The Golden Hustla Read online

  “I need a favor.”

  “I told you I’ma help you move the keys. I figure you need the money to bounce with. I got you.”

  “I know that already. That’s not what I’m talking about. I need another favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I need a gun,” Nina told him.

  Reese was about to protest, but then stopped and nodded in understanding. There was no need for discussion; he knew what the business was. “Are you sure that’s what you want? You sure that’s what you want to do?”

  Without hesitation, Nina replied, “I’m sure. Here.” Handing Reese the keys to her car, she said, “My car is a red 2010 Volkswagen Jetta with chrome 22s on it. It’s parked on the 2000 block on Lanning State Street out in Ewing. You won’t miss it. Get somebody you can trust to drive it, but be careful because the Bloods have to know it’s mine and they may be looking for somebody driving it.

  “The ten bricks are in my trunk. Go in the trunk and lift the whole paneling out to where the spare tire is located. Remove the spare tire cover and the keys are right there. But in the meantime, I have something to do. When it’s finished, I’ma call you and meet you somewhere. I need to ditch both of the cars. I gotta make a call, and if it’s all good, I’ma drop them both off at a friend of mine’s chop shop. Then I have to bounce to somewhere safe until you ready to hit me off with that loot.”

  Reese nodded. “I got you on all that, shorty.” He reached under his shirt and pulled out a chrome handgun. “This is a Sig Sauer 9mm… It’s light, small and just right for you. The clip holds ten bullets. There’s one in the chamber, so that gives you eleven shots.” Reese gave the handgun to Nina. “Be careful, ma. Be careful. Holla at me as soon as you can.”

  Taking the gun and putting it in her purse, Nina nodded her head and without another word she walked into the night.

  Darlene Rojas was a bad bitch and she knew it. She prided herself on being a thorough street chick. Growing up on the mean streets of Newark’s Dayton Street Projects had nurtured her and shaped her into the person she was today. When her mother lost her job and they moved to Trenton, Darlene thought it was the end of the world. But she was exposed to a whole new world. Brian “B-Murder” Mitchell was the be-all and end-all on the streets and he loved her. Or at least that’s what she thought until her world came crashing down one day. Darlene found out that B-Murder had a woman stashed in every part of the city. When she confronted him with what she had found out, he never denied anything and he never said a word. He simply stopped calling her and stopped coming around. Heartbroken and distraught, Darlene tried everything in her power to win back B-Murder’s affections. But nothing seemed to work. Then she met Peedie Coles and decided to let him fill in for the love of her life, until she was able to find a way to get him back. B-Murder just needed a little time, and time seemed to be something she had a lot of lately.

  When she found out about Nina and Derrick getting ready to jack B-Murder’s sister Canada and his mom it was as if heaven opened its gates and rained down manna upon her.

  Darlene took her direct connection to the situation to be a sign that she was meant to be with B-Murder. All it took from her was a lot of deep throating and dick riding to get all the info she needed out of Peedie. Then, like a loyal bitch, she made contact with Murder and confirmed what he said he already knew. But what he didn’t have was the specifics, addresses, etc.,… and she did.

  Turning onto her street, Darlene eyed the yellow tape that still lined the area where the girl she barely knew had been killed. Luck was one twisted sister, Darlene thought to herself. Death had eluded the person that it was meant for that day and had found another soul to take. Parking her car, she thought about all the questions the police had asked her as she played the role of the distraught girlfriend to the fullest. She hadn’t answered not one. Darlene walked up her front stairs and saw all the blood that had dried up on her porch and promised herself that she’d remember to put the high-power water hose on the porch tomorrow to wash the blood away. But it would have to wait until after she left B-Murder. Excitement washed over Darlene as she walked into her house. She had forty-five minutes to shower and dress and then the moment she had been waiting almost three years for would come. She was about to meet and spend the night with B-Murder. And she couldn’t wait.

  Hitting the light on the wall, Darlene walked into her living room and almost jumped out of her skin. “What the…? Nina?”

  “Hey, Darlene.”

  “Nina, what the fuck? How did you get in here? Why are you here?”

  “I let myself in. I hope you don’t mind. I had to see you before I left. Why you lookin’ all shocked?”

  “No, I thought you was gone,” Darlene said as she tried to play it cool.

  “I’m on my way out but I gotta right one wrong before I leave town. All my life, Darlene, I have been a hustla. Going from one hustle to the next. But I never thought that one day I’d become a killer.”

  Darlene’s eyes dropped to Nina’s hand and saw the gun. Fear ripped her heart and squeezed it. “Killer? You? Who did you kill, Nina?”

  “You, Darlene. For betraying my brother Peedie, my brother Derrick and me.” With that, Nina raised the gun and shot Darlene repeatedly in the face.

  Exiting the house the way she came, through the back door, Nina ran quickly down the alley. She came out onto the street and walked calmly back to the Rover. What Nina didn’t see was the cream-colored Infiniti M35 that was parked three cars behind her. As she pulled off, the Infiniti waited awhile and then pulled behind her.

  After getting rid of both cars, Reese and Nina drove to a hotel in a town called King of Prussia, located on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Reese made sure she was safe and situated, then he left. But not before he asked for the gun back. Without a word exchanged between them, he ejected the clip and saw it was only half full. His eyes met hers and that was it.

  Stretching out on the bed, Nina allowed herself a moment’s rest. She was dog tired. She was also relieved, angry and stricken with grief. The first thing she did was take a long, hot shower and wash her hair. Standing under the steaming spray of water, she decided to talk to God. “I know I’m probably the last person you thought would be reaching out to you, but it’s me. I know I do a lot of sinful stuff but I just wanna ask you to look out for my big brother Peedie and my brother Derrick. Please forgive him and my girl Michelle for the lives they lived. It wasn’t easy growing up in Jersey. And please, please, take care of Peedie. Help him heal from all his wounds mentally and physically. But most of all, forgive me for the life I took and pray that I never, ever, have to take another. Do this for me and I promise you I’ma get my life together. Amen. Oh! And take care of my kids while I’m gone. I know you are going to do that.”

  When she was done, Nina turned the water off and wrapped herself in a towel. She brushed her teeth and then sat on the bed. Nina lay back and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind was cluttered and kept flashing with everything that happened over the past week or so. Ending with the phone call to her mother, who told her that Peedie was in critical condition, but he was expected to live. That news in itself was like an invisible weight lifted off her chest. But still she cried for Michelle and for Derrick. Grabbing the pillow from the other side of the bed, Nina covered her face and screamed into it as if she were being tortured.

  Her stomach knotted up when she thought about her three children that she would have to leave behind. The longest she had ever been away from them was a couple of weeks. The thought of her babies, along with the rest of her drama, had her bawling like a baby. But what hurt the most was the fact that she wouldn’t even be able to attend the funerals of the two people closest to her. And their deaths were all her fault. Nina rationalized that Derrick’s death was her fault because had she not gone after him about the money he took from her house, the caper with Canada and her mom would probably have never happened. The death of D-Rock and Michelle was a rude awakening, and she swore t
hat after the ten keys were sold she was walking the straight and narrow.

  Thinking about the kilos of coke made her remember where she’d got them. After D’s death, Nina finalized her plan to leave Jersey for a while. And since everything she had had burned down in her house, she had to hit a lick to come up with the going-away money she would need to live outside of Jersey. That’s when she remembered her ex-boyfriend’s stash. Cream kept no less than fifty to one hundred keys stored in a public storage space, and she was the only one who knew where it was. Getting into the storage space without a key had been easy. She had been there enough for the dude who worked the desk to be familiar with her. After a little flirting and a promise to hook up behind her man’s back, she was in. Nina had planned on taking only one or two kilos, but when she thought about the reasons that she and Cream were no longer together, she decided to get back a little and hurt his pockets at the same time. She grabbed ten keys and left. Later that night she hooked up with the dude who worked at the storage spot, sucked his dick until he begged her to stop and gave him a promise of more to come that would fortify his silence about her trip to the storage space.

  Nina then contacted Reese to put him to the test. He had told her that if she ever needed anything to call him. She needed him now more than ever.

  After two days, Nina was well rested and getting restless. Yesterday she walked across the highway to the movie theater and she started to do it again today but Reese called and said he would be coming through.

  Reese. She barely knew him, and everything she learned about him was from their few but lengthy phone conversations. He had been relentlessly trying to get with her but she was focused on getting everything together for this move. She kept giving him rain check after rain check and still he never stopped trying. But when it came down to it Nina trusted him and just as she anticipated he came to her rescue and he wanted nothing in return.

  It was almost eight and she was bored shitless. Nina had taken another shower, threw on some sweatpants and a wife-beater. She ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut and was getting ready to call them and cuss them out. She placed the order at seven and here it was eight and they were just knocking on the door to deliver. She decided to make them wait. Finally, she went to the door and snatched it open. Nina looked up and Reese was standing there wearing a sexy grin, a pair of jeans, a gray Versace sweater, a black leather vest and a pair of black Mauri gators. He caught her completely by surprise.

  “Hey.” She eased over to where he was and kissed him on the check, surprising herself. Did I really do that? He took both hands, pulled her to him and kissed her on the mouth. That surprised her as well. His tongue and mouth tasted like peppermint. Nina, in a panic, was the first to break the kiss. She just stood there in the doorway looking at him.

  “What? I can’t come in?” Reese teased, looking down at Nina. Beneath all of that toughness, she was incredibly sexy and childlike to him.

  She looked at him and stepped back. “Of course you can come in.”

  His bald head glistened and his smile let her know that things were going as planned. “I was beginning to think that you forgot all about me,” she said seductively.

  “Never that, shorty. I told you I got you.” He closed the door and put the chain on. “You all right?”

  There was another knock at the door and Nina saw Reese’s hand slide behind his back.

  “Stand down, baby boy. I ordered pizza. It’s only the pizza guy,” she told him as she went and opened the door. He still kept his hand behind his back until he was positive it was just the pizza delivery.

  “Well damn, I thought y’all had to go to Italy to bake the pizza,” she snapped. “How much do I owe you?”

  “Sorry about that, ma’am,” the young white girl said. “They told me to deliver to the hotel next door. That’s where I went first, but that’ll be sixteen dollars and forty cents.”

  Nina gave the girl a twenty-dollar bill and snatched her pizza and soda. She then slammed the door and slid the chain back on.

  Reese watched her set the pizza down and then go sit on the edge of the bed.

  “Is everything all right with you?” she asked him.

  “Oh, we good, shorty.” Reese took off his jacket and hung it up. He moved towards the bed, unzipping the compartments on the vest and allowing the stacks of money to fall onto the bed. “That’s the whole two hundred stacks. Count it if you want, but it’s all there. Now you can bounce whenever you want to. That shit went so fast it scared me. When all this shit blows over, you gonna have to introduce me to your connect. If he keep that fish scale like that, he is definitely somebody I need to know. Feel me?”

  “I feel you and you got that,” Nina lied. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this.” Breathing a sigh of relief, she grabbed one bag at a time and emptied it. The bag contained ten stacks of big-face hundreds. Emptying the second bag, she saw it contained ten stacks of money.

  “That’s twenty stacks altogether, shorty. Ten grand a stack. Go ’head and count it. TRUST NO MAN, NINA. NOT EVEN ME.”

  Reese and Nina sat on the bed and began counting the money. Nina stopped counting periodically to look at him. After a while, he caught her stealing glances. He smiled mischievously and kept counting.

  “Yo, what’s up? Why you just smile at me like that?” Nina asked.

  Reese ignored her and kept counting stacks. After he finished counting all the money, he took off the vest and went to hang it up. He looked over at Nina and said, “You look like you need a hug. Come here.”

  “I’m okay,” she said. He looked at her again, thinking about how vulnerable she was.

  “Come here.” When she didn’t move, he went over to the bed and grabbed her hand. He pulled her up, wrapping his arms around her. “What?”

  She stood there limp, arms hanging loosely by her sides. “I’m okay,” she mumbled.

  “No you’re not. You damn near ripped the poor delivery girl’s head off. You order pizza and leave it sitting there untouched. You were sitting over there on the bed with a blank look staring out into space somewhere. Plus, you’ve been cooped up in this room for damn near four days.”

  “I went to the movies yesterday,” she protested.

  Reese started laughing. “Wow! The movies,” he replied, teasing her.

  “What’s so funny about that?” She was now smiling. That was the first time she actually saw him laugh.

  “You need a hug.” The way he said it gave her goose bumps and made her shiver. “It’s all good. I got you.” He pulled her close and began rubbing up and down her back as he held her tight. She closed her eyes and surrendered to his embrace. It was feeling so welcoming she couldn’t help but wrap her arms around his back, releasing a soft moan.

  “See, I told you, you needed this,” he said in that same seductive tone as he slid one of his strong hands down and began massaging her ass. Her heart fluttered, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. She wanted to ask him what he was doing. But he leaned in and kissed her. The kiss was commanding so she couldn’t help but to kiss him back. His kiss was wet, sweet and silky smooth.

  She pulled back and said, “So I needed my ass felt on along with a kiss?” She turned around to walk back to the bed but he grabbed her from behind and held her close so she could feel his dick harden as one hand circled her nipple and the other hand slid down the inside of her sweats. His fingertips rubbed across her pussy back and forth.

  Later for the kiss.

  “Feeling how wet you are I can also tell that you need some of this dick.”

  “Reese, you don’t want to go there,” she teased.

  “Yes I do. And why wouldn’t I?” He was massaging her tits and playing inside her pussy while her ass was subtly rocking side to side, grinding against his hard-on and on his fingers.

  Her surrender gave him the green light to move forward.

  “Shorty, you know you ready for this so why you frontin’?” His fingers slid out of her warm pussy and went to
her clit. She spread her legs wider and a moan escaped her throat.

  “See, I told you,” he whispered in her ear. He played and mashed on her swollen clit, causing her knees to buckle and cum to squirt in his hand as her trembling body fell back into his. He pulled her wife-beater up over her head and turned her around. She unzipped his jeans, slid them and his boxers down off of his ass and got on her knees. His dick sprung out, tapping against her cheek. “He’s glad to finally meet you.”

  She grabbed on to it and licked the head. Reese watched as his joint disappeared into her mouth and then reappeared again. She went back and forth, teasing the head and said, “I don’t think you’re ready for this.” She swallowed him up.

  “I damn sure ain’t.” He grabbed her head, ready to fuck her mouth but she seductively and slowly slid her lips away. The veins on his dick looked as if they were about to pop. His dick was standing straight out. “Oh, so you got jokes.”

  Nina stood up and slid her sweats down over her hips and to the floor. “Ladies before gentlemen. I gots to get mine first.”

  Reese got out of his clothes and shoes as if he was on a mission. Nina went over to the bed and climbed on all fours. “Uh-uh, that’s too easy. You said you want to get yours, right? Come over here.” He motioned to the recliner. “Do you, lil’ mama.”

  Nina climbed up on it, placing one knee on each armrest, leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the back of the chair. Reese came up behind her and allowed his dick to slide across her pussy. He went back and forth, teasing and stimulating her clit with the head of his dick. “Reese, stop playing.” Nina groaned, unable to move in the position that she was in. Shit. She wasn’t in control. She needed to be in command of the dick. He kept sliding back and forth, getting her wetter and wetter. Her teeth bit down into the chair before he plunged up into her. “Ohhhh,” she moaned, her juices were sliding down her thighs. “Oh shit,” she gritted. “This feels so good,” she panted.