Grindin'; A Novel

by Danielle Santiago

• ISBN13: 9780743277600
• ISBN10: 0743277600
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-11
• Publisher: Atria

Summary

The second in the trilogy of Harlem stories features Kennedy Sanchez, a 22-year-old beautiful, street-smart single mom who is offered a chance to become a rapper and leave the streets behind. She soon realizes the setting may have changed, but the hustle remains the same.

Excerpts

Vegas Nights "Damn, Nina, how much of that shit did you put in his drink?" "Same amount as usual. Why?" " 'Cause his ass looks dead." Nina glanced at the middle-aged white man lying across the bed. He was in a deep sleep from the mickey she'd slipped him less than thirty minutes ago. "Kennedy, ain't nothing wrong with that man. He looks like that 'cause he drank everything the bar had to offer! Just hurry and finish wiping everything down. We can't afford to get sloppy now." "I'm through wiping. You hurry up and crack that safe so we can get that shit and be out." Nina tried but couldn't crack the code to the hotel-room safe. Kennedy was becoming impatient. "Look, Nina, fuck whatever is in that safe. We got his Rolex and four thousand cash. We need to go ship this shit and catch our flight!" "Ken, I've always told you patience is a virtue," Nina said calmly, never taking her eyes from the safe. "Haven't you noticed I'm not big on virtues?" "Besides, I know this old bastard got way more paper in this safe. You should have seen how much he was spending on chips -- about ten Gs a table. His bar tab was a G and he paid everything in cash." Nina continued to give her full attention to the safe. She looked like a high-fashion runway model, not a hustler and part-time scam artist. All five feet ten inches of her was slim but curvy in the right places. Her 36D cups were perfect for the knee-length red Valentino tube dress that she was wearing. Her legs were especially beautiful in the Manolo Blahnik stilettos. The rich white Vegas gamblers couldn't keep their eyes off her smooth chocolate skin and her shoulder-length jet-black hair. Once she had worked her way into their rooms, Nina would slip them a mickey while her cousin robbed the gamblers blind. Kennedy was the mastermind behind the scheme. At twenty-two, she was a genius at crime. If it had been a major in college, she would have graduated summa cum laude. She'd come up with this particular scheme after the ATF and DEA had raided them. The only thing that had kept Kennedy and Nina from going to state or federal prison was that thirty minutes before the raid, they had been robbed. Nina's boys' father and his brother had hit them for four kilos and all of their firearms. After everything was over, Kennedy considered the robbery to have been a blessing. Kennedy looked on, aggravated, as Nina continued to try to crack the safe's code. Nina exhaled. "There, I did it. Told you, ma, just be easy." As she pulled the safe's door open she could not believe what she was seeing. She covered her mouth with a gloved hand to keep from screaming. Kennedy slid off the bar stool and walked toward her cousin to see what the excitement was about. "Nina, what is it?" "Yo, it must be fifty Gs in here! And, Ken, look at this black bag. It looks like diamonds, ma." "Nigga, let me see! Damn, it's like thirty loose stones in here. This nigga must be a criminal himself. Come on, bag all this up. Let's be out." Kennedy drove back to their hotel on the outskirts of Las Vegas. She was tired and weary; they had checked in four days earlier. That meant four days of not much sleep and no play. The night before, she had worked three different casino hotels, getting four different men for their loot. She had cleared forty-five thousand dollars in cash and jewelry. She'd worn a black Gucci minidress. Now she was wearing a white tee and cut-up jean shorts with a crispy white pair of uptowns to replace the Jimmy Choo stilettos. Her beautiful makeup job was gone. Her long reddish-brown hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. Her lips were covered only by a hint of MAC Lip Glass. Kennedy had to take No-Doz to stay awake while driving. Nina had already fallen into a deep sleep. Kennedy thought about playing a prank to get her up but decided to let h