Coca Kola - The Baddest Chick (13 page)

***

Kola had to re-up with Eduardo soon, but since he was going to be out of town for several weeks, she was forced to do business with Tony, one of his trusted lieutenants. He had a harder-looking face and a much tougher demeanor. Short and robust with a grizzly beard, huge arms, and beady eyes, he was a stern, ugly man. The first time Kola met him, he reminded her of a Colombian Mike Tyson. She had to compose herself to avoid laughing out loud when Eduardo introduced him.

Tony was an easy man to work with because he was about his business. He didn’t flirt with her like Eduardo did, even though he didn’t have a chance in hell to get with her.

One time, Eduardo came out of a room shirtless with his six-pack exposed. Every inch of him was ripped. His chiseled structure made the young Kola blush and caused her to become moist between her thighs. She had to turn her head away, just so she could focus on business. The attraction between them was definitely there, but she loved Cross. Eduardo made it harder for Kola every time they did business together. She was glad he was back in Colombia with his girlfriends and sprawling mansion.

***

As Kola sat on the bed daydreaming, she heard an engine start up outside her window. She went to the window and saw Edge jumping into the driver’s seat of the monstrous-looking Hummer sitting on 26-inch chrome rims. She was happy he was leaving. Edge brought about an uneasiness in her that she couldn’t explain to Cross, especially since they were like brothers. Now she and Cross could talk. She wanted to know what Meyers Mitchell had said to him that had him looking kind of worried.

After watching the Hummer back out of their long driveway, she walked to the foot of the stairs and saw Cross walking up. “What’s up, baby?”

Cross looked up at her, his eyes showing the hardness in his life. There was no smile or response from him. He walked by Kola and went straight into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

“Baby, you OK?” Kola asked, knocking on the bathroom door. She heard the water running. She knocked harder and raised her voice. “Cross! What did the lawyer say?”

The door suddenly opened. Cross stood there shirtless with a mini-towel over his shoulder. He peered at Kola. It looked like he had something heavy on his mind, but he was reluctant to say what was troubling him. Kola knew it definitely had something to do with the gun charge and his attorney’s words.

Cross walked into the bedroom. He went straight to the windows and looked outside. He seemed to be more focused on the breeze blowing the leaves on the trees than what Kola was asking him.

“Cross, what the fuck! Talk to me, nigga!” Kola barked, becoming impatient with him.

He turned around and locked eyes with her. “I just need some time to myself.”

“What the fuck you saying?”

“It ain’t good.”

“What?”

“Meyers said the prosecutor’s trying to go hard, saying, either someone cop to the gun charge and eat it, in which case, it’s a mandatory three to five years minimum with a plea. We got until Monday morning for our reply. If we take it to trial, it could be more, but it ain’t gonna go away. Seems like the DA got a hard-on for us.”

Kola couldn’t afford to lose Cross to a lengthy jail sentence. There had to be a way around it. She tried to brainstorm but had nothing at the moment. She sighed heavily and went up to Cross to comfort him as he stood by the window, the afternoon sunlight filtering through the open blinds.

Kola reached up to wrap her slim arms around her man, but he pulled away from her. He didn’t want any comfort and made it evident by his actions. She twisted her face up at him. She didn’t understand why he was acting the way he was toward her.

“We fucked up.”

“Who was driving again?” she asked.

“Edge.”

“So there’s no other way around it. Edge is gonna have to take the charge for you.”

“It was my gun.”

“And? He’s your subordinate. You tell that nigga what to do. Without you, there is no him.”

Cross looked at Kola in disbelief. “We brothers!”

“And it’s only business. Edge will understand. He knows how to jail, right?”

“He did juvie back when we were young, but nothing else.”

Kola nestled against Cross, touching him in a way that would soften his mood. She kissed him tenderly, massaged his chest. She had to come up with a good reason as to why he should have Edge take the charge. Cross didn’t believe in snitching or letting his right-hand man take the fall. It was one of the things that Kola loved about him. He was real—a true, thorough muthafucka.

She looked him square in the eyes and said, “I might be pregnant.”

“What?”

“We might be having a baby.”

She had been feeling weird lately, and they had been fucking like rabbits. She’d thrown up a few times last week, but she doubted it was due to pregnancy.

“You serious?” Cross asked.

Kola nodded.

Cross didn’t show any reaction. Expressionless, he stepped back and gawked at Kola.

“You gonna say something?” she asked.

“I don’t know what to say right now.”

“You might be a father. And I can’t have the father of my child locked up. So you gotta work something out with Edge. He’ll understand. Let him know that we’ll take care of him and his family while he’s away. But you can’t do this time, baby. Edge is expendable, you’re not.”

Cross’ mind was heavy with thoughts. He said to her, “I gotta run to the city to meet with my lawyer and discuss this.”

Kola nodded.

Cross stepped away from her.

“I love you, baby,” she said.

He turned around. “I love you too.”

Cross departed the bedroom, leaving Kola to ponder what his decision would be.

A few minutes later, she watched him exit their home and get into his cocaine-colored BMW. He sped out of the driveway, tires screeching.

Kola turned away from the window and walked toward the mirror, where she dropped her robe at her feet and gazed at herself. Naked, she placed her hand against her stomach and tried to picture what she would look like pregnant. Even though she was a pit bull in a skirt and a hard woman to fuck over, she couldn’t imagine getting that same respect with a growing belly. She felt that pregnancy would make her look weak.

Unbeknownst to Cross, Kola was once pregnant with their child a few months ago. The moment she found out about it, she set up an appointment at the local clinic and terminated the pregnancy. Now she was lying about being pregnant, to try and keep her man out of jail.

Chapter 13

C
ross and Edge left Meyers Mitchell’s plush downtown Manhattan office with a blank stare, his words lingering in their heads. “My advice is, someone needs to take a plea,” Meyers had said, like it was a parking ticket.

Meyers was doing everything he could with the case, meeting with the prosecutor to negotiate on his clients’ behalf. He had clout and influence with a few people, and had the case postponed as long as he could, but the charge wasn’t going away. He had informed his clients about the chances of going to trial, and they had the weekend to think about a plea bargain, their best option.

Cross and Edge walked toward the parking garage, both men absorbed in their own thoughts. Edge smoked his cigarette, while Cross was on his cell phone. Edge pressed the button to the alarm on his Hummer, deactivating the device. He jumped in the driver’s side, and Cross sat in the passenger seat, his cell phone still pressed to his ear. Edge knew from the conversation that Cross was talking to a woman, but it wasn’t Kola.

Cross’ infidelity was nothing new to Edge. As long as the two men knew each other, neither of them had ever been faithful to one woman, their reputations and illicit riches attracting the ladies in droves.

Edge started the ignition to his Hummer. The thunderous engine roared to life, and Jay-Z instantly began blaring in their ears. He immediately turned it down, giving Cross the respect. He took a few more pulls from his cigarette and tossed it out the window. He then reclined in his seat and went through his CD collection, which was mostly rap, from old-school Big Daddy Kane to 50 Cent and Kanye West.

Tired of listening to Jay-Z, Edge ejected The Blueprint 3 from the high-end car stereo and replaced it with Lil Wayne. He pushed in the CD and pressed for his favorite track. He liked Lil Wayne’s style and the entire Cash Money roster when they were the Hot Boys representing New Orleans.

He began making his exit from the parking lot. He maneuvered his truck into the downtown rush-hour squeeze of Manhattan on a Friday afternoon. The Lower East Side was jammed with traffic and pedestrians bustling from one block to the next. Edge sighed, knowing it would take them forever to get to the FDR and head uptown into Harlem. He lit up another cigarette, nodding to the catchy, upbeat lyrics of Lil Wayne’s “A Milli,” which was playing low enough for him to hear it and for Cross to conduct his call.

When Cross finished his call, Edge turned up the music until the speakers rattled the truck. Men and women from Wall Street and prestigious law firms in nearby cars glanced at the truck like it was an eyesore, their white faces scowling at the loud rap violating their space, interfering with their easy-listening music. But they only gave Edge and Cross foul looks because no one dared to say anything.

Edge navigated the Hummer north up Broadway and then made a right turn onto Houston Street, headed toward FDR Drive. When Edge finally merged onto the jam-packed FDR Drive, Cross reached for the volume to the radio and turned it down a notch.

Edge glanced at his friend.

Cross said, “You know, Kola might be pregnant.”

“She is?”

“She hit me today wit’ the news.”

“Congrats, yo,” Edge replied matter-of-factly.

The traffic on the long stretch of highway from the Battery Tunnel was bumper to bumper. The only thing Edge saw from his windshield was the brake lights of cars.

“Shit, it’s gonna take forever to get back uptown,” Edge said.

Cross took a cigarette from the pack Edge had stashed in the console between them. He lit it, took a deep drag, and glanced out the window for a moment. “I was thinking about this case.”

“What about it?”

Cross exhaled. “I might be a father soon, so I need you to take this charge for me.”

Edge couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What you sayin’?”

“I’m sayin’, take this hit for me, Edge. You heard what Meyers said—three years easy and then you’re out.”

“Nigga, it was
your
gun. And I got kids too, Cross. What the fuck you sayin’ to me?”

“I know, but we’re gonna take care of you, Edge.”

“Who the fuck is
we
? Kola? Yo, you got that bitch speaking for you now?”

“Edge, watch your tone.”

“Nigga, she got ya connect. Now she got your heart and balls too?”

“Fuck you, nigga!”

“Fuck you, Cross! Why you lettin’ this bitch come in between us, my nigga? Huh? Are you sure she’s even pregnant?”

Cross wanted to hit Edge, but he kept his cool. He smoked the Newport and glared at him. “Fuckin’ respect her, Edge, or I swear . . . ”

“Nigga, look what the fuck she’s doin’ to you. To us. I don’t trust her, Cross. You giving her too much power, fo’ real, my nigga.”

“You jealous?”

Edge chuckled. “Nigga, I don’t need ya chick.”

“Nigga, I still run this shit, these streets. Don’t get it twisted, my nigga. I’m still the muthafuckin’ boss out here. You hear me, Edge? Fuck what ya heard or think. Ain’t nothin’ soft about me. And if you hatin’ on a nigga and his bitch, then let it be known, muthafucka!”

“I ain’t hatin’ or jealous of you.” Edge had been yearning for Kola for a long time now. He wanted to fuck Cross’ bitch and move up on the food chain. When he heard about the pregnancy, his mood just snapped. But he was still willing to fuck Kola, pregnant or not.

The heated argument between the two men continued until they got to the 59th Street Bridge. Edge just wanted to drop Cross off and be by himself. It wasn’t their first argument, but it was the only one they’d ever had over a woman.

Edge was suspicious of Kola. She had her hooks too deep into Cross. He also questioned why a man like Eduardo would suddenly only want to deal with Kola. In his eyes, it didn’t make any sense. Eduardo and Cross had been good associates for a long moment, and business was always good. It dawned on him that Eduardo wanted to keep Kola around because he was attracted to her. It was easy to cut out Cross and get closer to Kola if she was the one coming around for work.

Edge smiled. He thought to himself,
Sneaky muthafucka
. Eduardo wanted what everyone else was chasing, a piece of pussy. Edge believed Kola was fucking Eduardo.

Cross and Edge were quiet until they reached Harlem, turning onto 125th Street. Because of the dense traffic, a twenty-minute drive from downtown to uptown took forty-five minutes.