“I don’t think it’s that though. I feel like it’s deeper. I hope that nigga not at home beating her ass,” I shared with her what I really thought it was.
“Well, if he is, she’s come to the right place to learn self-defense, and how to shoot a gun. If that nigga put his hands on her again, she better blow his fuckin brains out. See, Phantom better not ever in his fuckin life raise his hand to hit me. I been telling that nigga for years that if he even look like he was going to hit me, that I would shoot his ass in his legs, and make it where he could never walk again. These women gotta show these men up front that they crazy, and he won’t try you,” she talked shit, and I rolled my eyes up in my head, listening to her.
“You be talking so much shit. If Phantom walked his ass in here right now, and told your ass to shut the fuck up, you would do it,” I joked, making her laugh, while rolling her neck, telling me that I was wrong, but I knew I was right.
My sister was a hot head, just as I was, and her mouth was crazy, but her husband didn’t play that shit with her, and she knew it. Same way with my husband though. That was the only person in the world that could get me to stand down. I’ll get quiet as a church mouse when Loco gets to putting me in check. It wasn’t that I feared him because Lord knows that I didn’t fear anyone. I just respected him as a man, so on those instances when he has to get on me about something, I receive it and allow him to tell me where I had him fucked up at.
“Overall, I feel like you got some good girls on your hands. How you feel about Riot? I feel like she’s going to be hard to crack. That’s how the fuck you used to act. Mean as fuck,” she told me.
I wasn’t shocked that Benelli had chosen to bring up Riot. She stood out today in class with the very little that she did. She was worth having a conversation about afterwards though.
“I see that shit in her eyes, Benelli. The shit behind her eyes tells me that she’s just an inch away from fuckin up. I know because I had a temper just like that when I was her age. When she mentioned that she had been in jail, and those girls laughed at her, I saw the way she wanted to jump across that table and do damage, but she kept her cool. I can see the tug in her eyes, where she’s trying to stay on the right path, but that anger, that survival mentality that she’s probably used to living by is tugging her in another direction,” I spoke on how I truly felt about her, and Benelli nodded her head, as if she could agree with what I was saying.
“You know what she does, right?” Benelli questioned me. Shocked, I looked at her.
“She moving weight?” I wanted to know.
I was only shocked about it because after Benelli and I got out the game years ago, you never really heard many stories about other women in Miami in the drug game. I mean, I’m sure you had some women that were working in the traps, cooking up and shit, but real heavy hitters, running shit the way that me, and my sister were, you don’t hear about that too much.
“Yeah. She ain’t big time yet, but I know that she was working up under Gold at one point. Just little shit that I’ve heard about her in the street, probably around the time that her mugshot went viral. Her daddy used to be a king pin. His name was Grim. Police killed him years ago. I feel like I remember daddy telling us about that years ago, but I’m not sure. She lost her brothertoo. From what they say, the two of them were really close. Her brother’s name was Roman. If she is in the streets, me and you no longer live that life, so we can’t help her out with that, but I do hope that this class is beneficial for her. She looks like she needs the outlet, and hopefully this can be that. Come on. Let’s go get breakfast,” she ended it, and stood up.
The shit she just put on me was heavy. I knew what it felt like to be young, mad at the world for losing people that were close to you. Man, years ago, in my younger years, when I was living without my mom, I was a different kind of monster. You could look at me wrong, and I was ready to kill you. That same monster that was living in me, I saw it living in Riot. I don’t know if I found comfort in saying that though. I was able to shake out of it. I’m only hoping that she could do the same.
Chapter 6
Riot St. James
Igot word that Gold was back in town. My gut had been telling me that this nigga was dodging me, and that he wouldn’t hit me up like he said he would once he was back in town. Dennis, who used to work alongside me in the traps, he hit me up this evening, telling me that Gold was back in town, and that he was at his trucking yard. Aside from the dope money that Gold was bringing in, he was smart, knowing to have a few legal businesses up under his belt that would make his money look clean. The trucking company that he owned had a fleet of 18- wheeler trucks. I’m talking, real drivers that he put on the road, that would transport legit freight across state lines.
The trucking business was something that he just added to his fleet of legal businesses. He was really like that because he owned movie theaters, bowling alleys, and arcades throughout South Florida. He was married, and his wife had multiple businesses under her belt as well. I knew he was rolling in money, probably no longer needing to be in the game, but Gold said that he would be a dope boy until the day he took his last breath. Years ago, there had been rumors going around Miami that he was going to retire, but he was still in the game, pushing.
I’ll give it to Gold. He was a smart man. I thought of him as a real nigga, but the way he was dodging me these days, I was changing my outlook on him and hoping that he wasn’t about to put me in a position where I wasn’t able to eat with him anymore.
I got dropped off to the trucking yard in an uber. I didn’t have a car. It was never a purpose for me to have a car because I didn’t know how to drive. Before I got locked up, I was making good money with Gold, so I could have bought a car if I wanted to, but I preferred to just sit in the back seat, and have people drive me around. I feel like I’ve waited too long to learn how to drive, that I didn’t care to learn anymore. Plus, the way people drove reckless in Miami, always losing their lives in car accidents, I would rather continue to not learn.
I thanked the driver for bringing me here, and when I walked out, there were a few of the 18- wheeler- trucks parked. The trucks were being loaded up, more than likely going to get on the road. I walked inside, as if Gold was expecting me. I walked with a pep in my step, walking through the lobby, and then I made my way to the back, where I knew Gold’s office was.
I took a deep breath and then knocked on the door. I knew Gold would be pissed. He wasn’t expecting me, and he was the kind of man that didn’t like pop ups. I wasn’t sure if he heard me knock the first time, even though my knock held a lot of authority to it, so I decided to knock again, this time with much force, and doing it longer.
“You gotta be a bold motha fucka to be knocking on my door like that. I gotta owe you some fuckin money because ain’t no way you knocking on my shit like this,” I heard him loudly talking shit from the other side.
Nobody had the balls that I did. I’m telling you, all those niggas that Gold had working for him, none of them would have ever pulled up on him the way that I was, banging on his doorlike this, demanding answers on why he was dodging me the way he was. Gold was the kind of man that would kill you behind doing some shit like that, so no one other than me would be bold enough to take the chance.
The door swung open, and he stood there with an angry mug on his handsome face. Gold was in his fifties, but he looked good for is age. The beard that he had was so long, and thick, that you could put it in braids. Big as hell, like he worked out even in his sleep.
When he saw it was me on the other side of the door, I could see where his eyes softened a little bit, but you could tell that he wanted to slap the shit out of me.
“I swear to God if you wasn’t a girl, I would have killed your ass for knocking on my door like that,” he snapped, just like I expected him to do.
Instead of replying to that, I just looked up at him, staring him deep into his eyes. Because the door was open, I was able to look in, and I could see his large, spacious office. There was a lot of paperwork that he had spread out on the table, so he was probably in here working, which would also explain the annoyed look on his face.
“What’s up, Riot? Welcome home. What you doing pulling up on me like this, girl?” he wanted to know.
“Can we go inside, and talk? You got niggas standing around in the hallway. I don’t need anyone hearing what we gotta talk about,” I replied.
With a deep sigh, he stepped out of the way, so that I could come inside his office.
I knew that he didn’t want me here, especially since I popped up on him the way that I did, so with that, I chose not to sit down. I stood up, keeping my place by the door. Gold walked passed me, and he went over to his desk. The distance from the door to his desk was a bit far, so I decided to walk over to him,and when I did, I stood right in front of his desk, while he was leaned back, looking over at me.
