The Legend of Johnny Hustle: Crown Me King (16 page)

Fussing over where Red was and warning me not to ruin their makeup, the girls helped me get dressed.  I felt too good.  What they didn’t know was that it was my first real Christmas too.  When the car arrived, me and my ladies stepped out shining, all furred up.  I wore the outfit from the night at the U.N.; in my hands I carried two large boxes, and another small velvet box.

I whispered to the driver to head to School Street Projects in Yonkers.  It had been years since either of the women had left the midtown area, so we took Broadway straight uptown and into Yonkers.  When we passed Van Cortland Park, Roxy asked, “Where we going, baby?”

“To show you off,” I answered.

After the car made a sharp left and two rights, we turned into the projects and Roxy yelled, “Oh, hell no. I can’t do this.”

The driver came around and opened the door. “Yes, you can.  You can do anything as long as I have your back.”

I held her hand and treated her like a queen walking on rose pedals.  Visiting families, along with residents of the projects, crowded around the limo and was asking who the star was.  I pointed to Roxy.

“Hey, Demitria,” Roxy called out to a short girl who was dark as her.

The dumpy girl stopped short and then did a double take.  She looked over to Roxy and asked, “Pat?  Patricia, that’s you?” She looked closer and realized that it was her childhood friend.  “Oh shit!” she said and then turned her head up to the tall building.  “
Poookie
!  Pookie!” she yelled until another girl peeked out of the window.  “It’s Patricia!  She came back Big Willie style, get down here quick!”

Like a crowd gathering at a rap concert, a bunch of Roxy’s old girlfriends called each other out the windows to see the new and older Patricia.  They swarmed her.  When they asked her how she was able to ride around in limousines, she pointed to me.  “My man takes care of me, girl.  I live in a high-rise downtown.  We rich,” Roxy bragged.

“Move out of the way!  Move outta my way!” a shorter, older replica of Roxy made her way through the crowd.

“Hi, Mama,” Roxy said to her mother.

“Patricia, where you been?”  She cut her eyes at me.  “And who’s this?  What he got you doing to be looking like this.”

Roxy’s smile turned into a frown.  The Roxy she knew was an abused little girl, but the one I knew was a streetwalking queen.

I jumped in, defending my woman.  “Mrs. Muckle, all your daughter has to do is wake up in the morning and I’ll give her the world.  And if she stops waking up, I’ll visit her grave until the day I die.  She don’t want for nothing, and she will never need nothing.”  I looked over to Roxy.  “She’s too smart and too beautiful to ever have to live in the projects.”

“Oooooh,” the crowd responded.

“I guess he
told
you.  All up in the Kool-Aid and don’t know the flavor,” someone from the crowd mumbled.

“Bye y’all,” Roxy said, in a tone that told me she was never going back.

She stepped into the car and I followed.  When the tinted windows protected us from the mob outside, Roxy’s mother screamed, “Wait!  Wait, come back.”

Roxy looked at me smiling.  She got her breathing together and laid her head on my chest.  “I love you, Johnny.  Love you so much it’s scary.”

I smiled.  “You safe,” I said, hoping she knew the truth when she heard it.

From Yonkers, the limo took us to Co-op City in the Bronx.  We stopped at 100 Alcott Place, and I grabbed my two boxes and headed up the elevator.  When Mrs. Walker answered the door I heard, “Daddy, it’s Christmas.  It
is
Christmas, Daddy.”  Little Mimi jumped into my arms.

Mrs. Walker arranged for Mimi to leave Happy House in Harlem for a day so that she could stay with me.  I handed Mimi the two boxes.  When she opened them, she found a smaller sized platinum key, a short fur coat, a gown, and a pair of shoes.  I got her dressed.  I borrowed a brush and comb from Mrs. Walker and we were out the door.

Mimi clung to Roxy, remembering her even though no one else could recognize her without her contacts and blonde hair.  Kids are smart that way.  Joy did Mimi’s hair while she sat with Roxy, and like a big family, we rode back downtown.

I was running late, so I called the hotel from the car and told them to send my two guests down to the lobby.  I then gave a speech to everyone in the car.  I told them that I wanted them to make me proud because the guests were very important people.

The car approached the side entrance to the Marriott.  My two guests stood with their gowns on, looking for the mystery man they never saw before.  When I stepped up and introduced myself, the two women yelled out in surprise.  Red’s mother and aunt lusted after me and almost feinted when they saw the limo.

“So, you’re the nice man who gave us an all-expense paid trip to New York?” said Red’s aunt in her Texas drawl.

“Whew, my daughter has impeccable taste.  Where is she?” asked Red’s mother, who could have easily passed for her sister.

“It’s a surprise.”  I then pointed to the limo. “My family will be joining us.  They’re already inside.  Just give me a moment and I’ll be right there.”

I took the elevator to get Red’s coat and my new video camera.  I then went to the lobby and grabbed the gifts I had for Red.  The bellboy carried four dozen white roses and a half a dozen for little Mimi.  I then returned to the spacious limo and handed out roses to everyone.

The car made a left onto Seventh, then a right at 42
nd
Street.  He worked his way back to 52
nd
Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenues.  When Red’s mother noticed that we were pulling up to the
Little Shop of Horrors
Broadway show, she asked, “Where’s Terri?”

“Terri? Oh, Red?” I asked.  “She’s inside waiting for us.  It’s a three o’clock show and we’re running late. The show’s about to start and we have front row tickets.  So let’s go.”

“A stern man.  My Terri has picked one that’s just like her father,” Red’s mother said as we were escorted down to our seats.

The immaculate theater had a sea of seats.  The well-dressed crowd stared at us like we were celebrities.  When the lights dimmed, announcing that the show was beginning, I had a job on my hands trying to explain to everyone where Red was.

The show started and I could see that Red was a great actress.  As she did her five-minute part, her mother almost fell out of her seat with pride.  She kept telling people in the audience that Red was her daughter; the people in the audience asked her to be quiet.  Me on the other hand, I was sitting there worried that one of Red’s marks would recognize her on stage and yell out, “She robbed me before.”

When the show was over, the cast did a curtain call and bowed for the audience.  I stood, with the spotlight on me, and handed Red her dozen roses while the audience applauded.  Although she wasn’t the star, all eyes were on her.  Seeing her mother triggered a river of tears.

After the show, I handed Red her clothes and she changed into them.  After receiving praises from the acting staff, she was more concerned about Joy and Roxy’s criticisms than her mother’s and aunt’s.  I detected a level of tension and was grateful that her mother’s plane was leaving at eight that night.

At six o’clock we were seated at
The View
atop the Marriott.  When little Mimi saw the revolving floor she wanted to spin around with it.  As we ate, Joy kept calling me ‘daddy,’ and then Mimi was calling me ‘daddy.’  Red’s mother watched how Red and I kissed, and then saw Roxy and I kiss.  I was sure they would have a lot to talk about on the plane ride back to Dallas.

After dinner, Red and I said our farewells to her mother.  Her aunt slipped me her phone number and winked at me on her way out the door.  After that, we headed to the Bronx to drop Mimi off.  The girls wouldn’t let Mimi go and wanted her to stay with us.  There was no social worker in New York that would have approved of that, so I promised Mimi that I would see her every month.

$$$

On the way back down to the Marriott, the driver told me that Sharieff wanted to see me at the
Touch of Class
car base.  When we pulled over at the base, Sharieff was getting out of a new Lincoln.  He wore a black tux with a white scarf draped at his lapels.

“Long time no see, homeboy?  What’s wrong, you don’t like money?”  I was slightly annoyed and paranoid.  I didn’t really know the man.  “Looka here.  Tomorrow most businesses are closed, but I got one greedy bastard who’s gonna be open.  He collects rare coins.  Got a loft down in So-Ho, easy job.  Either you, or your boys, can show up at twelve, and we can split a hundred and fifty grand if you deliver the goods.  I don’t need to know who you use, and they don’t need to know who I am.  All I know is, I gamble with a bunch of rich, fat, Jews and Crackers.  They money insured, and some of dem like to get robbed.  Tomorrow, one of dem
needs
to get robbed.  If you take the job, give me a call when you get the goods.  I’ll deliver seventy-five big ones in cash.  After the New Year, I got another one for you.”

I thought about my nephew and said, “I got to make a call Sha, this is short notice.”

He pulled a NEC cellular phone out of his inside pocket.  The contraption was the size of a VHS tape.  “Here,” he said, handing me the phone.  “The chip in it is burnt, so you get unlimited calls until February.  Call me tonight and let me know.”

We shook hands.  When I got back into the limo door, the girls were naked—wearing nothing but their furs. ”Merry Christmas,” they yelled in unison.

I held up one finger to stop the women and dialed Webb’s number.  (Business had to come before pleasure).  When I heard him tell me to speak, I said, “I got a job for you and I need you to—”

I was cut off by him saying, “Not on the phone fam, not on the phone.  Where you at, duke?”

I gave him the address to the Marriott.  He told me that he was on his way.  When I pulled the phone from my ear, Joy snatched it away.  In her country accent she said, “You are almost like God to me, and I will worship you because you already put this girl in heaven.”

She bent her head down, removed my manhood, and put it into her mouth.  Roxy turned the music up and did a striptease right in the back of the limo.  Red kissed on me, ripped my shirt open, and sucked all over my chest and neck.  During that ride, I successfully performed the method that Red taught me to keep from cumming.

$$$

Later that night, Webb and Jason were in my living room.  Joy walked around naked and stared at Jason’s blue eyes to see if they were really real.  Red sat next to me during the meeting and wouldn’t leave my side.

“Duke.  What’s the problem, duke?  It’s Christmas, fam, is you illin'?”

“Job in SoHo.  Y’all like to do that robbery thing.  I got a few lined up from my partner.  If you in, I give him a call and he gives me the address.  According to him, you walk in, and you walk out.  The mark just hands it over.”  I thought about the incident in the hotel room and added, “You don’t have to kill nobody.”

“Do you know the layout, what’s the situation?”  Jason asked.

Filled with aggression, Webb cut in.  “Homey, you always talking, homey.”  He looked at me and said, “How much we get paid is all I need to know; hell yea we in duke, is you illin fam?  Is you illin?”

“According to my partner you get twenty five large apiece if you deliver all of the coins to me.”

Webb stood.  “Duke we in fam—we in.  Just don’t call my celli talking too much, fam—don’t talk too much.  Give me the address on the phone and that’s it, fam. The Federalies could be tapping my line, fam.”  He turned to Jason. “Let’s go, homey.”  And to my relief, my crazy nephew went home.

“You sure you know what you doing?” Red asked when the door closed.  Webb spooked her.

“Not at all sweetheart, not at all,” I replied.

I picked up the cell phone and called Sharieff.  After he gave me the address, I transferred it to Webb, praying that no one got killed the day after Christmas.

We all sat in the living room that night getting drunk from Bottles of Moet.  The ladies told me what I meant to them and how much I touched them with the gifts.  After they thanked me verbally, the video camera was loaded with a fresh tape, and we didn’t stop pleasing each other until the tape stopped recording.

The next day, I was so hung over and exhausted that my eyes didn’t open until one o’clock.

Gloria walked into my bedroom with Joy and a briefcase.  “An older man dropped this off.  When security stopped him, he told them to take it up to you.  He didn’t know what room you were, in so I brought it up.  Then he jumped into a new Lincoln; security has the plate numbers if you need them.”

Red pulled the covers over her head, and Roxy lay hugged onto me as she slept.  When Gloria told me what time it was, I jumped out of bed.  She handed me a robe.  I walked out into the living room where brunch was on a food cart for all of us.  She handed me a Christmas card, looked into Red’s bedroom, which she almost never used, and said, “Honey, I know you tired, but you promised.  I promise I’ll do all the work.”

I couldn’t believe my life, but once again, a deal was a deal.  When she took her clothes off and laid the condoms next to me, I smiled while thinking about her transformation.  She went into her regular routine of sucking on me and fingering herself until she came.  Then she slipped the condom on.  To my surprise, she made slow and passionate love to me.  Her experience paid off because she had three orgasms to my one.