Chapter 9: Bagging For It
Geraldine pours non-dairy creamer into her coffee; since yesterday all she could think about were those bags of money. She's never seen that much, let alone, held that much money before. All night as she slept Geraldine kept dreaming about that fancy lifestyle. She saw it all; the big house, the loud parties, the fancy and fast cars, the big pool. The one thing that she did see in her dreams was her and Reggie living it large together, both partners in her investigation firm and their friendship still as strong it was when they were young. The work with Sunny from yesterday opened her eyes too a more broader sense of work, it was more than just the money that they took from those Vietnamese gangsters but it was a sense of doing something more bigger in her life. The gym bags full of money were still buried underneath the shed, she finally gotten a taste of she could accomplish, all she needed was a bit more money and maybe her dream could finally become real.
The tabby jump's up on the table and stares at her; Geraldine finally gave it a name, she called it Tiger. The reason why was because of the marks on it's body and because the tiger was one of the toughest animals in the jungle. "You hungry?" Geraldine asked, Tiger simply looked at her; she goes to the refrigerator and pulls out another can of tuna. The feline jumps down to the floor as Geraldine opens the can and places it on the floor. Tiger starts to eat the tuna as Geraldine looks and smiles "When I get a bigger place I'm gonna make sure that you'll eat the best fucking food on the planet" she said as Tiger kept eating.
A knock on the door interrupts the silence of her house. Remembering that Reggie was coming by because she planning on selling a couple of those bags that she stole from that whole business with the bike. Geraldine opens the door "'Sup girl, you ready?" she impatiently asked "Yeah, just give me a minute" Geraldine goes over to Tiger and see's that he finished his meal, she pet's him on the head and he purrs in delight "I gotta go, you can go right ahead and make yourself right at home" she whispered.
She head's out the door and too her friend waiting outside. "So were we goin'?" Geraldine asked "We're goin' to a place on Signal street in Banning" she said "What the hell are we sellin'?", Reggie pulls out the bag's of Xanax and pain pills "We're gonna sell these pills, they're gotta be worth somethin'" she smiles.
"This better be worth it, I don't wanna get my shot up for no reason" Geraldine annoyingly looked at Reggie as they walked down around to an alley nearby. A plain white van, the type of vehicle used by painters and plumbers is parked in the alleyway, Geraldine looked at her friend rather confusingly "The fuck we takin' a van for? Why can't we just take my car?" she wondered, Reggie opens the passenger door and pulls out a Remington 870 tactical shotgun with a pistol grip "'Cause it's for the element of fuckin' surprise, they got think that we have some motherfuckers hidin' in the back" Reggie smiled as she held the shotgun; Geraldine rolled her eyes, the plan sounded like a first grader came up with it. "They're gonna search the back the minute we get there, they gonna see that we got no back up" Geraldine said "That's why it's call the element of surprise, they won't see this shit comin'" she put's the shotgun back into the van and goes to the driver's side "You comin' or what?" she said as Geraldine breathes a quick sigh.
The van is slow as the duo turn the corner. "Girl, I need to ask you somethin' but try not too get mad" Geraldine said as she looked over at Reggie "What?" "This plan of yours, it just plain fuckin' stupid" she sneered "What? You don't trust your girl to make good ass idea?" Reggie smiled as she stops at the red light "I do trust you, but come on, this plan of your's just dumb as hell" Geraldine pulls out a cigarette and lights it "I'm smart, okay? This a really smart fuckin' plan" Reggie quips "Reg, you ain't smart; you're remedial" the light turned green "What?" she curiously wondered at that word "Retarded" Geraldine gave a basic answer "Pft. Girl I ain't stupid, this a really good ass plan; watch, you're gonna be so impressed that you gonna do a damn back flip" "Whatever".
"So what were you doin' yesterday in Little Seoul?" she asked "Just lookin' around" Geraldine didn't want too mention what she had gotten yesterday "Listen, I be meanin' to talk too you about this whole drug thing. I think we should just give it up" she says as she blew smoke out the window "Come on, there's money too be made with this shit, you gotta trust me on this" their's that word that always annoyed Geraldine "I told you before I do trust you but we need to need make money without gettin' our heads blown off". Geraldine flicks the cigarette out the window "I met this Korean girl yesterday, she's pretty smart. She showed me some shit, man, the things that I saw could help the both of us out; we could make money without gettin' our hands dirty", Reggie snorts and spits out the window "We don't need anyone helpin' us out, it's always been you and me since we was little, remember?" Reggie questioned "Yeah, I remember; you and me against everyone else, it was always like that" Geraldine looked at her friend, she could see a hint of jealousy on her face.
"Look, we don't need this Asian girl givin' us advice or anythin'" Reggie said as she took a left "Just consider it, for me, please?" Geraldine pleads "Fine, whatever".
The approaches the warehouses, they park near a small load of shipping containers. Reggie takes a deep breath "Okay," she readies her plan "you take the shotgun and you're gonna watch my back; if they try somethin', creep up on these fools and smoke them" Geraldine looked at Reggie, surprised that she managed to come up with a plan like that "So you want me to sneak around, carryin' this shotgun, while watchin' your back so you can play drug dealer?" Reggie simply gave a small smirk "Pretty much, yeah"; Geraldine almost wanted to laugh and then to leave. She shakes her head and grabs the shotgun "Fine, you know what? I'll watch your back but if shit get's messy then it's all your fault" Geraldine said as she cocked the shotgun "You gotta have some faith in your girl, 'kay?"Reggie let's out a bigger smile "You keep on sayin' that and everytime you do, we always get shot".
Reggie grabs the bag containing the pills, while Geraldine goes to a safe hiding spot. She manages to find a spot behind some crates, if this was the element of surprise then this could be more or less easy. She kneels behind the crates and waits.
About thirty minutes pass by and nothing so far. Geraldine pulls out her phone 'The hell is takin' so long?' she texted 'Just chill, they'll be here' Reggie texted back. Finally three men in Hawaiian shirts showed up; all of three of them stand in front of Reggie. From a distance Geraldine couldn't tell if any of them were armed or not, she wasn't going to any chances though. "So you got the stuff?" the man in the middle asked, Reggie pulls out both bags and hands it to them. One of them decides to try out the Xanax, he goes over to a nearby crate and takes out two pills; he crushes them, carefully he pulls out a razor and delicately chops it into two separate lines. With a small plastic tube the man snort's both lines. "God," he quickly says "fuck! That's some good shit!" he happily complements, Geraldine observes everything from afar; everything seemed to be going well, she hated to admit it but this was a good plan. For once, things were going smoothly. Finally deciding that everything is legitimate, the third man pulls a bowling bag; judging by the way it looked, that must have been the money.
He hands the bag to Reggie.
Their reward was almost within there grasp, until an unforeseen turn of events would suddenly turn everything into the usual bad situation.
...
Three green low riders suddenly appeared, several men stepped out. One of the men Geraldine automatically recognized, Billy Villanueva is among one of them. "Hey, it's one of those bounty hunting bitches" one thugs attention is on Reggie "Oh shit" she quickly cursed "Who the fuck are these assholes?" one man asked, Billy steps up to one of them "This bitch and her friend killed my brother and stole from him!" he angrily said. Billy and the thugs pull out their guns, ranging from Uzis to Glocks. Billy himself pulls gold plated .45 "Kill this bitch!". The guns fire, Reggie manages to run with the bowling bag and gets too cover behind a crate. Two of the Hawaiian shirt wearing men were killed in the barrage, the other one manage's to get away with the pills.
Reggie tries too go for her Glock but remembers that she left it back in the van "I'm gonna kill you and then that friend of your's!" he yells. They all aim the crate and open fire. Whatever was in the crate it stops the bullets from going through. She was waiting for her partner to come in guns blazing. Nothing happened so far, Reggie began to wonder if this was a sort of payback for that whole thing with Nunez.
Just as Billy is reloading his .45 a loud boom tears into one of the thugs "What the fuck?!". Geraldine runs out with the shotgun and starts blasting at Billy and the thugs. Two of them are hit and killed "Get that red haired puta!" he ordered as they take cover behind the low riders Boom! Boom! Boom! Three loud blast tear into the low riders. They return their own fire at the red haired woman; Geraldine takes cover behind a couple of big crates. Automatic gunfire tears into the crates.
Boom! Geraldine manages to shoot out a window, one of them manages to peer out; Boom! A blast takes off the right side of his head. Blood and pieces of his head splattered against the low rider; the gunfire starts to intensify a lot more. The crates do their best too stop the bullets but Geraldine can sense that it's going to give at any moment. She reloads the shells into the chamber and readies to finish them off.
"I'm gonna kill you! Fucking red headed puta!" Billy yells, Geraldine runs at them; blasting the shotgun at them, the thugs aim at her. They shoot but their aim is quick and erratic. Boom! Boom! Two blast take down a thug along with his collegue next too him.
She aims to destroy. Boom! The blast takes down two men at the same time.
The thugs panic and erratically shoot at Geraldine. Boom! Boom! Boom! Three blast tear into three separate thugs and a part of a car door. Seeing what and who they're dealing with, a couple try to run. Boom! Boom! They both get hit in the back; Billy is all alone now. He stands his ground and fires back, Billy unloads every round at her. Geraldine aims at his leg. Boom! His right leg explodes, he falls back against the low rider screaming his lungs out. He see's Geraldine, Billy manages too get up; hobbling on the other leg, he raises the .45. Boom! "Aaah!" his thumb along with his index and middle finger are obliterated; blood pours out like an overturned bucket. He screams in anger and horror. Boom! A blast tears into chest, his slides against the low rider; the MMA fighter get's his final match and it didn't go the way he wanted it too go.
Smoke pours out of the shotgun, the scene is that of some intense action sequence of a cheaply made action film.
Reggie comes out of her cover. She looks at the carnage that Geraldine unleashed "Damn, you really fucked them up" she said, Geraldine looked back Reggie; the 'I told you so' look was on her face. "Look I know what you're gonna say-" Geraldine puts up one of her hands "Shut up, just shut the fuck up and get in the van" she ordered "Just let me-" "What did I just say?" she stated. Reggie grabs the bowling bag and both leave the scene.
...
They drive through traffic, Geraldine steamed as she predicted what would have happened about this whole deal.
"I know this thing didn't turn out the way it was supposed too, but we made it out" Reggie said as she turned right at the intersection "I told you before about those cholos knowin' each other" Geraldine looked straight at the road "Look, we got the money didn't we? That's what really matters" she says as Geraldine grabs the bowling bag and unzips it. She looks inside and smiles a funny smile.
She starts too laugh a bit "You know what girl? You were right; I misjudged you, this was really a good ass plan" Reggie smiles "See, like I said you gotta trust your girl and I delivered", Geraldine laughs a little bit more "Their's just one thing though..." she suddenly stopped laughing "What?" Reggie still smiles "What the hell are we supposed too do with a bunch of coupons from Cluckin' Bell?" Geraldine's smile went from happy to a very upsetting looking "What'cha talkin' about?" Reggie asked as she pulled over too the side. Geraldine pulls out a stack of bills and hands them to her friend, Reggie closely exams them; what she see's leaves her dumbfounded.
The money was nothing but coupons for Cluckin' Bell "What the-these are bunch of fuckin' coupons!" she exclaimed.
One coupon reads 'Purchase a 45 with a soda and get another for free!'; that's quite a deal.
"No! No! Fuck! Fuck! Are you kidding me?!" Reggie cursed as Geraldine empties the bowling bag, nothing but stacks of coupons fall out. "So what was all that about this being a good ass plan and too trust your girl?" Geraldine says as she give's this mocking smile "'You're gonna be so impressed that you're gonna do a goddamn flip'" she jokingly said "'I ain't stupid! This a good ass plan, oh, yeah I'm very fucking smart!'" "Man shut the fuck up! This ain't funny!" Reggie shouts "Oh it ain't funny?" Geraldine sarcastically prodded "What was really funny is that you came up with that stupid ass plan of your's and we ended up gettin' shit for it" Geraldine turns too her friend "Okay, this shit didn't go the way it was supposed to go but at least we're alive" Reggie said as she grabs the bag full of coupons and tosses it out the window.
"We're alive but we didn't get a damn cent out of this whole thing, so now what?" she asked; Reggie turns off the engine.
"We still got that other shit, we could still sell it and make some paper", Geraldine scoffs and shake's her head "And what then? Are we gonna get our asses shot at again?" "Just give me some time, okay?" Reggie said as she turned the engine back on. The van is back on the highway, Geraldine looks on as they pass the cars; she's annoyed because of everything that had happened. They lost two bags of drugs, they almost got killed for it and worse they got ripped off. This day couldn't gotten have gotten any worse.
Geraldine sighs as they arrived back at her house; She get's out annoyed and fuming over what happened today. Reggie get's out and follows her "Look, I know you're mad because of what happened but like I said we're still alive, that's all that matters" she tried too cheer her friend up "We're alive, but we lost those pills and we got nothin' but a bunch of coupons for cash" "Look, this is a first time fuck up. Next time it'll be better" Reggie smiles "Pft!" Geraldine scoffed "Yeah and I'll bet you a million dollars we're just gonna get our asses shot at again" she scolded back "See that's your fuckin' problem, you're always so damn negative all the time" she quipped "Don't fuckin' start with that shit" Geraldine angrily walks to her porch.
Reggie heads back to the van and drives off.
Tiger eagerly walks towards Geraldine, excited too her.
She sits on the couch, the cat snuggle up next too her; she turns on the t.v. and see's the breaking news right now.
"Breaking News! This is Jane Goodman reporting from Banning, mixed martial artist Billy Villanueva was found dead today in what appears too be a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Alongside him are two drug dealers and several members of the Vagos street gang. It was known that Villanueva had ties too the gang. This comes as Villanueva's brother, Eddie Villanueva, a Vagos gang member himself was killed several weeks ago. More as the news develops; Reporting from Banning, I'm Jade Goodman".
Geraldine looked as the reporter signed off the air. So much for keeping this quiet as much as possible.
The whole thing turned into a disaster They had dead dealers, dead gangsters and a dead fighter too go along with the whole situation. Geraldine scratches Tiger's ear, he purrs with delight "I can't fuckin' believe this shit" she swore; Reggie's plan blew up in their faces, they had eight bags of drugs but had nothing but bad luck with them. Their was her friend who insisted that things will go their way. But like all things Reggie did, it always ended in a shit storm; different scheme but the usual bullshit and with the same predictable results. Bullets and dead bodies. Geraldine used too wonder if Reggie was jinxed, she always thought that was the reason why things went the way they did, it must have been because of that peculiar reason.
She knew more trouble would come their way, it was only a matter of time. Geraldine keeps on scratching Tiger's ear, she pondered about Reggie's next big idea. If their was anybody who could come up with a more stupider idead that could possibly get them killed it was Reggie. She said that she was smart but a smart peson would know not too make a mistake that could them killed. A smart person always had a back plan. A smart person would know who they're dealing with. And above all else, a smart person had too make sure that the deal wouldn't attract any unwanted attention that would harm them.
But the thing about some one like Reggie is that she did one of two things; she never listened and never paid attention too detail.
It was that those things that always worried Geraldine. She's tired and irritated. She still had that money under her shed, maybe once this drug thing was over she could finally relax and never have too worry about anything.
Chapter 10 is coming soon. Rate and Review