Crooked G's (24 page)

A few hours into the modest mixer, Killa D and Piff decided to roll out since they didn't get any sexual vibes from Clarity. She was playing her high-profile position and the fellas didn't have the patience to try and get inside her head. They never noticed she had been eyeing Latrice the whole night. With Clarity seeking Latrice, they really didn't have a chance in hell anyway. As time went on, Dull decided to make an exit his damn self. He wanted to hit the club up where he could be around more eligible women and let Clarity do her thing with Latrice. Teyron was drunk as hell off the p.i.n.k. vodka he was punishing, but the infused caffeine kept him wide awake. He wanted to use all his energy on Latrice, but for some reason, he couldn't get Clarity to leave. Clarity was drunk and feeling the same way Teyron was and couldn't find a way to get his ass to leave either.

“Who wants to hit a hookah stick with me?” Clarity asked as she smashed out the blunt in the ashtray. They smoked and talked about music for hours with no sign of the hot topic coming to an end.

Teyron checked the time on his cell phone and sighed deeply. It had gotten too late to be waiting around for Clarity to budge, and he was going to catch Latrice at another time. He didn't want to seem so obvious that he was trying to get at Latrice in front of Clarity, so he decided to wait until the time was right again. Teyron figured that Clarity may have wanted to stick around to have girl talk. It never dawned on him that she was there to fuck Latrice herself. Now that Teyron was on his way out, Clarity was now able to take full advantage of poor little drunken Latrice. Teyron said his goodbyes to them both, then walked down the stairwell. He lamented what could have happened if he would have stayed a little bit longer kept playing in his mind. He never looked back but wanted to knock on Latrice's door again to give it another try. He felt that their parting tonight probably happened for a reason, and didn't want to rush anything that was meant to be taken slow. He walked to his car as Latrice commanded his every thought.

“Everybody's gone.” Latrice smiled, thinking back on the night that passed. She then lay back on the couch and closed her eyes. “Damn, it was so fun having everybody together. Didn't you have fun?”

“Yeah. But not as much fun as we 'bout to have right now.” She then kicked off her Coach heels and moved in closer to Latrice.

“What are you talking about?” Latrice asked, unable to comprehend what was going on. Before Latrice could react, she felt Clarity's cold lips kiss her left knee.

“Nooo. This can't happen again.” Latrice leaned up and tried to keep Clarity away from her.

“Come on, mommi. Don't fight me.” Clarity still tried to rub and kiss on her. “Let me get my way.”

“I already told you that what we did was a one-time thing, so please stop playing and get off me.”

Latrice tried to push Clarity away but she kept coming at her.

“I haven't signed any deal yet, so I guess we got time to do it again.”

“You're gonna get signed next week. I already told you that, so stop touching me.”

“Yeah, that's what you say, but anything can happen from now to then. Ya dig? You might not want to sign me anymore.”

“Why wouldn't I want to sign you? You're already in with me. You got my promise.”

“Sorry, baby. I need a lil' bit more assurance than that. This is the only way I understand that you're going to stay true to your word,” Clarity said as she slid her fingers under Latrice's thong and began to tug on it.

Latrice suddenly found herself caught up again in Clarity's lure of entrapment and didn't see an easy way out. Latrice was pinned up against the sofa. She didn't have a way of clinching Clarity's trust without her doubts of getting backstabbed. Latrice was running the same game on Clarity but didn't expect her to counteract. Latrice acknowledged to herself that Clarity was a slick-ass bitch, and neither one of them would win unless she decided to become submissive. Latrice stopped being difficult and took a deep breath. She then arched her back so that Clarity could remove her thong. Clarity then pulled Latrice's dress over her head and tossed it behind the couch. Clarity did the same with her dress and grabbed
Latrice's face and gave her a nice wet kiss. Latrice closed her eyes and hoped she would not enjoy anything that was about to happen—again.

•  •  •

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Latrice thought she heard something so she quickly opened up her eyes.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! There it is again,
she said to herself, thinking that the loud noises were a result of her hangover that may have given her a headache. But then Latrice realized that she didn't have a headache and the noises were coming from her front door.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Who is it?” she yelled.

“It's Kita!” Latrice's eyes widened. She started to panic as Clarity lay on top of her naked.

Latrice didn't know what she was going to do as her adrenaline rushed to the max. She was stuck like a frightened deer caught in the headlights.

Bang! Bang!

“Come on, bitch. Open up!”

“All right! Hold on!”
What the fuck am I gonna do?
Latrice thought nervously as she sprang into action.
I got to get this bitch out of here. Kita would never fucking understand this shit.
“Clarity, Clarity, wake up. Wake up, Clarity,” Latrice whispered as she pushed Clarity off of her.

“What's wrong, babe?” Clarity asked as she awoke sounding groggy and confused.

“Listen. My best friend is at my door right now and I can't let
her see me like this. Go in my room until she's gone,” Latrice commanded as she quickly tossed Clarity her clothes. Clarity understood the position Latrice was in and willingly made her way into the bedroom. Latrice quickly got dressed, praying that Shakita wouldn't be too suspicious of her, and would hurry up and leave without asking a lot of questions.

Latrice opened her door. “What the hell, girl. You're knocking on my damn door like someone's after your ass.”

“I'm sorry to come over this early, but I gotta talk to you.” Shakita sounded on edge.

Latrice rubbed her eyes. “What time is it anyway?”

“It's almost eight o'clock.”

“All hell nah,” Latrice said as she placed her hands on her hips. “Girl, it is too early for this. Hurry up and tell me what's going on, so I can take my ass back to sleep.”

“My bad, girl. After I tell you what's up, I'll be on my way,” Shakita tensely assured. Shakita swallowed hard as pressure mounted in her chest. “We got to do it again,” Shakita said meekly.

Latrice didn't even have to ask what she was talking about. Shakita's trembling face gave it all away. Latrice turned her volume up on her television so that it would be harder for Clarity to eavesdrop. Latrice played it off by changing to an audio channel, acting as if she needed to hear some music to calm her nerves down.

“I cannot do that again. We both agreed that we were done with that shit.”

“I know, but we got to do it.”

“No. You gotta do it. I got the money I needed to get us out the shit you started. You got over a hundred thousand already. Ain't that enough?” Shakita didn't answer. Latrice's eyes broadened as she looked at her best friend in disappointment. “You fucking
gambled it away, didn't you?” Shakita was still speechless. “Why, Kita? Why you got to be such a fuck-up? You could've done anything you wanted with that money, but you blew it all at some fucking casino. You have a serious fucking problem and you need to get some professional help, bitch,” Latrice scolded, as she pointed her finger in Shakita's face. “You can't keep dragging me down in your bullshit. I won't let you.”

Tears filled Shakita's eyes. “I'm sorry, Latrice. I promise this will be the last time. I swear it will. I'll go to therapy if I need to, but this will be my last time. I promise you this will truly be my last time…our last time.” Shakita poured her heart out trying to convince Latrice to come with her on one more robbery. Latrice was furious that she couldn't say no. The only reason she was going to agree to do the robbery again, Shakita would never leave until she said yes. Clarity was still in her house and Latrice had to get Shakita out of there before it was too late.

“All right, bitch. I'm going to do it, but you best believe, this is the last time. I'm not doing any shit like this ever again. You got that?” Latrice said as her lips quivered. Her body raged with unwanted emotion.

“Yeah. I got it. After this move, I'll get straight and get my ass in therapy…I promise.” Shakita sounded convincing, but Latrice wasn't completely sold on her promise. She first had to make a vow of her own, one that could never be broken once it was agreed upon.

“All right, Shakita. I got your promise, but I'm going to tell you this. The day you ask me to do another fucking thing that got shit to do with stealing some mothafucking money, that's the day we're no longer friends. You understand?” Latrice said with heated conviction.

Shakita couldn't believe that Latrice had given her such a brash ultimatum, but she undoubtedly understood why. Shakita had been involving Latrice in her shit for years, and now she had finally had enough. If Shakita was any type of friend, she would respect Latrice's decision and keep her promise.

Shakita sighed deeply. “I understand.”

“So when do you want to do this?” Latrice asked halfheartedly.

“In two days. We're going to hit the same van again.”

Latrice was shocked. “Bitch, is you crazy? Why the fuck can't we rob the van on the Red Line? We can't rob the same van twice.”

“Yes we can. See that's the thing. Ain't nobody going to suspect the same van to get robbed, so all the focus is gonna be on the other lines. They ain't thinking we're going to strike the same place twice, and that's what makes the whole thing more beautiful. Ya dig? That bitch is going to be wide open for the taking. You can believe that.”

“Even if the security is relaxed on the Green Line, don't you think as soon as somebody sees two bitches with blonde wigs, that our whole shit is going to be blown?”

“I already thought about that and I have an idea.” Latrice was interested in hearing what Shakita had to say. “We're gonna dress up as men.”

Latrice was confused. “Why the fuck we goin' do that?”

“Because they already looking for two women. If we go as men, nobody will see the shit coming. Before they know it, those mothafuckas is got. Think about it, girl. That's the only way we're going to get close. After they think two men robbed 'em, this time they won't know what the fuck to believe anymore. They're going to stop looking for black girls and center their case on some white masterminds. Now who would believe that two bitches would be able to do that? I'm telling you, it's foolproof.”

Latrice was okay with Shakita's idea and hoped it worked out as easy as she said it would. She still couldn't help but think that this shit was getting way too crazy.

Clarity had her ear to the door trying to hear over the loud music what was happening on the other side of the door. She could only hear bits and pieces of their conversation, but it still wasn't enough to make any sense out of it. All she could presume was that Latrice and her friend were up to something big. Shakita left Latrice's house with another chance to pull off a big hit. She tried to promise herself that this really was the last time, and she would never gamble again. Latrice couldn't believe she'd let Shakita talk her into doing some crazy shit again and would really hate herself if they got caught. She would undeniably jeopardize everything she had going on with the label. She only needed to make it one more week, and hopefully, she wouldn't be going to jail the same time Bay was coming out.

L
atrice sat in the car nervous as hell hoping that everything was going to go as planned. A million butterflies fluttered around in her stomach. Her heart raced at an excessive pace. She had never felt anxiety like this in her life, and she couldn't stop thinking about what she was about to do. Latrice had on a black-haired men's wig and was wearing a fake mustache. Latrice could easily have passed for a man with her disguise. Her delusion was all together except for one side of her mustache wouldn't stay on. She'd used all the adhesive that came in the mustache kit, but it still wasn't enough to hold it in place. Latrice looked in the mirror and realized the mustache wasn't going to work. She was beginning to get second thoughts about what she was doing. Her eyes started to mist.

Shakita was getting in position and felt the adrenaline running through her body. She was charged up and couldn't wait to get this job done and over with. Shakita had their whole line of attack planned out, and it was only a matter of minutes before everything went down exactly the way she wanted it to. “Shakita! Can you hear me!” Latrice said over the walkie-talkie.

“I'm here, Latrice, what's up?”

“My mustache won't stay on. I need you to help me fix it.”

“Just put it on the best way you can. It only needs to hold for a few minutes.”

“It won't hold at all. I need some more glue. I need you to meet me. I got to have this mustache on,” Latrice cried.

Shakita could hear the nervousness in her voice and didn't want Latrice to panic. “All right, Latrice. Meet me at the recreation center on the Warner Ave side.”

“Okay. I'll be right there.” Shakita didn't want to leave her post, but she had to get Latrice back on point before she ruined the whole operation.

When Shakita pulled up by the rec center, she saw Latrice outside leaning up against the car. Shakita rushed over to her so they could hurry up and get back in place. “Okay. Where's your mustache at? We ain't got that much time,” Shakita said, looking around in the car for the mustache.