back. “You dare to insult me? You dizzy bitch, I ain’t no motherfucking dope dealer!” he shouted as he scooped up the bills from the bed.
She scooted off the bed with an angry face. She sat in the chair and glared at him. “So the great Shetani has to gorilla a ho out of her bread? Right?”
He leapt from the bed and went to stand between her legs. He vised her tiny face between giant palms. He tilted her face up, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Gorilla you, my ass. You played on me for my stuff. If you’re my woman, the bread I took is your claiming bread to get me. You’ve got a two-hundred-grand bankroll behind your thieving ass. Kill a trick, bitch! I can raise you! If you’re my woman, you got my personal guarantee that you will always have the best medicine there is.” He paused and gritted his teeth. “If you ain’t my woman, I’m gonna charge you the thirty-six hundred for wasting my time and forcing me to break my promise to Cat to take care of you. Well?”
They stared into each other’s eyes until she averted her eyes in surrender. “Were you leveling about firing Petra?” she asked in a child’s voice.
“My word is like a gold bond, you secret lil bottom bitch, you,” he crooned as he lifted her into his arms. He carried her to the bed and lay down beside her. “Tell me you’re my woman and you’re gonna obey all my rules!” he said in a low but commanding voice.
She burst into a torrent of tears and blubbered, “I’m your woman and I’ll obey all of your rules.”
He took her drained body into his arms and winked at his reflection in the ceiling mirror.
Several days after the Crane encounter, Petra excitedly raced the horses of a Hertz chariot toward L.A. International Airport. Her master was flying in from the Apple with a supply of medicine. She was hoping he’d sex her as a reward for the Crane coup.
She arrived and left the airport parking facility to seat herself in a corner booth of the uncrowded restaurant in the sky. She gave a waitress an order for two glasses of pineapple juice.
Ten minutes later, she didn’t recognize Shetani until he limped to within six feet of her on a cane. He was disguised as a minister in black suit, white collar, and a black hat atop a “natural” wig. He was carrying a satchel, which he put on the floor between them as he sat down.
Petra moved to embrace and kiss him. His eyes, through the plain glass of heavy spectacles, and then his voice warned her away.
“Nix, bitch! You’re just having a chat with a black preach,” he whispered harshly.
“Oh, Master. You’re so fucking cute in that getup. But why?”
He looked at his watch. “Listen and don’t speak. I got a kilo of boy and one of girl in that bag. Safekeep it, except for what you need. There’s also the bread to lease a monster house in an isolated spot. Rent some furniture—modern, flashy shit. Tomorrow I’m gonna start sending our family out here in groups of five. We’ve got to…”
To cut him off, she held her hand up like little kids do to catch the teacher’s attention.
He frowned.
“May I ask a question, Daddy?”
He nodded.
She went on. “Jerry, the cop, he’s a coke freak, like I told you on the phone…Well, suppose he fucks up. I mean, what if he gets bounced off the squad and we’ve all moved out here with our big nut to crack and Hollywood gets too hot to work?”
He chuckled. “If the sucker stands up for just a couple months, we’ll take off a bundle. Besides, I’m sick of New York’s winters, and there are several niggers I’m gonna waste if I stay there. Shit, I just need a base on the coast. You ho’s can work Albuquerque, maybe Vegas, and Seattle for sure.”
Her face became serious. “Daddy, Jerry said he’d kill me if I shared his inside info with anyone…Isn’t he a cinch to know I’ve tipped our girls when his squad can’t bust them?”
Shetani grinned. “Sure, he’ll wake up, down the line. But he ain’t gonna
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