She Gave Her All to the Hood's Finest 5

by Shvonne Latrice

  Frustrated, I went back to the spa room and shut the door. I turned on some soft music to set the mood, dimmed the lights, and then turned the steam on so it could open up his dusty, crusty, dirty, thirsty ass pores. I then changed my gloves.

  “So it says you just want a hydrating facial today, is that correct?” I read the clipboard with his information, making sure I took into account what he was allergic to.

  “That’s right. You know a brother gotta keep his skin glowing.”

  “Yes, and it’s definitely looking a little dingy right now.” I started cleansing his face as he chuckled subtly.

  He didn’t say anything as I went through the steps of the facial, but he did look at me very often. I was happy to put those damn eye covers on his face when I began doing a few extractions. Then forty-five minutes later, his ass was free to go.

  “Wow, baby, that shit felt good as fuck.” Mac sat up, just looking at me. “You so sexy to me. You fine as hell, got a pretty ass smile, and I love how well kept you are. Even yo’ spa is upscale. Saw yo’ Rolls Royce parked around back too.”

  “Yeah, daddy bought it,” I made sure to say.

  “Let me take you out.”

  “Even if you didn’t have that crooked Angelica Pickles mouth, I still wouldn’t let you take me out. Now, you need to leave before my man finds out what you’re trying to do.”

  Getting down from the spa bed, he responded while chuckling, “Oh yeah? And what he gon’ do?”

  “Hmm, let me call him and find out.” I reached for my phone, but he stopped me, gripping my forearm. “Exactly, and do not ever touch me again.” I snatched my arm.

  “Like I said before, if he messes up, call me. I want you bad.” He backed away and then left the room.

  Feeling dirty from him touching me, I cleaned up, sanitized, and straightened everything so it’d be ready for the next client and by that time Kai was here with the food.

  She, Dana, and I ate lunch together, but since Kai finished first, she got right back to work, cleaning up the front area, then making more fruit water and chilling champagne for the people who would be in the lobby. I liked for my clients to know they were in a high-end establishment and to be comfortable.

  “Who was that Mackenzie person? He looks familiar.” Dana drank some of her tea.

  “Music producer.”

  “Oh shoot. He goes by Mac King. I knew he was somebody, because he clearly has money. He left you a five thousand dollar tip.”

  “He did?”

  “Yes! When he paid, he said he wanted to put a tip for you but in cash. I gave him the tip envelope, and he pulled a band of cash out, telling me it wouldn’t fit.”

  “You can have it.”

  Dana choked on her food a little bit but then asked, “I can? It’s five racks, Camarih.”

  “I know, and I don’t need it, especially not from his ass. And I’ve learned my lesson on taking money from men who like me.”

  “Oh yeah. Wacko is crazy.” We laughed in unison as I got up to throw my trash away.

  Even my breakroom was nice and immaculate. I had a cleaning service come in every morning at 4 a.m., and it always smelled good too, because I’d been working on a line of air fresheners and had been using it here. I wanted to see how clients responded, and like I thought, they always mentioned how good it smelled, either to me, my employees, or on my Yelp reviews.

  “He is. Well I’m about to go clean up. I think my last one of the day is in fifteen minutes.” I checked the time on my Patek watch.

  “Hey, before you go, I wanted to tell you something.” Dana turned in her chair, looking over her shoulder at me as I stood at the break room door.

  “Okay.”

  “My friends and I went to The Pink Cherry a couple nights ago, and we overheard a couple of the girls who work there chatting about Tony having a baby on the way by one of them.”

  That damn rumor was still alive and well?

  Rolling my eyes, I replied, “Oh, I’ve heard that bullshit, and that’s exactly what it is… bullshit.”

  “I figured, but I just didn’t feel right not telling you. In my eyes, even though you’re my boss, you’re my friend.”

  “Well I appreciate it, but I promise it’s a lie. Houston has no children on the way.” I wasn’t ready to expose my pregnancy yet. I had about one more month before it was obvious.

  “I believe you. He loves you too much and swears no woman can hold a candle to you.”

  Dana’s words made me smile and remember that what she said was true. For a moment, I doubted my faith in Tony, but her comment made me remember that he would never cheat, for one, and definitely wouldn’t plant his seed in one of them hoes.

  Leaving the breakroom, I went into my office to check on my baby. He was still asleep, so I just watched him, while texting back and forth with my husband and friends. I also placed a reminder in my phone to have more of my products delivered, because every time a client came, they stocked up. Then I had patrons coming just for my products who were cleaning me out. Not to mention, my website stayed with heavy traffic.

  Soon enough, it was time for my last facial, so I locked my office back up and went to handle my business. The client was one my favorites, Barbara, who’d been coming to me since I was just an employee at Angel Skin. Time always flew by quickly when I did her facials.

  “Girl, I swear I look younger than I am.” Barbara checked herself out in the mirror. She was right. She was only fifty-five but looked thirty-five. “And it’s all thanks to you.”

  “That and the fact that black don’t crack.”

  “Exactly.” We shared a heavy laugh as I escorted her out.

  Like always, she bought a couple things for her face and body, then checked out with Dana. Kai had gone home after restocking and cleaning the lobby, so while Dana went to clean the facial rooms, I brought my baby out into the lobby where I’d be for a minute, then went to lock the door. Just as I shut the front door, a woman appeared, staring at me through the glass.

  “We’re closed, I’m sorry,” I expressed.

  “It’s not about a facial. Can you please let me in?” I looked to Avery, my security, and he gave me a nod to say it was fine, and he’d be there to handle it if needed. I trusted him since Tony did, so I let her in.

  “Sorry. I meant to come by earlier, but I just couldn’t get away from those damn promotional interviews.” The girl talked to me as if we were old friends. She did look familiar.

  Shutting the door behind her, I questioned, “What can I help with?”

  “Right.” She took a deep breath, looking around my shop. “Wow, this place is beautiful and smells so good… just like you.” Her eyes finally landed back over here. It was like she was examining me.

  “Okay, you can go—”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes to take a deep breath. “My name is Roxie, and I came here to talk to you about my man.”

  Oh, she was that rapper Roxie.

  “Excuse me?”

  “My boyfriend, or now ex-boyfriend somewhat, has been messing around with you—”

  “No, not unless your boyfriend is my fucking husband, you got the wrong one, sweetie. And you better not be talking about Houston Terranova.”

  Was this the pregnant hoe? I was ready to wring her ass like a fucking dishtowel. Her eyes darted down to my fists balled at my sides, so she backed up some. I then remembered the pregnant bitch was supposedly a Pink Cherry waitress, so I relaxed.

  “Wait, no, no, I am not dating him, nor do I even know Tony like that,” she quickly let me know with her hands up. “My man’s name is Mackenzie, but he goes by Mac King, a producer. However, from the looks of things, it doesn’t seem like you’re returning his feelings.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “It’s just, why would he break up with me if he wasn’t getting anywhere with you? And I tracked his phone here earlier.”

  “Sounds like you need to be asking your man that and not me. But I
am happily married and not interested in being involved in you guys’ bullshit.”

  “I know but—”

  “There is no but. My nigga is insane, do you understand? He will kill all of us if he even thinks your man wonders about me.”

  “Yeah, I heard Wacko is off.”

  “So don’t come back around here with this shit, okay? Or I will be forced to fuck you up.”

  “Ye-yeah, okay.”

  Avery opened the door to allow her to leave, then he laughed lowly at me.

  “What?” I gazed up at him.

  “You funny. I swear you’re one of the nicest people I know but crazy, just like your husband.”

  “I’m not crazy, just don’t fuck with me.”

  “Right.” He chuckled, and I did the same as I got back to work.

  It was definitely time for me to let Tony know about Mac and his antics. I just knew his pursuit of me was on the low, but if he had his girlfriend coming to try and check me, that meant he was louder and prouder about it than I thought.

  The last thing I wanted was for what Roxie thought to get into the wrong person’s hands, and then for that person to hand it over to Tony. Everyone knew my husband was a shoot first, ask later when it came to me, and I didn’t want to be responsible for yet another dumb nigga’s death.

  Lord, help me.

  Just two days later…

  Today, Tony and I were taking our son to the zoo. I’d been wanting him to see animals for the longest, but Tony was giving me a hard time. Finally, I was able to convince him, and I was so excited for my little baby to see everything.

  Tony paid for us to have a private tour of the zoo, and I felt like that was best. The less people, the less likely he would end up punching, embarrassing, or pistol whipping somebody. To prevent anything from happening, it needed to just be the three of us plus the tour guide, and I was even worried about him.

  “Alrighty, are we ready to roll!” The older white man, Alan, who would be taking us through the zoo, shouted, clapping his hands.

  “Yes! Aren’t we, baby?” I peered over the stroller to look down at my son who just smiled when he saw my face. We had his stroller bed positioned upright so he could see.

  “Chill out with all that weird shit, cuz.” Tony frowned at the sun beaming down on him. I elbowed his ass to make sure he was nice.

  Alan just laughed, I guess finding Tony’s response funny.

  We started to walk and first stopped by where the big giraffes were. Alan talked to us about them for a little bit, throwing in cool facts here and there. I looked down at my baby, and his little eyes were wide out of amazement, as he talked a mile a minute in baby gibberish.

  “You look nice today.” Tony grabbed a handful of my ass and kissed on my neck, ignoring Alan.

  “Thanks, baby.” I smirked.

  Tony got behind me to hug my body as Alan continued to talk, and even though I wanted him to pay attention, his embrace felt too nice for me to nudge him off.

  For the next hour, we looked at a whole bunch of animals and even got to feed some of them lettuce. They even had African honey badgers, which we learned were mean and violent as hell. Tony liked those, and it was the only time he actually listened to Alan’s speeches on animals.

  For the others, of course, Tony didn’t want to participate, which I found hilarious. He did, however, remove our son from the stroller so he could get a somewhat closer look at some of the animals. My little baby was so excited.

  We took a break to eat lunch, use the bathroom, and so I could change my baby’s diaper. After that, we were back on for the last thirty minutes.

  “Okay. Last stop, which is my favorite, the gorillas.” Alan parked.

  We got out of the little truck we’d been riding in, to get a closer look at the gorillas, while Alan explained their history.

  “They’re so big, huh, baby?” I had my son on my hip, pointing to the large animal that was standing near the gate.

  “Would you like to feed it some leaves?” Alan offered, walking over to me with a bucket of leaves.

  “Hurry this shit up. I don’t like the way cuz is looking at me.” Tony glared at the huge gorilla. Oh Lord. “Give me my damn son ’fore this nigga try to eat him.” He took our baby from me as I chuckled.

  Tony put our son in the stroller, while I fed the gorilla a few of the leaves.

  “See, he’s friendly.” Alan laughed, I guess still thinking of Tony’s comments.

  “Yeah, he too friendly.” Tony walked up next to me. “Quit feeding him that shit. I don’t like the way this nigga looking at you.” Tony snatched the leaves from me. “Fuck on somewhere.” He threw them in the gorilla’s face rudely.

  “Baby, he’s just an animal!”

  “I don’t give a fuck what this shit is! Flirting with my bitch like I ain’t right here.” Turning to Alan, he continued. “Aye, cuz, take us back to where the fuck we came from ’fore I shoot his big back ass, and knock you the fuck out for condoning this bullshit,” Tony fussed.

  “Oh my gosh.” I shook my head as I went to check on my baby.

  Alan’s smiled disappeared, and as we tread back to the truck, me pushing the stroller, the gorilla roared, prompting Tony to whip back around.

  “Who the fuck you talking shit too, cuz?” Tony swiftly pulled his gun out, which I didn’t even know he had or how he’d gotten it past security.

  “Houston!” I screeched as he charged toward the gate with it.

  “Sir!” Alan shouted, voice trembling, so it was obvious he was afraid.

  Rushing over, I tugged on his arm as he held the gun out, right at this poor gorilla. Intelligently, the gorilla turned away, running off to do something, hopefully it wasn’t to go get his gorilla homies.

  “That’s what the fuck I thought.” Tony tucked his gun in his waist and walked back toward the truck with me. “Fuck you looking at, nigga?” He sneered at a gaping Alan, who damn near flew to the driver’s seat afterward.

  We rode in silence for a little bit before I said, “I cannot believe you almost shot that gorilla.”

  “Told you if I see a nigga even look at you, it’s a wrap. And cuz was talking shit.”

  “He’s a harmless animal, Houston.”

  “That big muthafucka wasn’t harmless, trying to make you his bitch right in front of me. That shit got me tight.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to hold in my laughter, but I couldn’t. He was so serious right now. His handsome face was covered with a sexy frown, as his chest rose and fell.

  “You are crazy.”

  “Told you hood niggas don’t go places like this, Buttascotch, but yo’ ass don’t listen. Old disrespectful ass animals.”

  “I’m sorry, baby.” I used his chin to turn his face toward me then kissed him. Looking at my son in his carrier, I cooed. “Daddy is insane, huh? Isn’t he?”

  Hopefully that gorilla wasn’t traumatized. This would be our very last zoo trip as a family. Plus, I was sure we were banned.

  28

  Rubie

  I said a little prayer before I got out of my car to go inside of the building where Tony’s office was located. It was huge, and he only used a few of the floors then leased out the rest, which I thought was smart.

  We called it the Make A Killing headquarters, but he never officially named it that. It was just where all official business was done, including meetings and any new contract signings.

  I waved to the receptionist, Anita, as I pranced by to get on the elevator, holding my son’s carrier. I’d breastfed him in the car, so he was passed out, milk wasted, with his cute self.

  It seemed like I made it up to where Tony’s office was, quicker than usual. Using my fingerprint to get onto the floor, something Tony implemented so he could track every single person who came in, I made it through a pair of steel doors.

  “Good afternoon, Rubie.” Alejandra smiled.

  I remembered when her ass was all rude and snobby. But something went down between h
er, Camarih, and Tony a minute ago, and ever since, she was the assistant from heaven.

  “Afternoon. I’m here for my one fifteen p.m. appointment.”

  “Yes, I see it here. He should be ready for you soon. Would you like something to drink?”

  “Sparkling water with lemon, please.”

  “Of course.” Alejandra switched off.

  She didn’t dress as slutty anymore either. When she first came around, her clothes would be so damn tight, I knew exactly what she looked like naked. Now she dressed more appropriately, rocking clothes that were actually her size.

  She returned with my water, and I’d only taken a few sips before she let me know Tony was ready and escorted me to the back.

  Upon entering his office, I was relieved to see he wasn’t in here already. I needed a little more time to prep myself for this conversation. I was hoping he went along with things, because I was sick and tired of Mark Vegas blowing up my damn email and phone.

  Inhaling sharply, I cupped my knees nervously, liking the scent of Tony’s cologne that was in the air, even though he wasn’t here.

  “My bad.” He walked in, going straight to his desk. He was wearing a Nike tracksuit, simple but clean, and I could still tell he was rich.

  “No worries. I will make this quick.” I watched as he stood behind his desk, looking at some papers. His head slowly popped up, and he gave me a look. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were ready.” I rose from the soft couch, leaving my son on it, and sat in the chair right across from Tony’s desk. “I have a great PR proposal for Miko. You know who Big Dane is?”

  “Yeah.” He folded his arms, looking down at me. He was still standing.

  “What if we put he and Miko in a relationship. They’re both hot right now, and that would drum up a lot of publicity. If they—”

  “No.” He sat down.

  “Wait, what? Why?”

  “Because I don’t fuck with his people, so I’m not about to help them get money.” He powered on his computer. “You know that old whopper head ass muthafucka you used to work for is his manager, right?”

  “Yeah, I know that. But see, this is just business, and—”