Dog Team

by Zari

Genres: African American Urban; Crime Fiction

Synopsis

Dog Team is a tale of friendship and foes, brought to you by the hottest new voice in the urban crime genre.

Best friends Elontra Montgomery and Shemika Frazier have been keeping a low profile and getting paid, robbing the occasional jewelry store for years. That changes when their childhood friend and hacker, Demeris “Dee Dee” Dennison, is released from prison. With her ability to shut down cameras and alarm systems, the trio quickly steps up to robbing banks.

However, with their newfound focus on bigger targets comes the inevitable involvement of the police. After a few near misses, they decide to lay low for a while—but it’s not that easy. The ladies are recruited and forced to do one more job that has the potential to cost them their freedom, if not their lives.

Release date: June 25, 2024

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

Dressed in black Dickies women’s long-sleeve coveralls and Adidas women’s Ultraboost 22 running shoes, Elontra Montgomery and Shemika Frazier exited the Twenty-third Street subway station, located at the intersection of East Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue in Chelsea. This Manhattan art district was packed with trendy shops, galleries, and restaurants.

“Remind me when we’re done with this that I need to stop at the store,” Shemika said as they walked down Broadway.

“What kind of store do you need to go to?” Elontra asked as they passed Zona Sul Coffee.

“A grocery store,” Shemika said as they waited for the light at Broadway to change before they crossed and then continued walking down East Twenty-first Street.

“You just went to the grocery store yesterday. What did you forget?” Elontra asked.

“I need to pick up some cooking spray.”

“What you gonna cook?”

“I was thinking about making a lemon garlic pork tenderloin in the Ninja Foodi Grill.”

“Hmm. That sounds good. What you gonna fix with it?” she asked as the light changed and they crossed the street and continued down Fifth Avenue.

“I was thinking about cooking red skin mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and Dijon mustard sauce,” Shemika said, glancing at Elontra and waiting for her big smile to turn into a frown. It didn’t take long.

“Mika?”

“What?” she giggled.

“You know I hate brussels sprouts.”

“I know you hate brussels sprouts.” She paused and smiled. “That’s why I’m making your favorite braised red cabbage and cucumber vinegar salad.”

“You are too good to me,” Elontra said to the woman who had been one of her best friends since fourth grade.

“I know. I’m great. You are so fortunate to have a friend like me.”

“Yes, I am, and a friend who cooks.”

It wasn’t that Elontra couldn’t cook, she just never felt like cooking.

Ever.

And besides, Shemika was such a great cook that she didn’t need to.

“You ready?” Elontra asked as they arrived at their destination.

“When have I ever not been ready?”

“You remember that time me, you, and Dee Dee were going to hop the train at Woodhaven Boulevard, and we missed the train because your sneakers were untied?”

Shemika stopped. “Really? That’s what you got?” She paused and looked at Elontra. “We were thirteen!” she protested.

“You asked.”

Shemika shook her head. “Let’s just go do this.”

“I’m ready!” Elontra said excitedly with a big smile on her face and her gloved hands raised in the air.

Shemika pointed in her face. She was wearing gloves too. “You stupid. That’s what your problem is. You stupid.”

“Always have been,” she said and pulled down her ski mask. “Since the day we met.”

“I don’t know why I keep hanging around with you,” Shemika said as she pulled down her ski mask, and they both took out their guns.

Elontra grabbed the handle to open the door, and the two women rushed into the Joaillerie Earth Jewelry store.

“Everybody down!” Elontra yelled, standing with her arms spread eagle and a gun in each of her hands.

The customers and the store employees looked at the two armed, masked female bandits and, as they were told, got down on the floor. Shemika moved quickly toward the security guard and pointed her gun at his head.

“I don’t want to kill you, and you don’t want to die.” Shemika took the gun from the security guard and quickly removed the shells from the clip. “Now get down on the floor!”

Elontra holstered one weapon and pulled out a stopwatch. “Two minutes!” she announced.

As Elontra covered the room, she kept an eye on the security guard just in case he wanted to be a hero. Shemika quickly sprayed black paint on the lenses of the security cameras in the jewelry store. Then she took out large cloth bags, went behind the counter, and approached the first case. Shemika pointed her weapon at the clerk who was lying on the floor.

“Get up!” she ordered and moved the gun to her head.

She put up her hands and got up shaking. “Please don’t kill me,” she pleaded, silently praying that this wasn’t her day to die.

“Behave yourself and I won’t have to.” Shemika handed her the bag. “Fill it up. And if your hand goes anywhere near the silent alarm, I will end you, understand?” she said, pressing the barrel of the gun to her head.

“Ninety seconds!” Elontra shouted and took a few steps to where the store manager was lying on the floor. She would have use for him soon enough.

The display cases were filled with an assortment of gold and diamond-studded rings, necklaces, brooches, earrings, and bracelets. As quickly as she could, and with her hands shaking, the clerk picked up the pieces and put them in the bag.

Once the case was empty, Shemika forced the clerk toward the next case. The watches were next. The clerk quickly removed Rolexes and other expensive watches and then placed them in the bag.

“One minute!”

“Move,” Shemika ordered and moved her to the display case that contained diamond rings. The clerk reached in and began to remove the rings, dropping them in the bag.

It was at that second that Shemika saw out of the corner of her eye one of the other clerks reaching into his pocket. “You’ve got movement on your three.”

Elontra stepped up to him quickly and kicked the clerk in the face.

“Ouch!” he yelled.

She pointed her gun at him. “Do you really wanna die today?”

The clerk quickly put his hands out in front of him. Elontra raised her weapon and checked the time before moving back toward the spot where the manager was lying. Once the clerk had finished filling the bag with jewelry, diamond-studded bracelets, expensive watches, and diamond rings, Shemika snatched the bag from her hand.

“Now get back down on the floor,” she ordered.

The clerk got back down onto the floor, and Shemika moved to where Elontra was standing and handed her the bag.

She looked at the stopwatch. “Thirty seconds!” Shemika shouted.

Elontra took a few steps to where the store manager was lying on the floor and kicked him. “Get up!” Once he was on his feet with his hands up, Elontra put the gun to his head. “Move.”

She shoved him in the back and walked him at gunpoint to the rear of the store where the safe was located. “Open it,” she ordered.

The manager got on his knees in front of the safe and opened it. The safe contained trays of unmounted and uncut diamonds. Elontra kicked the manager out of her way and then took the bag from her waist. She quickly poured the trays of diamonds into the bag.

“Time!” Shemika shouted as Elontra came out of the rear of the store.

“Let’s get outta here,” she said, heading for the exit, and Shemika followed her out of the jewelry store.

When they got outside the store on Fifth Avenue, they separated and went in different directions. Shemika went to her left and moved swiftly up East Twenty-first Street, and Elontra went straight down Fifth Avenue and went into the nearby Sweet Honey Bee Foods, one of the many upscale food purveyors in Chelsea. Once inside the restaurant, she kept her head down to avoid the camera and moved as quickly as she could to the ladies’ room.

Elontra closed the door and exhaled before she took off the Dickies coveralls to reveal that she was wearing jeans and a knit top, and she had a backpack on her back. She put the bag of stolen jewelry in the backpack, put the coveralls in the bag on top of it, and came out of the ladies’ room. Making sure that she was careful not to look at the camera or any of the customers, Elontra left the restaurant.

When Elontra came out on the street, she walked promptly up Fifth Avenue toward East Twenty-first Street. When she turned right onto East Twenty-second Street and headed toward Broadway, Shemika was coming out of the Gotham Project Café on the corner. She had ditched her Dickies and had changed into skinny jeans and a throwback New York Knicks sweatshirt.

She nodded at Elontra when she saw her and crossed the street. Shemika went into the Icon municipal parking lot, and Elontra followed her into the lot seconds later. By the time Shemika got to the Buick Enclave that Elontra’s ex, Garrett, had stolen for them and parked in the lot, Elontra had caught up. She used the remote to unlock the liftgate, and they tossed the backpacks into the Enclave and got in.

When the ladies exited the parking garage, Shemika made a hard left onto Park Avenue and a right on East Twenty-third Street and got onto FDR Drive to head for the Bronx River Parkway. Once they reached the Bronx, Shemika drove them to the building where their fence, Kayla, sometimes did business. They parked the Enclave, got out, went inside, and were greeted by two men.

“She here?” Elontra asked one of the men at the door.

“She’s upstairs,” one of the men said as they passed.

“Hello, Elontra,” the other said, smiling greedily at her and cutting his eyes in Shemika’s direction. “Mika,” he uttered as she started up the stairs. “How are you doing, Elontra?”

“I’m fine,” Elontra said, and she started up the stairs.

“I know that’s right. Your sexy muthafuckin’ ass is fine as hell,” he said, watching her hips swing from side to side as she went up the stairs.

“Thank you,” she said and kept it moving.

Shemika waited for her to get to the second-level landing. “Why do you let him talk to you like that?”

“I don’t let it bother me.” They started up the stairs to the club that was located on the third floor of the building. “After a while, it all becomes background noise that I tune out. Besides, what am I supposed to do? Tell his ugly ass that he is vulgar and disgusting?”

“Yes. Because his ugly ass is vulgar and disgusting,” Shemika said, and they both laughed. “Hey, I wonder if there are any men up here.”

“Probably not. It’s too early.”

“Maybe they’re practicing,” Shemika commented optimistically, hoping to see some men from the male revue that the club hosted nightly.

“Dream on,” Elontra said as they walked into the club.

As the employees worked, they walked around the nearly empty club, and Elontra saw Kayla sitting at a table near the back. She waved when she saw them come in and waved for them to come back.

“What you got for me today, ladies?” she asked as soon as they were close enough.

Elontra and Shemika held up the backpacks as they approached the table. “Just a little something we picked up in Chelsea,” Elontra said, and Kayla stood up.

“Outstanding. Let’s talk in the back.”

Shemika and Elontra followed her to the rear of the club and into the storage room away from prying eyes.

“Let’s see what you got.”

The ladies handed her their bags, and then they stood quietly and patiently as Kayla carefully examined each piece of jewelry.

“You got some good stuff here, ladies. I’m impressed, but I always am. You two never disappoint,” she said, looking at a diamond necklace through a loupe: a small magnification device used to see small details more closely. When she had finished examining the pieces, Kayla put the loupe down and looked up. “I’ll give you twenty for the whole lot.”

“That include the car?” Shemika asked.

“What kind of car is it?”

“It’s a Buick Enclave,” Elontra said.

“Is it a late model? I don’t want it if it’s not a later model,” she asked of the crossover SUV that General Motors came out with in 2007.

“It is. And it’s in good condition.”

“You know her boy don’t steal junk,” Shemika said.

Elontra and her car-stealing friend, Garrett, had broken up years ago. In fact, he didn’t even steal cars anymore. These days he worked as security for some big-time gangster. But he still came anytime Elontra called, and he always did whatever she asked of him. Her girl had it like that.

“Well, let’s go see it,” Kayla said, and the ladies followed her downstairs and outside to the car. Once she looked at the late-model Enclave inside and out, she said, “I’ll give you a grand for it.”

“A grand? That’s all?” Shemika all but shouted.

“Okay, two.”

“We’ll take it,” Elontra said and started back inside the building.

Shemika and Kayla looked at Elontra and then at each other before they followed her back into the building. Once they were back inside and she had counted off and handed them their money, Shemika sat down to make her count. When she finished her count, she nodded at Elontra, and they left the club to head for home.

“Twenty-two thousand dollars for a couple of hours’ work. Not a bad day,” Elontra said as they went down the steps.

“It could have been better,” Shemika said as she passed the men at the door.

“Good night, Elontra,” the one man said, and she passed without speaking and left the club.

“I was trying to get at least three or four for the car before you said we’d take it,” Shemika pointed out as they got to her car, which they had parked there the night before.

“I know you were. But you know her next words were gonna be ‘take it or leave it.’ And you know we were gonna take it. Why go through all that back and forth with her?”

“I hear you.”

“Now let’s go home. I’m hungry,” Elontra said as they got in, and Shemika started the car.

Now that they had put in their work, it was time to go home. Elontra and Shemika shared a modest two-bedroom house on Corona Street that they rented in Valley Stream, a village in Nassau County on Long Island that Money magazine had ranked as the best place to live in New York State in the year 2017. She drove her silver BMW across the Throgs Neck Bridge and onto the Cross Island Parkway to the village that ran along the border with Queens. After dropping by the grocery store to pick up the cooking spray and a few other items that they needed, they headed for the house.

“I know you said that you were gonna cook tonight,” Elontra said as Shemika pulled into the driveway and parked next to Elontra’s black Corvette, “but I haven’t eaten all day, and—”

“And I cooked this morning.” Shemika shut off the car. “Maybe instead of hugging your pillow until noon, you should have gotten up when I came into your room and said breakfast was ready.”

“I know. And it was smelling too good.” Elontra opened her door and got out of the car.

Shemika hit the button for the trunk. “And you should have gotten up instead of pulling the cover over your head.”

“I know. I should have,” Elontra answered and grabbed the backpack with the money from the trunk along with a bag of groceries. “But I was so tired.”

Shemika grabbed the rest of the groceries and followed Elontra to the house. She turned off the alarm, and they went inside. Although the house they rented was modest on the outside, the inside was nothing that would even suggest the word “modesty.” It was furnished with selected pieces from Boca do Lobo, a brand well known for its expense and luxury. The absolutely beautiful pieces of furniture were handcrafted in Portugal.

“What time did you get in last night?” Shemika asked, and then she corrected herself. “I mean, this morning?”

“Five thirty. Me and DT went out last night, and he had an early shift this morning,” Elontra said of her boyfriend, Derick Thomas, who worked as a driver for FedEx. She had been with him for five years.

“Where’d y’all go?” Shemika asked as they put away the few items from the store.

“We had dinner, and then he took me to a movie.”

Shemika laughed. “You should have gotten plenty of sleep.”

“True,” Elontra agreed. “But we stayed up and . . . you know . . . so it was after two in the morning before he let me sleep.”

“So what are you saying?” Shemika said. She closed the kitchen cabinets once the groceries were put away, and they came out of the kitchen. She sat down at the dining room table while Elontra went and got the backpack.

“That I’m hungry.” Elontra tossed the backpack on the table and sat down across from Shemika.

“I’ll start dinner as soon as we’re done here. It’ll be ready in about an hour.” Shemika reached into the bag and took out the money. “So what are you saying?”

“I told you, I’m hungry, and I don’t feel like waiting an hour for it to be ready,” Elontra said, and Shemika started counting the money. “I think we should eat out tonight. You know, a little celebration for a job well executed,” she said as Shemika pushed a pile of money toward her.

“Eleven thousand dollars.”

“Thank you.”

“Your treat?”

“Yes, Mika, it’s my treat.” Elontra picked up the bills and began her count. “You know, for somebody who just made eleven grand for a few minutes of work, you sure are cheap.”

“I’m not cheap. I just don’t believe in spending money unnecessarily. And before you call somebody cheap, you should look in the mirror.”

“Granted.”

“Besides, I am a much better cook than any restaurant.”

“I keep telling you we should open a restaurant.”

“Maybe we should.” She giggled, stacked her money, and got up from the table. “But since you’re treating, I agree we should go out and celebrate. What do you have a taste for?”

“I was thinking about Prime 39,” she said because she really enjoyed their lollipop lamb chops.

Shemika thought about the octopus in soy sauce that she had the last time they were there. “We go there all the time,” she said and started for her bedroom.

“So where do you wanna go, Mika?”

Shemika thought about pineapple jerk salmon. “Caribbean Experience!” she shouted from her room.

“Okay, I can do that,” Elontra said and got up from the table with her money.

“Is it all there?” Shemika asked as Elontra passed her door on the way to her bedroom.

“It always is,” she said as she went into her room and closed the door.

Once in her room, Elontra went into the closet. She sat down on the floor in front of her Honeywell fire-and-water-resistant safe with a digital lock and tapped in the combination. She opened the safe, took out the black acrylic cash box, and stood up. She took the cash box to her California king bed, sat down, and counte. . .