“What the fuck is wrong with you, nigga? You broke into my shit and snatched me out of my bed. You’re lucky I saw your face, or I would have popped your bitch ass.”
“Fuck you, nigga.” The combination Devin had received must have knocked some sense into him, because his reason for being angry changed into something else. “You robbed my bitch and didn’t offer me shit. I’m the nigga that plugged you.”
“I didn’t rob your bitch.” He leaped in Devin’s direction, and he scooted back, ready to go another round. Devin knew he wasn’t any match for J. Seed, but he lacked fear. He’d die trying to whup his boy’s ass before he’d run away from the fight.
“Then what’s up with all this shit, nigga? Her stereo system is in your living room.”
“That’s my stereo system. If you had pulled up like you said you were going to, you’d already know what’s up. Johnni D. Manz hired me to be your bodyguard for one year. Did you forget it was payday?”
The frog that was in his throat had expanded its lungs, and Devin couldn’t say another word. He instantly felt like shit.
“Yeah, you forgot, and I know why. That bitch has you tripping, straight up.” J. Seed found his boxers rolled up on the floor like a pretzel and put them on. “Let me holler at you for a second,” he said, storming out of his bedroom.
Devin followed slowly behind him, not knowing if his boy was moving their fight out of the sight of the women. He was about to punk out, but he knew he owed J. Seed an apology and should deliver it quickly.
“My bad, J. Meagan called me last week, saying her husband had been shot at, and then today her house got broken into. I know we had planned some shit, but—” Devin’s words were knocked into the wall with his body.
“How long have we been boys?”
It was a rhetorical question, so Devin didn’t answer, knowing that J. Seed wasn’t done talking.
“Do you remember who robbed the fish market so you and all those damn kids your mama pushed out could eat? I’m the same nigga that stole the car to take your young ass to Walmart for your interview so you could help keep a roof over y’all’s head. I’ve never looked out for me without making sure you were straight. That ho in there you snatched up off me, she was for you. I was picking her up when you called me as a surprise. You know why, little Devin?”
“Because you stay looking out for me, big bruh.”
J. Seed continued to talk as Devin silently cursed himself out for being stupid. Meagan was fogging up his thoughts, and he had put her in front of his brother. Once J. Seed took his arm off Devin’s chest, Devin made his way to the back door.
“I fucked up, big bruh, but I promise I’m going to make this shit right,” he called over his shoulder.
“Hold up,” J. Seed said, stopping him in his tracks. He grabbed the rental-car keys off the counter and threw them at him. “I had Mimi pick you out some shit at the mall. Get them bags off the backseat of that rental. And, Devin . . . that old bitch means you no good, but I’m going to let you figure that shit out on your own.”
Devin didn’t have a response.
Part Five
Disrespectfully Hers
Chapter Ten
Meagan sat at the bottom of her staircase, feeling like shit, as the detectives took pictures throughout the house. Devin had been honest about his boy’s involvement in the break-in, because there wasn’t anything she knew of that was missing. She had wanted to call him and apologize the second she found out, but William was home.
“Mr. Tolliver, if you happen to realize anything else is missing besides your file cabinet and its documents, please give me a call,” the older female detective said, handing him a card. “We got a good fingerprint off the inside door handle, but like I said before, it could belong to you or your wife. I will be in contact with you.” She extended her hand, and he shook it.
“The file cabinet in your office is missing? What was in it, honey?” Meagan asked, concerned, but William didn’t answer her. There were still a few lingering cops in their house, and he didn’t want them to hear the answer he would give her, because it was different than the truth, which he had given them. Once the last thirsty cop, who had the gall to ask for a beverage, got in his squad car and left, he snatched Meagan off the stairs by her blouse.
“Did you have something to do with this?” He shook her back and forth.
“What . . . ? Why would you think I did? No, William! Why would I need to go through all of this just to get a locked file cabinet of yours?”
She was right. It would be extreme for her to stage a break-in just to search the office, which he had deemed off limits to her, and the contents of the cabinet would benefit her only if she had something up her sleeve. The file cabinet housed Clara’s medical bills, receipts for the treatments he had already paid for, and the deed to the property he had bought in her sister’s name to generate the extra income needed to keep Clara alive. No one would need that information, not even Clara, because she had copies of it all. However, if Meagan wanted a way out of their marriage without having him murdered, that file cabinet would provide it.
He ignored her questions as he slowly released her. “My office is off limits to you, understand?”
“Understood.”
“Hey, boss. I got here as quick as I could.” From the front door, which the cops had left open, Angelo had observed the hold William had on his wife. If he struck her, Angelo was ready to intervene.
“Hey, Angelo, come look at this shit. Whoever broke in had a good time rearranging my office.” William escorted Angelo down the hallway, and Meagan tried to join in. “Go pack your bags. I’m sending you to a hotel for a few days,” William said, looking back at her.
“But . . . why do I have to leave my house?”
“Our house,” William snapped, correcting her. “Because it isn’t safe for you to be here right now. I need to get the glass fixed on the door and get the security company out here to figure out why the alarm didn’t sound. I have to get the security beefed up before I’m comfortable with you sleeping here. Now let the men talk and go do as you were told.”
She looked to Angelo for help, but to her surprise, he agreed with William. “He’s right, Mrs. Tolliver. Pack your bags, and I’ll take you to get a hotel room for a few days. Who’s to say the burglars were finished? They might come back.”
After turning on her heels, Meagan disappeared up the stairs.
“What’s missing?” Angelo asked William once she was gone.
“Nothing but the file cabinet, with all the other one’s shit in it. It was nothing but bills and receipts, but I have a funny feeling Meagan had something to do with it. Did you do what I asked of you?”
“Yeah, boss, I took her to Ray’s on Peachtree for lunch and then to the nail shop.”
“You get anything out of her?”
Angelo felt cheated by the cop’s interruption of his first taste of Meagan, so he had decided not to disclose that part of their day. He needed the money to invest in his father’s church, so he gave William enough information to get another payout. He looked out the door before speaking, then said, “She mentioned at the nail shop that she overheard you and your lawyer talking, but that was it.”
“What did she hear?” William asked as he tried to think back to the day, but the only thing that came to mind about the meeting was the shooting after it.
“Something about finding out that some woman had threatened to kill you and that you already knew that you were the target of the shooting, but that was it. She was trying to figure out how to find out more information on who the woman is.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, that’s all,” Angelo lied.
“She hasn’t questioned me about it yet.”
“I don’t think she will, boss.”
“Why do you think that?” William asked, with a puzzled look on his face.
“Because she asked me if I knew anything about another woman and if I could help her find out abo
ut her.”
“And what did you say?”
“What do you think I said? I told her I was y’all’s limo driver and I’d rather not get involved in your personal matters.”
“Good job,” William said as he picked up the computer screen off the floor.
“How long do you want her to get the room for? I’m sure you need to head back to the condo to take care of the other one.”
“That’s the strange part about it. I haven’t heard from the other one since she went back to Savannah. She missed her doctor’s appointment yesterday, which isn’t like her.”
Worried looks fell on both men’s faces, and something was pulling at Angelo’s heartstrings. For the first time since his mother had returned, he was hurt that she might be dead. His father was mad at him, but Angelo was sure that if she had passed away, his father would at least pick up the phone to tell him. He made a mental note to call his father to check on her once he got Meagan squared away.
“Anyway, to be safe, get the room for about a week. That will give me time to try to track down the other one.”
“I gotcha, boss.” Angelo stood there, waiting patiently.
William wanted to know for what. “You can go handle that now,” he prompted.
“I will, once you pay me for the information I gave you.”
William looked at Angelo like he was a piece of shit clogging his toilet. He was dealing with a lot at the moment and couldn’t believe that the only thing on Angelo’s mind was money. “Are you serious? My house was just broken into, and my plate is full, and you expect me to come out of the pockets right now?”
“I do,” Angelo said earnestly. “I empathize, but your problems have nothing to do with our business arrangement.”
Hesitantly, William pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for five thousand dollars. Angelo felt like the information he had given his boss was worth more, but he let it go, not wanting to kick a wounded dog while it was down.
“I’ll take a check this time because of what’s going on, but let’s keep this a cash only arrangement from now on,” Angelo said, then exited the room before William decided to pick up the paperweight on the floor and throw it at him.
* * *
Meagan had had Angelo drop her off at the Renaissance Hotel. He’d offered to come up and keep her company, but his wasn’t the company she wanted. She didn’t like how chummy he had been with William that night, and she had some apologizing she needed to do. After receiving a text back from Devin in which he said he’d be there in two hours, she set to work waxing the hair off her body from her neck down. Her plan was to apologize to him both verbally and physically.
After she finished waxing, she emptied her suitcase. Normally, her rheumatoid arthritis attacked only her legs, but as she unpacked, her hands locked on her. She had medicine she could take for it, but she wanted a night filled with strawberries and champagne and knew it was best not to drink while on medication. When Devin knocked on the door, she had the lights dimmed and the love songs playlist that was saved on her phone on repeat. She hurried to the door and opened it.
“Hey, Dev . . .” Her words got lost when she found a man she’d never met before standing in front of her. It was Devin, but she hadn’t met the version of him that stood before her. Every time they met up, he would be wearing his Walmart uniform or jeans and a white T-shirt, but that evening he was dressed to impress.
The parts of his outfit that stole her attention the most were his bright red sports jacket, his white dress shirt, and his thin black tie. She always knew he could hang a suit, but damn, he looked good in the closest thing to one she’d probably get to see him in. He was wearing loose-fitting designer jeans and retro red, black, and white Jordans. At first, she didn’t know how she felt about the matching red golfer’s hat he was wearing, but the longer she stared at him, the more it grew on her.
He leaned down, kissed her on her cheek, and handed her two large bags. “Get dressed, so we can go.”
“Go where?” she asked, peeking into the bags, but everything in them was professionally wrapped.
“To get an understanding.”
“We can do that here.” She rubbed on the zipper of his pants, and he took a step back.
“No we can’t. You fucked up with me this time. I’m going to need more than an apology and some pussy if you want to make shit right with me.”
Meagan debated about agreeing to his terms or not. She had wrongly accused his friends of the break-in and had said a few hurtful words in the process, but that didn’t grant him the right to decide the grounds of her apology. If she refused to go wherever he had planned for them to go, it might mean what they had was over. She went back and forth in the her mind, weighing the pros and cons of continuing the relationship, and she decided that the pros won. He loved her, he cared about her, and his newly found money did look good on him. She wouldn’t agree to marriage or allow the relationship to get that serious, but having him as a boyfriend during her divorce process would make the hell she would go through a lot easier.
“Give me a few minutes to get myself together. Where are we going, anyway?”
“You’ll see once we get there,” was all Devin would say before a small smile spread across his lips. “Open your gifts first.”
Like Christmas morning, she ran over to the bed and emptied the bags of gifts on it. She started with the smallest box. Inside were some cheap, fake gold accessories that she would have never picked out for herself. The bamboo earrings, the ten gold bangle bracelets, and the gold rope chain gave the impression that he had shopped at a store owned by a 1990s New York women’s rap group and had hit the clearance rack.
“You do realize I’m forty years old, don’t you?” she asked, holding the items up in the air.
“And you do realize that you don’t look forty, don’t you?” he countered.
“Yes, but . . . never mind. Thank you.”
“That’s my girl. You’re welcome. Now open the rest.”
The next to the smallest package housed soap on a rope and a bottle of mouthwash. She held them up. “What’s this for?” she asked, confused.
“It’s for you to wash the words young and little boy out your mouth for good.”
“You can’t be serious.” She laughed as she tossed the items on the bed.
“I’m dead serious. As a matter of fact . . . ” He retrieved the items. “You need to go handle that now. I need you to get a bad taste in your mouth every time you think of saying them.”
“You’re crazy. Ain’t no way in hell that I’m washing my mouth out with soap. I apologize for continuing to make a reference to your age. I’ll stop.”
“I know you will, especially after you wash your mouth out with soap and get that burning sensation on your tongue from the mouthwash.”
He headed to the bathroom, and she followed behind him, making promise after promise not to mention his age, but he needed her to pass this test. If she did it, he would take it as evidence that she really cared about him and that what they had meant something to her. If she didn’t, he’d snatch up the rest of his gifts and find someone that was worthy to step out with him, like his ex-girlfriend Tesha. He had broken up with her once he realized her ghetto class had nothing on Meagan’s. She had been blowing up his cell phone for months even before he had got signed, promising to make whatever adjustments she needed so that they could be together, and her immaturity had shown in her voice messages. Devin had decided that having to chase a woman, instead of having a woman chase him, was what he wanted the most. Meagan’s confidence was sexy, and Tesha couldn’t hold a candle to it.
“Here you go,” he said, turning on the water in the sink.
“Don’t make me do this. I love you, and if you feel like I’m disrespecting you, I’ll stop.”
“If you love me, prove it.”
Meagan took a deep breath. She did love him, but she wasn’t in love with him. At this point in her life, she wasn’t in love with anyone. T
he reality of knowing she wasn’t in love with William anymore was what made her lather up the bar of soap. If I’m not in love with William anymore, why not show my love for Devin? she thought. After sticking her tongue out, with her eyes on Devin, she rubbed the bar of soap over her tongue and gagged. She hurriedly rinsed her mouth.
“Are you happy now?” she asked.
“Almost,” he said, pouring some mouthwash into the bottle’s top and handing it to her. “Rinse your mouth with this for thirty seconds, and I’ll be happier.”
She swished the mouthwash around in her mouth, and it instantly burned her tongue. When she bent over to spit it out, Devin blocked the sink.
“Twenty-five more seconds,” he urged.
He counted it down, and at twenty-nine seconds, she spit out the mouthwash and ducked her head under the sink to fill her mouth with water. The burning sensation from the combination wouldn’t leave her mouth, so she continued to rinse it with water. With her face in the sink, Devin dropped his pants to his ankles, lifted her nightie, and forced himself into her dryness.
In a matter of seconds, she was wet and the burning in her mouth had disappeared. He was hitting her soft spot as hard as he could out of excitement that she did indeed love him.
“I told you I loved you,” she said as her body bounced to the beat of his strokes.
“You did, but now you’re showing it. Cut that water off and bend down farther in the sink.”
Disrespectfully Yours Page 14