Glorified

Ayesha Smith

Description

In this urban thriller, two young men destined for a life of crime learn that living in the fast lane comes with a price.
Ever since they first became friends in elementary school, Trey and Marlo have been sticking together through all the ups and downs of life on the streets. When desperate times lead them down a dangerous path of crime, they somehow manage to elude the authorities, even after robbing several banks in Orange County, California. But when a threat arises, they must make hard-hitting decisions to save their lives and freedom.
After Trey and Marlo destroy evidence—or so they think—they flee to Miami to pursue a new game. When another opportunity presents itself, an inexperienced Trey and Marlo immerse themselves into a drug gang. After they steal a crew from the same dealer, they are supplied with all the connections needed to start the first black drug cartel in America. Although the young men have high hopes of stepping away from the past, they soon discover that life is as unpredictable as their choices. As dangerous lines are crossed yet again, sacrifices must be made—this time for the organization.
In this urban thriller, two young men destined for a life of crime learn that living in the fast lane comes with a price.

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Bank
• Detective
• Hispanic
• African American
• Guns
• Murder
• Money
• Crime
• Police
• Fiction
• Miami

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 17 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663244901
• Langue: English

Extrait

GLORIFIED
 
AYESHA SMITH
 
 
 
 
 

 
GLORIFIED
 
 
Copyright © 2022 Ayesha Smith.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
844-349-9409
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4543-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4489-5 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4490-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916703
 
iUniverse rev. date: 10/17/2022
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1South Coast Orange Bank
Chapter 2The Ultimatum
Chapter 3The Transition
Chapter 4The Fed
Chapter 5Destroying Evidence
Chapter 6Takeover
Chapter 7New Game
Chapter 8Miami, My New Home
Chapter 9A New King Crowned
Chapter 10Forty-Eight Hours
Chapter 11The Twist
Chapter 12The Grass is Greener
Chapter 13The Streets are Talking
Chapter 14Unfinished Business
Chapter 15Old Habits Never Die
Chapter 16Miami Heat
Epilogue
To my husband Toris, thank you for being my support system and for your guidance throughout the process. To my family thank you for your love, support, and encouragement. Grany this is for you. We love and miss you.
PROLOGUE
MARLO
Trey had been my boy since the sixth grade, ever since I stopped him from getting the shit kicked out of him by two big-ass white boys. I was not the save-a-nigga type, but when I saw that, I felt a little bad for the kid—we were two black niggas at a majority-white school, so I felt obligated to do something. I fucked their asses up. After that, we vowed to stick together through it all.
I grew up in Watts, but my mom moved to Orange County after my brother was murdered. He was a true gangster, like one of those brothers you see on the Original Gangster documentary. Just didn’t give two fucks! He was worse than O-Dog from the movie Menace II Society . My mom thought she was doing me a favor by leaving Watts, but it seemed the apple did not fall too far from the tree.
It didn’t take long for Trey and me to grow close. We would stay up late, watching old mob movies, learning word for word all the movie lines and taking mental notes on the dos and don’ts of the game. The first rule, “No snitching”—that was your death ticket. When you got into gangsta shit, that was grown-man business. If you fucked up a grown-man business, then you got fucked up. We loved the mob life. We wanted to be just like it—and we were too. First, we had to be students of the mob life. Since we could not physically get the game from mobsters, Trey and I had to learn from the real ones they made movies about.
It all started when mom was about to lose the house. Trey and I were sitting in my garage, smoking, when he came up with an idea.
“Aye, I got an idea.”
“What’s up?”
“Never mind. You probably wouldn’t want to do it anyway.”
“Right now, I’m down to do anything to keep mom from losing the crib.”
“Well, we could rob Stix.”
Stix was a well-known drug dealer with a lot of clout who did not care who he sold to.
“We don’t know too much about Stix,” I said. “Or who he works for or who’s working for him.”
“All we need to know is where he keeps his stash and how many people he keeps in his house.”
“And we don’t know any of that.”
“I know all that. I’ve been buying weed from him for the past four months, and if you ask me, that guy’s kind of sloppy.”
“Well, man with the master plan, when, where, and what time?”
“Shit, we can hit him at the end of the week, right before he goes to reup.”
“What if he reups before then?”
“He’s got a routine he goes by. Trust me. I’ve been watching him for four months.”
“Wait—you’ve been watching him for four months, and this is the first time I am hearing about it?”
“Nah, I wasn’t watching him like that. I’ve been seeing little shit that makes me curious. He slipped up one time, and I caught it.”
“OK, I see. What day of the week does he reup?”
“Friday night at seven—never late. Oh yeah, he always has this man-looking bitch with him.”
“Damn, bro, you been with him when he reups!”
“Ha ha, you got jokes. Dawg, just be ready when the time comes.”
“I stay ready.”
I was up late at night, thinking about the worst that could happen, putting all the scenarios together. We had all the tools we needed. I had kept my brother’s old .380 hidden after he died, and Trey managed to find a guy named Big Time, who was selling a gun. We were ready!
At six thirty on Friday, we walked up to Stix’s house. We counted to three and kicked open the door. Stix was sitting on the couch, counting money, and the man bitch was smoking a blunt with her face buried in her iPhone. When we kicked in the door, we caught them by surprise. The man bitch tried to reach for her gun. I put my gun up to her face and told her to put her hands up.
“Nigga, do you know who you robbing?” Stix said. “This is my city; I run this shit. I’mma find out who you are, and when I do, y’all dead!”
“You won’t get the chance.”
I shot Stix.
The butch woman grabbed the gun. Trey shot her.
We were twenty-one when that happened. We’d been on ever since. We were twenty-three when we decided to hit the biggest lick of them all: banks. That was where the real cheese was. We hit every bank in Orange County. We were the coldest men living. The police couldn’t seem to catch up. They were still trying to piece the first robbery together. Some serial bank robbers liked to wait before they robbed another, but we just kept going, one after the other, to keep them off track and make them focus too much on the obvious instead of the rational. Rather than getting the money from the tellers, we wanted the money in the back. The vault had the money bundled and stacked—so much money we couldn’t get it all. We tried not to rob banks early; generally, we waited until they were just about to close. The fewer people there were to watch, the more money we could get. There were too many possibilities for capture when you had to worry about the people you took hostage.

PRESENT DAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2013
Things were going good until Trey met a bitch. She was too noisy, always trying to get information from him. We lived by three rules in the game. Rule number two was “Don’t tell nobody about the business.” Nobody! But this broad wanted to know everything about him. I could not have a female all in my mix. I had too much going on and had come too far. I told a female all she needed to know and nothing about my money, including how I made it. My favorite line was “You the feds!” I couldn’t handle all that.
I guessed that was why I’d never had a serious relationship. It was always about business when I fucked with a girl. I told girls, “When I am with you, I’m with you. And when I’m not, don’t worry about what I’m doing. I’m not hurting you. I’m making money.” But they never understood that. They thought a brother was out there busting other bitches. I didn’t have time for two bitches! Not having one meant more money and less drama for me.
CHAPTER 1 South Coast Orange Bank
“Aye, Marlo! We have to hold off on the shit until tomorrow.”
“Why? What’s up?”
“I have to do something for baby girl.”
“Come on, man. Are you serious? We got business!”
“I know, man, but she—I just need to handle some shit with her first. Then we can do that.”
“Nah, man! You know the rules. Tell her you will not make it. We can’t reschedule this; you know how these are. Perfect time means greater success! If we change it now, then we might as well say, ‘Fuck this one,’ and look at another.”
“I want to do this one. There’s a lot at stake here!”
“If that is true, then why not go now? We planned it out. We know the last employees leave at six thirty tonight. Every day is different. We cannot afford to take any chances.”
“All right, I hear you, man. We on!”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to have any surprises.”
“Come on now! Who you talking to?”
“Shit, thought it was the homie, but lately, you have been acting like you’re in love.”
“Don’t play me like that. You know I’m all about the Benjamins.”
“OK then. Let’s get this paper.”
“I’ll be at your spot at five.”
“All right, one!”
“One!”

TREY
“Aye, mama!”
“Hey.”
“Look, we gotta push our arrangements up a little.”
“Why?”
“I really have to take care of something, and it can’t wait.”
“I thought you said you were telling Marlo it was going to have to wait until tomorrow?”
“I know, but it can’t; I’m sorry. I will make it up to you.”
“What if I gave you an ultimatum?”
“Do not do that. I don’t mess with your money. Why you trying to mess with mine?”
“So this is what this is about? What type of money are you talking about?”
“Th