Hood (10 page)

Bacardi and a O.J.!

Got me in my zone, eh!

Ready to touch something,

Mami please gimme the okay!

IT WAS LATE
night in Brownsville and the streets were just going quiet. They would stay that way for less than three hours, then the cycle of work and play, hustle and grind, would start all over again.

Egypt lay in her bed waiting. Xan’s crew had hung out in the shop later than usual so Hood was probably still down there. With her eyes wide open Egypt thought about all the things she wanted to do in life, and all the places she wanted to see. She thought about the boy she loved too, and tingled inside as she anticipated what the rest of the night held in store for them.

About thirty minutes passed, and after Fat Daddy’s snores had been rocking the apartment for a good minute, Egypt heard a faint tapping sound. She answered the door for Hood and let him inside. They tiptoed back into her bedroom quietly, then Egypt giggled as she opened her closet door and pulled him deep inside.

“I luh this pussy,” Hood panted in the darkness as he slobbered and kissed all over her collarbone. He helped her pull her shirt over her head, then threw it to the floor. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her fourteen-year-old titties was still small, but very firm.

His fingers found her zipper and lowered it. She moved like a snake as she wiggled out of her jeans. The muscles in her stomach curled under his hand, and he had the urge to stick his tongue inside her navel. She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties and slid them down until they were halfway off her hips. Hood pulled them the rest of the way down, his fingers touching the wet fabric of her crotch that was soaked through with her early juices.

Bending over to help her step out of her panties, his nose picked up the scent of her heated sticky and he couldn’t wait to get into it. Fuck Fat Daddy snoring in the room next door. Hood was about to give his baby girl some real good dick up in this closet. Already he could feel his nut rising and he pressed himself against her body grinding slowly, his wood hard enough to poke a hole in her leg.

He nibbled up her neck and she parted her lips, sucking his tongue. Hood gripped her long chocolate thighs, spreading them as wide as he could. He moved his hardness between her damp thighs without inserting it. Just playing with the pussy as her clit dripped with liquid sugar.

“Oooh, yeah.” His hands cupped the high, round muscles of her ass cheeks and he pushed his rock against her. Hard. Harder.

“Suck my nipples,” she demanded, and he did. Licked them two chocolate buds like there was honey running out of them.

“Now put it in,” Egypt whispered after helping him slide into a condom. She threw her head back, knocking clothes down and clanging hangers against the wall as Hood guided his dick deep inside her wet gushy.

Holding tight to her ass, he beat that thing up real good. She moaned on his tongue as they both whispered words of love. He stroked it proper, and pounded it up into her as she screamed and her young juices wet up his pubic hair and ran down his balls.

“I love you, Egypt,” he told her from the heart, then backed off as she reached for the bottom of his shirt and yanked it up over his head.

“Yeah,” he whispered as she held him to her, the sensation of her naked breasts pressed against his heart the best damn feeling in the world. “I love you, baby.” He started stroking again. Gentle. Slow pull outward, then nice deep thrust inward. “You know that right? I’ma always take good care of you, baby. You ain’t gotta worry ’bout a damn thing.”

Egypt responded by clamping her pussy muscles down on him and sighing. She wrapped her long legs around his back as he hoisted her in his arms, then held onto him like he was the only damn thing keeping her on the face of the earth.

With his dick in her up to the hilt, Hood lost it. He bounced her ass up a few times, and her breasts jiggled. Heat and the scent of sex rose between their bodies and her nipples glided across his sweat-coated chest, sending his nut rushing up out of his balls.

His dick jerked and spit, and Egypt screamed out her love, coming hard as her pussy muscles spasmed uncontrollably. Hood waited until she was through and then lowered her until she was standing again.

He kissed her forehead and laughed. “I bet you wasn’t worrying about Fat Daddy hearing you just now, was you?”

“Hell no! Besides, if he had heard us fuckin in his house he woulda snatched both of us out this closet by now.”

Hood smirked in the darkness. “I keep telling you I ain’t scared of your daddy. This my pussy all sticky between your legs, girl. Mine. Not even your father can tell me shit about that. It’s mine.”

Egypt smiled. She liked the way Hood claimed her body and her heart. If it ever came down to it she knew he would walk straight through a wall of fire over her and she would do the same for him. She loved Lamont. With every bit of her young, tender heart, she loved him.

So what she had lied to Zena and Lamont didn’t plan to see any more of the world than what was right before his eyes? There was nothing he seemed to be passionate about at all, other than moving those lips and composing mad rap lines, or his far-out dreams of joining forces with his man Reem Raw and owning a record company, a mansion, and an NBA franchise one day. It was his his strength that she admired. The way he handled the curves life threw at him with a straight back and squared shoulders, like a real man should. All that other street shit she had learned to accept about him, and she was confident that once he saw her in college and pursuing a real career, he’d hop on it and get busy too. But in the meantime she was cool with things the way they were. It was kinda nice knowing she had a street baller with a powerful reputation who would eat out the palm of her hand just as quickly as he’d lick out the center of her pussy.

But a few minutes later Lamont surprised her as they sat together on the warm radiator and looked out of her bedroom window. The streetlight was bright outside and the cool air felt good on her face even as the iron radiator grooves dug into the back of her legs. They gazed down at the street below as the el train roared overhead, zooming down its shiny silver tracks.

A just-fucked peace had settled down over both of them and Egypt was startled when Lamont jumped up and stuck his whole head out the window, then cursed loudly.

“What?” Egypt asked. She followed his gaze, then looked up at him and froze. A wall of stone had slid down over Lamont’s face. The only sign of emotion she could detect was the deep pain that shone in his eyes. Moo had been dead for over two years, and this was one of the sporadic sightings they’d had of Marjay. She was an all-out fiend now who stayed in and out of jail, and Egypt wasn’t sure if the woman even knew her baby was gone.

Egypt looked back down at the street below and sighed as they watched Marjay come around the corner, running from a cop. The man caught her easily and twisted her arm behind her, then forced her to the ground. The faint sound of clanking buttons rose to their ears as Marjay tussled with all her might, and Egypt couldn’t bear to watch as the cop’s partner pulled up in a patrol car and got out to help him. The first cop picked Marjay up by the back of her jacket and flung her inside the car as soon as his partner opened the door. Seconds later they drove off toward the precinct with her wilding out and kicking on the back window.

“C’mon,” Egypt urged Lamont, pulling him back inside. She closed the window then shifted her position until she was sitting on his lap. “It’s okay,” she whispered, stroking his rigid face. “It’s okay, baby. They gone let her sleep it off and then they gone let her go like they usually do. Really, everything is gonna be all right.”

The glow from the streetlight spilled into the room casting radiance over his features, and the tears she saw him trying hard to fight were heartbreaking.

“Nah, it ain’t all right,” Lamont finally said, wiping his eyes with his arm. Egypt pulled him down to the floor and cradled his stiff body. Yeah, her man was a stone-cold street thug, but it touched her soul that he still had a tender place in his heart for his mother.

“They need to keep her ass in jail because as long as she on that shit ain’t nothing never gonna be all right.”

“Baby, don’t say that,” she urged, taking his hand. She’d never known her own mother but that didn’t stop her from missing her and feeling Mont’s pain.

He snatched away from her. “I lost Moo behind her craziness, Egypt. Because of her suckin on a pipe, me and my brother stayed out there on them streets! Cold. Walking. Scrambling. I lost my baby brother, but she lost her fuckin son. And what makes it so bad is that she didn’t even notice.”

Egypt took his hand again and held it tightly, but she had to agree. “In a game like this,
everybody
loses, Mont. There ain’t no winners on these streets. Just losers, baby.”

“I know,” he said, sounding almost like a little boy again. “But I just wish she could get clean, ya dig. I want her clean. I just want her clean! What kinda chick puts a fuckin crack pipe in her mouth anyway, E? Tell me what it takes to make a woman do that kinda shit because I just don’t fuckin get it.”

Egypt shrugged. “It’s this street life, Mont,” she said. She kept her voice low and gentle, but that didn’t stop the truth from ringing out clearly in her words. “I guess anybody can fall victim to it. I mean, we gotta keep it real, baby. You out there slinging the same shit your mother craves. You even selling it to other people’s moms. You think the pipe can only get hold of strangers, and the people you love and care about gone be immune to that shit? This is real-world poison we talking about, Lamont. It produces mass casualties, baby. And what you’re doing out on these streets is a big part of all that.”

“I know,” Hood said. Yeah, he had a big hand in the drug game and the guilt was definitely there. He took a deep breath and the set of his jaw looked harder than concrete. “But I’d give up everything, the slanging, the clothes, the jewels, the fuckin status and the long papers just to have her off the pipe and Moo back in my life. ’Cause this shit didn’t have to happen, E. My fam was rolling before she picked up that glass dick. Even with my pops gone, we was still rolling.”

He raised his head and looked Egypt full in the face. “I ain’t gone never forgive her for being so fuckin stupid and so fuckin weak. For loving that shit more than she loved Moo. More than she loved me. Never! No bitch should let herself rot so low in the gutter that she jumps totally out of pocket just to worship a little piece of rock! I’m telling you, E, no matter how much piff I pass, or how much yay I sling, I’ll never understand a bitch who puts her lips on a pipe. Never!”

Before death grabs me,

God please hold me,

I’m done with the days of saying my soul’s lonely…

TIME FLIES IN
the hood when you’re making money, and six years after coming on board with Xanbar, Hood and everybody else associated with Xanbar’s crew was yanking in plenty of doe. The drug business was booming and Xan was looking to diversify his holdings, eyeing other areas where he could make his money work for him. He’d had a long run holding down the streets of Brownsville, and like most good gangstas he knew that the sweet shit wasn’t gonna last forever. The way Xan saw it, he could either get knocked and sent upstate or get caught out there by some hungry young come up who felt his time on the throne had passed. Or, and this was his favorite scenario, he could score one more big win and retire somewhere down south like a fat muhfucka living in a house made of cake.

His mind was in business attack mode when he called Hood down to Baller’s Paradise to have a little chat.

“Dig,” he said, nodding to the barmaid who had just brought two shots over to his private booth. “You been with me for a long minute now,” Xan said swirling his finger around in his shotglass. “You was what? Twelve when I put you on? You about eighteen now. I practically raised you up on these streets. Put you in a prime position and taught you everything you know about the game, right?”

Sensing some real gutta shit coming, Hood just listened without responding. Yeah, they’d been doing business together for a long time now. Xan had put him on and set him up lovely, no doubt. But raised him? Nah, the streets had done that all by themselves.

“Check this shit out. And the only reason I decided to put you down on all this, to give you this big opportunity really, is because I know how tight you is with Fat Daddy. But that nigga been fuckin up in the worst of ways, so I also know you’ll appreciate the seriousness of what I have to say.”

“Aiight.”

“Dig man. Fat Daddy gone fuck around and get hit. The nigga got his head on the chopping block, ya heard?”

Hood gazed at Xan evenly, giving nothing away. He’d grown into a hard-body man over the years and was nobody’s fool. He knew a lot of shit about street life today that had escaped him years ago, and the truth of the matter was, Fat Daddy was a gambling junkie. He would turn a fuckin trick just to place a bet, and over the past couple of years his craving for the game of chance had gotten him in the red with gamblers and gangstas and grandmothers too.

But what the fuck was Hood supposed to do about that? Xanbar had already taken over Fat Daddy’s shop and exiled the man up into his apartment while he raked in his profits. What the fuck else did he want?

“Man, that nigga’s dick is in the hole way past his fuckin nuts,” Xan said. “Deep in that shit. Real deep. We had a little business venture going, you know. He signed over the deed to his apartment and the shop, and I spotted him some cash so he could go down to Atlantic City and make a payoff.” Xan shook his head in disgust, then downed his drink in one swallow. “That old fool shit on me
and
them Italians. Gambled my entire investment up in less than an hour. Now cats is getting cranky. They want their money and I want mines too. Difference is, them cats don’t feel for him the way I do. They ready to take they doe straight outta his ass, nah mean?”

Hood felt his stomach sink although not a single thing about him changed on the outside. He’d seen Fat Daddy in action and knew his gambling habit had an addictive pull that was just as strong as crack. The nigga would bet on two raindrops hitting the ground if he could. Over the past couple of years he had overstated so many bets that he had some big willies gunning for him in Vegas, and was completely barred from two casinos down in Connecticut. Fat Daddy had lost almost all of his fenced inventory in a single poker game, and his cash flow had gotten so raggedy that niggas who used to pay big dollars to get into one of his cee-low games were now acting as bankers and could walk through the door for free.

“What all that shit got to do with me?”

Xan sat up straight. “You his boy, right? He been daddying ya ass all these years in the back of his shop, correct?”

Hood remained silent, giving up no leverage.

“I tell you what,” Xanbar said. His whole demeanor had gone from easy to deadly in about three seconds. “Fat Daddy in the hole so deep he’d have to hit the number ten times straight to pay me
and
them Italians off. I ain’t taking no heat for that fat fuck and I ain’t taking no loss on my investment neither. That old fool either gone pay his fuckin debts or pay the fuckin cost. Now since we all know he ain’t got no change, then that means he eligible to get crushed. Nah’m sayin?”

Hood shook his head. “That man been real legit with you over the years, Xan. You can do that kinda shit to him?”

Xan didn’t even blink. “That and a whole lot more, my nig. You the one love that old baldhead muhfucka, not me. Fat Daddy came and asked me for help, then he tampered with my doe. That means he gots to go down hard. But you know,” he shrugged, “it ain’t just Fat Daddy who I’m worried about. You know how these gambling cats is. Ruthless. They ain’t got no love for nobody. I’m thinking Egypt could fuck around and get in the way and then they might look at her like she eligible for some get back too.” He swigged back his second shot of yak and grilled Hood with deadly eyes. “That is, unless you and Dreko gangsta up and give the old guy a little help. I got a small job over in Ocean Hill with that pussy nigga Chaos that needs handling. The proceeds should snag us about a cool half-mil. Five G’s go to you, and five to Dreko. The rest will be just enough to pull Fat Daddy through and square him with me
and
them Italian cats. I bet it’ll keep Egypt safe too. So you ready to talk some business, or what?”