CHAPTER 21
“A’ight, so what’s the plan for putting the clamps down on this trick?” Gutta asked Pilar with a grimy glint in his eye. The tables had turned and Pilar was now on Gutta’s winning team. At least for now anyway. “You wanna keep my foot outta ya ass then you better be cookin’ up a mean cuisine for Ms. LaRue.”
“Chill the fuck out and let me think,” Pilar responded with her attitude on high as Shy sat in the corner and laughed his ass off. Pilar didn’t trust these low-life mothafuckas for a second, but she was determined to get the last laugh. First things first though. “I already told you, I got this. I just need a minute to think about all the possibilities.”
Pilar knew what had to happen. She was going to have to devise a scheme that would draw Mink out in the open and lure her into a trap. But knowing that shiesty Harlem hustler, tripping her up was gonna prove to be easier said than done. It wasn’t like Pilar could just hit her on the cellie and say, “Hey girl, it’s me, let’s go out and have a spa day” or some shit like that. Pilar couldn’t stand Mink’s high-yellow ass, and Mink damn sure wasn’t feeling her either. Hell, nah. That wasn’t gonna happen.
For a brief moment Pilar considered reeling Mink in with some fake get-money plot, but how could that shit work? Now that Mink was officially a Dominion she was rolling in cream and already had everything she could ask for under the sun.
The only thing left for Pilar to do was to switch up her strategy. As far as she could tell, the only thing besides money that Mink gave a damn about and could be used against her as a weakness was the family. Even as conniving as Pilar was, she wasn’t trying to involve her aunt Selah in no low-down schemes, and she wasn’t about to get in no tussle with that hoodrat Bunni neither. That gutter chick carried razor blades in her mouth and there were no wins in that, only a sliced up face. Jock and Fallon were out of town, and Dane stayed too high to give a fuck about anything, and she seriously doubted if Mink would go out of her way for Barron or that ugly bitch Dy-Nasty either.
Nope, none of them would do at all, and the only other person Pilar could think of that was consistently up Mink’s ass and in her corner was Uncle Suge. Yeah, Suge. That fine-ass buffalo-built nigga was like a hound dog, always tracking something down. If she could find a way to get at him and catch him sleeping and fuck him up, then maybe Mink might jump in all amped and hyped to help get his dick out of a sling.
The more Pilar racked her brain and thought it through, the more Uncle Suge was looking like the best angle she could twist to come up with some leverage against Mink. Yeah, Pilar admitted with a frown, Suge was her uncle too, and he had loved her and looked out for her and her father big-time over the years, but somebody had to pay a fucking price to get next to Mink, and crossing Uncle Suge up and putting him in a trick bag was a price she was willing to pay.
Ignoring the two New York gangstas who were staring down her grill like a murder scheme was about to jump off her tongue, Pilar picked up her purse and pulled out her cell.
“Yo! What the hell is you doing, girl?” Gutta barked as he rose up off the bed and stepped up on her looking like the chocolate Hulk. “Fuck you think this is? You better run ya lil plan by me before you start making decisions and putting in calls!”
Pilar smirked calmly and placed a finger over her mouth, motioning for him to be quiet as the phone rang in her ear. She wasn’t pressed by all that growling and snapping this nigga was doing no way. She was a master at manipulation and she didn’t have time to explain every little detail to these lame New Yawk mothafuckas!
“Hello?” Mink said as she answered on the other line.
“Hey, Mink, how’s it going? This is Pilar.”
“Yeah, and?”
“Well, I don’t mean to bother you,” Pilar said trying to keep her tone light and even. “But I was wondering if you had a minute because I need to talk to you about something that’s kinda important to both of us.”
Mink and Pilar didn’t have a damn thing in common, and back at the mansion Mink palmed her cell phone and stared down at that shit, wondering what in the fuck this thirsty bitch wanted to speak to her about. Her and Pilar didn’t run in the same circles, they didn’t get down on the same streets, and they damn sure didn’t smoke blunts and chat. So what in the world could be that important to both of them?
“Something like what?” she finally snapped.
“Oh, so, you do have a minute for me then?” Pilar said patiently, like she wanted to clarify that she had Mink’s full attention before she gave up any info.
Mink smirked. “A’ight, you want one of my minutes? Cool. But I only got one for you so you better make it snappy. What you want?”
“Well I don’t want anything because this is really not about me at all,” Pilar said sweetly as she dropped her tone. “It’s about Uncle Suge.”
Silence. Pure-dee silence.
Boom! Pilar pumped her clenched fist in the air. That blank silence on the other end told her every damn thing she needed to know! Yeah, she had struck a real big nerve up in that camp for sure because the cat finally had Mink’s slick-ass New York City tongue and the yak-mouthed bitch was all out of words!
On the other end of the line, Mink sat straight up in her bed and kicked the silk covers off her body. Just the sound of Suge’s name had her shook as hell, and Pilar immediately had her attention.
“What’s going on with Suge?” Mink said, trying to front like she wasn’t nervous. “He ain’t here right now because him and Peaches went to look for Barron. Are you trying to say something is wrong with him?”
Pilar was amped like a mother! Her hunch had paid off and this lil troll was about to get played big-time. Fuck all that fronting. Pilar knew what it was like to love a nigga’s last week’s dirty drawers, and she could hear every ounce of that worry and concern that Mink was fighting so hard to keep out of her voice. This is exactly what Pilar had been hoping for and counting on, and it was going to help her get Mink’s ass right where she wanted her. Caught in a trap.
“Well, see, I was kicking it last night with this old head politician who’s been sniffing around my ass and dying to get at me for the longest time,” Pilar said as she started painting a picture using colorful lies.
“I mean, I should have known better than to go anywhere with his old ass from the gate, but he just kept begging me. Anyway, the night started out really sweet at first. He told me he brokered a lot of deals and rubbed elbows with a lot of rich people so I ain’t gonna lie, I was on his heels. He took me to this icy restaurant and we were guzzling champagne and having a real good time, but then the more he drank the looser his old dentures got, and finally he started talking some crazy shit about Uncle Viceroy and basically hating on our whole entire family.”
“So?” Mink said impatiently. “Viceroy got a lotta haters out there. You know his mouth is always wide open and he likes to talk big smack. Papa Doo is a certified gangsta, but not ere’body is gonna think he’s the coolest G in town. But why is you telling me all your bizz for anyway, and how is Uncle Suge wrapped up in all of this?”
Pilar almost chuckled out loud. She had this ghetto bitch and she had her real good. “Well, the guy just kept going on about how Uncle Viceroy was gonna go down in flames at the end of this election,” Pilar said, getting into character as the lies rolled off her tongue.
“Then out of nowhere he slipped up and said that he had a tape that was gonna take the whole damn family down.”
“What kind of tape?”
“He said it was a tape of Uncle Suge. Murdering someone and stuffing them in the trunk of a car. The old dude claims he’s gonna send it to all the cable outlets and get Uncle Suge locked up and thrown underneath the jail.”
Mink’s heart was jumping around in her chest and she started feeling weak. “That don’t even make no sense, Pilar,” she said, trying not to freak out and lose her fucking head. “Who was filming and got it on tape? Why ain’t nobody else heard this story? Besides, who in the world was Suge supposed to have killed?”
“Listen, Mink,” Pilar said before she could start asking more questions. “I know me and you aren’t on the best of terms, but Uncle Suge is cool as hell so you gotta know we both wanna look out for him! I mean, that old bastard politician told me if I didn’t act right he would call 9-1-1 right then and there and then leak the tape to the press too! I’m telling you he was about to straight up take Dominion Oil to the mat. Send the whole damn company to the shit house! So I played it real cool and finished the date, because I didn’t want that fool to freak out and do nothing stupid that could get our favorite uncle locked up. I mean, that shit was real hard on me because I had to tongue kiss that wrinkled-up white fool and give him a hand-job too!”
Mink felt her breath catching in her throat. She wasn’t tryna let Pilar know she was catching vapors over no nigga, but any damn thing that affected Big Suge damn sure affected her too.
“Okay, I’ma need you to run that whole story by me again, okay? Start over and talk real slow this time so I can make sure you saying what I think you really saying.”
Pilar sucked her teeth. “Oh, so you think I’m lying or something? See, I knew I shoulda just called the cops and left your scary ass out of it! Ain’t nobody got time to be repeating shit they done already said once. If I had known you was a hider instead of a rider I wouldn’t have wasted all this time with you. I’m about to hang up and call the police and let them handle this whole shitty thing.”
Mink’s shook ass started back-pedaling like a mutha. “W-w-wait, Pilar! Hold the phone, dammit! Don’t hang up, cousin. I heard what you said, I’m just tryna let it all sink in. I know me and you ain’t the best of friends, but we are family, so let’s put our petty bullshit to the side for now, okay? This here thing is way bigger than the both of us. I’m not trying to win no points, I just wanna know how in the hell we can help get Uncle Suge out of this situation?”
“We have to get that tape,” Pilar said flatly. “I didn’t call Barron and tell him nothing because his weak ass might raise an alarm. And I didn’t want to get Aunt Selah involved either because she’s already going through a lot. You’re the only person I could think of to call without fucking it all up. That old politician is crooked as hell, but he has a thing for pretty young black chicks and with your help I think we can get the tape and set this son of a bitch up to get taken down too. Me and you working together might be able to help Suge get outta this mess, but we have to do our work under the table and keep it on the low.”
There was a cold silence on the phone line and Pilar knew Mink was weighing her options. I’ll wait bitch, she thought, grinning inside. If Pilar was right about how hard Mink was clocking for Suge, then this was an offer that she could never refuse.
“Alright, I’m down,” Mink practically whispered. “So what’s the plan? How are we gonna roll up and gank this old cracker and when are we gonna do it?”
“How about we meet up tomorrow and talk about it in person?” Pilar asked quickly. “I don’t trust these phones because you never know who’s listening. We just need to get together in the same room and come up with something and we have to do it fast. I shouldn’t have to tell you to keep all this under your hat, though. This has to stay just between us, so don’t go blabbing your mouth to anybody else, you hear me? Uncle Suge’s life could be on the line, and if anybody finds out what’s going on he could end up in the bing on a murder charge.”
“Who you think you talking to?” Mink snapped, back to her old gutter self. “You don’t have to tell me how to keep my mouth closed, boo-boo. I ain’t the country bitch from the ’burbs, baby. You are. Don’t tell me what the hell to do. Just tell me where you wanna meet.”
“Let’s hook up and put our heads together tomorrow at the Starbucks in the plaza downtown,” Pilar said firmly. “I’ll be busy most of the day so let’s get together around nine p.m.”
“Okay, I’ll be there,” Mink agreed.
“Fine. I’ll see you then.”
Pilar hung up the phone and looked up at Gutta and Shy and smiled real big.
“Damn Mink must really be about that nigga,” Shy said with an uncontrollable grin. “She fell for that shit like somebody punched her in the back of the head!”
“I told y’all I could get that bitch,” Pilar said smugly. “Now let’s see how y’all get on your fucking grind. I set the trap and that dummy is gonna stick her big-ass head in it. Now it’s up to you two fools to make sure it snaps closed and breaks her neck. Tomorrow night is when it all goes down.”