Ross groaned. He had been doing that a lot since we’d arrived for his hearing that morning. “I'm just so tired of this court shit already, and it's only the beginning.”
“I know, baby.”
When he sighed, I looked up at him and saw him smiling down on me.
“Thank you for coming with me,” he said so sweetly.
I blushed. “You don't have to thank me. Where else would I be? You're my husband.”
As we walked, he bent down and kissed my forehead. “That’s why you my baby.”
The last two months had humbled my husband so much that I barely even recognized him. The old Ross who used to disappear for hours without calling was gone. He was no longer coming in the house at five in the morning. He hadn’t put his hands on me, except in a loving way. He had proven to me that he was being truthful when he told me that he was going to change. It was a shame that we’d had to go through so much for him to make that change, but I had no complaints. Ross did, however.
“ I'm just still so salty about Vinny turning on me the way he did. How the fuck he gon’ take money out of my pockets because the next motherfucker wanted to be a snitch? I can't blame him for watching his own back, but I most definitely blame Vegas for turning his back on me.”
I discreetly cringed. I was so sick of hearing about this beef he had with Vegas.
“That is his family, Ross—”
“Fuck that! I was his family too!”
“You're right. You were, but you couldn’t expect him to choose you over his uncle and getting more money, though. You didn't have another gun dealer, so what was he supposed to do? Vegas did what he had to do for his family, and you are doing what you have to do for yours.”
He just grimaced, which was what he always did whenever we had this conversation. Ross was so stubborn that he refused to be cool with Vegas again. It made it awkward when Treasure came around because she was still my best friend. Ross and Vegas’ beef wasn’t going to change that. At this point, she rarely came around Ross, though. We just met up outside of my house away from our men so we could kick it without the bullshit. Vegas wanted to still be cool with Ross, but Ross wasn’t fucking with him. It was to the point that they couldn’t even be in the same room with each other without Ross trying to whoop his ass. In retaliation, Vegas went and started his own chop shop. He even took some of Ross' employees and clients. That only made their beef worse. Now, they just stayed away from each other because they still had too much love for one another to kill each other like they wanted to. But I felt that love slipping away every day. It scared me. They both were beasts. It was tossin’ the air who would win that fight if it were to ever go down.
I looked up at Ross, smiling at the way his face was balled up. I leaned over and nudged him lightly with my shoulder. “Babe, you have money. You're fine. You still have the chop shop.”
“Yeah, I know. I just hate that a motherfucker turned bad on me. I wish I could figure out who the fuck it was so I can murk they ass.”
As always when he mentioned that, I got sick to my stomach. Two months ago, Ross had come home and told me that Mello wasn’t the one who had snitched on him after all. He just didn’t think so after going to Mello’s house and talking to him.
I felt so stupid. All I could think about was the hurt in Mello’s voice when I accused him of being a snitch. I hadn't heard from him ever since and I didn't think I ever would again. Treasure had told me that he had left for Florida soon after he told me that he was out of my life. I knew he had left because of me.
I still missed him desperately. I missed our friendship more than anything, but I definitely missed the brief intimate time that we had spent together. Even though Ross had turned into the picture-perfect husband, I still yearned for Mello. I thought about him every day and I dreamed about him every other night. It had gotten so bad that I really was just so happy to be with my husband because he was a part of Mello. In some horrible, freakish way, I still felt like I had a part of Mello because I was with Ross. It was disgusting and terrible, and I blamed Mello for making me feel this way about him and then leaving. But every waking moment I lived, I blamed myself for being so stupid that I had pushed him away.
But I also pushed away my feelings for him. At this point, I didn't have a choice. I was married to a good man now, and Mello was gone. There was nothing I could do but move on.
Treasure
I was lying on my bed, scrolling through Instagram. He was once again in my house, so I was hiding out in my bedroom.
“Hello…” I heard Vegas answer his phone in the living room, so I strained to hear his conversation. “Oh, hey, Ma.” After the greeting, I heard the balcony door open and then close, telling me he had stepped out to talk to his mother in privacy.
I kept on scrolling through the latest posts on Baller Alert. One caught my eye about some Breakfast Club interview with Cardi B. I pressed the button to make the sound play through my headphones. I was so busy listening that I jumped out of my skin when I felt a smack on my ass.
“Damo, would you stop?!” I sprang up and scooted back on the bed. “That shit is not funny.” I was glaring at him, but this goofy-ass nigga was just looking at me with this dumb-ass smile on his face. “Get the fuck out,” I hissed as I kicked at him. Unfortunately, he was standing too far away from the bed for my foot to connect. I wished it had, though. I was trying to kick his ass into the mirror he was standing in front of.
“When are you going to come back to me?” he asked with a smile.
My eyes bucked as I told him, “Never!”
“So, you still need some time?”
My head tilted in disbelief of how crazy this motherfucker was. “Time for what?”
“To miss this dick.” He licked his lips and that creepy-ass smile returned.
I leaned forward as if it would make him hear me clearer. “How many times do I have to tell you that I don't want to cheat on him anymore?”
“And how many times do I have to tell you that it’s not that easy? You're not about to just leave me alone.”
My eyes narrowed into evil slits. “You think that because Divine got that abortion that I forgot that you got my best friend's little sister pregnant?”
Damo shrugged. “You think I give a fuck about that shit?”
“Look, I am sick of your bullshit. You playin’ games. You wanna tell Vegas, tell him.” I didn't mean that. The last thing I wanted him to do was tell Vegas. But I wasn't about to keep allowing him to think he had this to hold over my head.
He just stood there looking at me with this irritating grin on his face. God, I couldn’t believe how attracted I used to be to him because now, he just made my damn skin crawl. I wanted to jump out of bed and knock that smile right off his face. But that would have only caused a bigger scene.
Suddenly, I heard the balcony door open, which meant that Vegas was coming back inside the house. I panicked. I got ready to beg Damo to leave, but then he suddenly just charged me. I thought he was about to fight me or something, but then I felt his lips on top of mine as he hovered above me, pressing all of his weight on me. I quietly tried to push him off me. I kicked and punched. My heart was beating frantically. I anticipated the moment that Vegas came into the room and killed us both.
“Yo’, Damo, where you at? Let’s roll.”
I tried to fight harder as I heard Vegas’ voice coming closer. But Damo was stronger than me. He lay on top of me trying to force his tongue into my mouth. I could feel it pushing against my teeth as I pressed my mouth tightly closed. I could also feel myself losing my man.
“Yo’, Damo!”
At this point, I was crying as I tried to push him away by the shoulders. I heard Vegas’ footsteps coming closer and closer towards the bedroom door.
And then suddenly, Damo just… stopped. He stood up, and I glared up at him while frantically wiping my tears away. He had such a menacing look on his face as he looked down on me that it made the hairs on the back of my neck s
tand straight up.
“Damo…” My heart sank as Vegas’ voice could be heard in the doorway of the bedroom. I looked towards the door and there Vegas was looking back and forth between me and Damo with a scowl on his face that I had never seen before.
He looked me over, noticed the panic and barked, “What’s wrong?”
He rushed towards me and Damo just stood back, not saying anything.
“I…uh…I fell and hurt myself.” I cringed and grabbed my elbow as if it were really hurting. “Thanks, Damo,” I said looking up at him. Then I looked at Vegas, still forcing myself to cringe in phony pain. “Damo heard me scream and came to help me. How is your mom doing?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
Vegas was still looking back and forth between me and Damo as if he were unsure of what was really going on. I held my elbow tighter and started to rock back and forth, trying to sell my story. But my heart was still pounding out of my chest because Damo hadn’t said a word. I wasn't sure if he would go along with my story or not. Finally, he just walked out, which only looked even more fucking suspicious.
“What’s wrong with him? I asked Vegas, getting in front of the bullshit before he could.
Vegas shrugged and just said, “I don’t know,” with the same perplexed look on his face.
I had been going through this for the last two months with Damo. He had randomly picked different times to test me. I really wanted to tell Vegas to no longer allow him around me, but I didn't have a good reason to explain why. And it seemed like the longer I didn't fuck with Damo, the closer he got to Vegas. Now that Vegas had his own operations, Damo was especially attached to his hip.
“I asked you how your mother was doing,” I reminded him. I was trying to steer Vegas away from following his first mind that was telling him something wasn’t right.
“She…uh…she’s fine. She said she wants us to come see her one day.”
I smiled. “That would be nice. I’d love to go to New York.” I smiled harder and leaned into him.
Finally, the puzzled look on his face vanished, and he broke into a smile. “Yeah, whatever. You just wanna go shopping.”
As I said, “Well, of course,” teasingly, I felt so much relief that it appeared like I had talked my way out of this one. But that relief was also overshadowed by a fear that Damo was going to ruin things for me.
Vegas had seriously come up over the last two months. He had easily replaced what Ross had stolen from him. His money was stacking even more now that he didn't have to split his profit with Ross. His hustle was at an all-time high, and I was finally the Bonnie to his Clyde. Because we shared the secret of him setting Ross up, we instantly became partners in this. I was part of the moves he made and I strategized with him as he built his own little organization.
Yes, I had the urge to go back to my old ways, but I had yet to meet a dude that would be worth me stepping out on Vegas.
I had officially been scared straight right in the nick of time to keep my man and ride with him on his come up.
I could not let Damo fuck this up for me.
23
Mello
“You like it?”
With her hands on her hips, Paris looked around the two-bedroom condo that I had rented for her and TJ. It was a cool lil’ spot on Forte Clark Boulevard in Gainesville, only nine minutes away from campus. I had given her a week to stay in the hotel that I had put her up in when she first got to town to decide whether she really wanted to make the move. Meanwhile, I had found this place. And once she assured me she definitely wanted to move here, she was able to move right into this pot. I had furnished it during the week that I was waiting for her to decide. It made me feel good to be able to do this for TJ. I had a big-ass smile on my face as I waited for her response.
“I love it.” She grinned, staring out of the balcony. “TJ is going to love that pool.”
I beamed proudly. “Yeah, he is.”
Paris turned around, looking at me in a way she never had before. There was usually always some tension between us that had started when she suddenly reappeared in my life with TJ. But over the last two weeks that she had been in Florida, the tension changed from mistrust to flirtation. It made me wish that she and I had made it a priority to spend this much time alone before. Maybe we could have been something. I was so dedicated to TJ because of the bullshit-ass father figure I’d had. I always wanted to give him everything I could, including being with him full time. But that meant being with his mother, who had started off our relationship showing me I couldn’t really trust her.
Paris took a deep breath and broke our eye contact. She paced back and forth in the living room, checking out the grey and ivory furniture that looked really nice against the grey walls.
“You gonna stay here with us?” she asked.
“Huh?” I hadn’t seen that coming at all.
“I mean, you live on campus.”
“I know. I don’t mind. It’s free since I got the scholarship.”
“I know your smart-ass got a scholarship.” I blushed as she inched towards me. “But I’m saying, why not stay here with TJ and me?”
“Y-you…you want me… to stay here?”
She smiled at my shock and stuttering. “Yeah.”
“Like me and you staying here… together?”
Paris giggled. “Yeah.” Before I knew it, she grabbed the back of my head softly, brought me down to her level and started kissing me. I had no reason to stop her. I’d had my reasons for not smashing her over the last four years, but she had spent the last two weeks in Florida erasing those reasons. She had shown me that she and I were two people who had matured since we’d had TJ. We got along great as co-parents, and I was willing to now shoot the dice to see if my dick could get along with her pussy since it had been so long since it got wet with the juices of a woman.
Once she sucked my tongue and bottom lip, my dick got rock hard. She got down on her knees and started to claw at the belt holding up my jeans. TJ was in his Spider-man bed taking a nap, so I braced myself on the bookshelf next to me and tried my best to muffle my moans as she ate this dick. I didn't have to put it in her mouth. She shoved it down her throat all by herself. She looked hungry for this dick. She was sucking it furiously as if she had been waiting the entire two weeks since arriving in Florida just to taste it. I didn't know where that hunger had come from. I could feel her flirting with me for the last two weeks, but I didn't know that she was on this type of shit. If she called herself trying to thank me for the apartment, a nigga felt appreciated as fuck.
She was force feeding herself the dick. All I had to do was put a palm on the back of her head and she was deep throating it like she had a point to prove.
Against my will, my cum shot right down her throat.
“Arrgh!” My knees buckled as I braced myself on her shoulders while she swallowed me all up, moaning as if it tasted so good to her. “Shit!”
I could feel her throat as she pulled me out of it. It felt like pulling out of a wet pussy, which made my dick stay rock hard.
She guided me towards the couch and lightly pushed me down. She stood in front of me with this satisfied smile on her face as she pulled up her cotton tank shirt dress. My dick got so hard that it hurt when I saw her bare pussy.
I sat there glaring at it, wondering if she had any idea how much better my dick had gotten since I was sixteen. “What you doin’ with no panties on?”
“Hoping you would finally get the hint and take this pussy.”
My eyes turned into lust-filled slits as she came towards me and straddled me. Taking the dick into her hands and squatting over it, I asked her, “You’ve been wanting this dick?”
Sliding down on it, her eyes rolled to the back of her head. “You—” As she tried to speak, I took her hips into my hands and forced her down my dramatically long length. She inhaled sharply as she moaned. “Ahhh. You di-didn’t notice?”
My dick got even harder as she talked to me and rode this mot
herfucker at the same time. As she started to bounce on it, we gave each other a confident grin. Yes, we had gotten way better since we were sixteen, and we were about to prove that to each other right now.
Heaven
“You gotta do something, Treasure.” I tried to speak lowly so that Vegas wouldn’t hear me, but he was all the way in the back in their bedroom, sleep.
As soon as I had gotten to Treasure’s house that day, we started talking about that stunt that Damo had pulled in her bedroom, just as we had been every day since it happened a week ago.
“I am. He got me fucked up.” She rocked back and forth, the memory of the stunt he had pulled making her more and more pissed off.
“He is trying to get you caught up.”
“I know! But I got his ass. I’m way crazier than he’s pretending to be. He thinks this shit is a game when I am with the shit for real.”
I shook my head, slowly. I couldn’t believe how insane Damo was acting. Dudes always talked about how women couldn’t let go, but they were just as bad as us. “You better do something before he fucks around and tells Vegas.”
“Exactly.”
Just then a phone started to ring on the counter. It must have been Vegas’ phone because Treasure’s was in her hand.
She picked it up and looked at the Caller ID like she was used to doing it. She then looked at me and gave me this weird stare.
“What?” I asked.
She didn't say anything. Her answer was turning the phone around and putting it in my face. Mello's name flashed back at me as the phone continued to ring.
“Answer it.”
“No,” I said, swatting the phone away.
She rolled her eyes and hit the answer button. But then she put the phone to my ear. I started to push it away but froze when I heard his voice. “Hello?... Yo’, Vegas.”
“Say something, bitch,” Treasured mouthed.
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