“Then maybe I need to get me a few pair of those nut huggers, if that’s the case. I thought I was bad with the hitting and quitting these chicks. Benji’s ass takes the cake, though. Instead of trying to take your job from you, he needs to open up a brothel or one of those sex rings.”
My eyebrows furrowed as Marques and I gave each other a brotherly hug before we parted ways. What he had said sorta struck a chord with me. For the past couple of years, I’d had the feeling that Benji wasn’t happy with his position in the company and was looking for ways to move up to my spot. The way he’d been crashing my business meetings and taking the reins, checking over things, and overseeing projects that weren’t part of his job description were signs that he was eyeing the CEO post.
I loved my brother to death, but I swore to God that he’d have another thing coming if he ever tried to cross me.
Melonee
“Yo, Mel. Let me holla at you for a second.”
I turned around and looked at Proof as he jogged down the small flight of steps right outside the door to Cowboy’s house and caught up with me. It was the night of the charity event that Roman Black was throwing, and Fiona thought that a BWC meeting needed to take place. Because this was the last night that Roman Black was going to be in the city before he went out of town for a couple of weeks, we needed everything to go according to plan tonight, with no interference like last time.
One of Cowboy’s hacker friends had managed to hack into the hotel’s computer system and add two of our crew members to the list of outsourced employees who were working at the charity event tonight. Their jobs were to keep an eye on Roman Black and to report whenever he ducked off to the private office or a private bathroom. Once we were notified about that, it was then Fiona’s responsibility to follow him wherever he went, strike up a conversation with him, and get him to fall into her web of seduction. Because Fee had the gift of gab and had already met Roman before tonight, we figured it would be easy for her to get closer to him than anyone else could.
A little while earlier, I had looked at the way the black, floor-length evening gown she had on hugged every curve of her backside. The strapless water bra she had picked up from Victoria’s Secret made her normal B cup breasts plump up to perky-looking Cs, allowing her hourglass shape to be more defined. Her freshly coiffed auburn-streaked hair, which was pinned up on the top of her head in a weird bun, with long spiral curls hanging down in the back, gave her the elegant look that we were aiming for.
Cowboy’s suggestion for her to change the purple hair and tone it down to a more natural color would probably cause Roman to notice her this time, as opposed to when she was waitressing at the club.
Proof looked me up and down and bit his bottom lip when he finally made it over to me. “Before you go, I just want you to know that you look real pretty tonight. You almost make a nigga wanna throw on a tux and escort the mother of his child during a night out on the town.”
I blushed. “Thank you, Jaylen, but we both know that about an hour in, we’d be going at each other’s throats.”
He shook his head. “Naw. I don’t think so. We never had a problem getting along. It was . . .”
“The plethora of bitches you couldn’t leave alone?” I said, finishing his statement for him. “I should’ve known you’d do the same thing to me that you did to Remi. As the saying goes, ‘The same way you get them is the same way you end up losing them.’”
Proof looked at me for a minute, then stepped farther into my personal space. He took his finger and brushed it along my jawline, then lightly trailed his fingers down the side of my body. The purple mermaid evening gown with the sweetheart neckline that I had on clung to my curves just as much as Fiona’s gown hugged hers, except I filled out my dress perfectly, and I didn’t need to share any of my secrets with Victoria to get that perfect hourglass shape.
“Regardless of what or who I did outside of you, just know that you are the only one who’s ever had my heart. Shit, to be honest, that muthafucka still belongs to you. Why do you think I tried so hard to get you pregnant? Out of all the women you’ve seen me with, why do you think none of them ever gave birth to my babies? You are the only one who was blessed with that gift.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he kept talking and didn’t let me say a word.
“I strapped up with every single one of those bitches. But you, you had me so gone that I didn’t care if I fattened you up with three or four babies back-to-back.” He laughed, but when he noticed that I hadn’t joined in, his face became somber. “Look, I know I should’ve stepped to you when that whole Remi thing was officially over, and I probably should’ve never fucked around on you while we were together, but please believe me when I say that you are the only girl I’ve ever loved and probably ever will love.”
I could tell by the look in Proof’s eyes that he meant every word he’d just said. Were this a few years ago, I would’ve been ready to take him back and see if we could be the couple and family I had always dreamed we’d be. However, the pain of him breaking my heart as many times as he did, and my experience of finally being treated the way I knew I deserved to be treated—even if it was by a mark—had made me realize that my time with Jaylen had come and gone. We would always be bonded because of Madison, but other than that, we were better apart than we were together.
We stood in front of each other—just steps from the SUV that would take Fiona and me to the charity event—lost in our own thoughts, for what felt like hours. The only thing that broke me from mine was feeling Proof’s hand cup my cheek as he tried to lean in for a kiss.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked, stepping back from his touch and bumping into the door of the tinted-out black SUV that Fee and I would be riding in.
“I’m sorry, Mel. I just thought . . .”
I shook my head. “Whatever it is, you thought wrong. Did you forget about our argument in my granny’s kitchen? I thought we were cool on this!” I pointed between us.
He wiped his hands over his head and blew out a long breath. “I . . . look, Mel . . . see . . .” Proof was at a loss for words, which was rare, seeing as he always had something to say.
“You two lovebirds through, or do you need another minute?” Fiona laughed as she walked up to us.
“First of all, you can cut the lovebird shit.” I looked at Proof. “Secondly, we’re good, right?”
Those green eyes went to Fiona, who was smirking, then back to me. He nodded his head. “Yeah, we good.” He looked at Fiona again. “I was just telling Mel to be safe.”
“Safe? Or were you telling her not to fuck Roman’s fine-ass brother if he happens to game her up tonight? I’d be all over that sexy hunk of man if I wasn’t trying to get his brother to give me a chance,” Fiona said.
I rolled my eyes at Fiona and hopped into the back of the truck once the driver opened the door. I was over that awkward moment with Proof, and I was over listening to Fiona go on about Benjamin Black. She’d been trying to push him on me ever since we started this job. If you asked me, she seemed more infatuated with him than she was with Roman. The way her eyes would light up whenever she brought him up, you’d think she . . . I shook my head. Naw. Fiona would never jeopardize our getting this money. Then again, would I be willing to? Especially if I ran into the Blacks’ bodyguard again?
My mind drifted to that day at the mall when those piercing green eyes visually raped every single part of my body. If I saw him tonight, would I run, like I did last time? I wanted to figure out what this pull was that we were experiencing. I needed to put my big girl panties on and woman up. Yeah, I knew my mind was supposed to be on keeping an eye on Roman and causing a distraction if Fiona got the chance to be alone with him, but my heart wanted to be on something else. If I was lucky, that something else would give me the life I’d always dreamed of.
* * *
“Who has your ass over there smiling like that?” I asked Fiona as we pulled up to the venue. She’d been sni
ckering and giggling the whole hour we’d been on the road. Texting whoever it was back and forth.
“Oh, just some dude I met at the club. He and I kicked it a few times. One time being the day you and I were supposed to go to the mall. He had my ass up cooking breakfast and shit after giving me the dick down of my life.”
“At the strip club?” I asked as we got out of the truck.
She nodded her head.
“Is he a regular?”
“Something like that.” She smirked, texting again.
“Do I know him?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I met him when I shadowed ole girl in VIP when we first started working there.”
I just nodded my head and stopped with the questions. Fiona was the type who was closemouthed when it came to the men she dealt with on a personal level. Because she wasn’t the “relationship type,” she had said numerous times that there was no need to give out any info on a man she’d probably fuck for a few months, then drop to be with the next one.
Her phone chimed again, and she went into another giggling fit.
“Well, can I at least know the name of the dude who’s got you acting like a little schoolgirl just from a text alone?” I said.
She looked at me as if she was thinking about something, then gazed back down at her phone. “His name is Meyers, and no, it’s nothing serious. You know if it ain’t about money, I don’t take it seriously.”
I didn’t say anything else as we walked into the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
“What in the hell?” I heard Fiona say under her breath. “This, this, this is . . .”
“Beautiful,” I said.
I walked into the lobby of the five-star hotel and looked around in amazement. The person hired to put this charity event together had done the damn thing for St. Jude Children Research Hospital. They had gone all out with this Heaven’s Little Angels theme and had me looking at the beautifully decorated venue in amazement.
“I think we need to sign in over there,” Fiona whispered in my ear, grabbing my attention. “I doubt Roman is here right now, so let’s make a few rounds, stop at the bar, then find our seats. Cowboy said we will be at the table directly to the right of his.” She gazed around the lobby. “If I’m looking as good as I feel, this night might end way sooner than expected,” she added, with a lift of her perfectly arched brows.
I nodded my head and walked in the direction of the sign-in table. Once we were each given a program and a seat number, we entered the main room, parted ways, and walked around a bit. When we met up at the bar, we both ordered drinks and talked for a minute, then parted ways again. While Fiona went to work one side of the room, I kind of nursed my Coke and rum not too far from the bar. I was so over people complimenting my smooth dark skin and then, in the same breath, asking if my eye color was real or contacts. Like people of color didn’t have blue, green, gray, or even hazel eyes. Yeah, it was rare, but it did happen. And if one more person asked me if I was related to Stacey Dash, because of my eye color, I was going to scream.
I walked toward the back of the room and tried to blend in with the rest of the expensively dressed partygoers, who, like me, didn’t really want to be here. I looked down at my wrist for the time and remembered that I’d taken my watch off to wear a gold cuff instead. I went to look inside the clutch I thought was tucked snugly under my arm, and got the shock of my life when I reached for it and it wasn’t there. I almost started to panic, but then I remembered that the last place I had it was on my lap in the truck. But then I recalled that when I’d refresh my lips with another coat of gloss, I’d placed my clutch on the seat. I must have left it there.
My eyes scanned the room for Fiona, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.
“Hey, Mel, girl. I was just looking for you,” Fiona said, coming up behind me from out of nowhere.
“Where are you coming from? I just looked for you around this whole building and couldn’t find you anywhere.”
Fiona waved me off. “Girl, you know what I was doing.” She ran her tongue over her lips, then winked at me. “I’m always looking for our next victim.”
I shook my head and didn’t say a word. Just like the rest of the members of the BWC, Fiona knew that this was the last web of lies for me. After this last score with Roman Black, I was going on to live that “happily ever after” life with my baby girl and whomever the Lord decided to bless me with.
“Where did the driver say he would be with the truck?” I asked, changing the subject.
Fiona stopped gazing at the partygoers on the dance floor and turned to me. “Why? You trying to leave or something?” Her voice was laced with a little attitude, but none that others would take notice of unless they were standing right next to us.
“I need to go get my clutch. I left it on the backseat, and my phone is in there.”
“Damn it, Mel. You’re supposed to be my second pair of eyes. What if Roman Black walks into the room before I can spot him and one of these Bible-toting, charity-crying, ‘we are the world’ hoes get to him first?” she whispered. “What’s going on with you? It’s not like you to not have your head in the game. Are you okay?”
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes Fiona’s ass could work my nerves like no other, but she was my best friend, and I had promised to always have her back. Yeah, those sexy green eyes and the thought of maybe seeing them tonight had constantly run through my mind the whole ride here, and that was more than likely the reason why I had forgotten my clutch on the backseat, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Look, you already know I got your back. But I also need my phone, just in case the munchkin hits me for our ‘I love you and good night’ call. If I miss it, you know she’ll be devastated, and so will I. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane right about now.”
Fiona looked at me, then shook her head. “You better be glad my goddaughter’s happiness is a priority for me.” She gave me a pointed look. “The driver said he’d be parked out in front somewhere. Just look for the red TCP number on the right side of the bumper. He said that’s how we’ll know it’s him.”
Without another word, I turned and headed for the exit. Hopefully, the tinted-out SUV wouldn’t be too hard to find. I was halfway through the lobby when I heard a familiar voice and a body stepped into my path.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the gold-digging ho of a stepmother who killed my father,” she snarled.
I looked around the crowded lobby to see if anyone was paying attention to her little outburst. It seemed as if everyone was in their own little world and was not paying too much attention to us, but I would have to hurry up and check this little bitch and be on my way before she caused a scene.
“Riana,” I said, acknowledging the fact that I saw her but communicating that I really didn’t want to talk. I tried to step around her, but she stepped into my path again.
“You really think you could get away with what you did, huh?” she growled.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I have the slightest idea of what you’re talking about.”
Her blue eyes turned into slits, and her cheeks flushed a light pink. “You won’t get away with it. As we speak, I have someone looking into who you really are, and once we find that out, all that money that was rightfully mine that you took when my father died will be emptied out of your little bank account and thrown into mine.”
“For someone so concerned about her father’s death, you sure do threaten me about his money a lot.”
“You’ll pay for what you did.”
Tears started to slide down her cheeks, and I almost felt sorry for her ass, but when I thought about the court cases she had put me through and all the extra money I had had to spend on lawyers’ fees to get ahold of Douglas’s money, I didn’t give a fuck.
“Maybe you need to take another Valium or two. You’re starting to be that uptight, delusional bitch that I never cared too much for. If it wasn’t for my late, great departed husband, your grown, spoi
led ass would’ve been cut off the minute I said, ‘I do.’” I walked up closer to her so that only she could hear what I was about to say. “You know, you should be thanking me, really. Had I not signed off on that trust fund, your ass wouldn’t have gotten shit.”
“I fucking hate you!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “You killed my father, and you will not get away with it!”
By now, all eyes were slowly starting to focus on us, and I had a feeling that things were going to get a lot worse. Once Riana noticed that a crowd was starting to form around us, she decided to kick things up another notch.
“To all the rich bachelors in the room,” she yelled, “please steer clear of this . . . this . . . this . . . gold-digging ho right here.” She pointed at me. “Not only will she take you for everything you got, but her murdering ass will also try to make sure your families don’t get to touch a dime of your money. This conniving bitch lured my father in with her web of lies, then killed him for the insurance money and everything else my father had to his name.” She started to sob. “Don’t end up like my father . . . thinking this bitch is the one for you, just to end up buried six feet down not too long after the ink has dried on all those insurance policy papers.”
I could hear the guests surrounding us chattering among themselves and trying to figure out if anything Riana had said was true. I looked around and noticed that all eyes had shifted toward me as everyone began to digest what this stupid bitch had said.
“Don’t try to run now,” she slurred as I began to walk toward the exits again.
About a minute later, I could hear the water from the large fountain in front of the hotel falling into the layered pools. The smell of water hitting concrete started to waft by my nose, which let me know that I was almost out of the lobby and away from all the prying eyes and thoughts.
“Soon you’ll get what’s coming to you, and everyone will know how you’re nothing more than a lying, conniving, and manipulative little slut bucket who marries men—”
The Black Widow Clique Page 9
