Baby Momma 4

by Ni'chelle Genovese

  Tears slid down my cheeks, burning the scratches on my face. I should’ve never been drinking and driving in the first place. There was nobody to blame for any of this except myself.

  There was only one person I knew of who could get me out of this, and I had no idea if making that call would save me or sign my death certificate. First Javion, now Swiss. I’d singlehandedly disposed of Genesis’s number one and his number two guys. He’d probably let me rot in jail, or he’d make my life so hellish, jail would seem like a walk in the park.

  NOVIE

  25

  Alpha Dog

  To the chagrin and dismay of more than a few officers, it was easier for Genesis to get me out of jail than I thought. The DUI and double homicide charges all but disappeared before my hand could put the crusty phone in the station down onto the receiver. Genesis gave me his word that everything would be taken care of, and from what I could tell, he’d kept it.

  A few hours later, I was climbing into the back of the Lincoln Town Car that’d arrived outside the jail. My eyes were red and sore. I hadn’t stopped crying since the police had put me into the car.

  “Novie, I swear you could put CIA operatives and hired hit men to shame if you ever decided to expand your résumé,” Farrah chimed from the backseat.

  I jumped in surprise. I wasn’t expecting her. Genesis had given me the impression that he’d be coming to pick me up. Disappointed, I climbed in, giving Farrah a weak smile. Talking wasn’t at the top of my list right now.

  “It wasn’t what I’d intended, I promise,” I assured her.

  She handed me a miniature bottle of Perrier. I accepted it, even though I hated that mess. It tasted like carbonated yuck. I’d rather just drink regular water.

  “Well, now with this tragic turn of events, I’ve found myself in need of a new captain. A new number one. I’ve looked into your family, Novie. The Deleons have a solid reputation. You come from good stock.”

  I frowned, trying to see Farrah’s eyes through the oversized shades on her face.

  “My family and I had a falling out. But I’m sorry, Farrah; blame the concussion. I’m kind of confused,” I admitted. “I, um, I thought Genesis was your go-to person. The boss, or your number one guy, I guess I should say.”

  Farrah scoffed at me. “Who, Genesis? Oh, how that control freak would love to be the man in charge.” She laughed. “That’s a good one. Genesis Kane as a boss? Not hardly. He’s my legal muscle, the reason we all stay damn near untouchable. Genesis has helped cover up dirt on behalf of the police department, city council, even the mayor. If they ever decided to be uncooperative, well, I’d pretty much own the city. But no, Genesis has never been in charge. Swiss was my burly Alpha warrior. He was my number one, my go-to man.” Farrah let out a sad sigh. “And my go-to fuck. God, sex with that man was better for my body than Pilates and water aerobics combined.”

  Fizzy lemon-lime water went down the wrong pipe, making me choke and sputter.

  I dabbed my watery eyes with the back of my hand. “Sorry, wrong pipe,” I muttered after I’d gotten my composure.

  Swiss and Farrah . . . What the fuck? Well, damn, who wasn’t Swiss fucking?

  Yes, Swiss always had aspirations of being the leader of a cartel, but since when did Swiss actually become the head of anything? And as high and mighty as Genesis acted, his ass wasn’t even in charge. I’d have never guessed that, not with the way he carried himself like he was Father Superior, the all-knowing and all-important one. I almost punched the seat in front of me. This shit was more than I was ready to face or process right now.

  “So, Novie, back to my question. Do I trust an outside source to come in and pick up where Swiss left off, or do I give you that position?”

  Okay, this was definitely way too much for me to process. I’d just killed a man and the daughter of my best friend’s girlfriend. Those two deaths hanging over my head were making my stomach reel. By now, Heather and Shandy had been contacted, and I still had them to deal with. How do I apologize for accidentally killing someone’s child? How could I make that up to someone? All I really wanted to do was crawl into a hole and never crawl back out.

  “Farrah, can I have some time to think. It’s just that all of this was kind of traumatic. I just need to get my bearings.”

  “Sure. As bad as Genesis wants the title for himself, I’m giving you forty-eight hours to come to grips with reality. You’ve taken out my two best guys. If you don’t take this offer I can’t say that I will have much further use for you.” The lines around Farrah’s lips wrinkled as she pursed her lips together. It made it look like she had a little pink-sour asshole poking out of her face.

  I nodded my understanding.

  It was pretty clear that my only option was to accept her offer or she’d renege on one of my get out of jail free cards. I’d never been good at ultimatums. The last time I was faced with one, I tried to kill myself. But this time, the thought of being in charge, running things, hell, even running Genesis, didn’t seem as bad as it sounded.

  The car rolled to a stop in front of an Enterprise Car Rental.

  “We have an account here. Genesis has already set you up with a car,” she stated.

  Half an hour later, I was leaving the rental office in a compact blue Prius. This had to be Genesis’s way of punishing me for Swiss’s death. It still felt too soon for me to go home and face the aftermath that I knew was waiting so I called the devil himself.

  “How many times had I told you to stay away from that nigga?” Genesis growled in the phone without saying hello.

  “Now you don’t have to worry about that ever again, Genesis. It’s been handled permanently!” My voice broke.

  I’d been holding in guilt on top of resentment on top of anger at myself. Saying the words out loud made me feel the impact of what had happened. Swiss’s sons would have to grow up without a father, and Heather would have to go on without her baby girl. I pulled over to the side of the road. None of this felt right. Why did God let me live over and over again?

  “Where are you at, Novie?” Genesis asked.

  “Somewhere near Enterprise,” I sniffled into the phone. “I pulled over.”

  “Well, stay there. I’m coming to get you. We can go get your mind off of things.”

  * * *

  An hour later, Genesis and I were going shot for shot at a brewery not far from where I lived. Genesis had gotten us a cozy corner table away from the crowded bar so we could talk. Even though I didn’t have any kind of an appetite, I ordered steak fries since he insisted I put something in my stomach with all the alcohol. The waitress brought out my fries, hovering over Genesis for a moment or two longer than necessary to make sure he was good. When she finally left, I turned to him juggling a bite of the piping hot fried potato between my teeth and my tongue.

  “Why did you lie to me? You let me think you were running everything,” I asked once I finished wrestling with my food.

  He didn’t even look shocked or caught off guard by my question. Genesis stopped twirling the toothpick that he’d been tossing from side to side in his mouth. He laid it neatly on the side of his napkin.

  “If you know what’s what, then I’m guessing Farrah has already spoken to you,” he said.

  “Yes, and she wants me to take Swiss’s place.”

  Genesis scooped up his shot glass. “Let’s take another shot, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

  Tequila burned its way down my throat and chest. I almost gagged the shot back up. It reminded me of why I hated it in the first place. It was Genesis’s choice, so I didn’t complain when he ordered it, but boy, my head and stomach were surely gonna complain in the morning.

  “I didn’t lie. I never said I ran anything. You assumed that part. I’ve worked with Farrah for a good number of years. I was only twenty-five and fresh out of law school. She was my first client, and I lost her case because I was inexperienced. When she got out and wanted to start over, I helped her because I owed her o
ne, and I saw her vision.”

  “What? Let me find out the wealth consultant was on her Martha Stewart back in the day,” I blurted out in shock.

  “Yeah, and she brought your boy Swiss in a couple of years ago. He made shit happen, and he did it fast. Got territory covered, mapped out who we could deal with, who we could work for, and . . .” Genesis pointed in my direction. “He figured out who could be useful to us.”

  “Useful?” I gawked at Genesis. “Useful, like how? This was all a bullshit fluke. If that shit hadn’t went down with Javion—”

  “Novie, if it wasn’t the shit that went down with Javion that made you cross our paths, it would’ve been something else. Swiss’s mind had been made up about pulling you in way before you ever knew what you were being pulled into.”

  And just like that, what little appetite I had was gone. I threw a half-eaten fry back into the basket, rubbing my fingers together to dust off the salt.

  “No. Genesis, I’m telling you that you must have misunderstood something somewhere. Swiss was—”

  “Novie, Farrah wants to tap into the medicinal marijuana industry. Swiss insisted that he knew a woman who could do more than all of our efforts combined. Said he had intimate knowledge of you.” Genesis scowled saying the words intimate knowledge like they left a bitter taste in his mouth. “Swiss had guys watching you and your apartment for . . . I don’t know . . . a year, maybe longer. You even got a few phones he had preloaded with spyware. He knew where you went, who you saw, and what you were doing. Javion was originally one of the guys gathering info on you. He didn’t know why he was doing it, but he fucked up when he crossed the line and used what he knew to get in your panties.”

  Genesis stopped to tell the waitress who’d wandered back over we were good. I too declined her offer for water and another shot. I was still in shock. This was all way too much to process in one day. Javion had been watching me? Now it all made sense, why he knew so much about me and how he seemed to remember it all so effortlessly.

  “I know this sounds crazy, and it’s probably too much to tell you considering what you’ve been through, but you deserve to know the truth.”

  “Did Swiss tell Javion to shove the broom up the daughter’s ass too, or was that all Javion?”

  Genesis shrugged. “Either way it goes, if you hadn’t left your prints on the front door, Swiss was going to plant them when he went back to slit Beau and his daughter’s throats.”

  “Would he have let me go to prison if I told you no when you approached me that day?”

  The grim look on Genesis’s face made my stomach turn.

  “I had enough cash on me to buy the entire Eastern shore if that’s what was needed to get you out. I was told to take the money to a field and burn all of it if you declined.”

  I slumped back in the hard wooden chair with my mind whirring. I ran from Swiss and the drug game, just to get sucked back into it all over again. There was no way I could work for Farrah. Too many people had already died because of me, and I wasn’t about to get any deeper into this shit than I already had.

  Genesis touched my hand across the table. “That’s why I kept telling you to stay away from him.”

  “So that’s the reason why you were doing things for him? You were his errand boy? Hell, the champagne and Hennessey we’d drunk were—”

  “They were items he requested. You can’t find Hennessey White in the States, but I know a guy. The same goes for the de Brignac. For a hood-ass nigga, Swiss had good taste. Look at his choice in booze, to cars . . . women.”

  I ignored his little suggestion at the end. There were still too many unanswered questions, and my heart was still too heavy for me to get distracted that easily. “So what happens if I tell Farrah that my answer is no? Do you turn into the bad attorney and go out planting seeds all across town to get me locked back up?”

  “Turning Farrah down isn’t an option, Novie. I’ll protect you for as long as I can, but you know a lot of damaging details. She won’t trust you not to talk. Bottom line, you need to choose between working with us . . . or disappearing. Forever.”

  NOVIE

  26

  The Only Thing Stronger

  Than Another’s Love

  Is Another’s Hate

  I tripped over something as I walked in the front door of my apartment. Something was always out of place, or laid down and forgotten about. The extra key to the Prius Genesis rented for me clanged loudly onto the coffee table in the living room. Hearing them clank onto the table brought fresh tears to my eyes. Hennessey probably stood at the window by the front door, popped the trunk, and then ran to get in, dropping my keys into the dish by the front door. I didn’t even know to look or listen for her in there.

  It was almost three a.m. Genesis and I drank until the bar stopped serving liquor. Both of us had an early morning to get ready for, so he’d dropped me off horny and drunk. I left him the valet key so he could have someone drop off my rental. I was really hoping he’d take me to his place and fuck the sadness out of me.

  I regained my balance while trying to focus my blurry spinning vision on whatever was lying on the floor trying to kill me. Suddenly, the corner lamp came on with a loud click. I jumped so hard it’s a wonder I didn’t get scared sober. I whirled in the direction of the light, blinking against the bright light.

  “I didn’t sign up for this bullshit, Novie.”

  Shandy was sitting on the couch balancing a vodka bottle on her thigh.

  “Hey, Shan,” I whispered.

  She stood up almost nose to nose with me, forcing me to look into her eyes flashing with pain and fury. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, giving her more of an angry teenager look versus a grown woman.

  “Nah, Novie, don’t ‘hey’ me. I told you to leave well enough alone. I told your ass not to get mixed up with my brother again.”

  She slammed the bottle down on the wooden coffee table, like a judge slamming a gavel. “You didn’t listen, and Denise doesn’t have anything because of you. Heather can’t stand the sight of her. My brother and Hennessey are gone. I’m tired of living my life as Novie’s crutch. You have to go. Tonight.”

  A confused frown creased my forehead.

  “Go? Are you putting me out?” I sputtered. “Where am I supposed to go, Shandy? Girl, you know I don’t have anywhere or anyone else.”

  “There are mad shelters out there. Pick one! You can sleep under the little desk in your office for all I care. I’m done giving a fuck about you!” Shandy stomped her foot. She flung the vodka bottle at the wall behind me. It left a big gaping hole before hitting the floor and rolling. “I had to call and explain to my momma that her son is dead because of you. She won’t even take my calls anymore. I know my momma wasn’t shit, but she and Swiss were all the family I had, Novie. You’ve still got all your family and your side nigga. Just go. Somebody will feel sorry for you and try to take care of you like I did.”

  My drunken mind jumped from plan to plan, explanations to lies, to the absolute truth behind her words.

  “Shan, you don’t mean that shit. You can’t even afford the lease on this place by yourself—”

  “Since when has someone else’s ability to do or not do been a concern to you?” she hissed at me.

  My eyes dropped to the points of my silver studded pumps. I was doing my best to hide the anger building up inside me. I’d lost. I’d been hurt in all this too, and she was putting me out on the street like I wasn’t shit. After everything we’d been through, this is how she was treating me?

  “Shandy, I am so very, very sorry about—”

  Her hand flew up cutting me off.

  “Do you lie to fool you? Because you ain’t fooling me. Sorry, yes—yes, you are a sorry excuse for a woman, but you ain’t contrite.” Her voice was shaky and low, but her words were acidic. “I moved, I started over. I didn’t have to, Novie. I really gave up everything to help you.”

  She circled around me, stopping just behind my
right shoulder.

  “And you couldn’t give up one thing for me. Your selfish ass just couldn’t leave my brother alone, and now he’s dead because of you! I fucking hate you, and I hope you get everything you deserve!” Her argument ended with her screaming in my ear.

  She stepped back in front of me with her hands clenched into tight fists. Tears ran down her splotchy red cheeks. Everything she’d said was true, but I couldn’t admit that to her, and I couldn’t be stuck out on the streets either. She brushed past me toward the dark bedroom.

  This wasn’t the plan. I was so mad I could barely breathe. My breath was ragged and choppy. I should’ve died in that crash, nobody else but me. Genesis should’ve let me go to prison and serve time as punishment. I didn’t deserve to be out. But it’s not like I did it on purpose. Shan couldn’t stand Swiss, and she barely like Hennessey, and knew it. Her anger was inexcusable.

  I marched toward the door where my things were sitting in sloppily organized little piles. She didn’t even have the decency to let me get my stuff together myself. I snatched up as much as I could carry in one trip. One of Genesis’s flunkies had gotten my car to the apartment in one piece. If I put my shit in the rental I wouldn’t have to deal with her neighbors staring at me.

  It was quiet outside as I rushed to get my things in the car as fast as I could. Three trips later, I was down to my last few items. I’d just finished putting my suitcase and laundry basket in the backseat, and all I had left was my favorite perfume and a few toiletries. I was almost at the car when the toe of my pump caught a crack in the pavement. My eyes went wide, and it was either going to be the perfume or me, so I let that shit go. The black bottle hit the ground, shattering to pieces. I teetered, reaching for anything to catch me and getting nothing. Before I could brace myself, I flopped forward, hitting the ground hard as hell.

  White-hot pain seared through my chin. My right wrist felt like it was broken or sprained. I sat up slowly trying to see if anything else was hurt. It felt like water was soaking through the front of my turtleneck. Great, I fell in sewer water. I’ll probably grow a third nipple now.