Flippin' the Hustle by Trae Macklin

Author:Trae Macklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION/African American/Urban Life
Publisher: Wahida Clark Presents Publishing
Published: 2012-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Derrick braced himself as he pulled up on the deserted Bed-Stuy block in front of the abandoned building. It was almost midnight, and there was little light on the street. Derrick switched his handgun off safety and checked to make sure a bullet was in the chamber. “This is it?”

Derrick looked around the block once more. He didn’t see any of RJ’s cars or any other BTB members. This made him question if RJ had sent him there for someone else to kill him.

Derrick pulled out his cell phone and called RJ.

“What’s up, Tree?”

“I’m downstairs. You inside?”

“Yeah. Just knock on the door,” said RJ.

“Got you.” Derrick exited his car, looking around the block again. Then he walked up to the dilapidated three-story brownstone and knocked on the steel door.

The door swung open immediately, startling him.

“Ha, ha, ha.” The huge monster of a man who opened the door laughed. “It’s only a door. You gotta be Tree.”

Derrick nodded. “Yeah.”

“RJ is waiting for you in the basement.”

“All right.” Derrick looked around the place littered with old liquor bottles and mildewed clothing. He took in the horrific stench and stepped through debris as he made it to the staircase leading down to the basement. He descended the squeaky stairs to find RJ’s back turned as he gazed out the only window in the damp basement.

“I started hustling right outside of this window years ago,” RJ said, not turning his gaze, but clearly alerted to Derrick’s whereabouts by the squeaky stairs and his footsteps through trash.

“It’s gotta be more than nostalgia that makes this a gold mine,” Derrick said as he kept his eyes trained on RJ. It was dark and he had trouble telling if there was a gun in his hand.

RJ turned around. All Derrick could make out on his face were the teeth of his sneaky smile. An ambiguous smirk he had seen often in times of love and times of war. It’s a gold mine because the drug game is like the real estate business. Location, location, location.” RJ laughed.

“And what makes this location special?”

He waved Derrick over, placing his hand on his shoulder.

Derrick was relieved to see he had no gun in his hand.

“Look out there.” He nudged Derrick forward toward the spot he had been viewing from outside.

Shit, shit, shit, Derrick thought. He was afraid now that RJ was standing behind him.

“What do you see out there?”

Derrick said, “Some more brownstones.”

“Look harder.”

Derrick wanted to turn and look at RJ, but he couldn’t.

“The alley.”

RJ chuckled. “Now you’re thinking. “We got an alley connected to this building that leads from this block, Nostrand, to the next block over, Marcy. And the beauty is that steel gate the city put up on both sides to keep the bums from sleeping in this alley. But it can’t keep our workers in here from running from block to block and hopping those gates if police decide to hit this spot.” RJ went on to mention how the building’s location would be the only heroin operation in a fifteen block radius.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.