The Black Kiss Of Death, page 20
part #1 of Montega Chronicles Series
Diamond cruised through LA in her red Ferrari with a black Suburban full of shooters behind her for back up, just in case she ran into the Ape Gang again. She was headed to a meeting. At 21 years old, she was the smartest, prettiest, and most feared woman moving bricks out on the streets. Since her boyfriend, Hector, had taken a flight to meet some clients, this was a perfect time for Diamond to handle her own business without him nosing around.
For two and half years, she had been with the Mexican drug dealer. His jealousy and insecurity had caused him to lose focus on what really mattered: money and his cartel. His obsession with Diamond had weakened his will and affected his business. He couldn’t control himself when it came to her. His temper and jealousy had gotten uglier over time. Diamond couldn’t understand why men got that way with her, but it was something that gnawed at her. She fondly reminisced about her first love, JR.
She used to visit his gravesite every Sunday, but she found herself too busy to do that now. She had a reputation in the streets to preserve, and as a woman, the game was always that much more difficult. As she traveled down memory lane, she vibed off of the song, Best of Me by Mya, featuring Jadakiss. She wondered if she could ever replicate the love that she had for JR. The relationship she had now was taking its toll on her. Diamond sang all the way to the restaurant. She gave the valet her ticket, then followed Bain inside. The hostess looked through the reservation book, then said, “Ah, Ms. Reynolds, your table is this way, but I was under the impression you would be alone.”
“Oh, this is my…friend,” she lied. “He’ll be joining me, if that’s okay with you.”
The hostess looked up at the huge, bald-headed black man with the imposing stare. “No, it’s not a problem,” she replied meekly.
“Thank you,” Diamond said before following the waitress to where her guest was seated.
Immediately, he stood and shook her hand. “Diamond, it’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Mr. Vargas,” she said graciously as he pulled out a chair for her to sit.
For a year and a half, Diamond had been secretly doing business with the Mexican Mafia behind Hector’s back. Some would see that as snaking her own boyfriend. To Diamond, it was all about power. She not only flooded the Triads with heroin, but now she had the Mexican Mafia on her line. Slowly but surely, she was starting up a buzz in cities such as, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Baltimore, Camden, and Trenton.
Because of Hector’s outrageous prices, a lot of his clients abandoned him and dealt with Diamond. Others dealt with Castor, or the Agugbo brothers. Even though Diamond’s and Vargas’ relationship was strictly business, Vargas really wanted Diamond for himself and hoped that one day he would capture her fancy.
While Diamond and Vargas conversed like two old friends, outside, Diamond’s men were collecting the duffle bags of money from the trunk of Vargas’ car. This was how he would re-up. The bricks would be sent to a location, then Vargas’ men would take care of the rest.
After the meeting, Diamond shook hands with Vargas, then headed out of the restaurant, looking like a movie star in white Max Mara fitted slacks, a gold Marc Jacobs blouse, and white Hermes calf-skin Gladiator sandals that matched her handbag. She had her long hair tinted brownish gold and kept it in a loose ponytail. Vargas stared as she left, fascinated by her curvaceous hips and apple-shaped ass.
Chapter 52
GREED
Deep inside the ghetto of South Central LA, Steel and his homie, Sid, rode with two others in a Chevy Impala. Steel had to make a stop at the supermarket to pick up some baking soda and a couple of bags of ice. The four men hopped out and passed through the electric doors. Steel pulled out his cell phone and called Buck’s number, but didn’t get an answer. “Fuck, where is this nigga?” he griped.
“He still ain’t answerin’?” Sid asked.
“Nope, and that dumb muthafucka has to load.”
“Well, let’s check the strip club. You know how that mark is with them hoes,” Sid suggested.
After buying what they needed, they drove to the strip club. When they got to the place where Buck liked to hang out, they searched the nude scenery, but there was no sign of him. As they turned to leave, Butta and four shooters came rushing down the steps, with Macs poised.
Steel took cover and dropped the first dude with a shot to the neck. Sid fired his Caltech as he tried to make it to the back, but before he reached the dressing room, he got wet up by the hail of bullets. He staggered forward and tumbled over a waitress who was crouching down, covering her ears from the loud noise. Before Sid fell on his back, one last bullet from Butta’s gun thudded between his eyes. Steel watched as his cohorts fell, one by one. Thinking fast, he quickly put a naked stripper in a choke hold and used her as a shield as he backed his way towards the emergency exit. He fired a volley, killing one of Butta’s men.
By the time he got to the back, the woman was full of holes. He dropped her lifeless body to the ground. As soon as he got out the door, he was slugged with the butt of 4-5’s 4x4 bulldog and slumped to the ground. Dazed, Steel looked up and saw the barrel of a gun stuck in his face. 4-5 smiled before pulling the trigger. “Long kiss, nigga.”
BOOM!
In San Leandro, outside of Oakland, Butch counted, packaged and distributed all of the bricks that they had just received from another submarine shipment. A-Z helped with the count. Seeing that there was an extra brick, he recounted. When he got the same amount, he secretly stuffed it under his shirt and took it to his car. After all the trucks were packed and ready to move out, A-Z headed for the city to holla at one of Butta’s workers. Once he arrived, he beeped his horn at the young bol in charge of the lookout. “Ay, Cuz, where Meechy at?” he asked.
“I don’t know, A-Z. He was just out here,” the lookout explained.
Up the block, officers in a tinted black Crown Victoria surveyed the whole block. When they saw the lookout go to a red Cadillac Escalade and saw the white guy inside, they thought he was making a sale. “Alright, guy, we got a buyer,” Sergeant Kasem Moss said through his walkie-talkie before putting his car in gear.
As A-Z spoke with the lookout, his eyes ballooned at the sight of police cars closing in from all angles. The lookout hauled ass through one of the alleys, but was hit by a cop car on the other end. A-Z also tried to make a run for it, but Sergeant Moss was right there with his gun drawn. “Put your fucking hands up!” he commanded.
A-Z did as instructed. Once he was placed in the back of the Crown Victoria, he watched as the officers searched his vehicle. When he saw them emerge with a big plastic bag, he knew they had found the handgun and the brick of heroin. “Well, well, well, look what we got here, Sarge. I think we hit the jackpot,” one undercover officer rejoiced.
Moss walked towards the squad car A-Z was in and peeked in. “And to think, we thought you were just some buyer. Looks like we gotcha, buddy.”
A-Z put his head down, anticipating all the hard time he would have to do, especially if the feds got involved.
Chapter 53
THE FIRST LADY
After an intense training exercise with her martial arts instructor, Diamond stepped to the side to take a seat. Drained and tired, dressed in an all-black cat suit and tube socks, she toweled herself off, crossed her legs, and cracked open a bottle of Fiji spring water as she watched her trainer circle another one of his students.
Before she could watch them battle it out, her phone rang. It was A-Z. “Hey, white boy, what’s up?”
“Yo, what’s crackin’, girl? What you doin’?” A-Z asked.
“Nothing. You know, it’s Thursday. I gotta stay in shape,” she replied.
“Oh, so you’re at your martial arts class, right?” he asked lamely.
“Yeah, why?” she asked suspiciously.
“Nothing, I was…uh, just seeing what you were up to,” he said hesitantly.
Diamond took her cell phone from her ear and looked at it, slightly vexed. A-Z never called her regular line unless it was an emergency. But, to call and have nothing to say was questionable. She quickly snapped her phone shut, grabbed her gym bag, and headed out the door. As soon as she got outside, LAPD officers swarmed around her. Diamond looked over at Bain, who was handcuffed and being escorted to a paddy wagon. She shook her head in disbelief as a small squadron of officers pointed guns at her face.
She dropped her gym bag and put her hands up before Sergeant Moss walked up to her and slapped the cuffs on her. “Diamond White, you are under arrest for drug trafficking and the possession of a controlled substance. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
Clyde’s phone rang in the cigar room as he and Justin played pool. Seeing it was Tommy, he answered. “Yo, TG what’s up?”
“Yo, Dawg, are you watching the news?”
“Naw, why?” Clyde asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Man, I think you need to turn that shit on, cuz,” Tommy suggested.
Clyde hit the remote for the big screen and watched as a reporter delivered the story.
“Just a few hours ago, police arrested 21-year-old Diamond White.” Clyde’s and Justin’s mouths simultaneously almost hit the floor. “White was charged today with drug trafficking and possession of nearly 100 kilograms of heroin. An informant led the police to a ranch out in Los Santos where he claims that White may have distributed nearly 1,000 kilos of heroin not long before her arrest. White’s fingerprints also matched prints lifted from the steering wheel of ex-middleweight boxing champion, Stephon Butler’s white Lexus that was connected to a violent shooting in LA over two years ago. White’s bail is set at a quarter of a million dollars.”
Justin looked over at Clyde in shock. “Can you believe that shit?”
Clyde replied, “What’s not to believe?”
Later on that day, as Diamond sat in a cold jail cell, she couldn’t stop thinking about the betrayal of A-Z. She was relieved that he hadn’t mentioned all of the murders, especially Stephon Butler’s. And, after being questioned for hours about her fingerprints being in the Lexus, the detectives seemed satisfied with her answers. She was his girlfriend. End of story. As she sat on the cold, steel bench, the turnkey guard came down the walkway. “Diamond White? You made bail,” a fat, nasty, white guard said, opening the bullpen.
Diamond walked by with a grateful smile. When she got outside the district, she looked around for Butch’s Tahoe, but didn’t see it anywhere. Instead, there was stretch limousine sitting out in the parking lot. Diamond knew who was inside and rolled her eyes.
Clyde once told her that she would need him one day, and now that day had come. It was time for her to explain everything. When she got into the back seat, Bain was already seated with Clyde and Justin.
“So, are you ready to tell me what you’ve been up to? Or, do you want to spend a shitload of time behind bars in a women’s federal prison? They got that snitch hidden so good, even the Black Kiss of Death can’t get him without help.”
“You’d be surprised,” Diamond corrected him.
Clyde stared at his sister in wonder. Diamond knew there was no other way. She swallowed her pride. “Okay, damn.”
She then explained everything that happened from the moment JR was killed to the underlying cause of her arrest, leaving both Clyde and Justin breathless, especially when she spoke of her visit to Cuba.
“So what happened with the car crash?” Clyde asked.
“Bain and I made a run for it. We got a ride from Butta and A-Z to Stephon’s house, but we found the girl dead and Stephon was gone,” she lied, glancing over at Bain to make sure he was still riding with her. “I think he may have been abducted.”
“You sure you didn’t kill the broad after finding her in the house?” Justin asked, wandering close to the truth.
Diamond rolled her eyes. “Why would I kill his sports agent? Like I said, he was gone when we got there. And the house was already flaming.”
Clyde stated the obvious. “You do realize that the people you are dealing with on the cocaine tip killed our pop, don’t you?”
“Business is never personal, Clyde. You should know that.”
“You say that like you’re serious,” Justin observed.
Diamond ignored Justin and looked at her brother. “So what now?” she asked.
“Now we go to New York. There’s a lot of people that are looking for answers, and there’s one who might need to help you with your situation.”
A few hours later, Clyde’s private Leer jet landed at the JFK International Airport, in New York. From there, they were taken to a large skyscraper in downtown, Manhattan, on 57th Street, where they took the elevator to the 12th floor. There, the boss of all bosses, Carlton Butler, sat behind a long table with the members of the Underworld, along with his son, to greet them.
Once everyone was seated, Carlton began. “Diamond, this is really a surprise for me to see you here today. Your father wanted something much different for you, but what’s done is done, right? Before we get started, I understand you dated my son, Stephon. I also found out that you had his Lexus the day he disappeared. You care to enlighten me about this?” Carlton asked.
Deshawn studied the woman in the black Ferragamo skirt suit and pumps as she removed her Louie shades. She explained her story the same way she explained it to her brother. It was a brilliant acting job; they believed her. Diamond even faked a few tears, leading them to believe that Stephon was still alive. Carlton felt her pain, then introduced her to some people who could help her with her problems.
“Diamond, the Underworld doesn’t just dabble in illegal activities. We also deal with some very powerful people in government. Anything is possible if you have these people in your corner. They can locate a government witness testifying against you; they can get all the charges dropped. All these things are possible if you cut all the ties with the Russians and join the Underworld as our First Lady,” Mr. Butler promised.
Diamond looked around at all the big faces, then sat back and crossed her legs. “I’ll join under one condition.”
“Name it,” Mr. Butler replied.
“I get to bring who I want into this organization with me. And, I want Verningo Castor dead.”
Everyone looked around at each other with worried faces. This was risky, but not wanting to lose a potential member, Mr. Butler said, “You got yourself a deal, Ms. White.”
“Alright, then. I’m in.”
Each man nodded in agreement, except for Deshawn. He was still unsure about the woman, especially after hearing all the rumors about the disappearance of his brother.
That day, Deshawn saw the whole White Family in a different light. He vowed that if he ever found out that Diamond had a hand in Stephon’s murder, the whole Great White Organization would burn to the ground. “So what about the Russians?” Clyde asked Diamond. “How do you plan to cut your business with them?”
Diamond gave her brother a wink and a smirk, then got up from the table to leave.
Chapter 54
DOUBT AND DECEPTION
The large receiving room inside the CFCF county jail on the State Road was packed with visitors to see loved ones. Like always, Mike sat across from his new girlfriend, Jasmine, as they discussed what was going on out on the streets. For two years, Jasmine had been coming up to visit Mike every week. It didn’t take long for love to blossom.
Jasmine didn’t care how much time Mike got; she was loyal and would ride it out with him as long as he stayed true to her. Jasmine was a 5 foot 3, 126-pound, petite redbone with straight black hair that dropped past her shoulders. She was blessed with a nice ass and a nice set of breasts that Mike always fantasized about sucking on.
“I talked to your cousin, Shug, the other day,” Jasmine told him. “He said that he fired your lawyer and hired one of the top lawyers in the country. Her name is Latanya Gibson. She’s supposed to be coming up to see you soon.”
“Man, none of that shit matters if this nigga Smoke still runnin’ around the streets like he ain’t no rat,” Mike replied disappointedly.
“I heard KK cousins, Flex and Mick, tried to get Smoke, but Mick ended up getting killed. Flex got away, but then Razor iced him a week later,” Jasmine said, spilling the beans.
“Razor? My young bol, Razor?” Mike asked, stunned.
“Yup. Something about Razor telling Flex he couldn’t roll out with them during a hit. Razor told them that three was a crowd. Flex took it personal. They got into an argument and they drew their guns. They said Flex had his safety on and Razor shot him. Now KK’s trying to get involved.”
“KK better fall back, if he know what I know. Kia’s little brother ain’t goin’ for that,” Mike warned.
“Who, Kenny?” Jasmine said. “The one they call Montega?”
“Yeah, young bol a gun on the low. I ain’t even gonna hold you.”
“Oh, yeah? But, he seems so quiet and to himself. All he wanna do is sell drugs and ride dirt bikes and four-wheelers all day,” Jasmine said naively.
Mike recalled the night Montega killed Gangwar for him at Shrimpie’s bar. It was then he realized that Montega had heart and was way more dangerous than any other hustler on the block. It was also the reason Mike gave Reek strict orders not to sell Montega anything over two ounces. Deep down, Mike knew that Montega’s rep could destroy what he had built. That scared Mike; with some money, there was no telling what Montega was capable of.
On a cool and sunny afternoon in the Big Apple, Deshawn Butler dined in front of a Manhattan restaurant on Chelsey Pier. It was a spot where people enjoyed brunch or an early dinner outdoors. Deshawn and his brother, Stephon, loved to meet there and try to hit on actresses or a singer. Stephon’s disappearance had disturbed him. Deshawn knew that he’d moved out to LA to be with Diamond, so her claim that she was ignorant about what happened to him sounded bogus. Deshawn was shocked at how much control Diamond had over his brother. Stephon’s life had deteriorated once he moved out west. He had neglected his career and his friends to be with her. He always resented that.
