by Tynessa
Ali didn’t say anything. He was just ready to bring an end to it all. He was trigger happy and ready to bust his gun for the most part.
Zylen followed the car closely to a nice neighborhood. Once the car pulled on the side of the road in front of the nice brick house, Zylen pulled a couple of feet behind it. They watched as the car door swung open and the woman struggled to get out, that’s when Zylen opened his door.
“I’ll signal for you to get out,” was all he said as he got out and begin walking towards the young lady.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, getting closer to her.
“Don’t come any closer to me or I’ll fucking blow your brains out,” she said with her free hand inside her purse.
Zylen put his hands in the air, showing her he didn’t have any weapons. “Damn li’l mama, pump your breaks. All I need is directions but if it’s gonna cause me my life, fuck it,” he said as he turned to walk away.
“I’m sorry, I thought you was gonna try to carjack me or something,” she giggled.
Zylen smiled because he knew he had her. He turned back around to face her. “The car is nice but it ain’t that,” he said, getting closer to her while Ali sat in the car with his trigger finger itching as he wondered what was going on.
“Yeah, it’s my friend’s car, but what can I help you with?” she asked as she glanced at her house and it caused Zylen to look that way also.
“I’m looking for Cherokee Dr. I’m not familiar with this area. I’m supposed to be picking my lady friend up but my phone died and I can’t call her,” he lied. He and Heaven looked at a house in the same neighborhood and that’s how Zylen knew what street name to give.
“Oh, it’s the next street over,” she pointed. Zylen didn’t understand how she could not have known he was following her since she left the store. Women need to be more careful and start checking their surroundings, he thought.
“Okay, appreciate that, li’l mama.”
“No problem,” she said as she turned to walk away. Pulling his tool from his waistband quickly with one hand, Zylen pulled her back by the hair with the other one.
“You better not say shit or I’ll blow your shit out your fucking head and if you reach in your purse it’s over.” She nodded her head as she silently cried. “Who in the house?”
“Only my boyfriend. He was sleep when I left,” she quickly said.
“What’s his name?”
“Mark.”
Zylen smiled. Though he was expecting Jamal, Mark was even better. He waved his gun at Ali as a signal for him to get out.
“Mark bitch ass is in there,” Zylen said to Ali as he snatched the lady purse off her shoulder.
So their fingerprints wouldn’t be on anything, Zylen made sure she unlocked the front door so they could get in the quiet house where they found Mark laying on the couch still asleep like he didn’t have a care in the world. Zylen pushed the girl over to Ali roughly.
“Surprise, bitch!” Zylen said as he slapped Mark across the face with the gun.
“Ahhh!” Mark screamed from the pain.
Zylen smiled at him as blood shot out the freshly cut wound. “Nigga, you hard to catch up with,” Zylen said.
“Fuck you, nigga. I already know why you’re here! Hell yeah, I shot your bitch. FUCK HER, TOO,” Mark managed to get out angrily.
“And that’s why I’m gonna kill your bitch.” Zylen aimed the gun at the girl, but it was one thing wrong. He couldn’t make himself pull the trigger on her. She had nothing to do with what her man did.
“FUCK,” he said as he quickly turned the gun to Mark, sending two bullets through his head.
He watched as his body hit the floor, then kicked it and spit on it before turning to Ali as he held the crying girl.
“Okay, Miss...” Zylen said as he got her wallet out her purse and looked at her license. “Tameka Watkins, I’m gonna let you live this time.”
“Bruh, are you fucking crazy?” Ali yelled out. Zylen knew they couldn’t leave any witnesses behind. Ali thought his nigga was bugging the fuck out with that.
“She’s innocent, man. But listen, Tameka, if you decide to snitch, just know it’s over for you,” Zylen held her purse in the air. “I’ll be keeping this shit,” he said. She didn’t say anything, not even a head nod as she continued to sob.
Zylen had turned to leave when he heard a loud thump. He stopped dead in his tracks and shook his head before turning around to find Tameka lying face down on the hardwood floor with blood pouring out the back of her head.
“Bruh you, wild,” Zylen said as he and Ali walked out the door.
Chapter 19
Heaven pulled up to La-La’s house. It was a beautiful day outside and since Zylen was out in the street taking care of business, as he calls it, she decided that her and Hydeia would just go chill with La-La. Since the shooting she’d recuperated and was feeling better than she’d ever felt just knowing her man took care of Mark’s bitch ass and they could finally move on with their lives. Once again she began to plan her wedding since everything had died down and they had no one gunning for their heads. La-La and Ali were even doing good and expecting their first baby. Heaven couldn’t have been happier for her bestie.
“About time you brought my god-daughter to see me,” La-La said as she took Hydeia out Heaven’s arms.
“Girl, you can keep her bad ass,” said Heaven as she took a seat on the porch. Since Hydeia started walking she had become a handful.
“My baby is not bad. Are you, Auntie baby?” La-La said as she kissed Hydeia’s chubby cheeks, causing her to giggle while shaking her head and saying “no-no,” like she really knew what La-La said to her.
“See, I told you,” La-La laughed and Heaven rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, I can’t wait until you have your baby and it starts walking. I’m going to sit back laughing my ass off while you chase him or her around the house. You know it’s gonna be bad as hell.”
“How you know my baby gonna be bad?”
“Look who the parents are.” They both bust out laughing.
“It might be crazy as hell,” La-La said.
Hydeia was crying to get down so La-La put her down to play with her riding toy she had over her house. Hydeia had so many toys at her home with her parents, at Heaven’s mother’s house, and also at La-La and Ali’s house. To say she was spoiled rotten would be an understatement.
“Girl, I saw Gina the other day. She looked as if she was geeked the fuck up.”
“She probably was. You know their asses been on that powder. Even when we used to hang out with them,” Heaven said.
“Nah, this bitch was like spaced the fuck out for real. It was more than powder she was on. She was just fidgeting and shit.” Though La-La knew Gina was on more than powder she was still dressed to the T and her hair was on point.
Heaven jumped her shoulder, not really caring what was going on with her ex best friend. No one seemed to care about the shit she went through so why should she give a damn what they had going on?
“I honestly don’t care if she’s on drugs or not, La. That’s the least of my concern.”
“I know you don’t care, Heaven. But you know how Gina is, she’s just hanging with Tamar because of Kim. I don’t know why she tries to be like Kim so bad,” La-La said.
“Really, La-La? Gina is a grown ass woman. She can hang out with who she wants to hang out with. I’m not even mad at them for hanging out with that bitch. I’m upset with Gina ass for threatening me.”
“But was she really threatening you or was it really a warning, Heaven? I mean come on and think about it. When she said that look what happened. Hell, I’m pissed at her and Kim for hanging with that bitch but I still think she was really warning you to watch your back. If she really wanted to do something to you then she could have did it when you and Kim got into that fight. But instead she watched her best friend get her ass beat,” La-La said. She was gonna tell her that Gina asked about her but thought agains
t it. Though she could tell Gina was geeked up she could also tell something was troubling her, like she wanted to get something off her mind.
Heaven thought about it. La-La was right. Gina stood there when she and Kim were fighting and didn’t do anything. Heaven was pretty sure she would have jumped in.
“Well I don’t need her to warn me.” Heaven was stubborn and wasn’t trying to hear what La-La had to say.
La-La just shook her head at her friend’s stubbornness and only hoped nothing else happened to her friend. They sat talking for a little while longer until they decided to go for a walk. Heaven got Hydeia’s stroller out the trunk of her car and they went on their walk. Being that she hadn’t seen her mother in a few days, Heaven stopped by her house and stayed there for well over two hours.
Passing the corner store on the way back to La-La’s house, Heaven spotted Zylen and headed over to him while La-La went to Ali.
“So this the business you had to take care of?” Heaven teased Zylen as she kissed his lips.
“I just pulled up here. What you doing out here? You know I don’t want you out here walking around. Then you got my baby out here,” Zylen fussed as he got Hydeia out the stroller because she was crying and reaching for him.
“We just decided to go for a walk. What time are you coming home?”
“In a couple of hours. You giving me some of that good-good tonight?” Zylen asked smiling.
“You know you don’t even have to ask,” Heaven responded, taking Hydeia out his arms so she could leave. She kissed her man then her and La-La were on their way back to La-La’s crib. She didn’t want to stay at the store for too long with her daughter, in case something jumped off.
*******
Tamar had been lurking around Zylen and Heaven’s house ever since she followed Heaven home a couple of days ago. She watched as Heaven walked out the house with their daughter in her arms. Heaven strapped her daughter in, got inside, and pulled off. An ounce of jealousy shot through Tamar’s entire body. That was supposed to be her with a child by Zylen, not Heaven.
It was the middle of the night and Tamar and Zylen had just finished making love when his right hand man called him. Ali told him that one of his spots had just been hit up. Three masked guys ran up in there strapped with choppers and 9 mm’s, demanding drugs and cash. Luckily, they picked the right time and no one was in there but Fred, Ali, and Tee. To let the guys know they meant business they shot Fred in the leg and to this day, he still walked with a limp.
While Zylen was gone to check everything out, Tamar took that as an opportunity to go into one of his safes that he didn’t know she had the code to. She got a little over a 100 G’s out. When Zylen returned home a few hours later he found not only most of Tamar’s clothes gone but his safe was wide open. Zylen saw red. He gave Tamar the world, so he couldn’t understand why she felt the need to steal from him. Blinded by love, he never knew he was sleeping with a snake. He wasn’t mad about the money because he could easily get that back. Zylen was just upset that the woman who had his heart, out of all people, would actually betray him in the worst way and just vanish. Tamar hurt Zylen to the core and from that day on, he vowed to never trust another female with his heart.
Finally, after sitting there watching the house well over fifteen minutes, Tamar built up enough nerve to get out and go knock on the door. She rung the bell and within seconds she heard the locks being unlocked then it swung open. Tamar almost lost all self-control seeing Zylen standing there in only his basketball shorts and shocks.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Tamar?” Zylen screamed at her then shook his head. “But before you answer that, how in the fuck do you know where I live?”
She smiled as she pushed her way in from the crack that was between him and the door. Tamar moved so quickly and was in before he could stop her.
“Nigga, don’t act like you not happy to see me,” she laughed like something was funny.
“Man, get the fuck out my house,” he said, still holding the door open.
“Look, I already saw wifey and your daughter leaving so we’re good. Plus I have something for you.” She went inside her oversized bag and pulled out stacks of cash. Zylen closed the door but kept his distance.
“That’s all my shit?” he asked.
“Yep, I even threw in a few extra stacks,” Tamar winked.
Zylen didn’t care where or how Tamar got the money. He was just happy she gave him back his shit, even if he was just going to give it to Heaven like he did the 50 G’s she gave him the first time.
“Well I appreciate that but now you need to go before Heaven gets back,” he said, opening the door back up.
Tamar smiled and walked over to him like she was about to leave only to close the door. She wasn’t stopping until she had Zylen back in the palm of her hands like old times.
“You know as well as I know that she’s not going to be back for a good minute, like always,”
Zylen frowned. “What you mean like always? Your ass been watching my house. Tamar?” he asked as he removed her arms that she had thrown around his neck.
“Something like that,” she admitted.
“Why in the fuck you just won’t let me be happy with Heaven, Ta? What we had is over.”
“Because I love you, Zy. I always have and I’m not stopping until I get you back.”
He looked at her through narrowed eyes. “So you steal from the people you love?”
She didn’t say anything. She paid him back all his money so the only thing that was left for them to do is move forward and it couldn’t happen with Heaven standing in the way. Tamar threw her arms back around his neck and tried to kiss him on the lips but Zylen pulled back. He placed his hands on her hips to move her to the side as Heaven was walking in from the kitchen.
“Am I interrupting anything?” she said, startling them. Zylen was so wrapped up in trying to get Tamar away from him that he didn’t hear Heaven walk in.
“Baby, it’s not what you think,” Zylen said, pushing Tamar away. He knew how it might have looked but this time he was honestly innocent.
“What the fuck is this bitch even doing in my house, Zylen?”
“Baby, I don’t even know how she knew where we lived,” he answered honestly.
Heaven was sick of Tamar. “Bitch, I’m about two seconds away from beating your ass. If you wanted Zylen that fucking bad you would’ve kept him when you had him, but you was too busy stealing from him and setting up his spot to be robbed,” Heaven said, catching Zylen off guard with that one.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Heaven? You had my shit robbed that time, Tamar?” Zylen asked Tamar, remembering his spot getting robbed the night she left him.
“I don’t know what the fuck this ho talking about. I might have took your money but I would never set up for someone else to steal from you Zy and you know that,” Tamar tried to explain.
Heaven pressed her lips together. “Zylen, you can believe that bullshit if you want to but I know the truth.”
Zylen didn’t want to believe what Heaven was saying but because of the shit Tamar had pulled when they were together, it made it hard for him to not believe it. He stood quietly, taking in the news his fiancée had just laid on him. But his only question for her was, if she knew who robbed him, why is she just now speaking about it?
“I’m about to get in yo ass and I swear you don’t wanna see these hands. Just ask your fake ass friend about them,” Heaven continued to fuss at Tamar.
“I’d like to see that shit happen,” Tamar said to her before turning back to Zylen to plea her case. “Baby, I swear—” was all she could get out before Heaven began pounding her in the face with her fist repeatedly.
Zylen stood there for a minute, just watching. He didn’t like Heaven acting out of character but since he couldn’t beat Tamar’s ass he’d let his fiancée do it. Once he felt Heaven did enough damage, he grabbed her. It took him a minute to get everything under control but once he did an
d put Tamar out, she let them know it wasn’t over.
“You know what, Zylen. Since it’s so hard for you to stay away from that bitch, I’m gonna just let y’all have it,” Heaven said.
“Man, what are you talking about?” asked Zylen.
“I’m talking about you and that bitch just can’t seem to get enough of one another. First I hear with my own ears you about to fuck her, then the bitch is all in my house. I can’t do this shit anymore, Zylen,” Heaven cried.
“Man, I swear I don’t know how she knows where we live. Please don’t this to me, Heaven.”
“Look at the shit you doing to me. I want out of this. I have a daughter to think about. I refuse to let anything happen to Hydeia, Zylen. It has been bullshit after bullshit since we got together.”
“Heaven, you know I will do anything to protect my baby and you, so that should be the least of your worries.”
“No, I’m going to protect my daughter without you,” she said as she stormed out the door. Zylen thought about going after her but thought against it. He wanted her to feel safe and if she thought she was safe without him then he was gonna back off and just protect her any way he could from a distance.
Chapter 20
Two months later
Heaven was sick without Zylen, but she occupied her time by going back to school and with her daughter. Though she and Zylen were no longer together he still played a huge part in his daughter’s life. Heaven decided to move back in with her mother for the time being, plus Zylen didn’t want her living alone in case Tamar decided to follow through with her threat.
“You don’t have to keep Hydeia for me tomorrow,” Heaven said once Zylen answered the phone. He would usually keep their daughter while Heaven went to school.
“That’s cool but why not? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Since La-La has to go to the doctor tomorrow I’m gonna just leave her with my mom because I know you’re not gonna want to be tied down all day.”
“That’s my daughter, Heaven. You know I don’t mind keeping her,” Zylen said to her.
