The Corner II (29 page)

“Oh shit, I forgot,” Tesha said as she stood. “He called and said he had some good news so I thought it would be good if he came and told us in person seeing as how you are here, Slim.”

Slim told everyone that the meeting was over and that he was glad to be back home and that they were going to make money and all was going to be well. He told DC and Noonie that he’d call them later. The men stood and they left, all but Ant, Reese and Tesha. Antwan would have stayed, but he had just gotten in town and had a son he hadn’t seen since he’d left. He kept the baby mama paid sending her thirty grand every six months, but it was nothing compared to being there and now he was home.

They invited the Italian suit-wearing lawyer in the office. He had a glass of vodka and OJ clutched in his hand. He kissed Tesha on the check. He knew her well because he was the lawyer that Lucky dealt with all the time. She introduced Mr. Buehler to Slim and then they got down to business. Buehler spoke to Tesha but often directed his attention to Slim and Anthony. Anthony, because he knew that was Lucky’s son, and Slim because he could tell that the man who automatically commanded attention was in charge. When it was all said and done, the expensive lawyer explained that he’d met with the DA who let it slip that they didn’t have much on Lucky and Frank. The police had jumped the gun and the drugs were never taken out of the trunk. They didn’t have anyone on tape so they had no conversation and the drugs were in Rios’ vehicle. They had both vehicles on tape leaving one of Carlos’ houses and for a moment the two were in the car together until Rios dropped Carlos off and he got into another vehicle. The prosecutor decided that he was going to drop the charges on Lucky and Frank since the lieutenant on the case agreed that she was happy with only Carlos and Rios.

Tesha jumped for joy, and Ant couldn’t help but to smile at the thought of his father coming home. Slim thanked the lawyer and told him if there was anything he needed to just let him know. The lawyer just shook his head telling him that he was fine and why not?  He’d made fifteen grand for only a few days of work.

The lawyer left and Slim told Ant that they needed to have a talk. They sat at the bar along with Antwan. Slim told Ant that he wanted to make a move on Bone, nothing big, but he wanted to get his attention. To let him know that the ruler was back. Ant told him that he figured they should kill two birds with one stone and the best way was to get his new girl, DC’s old girl, Cat. She was lying up with Bone and was the one who set up DC. Slim asked did he have a plan? Ant raised his shot glass, Slim and Antwan followed his lead and their glasses clinked when he told them that he did and wanted to put the plan in effect tonight.

They downed the shot of Patron and Slim nodded saying, “Well let’s start this shit off right, fam.”

Hos Jump up To Get Beat Down

A
ntwan and Slim were sitting in the parking lot of a club in the suburbs south of Chicago. The city was predominantly black with a few Hispanics. They were watching a black suburban rock back and forth. The windows were tinted and you couldn’t see inside the new SUV, but they knew who was causing the truck to sway. Grimy ass Bone was sitting in the rear seat with Cat on top riding the shit out of him. They thought about walking up to the vehicle and putting about seventeen shots in it, but that would have been too easy and there were too many police in the area that would have hindered a smooth getaway. They sat quietly sipping their cognac out of the plastic cups they’d gotten at the liquor store, chillin’ like old times, until their two enemies finished getting down gutter style.

Heels touched the pavement first. Thick dark legs were all they were able to see for the door was blocking the rest of Cat’s body.

“This nigga and that ho’s triflin’,” Antwan said as a semen filled condom flew past Cat and hit the side of a Navigator that was parked next to Bone’s Suburban, then landed on the concrete.

Slim laughed at Atwan then said, “Don’t act like you never got down and grimy in a parking lot before, nigga.”

 “Yeah, but I ain’t never threw my little swimmers on a muthafucka’s whip. Shit, a nigga would kill a muthafucka if he knew he threw a rubber full of nut on his shit,” Antwan laughed.

Cat shut the door and walked toward the club to meet up with her girl as Bone started his engine and drove off. Slim’s cell rang as Antwan said, “Damn, I see why DC was fuckin’ that bitch. Her black ass got a body. No wonder she’s wearing a mini-skirt in fuckin’ November. She’s trying to show off that ass.”

“What’s up?” Slim said into his cell.

Anthony told him, “That’s her.”

“One thing fo’ sho’, bitch got a body. Be careful following that nigga. Just see where he goes and get the address,”  Slim told Anthony who was parked several cars away from them.

Slim’s plans were to have Bone tailed for a week so they could get all the addresses to where he frequented so if he wanted to find Bone’s ass he would know of some of the places to look. He and Antwan were at the club tonight to mingle with the crowd and to stunt in front of Cat since she had no idea who they were. Once they got her greedy sack chasing ass to bite, they were going to reel her in and teach her a lesson about fucking with people from Slim’s crew.

A
‘Blame it on the Alcohol’
was pumping through the speakers and the club was packed. Antwan slipped one of the security guards a fifty to let them in and a c-note to one of the bouncers on the inside to get them a table. The thick neck steroid taking man did just that and some of the hoochies and hood rats took notice. They started heading toward the two men who were dressed in expensive jeans, silk shirts and ice that was blinging so hard Stevie Wonder would have taken notice.

They made small talk with some of the women but made sure that they kept an eye on Cat, who was on the dance floor with a small time hustler who she knew she could get to pay for all her drinks tonight and a carry out of shrimp and wings when he took her home. She could have paid for that bullshit herself, but she liked the game of getting a nigga to pay and do whatever.

Cat was working up a sweat on the dance floor and the young baller she was with was grinning coolly like he was doing something, but then there it was, she got notice of the two men sitting in the corner. They had women feigning over them and she could see why. The ice on the men said they were paid and the way the women were flocking to them meant that they were spending loot, and she wasn’t going to miss out on shit.

The song ended, and Cat got rid of her young companion by telling him that she needed a drink. He looked at the line that was longer than the one at the DMV on the last day of the month to get your plates. He didn’t want to stand in line for a drink but knew he had to get Cat’s fine ass something to quench her thirst so he told her he’d be back. He went to one of his partners who was there riding his coattail and told him to get the drink—to basically stand in line for about ten minutes. When the young baller turned back around to where Cat and her friend’s table was, he didn’t see her there. He scanned the overly crowded club and saw Cat sitting on Slim’s lap playing with his iced out ‘S’ that was laying on his chiseled chest.

Fucking bitch!
 He thought as he told his boy to get a double Hennessy instead.

It didn’t take long to woo Cat’s ass, and Slim talked her into going outside to talk. Cat agreed and she followed him outside to his tinted out black Lexus. Antwan wasn’t too far behind. Slim and Cat stood outside his vehicle, and he wrote down her number. He eventually convinced her dumb mini-skirt in the winter wearing ass to step inside his vehicle where she could keep warm as he continued to woo her. She stepped in and that was the worst thing she could have done. Slim sat next to and sweet-talked her. He went to kiss her on her cheek. He noticed that she had closed her eyes to take it all in and that’s when she felt a pain like she had never felt before. He had punched her so hard in the jaw two teeth loosened. Blood seeped out her mouth when she gasped.

Antwan quickly jumped in the back seat and Slim drove off. Antwan put a rope around Cats neck and pulled back on it telling her not to move at all. To sit as if nothing has happened.

Slim drove telling her, “Calm the fuck down, don’t say a word and don’t move or he’s going to pull that rope so hard that your windpipe is going to get crushed.” 

They drove back to the city and seeing as how Anthony had lost Bone in traffic, Slim asked Cat where was Bone. She whined that she didn’t know. Antwan pulled on the rope and it didn’t take long for her to answer. He’s at his boy, Chill Will’s, house on Ashton. They asked how many people were at the house and she answered just those two.

*     *     *

Slim and Antwan were driving down Ashton and when they passed a two-level house Cat told them that that was the house Bone was at. They knew she wasn’t lying because the same Suburban she had got fucked in was parked out front. They kept going and Cat wondered what they were planning, and she soon found out.

Slim parked and told her to get naked. She hesitated but did as told fearing for her life, and that’s when he punched her several times in her face. With each blow he told her that it was for her setting up DC. Antwan held her as Slim took scissors and cut off most of her hair leaving several patches. He took out a switchblade and cut a scar across her face. She screamed and he punched her again knocking out her two front teeth. Antwan held on to her as Slim drove in front of the house. He told her to tell Bone that the Ruler was back and it ain’t Slick Rick. He held down on the horn then kicked her out of the car and the tires screeched as they pulled off. Bone, Dre and Chill Will with pistols in hand came running out of the house to find Cat lying on the curb looking like some kind of monster and Bone had the nerve to ask her, “Cat, is that you?”  He was hoping that it wasn’t even though he knew better. He would have to get rid of her seeing as how she wasn’t a dime piece anymore. But he set his mind on revenge once she delivered Slim’s message.

*     *     *

All of Slim’s crew was at the house off 101
^st
Street just west of King Drive. All the workers who ran the houses were there, and Slim got to meet everyone personally. His reason for this meeting was to lay the laws down. To let everyone know that he wasn’t going to tolerate any slipping by his troops that ran his corners. He knew that Bone was going to try to retaliate, and he put his soldiers up on that. He let them know that Reese would be supplying them with extra hardware to protect what’s his—and theirs.

When the meeting was over, Noonie introduced John John to Slim. Slim told John John that he’d heard good things about him, and he was glad to have a member on the team that’s doing it across the state line collecting up as much money as he could. Noonie told him that John John was doing just that with the dope houses he had spread all over the city of Hammond and East Chicago. Slim asked John John had he been having any problems. John John told him that he wasn’t, that he had some young live wires rolling with him who are down for whatever. Slim told him to keep moving that shit and that it was nothing but good things ahead of him.

The meeting ended and Noonie told John John to ride with him. Reese, Jamel, and John John were ready to go seeing as how he had a prior engagement, but business was business. All the men filtered out of the house at different times—each wanting the chance to talk to Slim. To get close to the man so one day he might give them some rank in the crew. Slim wanted to mingle with the young bucks to get a feel for whom he had working for him. Lucky would be home tomorrow, but he told Tesha that he was going to get some rest, to lay back in the cut at home and relax. She relayed the info to Slim like Lucky told her to, and Slim had no problem with that. Lucky was his friend and one of his mentors. He ran with the uncle that raised Slim and taught him the game so that meant Lucky had done the same but Slim figured that time was passing the OG by. Lucky was being content with what they had and had come to the point that he only wanted to use violence as a last resort. But sometimes you had to use force and ruthlessness to get what you wanted and also to keep what was yours.

While in the Cayman Islands, Slim had met a Russian who was ready to supply him with all the drugs he needed and at a very low price, so he needed to get things straight with his crew by getting the right members in the leadership positions. He had to get a lot of young soldiers who are sick with it but easy to control. He also needed to get control of more corners and blocks in the city to move the shit load of product the Russians promised to supply him with and that’s what he was going to do. To get rich or die tryin’ like the rapper 50 cent said.

*     *     *

The Tahoe cruised down Western Avenue. “This is what I’m talking about John,” Noonie said. “We run this shit and we gonna expand. Get rich, baby,” Jamel said as he drove.

“I feel ya,” John John said as he looked out at the cold city streets. It was the day before Thanksgiving and he couldn’t believe how many homeless people he’d seen while they were driving around on the south side streets this afternoon. They were trying to find places to keep warm near all the places where the free dinners were going to be given out all year. The economy had taken its toll on many people and here he was with a roll of thousands in the pocket of his Enyce jeans. John John felt a little bad and told Jamel to stop the truck.