The Lipstick Clique (15 page)

Milan nodded her head and pulled out five thousand dollars. She sat it on the table and looked at Gigi, who wasn’t flinching. Milan bit her tongue because she should have known that amount wasn’t going to be enough to convince her to talk. She pulled out 15 thousand more dollars, spread it out, and set it on the table.

Gigi looked down at the money and grinned. She crossed her legs and sat back against the sofa. “O.K. I got answers. Let’s go…”

__________

5 couldn’t be happier if his life depended on it. He was in love with Treasure, and wanted nothing else but to spend the rest of his days with her. He respected her so much because even though his first love was money, she never attempted to get in the way of his hustle. He had expressed to her on many occasions how he felt about not having money, and she had agreed with him wholeheartedly.

There were several occasions where she had even asked him if she would be able to assist him and the Dirt Mob on some of their missions. He had always firmly told her no, but just knowing that she would be down for him if he needed her; moved him greatly. That was one of the things that kept his interest in her so powerful. Her realness.

He walked out of the convenience store carrying her box of Tylenol in his left hand. He had his keys in his right hand, and was tossing them up in the air when someone accidentally bumped into him. “Hey… watch where you…”

He cut his sentence off and stared at the girl for a second. She looked familiar, like someone he needed to remember, but he couldn’t place her exactly. “Do I know you?” He asked the girl as he reached down and picked his keys up off of the ground.

The girl had on a hoodie and was acting quite nervous. He quickly scanned his surroundings so that he could make sure that she wasn’t on some type of set-up time. Since he knew that there was no way that he could figure that out quick enough, he started reaching for his pistol. The girl saw him reaching for his pistol and just stood there. She didn’t object to him reaching for it, and didn’t say a thing when she saw him wrap his hand around it. She just watched.

Her watching and not reacting made him feel more at ease. He let go of the pistol and stared some more. “What is it?” He asked her, sensing that something was amiss. He just didn’t know what it was.

Slowly, the girl pulled a small tablet computer out of a grocery bag. The video that she wanted to show him was already on the screen and waiting for her to hit the play button. She turned the computer towards him and started streaming the video from AmericasMostWanted.com. The video implicated Treasure Brown and the Lipstick Clique as one of the most sought after group of criminals in the United States. Treasure’s capture was a top priority.

5 couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He really wanted to beat the girl in front of him to a pulp, just for knowing that he was the person to approach with that video. He was angry, and knew that he was in danger of putting his entire family in harm’s way. The only thing that he could do at that point was flee the state until he could get his mind together. He didn’t know how he felt about Treasure’s background, but what he did know was that he still loved her to no end.

He pushed the laptop back into the girl’s chest and sprinted to his car. He cranked it up and hurried back to his home with wild thoughts running through his head. He just didn’t know what to think about the woman that he was supposed to be marrying. Things are never what they appear to be, he thought as he tried to apply that sentence to this scenario.

Milan grabbed a pen and pulled her checklist out. At the top of the list, she crossed out TREASURE BROWN, then skipped number two and crossed out DIRT MOB. She knew that she had planted enough bait to kill two birds with one stone. She expected 5 and the Dirt Mob to kill Treasure, and she had already alerted the FBI, so that they could have around the clock surveillance on the address that she had given them.

Lena and
Tarra
had broken down and started eating those last slices of plain cheese and drinking glasses of milk.
Tarra’s
homegirl didn’t come through with the food, so that left them in an extremely horrible predicament.
Tarra
had suggested that they at least wait until the following day to go back outside. By then, their
mugshots
would at least be one day old. She figured that going outside at that very moment, after they had just been shown on the news, would only increase their odds of getting caught.

“I’m sorry about everything Lena,”
Tarra
said as she drank the last of her glass of milk.

“Sorry? Please. Weak bitches are sorry. We’re sorry for weak bitches!”

They looked at each other and burst out laughing. That had been a phrase that they had been repeating ever since the first week they spent together. They had coined it the “Weak Bitch Chorus.” While they were sharing a laugh, they heard a knock at the door.

Immediately, both of them went into do or die survival mode. They quieted down and grabbed pistols and AKs off of the floor, table and sofas. Their lights were already low, so they didn’t have to worry about altering the visual setup of their home. What they did have to do though, was figure out who the hell was knocking.

Lena looked at
Tarra
, who simply whispered to her, “It’s probably just my homegirl with the food.”

Relief spread over Lena’s body as she picked up the assault rifle and headed to the door. Slowly, she stuck her eye into the peephole and nearly peed in her clothes. She thrust the assault rifle into a bag of clothes and opened the door with a huge smile on her face. Her Mommy was standing there in the doorway with some big shades on and holding some bags of food.

Milan walked in and gave Lena a tear filled, heartfelt hug. Emotions ran rampant in the room, and
Tarra
was just standing there with a fake smile trying to get clued in to what was happening.

Milan broke Lena’s embrace and walked over to
Tarra
. “I’m a friend of one of your best friends, Gigi. And I’m also Lena’s mother.” Milan said with a smile on her face.

Tarra
smiled back at her. She’d heard quite a bit about Lena’s mother, from Lena of course, and was just thrilled to be in her presence. If she was a friend of Gigi’s, then she knew for a fact that Milan’s word must be nothing but gold.
Tarra
hugged Milan, and grew more in awe each second that she was around her. She was such a beautiful woman, and her presence was extremely dominating.

“Mommy! We have a lot of catching up to do! A lot has happened since the last time we were together! I listened to what you told me and grew up a whole lot! And this is my partner in crime,
Tarra
. We are The Lipstick Clique Mommy! Just like you told me I would always be, I went ahead and kept getting money!”

Hearing this sparked Milan’s interest. “How much money do you have child?”

Tarra
was about to respond and let her know that they were down to their last couple of thousand, but before she could get a word out, Lena spoke up. “I hid some money so that when you came back home, you would always have some money. I have about $25,000 put away for you!”

Tarra
was surprised. That was her first time ever hearing that information. As far as she knew, there was no extra money being hid. She thought that her and Lena were on better terms than that. She thought that they were best friends. Still, she forced out a smile, as she watched the older lady get handed a duffle bag filled with money for doing nothing.

“Thank you, my child! You’ve made me so proud!” Milan said as she wrapped her arms around Lena. Lena stood there blushing and enjoying the love being shown to her by her mother.

“I’m so glad you came home Mommy!” Lena said naively.

Tarra
sensed that something was wrong and spoke up. “So, what happened? Did you go to trial?”

Milan exhaled and walked across the room in her stilettos. Her heels clicked against the tile in perfect rhythm as she made her way over to the chair so she could sit down. She took a deep breath and faked a few tears. “Yes
Tarra
… I beat the case! They didn’t have too much evidence on me at the time, but now it’s a different story.”

Tarra
walked up to her and stood with her hands on her hips. “What do you mean?”

Milan continued her fake crying session while simultaneously implementing her plan. “I mean… the prosecutor told me that she was going to get some more evidence on me and bring me right back through the ringer with all of that bullshit. So that’s why I came to you two, because I trust you!”

“What do you mean?”
Tarra
asked.

“I mean… I have a job
soooo
big! I’m talking about a job bigger than any and every job you have ever done in your entire robbing career. This job will make all three of us multi-millionaires, but in order for it to work, several things must happen.” Milan said while gauging the two girl’s reactions.

When she saw that the reactions were satisfactory, she kept pressing. “The first thing we have to do is travel so that we can make it happen. I have a friend who owns a private jet, so if everything is cool, we can fly out tonight and make this happen. What do you think?” She asked the girls, as if they really had a choice.

Just for the sake of being nice, Lena looked at
Tarra
to see if she had anything to say about the proposal. At first it seemed as if
Tarra
was going to say something, but then she swallowed her tongue and smiled.

Treasure looked at the watch one last time. She’d told herself that she was only going to wait two or three more minutes for 5 to return to the house before she left, but those two or three minutes had turned to twelve dangerous minutes. She was standing in the doorway about to lose her mind while waiting on her man to return from that store. When he opened the door and saw the tears rolling down her face, he knew right away that it was time to take his lady away from there. In his heart, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

She stared at him wide-eyed as he walked into the house and closed the door. She was curious to see if his demeanor had changed and if he had heard anything about her. She didn’t see any change in him. She couldn’t bring herself to ask him, as much as she wanted to. All she knew was that she loved her man and wanted to keep him no matter how much faking she had to do in order to hold on. She figured that just maybe, it wasn’t time for her to tell him about her past yet. Maybe he needed to love her just a little bit more before she did that. And she was going to play it safe as long as she needed to.

“Why are you crying Treasure?” 5 asked as he set her Tylenol down on the counter.

Treasure grabbed his hand and pulled him to her. “Baby do you love me?” It was the only thing she could bring herself to say. If he answered yes, then all he would have to do is prove it. It was as simple as that.

5 laughed. “Of course I love you. I wanna spend the rest of my life loving you baby. I told you that. There is no other woman -”

“Well let’s go!”

5 was startled. “Go where?” He was stunned for a second. He didn’t expect this.

“Let’s go to Florida. Like right now!”

5 took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was asking him to pick up and leave his entire family in the middle of the night. He would have to leave his brother and sister without letting them know what was up. He would also be on the road with her while knowing that she was one of the most wanted women in the country. That instantly placed him in harm’s way, but if that’s what it took to make his dream come true, he was all for it.