When a high IQ is paired with the savvy street smarts of a kingpin, the streets get turned upside down.
Thomas Richard is what some would call a genius. Born and raised in Inglewood, California, Thomas grew up in a Blood neighborhood and was somewhat fascinated by the gang lifestyle. His first cousin, Blast, was deeply involved with the Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Bloods and made sure that Thomas would never partake in that life. Thomas accepted that, but deep in his heart, he still felt he was a Blood.
Now, Thomas works for a high-tech computer company and uses his high intelligence to excel at his job. While playing a slot machine app on his phone one day, he figures out a way to be able to rig slot machines to give out the maximum payout. After he tests his theory and becomes an instant millionaire, Thomas’s life changes instantly. Buying expensive jewels for his fiance and taking care of his family, he has more money than he can deal with.
Keeping the secret of his get-rich-quick scheme is driving him crazy, and he decides to tell Blast—a mistake that turns his world inside out. Money, cars, lowriders, and the best of everything money can buy will lead to blackmail and eventually murder, all because Thomas can’t keep a secret.
Publisher:
Urban Books
Print pages:
288
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Blast, Thomas’s first cousin, was leaning on his ’64 Chevy talking to his homeboy Tip Toe when Thomas pulled up in his brand-new Mercedes Benz SUV. He blew the horn as he parked his vehicle.
“What’s up, Blood?” Thomas greeted his cousin.
Shaking his head, Blast said, “Look at my genius relative. What, you came to the set to hang with us knowing damn well you don’t belong around here? How many times do I have to tell you that, Tommy?”
Thomas rolled his eyes and said, “This neighborhood is mine just as much as yours. You need to chill out with that weak shit.”
“Weak shit? You know damn well if something happened to your ass around here, your mother would kill my ass. Anyway, what’s up, relli?”
“Not much. Just got off work and decided to come through and see what you were up to.”
“Same old same old over here. Trying to clock a few coins and stay outta the way. It’s been kinda hot around here. The ops were on one, and we been getting right back at ’em. That’s why I don’t need you rolling through. You could’ve hit me, and I could’ve come your way.”
“It’s all good. I won’t be long. I’m about to go get Chanda and get something to eat.”
“Look at you, finally in love. Took your ass long enough. I thought you would never get at Chanda. She’s been digging you since high school. Your nerdy ass was scared to get at her until I finally told her that you wanted to holla. So when you get married, make sure I’m the best man.”
“No doubt. All right, fool, I’m out. Be safe out here, Blast,” Thomas said seriously.
“I stay dangerous, Tommy. You know that.”
“Right. All right, Tip Toe.”
Tip Toe gave him a nod, threw up the Crenshaw Mafia gang sign, and said, “Whoop, whoop,” the Blood acknowledgment as a greeting or saying goodbye.
Blast was 25 years old and was a third-generation Crenshaw Mafia Gangsta Blood, commonly known as the CMGBs. Thomas and Blast were first cousins, and they loved each other as if they were brothers and not cousins. Thomas wanted to be a Blood, but Blast would never let him join, telling Thomas that he wasn’t built for the streets of Inglewood. Reluctantly, he understood. Over the years, he attended many funerals of friends he grew up with who were Bloods. That part of the gang wasn’t enticing to him at all.
He admired the loyalty they shared and respected what they were about. He loved the Blood lingo. How they replaced the letter C with the letter B, like when they called cigarettes “bigarettes.” Or if you said, “What’s up, gee?” they would say, “Whoop, whoop,” or answer saying, “Bicken back being bool,” which means, “Kicking back being cool.” That tickled him every time he heard them talk that way. A person who wasn’t in the know would be totally confused. Not only did they not use the letter C, but they also sometimes replaced other letters. For example, instead of saying, “sleep,” they would say, “bleep.” Instead of saying, “serious,” they would say, “berious.” Or instead of saying, “cousin,” they would say, “relative” or “relli.” Some really fun stuff, Thomas thought.
Thomas was considered a square but not anybody’s punk. He had a few fights growing up and was known for holding his own. Blast respected that about his cousin. Yet, he refused to let him be a part of that world. Blast’s favorite line was telling Thomas he would be the one to get the family rich. Thomas loved Blast and knew if something ever happened to him on those dangerous Inglewood streets, he would be right there with the rest of the CMGs getting revenge for his cousin. Or, as the Mafias say, “Putting in work.” That wasn’t his lifestyle, thanks to his cousin, but he had always wanted to be a part of the notorious Crenshaw Mafia Gangsta Bloods.
When he pulled into his girlfriend Chanda’s house, he saw her sitting on her porch with her phone to her ear. She waved and went into the house. She returned a few minutes later with her purse in one hand and her phone still at her ear. She got inside the car, kissed him, and kept talking on her phone. He pulled out of the driveway and headed toward their favorite restaurant, Crab Station. Chanda stayed on the phone for the entire ride to Lakewood. Thomas gave her a look that said, “Enough is enough.” Chanda rolled her eyes and ended the call.
They went inside the seafood restaurant and were seated. After ordering their food, Thomas pulled out his phone and rechecked what he had done earlier. He smiled, satisfied that what he discovered would really work.
“Why you got that goofy smile on your face for?” asked Chanda as she sipped her glass of water.
He wondered if he should share the news with her but thought better of it because she wouldn’t understand. “I was just looking at some work I did today. I never cease to be amazed at how good I am.”
“Oh, that’s really humble of you. You’re something else, baby.”
“That I am. How was your day?”
“It was okay. I had a little drama with the girls in the shop, but I handled it quickly. I’m getting tired of Rima. She always brings drama into the shop, and I can tell my customers, as well as the other girls, are getting tired of it too.”
“Give her one last warning and then tell her she has to leave.”
“She’s my friend and your cousin’s girlfriend, so for that reason, I’m not trying to make her leave, especially since she has those kids. Can you have Billy talk to her, babe?”
“Blast won’t say anything to her even if I asked him too. You know how he is with her, especially something concerning the shop.”
“I bet she tells him what she’s doing and making me seem like I’m the one in the wrong.”
“Sorry, baby, but that’s the price you pay when mixing friends with business.”
“Thanks. You’re such a big help,” she said, pouting.
“Don’t worry, baby. Everything will work itself out. Never know, we might hit the Powerball and become filthy rich. Then that way, you won’t have to work at the shop.”
“Yeah, right. If we did hit the Powerball, I’d still work at the shop.”
Laughing, he said, “The lies you tell. You wouldn’t want to go near that shop.”
Smiling, she replied honestly, “Well, after we finished traveling for a few months, I would. Wouldn’t that be something to get rich like that? Lord, I’ll have every expensive purse that’s made. Oh, and the whip would have to be on point too.”
“Yeah, I can see you now pulling up in downtown Inglewood in a brand-new Bentley. Fitting right in.”
“You better stop teasing me. You’re the one that started this conversation, so stop hating on your girl’s dreams.”
He reached across the table, grabbed her hands, and said, “You are my girl, and I’m going to make all your dreams become a reality.”
“Awww, I love you, baby,” she said as their food arrived. There was no more time for conversation. They both started eating their shrimp, crawfish, and crab legs.
After Thomas dropped Chanda off at her house, he couldn’t wait to get home to make sure he had everything figured right. If he did, Chanda didn’t realize that her dreams were about to come true. He was about to make history, but he couldn’t tell a soul. This was highly illegal and could get him into some major trouble with the FBI, and that was something he was not trying to do. So, there was no way anyone could find out about it.
He couldn’t help but smile as he pulled into his garage. This was one night he was glad that Chanda refused to move in with him. He was alone, and all his attention could be on the task at hand. His hero, Steve Jobs, would be doing flips in heaven if everything worked the way Thomas felt it would. It’s crazy that the iPhone that his hero created was about to make him a millionaire. The irony of that couldn’t help but make him smile as he sat down at his desk, opened his laptop, and set his phone next to him so he could go over each configuration on his phone while matching the counting measurements needed to make the Bluetooth in his iPhone sync with the slot machine after placing the max bet. Thomas was at it for over three hours, and when he was finally satisfied, he closed his laptop and smiled. My God, this is going to work. He took a shower and then got into bed excited as a child the night before Christmas. He was about to become rich!
Thomas was watching the clock. It seemed as if four o’clock would never come. When his phone hit four p.m., he logged off his computer and walked rapidly out of his office. Once inside his car, he called Chanda to make sure she would be ready to go. He told her he was taking her for a weekend in Temecula, California. They will be staying at the Pechanga Resort Casino for the weekend. She fussed and told him that Friday and Saturday were her busiest days and that she couldn’t just cancel her customers’ appointments. After pleading with her, she relented and canceled her Friday and Saturday appointments by lying, saying she had to go out of town for a pressing family issue. Little did she know that this weekend getaway would change her life in ways she never thought possible.
Once they checked into their hotel, they went to their room to freshen up. Thomas could barely hide the excitement he was feeling. He was a little nervous. After all, he was about to commit a federal crime. The mere thought of getting caught scared him to death. On the other hand, he was excited at the thought of becoming an instant millionaire. And that thought helped him override the fear of getting caught relatively quickly.
After showering and dressing, they went to the casino and looked for the right slot machines. Chanda was looking for a particular slot machine she liked to play. Thomas was looking for a progressive jackpot machine.
He spotted the right one. This slot machine’s jackpot paid $5 million. His heart beat faster as he stared at the slot machine, praying that his theory would work. He told Chanda he was about to sit down and play the slot machine in front of him. She wished him luck while she continued to search for her favorite slot machine.
“OK, Thomas, here we go,” he said as he pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and inserted it into the slot machine. He suddenly felt calm as he pressed the max bet button, which was ten dollars. After losing fifty dollars on five bets, he paused and pulled out his phone as if he had just received a text. He wasn’t worried about the eye-in-the-sky security cameras because he had a privacy screen protector, so there was no way the eye in the sky could see what he was doing.
He went to the settings on his phone, turned on Bluetooth, went into general, and turned on all the alert buttons. He sent a text to Chanda telling her that he loved her and then began pressing the max button again. When he was down to his last ten-dollar bet, he was saddened because he was sure it would work. He pressed the max button one last time . . . and waited.
When the spin finally stopped, the slot machine went crazy with sirens blaring and the computerized voice within the slot machine screamed, “Jackpot! Jackpot!” He jumped back from the slot machine and started jumping up and down as if he hadn’t expected this to happen. In his head, all he was screaming was It worked! It fucking worked!
A few minutes later, a security guard and casino personnel came to him and congratulated him for winning the $5 million jackpot. They asked for his identification and told him they would return shortly. Thomas calmed down slightly but felt so good because he had won the money, and his theory had worked. That feeling almost overrode the feeling of becoming a millionaire. Almost. He called Chanda and told her to hurry and come where she had left him.
“I’ll be there in a little bit, baby. I just won $200.”
“Oh, OK. Take your time because I just won $5 million,” he said as calmly as he could.
“The lies you tell, Thomas Richard.”
“Will you hurry up and cash out that measly two hundred and come back to where you left me, please.”
Chanda cashed out her winnings, snatched her ticket from the slot machine she was playing, and sprinted back to where she left Thomas. When she saw him sitting in his seat with two security guards beside him, she felt as if her heart stopped beating.
Thomas saw her and smiled. “We’re rich, baby; we’re rich!”
Chanda stared at the slot machine Thomas was sitting at and saw that it read Jackpot! on the screen. She then looked at the payout and saw it read $5 million. Her legs felt wobbly, and her head began swimming. She felt faint as one of the security guards noticed this and quickly helped her sit on the seat beside Thomas.
“Oh. My. God. Thomas, oh my God!”
Thomas smiled and said, “I told you we would have luck on our side this weekend.”
She wrapped her arms around him tightly and repeated, “Oh my God. Oh my God!”
“Is that all you’re going to keep saying?”
“Oh my God! Thomas, how do they pay you?”
He shrugged and said, “I don’t know. They took my ID. I’m just waiting.”
“You’re rich, Thomas. Do you know that? You’re rich!”
“We’re rich, baby. You and I are rich.”
“Awww,” she said, hugging and kissing him.
Three casino managers came to Thomas, had him fill out some necessary paperwork, and asked him if he wanted to pay the taxes on the money he won or if he would rather them take it out for him now. He asked them what he had to pay, and they told him it was $1.2 million. That would leave him with $3.8 million. He smiled brightly and told them to go ahead and take the tax money out.
“That’s an excellent idea, sir. Most people who win a lot of money don’t pay the taxes and end up in a world of trouble with the IRS. Congratulations, sir. I’ll return with your check in a few minutes. Are you staying here or just visiting our casino?” asked one of the managers.
“Yes, we’re staying here for the weekend.”
“Great. If you’d like, we want to upgrade you to one of our suites here for the rest of your stay.”
Thomas looked at Chanda, and she said, “Why not? Might as well start to enjoy living like rich people.”
“Right, because we are rich people now,” Thomas said, and they started laughing.
When the manager returned with a check for Thomas for $3.8 million, Thomas couldn’t take the smile off of his face. The manager then asked for their room number so they could bring their belongings to their upgraded suite. Thomas gave them their room number and accepted a key card for their new suite. Thomas had an occasional drink, and he felt it was definitely time for one now. With check in hand, he led Chanda to one of the many bars inside the casino. They sat at the bar, staring at the check in awe.
“I cannot believe I have a check in my hand for $3,800,000. What the hell are we going to buy first, baby?”
“I don’t have a clue, babe.”
“I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to move into a new house or if she wants me to pay off her house on 111th Street. That’s the first thing I want to do. Then I’ll pay off my condo and get me a real fly car. What do you want, baby?”
Chanda smiled and said a brand-new Rolls-Royce truck. “Also, baby, if I’m not too greedy, can you buy the building where my shop is? You do that, then I’ll be making real good money because I’d only have to pay utilities.”
“No problem at all, baby. We are going to live a good life now. I think I’m with you. I want that new Rolls-Royce Ghost SUV. So that’s about 1.2 million right there. We still have 2.6 million left. After I take care of my mother, my auntie Troya, and Blast, we should still have over a million dollars in the bank.”
“My God, I can’t believe we’re having this kind of conversation. Baby, you are the luckiest man in the world. You are a good man and really are deserving of this type of blessing. You could’ve easily got into the streets with Billy, and Lord knows how your life would’ve turned out. But you stayed dedicated to your schooling and have a good career now, which speaks volumes about your character. I love you so much, Tommy.”
Her words made him feel as low as a bug on the ground. She would never look at him the same if she ever found out what he did.
He threw back his shot of Don Julio and ordered another. . .
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