She cleared her throat and spoke in a measured tone. “Bubbles was acting the fool last night.”
He frowned at the damaged screen. “How Bubbles get her hands on my phone?”
“She was spazzin’ out. Swinging on me and throwing shit around. Don’t you remember, Daddy?” Her account started sounding plausible to her own ears.
Bullet slid his fingers through his mass of curly hair. He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t remember none of that.” Sleepily, he scratched his balls as he treaded inside the bathroom.
“I’ma give you some privacy.” Gianna turned to leave, relieved that she had literally dodged a bullet.
“Hold up. I ain’t through talkin’.”
Oh, shit. She gulped. “Okay,” she said pleasantly.
He gripped his penis with one hand and aimed inside the toilet bowl. The other hand held his cellular.
While urinating, he studied the cracked screen, his thumb moving swiftly as he scrolled through the list of calls. He squinted at the screen, cocking his head from one side and then the other, as though he had encountered a mysterious cryptogram that had left him completely confounded.
“Bubbles don’t have good sense,” Gianna said with a nervous chuckle. “It’s just a minor setback, Daddy. You know how we do. You gon’ have a new phone by tomorrow. I’ma make sure of that.” She was trying to distract him, trying desperately to take his mind off his broken cell phone.
“What’s this?” He shook droplets of urine from his dick into the toilet, replaced his privates and started walking toward her.
“What’s what?” Gianna’s breath caught in her throat.
Bullet froze. “609?” He said to himself, squinting at the cracked screen. “609 is a Jersey area code. Who did I call in Jersey?” He stared at Gianna, waiting for her to enlighten him.
She shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe Bubbles pushed those buttons by mistake.”
Disbelief was written all over Bullet’s face.
A smoldering rage replaced the confusion in his eyes. “Who the fuck was you tryna call in muthafuckin’ New Jersey? Huh, bitch? Who did you call?”
“Nobody. I ain’t make no calls on your phone. I swear.”
He smirked at her. His eyes alit with suspicion. “I told you if you kept it one hunnit with me, I wouldn’t hurt you no more.”
“I do. I always keep it one hundred,” she said, enunciating by mistake. “I mean, uh, one hunnit,” she corrected.
Bullet gave her a sneering look.
“I really do.”
“Is that right?” he asked, clenching his jaw and eyeing her with suspicion.
She nodded nervously.
“So what’s this about?” Taking quick steps, he stood in front of her and shoved the phone directly in her face. “That’s an outgoing call. Who made it?”
Gianna peered at the cracked screen. Frowning, she shook her head as if she had no idea how the numbers had materialized on his phone.
“You done lost your mind.” Seething, Bullet snatched her by the neck, knocking her against the bathroom door. “The last thing I need to be dealing with is a treacherous bitch!”
She tried to deny any wrongdoing, but could only gurgle. Her tear-glistened eyes pleaded for mercy as he dug his thumb into her windpipe, cutting off her air.
She gagged and struggled. He released the grip on her neck, and waved the cellular in her face.
“I thought I could trust you!” Furiously, he smashed the cellular into her forehead.
The battery popped out the back; the screen shattered.
Dazed, Gianna could swear she saw stars. Fearing that she was only seconds away from being beaten to death, she got her bearings and raced to the front door.
Gianna froze when she reached the double-locked front door, and it dawned on her that there was no way out. The key ring was on the dresser in the bedroom. Can I dart past Bullet and grab the keys? She looked over her shoulder to check Bullet’s position. She gasped.
Bullet’s trampling movements announced his fury. He charged toward her with a homicidal look in his eyes. Then he bumped into the coffee table, looked down, and stopped cold. Something had caught his attention.
Instead of attacking Gianna, Bullet moved around the table and took a seat in the lumpy chair. He picked up a broken mirror and a rolled-up dollar bill and began sniffing lines of coke that was left over from the night before.
He closed his eyes briefly, and then threw his head back and gazed at the ceiling with a faint smile on his lips.
Gianna stood with her back pressed against the locked front door, her teeth chattering, her knees knocking. Severely frightened, her booming heartbeat threatened to explode and throw her off her feet.
She slipped her hand behind her back and grabbed the doorknob, steadying herself. With her hand curled around the knob, escape seemed a sudden possibility.
Bullet had snorted a lot of coke last night. There was a chance that he’d been too preoccupied to remember to secure the two locks on the door. She gave a frantic twist to the knob, but it refused to turn.
Bullet watched her desperate attempt to flee with amusement sparkling in his eyes. “I done choked the shit outta you and clocked you upside the head, and you still ain’t learned no lesson,” he said scornfully.
She released the doorknob. “Yes, I did! I learned my lesson,” she said, her eyes watering with tears.
“No, you didn’t. If you learnt something, you wouldn’t still be trying to run away from me.”
“I wasn’t going nowhere.”
“I know you ain’t. That’s why I spent extra money getting all those locks installed.”
He twisted his lips in disgust. “After all I did for you. I trusted you. I made you my bottom bitch.” He shook his head. “If my bottom bitch is capable of being this treacherous, I might as well line all y’all bitches up and pop you…one at a time…get me some new hoes who know how to show some respect for the game.”
He rose, and sauntered slowly toward her. Taking his time, taunting her as he cracked the knuckles of both hands.
Sweat began beading up on Gianna’s injured forehead, causing her increased pain.
Bullet punched his palm with a balled fist, his mouth spreading into a sinister smile.
“It’s ’bout to get ugly.” Bullet’s voice rang with malicious pleasure. He practically sang out the vicious threat. He flexed up. Ripples of dangerous muscles popped up on his arms.
“Please, Daddy. Don’t hurt me.” I’m sorry,” she cried.
“Yo’ sorry ass should have thought long and hard before you betrayed my trust.”
“I won’t mess with your phone anymore. I swear I won’t.” Her brown eyes were wide with panic.
“I know you won’t.” Roughly, he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her away from the door.
She stumbled. After she steadied herself, Bullet raised his fist, and pulled it back, adding power to his punch.
CHAPTER 29
Flashy sat next to Gianna. She was lying in bed with her head propped up by a pillow.
Bullet’s punch to her face had knocked her out. She had no memory of how’d she’d ended up in Bullet’s bed. Nor did she recall Flashy coming over for a visit.
“All this playing doctor is getting old,” Flashy complained as he applied an ice pack to Gianna’s cheek. “I really didn’t want you to leave, Bullet, but I needed you to get a crib for your hookers. If I’d let you keep fucking them up in my spot, I would’ve wound up right back in the pen.”
Bullet screwed up his face. “I thought that Lollipop had my back, but I caught her trying to call her peoples on me,” Bullet spat.
He kicked the railing at the bottom of the bed. The vibration sent another jolt of pain to Gianna’s swollen jaw.
Now awake and in tremendous pain, she wished that she were still unconscious. Or dead.
Life with Bullet had been a living hell that she had tried her best to accept. But now that she’d lost his trust, her livi
ng hell would intensify.
What else can he do to me? she wondered. He could keep her drugged like Skittles and Bubbles. Those two hardly knew what was happening to them, while Gianna was keenly aware that her life had been stolen. Maybe living like a zombie wasn’t so bad.
So terrified of additional violent consequences, she had hardly flinched or made a sound that indicated the severe pain she was in.
But after coming to the realization that Skittles and Bubbles, in their medicated state, were better off than she was, Gianna ended her silence. She moaned, squealed, and grunted with fervor. Her vocalized pain sounded very much like a wounded animal.
She hoped her wailing would result in merciful relief of the throbbing in her jaw and the end of the torment of living in captivity. She prayed that her groans would encourage Flashy to suggest that she be given the same drug cocktail that Skittles and Bubbles were given.
“Oh, my God!” Flashy responded, dropping the ice pack. “Why the hell is she going off like this? Maybe you broke her jaw.”
Enthusiastically agreeing with Flashy, Gianna bobbed her head up and down with the hope that she would be given some pills and quickly taken out of her misery.
Bullet sneered at her. “I ain’t break nothing. I would have heard the bone pop, if I had cracked her jaw.”
Gianna amped up her routine, whimpering and whining pitifully.
“Shut the fuck up!” Bullet demanded. “Put that shit back on her face so the swelling can go down.”
Defiant, Gianna continued moaning and violently thrashing. Though she couldn’t open her mouth wide enough to raise the volume of her cries, her lament increased in intensity.
Cringing as if afraid to touch her, Flashy gingerly reapplied the ice pack to her face. “Maybe you fractured it. If so, I don’t know a damn thing about fixing no shit like that, so don’t even try to go there.”
“Do I look like a fuckin’ idiot? I ain’t fracture her jaw. Why would I break up the face of a good, dick-suckin’ bitch? Huh? What kind of sense does that make?”
Flashy curled his lips in disapproval. “I can’t figure out why you keep fucking these girls up the way you do. Ain’t no hope for a hustlin’ backward nigga like you,” he taunted.
The verbal jab caused Bullet to blink several times. “Ain’t nobody hustlin’ backward. You better watch your mouth before I put my fist in it.”
“I ain’t worried about you, Bullet. A little pain might be a turn-on. You wanna hit me, Daddy?” Flashy teased.
“Stop playing, man. I don’t even get down like that no more.”
“I know. You got Skittles playing my part, and it has been duly noted,” Flashy commented snippily.
“Man, we ain’t locked up no more. We bulls now. We friends.”
“Whatever. I don’t see where I’m getting anything out of our so-called friendship.”
“Don’t I always hook you up?”
“With dribs and drabs. I’m still waiting for the big payday you promised.” Flashy planted his hand on his hip. “By the way, you owe the babysitter ninety dollars for Pampers, baby food, and shit.”
“Damn! Every time I turn around, you hittin’ me up for more money for that fuckin’ baby.”
“That little crumb snatcher costs money to keep in good health.”
Gianna’s ears perked up at the mention of the baby. Despite her own physical pain, she felt a degree of relief in knowing the baby was still safe and sound.
“When you sell that damn baby, we can both start living better.”
“If you would stop being so stubborn and bring the price down, I can make it happen. Until then…” Flashy’s voice trailed off.
“See, that’s your problem. You not thinking big enough. You listening to them small-time niggas who think on a small scale. You need to put out feelers. Why don’t you put the baby up on Craigslist or something? Ain’t that where the freaks wheel and deal?”
Flashy’s face twisted into a grimace. “Fuck that! I’m not putting myself in a position to have the FBI tracking me down with their sophisticated computer technology.”
“Yo, I’m gon’ handle selling that baby as soon as I get some extra time. Just take care of Lollipop’s jaw…make the swelling go down, so she can work tonight.”
“Umph,” Flashy grunted in dissatisfaction.
“I’ll break you off and pay the babysitter when my hoes bring me some dough tonight.”
Flashy sighed. “Why are you so hard-headed? How is Lollipop going to work her magic if she can’t hardly open up her mouth?”
“Trust, she gon’ open her mouth. She gon’ open up wide and suck as many dicks as I tell her to. Ain’t that right, Lollipop?”
Opening her mouth was not possible, so Gianna nodded her head in agreement.
Bullet was working himself into a rage of fury. Gianna had no choice but to agree with his outrageous claim—or deal with his wrath.
Flashy shook his head. “Open your eyes, fool! Her mouth is out of commission. Lollipop is gonna have to work on her back tonight.”
“No, the hell she’s not!”
“What’s the problem? You don’t like sharing Lollipop’s little pussy hole?” Flashy said with undisguised jealousy.
“It ain’t even like that.”
“Then why can’t she switch up her routine and fuck instead of sucking. Damn!”
“She got regulars who ain’t got time for fucking. They got wives and kids to get home to. They on a tight timeframe.”
“Since when do tricks care about their families?”
“These ain’t regular tricks. They got family values.”
“Family values and tricks don’t even belong in the same sentence,” Flashy pointed out.
“Lollipop has an appointment with a bowling team. Feel me? About fifteen muthafuckas be lined up to get their jawns sucked. They gotta be out at a certain time.”
“Send one of them other hoes to do the job.”
“Nah, they feelin’ the way Lollipop gives brain; they don’t want nobody else.”
“Let Bubbles handle those family men. The way she slobbers all the time, she should be able to keep those dicks lubricated.”
“Bubbles gives a good titty fuck, but those bowlers ain’t with that.” Worriedly, Bullet ran his fingers through his hair.
Flashy pulled the ice pack away from Gianna’s face. With pursed lips and squinted eyes, he examined her face. Ever so lightly, he pressed his fingers against her swollen cheek.
Gianna yelped like a hurt puppy and pulled away from Flashy’s light touch.
Flashy smacked the ice pack on the nightstand. “I don’t know what to tell you, Bullet. She’s in bad shape.”
Bullet looked at Gianna with disgust. Incensed, Bullet began pacing again. Agitated, he wiped his palm against his own jawbone, breathing heavy, his temper flaring.
In a sudden flash of rage, he rushed toward the bed. Bending down, he positioned himself between Flashy and Gianna.
With his face only inches from Gianna’s, he said, “That’s good money, yo. I’m not letting yo’ dumb ass mess up a steady stream of income.”
She winced under his hateful gaze.
“Y’ah mean?” he shouted.
Gianna nodded quickly.
“Calm down, Bullet. You’re breathing all hard—like a damn dragon. Making me nervous.” Flashy maneuvered around Bullet. He stood up and fanned his face dramatically.
“This bitch must think I’m soft,” Bullet announced, looking off as though he were speaking to an invisible audience.
He yanked his head toward Gianna. “You think I’m soft?”
“No!” Though it hurt like hell, she forced herself to part her lips and defend herself with coherent speech.
“You see that shit?” Bullet asked, looking at Flashy and then turning to the unseen spectators. “She opened her mouth,” he said, with an expression of astonishment.
He flopped down on the bed beside her. His eyes looked demonic. “Why you trying my patience?
”
She shook her head. “I’m not,” she said, her phrasing soft and almost inaudible.
“Oh, you forgot how to talk, huh?”
Again, she shook her head. Then, confusedly, she nodded. She was so scared, she didn’t know how to respond.
“This lil’ ho is tryna play me,” Bullet said to Flashy.
Looking bewildered, Flashy stood with his chin cradled in his hand.
Bullet shot an evil eye at Gianna. “You got a lot of game for a young ho from the suburbs.”
“No, no. I don’t.” She was able to say those words without moving her jaw.
Bullet sprang up from the bed. “I’m gon’ have to teach you a lesson. You got to face some consequences.” Bullet’s body jerked with rage, his shoulders bobbing as if to the sound of pulse-thumping music.
“Calm down!” Flashy said in a high-pitched voice. “This is way too much drama for my nerves. Now, let’s just figure out who you’re going to send to do her work for tonight. She’ll be back in business and ready to handle those bowlers next week.”
“Fuck them bowling alley muthafuckers. They don’t run shit. They can get with Lollipop when I say so. You feel me, Flashy?” There was spittle in the corners of Bullet’s mouth.
“I guess so,” Flashy whispered. “But seriously. Do you realize you’re actually foaming at the mouth? Not sexy. You look a hot, scary mess.” Flashy turned up his nose.
“I’ma show you what scary looks like,” Bullet retorted. He stalked toward the dresser, and yanked open a drawer. In his hand, he held the handle of a knife that was encased in a leather holder.
CHAPTER 30
Gianna’s eyes bulged. She had never set eyes on the knife handle that Bullet was holding, and she refused to allow her mind to conjure up visuals of what Bullet planned to do with it.
Flashy gasped in shock. “I’m leaving. I’m not about to be an accomplice to murder.”
“Murder? I’m not gon’ kill that bitch. You think I’m crazy or something?”
Immense relief washed over Gianna. Though she’d had thoughts about dying, her natural survival instincts kicked in. She was too young to die. Too young to give up hope that there was a chance to once again experience a normal life…to enjoy her God-given right to freedom.
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