,
I was getting used to having the girls around, especially after the two I was
sitting in-between began pressing their mountains toward my chest, while I
sipped my drink. But much too soon, Rossi asked them to leave.
As
they left our small gathering, Rossi lit a cigar and kind of smiled. “Don’t
mind me, I’m just fronting.” He laughed. “I usually don’t smoke these
but they just enhance the atmosphere.” Rossi lit up nicely and through the
smoke said, “Ya’ll here to see me or just to enjoy the view?” Lauren told
him to take a guess. Rossi smiled. “Something told me somebody on the grand
jury had some smarts.”
He
offered me a Cuban and I accepted. All of a sudden I had a feeling Lauren was
looking to me to take charge of her plan like I was—the
mastermind behind us really sitting down with Rossi because she wouldn’t take
her eyes off me. So I did. I asked
Rossi what he meant by smarts.
“You
know, some heart, some street knowledge. I just knew someone was sitting on the
grand jury who really understood their opportunities with my case. It definitely
was a vibe in that room.”
I
hadn’t decided to partake in Lauren’s scam before I sat down with Rossi. But
really seeing the opportunity up close and personal made me think we could
possibly pull off a serious coup if planned exactly right. Then I began to think—how in the world else would I ever get a chance of
making so much money so quickly. I definitely didn’t see a huge fleet of cars
coming into my shop to be repaired in the future. Looking at Rossi and his
calculated moves and statements to the girls who had just left the table, I was
sure he had the money—he denied having to the grand jury; but he had yet to admit it. Then it
happened.
“I’m
not going to dance around with this,” Rossi said. “I know why you came and
you both know what I need. As long as we can come up with a fair deal, I don’t
think there will be a problem with making this thing happen.”
* * *
On
the ride back home Lauren was hyped and she even tugged with me a bit saying,
“Hey, West? I didn’t see you focusing too much on the ass back there.
What’s the matter? You scared of a little ass?”
“I
enjoyed myself—believe that. Ain’t no need of really look’n if you can’t
touch.”
“Oh,
you like to do the do, hunh?”
“You
better ask somebody,” I told her. “All I have on my mind is what the hell
we’re getting ourselves into.”
“Don’t
worry. I told you—that
white boy was scandalous,” Lauren boasted. “He wants to stay out of jail,
keep that money and doesn’t mind breaking us off in the process.”
“But
we only have two days to figure out how we’re going to do this. It’s back to
jury duty on Monday.”
“Well,
all that money is motivation enough to get it done.”
Lauren pumped on the brakes a few times for no damn good reason.
“Take
it easy...you’re destroying my high.”
She
looked over at me. “You know he’s lucky we’re not asking for more. Freedom
is a hell of a price. Maybe we should just go three ways straight down the
middle? We all get equal parts instead of us getting crumbs.”
“Fifty-fifty
is cool, definitely more than we had. If we pull it off, we’ll get
seventy-five grand a piece. Believe me, I’m cool with that.”
“Aww,
he’ll take it. He doesn’t have a choice or we’ll send his ass to prison
and he’ll wish he would’ve taken our offer,” Lauren promised. “Damn,
power feels good, don’t it?”
“Look,
you need to chill. Maybe I should go alone and meet with him tomorrow night if
you gonna get all power-struck over this.”
“Forget
that? This was my idea, West. We do it together. I stay in the loop, nigga.”
“I
think I should do it. Alone.”
“You
must be out your mind? First you wanted no parts; now you want to run shit.”
“Well,
soothe your mind, Lauren, ’cause we splitting fifty-fifty with him. Then down
the middle between me and you.”
Lauren
looked at me hard. “Whatever.” Then she turned off I-75 two exits from my
place.
“What
are you doing? My exit is two up.”
“I
need to see something; won’t take but a second.”
“Like
what—this late
at night?”
Lauren
didn’t answer. I slid down into her seat and decided to enjoy my buzz. She
looked over at me twice before the car began to slow down. We ended up on the
“Okay,
c’mon, come back, Lauren...” the woman pleaded after Lauren took a step away
from her.
“Lex,
didn’t I tell you to stay the fuck out these streets?” Lauren asked.
“I
know, but what am I supposed to be doing? I don’t have no money, no place to
stay except in the back seat of your car. Fuck that; I gotta make ends meet.”
Lauren
said, “Well, why you have to do it out here in the streets? At least have some
decency about yourself. Shit—get a room at a hotel and do the tricks there instead of in their cars.
You're going to get killed out here.” The woman Lauren was talking to had on a
red dress and was holding a small handbag. Her stilettos couldn’t have been
comfortable because of the way she was leaning to her left side.
I couldn’t tell because of the lighting but she looked like she had a
wig on.
“So
who has your son?” Lauren wanted to know.
“He’s
over with Preach and them. I left him until the morning.”
“Preach?”
“Yes,
Preach. Don’t start.”
“Lex,
you left my nephew with a crackhead?”
That’s
when I realized Lex must have been the sister Lauren didn’t want to talk
about.
Lex
chuckled a bit. “Preach ain’t no damn crackhead. I don’t know why you
think that.”
“He
smoke crack, don’t he?”
“He
used to smoke. But he don’t no more.”
“I’m
getting so tired of your shit, Lex. Look, if you don’t straighten up you might
as well just stay out in these streets. And I am gonna call Defax on your child
so the state can take care of him since you don’t seem to give a fuck about
him.”
Lex
moved closer to Lauren. “If you do anything to get my son taken away from me,
Lauren, I-will-fuck-you-up.”
Lauren
pushed Lex. “Handle your business and I won’t.”
Lex
lunged at Lauren.
I
stepped out of the darkness.
“Yo,
Lauren? You think you can get me
home?”
They
both stopped and turned to look at me.
“Oh,
shit...what do we have here,” Lex said.
“Look,
a nigga need to get home all right. Maybe you can handle this another time?”
“Yeah,
go head. Get the fuck outta here,” Lex told Lauren.
Lauren
seemed kind of surprised that I was around. “Yeah, sure, West. I will get you
home.” Then she turned to Lex. “You just make sure you call Preach and tell
him I’m on my way to get Lil’Man, okay? And I will talk to your ass
later.”
“Whatever,”
Lex said.
Lauren
started to walk to the car, but looked back. “I mean it, Lex, call him now!”
The
only thing Lauren said to me on the way to my place was if she could hold a
twenty to fill up her gas tank because she was going to have to leave the car
running all night. I didn’t hesitate to give her a twenty spot, especially if
she was going to have a small child in the car with her all night.
After
Lauren dropped me off, I swayed all
the way up to my front door but I was under control. The whiskey had set in my
system hard. It was cool outside. I flipped my collar up to my ears as I walked
up the stairs to my apartment. It had been a long day. My car was gone. I wanted
my bed. I thought maybe the next morning I would come to my senses and forget
about Lauren and Rossi, then go back to my normal fucked-up life of trying to
make an honest dollar. When I reached my door, I didn’t get a chance to use my
key to open it. It was snatched open right after I heard the last of Lauren’s
muffler scrape its way down the street as she zoomed off to wherever she was
going for the night.
I
knew I was in for some drama when my eyes focused in on Tammy standing in the
doorway with her hand resting on her hip and she didn’t waste any time with
her loud ass voice. “Nigga, where have you been and who the hell was that?”
I
looked her up and down. “Is that my robe? Why are you always wear’n my
shit?”
She
stepped closer to my face. “I know you’re not drunk?”
“Nope,
but damn near.” I eased my way past her into my place.
“Well,
you look like it. Who was that in that car, West?”
“A
friend.” I plopped down on the morning newspapers that needed to be picked up
and delivered in a couple of hours.
“A
friend? West, you don’t have any friends, so don’t give me that shit.”
“But
you sure do, don’t you? You think I’m damn stupid, don’t you, Tammy?” I
looked around at the mess in my place. “Why would a nigga be giving you all
this money to fold all these papers if you wasn’t fuck‘n him?” Then I
threw what I could of the papers on the floor so I could rest my head.
“’Cause,
nigga, I got it like that, that’s why. So are you gonna tell me who the fuck
that was in that car?” Tammy stood over me, hands on her hips, legs spread
shoulder wide.
“Her
name is Lauren. We got jury duty together.”
“And?”
“And
what?
“And
what the fuck were you doin’ with her, nigga?”
“We
had to go check something out.”
“Like
what?”
“For
the grand jury. Damn.”
“Nigga,
when the hell did the grand jury start workin’ weekends?” Tammy sat next to
me on the couch and sniffed my neck.
“Go
on now, Tammy”… I moved away from her.
She
sat still for close to ten seconds without a word. She was trying to read me and
my drunk ass was trying to figure out what she was reading. “Fuck this,” she
said. Tammy went for my belt buckle to go down in my pants. “Did you fuck her,
West?”
The
liquor in my system made me laugh at her stupid ass question. “No—I
ain’t fuck her.”
“Nigga,
don’t laugh at me. Are you sure? ’Cause you ain’t been givin’ me none
lately,” Tammy reminded me.
I
tried to sit up but it wasn’t happening. “And you know why, don’t you?”
“Look,
nigga, me and Todd are friends, okay? We ain’t doin’ nothing and don’t try
to flip the script on me. We’re talkin’ about your black ass.”
I
felt myself dozing off. “I said we didn’t fuck, didn’t I. Now I’m
sleepy. I have something big to do tomorrow.”
As
I began to drift, I faintly heard Tammy yapping about Mrs. Bullock ringing my
phone off the hook about her car along with my staying out all night and how
Tammy was getting tired waiting on my dick and why the hell I wasn’t giving
her any. I faintly heard her say she
was tired of playing with herself. Her mouth was moving much too fast for me
because the liquor was now in control and wanted to put me to sleep and that’s
what it did. I’m sure Tammy didn’t stop yelling until she was completely
finished saying what she had to say.
For more information, you can email Franklin or visit him at http://franklin-white.com/
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