by Kelly, Marie
I then stepped out of my car and looked at the other drivers, silently daring one of them to blow their horn at me again, but nobody did. By the time I climbed back into my car, Kanada was laughing her ass off, and I sped away.
Looking over my shoulder, I smiled, seeing Kanada sprawled all over my bed, knocked out from the dick down I gave her.
I had given Ma some money to take the kids out for the day, leaving us alone. There was something going on at the church that Ma wanted to take them to anyway. Just like I said I would, I made Kanada put that white dress on, and I fucked her all over my damn room. She was so exhausted that she literally fell asleep as soon as I busted my fourth nut.
Making sure not to wake her up, I gave her a few kisses on the face and laughed when she didn’t even flinch.
My dick is lethal, I know, I thought smugly.
I climbed off the bed, slipped on my boxers, and went out onto the balcony after picking up my phone.
The line rang a few times before he picked up.
“What’s popping?” Glasses answered.
He was my tech guy—someone I had gone to school with. The nigga stayed hacking motherfuckers while we were in school, so I just had to hire him. Anything I needed to find out on someone, he could find.
We called him glasses because he wore the thickest pair I had ever seen. I was sure the nigga could see the motherfucking satellites that floated in space.
“Can we meet tomorrow? I need you to look at something for me,” I said, talking about the purple haired chick from the mall.
I wanted to know everything about her, and most importantly, who she was referring to as they.
“No problem. Tomorrow at noon,” Glasses said, and I agreed.
After I ended the call with him, I placed another one quickly after looking behind me to make sure Kanada was still asleep.
“Mr W.” Detective Baker called me that over the phone just in case motherfuckers were listening.
“I just wanted to call you and say thank you so much for referring me to the Lotte New York Palace hotel. I’m going to take my wife there tomorrow.”
That was code for meeting tomorrow at the hotel we always used. You could never be too careful on phones. Other cops knew that we had some cops in our pockets; they just didn’t know who, and I liked to keep it that way.
There was an Alvaro, a Mr Ramsey, or Wrath, but no Mr W—which was basically Mr. Wrath, but shit, as long as they didn’t know it was me, it was all good.
“It was my pleasure, and I hope you have a fantastic time tomorrow. It really is a good hotel.”
That meant he was able to meet me tomorrow at our usual time. If he couldn’t come, he would have told me to go to the hotel during a different time when they had a special or something.
“Well, thanks again.”
“No problem.”
We ended the call.
Once I found out all the information on Popeye’s baby mama, I was going to give it to Detective Baker to see what he could find out on her.
Hopefully, the nagging in my stomach that told me she was talking to the police was just a feeling and nothing more.
A’Moya Morse
“Pharaoh, where are we going?” I asked for the thousandth time since he told me we were going out but wouldn’t tell me where.
“To the store.” Pharaoh looked over at me and then smiled widely.
I rolled my eyes, knowing he was lying.
The smile on his face let me know we weren’t going to the store because he seemed way too excited for us to be going to the store. But since I loved just being around him, I sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Being with Pharaoh was better than I had expected it to be. I honestly thought it was going to be a challenge—one that I was more than prepared to go through—I just didn’t think it would have been this easy.
After the night he confessed what happened to his mom, Pharaoh had changed. My heart literally broke for him when he told me what happened. The tears that came from his eyes were pain filled as he relived that terrible day.
Just like I had told him, he wasn’t to blame for what his father made him do.
Pharaoh was a twelve-year-old boy who was being pushed by his parents to do something he didn’t understand. Where most boys his age were busy making decisions on what pair of sneakers to get or a game they wanted, Pharaoh was being forced to make a decision on whether to kill his mother or not. How could I blame him for something that was out of his control? His father was a wicked man to do that to him, and he was the only one I blamed.
To know that Pharaoh had carried that pain and guilt for years made me wish that I had found him earlier. However, I was just grateful that I was able to help him through. He had opened up to me, and all I got now was laughing and talkative Pharaoh. Someone whose teeth stayed on show from how much he smiled and laughed.
Even his family noticed the difference in him and thanked me constantly for the changes in Pharaoh. But I let them know it was a joint thing, and not all me.
Pharaoh had come in and touched my life too. I always believed my deafness was something to be ashamed of because people made me feel like that. I only ever felt secure showing my weakness to my family members or people like myself—like the deaf children I worked with. But to everyone else, I was just the weird, overly quiet girl who had a lot of hair.
That was until Pharaoh came and let me know that my deafness wasn’t a weakness, something to hide or be ashamed about. He taught me to embrace it and see it for what it was—special. I was special and uniquely made, according to him, and I looked at the world through a different lens.
The way he explained it had me feeling like Wonder Woman herself. That night at the club, I walked through with my head held high while holding hands with the most wonderful man God could have ever made.
I didn’t believe in mistakes and knew there was a reason why God brought Pharaoh on this earth and killing for his dad wasn’t it. If anybody asked me, Pharaoh and I saved each other! Even my family loved him. I took him to meet them recently, and since then, they ask for him every time they call my cell. Even my dad calls sometimes just to talk to him. I’m glad they got to meet him because Pharaoh truly was a great person, and I was happy that he was finally seeing it for himself.
With a smile on my face, I brushed the loose strands of hair that fell from my bun and ran my finger over my left hearing aid. Since that night I went to the club, I had been wearing my hair up, nobody could tell me I wasn’t bomb!
Plus, Pharaoh told me he preferred my hair up because it allowed my features to be seen more. I had a small face, so my hair used to swallow it up.
His favorite place to kiss was my neck, and now he didn’t stop kissing it. Not that I complained.
When Pharaoh reached over and took my hand, I looked over at him and smiled when he kissed it. We remained holding hands until he finally pulled up to his destination.
“This isn’t the store, Pharaoh,” I said when he cut the car off.
“Did I say the store?” he asked, and we laughed together.
He climbed out of the car first and came over to my side to help me out. Something he always did and would make me get back into the car if I did it myself.
I chuckled because my boyfriend was crazy, but I loved that about him.
We walked hand in hand, and when we went inside, I smiled once I saw where he brought me.
“Oh my god, you’re doing night school!” I said after seeing students walking around.
I was happy for Pharaoh. So much so that I jumped on him and gave him a kiss.
“I’m so proud of you, baby.”
He laughed and kissed me back.
“You don’t even know what I’m doing here yet.” He chuckled.
He was right, but that didn’t matter. I was just happy he was doing something and finding himself outside of what his dad trained him to be.
I looked at Pharaoh, and I couldn’t help the tears from pooling in my eyes a
s I stared at him.
When I first met Pharaoh, he was mean, paranoid, and very defensive. He wouldn’t open up, and sometimes talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. He used to lock down if I asked certain questions like what he wanted in the future, and he would push me away when he realized that he was getting too close to me.
But now! Now he was talkative, open, happy, loving and caring. Whenever I asked him a question, he was too happy to tell me everything and more than I asked. And when he found himself getting close to me, he would just grab me and pull me closer!
“Don’t start with the tears, A’Moya.” Pharaoh laughed at me and pinched my cheek, but I couldn’t help it.
He had completely changed and was no longer the same, drawn in person who walked around with a dark cloud hanging over him.
Smiling, I sniveled to keep my tears at bay and gave him a hug.
“I’m proud of you, Pharaoh. You are finding yourself,” I whispered in his ear.
After hugging me back for a few seconds, he pulled back to look at me.
“You found me, baby.”
“And you found me.”
Knowing exactly what I meant, Pharaoh kissed my hearing aids. He then took my hand and led me down the hall and to what I assumed was where his class was.
When I stepped inside, I thought that maybe he was doing an arts class because he spoke about always wanting to know how to paint—or even some type of math class because he was good with numbers, but what I wasn’t expecting was it to be an American Sign Language class!
The tears that I managed to keep at bay won the battle and came rushing down my face. Never did I ever think that Pharaoh would have done something like this for me. I had been teaching him here and there, but for him to go and enroll in a class just for me had me blabbering like a newborn baby.
Once again, Pharaoh laughed at me crying and cradled me in his arms. All I could do was cry into his chest as he held me. This man came into my life like a tornado, but now that the strong winds had passed, nothing but paradise was left behind. If I had any doubts before about how he felt about me, he’d just blown that away.
“Nobody has ever done something like this before,” I said into his chest, and he kissed the top of my head.
He tapped my shoulder, and I looked up, knowing he wanted to say something to me.
“And nobody has touched me like you have, A’Moya. I want to be a part of your world, so this is a must for me.”
I smiled as he thumbed my tears away and then kissed my lips.
We pulled apart when an older lady—who looked to be close to fifty—walked over to us.
“Hello, Pharaoh,” she signed, and I couldn’t help smiling when he greeted her back using sign language.
“This is my girlfriend, A’Moya.” He signed to the woman, and she looked at me.
“Nice to meet you, A’Moya. I’m Mrs. Symmons. I asked him to bring you here because I just had to meet you. All he does is talk about you, and I can see why. You are so beautiful.”
More tears tried to fall, but I sucked them back.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I answered, and she gave me a hug.
Since class was about to start, Mrs. Symmons told me to take a seat at the back of the class, and I watched in amazement as Pharaoh did what he had to do. I had never felt so loved and proud in my whole life.
He must have felt my eyes on him because he looked back at me with those hazel eyes that I loved so much, and then he winked at me.
He made a gesture to his heart, and I did one back to him.
Alvaro ‘Wrath’ Ramsey
The Next Night
“Thank you for meeting with me, Paul.” I extended a hand to Detective Baker as soon as I walked into the room at the hotel.
“I don’t usually rush our meetings like I did yesterday, so I apologize for that, but this was urgent,” I explained, and he nodded.
What that bitch was yelling out in the mall had me in my thoughts since the shit happened. There was just no way she should have known who I was or been able to link Popeye’s disappearance to me.
After my boys snatched him and Sly up in Pennsylvania, I made them make a paper trail so that it looked like they were still in Pennsylvania and disappeared there.
Pac and his cousin were thoroughbreds, the only motherfuckers on our crew who I still trusted, so I knew they did what I asked. Plus, they showed me proof that I had Glasses confirm.
“Yeah, well it definitely is urgent.”
The look on his face made me feel uneasy, and I let out a deep breath just knowing I wasn’t going to like what he was about to tell me.
We both took a seat, and he didn’t waste any time going in.
“You were right to call me, Wrath. I called in a favor from some friends, and they found this.” He gave me that uneasy look again—one when someone is silently telling you to be prepared—and then he handed over a folder.
Wanting to know what the fuck was going on, I quickly opened the folder and damn near passed the fuck out when I saw what was inside.
It was a statement from the bitch who I now knew was called Trinity, and she stated that there was some type of altercation between Surge and Popeye. And that I had tracked Popeye down in Pennsylvania, brought him back to New York, and killed him in my warehouse. The address to it was also included in the statement.
The shit wasn’t signed, which let me know that it wasn’t her real statement, just one the police made for her because there was no damn way she should have known half of the shit that she was spitting. Nobody but my brothers and Pac’s people knew what the fuck happened that day. I had been fucking with Pac and his people for years. They had carried out a lot of fucking murders, and shit never got back, so I knew it wasn’t them.
When I saw Detective Alfred’s name on the statement, I knew who the fuck was talking!
Next, I pulled out pictures of us going in and out of trap houses, warehouses, collecting shipments, and a whole load of other incriminating shit—including Surge dealing with the gun empire. To say I was fucking angry would have been an understatement.
“As we speak, charges are being drawn up by this Detective Alfred. He’s working alone as far as I know, but he’s getting help from somewhere. He knows too much, Wrath. You need to contain this. For now, it’s just things he’s working on, so no one else in his department knows, but this is not good, Wrath. It’s not good at all.”
He didn’t have to tell me that because I could see it.
After all the years I ran the streets, the most the cops had on me were rumors, but they never had evidence, especially not on this scale. It was almost like this motherfucker knew us and was a fucking fly on the wall following us. But it made sense who the fuck was feeding this bitch ass motherfucker.
“I’m gonna deal with it,” I stood to my feet and said.
Paul sighed.
I knew he was worried because if the nigga had this much information on us, he could know about my dealings with Paul, and that wasn’t a good look. Our business partnership worked well because nobody knew. If I saw him on the street, we would walk right by as if we didn’t know each other. People liked to speculate on who they thought was working with us, but I knew for a fact that they didn’t know. I made sure of that shit! Now, I had probably put this nigga in jeopardy because I put my trust in someone else.
I should have dealt with this myself, I thought, shaking my head at myself.
“Um, Wrath. I have a wife and kids,” Paul started to explain, and I understood.
“I won’t make contact with you again until I have this sorted.”
Paul had been good to me and my family for years. He was a little older than my pops, and I first met him when I was a teen. He was more than loyal, and the last thing I wanted to do was drag him into my mess.
Paul looked uneasy as he rubbed the back of his head.
I knew why—I didn’t have the best reputation for ending business partnerships in the streets—I mean,
they didn’t call me Wrath for nothing. But this was different.
I wasn’t ending our arrangement because of something Paul did—which was usually how I ended arrangements because usually they were for life—but this was because we messed up.
I couldn’t end his life over that. Outside of him being a cop who helped me, he was a good person too.
“It’s all good, Paul. This one is on me.”
He nodded and reached out to shake my hand, which I happily did.
In all honesty, Paul could have walked the fuck away and let me fend for myself after finding this information out, but he didn’t. He still chose to come here and give me fair warning. I had nothing but respect for him.
After shaking my hand, he walked out of the room, leaving me in my thoughts.
Rage overtook me, and I felt that vein bulge and pulsate. My eyes closed as I felt them literally burn with fury. I knew my eyes had turned black because they always did when I got this angry. Nothing but death was on my mind, but because of who it was, all I could do was pray to God that I wouldn’t punch his ass out.
I walked into the warehouse after calling my brothers there, and as soon as I saw Surge, I rushed over to him.
“Whoa! What the fuck, Wrath!” Surge yelled as I damn near lifted his ass off the floor by his shirt.
“Wrath, let him go!” Guns tried to touch my arm, and I looked back at him.
“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!”
Guns backed up while Legion just stood there confused by what he was seeing.
I turned my attention back to Surge, who was struggling against my body weight.
“I should snap your fucking neck right the fuck now! You have no idea what the fuck you’ve done!”
I then pulled him from the wall and threw him across the floor.
“Arghhhh, fuck! The fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled as he gripped his elbow that had hit the floor hard.
“You are what the fuck is wrong with me! So, you dealt with it, huh?” I growled and threw the folder that I got from Detective Baker at Surge’s lying ass.
