After a judge and social worker looked over everything, the courts placed the children back with Juanita.
But life in East St. Louis was hell for Swag and his siblings. The picture that Juanita and her attorney painted for the judge was fake. She didn’t live in a luxurious home. She lived in a run-down apartment building in the ghetto. And Juanita’s so-called job as a paralegal was really as a drug dealer and runner. Along with her drug money, she received a government check for the kids and went shopping almost every day.
There was also a new man in her life. His name was Mitch. He was a low-life drug dealer and stickup guy that would rob a 2-year-old if he could. They treated the kids like slaves, and for entertainment, they would beat them. These actions caused the kids to do poorly at their new schools.
Swag gave up his dreams of being a pro basketball player in the NBA. It wasn’t long before he dropped out of high school and furthered his education in the streets. Robbing, stealing, selling drugs . . . He did it all. By the time he was 17, he’d saved up about $10,000, which he never brought home.
The thought of his mother pissed him off. He remembered his mother and Mitch telling him and his siblings they would never amount to anything, how his life was never supposed to be that way. He was so pissed he had to take a shit and pissed. He lifted the toilet seat and sat. As he was taking care of business, he remembered a moment that would change his life forever.
He remembered the night Juanita and Mitch were fighting in their apartment. They fought because Juanita caught him having sex with her 15-year-old daughter, Tamara. As Juanita and Mitch fought, Swag intervened to help his mother. Then Mitch and he started to fight, and a frightened Juanita went into her bedroom and returned with a 9 mm. Unfortunately, she shot Swag by accident. He was bleeding profusely on the floor and in unbearable pain. While Swag was in a coma for a week and a half at the hospital, Juanita threatened to kill anyone who revealed the truth. While lying in the hospital bed, Swag told himself, fuck her! Fuck everything! Fuck his family, and he was thankful that he didn’t leave his stash at the crib.
Once he was out of the hospital, the first place he went was to an old abandoned warehouse near railroad tracks. He cleared the dusty trash cans and pulled out a huge green bean can. Once he opened it and saw his stash of $10,000, plus a few dime bags, he couldn’t wait to get back to St. Louis to sell them and get a connect.
Once Swag was done pushing out the last piece of shit from his system, he wiped himself real good. He flushed the toilet and went back to the sink to wash his hands and look at his reflection. “Damn.” He thought about how disappointed he was in himself, but mainly how he disappointed Nana with the dumb decisions he made in his life.
“Swag, Swag!” shouted Mz. Chocolate as she tapped him on his shoulder.
Swag had stopped reminiscing over his past as he looked at Mz. Chocolate’s naked reflection in the big mirror, not noticing she came into the bathroom. He could feel his manhood getting hard again. “What, ma?”
“Damn, daddy, mi wake up wanting to feel sum more of dat yello banana beefcake inna mi, but yuh did gaan,” Mz. Chocolate said, wrapping her arms around his waist. She licked his back like it were her favorite butter pecan ice cream. “Yuh tire of mi already, daddy?”
She reached inside his boxers and jerked his snake. He was turned on as he leaned back on her. “Shit!” he laughed.
Yet again, Swag started to forget about his problems. All he wanted was some of that Jamaican sweetness. He turned around and picked her up. She laughed.
“Come on, baby. You ready for some more of this long banana beefcake in your pudding, ma?”
“Yuh kno it, daddy. Dis pussy dripping fi dat hood,” Mz. Chocolate replied while licking Swag’s ear.
They moved to the bed and got ready for round five.
Oh, Lord, give me strength, Swag thought with a smile on his face.
Chapter 6
The Journey Begins
After a few days in the ship, the fellas, Paco, and his gang were having the best time of their lives, partying every day and night with King’s girls turning them out with moves they had never seen in America. But Swag, unlike Tyler and Travis, knew once they arrived in Costa Rica, playtime would be over. Swag knew the underworld lifestyle too well. Hell, he lived it most of his life. One minute, it was caviar and champagne. Next, it would be bloodshed and bodies popping up.
The ship’s horn blew and woke up everyone who was still drunk or high from the night before. But Swag and Mz. Chocolate were still knocked out. Mz. Chocolate had put her chocolate heroin on Swag, and that’ll knock anyone out. But the horn got even louder and finally got their attention.
“Damn, what is it now?” shouted a sleepy Swag while rubbing his eyes.
Mz. Chocolate shook her head. She was still a little tipsy. Before she said anything, the door to their suite flew wide open. One of King’s muscular bodyguards stood in the doorway in a three-piece black suit. Swag and Mz. Chocolate reached for the sheets to cover their naked bodies.
“Damn, bruh, what’s up?” Swag yelled, horrified.
“Yeah, Blood, yaah crazy man. Yuh nuh kno there’s a uhman present inna di room?”
Blood, the henchman, laughed while looking at Mz. Chocolate with his brown puppy dog eyes. “Damn, Desiree, chill with that shit. I know every part of yo’ sexy ass. You ain’t got nothing to hide.” Blood licked his lips. He glanced over at Swag with a smirk on his face.
At first, Swag let Blood’s words get him. Mz. Chocolate, or Desiree, was treating Swag like he was hers. In Swag’s mind, she was. But he had to remember it was her job to make him feel that way. She was just a high-priced whore that was a drug used to drain his system slowly.
Blood focused on Swag. “Dude, get your ass dressed. King wants you and the guys on the lower level in fifteen minutes. You hear me?”
“Yeah, Bigfoot. I mean, Blood,” Swag said sarcastically.
Swag knew that Blood was a big dude and didn’t want to tango with him, not yet anyway.
Blood twisted his lips at Swag and looked back at Desiree. “And you, sexy, you stay here. The crew is going to be in here to fix you up. You have an appointment with one of your regulars in L.A., and you know how demanding this dude is.”
“Yeah, I know,” Desiree said, getting out of bed.
Swag looked at her curves, and her sexiness started to make his jock hard again. He needed some more of that chocolate heroin in him, but Blood snapped his fingers in Swag’s face to interrupt his thoughts.
“What, dude?”
“Ten minutes. And if I were you, I’d hurry. The king don’t like waiting.”
Blood and Swag stared at each other for a moment, until Blood left and closed the door behind him. Swag got out of bed to stretch. He scratched his stomach before looking for his clothes. After he put his dirty clothes back on, he glanced over at Desiree. She was sitting on the recliner with her legs wide open as a cigarette dangled from her mouth. She lit the cigarette and took a long drag. While looking at Swag, she whistled smoke in his direction.
“Bowy, yuh betta hurry up an’ get ready before Blood comes back up inna here again.”
“Man, fuck Blood.” He laughed as he walked over to her. He dropped to his knees in front of her. “So, when can we hook up again?”
Desiree laughed. “Bowy, yah couldn’t afford dis gud pussy. Wah mi been giving yuh di laas few days a dosage of mi gud shit. Mi ongle gi my shit up to real bosses.”
Swag smirked. “Oh, really? And wah boss yah talk ’bout, man?” Swag imitated her Jamaican accent.
Desiree took another puff of her cigarette and blew the smoke out. She waved her hand at Swag. “Bowy, nuh get smart or mi wi ave Blood inna here suh fast,