told it how it was, and had a tendency to be loud at the wrong times. But it was what it was; she was my girl… real bitch.
Robyn was kind of sneaky in my eyes, but I dealt with her because she was resourceful. Her ass was like the sibling that you loved because you had to. She was my sister, but I could not stand her ass sometimes. She was a little older than me, about Anisa’s age, and she knew every hustler in every borough. Don’t ask me how, but she always knew who was coming up on the streets and who was next in line to be “the man.” That was useful for us when we occasionally robbed niggas. But we did have one golden rule-never rob or take a hit on anyone we encountered before. It would be too much of a risk for us.
Aries was a sweetheart. She had a heavy Barbados accent, and it was hard to understand her at times, but I managed. She was petite, with beautiful shoulder-length twists in her hair that fit her exotic personality perfectly. She was one year younger than me, and kind of quiet. But don’t let that fool you. Aries was a killer. I noticed that she didn’t hesitate to kill if the money was right. She was the closest person to me, besides Anisa, because we were just alike. She was an asset to the squad for sure.
We all enjoyed the sunrays and sounds of the churning waves as we relaxed and conversed. In the midst of our conversation, the phone rang. We all sat up, recognizing that particular ring. I had all the calls from Murder’s line forwarded to a cell phone used only for our hits. I put my finger over my lips to signal the girls to be quiet before I picked up. They all stared at me as I flipped up the phone and placed it to my ear. I remained silent and just listened.
“I have a job that requires your services. I want you to listen, and listen very closely,” a man said with a deep Russian accent. He continued, “I have a problem that needs to be resolved. I want this done within thirty days. The contract is worth one hundred thousand dollars. Half will be given up front, and the rest will be paid upon completion. You can find the information on the target in locker number 1356 at the Grand Central train terminal, and you can find the key under the station’s bench, eight rows down.”
I quickly reached into my purse and grabbed a pen and a small piece of paper to jot down the information. I just listened and wondered what type of job this was. I never had someone come so organized, and also we mainly only dealt with ‘hood niggas. This was far from a ‘hood guy” that we were used to handling business with. He paused, and there was a brief moment of silence on the phone before he continued.
“I take it that you want the job, since you haven’t hung up,” the Russian said before he let out a small chuckle. “Very well then. The money will be placed in a bag in the locker along with the information. Good day,” he said before he left me with the dial tone.
I slowly closed down the phone and looked at my girls, who were all staring at me, anxiously waiting to see who had called.
“Well what did he say?” Anisa asked as she threw her hands up.
I took my time before I spoke, almost too excited to let the words come out of my mouth. “One… hundred… stacks!” I said as I jumped up and watched as my girls cheered and slapped hands. This was the payday we were looking for. That was about $20,000 apiece. Usually we would have to split $50,000 for one hit. Twenty to ourselves sounded real good. It was the last day of the cruise, and we were all eager to get back to NY to get that money… the Murder Mama way.
We sat in our condo in midtown Manhattan. We all moved in with each other a couple of months back. We didn’t want to live in the ‘hood, now that our operation was booming. Everyone sat and waited patiently for Anisa to return. She went to the station to retrieve the money and information. She told us that she wanted to go alone, just in case it was a setup by police, considering that we had never done business with this mysterious Russian guy before. She said there was no reason for all of us to do down.
“Do you think it’s legit?” Beatrice asked as she split open a blunt and began to fill it with kush weed. That girl knew she loved her weed. She was a bigger weed head then me, and I had learned from the best, being that Murder and I had shared at least three blunts a day before he was arrested.
“I don’t know. I hope so,” I responded as I looked down at my watch. “Where is she? She should be back by now,” I said, noticing that she had been gone longer than expected. Just as the negative feelings began to invade my thoughts, Anisa came through the door with a duffel bag and a big manila folder. “What took you so damn long?” I asked as I stood up.
“I had to think about if I should take the money or not,” she answered. All of us grew confused looks on our face.
“What chu mean?” Aries asked as she put her hands on her hips. Obviously, she already had plans for her share of the money, as we all did.
“Look at this,” Anisa said as she threw the folder on the coffee table.
I picked up the folder, and when I saw the face of the man in the pictures, I quickly understood what Anisa meant.
“Fuck!’ Beatrice said as she looked at the picture along with me. It was Joell, the owner of the club, Tenders, and also Robyn, Aries, and Beatrice’s former boss. Taking this job would be breaking our golden rule: never hit someone we know or had ever encountered before.
“Me no believe dis’ shit!” Aries exclaimed as she flopped down on the couch and put her hands on her head.
“He used to be our boss! He knows us!” Beatrice exclaimed. “We can’t hit anybody we know, remember!” she said in total frustration.
“Fuck that! I’m about to get this money, with or without y’all. Me and Miamor don’t know this nigga,” Anisa exclaimed.
I remembered encountering Joell back at the strip club a while ago, but I remained silent, because I wasn’t ready to give up on that money just yet. “Just hold up a minute. We are talking about one-hundred-thousand- dollars, ladies,” I said, trying to weigh our options.
“You said it was a Russian guy on the phone, right?” Beatrice asked as she squinted her eyes, letting us know she was thinking hard about the task at hand.
“Yeah,” I responded.
“I remember one time at the club, two Russian men burst in and put a gun to Joell’s head in front of the whole club. Remember that, Robyn?” Beatrice asked.
“Yeah, I remember that shit. They were yelling about him owing them some money. You know Joell got that gambling bug bad,” Robyn stated.
“That’s the reason why they are at his ass,” I added, as things started to make more sense. “I know we said we can’t hit anybody that we know, but think about it. This is a lot of money. It is enough to move out of this grimy city. Miami looked real good this past weekend, ladies. Think about living near an ocean and not having to worry about karma catching up with us. If we stay in New York, we will always have to look over our shoulders. This is our way out,” I said as I grabbed the duffel bag from Anisa’s shoulder and dumped the stacks of money on the coffee table. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the money, and it provided a sort of adrenaline rush for everyone. We were all paper chasers, and at that moment, I knew they would be down to kill Joell. The looks in their eyes told it all.
Anisa and I looked at each other and smiled, knowing that they were game. If they weren’t, then Anisa and I would have done it by our damn selves, I’m sure of that.
It seemed as if all the tension left the room and everyone had small smirks on their faces. We were about to put a plan in motion.
Three weeks passed, and we were in the perfect position to take care of Joell. Everything was going as planned. Come to find out, Joell was sweet on Beatrice, but she never gave him any play. I told her to approach him as if she had a change of heart, so we could get close to him. I told her she would have to give up the pussy, and it was all in the game.
Beatrice was smart, and she always lived by money over everything, so she wasn’t hard to convince. Her deep
