Carl Weber's Kingpins: Penthouse View

Genres: African American Urban

Synopsis

Selling weed and then running her own robbing crew that targeted drug dealers was how Shantana Phillips gained her entry into the Atlanta drug market. Their motto was, "Why buy drugs when you can steal them?"
 
While Shantana and her crew are celebrating in South Beach after their biggest hit ever, the ambitious and power-hungry Shantana meets a Colombian importer looking for a new distributor for the Atlanta market. During a trip to Cali, Colombia, he promises to take her program to the next level. All she has to do is eliminate his old distributor in that market. Once the brutal deed is done and Shantana has the power, she decides not to stop at just the old distributor. Why not ruthlessly eliminate all of her competition and have it all?
 
When Shantana has finally gotten everything she ever wanted, a mistake from her past threatens to bring it all crashing down around her.

Release date: May 30, 2023

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

So let me tell you how it all began for me. I was twenty years old, and I was working at the Kickin’ Chicken Shack in Dothan, Alabama. It’s a city in the southeast corner of the state, about twenty miles west of Georgia and sixteen miles north of Florida. Overall, Dothan ain’t a bad place to live; it has a good school system, shopping, and a lot of eating choices.

But I wanted out.

I had never been the best student while I was in high school. I don’t know . . . Nothing that my teachers had to say was of any interest to me at all. My mind was on finding a way to get out of Dothan. After I graduated high school, I knew college wasn’t in my future, so I figured I’d keep working at the Chicken Shack until I had saved enough money to put Dothan in my rearview. I had big plans to go to Miami or Atlanta, hell, even Tallahassee, but after two years I had barely saved enough money to buy a car to get back and forth to work. That was mostly my fault. I spent way too much of the money I was supposed to be saving on clothes and shoes. I had to do better. I needed a plan, or I could really see myself ending up like Miss Gina. She’d been working here for damn near twenty years.

“That ain’t happening,” I said aloud.

“What ain’t happening?” Miss Gina asked.

“Nothing. Just thinking out loud,” I said as a man came into the Shack. My heart stopped at the sight of tall, dark, and deep chocolate. I watched as this well-dressed man with deep-set and very intense eyes and full lips that were framed by the sexiest goatee swaggered to the counter.

“Welcome to the Shack,” I announced. “What can I get for you today?”

He looked greedily at me and said, “I’m tempted to say that I’d like two large breasts and two spicy thighs, but I’ll just have a two-piece meal and a Coke.”

I know, it was a corny line, but it was kind of cute, and so was he, so I smiled.

“You want that for here?”

“Oh, yes, definitely for here.”

“Your total is six fifty-three.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a thick roll of bills, and handed me a twenty.

“Your order number is fifty-two.” I handed him his change and a cup. “Have a seat, and I will bring your order to you.”

He smiled. “You personally”—he leaned forward—“Jenise?”

“Yes, sir, I will bring your order to you personally.”

“Thank you, Jenise. My name is Milton, Milton Holmes.” He pointed. “And I’ll be sitting over there, waiting for you.”

That was how my story began. I didn’t know it at the time, but that man and the next few days changed my life. Once you hear my story, I’ll let you decide if I would have been better off taking my break and letting Miss Gina take Mr. Milton Holmes his two-piece dinner.

But I didn’t go on break; I picked the biggest breast and wing on the rack and hurried to take him his food.

“Here’s your order, sir.”

“Milton.”

“Two-piece dinner,” I said, smiling flirtatiously but doing my best to treat him professionally, like I would any other customer. “Would you like a refill on your Coke?”

“Yes, please.” I picked up his cup and turned to get his refill. “Damn,” I heard him say at the sight of my ass, and I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away. “Ain’t you gonna sit down and join me?”

“No, I have to work.”

“Don’t you get no breaks?”

“I do, and my next break is at two,” I lied. I could take a break anytime I wanted.

“Then I guess I just have to come back at two if I wanna talk to you.”

“I guess you do,” I said and swung my hips back behind the counter.

After that, it began to get busy, but I watched Milton out of the corner of my eye while he ate and watched me. But once he had finished his food and thrown away his trash, instead of leaving, he got back in my line.

“Can I get something else for you, sir?”

“No. I just wanted to say that I’ll see you at two, when you go on break,” he said, and then he turned and walked out.

Of course, I didn’t believe him. If I had five dollars for every man who flirted with me and threatened to come back and talk to me, I’d have more than enough money to say, “Miami, here I come.” Most men talked a good game, but I could count on one hand the ones who could back it up with action. So I was shocked, you hear me, shocked, to see Milton Holmes come into the Shack later that day.

“Am I on time for your break?” he asked me when he reached the counter.

I looked at the clock, more for show than anything else. “Is it two o’clock already?” I asked, and Miss Gina shook her head and then walked away.

“Yes, it is. So, you gonna come sit and talk to me, or you got another excuse?”

“You want something to eat or drink?”

“Coke. Light ice.”

“Have a seat and I’ll bring it to you,” I said and watched as he backed away from the counter, smiling at me.

Since I hadn’t eaten anything since I got there in the morning, I got a cup of jambalaya for myself and then I got his Coke and went to sit down. While I ate, Milton told me that he was from Birmingham, but he was in Dothan on business for a couple of weeks.

“What I really wanna know is, what is your fine ass doing, slinging chicken in a place like this?”

“It’s a job,” I began. “You know, until I save up enough money to get outta here.”

“Where was you thinking about going?”

“Miami, or maybe Atlanta. I got a cousin that lives there, but I really haven’t decided yet.”

“If I was you, fine as you are, I’d go to Miami.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“I know for a fact, fine as you are, you would get paid in Miami, and I ain’t talking about no nickel-and-dime job hustling chicken.”

“I told you, this was just temporary.”

“I can dig that. But in Miami, there’s no telling what you can do.”

“I guess you been there?”

“Miami? Yeah, plenty of times. In my business, I travel a lot, so I’ve been to Miami, Atlanta, New York, LA, New Orleans, Detroit, and Chicago.”

“What kind of business you in that you got business in all of them places?”

He paused. “I’m in a network marketing business.” He chuckled.

“You mean like Amway and Herbalife?” I asked, just to be silly, but I had a good idea what business he was in.

“Something like that. My business model depends on person-to-person sales by independent representatives to build a network of business partners to generate sales.”

“Sounds like something I should get into,” I said.

“Maybe you should,” Milton said as I finished my jambalaya. “What time do you get off?”

I stood up. “Why you wanna know?”

“’Cause I’m diggin’ you and I wanna see you again.”

I poked him in the chest. “Then maybe you should say that. You know, like, ‘Is it all right if I come by when you get off? ’Cause I really wanna see you again.’ Try that next time,” I said, and then I headed back behind the counter.

“Next time I will. Believe that,” he called after me, and then he left.

The very next day he was back at the Shack, looking stylish and paid. The day before he had worn a suit and a tie; on this day he was dressed casually, but he was all iced out. I got Miss Gina to take his order, the same two-piece dinner and a Coke, and I got her to take him his food and tell him that my break was at 2:30 p.m. that day. I made sure that I found something to do in the kitchen when he was leaving. But Milton was back at 2:30 p.m., and he went to sit down at the same table. Long story short, he asked if he could pick me up after work, and I said yes.

Over the next few days, Milton treated me like a queen. He was the perfect gentleman: opening doors for me, helping me with my coat, the whole bit. He took me to all the best restaurants in the city, and we did everything that there was to do in Dothan. We’d talk, and he’d tell me about the places that he’d been, the people he knew. And he was so funny. I was so interested in everything about him, and I wanted to be a part of that world that he painted such a beautiful picture of.

I would be the first one to admit that I was naive back then, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew that the life he was painting such a pretty picture of was the drug life. It was a life that I could see myself in. I saw myself as the woman on top, the one calling all the shots. And here he was, inviting me in and showing me that world.

After being with him for a couple of days, I had figured out that the drug life he was living was what had brought him to Dothan. He never stayed at the same hotel for more than one night, he never came back to the Chicken Shack, and we never went to the same place twice the entire time he was there. Somebody was after him.

“I like variety,” was what Milton told me when I asked him what was up with it. I said okay and left it alone, because it didn’t really matter. I was living the life that I had always dreamed of, and this was just a taste. I was totally blown away. But there was one other thing about Mr. Milton Holmes.

We had dinner one night at Fire Stone Wood Fired Grill, but instead of taking me home afterward, as he had the past few nights, Milton looked at me and said, “I would like to make love to you tonight, Jenise.”

“I would like to make love to you,” I said, and he leaned over and kissed me.

He drove to the TownePlace Suites, and once he had checked in, we went straight to the room, and he took me. As we stood in the middle of the room, Milton slid his tongue inside my mouth with tantalizing strokes, his hands caressed my ass, and he gently pulled me toward him. I broke our embrace, but only for a second, because Milton cupped my breasts and his tongue trailed a path across my sensitive flesh. I moved back toward the bed. He undressed me quickly.

“Lie down,” he ordered.

After I climbed on the bed, I watched as he took off his pants and stroked his long thick dick. I spread my thighs; I wanted him to have me, all of me.

He got on the bed, and his hands moved up my thighs toward my wetness. He ran his thumb over the hood of my clit. I shut my eyes as my back arched when the warmth of his lips replaced his finger. I thought I was going to lose my mind, the shit was that good. The men that I’d been with had licked me only enough to get me wet before they’d slammed it in me and pounded away until they came.

But Milton had me squirming on top of the sheets, the way he licked and sucked my engorged clit, and I felt wave after wave of ecstasy, until I thought I would explode. I let go of a scream and felt my body tremble from the pleasure that he was feeding me. As I lay there, I felt the moist heat of his mouth as he licked and sucked my lips. He raised his head, and I gazed into his eyes.

“What are you doing to me?” I wanted to ask, but no words came out of my mouth.

I wanted him inside me so badly that I couldn’t think straight.

He began to pump it to me slowly. I was so wet with desire that he quickly eased his thickness in and out of me, inch by delicious inch, until he was deep inside me. Milton increased his pace, giving it to me faster, and I was grinding and pushing my hips back and forth against him. I felt myself quickly building toward an orgasm. When I felt him swell inside me, my walls tightened around him, and we rushed toward completion together. We fell asleep in each other’s arms, and I thought I was in love.

So, I know that I said that I was gonna tell you how it all began for me, but I had to tell you all that first, so you understand where my head was at the time. It really began the next morning, when Milton got a phone call.

“What’s up, Trent?” Milton asked.

I looked over at the clock. It read 7:50 a.m. I needed to get up so he could take me home, since I had to get ready for work. Milton got out of bed and walked into the living room of the suite.

I heard him say, “Tell me something positive. I’m tired of all that negative shit you be talking.”

I got up and went into the bathroom to shower. I turned on the water in the shower stall, and once it reached the perfect temperature, I stepped in and let the water caress my body. As I slid the loofah over my skin, I thought about how good Milton had made me feel. I let my hand travel down to my stomach and settle between my thighs, and I pet my mound, coaxing my lips to open. I ran my finger up and down my slit, dipped a finger inside, and felt how wet I’d gotten from just the thought of it.

Suddenly, Milton rushed into the bathroom, jerked the shower curtain open, stroked his dick, and got in with me.

“Me and you are getting outta here,” he announced. Then he lifted me up and penetrated me hard, and I felt my walls tighten around him. “I’m leaving, going back to Birmingham, and I want you to come with me.” Milton pumped it to me harder, and I felt him swell inside me. “I need you. Will you come with me?”

“Yes. I will!” I screamed with my eyes closed. Taking deep breaths, I held on tight as my body shuddered and I came hard. You hear me? I came hard, so hard that I almost fell when Milton let me down. My legs were so weak that he had to catch me.

“Don’t hurt yourself. I need you,” he said, and then he helped me out of the shower.

Now, I know what I had just screamed, but now that his dick wasn’t in me, I was having second thoughts. I’d be leaving everything behind, my family, my friends, my job, and now I was wondering if I was ready for that. I knew I wanted to go; I knew that I wanted to live that life he was talking about.

So what was stopping me?

Simple.

I didn’t really know this man. He had shown up in my life a few days ago and had fucked me really good, and now I was ready to run off to Birmingham with him.

As soon as we stepped out of the bathroom, Milton rushed to get dressed and then began frantically tossing stuff in his bag to get out of there as soon as possible. I, on the other hand, sat on the bed, taking my time, dressing as slowly as possible.

“You ain’t ready yet?” he asked me once he’d packed his bag.

“I was just—”

“What’s wrong with you?” He sat down on the bed next to me. “You ain’t having second thoughts now, are you?”

“No,” I lied quickly.

He put his arm around me and kissed me on the cheek. “I understand. It’s a big step, just up and leaving like this. I get it. And I’d understand if you changed your mind.” Milton held me tighter. “But I know you wanna go. This life you’re living here, it ain’t for you. You know the world is out there calling you. And I need you.” He let me go, and then Milton held out his hand. “Will you come with me?”

“Yes, Milton.” I nodded slowly. “I’ll come with you.”

“Good.” He stood up quickly. “Then let’s go.”

I quickly finished dressing and got up from the bed. “What about my clothes? Can we go fetch them?”

He picked up his bag and started for the door. “I’ll buy you all new shit when we get there.”

I followed him out of the room, and then we headed out to the parking lot.

“Get in the car,” he all but ordered, and then he went to check us out of the room.

A few minutes later, we were on the road. After a quick stop in Eufaula, Alabama, to pick up something in a backpack, which I was told not to worry about, Milton drove north to Montgomery, Alabama, where he exchanged that backpack for another. I didn’t even bother to ask this time what was in that backpack. I just assumed that one had drugs and the other had money, and I kept my mouth shut. I guessed that was the right thing to do.

“You gonna be all right in this game if you don’t ask a lot of fuckin’ questions,” Milton told me after he got back in the car. He started the engine. “See and don’t see shit. That’s how you survive in this game,” he said. He pulled onto the highway, and we made the ninety-minute drive to Birmingham.

As soon as we reached his badass house, Milton rushed me through the front door, then stripped me down in the living room. He picked me up and moved over to the wall. Milton rushed to pull his dick out and kissed me right as he slammed into me, making me scream out.

“Shit!”

He sucked on my neck as his thrusts became more powerful, more intense. Shaking, I came hard on him. Milton carried me upstairs and had me stretch out on the bed. He made love to me long and slow. He began by flicking my nipple with his tongue, then gently biting it, making me feel like I would explode. I love being taken from behind, so I immediately got on my knees, and Milton grabbed my hips, pushed himself deep inside me, and started giving it to me hard and fast. Our bodies melted into one another, and before long we collapsed on the bed. He had fucked me so damn good that I fell asleep in his arms.

I didn’t know how long I slept, but the room was shrouded in darkness when I woke up, and I was alone in bed. I looked around the room and saw that there was a bathroom attached. Since my clothes were on the living room floor, I wrapped the sheet around me, glad that I didn’t have to go out into the hallway naked just to use the bathroom. While I was in there, I decided to shower as well.

When I came out, I finished drying myself with a towel and looked around the room. It was nicely furnished: huge TV on the wall, a four-poster king-size bed, a six-drawer dresser with a mirror above it, a chest of drawers near the door, and nightstands on either side of the bed, with fancy glass lamps atop them. All the furniture was a light elm, and to me, this color seemed more appropriate for a woman than a man, and that piqued my curiosity.

I went and looked in the closet, and sure enough, there were women’s clothes hanging up in there. I’d say half of what was in there still had price tags on it, and the rest looked as if it hadn’t been worn. And it wasn’t no off-the-rack Walmart shit, either. These were all designer clothes. I’m talking Alexander McQueen, Fendi, Christian Louboutin, Dolce & Gabbana, and Gucci type shit. There was a La Perla long-sleeved red silk wrap robe with the 560-dollar price tag still on it. I put that on, went to relax in bed, turned on the TV, and waited for Milton to come back into the room.

I had been in the bedroom for hours, binge-watching the first season of Bridgerton, when I realized that I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink all day. Assuming that there must be something to eat in the house, I got up and left the room. As I was coming down the stairs, I heard Milton’s voice and reali. . .