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T-Black stepped out onto the enclosed porch of his mother’s house and sat. Lounging deep into the worn, outdated patio sofa he pulled out a Newport from his shirt pocket, then fumbled around into his equally worn pants pockets and pulled out a lighter. He glanced briefly up the street before lighting his cigarette at a house that sat on a corner peeping halfway out in front of his about a block and a half away. Hustler by the name of Riko his family’s home, but T-Black wasn’t too much concerned with the residence as he was with Riko’s young sister, Cleo.
Riko’s family was the well to do type, both parents owned businesses downtown Charleston while T-Black grew up poor and alone, especially after his old man got locked up for a robbery. Eventually, and not too long after he was killed in prison, Central Correctional Institution.
His drug-addicted mother ended up trying to raise him and his oldest brother, Bobby alone. Bobby was later killed in a botched liquor store holdup in North Charleston, leaving T-Black by himself and his mother to fend for both of them by tricking. As a result, he grew up introverted and bullied in school. When he got tired of it all, he just quit going.
His size mushroomed from a scrawny awkward kid to a tall muscular, man-child and he ended up becoming the bully, stalking the streets of Liberty Hill. Eventually, he became a pick-up man for the dealers and the number takers, while Riko and his sister went to school downtown at some of the best academics available to rich well to do kids.
He’d go by their house after their mother got a liking to him, considered him to be one of her college social type experiment of sorts, and tried to foster him into a quote-unquote good home. He was real big on the adoption thing. Maybe there was going to be change in his life, after-all he figured. He ended up staying with a couple she’d found for him. He even went on a family outing. A camping trip with just him and the father one weekend.
He told T-Black it would make him more of a man. The cops later found him alone, lost and shaking from the damp cold in the thick of the dense woods. Soon, after investigating they came upon the trailer they were staying in and found his foster father dead. He’d been stabbed numerous times in the chest with a buoy knife. He’d made the mistake of trying T-Black, sexually. Things just went south from there. He ran the streets much harder than before and became estranged altogether from Riko’s parents.
Riko and Cleo would later do what every other kid in America did and start running the streets. Cleo was instantly kicked out of the house for being sexually active. Her mother cited her behavior as rebellious saying, the devil got in her. She stayed with T-Black’s mother for a minute, when she wasn’t wandering the streets, and she and T-Black became lovers. But he wasn’t the pretty-boy, dope dealing type that the young, bright-eyed, naive girl craved. He was blue-black, with shiny, bright white teeth and yellow, constricted eyes. Though he was perfect physically standing at six-foot-two and weighing two-hundred and ten pounds. He was just too much of a raw brute for her. He was something she used to scratch the itch between her legs. A habit she was getting accustomed to more and more.
T-Black continued to be a bully but dope boys were his main targets now. He learned how to finesse other playas from out of town, having them front him dope and cash to set up shop in the lucrative drug heavy hoods. It worked for a while, but his face started becoming too Notorious. So, he needed another front...Riko. That only worked for a short period of time, because Riko had other motives. He saw this as his opportunity to get back at Hulie, a merciful, ruthless, up and coming hustla who was pimping his sister hard on the track and at times beating her senseless.
Hulie couldn’t quite finger Riko, but he knew T-Black was involved in the flam they ran on him. He felt like he was being played for a sucka and wanted revenge. Riko worked it so that T-Black was kept out of the loop. It was through his ignorance that Riko would set in motion his plans to set Hulie up, snatch his dope and money, then eventually Liberty Hill.
T-Black had a premonition that things weren’t going to get any better for him. So, he stashed a nice sizable amount of cash and made plans to skip town in case he needed to. But now as he contemplated on this half-baked scheme Riko told him about over the phone, getting out was seriously not an option anymore. At least, not yet. He stared up the street reminiscing, hoping maybe Cleo was thinking about getting out of the game and getting her life together, too. From the money, he had stashed and this lick, a fifty-fifty split between him and Riko, it might work out. They could make a run like they used to talk about when they were young lovers.
He outed his cigarette and smiled sitting in the quiet of the darkness that engulfed him. Thinking real hard about the idea. A fantasy at best and thought out loud to himself after he was convinced. That it could all be real.
“This is my time,” he said, the only thing breaking the silence stilled around him.
Later, that evening, T-Black stood in front of Riko’s trap watching bodies creep about in the darkness as the flickering of lighters flicked on and off like fireflies around the busted out, glass window panes. Homes that were at one time half-assed decent, but still showed signs of breaking and entering on the backroom windows or mostly plain old breaking. Most owned by parents who’s now grown children came back to the nest only to become drug addicted, scavenging, crackheads that stole from them every chance they got.
T-Black could only somewhat relate to that. His own mother would come home herself geeking, but she usually stowed away enough dope from her tricks to not have to worry about stealing, especially from the house, just from the tricks. She didn’t have much, but she’d rather trick than sell anything she bought into the home. She always said that that was working backward. She never once considered herself a hustla’, just an opportunist of sorts. When the situation presented itself, which was most of the time. T-Black considered himself to be the apple that didn’t fall too far from the tree.
Unlike his mother, he didn’t get high, the furthest he went was cigarettes. Even when circumstances presented itself, he never got caught up into it sniffing cocaine, rolling or smoking off what his mother would say was the glass dick. His biggest addiction was money. He loved to stow money, plenty at times. He’d offer his mother money, but she’d refuse, telling him to put it up for a rainy day. He did, he buried a lot of it in holes around his backyard with a Pitbull posted guard, but that was soon short-lived once word got out, and he damn near terrorized North Charleston getting his money back. So, he came up with a better spot. A stash that even he had to pat himself on the back for.
He checked his watch, Riko was late. He didn’t see anyone in his spot when he searched around the house. It was strange, no tricks, no smokers...nothing. He called out his name a couple of times, and there was no answer. It didn’t make sense to him. Whoever heard of an empty crack house? Coming towards him was a truck. It looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. The gleam from the headlight beams made it difficult to decipher. The truck pulled into a space up the street from him. Maybe it was Riko and the marks they talked about. It was that time anyway he thought as he stepped towards it, then reached into his pocket.
Damn, how could he forget his gun? Feeling some sort of way, he didn’t sweat it, though. He figured there shouldn’t be any trouble tonight, anyway. They’d just agree on the lick, then set a date for later according to the plan, Riko had put down. Besides he was in his hood, and no one would have the balls to try him in, Liberty Hill, so he relaxed.
Riko got out the truck. “Yo, wassup, son?”
“Wassup, where’s the mark?” T-Black asked as he peeped inside the windows.
“They’ll be here in a minute,” Riko replied as he opened the lock to the bricked, gated fence. T-Black started to walk through and he stopped him. “I’m just gonna be a sec. I need to get something. Wait out here so they’ll see you if they pull up.” He walked up the walkway to the steps.
T-Black walked back out the fence, then Riko yelled back out at him. “Hey, uh, close the gate. You never know when five-o might roll up.”
T-Black did, after all, he was right. The gate being closed meant he would have no connection to the trap at all if they did. He’d tell them he was out walking or something. He shut the fence back and fastened the lock behind him. Riko made it up the steps, opened the door and closed it behind him. The light on the front porch came on, T-Black was mused maybe that was the code for the smokers. It was a code, but not for the crackheads, though.
Hulie peeped up his head and looked at the light as it blinked on. He stood, shaking Jabari and Rip out of their doze. “Yo...it’s that time,” he said.
Jabari stood up and stretched letting out a loud yawn. Immediately Hulie put his hand over his mouth. “Shut the fuck up! we don’t want him to know we’re coming.”
Shrugging him off, Jabari said, “Alright!”
He helped put the chairs on the back porch, silently. Right after he was on his heels as they crept through the bushes towards the street. They could now see the dude that he had told them about. Didn’t recognize him, would have remembered if they’d seen him before. He was the big boy type. Tall and pretty damn muscular, bigger than Hulie. No wonder he needed help putting the tim- down, but damn, where was that dude, Riko? They could see the light on at the trap, and Hulie’s truck out front.
Hulie tipped slightly towards him and pulled out his gun tucking it tightly to his side. Old boy was smoking a cigarette with his back turned away from them. Hulie then motioned to Rip and Jabari to fan up the street and look out for the police. Just like the plan they did.
Hulie then stepped in front of him and hollered. “Yo, Busta, remember me!”
T-Black now recognized the truck and the man who stood in front of him from the last flam that he and Riko had done. He glanced up at the porch for Riko and suddenly the lights went out. The door locked and there were no lights on in the house either. He put it all together, he’d been set up.
“Yeah...yeah, I remember you partna’,” he said as he backed up slowly away from him looking for some room and an out.
“Where’s my muthafuckin’ money!”
T-Black pointed towards the building. “You mean, you’ve been riding with that dude and you don’t know.” He laughed trying to buy some time, bullshitting. “Damn, I thought you was built better than that. A big boy...”
Hulie swung, and the pistol cracked him in the mouth. Blood slung out and stained the windshield on the truck. “I don’t wanna hear this shit! I’ll deal with his ass later. You the one I want right, now,” he yelled.
T-Black wiped the blood from around his lips. He knew Hulie’s rep and he also knew he’d have to straighten this mess up, then deal with Riko’s sheisty ass later. “Look, man, I ain’t got your money.”
“Where’s it at then!” Hulie asked as he pointed the gun at him and stepped closer towards him.
The one mistake T-black hoped he'd make. “It’s in the trap. Damn, Riko didn’t tell you that shit...he played you, too.”
Hulie paused, glancing behind him at the door of the dwelling, then T-Black sidestepped him and swung, catching Hulie square on the chin. He damn near knocked him out as Hulie fell to his knees. The gun dropped out of his hand and slid underneath the truck. T-Black dove for it. Hulie grabbed his leg and bit down. T-Black hollered out in pain, then reached back and punched him in the forehead causing Hulie to crash to the ground.
Jabari and Rip heard the yell all the way up the block. They looked up and saw them scuffling. Rip said. “Let’s go.”
Jabari reached into his pocket and pulled out his pistol then hauled ass with Rip up the street. T-Black looked up and saw them coming. He kicked Hulie who still hung onto his leg and scrambled desperately for the pistol underneath the truck.
Rip got there first. For some stupid ass reason, he grabbed T-Black by the neck and tried to put the yoke on him, with his gun still in his hand. T-Black flipped his light ass off his feet and he went sprawling to the ground. He hit, and the gun went off. The bullet whizzed past Jabari’s head and he gave Rip a look that said you dumb muthafucka. Cause he got the hell outta the way. Jabari was pissed but managed to still stay focused as he aimed at T-Black.
“A’ight, stay the fuck where you at!” he yelled.
T-Black froze and looked over at him, searching his face trying to figure out if he knew him or not. Then he looked over at Rip who was now just getting off the ground. He didn’t flinch or shake, but he knew Jabari was serious as hell. One false move and he was shot, if not dead. Hulie had gotten his ass off the ground, but he backed up and stepped in front of T-Black in between them and bent over reaching for the gun underneath the truck. Jabari gasped, damn, this muthafucka’ was crazy as all hell.
T-Black smiled momentarily, then raised up his foot and kicked him dead in the ass, Jabari jerked up the gun as Hulie came tumbling down on top of him. T-Black broke for the gate. He jiggled at the lock, but it wouldn’t open. Then he backed up and jumped at the seven-foot wall and started climbing over. Hulie had finally gotten the gun, and he and Jabari both got off the ground and went after him. Rip had already hopped over and was on the other side already.
“Freeze, muthafucka!” he yelled, on some old police shit.
Hulie nodded at him. He figured they had him, but just as he climbed over the fence making his way over. Rip turned his head away from T-Black and tried to shine. “You see, Hulie, I got ‘em.” Rip never saw it coming.
T-Black bulldozed him to the ground wrestling the gun out of his hand. Rip grabbed at it and they wrestled some more. Jabari and Hulie had just made it over the fence when they heard the gun go off. They just stood there motionless in their tracks. T-Black was on top of Rip who was laid face down in the dirt. They couldn’t make out what was what.
Jabari couldn’t take it anymore and yelled out. “Rip...Rip!” He didn’t answer, but he heard a faint groan.
T-Black moved and turned his head towards them. Then started crawling in the dirt. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet sprinting towards the doorway. Hulie took off after him. Jabari ran over to Rip and shook him. “Rip, talk to me!”
It was no use, the hole was small, but the blood that stained the opened fire burnt hole in his shirt spoke volumes. He felt for a pulse, but Rip was already dead. He hyperventilated losing his breath. Then he got angry and all he saw next was red. He looked up at Hulie as he chased T-Black up the stoop. Where it all came from, he didn’t know, but he raised the gun. He yelled out because Hulie stopped dead in his tracks, turned and dove to the ground. The recoil shook Jabari’s body as the 9mm spit two rounds. The first one ran wild and struck the side of the door jab, but the second one met its mark.
T-Black dropped in his tracks, then tried crawling, but Hulie got back up catching up to him. He grabbed the back of his shirt, threw him to the dirt off to the side of the stoop, and started yelling at him. Jabari couldn’t make out what he was saying. He was still in a state of shock as Rip laid bleeding out in his arms, blood coming out the little hole in his chest. Thick, and at times it squirted in spurts. It was too much for him. He let him down gently, got up, and stumbled out his daze towards Hulie who now stood over T-black with his gun pointed at his chest. He had his foot on his neck screaming at the top of his lungs.
“It didn’t have to be like this! Where’s the fuckin’ money!”
T-Black’s breathing was shallow. He took deep labored breaths. The bullet tore through his back and must have ripped through a lung. He coughed up blood as he tried talking.
“Riko set you up...” He coughed some more. “He told me the money was bribe money...said you took payments from some broad downtown...”
Jabari tried to understand and make sense of what he was trying to say, but Hulie looked his way all the time mean mugging. He couldn’t quite concentrate. Then T-Black looked his way also. “You mean, this ain’t have shit to do with Riko...” he asked.
Hulie told Jabari to knock on the door and get Riko. He looked back at T-Black as his eyes begged him not to go. “Brother...get an ambulance...don’t let him kill me...”
“Go ‘head, muthafucka get, Riko!” Hulie yelled.
“Who the fuck you yellin’ at!” Jabari barked back. “You can get it, too!”
Hulie bit his tongue. Jabari had been through enough shit with his ass today. All the shit that went down didn’t come with the package. He turned around looking at Rip’s body as it laid on the blood-soaked ground. Yeah, Riko had better let him know what was up.
He started up the steps and T-Black pleaded with him again. “Don’t leave...he’s gonna kill me...” He said still coughing up blood.
It was no use Jabari’s mind was made up until he said. “The lady works downtown at the court...” That’s when Hulie shot him straight in the chest.
“What the fuck was that for?” Jabari hollered. “Now, how are we supposed to get the money?"
Jabari grabbed at his head, shit was all fucked up now. He spun around as he tried to figure it out, then he banged on the door. “Riko...Riko! Get your punk ass out here!” No one answered. “Damn!”
Hulie stood over the body with the gun still smoking in his hand. Then they heard sirens in the background sounding like they were just around the corner. Five-o would be here in minutes. They had to go. Jabari grabbed Hulie. “Come on man, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Hulie started muttering something under his breath Jabari couldn’t quite make out until he got closer. “My money...where’s my money...” He was shot-out.
Jabari grabbed him and dragged his ass to the fence. He tried to go back, but he wasn’t going for it, so he put the gun to his head, and said, “Give me your gun!” Hulie hesitated. “Now!” He placed it in his hand. “Climb over the fence.” He stepped back and jumped, and they both started over what seemed to be a mountain instead of the seven-foot wall they’d just scaled over earlier.
Before they climbed the wall, Jabari looked over at Rip and shook my head. He’d definitely have to explain this mess. Finally, he made it over, and Hulie must have come to his senses. He was already in his truck starting it up. Jabari thought maybe he was going to dip on him, but the passenger side door opened, and he said, “Get in!” He dove in and he skidded off up the block to Montague Avenue speeding towards Rivers Avenue.
As he was just about to turn the corner Jabari glanced back over his shoulder and looked towards the house. The light had come on. Riko was in there the whole time. What kind of game was the rat bastard fuckin’ playing? He rubbed the dirt and sweat off his gun on the palm of his hands and said to Hulie. “I’ma get your boy...”
“What?” he asked.
“Your boy, Riko, his ass is mine.”
Hulie started to say something but stopped short when he looked over at him as he wiped the gun down with his shirt, drenched with Rip’s blood all over it. He just mumbled under his breath. “I hear you...I hear you.”
Jabari glanced at his watch. They were only more than a few hours into this so-called plan, and he was already tired of it. He stared at the sun as it drifted east into a sunset, and his mind wandered back to how the hell he got involved in this mess, anyway.
****
Earlier that day...
Jabari remembered Dondi saying that morning, “Don’t y’all got something to do, somewhere to go?”
She was right, Rip came up with a plan that Jabari bought into. He’d been hanging around Spruill Avenue and overheard some hustlers talking about a robbery gone bad, and they needed someone to run interference. They couldn’t get their own hands dirty, so Rip volunteered for the job. He was baited, he was always in someone’s business. They put it out there and he bit.
The money itself was good, and the job didn’t seem too rough. The only thing Jabari was supposed to do was ride shotgun. At least that was the plan. Dondi stared at the aluminum foil on the table fidgeting, while waiting for them to be finished so she could get hers. Her eyes excitedly looked at the stem as Rip lit it then blew out the thick cloud of smoke he’d inhaled. His eyes exploded as his body twitched, fixated at Dondi as she stared up at him.
Dondi was five-foot-four and a former dime piece that got hooked on crack back in the early 90s. Soon after she turned her taste to methamphetamines and ecstasy pills after an all too brief stint at sobriety. She tried the club life and stripping, but it didn’t work out too well for her. It was hard making money cause her looks had gone downhill. Her teeth had started to turn and became plague-ridden, as she continued smoking excessively. She still had coke bottle curves that probably were her downfall more than anything else. She tricked exclusively to the dealers when that went sour, she prostituted heavily on Rivers Avenue. Mostly, with white boys smoking meth out of cans.
Jabari stared at her round, plump titties as her nipples poked unmercifully hard beneath the t-shirt she was wearing. His dick was getting a rise. She had that good pussy, wet and warm, with curly pubic hairs that tickled his nuts. Rip was thinking the same thing as he reached over and pulled her closer to him. He fumbled with his zipper and finally pulled out. She resisted at first, but it didn’t work. She figured just as soon as she took care of him, he’d finally put the stem down and she could finish off the rest of what was in the package by herself.
Dondi grabbed it and started stroking when he rose, she glanced over at Jabari and looked down at his crouch. He was getting an erection, too. He smiled knowing he was next, and she was right. As soon as she sucked them off, they were gone.
****
A black Denali SUV was parked inconspicuously in a cut over by a ho-track. Inside peeking around were two men, Hulie and Riko. “You think dude will show up, or what?” Hulie asked.
“He should,” Riko said as he looked down at his watch. “Any minute...after all, he’s thirsty.”
Hulie peeped out the tinted windows of the big-bodied truck they sat in by a Chinese restaurant. They’d just copped a bag of migraine from a dude named Lil Zeke in front of a store by the name of P&Ms.
“Well, anytime now. By the way, how did you get these guys anyway?” he asked
Riko reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a chocolate blunt and sniffed it. Reaching again he pulled out a gold plated lighter, flipped the top, then put the blunt to his mouth. “It was easy...” He lit it and let the blue flame flicker for a moment as he pulled on the cigar. “I knew he was one of those nosy muthafucka’s anyway...”
“Aw, man...he ain’t no snitch, huh?”
“Naw...he’s straight like that, but he’s just one of those goffer types. Always wanting to hustle up something for a hit, ya know.”
Hulie reached for the blunt as he passed it, cut his eyes, then said out the side of his mouth. “Yeah, I know the type.”
“Hold up, what do you mean, you know the type. You implying something, huh?” Riko said as he turned facing him, then faked putting his hand inside his jacket like he had a gat. Hulie paid him no mind and that pissed him off. “Don’t fuckin’ ignore me, bruh! You got something you wanna say, or what?” Riko propped his back against the driver’s side door. His upper lip twitched as he wriggled his hand underneath his jacket.
Hulie didn’t know why he was trying him like this, after all, the weed wasn’t that damn good, and he really didn’t feel like this shit today. So, he laughed him off. “Go on with the bullshit!”
Riko’s eyes narrowed. He was heated and felt dissed not particularly because of what was said, but because Hulie paid him no mind, didn’t take him seriously at all. “You think, I’m playing! You think I’m playing, muthafucka...”
In one swift move, Hulie spun towards him gritting his teeth and grabbed his arm that was supposedly holding the pistol. He squeezed his mammoth, python-like hands causing Riko to grimace in pain. “You got one more muthafucka left in you...” with his other hand he reached inside his jacket pocket, pulled out a black steel, Smith & Wesson, 9-millimeter Glock and pointed it towards his chest. “And, the next time you pump fake a pistol you’d better be serious.” He cocked it. “Dead serious, ya hear.”
Riko snarled his lips. “Yeah, yeah...calm the fuck down. I was just bullshittin’, that’s all.”
Hulie pressed the nose of the gun to his chest causing him to flinch. “I wasn’t.”
“C’mon now, Hulie. You’re blaming all this shit on me. It wasn’t my fault.”
Hulie’s mind flashed back to the crap that cranked this whole thing up, because as far as he was concerned. If it wasn’t for the dumb ass move Riko had made, he’d be at the crib knee deep in some pussy instead of being stuck in a Denali with a pistol thrust to his chest. “You know, you should have checked that dude out before you put any product in his hands.”
“Aw man, Hulie. We’ve been through this shit a thousand fuckin’ times already.”
“And, I still ain’t got my money!”
Riko slowly eased up his hands towards the gun, gently and very carefully pushing it aside. “Calm down, man...”
Hulie looked him square in his eyes. It wasn’t over for him, just yet. “You said you knew he was from across town. And then, the split he wanted...” He lowered the gun, pulled it back, and holstered it inside his jacket sling. “A key...a couple of grand? C’mon, that alone made me fuckin’ suspicious.”
“I didn't think that much about that...or him!” Riko eased back up and squirmed underneath the steering wheel. “He was fuckin’ my sister, and...”
“Riko, this is business. What the fuck your sister got to do with anything? A muthafucka lay some pipe on your slut-ass sister, and you think they’re cool enough to do business wit’! Hell, if that’s the case...”
“What!”
Hulie’s lips curled into a half-assed grin. “All the pipe, I put down her throat...heh...heh.” He snickered.
“Fuck you, Hulie, fuck you!”
“All that muthafucka did was scheme on people. He was never about shit. You gave him a play because he finessed you. Admit it...and now. I got to be the one to pay for it. Well...” Hulie pulled the blunt from out of the ashtray and lit it back up. “Either, you pay me back my loot...or hand over that cat. After all, you sent him to me!” He blew smoke his way causing Riko to cough, and roll the window down halfway searching for air.
Hulie laughed at him as he puffed away at the weed getting his head right. Then looked up across the street watching the two figures that b-lined directly towards them. Riko tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “I think that’s them...coming towards us.”
“Yeah... I see ‘em.”
****
“Hold up, Rip.”
“What?”
“Just hold up, man.”
“What the fuck is up with you, now?”
“I’m not really feeling this. It seems too easy. In and out, when’s the last time that ever happened? And, why the hell we got to meet then over here...on Spruill Avenue? Who does any real business on Spruill except for hoes and runners? Hell, even they stay in the cut. Rip, you sure you got this whole thing worked out?”
“Jabari.” Rip turned in protest. “Don’t start this bullshit now!” He stomped over towards him and grabbed him by the collar, then shoved him hard against the side of the building. Chips of old plaster and paint from the weathered wall showered the ground. “This money is too easy!”
Jabari wrestled him from off him and said. “No such thing!” He had already heard about Riko and his sheisty ass dealings. Also, the other dude that was with him, Hulie he knew from Downtown and he wasn’t shit.
He used to be half-ass alright before he met up with some gangbangers from New York. The gaudy gold jewelry he wore, the cars and trucks he drove. Then, there was this bike. A money green, Suzuki, GSX R1000 made him a beast on two wheels. The sparkle off the chrome from the shiny, seventeen-inch, Assassin wheels and fast boy Pirelli tires made the other dope boys take notice as he dipped in and out dropping off baby bricks from a saddle bag draped across his shoulder. Picking up money, he also dished out heaps of pistol whippings for shorts at the same time. Male, female, young or old. It didn’t matter, and all that was on a good day.
He’d done two bids in the Feds, but never really talked about it, and no one asked either. He was a private dude and very suspicious of others. Why in the world would he want both of them to take care of some business for him? It just didn’t sit right, and the more the dope wore off, the questions continued to pop up for me, at least, for Jabari. “Rip...what are we really supposed to do?” he asked.
“Damn.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a wrinkled pack of Basics. He patted the back of a cigarette, then lit it. “All we gotta do is put the tim down on some dude, and that’s it.”
Jabari straightened up his coat, and reached for the cigarette, taking two drags off it, then gave it back. “Suppose this dude has a gun?”
Rip shoved his hands into his pockets and peeped around the corner looking for them. “Don’t worry about all that. They got our back for sho’ okay. Damn...where the hell are, they?”
The big-bodied Denali glided down Chicora Street and dipped the corner on Iris Street pulling over across the street from us. “There they go,” Rip said as we watched Riko jump out the truck.
Riko was a redbone, short and light in the ass. About a buck fiddy soaking wet. Every bit of five-foot-five, with a lot of mouth to boot, and when that didn’t suffice. The .40 Caliber he carried backed him up. At least that’s what he always says he has even though no one’s seen it as of yet.
He had the reputation of being one nasty, no good muthafucka and everyone knew it. No one liked him. The passenger side window rolled down, and a lump came to Jabari’s throat as he stared into the face of the other occupant. He could barely hold eye contact as he beckoned them over to the truck.
“Damn Jabari. You see, we done fucked up already.” Rip said under his breath.
Jabari didn’t want to look like a busta’. Rip already made them look weak as it was. So, he stood tall and did his best crimp walk towards them.
He stuck out his hand real cool towards Riko and said. “Wassup.” He looked down at it, then spit on the ground beside me. Never taking his hands out his pockets.
Least until Rip came over suckin’ up, fuckin’ shit up. “What the fuck y’all turn around for, Rip? Something going on that I should know about!” He glanced Jabari’s way, checking him out.
“Naw.” Rip said as he peered over at him, too. “Just my man over here got a little sick, that’s all.”
Hulie laughed as he gazed over at him. His eyes were red and glossy as the high started to seep in on him. He’d recognized him. “Damn, ain’t you, Tangie’s brother?” He said it like he knew her like that, but the fact remained he once fucked his sister. Let her tell it, he was the one who really got screwed. “Yeah...that’s me.”
“Damn...you hooked on beans...” He eyeballed him in disgust, and Jabari felt offended.
Never thought it would come down to this. Not in his wildest dreams. Shamefully he lowered his gaze and kicked rocks on the ground. As was his habit he chewed on his bottom lip. Hulie knew he’d touched a nerve and even perhaps found a weakness he could exploit later.
He called over to Rip, and Riko as they rapped about bullshit, and told them all to get in the ride. “Let’s go across town and kick it.”
“Where?” Riko asked.
“I don’t know...past Rivers Avenue, somewhere...”
“Cool.” He responded as he cranked up the truck.
Jabari and Rip hopped in the back seat and the truck cut a U-turn in front of traffic on Spruill heading towards Reynolds Avenue, past the rough end of North Charleston. The Makin’!