What Da Lick Read? The Triple Cross (3 page)

“
Dat
was some good ass weed. I see y’all high as a
muthafucka
too cause y’all got everything out except for the baking soda. Reality said as she reached under the sink and pulled out an industrial sized box of Arm & Hammer. “I haven’t been smoking that much lately. I’ve been gone off
dat
Lean. I keep me a bottle of
Actavis
handy. That’s the perfect high for me, I be calm as hell now.”

Reality had been sipping syrup for the past year. She never told anyone. Now that she had finally come out with it, a lot of her behavior could be explained now. She was always dozing off, had a nauseous stomach and always had the cotton mouth. But those were small things compared to how the drug made her feel. She had recently found a connect that could get it for her on the low. She was thinking about telling Truth that they need to start selling it because everyone was fucking with the Lean now, so they would make money and then she would have more than she could stand.

Loyalty walked down the driveway and was happy that no one had blocked her in. She was excited about her date with the football player. He was in Atlanta for the off season. She had met him Monday night at Magic City and they had talked so much in the last past two days she felt like she knew him already.

At the age of only twenty-one, she felt that she was old because she had seen so much in a short time. She’d been on the scene for a while now. People never believed her when she told them her age; she didn’t act like most twenty-one year olds.

She hit the key fob to open the door when someone grabbed her around her neck. She elbowed them in the abdomen and brought them over her head. They lay in a heap at her feet. Loyalty reached into her Louie bag to call in the house and let everyone else know that they had an intruder. The man pulled the mask off of his face. It was her dad.

“I taught you well, but it is the middle of the night and you come out the door with only your keys in your hands. Where is your pistol? You are getting too comfortable, Tee” He said calling her by her nickname as he rolled over and got up off the ground.

“Pop, you are an old man, I heard them bones cracking. I didn’t need my gun for you
ol
’ timer.” She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she unlocked her truck with the
keyfob
. She climbed into the black
Porshe
Cayenne Turbo and let down the window. “Love
ya
Pop-Pop, see you at breakfast in the morning.” She backed down the highway and headed out of sight.

Khalil turned to walk up the driveway to the kid’s headquarters. He felt uneasy for some reason. He looked around one last time before going into the work house.

Khalil
Rasheed
was like a palm tree, he had weathered many storms and he still was standing strong. He was a legend in Atlanta. He had made a lot of niggas and he’d broken even more. He was the true definition of a boss, he called shots and he had a small army of play makers behind him. Everyone called him Coach K and he lived up to that name.

 
Some days he asked Allah why he was still here on Earth. All he had to do was look at his four children and know that his living was not in vain. No one was perfect. He did what he did to survive and to provide for them. He did more good than bad so it balanced out. He wasn’t proud of the way that he had earned his living, but he not only took care of his four; he had many people that depended on him to survive.

Khalil loved Beloved with all of his heart. She was his first and last love so it was only right that he spent his life taking care of the girls that she left behind. He was already raising his son Killian. He knew that Loyalty was his daughter even though Beloved never said it. It was just something that he felt in his heart. Honesty and Reality didn’t receive different treatment because they weren’t his biologically. That night when he got out of prison and found them in the house with her dead body, he took them under his wing as his own daughters and nobody but them knew the difference.

Killian’s mother had overdosed on heroin when he was only two months old. She got addicted when he was sent away to prison. Luckily, she never did drugs when she was pregnant with him, so he was born healthy. When Khalil got out of prison, his only son who was his spitting image was staying with his best friend Slow Poke, or Poke as he was called by everyone. He had just left from Poke’s spot in the Bluff when he found Beloved.

Khalil relived the moment when he saw her dead body spread on the sofa at least once a day. It seemed to him that every woman he has ever cared for always had bad things happen to them. They were victims of the streets. He just promised to do the best he could with the precious children Allah had blessed him with.

Education has always been first so he made sure that each of his kids graduated high school and college. In return, he provided them with everything that money could buy. He always told them that whatever they did in their spare time was on them as long as he got those degrees to put on his mantelpiece.

Honesty, Loyalty, Reality and Killian were not forced to live the street life or a life of crime. Hustling was in them and they were getting it in by all means necessary. Khalil probably should be chastising them, but he couldn’t because they were bringing in a hell of a lot of money and enjoying life while they were doing it.

He opened the door with his key and he heard them in the kitchen bumping around and talking. There was nothing but the smell of the dope cooking and Kush weed in the air. All three of them had their backs to the door. The table in front of him had so much dope on it. Honesty had been going hard ever since she hooked up with Gorgeous, the oldest daughter of his and Beloved’s friend Solitaire. He had no idea that she was bringing in that much dope, but Poke had just told him earlier that Gorgeous was supplying the entire city. He smiled and then shook his head, none of these kids were twenty-five years of age yet and they were making major moves.

“You guys act like you didn’t hear me come in. Whew! It’s snowing in this mother fucker. What da lick read?” Khalil said to his kids as he sat at the table watching them work all the cocaine.

“Pop-Pop, fuck
Jeezy
the snowman, we got Gigi the snow woman. This work has no cut on it. I’m making money hand over fist. All my crews are eating. We are living good. I think everybody needs to just get on this and put everything else to the side right now. She even got
Killa
putting in work for her so he don’t have to touch nobody.” Honesty said as she turned around and pulled her mask down. She walked over and gave the man who raised her as his own a kiss on his forehead.

Khalil popped her on her butt. “Girl who are you cussing at? I’m not your homeboys or your siblings so act like you know.”

Khalil took off his father hat and put on his coach hat as he walked into the kitchen. He had taught all four of them everything he knew; how to cook dope, shoot pistols, martial arts, Arabic, riding motorcycles; everything. Now that they were grown, they put all of that knowledge to use, but he still coached them on their every move. They welcomed his experience and wisdom.

Reality looked at Khalil and smiled. She loved him with all of her heart. He was like her superman, there was nothing that her Pop-Pop didn’t know or couldn’t do. “Uh oh you guys, looks like the coach is on the field.”

He went to the pantry, got out the gloves and put on a face mask. Then, he started to show them a faster and easier way to cut the dope.

“Bump Coach, Pop is Mr. Miyagi. He is the teacher of all teachers.” Killian said smiling proudly at his dad across the island in the middle of the kitchen.

The valet driver ran up to the Porsche truck as soon as Loyalty pulled into the parking lot for her first date with the football player. She was trying to be as optimistic as possible. She was tired of getting with niggas just for money. She had a way about her that made every guy that she got with want to do for her or take care of her. She never chose them, they always chose her. Loyalty was beautiful, classy, educated and she had her own. Now she wanted her own man, she was tired of going from man to man. She always left with way more than she came with, but it was getting old now. Her bank account was swollen, so now she thought that maybe she could just be with a guy without having an ulterior motive.

She stepped down from her SUV and adjusted her clothing. She reached into her purse and pulled out her BlackBerry to call him to let him know that she had arrived. Butterflies filled her stomach. They had built up such a rapport over the phone since the first night they met. She wanted to see what he was like when they were face to face.

Just as he was about to dial his cell phone number, she heard him call her name. Coming toward her was definitely one of the sexiest men, she had ever seen in her life. He stood about six feet four or better and he weighed in at two hundred and sixty pounds. Google was good for a lot of things. Once she found out who he was, she looked him up on the internet.

He reached down and pulled her to him in an embrace. “You smell really good and look even better. You are wearing that Rachel Roy outfit better than the models.”

She pulled away from him and looked up at him with raised eyebrows wondering to herself how in the hell did he know that she had on Rachel Roy. This nigga is suspect. Damn, she knew that he was too good to be true.

“Quit looking at me like that. Rachel Roy is my neighbor in New York and I have attended some of her shows. Not to mention that my younger sister is attending fashion school so all she talks about is lines of clothing and cuts of fabric. I am all man, and I really love women… just women.” He said as he pulled her back into him so that he could inhale her intoxicating fragrance.

“You like my cologne? It’s Gucci by Gucci. It is actually a men’s fragrance but I fell in love with it the first time I smelled it so I bought some for myself. She said to him as he sniffed her neck.

K.J. grabbed her by the hand and they walked up the steps into the lobby of Two Urban Licks. They were greeted by the Maître d’. He addressed him by his name so she knew that he had to be a regular here. As he reached for her hand to greet her, he said “You two make such a lovely couple.” She couldn’t help but blush because she was actually thinking the same thing to herself.

As soon as they were seated, he reached across the table and grabbed her hand again. He seemed to be really affectionate. She liked that in a man. He also communicated well verbally so that was a major plus.

“So is there anything that you would like to ask me now that we are face to face” He said as he massaged the inside of her hand with his fingers.

“Yes! Can you tell me your real name? I know that K.J. isn’t on your birth certificate.” Loyalty said cracking a smile and showing her perfect pearly white teeth.

“You have an amazing smile. I think that is what attracted me to you. My name is
Khadafi
Amin. I hate that name because my father named me after two mad men Edi Amin and
Moammar
Khadafi
.” K.J. said as he looked down at their hands intertwined

“Ok, so where did the J come from are you a junior?” Loyalty wondered out loud.

“Yes, my entire name is
Khadafi
Amin Aziz, Jr. I have been thinking about changing my name. My father sacrificed so much for my family before he was murdered that I really need to keep the name to honor him. I am a mad man on the field so I guess it applies. But I just go by K.J. and I have been going by that ever since I was a kid. You will have to do some real research to know my birth name.”

Loyalty sat across the table from K.J. and looked at him in admiration. She was not a groupie, but she could definitely see how girls get caught up in the hype when it comes to athletes. His build was so sexy to her and even though he had a quiet demeanor, he commanded respect without saying a word. That reminded her of Pop-Pop. Maybe it had something to do with the Muslim religion and the way the men are raised because her brother Killian was the same way.

“So are you a practicing Muslim?” She inquired as she sat at the table hopefully with her future.

“I worship Allah, but I haven’t been into a mosque in years. Are you a Muslim also?”

The waiter came to the table to take their order. They hadn’t even looked at the menu yet because they had been so engrossed in each other. “Can you give us a minute, my brother? We haven’t had time to look at the menu although I already know what I want, this her first time at Two Urban Licks. She picked up the menu and informed him that she was a
pescatarian
. As she looked at the extensive menu, she saw that it was filled with things that she could eat.