Nine Lives: For the Love of Money Read Free

you leave your own woman. Does that surprise you being the beauty you are?”
    I'd usually laugh when he said this by answering, "Nah Playa that's too much and totally not needed,”
    I sometimes gave him false hope by stating, “Maybe in another space and time it would and could have been different.”
    This would make him dreamy eyed and he’d say, “Well shit let me get this time capsule built then,”
    I didn't allow myself to get a swelled head even if it was the truth. In all actuality, I did possess qualities for a young female that were considered rare in our days although I knew they really weren’t. I actually finished high school not just obtained a general equivalency diploma, went straight to college where I was on the debate team and received my master's degree in communications. I was a quadruple threat having grown up with a mother who loved music and a sibling who was into sports, I could sing, rap, dance and was very athletic. I could play basketball as well as football.  I was what you would call an ‘all American girl’ even if they thought I was the wrong skin tone, this term applied to me.
     
     
    I thought of entertaining D.J. Infinity’s advances a time or two but tonight I was not up to grinning in his face. I didn't care how much he complimented me, tonight was simply not his night for me to be flirting with him.
    For the first time in a long time I snapped at him leaving him a bit confused because of my earlier smile plastered on my face during our conversation.
    “I'm not your baby. I don't care if you consider me a lion or a lamb, I'm not fucking with you on more than a professional level," I reprimanded him, then added, "Got me?"
    He answered barely above a whisper, "Yea, I got it."
    With that being said, I grabbed the mic and shouted as loud as possible, "Last song."
    Looking perplexed D.J. Infinity didn't know if he should go against my decision to shut down the annual jam an hour early or not. Yet, he did the smart thing since we stopped admitting people into the venue due to being at capacity.
    Infinity shrugged off my reprimand, took the mic from me and co-signed by saying, "Last call for alcohol. You all don't have to go home but you have to get the fuck out of here."
    He gave me a wink to which I rolled my eyes totally disgusted. I could tell his feelings were hurt especially by my last action. Despite knowing this, I just didn’t care at this moment.
    What Infinity didn't know, was the reason I was so riled up.
    That reason being I had a visitor earlier today. One who did not come bearing gifts or good news. Seemed the club we rented for our annual parties was located on a prime drug block.
    The heads of the operation were known as The Overseers and their message to us was very clear. They wanted us to not only pay to hold parties to them and owners of the lounge but have our parties weekly. We weren't necessarily in agreement with this because it would limit our reach to various clientele by making us locals. My brother wanted to be a big time party promoter to the point that he was in high demand as a celebrity event planner.
    One of the major reasons I was taking my frustrations out on D.J. Infinity, was because this area was Infinity's neck of the woods. As Boogie reminded me, Infinity's character was less than savory although he was trying to be a legitimate entity. My brother also reminded me these were only yearly events. It would be kind of hard to be on anyone’s radar especially a drug dealer who was busy running a block than to know everyone who came through once a year.
    Trying to put two plus two together, we recalled Infinity used to run with a crew of hot headed, murdering drug dealers. And although, he told my brother he had broken ties with his old crew, my brother wasn't too sure. We both felt when a former criminal needed money they’d revert back to their old ways of hustling.
    While Boogie also wasn't too sure of the name of Infinity's old crew and if it