by B. Love
I Need A Gangsta
B. Love
Prolific Pen Pusher
Copyright © 2020 by B. Love
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
1. Christian
2. Leigh
3. Maria
4. Them
5. Christian
6. Leigh
7. Maria
8. Them
9. Christian
10. Leigh
11. Maria
12. Them
13. Christian
14. Them
15. Leigh
16. Maria
17. Them
18. Christian
19. Leigh
20. Maria
To be continued…
Heat radiated through Christian’s body as she stared at Tyrell. The calmer he remained, the more irritated she felt. Nostrils flaring, Christian squeezed the center of her dimpled chin. Her legs were planted wide and steady, placing her in the perfect stance to pounce on Tyrell if she needed to.
Glaring at Tyrell didn’t make him give Christian his eyes, so she stepped closer into his space and crossed her arms over her chest as she looked down at him. This wasn’t the first time Christian had reason to believe Tyrell was cheating on her, but this was the first time he’d ever pulled such a bullshit ass stunt. To go as far as to log into her Facebook account and block females to keep them from reaching out to her… now that was low. And suspect as hell.
His action had Christian’s paranoia on a million. He clearly had something to hide, and Christian wouldn’t be able to be at peace until she figured out what the fuck it was.
“You gon’ act like you don’t see me standing here?” Christian took his phone and tossed it to the other side of the room. She didn’t throw it hard enough to crack it, just hard enough to get his attention. “I’m talking to you, bruh.”
Tyrell’s eyes widened and his brows wrinkled as he leaped from his seat. His quick movement caused Christian to stumble back, but she was able to maintain her balance and not fall.
“The fuck wrong with you, Chris? Let this phone be the reason you get your ass beat,” Tyrell warned, pushing her with gentle force and walking to the other side of the living room to grab his phone from the floor.
“Why did you block them bitches from my page, Tyrell? What do you have to hide?”
Releasing an exasperated breath, Tyrell ran his hand down his face as he stuffed his phone into his pocket. Christian couldn’t care less about him being irritated. All of this tension could have been avoided if he would have come clean the moment she confronted him. Instead, he wanted to ignore her and play stupid, then get irritated when she started to cut the hell up.
“If this what you plan on doing all night, I’m going home. I got an early load in the morning, and I’m not about to spend my night arguing with your ass.”
Honestly, Christian had never been the type to argue and go back and forth. Out of all of her twenty-six siblings, Christian was one of the few that was laidback and nonchalant. Her mother had two other children with her father, Ricky. Leigh, the middle sister of the trio, was loud and quick to talk shit because she could easily back it up. Maria, the youngest sister of the trio, was the silent yet violent type.
She never fought unless she absolutely had to, but when she had to, she’d fuck anyone up. With Maria, it was always win or draw. No one had ever been able to say her short, slim stature had been a weakness.
But Christian… Christian was almost always the peaceful, loving sister out of the three. In fact, there were only three sure ways to bring the beast out of her — play with her family, play with her money, or play with her emotions. And right now, Tyrell was trying her emotions and pushing every button she had.
“You can play, but you won’t ever play in my face, Tyrell. I’m only going to ask you one more time, and if you don’t tell me, I’m sure they will.” His eyes widened slightly, but Tyrell quickly lowered them as he squeezed the ball of his nose and sniffled. “Why did you block five women from my fucking phone?”
Tyrell’s shoulders dropped as his head hung. This time, when he sighed, it was in defeat. His eyes met hers, more genuine this time. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Tyrell walked over to her and slowly closed the space between them. Hovering over her five-five frame, he looked down at Christian, causing her to have to look up at him.
“I blocked them to keep them from causing any problems between us,” he confessed softly. “I was with three of them in the past, and they pretty much banned together to fuck up every relationship I get in. As soon as they see that I’m serious about someone, they try to fuck my shit up on social media by messaging her and making it seem like I’m cheating. It worked with the last woman I was with before you, so when we made things official, I blocked them on your page.
Even though you don’t put me on your page, I wanted to be able to post you freely and not have to worry about them finding you and sending you some old-ass screenshots to make it seem like I’m fucking off with them. You made it clear to me that you don’t tolerate lying and cheating, and I knew if they came to you, you probably wouldn’t hear me out. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you, bae. But I was trying to avoid having this conversation with you. Because even though I’m telling you the truth, I know it’s going to make you start to doubt me. Doubt us.”
Well, that was true. Christian had made it clear to Tyrell that she wouldn’t tolerate lying and cheating, nor would she be with a man that had children with other women. Her father left a sour taste in her and her sisters’ mouths because of how he did their mother. Porsha was one of six women that was in a relationship with Ricky and had children with him. The problem was, none of them knew about each other. Over the course of fifteen years, he’d pretty much bounced around six different homes.
The result of that was him having twenty-seven children, three of which he had with Porsha. What made the situation so bad was that Porsha was sure they would get married. She swore she was the only woman in his life. That his weeks away at a time were because of his job — not because of him spending time with another family. When Porsha found out his truth, she was devastated, and so were Christian and her sisters. Even though Maria, the youngest, didn’t know exactly what was going on, she felt the lack of his presence.
With the truth being out, Ricky stopped trying to stretch himself so thin. Eventually, he stopped coming around at all. It took damn near a decade, but Porsha finally rid herself of him enough to move on and start dating again, but the damage had already been done by that point for her children. Each of them handled Ricky’s lifestyle and abandonment differently.
“Why would they seek to destroy your relationships?”
“Because they are miserable as fuck, Chris. They love me, and because they no longer have me, they want to taint my character and keep me from being happy with anyone else. I guarantee you, if you unblock them and post anything about me on your page, they will hit you up with some bullshit about one or all of them being with me. But they’ll never be able to show you present proof. No recent calls or texts from my number or no shit like that. I just didn’t want to risk that with you.”
His hands wrapped around her ears, and as soon as they did, she bit down on her bottom lip and lowered her eyes.
“Open them eyes and look at me,” Tyrell commanded, and Christian obliged. He lowered himself to her lips and kissed her, keeping his ey
es locked with hers. When he pulled away, he said, “I apologize for not being upfront with you, but my intentions were pure. It was because I liked you a lot and I didn’t want to risk anything fucking up what we were trying to build.”
She didn’t believe him one hundred percent, but she probably never would. That wasn’t his fault, it was hers. So Christian nodded and accepted the tender kiss he gave her. When he pulled away, Tyrell lowered his hands to her ass and squeezed.
“We good?” Christian nodded and forced a smile. “Aight. I’m about to piss and shit, then I’ll be ready to go.” She nodded again as he released her. “You know where you want to go eat yet?”
That pepped her up a little as she smiled. “Yes. Crazy Crabs.”
Tyrell’s head shook as he left the living room. “No. Pick something else.”
Christian’s eyes rolled and she groaned. For the past year of their relationship, they always went to try new restaurants together. She’d been anxiously waiting to try Crazy Crabs because everyone had been raving about it, but Tyrell hadn’t wanted to go yet. It felt disloyal going without him since that was their thing, but at this point, she was ready to say fuck it and go on her own.
Besides, the reasoning he gave her for not wanting to go really didn’t make any sense. He would only say that people were hyping it up for no reason. Even though he wasn’t a fan of seafood, they had wings and other things for him to eat as well. There were several times they went to a restaurant that Christian wouldn’t think she’d like, but she went to please him. Every time he denied her request, it pissed her off more and made her feel as if he didn’t care about her desires and interests.
Plopping down onto the couch with a huff, Christian grabbed her phone and pulled Crazy Crabs up on Google. She pulled up the reviews to see if they’d gotten anything lower than a three-star review yet, and they hadn’t. As she glanced through the pictures that people had uploaded of the restaurant and their food, one picture abruptly caught her eye.
Clenching her jaw, Christian tapped the picture and zoomed in. Her eyes had to be deceiving her because it looked like Tyrell was seated with five other people. Three women. With one sitting rather close to him. With her hand on his back, laughing in his face. There was love in her eyes. Scratching her nostril, Christian inhaled a deep breath before chuckling.
Just her luck to find her with the shit-ass nigga on a picture connected to a Google review.
But that would explain why he didn’t care to go to Crazy Crabs.
He’d already been — without her. And apparently, with another woman.
Tyrell walked back into the living room as Christian stared at the picture on her phone.
“You ready?” he asked, picking his Eagles hat up off the couch.
“You said you haven’t gone to Crazy Crabs before?”
Her head tilted as her eyes lifted in his direction. Rolling his tongue around his cheek, Tyrell shook his head. “Nah. Why?”
Not bothering to answer him vocally, Christian lifted her phone so he could see the picture. Again, his shoulders drooped, and head hung.
“How the fuck that get on there?”
“That’s beside the point, Tyrell. You said you haven’t been before and clearly that was a lie!”
Christian stood and pushed past him, heading for her bedroom upstairs.
“I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d be mad about me going without you. That was the night I was chilling with my cousins. They ended up wanting to go there to eat. I didn’t drive, so I had to go where they wanted to go.”
Christian chuckled as she normally did when she was starting to get upset. Her head shook as she headed up the stairs. At this point, she was out of fucks to give. Always ready with the excuses, Tyrell had dug himself into a hole that no amount of sweet talk would be able to get him out of tonight. There was nothing else Christian wanted to hear him say. Because she knew he’d have an excuse as to why he was there with another woman, too.
“And let me guess, the female laughing in your face is your cousin, too?”
“No, but she is Cory’s baby mama’s sister.” Christian laughed as she shook her head and opened the top drawer of her dresser. “Drea wanted to see Cory, so they slid through. We all was talking and shit, but it wasn’t nothing like that, Christian.”
Ignoring him, she fished out a fresh bra and panty set. As Christian headed to the closet in search of something to wear, Tyrell followed behind her.
“You ain’t got nothing to say now, Christian?”
She smiled with one side of her mouth as she cut the light on and stepped inside.
“Quite frankly, I’m sick of your bullshit for the night. You can go.”
“I can go? Did you just dismiss me?”
Her silence was her answer. But Tyrell stood there, watching her push and pull hangers from one side of the rack to another. Finally settling on a long-sleeved, red, lace bodysuit, Christian turned to the back of the closet towards her shoe collection. She’d literally drowned Tyrell’s voice out, allowing his words to go in one ear and out of the other. Choosing her red, thigh-high boots, Christian headed out of the closet and grabbed a pair of black leggings from her dresser drawer.
“Nah. You know I don’t like you wearing them shits when you ain’t with me. Your thick ass tryna give these niggas a show.”
Christian didn’t want to, but she smiled. She was thick as fuck, wearing a size sixteen in jeans with a fat ass to match. But that wouldn’t be Tyrell’s dessert tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow night, either.
“Will you go home? I’m done with your ass for the night.”
Tyrell chuckled as he followed her into the bathroom.
“Then who are you about to go out with? And where you going?”
“Nigga, I got twenty-six brothers and sisters, I’ll pick one.”
After slamming the door in his face, Christian leaned against the sink and began to inhale and exhale deeply. As unbothered as she tried to appear in front of Tyrell, her heart was pounding against her rib cage with the tenacity of the steps of a million men. She’d never let him see her in a light of weakness, but the thought of him cheating on her and playing her to be a fool was enough to have her nerves rattled. As her body shook, Christian turned to face herself in the mirror.
She saw so much of her mother in herself. They shared the same cocoa brown skin tone. Same slanted, coffee-colored eyes. Same oval face, heart-shaped nose and round, pouty lips. But in all the ways they were alike… there were stark differences between the women. And the main one was that Christian vowed to never love a man enough to ever be hurt the way her father hurt her again.
Donovan’s head shook as he leaned against Christian’s 2019 Infiniti QX50. Between it and her Audi R8, the Infiniti was more of her everyday car. He was the first sibling to answer when she called. Leigh was the second, but she was tied up at the moment and said she’d try to meet them there. Out of all of her brothers, Christian was closest to Donovan, Drecco, and Michael, but everyone called him Pressure. They were like the father she lost all wrapped up in one. Donovan and Drecco were twins, but they were as opposite as night and day.
While Donovan was logical, calm, and methodical, Drecco was emotional, wild, and reckless.
Sparking his blunt, Donovan mumbled, “I don’t like that shit, sis.”
Christian stood next to him and looked up into the night sky. He was the only sibling she’d ever talked to about Tyrell, besides Leigh, and when she talked to Leigh, it was to vent — not receive advice. Hell, Leigh had her own fucked up perception and misconceptions when it came to love. There was absolutely nothing she could offer Christian or anyone else on the subject for that matter.
“Why not?”
“Because.” Donovan paused and hit the blunt three times before handing it to Christian. She enjoyed smoking and digesting weed through the edibles she sold out of her bakery — Gucci’s Baked Goods. All three of Ricky and Porsha’s daughters led illegal lifestyles, but you�
�d have to be close to them to know it.
Christian Gucci sold weed-infused baked items.
Leigh Gucci was a hitwoman.
Maria Gucci was a thief and scammer. Whatever you wanted… she was able to get.
“You don’t seem comfortable and secure with this nigga, and you’ve been with him for a year now. You should be both.”
Christian couldn’t deny that, so she didn’t even try to. Instead, she asked, “Why is that a bad thing if I’m not?”
“Because without comfort, you’ll never truly be open to vulnerability and intimacy. And without security, you’ll never really be able to trust him. Love ain’t shit, sis. Your pops proved that. It’s a whole lotta other shit you need to make a relationship work. And if he ain’t giving you those things, he ain’t worth you.”
“That’s true. I never thought about it like that.”
Christian handed Donovan back the blunt, allowing his words to settle within her mind.
They continued to smoke in silence. When they were done, she locked her SUV, and they headed for the restaurant. The hostess told them that there would be a twenty-minute wait, and neither of them were in a rush at that point, so it was cool. At the bar, they both ordered The Four Horsemen, and Christian regretted it as soon as the bartender placed the four shots of different kinds of brown liquor in front of her.
Donovan knocked all four of his back in less than five seconds, effortlessly. He laughed when he looked over at her and saw the twisted expression on her face.
“How in the hell do you do that shit, bro?”
“I drank. That’s how.” He flashed her the smile women pined over and motioned towards her shots. “Stop stalling. You know we don’t babysit no liquor.”