Chapter 20
Reece walked into the master bedroom in his mansion and found Vanilla relaxing inside his Jacuzzi. She was smoking a blunt and sipping Cristal champagne from a flute while she watched the movie Paid in Full on the huge television hanging on the wall.
“Hey, babe, watching this has me thinking about you. You should do a movie on your life,” Vanilla suggested.
“You think so?” Reece gave a half-hearted smile. His heart was heavy, his mind was scrambled, but his conscience was about to be clear.
“Yes, definitely!” Vanilla assured her. “The life you’ve lived, and the way you built the crew, it’s worthy of a movie.”
Reece sat beside the tub and took his shoes off, then he dipped his hand in the water. “I might think about that one day.”
Vanilla stroked his arm. “What’s wrong, my love? Something’s on your mind.”
“That obvious, huh?”
“Yeah, it is.” Vanilla beckoned him toward the water. “Come tell me about it. Let me wash you while you tell me about it, then I can give you your surprise.”
“Surprise?”
“Yep, you know it.”
Reece stripped and joined Vanilla in the water. He sat between her legs, leaned his head back on her chest, and exhaled a sigh high into the air. He grabbed the blunt, and he puffed away in silence, mulling over his predicament.
Vanilla had been loyal to him for years. She had done more than prove herself to him prior to his incarceration, and she had proven her worth in more ways than one. True, she used to be a stripper. True, she wasn’t what one would consider good stock when it came to becoming a wife, but Reece himself was off the beaten path. He wasn’t a traditional man, so a traditional woman would never be right for him anyway.
“So are you gonna talk or what?” Vanilla asked as she rubbed suds on his bald head.
“Just thinking about everything.” Reece whispered.
“Like?”
“Yo, you ever had a family?” Reece asked suddenly. “Like, a real family—mother, father, the whole nine?”
“Where is this coming from?”
Reece shrugged, “Just thinking about life, ya know?”
“I see,” Vanilla said. She sighed and took the blunt from Reece. She inhaled deeply and watched the smoke rings waft into the air.
“Well, my father broke my heart before any man could,” Vanilla whispered. “He made me promises and broke them repeatedly. I mean, when he was good, he was great, but when he was bad, he was horrible. He drank—a lot—and he was an occasional drug user,” Vanilla shared.
“One night, I must have been around eight at the time, he came into my room and just stood over my bed staring at me. At eight, I already had a little ass and titties for my age, but I was still clearly a little girl. So anyway, while I was fake asleep, he slid under the covers and began touching me. I’m thinking, this is my daddy so the touches can’t be wrong, right? Well, the more he touched me, the more it became clear that the touches were inappropriate—”
“Yo, you don’t have to tell me any more.”
“No, Reece, I want to tell you,” Vanilla insisted. “I’ve shared so much with you, I want you to know who I really am. You know Vyshay; I want you to know how I became Vanilla.”
Reece shook his head and smoked the blunt, still deep in thought. It was true that he didn’t really know her. All those visits, and they never talked about her. It was always him, and what his dreams and aspirations were. They had discussed his past, his violent climb to the top. Reece discussed murders with her in vivid detail, things he had never told anyone. They had laughed on visits discussing murder as if they were talking about the latest television show. Vanilla never appeared to judge him; she never even blanched when he told her how he had cut a man’s throat in front of his three-year-old child. Vanilla was just as twisted as he was. She was more like one of his niggas than his woman. She just happened to have a wicked vagina.
“Damn, that’s fucked up, Vee,” Reece whispered. “But let’s not talk about that anymore. If you want me to, I will hunt that bastard down and cut his dick off,” Reece volunteered.
Vanilla’s gaze fell off into the television. “No need; I already did it.”
“Word?”
“Yeah. I ran away from home when I was fourteen. Started stripping to provide for myself. One night, this sick bastard came in the club and paid for a lap dance with me. Then, he offered me two hundred dollars to go back to a hotel and trick with him. Said he was addicted to my good pussy. Well, I went back to the room, took his money, and then I took his dick. Yep, I put something in his drink and knocked him out. He thought I was going to give him some head. He closed his eyes, and I sawed that motherfucker off with my blade and watched him bleed to death. It was the best orgasm I ever had.
“I left New Jersey after that and moved to North Carolina. I started dancing here immediately and met you a year later.”
Now it all made sense to Reece. Vanilla was attracted to him because she knew that he would protect her. When he first met her, she was actually trying to break herself to him. (She had offered to give him the money she made that night to go with him.) Reece’s name was bubbling in the streets, and she wanted in. She was loyal to him because he was everything her father wasn’t.
Vanilla passed Reece a fresh blunt and washed him while he puffed in silence. On the screen, Rico killed Mitch, and Reece scoffed—just as he always did at this part of the movie. To him, disloyalty was an unforgivable sin, which is why his heart was heavy.
A knock at the door interrupted Reece’s thoughts. He craned his head back to Vanilla. “Yo, who is that?”
Vanilla smiled. “It’s your surprise.”
The door glided open and in walked an exquisite form of feminine perfection. She was tall with lean muscles in her legs flexing as she walked. She wore nothing but a long, sheer lime-green wrap that contrasted with her dark skin. As she walked to the tub to meet them, she exposed her bald vagina.
“Whoa, what’s this?” Reece said with a chuckle.
“It’s your surprise. We haven’t gotten down since you’ve been home, so I wanted to give you a gift.”
Reece didn’t understand what was going on with himself. He didn’t recognize what he was feeling. Here he was faced with two of the most beautiful women in his world—one of them strange pussy at that—the fruits of his labor, yet he couldn’t bring himself to arousal.
All he could think about was Destiny.
She had plagued his thoughts, haunted him. He could no longer deny that he wanted to be with her. He had come to visit Vanilla to tell her what he planned to do about it. Then she hit him with this.
The exotic woman stood in front of the Jacuzzi and disrobed. She took a moment to pose for her audience. She knew she was bad and she wanted them to pay homage to her beauty. Reece picked himself out of his funk to admire the visual orgasm standing before them. He was still a man. His eyes roamed the curves of her body, from the smooth chocolate skin covering her six-pack to her muscular quads. Her high cheekbones and hazel eyes spoke of her exotic pedigree.
“I flew her in from Brazil just for you,” Vanilla whispered, confirming his suspicions. “She doesn’t even speak English. I paid for her for you . . . us.”
The beauty climbed into the Jacuzzi and joined Reece and Vanilla. She waded through the misty water like an apparition drifting into Reece’s arms. Her skin was supple . . . soft . . . and she smelled like heaven on earth. She wrapped her arms around Reece’s neck and kissed him passionately on the mouth. Reece’s manhood rose out of the water and touched her slit.
“I had her tested, my king. She’s clean. You can fuck her raw . . .” Vanilla whispered in his ear from behind. They were in tune with each other. Everything he thought, she verbalized for him.
Vanilla floated around Reece and sank under the water. Seconds later, Reece felt her warm lips wrapped around his hardness. As the Brazilian beauty kissed Reece and massaged his shoulders,
Vanilla sucked him with her familiar mouth. Reece caressed the soft cheeks of her perfect ass and slid a finger inside her tightness. She felt as if she had never been defiled.
Vanilla came up for air and gauged Reece’s reaction. She knew Reece, she could tell he wasn’t the same. She felt as if she was doing something wrong, as if he was numb to her pleasures, so she shifted the new beauty into his lap. Vanilla guided the Brazilian onto Reece’s dick slowly. The woman hissed in ecstasy and laid her head back. Her long tresses fell into the water as she rode him slowly. Vanilla sank underwater and found their connection. She took Reece’s heavy balls into her mouth and suckled him while the beauty rode him. To her surprise, she felt Reece’s dick thump her cheek.
He had gone soft.
Vanilla came up for air and stared at Reece. “What’s wrong, Reece? Do you not like her? Is she too dark?”
Reece leaned his head back and sighed. “She’s fine. She is gorgeous, Vee. You did good.”
Vanilla was confused. Reece never had erectile problems. He could go for hours, and the only thing he loved more than fucking one woman was fucking two—at the same damn time.
“So what’s wrong?” Vanilla grabbed Reece’s limp dick. “This isn’t you.”
“Nah, it’s not that.”
“So what is it?”
Reece shook his head. “I don’t even know.”
Reece was telling the truth. He didn’t know what was wrong. He had never experienced true love, the ebbs and flows, the incredible highs and lows that love brings. In his life, everything was black and white (and green). Love was intangible and could not be quantified. It just . . . was.
“Maybe it’s the water,” Vanilla suggested. “Let’s go to bed.”
The trio ventured to the bed. Vanilla guided Reece to lie on his back. Both women caressed him simultaneously. Vanilla took one side while the Brazilian took the other. The Brazilian took Reece’s semi-flaccid penis inside her hands and massaged him to a firm erection. She placed her mouth on him and sucked him slowly. Her rhythm was slow and methodical. Professional. Reece’s body responded to her skills and, despite his tortured mind, he began to enjoy the escapade.
The Brazilian mounted him with a smile. She positioned her wet slit on the shaft of his dick and moved slowly up and down the length of his shaft, never allowing himself to glide inside, teasing him. She lifted slightly and took his head inside her tightness. Reece moaned and groaned. The feeling was exquisite, but he couldn’t get in the mood. Physically his body was there, but for the first time in his life physicality wasn’t enough.
He closed his eyes to savor the moment, and a vision of Destiny popped inside his head. He grunted. The women thought he was groaning out of pleasure, but it was pain that birthed his grunt.
The Brazilian took his grunt as her cue. She went into her bag and pulled out all her tricks. She squeezed him with her vaginal muscles, she licked her full lips, and kneaded her firm, supple breasts, but Reece never saw any of her moves. His eyes were closed and he was in his head. Inside his mind, he was inside of Destiny.
He had broken the threshold.
All of this time, he wasn’t sure if he could be with Destiny because he couldn’t see himself being intimate with her. Their relationship had been based on love, and their sex was a byproduct of that love. Because of her betrayal, his heart had shut down to sex with her. Now, because of the near death experience, he had been liberated.
Reece stopped the women from pleasing him. He removed himself from the room and walked onto the balcony to process his thoughts. Now that his decision to be with Destiny was final, there was only one thing left for him to do.
Reece’s empire only held room for one queen. Sure, he would allow himself paramours, but none of them could know the things that Vanilla knew. Over the years, Reece had confided in Vanilla because he couldn’t foresee a day when she wouldn’t be a part of his life in some capacity. This was before he realized she loved him. It was obvious and undeniable now. Vanilla loved Reece, but Reece loved Destiny.
This was a problem.
“Hey, baby, are you okay?” Vanilla had joined Reece on the balcony. She had wrapped a satin robe around her naked body.
Reece looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, I’m good. Where is ole girl?”
“She’s getting dressed to leave now. I figured you wanted us to be alone.”
Reece chuckled. “Yeah.”
“You ready to talk to me?”
Reece glanced at her. “Not really, but I guess I need to.”
“What is it, Reece?”
“Destiny.” He said the word as if it would make everything clear, but it only confused Vanilla more. She had no idea about Reece’s diabolical plan.
“What about her? Please tell me you finally killed her. I know you have your son, but I never asked what became of her. I assumed you killed her when you took your son.”
“Well, I definitely tracked her down, but ahhh, I didn’t kill her.”
“You want me to do it?”
Reece closed his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. If he loved Vanilla at all, it was because of her unyielding loyalty.
“Nah, I took care of her. Sorta.”
“Sorta? What does that mean?”
Reece was silent for a while. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Vanilla as he bared his truth. “I couldn’t do it,” he admitted.
Vanilla scoffed. “You couldn’t do it?”
Reece turned to face Vanilla. “The truth is . . . I still love her.”
Vanilla’s strong façade cracked. “Are you kidding me? You love her?”
Reece dropped his head. “Yeah, I do, and I plan to be with her after tomorrow.”
“You’re fucking crazy! Ain’t no way!”
Vanilla stormed inside the room, leaving Reece in silence on the balcony. She returned minutes later wearing tight jeans, Timberland construction boots, and a dark sweater. In her hands, she clutched a pearl-handled pistol.
“Where is she?” Vanilla demanded. “Tell me where this bitch is so I can do what you don’t have the nuts to do. This bitch betrayed you, played you for a fool, and took your empire from you.” Vanilla shook her head vigorously. “There is no way I’m going to let the man I love look like a fool out here any longer. I’m going to protect this thing I helped you keep together.”
Vanilla paced back and forth on the balcony. “Now either you tell me where she is, or you can go with me and watch me do it. Either way, she has to go!”
While Vanilla ranted, Reece continued to hang his head. He was replaying all of their time together, all of the times Vanilla had displayed her loyalty to him. She had been more loyal than most men. And now he was going to repay her loyalty.
“Vanilla, calm down,” Reece croaked. “Give me the gun.”
“No, Reece, because you were just talking some weak shit just now, and over my dead body will you let this bitch live.”
Reece shook away the lone tear in his eye and raised his head. “Yeah, you right. I was tripping,” he said. “The bitch does have to go. Fuck was I thinking, yo? That’s why I’m glad I have you to keep me on point. That’s why I love you, Vee.”
The L word had caught Vanilla off guard. “What did you say, Reece? You love me?”
Reece nodded. “Yeah, I do. Now let’s go take care of our Destiny.”
Vanilla beamed a beautiful smile. “I love you, too, Reece!’ She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Whoa, whoa, careful with that burner,” Reece said, chuckling. He reached for the gun, and Vanilla loosened her grip on the weapon and gave it to him. “Come on, let me get dressed so we can handle this business. I know just where she is.”
Vanilla turned to walk inside with Reece right behind her. She was used to him walking behind her because he was always enamored with her wonderful shape. She loved to put a little extra twist in her hips when she knew he was watching. This time was no different. Vanilla twisted her hips as if she was trying to throw her hipbone
out of place.
Reece wasn’t paying attention to her hips. He was too busy aiming her pistol at the back of her head. Before Vanilla could take five good steps, Reece pulled the trigger.
POP!
Vanilla collapsed to the ground and rolled over on her side. Her body heaved and convulsed as her eyes flitted from Reece’s face to the gun in his hand. She tried to say something, but her words came out as wheezes.
Reece bit his bottom lip and shook his head. A lone tear slid down his brown cheek. “Damn, Vee . . . I’m sorry, girl.” Reece fired four more shots to her face, ending her suffering. There was one more round in the gun. For a split second, Reece thought about putting the gun to his own head. He felt like shit, and he thought about alleviating his pain the same way he had alleviated so many others in pursuit of Crew business.
But this was different. This wasn’t for Crew business. This was for his Destiny.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Chapter 21
Destiny awoke when she heard sounds. She had no timepiece. But based on her calculations from the sun’s rising and setting, it had been days since she’d seen Reece, or anybody for that matter. Last time she’d seen anyone was when Samson came by, tossed her a pregnancy test, and said, “Reece said take this!” He slammed the door back and Destiny had not seen anyone since. That was a few days ago. Her food supply was short since she shared scraps of her food with the dog, and her patience was even shorter. She had gone along with this little charade, but enough was enough. She missed her son, her clothes, and she missed life.
Damn Reece.
When Destiny heard someone fumbling around outside, she just knew it was Reece, and she was going to let him have it. However, Reece never came in. Whatever it was he was doing, it had him perturbed. Destiny heard him fumble around the back of the bunker, but he quickly moved to the other side when the pit bull on that side threatened him. Destiny giggled at Reece’s arrogance. What made him think he could come pet the dog after he hadn’t fed him in days? Destiny’s amusement ceased when she heard someone talking. Reece wasn’t alone. She craned her ear to the window to listen. Destiny heard Reece go to the car. Then she heard him close the trunk.
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