Killer Dolls, Part 1, page 11
part #1 of Killer Dolls Series
“It was ah easy hit,” she started to say. “We caught dem attention, and—”
“Aoki, chill. I don’t wanna know the details. It’s done, and that’s the only thing I care about.”
“Ya sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Aoki shrugged.
“That’s the five grand I promised you.”
Aoki opened the envelope and saw it was filled with cash, mostly hundreds and fifties. It was a lot of money for her. She needed the cash. She smiled. “Dis money, it made fi me day.”
AZ saw that she was totally fine with taking someone’s life, and that is what prompted him to make the next proposition.
“Well, how would you like to make some more of that?”
“What ya mean?”
He took a deep breath and gazed at her. She was a Barbie doll, but the coldness in her eyes made her the femme fatale.
“I want you to continue to kill for me.”
“Ya have beef, AZ? Wit’ who?”
“Nah, you took care of my immediate threat. I’m talking about in the future, when a situation like that comes up again. I need someone to rely on, who won’t flinch when taking someone’s life. In this game, the Greasy Dees and Polos are inevitable; they’re gonna always be around, and I need the protection. Think about it. My enemies would never expect a woman like you; they wouldn’t even see it coming.”
She was down for the job, but, she wasn’t too sure about her two friends.
“Me is down wit’ the plan, AZ, but Ri-Ri and Tisa, I’m nah suh sure of. Dem ah still spooked.”
“Well, make them un-spooked and have them get down wit’ the program. I’m willing to pay y’all handsomely. I need this. I can see y’all doing well with what I have planned. Besides, what else do them two knuckleheads got going for themselves?”
Aoki unexpectedly received a text message that made her smile. She quickly responded.
AZ looked at her and asked, “Who that?”
“Ah friend,” she simply replied.
“A friend, huh? That friend definitely got you smiling hard.”
Aoki continued to text. Unbeknownst to AZ and everyone else in her circle, Aoki and Emilio had started talking on the low. She didn’t expect to talk to him. She didn’t expect to like him. It just happened.
“Why don’t you stop texting your friend and talk to me?”
“Me talk to ya.”
“No. I mean, become my girl.”
Aoki turned his way and smirked. “Me know ya jokin’.”
Yes, he had to be joking. They’d been friends for too many years to jump into a relationship. She loved AZ like family, but how could they mesh as a couple? Could he make her sad eyes smile?
As she pondered all these questions, AZ turned to her and said, “Aoki, I need to tell you something. It’s important.”
“Ah wah?”
He locked eyes with her and took a deep breath. He then said, “I’ve been keeping this a secret for a long time now, but I just need to tell you this.” He paused for a moment and quickly announced, “I’m gay!”
She laughed. “What?”
“I’m gay, Aoki.”
The seriousness in AZ’s voice said that he was serious. Aoki was in disbelief. The shock of his words silenced her. She was taken aback. He couldn’t be gay. It didn’t make any sense to her. “Ya gay?” she said in an incredulous tone.
“I’m gay or bi. I mean, I like pussy too, maybe, but I get really aroused for men. It’s just confusing.”
“What ’bout Lisa an’ de baby? Ya can’t be a batty bwoy!”
“But I am. And I’m telling you this because I trust you, Aoki. I’m begging you to keep this a secret. I just needed to come out wit’ it to someone.” AZ exhaled and turned his attention away from her. Then he added, “Lisa and the baby was a front. I’m a front, Aoki. This is me—a fuckin’ faggot.”
“Me still can’t believe it.”
“Yeah, I know it’s a hard thing to swallow.” Another hard sigh escaped AZ’s lips and then he asked, “Can you do me a favor, Aoki?”
“What ya need?”
“I need a cover.”
“Ah cover?”
“I got dreams, Aoki. I mean, I feel I’m so much more than the streets. I wanna be somebody other than a hustler, maybe invest in real estate, become a businessman. But I gotta live long enough to get out the game. I can’t have anyone second-guessing me, second-guessing my sexuality. I need a cover, and you can be that cover.”
Aoki had a dumbfounded look on her face.
“I know you’re confused. It’s simple—I want you to be my girl, my ride-or-die chick. No sex, just us lookin’ the part.”
“Me ready fi ya ride-or-die chick,” Aoki said with a smile. “Whateva ya need.”
AZ smiled. It was what he wanted and needed to hear. “What would I do without you?”
“Probably die,” she joked.
AZ chuckled. He was grateful that she wasn’t disappointed with him. AZ leaned closer to Aoki’s luscious lips and kissed them so gently and lovingly, it almost took Aoki’s breath away. He then pulled away and said, “Thank you.”
She was the perfect beard. Everyone already thought they were fucking or had fucked already.
“Me have ya back. Always!”
“And I got yours.”
“So now that you’re my girl, first thing we gotta do is take you shopping.”
“Me ready.”
“I’ll hit you up.”
She exited his vehicle and went back inside with the five grand, still taken aback by AZ’s sudden confession. How could he be gay? His name rang out in the streets, he was a great hustler, and a baby father, so it didn’t make any sense to her that her best friend liked dick. It was mind-blowing.
Usually, Aoki would shun a nigga like that, but AZ was her brother, her best friend, a mentor, and someone who had helped her out plenty of times. She would do anything for him. Aoki had a deep throat and had made a promise to keep his secret. The cash was also able to make things a little bit simpler for her and hopefully her friends.
She walked into her bedroom where Rihanna and Tisa were awake, dressed, and still looking upset.
“That was AZ outside?” Rihanna asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t he come inside? I mean, the least he could do is come inside and say ‘hello, how y’all bitches doin’, thank you.’ Especially after we done killed for him,” Rihanna said.
“He got a whole heap to do today,” Aoki explained, “Besides, him already showed his gratitude.”
“His gratitude?” Tisa asked.
Aoki tossed the envelope filled with cash on the bed, where her friends sat. They looked at it.
Aoki said, “Five thousand dollars cash right there.”
Tisa and Rihanna were dumbfounded. It was a lot more money than they made being drug mules for him.
“Plus, we got dem cash and jewels from de licks.”
Aoki dumped the stolen contents from the dead men onto their bed also and said, “We paid, ya hear?”
The cash from the niggas’ wallets totaled close to six grand, and with the 5k from AZ, the girls were looking at over ten thousand to divide between them. Plus, there was the jewelry to think of. It was expensive stuff.
Aoki smiled. “Ya nah happy?”
Tisa said, “It’s just everything is comin’ so unexpectedly, Aoki. I mean, what are we, assassins now?”
“We tryin’ to make money, ya hear?”
“This though, it’s blood money,” Tisa griped.
“Me can split it fairly, fi ya both, four thousand apiece and me take the almost three thousand, and wit’ de jewelry pawned, it will bring more.”
Rihanna was silent, staring at the money and contemplating something in her mind. It was the quickest four thousand she’d ever made. It was like they’d hit the jackpot. Rihanna had never seen that much money all at once in her life. All of a sudden, Rihanna didn’t feel too upset or guilty about last night.
“Ri-Ri, you agree with me?” Tisa asked.
Rihanna eyed the money like it was calling her name.
“Ri-Ri!” Tisa called out.
“What?”
“I know you can’t do this. This is wrong.”
“And what is wrong about it, Tisa?” Rihanna said, suddenly having a change of heart.
“What we did and then taking the money. What do that make us?”
“Caught up,” Rihanna replied.
“And there can be a whole heap mo’ where dat came from,” Aoki said.
“What you mean?” Tisa asked.
“Him give we ah job.”
“A job?” Rihanna said.
She nodded.
“What kind of job?” Tisa asked.
“To be his protection.”
“What! We bodyguards now?” Tisa uttered, continuing to be sarcastic.
“We employed,” Aoki said.
Tisa chuckled and shook her head. “Y’all can’t be serious.” Tisa felt they were about to get into something that was way over their heads.
Aoki thought differently. She looked at the employment opportunity as a come-up, a well-paying job. She wanted to shine, and this was her way to do it.
Tisa looked like she was definitely against the idea, but Rihanna was still open to it. Aoki looked at her and said, “Ri-Ri, what ah fi ya answer?”
“What do I have to lose? I’m down.”
Aoki smiled.
Tisa was shocked to hear Rihanna join in on the delusional plan.
Rihanna and Aoki stared at Tisa, waiting for an answer from her. She felt pressure against her. Two against one were not very favorable odds.
“I need time to think about it,” she told them both.
“Don’t think ’bout it too long,” Aoki said.
“I won’t.”
With that, the girls divided the cash and went to a pawnshop in Queens to fence the jewelry, knowing that pawning Greasy D’s and Polo’s jewelry in Brooklyn was just too risky.
Aoki was confident that she could do any job, no matter what. The only thing AZ had to do was point, and she would execute. She also didn’t tell her friends AZ’s secret. She was prepared to take it to her grave.
FIFTEEN
AZ, are you fuckin’ listening to me?” Lisa shouted, snapping him out of his short-term trance. “What? Me and ya fuckin’ daughter ain’t that important anymore? I said, I need more money fo’ her. Do you fuckin’ understand that? She needs her hair done and some new shoes. She’s growin’ up fast, nigga!”
Clad in a skimpy pink T-shirt and panties, showing off her curvy body and phatty, trying to look enticing to her baby’s father, Lisa stood in front of AZ clutching his daughter to her hip. She eyed AZ like he was her own personal ATM. She was unemployed and lazy. And she was also known to be a sharp-tongued.
“What do you want from me, Lisa?”
“I want you to take your daughter sometimes. Why you always gotta be so busy for her? She’s yours too. I didn’t come in myself and get myself pregnant, nigga. Take care of your fuckin’ responsibilities.”
“I am. Don’t I give you money every month and pay ya fuckin’ rent, and helped furnish this place from room to room?”
Lisa had nice furniture, electronics, designer clothes, and all the latest amenities in her tenth-floor apartment in one of the high-rises on Sutter and Lincoln Avenues.
“Yeah, you do.”
“So why the fuck are you complaining? Huh?”
“I’m complaining cuz I don’t fuckin’ see you often, AZ. It’s just me and Alice, sometimes sitting in this hot apartment lookin’ crazy.”
“I thought it was more money you wanted.”
“It’s both, muthafucka! I want to see you too. I want some dick! You ain’t fucked me in forever, and I miss it.”
“Look, you already knew what it was when we got together. Don’t go lookin’ for anything to change between us, because it ain’t. We got a kid together, and I’m there for her. But you and me, it will never happen. So you might as well go and put some damn clothes on, because I’m not fuckin’ you, Lisa.”
Lisa frowned. She continued holding her sleeping daughter in her arms and had no problems cursing and ranting while she was around. It was routine. She sucked her teeth loudly and rolled her eyes. She put Alice on the couch and then turned toward AZ.
“So, you see all this ass and tits and you don’t wanna fuck me? What the fuck is wrong wit’ you, muthafucka? I’m sayin, I know you ain’t fuckin’ wit’ no new bitch! What? You don’t like this pussy no more?”
AZ had to keep his composure. Lisa was pushing his buttons, and she knew it too. He scowled her way and had the urge to throw her out the tenth-floor window.
What the fuck was I thinking? He loved his daughter, but hated the relationship with Lisa.
“I don’t like you, Lisa! I never did. You’re loud, ignorant, and a fuckin’ bitch.” AZ was heated that he continually had to go through the same shenanigans with her. “I wanna see Alice, but you fuckin’ make anything so simple almost impossible. I didn’t come by to please you, so get us fucking or getting together out of your ignorant mind. It’s about Alice and only about her!”
Lisa matched his hard scowl. She threw her right hand in the air toward his face and spat, “You a fuckin’ trip, nigga! Look at all this good pussy and you ready to turn it down. What’s wrong wit’ you, AZ? I got plenty of niggas ready to fuck me.”
“So go fuck ’em—I don’t give a fuck what you do. Just take care of my daughter and stay out my fuckin’ business.”
As they argued, AZ’s cell phone buzzed against his hip. He practically rushed to answer the call to keep from arguing with his baby mama. “Hello.”
Lisa said, “You see that shit—always on ya fuckin’ phone and not caring about us.”
AZ shot her a murderous look.
Lisa knew it was safer to hush up, but her attitude still remained. She snatched her daughter off the couch and marched into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
“This bitch,” he uttered faintly and then focused back on his phone call. “What’s good, Heavy Pop?”
“Yo, you ain’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Word on the streets is that Polo is still alive.”
“What? You jokin’, right?”
“Nah, I wish I was. The nigga is still alive, in critical condition or somethin’.”
AZ couldn’t believe it. “What hospital?” he asked.
“Kings County. But it ain’t no use. He’s under heavy police protection. We both need to watch our backs; this might come back on us, AZ.”
“Yo, for what? Heavy, we ain’t had shit to do wit’ that, right?”
“I know, but everyone knows we had an issue with him and Greasy D and if niggas think Polo gonna make a full recovery, they might want to get at us to get on his good side, you feel me.”
“We had an issue; that’s all it was,” AZ said, knowing he was talking on his cell phone. “Yo, I’ll call you later.”
“One, my nigga.”
“One.” AZ hung up.
All of a sudden, AZ’s world became a lot heavier. Without saying good-bye to his baby mother or his daughter, he marched out of the apartment, his cell phone to his ear, calling Aoki.
“Hey,” Aoki answered.
“We got a fuckin’ problem.”
“Ah what problem?”
“Not over the phone. I’ll meet you,” he said, and hung up.
***
The two met at Canarsie Pier on a sunny day. They walked side by side and talked to each other quietly. The pier wasn’t too crowded with folks, only a few men fishing, sprinkled with a few couples slowly walking hand in hand, gazing out at the horizon, and a few young teens sitting on the benches, talking and having some fun.
AZ and Aoki were far away from prying ears, but no one paid them any attention. They looked like a couple walking and enjoying the day.
“Ya ah worried, so me can take care of it,” Aoki told AZ. “Me know it’s a problem, but don’t fret until someone comes ah knocking.”
“I can’t believe this muthafucka is still alive, Aoki.”
“Don’t know how. Him was shot and stabbed dead.”
“Apparently not,” AZ replied, dryly.
“Me tink him nah gon’ snitch. How would him look in de hood? Three girls did dat to dem. Him would be embarrassed.”
“Even so, he’s gonna come lookin’ for us, looking for revenge.”
“No time soon. Him really fucked up. But me can give ya half de money back, AZ. It’s my fault.”
“Nah, no need. I just want you to finish the job, Aoki. I want you to make sure Polo won’t be a threat once he leaves the hospital.”
“Him won’t.”
SIXTEEN
Polo lay in the hospital recuperating from two gunshot wounds and being stabbed twice in the chest. The shooting and stabbings took a lot out of him. He was lucky to be alive. He had flat-lined twice, once in the ambulance, and then again on the operating table.
Two weeks earlier, when he was in ICU, he had struggled to breathe and was immediately hooked up to a respirator. The trauma team had to keep suctioning blood that repeatedly accumulated in his mouth. Polo looked like an extra from The Matrix, with all sorts of lines and wires for monitors, tubes for IVs and other machines. Polo seemed lifeless, but then he came through like a miracle. He was too tough to die so soon.
Now he was awake, but still in bad shape, and on his mind was revenge. Greasy Dee was gone. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. One moment he’s having a good time, thinking he’s gonna get some pussy, and the next, there’s an ambush.
He remembered the sexy bitch in the front seat with Greasy Dee just suddenly went berserk and plunged that knife into his friend’s neck with no hesitation at all.
