Welfare Wifeys Read online

  As a teen King had been a small fish taken under the wing by the hardened Justice, but when he was sent off to prison at the age of sixteen he became more of a monster than Justice had been during his run on the streets. In a strange twist of fate King and Justice had ended up in the same prison for a time. Being that King’s family never came to see about him, Animal and his aunt would often pull him down too when they went to see Justice. Animal enjoyed listening to King talk during the visits. They were just about the same age, but King had a maturity about him that made him seem far older than he was. Eventually Justice was moved to another prison and Animal was so caught up in the streets that he stopped going to see King, but every so often he would send him letters of a few dollars here and there. He had heard through the grapevine that King was home and making quite a name for himself but this was the first time he had seen him since he was a teenager.

  “So, how’s big brother?” King asked him.

  “He’s good. I ain’t seen him in a while, but I write him at least once a week,” Animal said.

  “That’s what’s up. Yo, when you speak to that nigga tell him to get at me. I got some bread put to the side for him.”

  “He’s straight. If I don’t do nothing else I make sure his commissary is right.”

  “I know you do, superstar, but I still wanna do something for him from me. Son took care of the God when he was on the streets and in the joint,” King said honestly.

  “Wow, I didn’t know you know famous people,” Sahara interjected. She was tired of playing the sidelines waiting for Animal to notice her.

  King gave her a wicked look. “Ma, don’t play ya self. My whole team is stars.”

  “Ya heard,” Lakim added.

  “King, cut it out. You know I didn’t mean it like that.” Sahara stroked his beard tenderly.

  King made the introduction. “Animal, this is my lil young thing, Sahara.”

  “How you doing, sis?” Animal shook her hand.

  “I’m good,” Sahara said in a seductive tone. She caught King glaring at her so she fixed it up. “I loved the mix tape you and Don B. put out. ‘Child of the Ghetto’ is my joint!”

  “Thank you. I’ll make sure I drop a copy to King for you the next time I swing this way,” Animal said.

  “I heard you live in Texas now. Are you in New York for business or pleasure?” she asked.

  “A little bit of both.”

  “Well, if you get some time you should come and hang out with me and King. I got a girlfriend that I think you’d like.”

  “Sorry, but I got a lady,” Animal told her, not sure if he liked the way Sahara was staring at him. He had seen that look in the eyes of many a woman and it always led to trouble.

  “Oh, you’re married?” Sahara asked as if she cared one way or the other.

  “Not yet.”

  “Then I don’t see nothing wrong with just hanging out, right?”

  “All depends on what kind of hanging you mean.”

  “Ask ya man, King. He’ll tell you how me and my girls get down.” She licked her lips. It was a simple gesture, but watching her do it made Animal feel dirty.

  “Sahara, this man is a star so what the fuck he look like going in on some hood rats?” King clowned her.

  “I know you ain’t trying to play nobody because you can’t keep your nose out of this hood rat pussy!” she shot back.

  King’s nostrils flared letting Sahara know she had overplayed her hand. Before she could apologize King had her by the arm, shaking her. “Sahara, you better take your sack-chasing ass in the building and wait for me before I bust ya shit for trying to style out here.” He shoved her toward the building.

  “A’ight, damn. You ain’t gotta be pushing nobody,” Sahara mumbled as she made hurried steps toward the building. She made it a point to switch extra hard so that Animal could see what she was working with.

  “You gotta excuse that, my dude. You know how these lil broads can be,” King said by way of an apology.

  “Yeah, I be knowing,” Animal said to King, but his eyes followed Sahara to the building. He had never cheated on Gucci, but Sahara was definitely eye candy. “But yo, I ain’t gonna keep you, I just rolled through to drop these niggaz.” He motioned toward the stooges. “I gotta bust a move.”

  “Yeah, I gotta bust something too,” King said, looking over his shoulder at Sahara who was peering through the lobby’s glass window watching them. “But it was good to see you, T. I know you’re a big superstar now so you’ve left the streets alone but if you ever need some dirt done you know you can holla at ya boy!”

  Animal smirked. “Appreciate it, King, but just because you take an animal out of the jungle doesn’t change the fact that he’s an animal.” There was something about the way he said it that made everyone around him uneasy.

  “True indeed, God, true indeed. In any event, if you need me you can find me here holding court any day of the week. Now that I’m back on top I gotta work twice as hard to hold my kingdom and I don’t plan on letting up on these niggaz for one second,” King assured him.

  “My nigga is gonna be the king of all of this shit, word is bond,” Lakim added.

  “King James, huh?” Animal smirked. “If you like it then I love it, my nigga. I’m outta here.”

  Animal gave everybody dap and hopped back in his whip. He threw his hood up through the sunroof and peeled away.

  Chapter 11

  “I see y’all lil niggaz on a come up,” King said as he watched Animal pull away.

  “We trying to get it how we live like everybody else,” Ashanti said.

  “Stop fronting, you ain’t getting it like nothing, you little pissy dick muthafucka.” King playfully threw a combination of light jabs at Ashanti, who weaved most of them and came back with a few of his own. “I see you’re still on your footwork.”

  “You gotta stay on your toes when you’re constantly trying to duck the beast, god. They’re trying to throw the key away on niggaz out here, feel me?”

  King nodded in agreement. “Indeed I do, which is why I always find myself wondering why you keep throwing stones?”

  “What you mean, King?” Ashanti asked as if he was ignorant to his own antics.

  “Check, every time you turn around your lil ass is getting arrested or carted off to kiddie jail. They’re just slapping your wrist now because you’re so young, but in a minute you’re gonna be sixteen and they’re gonna show you how the devil really gets down. They took eight years of my life that I can never get back.”

  Ashanti pondered King’s words and chose his own carefully when he spoke. “King, you were only a year or two older than me when they locked you up for killing that kid back in the days, but when you came home the whole hood laid down at your feet because they knew your were a real nigga.”

  “Ashanti, I didn’t know it at the time but I was a real nigga long before I had ever taken a life. I got sent away for trying to protect myself from a man who was trying to harm me, not for paper, turf, or stripes. The things I saw and participated in while I was away stole my innocence and turned me into the monster that my enemies have nightmares about when they lay down with their wives and children.”

  “And that’s why the hood pays homage,” Ashanti shot back. “Man, niggaz in the hood love the King James from 3150 more than they do the one who wrote the Bible.”

  “Ashanti, that ain’t love, it’s fear. When I touched down I had already made up my mind that I was gonna go harder than the next man on these corners and take what nobody wanted me to have. I don’t have shit so I don’t have anything to lose.”

  “And what I got?” Ashanti asked seriously. “My family abandoned me and when I didn’t have a pot to piss in it was my niggaz who sheltered me and the streets who fed me, so please try to help me to understand what the fuck I got to lose if I get locked up or die out here?”

  King found himself at a loss for words. When he looked down into Ashanti’s glassy brown eyes he saw the same combi
nation of anger and fear that had greeted him every time he looked in the mirror when he’d first gotten to prison. He could’ve spent all night trying to get Ashanti to see his point, but he knew it was useless. The streets had him and only death would break their union.

  “So be it,” King said in a defeated tone. “I can’t knock ya hustle, Ashanti, you just make sure you take care of yourself while you’re out here.”

  “He’s gonna be okay. His family has got him,” Brasco assured King.

  King held Brasco’s gaze and saw nothing in his eyes. It was the same lifeless expression that he was running into more and more as he dealt with the new breed of hustlers. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain. “You make sure y’all do,” he told Brasco. “We out, La.” He motioned for Lakim to follow him to the building.

  “That nigga King is always trying to preach to somebody. I ain’t trying to hear that fake ass God-Body shit,” Nefertiti said when King had disappeared into the building.

  “Nah, King is a good nigga. A lot of cats could take a page from his book,” Brasco said, reflecting on King’s words. The truth in them hit very close to home, but he would never admit it in front of his crew.

  “Man, fuck all that, we need to see about getting some more trees since Animal peeled off with the good shit,” Ashanti suggested.

  “I got a bag of Arizona on me,” Nefertiti said.

  “You about a stashing ass nigga, Nef, why you just now saying something about it?” Brasco asked.

  “Because I didn’t feel like hearing y’all clown on me in the car. You know every time Animal comes around with that good shit y’all start acting like y’all don’t smoke green no more.”

  “We gonna smoke it today. Roll that shit up, son,” Ashanti told him.

  “I’m two steps ahead of you.” Nefertiti produced an already rolled blunt from his jacket pocket.

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” Brasco declared.

  No sooner than Nefertiti lit the weed he heard someone shout, “Squally!”

  A brown Buick came out of nowhere and screeched to a stop directly in front of where they were standing. Ashanti didn’t even think twice when he hopped the fence and took off running through the projects. Nefertiti and Brasco thought about running too but the hard-faced black cop closing in on them, with his weapon drawn, gave them pause.

  “Please run so I can pop you,” Detective Brown said while pointing his .357 at the two kids. His hard face was twisted into his signature scowl as he rolled up on Brasco and Nefertiti. “Grab the fence, cocksucker!” he ordered them. Brasco and Nefertiti slowly turned around and placed their hands on the short black gate. Brown placed his gun to the back of Brasco’s head and began to pat him down roughly.

  “C’mon, son, why you fucking with us over a blunt?” Brasco asked.

  “Because I can,” Detective Brown said before slapping him in the nuts.

  “It must be Christmas in the hood because instead of two turtle doves we got two shit-birds,” Detective Alvarez joked as he joined his partner. The tall Puerto Rican detective was dressed in blue jeans, boots, and a bubble vest. “What’s up, Lawrence?” he addressed Brasco.

  “Alvarez, tell this nigga to chill. We wasn’t doing nothing,” Brasco told him.

  “Bullshit, you two shades are always doing something.” Alvarez shoved Nefertiti into the fence and searched him. When they were satisfied that the two youths weren’t carrying weapons they allowed them to get off the fence. “What’s popping, Blood?”

  “Like I said, ain’t shit popping. We was just standing here when y’all muthafuckas rolled up on us on some A-Team shit,” Brasco replied.

  “Oh, I seriously doubt that,” Alvarez told him. He looked down at the ground and saw the still burning blunt Nefertiti had dropped when they rolled up. With a mischievous smile on his face he picked up the blunt. Alvarez took two short tokes and frowned. “Damn, y’all must really be doing bad to be smoking this bullshit.” He tossed the blunt into the street.

  “Man, you’re the police; you ain’t supposed to be doing that,” Nefertiti pointed out, which got him slapped in the back of the head by Detective Brown.

  “Bitch nigga, the fact that we’re the police means we can do what the fuck we want and the only person you can tell who might halfway care is God.” He laughed at Nef, then turned his attention to Brasco. “I don’t know why you little thug keep thinking you got rights. When are y’all gonna get the memo that a street nigga ain’t shit in the eyes of the law?”

  Brasco hated Detective Brown and his eyes betrayed this. “You can’t be the law forever, son. One day you gotta lay that badge to rest and when that time comes you’ll be a regular citizen, subject to the laws of the jungle.”

  Detective Brown shoved Brasco roughly against the gate and grabbed him by the front of his hoodie. “You threatening me, lil nigga?”

  Brasco slowly looked from the hands pinning him to the eyes of the enraged cop and spoke very slowly and very seriously. “Detective Brown, no matter how ignorant you may think I am, I’m not stupid enough to threaten a cop. But what I will tell you is that if you don’t take your hands off me I’m going to jail or the morgue tonight.” Brasco saw Detective Brown’s finger trembling near the trigger of his gun, but he refused to show his fear.

  Sensing that the scene was about to take a turn for the worse Alvarez placed a calming hand on his partner’s forearm. “Cool out, partner. You know better than to give a scumbag like this home-court advantage.” He tugged at Brown a bit and his partner allowed himself to be led away and let Alvarez deal with Brasco. “Brasco, we didn’t come over here to bust your balls. If I wanted to do that I could get word to your parole officer and tell him that you crossed state lines without his permission. Now how do you think that would look?”

  Brasco turned away. “Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t left Harlem since I got outta jail.”

  “Then explain this to me.” Alvarez pulled up a picture on his digital camera and held it up for Brasco to see. It was of all of them coming out of the mall earlier that day. “Brasco, let’s keep it one hundred between us. We know that Animal is back in town, and though I’m pissed off about him getting off for all that dumb shit that I know he was involved in, I’m not holding a grudge over it. If the system is cool with letting that sociopath run around unchecked then so am I. What I do have a problem with is bodies popping up the moment he sets foot back in my city, especially after all the work me and my partner put in to get things quiet again after Tech got wasted.”

  Detective Brown laughed. “I hear they did that boy so filthy that the mortician had to pad his suit because there wasn’t enough left of him to keep it from caving in.” Brasco took a step toward Detective Brown, but Alvarez held him where he was. “I wish you would.” Brown raised his gun.

  “Brasco, you and my partner going at each other all afternoon ain’t gonna do nothing but get somebody hurt, and I’m trying to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Look, you saw the pictures so you know that we know that Animal is here for a reason. We’ve got an idea why, but we need you to connect the dots before somebody else gets hurt.”

  Brasco’s face was serious when he responded, “Who’s Animal?”

  Detective Brown reached over to slap Brasco for his blatant lie, but Alvarez held him back. “A’ight, if that’s how you wanna play it, Lawrence, I’m wit it. Put your hands behind your back,” Alvarez ordered Brasco.

  “This is some bullshit, how you gonna lock my man up?” Nefertiti asked.

  “We ain’t locking him up, we’re locking y’all up.” Detective Brown shoved him against the gate and placed the handcuffs around his wrist.

  “What’s the charge?” Brasco asked.

  Alvarez tightened the cuffs around Brasco’s wrists. “So far it’s possession of narcotics and trespassing, but I’m sure we’ll think of some more shit by the time we get to the precinct.”

  “That’s a punk ass charge and you know it. The judge
ain’t gonna do nothing but give us court dates and cut us loose,” Brasco said.

  “Yeah, but ain’t no telling when you’re gonna get to see the judge. You know the Bookings are overcrowded as it is.” Alvarez smirked at him.

  “Yeah, it could be days before they finally find your paperwork after we misplace it,” Brown added. “Unless of course you guys decided you wanted to tell us why Animal is here?”

  Brasco just shrugged. “Sorry, I can’t help you.”

  “Fuck it, we’ll do it your way.” Alvarez steered Brasco toward the car, while Brown escorted Nefertiti.

  Brasco looked over at Nefertiti who looked shook, but he was holding it together like a true soldier. “Yo, Nef, looks like we’re partying in the Tombs tonight, huh?”

  Brasco laughed as he was pushed into the police car.

  Detectives Brown and Alvarez had just pulled up in front of their precinct when Brown’s phone rang. He picked it up and listened as the caller on the other end began rattling off something that his partner could hear pieces of through the phone. When Brown ended the call he had a worried expression on his face.

  “What’s up?” Alvarez asked.

  “That was the captain. We gotta hurry up and drop these clowns off, then get down to Brooklyn,” Brown told him.

  “Shit, man, can’t one of the local squads handle it?” Alvarez was anxious to start interrogating Animal’s people and going to Brooklyn would cut into the maximum time they had to hold the duo.

  “No, the captain wants us to check into this one personally. They say the corpses were fucked up . . . real fucked up,” Brown told him. Suddenly Alvarez realized what his partner was hinting at and looked in the backseat at Brasco and Ashanti.