The sun was coming up when I walked out of the precinct, and a cool breeze was blowing. I turned the collar up on my coat and walked home. On the way home, I gave some thought to who could have told Kirkland that I threatened to kill Silky. I thought back to that night, there were plenty of people there, so it could have been anybody.
Truth was that we beat Silky to death in front of his hoes and Joe Bones. I wasn’t really worried about Joe; he lived by a code, which meant he wasn’t telling the cops shit. His hoes, on the other hand, under a little pressure from Kirkland, any one of them could turn and snitch me out. I would send Freeze to talk to them and explain why talking to the police would be a very bad idea. Or I could just have him kill them all.
I hadn’t really slept in two days, so I was tired when I got to my place. I got a little sleep on the bench in the cage before the cops took me to interrogation. I took off my coat, rolled and smoked a bob before I got up and went in my room. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see that there was a woman asleep in my bed and since there was a pile of clothes on the floor near the bed, I assumed she was naked. Whoever it was had their back turned to me, I walked around to the other side of the bed to see who it was, but I had a good idea.
“I thought it was you,” I said when I saw it was Vickie.
Even though she has a place of her own, she has keys to everybody’s apartment, so it was common for her to crash at whoever's apartment was closest.
I thought about waking her up, but why bother?
I pulled back the covers and I saw that she was indeed naked. Vickie says that she’s more comfortable when she’s naked, so I had seen her naked before. We did it once, a long time ago and we both agreed that sex between us felt too creepy. “It was like fucking my brother,” Vickie said, so we’ve never done it again. Since she doesn’t like to sleep alone, we’ve slept in the same bed before and nothing ever happened. Seeing as I sleep naked too, I got undressed and got in bed with her.
“That you, Mike?”
“Who else would it be?”
“I don’t know. Could have been Bobby, or one of your many women,” Vickie said, and snuggled up close to me, laid her head on my chest and I put my arm around her.
“None of them have a key.”
“Where you been all night?”
“In jail.”
“For what?”
“Somebody killed Silky,” I said, but she had already drifted back to sleep.
Now I gotta tell you, Vickie is fine than a mutha fucka, so even though I had seen her naked plenty of times and she was like a sister to me, her naked body pressed against mine did get my dick a little hard. Okay … okay, it was rock hard. But after a while, I was able to talk that bad boy down and then I drifted off to sleep too.
It was dark outside and Vickie was gone when I woke up. I laid there for a while thinking about what I was going to do next. I had some place to go, but I needed to decide whether I wanted to or not. And then there was the more important question of what was going to happen if I did decide to go?
I got out of bed and went to take a shower. While the water beat down on me, I weighed the pros and cons of it. Before I broke it off with her, Carmen had invited me to a fashion show at Lincoln Center that night. She always invited me and although I would always promise to be there, I never did make a single one. Since I had never been, I decided that I was gonna go, you know, to see for myself what I gave her up for.
Once I was dressed, I took the train downtown, and even though she told me that she had left a ticket for me at the will call window, I bought a ticket and went in. Seeing that it was at Lincoln Center, I figured that it was gonna be a big deal, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
The shit was major and Carmen was the featured model. She was amazing. Everything that Calvin said about her was true. Her astonishing beauty, her carriage and her poise were all on display. I left there knowing that I had actually done the right thing for a change. Carmen was in her rightful place, on the runway; not rolling around with me, waiting in the car while me and Freeze killed people.
Now I was able to put it behind me.
When I got to The Late Night, we weren’t opened yet but Bobby and Freeze were there. He poured me a drink and I told him what happened the night before after I left him and André in the office.
“For killing Silky? I didn’t think anybody would give a fuck about that mutha fucka. I felt like killing him was a public service,” Bobby said.
I looked at Freeze. “I want you to run down all of his hoes and make sure that they know to keep their mouth shut.”
“Understood.”
“And find Joe Bones and end his ass.”
“I don’t know about Joe, but he ain’t gonna have to look far for the hoes.” Bobby laughed. “All them hoes been hangin’ around Drew’s, talking about they your hoes now.”
I dropped my head and laughed.
“Especially Veneshia.”
“Which one is that?”
“The one that wanted to give you that pussy. She says she’s your bottom girl now,” Bobby said, and continued laughing his ass off.
“Did Drew put them to work?”
“Hell no. He said them busted up hoes can’t work in his joint, but don’t worry, Veneshia got them hoes out on the corner humpin’.”
I shook my head and looked at Freeze. “Go on.”
“And you get that money from Veneshia,” Bobby said.
“Understood.”
I knew that by right and tradition, they actually did belong to me now. I killed their daddy. And if that was the case, I would clean them up and find them somewhere to ply their trade safely. I protect what’s mine.
“We still going to pay Sly B a visit tonight?” Bobby asked once Freeze was gone.
“For sure.”
His name was Sylvester Bradshaw and he ran the biggest bookmaking operation around. He liked to hang out and run book out of a pizza shop called Romans. I knew by now that he, like everybody else, had heard what was happening, so I sent Nick and Jamaica to feel him out, and see where his head was.
“You tell that nigga Black that he could kiss my natural black ass. And you tell André if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll call that nigga off and stay the fuck out my business.”
Oh really?
When Nick told me that, I started to go straight to Romans and deal with his ass, but I took a deep breath and realized that Sly B’s business was worthless without him. That pretty much made him untouchable, because without him, who would his people call to place their bets?
But he had a weakness and with Bobby’s help, I planned to exploit that weakness.
We left The Late Night and Bobby drove us to Sly B’s apartment. Not that we expected to find him there. I knew he’d be at Romans until the west coast NBA and NHL games were over. What we expected to find there was his weakness.
“Hello, Jelinda,” Bobby said, and shoved his gun in her lovely face. She was his woman and she was his weakness. That mutha fucka was desperately in love with her pretty ass. I can’t say I blame him, because Jelinda was sexy as fuck. She was a scandalous hoe, but you couldn't tell him that.
What?
I’m just being real about it.
Jelinda started backing up into the apartment as she stared down the barrel of Bobby’s gun.
“Hello, Jelinda,” I said as I walked in the apartment.
“Sly ain’t here, Black.”
“I know.”
“What’s this about then?”
Bobby sat her down on the sofa and held his gun to Jelinda’s head.
“I need you to call Sly at Roman’s and tell him what’s going on here,” I said, and sat down across from her. “No. Tell him that I’m gonna kill you.”
Jelinda quickly picked up the phone and dialed the number. “Let me talk to Sly,” she said, and then we sat and waited for him to come to the phone. “Baby, Mike Black and Bobby Ray are here and they got a gun to my head and they’re talking about killing me.”
Whatever he said, he said it quickly, because Jelinda hung up the phone. “He’s on his way.”
Bobby moved his gun away from her head and we waited. It wasn’t a long wait. Exactly sixteen minutes later, we heard footsteps running down the hall, followed by the sound of Sly fumbling for his keys. Bobby put the gun back to her head and I pointed both of my guns at the door.
“What the fuck you think you doing?” Sly said, when he burst through the door.
“It’s simple, Sly. You work for me now.”
“Fuck you and fuck André! I ain’t giving you mutha fuckas shit!” Sly said defiantly.
“Kill her, Bobby,” I said calmly and Bobby cocked the hammer.
“Wait!”
I stood up and put my gun to his head. “Wait for what? You ain’t giving me shit, remember. Kill that bitch, Bobby.”
“Wait now.”
Sly looked at me.
“Shit!” And then Sly looked at Jelinda. All of a sudden, tears were rolling down her face. “Its gonna be alright, baby.”
“No, it’s not. You’re both about to die,” I said.
“Okay, nigga, shit!” Sly yelled.
“What that mean?”
“I work for you now, Black.”
“Good man,” I said, and lowered my gun.