Crooked G's (19 page)

Reggie started to laugh. “Girl, I was faking like shit. I don't know where that money be going. I only process the shit. Now I bet if you fuck the driver, he might tell you. Now come here, girl, and give me some more of that good pussy,” Reggie said as he tried to pull Shakita closer to him.

Shakita was so fucking mad she got played that she pushed Reggie back into the stall, and then kicked him hard in his balls, sending him down to the floor in pain.

“I'm going to get somebody to fuck you up real good! You going to fucking lie to me so you could get some pussy, you fat mothafucka!” Shakita started kicking him in his chest. She repeatedly kicked him until her shoe almost came off.

Reggie cried in pain as he continued to hold his throbbing nut sac. “I don't know what pain you're feeling, you lil'-dick mothafucka!” Shakita clawed his glasses off him and then spat in his face. “If you tell anybody about what I'm trying to do! Whoever I send after your ass I'll make sure they cut that lil'-ass dick off too, bitch!” Shakita took his glasses and threw them at the wall, causing the lenses to shatter while crippling the frame. She then stormed out of the bathroom leaving him almost ass-naked on the floor.

Shakita ran up the steps hoping to catch the waiting train. The train doors were about to close as she ran and made it on. She sat down and started to bang on the window out of frustration as tears filled her eyes. She felt so nasty and degraded and couldn't believe that she'd let fat-ass Reggie take advantage of her. She became so distraught that she didn't know what she was going to do next. Shakita never had pictured it going down the way it had and wasn't prepared to use her back-up plan. Following the money herself would be hard as hell to do with the way her work schedule was set up, and she needed some special help to get the job done in time. She only had a few weeks to make it all happen, so she would have to get Latrice to be the mole and follow the van.

L
atrice was staked out in the Greenbelt BERK parking lot waiting for the long white van to appear. Latrice's job was easy, but she still felt scared knowing she had to be the one to follow the van. She'd never done anything like this in her whole life and didn't know if anything could backfire on her. She checked her rearview mirror and was suddenly distressed by the sight of the van. She quickly turned around and saw the van heading for the station to make a pickup. Her heart started to beat uncontrollably as the time to follow the van had now arrived. She folded her hands and started to pray knowing that she was wrong for asking God to help her through this situation, but she couldn't think of anything else that would help calm her nerves.

Latrice noticed the white van making its way back out of the station so she started her car up and waited for the right moment to follow it. The van made a right turn out of the parking lot and Latrice followed slowly behind. It made another right turn onto Greenbelt Road and then proceeded down River Road on its way to the College Park Station. Latrice took out her pen and wrote down the exact time the van made it to the station. Latrice saw that there was only one officer in the van and jotted it down to let Shakita know everything that was going on. Latrice thought that it was a good idea to take a photo of the driver. Shakita may have wanted to see what he looked like also.

The van veered off of the main road and then after a few turns, it ended up on Barton Road. The van then pulled into a lot that led to what seemed to be a large depository center. Latrice's suspicion was confirmed when the driver got out and started unloading the canisters while two other men helped him bring them into the building. Latrice snapped more pictures of what she was observing to give Shakita a better perspective of what they were up against. She took down a few more notes and then drove away without being seen. She felt she'd gotten a lot accomplished and would be able to give Shakita a thorough report on her findings. Even though Latrice had all the information she needed, she still didn't know what Shakita was going to do on her end. She couldn't visualize how she was going to make it happen. She hoped Shakita's outlook was a hell of a lot better than hers.

Shakita got off work and met up with Latrice shortly after.

“So whatchu find out?” Shakita asked intensely, taking a seat on Latrice's couch.

“Let me go back to the beginning of my notes,” Latrice said, flipping through her notebook until she was on the right page. “The van came to the Greenbelt Station at two forty-three. Right around the time you said it would. I followed the van down to the College Park Station and then down to the end of the line at Branch Avenue. After that I thought it was going to the Blue Line to start collecting there too, but then it changed direction, and went to drop the money off. The van went to this big warehouse-looking place off of Barton Road. When the driver got out unloading the canisters, two other men helped him.” Shakita was taking it all in as quickly as Latrice was able to spit it out.

“These are the pictures I took to give you a better idea what everything looked like,” Latrice said as she sat down beside Shakita,
and explained each picture she had in her digital camera. “This is the driver.”

“That mothafucka cute too, oh well. He still going to catch hell if he fucks up and make the wrong move,” Shakita implied.

“This is the kind of gun he have. Do you know what kind that is?”

“I don't know. It could be a nine or a forty-five; we got to ask Cap Cap. We got to go see him anyway about supplying us with some guns.”

“And these are the pictures I took of the building where the money went. You can see right here and over there they have guards surrounding the whole shit.”

“Yeah, I knew they were going to have that money guarded like shit. We're going to have to cut the driver off before they even get near there,” Shakita said as she rubbed her hands together.

“How many canisters did they pull out the van?”

“Twenty-five of them. That's almost two per every stop.”

“That's a lot of fucking money,” Shakita said after lighting her cigarette and taking a pull from it.

They both sat and shook their heads thinking about all the money that would be on the van when they robbed it. If everything went smooth to the plan, they would be sitting on a lot of fucking money. This was going to be their ultimate come up.

Latrice and Shakita walked into Cap Cap's corner store that was right off of New York Avenue. Cap Cap was sitting on a stool behind the counter watching television as usual, waiting for the day to pass. He was a skinny, dark-skinned man in his late forties with not a single strand of gray hair. The streets had given him the name, Cap Cap. They used to say that he was so black that the only reason it got dark outside was because he captured all the sunlight when he came outside. Cap Cap saw the girls walk into
his store, but he didn't even acknowledge them and kept watching TV. Cap Cap never smiled so you never could tell what kind of mood he was in. He could have been having the best day of his life and still kept a straight face. Cap Cap was the type of person who wouldn't speak to anyone unless you spoke to him first. That was how he'd always been, and no one ever took offense to that demeanor.

“Hey, Cap Cap. What's going on?” Shakita and Latrice both asked, laughing after standing in front of him without saying anything for over a minute, trying to test his will not to speak to them.

“I thought y'all were only going to stand there and watch my ass all fucking day,” Cap Cap said, rolling his eyes at them. “What can I do for you two?” he said, giving them his full attention.

“Could you tell us what type of gun this is?” Shakita asked, handing him the camera. “And I know you took that pack of gum off the counter, you lil' slick bitch. I ain't got to be looking at you to know if you did some funny shit. You're paying for that before you leave,” Cap Cap said, letting Shakita know that she had gotten caught.

“Come on, Cap. You've known me long enough to know I would never steal from you.”

“Yeah, right. As many schemes as you be pulling, it wouldn't surprise me not one fucking bit. Now let me see that camera,” Cap Cap said, reaching for it out of Shakita's hand. “That's a forty-five-caliber right there. A lot of pigs are using them now.”

“Can you get us a couple?” Shakita asked curiously.

Cap Cap looked at her sideways. “Now why in the hell would I do that?”

“We need them.”

“Oh you need them, huh? Those guns you want ain't got nothing
to do with this picture, do it?” Cap Cap asked, eyeing them both as they remained silent. “I'm going to take a wild guess. This is either a cop of some kind or the fucking milk man in a white-ass milk truck, which I thought didn't exist anymore. So ladies, please tell me I'm wrong.”

Shakita and Latrice didn't say anything at first, knowing that he was on to their plan.

“I'm waiting, ladies.” Cap Cap demanded an answer.

Shakita looked over at Latrice and then back at Cap Cap before she answered. “We're trying to rob a BERK van.”

“So y'all wanna be some
crooked girls,
huh?” Cap Cap said, nodding his head and looking at both of them. “Robbin' the BERK ain't never been done before or attempted. I hope y'all know that's some heavy shit right there. See that gun on his waist?” Cap Cap said, pointing at the photo. “Well, ladies, that ain't filled with no damn water. That officer by law is allowed to fill lead in anybody's ass who he even suspects is tryna flatten one of his tires. The level of difficulty is high than a mothafucka. You really gotta have a plan to pull off that shit.”

“Latrice has routed out the van's every move. All we got to do is set up an ambush. We got the perfect plan. Once we trap 'em, that's it.”

“I hope y'all do 'cause if not, that shit's gonna end horribly. If y'all really tryna be
crooked,
then I gotta hook you up with some gangsta shit. Wait right here.” Cap Cap went behind a curtain that led to the back of his store.

Cap Cap loved money chasers and was more than willing to help them out. After the girls were waiting for a few minutes, Cap Cap returned with a box full of supplies. He set the box on the counter. “Inside this box,” Cap Cap said as he tapped on the lid.
“There are forty boxes of bullets, two silencers, and two baby nine-millies.”

“Nines? Shouldn't we have forty-fives like the driver's gonna have?” Latrice asked, confused.

“Y'all girls ain't gonna be able to handle that type of fire power. Besides, nines fire quicker and will never jam up on you. It don't matter what you shooting at 'em wit' as long as you hit bone, you're successful. The type of gun you got don't mean shit if you can't aim the mothafucka right. You can kill a bear with a pellet gun if you hit his ass in the right spot. Make sure you use them silencers. If it comes down to you having to bust ya gun, then end that shit before they start firing back. You don't need any more attention than you already have.”

“Thanks, Cap. How much do you want us to give you for all this shit?” Shakita asked.

He gave them a real stern look—one that would let them know that what he was about to say required their full understanding. “Ladies, before you take this box, I want y'all to really consider what I'm handing over to you. Everything in here could get you ten years to life in prison. Are y'all ready for all that?”

“Yeah, Cap. We know what we facing,” Shakita said, sounding more serious than she'd ever sounded in her entire life. “We gotta do a power move and we can't think of anything better than this. We can do it,” Shakita said with conviction.

“All right,
crooked girls.
I tried to talk you out of it, but since I can't, I'm going to need two grand for all the shit I gave you. If you ain't got the money right now, then you can pay me after the hit. If y'all get scared and go chicken shit, then bring all my shit back. We gotta understanding on that?”

“We got you, Cap. We'll bring you the money afterwards. Thanks for everything,”
Shakita said as she picked up the heavy box off the counter.

“Don't thank me for shit yet. Wait until after the job's done. 'Cause all it looks like I did right now was help prepare you for a casket. Make sure y'all practice hitting some cans or some shit like that before playing Thelma and Louise. There ain't going to be no time to practice when the shit gets thick. And believe me, the shit will get fuckin' thick.”

Both of them nodded their heads understanding exactly what he was saying, and then walked away with him on their minds as they were about to leave the store.

“Oh, and another thing, ladies,” Cap Cap called out to them before they left. “Ya'll ain't get that shit from me. Ya dig?” He lowered his brow.

They both nodded again and walked out the door holding on to his words. Cap Cap watched as they left the store and could only shake his head at what he was thinking.
Those damn girls gonna get themselves killed.

T
he time had come for Shakita and Latrice to handle their business and they were both scared as hell. Shakita couldn't stop chain smoking and Latrice couldn't stop shaking. They were both in two different locations and had been communicating with each other through walkie-talkies. The time was 4:20 p.m., and the van would be passing by Shakita on its way to the depository center any minute.

“Latrice, are you okay?” Shakita asked as she paced back and forth outside the car she was driving. Shakita was wearing a long blonde wig and some thick nonprescription glasses that made her look like a ditzy nerd. She had on some black leather gloves and a short orange dress with black leather boots.