Free Heist 2 by Kiki Swinson Page A

Lola’s, the strip club that Billy always hung out at with the hopes that I would find him inside doing what he loved to do best—being a pervert. I drove my Benz to the club to make it more realistic that I was attending a meeting that would get me closer to Abe. It was the story I had been selling to LaBeckie every day that I went on the streets in pursuit of my revenge.
    I saw LaBeckie’s crew of pigs tailing me, but I didn’t care. I had already had everything set up inside of Lola’s to go the way I wanted it to go.
    When I walked in the club, I moved like my old self. My swagger was on a hundred and I played it cool as a fan. I saw mad girls that I knew from my days out there giving me the eye, and a few dudes, both past friends and enemies too.
    I found Billy and his new crew of young heads in one of the VIP sections of the club. Of course they had some of the baddest chicks that work at Lola’s up in there with them. I can’t lie, if I wasn’t in there handling business, I might have stopped and got some pussy or at least a quick blow job, but I decided against it.
    â€œOhhh, shit! My nigga!” Billy sang out when he finally moved his face from a Spanish chick’s titties and spotted me. “I thought you was down for the count, my nigga!” Billy continued with a wide, phony grin on his face. He got up so he could greet me with the customary street pound and shoulder bump. I plastered a fake smile on my face like shit was all good too. I was better at playing the game than niggas gave me credit for.
    â€œNah, only weak niggas go down for the count,” I said, returning the fake gesture of love. “You know a nigga like me always lands on my feet. Shit is sweeter than ever, my dude,” I said, faking right along with Billy.
    â€œYo . . . sit down. Have a drink. Get some ass. Live it up with a nigga. You know we missed you,” Billy invited, spreading his arms like a game show host over the nice array of expensive bottles he had on the table in front and pointing out the beautiful strippers that were taking care of them in the VIP section. I was thinking, Yeah, nigga, it must be nice to pop bottles . . . spending money that could’ve helped me out. You gon’ learn, though.
    I played it cool, though, and kept my anger at bay. I had a much more important mission rather than jumping on the nigga and wilding out. I sat down and took Billy’s invitation while he poured me some Ace of Spades. I looked around at all of the beautiful women in Billy’s company and that same pang of jealousy that flitted through my chest when I saw Zack’s girl and his big fancy house came back even stronger with watching Billy waste thousands of dollars on bottles, bitches, and bullshit. This was what these dudes were doing on the outside while I suffered on the inside. I was the one who’d taken all of them out of the hood and showed them how to be businessmen in the street, and betrayal and abandonment was how they decided to repay me. Loyalty was bigger to me than anything . . . even bigger than money.
    â€œYo, Todd, man, shit ain’t been the same since you been inside. Niggas all went off on their own and nobody stayed loyal to our original crew,” Billy told me. I nodded my head up and down, but couldn’t help the sneer that had taken over my lips.
    â€œI had to look out for myself, man. You gotta understand that, right?” Billy said, a quiver of fear lacing his words. I nodded again.
    â€œI know you was looking for niggas to come together on your defense attorney, but after you left, there was no harmony among us. Niggas wasn’t trying to stay together so nobody took the initiative. I was trying to get niggas together several times and shit. I even gave Shannon some paper towards that,” Billy copped his plea. My jaw rocked feverishly and I took my drink to the head. I needed something to calm the eruption happening inside of