The Lipstick Clique Read online

  Prologue:

  Death could soothe me like music could move me. It could cover me like lotion and moisturize my life’s dry shell. It could be my savior, my lover and comforter whenever Life decides to cheat on me and leave me emotionally disabled. I have come to think of death as something to look forward to, as opposed to something I fear. Death has become more than a dependent; it has also become a result.

  The result of what happens when someone steps out of line. Death has become a proven method to prevent hate-blood containing, maggot ass suckers from reproducing. It has become a tool, much like a screwdriver or drill; it really comes in handy when dealing with people with missing screws.

  My name is Treasure… I once took a vacation as a school teacher, and returned home as a convicted murderer and prison escapee. It all happened because someone I loved betrayed me, and then I was betrayed again.

  You may not know me or my story. You may have never heard of me. You may think that I’m just the average female with another sad tale to tell. But that is so not the case.

  In fact, so much has taken place in my twenty odd years, that I don’t even have the time to explain it to you. I don’t have the patience to sit and watch your eyes raise in amazement, your lips frown in discomfort, your head shake in disbelief.

  The only thing that I will be able to offer you is the present day, the current moment, my life –live and direct!

  So if you’re a real nigga or a real bitch like me… all I can tell you is to strap your seatbelt on. And duck! Because this nigga just tried to kill the killers.

  He missed.

  Probably because he just wanted to scare us. Maybe he just wanted to do that so that he could frighten us into giving him his money back. Maybe he just wasn’t a good shooter. Maybe he wanted to fuck us first.

  Whatever his dilemma was… It sure wasn’t mine.

  I aimed.

  SECTION 1

  Ka-louwww! Ka-louwww!

  Two shots was all Treasure needed in order to remove the threat from her life. The first bullet ran through Rally’s head like a blood vessel. The second shot penetrated his body like a BC Powder with the same bitter aftertaste. The bullets put separations in Rally’s skin that made it look like two additional ears were added to him. Blood splattered like hot grease from the impact of the hot lead.

  The sound of gunfire echoed from one end of Treasure’s consciousness to the next. After the echo wore off, she quickly dismissed it. She stood there in a disgusted trance as she watched Rally’s body slump to the pavement on top of his shotgun. She wanted to spit on his body, but knew better than to leave any type of bodily fluids lying around a crime scene. She stared at Rally in a daze. He had just tried to kill her and had failed.

  He carried the results of immediate vengeance on his face; it was stored in the smiling frown of death.

  “Treasure, let’s go Hun!” Skye hollered for the fifth time in a row. She was a pivotal part of The Lipstick Clique; a gang that Treasure started after she successfully escaped prison while doing time for murder.

  Milan, Skye’s twin sister, was still ducked down in the seat shaking. They’d been in shoot-outs before, but this was the closest that Milan had ever come to receiving shotgun shells. Rally had been in close range when he fired his weapon, and for him to miss them all… Milan knew that there could have been no one but God in the car with them.

  “Treasure! What are you doing!?!” Skye screamed as she saw Treasure staring at the ground. “This nigga is dead, and we need to get the fuck out of here before the uniforms come! Let’s go!!!”

  Treasure ignored her and kept staring at the ground until she found exactly what she was looking for. She reached down and grabbed the gas cap off the ground. When Rally fired the shotgun, she’d dropped the gas cap in order to grab her pistol. There was no way that she was going to leave a gas cap behind that had her fingerprints on it. Treasure was against petty mistakes.

  “Skye, is Milan ok?!” Treasure screamed as she hurriedly got back into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

  “I’m fine, Treasure.” Milan said as she slowly lifted her body off of the floor and looked around. “I’m fine…”

  As Treasure swerved around the gas pump, Milan spotted a group of girls staring at them wide-eyed and pointing. “Treasure, stop the car!” Milan screamed instantly.

  Treasure hit the brakes, thinking that something bad had happened. She had no idea that instead, something bad was about to happen.

  Milan jumped out of the car with her pistol out and ran up to the group of girls who were staring and pointing. “Bitch, what the fuck you pointing at ho?!”

  The ladies appeared to be between the ages of 18-22, Asian, and they all had on karate uniforms and black belts. Treasure was instantly concerned. The last time Milan jumped at a chick, she got her ass beat to sleep. Treasure just wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen again. “Milan! Back in the car! NOW!”

  But Milan wasn’t trying to hear that shit. Her adrenaline was on ultra-speed because of the attempted murder. She was jumpy, twitching, and hyper; out of control.

  “Bitch, I don’t give a fuck about that karate shit! I know nine-a-millimate!” Milan screamed as she pointed her weapon in the women’s faces.

  “What the fuck girl!?” Skye, her twin sister screamed at her from behind.

  Realizing that she had made an irrational decision, Milan decided that she would attempt to make the best out of it. “Gimme the keys to this raggedy shit! Now!” She screamed at the taller Asian girl who was carrying the keys.

  She turned to Treasure and Milan. “Let’s roll, we gotta ditch that shit, we’ll push this whip!” But as soon as she turned her neck, the taller girl attempted to seize the pistol out of her hand. Not a smart move.

  Skye shook her head as she sat there and watched Milan shoot up the entire Asian karate gang. Got damn fool! This crazy ass bitch!

  Treasure shook her head in embarrassment. She had invested a lot of time and energy into making her mob the coldest and rawest street gang to ever exist, and to see these types of senseless results, made her feel that all of her dedication to the gang was for nothing. Seeing Milan jump into the Toyota Celica, she hit the gas and burned rubber leaving the gas station.

  __________

  “We have video footage of a gas station massacre that has left three people dead, and one person in critical condition, however, we will not air this out of respect for the victim’s families. The FBI is clearing up the photo files of the suspects, and we will have them available in the next hour. From what we know at the studio, one of the suspects is the prison escapee, Treasure Brown, better known as one half of the Bonnie and Bonnie duo.

  She has been living on the run for two years now, and there is already a million dollar reward for information leading to her capture. If you have any information, please don’t hesitate to call 1-800-CrimeStoppers.”

  An older photo of Treasure was displayed across the television screen. The photo showed her when she had long black hair and a brilliant smile. The way her appearance was now, she felt as if she could walk through the precinct, ask for more information about herself, and still not be recognized. Her hair was shorter and her skin had more stress added to it. Her smile was darker and her eyes were colder. She turned the volume down on the television and glanced over at her clique. Skye was counting money and Milan was snoozing.

  Skye counted the last bundle of cash and wrapped it with Saran Wrap and electric tape. She removed her stilettos and leaned back against the luxurious leather couch. Her black hair framed her face as she closed her eyes in the presence of money and love. With her eyes closed, she spoke to Treasure. “Mami, why are you crying?”

  Treasure wiped her tears aw
ay and took a deep breath. Skye was always deeply in tune to whatever she was going through, and she felt it amazing to have such a strong family connection to her. She just wished that Milan would get it together at times, because the way that she was wilding out in the streets, she was sure to get them all caught.

  Treasure stared at Milan and Skye, smiled, and shook her head. Never before had she ever witnessed two people who were so identical, yet so opposite. Even if Milan hadn’t made her physical alterations by over-eating at the dinner table, she would still be able to differentiate between the two women. There would never be any mistaking the hot-headed Milan for the powerful and authoritative Skye.

  She sighed deeply and placed her stilettos back on her feet. She grabbed a tube of lipstick and re-applied it. “Wake Milan up Skye, let’s relocate. Houston is getting smaller and smaller by the second. I can feel it every moment I’m awake. Pretty soon, the authorities will clasp their palms around me and squeeze the life out of me. They’ve been trying to do this for quite a while now, and I’m sure they’re cooking up a pretty good plan for catching me if they haven’t cooked it up already.”

  Skye opened her eyes and frowned at Treasure. “You talking that talk like you’re the only person involved; as if you’re the only person who’s been going ham in the streets! No disrespect, but you keep saying ‘me, me, me,’ but bitch we been going harder than you! Especially Milan! My sister is laying bitches out for absolutely nothing!”

  Treasure got up and went to the kitchen. She put on a pair of gloves and pulled a bottle of Aquafina out of the refrigerator. Out of habit, she made sure that her fingerprints were never on anything that had to go into the trash at their “bank.” She knew how hard the FBI went, and to keep them from doing a successful fingerprint analysis on her trash, she handled it in advance. She downed half of the bottle and walked back into the sitting room.

  She set the bottle down on the table beside a large bundle of wrapped cash and flicked the moisture off of her gloves. “Listen Skye… your fuckin sister is laying bitches out for no other reason than her own insanely savage blood thirst. Did I give her directions to kill a fuckin karate gang? Get real bitch and stop coming at me like that, I won’t warn you again.”

  Although Treasure was the leader, it was normal for her and the strong minded Skye to occasionally bump heads, but they never disagreed when it mattered. They were a solid team.

  “As far as all the money we have, we’ll only take the cash that we have in this house. Our other banks, we will have to sacrifice. I can almost guarantee that the FBI is stalking those houses like TMZ. I don’t feel like being a TV star this evening. Fuck it, we can start over fresh when –”

  Milan opened her eyes immediately. “What the fuck you mean leave the money? We worked long and hard for that cash, and we gon take that shit with us. What do you mean Treasure?”

  With the top off, Treasure took the bottle of water and splashed it in Milan’s face. “Bitch, if you was awake, quit acting like you’re not! We leave that shit. Period. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to get that shit back when we get to where we’re going. Besides… ya’ll bitches don’t spend no money no muthafuckin way. Ya’ll just robbin’ niggas for the fun of it. Who the fuck does that?”

  Skye and Milan looked at each other simultaneously. They smirked and both of them pointed at Treasure. Milan spoke up. “Bitch you do it! You don’t hardly spend money either. It’s like you’re mad at the world or something. You just rob niggaz and don’t give a fuck. Hahaha!”

  Treasure shook her head in silence. She thought about how she was tricked into leaving her comfortable home in Pennsylvania and into flying to California to be with the person that she thought loved her. She thought about how she was tricked into firing a pistol on a crowd of people to help her lover out. She thought about how her lover hid behind the door while she was being arrested. How her lover told her that he had her back; how her lawyer tricked her into signing a guilty plea and giving her life away to the prison system.

  She thought about the things that she’d gone through in prison, and quickly snapped out of her funk when she saw that Skye and Milan were staring at her curiously. Treasure took a deep breath and smiled. In a calm voice, she spoke. “Well… I obviously can’t get an honest job anywhere, so I guess my mentality is… if I found a job I liked, I could add 5 days to every week. And putting the pistol to a sucker’s head is so much more satisfying than putting a tomato on someone’s bread.”

  10 Days Later

  Columbus, Georgia

  “Which house is it Treasure?” Milan asked as they crept to a parking spot on Buena Vista Road in Columbus, GA. It was 4:30 in the morning, and it appeared that no one on the block was awake. Treasure, Milan, and Skye had been frequenting a hole in the wall strip club on Victory Drive since the first day of their arrival, and it had paid off in a major way.

  Treasure met a girl named Danielle who had dated many ballers in the city, and was fed up with the way that they had been treating her. After Treasure kept coming back in the club and requesting only her, the girl had started to develop a fondness for her, and was soon telling her everything about everybody.

  Treasure pointed to a white and green wooden house with a dilapidated wooden fence around it. It looked like if they walked up to the fence and pushed it, the whole fence would tumble to the ground. “It’s that house right up the street,” Treasure pointed. “Danielle said that the guy that lives there keeps all of his money in his kitchen trash bag… so we’re just coming to take out the trash.”

  Skye and Milan both giggled to themselves as they checked their weapons. Milan had found herself believing more and more into Treasure’s statement. Every moment co-signed the statement that she had a blood thirst for robbery and killing. For the past ten days, all she craved and thought about was how she was going to execute the next robbery. Not that they didn’t have enough money, but because her craving hadn’t been sated. Milan took her gloved pinky finger and tried to insert it into the barrel of the pistol. Doing such strange things turned her on. She was so in love with her lifestyle, that she was willing to do anything to keep it going, even if it meant destroying herself.

  Skye looked around the area for signs of any setups. She scoured the scene for suspicious cars, people, or anything that looked out of the ordinary. If she would have spotted something, she would have put an immediate halt to the task at hand. She was the muscled authority for The Lipstick Clique, and even though they had no need for muscle, she enjoyed her position regardless. She knew no one else could fill it.

  Treasure studied the angle that the car was parked, and looked at the structure of the street to make sure that their exit was going to go as smooth as they had originally planned. Once Skye nodded her head and Treasure nodded hers, they quickly opened the door, but they immediately shut it.

  An older model blacked out Lincoln town car turned on the street that they were sitting on. The car’s headlights shone off of Treasure’s rearview mirror, but the lights immediately dimmed as it slowly cruised up the block. Skye whispered forcefully, “Treasure, this was a damn set-up! Hand me the chopper… I’ma have to set that shit right back down!”

  Treasure shook her head and held up a single finger. Out of instinct, she reached out and grabbed Milan’s arm before she did something drastic. “Milan… please… just relax. If we need fire, then we use fire. Please don’t just randomly shoot people. As of now, no one really knows that we’re in this city. Let’s try our best to keep it that way for as long as possible. Think about it you two. We have to live somewhere! We’ve been on the run forever, and we still are. Let’s act accordingly.”

  The Lincoln stopped in the middle of the street about 14 feet in front of Treasure, Milan, and Skye. Two men jumped out wearing black everything. Shoes, shoelaces, pants, shirt, gloves and mask were all black. They wore black watches and black earrings. Even the aura that they gave off seemed to be that of a black cloud. They were intimidating, even to Skye, an
d she knew that she was a bitch not to be fucked with.

  The third person got out of the Lincoln and stood leaning against the driver’s side door. He held a black AK-47 in his hand and a black pair of binoculars tied to a string hanging around his neck. It was obvious that he was the getaway driver; it was even more obvious that they were about to rob the same people that The Lipstick Clique were about to rob.

  Treasure was pissed. “That bitch tricked me! Dirty bitch!! I think that ho tried to get us killed!” Skye squeezed Treasure’s hand to quiet her down. She understood that Treasure was angry, but they were in a very delicate situation at the time. They weren’t sitting too far behind a man holding an AK-47 at 4 o’clock in the morning, in the middle of the street.

  The strange thing about it all, was that the men had rode right past The Lipstick Clique, and had paid them no attention whatsoever. Even the man holding the AK seemed to be ignoring their presence and was in his own little world with his own unique set of thoughts. Treasure looked at the house that they had planned to rob and sighed.