Hardhearted

by Sherrod Tunstall

  Swag stared at her, admiring her natural beauty. King could tell he was intrigued by her.

  “What?” she said.

  “Nothing.”

  “Then stop staring and sitting there with your rumbling tummy.”

  Swag started to eat and drink orange juice. He glanced at the papers King had on her desk. “So what’s that? Your light bill?” He laughed, trying to soften up the mood.

  King looked at him with a straight face. “Ha! Ha! Ha!”

  Swag knew she was being sarcastic, and he liked it.

  “I’m planning a surprise birthday party for Josephine.”

  Swag lit up when he heard Josie’s name. “What! I didn’t know Jos . . . Josephine had a birthday coming up soon. How old will she be? What’s the theme of the party?”

  King’s brow went up. “You ask a lot of questions about a girl you barely know. But anyway, she’ll be 18. As for the theme, that’s the surprise. But the colors will be black, white, and pink.”

  Swag cleared his throat. “Cool, my oldest son has a birthday coming up soon. He’ll be 6 years old.”

  Just thinking about his son or sons, in general, brought a smile to his face. He hated that he was half a world away from them. Part of it was his fault, and he also had to remember that he was on the run.

  King was shocked by his confession and wanted to know more. “A son? You have a child?”

  Swag nodded. “Yes, King. I have two sons, actually. I wish I had my phone so I could show you pics of them. I can’t log on to my Facebook account without the Feds finding out my location. Dammit!”

  King could tell Swag truly cared about his sons. “What are their names?”

  “My oldest boy’s name is Solomon Jr., aka Li’l Swag. And my baby boy, Namond, is almost 1.”

  Swag showed King his right upper arm, where there was a tattoo of Li’l Swag when he was first born. He then showed her his left upper arm of Namond at his current age.

  “They’re adorable, Solomon.”

  “Thanks, ma.”

  The last thing King wanted to do was compete with babies or their mother. “So, are you still with their mother?”

  That comment caught Swag all the way off guard. “What?”

  King pinched his hand. “As I told you before in the limousine, I don’t like to repeat myself. I’ve been letting you slide a few times, but if you want to be on my right-hand side, I suggest you get with the program. Got it?” She pinched him again.

  “Damn, that hurts, but, yes,” Swag said, rubbing his hand. He hated being pinched. It reminded him of those days when his nana would pinch him, and that hurt like hell when he acted up.

  “Now, the question is, are you still with your baby mama?” King folded her arms.

  Swag didn’t want to discuss Zaria. He felt as if his love for her was gone. The only piece of love he had for her was that she was the mother of his sons.

  “If you mean living together, yes. But if you mean by being in love with her, no.”

  King was surprised. She was expecting a long, written out love letter on how much he loved her, wanted to marry her, the white picket fence, and all that love shit she hated reading about and looking at. If that had been the case, she would’ve taken her butter knife and cut off his balls.

  King played the dumb blonde role again. “You live with her, but you don’t love her? Then why stay where you’re not happy?”

  Swag didn’t know if it was the Costa Rica air, the excellent breakfast, or King’s essence. He was starting to feel comfortable talking to his soon-to-be new boss . . . until he remembered that in the very near future, he had to break away from her slowly. But he played it cool and answered her.

  “Well, at one time, I did love her very much. Shit, she was beautiful . . . silky chocolate skin, and we had a great connection.”

  “Damn, she sounds like a dream.”

  “Yeah, she has a lot going for her. She’s in school to be a biomedical engineer, which I was paying for since her family cut her off for being with me. And when she told them she was pregnant with my seed, she was dead in their eyes. They didn’t want their daughter with a street dude. To make things comfortable for her, I bought us a big loft in the loft district. I bought her a Mercedes-Benz and was paying for her tuition at Wash U. She didn’t have to work or want for anything. I was taking care of the home, but then, over time, she got greedy.”

  “Uh, what do you mean by greedy?”

  “Well, she always wanted to show up and show out in front of her college friends and cousins. She wanted to go shopping every day and buy up the entire mall. She wanted to go to the club every night to pop bottles. Hell, she forgot all about her schooling, keeping our home clean, and taking care of the kids. When I told her about my concerns, all she said was ‘hire a maid or a nanny.’ But I wasn’t having that, so I cut some of her weekly allowance until she got her shit together.”

  Just talking about his baby mama pissed him off. So many memories flooded his mind. Mainly, how she flipped out on him and changed toward him. He even got her pregnant a second time, hoping things would get better. Shit got worse after she had Namond.

  “Then she started to use my kids against me. She made threats and said if I left or didn’t give her what she wanted, she would turn me in to the police.”

  King shook her head. “Yeah, in this life, one thing you never do is mention the cops. That’s a death wish.” She cleared her throat. “Go ahead.”

  “If it weren’t for my kids, I would’ve left. I put up with it for a bit, even while she was cheating on me when I was on my overseas’ gigs. I just wanna see my kids, even if it’s for one day, to see if they’re okay.”

  King admired how much Swag loved his children. She wished that her father had that same love for her. “Well, Solomon, how would you like if I could do that for you?”

  Swag looked at her with confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “What if I can arrange for you to see your sons?”

  Swag was shocked by those words coming out of King’s mouth. “You can? How?”

  “Shh, just leave it to me,” she said. “Finish your breakfast so that we can take care of business.”

  As they were enjoying their breakfast, Blood came on the balcony. “King, I—”

  He paused and looked at Swag. “What is he doing here?”

  Blood was furious. He was the only man who was supposed to be in King’s suite, having breakfast with her.

  “Blood, first off, this is my shit! I run this, okay? Solomon is my guest and my newest right-hand man in training.”

  Blood’s heart dropped at what King told him. She wasn’t supposed to recruit anyone without talking to him first.

  “What?”

  “You heard what I said. Now, you know I don’t like to repeat myself, but again, Solomon is my new right-hand man. I want you to train him right, and I want no harm to come to him.”

  Blood’s face was like stone. All he did was turn and walk away.

  “Blood!” King shouted.

  He swung around with evil in his eyes.

  “I’m warning you. I don’t want any harm to come to Solomon. Understood?”

  “Sure.” Blood left . . . ready to kill someone.

  King looked at Swag, who was impressed by how she handled business.

  “Are you almost done eating?” she asked.

  Swag nodded and took a sip of his orange juice.

  “I asked because you’re going to need all your strength. Today is your first day of training.”

  Swag choked on his juice. Damn, already? he thought.

  * * *

  In the gym in the basement of the Palace, Blood punched the punching bag. He pretended it was Swag’s face that he wanted to mess up. He replayed the whole scene in King’s suite when she told him Swag was going to be the new right-hand man. He continued to punch the bag like a professional as sweat rained down his face. He started to breathe heavily and couldn’t get King’s words out of his mind. His
frustrations made him punch the bag even harder.

  No harm will come to Solomon.

  He punched the bag so hard that it busted. Blood wished that it was Swag bleeding and dying a slow, painful death. Soon, his vision would come true. All he had to do was make one simple phone call.

  Chapter 26

  A New Beginning

  Tyler was in the shower, trying to scrub off the events from last night. He scrubbed so hard that his skin was turning red. He even took his braids down to wash his hair real good. His mind also traveled to the murder he’d committed yesterday. All of it was a hard pill to swallow, and he was so confused. He wanted to contact his family to tell them about Travis, but he didn’t want to risk getting caught by the FBI. The only thing Tyler could do was wipe his face and forget that he even had a twin brother. The thought of that made him cry harder. He was unable to stop his body from quivering.

  Then his mind went back to Santana. For some strange reason, he couldn’t get Santana off his mind. He hated to admit that Santana was a sexy-ass dude. And he hated to admit that he enjoyed his encounter with him. Tyler had slept with many females and played with one dude, but nothing serious. But Santana was his first time having sex with a man. No female had ever made him feel this way sexually. Santana helped him realize who he was, but he wasn’t fully ready to express that side just yet. Shit, first, he had to figure out a way to get out of the shit Swag had gotten him in.

  Right then and there, he had a grand idea. It all started with staying on King’s good side. But the biggie was Santana. He figured Santana could one day help Tyler escape from King so he could get back to his family. He had nothing else to lose, and if it took him being gay to get out of Costa Rica, then that was precisely what he was going to do.

  * * *

  After almost two hours of washing and reflecting, Tyler finally got out of the shower. He seemed to have a new attitude and appeared ready for whatever was next.

  Chapter 27

  Back to Basics

  Things were going well at the Palace for everyone despite the most recent actions days ago.

  Swag had started his training with Blood to be one of King’s right-hand men. They did everything from boxing, cardio, to boot camp, day in and out. But the thing Swag was glad to do was gun training. He missed the feeling of having a gun by his side like he’d had back home. His next move was to get King to trust him and give him a gun. Then on his list was to get some money in his pockets to build a whole new stash. After that was done, he would come up with an escape plan to get out of Costa Rica and leave King once and for all.

  Blood was doing his best to follow King’s orders and get along with Swag. But Blood could see right through him. Until he had some type of evidence, he pretended to be some type of buddy to him.

  * * *

  Tyler and Santana had gotten closer. They were spending more days and sexy nights together. Santana was Tyler’s new security blanket, and he needed it with him. King, on the other hand, wasn’t going to let Tyler’s killer instincts potential go away. He was put into training to unleash the beast within. With King as his trainer, she taught him one thing: When you killed someone, always remember to see Paco’s face. That way, Tyler would have no remorse for whoever he killed. After just three days with him, she was even prouder of her new masterpiece.

  * * *

  King had only a few days to plan Josie’s eighteenth birthday party. She was also proud of the job she’d done to keep Swag and her child apart. She didn’t want Josie with her future man. She didn’t want any mistakes with either one of them, but as she was planning Josie’s event, she also had something up her sleeve for Swag coming soon.

  Chapter 28

  Turn Up

  Josephine “Josie” Batiste was officially 18 years old and legal to do whatever the hell she wanted. Of course, King decked her child out with expensive gifts. Usually, on Josie’s birthday, King would give her ballet slippers, new ballet outfits, artifacts on Paris or her idol, Josephine Baker.

  This year, King gave her four birthday gifts. Three were visible, all wrapped up beautifully. King told Josie that her fourth gift was a big surprise.

  King smiled. “Go ahead and open your gifts.”

  The first gift Josie opened up was a pink pantsuit with matching heels. Josie loved them mainly because she loved anything pink. In King’s eyes, her child needed a power suit to prove she was a future boss.

  The next gift she opened up was a book called Kama Sutra. Josie’s eyes widened, looking at a few pages in the book with the people performing different sexual acts. It was so nasty to her, and she closed the book. Josie looked at King. “Mother, what kind of story is this?”

  King laughed. “Child, you have a lot to learn.”

  Josie laughed nervously. “Thank you, Mother.” Putting the book aside, Josie was trying to get the images of it out of her mind.

  Josie went to her last present, and it was a bigger shock than the book. She pulled out a diamond and gold switchblade. She was in disbelief and looked at King.

  King smiled. She was so proud of herself for giving her child her first weapon of power. Despite its appearance, it was a beautiful switchblade to Josie. And not to be ungrateful, Josie smiled. “Thank you, Mother. I love all my gifts.”

  King laughed. “You’re welcome, baby.”

  King leaned over and kissed Josie’s cheek.

  Josie’s skin was so soft, making King want to kiss her on her lips. And now that Josie was 18, King wanted to kiss Josie on her other lips, forgetting she was her adopted child. Just thinking about it got King hot all over.

  Josie chuckled. “Are you okay, Mother?”

  King broke out of her wet dream and cleared her throat. “Of course. Now get dressed so we can go to breakfast.”

  “Okay,” said Josie smiling, wondering what gift number four was.

  * * *

  King took Josie to her favorite restaurant, Villa Haiti, for breakfast. It was well known for some of its Haitian dishes. King knew it was a little something that reminded her of home. Then they went shopping and to the beach to have fun.

  * * *

  When the evening set in, King and Josie went back to the Palace and were ready to be pampered. King knew she and Josie had to show up and show out since it was Josie’s birthday. King had ordered the best in couture, heels, and a complete collection of Harry Winston jewelry, from head to toe. Also, she paid the most powerful glam squad to get them on point for the evening. They got Tyler to do their hair since he’d laid them out for the killing of Paco. Tyler styled King’s blond hair with thick beautiful curls that hung down her back. Josie wanted to look like her idol, Josephine Baker, and wanted to rock a short cut this year. But she figured King would never let her cut her hair, and she often told her, “Hair as fine as yours should always be shown and not cut.” To make King happy, Tyler styled Josie’s hair with finger waves and gave her somewhat of Josephine’s 1920s vibe. Once Tyler did their hair, a famous celebrity makeup artist did their makeup.

  Everything came together perfectly, and when they got dressed, King rocked a Shane Justin crystalized, deep plunging dress and topped it off with silver heels. Josie’s look came together in a strapless pink couture gown with high heels. Josie loved everything and thought she was having a quiet dinner with King. Instead, they were headed to her surprise party at one of Costa Rica’s hottest new clubs, Club Alcazar.

  * * *

  At Club Alcazar, everyone was waiting for the arrival of the birthday girl. From King’s girls and guys, Swag, Blood, Tyler, and Madam Lourd, who was starting to feel a little better about going out, doubling up on her morphine, they all were there. Everyone in the club looked fabulous in their suits and gowns.

  The club was decked from top to bottom. The colors were pink, black, and white with the theme, “Paris in the Evening.” King figured this was the only way that Josie would ever see Paris. All she wanted Josie to do was focus on being the next ruler of the Leopard Clit. King even
flew in a pastry chef to make not one, but two birthday cakes for her child. One was a huge cake of the Eiffel Tower and the other of Josephine Baker in her banana costume. Music by Beyoncé, one of Josie’s favorite artists, filled the club.

  Everything looked very exquisite, and Blood and King knew that Josie would be pleased with the outcome.

  Blood got a call from Cleo, letting him know he was outside with King and Josie. Blood had the DJ cut the music off and told everyone to be quiet.

  Outside Club Alcazar, Cleo had parked. The club was in downtown San José, not too far from the Palace. King loved the fact that her child was 18, and after the party, she had a special surprise waiting for Josie. It was a significant part of her training, especially if she intended to sit beside King on her throne.

  Josie looked a little nervous, not knowing this was the restaurant King was taking her to for her birthday dinner. King told her she had to make a stop at the club to take care of some business so Josie wouldn’t get any ideas. She ordered Josie to come with her inside the club.

  Josie was hesitant about the whole thing. She didn’t want to go into the club. But then her mind went back to the slap King laid on her a few weeks back. She didn’t want to be slapped again, especially on her birthday. So, the two ladies got out of the car and walked to the door of the club.

  “Open the door, Josephine,” King demanded while trying to hold back her smile.

  Josie was scared. The last thing she wanted to see on her birthday was another bloody massacre like the one back at the mansion. She took a deep breath, and as soon as she and King walked inside, everyone yelled out, “Surprise!” and “Happy Birthday!”

  Josie was shocked, surprised, and relieved . . . all at the same time. She held her mouth in disbelief while they sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Josie started to cry. She couldn’t believe that so many people came out and showed her so much birthday love.

  King rubbed her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Stand up straight, Josephine. Remember, you’re in couture.”

  Josie straightened her spine, and King handed her a handkerchief. She wiped her tearstained face, but her makeup stayed on without any damage.