While they waited for the food to finish cooking, they danced some more, talked some more, and had another drink or two. By the time the food was done, she’d really needed it because although she wasn’t shit faced drunk, she was too far past tipsy to be driving. She set the table and he fixed the plates and salads. They sat down, said grace, and started eating.
“This is delicious. You really have to write down this recipe for me K.” He didn’t know if she was really hungry or if it was the alcohol, but gorgeous was fuckin some shit up! After they finished eating, he wrapped up the leftovers, and put the dishes in the dishwasher. He then slid in a video and sat on the couch watching a flick while their food digested.
He could tell the liquor and the food was taking a toll on Liza, along with realization that her boyfriend had been creeping with his ex, and probably had been for a while. K told her to make herself comfortable and without saying a word, she took off her slides and laid her head on a pillow that he had set on his lap. They watched The Body Guard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner as K massaged Liza’s scalp trying to help her relax. About a half hour into the movie she was sound asleep. He was feeling a little nice too, and had probably dozed off momentarily, because he hadn’t realized the 22 missed calls on his phone. It was on vibrate and most of them were from Skulls.
“Yo K, Dark had an accident on the 1100! He was coming up Seventh Street and a drunk driver ran the light on 7th and Liberty blind siding him!” came the excited voice on the other end of the phone.
“What? “ K said jumping up and scared poor Liza to death.
“Is he alright? Where is he now? “K asked getting up and putting on his shoes.
“He’s at the hospital on 17th, I’m on my way there now,” said Skulls
“I’m out the door right now!” K said ending the call.
“What happened, what’s wrong?” Liza asked wiping sleep from her eyes.
“Dante had an accident on one of the bikes. We have to go to the hospital. Now!”
K grabbed his keys while she slipped her shoes on and they headed towards the door. When he opened the door to leave, Mattie was standing with her hand in the knocking position, about to knock. Liza’s eyes shot poisonous darts at Mattie as they all stood at the door looking crazy at each other. Mattie had a Quick Service taxi cab parked out front.
“Reebie called me and told me Dante had a bad accident, and Skulls had been calling your cell and didn’t get an answer. So I caught a cab from the club to see if you were here, while I was on my way to the hospital.”
Then she turned her nose up at Liza and said with an attitude, “But I can see why now. I guess you two were busy.”
“Nah, I just cooked her dinner and we had some drinks and — “
Liza cut K off.
”And we were just about to fuck before he found out about Darkside.”
To say he was shocked by what Liza said would be the understatement of the century. Mattie’s eye’s registered the anger of a mad woman.
“I know you’ve been creeping with Deondre and you can have his sorry ass!” Liza added with fury.
She grabbed K’s hand and pulled him towards the Vette said, “come on K, we have to go to the hospital to check on your friend.”
He just closed the front door, and shrugged his shoulders at Mattie. K unlocked the doors on his car with the remote, hopped in the whip and bounced. Mattie just stood speechless while the tires of the brand new Corvette ate up the asphalt as they exited the parking lot.
On the way to the hospital he asked Liza, “Are you o.k.?”
“I feel a lot better now that I vented some frustration towards her. K, I really am sorry for putting you on the spot like that.”
“Aw it’s no big deal baby girl… I mean Liza.”
“K, I would have to be blind to not notice you were attracted to me, and I really like you too. You’re a sweetheart. I just never reacted because I wanted to be faithful to that asshole. Plus we have a great working relationship and I didn’t want to cross that line.”
“Liza, I think that you are the most attractive and sexy woman that I’ve encountered in a long time, but I’m going through a phase right now and keeping company with quite a few female companions. Feel me? I know I don’t want to hurt you anymore than what you’re dealing with.”
He knew it was going to be difficult for her, preparing to end a relationship. Once they parked in the hospital’s emergency parking area, he leaned over to give her a comforting kiss on her forehead. She unexpectantly lifted her mouth to meet his, slipped her tongue in, and grabbed the back of his head so he couldn’t get away. It wasn’t like he was gonna try to get away. He tasted the mix peppermint she’d been sucking on along with the liquor and demonstrated his skills in a long, sweet, soft, sensual kiss. When they finally separated she looked him straight in his eyes and said, “Let me worry about me.” She opened her door. “Let’s go and check on your friend,” she said with a smile that let him know, she was a woman with a mission. And he was it!
K was drained. He already knew from the doctor’s reactions that his man Dark would be out of commission for a minute. As he and Liza rode up Liberty Street after leaving the hospital, he looked over and saw Liza bobbing her heard and grooving to the music. He could tell she was tired, but he was digging the fact that she was there to support him.
“Wassup sleepy?You aight?” K asked.
“I’m good. You OK?” she asked yawning.
K smiled at her, knowing that at five in the morning, Liza had to be feelin it. They turned into his complex ten minutes later and pulled up next to her car.
“I really appreciate you being here for a brotha. Are you gonna be OK to drive home?”
Liza turned to face K. Her stare was intense.
“I’m not going home.”
She put her hand on his knee and slid it up his thigh. She leaned over to kiss him and grabbed his dick at the same time. She massaged it slowly.
“I see I got one vote for yes,” she said smiling.
They exchanged a long slow kiss.
“Dam girl.You aint playin. Come on lets go inside.”
“Ok. I just need to grab something out my trunk and I will be right in.”
After he got in the house he went to take a piss. This was also something like impossible due to the fact that his dick was still harder than Mt. Rushmore. He had wanted Liza for a long time. His mind raced with thoughts of what was about to go down. When he returned from the bathroom she was standing in the living room with her overnight bag.
She was butt ball naked.
K stopped dead in his tracks. As he took in the visual he couldn’t help but to think that she was ten times more gorgeous than anything he could have imagined.
“I was gonna freshen up a lil bit. But I don’t think I can wait. I want you now,” she said and walked slowly towards K.
He grabbed the back of her head with one hand and a handful of ass with the other. They kissed like animals. Breathing heavily as he palmed her ass like Lebron, she tried to jerk his pants down. She noticed how hard his dick was as she struggled to get his pants down over it. When they were finally down, she felt the heat and throbbing of his dick against her stomach. She grabbed it and began to stroke.
“I need this dick inside me now,” she said leading him over to the couch.
Liza was in heat and couldn’t wait any longer. She slowly bent over the couch looking back over her shoulder. He watched in amazement as she spread her ass cheeks with both hands to expose her pussy and give him a tantalizing view. K didn’t miss a beat as he slid in position behind her. He stuck the tip of his dick in. Liza was soaking wet and on fire. But she was no amateur as he soon found out when she locked her pussy muscles on the tip of his dick and pulled him in deeper. They both moaned in ecstasy as she pulled and he pushed. K grabbed her hips and proceeded to slow grind Liza with long deep strokes as she pushed back intoxicated by his rhythm.
“Ooooh that’s it right there K. Oooh yeah, that dick is gonna make me do itttt!!!”
He grabbed a handful of her hair and pounded harder.
“Do what girl? Talk to me! What you gonna do?”
Liza’s whole body began to tingle as skin slapping against skin sounds filled the room. K felt her pussy get wetter and banged harder.
“Oh shit, right there…just…like…that!”
“Like that?” he asked picking up the rhythm.
“Ooohhfuuuccckkkk…right there…like that…I’m cuuuummmiiinnnnngggg! Liza screamed.
Shockwaves shot through them both as she tightened around his dick. He never lost his momentum as he exploded inside Liza. He picked her up and turned her around while still inside her and sat down on the couch. They were both panting heavily as she lay back against him.
“You OK love?”
“Oh yeah K. That shit was great,” Liza said between breaths.
He was rubbing on her belly as she sat facing away from him. He slid his hand down between her legs and started to massage her clit while his dick was still inside her. Liza let out a deep moan as she responded by moving her hips slowly in a circular motion.
“Dam K. You ready again? You gon spoil me rotten fuckin me like this.”
He sped up his motion and Liza began to buck, riding him like a mechanical bull. She put her hands on his knees and leaned forward, stood on her toes, and slid up and down on that dick. As K watched himself disappear in and out of Liza he thought to himself we are gonna get along real good.
The first talent show a month later was won by a young man with a million dollar voice for his rendition of the Jodeci classic STAY. It was a packed house and he shut shit down with the standing ovation he received.
The past month had definitely been a crazy one; Darkside escaped his brush with death with a concussion, a broken leg, and a fractured shoulder. He was confined to a wheelchair for three months after his two week hospital stay. Mattie had left T and moved in with her sister Reebie in a rooming house, and during the same period of time had slept with a guy that Reebie had gotten close to and was calling her man named Randy. Reebie never had a clue.
K had gotten a new cell phone two weeks after the incident at his condo with Mattie and Liza, and gave the new number to everyone except for the cuties that he had been creeping with, and of course Mattie. Deondre had been bugging Liza, begging and apologizing, but she wanted absolutely no parts of him. He had come by the youth center one day and threated to smash all of Liza’s windows of her car if she didn’t give him five minutes of her time to hear him out. K could see that she was getting real fed up with his bullshit and so was he. She wanted to get an order of protection against this bitch ass pretty boy, but K told her to let him handle it.
He had caught Deondre going into his apartment after work that same night. Deondre lived in an apartment on the east side of Allentown on a back alleyway that had a lot of dark corners. As he was putting his key in the door after getting off work, K crept out of the shadows in all black, put the cold steel of the Dirty harry 44 long to the back of his head, cocked it, and told him, “ If you move the wrong way, you die.” Once inside K pushed him onto his couch and put half the barrel in his mouth, until Deondre almost gagged.
“Look, Liza don’t want no parts of you mufucka, so leave her the fuck alone! And I don’t give second warnings. Do we understand each other?”
He managed a muffled “mmhmmmmhmm!” Shaking his head up and down, so K took it that he did.
He took the gun out of his mouth and started to leave but almost as a reflex action K spun and backhanded him to sleep. As Deondre lay hanging alfway off the couch out cold, K spit on him.
“And that’s for disrespecting me. Pussy!”
He quietly left the same way he had come in.
Liza stayed at K’s apartment every day since the first night that she was there. Over the following week and a half Liza had slowly but surely proceeded to move her belongings into his condo. After getting to know each other intimately that first night, they were both sprung. Sitting next to her now at the side of the judges table after the first talent show, he realized it was time for a change. They had some shit that he thought might develop into a long term relationship, and he realized they were well on their way. All of the events were successes and things were looking good. K moved Dark into his down low spot and Dante moved in a sistah he had taken a liking to named Charmaine. K and Charmaine instantly became like brother and sister due to the fact that they both had a crazy sense of humor.
Liza presented Dwayne Garret the winner of the first talent show and announced that he would be the first artist on the new indie label Big $taxxx records. K figured they had a real good shot with Dwayne as their first artist and decided to slow up on his illegal operations. He had a hefty stash and the Feds had come through cracking heads, which also influenced his decision. Plus, his right hand man Darkside was out of commission for a while, and he really didn’t trust nobody like he trusted Dark.
The second and third talent show went over well and they added to their roster a hip — hop artist named G’d-up and a female singing group that called themselves Triple Extasy. G’d- up was actually one of K’s best weight customers, and K had no idea his skills were on a recognizable level. Triple Extasy turned out to be three strippers, one black, one white, one Puerto Rican, all So Seductive. So they had the first three acts for their label, all hot and extremely talented. They found a tight studio out in Philly and booked it solid for two months. K had no idea putting together such a project could be so hectic and time consuming. Allentown was about 45 minutes from Philadelphia and they would leave town in the two Suburbans K had brought and totally covered with Big $taxxx Records logo’s and decals as promotional vehicles and headed out back to back pushing 90 mph, immediately after evening rush hour traffic.
Liza drove one and K drove the other. On the way to the studio their artists would be song writing, rehearsing lyrics and harmonizing. They also noticed how Dwayne and Triple Extasy sounded hot when they collaborated. And when G added his witty lyrics for the masses is was official.
Perfexion Studios was a first time experience for all the artists. None of them had actually been in a professional recording studio, let alone record in one. The spot was run by a cat named LP, who K had heard a lot of good things about, and his chick Jessica. She was a real head turner too. As they walked into one of the recording rooms Dwayne looked around in amazement.
“This is it! I finally made it to the big leagues,” he said with enthusiastic excitement, then he went into one of the soundproof booth bowed his head and said a prayer:
“Heavenly father, I want to thank you this day for your many blessings. As you know father, I have prayed to you on numerous occasion for the chance to just be heard, Heavenly father. You have continuously answered prayers and I know this is just another of your blessings, which you give abundantly. I ask you at this time to bless our creative efforts and bless these wonderful people and our record label as a whole. All of this I ask in your precious son Jesus’s name. Amen.”
K gave him a hug showing love when he came out and they got prepared to put in the hard work they knew it was gonna take to make this a successful venture. They all sat in on track selection sessions and the first group to select tracks for their project was Triple Extasy. K had contacted a lot of hot producers from around the country and listened to them all unbiased, but by far the hottest tracks came from K’s people and his industry ace S.I.D. To hear Triple Extasyharmonize and rift over his tracks with head nodding baselines and horns was musical poetry.
By the end of the two months in the studio, they had three potentially platinum albums, mixed down, Mastered and ready for sales or a major distribution deal. G’d-up had a crazy street buzz from mix tape appearances coast to coast. Dwayne and Triple Extasy’s upcoming releases were so hyped up through radio and street team marketing and promotion, that they did pretty good their first time out. Dwayne moved 22,000 units with his debut and self-titled album, Triple Extasy moved 26,000 units and G’d-up came out strong moving 37,000 units out of the stores and online all in the first month.
This also gave K the opportunity to take some other money to the Laundry mat. And even though it wasn’t gold or platinum success it got them recognized by the majors and they kept every dollar. K eventually employed persons to oversee daily operations and told Liza that he had a surprise that he had been planning for a while. He told her it was something that was going to make her very, very happy.
“I have you and my health and we’re building a new youth center on top of our success with the record label. What more could you possibly do to make me happy?” she asked seriously.
“It’s time for you to meet my best friend in the world for real. We are going to New York for New Years and stay at my pops crib for a couple days,” he said.
“You’re taking me to meet your father?” she asked eyes wide with surprise.
“Yep, and my mom’s will be visiting from Marietta Georgia too.”
“You mean I get to meet both of your parents?” she asked.
“Yes love, and they are gonna love you too pieces!”
They hit interstate 78 East, off of South 4th street leading out of Allentown, with two suitcases ready for a New York New Years. They entered NY by way of the George Washington Bridge bypassing the Bronx. Taking in all the gritty NYC winter beauty, they crossed the Throgs Neck Bridge leading onto Cross Island Parkway; Playing The Notorious Big’s IT WAS ALL A DREAM. They exited the Cross Island onto the LIE and down the home stretch to Exit 50, Wyandanch.
As they entered the town they rode up the hustling strip that K had spent so many days and nights on, slinging rocks like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble did for their boss Mr. Slate. They say the game never changes only the players. As they cruised through in his newly acquired Infinity QX56 headed to the crib, evidence of that fact was all too clear. All the young up and comers were beating the block in their Timberlands and True Religions, or Gortex and Snorkels getting their grind on as he had done many, many a day.
When K pulled up to the crib, he could see his moms had already made it in town by the sight of her Crispy clean Cream Chrysler 300M posted up in the driveway behind his baby sisters dark green Camry. His pops Sporty red Mitsubishi 3000 with armor all tires shining was parked out front. K and Liza had barely made it out of the truck before his nephew Marcus came out of the front door yelling, “Uncle, Uncle! Grandma, grandpa uncle is here.”
“Boy! Get back in here with no coat on before you get sick!” His sister Tamisha yelled out the front door at her son.
K snatched him up, gave him a big hug and carried him in the house. His moms was in the master bedroom recuperating from her journey from Georgia, so he just gave her a peck on the cheek and let her sleep. His pops was in the basement with his crew; four miniature Dobermans that went nuts if you came with 10 feet of him. He was watching his 60 inch plasma screen with the Super Surround Sound System, kicked back relaxing sipping his vodka and orange juice.
“Hey, what a nice surprise,’ he said noticing us as they entered the basement door.
His dogs went nuts. Liza grabbed K’s arms scared to death.
Raising his voice over the high pitched barking dogs he asked, ”And who is this beautiful young lady?”
He turned to the dogs, “shut up goddamit!”
They calmed down a little; not much but enough for K to say,“Dad this is the love of my life, Liza. Liza this is my poppa.”
“Mr. Johnson I am so happy to finally meet you.”
“Please call me Joe, that Mr. Johnson stuff makes me feel old.”
“Ok Joe, nice to meet you. You have a beautiful home,” said Liza.
“Thank you. And my home is your home. Damn, my son you sure can pick em,” said K’s pops.
His sister came out of her room next to the basement, gave him a hug and he made introductions while his pops made drinks. Pops had already been cooking the food for the New Year’s celebration and the aromas floating through the house had caught Liza’s attention.
“Somebody is hookin it up, that food smells delicious,” said Liza.
“Baby you have no idea. If you think that chicken parmesan was good, you just wait til my pops cooking hits those taste buds,” K said.
She gave him a mean but playful look that broke into a shameful smile at their own personal little joke. She still denied the way she massacred that chicken parmesan that first night, but from being with her over the past couple of months, he’d found out that her appetite increased a little when alcohol was involved. But he still used to tell her “ You smashed that chicken ma — ma!”
“I got ham, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, cornbread, sweet potato pies, fried fish, lasagna, black eye peas, and yams,” Said K’s pop’s.
K looked at Liza and the drink in her hand that she was sipping on and smiled at her. From out of nowhere K’s nephew appeared with the notoriously embarrassing old family photo album. Before K could grab it from him Liza had it and was flipping through the pages. He already knew what was coming and there was no way Kevin could stop it. She got to the picture of his first birthday party, where he made it to the cake, before the cake made it to the oven and K was sitting on the table with his big afro and a bowl of cake mix between his legs. His mother caught the moment as he was smiling ear to ear, cake mix all over his nose, mouth, and hands.
“Oooooh, you were so cute,” Liza said laughing until she had tears in her eyes. K slid down on the couch and covered his head with one of the big pillows in embarrassment.
“Yes my baby was cute and he still is,” K heard his mother say from the basement doorway. His Pops dogs had obviously felt the wrath of moms because they didn’t make a sound.
“Ma!” K said as he quickly hopped up to get him a mom’s hug.
He introduced her and Liza and they hit it off from the beginning. Not long after, a few of his sister’s girlfriends came over to hang out and girl talk for a while. K asked Liza if she felt comfortable enough to hang out at the house while he went through the hood to go holla at his boys. She said she felt more than comfortable and of course she didn’t mind. She knew he hadn’t kicked it with his boys since he left town, So K gave her a kiss, hopped in the truck and went to go check his niggahs.
His first stop was the candy store/weed spot/gambling spot. It was on the corner of a row of stores on the main drag and had pool tables, clear canisters filled with various candies on the counter that you had to buy at least a dollars’ worth, along with however many dime bags of weed you wanted. There was also a big dice shooting table in the back where you could always place a bet and try your luck. Because it was the holidays, the spot was packed with locals and other hustlers returning to the hood from out of town. As soon as he walked in he got crazy love because his peoples hadn’t seen him in a while.
The parking lot and curbside was lined with Benzes, Beemer’s, Lexus’s, and Jeeps. Old school cats and new school cats were kicking it and bottles of liquor were in heavy rotation.
A few of his boys asked, “When you gone bring us with you to get some of that PA money?”
K looked at his man’s Tommy and Irvin leaning on T’s Lex and said “shit, it looks like yall niggahs is doing pretty good right here.”
It was all love through. They liked to fuck with him about shit like that. He dropped a couple of hundred dollar bets on the Cee lo table, and on the way out, the house man said,” hey where you going wit all that coke and music money after a couple little hundred dollar bets?”
“I got places to go, people to see and hot spots to get out of,” he said joking, but was dead serious. “I just came through to show my face in the hood. I got plans on doing some big things if shit keep going smooth and I want my niggahs to be a part of it. “
K slapped everybody five with a half hug showing love and rolled out. When he stepped outside the spot he bumped into his niggahs Pook and Blass.
Blass said “Yo K-MO, what up nigga, what you doing back in the hood? You must be up here for the holidays.”
“Yeah, no doubt. What ya’ll niggas up to?” K asked.
“You know we out here grinding, we both got mouths to feed,” Pook said. “Hold up K, let me catch this dough real quick.”
Just then one of the regulars K had known for years because she had been one of his old customer’s, came walking up. Her face lit up with a big crackhead smile and you could tell she had been a beautiful black woman at one time. She had a daughter that was even more proof of that.
“Hey big man, where you been? You always got it good. You workin?” she asked him.
“Nah, I’m just passing through. But my man got you.”
“Come here Goobie! How much you got? “said Pook.
“I got $50, but I want a slab,” she said.
“We got you. Give me the money and grab that piece out of the change slot in the payphone.”
She did as she was told and as she was walking off she said “I’ll be back in about half hour. I got this trick at the motel and he got a pocketful. This is just to get him started.”
“Hold up!” Pook said, and scribbled down the number to the payphone.
“Call this number and if he’s spending more than a hundred we will bring it to you.”
“Aight, aight,” she said and scurried away eyes bulging, and ashy lips twisting. After she was gone Pook said, “K man, we tryin to get up outta the hood. Niggahs is catchin sales left and right.”
“I know, I heard this shit was on flames. But you know I’m still in the process of laying the foundation?”
Right after he said that the police pulled into the parking lot across the street. It was cruiser number 105, better known as the marine cops. K knew them harassing bastards and they knew him, so he knew it was time to get gone. K gave all his boys contact numbers and told them to get at him before he left town. The police turned on their overhead floodlights and lit up the entire side of the street everybody was standing on. K gave his niggas some dap and was out.
As he pulled away from the curbside he reflected on the experience his life had been up to that point and thanked God that he had made it this far. He’d lost a lot of cats, real good dudes, to this crazy game. Crimedanch had lost some thorough hustlers like Herman The Stranger and Keith Money Green, thugs like Tim Williams and Taheem, and up and comers Karim, Ed Nitty, Allen Parker and Ira aka Young Iroc.
Just as he turned the corner onto his block, he saw the red, white, and blue strobe lights illuminate in his rearview mirror. He knew he hadn’t done anything illegal, signaling or otherwise, but he was in a brand new truck in the hood. So it was business as usual for Suffolk County’s finest, with the same old bullshit! The officer driving approached the vehicle’s driver’s side with his hand on his Beretta 9mm, as the other officer did the same on the passenger side shining his flashlight through the back window of the Tahoe.
Shit, he knew the routine so he turned off the truck with his left hand while his right hand was in the air where they could see it, extended his left hand out of the window so they could see them both. Now in the hood they don’t ask for the usual License, registration and insurance. It just didn’t go down like that. And it doesn’t matter if it’s the uniformed cops, or the undercover, they address you the same.
“Step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air where we can see them.”
So on cue, K followed the usual procedure, and once they saw who it was the whole scene changed.
“Look who we got here, Mr. K-Money. So Mr. Johnson, where have you been? We heard you took your drug dealing business elsewhere. Smart decision,” said one officer.
“I live in Pennsylvania and own a record company now. Why are busting my balls officer? “They checked out the truck while eyeing him suspiciously.
“Oh we not busting your balls, we just wanted to see who was driving this pretty truck with the PA tags. So you have any guns or drugs on you Mr. Johnson? Do you mind if we search your vehicle?”
“Do you have probable cause?” K asked.
The main asshole of the two gave him a look that he knew all too well. It was a look where no words were needed, that blatantly said you know how we get down. They always keep a couple of rocks for guys who wanted act up.
“Now we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way,” said one of the officers.
K recognized the look because he knew these two very, very well. They were just as crooked as the pigs they’d bodied before he bounced.
“Ok, ok. Do what you got to do. Just remember I aint never gave you guys a hard time.”
They proceeded to search the vehicle and he stood there nervous as fuck. Halfway through the search they got a 911 call over the radio.
”All units respond. There’s been a shooting on north 15th Street and two people are down,” said the dispatcher.
They stopped in the middle of their search and ran to the cruiser. But before getting in the driver yelled over his door.
“Watch yourself and where you hangout Mr. Johnson.” The officer slammed his door shut, and brutally jerked the transmission into reverse. Burning rubber, he backed out onto Jamaica Avenue and sped away to answer their call.
K got in his truck and drove up two stop signs to his family crib and his niggah Ike Mitchell was there standing in the driveway laughing.
“What up my nigga? What’s so funny? “K asked.
“My bad niggah, I aint laughing at you. I was riding by when them crooked ass faggots had you pulled over, So I dipped to the phone booth and put in that bogus 911 call to the switchboard. I saw it was you from the spotlights they had on you and I saw the Pa. tags.”
“Oh shit! That’s good looking, aint no telling what them hating ass police would have tried to pull. Why don’t you come in? Pops is cooking.”
“I gotta go pick — up wifey from work then we going to spend New Year’s with her peoples. How long you in town?
“Two or three days at the most. Take my cell number and hit me when you get back in town. Maybe we could hook up and do something.”
He took K’s number gave him a pound, then bounced. K entered the house to the welcome familiar smells of home cooked Alabama soul food compliments of chef pop dooks. Liza was at the kitchen table with his sister and her friends playing cards, talking and smiling ear to ear.
“K, I love your family. Your mom wants to know how long we’re going to be in town” said Liza.
“I’m not sure but I’ll make sure we stay long enough for you two to get acquainted well enough.”
K asked Liza to take a ride with him and told his family they would be back shortly. K had grabbed a couple of sacs when he was at the weed spot, and due to the shit he had just went through with the police, he needed a little smoke session to relax his nerves. They got in the truck and headed to a store that was nowhere near the hood. K pulled up to the 7 eleven went in and brought a box of dutchmasters. When they returned to the house K twisted up a log, sparked it and let the mean green mellow out his mental.
Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica Queens was packed even though it was a blistering cold New Year’s Day. K and Liza had set out in the afternoon, hours after sleeping off the effects of the New Year’s celebration with friends and family. He had made a stop to pick up his son so he could take him to hang out with them and take him shopping.
They had brought in the New Year at 12 o’clock, watching the ball drop on the big screen in the basement at the house and couldn’t have been happier than to be with his family and Liza on New Year’s. They were now headed to The Coliseum, a mini-mall loaded with all kinds of urban wear, from hats, to sneakers, to coats, to the iciest of the iced out jewelry. K had a personal jeweler named Benny in the coliseum that he had been buying custom made jewels from for years. A month prior to coming to NY K had phoned in a special order for late surprise Christmas gifts for Liza and his son JJ. They’d pulled in and parked in the rooftop parking lot that was exclusively for coliseum shoppers.
Upon entering the building he came across one of his cousins that he hadn’t seen in a minute. K’s family Bazzo had opened a club that had become very successful, among Long Islands night clubbers, out in Hempstead.
“When did you get in town?”
“I got here yesterday afternoon. I’m at pops crib for New Year’s. I heard you got the club scene on lock.”
“Yeah a little something. I got a big New Year’s Day party jumping off tonight. Why don’t you swing through and I’ll put you on the V.I.P. guest list. We can ball out like old times. Show these niggahs how it’s done.
“No doubt, me and my lady will be there.”
See, K and Bazzo went way back. In the hood hustling, there was always competition. Like who got the newest Jordan’s first, who had the flyest outfit on, the hottest gold chain or the nicest car. And K and his boy Bazzo were always at it.
K gave him dap and a half hug, told him he’d see him later and went into the coliseum. K got the usual from the sistahs, which he always had madd love for, but the ones he had tried to get at, wasn’t trying to show a big niggah no love. And he had never been the kind of dude to settle for less than the best. So when he heard chicks and their little slick sideways remarks and indirect references to his choice of nationality in his relationship, he put his arm around his lady to let them know how happy he was with his. But still they heard, dam every nigga wanna hear that ‘ooh poppi poppi shit since J — Lo and a nigga don’t want fried chicken and collard greens no more when he eatin all them rice and beans. It was kind of fucked up though because it was like he couldn’t win. When a big bald nigga had been trying to get at a lil redbone cutey or a sexy chocolate sistah, they acted like he had Whoppers and Big macs around his neck instead of 5g’s worth of jewelry and good conversation, while they were chasing those pretty boys. Nevertheless he still had nothing but love for his Queens.
They went to holla at Benny, and Liza thought that maybe k was looking for something for himself.
“K, what’s up? How is the music business? I thought that you would be here yesterday,” said Benny from behind the counter in accented English.
“Yeah I know, but I hadn’t seen the family in a while so I hung out with my folks yesterday. So you got that special order I called in last month?”
He pulled out a large manila envelope that jingled as he set it on the counter.
“K you doubt me? Have I ever let you down? “said Benny.
“Nah Benzo you been real good to a nigga.”
He took out each piece of jewelry one at a time and handed them to K, for inspection. One was a Rolex 14 K gold chain that said Liza, and stood 2 inches tall, flooded with 7 carats of diamonds and a pair of four carat diamond cluster earrings that K helped Liza put on. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Thank You! Thank you, this is beautiful!”
The other items in the envelope were a Cuban link chain with a diamond JJ and a matching bracelet with an identical JJ in diamonds. K put those on his son.
K talked to Benny for a minute and he told him about a new line of watches he had coming out. K put two on order. After they ate pizza in the food court K asked if they wanted to go to the movies on 125th Street in Harlem.
“Yeah Daddy!” they both responded at the same time. So they finished up with a little more shopping and hit the exit.
After they left the movie theater they all returned to his family’s house because JJ wanted to see his grandma. The sun had begun to set, and it cast an orange glow on the house that he had seen too many times to count. For some reason this day it had a strange effect, resulting in a reflection with pride.
K’s hardworking parents came from the south to N.Y. with a dream a quarter century before and made a decent living and a comfortable home for him and his baby sister. Looking at the new house now and the cars and recognizing the accomplishment made him real proud.
K and Liza figured they’d throw on their best and step up in the club representing each other to the fullest. As they pulled up in to the valet parking and exited the vehicle all heads turned. Liza stepped out in a black and red figure hugging Dolce and Gabbana two piece outfit with matching Chanel boots and bag. Her neck and earlobes sparkled with clear blinding diamonds. K stepped out in a two piece black Armani suit, black silk shirt, red silk tie with matching handkerchief in the suit pocket, and a black derby with a red feather in the brim. To top it off he finished the ensemble with some crispy new black and red Stacey Adams snake skin boots.
Under his suit, over his shoulder, and in the holster was a Glock 19 that he usually kept at his pops crib for occasions such as this. Best believe a niggah won’t get caught slipping. Bazzo was just pulling up as they were about to enter the club, so they all slid up in the spot together. The spot was poppin with hustlers and honeys wall to wall! K spotted a few chicks that he’d tried to get at that wouldn’t give a nigga no airtime and they was trying to front like they use to have something after seeing him with Liza. One chic was like dam K, you just leave town and don’t even call a bitch no more.
So of course he had to keep it gutter with the chick by responding appropriately.
“It was kinda hard to keep up with you. I could never catch you at that phone at the laundry mat. The Chinese lady said ‘oh no no, no Leslie a here, “with a smile. Then he turned and kissed a confused Liza. K turned back to the chick and asked,“can you hear me now…good,” and they slipped off to the VIP, into which the chick and her crew had no access.
Upon entering the VIP K gave the bartender his corporate debit card, because even though he was holding, he was still working on building his credit. K told her he was gonna run up a tab and she could take care of it with the card. K saw some other ballin cats that he knew. Barry and Big H from Hempstead, Ben Jr and Pop, D, Ramel, and Infinite from Amityville, and Birdie and Donovan from Westbury. Everybody was doing their thing, but K and Bazzo showed out. He brought five bottles of Ace of Spades, K brought 5 bottles. Bazzo brought all the chicks in the club a round of drinks, K brought the next.
“I’m having a great time and all, except for one thing,” said Liza.
“What’s that baby?”
“You haven’t danced with me tonight and you know how much I like to dance.”
“Let’s do it!”
She smiled and K led her to the packed dance floor where they got their groove on. About midway through the second song they were dancing to, some clown that had too much to drink came and asked K if he can cut in. K stayed calm and said, “Nah this my lady homey, aint’ nuttinhappenin.”
So this clown goes behind Liza and tries to dance up on her while they were dancing. Before K could react she’d turned and slapped the cowboy shit out of dude. Before he could recover K had him staring cross eyed down the barrel of the Glock sitting on the bridge of his nose.
He threw up his hands in surrender. The record scratched, the music stopped, the dance floor cleared and the lights came on.
“I should push your shit, you dumb drunk Muthafucka!”
“No K, it aint worth it my nigga. Hold Up! “said Bazzo.
Some cat came out of the crowd, but kept his distance.
“Please don’t kill my little brother big homey. Please, Please don’t kill em.”
Hearing the pleading in his voice curbed K’s anger a little, but he was still furious. K nudged dude with the barrel of the Glock.
“You should learn to control your liquor. You’ll live a lot longer.” Then K turned and told the dudes brother, “You better takes this nigga home. He shouldn’t be out in public like this.”
His brother snatched him up by his shirt and shoved him towards the entrance. K hadn’t even noticed his mob from the hood,them KBSF nigghas had formed Voltron and was right behind him. Them cats was known for shutting spots down!
K slid his burner back in the holster and he and Liza went back to the VIP. As the night wound down under the party lights and sparking disco ball, the club started thinning out. When they called last call K went to square up with the bartender and pick up his card. She ran the card through for the $6000 he’d spent at the bar, plus a $200 tip for her. She looked at him nervously. Then she ran it through again.
“The bank is denying your card,” the bartender said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s over $800,000 in that account. How can it be denied?”
Liza overheard him talking with the bartender and walked over to see what was going on.
“The bank denied the corporate card for some reason,” said K.
Bazzo came over and he told him what was going on, and assured him there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for the confusion. He knew K’s finances were in order, so he took care of it.
“Just take care of it as soon as you can,” said Bazzo.
K had never been more fucking embarrassed, than that night. Still trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, He pulled out the $3800 he had in his pocket, gave Bazzo $3000 and walked over and gave the bartender her $200. K told him he would send him the difference plus $500 when he got home and went to the bank to find out what was going on.
K and Liza left the club and went to the nearest ATM so he could check the account balance. K put in his card, entered the pin number and touched the screen where it said account balance. When $1502 popped up on the screen, he felt his stomach get sick and knew something was terribly wrong.
All plans to stay in NY for a few days changed immediately and they returned to PA the following morning so he could personally go into Bank of America to find out what going on and clear up this whole situation. They were absolutely clueless to what happened to the money in the account. K went directly to the bank from the highway and explained the situation. They informed him that the money had been wire transferred to a numbered account in the Cayman Islands, where they had complex laws in that banking industry. He asked the teller how that was possible without his permission and she directed him to the bank manager who took them back into her office. She may have sensed the niggah about to surface from the large, clearly agitated black man who may have just lost close to a million dollars. She sat them down and pulled up the transaction on her computer.
“Yes, here it is. It was a three way transaction, all done by computer. It was obviously someone you have done business with before on this level to have all of your account information.”
After a pause she said, “here we go, ILLadelph CD’s and tapes in Philadelphia.” The name rang a bell because K remembered them making an especially large order not long ago. A total of 12,000 unit’s altogether.
“We should have the phone number and address in our shipping logs,”said Liza.
K asked the bank manager “is there anything that I can do about this.”
“We will put an investigator on it but as long as it was a legal transaction, the matter is pretty much an international issue you would have to take up with the FBI.”
They had been caught slippin’ by a slickster who had probably done his homework and knew some of K’s background and the channels that he would have to go through to clear up the situation. Just the mention of the alphabet boys changed everything. K knew all of that money wasn’t legitimate funds and if they requested his financial records that could open a whole new bag of snakes. He felt like the life had been sucked out of him. Of course he would check the address in Philly, but they would have definitely shut down the bogus front, and the perpetrators long, long gone.
They went out to the truck from the bank and rode home in complete silence. K could see the worried look in Liza’s eyes because she could see he was on the edge. K was thinking to himself how could something so fucked up happen? He tried to do positive things for the kids in the community, he treated people fairly, and he had a heart as big as Texas. Why would God punish me like this this, when others who constantly dwell in negativity, killing and stealing from the poor, and try to do absolutely nothing positive, have outstanding luck and successes?
Then he just let it go and tried to figure out his next step. He was down to his last $60,000 that was in the safe. That was for extreme emergencies. K went to Western union and sent Bazzo his dough but didn’t go into detail about what had happened. He just apologized again and just told him it was a banking error.
Liza had called him into the office once he made it back to the condo from the western union and told him that she pulled up the company out of Philly’s information in their records and called the number. She said she’d got an automated message saying the number was no longer in service, but K had already figured as much. He told her to call an emergency meeting of all the groups for the next afternoon. He wanted to get drunk, but knew he needed to keep a clear head.
This wasn’t like a stick-up or a robbery where he could pinpoint someone and had a target to go after. K was fucked up in the head but he was a hustler, and one thing you usually figure out early in the game is that with all the ups, you have to have some downs. Losses will occur. Some bigger than others. So K had to think like a hustler.
They had the meeting with Triple Extasy, G’d- up, and Dwayne and explained the situation. He realized how much love they had for him when he saw they were more worried about him than they were about themselves, but they all ended up in better situations career wise. G’s contract was brought out by Roc- a- blok in NY Dwayne went to Ya Heard Me records out in New Orleans, and TripleExtasy went to So Fresh and So Clean down in ATL. They shut down the label because at this point, K was fed up and pissed off about losing major paper trying to so some legit shit. Now it was time to take it to a whole other level!