TINA COULDN’T BELIEVE that she was due to have her baby boy in two months. Ham was just as excited as she was, and was staying home with her every night. They were living off the $30,000 that Ham had saved up, but they were burning through it fast. When Tina fell asleep, Ham would sneak out through the night and drive over to another hood called Golden Gate in Martin County in his used, illegal box Chevy Caprice. He paid $800 for the badly conditioned Chevy so that he and Tina could get around. In Golden Gate on Bonita Street, Ham would meet with his crack connect and buy an eight ball of crack cocaine. Tina had started to pick up on Ham’s habit now that he was always around. But she was too frightened to confront him and sometimes paranoid that he would notice her addiction.
Ham had just left the apartment, and, like always, Tina had crawled from the bed to her hidden stash spot in the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet, she put flame to her crack pipe and took a long, deep hit. When she heard the knocking at the front door, she damn near shit herself. She quickly fumbled with the pipe, jammed it back into the pouch, and tossed it under the sink.
Who the hell is that? Tina said to herself as she sprayed the bathroom with air freshener.
Satisfied, she walked out of the bathroom, down the hall, and to the front door.
When she opened it, she saw that it was Meka, Ham’s cousin, who never came by.
“Hi, Meka. Ham’s not here,” Tina said with smoke breath.
Meka wasn’t naive. She knew the distinctive smell of crack smoke on a fiend’s breath. The first thing she did was look down at Tina’s huge belly. Damn! Meka thought. “Well, where the hell is he at while you’re in there smoking that shit? Does he know you’re smoking again, Tina?” Meka asked, with an evil look on her face.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tina defended herself.
“Bitch, don’t play with me!”
Smack!
Meka exploded and then slapped the shit out of Tina, who stumbled backward and almost tripped over Ham’s boots.
“Bitch, does my cousin know you’re smoking again?”
With tears cascading down her face, Tina sat down on the sofa and hugged her stomach.
“No, Meka. He doesn’t know. If he did—”
“He will kill you, Tina. You’re harming your child. Don’t you care?” Meka questioned.
“I know!” Tina shrilled. “I need help, Meka!”
“Don’t worry, Tina. I will help you if you let me. I can’t stand to see you mess up an innocent child’s life. I was a crack baby myself, and they took me from my mama. You’re almost due, Tina. You don’t want that to happen to you,” Meka explained as she hugged and consoled her. “Promise me you’ll quit now, and I won’t tell Ham shit. But you got to stop putting the baby at risk, Tina!”
“I promise, Meka. I will stop.”
“Go bring me the crack and the pipe,” Meka ordered.
“Okay,” Tina said as she strutted off to the bathroom to retrieve the pouch in which she stored her crack pipe and crack.
Meka couldn’t believe that Tina was so nonchalant toward her baby’s health. She had come to probe Ham about his sudden release. Before she finalized her consideration of conspiring to kill her own cousin, she had to make sure that the facts were correct and that he, in fact, had set up her sex friend. When Tina returned with the black pouch, she handed it over to Meka.
“How long have you been doing this?” Meka said.
“A month after. Maybe two. I’m not sure.”
“A month or two after what?” Meka asked Tina to be specific.
“After I found out that I was pregnant,” Tina replied.
“So, there’s a 90 percent chance that this baby is highly affected by these drugs?”
“I can’t help it, Meka. I need help!” Tina pouted.
“Don’t worry. Like I said, I got you. Now where is Ham at?” Meka inquired.
“I don’t know. He stepped out and probably won’t be back until later on tonight.”
“Is he on foot?”
“No! Ham has a car now. He bought a Chevy for $800 when he got out of jail,” Tina explained.
“Tina, who the hell bonded Ham out on a million-dollar bail?”
“I don’t know the circumstances, but he wasn’t bonded out. The state dropped the charges.”
“But wasn’t he caught with two ounces?” Meka asked.
“Yeah.”
“Damn! He’s a lucky bitch. No wonder he laying low.”
“He said he don’t trust the streets. And since Banga’s gone, niggas have started acting different. Ham believes that someone from where he hustled at set up Banga and will try to do the same to him. So, he stopped hustling until his baby comes,” Tina explained as she sat back down on the sofa.
Meka sat down on the ruined love seat and listened to her.
She has no clue that her man is the damn police, Meka thought.
Meka opened the pouch and dumped the contents onto her lap. “You gotta leave this shit alone, Tina. You’re too damn young to be strung out on crack. And you’re about to be a young mother,” Meka informed her. “That’s not easy, and you have to be a strong bitch!”
“I know, Meka. I promise I will stop.”
“When Ham comes home, I want you to call me, okay?”
“Okay. I have to get your number. Wait a minute; don’t Ham, have it?”
“I don’t want Ham knowing I’m coming over, or his ass will try to run from me too,” Meka said.
“Is he in some trouble?” Tina asked.
“Nah, just a little family trouble. He owes me some money, and I need my shit. You don’t want him to know about this,” Meka said, holding up the crack pipe, “then make sure you call me when his ass in bed asleep,” Meka demanded.
“Okay. I will call you.” Tina shook her head.
“Good,” Meka replied as she exchanged numbers with Tina.
* * *
Spencer pulled up to Roxy’s very crowded restaurant in his silver Camaro Z/28. He sat for a moment and observed his surroundings. Seeing no threat, he pulled out his iPhone and dialed China’s numbers. She picked up on the second ring.
“Hello.”
“I’m here sitting in the parking lot. Where are you at?”
“I see you. Come to the car with the flashing headlights,” China directed.
When Spencer looked around, searching the parking lot for the flashing lights, he immediately spotted the Benz SUV.
“I see you,” he said as he hung up the phone.
Spencer then stepped out of his Camaro and strutted over to China’s Benz. When he hopped into the passenger’s side, he sighed and then spoke. “Good to see you, China. We finally meet.”
“Yeah, you do look like your sister.”
“No, she looks like me! I’m the big brother, and she was the little sister,” Spencer corrected.
China was happy to see Spencer in person finally, after drudgingly searching for him on the Internet. He had a Facebook page without a profile picture, and there were so many Spencers. It took her weeks, but now she had found him.
“So, what’s up with Smooth?” Spencer asked, keeping his eyes on the parking lot and any movement.
He noticed that China was doing the same thing, unaware that she was moving with the same precaution as him.
“He’s doing alright. He wants to see you,” China replied. “He knows who set him up, and he needs you to work your magic. But I want to be there when you snatch him up.”
“I don’t know about that. I operate alone,” Spencer responded.
“Well let me be frank, Spencer,” China began as she turned in her seat and stared Spencer straight in his loud blue eyes.
China knew a killer when she saw one, and it was becoming evident to Spencer that he was staring back at a killer himself.
“You can snatch him up, but I will have Smooth order you to not kill him. I want to kill him. I’m making your job light by killing the man who has my man sitting in a cell,” China expressed.
“If Smooth tells me to not kill him and to let you do it, then I will not lay a hand on this target,” Spencer said.
China smiled and then offered her hand for Spencer to shake. “Thank you, Spencer,” she said as he shook her hand.
Spencer was liking everything about China. He could tell that she was a straight killer and female to have on his team. Damn! Smooth’s a luck man! Spencer thought. “Where do I go to see Smooth?” he asked.
“We’ll go see him together this weekend,” China said. “By the way, nice car,” China complimented Spencer on his hot Camaro.
“You like it, huh?”
“I just said nice car,” she replied, causing Spencer to break out into laughter.
“You’re funny, China. I see why my sister loved you,” Spencer said.
“I loved her too, and I miss her a lot!” China replied sadly.
“Just know she’s in a better place and always looking down on us,” Spencer added.
“I know.”
China and Spencer sat in the car for an hour getting acquainted with each other. They clicked well and had a lot of common ground. But China kicked Spencer out when she felt an attraction coming along.
“Okay, I’ll meet you here Friday afternoon. You have my number if any change of plans comes up on your end,” China said to him as she started the engine.
“Okay. Ummm, I’ll call you Thursday night,” Spencer said as he stepped out of the Benz and strutted over to his Camaro.
“Damn! He’s handsome and favors Rebecca a lot,” China said as she drove away in her Benz. “I wish he was a woman right about now. I would put it on his ass,” China said as she accelerated through the light.
* * *
“That’s a bad-ass Benz, esé!” Marco said to Jr., who was twisting up another kush blunt.
When Jr. looked up and saw the Benz merge into traffic, he agreed that it was a bad one.
“That’s a Mercedes-Benz ML350,” Jr. said, knowing his cars better than anyone Marco had ever known.
Neither of them had any idea that they were staring at their target: China. She had come up from behind them, and neither of them ever noticed her.
“That Camaro is a bad-ass one too,” Jr. said, pointing at the silver Camaro leaving the restaurant lot.
“Esé, it’s been two damn months and no sign of this bitch. I say we make our move on her sister tomorrow and see if we can lure her this way,” Jr. said, putting flame to the blunt and exhaling a cloud of smoke.
“I’ll bring that by Javier and see what he wants to do. I feel like a waiting duck every day we come to this shit!” Marco admitted.
“We’ll never be a sitting duck, homie,” Jr. said, passing the blunt. “I think she’s laying low waiting for daddy to come home.”
“That nigga is dead, esé. I hear he got popped with a hundred bricks in the wrong town. That’s the word on the streets,” Marco stated. “And from up top, the DEA has no clue who he is. All they know is Smooth, and they don’t even know that Smooth is in a federal holding cell in Martin County.”
“Damn, esé! I won’t be surprised if these street informers lace them up about him,” Jr. said.
“Yeah.”
“That’s why we have to catch this bitch. If he does come back, he’ll come back to the bitch’s bones!” Jr. stated.
“You just want to fuck the bitch before you kill her, huh?” Marco asked Jr.
“Exactly!” Jr. said with an impish smile.
* * *
“Mmmm! Shit, daddy. Fuck me harder!” Jane ordered her new friend and victim named David.
David had met Jane at Roxy’s and got her number just hours ago. She made it clear to him that she was only interested in a good fuck. When David attempted to put on a condom before having sex with Jane, she lured him with her superb oral sex to forget all about it. He had no chance to retrieve the condom when she threw him on the bed and climbed on top of him and then slid down on his erect dick. For an hour straight, the twenty-two-year-old had been fucking the shit out of Jane without a condom.
“Mmm! Yes, daddy! Fuck me harder!” Jane purred loudly in ecstasy as David pounded her pussy from the back with long, powerful strokes.
David had no clue that his one-night stand was a full-blown AIDS patient who had it out to kill every young man who gave her attention. Her new medication had her looking like a swimsuit model with a nice lustrous ass and lips.
“I’m coming, daddy!” she shouted as she came to her orgasm.
“Arrgghh, shit baby!” David released inside of Jane, who immediately pulled away from him.
“Boy, I don’t need no damn more kids!”
When David looked down at his dick and realized that he had on no condom, he cursed himself for slipping up. “Sorry, baby!”
“It’s okay. This pussy will always be the bomb. You don’t need to worry. Just next time wear a condom,” Jane told him with a smirk on her face. Got him! she thought.