by T. Styles
Randy raised his eyebrows. “Why would you do that? You haven’t done anything for me in years.”
“Is it too late to start?” Willie grinned. “Just stay away, Randy.”
Randy looked into his hands. “I don’t know nothing about no Knox, but I do know I had a lot of product stolen from me, and to this day I haven’t received a decent explanation about what happened.”
The grin Willie wore on his face up to that moment was gone. “You really are fucked up in the head, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ain’t nobody took shit from you! I just took back what was mine.”
Now he wished he didn’t send The Vet away, because he may have given the order to have him taken out. “At least you finally admitted the truth. So I guess Slade helped you, too.”
“I told you what I want from you: for you to stay away,” Willie said, ignoring his question. “I’ll give you enough money to see that you’re okay.” Willie would never tell him that he wanted Randy to remain in hiding so that the Baker Boys would not have a reason to return home. He just hoped he was greedy and smart enough to accept his offer. “If you don’t accept my offering and decide to jump into the bed with the Baker Boys, then that’s on you. Just know that I’ve seen your crew lately, and if you ask me, it’s looking a little light. Be careful about starting a war you aren’t prepared for, son.”
“I’m ready for whatever.”
“You know what? For the first time ever you sounded like my son. Too bad it’s too late.”
“It’s never too late,” Randy said arrogantly.
“You give yourself too much credit. If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re holding my last name, you’d be dead already. Stay away from me and my business, or I won’t continue to extend you my good graces.”
Chapter 29
Farah
“. . . this may be deeper than where I’m trying to go right now.”
Lately Farah had been spending an extended amount of time with the Fold. If they weren’t drinking and mixing pain with sex, they were getting high and indulging excessively in alcohol. She was dressed and ready to meet Mayoni and Carlton for brunch when she opened her door and was met by Della, Judge, and Grant instead. They were dressed in all black like they were going to a funeral.
“Who died?” she joked.
“Markee,” Della said flatly. “My nephew and Slade’s cousin.”
Farah stumbled backward. She wasn’t close to him, but she could only imagine what Slade was going through. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Della.” She paused. “How is Slade doing?”
“He’s holding up as best as he can. We just got back from Mississippi from burying him.” Della sighed. “Anyway, I’m sorry to bother you, darling”—she held firmly on to her cane—“but can we come in? We have matters to discuss with you and shouldn’t be long.”
She stomped back into her apartment, and they followed. Once inside, Farah flopped on the sofa and folded her arms over her chest. “Where is Slade now? Still in Mississippi?”
“He’s not here, and that’s all you should be concerned about. I told him we would handle you fairly though.” Della smiled, although her disposition was far from kind. “Have you seen Eleanor?”
The Baker family was making her ass itch. “I’ve been looking for her, Miss Della. I really have. Just the other day I went to a dope house, but things didn’t go as planned.”
“What does that mean?” Della questioned.
“Let’s just say I was robbed, beat, and almost raped trying to find this woman.” Farah cried for sympathy points, but Della wasn’t giving them. “I’m trying my best, but at this point, I don’t think there’s anything else I can do. All I want to be right now is left alone.”
“Left alone?” She laughed. “Bitch, you better be glad my hands aren’t wrapped around your throat right now. My son may still think you’re innocent, but I know evil when I see it. It’s all in your eyes. If only Slade could see you for who you really are, I’d put you out of your misery right now. Fortunately for you, he’s still in love.”
“Please just leave!”
“Fuck please!” Della laughed. “You got a week to find this Eleanor person, and if you don’t, I promise you this, I will see to it that you’re never found again. I’m talking about the place where bodies are not found. Do you understand me?”
Farah straightened her shoulders and stood up. She stepped toward Della until she was pushed back a little by Judge’s massive hand. “Della, I don’t like threats.” She wiped the fake tears off of her face. “Whatever you gonna do, just do it already.”
“Be careful what you ask for, little girl,” Della told her. “Where I’m from, wishes like yours are granted every day.”
“So I’m supposed to be scared of you now?”
“You may not feel the need to be scared of her, but you should be frightened of us,” Grant interrupted, stepping between them. “I know all about the people you were with who were killed later.”
“So what are you gonna do?” Farah asked. “Snitch on me?”
He gripped her throat until she reddened. When he realized he was about to kill her without knowing anything, he let her go. “Don’t ever disrespect me like that again,” Grant told her.
She laughed. “If you not gonna snitch, what do you want with me now?”
Grant took a deep breath. Farah’s cool demeanor put him out of character. “We didn’t come all this way to play games with you. We came for one purpose and one purpose only, and that’s to find our cousin.”
“And we not leaving without him,” Judge added.
“Then knock yourselves out.”
After the Baker family left, she couldn’t make brunch with the Fold. Since she was broke anyway, she decided to visit her cash cows, Coconut and Jake. She finished taking care of business and was waiting to be cashed out for her services.
“Well, I’m about to go.” Farah eased into her jeans. When she was dressed, she stood at the edge of the bed and looked up at them. “Can I have my money? I got a lot of stuff to do today.”
“Sit down for a second, Farah,” Jake said with his hand outstretched to her. “You always rolling out, and we never have time to rap.”
“Yeah, Farah,” Coconut said, playing with the hairs on Jake’s chest. “What’s the rush? I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since before Rhonda died. Chill with us for a minute. We were thinking about grabbing something to eat.”
“There’s no rush,” she lied, “I just figured you guys wanted some privacy. It’s not like I’m hitting and running.” She giggled.
“Why would we want privacy when you’re good company?” He patted the bed. “Now, sit your sexy ass down. I want to rap to you about a few things.” He opened the covers for her to reenter.
Instead she took a seat on the edge of the bed and looked at both of them. Damn, these mothafuckas freaked out. Just leave me the fuck alone. “What’s up?”
“Like Coconut said, I wanted to take both of my girls out to dinner and maybe catch that new hood movie that just dropped. I think it’s called Pitbulls in a Skirt.”
Coconut crawled up under him. “I’m with that shit, baby!” She looked down at her friend. “What about you, Farah?”
It wasn’t like they were the worst people to be around. In fact, she really enjoyed the way they handled business in the bedroom. It was just that she had a lot of things to handle, and the last thing she wanted was to be snuggled up under the sex-crazed couple.
“I kinda want to go home.” Farah shrugged. “I didn’t want to tell you guys, but I think I’m coming down with a cold or something.” She stood up again. “Can I please have my money now?”
Jake sighed. “I’m not going to lie, Farah. Your response kind of hurts my feelings.” He grabbed the belt loop of Farah’s jeans, forcing her into the space on the bed next to him. “Because I was thinking about taking my babies out shopping too.” He kissed her on the neck and small chills
traveled down her body. “Now, are you sure you can’t make a little more time for me?”
He won her over, because although she wanted to be alone, Jake spending paper on her was not a bad idea. She hadn’t been shopping since Randy cut her off. “Can I ask both of you something?” They nodded simultaneously. “How do I fit into this equation with you two? Am I a fuck buddy, a fuck homie, or what?”
Jake looked at her inquisitively before focusing on Coconut. “Wait, you didn’t tell her?”
“I didn’t get a chance to,” she responded, looking nervously into her eyes. “Farah has been hard to find these days.” He seemed irritated. “Let me explain it to her now, baby.” Coconut exhaled. “Farah, I think I gave you the wrong impression on what Jake was looking for when we first spoke.”
“Can you just spit the shit out?” Farah said combatively. “You’re scaring me.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “Jake . . . I mean . . . we’re looking for an exclusive thing. Not just a sexual thing.”
“An exclusive thing?” She laughed, looking between them. In her book this was utterly ridiculous. “How can it be exclusive if there’s three people involved?”
“When I was coming up, my father always had these types of relationships,” Jake said. “And it worked because nobody ever had a reason to cheat. All three people were stimulated on a consistent basis. In my mind, it keeps the excitement alive.”
“You mean you grew up like a Mormon?”
He laughed. “Not exactly. I don’t remember them being real religious or nothing like that. There were a lot of swinger parties, but that was it. Anyway, I knew as a kid that I wanted the same.” He rubbed Coconut’s hair. “When I met Coco, I told her from the jump what I was about. She told me she had the perfect person for us, and when I saw your face, I knew it would work. But Park was with me, and since I didn’t tell him my plan, he put his bid in and y’all started kicking it. That was then and this is now. I really hope you can get wit’ this.”
“So that means I got to be in a relationship with you and my best friend?”
He nodded. “Trust me, if we try hard enough we can make this shit work. Niggas do it all the time, but they never involve the women. I’m not like that. I’m trying to keep shit on the up and up.”
Farah immediately thought about Slade. Although he saw her with Bones and told her to fuck off, she didn’t want to be in a relationship with anyone else until she was sure. Then there was Bones. She still had yet to see what was up with him. What Jake wanted could complicate everything.
“I’m gonna be honest. This may be deeper than where I’m trying to go right now. Can I have time to think about it first?”
Coconut shook her head. “Farah, don’t mess this up for me, please. Jake has been good to you. Plus you kind of owe me.”
Farah grimaced. “Why do I owe you?”
Coconut sat up in the bed and crossed her arms over her chest. “After that video that was placed on You-Tube? Of you smacking me? You mean to tell me that you don’t remember that shit? Technically we aren’t supposed to be even talking right now, but I forgave you.”
“Coconut, I wasn’t the one who uploaded that video, so you can’t hardly blame me for that.”
“Let me come at you a different way,” Jake interrupted, not feeling the petty girl shit. “You obviously can’t take care of yourself, because you always asking for money. I’m in a position to look out, but if I do, I need to know I’m getting what I want in return. A full-time scenario, on a permanent basis.” He rubbed her long hair. “And that means you not giving up the pussy to nobody but me.” With a serious face, he asked, “Do we have a deal or not?”
Farah had no intention of staying true to this deal no matter what she told him, but to get money, for now, she would tell him anything he wanted to hear.
Chapter 30
Slade
“You just have to be clear on what you want in the beginning and stand on it.”
The music in the car was pumping, and although Shannon was riding shotgun, Slade still felt alone. Losing Markee had shortened his patience, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands on Randy. It was a good thing he was hiding, because he had plans to dismember him while he was still alive and feed his body parts to the sharks.
His mind was still on the funeral when she ran her hand up his thigh. He looked over at her. “I’m not feeling that shit right now.” He stopped at a light. “I’m driving.”
She snatched her hand away. “Since when are you not feeling getting your dick sucked? You would do it five times a day if I could stand it.”
“You just love saying stupid shit, don’t you?” He pulled into traffic. “I can’t never get you to act like a lady.”
She threw her weight back into her seat, pouted, and crossed her arms over her breasts. She didn’t care if she was the in-between girl. She wanted to be with him, so she would do whatever she could to keep him. But it bugged her out that unless he was about to nut, she always seemed to be irritating him. “Whatever you want, Slade. You’re the boss.” She sighed. “Anyway, where we going out to eat?”
“I was thinking we could grab some steaks.” He looked over at her. If there was one thing that could be said about Shannon, it was that she was sexy. The jeans she wore hugged her thick thighs, and her waist was virtually nonexistent. She wasn’t no Farah Cotton, but she was a great substitute. “Why, you wanted something else?”
“I’ll take whatever you give me.” She laughed, happy he was willing to compromise. “So,” she said as she rubbed his thigh again, “when you gonna make me your girl?”
He turned the music down. “You playing, right?” He looked into her eyes as he steered his truck. When she didn’t crack a smile, he said, “Wait, you’re fucking serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I don’t suck your dick and let you treat me like a fuck toy just for fun. I do it because I like you, and someday I want you to take me seriously.”
“I thought it was about the bread I put into your pockets. Now, if that ain’t enough, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“And I appreciate it—”
“Well, you better start acting like it, Shannon,” he said in a voice that rocked her core. “Because I told you I’m not trying to be in no relationship.”
“You mean you not trying to be in no relationship with me. If I were Farah, it would be all good.”
Just the fact that she uttered her name plagued him with guilt. “How come whenever I turn around, you talking about Farah? Are you that fucking insecure that you can’t even exist without knowing how I feel about her?” He paused briefly. “I’m not going to keep justifying where you stand in my life, versus what I feel about her.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I will always love Farah. It means that you will never measure up. And it means that if you mention her name again, just once, I’m pulling this truck over and throwing you the fuck out.”
Slade didn’t relax until he made it to the restaurant and had two glasses of Hennessy in his system. Suddenly, when he looked over at Shannon, she didn’t seem so irritating. In fact, she looked beautiful as she silently sipped her soup.
“What you over there thinking about?” he asked, hoping she wouldn’t ruin the night. “You been quiet ever since we got here.”
She released the spoon and it clinked against the inside of the bowl. “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I guess I can’t believe that I’m sitting at the table with somebody like you.” Shannon sipped her Moscato. “I ask myself over and over, why me? And I want to know so badly what I can do to make you happy. I just don’t know how.”
“What you mean, somebody like me? I’m just an average nigga.”
“Slade, you may be a lot of things, but average you’re not.” She looked him over. “I mean, look at you. You have the height, that sexy chocolate skin, and even that scar on your neck. Girls like me don’t normally find themselves in the company of niggas like you.”
She shook her head because it hurt her feelings that he was talking to her about other niggas. In her mind, it meant that he would never be serious about her. “Naw, they never like bitches like me, except if they’re trying to fuck. I guess you can relate, since that’s all you want, right?”
He sipped his liquor. She was a beast at finding ways to bring up the topic of commitment. “Yeah, a’ight, Shannon.”
“I’m serious,” she continued, tossing her wine up, leaving only a droplet in the glass. “Can I ask you something? Before you say yes, I want an honest response, even if you think it will hurt my feelings.”
“Don’t say you can take it if you can’t.”
“I promise I can take whatever answer you give me. I’m tired of being lied to, and I know, no matter what, you do care about me. Even if it is only a little bit.”
He sat back in his chair. “Okay, give it to me.”
She exhaled. “Can you tell me why you would never take me seriously? As a girlfriend? I don’t want you to beat around the bush, Slade.”
He gulped his Hennessy and flagged the waiter over for another glass. “I’m gonna tell you this because contrary to what you believe, I do like you. A lot.” When his drink came, he took a slow sip. “I could never see you as wifey because of how you got down when we first met.”
Her eyebrows rose and she was confused. In her mind, they had a great night, which ended with his dick in her mouth and her friends fucking his brothers. “Are you talking about when you picked me and my friends up and took me to your cousin’s house?” She paused. “Because I thought everything was cool. As a matter of fact, you said that was the only reason we still kick it.”