The Plug's Daughter (11 page)

“What? Nigga, you sound stupid as fuck! What is there to do other than make money?”

              “I’m stupid nigga? Never. I won’t even say what the fuck I think about you right now while you on this bullshit. When it comes to money I’m good a’ight. Don’t worry ‘bout my pockets mufucka. I told you I was gon’ think about it. Well, I thought about it and I ain’t dealin’ wit’ no new niggas. Tell them they gotta find somebody else to get that shit from.”

              Dame sighed like he was getting frustrated with me. “Talk to Mendosa for me man. See if he’ll…”

              “You already know he ain’t fuckin’ wit’ that lil’ shit nigga. C’mon now. Them niggas only want ten. He don’t fuck wit’ nothin’ less than twenty unless it’s me. Like I said, they gotta find somebody else.”

              “You a lame ass nigga yo. Straight the fuck up. For real. Now I’m gon’ look like I don’t make moves like I say I do. I told them niggas I was gon’ hook them up wit’ something and you on that bullshit. Niggas gon’ think…”

              “Shut the fuck up Dame. You always worryin’ ‘bout what other niggas gon’ say. Be your own man nigga. Like I said, I been doin’ shit like I been doin’ shit and I ain’t locked up, I’m above ground and I’m gettin’ money my nigga. I got something to do. If them niggas trust you enough to give you the funds and I just fuck wit’ you that’s G, but I ain’t fuckin’ wit’ them cats. I’on know them.”

“A’ight man, damn,” he said finally letting that shit go.

I figured they wouldn’t be kosher with that, but if so, I was down.

              “I’ll hit you up later.” I ended the call and shook my head.

Who the fuck did that nigga think he was running anyway? I needed him to help me come up with a way to get that nigga Trell, but lately he’d been on some other shit. It wasn’t even like I could really talk about some serious shit with him. All he wanted to do was bark orders like I was part of his damn flunky crew. Like I needed him to make my ends. That nigga needed me.

After feeling pissed off for a few more minutes I checked my phone for the address that Jasenia had sent. It was located in McDonough, Ga, which was a forty minute drive. My guess was that she needed to get away from the city to elude Trell for a while.

I sent her a text letting her know that I was on my way. She didn’t respond, but I headed to the address she’d sent anyway.

*  *  *

              A narrow country road led to a huge gate similar to the one at Mendosa’s. I pressed the button.

              “It’s Keys.”

              “Okay,” Sen said softly and then the gate opened.

              I drove in and the gate closed swiftly behind me. At that point I still couldn’t see the house. A few yards ahead, I finally saw a two story, stone cottage style house. It was modern, but there were no neighbors for miles. There was also a silver Benz parked in the winding driveway. I parked behind it and anxiously got out of the car. Jogging toward the door, I noticed that it was opened, so I walked in.

              “Come out back!” She called out.

              That’s when I noticed the glass slide door that led to a sparkling, infinity pool. I closed the door behind me and the security alarm beeped alerting me that the door had been closed. It also reminded me to lock it, which I did. Hmm, advanced system, I thought to myself. At that point I still couldn’t see Sen.

              After making my way out back where she was through the opened glass door, I was in awe of the scene. The backyard was like a tropical island with fake palm trees, a tiki pool bar, plenty of lights and a waterfall. However, the best part of the scenery was Sen’s perfect body in a black, two piece bathing suit. My breath caught in my throat when I saw her.

              “Well, damn.” I shook my head and flashed a pitiful look. “Why you doin’ this to a nigga?”

              She smiled, but her eyes said something totally different. “What?”

              “You know what. Don’t act like you don’t know what you look like.”

              A laugh rose from her throat, but she was serious again in an instant. “I’m not doing anything. I invited you out here, because I need to talk to you. Taking a swim was an afterthought. Water relaxes me. At this point I don’t wanna chance us being seen together. Nobody really knows about this place. It’s my mom’s. She got it in the divorce settlement because my father got it built for her when they first got married. They lived here at first and then she got bored and wanted to move back to the city. Then he bought the house he lives in now. He said she was always fascinated with the houses in the fairytales she read as a child and so…” She waved her hand around. “This is the result.”

              I nodded in approval. “This place is straight yo’.”

              “Yeah, and it’s well secured. Way better than my condo. At first I was just gonna move here. The only thing is, it’s so… secluded. I’m thinking about staying out here until after Trell is…handled…but…I don’t think I wanna be out here…alone.” Her eyes got dark and misted over.

              I was getting used to that and it made me feel like there was more bothering her than the situation with Trell. Instead of pushing her to open up to me, I was going to let her do it on her own. It was clear to me that she was damaged, but I wanted to fix her. Playing captain save a hoe wasn’t my thing, but I knew that Sen wasn’t a hoe. I’d known her for the first eleven years of her life. That was at least half of it. I knew who she
really
was deep down to her core. She was just a woman who was starving for love and I had enough for her to be a glutton.

              “I still think it’s best for you to stay here…for now.”

              She nodded. “I know. I’ve managed to avoid Trell’s wrath for the past couple days. He thinks I’m in Miami handling some business about school. I whipped out my old Benz and left the Range at my father’s. I know what he wants me to do now. He came over right before I supposedly left for Miami. Of course he had to let me know that he’ll kill everybody I love if I’m up to something. The plan is for me to give him access to my father’s reserve.”

              Mendosa’s reserve would be the lick of a lifetime. He had to have at least 500 kilos of coke that he had got directly from an underground pipeline that led from Miami to Columbia. It was actually kept at an undisclosed location in barrels buried under the ground. Obviously Trell thought she knew where it was.

              “Shit,” I hissed.

              “The thing is, I don’t even know where his reserve is. I convinced Trell that I can find out to buy me some time. That nigga’s trying to be all nice and shit now because he needs me.” She shook her head with a look of disgust on her face. “I can’t wait until he takes his last fuckin’ breath Keys.”

              “Me either.” I sighed picturing my nine in his mouth before blowing his brains out. “We just gotta make sure we do this shit right ma. I ain’t scared to kill that nigga, but he got a lot of dumb ass mufuckas followin’ his blind ass. The thing is, I ain’t got no crew and I’on need one. A nigga like me be on my solo shit. I gotta make sure I’on make no stupid moves when it comes to murking that nigga. So, it’s good that you bought some time for me to think. At first I was gonna put Dame in on it, but I think it’s best we keep this shit under wraps.”

              She nodded. “I agree. You want a drink? Shit, I damn sure need one.”

              “Hell yeah.” That shit was right on time.

              The thought of Trell using her to fuck her own father over for his benefit had me heated. A drink would calm down my desire to go against all of my principles and go gun that nigga down right at that moment.

She walked inside as I pulled a baggie of Kush and a Swisher from my pocket. By the time she made it back out holding a tray with two glasses of ice, a bottle of Patron and some pineapple juice, I had the blunt already lit.

“Damn, that shit smells good.” Regardless of what was going on she still managed to look relaxed.

“Yo’ pops got that fiyah. I’on even smoke nobody else’s shit. Never have.”

“Hmm, that’s that Jamaican connection.”

“You ever been there?”

She nodded and sat down beside me at the patio table. “Plenty of times. I love it there.”

“I never been,” I said thoughtfully. “Always wanted to go though.”

When she looked up at me her face lit up. “Well, I’m gonna have to take you one day.”

She poured some Patron in both glasses, but when she twisted the top off of the pineapple juice and was about to pour some in mine, I stopped her. “Nah, straight for me shawty.”

With a nod she pushed my drink toward me before adding just enough juice to add a little color to hers.

“Oh, I can drink too, believe me. I got a lot of demons to drown.”

I thought about the scar on her wrist, but didn’t bring it up. “Hmm,” I clinked my glass against hers. “I’ll toast to that shit.”

“You ever been out of the US?” Sen asked after sipping her drink and taking a hit from the blunt I’d just passed her.

“Honestly, I’ve only been to Cancun once after I graduated from high school. Getting passports and shit ain’t my thing. I’m a secretive nigga. They wanna know too much for you to go outta the country. I’m personally not tryna pay a nigga to do some fake shit for me and I get caught up on some fraud shit,” I explained.

Sen gave me a look that told me that my logic was bogus. “Nigga, I can get you some official ass looking shit and we can go anywhere. I’ve been to 27 states and at least ten countries and I’m not done yet. I still have 23 states and who knows how many countries to go. I want to see the world. The world is so big Keys. Shit, I even wanna go out of space.” Her face glowed and her eyes were huge with awe.

Damn, she looked incredible and I loved how her face became illuminated when she talked about something she was passionate about.

I was so amazed by her. “Wow ma, and you’re only 22.”

She sipped her drink again. “My mama loves to travel. That’s the only time we really spend time together. My first flight was when I was six months old. Sky’s been the limit ever since.”

My glass was already empty by the time the blunt made it back to me. I took a toke and that shit tasted sweet as hell. Sen was quiet as she replenished our drinks. The sun was high in the sky and that pool actually looked inviting.

“Why y’en tell me about the pool and shit. I could’ve brought something to swim in.”

She looked surprised. “You can swim?”

“Hell yeah,” I chuckled. “I learned at the YMCA when we were kids. C’mon ma, you forgot? We learned how to swim together.”

Her eyes were on me. “We damn sure did, but you can swim naked though.” Suddenly she busted into hysterical laughter. “Now I remember Dame. Damian. He shitted in the pool that time. That shit was so fucking nasty. I remember we all got out of that bitch screaming.”

My side was hurting because I was laughing so hard. “Damn shawty. I forgot about that shit.”

“I remember something else,” Sen suddenly said.

She passed the blunt to me and I studied her gorgeous face. Her eyes were pulling me in and I was under her spell. Damn, she wasn’t even trying and a nigga was all in. Elena was a distant memory and all I could think about was the woman who was in front of me.

“What?”

There was a contemplative look lining her features. “I did come down one summer for two weeks when I was thirteen. You remember that?”

There was a sly glimmer in her eyes as she grinned sexily at me.

I did. “Oh…hell yeah…damn ma…I thought about that right after I saw you, but I ain’t wanna bring it up. No pressure, remember?”

“Yeah,” she said as I passed her the blunt. “But, I always wondered…”

“Me too…” I said remembering how we’d kissed and I’d fingered that tight, wet ass pussy for the first and last time.

She was gone two days later. I was still a virgin at that point and so was she. We’d wanted to be each other’s first, but it just didn’t happen. Ana had interrupted our little “play date” because Mendosa didn’t want us to be unsupervised. The movie we had been watching didn’t really seem that interesting anymore. I couldn’t even remember what it was. I’d thought about Sen and what could’ve been for years, but eventually I let it go. Now, I wanted that again.

“Do you believe what they say about having a soul mate?” Her voice cut through my thoughts like a knife.

“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. Maybe that explained why I couldn’t really connect with anybody.

“Me too. I just didn’t know that it was you until now Keys. I mean, I always thought about you. Never did I stop wondering what could’ve been with you. Then I think about my father and I know it would be damn near impossible for us to be together. I just gotta handle the mess I’ve made with my life before I can do anything else.” Tears filled her eyes, but once again she didn’t let them fall.

“You don’t have to try to be so strong ma. It’s okay to cry.” So, she thought I was her soul mate? Shit, I was thinking the same thing.

She shook her head. “Mendosa’s daughter has to be strong. Cry? For what. I don’t cry. What does that solve? Crying doesn’t fix shit.”

“Maybe tryna be so damn strong is the problem. Why hold it in baby girl?”