by K Elliott
"Can I come in; I know she's not here."
"And how do you know that?"
"Saw her leave a couple of days ago and she hasn't returned."
"And how do you know all of that."
"Can I come in?"
He moved aside and let her inside and closed the door and said, "You fucking stalker."
"What?"
"Yes, you're a stalker."
"You think so?. All I want is my son's father to spend time with him and I'm a goddamned stalker." She laughed. "All my friends told me all you black dudes are the fucking same, but no I didn't listen to them. I wanted to fuck with a bad boy. I wanted a drug dealer and this is what I got, a man that don't want to see his son."
"You know thatis ain't true. You know goddamned well thatis ain't true. I love my son."
"When are you gonna play catch with him then? That's all he ever says, my daddy is gonna play catch with me because he told me, but then you don't show up."
"You know this shit ain't about T. J. It's about you wanting me, and I don't wanna be with you."
"What the fuck does Starr have over me, and what kind of name is Starr anyway?. That is has to be the most ghetto name I've ever fuckin heard. Who names their kid Starr?"
"I knew thatis is what this was about!"
"Just because she has a huge ghetto ass, is that a reason to be with somebody? Because she don't work, she's gonna have you dealing drugs for the rest of your life or maybe spending the rest of your life in jail to keep up her ghetto fabulous lifestyle."
Trey said, "First of all, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and second of all, she does have a job."
"I hope you ain't still saying she does hair because that bitch is never at the salon."
"Jessica, what do you want from me? Just give me T. J. every other week and I will give you two thousand dollars a month. You know if we go to court, you ain't gonna get shit."
"Because you ain't earning shit legally."
"What the fuck do you want from me?"
"I want you to be with me and T. J. That's what I want."
"Listen I want to see my son, but I can't leave my girl to be with you. I love Starr."
Her mascara was now running. She didn't want to believe that he didn't want her. Why didn't he want her? She was attractive, educated and unlike Starr, she had a real job as an R.N.
Trey said, "You knew I was with her when we were fucking around. I told you that."
"But you liked me. You told me that too, remember?"
"Hey look, I was going through some things at the time. I'm sorry I told you that. I'm sorry we're going through this. I really am."
Jessica said, "Whatever." Sniffling through tears. He felt bad for her. He didn't like to see women cry.
She asked, "Do you have any tissue?"
He pointed to the bathroom.
Chapter 8
Rodriguez entered the modest Fulton County home. It was bare except for a sofa and a TV. It was cold inside. Typical drug stash house. They headed to the kitchen. Two duffle bags on the floor. Chris removed zip lock bags of marijuana and placed them on the table. The weed was lime green in color and the strong scent lit up the room.
Rodriguez picked up the weed, unzipped the baggie, and said, "This smells old and the color is too dark."
Chris said, "Nobody has said that but you."
Rodriguez said, "So how much you want for this?"
"We've already discussed prices. You know what my price is."
"But I'm buying so many this time and plus, this is not the best color."
Chris was getting angry. He knew he had a good product. He'd sold over a thousand in the last couple of days. Nobody else had said anything about the price of the weed. Nobody had anything to say about the color. He'd driven all the way from Peachtree City to make this transaction and now this nigga was acting like he wanted to renege.
Chris said, "Do you want the weed or not?"
Rodriguez exchanged text messages with somebody and then said, "Can we work on the price?"
Chris said, "The price is the price." Then they heard a thundering sound from the front door.
Goons kicked in the back door leading to the kitchen.
Chris ran to the drawer on the other side of the kitchen but by the time he opened the drawer to get his gun it was too late.
Three masked men stood in the kitchen. One of them placed a gun to the temple of Chris's head. "Where is the work, nigga?"
One of the other men told Rodriguez, "Get your bitch ass down before I blast you."
Rodriguez trying to play it off, "Please don't kill me, I have a son man, please don't hurt me." Then he emptied his pockets, dumping a small amount of cash on the floor. "I got more cash in the car, just don't shoot me."
"Motherfucker, shut the fuck up!"
"Where the fuck is the work?" the other man asked Chris.
"That's all I got here."
"Where is the money?"
"Ain't no money here."
The man cocked the hammer of the gun. "I'm gonna ask you one more time. Where is the money?"
"There ain't no money."
He slapped Chris with the gun and fired it at the same time.
Chris said, "There's fifty grand upstairs in a suitcase in the bedroom in the back but that's all I got here."
They pistol-whipped Chris until he was unconscious. Blood oozed from his nose, both of his eyes were swollen from the impact of the pistol and his bottom tooth was knocked out.
The third man went upstairs and retrieved the suitcase. The three men left.
Rodriguez picked Chris up from the floor, staggered with him until he reached his car, then drove him to the hospital and told the emergency room receptionist that he was a stranger and had picked him up on side of the road.
Chapter 9
Jada met Craig in a gated townhome community in Dunwoody. It was a tri-level brick townhome with a two-car garage. Jada thought it was rather plain considering it had more security that the White House. Craig opened the door wearing a white robe with an unlit cigar dangling from his mouth. He kissed her and said, "I have a surprise for you."
"I love surprises."
With that stupid looking cigar hanging from his mouth he said, "I know you do, follow me."
He led her to a room that looked like a man cave with a leather sofa and a huge plasma TV. Two shopping bags rested on the sofa.
There were two shoe-boxes inside the bags.
She opened the first box; there was a pair of heels, basic and cute. She opened the second box; there was a pair of peep toe wedges she saw Beyonc? wearing on one of the blogs. "Oh my God! How did you know?"
"I saw you looking at them on your iPad the day I visited your hotel room."
She eased out of her shoes and slid into the wedges.
"Where is your mirror?"
He directed her to a closet. "Open that closet. There's a full length mirror on the other side of the closet."
She pranced with her new shoes on, feeling like a princess. Not that she wasn't used to shoes. There had been times that Shamari would just hand her thousands of dollars and tell her to get what she wanted. But with all the drama going on, she hadn't been able to go shopping. She appreciated Craig treating her like a princess. She grinned and posed in the mirror.
He said, "Guess you don't like the first pair?"
"I like them, it's just that I love the wedges."
"I can tell when you don't like something."
She said, "Hey I like them, what I don't like is that stupid cigar hanging from your mouth."
He frowned. "Not cool?"
She said, "Not cool at all, but you tried."
He removed the cigar and said, "I really don't smoke. I just like to pretend to look cool."
She said, "The hobbies of rich men."
He said, "Well since you didn't like the shoes, maybe you'll like this." He presented her a jewelry box.
She tore into it immediately and
removed the diamond watch. She said, "Wow, this is amazing. You really didn't have to do this." She admired the sparkling watch.
She embraced Craig and said, "Thank you so much. You're so amazing."
"You deserve the best."
"Why did you have to be married?" She could really see herself falling for this man if the circumstances were right. She liked him a lot, but she still loved Shamari.
He said, "I don't believe you would be with me. Would you? You like the bad boys, the drug dealer lifestyle."
"Is that the reason for the silly cigar, were you trying to impress me? Trying to be a bad boy huh?"
He said, "Come on, I asked a question."
He'd called her out. She was drawn to bad boys. She like the thugs, not necessarily drug dealers, but she liked guys that would do whatever it took to get ahead, but she also liked power and Dr. Craig Matthews was a powerful man. "Answer the question?"
"Look you're married, and there's no way of knowing what I would like if you weren't."
He said, "Let me give you a tour of the house."
She was very impressed with the house. He'd shown her the master bedroom with a huge walk-in closet. The two guest bedrooms. The kitchen was a chef style kitchen with expensive counters and cabinets. Finally he led her to the garage where his silver Maserati was parked beside a black one.
She said, "I didn't know you had two Maserati's."
He said, "Well I was hoping you'd be driving the other one by now."
"What are you talking about?"
"This could be yours."
"Yeah right."
"The townhome. Everything."
She said, "Everything has a price."
He grinned, "You know what I want?"
"You want to have your wife and me here as your personal fuck-toy."
His face became sad. "You know I don't look at you like that."
She said, "Dr. Craig Matthews, what would happen if you brought a black woman home."
He said, "Nothing."
"But you could never be with a black woman, only fuck a black woman."
He pressed his hands against her lips. "You know it's not like that."
She removed his hands. "How is it?"
"I love being around you. I love you."
He pulled her into him and accidentlyaccidentally stepped on her new wedges. "You're going to ruin my new shoes."
"And I'll buy you more. I'll buy you whatever you want."
He kissed her, then unbuttoned her bra. Her huge implants spilling out. He put his mouth on them, sucking them like an animal. She kicked the wedges off. His hand was now on her perfect little ass.
He pulled her pants down, revealing a yellow G-string contrasting perfectly against her black skin. His dick jumped out of the white robe and she grabbed it with her hand, then she dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth.
"Oh my fuckin God!" he yelled. She was glad she was satisfying him, but him yelling "Oh my fuckin God" was corny as hell and it was something a black man would never say. She played with his balls until he said, "Stop, stop, this feels too good to be true."
She stood and they kissed again.
He threw her on the hood of the Black Maserati (the one that would be hers) and ripped her G-string off. He dropped his robe. His dick still rock solid. She was now lying on her stomach. When he entered her, she came fast. Not because he was so wonderful, but it was something about having sex on such an expensive car that turned her on. She wished the engine was running.
Chapter 10
Lani was driving like a Nascar driver to the hospital when she got a call from Black.
"Hello."
"Hey, Babe."
"Black, I ain't got time for this shit today."
"What's wrong?"
"My man's in the hospital."
"What happened?"
"I don't know, I think he got robbed."
"Damn, yeah? Niggas is real thirsty out here now. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Yeah, so I'm gonna have to talk to you some other time."
Black said, "So you want me to meet you at the hospital?"
Lani said, "Black, you gotta be out of your fucking mind."
"What? I'm just saying you need somebody to help you get through this, and what better person than me."
"I ain't got time for your bullshit. You know my man would not approve of shit like that."
"He's unconscious, how is he gonna know."
"What the fuck do you mean, he's unconscious? I ain't tell you no shit like that."
"If he got shot then he's probably doped up."
"I don't know what happened."
"Okay, go handle your business. Call me when you're done okay?"
She hung up and phoned Chris's brother MichaelMike who was already at the hospital. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
MichaelMike said, "Okay, he's in ICU."
Lani prayed that Chris would be okay. He was such a good man, she was happy God had sent someone like him into her life after such a roller coaster relationship with Black. Chris was like a breath of fresh-air. He was the opposite of the very loud and flamboyant Black, but he was no sucker and he was street smart. She wondered how he'd gotten robbed? Who was responsible for it and how he'd let his guard down? When she entered the hospital, she signed in at the nurses' station and headed to ICU.
Lani started weeping as soon as she saw Chris with all the IV's hooked up to him. His eyes and lips were swollen and he was unconscious.
Michael said"It's real bad, Lani." They embraced.
"What do you know about this, MichaelMike?"
"I don't know shit! All I know is whoever did my brother like this is gonna fuckin' die." MichaelMike was usually calm and Chris was the wild one. Lani had never seen this side of MichaelMike before.
"Chris don't fuck with shady characters. How did this happen?"
Lani said, "I don't know." This just didn't make sense to her. She knew that Chris almost never went outside of his circle. He'd told her more than once that he only had four customers and he'd known all four of them for years. What could have happened? Did Chris go outside of his circle? There was no way of knowing.
A doctor came in, a thin Asian man with speckled glasses, who introduced himself as Dr. Wu. He said, "Lani? Are you Mr. Jones's wife?"
"No I'm his girlfriend."
"He's in a coma right now. He's suffered severe brain trauma."
Lani said, "How long do comas usually last?"
"It could be a day, could be a week, could be years, ma'am. It's hard to tell right now."
MichaelMike held her hand and Lani said to the doctor, "So what else are you going to do?"
He said, "There's not much we can do right now. The good news is the internal bleeding has stopped and that's a good sign."
Lani said, "But we don't know when he's going to come out of the coma?"
Dr. Wu said, "We don't know, but just keep the faith, I've been a doctor for twenty-five years and I can tell you having faith does help in these situations."
Lani said, "I've started praying already."
When Dr. Wu left the room, a tall gorgeous brown-skinned woman with a very expensive weave entered the room.
Michael said, "Cassie." He embraced the woman and then said, "He's not doing good at all." Mike said.
Cassie eyed Lani, finally MichaelMike said, "Cassie, this is Lani."
The women exchanged fake smiles and Cassie said, "I'm MichaelMike and Chris's cousin from Connecticut."
Lani said, "Pleased to meet you. Chris has never said anything about family in Connecticut." Lani said
Michael said, "Yeah, we have lots of family in Connecticut." Mike said.
Cassie said, "I live in Atlanta now, in the Sandy Springs area."
Lani said, "Oh okay." Lani said.
Cassie said, "What happened?" Cassie said.
Lani said, "There is no way of knowing right now, Chris is in a coma. He got beaten up really bad, but how
it happened is a mystery. Thank God he's still living."
Cassie said, "Yes, I don't know what I would do without Chris,." Cassie said.
A thin blond nurse name Barbara entered the room and passed MichaelMike a zip-lock bag containing just over three hundred dollars in cash, a wallet and his iPhone . "These items were found in his pocket."
MichaelMike said, "Thanks."
When the nurse left the room, MichaelMike said to Lani, "I'm going to go home now." He removed the wallet and the money and passed it to her. "I'm going to hold on to the phone till tomorrow. I got a feeling this phone has some clues to what might have happened."
Lani hugged MichaelMike.
Cassie said, "I'm gonna leave now too." She shook Lani's hand.
Chapter 11
Starr was happy to be back in her home and Trey was even happier that she was back where she belonged. He couldn't stop kissing her. He grabbed her bags and carried them to the bedroom. She followed, hopped up on her canopy bed and grabbed the remote control and turned the television on.
He kicked off his shoes, fell right next to her and kissed her on the cheek. "So glad you're home."
"I'm glad to be here, I don't like hotels, and I damn sure don't like being in the hood with my sister and my two thug ass nephews."
"Yeah, when I went over to find out where you were, one of those little niggas asked me to give him some work. I'm like dude you know I can't do that."
"Starr said, "I don't know why not, they're getting it from somebody."
Trey laughed. "That's what he said. His exact words were 'Uncle Trey Im'ma get mine from somebody, we might as well keep it in the family'."
Starr shook her head. "Those little bastards and my goddamned sister think nobody knows what is going on, trying to pretend that she don't know what's going on."
Trey said, "Well that's exactly how I was when I was their age. Started hustling in the hood, asking the older boys to give me work, but never out of my mama's house."
Starr said, "That is so trifling."
Trey said, "Hopefully they don't get caught."
Starr said, "I would hate that to happen to my sister."
He planted more kisses on her cheek. She hated to admit that she was happy to be with him.
The doorbell rang and he stood and headed to the door. She walked behind him, wondering who was at the door. He opened the door and there was a box on the step. The UPS man drove away.
Starr said, "What's in the box?"