The Wrong Side Of Love 3: A Hood Love Story

by Charmanie Saquea

  “My house, Jay, somebody burned down my house,” Coco cried.

  “Oh shit, I'm so sorry, Jacole,” Jayliah said.

  Coco was so messed up over the situation that she hung up on Megan on accident. Coco didn't have any damn enemies, especially none in California, so she was wondering who the hell could've done something like this to her. Immediately, her mind went to Nina but she axed that idea knowing that she couldn't have possibly been in two place at one time.

  “I just can't win for fucking losing!” Coco yelled. “Let's go, Jay,” Coco said.

  “Where we going?” Jayliah asked.

  “Anywhere. I just need to get away. Hurry up before they realize we're leaving,” Coco said.

  Already having her keys in her pocket, Jayliah hit the lock and they ran to her truck and got in. Tariq noticed Jayliah start the truck up and tried to stop her as she was backing out.

  “Aye! Fuck y'all going?” he yelled.

  Jayliah didn't even bother to stop. Her sister needed to get away and that's what she was going to help her do.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  For the past three days, Coco had been staying in a hotel with her phone powered off. She needed to use this time to get herself together and her thoughts straight. She didn't like the events that had taken place a few days earlier. She was way out of her character and she hated that. Coco sat in the bed and turned her phone on. She was missing her baby something terrible but she knew he was in good hands with Zeek.

  Multiple voicemails and text messages popped up on her phone. The majority of them were from Zeek and he was threatening her with what he was going to do to her if she didn't bring her ass home. One was from her job telling her they were going to have to let her go but the one that caught we her off guard was the one from Ishmael.

  “I told you not to fuck with me, Jacole! Since you wanted Zeek so bad, let him take care of your ass. You better be glad your stupid ass wasn’t in the house!” Ishmael yelled like a mad man. His voice sounded so deranged that she barely recognized it.

  Immediately Coco jumped up and called her sister.

  “Bout time, Co! I was about to come to that hotel and snatch your ass up. I know you said you needed time but damn,” Jayliah fussed.

  “Jay, where are you?” Coco asked.

  “I'm at home on babysitting duty. I have Zeeky so don't worry about him. Why you sound like that? What's wrong?” Jayliah asked.

  “Nothing, where's Zeek?”

  “He said he had to handle something at the house in Royal—”

  That was all Coco needed to hear as she made her way to Zeek’s other house. Right about now she didn't give a damn about Nina being there because she really needed to talk to Zeek as soon as possible. Remembering she didn't have her car because it was fucked up, Coco had to take a cab. Coco anxiously sat in the back of the cab trying to figure out what the hell made Ishmael snap like that. She tried to call him and get some answers but it said his number was disconnected. She was so pissed off that she was damn near in tears. Coco tried to call Zeek but his phone went straight to voicemail.

  “Dumb ass,” she mumbled as she hung up.

  When the cab pulled up to the house, she paid him and immediately jumped out. Using her key, she let herself in the house. She heard a commotion coming from upstairs so that's where she headed.

  “Zeek! Ish…” Coco's voice trailed off when she realized Nina was fucking up his bedroom.

  “You stupid bitch! This is all your fault!” Nina yelled with a crazed look on her face as she ran towards Coco.

  “Oh shit!” Coco said as Nina tackled her.

  Using her strength, Coco tried to get Nina off of her because she had her hands around her throat choking her. She was yelling something about divorce and Zeek being hers. Coco reached up and punched Nina in her face as hard as she could, dazing her a little. Coco used that opportunity to flip Nina off her.

  “You stupid bitch! What the fuck is wrong with you?” Coco yelled.

  Nina tried to get up and come for more but Coco wasn’t backing down. She had been wanting to beat Nina’s ass for a while now and this was the perfect time. Coco hadn't been in a physical altercation since middle school so she was a little rusty.

  “You're the reason he wants a divorce! I'll kill you before I let you have him! He's mine!” Nina yelled as she and Coco locked onto each other. Nina was coming at Coco with everything that she had but Coco wasn't shit to play with. All the pent up anger and frustration that she had, she was taking it out on Nina.

  “You dumb bitch, you just bit me!” Coco yelled as she grabbed her face.

  Nina was growling like a damn dog and tried to hit Coco again but Coco dodged it and countered with a blow to Nina’s throat. Coco ran into the room and looked for a weapon that would lay this crazy bitch out. Coco grabbed the lamp off the nightstand and swung it at Nina just as she was running up again. Instantly, Nina fell to the ground with a hard thud.

  Coco bent over to try and catch her breath. One of the blows Nina delivered had her a little dizzy. Once the room stopped spinning, Coco realized Nina wasn't moving. She rushed to her and felt for a pulse but there wasn't one.

  “Oh shit, oh shit!” she yelled in panic.

  She ran out the room and back into the hallway were she’d dropped her purse and get her phone. With shaky hands, she tried calling Zeek again but just as the last time, it went straight to voicemail. The next person she tried to call was Tariq. She impatiently waited for him to answer the phone.

  “What's up, Co?” Tariq asked. Coco didn't answer him so he pulled the phone away from his ear to see if she was still on the phone. “Coco?”

  “I…I killed her, Riq,” she cried.

  “WHAT? WHO?” he yelled.

  “Nina, I killed Nina,” she whispered.

  “Aw fuck! We’re on the way,” Tariq said before hanging up.

  Coco heard him but at the same time, she didn't. She was sitting there terrified of what was going to happen to her. She couldn't spend the rest of her life behind bars, she had a son to raise. None of this shit was supposed to happen. She couldn't believe this is what her life had become. She was supposed to be living her dream of being a RN with a happy life. Not killing bitches over a nigga.

  “Coco, come on baby look at me,” Zeek said as he lightly shook her.

  Coco was sitting there staring off into space when Zeek, Marco, and Tariq got there. She hadn't even realized they’d shown up. Zeek was worried because she was sitting there bloody and looking crazy.

  “Coco, talk me dammit! You good?” he asked.

  “She really dead, nigga,” Tariq said as he stood over Nina who was lying in a pool of blood that was coming from her head.

  “Fuck her!” Zeek spat.

  “I didn't mean to. She…she attacked me,” Coco cried.

  “Shh, come on,” he said as he picked her up and carried her out of the house.

  Zeek laid Coco down in the back seat of his truck before running back into the house. When he got back upstairs, Marco and Tariq had worried looks on their faces. He already knew what they were thinking.

  “José is going to come for Coco’s head, literally,” Tariq said.

  Coco didn't know it but she had just killed the connect’s daughter. José was the most powerful man Zeek knew and he knew José wouldn't rest until Coco was dead for killing his daughter. Zeek wasn't about to let him touch one hair on her body.

  “Not if I come for his first,” Zeek said, as he walked out of the room to make a very important phone call.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Zeek walked into Zeeky’s nursery to find Coco sitting in there with their son in her arms. Staring into space. It had been four days since she had killed Nina and this was all she did every day. Zeek’s business phone started ringing so he left the room to answer it.

  “Hola?” (Hello)

  “Su problema ha sido cuidado,” was all Zeek heard before the line went dead. (Your problem has been taken care
of)

  That was the call Zeek had been waiting on. He knew that Sophia’s brothers were specially trained to kill and even though he knew killing José wouldn't be an easy task, he needed them for the job. He didn't know how they did it nor did he care to know. All that mattered to him was that he was dead.

  Zeek walked back into the room and took Zeeky from Coco, placing him in his crib. Coco didn't even blink an eye as he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. Zeek went straight for the bathroom as he sat Coco on the toilet and turned the shower on with cold water. Zeek didn't bother to undress Coco as he placed her in it.

  “Ahhhhh!” she yelled once the freezing water touched her body. “Wh…what are you doing?”

  “Waking your zombie ass up! Snap out of this shit, Jacole! It's not the end of the world, people die every day. Just think of her as one less person in the world,” Zeek told her.

  “Okay! Okay! Let me out, Zeek, please!” Coco yelled as she tried to get out of the shower.

  Grabbing one of his big terry cloth towels, Zeek turned the water off and handed it to Coco. She stepped out of the shower and stripped out of her wet clothes. She was shivering like crazy.

  “Girl, you shaking like a stripper. I might end up going in my pocket the way that ass moving.” Zeek licked his lips.

  Coco gave him the most evil look she could muster up. “You fucking asshole, you didn't have to do that,” she spat.

  “It brought you back to your damn senses though, didn't it?” he laughed.

  Coco scoffed at him and walked out of the bathroom to put some warm clothes on. She wasn't in the mood for Zeek’s obnoxious ass. He was always doing some stupid shit and getting on her nerves.

  “I'm sorry, Co. Don't be mad at me. Please?” Zeek begged as he came up behind her in the closet.

  “Move, Zeek, I'm not thinking about you,” she said, pushing him off of her.

  Zeek grabbed her by her waist and turned her to face him. He kissed her lips softly before staring into her eyes. Coco got lost in those light brown eyes she hated to love. “I love you,” he told her.

  That's the second time, she thought to herself. This was the second time Zeek had expressed his love for her. The first time he said it, she didn't think anything of it because they were having sex but this time it stirred something in her.

  “Do you, now? Tell me, Zeek, why you love me?” she asked.

  Caught off guard, Zeek looked at her funny. “You serious?” he asked.

  “Yes I am. I want to know why you love me,” she said as she got dressed.

  Zeek ran his hand down his face and chuckled nervously. He had never explained to anyone why he loved them or ever told a woman he loved them period. “Okay, check it,” he said. “I really don't know why I love your cry baby, spoiled, bipolar, temper tantrum having ass. You get on my nerves like no other and sometimes I be wanting to strangle your little ass,” he told her.

  Coco laughed and pushed him out of the way so she could walk out of the closet. “Oh, how romantic, you make my heart flutter,” Coco said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

  “You asked,” he shrugged.

  “Kiss my ass.”

  “So now you mad?” Zeek asked as he picked her up and slammed her on the bed. “Why you mad, Jacole?”

  “The one time I expect you to be serious and say some real shit, you act stupid.”

  “What? I'm highly offended because that was some real shit. It may not have been what you wanted to hear but it was real.” He smiled.

  “Whatever, move.”

  “Nah, let's take a nap together until we have to get ready,” Zeek said as he snuggled up to her.

  Coco wasn't about to argue with him on that.

  ___

  Coco and Zeek stepped out of his all-white Rolls Royce looking like royalty. Zeek barely brought his toy out to play but it was a special occasion so it was a must that they stepped out looking like money. Pulling up right behind them was Tariq and Jayliah in his midnight blue Maserati. They stepped out looking just as good as Zeek and Coco.

  “Okay, bitch, being pregnant looks good on you,” Coco told her sister as she admired her.

  “Yea, until I start showing,” Jayliah laughed.

  As they were about to make their entrance, they heard an engine roaring and a car horn. All four of them looked back as Marco pulled up in a Ferrari. Coco just shook her head because all of the Clay men definitely knew how to stunt.

  “Look at this nigga,” Zeek told Tariq.

  They watched as he got out of his car and walked over to his passenger’s side to open a door and out stepped a beautiful brown skinned woman.

  “Uhh, what the hell, who is that?” Coco asked.

  Everyone watched as Marco and his date walked over to them. He looked so handsome in his suit and fresh lineup. Whoever the girl was, they looked good together.

  “Family, thank you for coming out tonight,” Marco told them.

  “You know we support each other no matter what. I'm proud of you, man, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart,” Tariq said as he pulled his brother in for a hug.

  Tonight was the opening of Marco’s club that he had been working on opening. Everyone came out to show him some love but no one was more proud of him than Tariq. He knew how much this meant to his brother. He and Zeek had released him of all drug related activities and he was officially out of the game. Tariq wanted his brother to be happy but he knew being in the games wasn't what Marco really wanted to do with his life. Now here he was, a professional business owner.

  “Thank you, man, that really means a lot to me,” Marco said.

  “Look at these mushy mashed potatoes ass niggas, y'all soft as hell,” Zeek joked.

  “You ain't shit!” Marco laughed.

  “No, on some real shit, Marc, I'm proud of you, too,” Zeek said as he hugged him as well.

  Coco cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. “Don't be rude, Marco. Introduce us to your date,” she said.

  “Oh yea, you right,” he said as he grabbed his date’s hand. “Imani, this is my family, everybody, this is my girl Imani,” he introduced.

  “It's nice to finally meet you all, I've heard so much about all of you,” Imani smiled.

  “Girl, you heard about us? Marco, you been keeping secrets? How come none of us knew you were dating somebody?” Jayliah said, feeling some type of way that he didn't tell her.

  “We knew,” Zeek and Tariq said.

  “Y'all ain't shit,” Coco rolled her eyes. “Anyways, nice to meet you, girl, and welcome to this crazy ass family,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Imani laughed.

  “Come on, y'all. I'm ready to turn up!” Jayliah said.

  “You better turn your ass all the way down, don't make me fuck your pregnant ass up in here tonight,” Tariq told her.

  Everyone just laughed as they made their way into the club.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  A year later

  “I know pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Tariq Clay. You may now kiss the bride.”

  Tariq grabbed Jayliah and pulled her close so they could share their first kiss as husband and wife. He couldn’t believe that he was actually a married man now. As he broke the kiss, he looked Jayliah in her eyes and knew there was no one else that he would rather spend his life with. Everything that they had been through was definitely worth it to him.

  “Yayy!” their one-year-old daughter Taylah clapped as her mommy and daddy jumped the broom.

  Everyone laughed at her excitement as she jumped off Quadir’s lap and ran to her daddy. Tariq kissed his daughter while he picked her up as the wedding party walked out of the church. After taking about a million pictures, it was time to party at the reception.

  “I love you, Mrs. Clay,” Tariq said to Jayliah.

  “I love you, too, Mr. Clay.” Jayliah smiled as they shared another kiss on the ride to the reception hall.

  “Am I going to have to see this shit all night, all that lovey d
ovey shit?” Zeek joked.

  “Leave it up to him to always have something to say.” Coco shook her head. “I’m so happy to be sitting down though, these shoes are killing me.”

  “I told your fat ass to wear flats, but you just had to be cute, huh?” Jayliah laughed.

  “Girl, trust me, I’m regretting it,” Coco sighed she rubbed her belly.

  Coco was five months pregnant with a little girl. Zeek had struck again and she was pissed about it when she first found out. She did not have plans on having any more kids anytime soon, especially after her hard pregnancy with Zeeky but leave it up to Zeek to be ecstatic about the situation.

  “We’re here.”

  Everyone filed out of the stretch limo as they made their way into the building. After the wedding party was introduced, Coco made her way over to sit down at the table. As soon as she sat down, her son came running towards her looking like a mini version of his father. Zeeky was now two years old and bad as hell. Whoever made up the phrase ‘terrible twos’ was not lying.

  “Mommy!” he yelled.

  “Hey, baby,” she asked as she kissed his little cheeks.

  “Watch her stomach, Trip,” Zeek told his son.

  Since Zeek really didn’t care for the name Zeeky, he called him Trip since he was the third generation Ezekiel. Zeeky looked down at his mom’s stomach and rubbed it. She wasn’t showing that much but he understood the fact that there was a baby in there.

  “Stiter,” he smiled as he tried to say ‘sister.’

  “Yes, sister.” Coco smiled.

  Throughout the whole day, everyone laughed and danced. Even Coco got her pregnant self on the dance floor and danced. Quaid and Tanae challenged her and Jayliah to a dance off to the dance craze ‘Whip and Nae Nae.’ The sisters had to show the youngins that they still had it and everyone watched and laughed at them having the time of their lives.

  “It’s time to throw the bouquet!” the DJ announced. “I need all my single women to the floor.”