The Legend of Johnny Hustle: Crown Me King (13 page)

              I was stunned.  It must have registered on my face, because Cashmere looked into my eyes and laughed.  “Good looks don’t pay no bills.  A queen don’t solicit her king.  She shows him what she got to offer.”  He looked out onto the dance floor and pointed to all of the women.  “The one way to chase a broke bitch away is to ask her for something.  We high maintenance, playa!”  He shook his head like his dog died.  “How the hell all these hoes got men paying they way through life, when it’s less of them than us, is beyond me.  But that’s the life of a lame.  In a woman’s life, let her take care of the simple things and you take care of the rest.”  He stood and straightened out every wrinkle of his clothes and I did the same.  Then he leaned over to me. “We gonna dance, and we gonna leave.  Just remember, ain’t no woman in here worth your time.  Show them that.”

              He stepped onto the dance floor alone.  He spread both of his arms out to his side like he wanted to hug the huge crowd.  Then he looked up to the disco lights.  After getting everyone’s attention, Cashmere brought his head down to the eye level of the women waiting to dance, and pointed to the woman from earlier.  Without hesitation she and her girlfriend joined us on the dance floor.

             
Warm It Up Kane,
by Big Daddy Kane blasted through the speakers and we started to grind.  The place was rocking.  We danced for an hour and a half straight.  While we danced, my eyes stayed on Cashmere.  He didn’t cease to amaze me.  Cashmere reached under the gold-diggers miniskirt until he removed her panties.  After wiggling her way out of her thong, she pounded what her mama gave her against his cock as his hand slid under her miniskirt.

Cashmere pulled the woman closer to him as his fingers dug into her, keeping in step with the music.  She rhythmically moved to the music and humped his fingers into orgasm.  When her eyes closed from an orgasmic explosion, she clawed at his back and tried to kiss him.  He stopped suddenly.  With an audience watching, Cashmere put his smelly hand under the gold-digger’s nose and then gently pushed her away.

He and I walked off the dance floor to retrieve our coats, and the gold-digger followed.  We swallowed what was left in the champagne bottle, and like an obedient dog, the gold-digger stood by Cashmere, waiting for her command.

“Baby girl, you got ten grand in your pocket?” Cashmere asked his newest fan.  When her eyes dropped to the ground and her head shook from side to side, Cashmere squealed then rubbed the fingers that held her scent.  “Goodbye, bitch,” he dismissed her and she fell apart.

“What—what happened?  Can’t I come with you,” she begged in distress.

              Cashmere draped his mink on his back, and placed the finger that he had inside of the woman back to her nose.  In his squeaky voice he barked, “Smell that.  These smell like cash to you, bitch?  What you got to offer, every woman got, so beat it.”

              My eyes had seen the glory and the coming of a don.  I could not believe that he was bold enough to handle the gold-digger the way he did.  But I was in for another surprise.  I draped my mink on my back and walked out of that club like I owned the planet.  When we stepped outside, Cashmere was opening the car door, and I heard, “John!  John!  That’s you John?”

              I turned around and saw the one person that I needed to see in the company of Cashmere.  It was Crissy.  She was busting her way through the crowd.  With Cashmere standing next to me, I immediately knew that I had to put on a show.  So while the pimp soundtrack played in my mind, I made a spectacle of myself.  I faced her, brushed my shoulders off, and then asked, “What?”

Crissy was happy and excited.  She looked at me from head to toe.  She then looked behind me at the Rolls Royce.  She licked her lips and sashayed her way to me.

“I knew that was you,” she said, while rubbing the fur that made my coat.  Then she looked at the car.  “Wow, what happened to you?  I went back to our apartment looking for you, but you wasn’t there.  I miss you.”  I knew a lie when I heard it.

I scanned her up and down.  Then I spit on her shoes. “First of all, you too broke to be calling my name all out in public.”  I then brushed off my mink.  “Second of all, dig yourself.  I don’t give no explanations.  As for third?  You ain’t worth the air it takes to give an explanation, so beat it.”

“Give me one more chance, John, please?” she was always persistent.

I looked over at Cashmere, who watched intensely.  Then I gave Crissy a taste of her own medicine.  “Crissy, you so-so-sorry.  If you ain’t got nothing to offer, you wasting my time.  When your pockets get phat, come down to the square and ask for Johnny Hustle.  In the mean time, brace yourself bitch!”

Crissy grew roots in her feet.  The only thing that moved on her body was her eyes watching me in shock.  I walked over to the Rolls Royce and her eyes almost fell out of her skull.  She rushed to my window and started yelling, “Lenox Terrace!  Come see me, I’m sorry, John.”

Cashmere drove away congratulating me on the fine job I did.

14

The Drama

              Everything ran smooth during the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Roxy and Joy made good money.  Joy took control of the women on the Ave.  She formed a semi-union, telling the women that I would take care of them if anything went wrong.  So, instead of paying a pimp, they gave their money to Joy, and she gave it to me.

              It was a week before Christmas when Red dropped a bomb.  She had performed her daily run up and down the stairs, and finishing up her one-thousandth-stomach crunch when she said, “I got a job.”

              “What you mean a job?” I asked.

              “I mean a real job,” she said, enthused.

              “You squaring up on me, Red?”

              She answered while getting undressed and getting into the shower “No.  Well, sorta.  But I can’t tell you.  I don’t want to jinx myself.”

I walked away and waited until she finished in the shower. “How you gonna jinx yourself if it’s legit?” I asked, watching her dry off.

              “All I can tell you is, it’s down on Canal Street and I start work in two hours.  They needed help for the Christmas rush, so I took the job.  I have to go down to the salon so I can be ready, I’ll be right back.”

              “Whatever, Red; whatever,” I said before someone knocked on my door.

              Gloria stood there when I opened the door.  As she stepped in, Red greeted her and headed for the elevator.  Gloria turned to me and slowly shook her head.  “You didn’t have to do that.”

              It took awhile, but word must have gotten to her late that I had everyone in the hotel paying the Latino woman instead of her.  The schooling I received from Cashmere came to mind.

“Yeah, I had to do that.  She’s grateful that a man like me can do things for her.  You’re expendable.  You didn’t understand your role in this whole thing.  What you think, you somebody?”

              With her hand to her mouth she asked, “How you gone cut me off?  We only had an argument, look.”  She held a roll of bills in her hand.

“Too many days and too many dollars short,” I said.

She closed her eyes and put her head in her hands.  She then walked over to me and tried to reach for my zipper.  When I pushed her hands away she said, “I’m sorry honey, let me make it up to you.  Come on and take your clothes off.”

“You really want to make it up to me?” I asked, while the wheels were turning in my head.

“Just tell me what to do?” she said, getting on her knees.

I was firm and remembered that I couldn’t settle for less. “It’s been crowded in my suite and you didn’t even have the decency to tell me that they had three bedroom suites up in here?  I need a presidential suite up on a higher floor.  I don’t care who you got to pay, but make sure I move.  Make sure my ladies have everything they need, and if I find a dirty cup up in here, you’re cut off.  I also expect you to move everything up there by your damn self.”

“Okay—okay.  Just take the money and let me get a little something-something.  I miss you honey.”

I looked down on her. “Your cash is too short.  Do something with yourself.  When you get five grand, come back and see me.”

She left the room brooding.

$$$

I grabbed the money that Roxy and Joy gave me the night before, and headed over to the Virginia Theater on 52
nd
Street.  I banged on the stage door and saw the man PeeWee sent me up to see.  I handed him the cash, and he handed me a backstage pass.  After receiving instructions, and six front row tickets, I left.

When I returned to the suite, Red was dressed, but everything was different about her.  She had turned into a blue eyed brunette.

“What’s that all about?”  I asked, suddenly turned on.  I knew she was my woman, but she looked like someone else.

“It’s for the new job, Roxy inspired it.  Now you have two women with blue eyes.  I think it’s sexy.  I also think I’m gonna sport this look from time-to-time.  Do you like?”

While holding my pants, and my new erection, I said, “Most definitely.  I like how you did that.”

She kissed me, licked on my lips, and said, “I’m going to work, but I’m going to miss you.  Be good to me later please?  I promise to be anything you want me to be.  I’ll be thinking about you all day.”

I didn’t know what was going on, but for some strange reason, she and Roxy were acting like they were really in love with me.

Red walked out of the door, and I was grateful to be all alone.  Not a minute passed before there came a knock.  I was sure it was Red, but when I opened it, PeeWee stood there with a long leather trench coat, a Kangol hat on his head.

“I need ten grand if you want to be in,” he stated, adjusting his tie.

“Man, say hello when you step into my place,” I said after we shook hands and hugged.

“Brother, I don’t have the time.  This sting fell into my lap and—” He stopped talking and looked around the suite. “You got a nice place here.  Anyway, if you in, I have to go get my money together, and we have to be at the place by noon.  Ten will get you forty in a day, you in?”

I calculated the money that I had in the house from Roxy and Joy—I was short.  I didn’t want to take him with me to see Proverb so I said, “I’m in, I want to know the sting first?  If I like it, I’ll meet you at the Hilton.”

“I need to know you all the way in before I tell you. It’s an old Rolex hustle, that’s all I have to say.  I could have put the twenty up myself, but my money’s tied up right now.  Are you in or what?”

It was only $10,000 so I said, “I’m in.”

We walked out of the suite together and went our separate ways.  I stopped by Proverb’s, took out a loan, and headed for the Hilton.

I called PeeWee from the lobby and he came down with a small bag in his hands.  I expected to catch a taxi when we stepped out of the Hilton, but PeeWee picked up his pace and led me down Sixth Avenue like we were in a rush.  When we reached 46
th
Street in the Diamond District, he made a left and walked to the end of the block.  He walked into the same store Red took me to.  I was silent, but I wanted to know what was going down.

A short, balding, Jewish man called us to a back office.  When we got there, I saw what I believed to be six gold and diamond encrusted Rolex watches lying on the table.

PeeWee said, “I need that cash, bro.”

I handed him the money.  He pulled out his roll and handed it to the man.  The jeweler then removed a small velvet bag, and joined two other men at a workbench, and poured out hundreds of miniature diamonds.  The men examined the watches and pulled them apart.  Once the work started, PeeWee walked me outside and pulled out two slim Cohiba cigars.  I never smoked one before, but I tried it and liked it.

While we were waiting outside the door, I said, “You got my dough, so what’s the sting?”

“Diamondairs.”

“What? Diamond hairs?”  I asked.

“No fool.  Diamondairs.  Those are rocks from the early Seventies man.  Way before your time.  This guy Max Weinstein was a genius.  He couldn’t afford to buy real expensive diamonds, so he made his own and sold them to people who wanted something nice, but couldn’t afford it.  Sort of like that Cubic Zirconia nonsense.”

I interrupted. “So what’s that got to do with us?”

“Bro, for a smart man you need to listen more.  Max is gone, God bless his soul.  My man in there found a bunch of these rocks, and we gonna do a switch-a-roo as soon as they done polishing them up.  If Max was around today with these rappers, he’d make a killing.  Don’t matter much no how, because his two boys up in Hollywood doing that Miramax thing.  What a family.  Boys named the company after they mama Mira, and they dad Max.”

I scratched my head and refused to be called dumb again.  Once again, with another hustler, I kept my mouth shut.

By noon, the men in the shop called us inside.  When they laid the watches on the table, I saw six, diamond encrusted, Presidential Rolexes.  They were covered with diamonds.  They looked so good, I wanted one for myself.

The balding man handed PeeWee a velvet bag.  I walked over to the office door and looked into the front of the store.  A woman who looked exactly like Red stood with her back to me.  I knew it was impossible for someone to have the same body and clothes.  Instead of interfering with what she did, I walked outside and lit another cigar.  When she stepped out the store, and I asked, “I thought you had a job?”

Red’s eyes were on fire. “I’ll see you later, you know I don’t talk about the job, sugar, so be nice.”  She blew me a kiss and waved for a taxi.

PeeWee exploded out of the store so fast I thought he robbed the place.  “We need a cab right now.”  He paused, staring at Red and then said, “Damn, that woman looked like I seen her somewhere before?”

We took a taxi across town and exited at 43
rd
Street on Eleventh Avenue.  I wondered if PeeWee was going to do something with the prostitutes.  We were right down the block from the girls, but then he stood across the street from the UPS building.  A sea of employees was exiting the building for lunch.  When he made eye contact with a short rodent looking White man, we stepped into the Midtown dinner to heat up.

We sat at a booth and ordered coffee, but PeeWee told me to make sure my hands didn’t touch anything.  The rodent looking man squeezed his way into the booth next to me.  He slid a small brown bag to PeeWee, and PeeWee slid him the black velvet bag.  We all stood after the transaction.  PeeWee dropped a few bills on the table for the coffee before he and I left the man to go his separate way.

We walked back to the corner of 42
nd
Street where, of course, PeeWee had no problem catching a taxi.  He ordered the immigrant driver to take us back to Sixth Avenue.  That time, we walked into a different jewelry store.  With no questions asked, we were buzzed through a bulletproof door and allowed to walk upstairs.

What looked exactly like the watches we had earlier came rolling out of the bag onto the table.  The young Israeli jeweler put his loupe on to test the authenticity of the diamonds.  When he finished his test, he reached under the table for two, blue, air sealed plastic bags and gave them to PeeWee.  PeeWee handed one to me.

I was going across town, and PeeWee was headed for the Hilton.  I stopped him on the sidewalk and said, “Okay, I didn’t ask any questions.  Now tell me what happened?”

PeeWee annoyingly exhaled.  “My man in UPS been clocking the delivery charter for Tourneau Corner.  The jewelry store on 34
th
and Seventh?  He made a few phone calls, sat for a few months, and we switched the real Rolexes for the fakes that you and me paid to get made.  They worth thirty large apiece, but everybody got to come out happy.  My man repackages them, and the store never finds out.  Unless, for some reason the customer comes back complaining, but most of dem rich jokers will keep it on they wrist and save themselves the embarrassment.”  He lit another cigar. “Now, I got to go.  Have a Merry Christmas.”

I should have been to the point where nothing surprised me in Times Square, but I wasn’t.  I headed over to see Marcy and Elexus.  I had a lot of stealing I needed them to do.

$$$

I had been back at the suite for an hour when someone knocked on the door and opened it at the same time.  When I came out of the bedroom, I found the maitre‘d.  He stood there immaculately dressed in his suit.  I cut my eyes at the strings of hair used to cover his bald spot, and then focused on his clean face.  Confronted by the stern look etched into his face, I braced myself for drama.

“Mr. Hustle, how have you been?”  I nodded and he continued.  “You have had a pretty virtuous stay since you’ve been a
passable
resident here at the Marriott Marquise.”  He cleared his throat, twisted his mouth, and said, “Your stay has been quite intriguing.  I came to personally inform you that business has been prolific since you have arrived.  On behalf of myself and the staff, you are being upgraded to a three bedroom presidential suite.”  Again I was surprised, but he wasn’t finished.  He pulled out a small card and a check. “I do a little more than run this hotel, and we are having a major share holders meeting on New Years Eve.  We would like you and your guests to attend the meeting.  My boss is intrigued by your presence.”  He slid the check over. “This is for the pharmaceutical endeavors your capital has made possible.  You can claim it on your taxes as a consultant fee to the Marriott; you have to fill in the proper name, of course.  I think you will find the amount sufficient?  I would like to provide compensation bi-weekly, if it is feasible?  I would also like for you to approve of expanding to the Wall Street crowd at the new Marriott Financial Center Hotel.  With your permission, I will triple your investments.”

What was I supposed to do?  The man handed me a $20,000 check.  He told me I dealt drugs with him, but I never touched, saw, paid for, or used the drugs?  You damn right, I did what any hustler would do.  I moved into the Presidential suite and deposited the check in the bank.