Stealing Candy (19 page)

Pouting, Flashy was wrapping pieces of chicken in aluminum foil. “All this damn work just so you can rush out of here and take my food to some stank ho.”

“I’ll be back. The bitch ain’t ate nothing all day. That greedy bitch upstairs ate the burgers and shit I was gon’ take back to the spot I’m keeping her in.”

“Buy the bitch some more burgers. You got plenty of money these days. I don’t see why you gotta give a dirty ho the fried chicken that I lovingly cooked for you.”

“Yo, I’m running a business. I gotta keep my workers fed. Now, fall back, man.” Bullet pushed past Flashy, knocking his slim friend off balance.

“You ain’t shit, Bullet! I hate you!” Flashy drew his lips into an angry knot as he steadied himself, wriggling his right foot back into the pump.

Bullet smiled indulgently, like Flashy was a spoiled child. “Keep your eye on Bubbles. I don’t trust her.” He glanced at Gianna. “I
want you to have my man’s back if that bitch tries some slick shit.”

“Okay.” Gianna nodded, and then decided to take this opportunity to tell Bullet about Bubbles’ condition.

“Bubbles was up there crying, so I looked in on her.”

“You was supposed to be upstairs throwing up. Ain’t nobody tell you to go poking around, opening up closed doors.”

“I’m sorry. I heard a noise, so I opened the door to make sure she wasn’t trying to climb out the window.”

“She ain’t going nowhere. That window is nailed shut.”

“Her face…it’s bleeding real bad. Blood is everywhere.”

“What!” Flashy screeched. “I know she ain’t bleeding all over my expensive bed linen.” He kicked off his heels and ran up the stairs.

“That bitch ain’t even started basic training yet, and she already giving me problems.” Sighing in resignation, he flung the brown bag filled with fried chicken on the coffee table. He motioned for Gianna to follow him and then stomped up the stairs.

“What the hell is wrong with you, bitch?” Flashy shrieked at Bubbles.

“I’m trying to stop the blood,” Bubbles whined.

“Well, I could have given you a raggedy towel or something if you’d asked. Why the hell would you use using my good linen to soak up blood?” He folded his arms and shook his head. “No damn home training.”

“Why she bleeding like that?” Bullet inquired.

For a few seconds, Flashy’s mouth hung open in disbelief. “You the one who cut her. How the hell do I know?” he finally responded.

“Yeah, but I told you to hook her up.”

“I did! I slapped a triple-ply gauze pad on that cut.”

“So why is all that blood gushing?” Bullet demanded.

“You need to ask yourself that question. Your crazy ass cut her so deep, she probably needs stitches.” Flashy frowned at the ruined
pillowcase. “That pillowcase is part of a two-hundred-dollar set.”

“Man, I gotchu. We gotta worry about closing up that gash.”

“
We
ain’t worrying about shit,” Flashy said in a high-pitched voice. “I might be able to sew some glamorous pieces for my fashion shows, but I ain’t no surgeon, so don’t even hint that you want me to try to close up that nasty wound.”

“Man, you was always treating niggas who got cut in the pen.”

“With bandages. I wasn’t trying to close up no open wounds with a needle and thread.”

“How about I go out and get you a staple gun. Can you work with that?”

Appalled, Gianna gasped. Bubbles groaned, obviously horrified by the direction the conversation had taken.

“Where you gon’ get a staple gun at this hour?”

“Pathmark is open.”

“Pathmark is not a hardware store and I don’t feel like trying to play doctor.” Flashy folded his arms stubbornly across his chest.

“There’s gotta be some other way you can close her face up.”

Flashy sighed. “You know what? It’s time for you and both these lil’ jailbait bitches to roll out of my crib. I’m not with all this insanity you’re bringing into my life.”

Bullet glared at Flashy. “You gon’ leave me hanging like this? That’s how you gon’ do me?”

Flashy didn’t respond. He was too busy gaping in disgust at Bubbles, who was whimpering as she now used the lacy trim of the pillowcase to wipe dribbling blood from her arm.

Flashy fanned his face, as if to keep from passing out. “This is a hot, bloody mess. Look at my good pillowcase. It’s completely drenched.” He strutted across the room and opened a drawer of neatly folded items. He tossed a shirt at Bubbles.

“That was my ex’s favorite T-shirt. Use that on your face.”
Flashy shot an evil look at Bullet. “You need to drop her off at the emergency room.”

Next Flashy pointed at Gianna. “And she needs to go back to that shed you keep her in. This is too much for me. I’m about to pass out from looking at all this blood…and the smell of rank fish is turning my stomach.” Turning up his nose, Flashy fanned his face repeatedly.

Gianna sniffed. “I don’t smell any fish.”

“Females are fish!” Flashy exploded.

Bewildered by the association between females and fish, Gianna cut an eye at Bubbles. But Bubbles didn’t make eye contact.

Quivering and moaning, Bubbles looked like she was having a fit. The gauze pad was hanging off her face. An outpouring of blood pumped from the vicious slash.

 
 CHAPTER 21

Bubbles tussled and struggled as Flashy and Bullet lowered her to the floor, trying to place her on top of a pallet made of plastic bags.

Flashy didn’t want Bubbles to leak blood into the mattress and Bubbles wouldn’t go down easy.

“Flashy is going to stitch your face up. Now quit all this twisting and turning, bitch.”

“I don’t want that muthafucka sewing on me. This some foul shit y’all doing. Y’all not right,” Bubbles accused, her voice raspy and tearful.

“Shut up! Calm the fuck down before I poke a hole in your eye,” Bullet snarled.

Bubbles released a grunt of surrender as she lay splayed on the green plastic.

Flashy waved a manicured finger in the air. “I’m not sewing or stapling a goddamn thing. Do you hear me, Bullet? You need to go to Pathmark and pick up about twenty packs of Band-Aids. I’ll try to patch that wound together the best way I can. But this ho is going to have to keep her big mouth shut for at least a week or so until it scabs over. All that moaning and crying is the reason that cut opened up so wide in the first place.”

Unable to help herself, Bubbles wriggled and moaned in obvious agony.

“Didn’t I tell you to be still?” Bullet kicked her, his shoe colliding
with her hip. “Don’t make me stomp yo’ ass.” He raised his foot threateningly, and Bubbles became as still as a statue.

Gianna felt real bad for Bubbles. The girl had been given a brutal punishment that Gianna would have never wished on anyone. It would be somewhat refreshing to hear Bubbles’ loud mouth again. Seeing her hurt and helpless was awful.

“While you’re out, go holla at my drug connect over on Pennell Street.”

“Who you talking ’bout, that nigga, Smiley?” Bullet said, looking mad. “Lemme find out…”

“Please. Smiley ain’t my type but he has a serious stash of pharmaceuticals. Tell him I said to hook you up with some some Xanies, Vicodin, OxyContin, and anything else he got.”

“I don’t like that slimy mufucka. He be tryna charge a nigga up.”

“So what?” Flashy snapped. “Pay him whatever he wants. Don’t even try to bargain. I need this bitch to be highed up or better yet…knocked out while I’m working on her.”

A couple hours later, Bubbles was back in bed. The mattress, however, was protected with plastic. Drugged with something powerful, Bubbles was blissfully unconscious. Flashy had closed the cut on the left side of her face with what appeared to be a zillion or so criss-crossing Band-Aids.

“I’m tired as hell,” Bullet complained.

On cue, Gianna rubbed his arm. From the corner of her eye, she could see Flashy shooting daggers at her.

“We outta here, Lollipop. I gotta go feed Tootsie Roll before she starves to death.”

“What about this ho?” Flashy asked, fluttering his lashes angrily.

“Man, I said I need you to take care of her ’til she ready to work.” Flashy stuck his hand out. “In that case, I need some money for my troubles.”

“I gotchu. What’s the word from the babysitter? Any offers yet on that hooker’s baby?”

“It’s hard to get that kind of money you looking for in the ’hood. Niggas ain’t spending a lot of dough for no goddamn baby.”

“I thought the sitter had connections. That baby gotta be worth at least twenty stacks to one of those freak mufuckas.”

Flashy rolled his eyes. “Please. You watch too much TV. You’ll be lucky if you get a couple stacks. Nobody I talked to was even feeling your baby-selling plan. They don’t want any parts of it. You gon’ have to be happy with whatever you get. Your main concern should be getting that baby out of the picture. A-S-A-P!”

“I can dig it, yo. But tell that sitter to put out some more feelers for me, man. I was hoping to get enough loot to trade in my whip. A baby should be worth enough for me to be pushing a new Escalade, y’ah mean?”

“Umph. So selfish. Always have been. It’s all about Bullet. What about my cut?”

“I gotchu, man. You gon’ get yours.”

“Uh-huh,” Flashy said doubtfully.

Gianna’s stomach dropped.
They plan on selling Samantha?

She’d heard about babies being sold on the black market, but never dreamed she’d be involved in such a heinous act. She wondered about this babysitter person. She hoped the person would do the right thing and take little Samantha to the nearest hospital. Or police station.

She wanted to plead with Bullet to spare the baby, but feared she’d end up like Bubbles if she said a word. As cruel a person as Bullet was most of the time, he had finally started treating Gianna slightly better than trash and she wanted to remain in his good graces.

Bubbles’ condition was a wake-up call. Gianna wanted to live.
She didn’t want to be cut, kicked, or shot at anymore. She was determined to be Bullet’s favorite girl.

“With three young hookers, you should be gettin’ major paper. All this bloodshed, mayhem, and unnecessary trouble is getting on my last nerve. Do you hear me, Bullet?” Flashy wasn’t as tall as Bullet, but with heels on, he came to Bullet’s shoulder. Not exactly face-to-face, but close enough.

“Fuck you!” Bullet gave him a shove. “Your faggot ass can’t tell me how to handle my business.” A vein popped up in the middle of Bullet’s forehead. He looked seconds away from snatching up Flashy by the neck and choking the life out of the thin, gay man.

Flashy didn’t seem phased at all by the slur. There was no fear in his eyes. Despite his small frame, Flashy had a visible six-pack imprinted against his tight shirt. Maybe he was stronger than he appeared. At any rate, he seemed ready to go toe-to-toe with Bullet and continued to berate him.

“Your hustle ain’t shit. You supposed to be getting money, not cutting up and maiming bitches.”

“Look, I got a reason for everything I do.”

“Don’t seem like it.”

“What? I gotta run shit by you before I make a move?”

“You should since you felt the need to drag me into the middle of this crazy bullshit. I’m just saying…”

“Just saying what? You think you can school me on the pimp game?”

“Somebody needs to school your wild ass. I ain’t claiming to be no pimp, but at least I got common sense. You spazzin’ out like some maniac from a slasher flick.”

Bullet laughed at the comparison.

“You’re losing perspective. If you used your brains, you could be iced out by now, like the big ballers.”

Those words seemed to sink in. Bullet scowled in thought. “Nah, I got this. I ain’t listening to you. I know how to run my business.”

Flashy folded his arms. “There’s other ways to control your assets. Injuring these hoochies to the point where they can’t work is stupid. You’re acting like a dopeman who snorts or shoots up most of his own product.”

“I said I got this.”

“No, you don’t. You got two injured bitches that you can’t make a dollar off. And I got bills to pay!” Flashy yelled. “If you don’t start making it rain up in this dip, I’m gon’ cut you loose! That’s a promise!”

Bullet’s face softened. Gianna watched the vein in his forehead disappear. “Stop threatening me. I don’t like that shit.”

“I gotta keep you focused. I’m innocent, but in the eyes of the law, I’ll be considered as an accomplice to your deranged ass. Listen, you maniac, I’m not trying to go back to jail.”

Bullet smirked. “Man, stop bringing up jail. A muthafucka will have to put my ass in a body bag before I do any more time. Get it through your head…ain’t nobody looking for these bitches.”

Flashy took a deep, disgusted breath. “Do I need to remind you that ya girl, Bubbles, broke out of a detention center?”

“So what? Do it seem like anybody is really trying to find her? Po-po got better shit to do with their time than search for a runaway juvenile.”

Bubbles escaped from a juvenile detention center!
Gianna’s ears were perked, but she kept a straight face, pretending that she had no interest whatsoever in the conversation between the two former convicts.

She didn’t know how the news about Bubbles would come in handy, but she had a feeling it might be useful information.