What Da Lick Read? The Triple Cross (2 page)

“Today was slow, come tomorrow I will be back on the block early cause I’m going to get the
lil
’ girl across the walk way to watch the girls. They are too young to be here by themselves like that all the time. I be so worried that I can’t even focus on the hustle. That’s why I came home early.” Beloved said with her voice shaking slightly.

“You either gonna be a hustler and get this money or you gonna be a housewife without a husband. Didn’t nobody tell you to have all these
lil
’ girls anyway. Shit we don’t need no
mo
’ damn
lil
’ girls in dis world. Too many of y’all bitches running around, waiting for a nigga to do something for
ya
’ as it is. Give me what money you got and the rest of my dope, I can sell that shit on my way home. Call me in the morning to get you another package.” He moved toward the door dripping water everywhere.

“Wait right here, let me get you the money. Don’t worry I will have the pack sold in the morning before noon. I will call you and meet you for the re-up. I can give you the rest of your money then” she said picking up her robe nervously.

“I want my dope and my motherfucking money right now. Bitch, do not play with me.” He shouted at Beloved as he balled his fist up at his side.

“Be quiet before you wake up the girls. Wait right here; I will bring you the money. Tomorrow night, maybe when you finish working you can come by and spend a little time with Reality. You haven’t seen her in a month and she is looking just like you. You always come so late you never get to see her.” Beloved whispered quietly trying to think of some way to tell him that she didn’t have the dope.

“Didn’t nobody tell you to have that baby and now every time I turn around you are trying to throw her in my face. Man, I make sure you have dope so you can take care of all your
rugrats
. You can’t make me be her daddy. Get my dope so I can leave” He said reaching for the door knob.

Beloved finally said it. “I left da work in the trap. I got somebody to work it for me. You will have your money in the morning. I got you baby, I promise.” She turned and started to walk toward her bedroom.

He lunged across the room in two giant leaps and grabbed her by her long hair. She screamed out in pain and he pushed her down on the sofa. He jumped on top of her and put his hand over her mouth. He began talking through clenched teeth. “Da last time, I took a thousand dollar loss fucking with you ‘cause you let your junkie ass friend Solitaire steal the bomb. You know I don’t play ‘bout my
mutha
fucking money. You
ain’t
no boss! You don’t have nobody working for you so I know my money is just gone.”

She struggled under him but he weighed at least 250 pounds and he was sitting on her chest. She writhed back and forth. Her breathing was shallow and the weight of him was hurting her. He removed his hands from her mouth; she took a deep breath and a pain shot through her chest.

Beloved then told him “I have been down for you since you were strung out on
dat
boy, without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out. You think ‘cause you got some money and you selling the dope now that you don’t owe me. Once a junkie always a junkie. Get off of me and get the fuck out of my house.”

Beloved’s words enraged him. He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed. She kicked and kicked, trying to toss him off of her by moving her torso back and forth. He weighed too much so this was only tiring her out. He applied even more pressure. Her body went limp as her eyes bulged out of her skull.

He stayed in that position on top of her staring at her beautiful face. Everything about it was perfect as if he had sculpted it himself. He loved her but he could never tame her. She had rescued him when he was doing dope in the streets. She wanted to be with him when he didn’t have anything. He never could play second and he knew that as soon as that nigga Khalil came back and swept her off her feet that he was going to be just a memory. He was back on the dope and she was the last person he wanted to find out. “Once a junkie always a junkie” would replay in his head forever as the last words she ever said.

He jumped up and looked down at her laid out on the sofa with her robe open. He killed her for no reason. The blood running through his veins had always been cold, and this was the perfect example. He ran toward the front door and paused. As he looked back, he saw her oldest daughter Honesty, who was the carbon copy of her mother coming up the hallway. He shut the door and ran to his car at full speed.

He parked down the street in the driveway of the empty house and walked up the street. He had on all black and at this time of night, the neighborhood was quiet and calm. He approached the house in silence, creeping around the side so that he could get a good look at what was going on inside. He had been following Honesty for the last three hours and she had finally led him to the jack pot; or so he hoped.

The three siblings sat around the table. They hadn’t spent any real time together in the past week. If you looked at them, you couldn’t tell that they were related at all. They shared no similar features, size or personalities. But once you’ve seen them in action, there is no doubt that they are sisters.

Honesty sat at the head of the table emptying the contents of the cigarillo so that she could roll her up a Kush blunt. “Man, I swear this is
dat
real gas pack.
Imma
’ be high as a fool. It pays to know people that know people… and baby, I know people.”

“Bitch, I hope you
ain’t
finna
smoke
dat
strong shit in here. I don’t want that in my clothes and I damn
sho
’ don’t want it in my hair. I got a date tonight with the nigga that I met in Magic City. He is the one that play football.” Loyalty said as she got up from the table.

“Sit
yo
punk ass down, you’re gonna have more than a
lil
’ weed smoke on
ya
. I got a lot of dope that needs to be broke down tonight. I miss y’all but you know with me its M.O.E. money over everything baby!
Killa
’ will be here in a minute. I suggest that you call your date and ask him to make it a breakfast date; it’s gonna be a long night,
lil
’ mama.” Honesty told her younger sister as she looked at her dressed like she was fresh off of a catwalk.

“Just cause I’m not trying to cook up no dope tonight don’t mean that I’m not about my money. I stay hustling. This nigga got one of the biggest contracts in the NFL and he is digging me real hard. I don’t need to reschedule shit. You either need to handle this dope in the morning when I can help or you can do it without me. Shit it’s three of you, how much dope do you got?” Loyalty smoothed out her off the shoulder Rachel Roy jumpsuit and stepped away from where she was sitting.

 
Killian walked in and stood watching the three of them. Even though they all didn’t share the same blood, these were his sisters. He would ride and die for them. “I smell
dat
pack in the air and it
ain’t
even rolled yet. What’s da hold up Truth? Fi’
dat
shit up man, I got some but it
ain’t
nothing like what you got.” He said, calling Honesty by her nickname.

“She needs to do something, my nerves bad I need my medicine. These bitches
wanna
argue back and forth. Let
dat
hoe go out and get her some pro-bowl dick. She
betta
be plotting on a pro-bowl lick. ‘Cause if it is dope to break down, that mean that Honesty doing her part. I got two computers up here in front of me, so you know I’m working. Let her go so she can do what she do best. Meet us for breakfast at eleven at Unity, and be safe.” Reality said to Loyalty as if she was the oldest.

She got up from the table and went to sit closer to Honesty so that she could roll the blunt. Reality was the youngest and she was the meanest. People always told her that she was mean because she was just like her daddy. But she was really mean because of her daddy.

He robbed her of the chance to ever know her mother when he murdered Beloved and left her dead body in the house with the three little girls. Real, as everyone called her was the exact opposite of happy and everyone loved her, but no one understood her except Killian.

“Bitch, you got them computers up cause your ass is probably on Facebook on one computer and Twitter on the other. You are nothing but a social network junkie, Real. Love y’all anyway. I will text you and let you know where we end up at. See you guys at breakfast in the morning. By the way is Pop-Pop coming?” Loyalty asked as she got ready to walk out the door.

“You know that is his spot, he will be there. He said that he has something to discuss with all four of us, so be on time.” Killian said as he snatched the rolled up blunt out of Reality’s hand.

Honesty got up from the table and walked toward the back of the house. Her six foot frame was athletic and commanded attention even when she didn’t want it. She walked back into the kitchen with her arms loaded with the bricks of dope wrapped up tight in plastic wrap and tape. After dumping them on the table with a thud, she looked at Killian and Reality and shouted that it was time to work as she reached and grabbed the blunt front the ashtray.

“Damn Loyalty
shoulda
stayed! Where the hell you get all dis work from? Shit we gonna be here all night fucking with this shit and I got shit to do. Loyalty is the mathematician she would’ve had that shit broke down real fast.” Pulling up a chair, Killian stared at all the dope on the table.

Reality closed both of her laptops and put them in their cases to make space on the dining room table so they could start. Each one of them had their own gig and they all put in the pot, but lately since Honesty had hooked up with her childhood friend Gorgeous, she had been bringing in the bulk of the money.

Honesty walked into the kitchen, opened the cabinet and pulled out the Pyrex glass pots. She went in the pantry where she kept all the other paraphernalia and got them what they needed to work. Being prepared as always; she had protected gowns, hairnets, gloves and facemasks. Last but not least she got out the three different sized digital scales and a Seal- a- meal food saver.

She loved the dope game, she was almost a natural. Her cook game was so serious that she even cooked for some of her associates. Honesty or Truth as she was known on the streets always had the best prices on the Westside. She didn’t hold no punches and all the niggas respected her because she held her own. The dope game reminded her of her mother because she too had been a hustler. She knew that she couldn’t sell dope forever that is why she went to college and earned a degree in business. But for now, she couldn’t see herself doing anything else in the world.

“Gigi getting it in
ain’t
she? Damn, I wish my godfather was the head of one of the Mexican cartels. Everybody in the city that got dope that is ‘bout something had to get it from her. Everything else is some real bullshit, been stepped on a thousand times. Gigi got that shit on lock. It makes it hard for me. I hadn’t been hitting no licks lately cause all of the folks getting the cake are her people, and she like family. But she has been sending me other work, I’m still eating. She is good people.” Killian started busting open the packs after getting suited up in the protective gown, gloves, facemask and hairnet.

“Nigga out of all the hustles in the world, hitting licks shouldn’t be yours. Our dad is one of the richest niggas in the city and you are out here taking from motherfuckers. Shit, I’m happy all the work in the city is Gigi’s. If that is what it took to make you stop doing that shit with your ignorant ass.” Reality said as she lit her own blunt.

“Yeah, Gigi got this dope game on lock, I’m happy that I reconnected with her at her mom’s funeral. Her momma was our momma’s only friend, shit at least the only one that she let visit the house. You know they use to smoke weed, listen to music and sip wine. I remember all that shit. Then both of them had three kids except Gigi’s grandmamma took care of them. You can tell they were two of a kind, look at the crazy names we all got. They couldn’t give us regular names like Britney or Ashley. Man we got these
ol
’ crazy ass names, Honesty, Loyalty and Reality.” Honesty scooped mounds of the off white powder onto the biggest scale.

“Shit I like my name, it fits me perfectly; Reality. It doesn't get any realer than this. All our names fit us. We all have seven letter names that describe wonderful characteristics. Mama’s name was Beloved, and it had seven letters too. Solitaire must was on that good shit when she chose her kids names, Gorgeous, Beautiful and Handsome.”

“She might have been high when she chose those names but they fit them too. I can’t speak for the brother, but
dem
two girls are bad as a
muthafucka
,
shawty
. Then it’s two of them and they look exactly alike. That’s my dream right there, if I could get a hold of both of their ass at the same time, I would die a real happy young nigga.” Killian said as he duplicated Honesty’s movement with the smaller scales.