Daddy's House by Azarel Read Free Book Online Page A

another bite of his apple.
    I sat up straight, and gave Tracey the evil eye. My arms were folded across one another and clenched tightly.
    “ Nah..uhhhhh,” Tracey said, in my defense. She pushed his shoulder. “I told you she got locked up for nothin’, right along with my aunt, uncles, two cousins, and her man. It wasn’t her fault. They had the drug ring goin’. She just lived wit’em and got caught up.”
    “ Yeah, well, where I’m from, that’s called snitchin’, if they all still in and you out.” He cut another slice of his apple, gobbled it down, and stared right back into my face. “The people I’m tryin’ to hook her up wit’, they lookin’ for loyal broads. Broads who ain’t bringin’ no trouble, and no police either.” Luke looked at me as if to ask, if I was bringing trouble.
    “ Look, I’m not on trial! And I didn’t ask you to come here!” I shouted. I looked at Tracey for some help. She looked back at Luke, giving him the eye to stop.
    “ Bet…your loss. Tracey told me you needed a good job one better than hers. She said you had the look.” He got up, threw his tye-dyed hoodie on over his wife-beater, and walked toward the kitchen. He looked back for another quick look at me. “You do got the look though,” he added. “You could make a lot of cash, and live good too. You get to live at the spot while on payroll. I’m talkin’ ‘bout a mini-mansion in a suburban neighborhood and shit.”
    I turned and looked at Luke with a lil’ interest. I liked the sound of that, ‘cause I definitely didn’t want to stay at Tracey’s spot too long. It was loud, and in the heart of everything. “What I gotta do?” I asked, with an attitude. “Long as it ain’t no prostitute shit.”
    “ Nah...it’s like an escort service. You gotta be the dates of high profile people; you know senators, politicians, musicians and shit.” Luke moved closer to me, and rubbed his thumb from the top of my face down to the side of my cheek. “Your smooth cocoa skin and long hair will have ‘em goin’ crazy. Not to mention that bad ass body you got. It’s my manz spot. He’ll look out for you. Just make you some money and roll,” he suggested.
    Luke had a point. It couldn’t have been too much worse than when I worked for my mother. I thought back to how Big V ran her business. It was a tight ship; but it was all about family. Between me, my uncles Ray and Cedric, and my man Rich, we sold most of the coke in the Brooklyn and Queens area. Big V never touched any product. She met the connec’, and then her brother, Kenny, was responsible for cooking up all the coke and distributing it in the streets. That’s where I came in.
    I remember wearing many hats. Some days, I’d have to meet drug dealers, sell them the shit, and collect the money. Other times, I’d have to take a drive with the money to pay off what we’d been fronted. So many times, I thought about driving off with thousands of Big V’s money, never to show my face again.
    One time, I even drove two kilo’s of raw coke to Big V’s favorite client. It was the night I was supposed to go out with Rich on Valentine’s Day. She screamed like crazy, telling me to get my fuckin’ ass in that car and drive that shit to meet her boy, some Jamaican dude. I remember feeling like a whipped puppy, ‘cause there was no talking back to Big V. Especially when she said that’s what the hell she bought me my convertible CLK for... to drive her shit around .
    Back then there were no tears, just unhappiness. On the outside, I was getting money, and had the best looking guy in town. But nobody understood that I was locked up already, mentally that is.
    “ You a’ ight?” Luke interrupted. “No time for day dreamin’ and shit. Get up, get ready, and slap on some good smells.”
    “ I didn’t say I was going!”
    “ What? You gon’ stay here with Tracey? C’mon, man, you know better.”
    I frowned, knowing he was right. I just didn’t want to