by T. Styles
“Jace is dead.” He throws a few things into his bag and looks at her. “Why you looking like that?”
“How he die?”
“HIV.” Ann stumbles backwards but she tries to pull it together. If he’s infected, what was to stop her from being positive too? “Don’t look all crazy,” Kali suggests, “you don’t have that shit.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that pussy too good that’s why.” He grins.
She wasn’t at ease. “Kali, I’m scared.”
He sighs, stops packing and pulls her toward him. “If you’re really worried, we can get that thing checked out when we get back but for now we gotta bounce. Cool?” He releases her and she continues packing.
“You know, I didn’t know how I was going to take it…if Jace finally died.” She stuffs her colorful panties into her bag. “But now that he’s gone, all I can do is smile.” She demonstrates her pleasure with a grin.
“I hope you won’t be that happy if something was to happen to me.”
The grin is gone. “Kali, you just don’t get how much I fucking love you.” She never used that word before and he’s off guard. “I think you believe in your mind that just because Jace had money, that he was the nigga for me. If that’s what you thinking let me stop you right now. Jace was weak and if there’s one thing I hate in this world, it’s a weak man.” She walks over to him. “But you’re strong,” she rubs his face, “and you’re dangerous. All of the things I adore. I was born to ride with a man like you. Even if you had to convince your daughter to fake a seizure in the nail salon to make me realize it,” she giggles, “believe me when I say I’m glad that you did.”
Kali sees something in her eyes he never saw in another woman’s before. Sure he Cave Man’d a few bitches into being with him. And yes he knew how to lay the dick like a plumber did copper pipes, but Antoinette had seen the worst of him. She’d been there when her life depended on it and everyday she woke up with a smile on her face, just because he was by her side. He didn’t know if she would last much longer but for some reason, when it came to her, he was willing to try.
JAYDEN
TO THE RESCUE
I love how Sebastian drives. Safe. Secure. He’s focused and moves down the road at a comfortable speed. I can go to sleep if I try. Every so often he looks at me in the rearview mirror, and I smile. When I look at the passenger seat, Luh Rod seems to be in a world of his own. He has ear buds stuffed in his ears and he’s rocking to his own music. I call them Young Guns because they know how to handle themselves with weapons.
Although shit is looking up for me because my money is rolling in, and Shaggy got the death he deserved, right before we threw his body in the Anacostia River, there are still a few other things I have to handle.
I tug on the red scarf wrapped around my neck when I feel it tighten. I think I should be nervous even though I’m very calm. Too calm. Am I some sick sort of serial killer? I don’t know. When we finally park, I look at the address in my hand and the number on the house. Satisfied I’m in the right place, I glide out of the truck with Sebastian and Luh Rod closely behind me.
When I reach the house, I knock once on the door and when someone answers, I knee her in the stomach forcing her to the ground. Sebastian and Luh Rod lift her up and grip her under her arms, before shoving her inside and to the sofa. She’s screaming loudly and her mouth is open so wide I can see her tonsils. I close the door, walk up to her and look down at her pathetic-addict-face. Disgusted, with a clinched fist, I crash it into her jaw. Her gold wig slides backwards, her cheeks jiggle and she immediately goes silent.
As she moans I say, “A baby was born here not too long ago.” She looks scared. “That baby was taken out of this house by someone you know. A friend maybe, and accomplice possibly.” I focus on her face, wondering if I should finish her off or let things play out. “What do you know about it?”
I read her lips. “Oh my, God is this about Madjesty?” She wails, “I told her I didn’t have anything to do with Cassius’ disappearance. He’s my great grandchild for heaven sake.” She’s weeping. “I even tried to help her find him. Did she tell you that?” She swallows her blood but it doesn’t matter because another blow from me fills her mouth up again.
“Listen, bitch, Madjesty may have believed that shit you just said but I don’t. Now you know where my nephew is and I’m sure of it. Either tell me where he is, or there won’t be enough of you to bury. Where…is…Cassius?”
“Okay, okay,” she says, her white teeth are now red. “Miss, I think there’s been a mistake. You have the wrong impression about me. I don’t know anything about where the baby is otherwise I would’ve taken her to him. Please, this is a great mistake. You gotta believe me. I loved him the moment I saw his face. It hurt me too when he was stolen.”
I sigh. I hoped this situation would go better. A little easier. I look at Sebastian and Luh Rodd. “Don’t let her go.” I remove the scarf from around my neck, approach her and stuff it inside her mouth. Then I take the knife out of my pocket, climb on top of her and slice into her ear. I go past the cartilage and bone, until it’s completely hanging off. It’s a bloody mess, in the palm of my hand. She’s screaming as much as she can but all I hear is a dry tone. A stuffed tone. Courtesy of the material in her mouth.
When her ear is off, I throw it in her lap and wipe my hand in her hair to get it clean. “Now you know that I’m serious. I know what kind of person you are, somebody like you raised me.” Sebastian looks at me that time, although his eyes avoided mine up until this point. “Now I’m going to slice off every part of your body until you tell me exactly where my nephew is. Please know that I wouldn’t come over here, until I was ready to see things through. You’ve been researched. I know more than you think.”
Once I found out this bitch took Madjesty’s baby, I contacted Kreshon and he told me where she lived. Apparently they did some surveillance on her a while back and found out she was having sex with Kali, her own son. So unless she was giving me my nephew, there was nothing this whore could tell me that I would be interested in, except the truth.
Her eyes roll around in her head. “I’m going to take this out of your mouth, but if you get too free, I’m going to pluck your eyes out next. Okay?” She nods and I remove my scarf.
“Please, don’t hurt me anymore. This shit hurts so much! I’ll show you exactly where he is.” She weeps a little. “Just promise me you won’t hurt me anymore. Please.”
****
When we make it to a run down building in D.C. I’m sick to my stomach. Just imagining Cassius being anywhere in that place makes me ill. Sebastian holds a gun in the bottom of Bernie’s back, as we shove her up three flights of stairs by force. When we finally get to the door she points and says, “He’s in there.”
“You want me to go in first?” Sebastian says. “I don’t trust this bitch.”
“We all going inside. Let’s see how things pan out, “I tell him before knocking on the door.
Eventually someone responds, “Yes!”
“It’s her.” Bernie whispers. “She has the baby…can I go now?” Luh Rod crashes his elbow into her nose silencing her.
I cover the peephole and look at Bernie. Calmly I say, “Tell her to open the door.”
In a shaky voice she says, “It’s me, Arizona. Bernie. Open the door, girl. Some crazy shit happened to me and I need to talk.”
“Oh shit! Who bothering you now?” Arizona pulls the door open without a dispute.
When she does, Sebastian pushes Bernie to the floor and she falls on her face, rolls over and rubs her chin. The blood from her ear trickles on the floor. Arizona tries to run into the back of the apartment but Luh Rodd catches her and hits her in the back of the head with a closed fist. He pulls her back into the living room.
“You sneaky, bitch! Niggas told me not to fuck with you and now I see why!” Arizona screams at Bernie.
“They were about to kill me.” Bernie cries. “Look
at my ear! I didn’t have no choice!”
“Bitch, you don’t have no ear there!” She yells. “And it was your idea to sell her baby the moment she came to the house. Why you acting like its all me?”
I’m so angry my skin is hot. Why would Madjesty trust this bitch? Everything about her smells foul. “Put them on the sofa.” I look at Arizona. “Who else is in your house?” She doesn’t respond. “If I go back there and see somebody else, I’ma have them slice out your heart.”
“Nobody’s back there.” She says. “Just the baby.”
I slowly walk down the hall and toward the door. I can’t believe I can hear his voice so clearly from where I am. When I turn the knob and go inside, I don’t see the baby because of all the dirty clothes and trash bags piled high on the floor. It reminds me of when we were kids and I make a promise that my nephew will never have to live like this again.
After some time, I spot a wooden crib. I walk toward it when I hear his cry. I remove a plastic bag that’s inches away from his head. He could’ve suffocated and I would’ve lit this building on fire! It ain’t like I didn’t do it before. When I remove it, I see the cutest baby boy I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s crying until he sees my face and I can’t help but smile. Oh my God, he’s perfect! He has the curliest hair and yellow skin and his eyes are so big that they look like black marbles. The wider his smile grows I see he’s all gums.
Carefully I reach down and pick him up and he feels like heaven in my arms. He smells sour but I don’t worry, because I’ll clean him up when we get home. “It’s okay, baby. I have a room all ready for you, I hope you like it.” I’m thinking of the place I kicked Gucci and them out of.
With him in my arms I walk back into the living room. The two addicts look at me. I look at Sebastian and say, “Finish them.” And I walk out the door and to the car, with my nephew securely in my arms.
JAYDEN
CLOSET FREAK
After getting my nephew back from that addicted monster and seeing how Sebastian handled business, I was in the mood to see about his sexy ass. Lately everything has been about work between us and although we weren’t playing the way that we use to, I thought about him most of the time. After getting dressed in my sexiest black jeans and cute pink fall sweater, I walk to his mobile house. I could’ve gotten Metha to drive me but she bugs me out at times. Always worrying about what I’m doing and who I’m doing it with.
When I get to his house, I spray some Bvlagari perfume on my wrists and knock on his door. After about six raps, I hear some movement inside but he doesn’t open the door. I go to the side of the house and try to look into the windows, but they’re too far up. I can’t see. So I look on the ground, find a rock and throw it at the window. I hear loud footsteps and I go to the door again. He throws it open. I focus on his lips.
“What’s up, Jayden?” He’s wearing grey sweatpants and his shirt is off. Those blue eyes fuck me up every time. “I’m into something right now.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “I was coming to ask if you wanted to grab something to eat.” I lick my lips and run my fingers over my hips. “I’m hungry…are you?”
He smirks. “You sure food is the only thing you want?”
I look at his chest and run my fingers over it. He grabs my wrist and squeezes. “Jayden, I got company. So you gotta bounce.” He lets me go.
I feel like he punched me in the stomach. “W-what you mean I gotta bounce? Do you remember who the fuck I am, nigga?”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t give a fuck who you are. I’m off the clock.”
“So you can take my money and then treat me like shit?”
He looks angrier than I ever saw him. “When your father was alive, he hired me and my brother to look after you.” My legs feel like jelly. “We use to check on the house, to make sure shit was okay like he asked. To make sure the nigga Kali wasn’t after you. Jace was a straight up dude and we respect him…even to this day.”
“So you were lying when we first fucked, about liking me? You were working for my father all the time?”
“Yes but I didn’t know that was going to happen. Having feelings for you and all. On my dead mother who died in a lightning storm in that house over there, I never played you like that. When Jace died, me and Luh still looked after you but shit got weird after your house was broken into. That’s when you came and begged me to take your paper remember? You sought out me and my brother not the other way around. And what I do on my spare time don’t have nothing to do with you. If you don’t want us to work together anymore just tell me now. Because believe me when I say, I don’t need your money.”
I still need their help but I’m so confused. Why didn’t my father tell me? “I didn’t say I don’t want to work with you.”
“Good…now you gotta go. I’m being rude to my company.”
I’m so mad. Why do I feel like I want to hurt him right now? “Why are you doing this?”
He sighs. “You know what, you a cool girl, Jay. And at one point like I said, I was feeling you. So what I’m about to say is not personal. I just realized you’re not somebody I want to be with in that way anymore. You don’t need a nigga. You the boss, so lets keep it like that.” He seen the worst side of me and now he’s turned off.
“And the girl who’s in your house is somebody you want to be like that with?” And then I think about all of my girls. I remember the way him and his brother be looking at them. “Wait, you not fucking one of my bitches are you?” He slams the door in my face.
****
I went to get my truck and came back to his block. I wait until the sun goes down in front of his house. Morning is around the corner now, when a short pretty white girl, with dark brown hair waltzes out of the trailer. She looks drunk and I love people that way. You always get the truth out of them. But I’m so hot I can feel the heat steam from my body. I open my truck door and rush toward her right before she enters a white Kia.
“Excuse me, can I talk to you for a second?” I ask in a really sweet voice.
She turns around and I realize she’s even prettier than I thought. Fuck this bitch. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Are you fucking with Sebastian?”
I focus on her lips. “Oh my, God, he’s so cute but I only just met him through his grandfather. He’s in town from Saudi Arabia tonight. He came by to take him back home but Sebastian doesn’t want to leave his little brother. And since they have the same mother but not father, his grandfather doesn’t want Luh to go.” She really talking. Damn. “I was supposed to convince him to come back but I’m not sure if it worked.” Suddenly she looks scared. “Wait, are you like his girlfriend or something?”
“No, and what do you mean you met him through his grandfather?” I lean in.
“His father is some type of royalty in that country.”
“So you’re saying he’s rich?”
She laughs. “That’s an understatement, if Sebastian goes home, that’ll make him the only heir. He’ll be a millionaire.” She grins again. “Wait…who are you if you’re not his girlfriend?” She seems scared. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“Don’t worry about that shit, bitch.” I move closer and place my hand in her soft head. It smells like lavender. I ease my fingers through the edge and pluck a strand of hair out.
“Ouch!” She yells before I slap her in the face. Her skin reddens.
I put my hand back in her hair and pull out another strand. Instead of screaming she covers her mouth. She takes the pain like a good bitch should. “I don’t know who you are but you better never let me see you around here or Sebastian again. Are we clear?”
“Yes…” she’s crying, “please don’t hurt me no more.”
I walk away leaving her alone. If Sebastian wasn’t giving me that dick nobody else was going to have it either. Besides, I just found out Sebastian is Mr. Biggs, but I’ll have to let him believe I don’t know it.
MADJESTY
&
nbsp; AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW
My body roams the street but I spend most of my time in my head. I lost my son and had nightmares about how his life might end up. Will somebody kill him? Rape him? Or leave him to die? I went by Bernie’s house the other day to see if there was any more news and she wouldn’t answer the door. When I looked through the windows, it looked like she moved.
Since Shaggy tried to kill me I disconnected from everyone to keep them safe. My mother, sister and even my friends. Hungry and damn near broke; I went into a diner off of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in DC. My head is swaying a little because of the buzz I’m feeling and I have to feed my liquor. My bottle is only half full, so I know I need to come up with some cash quick before my buzz dies out for good.
After buying a glazed donut, I sit down at the table and try to force it down my throat. If it didn’t sting going down and get me drunk, I found I didn’t want it. Some kind of way I finish it all and decide to take a nap right here, at the table. In the restaurant. The moment I shut my eyes, I hear somebody screaming.
I look at the table across from me and this lady has nothing but hate in her eyes as she yells at some kid. “Why did you do that, huh?” Her glitter fingernails dig into the flesh of his forearm and he looks scared. In some ways, he looks like me when I was about ten years old. “That was your sisters toast not yours! I’m tired of your fat ass stealing food!”
The kid is quaking but manages to say sorry. I’m hoping that will be the end but she doesn’t stop. She pushes his head into the window so hard; his cheek leaves a print on the glass. “Greedy fucking, bastard! All you do is eat me out of house and home. That’s why you got three asses now! Never know when to push back!”
Not sure when I got up but when she turns around I’m in her face. “What the fuck do you want?” She asks me. “I don’t have no change and even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you.”