* * *
Later that evening me and Diablo hit the road to pick Mont up. Mont was Diablo’s best friend and his right hand man. His uncle Ronald was shot and killed on his way home from a bar. Ronald gambled a lot and had a lot of enemies. There were no suspects in his murder.
“Baby, it’s sumthin’ I need you to do for me,” Diablo said.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m getting’ a package from Hector tomorrow, but I ain’t goin’ be home when he bring it.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“What you need bay?”
“Bay, you know I don’t like asking you to do shit like this…”
“Cut the bullshit Blo. I’ll be there when Hector gets there. Don’t play that sensitive shit wit me nigga. You know me, don’t front.”
Diablo smiled at me and I quickly kissed his lips.
“Mmmm, I swear baby. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“You’ll never know ‘cause I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
* * *
Maya rocked Lexus gently. For some reason she wouldn’t stop crying. Mel had just bought her home from Vernice’s.
“What’s wrong wit’ her?” Maya asked Mel.
“I don’t know. She was ai’ight earlier,” he said lighting a cigarette.
“Put that shit out Mel.”
He puffed the cigarette anyway.
“C’mon Mel, put the damn cigarette out. I don’t like for you to smoke around my baby!” She yelled.
“Ai’ight, but I ain’t doin’ it ‘cause you told me to. I’m doin’ it cause of my shorty,” he said smashing the cigarette in the ash tray.
“I don’t give a fuck Mel, as long as you put that stankin’ shit out.”
“Who the fuck you cussin’ at?”
“What the fuck is your problem?”
“Oh, okay. You smellin’ yourself now. I’m gonna leave before I say some foul shit.” He got up, lit another cigarette and headed toward the door.
“You just goin’ walk out nigga? You ain’t even goin’ admit that you wrong?” Maya asked.
He looked at her and shook his head.
“You just wanna be a bitch and I’m leavin’.” He walked out and slammed the door.
The loud bang made Maya jump, and caused Lexus to cry even harder. The sound of her cries tore at Maya’s soul.
“It’s okay baby. Mommie’s right here,” she said soothingly. “You hungry baby? Is that it?” She rocked Lexus and searched in the diaper bag for a bottle. She was starting to really hate Jamels’ ass. He was only good for sex lately, but he was a good father. She wished she could confess the truth. He would flip if he knew that Lexus wasn’t his. She’d cheated early in the relationship with Ju. She’d been with Ju for almost three years and it was hard to give up her comfort zone. After she had found out that she was pregnant she’d already fallen for Jamel. He’d won her heart, but he wasn’t the father. She had told Mel that Lexus was three weeks early. Mel was in Chicago for a few weeks when she’d slept with Ju Ju. He was also away when she had the baby, so he was easily convinced. The only way she got away with it was because Lexus looked just like her. She had feet like Ju, but how would Mel know that.
“It’s okay. Here’s your bottle,” she said giving Lexus what she wanted. Lexus stopped crying and started sucking immediately.
Maya had a feeling that Ju knew, but hadn’t said anything. He and Mel always had it out for each other, but that was to be expected. Maya just couldn’t conjure up the nerve to come clean, especially after the cold shoulder treatment from Mel. He just wasn’t the same lately. He was bringing his street mentality into the relationship and she hated that. He wasn’t sweet and thoughtful like Diablo, and she was starting to resent him.
There was a soft knock at the door. Maya held the bottle under her chin to open it. She knew that it was Mel coming back to apologize.
“Ju Ju? Nigga, are you crazy?” She asked surprised to see him at the door.
“Hell nol I ain’t crazy. Let me in. We need to talk,” he said.
“Uh, damn Ju…you can’t be poppin’ up over here,” she said looking around in paranoia. “I have a boyfriend and a child.”
“Don’t play me Maya. I know that Lexus is mine. I ain’t stupid! I can fuckin’
count.”
“Don’t curse around my child.”
“Our child Maya! I know she mine!” He yelled angrily.
She pulled him into the apartment and closed the door. She laid Lexus down in the back and then returned to where Ju was.
“Don’t be poppin’ up at my crib talkin’ crazy. You don’t know who’s listenin’.”
What, you don’t want Mel to pop up and over hear some shit? Huh Maya? How long you goin’ keep it a secret? You been keepin’ it a secret long enough, shit. I wanna know my fuckin’ child,” he said.
“She ain’t yours Ju. She’s Mel’s. She was premature,” Maya said quickly.
“You would rather lie to keep a man? You’ll keep a man away from his own fuckin’ seed. You really that selfish Maya? What’s so damn good ‘bout that mufucka that you gotta lie about the father of your child? How you goin’ live wit’ yourself Maya? I wish I had known your ass was triflin’ before I fell for them tears you was cryin’ that night. I know I bust inside you Maya. I know I did. You was on top and you wouldn’t get up. I did the fuckin’ math Maya. She is mine and I’m gonna tell Mel. You hear that? I’m goin’ tell that nigga, ‘cause you ain’t!” He was angry as hell and Maya could tell.
“Don’t do that Julian, please,” she begged shamelessly.
Ju rested his head in the palm of his hand and paced the floor. He sounded like he wanted to cry. “She my daughter Maya. She is beautiful and I wanna be there for her. You can’t do this shit to me man! That shit ain’t fair!”
Lexus cried out from the back room. “Chill out nigga. You scarin’ my baby,” Maya said heading to the back to check on Maya.
“Our fuckin’ baby."
Maya stopped in her tracks.
“Maya, why you denying Lexus her real daddy? I don’t give a fuck how you feel about Mel, and you can beg till you blue in the face. I’m goin let that nigga know I smashed. He goin’ know that I was up in that pussy raw and I nutted all up in it. She my seed Maya, and your mufuckin' so called baby daddy need to know that shit.”
“Don’t you dare Ju. You need to leave now.” The tears that fell down her cheeks didn’t sway Ju one bit.
“I don’t know how long I can hold this shit in. The older she get the more time I lose, and you don’t even give a fuck.” With that said Ju turned and left.
Maya exhaled and the tears started to flow uncontrollably. She knew that Ju was right, but she loved Jamel now. She didn’t want to lose him, despite the way he acted at times.
Lexus’s crying spell kept her up until four in the morning. When she did finally fall asleep she woke up thirty minutes later. Lexus didn’t have a fever and she didn’t appear to be sick. At five after six Lexus finally fell asleep. When Maya’s head finally hit the pillow she drifted into a restless sleep. She tossed and turned and had nightmares about Mel killing her for lying to him. She couldn’t tell, and she had to do something so that Ju Ju didn’t either.
Chapter 3
Officer Michael Hanson of the Fulton County Police knew that Diablo Perez and the notorious Cue Boys were polluting Atlanta’s streets with crime. Diablo was so slick and smart that no charges ever stuck on him. Mike was hoping for a fuck up because Diablo, along with his “gang” sold everything from marijuana to X. Their main and bestselling product was crack cocaine. Among their long list of criminal activities were grand theft auto, trafficking of drugs and stolen merchandise, possession of crack, powder cocaine, marijuana, and X, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to manufacture and sell crack/cocaine and X, burglary, armed robbery, public intoxication, and even traffic violations. The list went on and on. There were many police reports of the perpetrator having th
e notorious black cobra tattoo. He knew that it had to be Diablo, but a tattoo was not enough to get a conviction. No one could ever describe his face. Any black man on the streets of Georgia could have a tattoo of a cobra on his forearm.
“It’s time to put our feet in the asses of these little punk motherfuckers! I don’t want my streets infected with these walking, talking viruses anymore! Get something on Perez and his boys so I can lock their asses up and throw away the fuckin’ key!” Lt. John Culright, a dark-skinned, heavyset man, yelled, and hit the desk with his huge fist.
“Yes sir,” Officer Hanson and the other officers said in unison.
“Now go!” Lt. Yelled.
Everyone scattered and returned to their duties.
“We’ll get them Hanson,” Officer Rita Conner, his partner of three years, patted his back. She was a tall, beautiful, dark-skinned sister with a banging ass body. Mike thought she should’ve been a model instead of a cop. Although he thought of himself as handsome, he knew that he had to keep his love life separate from work. It was time to put some street thugs where they belonged, and he had to concentrate on that.
* * *
There was a knock on the door. Three swift knocks followed by two slow knocks. I knew that it was Hector. He was a Mexican dude that supplied Ablo with his smoke stash of weed. Ablo did sell bud occasionally, but Hector had some straight up killer shit straight from Mexico. Ablo’s trees were good, but he was more into coke because it brought in bigger money. Crack was his main product and it was very potent and popular on the streets. Ablo and his boys had the fiends crazy for that shit.
I looked through the peep hole although I knew it was Hex from his knock. Niggas called him Hex because the weed was just that good. It made you so high you’ll feel like somebody put a spell on you.
“What up Hex,” I said letting him in. Hector was Mexican, but he talked like a black guy. He was eighteen, and he never made eye contact with me. None of Ablo’s associates looked me in the eye. They didn’t want to disrespect Ablo. Juan, Ace and Mont were the only exception because they were Ablo’s closest boys.
“I’m straight Yanna, how you?” He asked giving me two pounds of cannabis high in THC.
“I’m good,” I said handing him eight thousand dollars. He just took the bundle and put it in his pants pocket. He didn’t need to count it. He knew that it was all there. His pants were so big that you couldn’t even see the bulge of the money.
“A’ight,” he said still not looking at me. His eyes mostly stayed on the floor.
Maybe that was the reason that Ablo had been the only man that I had been with. If the men that knew him were too afraid to look at me they wouldn’t dare touch me. Of course there were men in other places that didn’t know Ablo, but I hardly traveled without him. Ablo was always over protective of me.
“Bye Hex,” I smiled closing the door behind him.
My cell phone rung, there was no need for a phone in the apartment.
“Hex come?” Ablo asked.
“Yep,” I said. “He just left.”
“No doubt lil’ ma. I know it’s late, but I’ll be home soon baby doll. Love you.”
“Love you too,” I said. It was after eleven, and I couldn’t wait for him to get home. We would smoke a blunt in the tub and talk about the next cruise we'd take. Then we would be all giggly and high, and that would lead our clean, wet bodies to the king sized bed. He would lick me dry, and I’d scream his name over and over again.
“A'ight baby,” he said interrupting my fantasy.
“Later papi,” I said and hung up.
I opened the tightly wrapped package of herb and pulled off a bud. It was lime green with no seeds, and it smelled so damn good. I found an unrolled Swisher, gutted it, and filled it with the weed. I rolled it tightly, dried it with the flame from the lighter, and lit it up. Shit, I couldn’t wait for Ablo.
My cell phone rang again. “Hello,” I answered. It was Princess.
“Why ain’t you been answerin’ your phone bitch?” She asked.
“I don’t know. I think me and Ablo was fuckin’. What you been doin’?” I asked sarcastically.
“Kiss my ass hoe.”
“The pot callin’ the kettle black, slut,” I laughed and hit the blunt.
“Where your man at?” She asked.
“Mindin’ his damn B.I. Why you wanna know?”
“You must be smokin’. You smokin’?”
“Why? You wanna get high bitch?” I asked flicking ashes into the ashtray.
“I always wanna get high bitch.”
“I thought you always wanna fuck,” I laughed.
“Mmm hmmm. That too.”
We giggled.
“Rahkmon is such a cornball. I gave him a lil’ head and a shot of ass and now he buying me all types of shit. Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Versace’. Girl he got me some hot ass Prada sandals with the thin straps. Oh, and he got me a fly ass Louis bag, and ‘bout six pair of Gucci and Dior shades. Damn, what else…” she bragged.
I didn’t even say a word because Diablo bought me shit like that all the time. I was so used to it that I didn’t have to mention it. I could show and prove. “I don’t give a shit Princess,” I reminded her before she could continue.
“You so mean Yanna. I don’t even know why I fuck wit’ your ass,” she whined.
“Whatever. Come on over here slut,” I laughed. Her men must’ve all been busy, because she sounded bored.
“A’ight, ‘cause I ain’t goin’ to see D-Roc until ‘bout one. That mufucka got the bomb ass dick. Yanna girl, it is so big, black, and juicy. When I suck it he…”
I interrupted her. “I don’t wanna know Princess!” I yelled.
“I’ll tell you ‘bout it when I get there,” she said and hung up.
I didn’t want to know about her sexscapades, but she filled my ears with them anyway. I listened because sometimes I’d get ideas. When she got too graphic with the details I would tune her out. I’d become a pro at doing that.
About thirty minutes later my cell phone rang again. “What Princess?”
“Open the door.”
I got up to let her in. “Why didn’t you just knock?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “What’s goin’ on? Where the weed at?”
I handed her the blunt.
She sat down.
I picked up the remote and flipped through the channels. “Ain’t shit on,” I said and sucked my teeth.
“Never. That’s why I entertain myself,” Princess said.
I laughed. “Give me the blunt wit’ your crazy ass.”
“Damn, I just got it,” she snapped. “That’s some good shit.”
“I know. I couldn’t finish it earlier,” I confessed.
“You? You gave up on the blunt? Shit, that gotta be some killer.”
“Yep. I gave up.”
“What time is it? I’m horny as fuck,” Princess said. “Oh, and look at my nails.”
“Did Rahkmon pay for them too?”
“Nol, D-Roc got ‘em done this morning.”
“Word? Well it ain’t one yet.” I handed her the blunt.
“But like I was sayin’ on the phone. D is so fuckin’ sexy. When he be hittin’ it from the back I be nuttin’ up a fuckin’ storm. That nigga be workin’ that damn back,” she said starting up her X-rated tales.
Forbidden Fruit Page 4
