Pitbulls In a Skirt 3

by Mikal Malone

  “Well they should.” He paused. “Look, I’m not trying to make you mad. But had Mercedes still been fucking with Dreyfus on that Tyland Towers shit, you would not be working for him right now. He thinks you’re going to fail or worse, get killed. When that happens, he figures she’d come crawling back to him.”

  “Maybe or maybe not. But had moms took me seriously I would not be dealing with him.”

  “You right and I always believed when you were ready to do what you wanted, you would do just that. I just ain’t know you had your mind all the way made until now.”

  “Now you do.”

  “Cameron, I know you are ready for the business aspect of this game. I remember your father spending time with you and showing you what was what. I just want you to know that passing the product and collecting the profit ain’t it. There’s more to it.”

  “Like what?”

  “This is a people game. You have to learn how to get people to do what you want them to do, but not because they fear you, but because they respect you.”

  “Fuck respect.” C said. “I’m taking it back to the Roman times.” Derrick was confused at his statement. “I was studying that shit real heavy when I was in school and I got it all figured out. I’m like Julius Caesar. Just like me, his people expected that when he finished school he’d get a modest job and build his career. But we both realized one thing and that’s money is the key to everything.” C laughed to himself. “And just like me, his father Lucius died when he was a teenager.”

  “You just don’t get it.”

  “Naw…naw,” C said slowly. “You don’t get it. Shit is changing with me. I’m at a point in my life where I can’t go back to doing what I was doing. And if people got a problem with that, they need to get the fuck out of my way.”

  Derrick gave C some dap and said, “Alright, young nigga. Good luck on your thing, and if you need me, know that I’m here.”

  “Indeed.”

  “…she’s causing a problem between me and someone I love.”

  - Mercedes

  When we walked into Kenyetta’s apartment, we couldn’t believe how nasty everything was. We knew she was not the same, but this apartment did not speak to the fly, eccentric and fun loving friend we’d all known.

  “Lock the door, Mercedes,” Yvette told me. “We don’t want whoever came in here and killed her, to come in here and fuck with us next.”

  I locked the door and we all stood in her living room. Fresh blood stains where they found her rested on the floor. Although they said the cause of death was due to asphyxiation, they also said her fingertips had been cut off. We guessed to get rid of the DNA from her scratching whoever was killing her.

  “Anybody tell her boyfriend, Cheese?” Yvette said.

  “Yeah…my boyfriend told him.” Carissa said.

  “Well…let’s get to work,” I said hating the sound of her voice.

  “I’ll work in the bedroom,” Carissa said looking at Yvette. We still hadn’t spoken since the funeral and I would just as soon leave it that way.

  “Aight.”

  “So what do you want to do with her clothes?” Carissa asked. “Throw them away?”

  “Throw them away?” I asked acknowledging her for the first time since we drove over there together. “You want to get rid of our best friend that easily?”

  “You’re not the only one who lost somebody, Mercedes. We lost our best friend, too. I hate when you try to make stuff out to be about you.” Carissa flopped on the couch instead of going into the bedroom.

  “I know you lost a friend too, I guess I’m taken it a little harder than you that’s all.”

  “Let’s just chill out for little while and think things through. It’s not important that we take her stuff out of her apartment today.” Yvette said.

  “So what is important? Because I’m confused right now.” Carissa said.

  “Well, if you ask me I think we should look into who the fuck killed her. Why don’t ya’ll wanna talk about that shit?”

  “Because it could be anybody.” I said.

  “We need to look into this shit to find out what the fuck went on. Let’s put our heads together, who would kill her?” Yvette said.

  “Do you think that Dreyfus did this?” Carissa said.

  “FUCK NO!” I yelled. “He wouldn’t do no shit like that!”

  “Why wouldn’t he?” Yvette said. “He cut us off of everything. And I don’t know about ya’ll but I can’t even show my face in EC no more.”

  “So what can we do about it?” I asked. “I mean, he’s Dreyfus. If he did do it, we can’t put a move on him like that.”

  “Or can we?” Carissa said. “He got dick and balls just like the rest of them niggas we killed. So what makes Dreyfus any different?”

  Silence.

  “I can’t believe we just buried Kenyetta. I can’t believe that a member of our family has been killed again.” I said.

  “Well believe it. We buried her and she’s gone. And I might sound like I don’t give a fuck but that’s not the case.” Carissa and I broke out in tears and Yvette looked at us displeasingly. “I can’t believe my girls are this fucking weak now. When we get here? When did we get to a point where we aren’t strong enough to do what was necessary to survive? Kenyetta may be gone and I might be mean, but right now our lives are in danger. Niggas just totally disrespected us and we might be next.”

  “Do you understand that Kenyetta, our best friend, was murdered recently? We’re not talking about some average nigga in the hood, Yvette. We’re talking about a friend we’ve loved most of our lives. I know you hard bodied and we need you to be that way sometimes, but are you that cold that you can move on without at least grieving?” I said.

  Her jaw tightened and she said, “So what would you have me do? Cry?” Yvette said looking at us. “Let’s say I cry right now, and then you cry some more, and then you cry, then what?” She looked at both of us. “How far will we get by acting like sissies? Somebody has to be the one to push forward and I’m that someone.” She paused. “Now I love Kenyetta just like y’all, but if I fell apart like you two how much better would that make me or this situation?”

  “So it sounds to me like you already have a plan.” Carissa said.

  “Do you? If so what is it?” I asked.

  “I’m not feeling C working for Dreyfus, and we need to try our hardest to do what we can to stop him.”

  “You know C gonna do what he want to, Yvette.” I said.

  “Yeah, including fucking my daughter.”

  I was so tired of hearing her mouth that I made a decision. I was going to do whatever I had to do to end their possible relationship. I didn’t want to give this bitch the satisfaction of thinking my son needed to be with anything she popped out of that pussy.”

  “You know what, Carissa, give me a few days, and trust me, that relationship will be done.”

  She seemed uncomfortable about my promise. “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing, I’ma prove to C that she ain’t worth his time.”

  “Ya’ll finished?” Yvette asked.

  “Yeah, go ‘head.” I said.

  “I think we should step to Dreyfus again. See if we can do anything to call a truce at this point. Once we’re there, we can feel him out and see if he was involved in her murder.”

  “Yeah…and maybe even get Emerald back.” Carissa said.

  “I don’t want it back.” I said.

  “Well if there’s a chance for me to get it back I want it, but that’s not my concern right now. My only concern is keeping my friends safe.” Yvette said.

  “Okay. I’ll set up a meeting with Dreyfus.” Mercedes said.

  “Don’t do it yet.” Yvette said. “Before we do anything, we need to get our households together. Let’s focus on our personal lives and lay low for a few days. I don’t think any of us should stay in EC right now either. Carissa you stay on your Yacht, I’ll stay in Georgetown and you at the Harbor, Mercedes. Wh
en we meet back up, I need my crew to be hardcore again. Can’t nobody fuck with us when we got the right mind. So get it together. You got a week.”

  After the meeting with Yvette I realized I had to do something to break up C and Persia and I knew just what to do. I was waiting on the outside of a deli and was freezing my ass off. I would’ve waited in my car, but I wanted to be somewhere public when I met him. It’s not that I was scared of him, but I didn’t really know him like that either.

  Five minutes later, Zulo came walking up to me in a black Burberry coat and blue jeans. He was attractive but it made me mad that he was fucking Persia. Zulo had to be at least thirty-two years old.

  “What’s up, Mercedes? Why you wanna meet out here?”

  “Look, this won’t take long.”

  “You need me to do something?”

  “Yeah, I need you to step to Persia. But I need you to step to her hard.” A guilty look rested on his face. “Look, I know you fucking with the girl or have fucked with her. I’m not out here judging you or anything like that. But she is causing a problem between me and someone I love. So I need you to consume her time. Fully.”

  “Okay.” He said shaking due to the cold. “What’s in it for me?”

  I dug in my pocket and handed him one thousand dollars. “That should be enough for wining and dining. And since I know you fucking her for free, that’s more than a fair price.”

  He smiled and said, “After I finish with her, she won’t have eyes for anybody else. Believe that.”

  “I’m gonna be ready for you when you get here. It’s gonna be just me and you.”

  - Carissa

  I was in my Yacht, and on my fifth cup of Hennessy waiting on Slack to come over. I didn’t have any more coke, and hoped when he came over he’d bring some with him. Yvette had given us a week to get shit together, and I decided I’d quit before then.

  After putting my gun in my drawer, I thought about how it had been a while since I’d seen him. He said he couldn’t come to the funeral because he was out of town, and I understood. After the fight me and Mercedes had, I was glad he didn’t come anyway. Damn I couldn’t wait to see my boyfriend. Slack said he wanted to spend some time alone with me, and I wanted to spend some time alone with him, too. I needed to feel his touch.

  My youngest daughter Treasure was at her best friend’s house spending the night and Persia was in the living room with her friend Sugar. Her mother said she was coming to get them both so that me and Slack could spend some time alone and I couldn’t wait till she got there. But already it was eight o’clock and she hadn’t shown. Slack would be here in an hour.

  When my phone vibrated, I walked into the living room and scooped it up. It was Slack. His text message read, ‘I’m on my way. We still on for some alone time right?’

  Fuck! Where was Sugar’s mother?

  Not really wanting to lie I responded, ‘I’m gonna be ready for you when you get here. It’s gonna be just me and you.’

  When I walked into my living room I saw Persia and Sugar. I was still kind of mad with her because she didn’t come home ‘til three in the morning. When I asked her where she was, she said she got caught over Sugar’s house and couldn’t get a ride back to the Docks. But I didn’t believe her. I would’ve pressed the issue a little more if I thought she was with C, but he was over Yvette’s house in Georgetown helping her put up her lights for Christmas. With everything going on, it didn’t seem like Christmas would be in two weeks.

  “I can’t believe ya’ll are still here,” I said. “I figured you’d be gone by now.”

  “Well we’re not gone.” Persia snapped.

  “Fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Nothing, ma.” She said rolling her eyes.

  “Don’t tell me nothing! What is wrong with you?”

  “She just mad because C popped up on her and Zulo hanging out at a restaurant yesterday.”

  “Uugghhh, bitch, why you say something?”

  “Language!” I screamed which meant I wanted her to watch her mouth.

  “This bitch is so fucking big mouthed!”

  “Fuck that, what does she mean you were out with Zulo and C caught you?” I said not believing their little relationship was coming to an end already.

  “Yeah, and how C know I was going to be there, ma?” She said with a lot of sass in her voice. “It’s mighty convenient that he knew exactly where I was going to be.”

  “Well it wasn’t me…” I said going off into my own thoughts. “Because I never know where you are.”

  And then it dawned on me; Mercedes posed idle threats about ending their relationship the other day, maybe this was her way of doing it.

  “If anything it was your Aunt Mercedes.”

  “Aunt Mercedes?”

  “Yeah, she didn’t want ya’ll to be together so maybe she fixed the situation to happen.”

  “But why doesn’t she want me to be with him?” She said choking back tears.

  “I don’t know.”

  “And why did she call me a whore?”

  Out of everything, I knew she was hurt by that comment most of all. And although I was mad at Mercedes, I didn’t want them to be mad at each other forever. After all, we were still family.

  “She didn’t mean it, she was just mad. Don’t charge that to her heart.”

  “Whatever,” she said wiping the tears off of her face, still angry.

  “Are you going to help us get the last of your aunt’s things out of her apartment tomorrow?”

  “I said I would,” she said. “So I don’t even know why you would ask me that. I loved her, too.”

  “You sure that’s the only reason? Or the fact that you want her Birken bags?”

  “Ma, I do want the bags but that’s not why I’m helping out.”

  “Whatever, just make sure Sugar’s mother brings you back in enough time to leave.”

  “She will,” Sugar added. “And I’m sorry about your loss, Miss Carissa.”

  Sugar was a sneaky girl who was fake enough to be likable when she was in my presence. But fake or not, I smelled her ass the moment I saw her conniving eyes.

  “Thanks, Sugar.”

  “Okay, ma, we’ll let you know when Mrs. Michaels gets here. So can you get outta our face now please? We’re busy.”

  “Busy checking Facebook. You need to stay off the internet, Persia.”

  “You mean stay off of it like you?”

  “What is that supposed to mean? I ain’t got no Facebook page.”

  “You might not have a Facebook page but you still on the internet.”

  My curiosity was peaked and I had to know what she was talking about.

  “What you mean? I said I don’t have a Facebook page and if I have one on there, it’s fake.”

  “I’m just playing, ma, dang! You don’t have a Facebook but you do have a video up on Hood Celeb Bang Out.”

  “A video up?” I said feeling my face heat up.

  “Yep, of you and Slack. He posted it. So you see, ma, you got a lot of growing up to do, too.”

  I stopped what I was doing and said, “Show me! Show me right now!”

  I didn’t know how to use computers that well. We never had to use them on the block. So I needed my daughter, who I didn’t want to look at me having sex, to pull it up. It took one minute for her to go to the page and show me the video and my heart throbbed with anger. It was a different video than the one Mercedes first showed me.

  “What! How can these people allow this shit?”

  “I don’t know. They got all kinds of hood royalty on this page.”

  “And you knew this shit was up there for how long?”

  “A couple of days. Why?”

  “You don’t think nothing is wrong with your mother’s pussy being out for all to see?”

  “It ain’t your pussy it’s your mouth.”

  I smacked her and said, “Persia, get the fuck in the room now!” Her friend jumped out of the way to avoid my wrath and she
probably should have.

  “Why you hit me?” She sobbed.

  “Because I’m sick of your mouth! And tomorrow I want you to report this video for me on that site! Do whatever you have to, just make it go away!” I yelled stomping away toward my room. “And if I find out it’s still on there, I’m holding you personally responsible!”

  When I got to my room my world and my head was spinning. I needed to slow down and I didn’t know the first place to start. I guess since I believe Slack was the culprit, I would start with him. He would have to answer for the shit he did to me and I wasn’t taking anymore of his ‘I don’t know who’s trying to break us up’ bullshit either!

  Fifteen minutes later Slack came over and he was already high. My liquor high had worn off and my feelings were over the chart. After I let him on the Yacht he stepped in and smiled. Something seemed eerie about him and it made me slightly uncomfortable. And when he moved, I saw the handle of his gun peeking from under his shirt.

  “Hey baby,” I kissed him trying not to let on to what I just saw. “Sit down. I’m gonna make you a drink.”

  “Hurry up back, we gotta talk.” He said watching me turn the corner.

  “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

  When I was out of his eyesight I leaned up against the wall and tried to catch my breath. He was here to kill me I just know it, but why? While he was waiting for me in the living room portion of my Yacht, I went to look for my gun in my room but it wasn’t there. Knowing Persia had an obsession with guns, I crept softly toward her room trying not to alert Slack as to where I now was on the boat. From her halfway opened bedroom door, I could see Persia and Sugar sitting on the bed and I could also hear Sugar begging her to stop.

  “Please stop. I hate when you do that.” Sugar pleaded.

  I slowly pushed the door open and saw Persia holding the gun to her head, playing. She had done this plenty times before and I figured I should get her help. And I was mad at myself for being too buzzed to remember to lock my gun drawer when I put it back earlier.

  “Persia, what the fuck are you doing?” I yelled.