A Project Chick Read online

  Taj took Lucky Luck under his wing. Luck had heard a lot about the gangsta rep that Taj had acquired over the years. He respected Taj and knew that if Taj's man hadn't snitched on him, he would have never fallen.

  Luck was getting money like crazy, it was out of control. But he also knew if he had the right drug 19

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  connection, his financial status would turn into multi-billionaire in no time. He had heard rumors of Taj's interactions with foreigners in the underworld. He was also aware of his financial situation and how much he loved his sister. He sympathized with Taj and his plight. Taj wasn't sure, but he knew that Luck had his own ulterior motives for befriending him, but he didn't care. All he was concerned with was if they coincided with his own agenda.

  Taj knew that Luck was going home soon and needed a real connect. Taj thought about his faithful sister sacrificing her college dream for him and felt terrible. So, the day before Lucky went home and after a series of loyalty tests during the 60 days locked up, he decided to put Luck on. What did he have to lose? If Luck didn't play fair, Taj would eventually see him again in the penal system. Luck's life was a revolving door concerning jail. So, Taj would get his revenge one way or the other.

  Taj gave him the two vicious plans. First, Taj needed to get back at his old drug connect, who discontinued all ties with Taj when he got busted and didn't send him one penny, after all the money that he had spent with them, and was caught with their product. Day one, when Luck hit the street, he was suppose to rob the African connect blind and when it was successfully done, then Taj would turn Lucky onto some Dominican guys he knew of and that he was planning to do business with right before he got bagged.

  The night before Lucky went home, Taj stayed up all night talking to Lucky. Finally, he told Lucky. "Look man, before we get into this, you gotta give me your word that on your life, you gonna do what we've been talking about over the past few weeks."

  After Lucky looked into Taj's eyes, he gave him his word. Taj walked over to his bunk and returned with his photo album. "Look man, this is the dude right here." He pointed to the extremely dark skinned man in the photo and handed him the photo.

  "They call him Radda. We took this photo about two years back when we were in Vegas at a fight." Lucky listened attentively as Taj gave him all the necessary information. "Look man, dude probably done gained some weight since this flick was taken. I don't know 20

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  where he lives now, but I do know he likes a lot of young girls, owns a club on Jeff Davis Highway and is real flamboyant. So, when you see him, he'll stand out.

  Lucky knew better than to cross Taj. Taj may have not have had any weight on the streets anymore, but he had it in prison. See, it's funny, but the same kind of people that Taj surrounded himself with on the streets, are the same type of people who mostly ended up in the prison system. So, guys in prison knew the power Taj had on the streets, so when he went to jail, he built an empire within the prison system as if he was on the streets. After all, prison is a world within itself. Lifelong relationships are built, friends, enemies and bonds are made behind bars, while principles and rules are applied and broken. Taj was a real gangsta on the streets and only carried it gangsta while in prison. He only dealt with other real guys, he was always put at risk because there was always a sucker or weak dude trying to get "brownie points" by trying Taj. So, there was never a moment that Taj let the least little thing slip when anybody tried him. It was automatic for him to straighten anybody out by any means, with his knuckles or his shank. If it had to be done, it was done.

  This gained Taj much respect in the prison system.

  As far as most were concerned, he was one of the key players in the Richmond team/gang prison system. It was quite peculiar that there were known beefs throughout 233, 644, 321, and 359 neighborhoods across Richmond.

  However, once the fellas from Richmond were behind the prison walls, many beefs no longer existed. Instead, they all came together and the wars went on from the Richmond dudes with the Tidewater dudes (anybody from the Norfolk, Virginia Beach or Hampton area), or the DC dudes.

  Since the relationships built behind bars are taken seriously, it was nothing for Taj to have something done to Lucky if he ever set foot into the penitentiary. It didn't matter what institution Lucky was in, because Taj had family (his prison family) all throughout the system. And if Taj needed to have something done to Lucky, all he had to do was write a letter to one of his boys he knew at the same prison and it was taken care of. This was something that Lucky was well aware of and he wasn't trying to deal with that from Taj. So, the dirty dude that Lucky was, he 21

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  decided to play fair and map out his master plan to pull the heist off.

  Right before Lucky walked out of the door of the Richmond City Jail, Taj gave him a manly hug, and as he did, he whispered one phrase as he pat him on the back.

  "Make sure your word is your bond."

  When Lucky hit the streets, his first priority wasn't sex or shopping for new clothes after being away for 60

  days. It wasn't getting at any of his workers or going to see his old supplier. There was no need to, he knew that after he pulled off this move, everything else would come, the women, workers, the shopping, and yes, even his old supplier would become a buyer from him.

  Lucky's first order of business was buying a hooptie, a 1978 Caprice classic with a factory radio, no tape deck, CD player, rims or a paint job. Just a good running quiet motor, and the most important feature, was the old round self adhesive .99 cents digital clock that appeared on the dash board of the car. He sat in his hooptie every night outside of the club, with his picture in his hand, studying the actions of Radda and even followed him a few times.

  Taj was right and didn't exaggerate about it either, Radda was the jackpot with his extremely flamboyant lifestyle, and without a doubt, he loved the young girls. There was only one problem, Radda kept three or four guys with him at all times.

  After three weeks of surveillance, and especially after he followed Radda to his house, Lucky felt it was time to pay Taj a visit. When Lucky went to visit Taj at the city jail, Taj was already visiting with Tressa. When Lucky walked up, he spoke to Tressa. Tressa glanced at Lucky who was looking like Wild Man Jack, with a full-untamed beard growing on his face. It was evident that Lucky hadn't had a haircut or shave since he left the jail. It was a pity, he had smooth chocolate skin covered up with hair all across his face. The only thing that was kosher was the snow white on blue Nikes he wore on his feet. Tressa couldn't help but notice the gold teeth in Lucky's mouth when he handed Tressa three hundred dollars so she could walk to the front entrance and put the money on her brother's account. Tressa was happy to do so. This was a big relief, because the $30.00 that she was going to leave 22

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  her brother, she could now keep for herself. The icing on the cake was that, for the next ten weeks she didn't have to leave her brother any money, because $30.00 was the maximum the jail permitted them to spend at the canteen/commissary every week.

  As soon as Tressa was bent around the corner, Lucky skipped the intro of the greetings and small talk, and got straight down to business.

  "Look man, let me run this down before lil' sis come back."

  "What you waitin' for? Run it."

  "Look Shawdy, I seen dude. I have been on this nigga like a pamper on a baby's ass. And like you said, he is getting it."

  Taj didn't speak, he just looked at Lucky through the glass and listened attentively as Lucky talked over the two-way phone.

  "A few times, I followed him to a mini mansion way out in Bon Air. But he don't dare go every night. But when he did go he stayed in for a day or two straight."

  "What kind of cars out there."

  "Shiittt nigga, the driveway look like
some shit off the lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, a drop top Porsche, a big body Benz, two clover green Rovers." Taj cut in. "Is the Porsche black?"

  "Yup" Lucky said, shaking his head.

  "Then that's the house where he lay his head at."

  "A'ight, but Shawdy, I ain't going to be able to do this alone, cuz the nigga always have niggas wit him. I'm gonna have to get some other dudes to help me.

  "Look, Shawdy do what you gotta do then."

  "A'ight."

  "Look man, I call my sister just 'bout everyday. So, when you take care of it, let her know that you took care if it. You know she don't know what time it is, so just tell her that you took care of it."

  "A'ight man, I got you."

  Just then Tressa came back and when she did, Lucky left.

  Later that night at the club on the stakeout:

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  Lucky sat in front of the club with two of his homeboys. They watched a beautiful, young light skinned girl with body for days, waiting in front of the club after using the payphone at the corner two times. Lucky's mind was not really being focused on women since he had been home. He had a few "wham, bam thank you ma'am's". As long as anybody could remember, he had always been weak for a big booty broad and the body attached to this girl, it would be a crime for her to get away from him.

  Lucky had put his hand on the door to open it, but just when he was about to get out of the car to make her acquaintance, Radda appeared out of the club, alone and straight into the arms of the girl. Radda was displaying enough jewels that could have amounted to a car around his neck and on his fingers with his gold framed Versace glasses. The multi-colored brown shoes threw off the bright green and gold linen ensemble. The girl didn't seem to notice Radda had on the wrong shoes, for she was looking deep into his eyes while they conversed. Their conversation only lasted a couple of minutes, but the body language told it all, as Radda looked at his watch and uttered a time to the girl after going in his pocket to retrieve some bills to pass onto the girl. As the girl walked away, Radda stood there lusting over the girl, while gripping his penis in his hand. He put up 4 fingers. "I'll be there at 4." He said as he smiled and the girl walked off.

  Lucky told the two homeboys in the car. "He's going over Shawdy's house tonight. I know that nigga ain't taking none of his clown bodyguards. This may be easier than I thought."

  Low and behold, Lucky was right. At exactly 3:45

  am, Radda hopped right into his spanking new big boy Lexus with thirty-day tags on it alone. First, Radda made a turn off the main road, and as soon as he approache the stoplight, Lucky bumped into the back of Radda.

  Radda slowly gets out of the car and is clearly pissed off. "What tha fuck?" He says, so mad that he's huffing and puffing, looking at the bumper.

  Lucky immediately gets out of his car and is very humbling and apologetic to Radda. The combination of Lucky being clean-shaven, along with his slender build and remorseful attitude, made Lucky appear harmless as he 24

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  kept apologizing. Radda was not accepting any apologies from anybody, instead, he got very vulgar and started cussing and fussing about his brand new car.

  "Man, you hit my shit. I haven't even paid the first fucking payment on it. Then you hit it with that big old ass raggedy car." Radda says, pointing to the Caprice Classic and sucks his teeth.

  Radda is too busy looking at the bumper, still being very belligerent and loud mouth, and doesn't even notice Lucky pulling out the gun until it's right to his left temple.

  "Nigga get the fuck into the car." Lucky said so serious, and it was a total shock to Radda how Lucky switched from his humble tone to his "this ain't no game" tone.

  Once Lucky's homeboys saw the gun, they hopped out the car. Number One automatically helped get Radda into the front seat of the Caprice, while the other sprinted over to Radda's car. Lucky drove straight to Radda's house, while Two followed in Radda's car. Once they arrived at the house, they made Radda use his own keys to open the door.

  Lucky pushed him face down on the floor with excessive force and asked. "Where da money at?" Radda didn't respond.

  As soon as they were inside the house, Number One moved briskly throughout the house, room by room, to check to make sure no one else was in the house. He went into the bathroom, pulled down the shower curtain.

  Unfortunately, the very last room he checked, he found a woman sleeping, and right beside the bed was a bassinet with a sleeping baby inside. He quickly pulled the white goosed down comforter off of the woman, only to find she was naked.

  "Get da fuck up." He shook her.

  As soon as she opens her eyes to the barrel of a black 9mm in her face, she gets hysterical. "Please, please don't kill my baby."

  One ignores her and pushes her into the living room buck naked. As soon as Two sees her coming, he takes over and lays her on her stomach beside Radda.

  "Where da money at?" Lucky asks, while thinking to himself, how phat the woman's butt is.

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  Radda didn't say a word, but that's before Lucky saw that Number One was coming back with the baby cradled in his arm.

  "Oh, this your baby huh?"

  "Pleeaazzz, don't kill my baby!" The woman started screaming and whimpering.

  "Shut up!" Number one yelled.

  Radda started talking. "Look man, please don't kill my baby. I'll give you the money, just please don't kill my baby! I just had him. He's new. He don't know nothing." Right away, Lucky and Two got Radda up and Radda took them straight to the room where the money was. The safe was in the wall of one of the closets, and what looked like it could have been a legitimate fuse box, but after Radda jingled the light switch in a certain type of way, there behind the fuse box, sat a nice size safe.

  Without hesitation, Radda opened the safe.

  Two and Radda put the money inside the Louis Vuitton duffle bags. The more money that Lucky saw, the more excited he got. As Radda put the money inside of the bags, he began to cry and his lip was trembling. As he pled and begged. "Please don't kill my baby!" Lucky stared at Radda whimpering and exclaimed.

  "Bitch ass nigga!"

  "BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!" Three to the dome and one in the heart was what it took to shut Radda up permanently.

  When the woman heard the guns shots, she started screaming hysterically. Almost simultaneously. "Boom!" Number One kills her to shut her up. Lucky runs out of the back bedroom. "Damn, what you kill her for? I was gonna fuck the shit out of her."

  Pissed off that Number One shot the lady, Lucky demands him that he goes outside to wipe the Lexus down, because they didn't put on gloves until they got inside the house. Meanwhile, Lucky grabbed the money and instructed Two to grab the baby and the Osh Kosh B'Gosh baby carrier and they rolled out.

  Lucky sat in the backseat with the money and the baby. When they were miles away from the house and closer to town, while the sun was rising, they pulled over next to the dumpster of a breakfast restaurant, and 26

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  dropped the baby off. The whole time in the back seat, Lucky was slyly cuffing the money out of the bag stuffing it into his pants. Not counting the stacks of money that Lucky had stolen while in the back seat, he paid everybody evenly, including Taj.

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  -4-

  On the Road to Riches

  Lucky's first priority was letting Taj know that he carried out the heist perfectly. He called Tressa several times, but she was never home. So, he took it upon himself, to take care of some of Taj's business, with Taj's share of the money. He paid Taj's lawyer $17,750.00 that was owed to him, and of course, he got a receipt for it. He put a ban
kroll on Taj's books to hold him over so he could live comfortably in jail. Not only did he supply Taj with money, he supplied Taj with an ounce of uncut dope (heroine) and paid a deputy to take it into Taj, so Taj could make some money while in jail. Lucky dropped a letter to Taj, and Taj wrote back and told Lucky what time to catch Tressa at home, as well as informed Tressa that Lucky would be calling her. He also gave Tressa Lucky's number and told her to call him ASAP! Tressa wasn't going to call Lucky. She had enough of trying to get money from dudes that owed her brother, and she did not feel like playing the money game. She had been through it time and time again with so many other people who claimed to be cool with her brother. In her eyes, this was no different.

  When Lucky was locked up, he had always adored Tressa' s mannerisms. Every Sunday night once visitation was over, he would always replay in his mind Tressa's princess wave, the kind of wave that only Miss America would give when riding on the top of a convertible in a 29

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  parade. Every single Sunday, while Lucky's mother was visiting him, Tressa was visiting Taj. Lucky could not keep his eyes off of Tressa. She was the prettiest thing he'd ever laid eyes on. In addition, when she'd make a few phone calls for him on her three-way, he loved the proper way that she spoke.

  Lucky touched base with Tressa a few times, trying to get fit into her busy work schedule. She made it clear she wasn't missing work or being late to work. Especially for something that she knew in her heart wasn't a sure thing, because so many times before, she had been sold dreams and had been given false promises.