To Love a No Good Nigga

by Phoenix Williams

  Grabbing another bottle of liquor, I drank deeply. All I knew was that none of this would have happened if Robin had kept her mouth shut and gotten the abortion like she was told. But no, she had to try to steal my husband and when that didn’t work she set out to destroy us. Everything I had ever loved or wanted was gone and she was off in New York going on with her life.

  I stepped into the bathroom and vomited up the liquor I had just poured down my throat. I turned on the shower and let the steam fill the bathroom while I rinsed my mouth out. Stepping inside the tiled enclosure, I let the water invigorate me, refresh me. The spicy scented soap washed away the aroma of vomit, must, and liquor I had been sitting in for God knows how long.

  I stepped out the shower and put on clean clothes. The feel of freshly washed cotton and denim felt oddly new. I glanced at the calendar and realized I had been lying in my own filth for over two weeks.

  I shook my head in disgust. This wasn’t who I was. I was a woman of action. I made shit happen. I didn’t let shit happen to me. This was a minor setback. I would get everything back on track. That Governor’s mansion was mine to be had. I’d be damned if I let an insane little bitch like Robin Bird take away what was rightfully mine.

  That shit wasn’t going to fly with me. As usual, I was going to have to be the one to put everything back together since my useless husband was too weak for the job. She needed to be taught a lesson. She needed to know not to fuck with a woman’s family and professional life. She needed to know that she wasn’t the only one who could pull off a master plan. She needed to know that she wasn’t the only one who could use crazy to their advantage. Robin Bird needed to pay!

  DEAN

  Walking down the musty smelling corridor of the county jail, my stomach churned with a combination of anger, disgust, and anxiety. I had been locked away for over two months and it was driving me crazy.

  All I did was walk around in this white jumpsuit, slippers and socks. We got to go outside for two hours a day, but even that was boring as hell. I spent most of my time alone in my cell. I didn’t want to get too close to any of these people. I kept them at arms-length unless it was dealing with business or benefiting me.

  Spending your days and nights caged up like an animal allowed you to think of the people who put you there. It allowed you to plot against them, to think of ways to torture them for putting you away. Five people were responsible for putting me here. Raven, Pierre, Tyler, Cedric, and Blue were all going to feel my wrath once I was released. I was sure that my lawyer could get me off on one technicality or another and once that happened I was going to make sure each of them suffered, especially Blue. He had the worst of it coming to him.

  There was no doubt in my mind that he was the mastermind behind this whole thing. We didn’t call him the “kid genius” for nothing. He set me up, drugged my mama, and blamed a murder on me that for once in my life I didn’t have shit to do with. Yeah, Piccolo had helped him but it was Blue that put everything in motion. I could feel it in my bones. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t afraid of Blue. He was too smart. He knew too much. He was that rare mixture of book smarts and street smarts. Blue was good with the hands and great at never getting caught. When he was still working for me, people feared him more than they ever feared Piccolo.

  Piccolo! That name made my blood boil. While I was locked away, he was fucking my wife. He had gotten her pregnant and everything. That was my woman. I didn’t care if we were getting divorced. She was mine! I owned her. I had made her, trained her. Everything she had was because I got it for her!

  Yeah, I was angry as hell at all five of them. I had put Tyler and Cedric on my payroll. I helped them get enough money to start their own businesses. I guess what they said was true: there was no honor amongst thieves. Or in this case, drug dealers and murderers. I couldn’t believe that after everything I had done for them that they would set me up. Yeah, I had tried to do the same to Ray but that was different.

  Raven was mine. She tried to make a fool of me by stepping out with Piccolo. No one understood how embarrassing it was to hear in the streets that my right hand and my wife were fucking right under my nose! That he had gotten her pregnant! I couldn’t sit back and let that fly. Naw, I had to handle it. Some may have called me a coward for intimidating a woman but I wanted her to feel my pain. The ones you loved the most always hurt you the worst and I wanted her to know how much her disloyalty hurt me. I would never have laid a hand on her if she hadn’t gotten me so upset. This was all her fault! If she would have just been the good little bitch I trained her to be then everything would still be sweet.

  Now, because of them, I was stuck in this shit hole with a bunch of convicts. Yeah, I had to get the hell out of here. My only saving grace was that I was running things while I was in here. I was still the man and no one could take that from me. A couple of the young bloods knew me from the neighborhoods. They had worked for me at one time or another. Once I got in here they made sure to pass the word around that I was top dog. That was what I liked—loyalty. They knew where their bread was buttered.

  I shuffled down the narrow hallway into my cell, greeting others on my way. I flopped down on the hard bed and leaned back. I closed my eyes and daydreamed about my penthouse apartment. I could practically feel the Egyptian cotton against my skin and the heavy down comforters warming me. I could smell the Yankee Candles I kept burning and hear the soft moans of a hot young thing as I palmed her nipples.

  A sound in my cell made my eyes pop open. I glanced towards the bars and saw five of the young bloods standing in my cell. I got up and smiled at them. They were always coming in checking on me.

  “’Sup?” I asked.

  They looked at each other as if they were nervous to ask me something. I shook my head. That was probably why their behinds were in jail now, too afraid to go after what they wanted.

  “What is it?” They moved closer to me and I stood up. An uneasy feeling filled my stomach. “What the fuck do you want?”

  A saw a fist out the corner of my eye and ducked just in time. Fists and feet from all the men came raining down on me and there was nothing I could do. I wasn’t a fighter. That was Piccolo’s job. I was always the one to use guns but the only ones who had guns in prison were the guards. I curled into a ball and waited for the beating to end.

  Blood filled my mouth. I could feel my ribs being crushed and it became harder to breathe. Screams left my mouth but no one was coming. The prisoners didn’t interfere with other people’s altercations and the guards didn’t like me since I had taken down a few of their buddies with me. All in all, I was on my own.

  Blood soaked my shirt and tears ran down my swollen cheeks. They were saying something to me but I couldn’t hear them over the blood pounding in my ears. Soon the blows to my body stopped and a lone figure came into focus.

  I recognized him as one of my little worker bees. I knew his father. He was an old timer who had taught me some of the ropes. From what I could remember he worked with Ty flipping local businesses. Understanding dawned and panic caused my stomach to react violently.

  “You know, Dean, you are quite the sloppy motherfucker. You walk in here like you own the place yet you have done so many of us dirty. We work for you, make you money, and how do you repay us? You turn your back on us as soon as we get pinched. That’s dirty.”

  He helped me off the floor. I felt some type of relief that the beating stopped and that at least one of the men were willing to help me at least somewhat. I sagged against the white brick wall and looked him in the eye.

  “Thanks man, I’m sorry.”

  I truly meant it. I was sorry I was in this place. I was sorry that I had trusted and feared Blue. I was sorry that Raven had ever come into my life. I was sorry that I thought I was untouchable, invincible. I was sorry I hadn’t kept my shit together. I was so damned sorry.

  He stepp
ed closer to me. “There’s no need to apologize and no need to thank me.”

  I smiled and scrubbed a hand down my face.

  He smiled back and slapped me on my shoulder before turning away. He quickly turned back around and stabbed me in the stomach repeatedly with a sharpened handle of a toothbrush. My body sagged to the floor and I wheezed. Blood dripped from my lips. I felt the life slowly leave my body and the flames of hell nip at my heels.

  “Naw, don’t thank me, Dean. Thank Blue.”

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