The Fix 2 (15 page)

“You think she's home?” Rissa asked from the back seat.

“How am I supposed to know when I got here at the same time as you and have been sitting in the car right along with you?” Chucky asked as if it was the dumbest question ever.

“You ain't gotta get smart, Chucky. I was just asking a question,” Rissa said with an attitude.

They had been sitting outside the apartment complex the address had brought them to, watching and waiting for signs of Karen. It had been an hour already and there was still no sign of her. Rissa was getting irritated and, truthfully, so was he. Chucky still had other business to handle and didn't have time to waste waiting around for Karen. The more he stuck around the greater the risk of him being discovered.

“I wish the both of you would shut up with that arguing because you're blowing my high,” Maggie spoke up from the passenger seat. She was sitting there with her eyes closed, taking slow drags off a cigarette and enjoying the effects of the crack they'd scored before jumping on the road.

As soon as Charlie had given him the address, Chucky stated making his way to Scranton, PA, but not before stopping off and getting some supplies for their road trip. He was a marked man in Harlem, and couldn't go there to score anything, so he had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get what he needed. Chucky knew some low-level kids who hustled downtown on Amsterdam Avenue. Their drugs weren't very potent and always seemed to be in short supply, but he didn't have a choice. There was no way he was going to ride two hours in a car with Rissa and Maggie while their monkeys were clawing at their backs.

Chucky cased the group of young men who were standing around on the block, and picked out the one who appeared to be the least sharp. He was a doe-eyed light-skinned dude, who smiled a bit too much for Chucky's liking. It made him look soft and that was the reason Chucky had singled him out. Chucky approached the kid and told him what he wanted to buy. From the excited expression on his face, Chucky knew that it had been a slow day and the kid was thirsty to make the sale. Because of the amount of drugs Chucky wanted to buy, the kid had to go to his stash to get more in order to fill Chucky's order. Chucky convinced him that he should go in the building with him so that he wasn't standing outside looking suspicious while waiting for the kid to come back. As soon as he revealed the location of his package, Chucky robbed him of his drugs and his money. The comical part of it was that Chucky never had to pull his gun. He punched the kid in the face and promised him another one if he didn't come up off his goods. He turned over everything he had without as much as a struggle. It just went to show that no matter what you pretended to be, when the pressure was on the real you would always come out.

Securing the drugs helped make the trip an easier one, but of course Rissa still found a reason to complain. All the kid had on him was crack and no cocaine, which presented a problem for her because all Rissa did was smoke laced blunts and sniff coke. It was all relatively the same thing, but she felt like because she didn't smoke rocks it made her less of a fiend. The child was delusional, but Chucky didn't have time to argue chemistry with her. She grounded some of the rocks up into fine crystals for Rissa to put in her blunt just to shut her up. Rissa was the worse kind of addict, one who was still so far in the closet that she probably didn't even realize she was an addict yet. She reminded Chucky very much of Persia.

Thinking of her made Chucky pull out his phone and try to call Persia again. As usual, it rang out and went to the answering machine. He started to leave her a message, but figured there was no point. He had been trying to reach her since he'd gotten back to the city, but she was giving him her ass to kiss, which made Chucky mad. At one time she had been so madly in love with Chucky that it was almost like having a personal slave. She would lie around with him, snorting, smoking, and praising Chucky. Now that she had gotten clean she thought she was better than him. After he finished with Karen, he was going to hatch a plan that would knock Ms. Persia Chandler down a few pegs. He had been saving his trump card as a last resort, but Persia was leaving him no choice other than to pull it. She would bend to his will again whether she wanted to or not.

“Is that her?” Melissa asked, pointing out the window to a young girl coming down the street, with a young dude. She was a thick dark-skinned chick, who had a booty so big that it looked like it was going to burst the seam of her tight skirt. An expensive-looking purse dangled from her arm. They were both carrying bags from different clothing stores like they had just come from shopping.

Chucky peered through the window. She had gained a bit of weight and now wore her hair cut short, but it was definitely Karen. “Yeah, that's the bitch,” he said in a low growl. Karen passed so close by him that Chucky could smell her perfume through the partially cracked window. If she had but turn her head even the slightest bit, she would've seen him in the car, lying in wait, but Karen was more focused on her boy toy and her gifts. Same old Karen. Seeing her again brought back the old hatred and it was hard for Chucky to keep himself from jumping out and blasting her on the spot. He had reacted based on emotions once when it came to Karen, which is what put him on the shit list in the first place, and he wouldn't make the same mistake gain.

“So what do you wanna do?” Rissa asked nervously. She was all for giving Karen a good beating, but the rage in Chucky's eyes said he wanted to take things a step further.

“Just hold tight for a minute. I got a plan,” Chucky said, leaning back in his seat.

 

 

When Karen walked into Mike's apartment the first thing she did was kick off the heels she was wearing. Her feet were killing her. The stiletto heels were cute, but hardly made for spending hours walking through the mall. The only reason she wore them was because she knew they turned Mike on. When she was wearing the right heels, she could get him to do just about anything she wanted.

Mike was a dude Karen had met not long after she relocated to Scranton after double-crossing Chucky. Karen had mixed feelings about what she had done. She was a street chick, tried and tested so snitching was never an option, but Chucky had hurt her and she needed to hurt him back. At first she thought about turning the gun over to the police, but that would've raised too many questions and could've possibly led to her incriminating herself in the process. She couldn't turn Chucky over to the judge, so instead she gave him to the executioner, Ramses.

The minute she gave the gun over to Ramses and told him what Chucky had done, she regretted it. She knew that he would have Chucky killed for what he had done, but what she hadn't thought about at the time was her role in it and the fact that her knowing what was about to go down would make her a liability. Ramses wasn't a man who left witnesses to his evil and Karen knew that as soon as they were done with Chucky they'd likely want to get rid of her too, just to be on the safe side. Ramses had given her several thousand dollars for her trouble and told her that he would send a private car to her house to pick her up and get her out of town, but Karen knew that was bullshit. If she got in any car Ramses sent she would never get out again. She thanked him, took his money, and hopped the first bus out of town.

Coming to Scranton was the result of fleeing New York without a solid plan. Karen hadn't done much traveling outside of New York in her life so she had no idea where to go. That's when she remembered her family in Scranton. She knew if she kicked her aunt a few dollars, she would let Karen stick around for a while until she figured out her next move.

Karen also had cousins down there who were about her age. It had been one of her cousins who introduced her to Mike. At the time it had been the cousin who Mike was seeing, but it didn't take long for Karen to seduce him and steal Mike from the cousin. It was a grimy move, but Karen didn't care. In her world it was survival of the fittest and she needed what Mike had to offer more than her cousin did.

Karen stealing her cousin's man didn't go over well with the family and they put Karen out on the streets. Her homelessness didn't last long, because Mike happily moved her in with him. It was a small one-bedroom apartment in a rough section of town, but it beat sleeping in the streets or at a homeless shelter.

Outside of meeting Mike, Karen's time in Scranton hadn't had many high points. The town was slow, and the men were slower. She was used to the hustle and bustle of Harlem, and though Scranton had a few hot spots they all failed in comparison to what she was used to in New York. Still, she was stuck down there so she had to make the best of it, which is where Mike came in. He was a local dope boy who had dreams of being Scarface. Mike was hardly moving any major weight, in comparison to some of the guys she had dated in New York, but he was a big deal in the town. Mike wasn't very attractive, and was about as interesting as tenth grade algebra, but her provided her with a source of income and a roof over her head, so he would do; at least until something better came along.

“Damn, looks like you bought the whole fucking mall out.” Mike set the bags down on the living room floor.

“You mean you bought the mall out,” Karen said slyly. “That's why I fuck with you, Mike. You really know how to treat a girl.”

“Anything I wear on my arm has got to look good, from my women to my watches.” Mike hiked his sleeve to show off the diamond watch he was wearing. It was the one thing he had bought for himself on their little shopping trip. He didn't particularly like the watch and thought that the price was too steep, but Karen seemed to like it. Sucking it up, he dropped the bread on the timepiece. He would likely be on the block hustling around the clock for a week to make the money back he'd spent on it.

“I'm going to jump in the shower right quick and when I come out I'm going to show you how much I appreciate your generosity, Mike.” Karen went into the bathroom.

“Don't be in there all day,” Mike called after her. No sooner than Karen had closed the bathroom door, Mike started coming out of his clothes. Karen was a stone-cold freak and every time he took her shopping she showed him some new sexual trick. After what he had dropped at the mall that day, she better had pulled out all the stops.

Mike was just wiggling out of his pants, when he heard someone knock on the door. “Fuck,” he cursed, sliding his pants back on. He didn't know who it was, but unless it was the white dude from Publishers Clearing House with a check, he was going to get rid of them with the quickness.

Angrily, Mike snatched the door open, ready to bark on whoever was on the other side. He found himself staring at an attractive older woman wearing a tight skirt and sheer top, and no bra. Her brown nipples stared at Mike from beneath the thin fabric.

“I'm sorry to bother you, sugar, but my car ran out of gas down the street. I need to call Triple A, but I don't have a cell phone. Do you have a phone I can use?” Maggie asked.

“Sure, come on in and I'll grab my cell phone.” Mike stepped back to let her in. When Maggie passed he took a long, hard look at her ass. Mike instructed Maggie to have a seat while he retrieved his cell from the kitchen counter and handed it to her.

Mike stepped off to the side to give her some privacy while she used the phone. This also allowed him the opportunity to size her up. While she talked on the phone, she crossed one leg over the other, causing her skirt to rise up on her hips. She wasn't wearing any underwear. Mike's brain screamed,
working girl.
He knew all the prostitutes in that area, but she was a new face. He and Karen had talked about having threesomes before, and she promised him they could have one soon and it looked like soon had finally arrived.

“Shit,” Maggie cursed as she ended the call.

“Everything good, sweetie?” Mike asked.

“No, not really. My Triple A is expired. I forgot to renew it last month. I don't know what I'm going to do now,” Maggie said in a defeated tone.

“Is there anyone you can call to come and get you?” Mike asked.

“No, I'm from Maryland. All my family is down there. I'm going to see if I can maybe call my baby daddy to Western Union me a few dollars, but I hate asking that asshole for anything,” Maggie said.

“Maybe I can help out,” Mike suggested.

“Thanks, but I don't do handouts,” Maggie said, faking offense.

“I can respect that,” Mike told her. A few seconds past, with them just staring at each other trying to figure out what the next move was. “I have a suggestion, and if I'm out of line, I apologize. I was thinking maybe we can work out some type of arrangement.” Mike looked at her suggestively.

Maggie's eyes widened as if she was just realizing what he was implying. “Baby, you cute and all, but I'm not giving up my pussy for a few dollars in gas money.”

“Even for five hundred dollars?” Mike asked. At the mention of money he saw the thirsty look in Maggie's eyes. “Look, ma, it's my girl's birthday,” he lied. “I've been promising her a threesome for the longest and I think it'll make a great present.”

“Wait, I thought you meant just fucking you, but if you want me to do some girl-on-girl shit it's gonna cost you extra,” Maggie told him.

“How much?” Mike asked excitedly.

“A thousand.”

Mike frowned. “That's a lot of money for some pussy.”

“You presented the idea, not me. Tell you what, give me eight hundred and I'll even bring my sister into it, but you gotta cum quick. We can't be here all day.”

“Say no more.” Mike rubbed his hands greedily. “Where's your sister?”