by Shan
Looking in the rearview mirror, I brushed my hair down as best I could with my hand, and then stepped out of the car. Even though it was just a mini-mansion, I could tell that the home would look just as good on the inside as it did on the outside. I made my way up the steps and raised my hand to knock, but the door swung open, and this stalking-ass nigga stood on the other side of it. I turned around to leave, but he stepped out and grabbed my arm. I couldn’t believe that Tangie had set me up like this, and I couldn’t wait to get back to her and let her know how fucked up it was.
“Damn, where you going?” he asked me.
I rolled my eyes at his cocky ass and jerked my arm away from him. I couldn’t help but give him the once over. He was rocking a wife beater, and a pair of pajama pants that hung low around his waist and exposed his print that I wish I would never have seen.
“You and Tangie got me fucked up. What’s this, some kinda joke or something?”
“Chmmp . . . man, bring your ass in this house. She said you needed to make some extra paper, and I was looking for somebody to help me out around here.”
“I feel like this was a setup.”
“So, what if it was? You wanna make some bread or nah?” he asked, and I thought about my home situation. Over the past few days, I had noticed how Camp would always stare at me whenever Tangie wasn’t in the room, and I had even heard him late night creeping by my door too many times for me to be comfortable with. I would lock the door at night and even put a chair up under the doorknob, but I really wanted to get the fuck up out of there as soon as possible. I didn’t even have the heart or courage to tell Tangie what was going on for fear that she would take Camp’s side and throw me out on my feet.
I needed that roof over my head since I didn’t have anyone else right now. My mother and father had pretty much tarnished my name with the rest of my family, having them believe that I had Alaska killed, so no one really wanted anything to do with me. It hurt like hell, but it was motivation for me to get on my grind and do what I had to do so that I never had to go to any of them for anything. Tangie paid me $7.50 an hour for thirty hours a week. It was all she could afford for the moment, so as mad as I was that they had set me up, I wasn’t going to turn down no extra bread.
I took Khi’s lead and followed him inside his home. His foyer was decorated with huge pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Tupac, Scarface, and Biggie Smalls. I smirked and continued to follow him as he took me to the spacious living room. I watched as he sat his daughter down on the floor, directly in front of the TV. I looked around at the toys scattered here and there and saw little things that could be cleaned, but not much. Most of this shit looked like he threw on the floor on purpose just to look like he had some shit for me to do, but I wasn’t tripping. If he wanted to pay me to be in his presence, then I would gladly accept. As long as he knew I wasn’t fucking for the cash, then we were good.
No lie, Khi was fine as fuck. He had a dark caramel skin tone, a baby face with little to no facial hair besides the goatee that was lined to perfection. He had some eyes that seemed to be a hazel color in the light, but dark brown in the night. Khi kinda reminded of Derek Luke’s sexy ass, especially since I had just sat up crying the night before while watching Antwone Fisher. His swag was better, though. He had this gangsta-ass edge about him, not to mention he was cocky as fuck. But as fine as Khi was, I had sworn off his type after Rue. There was no way I would ever go down that road again only to be fucked over and left hanging like I had been three years ago. I shook my head at the thought.
“Come on, let me show you around,” Khi said as he pulled me out of my thoughts. He waved for me to follow behind him, and I did. He showed me to the kitchen first. It was a huge open area with stainless steel appliances and granite marble countertops. Interior design magazines had become a fascination when I was locked up, so I had a good eye for detail. I would study those magazines for the better part of my day and daydream of how one day I would be designing homes for celebrities and the rich.
“You don’t know how to wash dishes,” I said as I pointed to the sink that held a few glasses and plates, along with silverware and a few bowls.
He chuckled and looked me up and down. “You don’t know how to comb your hair?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I keep it like this to keep niggas like you away, but I see it didn’t work,” I told him as I followed him around the house, going room to room. So far, on the bottom floor, I had counted three bedrooms and two bathrooms. All of them were clean, and it was just another confirmation that he really didn’t need me there. It made me smile on the inside to think of the lengths that one would go through to have little ol’ me in their presence, but I had to stay in game mode at all times. I couldn’t let shit like that having me remove the block that I had around my heart.
Once we made it upstairs, he showed me where his daughter slept, which was a princess-themed bedroom, and then showed me to the master bedroom. I couldn’t take my eyes away as I stood in the doorway of the room. Out of every room in the house, Khi made sure that his room was fit for a king. The bed had to be custom-made, because it looked to be the size of two king-sized beds put together. The four bed posts were built into the ceiling, and there were huge gold shams that hung down that you could pull open and closed like curtains. Whoever had done this room for him had done such a good job that there was nothing about it that I would do over.
When I had finally taken a breath from my excitement and went to turn around, I bumped directly into Khi’s firm chest. He looked down at me with that cocky-ass smirk, and I quickly diverted my attention to something else, which just so happened to be his dick again. I threw my gaze to the floor, but when the soap that he bathed in tickled my nose, I had to take a step back from him. He grabbed at my arm, but I took another step back.
Why the hell does he have to smell so good? I thought as I became frustrated.
“I’m just to here to work for you, okay. Whatever ideas you have about me, I’m not that type of girl.”
“And what kinda girl is that?”
“I know you don’t need me here. Your house isn’t really even dirty, and shit . . . you could do the little bit of mess you do have all by yourself.”
“But then that would defeat the purpose of why I told Tangie to get you to come here.”
“I’m not fuckin’ you for money, Khi,” I finally told him as I threw my hands across my chest. I was nervous but hoping he would understand that I was only there to do the real job of cleaning and caring for his daughter even if it wasn’t much.
He looked down at me, and his tall ass had the nerve to laugh at me. “Trust me, when you do give me that pussy, I’m not gonna have to pay for it,” he said as he turned around to walk away.
I took a deep breath, and then let it out as I followed him down the stairs and into the living room where his daughter had fallen asleep on the floor. He picked her up and was headed to lay her in her bed when the doorbell rang.
“I can take her for you,” I said to him, and he handed baby girl to me and made his way toward the door.
I had only made it about halfway up the stairs before I heard Khi’s loud voice along with another going back and forth. I peeked over my shoulder briefly before I continued up the stairs to lay little mama down in her bed. I pulled back the covers to her Princess Tiana bed set and laid her down before I pulled the covers up over her. There were a few toys scattered about over the floor, so I picked those up and tossed them inside a toy box that sat at the end of her bed. Once I was done, I left the room and headed downstairs to really get started on my job by washing the dishes and cleaning up Khi’s kitchen.
Khi stood in the foyer of his home with another guy who damn near looked exactly like him. They stood at the same height, had the same caramel skin tone, with those same dark and mysterious hazel eyes. The other guy wore his hair in dreads and was just a little more on the rugged side than Khi, but I could tell that they were broth
ers. The dreadhead looked at me with a mischievous glare, and I smiled at him briefly as I made my way toward the kitchen.
“Aye . . . aye, come here,” he called after me, and I stopped midstride. I tucked my hands over my chest as I waited for him to approach me. The whites of his eyes were red, and his pupils looked glazed over. I could smell the alcohol on his breath the closer he got to me, and I knew that he was wasted. “Don’t I know you?”
“No, you don’t,” I said as I shook my head and frowned up my face. I went to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him.
He looked down at me and stared idly in my face like he was waiting for me to recognize him, but I didn’t. I had never seen dude a day in my life, but I guess that liquor had him gone and thinking we’d met before.
“Can you let me go?”
“You sure I don’t know you, shorty?”
“I’m positive. Now let my fuckin’ arm go!” I yelled, and that’s when Khi finally stepped in.
“Aye, Dae . . . go to my office, nigga, and I’ll be there in a minute,” Khi told him as he peeled him away from me. Dae placed his hands into his pockets and bit down on his bottom lip. He looked me up and down real good before doing what his brother told him to do.
Khi licked his lips before he stepped into my space and looked down at me. I attempted to walk away from him, but his cocky ass grabbed my arm and made me stand right there under his glare.
“You niggas sure love grabbing on a bitch. Can you let me go?” I asked him, and he smirked.
“I’ll be back,” he told me as he let me go.
I shrugged my shoulders and walked away from him. I didn’t know if this job was going to work for me. Khi’s ass made me feel things that I did not want or need to feel. I was going to hold out for as long as I could, but I knew that it would be only a matter of time before I caved in. I could feel it.
Chapter 8
KaeDee
I banged on the door and waited for someone to open it. I had left the office as soon as Khi called me and told me what happened with Amber and Deonna. I couldn’t believe that Dae had been doing some ho-ass shit like beating on his damn lady as much he walked around confessing his love for her every second he got, but I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. That nigga grew up in the same house as the rest of us, but one would think that he had been raised by a beast or some shit instead. He was always in some shit. That nigga didn’t know how to act, which was why I didn’t understand why Khi hadn’t done what the fuck I had told him to when it came to the business. Khi always went on and on about how he refused to let anyone ruin what we all had built, but it was like he couldn’t see that Dae was going to be the cause of our downfall. Khi had a real live soft spot for Dae, but I didn’t, and wanted that nigga out. He was too fuckin’ hotheaded and always making some dumb decisions, because it sounded good in that fucked up head of his.
Going after them Arabs like he had wasn’t a smart move at all. Now, instead of us being focused on getting our paper together and properly planning to go after who had hit us when we had the valid evidence, we were constantly looking over our shoulders and waiting on them to hit back. Dae had broken Amin’s jaw and nose, and he had to get a few stitches above his eye, but other than that, he was going to be just fine. But just like always, Dae was unable to leave well enough alone. Amin was found dead days after leaving the hospital. Although Dae claimed to know nothing, I knew better; Amin’s blood was all over Dae’s hands. When them Arabs came at us, they were gonna come hard, and it wasn’t going to be anything that we could do to stop them. We just had to be ready.
Amber had finally come to open the door, and immediately, I noticed that her bottom lip had been busted. She didn’t even look at me and had diverted attention to the floor before she spoke and wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back and stepped inside of her and Dae’s home.
“Why have you been holding that in so long, Amber? You’re family, and you know we would’ve been pulled you and D.J. out of this situation with no problems,” I told her as she continued to look at the floor.
“It just started over the past few years, and it’s progressively gotten worse. I just didn’t know how to tell anyone, and every time I got the courage to do so, he would always convince me that he wasn’t going to do it again. Dae is sick, KaeDee. I don’t know what’s going on out there or what he’s seen, but it’s fucking with his mind. One minute he can be so calm, cool, and loving, and the next, he will snap and turn into this monster,” Amber said as tears fell from her eyes.
I knew that she wasn’t lying, because I did notice that whatever was going on with Dae hadn’t started affecting him until the past few years. We all thought that the nigga was just having a hard time after our uncle was murdered some years back, but shit, it had been a while since, and he was still cutting up. I didn’t understand it, but I honestly no longer had it in me to care. He was Khi’s problem now. Khi wanted to be a softy about the way he handled him, like Dae was still a little-ass boy, then that shit was on him. After the shit with Amin and him hitting Deonna, I was officially washing my hands of the little nigga.
“It’s gonna be okay, Amber. Maybe you and D.J. should go and stay with Moms until Dae calms down,” I told her, referring to my mother, who was pretty much her mother as well. “Or either come to the house or to Khi’s. It doesn’t matter. Just somewhere other than here.”
“No, it’s gonna be okay. I know deep down that he hates to disappoint you and Khi, and hopefully, now that you guys know, he won’t do it again,” she said, and I didn’t push. I just didn’t want anything further to happen to her, and I damn sure didn’t want that nigga hurting my nephew.
“Where’s Deonna?” I asked Amber, and she pointed down the hall toward their guest bedroom. I kissed Amber on her forehead before I made my way down the hall.
The room was dark, but I didn’t see Deonna anywhere. I noticed the light that peeked from underneath the door of the bathroom. Before stepping in that direction, I dropped Deonna’s Louis bag with all her personal belongings on the bed. I knew that had I not been so stubborn and given her these things a week ago, she would’ve stayed somewhere else, and the altercation with Dae would’ve never happened. I made my way over to the bathroom, twisted on the knob, and pushed the door open. Deonna damn near jumped out of her skin when she saw me, causing something that she held in her hand to fall on the floor.
I walked over and picked it up, noticing that it was a pregnancy test. The word pregnant appeared in the screen, and I looked down at Deonna as she sat on the toilet, refusing to return my stare. I could see the bruising over her jaw from where Dae had hit her, and I bit down on the inside of my cheek as the anger I felt brewed inside me. I guess Khi knew what he was doing when he told me to check on the ladies and that he would talk to Dae. I could kill that nigga right now for this ho shit that he was doing. Hitting on females was a punk-ass move, and Dae knew better.
Although I was mad at my wife, I didn’t like to see her in this state, especially now that I knew she was carrying my child. I gritted my teeth and placed my hands in my pockets as I tried to hold my composure. So much was going on lately that it had been hard for me to stay the calm guy that everyone knew me as. I felt like at any moment I would snap. I hoped that Deonna wasn’t about to tell me no shit that would make me do the same thing to her that Dae had done. I had never put my hands on a woman before, and I didn’t intend to, but shit, I didn’t know how I would react if Deonna told me something I didn’t like.
Her and this ex of hers, Tyrin Walker, had done some business together since me and her had been married, and Deonna ain’t never said shit about it. Hell, I had never even heard this dude’s name before the FBI came parading through my firm and slapping a twenty-page warrant on my desk that had my wife’s name written all over it. I thought it was real funny how she flipped out on me and was ready to leave a nigga when she found out what my true profession was when all along she knew that she had dated
a well-known drug kingpin out of Miami before I even came around.
Shorty was a real-life actor. She had pretended to be this good girl in college that came from a good family with morals and shit, but hell, now I didn’t even know what part of that shit was even true. I had never met Deonna’s parents before, or any of her family, for that matter. She claimed that she was the black sheep of the family and that everyone was mad at her for pursuing a dream in dance when her family contained a line of doctors and nurses. Shit, who the fuck knows?
“So, you pregnant?” I asked, finally breaking from my thoughts as I held the test in my hand. I looked at it once more before I tossed it in the trash and took a seat on the edge of the tub.
“Looks that way,” Deonna said with a sniffle.
My wife was so fuckin’ beautiful to me. She had those eyes that my mama always preached to her boys about to look for in our women. I knew when I met her in college that she was the one for me, which was why we didn’t date long before I proposed to her and gave her my last name.
I pulled Deonna’s hands into mine, and they trembled underneath my touch. “Look at me,” I told her, and she brought her eyes to mine. Tears leaked down her face, and she tried to wipe them away, but I held onto her tighter. The love I had for this woman was undeniable. She gave me my first and only child, and I made sure that I gave Deonna and Chanel the world. Deonna was my life, my partner, and my Bonnie in this fucked up world that we lived in, but she was a liar that I no longer trusted. What I did back then was to protect her, to protect myself, and to protect my brothers. She kept her life from me in an attempt to deceive me, but the truth always came to the light.