Roy Glenn - The cost of vengeance

Something that Jamaica said to me one night made me think of Ms. West and her skill set of recruiting and training women to be high-price hookers. “All we need now is some girls, and we take all their money,” Jamaica said. If Ms. West could recruit and train high-quality talent from around the world, I’m sure that there would definitely a market for that.

I would talk to Jamaica about that when I got back to the island. Right now, the issue was finding Skip Skinner and Bull Harris. That’s where Nita came in. She had ties to both Skip and Bull. Nita started out working the stroll for Bull. She was his only girl. He was a gorilla pimp and used to beat Nita’s ass almost daily. Skip felt sorry for Nita, so he used to keep Bull off of her when he was around. He was in the loan shark business and convinced Bull that there was more money to be made breakin’ legs than breakin’ Nita’s jaw, so Bull gave up the pimp game.

But by this time, Nita had turned Skip out; ’cause from what I hear, Nita had the bomb pussy. So Skip tries to square Nita up, but he couldn’t keep Nita off the stroll because she was a ho. She liked fuckin’ and she loved that money. Finally, Skip gives up on her, but by this time, Nita had a couple of women out turning tricks for her. Nita always did have mad game, and let’s just say, she had a way with women too.

So now Nita is makin’ money and it gets Bull’s attention. He feels like Nita was still his ho and that he has a right to some of that money. He finds Nita, beats her ass and takes her money. She goes crying to Skip. He offers to extend his protection to Nita, but somehow, she convinces that nigga that he don’t want any money. But Bull is obsessed with Nita, and every once and a while, he would hunt Nita down, beat her ass, and take the pussy and her money.

Now, back in those days, Andre was a drug dealer. He made his money off heroin and cocaine. To him, gambling, loan sharking, and prostitution, which he controlled, were all just sidelines; and he really didn’t pay much attention to that part of his business. That’s where I saw an opportunity. I found out that Nick and Jamaica were shakin’ down the number runners that they knew were skimmin’ money off Andre. I went to Andre and got him to let me take over that part of the business. “I guarantee that I will more than double your take in less than three months,” I told Andre and he went for it. Since I knew just about everybody that worked for was him was coming up short on the money, it was easy.

So I get to Nita Blue. Me and Freeze catch her one night at the spot she works out of; the same spot me and Bobby were on our way to now. I sit Nita down and stick my hand out. Nita says no. Freeze put a gun to her head. “You’re not understanding me, Nita. Those are my streets. That is my stroll your ho’s are walkin’. You wanna keep gettin’ that money, you gotta pay me for the privilege or your life ends now. Choose wisely.”

“You need to talk to Skip about that, Black,” Nita Blue said.

“What Skip got to do with my money?”

“You have this pretty nigga here take that gun from my head and I’ll tell you,” Nita Blue said. I motioned to Freeze to remove his gun and Nita Blue explained her arrangement with Skip. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“If you lyin’ to me, Nita, ain’t gonna be no talk. This pretty nigga will kill you the next time he sees you,” I said and left. I went straight to see Skip and he confirmed what Nita Blue had said. I looked at Freeze and he put his gun to Skip’s head. “How much money you costin’ me?”

“Huh?” Skip said.

“You lettin’ that bitch work my streets for free. How much money is that costin’ me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You better come up with a number fast,” I said and put my gun to the other side of his head.

“I don’t know-a couple of grand maybe,” Skip blurted out.

“That’s how much extra you need to give me for y’all’s dumb-ass arrangement.”

But that little soap opera didn’t stop there. There was still Bull to deal with. Every once and a while, for reasons even he says he can’t understand, he gets drunk and goes after Nita. He hunts Nita down, beats her ass, and takes the pussy and her money. So, Nita always has one of her girls following Bull. If he gets anywhere near Nita, they let her know and she lays low for a day until Bull calms down. That system has worked for Nita for the last three years, but I heard last month Bull finally caught her and made up for lost time. Crazy right?

When me and Bobby walked in the place, it seemed like all eyes were on us. “You see her?” Bobby asked.

“No,” I said and headed for the bar. “Remy, straight up.”

“Make it two,” Bobby said and looked around again. “A lotta pimp-lookin’ mutha fuckas in here.”

“You ain’t scared, are you?”

“Yeah, shakin’ in my pants,” Bobby laughed. “These niggas lookin’ at us like we marks.”

“Let ’em come, we haven’t killed anybody yet, today.” I looked around. “I haven’t been in here since the Nita told us that bullshittin’-ass story about her, Bull, and Skip.”

The bartender brought us our drinks and we shot them. I took one more look around and was gettin’ ready to get out of there, when I saw Nita Blue coming out of the back room.

“There she is,” I told Bobby and headed in that direction. Bobby was right behind me. A couple of young bucks got up to block my path.

“You want somethin’?”

“I want you to get outta my fuckin’ way,” I said, and Bobby put two guns in his face.

“Mike Black and Bobby Ray,” Nita Blue said. “I knew my ass was hurtin’ for some reason.” She walked up and tapped the young bucks on the shoulder and they sat down, but Bobby decided to keep his guns out. “You don’t want to fuck wit’ them two niggas. They old school; the original gangsters,” she laughed.

“Hello, Nita,” I said. “You got a minute to talk?”

“For you, Black, I got all the time in the world,” Nita led us to her table and sat down. I looked at Nita’s face. I could still see the effects of the beating she took. “What can I do for you, Black?”

“I’m lookin’ for Bull.”

“So am I.”

“I see why,” Bobby said.

“You always did think you was funny, but ain’t nobody here laughin’, Bobby. And don’t think that them guns scare me, either,” Nita Blue said definitely.

“Look, Nita, ain’t nobody come here to try and scare you.”

“Then what you here for? You may be all dressed up in a suit now, Mike Black, but to me, you still the same Vicious Black that came up in here and held a gun to my head fifteen years ago.”

“You’re right. I am that same nigga. But it ain’t gotta be like that between us. I know you know where he is. So why don’t you go on and tell me and we’re outta here.”

“What you want with Bull?”

“I’m gonna do you a favor.”

“Only favor you can do for me is kill that nigga,” Nita Blue said.

“As soon as you tell us where he is,” Bobby said.

“Y’all gonna kill Bull? For what?”

“What do you care?” Bobby asked. “You want him dead, you tell us where he is.”

Nita looked at Bobby and then she smiled at me. “He must know you lookin for him,” Nita Blue said. “I need to make a call, okay,” she said and looked at Bobby.

“Go ahead,” he said.

Nita took out her phone and made a call. “Where you at?” We sat and waited while Nita listened. “How many he got with him?” she asked then hung up. “He’s hold up in a house in Queens. Got three niggas wit’ him.”

“The address, please,” Bobby said.

On the way to kill Bull, I thought about taking a deep breath and calling Monika. Having her along on a job like this would make the whole thing a lot easier. She would have a layout of the house and would use one of her high-tech toys to pick up the heat signatures of everybody in the house, and Jackie would be out in the van monitoring their movements. Monika would toss in a flash grenade and the sudden flash of light would distract them, and before they could react it would be over. Somehow I thought that would be easier than what we were about to do.

Bobby parked the car down the street from the house. “How you wanna do this?” Bobby asked as I got out and started walking toward the house.

“Same way we always do it.”

“Walk in and kill everybody. Good plan,” Bobby said and followed behind me. “Why don’t we just knock on the door and ask to speak to Bull?”

“That ain’t a bad idea. You knock on the door and I’ll go around back,” I said. “Since they know we’re looking for them, they’ll probably start shootin’ as soon as they see you.”

“I think we need another plan.”

“I’m not suggestin’ you just stand there and let them shoot you. Knock and move out of the way.”

“If it’s such a good plan, you knock and move, and I’ll go around back and wait for them to come runnin’ out,” Bobby said.

“Fine,” I said and watched Bobby go around back. I gave him a few minutes to get set before I walked up to the door. Before I could get close to the door, I heard a noise and knew I should get down. I dove to the ground and when I looked up, there was a big hole in the door from a shotgun blast. I heard shooting coming from the back of the house and wondered if Bobby was still glad he picked that spot.

I got up and ran in the house. The three of them were at the back door, shootin’ it out with Bobby. They didn’t see me coming. I fired at one of them and hit him in the back of the head. I took aim at another one and fired twice. Both shots hit him in his back. I heard loud footsteps coming down the stairs. The last man at the door turned and fired on me as I ran back down the hall. I got there in time to see Bull Harris running out the front door.

He moved pretty fast for a big mutha fucka, but before he could make it to his car, I shot him in the leg. Bull went down hard and rolled over. He fired a couple of shots at me and I hit the ground. Bull kept firing and I shot back and hit him in the arm, but he kept firing. I didn’t want to kill him yet. I wanted to know where I could find Skip before I killed him. Once his gun was empty, I got up and walked toward Bull. I put another clip in my gun. I didn’t hear anymore shooting coming from the back and hoped that Bobby had gotten his man.

Bull threw his gun at me and struggled to his feet. He tried to get in the car, but when I fired a couple of near-missed shots at the door, he changed his mind and decided begging for mercy was his best option. “Please don’t kill me, Black. I didn’t have nothing to do with what Bo and them was planning,” Bull pleaded.

I heard gunshots and turned quickly. I saw a man go down on the side of the house and Bobby walk up and stand over him. Bobby put two more in him to make sure he was gone and then walked toward me and Bull.

“Now, what were you sayin’?” I asked and put my gun to his head.

“Really, Black, I didn’t have nothin’ to do with it. When Bo told me that shit, I told him that I didn’t want shit to do with it.”

“Then why did you blow a hole in the door when I walked up?”

“That wasn’t me, Black. I was upstairs sleep when you got there. I woke up when I heard the shooting.”

Bobby leaned against the car next to Bull. “You know what, Bull,” he said. “I believe you.”

“You do?” I asked.

“Yeah, Mike, Bull is a smart man. He wouldn’t be involved in no dumb-ass shit like trying to kill me, you, and Nick; would you, Bull?”