“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He looked at her knowing that was not the answer she wanted to give.
“Is this about the other night though, baby? Listen, Tatum, I already told you. I’m sorry that I scared you, or that you had to see another side to me, but I’m not going to apologize for what I did. That nigga was a disrespectful ass clown, and I don’t have any tolerance for niggas like that. I don’t know any man that would’ve done anything different,” he pleaded. Tatum sighed.
“Ree, you’re not the kind of man that’s right for me.”
She couldn’t believe she said it and even as the words were coming out of her mouth, they felt wrong. He nodded his head, realizing that he didn’t have a response. He knew he was wrong for her and he knew she was just as deferential to him as he could be to her. But he didn’t care.
“Tatum . . . what if I told you that I would do anything to be the kind of man that’s right for you? What if I told you that you just have to give me some time, and I could be anything you want me to be?” He paused, then continued. “Huh, what if I told you that?”
She bit her bottom lip to hold back the emotions she felt coming on. This was real, and at that moment she didn’t care anymore, she had a man crazy about her, a real man who any woman would want . . . and he wanted her, and damn it felt so good.
“Tatum, what if I told you that?” he repeated with urgency, sincerity in his eyes. She looked at him and smiled that smile that won him over the first night they met and then she spoke.
“Okay, okay . . . I’ll go home with you.”
After Tatum told Sasha and Kim that she was going home with Ree she walked with him to his car of the evening, a breathtaking Porsche. As he held the door open for her to get in the passenger seat, they shared a smile and he told her he’d be right back. Tatum looked around the crowded parking lot at everyone pouring out of the club. People were drunk, sweaty, and trying to find somebody to spend the night with. Tatum felt like she had the prize.
She could see Ree talking to her brother and Chauncey as Neli stood a distance away staring at Chris. Or was she staring at Chauncey like that? Tatum focused her attention on Ree. He seemed so calm and in control. She thought about what Sasha had told her about him being a boss. You could definitely tell from studying the conversation. Ree controlled the scene while Chauncey and Chris looked and listened. After a few minutes he got in the car. While he started the car he informed Tatum that Chris and Chauncey would be accompanying them back to the house briefly and Neli would be there to keep her company while they discussed some things. Tatum shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but she really just wanted some quality time with him and truth be told, she wasn’t trying to be around her brother or Neli.
After what seemed like the shortest drive ever, due to Tatum’s quick doze-off, they arrived at Ree’s mini mansion in West Orange. Tatum and Neli headed to the living room while the guys took the spiral staircase up to the study. For a friendship that used to be so tight, Tatum felt like she and Neli were strangers. They sat on opposite ends of the couch and barely made small talk while Tatum flipped through channels trying to mask her discomfort. Neli looked down at her feet unable to really look at Tatum and adjusted her top and skirt a million times. Finally the men emerged, relieving both Tatum and Neli from their torture.
As Chris headed for the door he motioned for Neli to come on, and gave a nod to his sister. Something inside of him was very bothered by the fact that his sister was fucking his boss. It wasn’t that Chris was the protective-brother type at all, but it just seemed like everyone except him was coming up with Ree. It was like a slap in the face that his own sister had gained Ree’s trust and respect and he was still trying to earn stripes. Neli could see his frustration and planned on playing on it the second they were alone. She said her good-byes to Tatum, Chauncey, and Ree and headed out the door behind Chris, after giving Chauncey a long stare that spoke volumes. He completely ignored her. Ree walked over to Tatum and sat next to her on the couch.
“Listen, why don’t you go upstairs and get up out these clothes. Get a little more comfortable, take a nice little bath, and relax. I’ll be up right behind you.”
She smiled and nodded as she got up and made her way upstairs.
“Good night, Chauncey.”
“All right, Tay,” he said with a smirk, not really believing himself that Ree and Tatum ended up together. It was funny to see her in his house, and she was really in his house. Chauncey knew Ree had to be really into her.
When she was up the stairs and Ree could hear the water running, he proceeded.
“What’s up with that chick, huh? She looking at you like you stole her heart and shot the shit, what’s going on?”
Chauncey played dumb.
“What? Who, Tatum? What you talking ’bout, boss?”
“Nigga, you know damn well I ain’t talking ’bout Tatum. I’m talking ’bout shorty that just walked outta here with ya young boy. You knocked that down, man? What’s going on? You fucking wit business?”
“Nah, Ree. I’m not fucking wit business, on my word. This will not fuck with the business at all.”
Ree just looked at him seriously and nodded slowly before continuing.
“Now you know, I just gave that boy over a half a million worth of product along with the paper to take to the stash house on the strength of you. You put ya word on it that the boy could handle it. The lil nigga wanna prove he deserve a spot, so I went wit it, but now, you . . . you wanna go and fuck his broad. C, if he fuck this up—”
“Respect, I swear the nigga will not fuck wit ya paper or your product. That’s my man yo, he’s stand up. You gonna see, he gonna handle it all real well, I bet you the shit make it to the safe house fine, every drop and every dime. I’m telling you, you could even let him break it, stamp it, and distribute it.”
Ree just motioned his hand as if to say, Whoa, let’s not go that far.
After a long pause and realizing that there was nothing he could do now, it was out of one trunk and into another, he decided to take Chauncey’s word for it. If Chauncey would be moving up in rank soon, he would have to respect his word and his judgment. Ree put his hand out and Chauncey shook it, as a sign that he was taking his word for it. As he walked Chauncey to the door he gave one final word of advice.
“Don’t fuck her again.”
Chauncey just looked at Ree and understood so many things, that there was no need to deny, no need to explain, and most importantly no need to question it. Ree was serious, and although Chauncey had no intention on fucking with Neli, it went from something that he couldn’t do anymore to something he better not even think about doing anymore. Chauncey nodded and Ree closed the door behind him, then turned off the lights and headed up the stairs to unwind with Tatum.
As Chris hung up the phone thinking of Chauncey’s last words in his head, Take her home first, he took a second and reflected on how crazy shit was. He felt like Tupac himself and it was him against the world, fuck it . . . him and Neli against the world, and they were like Bonnie and Clyde.
He looked over at Neli and realized how much he wanted to prove to her that he could be the man she desired. Anything that she ever saw in Chauncey, he knew he could be for her. He just had to play the game a little more and get in good with Ree, and then he could knock Chauncey out the box and move up in rank. It was simple. He knew there was talk about expansion and Ree was looking for solid soldiers. It was definitely time to show and prove.
“Neli, I gotta drop you off, baby, but I’ll be back to get you later.”
Neli played on it. “No, Chris! Why you gotta drop me off, because Chauncey told you to? Damn, you do everything he tells you, you like his little runner boy or something!”
Chris sucked his teeth hard, he was tired of people trying to play him.
“Yo get the fuck outta here, I ain’t nobody runner boy, I just got business to handle. When Chauncey had to handle business I bet you wasn’t qu
estioning him about his shit.”
She went for the kill.
“That’s ’cause you ain’t Chauncey . . . You could never be Chauncey. And what kind of business, anyway? I heard the way Ree shut you down, you ain’t holding no real money. You been full of shit from the start.”
“No real money, huh? Okay, you’ll see,” Chris said as he took a beeline from the direction of Elizabeth and jumped on 1 and 9 heading to Newark.
“Whatever,” she replied but was smiling inside.
Chris prayed silently as he headed to the stash house in the Forest Hill area that no one would be around. As he pulled up he breathed easy, feeling that his prayers were answered. He parked, and then hopped out of the 5 Series BMW that he had just purchased, and opened the door for Neli, who sat in the passenger side looking confused.
“Where are we going?” she asked coyly. He smiled like he was the man himself and rubbed his chin.
“You wanna see some paper, right?”
Neli walked carefully through the dark, musty hallway that led to a narrow set of steps, some missing and broken.
“I’m not going up there,” she said, leery.
“Just go,” Chris urged from behind.
Neli proceeded gently up the stairs, almost falling as Chris used his free hand to balance her. The other arm and hand occupied the two large duffel bags filled with money and drugs. Once at the top of the stairs Neli used the set of keys that Chris gave her to open all four locks on the door.
As Neli looked around, it wasn’t as bad as the walk up would have predicted. The apartment was basic—two mattresses sat one on top of one another off in the corner, a lamp sat plugged in on the floor along with a radio and television. Neli saw McDonald’s bags and half-empty soda bottles on the floor, along with binoculars. Other than that the place was all white walls and wood floors.
“What are we doing?” she asked again.
“Just go sit down,” Chris demanded, a little annoyed.
He locked all four locks on the door, walked over to the other side of the apartment, and took a seat on the floor near a window. He immediately began looking at the product and thinking of all the possibilities. He glanced up at Neli repeatedly to make sure she wasn’t up in his shit.
Neli went and sat on the mattress and turned on the television although she was barely interested in the TV. She was more concerned with what Chris was doing but didn’t want to seem too obvious. So instead, she found a channel playing videos as she tried to get comfortable on the mattress. Finally he looked at her and motioned for her to come to him. She walked over to where he sat as he unzipped the duffel bag, revealing the most money Neli had ever seen in her life. Her heart began racing.
“Oh my God,” she muttered, almost in a whisper. Chris smiled at her admiration and then stood up, almost nose to nose with her.
“You ever had sex on a half a mil, baby?”
The last thing on her mind was sex with Chris. Just seeing the money made her desire for Chauncey even more potent. She knew he was the one who had given Chris the money and he was the one who told Chris to take her home so she wouldn’t know where his money was going. It wasn’t Chris’s money, it was Chauncey’s, or so she assumed. However, she went along with it and considered how the scenario might actually be an aphrodisiac.
“Mmmm. A half a million dollars? What a turn-on, daddy.” With that Chris walked over to the mattress, turned the bag upside down, and emptied the money onto the bed as Neli undressed, and he even went as far as taking off the rubber bands and spreading it all around for the effect. Now, the power of the pussy will momentarily induce amnesia in a nigga because it wasn’t but five minutes after he was out of his pants and into her, and five strokes later when Chris heard doors slamming outside the building. He jumped up quickly, heart beating out of his chest, and couldn’t think of what to do first: hide the money, hide Neli, or put on his drawers.
“Hurry up quick, get dressed!” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
Neli put on her clothes as fast as she could as Chris threw on his boxers and jeans and opened up the loose floorboards. He had planned on doing this later and asking Neli to wait in the car, but fuck it, he had to get that money put away.
“Come fucking help me!” he yelled at Neli who began scooping up large armloads of money and throwing it beneath the floorboards. She was scared, as well, she could tell Chris was in trouble by his demeanor, and she may have been naïve but she was smart enough to know that in this business trouble meant death, and there were never witnesses left. By the time they heard keys jingling in the doorway, they were dressed and the money was safely put away. Chris would think of a way to explain taking off the rubber bands later. When the door opened it revealed an angry E looking at Chris and then at Neli, as if trying to detect what was wrong with this picture.
“Yo E, we ’bout to be out. I just brought her up here real quick ’cause she had to go to the bathroom.”
E stared blankly at him and gave a half of a nod, knowing damn well that he wasn’t supposed to even do that. As Chris and Neli exited, E glanced down and noticed a hundred-dollar bill sticking out from under a floorboard.
Chapter 12
Devotion
It was almost 6 P.M. the next evening when Chauncey finally decided to return E’s message. He and Sasha had spent all of their Sunday sleeping and sexing, and E’s tone didn’t sound like it was urgent at all so Chauncey figured it wasn’t important enough to interrupt his QT with his princess. However, Chauncey was about to find out otherwise.
He picked up his phone and dialed E, while getting up out of the bed and heading into the bathroom. E answered immediately and wasted no time filling Chauncey in on what he had been waiting to tell him, as Chauncey stood stone-faced, wondering what the fuck he was going to do.
After getting all of the info, Chauncey told E how he would handle the situation and walked out into the living room. Anger and disappointment flooded him as he thought of how he had vouched for Chris. He had a serious problem on his hands and it had to be dealt with immediately.
Chris was chilling in his car with Neli, smoking a blunt while she sucked him off, when his phone began blowing up. After the fifth time ringing, he decided to see what fool was calling him like this while he was trying to get his nut off. At first he was scared to pick up at the sight of Chauncey’s number, but then he realized he looked even more suspicious if he ignored it. He decided to take the problem head-on and deal with it like a man, and although he had fucked up, Chauncey wasn’t the boss nigga, fuck should he be scared of him for?
“Yo,” Chris answered in a blasé tone that suggested he was either unaware or didn’t care that there was a problem. Chauncey paused briefly, a sign to Chris that he was upset, but Chris was wrong, he was fuming!
“What the fuck did I tell you? Muhfucka, are you stupid? You took that bitch to the spot, fuck was you thinking, nigga?”
Chris tried to play it off so that Neli wouldn’t see him bitch up under Chauncey’s interrogation, but he was shook inside.
“Yo, it’s nothing, C. She don’t even know nothing about that, she just had to go to the bathroom.”
After digging in his ass and calling Neli every name in the book, which she heard through the phone, Chauncey ordered Chris to drop Neli off immediately and meet up with him at a local pool hall. Chris was literally shaking the entire time driving her home.
The minute Neli got inside and realized that Ray wasn’t home, she picked up the phone and dialed Chauncey. It wasn’t the most sensible move.
“Hello,” he answered in an angry tone, unaware of Neli’s home number.
“Chauncey, listen, I just wanna let you know that I won’t say anything about what I saw. I promise, you know I would never do anything to get you into any kind of trouble—”
Chauncey chuckled. “Nah, you ain’t gonna get me into any trouble, but you gonna get yaself and ya little boyfriend into some serious trouble, and it ain’t gonna be with me, baby,” Chau
ncey spoke, voice dripping with a threatening calm that chilled Neli and excited her at the same time. She licked her lips and closed her eyes, imagining him and what he must’ve looked like, smelled like, felt like. God she missed him.
“My little boyfriend, huh? You jealous?” she asked, praying and hoping that he was.
“Get the fuck outta here! Listen, I told you before don’t fucking call me no more, stop stalking me, bitch! Stop fucking wit my mans, stop coming to my spots, and stop sitting all up in my girl face when you know you fucking foul! I got your card, Neli, and I see what you all about, ma. You just wanna be Sash . . . but let me put you up on this, ma, you could never be Sash, you got that? So stop fucking frontin’ in her face like you her friend, when you really just an insecure, wack-ass little hoe!”
Neli stood as her mouth hung opened from his verbal assault. She built up the courage to retaliate.
“You got some nerve, nigga. How about how you sit up in her face, pretending to be her man, when you fucked me? And you just as much of a hoe as I am.”
Neli quickly realized she was talking to a dial tone and wondered how long she had been doing so. She hung up the phone, and began to weep for Chauncey’s abandonment, not even thinking of any trouble she may have gotten herself into.
When Chris pulled up to the pool hall he immediately noticed Chauncey’s 750 sitting in the parking lot, and the story that he had rehearsed ran over and over in his mind. He walked through the small, dark lot that only a few cars occupied, and cursed himself for stepping in a mud puddle with his brand-new Timberland boots. His matching suede tan jacket was also getting ruined by the light showers that were starting and he thought of an old Biggie song that clowned on niggas who wore suede in the rain. He made his way into the hall.
Appearing to be deep in thought, Chauncey chalked up a stick, sipped on a Heineken, then powerfully landed a ball in the corner pocket. Chris must’ve stood there for a good minute or two, a drastically long minute or two, before Chauncey even acknowledged him. Chauncey thought he had it figured out. He figured Neli was either too scared or too infatuated with him to even bother with their business, but just in case, Chris would move the product and money to a different stash house and the team would just not access the Forest Hill property for a while.
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