“Um, thank you . . . I think,” I answered.
Genesis coughed under his breath, giving Farrah a wary look.
She waved his warning off. “I take it you haven’t filled our little doll baby in, have you, Kane? Let me do the honor,” she announced proudly. “Novie, that man beside you supplies half of the free world with every form of substantial sin you can think of.”
I was beyond confused by what the hell she’d just said. Genesis was a lawyer, a really good and a really expensive one from my understanding.
Genesis’s hand rested in the small of my back. He leaned close to my ear. “She’s right. We aren’t here to celebrate. We’re here to pick up a shipment. Farrah supplies the stuff, and we move it. I need you, because I don’t have a sexy smart-mouthed bombshell. Do you know how many ball players, rappers, and politicians we can lock down with you on the team?”
I looked at Genesis like he’d sprouted a second head. If I wasn’t going to sell for my parents, there was no way in hell I’d sell for this nigga. He was out of his damn mind. I motioned for him to lean down so I could talk without yelling all my business.
“I’m not doing this shit. You can find somebody else,” I said into his ear.
Genesis straightened up and stared down his nose at me.
“Novie, I can make those prints reappear faster than you can get through those doors. I told you that my service came with a price. This . . . and staying away from Swiss is all I ask.”
My lips worked themselves into an angry thin line. Stay away from Swiss? Staying away from Swiss wasn’t an option, and it didn’t have anything to do Genesis.
Farrah sipped from the champagne flute in her hand. She tipped it back, emptying the glass in one gulp. As if Genesis could sense the fury welling up inside me, he grabbed a champagne flute from a passing server.
“Let’s toast to our newest girl and her journey to becoming as successful as our best guy,” he toasted with a smile.
I couldn’t believe this shit was happening to me. This was some straight-up television entrapment-type shit, and there was nothing I could do to get out of it. I excused myself to the ladies’ room. Maybe there was a window or something I could jump my black ass out of. I’d already run once, so doing it again wasn’t impossible. It would just be harder this time around since I didn’t have thousands stashed away in a locker at a bus station.
NOVIE
16
Model Millionaires Are Rare
I was too pissed off with Genesis to do more than throw the champagne back down my throat as quickly as possible while I searched for the ladies’ room. It took everything I had not to bolt for the front doors. If I was going to get out of here, the bathroom or a backdoor was my best bet. I’d figure out how to deal with Genesis once I was away from him.
A surge of jealous heat ran through my body when my eyes found Swiss again. He was smiling down into the face of a beautiful woman wearing a dress that didn’t quite reach the middle of her muscular thighs. Jealousy should have been the last thing to hit me. Especially since he’d been dealing with her consistently, and I honestly didn’t have anyone because I consistently compared everyone to him.
I’d moved into a less-crowded section of the building when a hand covered my mouth, yanking me behind a curtained wall. I screamed, but it was muffled behind somebody’s hand.
“Shhhhh, I just wanted to see you.”
Javion’s voice brushed against my ear. He spun me around, slamming his dry lips against mine. I pushed against his chest, leaning away from him.
“What are you doing here? And you’re the last motherfucka I want to see,” I spat at him. “Surprised you ain’t laid up with Catwoman right now. Nigga, you’re the reason I’m in this shit to begin with.”
“C’mon, girl. Ain’t nobody checkin’ for McKenzie. Why would you think I had anything to do with settin’ you up? I wouldn’t do no shit like that. Boss man gets whatever he wants, Novie. He been had his eye set on you. It was only a matter of time before he stopped watchin’ the picture and tried to get in it. There ain’t shit I could do to stop him.”
“What do you mean set his eye on me? If you know what the fuck is goin’ on, you need to help me, Javion!”
Despite my resistance, Javion pulled me toward him, holding me close against his chest. I would’ve kneed him in his nuts if my dress wasn’t so damn tight.
“I’ve got to get out of town. I refuse to work for that nigga anymore. I sold off the last of my package, and I’m gonna use it to set up my own shit in L.A. Come with me. He won’t look for you out there. Come with me, Novie. It’ll be you, Mr. Weasel, and me. We can start over, live without anyone watching us,” Javion pleaded pitifully.
Little did he know I honestly didn’t have an affinity for Mr. Weasel anymore. I only gave him that name because he snuck into this pussy like a little weasel when I was emotionally distraught. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve never given Javion the time of day.
But for a split second, his offer did sound good. It sounded like a way to escape Genesis and his illegal drug bullshit. But I couldn’t bail on Shandy, and even though I was being told not to, I couldn’t stay away from Swiss. Now the thought of not having or seeing him was making me realize how bad I wanted him.
“I can’t go, Javion.”
“What do you mean, you can’t go? You mean you can’t go tonight? Yes, you can. You ain’t gotta pack shit. I’ll take care of everything.” His voice cracked; he sounded like he was on the verge of an emotional meltdown.
I leaned in, giving him a soft peck on his chin. Yes, every kiss begins with “K” and sometimes “K” could stand for keep ’em coming, but right now, it stood for keep it moving. This way, I wouldn’t have to come up with any flowery excuses or bullshit lies to cover up the truth behind the matter, which was, I didn’t want to go. Apparently, still, that wasn’t clear enough. Javion dipped his head lower toward mine. I put my finger up to his lips.
“What are you saying?” His words vibrated against my finger.
I stared at a point just behind his ear. I was trying to say everything without saying anything. And I think he was finally starting to hear me loud and clear.
Javion’s face clouded over. His grip tightened painfully on my arms.
I looked down in disbelief at his whitening knuckles, his fingertips digging into my skin.
“I just gave up everything for you!” he hissed into my face, shaking me so hard my teeth knocked together.
“Nigga, you’d better let me go. I didn’t tell you go and do that dumb shit,” I lashed back when he finally stopped shaking me.
He shoved me away from him so hard I lost my balance. My arms flailed, searching for something to grab. Thankfully, the soft shag carpeting broke my fall. Javion was on top of me, straddling my waist, clawing at my throat before I could recover.
“You fuckin’ bitch. Die, you stupid, fuckin’ bitch! You ain’t worth shit!” he hissed.
Flecks of frothy white spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. It sprayed from his lips. My fingers clawed at his hands around my throat. Nobody knew where I was, and I’m sure even if they did, with the curtains closed and the loud music, they wouldn’t know I needed help. This was a different kind of feeling from when I jumped from the bridge. I’d chosen that ending, so I still felt in control, even though I was helpless. All I could feel now was this pitiful helplessness and anger over not being big enough to whoop this nigga’s ass. His face was going in and out of focus as my lungs begged for air.
“Da fuck!” Javion yelled, falling back.
I coughed, rolling to my side to get away from him when I was scooped up into strong arms.
“You know you’ve got a thing for attracting the crazies, right?” Swiss whispered down into my ear.
I relaxed into his chest. “With my track record, that means you’re crazy too.”
“I’m the craziest out of all the crazies. But I’m crazy about you,” he murmured.
As bad as I wanted to thank him, I wanted to get air past my raw throat and into my chest.
He pulled the drapes closed, sitting me down in the chaise lounge a few feet away from where I was attacked.
“Stay right there. I mean it,” he ordered before disappearing through the red drapes.
I was massaging the tender spots on my throat when he returned. I don’t know where the tears came from. One minute I was fine, and the next, I was just overwhelmed with the fact that I’d almost gotten killed. Swiss sat down behind me, positioning me so I could lay across his chest.
“Thank you,” I told him in a watery voice.
“You know I have to go, right? I’ve got to get that body out of here before somebody finds it. Kane thinks I’m about to run a delivery across town.”
I nodded against his chest, leaving big black smears on his red dress shirt from my mascara. Good thing I didn’t have on a full face of makeup or he’d be walking out of here looking like he had a mask on his shirt.
There was a shaky hoarseness in my voice when I tried to talk.
“I’m not mad about your little boy or the fact that your side-ho is pregnant,” I said quietly. “I am mad at all this bullshit I’ve been sucked into. And the fact that I’ve got this nigga suddenly controlling my life.”
Sobs rocked me to my core, making my entire body shake. Swiss slid his fingers underneath my chin, nudging it upward so I could look him in the eye.
“Novie, it ain’t as bad as you think. A nigga might see $60 or $70,000 a year out there sitting in a cubicle fuckin’ with Excel five days a week. But that ain’t for us; we ain’t got university degrees, Novie. I got a master’s in this street shit, and you got a Ph.D. I keep a low-profile crib and a low-profile life because my baby momma would cut off her own leg to get to my paper if she knew I had millions. I just want to see my li’l man grow up happy and healthy, I want you to be a part of that.”
I would’ve scoffed at that last part if my throat didn’t hurt. He wanted me to be a part of his baby momma drama? Umm . . . no. Tinesha would make both of our lives hell just for shits and giggles.
I shook my head against his chest. “Genesis said I’d distract you. He threatened to release my prints to the police if I don’t cooperate.”
“Novie, Genesis will only know what you want him to know. I make close to two-mill a year. This shit is superlow risk for that kind of dough. Imagine once you get in and see how shit operates. You’ll probably figure out how to flip three times that.”
I leaned back, giving Swiss an extra hard, extra thorough look. What he was saying sounded too good to be true. The only sour side of the deal was that I’d either have to cut all ties with Swiss or sneak to see him until we decided to cut all ties with Genesis.
“Okay, Swiss. I’ll do this shit, but if that heffa hits me again, I’ll break her face.”
Swiss’s face broke into a wide grin. The corners of his eyes crinkled while he laughed. He leaned forward, giving me a soft peck on the same cheek that his baby momma’d punched me in.
“Yeah, she snuck you with a good left jab, but you took it like a champ. You do know the two of us together are smarter than all the world combined, right? I say we do us, get this paper, and if you want to be done at any point, just say the word and we’re out of it.”
I bit the inside of my lip. Two against one sounded a helluva lot better than me against the world. If my daddy had never interfered in the beginning, Swiss wouldn’t have abandoned me. He didn’t abandon me when I showed up needing help, so I felt safe going into this with him as a secret ally.
“Let’s do this shit,” I announced with a smile matching his.
He was on the brink of giving me another one of his dangerously slow kisses when the red satin drapes billowed in toward us. I jumped, letting out a small surprised squeak. Genesis slammed through the drapes. He stood in the middle of the booth looking back and forth between Swiss and me.
I’d been so caught up in my conversation with Swiss that I hadn’t even noticed that the music had stopped. The soft murmur of hundreds of hushed voices met my ears. My heart hiked across the inside of my chest in spiked cleats. Oh, shit. How much has Genesis heard? I knew I was gonna need that damn cigarette.
NOVIE
17
The Art of Allowing
I couldn’t tell if Genesis was going to kill us on the spot or wait until later when he had some privacy. His face was dark and stony as he stood in the booth.
“Everyone’s evacuating. Someone found a body in the men’s bathroom,” Genesis announced.
He gave Swiss what looked like a disgusted stare down before turning his eyes to me.
“Shit,” Swiss cursed, pushing himself up off the chaise lounge. “I walked in on your boy Javion, roughin’ her up. You know I black out a little when I get too worked up. One minute I was here, and then it was like I blanked out and snapped. Next thing I know, he was lying on the floor with a broken neck,” Swiss told Genesis.
I looked at Swiss with different eyes. What happened to the man I used to know? The old Swiss would’ve knocked Javion out or cracked a few ribs. He wouldn’t have killed him. Or maybe he would’ve done it, and I was just giving him too much credit.
Genesis’s expression didn’t change as he spoke to Swiss. “Get out of here before you get found out. I’ll take her home,” he said.
Swiss’s eyes held an unspoken promise as he looked toward me before leaving. Once he was gone, I realized I was all alone with the intimidating Mr. Genesis Kane.
“Are you all right?” he asked with what sounded like concern in his voice.
“Mm-hmm, just shook up, but I’m good.”
The tenderness in his voice caught me off guard. It was weird to see him acting like a normal, caring person. He helped me up from where I’d been sitting. A deep frown creased his forehead when he saw the bruises on my arms and my neck.
“I told you to stay away from him. Swiss can’t focus on the mission in front of him when there are distractions. Now he has a body on his hands because you didn’t listen.”
I glared at Genesis. “I didn’t listen? You’d be picking my body up off the floor right now if it weren’t for Swiss. He saved me, and you weren’t anywhere around to help.”
“Novie, Swiss is not who you think he is. This isn’t the first time I’ve said it, and I know I can’t be the first person to tell you leave him alone. This time, I’m saying it because it’s for your own good.”
No, Genesis was actually third in the line of anti-Swiss conversation. My daddy had the number one spot, and Shandy followed him up behind in second. The conversation I’d just had with Swiss replayed in my head. Genesis’s legal-beagle ass was probably superintimidated just being around a real dealer/hit man. If he knew half as much about Swiss as I did, he wouldn’t be worried about anything.
I pasted a fake smile on my face. “All right, I got it, Genesis. No more Swiss. I understand.”
* * *
It was close to two a.m. when I finally walked into our dark and empty apartment after yet another long, silent car ride with Genesis Kane. That man seemed next to impossible to peg down. One moment, he’d be cool, and the next minute, he could be obstinate and rude. I wonder if he treated his momma like that. That’s if he actually even had a momma. If somebody told me he’d been raised by a pack of wild boars, I’d believe them.
I poured myself a shot, hoping I wasn’t expected to actually get up, get dressed, and then roll into an office first thing in the morning. That shit was definitely not going to happen. Tangie could take that occurrence policy and shove it up her ass. I wasn’t even in the mood to pick out my work clothes or log into Facebook. I kicked my shoes off into the living room, groaning as my toes stretched out into the carpet.
I was in the middle of a silent debate on exactly which details I could or should share with Shandy. She wasn’t going to believe half of the shit that happened, but I needed to talk to someone. First things first, I needed a shower.
I undressed, wincing when I saw the four long reddish purple bruises that wrapped around my neck. I couldn’t believe Javion had really tried to kill me. I’d never seen him look like that before, not even on his worst day or when he was at his angriest.
Pushing away my thoughts of Javion and Swiss, I hopped into the shower, lathering up, letting the scent of vanilla orchids and blue coconut water ease into my pores.
Suddenly, the shower curtain peeled back—I dropped the bottle of soap.
“I got real dirty tonight fighting with my bare hands for the honor of this fine-ass chick I seen at the spot,” Swiss announced.
I let out a relieved breath before throwing my loofah at his face.
“Y’all are gonna give me a heart attack with all this sneaking and popping up shit. How the hell did you get in here, Swiss?”
Our shower was big enough to fit one person comfortably, but if you put two people in there, it got crowded quick. Swiss’s body swallowed up most of the space as he stepped in, grinning.
“You don’t give me enough credit, Novie-star. I’m not the same nigga who ran off years ago. I learned a lot, and I’m better than what I used to be.”
“Well, before you get all comfy, I guess I should tell you that Javion and Tinesha were fuckin’ around behind your back.”
Swiss kissed me so slow and deep I was dizzy when he finally stopped.
“I know. That’s why I broke his neck.” Swiss grinned like the cat that ate the canary.
“Nigga, you ain’t got no shame! So you already knew she was cheatin’ on you?”
“Yeah, me and her was talkin’ until I found you again. I cut her off, and then you left, so I got her back. She kind of figured that I had someone on the side, so she started playing me. Guess I let it happen to keep the peace. So I could see my li’l man and see you. As long as she was busy stressin’ Javion, she wasn’t stressin’ me.”
“So you know the baby might be his, right?”
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