Carl Weber's Kingpins: The Ultimate Hustle 2

by T. Friday

Genres: African American Urban

Synopsis

The drama continues with the brick boyz and the women who love them . . .

Erica must decide between being Nicole’s best friend or being by Pierre’s side when tragedy strikes. When push comes to shove and words between them are no longer friendly, will their friendship last?

Pierre has been trying his hardest to protect Erica from the cold streets, even though that means hurting her in the process. Besides telling her how much he loves her, he decides it’s time to show her and her father just how serious he is. Pierre puts his street life to the side and tries to live the life that would be better for Erica and the babies.

After a whole year of collecting Ls and dead bodies piling up, Mekco is surprised by a loved one who was plotting against him. After everything is out of the bag, will he get the last laugh?


 

Release date: April 29, 2025

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

Pierre left the store with his usual: some blunts. He was addicted to smoking but knew he was gonna have to stop once the baby came. He had already stopped smoking around Erica. He wanted her to carry his seed without a care in the world. He knew she had been a little stressed out about falling out with Nicole, so the fact that they had made up really made him happy.

“Damn, my bad,” Pierre said as he walked out of the store door and bumped into an older woman.

“It’s OK, but do you have a dollar so I can get a sandwich from McDonald’s?” she asked, not having no shame in begging.

Her voice sounded familiar, and that made Pierre quickly turn around. There stood the woman who had given birth to him but let drugs get the best of her before she ran out on him, leaving his grandma to raise him.

Pierre looked her up and down. He couldn’t help but frown at her appearance. She wore a dingy gray tee shirt that was two sizes too small and some little black shorts that were clearly too damn tight, and, by the way, they weren’t black anymore. They were ashy-looking. He looked down at her shoes, then quickly looked back up at her face. It was too much to deal with. Her face told him that she was still out doing her thing with drugs.

“Do you know who the fuck I am?” he asked the lady.

“I’m just trying to get something to eat. Are you gonna help me or not?”

Taking a step closer, he got loud with her. “Look at me!” he ordered.

The lady looked up and stared into the face of the son who she abandoned years ago. She couldn’t help but get teary-eyed. Little Pierre looked just like her first love, his dad. Minus all the tattoos, he was his father’s twin. Pierre looked at her like she was crazy. He had so much anger built up about her that he couldn’t understand why she was so emotional.

“Little PJ,” she mumbled.

She tried to reach out and touch his face, but he quickly smacked her hand away.

“I’m sorry. I just got a little carried away. PJ, I’m so happy to see you.”

“What the fuck you so happy for? You wasn’t fucking with me back then. Keep that same energy now.”

“I see you got the same attitude as your father. You know, most people would be happy to see their mama,” she said, hoping to get on his good side.

Pierre let out a little laugh before responding. “Yeah, well, most people don’t run out on their child. And as far as you being my mother, my grandma was my mother up until she died. She was all I had while you were out chasing that high.”

Kim put her head down in shame. She knew back in the day she was never what you would call “mother of the year.” “Look, PJ, I was fucked up back then, but I swear I’m trying to get my life back on track. I’m off them drugs now.”

Pierre stood there silently for a moment. He had so much hate in his heart for her that it took everything in him not to walk away from her. He actually was thinking about paying her back and abandoning her ass right there at the liquor store. All of a sudden, Kim started to cry. The sound of her crying brought back some childhood memories of when his dad used to whip her ass.

He then thought about how he would tell everyone how he didn’t have a family, and now, here was his opportunity to give his mom another chance.

Thinking about his promise to his grandma that he would make sure she was okay made him show her a lot of love.

“Ma, stop crying. I promise everything will be OK.”

Kim and her son hugged each other for the first time in years. Kim was happy and surprised that he didn’t go off on her and leave her exactly where she stood.

“I’m sorry, son. I wish I could change things, but I can’t. The only thing I can do is be your mom now.”

Releasing her from the hug, Pierre looked down at his phone and saw that Erica was calling him. He placed the phone back in his pocket. He had a feeling that she really didn’t want anything important. He planned on calling her back a little later.

“Come ride with me. I’ll get you something to eat and shit,” Pierre said as he started walking toward his ride.

Kim followed behind her son with a smile on her face. She was happy that he was well off. It was clear that he was following his father and uncles’ footsteps. She just hoped that he wouldn’t pick up any of their other habits.

Pierre pulled into Applebee’s. He was gonna treat her to a meal and probably take her shopping. She was never a mom to him, but he felt good knowing she was at least clean and alive.

They sat at their table and looked over the menu. Pierre stared at his mom, wishing that even for a second, he could go back in time when she wasn’t on drugs and actually took care of him and showed him just how much she loved him. He then thought about how he told Erica that they had to get things right with her dad so their baby could have a family. Now, it was his chance to make things right as long as his mom wanted a real relationship with him.

“Ma, how long you been clean ’cause you were outside of a liquor store begging for money?”

“Look, it’s only been four months and some change. I’ve been staying at this stupid-ass shelter. They have a dumb rule that from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., we have to be out finding work. So, I use that time to panhandle. Ain’t nobody gonna hire me. I’m too old to be working anyway,” Kim explained.

Pierre ate his food while listening to her talk. She went on and on like she really could have used a friend throughout the years.

“Damn, excuse me. I’m just running my mouth. What’s been going on with you, baby boy?” Kim asked Pierre.

“I just got out of jail a few months ago on a drug charge. I have a fiancée and a baby on the way,” he quickly said.

“Hold up. Wait a fucking minute. You telling me I’m gonna be a grandma and you getting married? Goddamn, PJ. Boy, I always knew these fast girls was gonna be after my baby.”

Pierre laughed at his mom. She was talking like he was a teenage boy.

“Ma, she not fast at all. To be honest, she a good girl, and I went through a lot to get her to finally give me a chance. Her dad is the pastor at a church.”

Kim smiled at the information she was taking in. She was proud of her son. He seemed so happy with his life.

“I know I wasn’t shit back then, but can I please be in my grandchild’s life?” Kim asked.

“Yeah, Ma, and I want you to meet Erica. She a sweet girl, and I think you would love her. Plus, she can cook her ass off,” Pierre said, bragging about the love of his life.

“Is that why you so thick? That girl been fatting you up, son?”

They both laughed before returning their attention to their plates.

Pierre always put in his mind that if he ever saw his mom again that he was gonna act like he didn’t even know her ass. He was gonna play the same game she had been playing for years. It was crazy how when he finally saw her, he was able to push all that shit behind him and show her some love.

“Look, Ma, I don’t hate you anymore. To be honest, I’m glad we bumped into each other after all this time. Plus, I’m glad that you’re clean now. You looking a lot better from the last time I saw you.”

“I’m sorry for not being there and everything. I wish I could change things, but since I can’t, is there a way that I can make up for the past?” Kim said as the tears began to flow down her cheeks.

“Ma, stop crying. We good, OK?”

Pierre looked down and saw that Erica was calling again. And again, he told himself that he was gonna call her later.

Pierre and Kim caught up on old times. He even took her on a little shopping spree. He wanted to make her feel loved, and by the look on her face, it was working.

Mekco climbed into the bed and cuddled up under Nicole. The smell of fresh soap woke Nicole up from her sleep.

“Hey, baby, everything OK?” she asked.

“Yeah, ma. If not, I wouldn’t be in bed. I’d be still out handling shit.”

Nicole sat up in the bed. “Baby, have you heard from P today?”

“Now that you said something, I haven’t heard from him. I wonder what he been up to. Anyway, what you asking about him for?”

“Well, you know Erica been tripping since this afternoon. And she bugging out ’cause she hadn’t heard from him all day,” Nicole answered.

“Man, that girl gotta learn to chill the hell out. My nigga probably was busy handling business and shit. He’ll hit her up in the morning.”

Nicole lay back down, taking his word for it.

They cuddled up until they both fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The sun shining through the apartment window woke Erica from her sleep. She looked over to her left and picked up her phone. She had no missed calls from Pierre, and that pissed her off.

After taking a shower and getting dressed, she decided to leave Nicole’s house. She could hear that she was busy with Mekco anyway. The last thing she wanted to do was hear them having wild sex while she couldn’t even get a phone call back.

Erica got into her car and got ready to pull off. That’s when she was cut off by Pierre’s car.

He jumped out of the car like everything was all good between them. He had no idea that she was mad at him.

“What’s up, baby? Where you on your way to?”

Erica rolled her eyes, which told him that she was clearly pissed off. “Damn, baby, what the fuck wrong with you?”

Erica turned her attention toward Pierre. “So, you don’t know how to answer your phone? I called you all day yesterday.”

“Damn, baby, calm down. I got caught up with something yesterday before losing my phone.”

“Whatever, Pierre. Your day wasn’t as busy as mine. Now, move your car. You’re in my way,” she demanded.

“Let’s go to breakfast, and I can tell you about my day,” he said, trying to calm her down with the promise of food.

“I don’t care about how your day was, not after my day. Now, move!”

Pierre walked back to his car and backed off her car. Erica took that moment to drive off. After being chased down by a man with a gun, she told herself that she wasn’t gonna drive that car anymore, but she wanted to get away from everyone.

Looking through her rearview mirror, she saw that another man was once again following her, but this time, it was Pierre. She laughed ’cause he looked pissed off.

“I’ll teach you to ignore me,” she mumbled before turning down her dad’s block.

Pierre shook his head. He really didn’t know what trip Erica was on, but seeing her dad wasn’t in his plans for the day.

“Fuck,” he said as he made the same turn as she did.

He knew she saw him following her, so her pulling up to her dad’s house was pure bullshit.

Erica parked her car in front of her father’s house. His car was parked in the driveway, right along with Nicole’s mother’s car.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Pierre yelled as he jumped right out of his car.

“Just leave me alone, Pierre. Go finish doing whatever you were doing yesterday when you were too busy to talk to me.”

Her attitude was on a hundred, and Pierre had no idea what the fuck he did wrong. He snatched Erica by the arm and lightly pushed her up against her car. He needed her to talk to him and not run into the house with an attitude.

He then positioned his body in front of hers and held her close. The smell of his cologne almost made her forget that she was even mad at him in the first place. But she quickly returned to her senses.

“I needed you yesterday, and you wasn’t there to help me,” she cried out.

Pierre hated to see her cry, but at the same time, he knew she could be a spoiled crybaby at times.

“What’s going on, baby? I’m here now. What the hell happened?”

Before Erica could say anything, her father came out of the house with a bat, screaming, “I know I didn’t see you put your hands on my daughter.”

Erica and Pierre both turned their attention toward the pastor. Pierre saw the bat and instantly got heated. He stepped toward Eric, but before he could defend himself, Erica started talking first.

“Daddy, go back inside the house. Why are you out here causing a scene for these nosy neighbors? He didn’t do anything to hurt me.”

Without taking his eyes off Pierre, the pastor continued to yell, “I know what I saw.”

“Man, go back in the house with that shit,” Pierre yelled.

“Pierre, chill out and let me deal with this. Just get in the car, please,” Erica begged.

Pierre gave her dad an evil smirk as he climbed back into his car.

“You better listen, boy, before I have your ass locked up,” Pastor Collins yelled.

Erica gave her dad a look before telling him that he needed to chill out. “Dad, I’m about to leave. I’ll call you later.”

Pastor Collins shook his head before speaking his mind. “You need to stop chasing behind that thug and get your life back on track. Sometimes, you can be so simpleminded, just a straight-up dummy.”

“Really, Dad? Well, since that’s the way you really feel, you don’t have to worry about me ever again. And you can forget about being in my child’s life as well.”

Erica let her feelings get the best of her, and before she knew it, she was crying. Pierre was about to hop right back out of his ride when she hurriedly wiped her eyes. She was tired of crying because of her dad’s judgmental ways.

Before she could get into her car, Pastor Collins yelled, “Go ahead and be with your drug-dealer boyfriend and raise that bastard you carrying around.”

That was the last straw for Pierre. He jumped out of the car and headed straight toward him. Pastor Collins proved that he was more bark than bite. He was so scared that he dropped his bat and took off running into the house.

“Pierre, get back in the car and drive off. You know he calling the police,” Erica ordered.

Pierre stood there for a minute. He was pissed and wanted to beat that man’s ass. He debated on whether to listen to Erica or kick that muthafucka’s door in and whip his ass. Erica could tell he was plotting to do damage.

“Baby, the police is coming. Let’s go now,” she ordered and grabbed his hand.

Pierre wasn’t a dummy and knew he only had one more strike against him, so he did what was best for him, Erica, and his unborn child. He jumped into his ride and got the fuck on. Erica was right behind him in her car.

“Eric Collins, what in the world is your problem?” Theresa yelled as she followed him out of the living room and into his bedroom.

“Listen, lady, that is my daughter, and I don’t want her with that thug,” he yelled back.

“I just think you’re going overboard and doing too much. You gonna run that girl away for good,” Theresa tried to explain.

“You might think it’s cute that your daughter is running around trying to kill herself over that thug, but that will not be my child.”

If looks could kill, Eric would have been dead.

“You’re a coldhearted bastard. I don’t know why, after all these years, I allowed myself to get mixed up with you and your dirty ways,” she yelled as she grabbed her purse off the dresser.

She had officially had enough of his shit.

“My dirty ways? Are you serious? Did you forget about your dirty, slutty, and sneaky ways?”

“Eric, don’t even go there with me. I’m so done with you.”

By this time, she was headed toward the living room. But before she could hit the door, the pastor yelled for her not to move.

“I’m about to go all the way there since you wanted to call me out on my bullshit. I’m gonna remind your dirty ass of all the times my wife was in the hospital sick, and you was begging to take her place. You made sure to suck my dick every chance that you could. Now, what you got to say?”

“You’re an evil bastard, and I can’t wait for the church to find out about the true you.”

With that being said, Theresa stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her with the promise of never returning.

Pierre parked his ride, hopped out of the car, and walked to Erica’s car, which was parked right behind him. He opened her door. “Come on, get out. We need to talk.”

Erica took his hand and allowed him to walk her toward the bench facing the water. The riverwalk had become their go-to place whenever they needed to clear their mind. And right now was the perfect time to get some things together.

“So, tell me what pissed your little ass off yesterday ’cause I swear I would never just ignore you on purpose.”

“Yesterday, when me and Nicole were out eating, some guy had a gun and chased us.”

“Are you fucking serious? What nigga was this? Who the fuck do I have to kill?” he yelled.

Erica placed her hand on his hands. “Baby, calm down. Mekco took care of everything. I was scared, but I’m all right, I promise.”

Pierre sat there rubbing his face with his hands. “Man, baby, I’m so sorry. I should have been there to kill that muthafucka for you.”

Usually, Erica would look at him like he was crazy, but she couldn’t help but laugh for some reason. “Oh my God, boy, you’re so silly. You can get the next one.”

They both laughed before kissing.

“Baby, do you remember me talking to you about making things right with your dad and being a family for the baby?” he asked.

“Yeah, I remember, baby.”

“Well, I bumped into my mom after all these years. At first, I didn’t know how I wanted to handle her, but I thought about you and the baby and decided to give her a chance. Can you believe after all this time, she was clean and had been trying to get her life back on track? I spent the whole day chilling with my mom. I must have lost my phone when I took her shopping.”

Erica listened to his story and knew he wasn’t lying to her. For one, he had never lied to her since day one.

“Baby, I’m happy for you. I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Hey, Pierre,” a skinny, light-skinned girl said while standing in front of the couple.

Pierre stared at the girl like she was crazy. “What’s up? What can I help you with?”

“I just came over to see what was up,” she said like she didn’t notice the deadly look Erica was giving her.

“Aye, you don’t see me chilling with my wife?”

“My bad. You ain’t got to get smart,” she yelled before walking off.

“That’s right. Get the fuck on, bitch,” Erica yelled toward the girl.

The girl turned around and put her middle finger up at Erica. Erica did it back in return.

“Baby, don’t be out here acting up. Fuck that bitch. Let’s just chill.”

Erica laughed. “I just hate females like that.”

“I feel you, but still, don’t start all that cursing, either. Don’t change on me, baby,” he said with a little laugh.

“All right, baby, but she was out of line. What she thought you was gonna do? Get up and leave with her or something?”

“Man, I don’t know. Just let that shit go. I came with you and gonna leave with your sexy ass.”

Pierre leaned forward and gave Erica another kiss on her lips. “Don’t let that bullshit bother you. You all that I want and need. Please believe that.”

Erica couldn’t help but blush. Pierre held her heart just like she held his.

Pierre and Erica made their way back to his crib. She claimed to be tired and in need of a nap. Pierre made sure she got into bed because he was ready to hit the streets. His not having his phone the day before made him miss out on a lot, and he was pissed about it.

Even though Mekco handled the situation, he really wished that he could have had his hands in whatever took place.

Erica was being a big-ass baby, so he had to chill with her until she fell asleep.

“Damn, baby, you really holding a nigga hostage and shit. I told you I’m about to go get me another phone. That way, we won’t have any more problems like earlier today when you were ready to cut a nigga dick off.”

Erica fell out laughing. “You so silly, boy, and I would never do nothing like that.”

“So, I wasn’t gonna bring this up, but what the fuck we gonna do about your evil-ass daddy?”

Being honest, she gave him her best answer. “I really don’t wanna be bothered with him anymore. I lived by his rules my whole life, and now that I’m grown and making decisions on my own, he wanna trip. What type of pastor would call their unborn grandchild a bastard?”

“Well, you know, at first, I was on that ‘family need to be together’ shit, but if that’s how you want it, then that’s how it’s gonna be.”

Erica lay there, lost in her thoughts. She really was sleepy, but having Pierre hold her felt so good that she didn’t want him to leave, so she kept fighting her sleep. Once Pierre thought she was asleep, he tried to climb out of the bed.

“No, baby, not yet,” she whined.

He lay his head back down on the pillow. “Erica, it was cute at first, but this spoiled shit getting on my nerves. Do you understand that once you have that baby, you are gonna be a parent, and that spoiled shit ain’t gonna work with me anymore.”

Even though he tried to talk with a little firmness in his voice, Erica still looked at him and laughed.

“Girl, I’m serious as hell.”

“Pierre, I don’t want that car anymore, baby,” she said, changing the subject.

“What’s wrong with your car, Erica?” he asked, thinking she was about to be on some spoiled shit.

“Since you were so kind to buy me my first car, all kinds of bad things have happened to me. I’m not being a brat and just trying to get a new car ’cause, truthfully, I don’t even wanna drive right now.”

Pierre understood exactly where she was coming from. “OK, baby, I guess you about to get fat and have me drive you around until you ready to drive again.”

He waited for her to respond, but after a minute of nothing, he looked down and saw that she was knocked out. He slid out of bed quietly and got the fuck on.

His first stop was to the store to get another phone, and then he was off to see Mekco. It always pissed him off when he couldn’t be the one to put in work.

Mekco and Pierre sat in Mekco’s driveway, discussing what had occurred the day before. Pierre was heated that them punk-ass brothers were back in town and on some bullshit.

“Man, I wish that nigga wasn’t dead ’cause I’ll kill him my muthafucking self.”

Mekco laughed. “Damn, nigga, you alway. . .