Return of the Cartier Cartel (7 page)

“Yes.”

“We need to talk when you get there.”

****

A nervous Bam arrived at Trina’s house looking her best. She felt that if she avoided Cartier then she would look like she had something to hide, when she felt secure about her relationship with Big Mike. She knew Cartier, hell-bent on seeking revenge for Monya, just wouldn’t understand. She never asked Cartier what they needed to talk about because she knew.

Of course, Li’l Momma had called and told her that she and Cartier had fought over the fact that Bam was seeing Big Mike. When Bam took a taxi to Brookdale Hospital and saw the damage Cartier did to Li’l Momma, her own life flashed before her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to get on Cartier’s bad side. She also felt sorry for Li’l Momma basically getting beat-down over her affair. Bam wondered how she’d gotten into that situation where she had to lie or be deceptive to her friend. She didn’t plan on hooking up with Big Mike; it just happened.

Cartier knew Bam was on edge. Her facial expression was that of someone who’d seen a ghost. Cartier never brought the subject up. Let Bam stew in her own guilt, she thought. For the moment, all she wanted to do was party.

Cartier and Bam rode to the city in Jason’s car. Jason and Wonderful would ride together, and he promised to meet her there.

The atmosphere inside the club was euphoric. All you saw were bright smiles and sparkling diamonds. Just as Cartier thought, all eyes were on her. A lot of chicks hadn’t seen her out partying in almost two years. Now she was back and flyer than ever.

As Cartier and Bam mingled in the crowd, the party didn’t really start popping for her until Jason and his Brooklyn crew came walking through. Bam noticed Jason and Wonderful first.

“Jason’s here,” Bam said, making a gesture toward the other side of the room.

Cartier scanned the room until she spotted him. She saw him trying to make his way over to the bar area but constantly kept getting stopped by men and women, most everyone recognizable.

Cartier recognized the Spanish girl from the salon. She sidled up close to Jason and watched his arm drop near the girl’s waistline. His mouth moved rapidly as his eyes darted back and forth. When Jason spotted Cartier, a large smile formed. He tossed one arm in the air and kept moving toward her.

Cartier’s eyes were like a hawk’s. The Spanish girl never acknowledged that Jason walked away, and Cartier realized she was about to overreact.

Jason greeted Cartier with a kiss and immediately turned toward the bartender. “Give me three magnum bottles of Ace of Spades,” Jason stated with authority. He turned back toward his wife. “Ma, you wearing the shit outta that dress.”

Cartier smiled like she was Cinderella. “Thanks, babe.”

“What’s up, Bam?”

“I’m good.”

“You looking good, too.”

“You know it.”

As the champagne flowed, the New Year countdown came and went, and as the music played, Jason and Cartier were oblivious to the elephant in the room. Perhaps an hour had passed before Cartier looked up and locked eyes with Ryan, who was surrounded by several Harlem niggas and a few chicks. She noticed the same Spanish chick a few feet to his right, laughing with another woman who favored her.

Reluctantly, Cartier gave Ryan a head nod, and he reciprocated. After taking another sip of her champagne, she wrapped her arms around Jason and pulled him in close. She began to gesture a slow dance.

“Don’t look, but Ryan is here. Are you strapped?”

Jason pulled her tighter. “No doubt.”

For the rest of the night, Jason, Wonderful, and Cartier only pretended to keep drinking. Actually all three of them sobered up quickly, wanting to be alert, to make it out of the club safely. Cartier thought if nothing jumped off, then that meant Ryan had no clue they suspected him of setting up Monya and Shanine.

As the night died down, Jason and Cartier both noticed that two of the young dudes rolling with Ryan were no longer around. So Jason had Wonderful send his little man, Blake, to the car to grab the other burner, and Cartier sent Bam to get the car. When Jason’s phone began vibrating, he knew that was a cue from Blake to leave Ryan and his goons in the club.

As they approached the door, Jason gave his burner to Cartier and told her to walk directly to the car. He added, “Whatever pops off, don’t look back. Just bounce. I’ll be good.”

Blake passed the second burner to Jason, and all three began to walk out the club. Cartier could see the white Mercedes from the distance. All they needed to do was walk a short distance in the brisk, cold air, and this night would be over. Just as Cartier was beginning to think that they’d overreacted, they felt Ryan and his crew behind them.

Jason looked over his shoulder and saw Ryan make a gesture. Thinking quickly, he reached for his burner. With his free hand, he shoved Cartier out the way and said, “Ma, bounce!”

Then it suddenly happened.

Boc! Boc! Boc! Boc! Boc!

Gunfire spewed, and everyone ducked for cover.

Cartier spun around and pulled out her burner and began blazing.

Boc! Boc! Boc! Boc! Boc!

Jason, Wonderful, Blake, and Cartier were surrounded. Ryan and his crew were shooting for keeps, and Ryan’s young soldiers were racing down the block, their guns aimed steady on them.

Cartier was handling her gun better than she thought she could in five-inch heels and a dress. All she thought about was getting herself and Jason home safely to their kids.

As bullets whizzed by, pandemonium broke out. People started stampeding on each other, men were running out of their gator shoes, and women were dropping their designer bags to the ground in their quest to make it home to celebrate the New Year with their families.

Ping went the sound of the bullets as they bounced off the metal light poles, just inches from the domes of innocent bystanders.

They all managed to hop inside Jason’s Benz, and with Bam at the wheel, she was able to maneuver and get everyone out of danger.

It took a few minutes for each person to come down from the adrenaline pumping through their veins.

Finally Jason broke the silence. “Yo, that nigga is dead. I swear on my fucking kids, his days are numbered. He gonna try to assassinate me with my wife?”

Cartier knew that now wasn’t the time to be a girl, but the lump in her throat almost forced her to cry. She remained quiet until she could get a handle on her emotions. Finally, she got up enough gumption to speak.

“Somebody running their mouth.” Cartier didn’t have any qualms about cutting her eyes at Bam.

Fear made Cartier think irrationally. To her, Ryan hadn’t surfaced in months, yet tonight he and his goons seemed too prepared.

Bam piped up instantly. “Well, it ain’t me. I collect information, I don’t give it.”

“Well, if not you, then who? Ryan ain’t built like that. He and his goons came there to assassinate all our asses. First off, how the fuck did he know we were gonna be there? And, second, how the fuck he know that we think he had something to do with Shanine and Monya?”

Bam’s pressure instantly rose. “Cartier, you think you got everything all figured out, so you tell me how the fuck he knew. All you keep talking about is, you know Ryan, like you some psychic. Did you know his ass was gonna leave you when you did your bid? So please stop talking about you know how Ryan’s built and what he would or won’t do. For all we know, this could all have been a coincidence. It is New Year’s Eve. Even murderers like to celebrate.”

“You know what?” Jason began. “Bam, right now, I’m feeling you. You got a muthafuckin’ point. I keep telling Cartier that dude ain’t how she got him pegged. That nigga ain’t no white knight. He grimy just like the rest of us Brooklyn dudes. I don’t give a fuck what borough he rep. If you ask me, he didn’t give a fuck about Cartier, and he damn sure didn’t give a fuck about The Cartel. He deaded both your friends and straight took their keys on some gangsta shit. And if he had his way, he would have sent your dumb ass to the clouds and left your daughter motherless.”

Cartier wanted to lean over from the backseat and punch Bam in her blockhead. And while she was at it, spitting in Jason’s face would’ve surely curbed her anger. How did she become the bad guy? Ryan and his hit squad had just tried to murder them, so why were they screaming on her?

Before she could dig into them, Wonderful spoke up.

“I ain’t really tryin’ to hear all of that right now. Niggas just tried to dead me. We need to stay focused. Jay, man, you gotta handle your business.”

“Oh, no doubt.” Jason was too busy thinking about how to get at those niggas. And quickly. For a man who had put off this beef, he was suddenly sucked in. If he wanted to keep his life, he had to get at Ryan.

Cartier noticed that Jason was in deep thought. The whole car ride back to Brooklyn was quiet.

After Bam dropped off Wonderful and Blake, she headed toward their block to drop herself off.

“Yo, Bam, make sure you circle the block a few times, to make sure niggas ain’t laying low on us.”

Bam nodded in agreement.

After they thought it was safe for Bam to retreat to her apartment, Jason spoke up. “Bam, Big Mike gotta get it,” he said. “Not now, but right now.”

Bam’s mouth fell open in shock.

“He gotta go, Bam. At this point, we don’t know who to trust. Honestly, Bam, if you got a problem with this, then you gotta go too.” Jason had his Glock pointed directly at Bam’s side.

When she looked down, tears began to slide down her face. “Jay, how you gonna do me like this? I thought we were fam. I would never go against you or The Cartel. Don’t you know we’re like sisters?”

It was at that point that Cartier peeped that Jason had his gun steadied on Bam. Instantly, she was furious. Then, she tried to understand why he was treating Bam that way, and she understood. Each one of them could have had a tag on their toe at the morgue, had those bullets hit their intended targets. Cartier thought about Christian and Jason Jr. and understood perfectly. Bam would get over her feeling hurt about Jason pulling a gun on her. But if any one of them had been murdered tonight, how would their kids or family members have ever gotten over that? Bam fucked up by getting involved with Big Mike before the beef was settled. That was the bottom line.

“Bam, as Jason said, he gotta go. All that ‘we’re sisters’ bullshit ain’t music to anybody’s ears right now, not when we just got chased out of a club with niggas gunning for us. So, as your sister, I’m waiting for you to give up the locale on Big Mike.”

“Don’t y’all think if I thought Big Mike had anything to do with Shanine and Monya, I’d kill him myself? You know I’m thorough, Cartier. I get down for my crew, but I’ve looked in his eyes. I’ve shared my bed with that nigga, and he ain’t do it. He don’t get down like that.”

Cartier erupted. “How the fuck you vouching for this dude when you just barked on me for doing that with Ryan? As Jay said, he gotta go. And if you plead his case one more muthafuckin’ time, then you gotta go too.”

Bam felt trapped. She had no idea what they wanted her to do, but she was certain that if she refused, Jason would make good on his threat. And although she knew Cartier loved her, the fact that Cartier and Monya were the closest, and that Monya was in a coma, Cartier wasn’t going to let anyone live who had a hand in that.

Bam wanted to tell them she didn’t mean to fall in love with Big Mike; it just happened. It all started with him calling to give what information he knew about Shanine and Monya, and from there it blossomed into a real relationship. Big Mike promised to move Bam with him to his huge house in South Carolina. They even discussed having kids. Bam wanted to let them know Big Mike was a gentle giant. She knew in her heart that he would never have done to their friends what he was now being accused of.

Bam looked into Jason’s and Cartier’s wild eyes and knew they were meant to be with each other. They maneuvered and thought alike.

“What do I gotta do?” Bam asked hesitantly.

“You know where that nigga live. That’s valuable information. Spill it, so me and Wonderful can go and handle my business.”

Cartier said, “I’m not feeling that.”

Frustrated, Jason exhaled. “What? What, Cartier? You’re not feeling what?”

“I’m not fuckin’ feeling you taking Wonderful. If there’s one thing I know is that the strongest muthafucka will crack under pressure, and I’m not losing you to no snitch.”

“Snitch? My man ain’t no snitch.”

“Not today he ain’t, but let him have five homicide detectives breathing down his throat, telling him they don’t really want him, they only want you, and you tell me how the story will play out.”

“OK, Bam, just give me the address, and I’ll do this solo.”

“Would you just shut the fuck up for one second and check the plan?” Cartier rubbed her sleepy eyes. “Ain’t nobody getting any sleep tonight. Bam will call Big Mike and tell him she’s coming over for that after-the-club fuck—y’all know how that go—and when he opens the door, Jason, do you. Do it fast and quick. I don’t want him to suffer. And I’ll be the getaway driver.”

“Cartier, no!” Bam cried. “I can’t. And you want me to be there? I just can’t. Why can’t Jason take Wonderful? You’re being cruel. You know I got love for him.”

Cartier didn’t have any sympathy for Bam. Deep down inside, she knew she had to do something, and no matter how much everyone tried to tell her that what happened to Shanine and Monya wasn’t her fault, she didn’t feel the same. She’d started The Cartel and introduced the boosting and drug-dealing to them. She was always the enforcer. The one who protected everyone. Had she still been at the helm of The Cartel, she was almost sure she wouldn’t have walked into the same trap her friends had walked into. And since there was no changing the past, she could write the future with her own actions.

Al Capone had said, “You take one of my men and I’ll take five of yours!” That’s the same gangsta shit Cartier was on at the moment. Bam needed to suck up her tears. Everything Cartier did had a reason behind it.

“Bam, I wish shit didn’t have to go down like this, but you did this to yourself. It’s your bed, so you’ll have to lie in it. As we said earlier, somebody running their fuckin’ mouth, and if the heat get on us, all of us will have a life sentence hanging over our heads. And Jason knows he can trust me not to crack, and I know I can trust him. With you taking part in this, we can rest peacefully that you’ll have something to lose as well. It gotta be like this, baby girl, so get over it and get to dialing.”