Long As You Know Who You Belong To 2

by Bri Noreen

  "You take ya meds?" he asked as the driver started to pull off.

  "Nah, I forgot," I replied. I fished around in the Chanel bag on my lap and came up empty. "Damn, I must have forgotten them. That’s the shit that happens when you surprise me." I half smiled.

  "Good thing I know to go behind your forgetful ass when you pack." he smiled and dove into his pants pocket. He produced the bottle of pills and handed them to me. I smiled weakly and snatched them from his hand. Before I reached for the bottle of water in my purse, I pressed my lips against his.

  "Thank you, baby. You da best." I did my best DJ Khaled impression, and he laughed.

  I was trying to act normal for the sake of keeping my suspicions down, so I pulled out my acting chops and continued to play the none-the-wiser, ride-or-die girlfriend until I could make sense of everything. I popped the top open on the pills, poured two into my hand, and slipped them into my mouth. I took a swig of water and swallowed, settled into the crook of his raised arm, and let my mind wander until the pills started to take effect.

  Roman

  July 2015

  The lil banger, Ashlynn, that I had solicited to be the final piece to my puzzle, was settling in nicely. I had set her up in new condo over near Venice Beach and gifted her a Lexus RC to get around in. I had also filled up her closet with all designer everything and deposited the 200K into her bank account under her new name, Keaire Fox. To keep her busy until Karma arrived, I had enrolled her in a kickboxing class and had arranged for her to meet with my nigga, Feddi, at a gun range in Inglewood a couple of days a week. Besides that, I had encouraged her to drive around and get used to her surroundings. She was a fast learner and a hard worker which was always a plus in my book. So I knew she would be just fine. Just watching her movements since she had touched down made me glad that I had chosen her. As great as I’m sure the last week had been for her getting acclimated to her new lifestyle, it was time to get down to business. Now that I had approached Blaze about her part in my plan, the only thing left to set in motion was Ashlynn.

  The plan was to use Ashlynn to get close to Kimani. After breaking Grey down to nothing, the final straw would be to kidnap his brother and get them both in the same room. I knew that Kimani's lil show was about to put him on the map, and he would be harder to get to. So Ashlynn would be my way in. He was still hurting from losing his chick, so with the right amount of finessing, I knew that Ashlynn could get him to trust her. She just needed a little bit of work.

  I walked into her condo and surveyed the place. I had allowed her go into Z Gallerie and fuck up some commas, so she had the place looking like something out of a magazine. It was fairly quiet inside, but I knew she was home because I had seen her car in the driveway.

  “Ma, where you at?” I yelled as I tossed my keys on the kitchen counter.

  I waited a few seconds for a response, and when I didn’t get one, I flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time. When I reached her bedroom, I heard the light sounds of Elle Varner wafting through the crack in the door. I pushed it open and entered as she walked out of the adjoining bathroom stark naked and dripping with water. I couldn’t help but stare at her as she snatched up the towel on her bed and started wiping herself down.

  “See something you like?” Ashlynn grinned.

  “Yo, we got a meeting in an hour. We need to leave here in thirty,” I said ignoring her question.

  “You got it, boss.” She winked.

  Leaning forward, she slung the towel away from her body and used it to wrap her wet hair. She seemed like she was moving in slow motion as she straightened herself and faced me, naked as the day she was born. I let my eyes roam her perfectly proportioned body, and I can’t lie and say that the thought of fucking her didn’t cross my mind. But I was on a mission. I ain’t have time to get caught up in no pussy and especially not the pussy of a stripper bitch. There was no way I could lose focus when I was this close to revenge. I shook the thought of sexing her from my head and walked out of the room.

  “I’ll be downstairs,” I tossed over my shoulder. I jogged down the stairs and made myself comfortable on the plush, tan suede sectional in the living room and turned on the 70-inch TV. Knowing she would use up the entire thirty minutes that I had allowed her, I turned on the last episode of Power and kicked back. About forty minutes later, she came down the stairs, ready to go. Dressed in a pair of baggy, army green cargo pants, white cropped top that tied around her neck, gold strappy sandals, and a fire engine red bag in the crook of her arm, she looked like one of those basketball wives from VH-1. Her curly hair was piled up on top of her head in a messy bun, and although it appeared that she wasn’t wearing makeup, I knew that she was. She was a beautiful girl, and if I wasn’t on a mission to destroy a niggas life, I definitely would’ve smashed that. She smiled when she caught me staring, and I quickly turned off the TV and hopped up from the couch.

  “You clean up nice,” I joked.

  She waved me off. “Boy, I been nice.”

  I chuckled at her statement as she walked out the front door. I walked past her as she locked up, and hopped in my whip. She joined me a few seconds later. Nas’ classic album “Illmatic” filled the silence as I peeled off and headed toward the meeting spot. Almost a half an hour later, we pulled up to Beso in Hollywood. I rolled up to the valet, tossed him my keys, and helped her out of the passenger’s seat. Once inside, we were led upstairs to a private dining section enclosed by glass that overlooked the rest of the restaurant where Karma was already posted by the bar area. I hadn’t seen her since the final surgery, and I was pretty anxious to see how everything had turned out.

  She twirled around, and I sucked in a breath. The woman that stood in front of me was even more gorgeous and exotic looking than the woman she used to be. She had pretty, clear brown skin, slanted Oriental eyes, and a pouty pink mouth. Her shoulder-length, two-toned bob complemented the shape of her face, and her light makeup was flawless. Dressed in a pair of skin tight black dress pants, a fancy lace shelf bra that showed off her double D’s, a black blazer that flared out at the waist, and a pair of snake print sandals, she looked like she was late for a red carpet event. It was only two in the afternoon and baby girl was out here killing ‘em like that? I immediately felt some type of way.

  She moved toward me with a smile radiating from her pretty face and wrapped me up in a hug. My hands lingered around her waist longer than I’d intended as I inhaled her Marchesa perfume. Feeling my dick brick up, I backed away. I turned back to look at Ashlynn.

  “Karma, this is Ashlynn, who will be going by Keaire Fox.”

  Ashlynn stuck her hand out to Karma to shake hers, but she ignored it. Instead, Karma circled her, looking her up and down. I could feel her picking apart her outfit, makeup, hair, and accessories. She was reducing her to the Rainbow Fashion-wearing hood rat that she actually was.

  “She’ll do,” she finally said. “But she’s going to need work.”

  “I already know. That’s why I brought her to you.” I took a seat on one of the oversized leather chairs.

  “Uh...,” Ashlynn mumbled, probably confused as to why we were talking about her as if she wasn’t standing in the room.

  “I used to know the man that you’re attempting to get close to. My ex-best friend used to be his bitch. I know what he likes, and you’ve got the makings of a bad bitch he would go for. But you ain’t quite there yet.”

  I watched Karma as she took a seat across from me. Her movements were thoroughly fluid and feminine. She was graceful and calm, but I knew there was something dark brewing inside of her. I read it all in her eyes.

  “She’s cute,” she said to me without taking her eyes off of Ashlynn. “But she needs to be bad as fuck. She seems confident, but she needs a bit of arrogance. She’s sexy, but she needs to be a fantasy.”

  Karma finally looked over at me, and I ran my tongue across my lips. She opened her legs, leaned forward and rested her arms on her thighs. All I could think about was
sliding right between them and finding the spot that made her cream. Fuck! This chick was doing something to me. Focus Roman, damn, I mentally told myself.

  “If I know anything about sensitive-ass Kimani, it’s that he’s still vulnerable. But that doesn’t mean that he’s stupid. The way she is now, he’ll sniff her out in an hour tops. She needs to be able to mind fuck him before she even allows him to get a whiff of the kitty. Give me two weeks,” she requested.

  I grimaced. That was cutting it too close. “You’ve got one.”

  “One week? Do I look like a fucking genie? What the fuck am I going to do in one week, bro?” she snapped.

  I felt some type of way about her calling me bro, but I let it slide. “Get her together. That’s what you’re going to do. You been had a nigga’s nuts in a chokehold because I’ve made you wait, and now you want more time?”

  “It ain’t my fault that you went and picked the wrong bitch!” she fumed.

  Ashlynn opened her mouth and raised her finger towards Karma, no doubt about to cuss her clean out, but I threw up my hand, and she swallowed the insults—for now.

  “Aye, chill with all that. She’s good and she’s who we’ve got. You want at this nigga so bad, you gotta put the work in. I’ll give you your two weeks, but she needs to have everything in place by the time they have the re-opening,” I said. I would rather her be ready than not, so I would give her two weeks, but not a minute more.

  My cell phone lit up in my hand, and I stood. “I gotta take this. I’ll be back.” I exited the room, leaving Ashlynn alone with Karma, praying they would keep their attitudes in check. I walked out into the hallway and answered the phone. “What’s good?”

  “We set.”

  “Everything all good?”

  “Yup. What you need me to do now?”

  “Stay put, and I’ll come to you. Shoot me the address. We’ll talk about the rest of the plan when I get there.”

  “Bet.”

  I disconnected the call and started to walk back in the direction of the room where Ashlynn and Karma were, but I just stood outside for a moment and listened to their exchange.

  “I don’t appreciate ya’ll talking about me like I’m some kind of pet project and shit,” Ashlynn stated.

  Karma laughed lightly before she stood from her seat. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at Ashlynn with amusement in her eyes.

  “You are a pet project. You’re a pawn in a big fucking game and you have the nerve to think that I actually care what you like and don’t like? Bitch, please.”

  “I’m not going to be too many more bitches!” Ashlynn yelled.

  “You’re going to be whatever I tell you to be.” Karma smirked. “If you want that money in your account to stay where it is, you’ll shut the fuck up and pay attention. You don’t run shit, boo. You’re being paid to do a job, and just like any job you’ve ever had, you have to go through training. If I send you to try and get with Kimani now, you wouldn’t last a day.” She waved her off. “You’ve got bad-bitch potential, but you ain’t there yet. Shit, this is your first day wearing designer labels, and although you look good in them, your lack of confidence is making you look basic. That nigga ain’t gonna go for a basic bitch.”

  She laughed like the Joker from Batman, and I swear I got turned the fuck on. Something about Karma’s crazy ass was pulling me to her like a moth to a flame. She was focused, determined, and sexy as hell. If she were to come out of this alive, I swear before God, I was going to make her my bitch.

  “If you think I can’t handle the job, why the fuck am I here? Why don’t you do the shit?” Ashlynn finally asked.

  A sinister grin spread across Karma’s face before she echoed the words that were currently playing in my head. “Because you can’t fall in love with a ghost.”

  Kimani

  July 2015

  “What you got for me, Steph?” I took a seat in the office chair across from her desk.

  “Something that you probably aren’t going to want to hear.” She grimaced.

  I groaned. Lately, my agent, Stephanie, had been hooking a nigga up. She’d been able to land me the reality show, and from there offers had come pouring in. I’d been offered TV shows, commercials, and more modeling gigs. Since I had gotten back from the A, she’d been blowing my phone up, but I just hadn’t been in the mood to take on any new gigs. But seeing all of the offers pour in through my email, I knew I had to get with her soon or I would lose out on some money. A nigga was starting to feel like the number one draft pick off in this bitch. But now that I was here, she wanted to hit me with bad news. It was just my fucking luck.

  “What’s up?”

  “I got a call for you to make an appearance in a music video as the lead.”

  “Okay…,” Shit didn’t sound like bad news to me.

  “The call came from Vicious. Well, it was her manager.”

  “You already know what the answer is then.” There was no way I was going to get caught up with Vicious again. It was bad enough that I’d had a moment of weakness with her a couple weeks ago, but I was definitely not trying to play her nigga in a video. Nope, not happening.

  “We don’t really have a choice.”

  “Fuck you mean?” I sat up in my seat.

  “Look, you haven’t been pictured with a woman since you and Vicious split. That was over two years ago! I know you said you were dating some chick last year, but no one knew about her.”

  “That’s because my personal life is private. I don’t understand what you’re getting at, Steph.”

  A worried look crossed her face as she shifted through the stack of papers on her desk in search of her phone. When she found it, she turned it on and handed it to me. On her screen was a big-ass picture of me in an Instagram post on The Shade Room’s page. The caption read: Is Hot Model, Kimani Summers Playing for the other team? Catch the Deets below.

  “What the fuck?” I hopped out of the chair and scrolled down to read the rest of the article. “This is some bullshit! A nigga ain’t nowhere near gay!”

  Steph paced behind her desk. “I know! I know! But now do you understand what I’m getting at?”

  “Just because the paps don’t have pictures of me with a bitch, I’m all of a sudden homo? C’mon man!” I launched the phone in Steph’s direction, and it slid across her desk and to the floor.

  “Look, Kimani, I know how you feel about Vicious. Trust me when I say I feel the same way. But we’ve gotta turn this around. With all the deals that I have lined up for you, this could potentially be bad.”

  This was the part that I hated about being famous. People could just make a ridiculous assumption, and all it took was one dense mothafucka to get it to circulate without having any real facts to back it up. Shit, this was not what I needed right now! The last thing I wanted to do was be forced back into a relationship with Vicious. She was toxic, and my life couldn’t handle any more bullshit. But Steph was right. The only way to fix this was to give them something else to talk about. I sat back down in the chair and held my head in my hands.

  “I’ll do it,” I mumbled.

  “Good.” I could hear the relief in Steph’s voice. “This is just a temporary fix, Kimani. But the reality show producer has already asked me about a love interest storyline for next season if the show is picked up. I know you don’t want that to be Vicious. So figure it out.”

  Too irritated to listen to anything else Steph had to say, I stood up and walked out of the door without another word. I didn’t mean to be rude to her. Steph was the bomb at her job, and I loved her like a sister. But the mere thought of having to deal with Vicious again had my temper flaring. I walked out of the glass doors and jabbed the down button for the elevator. Pacing the floor as I waited, I thought about the shit show that was about to take place with Vicious. I must have been deep in thought because I didn’t even hear the ding of the elevator.

  “Uh, are you getting on or nah?” A seductive voice asked.

  The
voice jarred me out of my thoughts and forced me to look in the direction that it had come from. My dim mood took a sudden turn when I laid eyes on the beauty that stood in the elevator. She was pretty, and there was something about her that seemed familiar. Not like I knew her, but like I knew her type. I stared at her trying to figure out what it was, and by the time I realized it, I had stared at her so long that the doors threatened to close. She hurriedly placed her hand in the way, keeping them from shutting, and laughed.

  “Hello?”

  “My bad.” I ran my hand across my face trying to get myself together. I stepped inside the elevator and stood across from her. She smirked but refused to meet my gaze. A few moments passed and the doors of the elevator closed.

  “Are you going to the third floor too?” she asked.

  “Huh? What? Oh, no…uh…” I laughed awkwardly and hit the ground level button.

  What the fuck was it? It wasn’t like there was something incredibly special about her. Yeah, she was bad as fuck, but there was something else tickling my masculine senses. There was an aura about her that I couldn’t put my finger on that reminded me of something or maybe someone. I couldn’t figure it out. But I was drawn to her like metal to a magnet.

  Standing about 5’6” with mahogany colored skin, the woman in front of me was definitely fine enough to get my attention. She had soft, light brown eyes that were framed with thick full lashes, the cutest nose, and lips so full that my mind automatically wondered how good they would feel and taste. She had long, silky, straight, jet black hair that reached the middle of her back, and her body…sheesh! She was dressed in a clingy knit dress, caramel open-toe sandals, and simple gold jewelry. The dress left little to the imagination, and her protruding nipples let me know that she was braless. I can’t even front like my mind wasn’t already conjuring up images of her naked writhing against my sheets, calling my name, but still I didn’t say anything. I just stared at her the whole ride, wondering who she was and why I was so drawn to her. Before long, we were stopping on the third floor, and I was watching her ass jiggle as she walked off the elevator. I opened my mouth to ask her name, but the doors shut before I could say anything.