by Lala Wilder
“Put your fucking hands behind your heads. Quick!” I yell, pointing my gun in the face of everyone who looks my way. “Put your fucking hands where I can see them.”
Everyone does exactly what we tell them to do. And after being locked down for down near a year having someone tell me when to eat, sleep, shit or even pop my pussy, this power shit feels fucking amazing.
While everyone’s laid out on the floor, we jump over the bar, bust open the registers, scooping out as much cash as we can.
We have female customers empty their purses and the niggas shake out their pockets.
We collect enough cash to last us a good little while.
But then, I think of something. “follow me,” I tell Queen.
Queen looks over at me with a confused expression on her face. “Bitch, we got to get your daughter and bounce.”
“I said, follow me.” I run out of the room, toward the back hall.
**
I rush Vex’s office, expecting him to be prepared for a fight. But when I get there, the nigga is stumbling around, grabbing his bloody nose and looking all disoriented and woozy.
So, I cock the gun and point it at his head. “Don’t move motherfucker,” I tell him quietly.
Queen runs in after me. “We got to go, Raven. If we leave these niggas laid out there too long, somebody’s going to grab their phone and call 5-0.”
“Just hold up a second,” I tell her. I feel a warm feeling taking over. Every bone in my body is screaming, This is your chance to have it all.
Tears are now spilling from Vex’s eyes, slipping down his face and mixing in with all that nasty ass blood leaking from his nose. “Please Raven. I don’t want to die,” he says all weak and shit.
I don’t have a sympathetic bone in my body. If I let this nigga go, he’ll just live to fuck me over just like everybody else in this cold, cruel world. All I know is, if it’s going to be one heartless motherfucker, that bitch is going to be me.
I cock the gun.
“Raven, no,” Queen whispers.
I fire off six rounds into Vex’s face. He stumbles back three times, then falls to the floor, a headless corpse of the powerful man I once knew.
Queen doubles over, grabs her belly and vomits all over the floor. “I got to find a bathroom,” she whispers weakly.
While she stumbles out of the room, I walk over to Vex’s desk and knock his name plate to the floor. The pointy edge jams into his chest.
I step over his lifeless body and sit down in his huge leather chair.
“This is my shit now,” I say out loud to nobody but myself really. Raven Black, owner of PlayBar.” I set my gun on the desktop smile. “Yeah, that shit sounds perfect.”
Chapter Fifteen
NATALEE
First there’s a banging sound. Then something slides across the door.
Pounding on the walls just outside the door prompts me to run over and try to push it. It’s stuck. “This shit’s locked,” I tell Tomi, jiggling door.
A loud smashing sound comes from the floor above and then people start screaming. “Hit the floor,” a voice shouts from upstairs. More screaming. And then gunshots.
Scared, I run back to Tomi. She pulls me in close and we stand there, shook.
“You think they know we’re in here?” I ask Tomi.
“Hopefully not,” she says pulling me close.
Her lip is still dripping from being punched in the mouth by Vex, so I reach up and touch it soft and carefully. “Damn, this shit looks like it hurts,” I tell her. “We have to put something on it.”
“It’s not that bad,” she says, trying to tuck her swollen lips in, but the minute her teeth drag across her fleshy lips, she winces in pain.
We’re standing so close I smell the peppermint on her breath. I don’t know what comes over me. Maybe it’s seeing Tomi trying to fight through the pain. Maybe the memory of her fighting Vex off of me.
But first I’m stroking her lips. Then her chin. And then my lips press into hers and we’re kissing. A warm feeling explodes inside me, as she sticks the tip of her tongue inside my mouth. When she picks me up, I wrap my legs around her waist, and she carries me over to the makeup bar.
She sets me down gently and pulls me closer to her. We lock lips for what seems like forever, before she pulls away and stares deep into my eyes. “I’m falling in love with you,” she tells me.
I can’t do anything but nod. I mean, what else could this feeling be?
The way I’m feeling about Tomi right now, I’ve never felt about anyone. Not Vex. Not Troy. Not even Sam, my first boyfriend.
“I think I love you too,” I tell her shyly. I’ve never been with a woman before, but everything in this moment feels right. And I decide, for once, to let love guide me. And not what a nigga has in his pockets.
Tomi leans in for another kiss, when the sound of something sliding away from the door distracts us. We both look toward the door, as it slowly creaks open.
A woman steps into the room, looks right at Tomi and says, “Baby?”
Tomi’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open—like she’s looking at a ghost. “Queen?” she says. “When the fuck did you get out?”
Chapter Sixteen
RAVEN
By the time I run up the stairwell to get Kayla, it’s pitch-black outside. My heart drops when I don’t see them at first. An overwhelming feeling of relief washes over me when I spot Spyce holding Kayla’s hand over by the ledge of the roof.
“Kayla,” I walk towards my daughter, convinced today will be the first day of the rest of her new life. After tonight, there will be nothing my daughter will ever want for again. She will live like Royalty. Shit, I should start calling her Queen.
“Kayla, baby. Mommy’s here,” The closer I get to my beautiful chocolate brown daughter, with those doe-like eyes and deep, deep dimples, the faster my feet carry me to her.
That’s when Spyce turns her face in my direction. The moonlight shines down onto her cheeks, and for a second, Spyce looks almost like African royalty herself. Tall, high cheekbones, regal, and powerful.
Then, her face twists. And the ugliest expression washes over her entire face.
In an instant, Spyce reaches down, scoops up my daughter, flips her upside and sends her body off the side of the roof ledge.
“No!” I scream.
I start to run by Spyce stops me with her words. “Move one more step closer and I’m flinging her,” she says in a very calm, even voice.
My daughter’s screams rip at my heart and deaths shadow haunts me as I watch her helplessly dangle by her ankles.
I won’t move an inch closer and risk my daughter’s life. So, I drop to my knees instead. “Please, Spyce. Please. Don’t do this.” I lace my fingers together in prayer hands. I bow my head so low I’m almost kissing the ground. “Please Spyce. She’s all I have in the world. Please.”
Spyce sneers in my direction. “Bitch, you were planning to blow my brains out. What you thought? I was just going to let that shit slide?” She shakes my daughter by the ankles and Kayla’s wails light up the night sky. “Bitch, I’m going to make you regret the day you ever fixed your mind to cross me.”
Spyce smiles, turns back to my daughter and says, “You ready to say your prayers, Kayla?”
“Mommy!” Kayla screams.
Then—Spyce drops her.