scar on the lower right portion of his chin. Fresh razor cuts outlined the hairline of his low cut fade. He was dressed nicely in a red and black Troop jogging suit with a pair of Troop sneakers. He wore two gold rope chains, one plain, and the other with a cross dangling from it and on his left hand, he wore a gold nugget ring. He had a reputation as a ladies man, with women all over the South Bronx, Harlem and Manhattan. He knew that money talked and bullshit walked and he didn't mind putting a woman in her place either.
The larger than life image that Smurf had of him quickly vanished but he looked all of a nigga who knew how to take care of business. His body was muscular as if he done time in prison at one point in his life. Regardless, this was the man and the reason he ate.
“What you doing here?” Smurf questioned.
Dirty looked at him quizzically like he should know.
“No, I meant here in my apartment.”
“Your apartment?”
“Yeah.”
“I always crash here when I'm in town.” That explained why he had a key. Dirty thought for a minute. “Cuzzo told me to meet you here.”
“Anyway,” Smurf extended his hand. “I'm Dink's right hand. I'm—”
“Smurf,” the man said, still cautious but moreso pissed that a gun was held to his head just seconds ago.
“Right, and I'm the one you'll be dealin' with until further notice,” Smurf smarted back, upset that Dirty cut him off.
Dirty sized Smurf up and wondered if he was as bad as Dink claimed. He didn't look like a ruthless killer but he knew that looks could be deceiving. Dirty knew that Smurf got rid of the weak links in Dink's crew and for that he was glad; but he and Dink put a key player in their operations in a most unexpected place. Now it was time for it to pay off and to take shit to the next level. Dirty walked over to the wet bar, grabbed a glass, clunked two ice cubes in it and poured himself a glass of Absolut. Sitting down on the couch, he swirled his drink in the glass and took a sip.
“I know that Dink is away.”
“So you know what's up?” Smurf asked. He didn't plan on giving any more information than he already had. Smurf felt that not everyone needed to know what was going on, but in Dirty's case, if he and Dink were that cool, he would have already known what the deal was.
“I know it all,” Dirty confirmed, “and you got yo work cut out for you, but first you gotta check that goddamn attitude and get the fuckin ‘base outta yo voice when you dealin with me, son.” Dirty put his glass down on the coffee table and walked over to Smurf who was sitting on the edge of the recliner chair, next to the couch. Catching Smurf off guard, Dirty grabbed him by the collar. “And if you ever point a gun at me again, I'll kill you. Do you understand?”
Smurf didn't answer. He wasn't gonna get punked by Dirty or no other man for that matter. The last man who got in his face was Buck, the nigga who fucked and beat his mama and Smurf blew him to pieces, but he knew he had to control his anger, so it was best he didn't answer, and stick to business at hand.
For the next 30 minutes, Smurf and Dirty talked about the product, price and placement.
“You got your crew in order?” Dirty asked Smurf.
“I got some niggas I been watchin' for a while. I don't trust everyone.”
“That's good,” Dirty told him. “You need to be cautious. But hey, check this out. I got somebody I want you to meet and—”
“I choose my own people,” Smurf told Dirty seriously, cutting him off. “You know I had to clean house on some of Dink's people.”
“Look youngster, we on the same team here,” Dirty confirmed beginning to get irritated with Smurf's stubbornness. “I trust your judgment because my cuzzo trusted you, but if you let me finish, I was gonna say that I'm cool with you steppin' in the way you did.” Dirty shook his head in disbelief about Marco and Dame. “Just meet the man and I trust your judgement. If there's something you don't like, just let me know and we can move on from there. Bet?”
After a momentary pause, Smurf said, “Bet.”
“Well lil nigga, I'll be back later. I been gone for a while, so I wanna see what's up with the hoes. Ya feel me?”
Smurf smiled. Dirty was going to go find some ass and he couldn't hate. “A'ight man,” Smurf laughed. “Handle yo' business.”
4
THE SQUAD CARS AND SPINNING RED LIGHTS, mixed with the blaring summer sun made it almost impossible to see. The turn of events played out in slow motion in front of Tonette's eyes as if it was happening right in front of her.
She looked at Crystal as the police shouted to them. The fear in Crystal's eyes told Tonette they were both in trouble. Tonette looked back at the police who yelled again, “Get on the fucking ground!”
This time, the glare of the sun glistened off the chrome-plated Glocks that were ready to drop their asses at any second.
“I said, drop the fucking gun, goddamnit!” the cop yelled again.
In an instant, the officer who continued to yell charged like a bull toward Tonette. She tried to reach for Crystal, but was tackled to the ground. The big heavy officer had all of his weight on her body and she couldn't breathe.
Tonette put up a good fight, but his strength was too much for her. Next, she heard a popping noise, like something crackling. Then the smell hit her. What the hell, she thought to herself.
“She's all yours,” the cop said in a distorted voice to someone behind her. Tonette tried to look in the direction of the officer but only saw Crystal standing there—her face morphing into something familiar and awful.
“What the hell is going on?” Tonette yelled. The distorted face quickly came into focus. It was one she couldn't forget. Tonette's blood began to boil and she shouted, “I hate you, you bitch! I fuckin hate you!”
The face radiated a beautiful smile, then Shirley Temple curls spiraled to her shoulders.
“I'm-a kill you!” Tonette yelled as she continued to struggle against the cop. She turned her head to look at him. He was now faceless.
In one quick motion, Laci bent down next to Tonette with a crack pipe in her hand, moving it closer to her…urging her to take that first pull.
An annoying sound rang in Tonette's ears. She wrestled frantically from side to side, and then sat up, gasping for breath, her heart rate going a mile a minute. She repeatedly blinked her eyes slowly until her surroundings came into focus. It was all a dream, she said to herself. Just a goddamn dream. Shit!
Tonette was so geeked, she quickly rolled a fat blunt and sat cross-legged in her bed trying to calm down. After a few tokes on the bud, she mellowed, but as she thought about the events that went down over the last couple of months, she became pissed again. Not only was her man, Dame, found dead with his dick cut off and his throat slit from one end to the other, her girl Crystal was killed by the police and her other girl, Monique, was wounded as well.
