The Golden Hustla

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  “I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY KILLED HIM.

  I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT SHIT.”

  “Who killed who?” Cream lazily asked.

  “Rinaldo. He killed him. The man on the news,” Nina said, still in shock. “This fool is now murdering people.”

  “Look at me.” Cream grabbed Nina by her chin. “Act like you don’t know shit. I need you to keep working as usual until I get with some people.”

  “You done lost your mind! That cracker ain’t nobody to mess with. He is obviously connected.”

  Cream jumped up and slapped her. Nina fell onto the bed, and he grabbed her by her throat.

  “Girl, did you not hear a word I just said?” he yelled. Nina nodded her head yes, trying to blink the tears away. She had seen Cream lose it before, but this was scary. He was acting like her keeping this job was life or death.

  “I need you to continue working until I figure out how I’m gonna get this cracker for a whole lotta cake. Do you understand? You owe me, bitch. You owe me…”

  To all the dedicated readers of

  Wahida Clark books. There would be no me

  without you. Thank You.

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE AFTERMATH

  Nina! Nina! Wake the fuck up!” Michelle snapped at Nina as she shook her frantically. “Your face is all twisted up and shit. You sweatin’ and slobbin’ all over my seats.”

  Nina stared at Michelle with a look of horror and confusion on her face.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? The devil ridin’ your back or some shit like that?”

  “Shit!” Nina ran both hands across her face and jumped out of the Rover.

  Michelle jumped out and stood watching Nina pace back and forth.

  “Damn, that shit was real as hell. Shit!” Nina kept repeating as she continued to pace, trying her damnedest to make sense of the dream she just had. She couldn’t stop the visual from playing in her head. It was as if it were playing in 3-D.

  “Look,” Michelle snapped, not giving a fuck about her girl being shook up. “It’s hot as fuck out here. What we gonna do now? Did you get in touch with Reese yet?” Michelle asked as she walked around the truck to where Nina was and stood in front of her.

  Nina looked her best friend over and wanted to grab her and kiss her, relieved that the dream was just that, a dream, but decided against it. Then she looked over at her brother Peedie, who had just come out of his girlfriend Darlene’s house and was headed up the block. Damn, that dream was real as shit.

  “Nina! Did you get in touch with Reese yet?” Michelle saw the blank look on Nina’s face and was getting agitated. “Did you talk to the nigga or what?” she snapped.

  “Damn, chill, bitch. Let me get my thoughts together.” At the moment Nina was having a hard time determining what was real and what wasn’t. Damn. Did I just talk to him? She tried to shake it off. That shit seemed so real. Michelle now had her arms folded across her chest and was leaning up against the truck. She was beginning to piss Nina off. “Trick, why you in such a hurry? It ain’t like you got somewhere to be.”

  Michelle sucked her teeth. “Bitch, I don’t want you to leave and the closer you get to making that move, the sadder I feel. Okay? There. I said it.”

  “Awww. Big bad Chelle is feelin’ lonely,” Nina teased her.

  “Nina, did you talk to him or what?”

  “I talked to him. He told me that he can move the coke in as little as two days and have the money for me by Thursday.”

  “Thursday, huh? That nigga gonna move ten keys in two days? I don’t know, Nina. Get your head outta that cloud you were just on. Do you think he can be trusted?”

  Nina gave Michelle’s question some thought. “I think so. That nigga’s pockets already laced, Chelle, plus up until this point he hasn’t given a reason not to. And with all this shit on my shoulders and a mark on my back I don’t have too many choices. Hopefully he won’t try to beat a bitch out of a puck-ass two hundred grand.”

  “Bitch, you know how them New York niggas get down. Them niggas put the capital C in ‘cruddy.’ Plus, two hundred grand is two hundred grand. But fuck it. Like Lil Wayne said, ‘Life is like a gamble when you all about your poker chips.’ If you trust that nigga, so do I. I just hope he comes through for you. Did you tell him who the keys belong to or how you got ’em?”

  “Come on, Chelle, you know me better than that. I’ma hustler. I don’t let my right hand know what my left hand is doing. Just handle your part, aiight. You see Peedie up there sittin’ on the fire hydrant?”

  Michelle glanced up the block. “Yeah, I see him. And all I’m supposed to do is go and get the keys to your car from him, right?”

  Nina nodded her head.

  “Do Peedie know you got ten bricks hid in your trunk?” When Nina didn’t respond, Michelle had her answer. “Aiight, damn. Let me go get them car keys because I know you fucked up about Derrick and everything that’s going on, but your attitude is vexing me. I’ll be right back.” Michelle rolled her eyes at Nina and headed for Peedie.

  Nina jumped back into the truck, cranked it up and turned on the air. She lay back on the headrest and closed her eyes for a minute. Michelle was right. Her attitude was kinda shitty, but what did people expect? She was officially the target of a citywide hunt. And her younger brother Derrick “D-Rock” Coles had just been shot and killed only a few days ago by the very same people that were hunting her. I need some dro, Nina said to herself and exhaled. When she opened her eyes, alarm registered in her brain quickly.

  A candy apple red Dodge Viper with two dudes inside with red bandanas covering their mouth and nose stopped a few feet in front of her. Nina lowered herself in her seat but noticed that the Viper occupants’ attention was elsewhere. Nina tried her best to follow their gazes. Her heart stopped momentarily as her eyes settled on the only two people standing on one side of the block… Peedie and Michelle. Just as that dream registered in her brain, the Dodge Viper began to creep up the block.

  “No-o-o-o-o-o!” Nina screamed as the assault rifle came out of the window. As if riveted to her seat, Nina watched in horror as fire erupted from the rifle along with the sound of rapid-fire gunshots. Eyes glued to the scene in front of her, Nina watched bullets rip into Michelle’s body and twist her in grotesque angles before she dropped to the ground and lay still. Her eyes saw the movement of her brother Peedie ducking and running. He made it through the gate and onto his girlfriend Darlene’s porch. Peedie banged on the door as the Viper moved slowly down the block until it stopped right in front of the redbrick house. Bullets tore into Peedie’s back as he slid down the door to the ground. Then with tires smoking, the Viper dipped and raced down the block at full speed.

  “Peedie! Chelle!” With tears streaming down her cheeks, a scream escaped from her throat and came upward. “N-O-O-O-O-O!”

  It took Nina a minute to gather herself and scale back the sobs that escaped her body every few seconds. Opening the truck door, she quickly ran over to Michelle. Her best friend was gone, lifeless. Puddles of blood pooled all around her.

  “I’m so sorry, Chelle. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me,” Nina whispered as she leaned down and kissed her best friend’s forehead.

  A noise startled her. Nina noticed the sound of an agonizing scream. Peedie. Rising quickly, Nina ran up the block to Darlene’s house, where her brother lay sprawled out on the porch. He screamed again. It was primal. The scream of a wounded beast in the wild. Dropping to her knees, Nina looked into Peedie’s eyes. He was crying.

  “I’m hit bad, Nina. A-a-a-r-r-gh! It hurts so bad! A-a-r-r-g-g-h-h!!”

  Nina d
idn’t know what to do, so she pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. “Please hurry! Two people have been shot. Please hurry to 2000 block of Lanning in Ewing Township. Hurry!” Nina closed her phone and said, “Hold on, Peedie, help is coming. You hear me? Don’t you die on me,” she pleaded with him.

  “Go—leave! Get out of town, Nina. Before the—ar-r-gh!—they find you. Your car keys.” Peedie looked down at his hand.

  Nina saw the keys to her Jetta in her brother’s hand were covered in blood. She took them from his grasp. Sirens blared in the distance. Nina knew that she had to leave now or stay and face the cops. And that she could not do. “Hold on, Peedie, baby! Don’t you dare die on me, I need you! I’ma come back soon. Be here when I get back, please!”

  “Go! Get the fuck away!” Peedie said and then lay still.

  Nina got up and ran back to Michelle’s Range Rover. She wiped tears from her eyes as she started the truck. “I’m sorry,” she repeated over and over as she pulled off and raced into the night.

  “Where are you at right now?” Nina bellowed into the phone.

  “Hey, calm down, ma. I’m puttin’ in work. What’s up?”

  “I’ll tell you when you get here. I need you now. Right now. I’m on the corner of Dean and West State. There’s a gold Altima coupe parked on the street. Park behind it and walk towards the pizza shop. I’ll be here waiting for you.”

  “Aiight, one,” Reese said and disconnected the call.

  Two hours later, Nina saw a silver Lexus LX truck pull behind Michelle’s Rover. She walked out of the shadows and headed towards it. She was relieved when she saw Reese jump out and she damn near ran to meet him. They embraced, and at that moment time seemed to be standing still. She settled into his masculine arms and inhaled his scent. Nina tried, but couldn’t place the cologne. She felt safe in his arms. If only for a little while. Choking back sobs, Nina said, “Thank you for coming.”

  “I told you I got you, ma. What’s good with you? Did some nigga hurt you?” He was looking her over.

  Nina started to respond, but the sheer weight of everything that had transpired over the course of the past four days hit her and she broke down. Reese held her in his arms and gently stroked her hair. He let her cry herself out while patiently waiting to hear about whatever was bothering her. He had been handling some business in Brooklyn when he got her call telling him she needed him right now. Dropping everything, Reese was up for some new pussy, so when it called he came running.

  “Listen, ma. It’s going to be aiight.”

  “It’s not gonna be all right,” Nina screamed suddenly. “Don’t say that. You don’t even know the half of it.”

  “Okay. Okay. Listen, Nina, you gotta tell me what’s wrong, ma. If you want me to help you, I gotta know what’s good, feel me? So wipe your eyes and tell me what’s going on. Tell me everything and don’t leave nothing out.”

  Nina composed herself as best she possibly could, took a few steps back from Reese and started at the beginning. “Almost two weeks ago, I came home to find my house burglarized, ransacked, I mean, tore the fuck up. Before I could file a police report, my neighbors described a nigga who turned out to be my brother, described him to a T leaving my house. He stole what I called my ‘Lord Have Mercy’ fund. In other words, it was my rainy-day money. Derrick breaks in my shit and takes my money, not thinking that I’ma find out it was him. I went looking for his ass and confronted him about my shit. That’s the day I met you. A few days later he shows up at my front door. When I wouldn’t let him in he broke down, cried me a fistful of tears and promised to make everything right. My heart was broke, but hey, that’s my little brother. So I let him in against my better judgement. D-Rock then got all excited and shit, telling me that he had a way to get my stash back plus give me an extra ten stacks for my troubles. He knew a chick named Canada—”

  “D-Rock… Canada… where did I…?” Reese interrupted. Scratching his head, he tried to recall where he had heard those names before.

  “What?” Nina asked with a suspicious look on her face.

  “Nothing. It’ll come to me. Go ’head with the story.”

  “This chick named Canada and her mom, Serita, had some checks worth about a hundred grand that they were trying to cash in. D-Rock knew that checks and shit was right up my alley, so he arranged to hook us up. After the introduction and agreement was made, I cashed the checks and then when we go to take her the money, boom. My brother and his boys would rob ’em. That was the plan. I didn’t know the chick Canada or her mom, Serita, from a can of paint, so I was like, fuck it, let’s do this.

  “So the day after, D introduced me to the chick and then we went to handle our business. Everything went according to plan as far as cashing the checks, and then shit went bad real fast. After we handled the business, me and my girl got ghost so D-Rock and his boys could handle theirs. I then get a call from my brother to come get him. He was all shot up but he still had some money. We dropped him off at the ER. Later that night, we found out that Canada’s mom and my brother had died. It was all over the local news. I was trying not to panic, and kept telling myself that there was no way anything could be traced back to us. And the twenty-five grand my brother gave me made me feel a lot better. I thought that everything would blow over, you know? A woman and a feen getting robbed and killed in Trenton… that shit ain’t nothing new.

  “I knew the cops would be sniffing around and we figured that they were all we had to fear. Boy, was we wrong. We all were so wrong. The next day, while coming out of a house on Tyler Street, my brother’s boy Blue was gunned down. Blue was with D that night but he got away. He must have been running his mouth. The streets got to talking and then word got back. The chick Canada had told her brother about the lick. The brother was the one who gave her the checks. When Canada’s mom got killed, he put two and two together and came up with Derrick and me. Out of all the chicks to kill in the hood they had to go and kill a chick whose brother is the leader of one of the Blood gangs in the city. Ilhawn Inglewood Bloods or something like that. He put out a ‘red’ light on us. After that I went to my best friend Michelle’s house and hid out.

  “The next thing I knew, somebody set my house on fire. I lost everything, Reese. My kids’ shit. My shit. The money, everything. I had to go get my car from my brother Peedie today so that I could leave town. Are you able to move those bricks? I gotta raise some more cash so that I can bounce.”

  “You said ten, right? Why, what’s up? They got burned up too?”

  “There’s a small problem,” Nina said with hesitation.

  “What’s up?”

  “The keys are hidden in the trunk of my car. My brother’s been driving it and don’t…. didn’t know that…”

  “Who, Derrick?” Reese asked.

  “No… my other brother. The oldest one. Peedie. Me and my girl Michelle went to Peedie’s girlfriend Darlene’s house out in Ewing to get my car so that I could get the keys for you.” At that point, Nina choked up again and her tears started anew. “We pulled up on the block. Michelle was driving… that’s her truck over there… the Rover. I stayed in the car while she went to get the keys to my car from Peedie. I saw the red Viper turn the corner… they killed my best friend… they shot Peedie. I don’t even know if he’s dead or alive right now,” Nina said and wiped tears from her eyes. “I called an ambulance for him and left him there. I left him there… Peedie might be…”

  Reese walked over to Nina and said, “Peedie… D-Rock… Darlene… Canada. Small world, small world.”

  Puzzled, Nina looked into Reese’s eyes. There was something there. The expression on his face was speaking louder than words. “What is it? Why did you say it’s a small world?”

  “I was in Brownsville a few days ago, at a gambling spot on Prospect. The spot was full of Blood niggas—Nine Trey gangstas out of Harlem, I believe. They had a nigga with them that I had never seen. But I remember hearing the nigga say he was from Jersey. I overheard the nigga tellin
g the other dudes about a situation they were dealing with. He mentioned a dude named B-Murder’s mom and sister Canada getting robbed. The name Canada stuck in my head. He said something about a bitch and her brother D-Rock that they killed. Then he mentioned a dude named Peedie and…” Reese paused as the whole conversation that he heard slowly came back to him. “Damn, shorty. It all just came back to me. Didn’t you say that Peedie’s girlfriend’s name is Darlene?”

  Nina paused. She felt like she just gave him too much information. “Yeah, that’s her name.”

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Darlene is connected to the Blood niggas in some kinda way. The Jersey nigga told the other nigga that Darlene’s been helping the homies and that she was going to set up Peedie for them.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive, shorty. When you mentioned your brother Peedie getting shot, that brought all the recollection back to me. I remembered thinking that the bitch Darlene that dude spoke of was a dirty, shiesty bitch. I’m definitely sure about what I heard. I’m sorry about your brother, but I never connected any of that to you because the dude never said your name.”

  The world was spinning now at a different angle for Nina and she felt dizzy, light-headed. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Darlene had a hand in all of this shit. The botched robbery and Peedie being shot. Hell, they had planned on taking D-Rock out from the jump. Why didn’t they kill me? They couldn’t because I didn’t stick around like we had originally planned. As the realization set in, the picture became that much clearer. Now everything made sense. Reese’s revelation explained how the Bloods knew to catch Derrick. He had to have told Peedie his whereabouts and Peedie unknowingly had to have told Darlene. Darlene knew where she lived, that’s how the Bloods knew where she rested at. Thus her house being burned down. Darlene didn’t know where Michelle lived. Then Darlene must have told them that Peedie was outside her house at that exact moment… wait. Nina focused all her attention back a few hours ago, when she was sitting in the Rover watching the Dodge Viper. The two dudes in the car with the red bandanas over half their faces… the driver was doing something that she hadn’t noticed at first, but it came back to her now. While both men had been looking down the block, the driver was holding something to his ear… a cell phone. Right before Peedie and Michelle were shot, the driver of the Viper was on the phone talking to Darlene. A rage that was totally unknown to Nina came over her and settled. It was like a fire that was consuming her body and soul. She knew exactly what she had to do.