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*Unedited*
Chapter One
Eight months later.
Judah “Baby” Snow
“If you be good to me, then I'ma be great to you. If you stay down for me, then I'll stay awake for you.”
The 808’s thumped to Chloe’s ‘Surprise’ as I watched Asian Bliss take the main stage. Blue-faced hundreds rained down from the sky as her heavily tattooed limbs twisted and folded around the chrome pole, defying gravity as she slid down into a split under the hot pink neon lights. With tats from her neck to her wrists and a head full of long, raven black hair, I admired how her warm beige body spun around the pole like a fuckin’ ballerina. Niggas stood around, studying her with unwavering attention like they’d just been transported through time and space and into a new multiverse where only she existed. She kicked her six-inch heels through the air, doing acrobatics while making her ass pop and jiggle like the crowd pleaser she was. All the Miami ballers and hustlers came to see her at The Sanctuary, a new, high-end Miami strip joint filled with the city’s baddest bitches.
Years ago, it used to be called the Pleasure Palace before it got shut down after the owner got caught up running an underground prostitution ring. It remained an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city until eight months ago, when someone bought it, rehabbed the shit out of it, and reopened its doors two months ago. What once was a rundown shithole was now the place where all the Miami ballers wanted to make it rain and sleet every day of the week, no matter if it was W.A.P. Wednesdays, Thicc Thursdays, or Fantasy Fridays. It was the type of place you could go to and have a full-course meal on the rooftop and then go downstairs to see bitches walking on the ceiling and ass and titties shaking and jiggling all over the place.
I turned my glass of 1942 up to my lips to fuel up for a long night of partying, g-string tucking, and paying for rent, tuition, and plastic surgeries alike. After her song was over, I moved through the crowd to the bathroom. The club was a jungle just like it was every weekend with niggas in there cappin’ and frontin’ at every turn, trying to convince these hoes they could change their lives and take ‘em from the pole to the penthouse overnight. On my way back from the bathroom, I saw Asian Bliss and another stripper named Honey Moan talking as I made my way in their direction.
“Bitch, what you mean you can’t go back out there?”
“I can’t. I don’t feel good.”
Asian Bliss smacked her lips. “You know Bankx ain’t gon’ have that shit. You better get one of these other hoes to go out there for you!”
The babble of talk died as I inched closer. I blinked as my eyes adjusted after hearing the name Bankx fall off Asian Bliss’ tongue. Usually, I heard little and cared less. To me, it was all meaningless gibberish until it wasn’t. The sound of his name alone sobered my ass up real quick. I stopped dead in my tracks, locking my eyes on hers like a magnet. She raised her right eyebrow before her narrow maple brown eyes squinted.
“Can’t you see we talkin’?” she snapped.
Without saying another word, I pulled out a stack and gently slid it against the sparkling crystal tassels swinging across her glittery chest. Her red-painted lips turned up a fraction of an inch before she tilted her neck to the side, signaling for Honey Moan to leave us. Money was a universal language. For the right amount, I knew she’d dance on me like she loved me, and if I played my cards right, she would give me the information I needed in the process.
Once we entered the private room, I took my seat on the red velvet couch and watched Asian Bliss’s body cling to the pole as if they’d been fused into one. Her light-up six-inch heels twirled around the shiny chrome before she hit the ground and started pussy poppin like she was straight from the projects. After doing a round of acrobatics like the pole fairy she was, she stepped down from the platform and sauntered over to me.
“Is there room for me on that lap?”
“Always,” I answered. “You know you da baddest in here, right?” I mumbled to her as she climbed on my lap.
She tossed her head full of long, dark hair back, revealing the spiderweb tatted across her throat. “Tell me something I don’t know, daddy.”
“I bet you got niggas in here wishing they could sniff the lining of those panties, huh?”
“Mmhm, but you, you might just be the exception,” she informed, as she drank me in with her sultry, thin-slit eyes.
“Damn, and you smell good too.”
She gently brushed her hand against the septum piercing in her nose. “Trust me, daddy, I taste as expensive as I look.”
“I bet you do,” I said before tossing a few hundred dollar bills her way. “Let me take care of you for the night.”
“You wanna take care of me? I like the sound of that,” she moaned before palming the back of my head while gyrating against me.
“Listen, my brother is getting married in a few weeks, and I’m in charge of the bachelor party. You and a few of your girls should fall through,” I insisted.
“Mmm. Your brother as fine as you?” She purred, winding back against me like a yo-yo.
“Baby girl, ain’t nobody fine as me,” I assured her.
She smirked. “So, you wanna private party?”
I dipped my chin. “Yeah.”
“How many girls?”
“As many as you can get.”
“I can for sure get six girls. That’s ten racks minimum upfront. Plus tips,” she informed me.
“I can handle that, no question.”
“Good. When we leave here, I’ll set you up with Jamie at the front. She’ll get the date and information from you.”
“Bet. So, uh, now that we got our business out the way, let's get back to you and me.
“What about us, daddy?” she asked, continuing to grind against my dick.
“How long you been working here?” I asked, toying with a lock of her hair.
She glanced up at the camera over her left shoulder. “No touching, baby. Eyes are everywhere.”
“My fault.”
“I’ve been dancing for four years now, but here, only since the club opened up about eight or nine months ago.”
“Mmm. Who owns this spot now? It’s fire.”
Something like a sigh pushed past her lips. “You wanna chit chat, or you want these perky ass titties in your face?” she asked with a twinge of annoyance in her voice, which told me she knew more than she showed.
My face hardened in concentration. “I wanna know the answer to my question.”
Her perfectly arched brow puckered. “One thing about me, daddy, is I don’t dance or talk for free.”
I pulled out a roll and held it up. “You were sayin’?”
“Bankx,” she answered without hesitation.
“He in here tonight?” I asked, muscles in my jaw bunched.
She dropped down between my legs and ran her hands over my thighs. “You wanna talk about another nigga, or you wanna talk about you and me?” she asked, diverting from the subject at hand.
“I wanna talk about what you know.”
“I mind my money and my business. I ain’t told you shit that you can’t find on Google.”
“Nah, see, you seem a lot smarter to me than that. I wanna know everything you know about this place and who runs this mothafucka,” I pushed out before tossing another stack on the stage without batting an eye. “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”
“Is that right?” she smirked, pupils turning into dollar signs.
“Yeah, and if I like what you sayin’, then there’s more where that came from.”
She steepled her fingers as the acrylic on her long nails clicked against each other. “Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“Ain’t nothing like the feeling of cold hard cash flipping through your fingertips, right?”
She grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “Mmm. You’re two of my favorite things, freaky and filthy rich,” she said before doing a backbend and spreading her legs like the peace sign over my shoulders, “what do you wanna know?”
I slid a few more bills into the side of her g-string. “We’ll talk about that at the bachelor party. Until then, you just make sure that tongue of yours stays tied.”
“Don’t worry, daddy. I keep these lips tight. Both sets.”
“Bet.”
“What they call you, anyway?” She asked before giving me a once over.
I was iced out from head to toe, smiling. “The Punani Rusher like Usher,” I informed her, quoting Treach from Naughty by Nature.
She smirked before bending down to collect her earnings. “That’s cute or whatever.”
“What’s your name, beautiful?”
“Asian Bliss.”
“Your real name.”
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
I looked left and right before answering, “Baby.”
“Mmm, times up, Baby,” she responded as her heels clicked toward the door.
“You not gon’ tell me your name?”
“Jade,” she whispered in my ear before kissing my cheek.
I slid my phone out of my pocket as I made my way down the hall. After opening my messages, I sent a text to Chief and Rome.
Me: We need to link. It’s urgent.
Bankx
“The shipment is going to be delayed by about another twenty-four to forty-eight hours or so. My guys have had to take some detours due to some unforeseen traffic issues over in Houston,” Reynard, my uncle, told me.
I took a puff from my blunt and paused, head momentarily trapped in a cloud of smoke. “That ain’t nothing,” I choked out.
“Glad to hear it. How’s my investment doing?”
“The club is straight. Business is boomin’ like I said it would,” I stated, kissing my fingertips. “This was the business venture I needed to get me back in the game and back on top, Unc.”
“I’m glad I could help, nephew. It’s the least I can do after you held it down behind bars for all those years. I’ll never forget loyalty.”
I tilted my chin in a nod. “Real recognize real.”
“But you out now, and it’s time to show the city that you’re back like you never left.”
I scratched my beard. “Yeah.”
“So, what’s next in your master plan?” he inquired.
Before I could answer, I heard a knock on the door. My vision narrowed to a pinprick as I studied the security camera feed before adjusting back to normal after I realized it was Jade knocking at my door.
“Yo, Unc, I gotta go handle somethin’. Let me hit you back,” I said before ending the call.
Not only was Reynard Shaw my blood uncle, but he was also my plug. He ran the streets of Atlanta and had connections from Miami to Houston. Aside from the rainy day money I had stashed offshore, he fronted me the cash to buy the rundown warehouse and help fund the renovations so that when we reopened, we could push his drugs through it. In my eyes, it was a win for both of us. I pushed my thoughts of him to the side and hit my blunt one more time before yelling for Jade to come in.
“Hey, you,” she smiled.
“Wassup?”
“You good?
I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s nothin’. How we doin’ out there tonight?”
Her shoulders rose and fell. “It’s good. Could be better if these lazy bitches got off their asses more and started pressin’ these niggas for dances.”
“Hit up ‘Nique at the bar. She’ll get ‘em right, loosen’ they pockets right up.
She smirked. “Cool. Oh, and Honey Moan said she don’t feel good and can’t go back out there tonight. I told her you weren’t gon’ be too happy about that, but here I am, just the messenger. Don’t shoot me,” her voice trailed off.
I sucked my teeth. It was always somethin’ with those bitches. “Tell her to pack her shit up and go home,” I demanded as I relit my blunt.
“Aight, then.”
“Oh, and one more thing. You’ve got an admirer,” she said, leaning in so that I could blow her a shotgun.
My brows creased before I gave in to her silent demand. “What you mean by that?”
“Somebody came through and dropped bands tryna get information on you,” she said before exhaling smoke.
“Information on me? Who the fuck was it? A fed?”
“Nah, he ain’t strike me as a fed. Said his name was Baby. Light-skinned, pretty, wavy hair, flashy pretty boy type.”
From her description alone, I knew exactly who she was talking about. “Mmm,” I grumbled, “what you tell ‘em?”
She shrugged. “Nothin’ Google couldn’t.”
“What else he say?”
“Something about his brother getting married. He’s throwing a private party and wants me and the girls to come dance.”
“When?”
“I don’t know all the details right off hand, but he knows who to reach out to for setting that up. Plus, he said the wedding was in a few weeks, so it’s gotta be soon.”
I dipped my chin in a quick nod. I trusted her, but only to a point. She was too beautiful to be fully trusted. I knew these bitches had bills to pay and would say or do whatever to ensure that happened. Jade and a few other girls were my scouts. They were my eyes and ears around the club, and in return, I broke them off something extra whenever they came through with the information. If I knew anything, it was that when there were drinks and titties in the same room, niggas lips started flapping, and the dollars started flowing a lot quicker. I’d been laying low ever since I’d gotten out, but I’d never taken my eyes off the Snow brothers. I was going to wreak havoc on their family for destroying mine.
“Aight. Good work. Keep your ears and eyes open for me when you’re there.”
“Don’t I always?”
“I wanna know that nigga’s every move.”
“Who is he anyway?”
“A dead man walkin’. Him and his fuckin’ brothers.”
“Damn, B. What he do to you?”
I shook my head and turned to her. “I’ve been good to you since you’ve known me?” I asked, more of a comment than a question.
“Of course you have.”
“Good, because there’s something I want you to do for me. There will be a big payday at the end of it for you.”
“How much we talkin’?”
“Fifty stacks.”
Her eyes widened. “What you need me to do?”
“I gotta know you ain’t gon’ be scared.”
She frowned. “Scared? I ain’t scared of a mothafuckin’ thing, especially no man that bleed just like I do,” she confirmed.
I smirked. “Bet. Go make sure the door is locked. We got some shit to discuss.”