“I hear you.” Lucky grabbed the remote and flicked the channel. “So, what’s up with tomorrow? Or have you had a change of heart?”
“I’m good. I have to work though.”
Lucky sucked his teeth. “There you go.”
“No, for real, I do,” Secret said. “But I’m on the early shift. I’ll be off by three, and then I’m all yours.”
“Cool. Quasi misses you,” Lucky joked.
“Ugghh, Quasi,” Secret said with disdain and then moved away from Lucky.
Lucky laughed. “Oh, you don’t like Quasi?”
“Can’t you show me some other tricks of the trade besides that? I don’t want to be condemned to the basement of some house.” Secret crossed her arms in a pout. “Plus, I know that Quasi chick is feeling you,” Secret said, playing the jealous role. “I can hardly focus on what I’m supposed to be doing for side eyeing her. Something tells me it’s only a matter of time before she and I clash.”
“Aww,” Lucky said teasingly, “A couple hours in the dungeon got you all bent out of shape and feeling bold.” Lucky went to kiss Secret on the cheek.
Secret pulled away.
“Oh, it’s like that?”
“Just show me some other stuff,” Secret said.
“Shawndiece started in the dungeon.”
“I’m not Shawndiece.” Secret turned to face Lucky. “You said I was special. Special chicks don’t get treated like the next trick.” She squinted her eyes at him. “Are you trying to treat me like the next chick?”
“Never that.” Lucky shook his head. “But when it comes to business—”
“When it comes to business I still expect to be treated special. ’Spite popular opinion, I’m ultimately going to be the queen bitch around here, so you might want to give your girl Quasi the memo.” Secret rolled her eyes.
“Damn that hard side of you turns me on,” Lucky said, grabbing his manhood.
“Then is it settled? I mean, I know eventually I’m going to have to do what I have to do, but I don’t want to be a one-trick pony like Quasi. I want to know everything there is to know.”
“Everything?” Lucky questioned.
Secret turned her body toward Lucky and seductively said, “Everything.”
After about another ten minutes of persuasion and a nice, long blow job, Lucky gave in. After Secret got off work at three o’clock tomorrow, he agreed to show her something new. The dungeon was permanently off the list of things to do.
At three-thirty on the nose Secret heard Lucky blowing for her outside of her apartment. She said a silent prayer that God would watch over her, grabbed her purse, then bounced outside to Lucky’s truck.
“Hey, beautiful,” Lucky said as he stood waiting for her with the passenger side door open.
“Hi,” Secret said, getting in the car.
“Damn,” Lucky said as Secret bounced right up into the passenger seat then looked at him to close the door. “A nigga don’t even get a kiss? You don’t want me to treat you like a regular chick, but yet you just played me like a regular nigga.”
Secret laughed. “My bad. Let me try this again.” Secret got out of the truck, ran back up her walkway then came back down. This time when she got to the truck, she grabbed Lucky behind his neck, pulled him down to her face, and stuck her tongue down his throat. After a wild, passionate kiss she pulled away, looking him in his eyes and said, “Hi.”
Lucky laughed and shook his head at her. “Girl, get your crazy ass in that car.”
Secret smiled and hopped back into the car.
Lucky closed the door and then climbed into the driver seat. He took her to a couple of the trap houses where he checked in on things and even collected money.
“I don’t usually do this type of thing,” Lucky had told Secret after they exited the house. “I got other soldiers who handle this type of thing. I just wanted to show you everything per your request.”
They got back into the vehicle and went to another spot. This one being one that Secret was very familiar with. It was the one she’d taken Lucky to that day to get the duffle bag full of drugs out of. The duffle bag full of drugs that would ultimately land her in jail.
They walked up to the house and Lucky knocked. “Yo, it’s Lucky,” he called through the door. A few seconds later a young guy with a mouth full of bling answered the door.
“Wasup, my main man Lucky?” the young guy greeted him.
“I can’t call it, young blood,” Lucky replied, giving the boy some dap. Lucky entered the house.
Secret noticed that this was the first time Lucky had actually grabbed her hand and led her inside. With her hand resting in his, she stayed by his side.
Secret looked around the living room with an opening to the dining room and kitchen. It was full of guys. Some were sitting on the couch and chairs playing video games. Some were at the table playing a game of cards. All were either drinking or smoking. As a matter of fact, there was so much smoke that Secret could barely see two feet in front of her.
There was a second television other than the one the guys were playing video games on. A porno was showing on that one. So there was a sound mixture of shooting from the video games, moaning and groaning with an acoustic guitar string from the porno along with cussing and fussing from the heated card game.
“I see you brought us a new toy to play with.” A guy walked up to Lucky, rubbing his hands together. He looked Secret up and down like she was his next meal. Or more like his last supper.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Lucky said, pushing the guy back. “This one is mine.”
“Aw, come on, man. Since when don’t you share? You know the saying: it ain’t no fun if my homies can’t have none.”
“Down, boy,” the young guy with a mouth full of bling told his friend. “You heard what my man said.”
The friend put his hands up in defense. “All right, my bad. My bad. It’s all good.” He held up his hand to high-five Lucky.
“Fo’ sho.” Lucky gave him a hand slap. “But I got you. I’ll bring a little somethin’ around your way. Got this nice Dominican chick I know you’ll have fun with.”
The guy’s eyes lit up. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.” He gave Lucky another high five and then walked away, but not before eyeballing Secret with silent thoughts of wishing he could have her right now.
Lucky looked to Secret. He was about to say something to her but his phone began to ring. Lucky pulled his phone out and looked at it. His eyes lit up like Times Square at night. “Yes!” he said quietly and did a little fist pump in the air. He then quickly looked to Secret. “Hey, I gotta take this call. I’ll be right back.” He started to walk away as he hit the talk button to answer the phone. “This is Lucky.” He spoke in a professional business manner. There was none of that “wasup” and “yo, my man” he greeted all his other workers with. This time Lucky spoke as if he was speaking to his boss instead of worker bees.
Secret was only two steps behind Lucky as he walked down a small hallway, heading toward the bathroom at the end of the hall. It wasn’t until he got to the bathroom and went to close the door that he realized Secret was behind him. He briefly took the phone away from his ear and whispered. “Hey, I said I have to take this call.”
“Then I’m taking it with you,” Secret whispered right back with attitude. She then pointed to the living room. “If you think you’re leaving me out there in the lion’s den, you have really lost your mind.” The look in Secret’s eyes let Lucky know she was not about to back down on this one. He had a very important call on the line and didn’t have time to argue with her.
Agitated, Lucky mumbled. “All right. Just wait right here then.” He pointed to the spot right outside the door and then closed it.
Secret stood right outside the door with her arms folded. At first she wasn’t paying any attention to what Lucky was saying, but then with nothing else to focus on, his words began to penetrate her ears. And what he had to say made Secret’s ears perk up. Although she could
only hear one side of the conversation, she could hear enough to know that this coming Friday, something big was going down. A shipment of “ice cream.” Secret recalled the day back at the dungeon with Quasi. The men carrying boxes said they were bringing a delivery, that the ice cream man or something like that had arrived. Secret put two and two together. The boxes had the drugs in it that the girls at the pool tables had to do their thing with. That was the ice cream.
Secret pressed her ear to the door and this time she clearly heard Lucky set up a meeting time for this Friday, three days from now, at six p.m. The meeting spot was Lucky’s garage.
Now it was Secret pumping her fist in the air. She had what she needed. No mistake, she was sure once she relayed this information to Detective Davis that would be all he needed to take Lucky down. Game over.
Chapter 26
“Girl, what the hell happened to you?” Secret said as she let Kat into her house.
Lucky had dropped Secret off a couple hours after they’d left the trap house. He’d cut their training day short. He was amped up on ten and told Secret he had to go take care of some private business, set some things up. She figured he had to get his crew ready for the shipment. He told her that if it wasn’t too late, he would shoot back through to her place tonight.
“I think I’m going to go pick up Dina from the babysitter’s, go home, take something for these cramps, and knock out,” Secret had told Lucky. She put her hand across her lower abdomen for emphasis, even though her period wasn’t expected until next week. She was done with Lucky and this whole drug thing. She had what she needed, and based on Detective Davis’s excitement over the phone when she shared the details of Lucky’s upcoming shipment, he now had what he needed as well. Secret had been feeding Detective Davis little appetizers here and there, keeping him in the loop of everything Lucky was showing her. Secret had relayed locations and everything to Detective Davis. Clearly this last bit of information was the main course.
“You did good, Secret,” Detective Davis had said before hanging up the phone.
“I did well, Detective,” Secret corrected him. She no longer had to fit in or speak improper English either.
Detective Davis chuckled and ended the call.
Secret had felt so relieved and at peace, too. No more training days and no more giving her body to Lucky. But now Kat had showed up at her door disturbing the peace.
“Your face . . .” Secret went to touch Kat’s bruised eye. It wasn’t a fresh bruise. Looked like it had been there a minute, but it looked painful all the same.
Kat flinched and pulled away. “Nothing, I’m good,” Kat said, walking into Secret’s house. “Just got into it with some hating-ass bitch is all. Just some he said, she said shit.” Kat shot Secret a stern look. “Apparently some bitch is running around lying on me.” She was looking at Secret as if she was referring to her.
Secret closed the door behind her. “Well, it looks like y’all’s fist did all the talking.”
Kat walked over to Dina who was in her swing. “How’s auntie’s babe?” she said to her niece.
Secret had just fed Dina milk and infant cereal. Once Miss Good started feeding Dina solids, Secret was forced to follow suit because Dina would still fuss like she was hungry after taking in just milk. Secret had really wanted to be a mother who followed the doctor’s orders by the book, but Miss Good had thrown a monkey wrench in that.
“I haven’t talked to you in a minute,” Secret said. “What’s been going on with you?”
“Nothing too much. A little bit of this. A little bit of that.” Kat pushed the swing just a tad bit. “Oh, yeah, the twins want to see you. I figured we could all go out to eat or something.”
“That would be real nice,” Secret replied. She’d love to see her half twin brothers. “How are those knuckleheads doing anyhow?”
“Thuggin’. They ain’t gon’ be shit, just like they daddy.”
Secret cringed at hearing those words. The same had been said about Secret in reference to her mother. She knew that people didn’t have to be a victim of their circumstances. She’d keep hope for her brothers that they wouldn’t end up on the same path as their father, in and out of jail. “Well, y’all just let me know when and where and I’m game.”
The two women stood in the living room. Finally Kat spoke. “So, what have you been up to?” She looked at Dina. “Talk to your baby daddy?”
“Yeah.” Secret nodded.
“About what?” Kat went and sat down on the couch. Her legs were open and she rested an elbow on each knee. She was leaned in like she was interrogating Secret.
Secret shrugged. “You know, about Dina, and just stuff.”
“Stuff, huh?”
“Yeah, stuff.” Secret walked over and fixed Dina’s head that was starting to tilt to the side. Secret stuffed a blanket on each side of Dina’s head to keep her head from wobbling. “Why are you asking like that?”
“No reason. It’s just that . . .” Kat’s words trailed off.
“Finish.” Secret went and sat down next to Kat. “It’s just that what?”
“I just want to make sure you are not getting caught up in no bullshit is all. I know how Lucky is. Trust me. I’ve been under that nigga’s spell since I can remember. I get that he’s your baby daddy and all. But that’s where you need to draw the line.” Kat had spoken that last line more like she was giving Secret an order.
“Look, sis.” Secret took Kat’s hand into hers. “I know you are just trying to look out for me, and I appreciate that. But you can best believe that Lucky is not and will never be a part of my life in that way again.”
Secret’s pledge seemed to have relieved Kat to some degree. Kat exhaled and put her other hand on top of Secret’s. “I hope that’s the truth, Secret.” She searched Secret’s eyes for confirmation.
The way Kat was coming at Secret made Secret feel a little strange. It was almost as if there was an underlying threat in Kat’s words. To Secret it felt as if Kat was warning her not to mess with her man.
“Kat, is everything okay?”
Kat stood up and wiped her hands down her jeans. “Yeah, sure. Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know. You walk in here with a black eye, questioning me about Lucky.”
“Like I said, I’m just looking out for you. If protecting you from that piece of shit means I have to be all up in your business, then so be it. In all honesty, I wish to God he wasn’t even your baby’s daddy so that he wouldn’t have no reason to come sniffing around over here in the first place.” Kat clenched her fists while looking at Dina. “It just breaks my heart that you had a baby by Lucky.” Kat shook her head as her eyes watered.
Secret felt so hurt and sad to watch her sister enveloped in such heartbreak. What made Secret feel even worse was that she could rid Kat of that heartache in a matter of seconds if she told her the truth. If she told her that Lucky wasn’t actually Dina’s biological father. Secret thought about it as she watched Kat wipe the tears at the rims of her eyes before they could even fall. She already hated the fact that she’d kept so many secrets from Kat as it was. What would be the harm in revealing this truth? So Secret decided she would share the fact that Lucky wasn’t Dina’s biological father. She wasn’t, though, going to tell her who really was. There were just some secrets that had to go to the grave.
“Kat, there’s something I want to tell you,” Secret said.
Kat sniffed. “What is it?”
“It’s about—”
Secret’s phone rang before she could finish her sentence. She looked down at the caller ID. She didn’t recognize the number. She held her index finger up to Kat, telling her to hold on a minute.
“Hello,” Secret answered. “Hey, Shawndiece.” A huge smile covered Secret’s face. “I’m so glad to hear from you.” Secret truly was glad to hear from her best friend. Not only because the last time they’d seen each other they’d had sort of a spat, but Shawndiece was the piece of the puzzle S
ecret had forgotten all about.
Shawndiece was part of Lucky’s crew now. If he went down, nine times out of ten she was going to go down with him. Secret had to keep that from happening. She needed to find a way to talk Shawndiece out of the dope game, at least with Lucky.
Secret walked past Kat over to the dining room table. “I need to hook up with you. I really need to talk to you about something.” Secret sat down at the dining room table. “It’s really important,” Secret said. “As soon as possible. Tonight if possible.” Secret paused for a moment. “Well, how about tomorrow? I have to work tomorrow. Let me check my schedule and then I’ll get back with you. This number that showed up in my caller ID, is this your cell phone?” she asked. “Cool, then I’ll call you back as soon as I check my schedule. All right,” Secret said, and then ended the call.
Secret let out a sigh of relief. She had three days to meet up with Shawndiece. Hopefully she could find a way to convince her to call it quits with her connection with Lucky. If not, she might be forced to tell her the truth: that Lucky was going down and that she didn’t want her to be on the ship with him when it sank. But would she be able to trust her enough to tell her that?
Secret laid the phone down on the table prepared to finish her conversation with Kat. She stood up from the kitchen table and turned around only to find Kat gone and the door cracked open from where she’d left.
Looked as though that truth would have to wait.
“What y’all up to sitting on the porch cackling like y’all up to no good?” Secret asked Miss Good’s granddaughters who were sitting on the porch steps staring at an iPhone. Sometimes the teenage girls would come over to their grandmother’s house after school to visit. They only lived a couple blocks away.
“Just some ol’ ghetto mess. These two chicks fighting,” the youngest granddaughter, who was about fourteen, said.
“What is it, a television show? Let me guess, one of those ghetto reality shows?” Secret stopped at the steps and put her hands on her hips.
“No, this is for real,” the older sixteen-year-old granddaughter replied. “There’s this Internet site that be showing people fighting.”
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