A Kingpin's Obsession: Ajoni's Story (5 page)

“Do you understand that I am going to be the only one that you sleep with from now on, Ajoni?”

She slowly started to nod her head. The time had finally come to take what was mine.

“Then come to me, Ajoni.”

“King, you’re a goddamn predator,” she spit before moving towards the bed.

I should have known she would have to get in at least one insult before she submitted to me, but when she took that first baby step in my direction trying to make her last moments as a virgin last, the canyon in my chest began to close.

***

CHAPTER Four

King

“Kingsley
,” Felicia yells suddenly, getting my attention. I look up. She is standing up with a stack of papers in one hand, a plastic bag with my wallet, keys, and jewelry inside it in the other. She leans to the side and looks behind me. “Hankin, is this fucking criminal deaf?”

He laughs. I am sure she called me quite a few times, but the memories of Ajoni always grip me tightly. I catch hell getting loose every time.

Felicia blows air out her mouth. “You’re free to go but not free, Kingsley. You must report immediately to your parole officer in Mecca with your release paperwork in the morning. Failure to do so will land your ass right back in here for the rest of the time left on your sentence, but I don’t have to tell a career criminal that. Now do I?” she asks dryly, drops the paperwork on the desk, picks up a manila envelope, and opens it up wide for me to see inside.

In the bottom of it is a stack of money. I nod, knowing that it is my money in the bottom but not sure where it came from, yet. The time Hankin has left on this earth depends on its origins.

Felicia slides my paperwork in on top of the money and shoves the envelope and the plastic bag through the opening in the glass. Her eyes begin to drill into mine, sending a subliminal message to keep my fucking mouth shut about her crooked ass and what she just showed me. I smile my response; message received. I then take the envelope and the bag, but none of it is going to help me get home. Mecca is thirty five miles away and I am not walking, not when I have a truck that Lea’s and Nina’s bum asses are supposed to be taking care of along with my house in Mecca County. Looks like I am going to have to bribe one of these motherfuckers to let me make a call after all.

“Come on, Kingsley,” Hankin says behind me while struggling to get to his feet. “Your ride is outside the gate, and it is a long walk from here.”

I start to wonder who is waiting for me and follow him to the next iron door on the other side of the room. The only one in my crew that thinks of shit in advance and should still be behind bars is Raw, unless he is not. I begin to suspect that he is not and also the one that has been looking out for me, and waiting at the gate. Lea is not this damn dependable.

It takes about five minutes to navigate the long corridors and get to the last iron door that leads to the outside and the parking lot. I stop behind Hankin, waiting for him to swipe his badge. Another buzzer goes off over my head here. He steps to the side. The door begins to open.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, Kingsley,” he whispers then turns around and walks away, going back the way he came.

“You can count on that shit, Hankins.”

Fresh air rushes me before I walk through the doorway into the bright sunlight, and past a guard in a control booth. Forty feet away is a ten-foot fence surrounded by barbed wire that is sliding apart as I walk toward it. Standing on the other side of it is a man that looks like a much slimmer version of me, and exactly who I expected it to be leaning against the passenger side of my rundown truck, with a smile on his face.

“LaJavious Rawlings,” I shout, and shake my head when I notice the rims on my truck are gone, but too damn glad to see Raw to care about my whip oddly. I do not make it a habit to attach to people, but he is the first friend and lieutenant I ever made, a pretty boy four years younger than me that looks the same as the last time I saw him, and the only man that I trust like a brother.

I then have to admit that I have missed all my boys. My lieutenants are the only ones that I could count on to watch my back since I met them one by one, and got them all out of some type of fucked up situation as kids on the streets of Mecca. Our struggles to survive broken homes, drug addicts for mothers that did not buy groceries, and sperm donors that cannot spell daddy were the beginning of the Blue Kings.

I lost touch with every one of my lieutenants in the first six months of our incarceration. We all were transferred without warning from the county lock up to different prisons after taking plea deals for aggravated assault on Ajoni to avoid a trial, and being railroaded into two life sentences for rape and kidnapping.

Right then, I realize I have grown attached to my crew over the years and there is only one other person in this world that I would rather see more than them. I will find her if it is the last thing that I do.

Raw steps forward, gives me some dap then leans in to embrace me and pound my back with his fist. I have no fear of his touch. You will never know that he is gay unless he tells you what I have known since he was ten years old, and noticed that he was watching the boys walk by instead of the girls. Not many people outside of the Blue Kings know this. Raw is picky about who he sleeps with, and travels far away from Mecca to keep his secret and street cred unblemished. Since I have slept with most of Mecca, I am not his type and he would not try me up like that anyway. But if I need some work put in, he is the one I call first and can count on the most to get the job done.

He steps back from me and grins. “Get in, nigga. I know your ass don’t have a valid license in that envelope.” Raw is quicker to crack a joke on your ass then bust his guns, but his temper is worse than mine when he is provoked, and he will kill you faster.

He spins on his Timberland boots with a royal blue stripe around the sole to walk around the front of the truck, then looks back at me moving for the passenger side.

“Before you ask, King, I got out two weeks ago. Lea is still living in your house and making use of your shit with Nina Simpson…
together
. I bunked down in your basement my first night out, after I found out my stupid ass moms let my house get seized by the pigs. She was letting niggas chop up dope in it. They got my cash in the vents too, so I only have what’s in my bank account, but I’ve been staying in a sweet ass hotel in Buckhead on your dime. By the way, your house looks like your truck does and I will let you deal with that. I dug up some of your cash buried in the warehouse’s floor, then started tracking the original Blue Kings down. I left care packages for everyone with guards that I paid off to hold the shit close for y’all and call me when one of you was up for release.”

I nod, understanding that Lea and the other bitch I fucked recreationally are currently taking advantage of my shit without taking care of it, and Raw has to start from the bottom. I am not shocked about that though. What does come as a surprise is the guard that took Raw’s bribe; she seemed to have a deep hatred for criminals.

“So, Felicia is a junkie like almost everybody else, huh? And your dumb ass didn’t listen when I told you to find another spot for you loot.”

Raw chuckles quietly and unlocks the doors. “I didn’t have time to find anything while running the Westside for you. Felicia was glad to take two grand and a package for you after I followed her from here to a trap house in Decatur. That bitch is meaner than a fucking snake and has a coke habit that makes her even meaner, but I had no problems getting her to do what I wanted. So far, you and I are the only ones out. But I have two questions.” I forgot how good Raw’s looks were at convincing women to do things for him though they would never get what they wanted
from
him.

“What you need to know, Raw?” I ask after we climb inside the truck with cracked white leather seats and fading wood grain trimming.

“First, did you have to gain so much weight?” he asks, then laughs and pulls away from the gate. “You look like a damn tank on steroids and are we going back to business as usual in Mecca even though both of our asses are on parole? All of the Kings’ territory and runners has been taken over by a new cat named Lex, but we don’t have to go back into the dope game. You have so much money buried in that damn floor that I started to dig it all up, leave all the Kings thumbing a ride back to Mecca, and hop a damn plane to the closest country that does not have an extradition treaty, and then live like a fat cat.”

I begin to laugh my ass off. Raw would never fuck me over like that, and I was not the only one getting an education while locked down.

“What the hell do you know about an extradition treaty, Raw? How much education did you
get
behind bars?”

He looks at me sideways and grows serious.

“I can work in a law office as a paralegal if I want to and know enough to become a lawyer. We should have been sent up the river for the shit that happened to Ajoni that night. She is the only reason why we didn’t all ride. She could have pushed for a trial and nobody would have ever seen our asses without a prison fit on again. You left your DNA in her, King. Her hair that Leek pulled out at the root was all over his car and corroborated her story about the struggle that took place after she told him to take her home, which meant he kidnapped her to bring her to you.

I was caught on camera at the gas station buying the same shit they found at the warehouse for her injuries, which made me an accessory. Luckily, there was no dope at the warehouse that night, or they would have seized your shit too. X got exactly what he fucking deserved for putting Ajoni’s ass to sleep after she got there. Slade got caught up because he knew what was happening and did not snitch to the cops.”

It occurs to me that we may have gotten a lesser sentence because Ajoni had mercy on us, and not the DA that has been trying to find dirt on us since he got into office.

“Raw, let me ask you something. You think Ajoni’s the reason why we got less time?”

“I
know
she’s the reason why. The police reports and sentences are all public record, and the DA was pissed because he could not lock the Blue Kings up and throw away the key.”

“Then there is nothing else to talk about, Raw. It’s business as usual, and I do not want to talk about how shit went left that night. I know how. X and Leek let their positions go to their fucking heads, and Ajoni’s jump in got out of hand. I’d rather make moves and get all of our futures back on track, plus a few other things I need to take care of.”

“Name it,” he says quickly, like I knew he would; always down no matter what needs to be done.

“Officer Hankin stole from me, and Ajoni needs to be found ASAP.”

Raw blows air out of his mouth and shakes his head. “Find her for fucking what, King? Do you realize you are obsessed? The whole crew is torn apart because of your obsession, and we are damn lucky we did not do the football numbers that Larkin was handing out like candy. Your obsession won’t do nothing but take the Kings down again
—
what is left of us anyway. How much are you willing to lose for this girl?”

I turn my head and stare at him.

“That damn much, huh?” he asks sarcastically.

“It’s her birthday tomorrow, Raw,” I say simply.

Raw frowns at me like I am talking out the side of my neck. “What makes you think she wants two fifths of the Blue Kings to pop up at her crib and say
surprise, it’s the two motherfuckers that tried to see about you after we damn near got you killed
? King, you must have tripped, bust your dome to the white meat, and lost your entire damn mind in The Pen. We can’t even leave Mecca without someone giving us permission, and we sure as hell don’t suppose to be in the same room together while we’re both on parole.”

“I hear what you putting down, Raw, but are you down?” I ask, wondering if I lost his loyalty, and willing to find Ajoni by myself if I have to.

His eyes begin switching between me and the road, and then he takes a deep breath and starts to laugh dryly. I know he is in all the way when his humor is in play, but people can change when you have spent almost eight years apart.

Then Raw pounds his fist on the steering wheel. “
Man, shit
… yeah… whatever. But I’m singing like a bird the next damn time I find the pigs in the drop house with your ass in cuffs and guns pointed at you, waiting for the rest of us to show up. Just as sho’ as they offer my ass immunity again, I’m taking it
and
your money, and getting the fuck out of Dodge. It ain’t easy being a pretty boy in jail that
likes
boys,” he jokes, or maybe he is not joking. It does not matter.
Raw can talk shit all he wants, but he is still the one person that will follow me into a fire and drag me out the other side if I need him to.

After I found him starving and digging in a trashcan for something to eat in an alley at only eight years old, I gave him an apple that I had just stolen from a corner market to feed my damn self. He followed me back and distracted the owner while I swiped another. Since then, we have been tight and grew up together. I taught him the rules of the streets and how to work them to his benefit, just like I did for all of the original Kings since I was twelve years old, but I know I have Raw’s undying loyalty.

I have met only one person that will not follow me anywhere, take her rightful place in my family after she was given a position, or live by the oaths of the Blue Kings; loyalty to the crew before all others, no getting high off your own supply or anyone else’s, and no snitching no matter what any of the Blue Kings do to you or anybody else. The consequence for breaking those codes is death and I handle that shit myself.