by Shan
She sat there for a minute and gasped for air while I walked inside to check on Skylarr. Briana’s hardheaded ass stood by the window, and I already knew that she had seen everything that had taken place, even though I had told her to leave a long time ago.
“Y’all getting on my nerves. I feel like I need to move and don’t tell either one of you bitches where I live,” I said to Briana as I walked toward the staircase.
“Your house needs cleaning and shit. You look—”
“I just thought about that. How the fuck you gonna come clean up my shit when you had my daughter over there living in a fuckin’ pigsty? Man, get the fuck out, and take Selena’s ass with you.”
I took the stairs two at a time and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket once I had made it to the top. Thinking about how bad shit with Selena and Briana was had me thinking that it was definitely time for a change. I had completely lost all respect for both of their asses. I had dated both of them for the wrong reasons in the beginning. Briana was a beauty with exotic features and a bad-ass body, and Selena was a half-breed with one of the fattest asses I had ever seen. All that superficial shit had landed me in this shit I was in, but there were some other things and somebody else I wanted to explore. Cuba. Seeing her again that day confirmed everything I had been thinking and feeling. She was the one, and like they said, third time’s a muthafuckin’ charm. Shit, at least it better be. I needed a change in my life for real—someone to hold me down and someone I could do the same for. Neither Briana nor Selena had what I was looking for, and although I didn’t know Cuba, I just knew that she was it.
Me: Aye, you gonna help me get your cousin or nah?
Send.
Tangie: You need help? Say it ain’t so . . . lol. Cuba ass is a tough one, but I got a feeling you’ll be just what she needs after what she’s gone through.
Me: What has she gone through?
Send
Tangie: If I tell you, she’ll kill me. But I will definitely help you get her. You have something for her to do? Like more work? In the evening time? She can use the money, but nothing illegal. Maybe she can babysit for you since you having that little issue with Briana . . . ???
I looked down at Tangie’s last message and thought about it for a second. I wasn’t the kinda nigga to have mad bitches around my kid, especially with how young she was, but damn, I was desperate. Something about Cuba had a nigga stuck in his thoughts, and I usually didn’t stay there too long if it wasn’t about no money. I thought about the fact that I had mad-ass laundry to handle and the other little shit around the house that could be tidied up, and I figured maybe having Cuba around wouldn’t be too bad.
Me: Set it up, but give me about a week tho. I need to handle some shit with these crazy-ass bitches, and then I’ll be ready.
Send.
Tangie: Alright bro, you know I got you.
Chapter 6
Amber
One Week Later . . .
It was 7:30 in the morning, and I had gotten up about an hour ago to fix my man breakfast in bed. Yesterday, Tramell’s baby mother, Cocoa, was laid to rest along with two others, and I knew Dae was taking it very hard. He seemed to be so defeated when he came home a few hours earlier after staying out all night, having only enough energy to shower before he was knocked out and snoring right next to me.
I knew little things like this breakfast had always made him feel better. He would say all the time that he appreciated the effort I gave to put a smile on his face even though he was such an asshole all the time. It was nothing to me, because I loved my man. We had been together since I was a freshman in high school and he was a sophomore. All the girls were so in love with the Prince brothers, and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world when I started dating Daelan Prince. He was so charming and caring at such a young age. He was always looking after me and making sure I had everything I needed. Dae would give me the clothes off his back just to see me smile, and for that reason, I fell deeply in love with him, and I knew the feelings were mutual.
Back then, my mama’s boyfriend that lived with us apparently had a thing for young girls. He had been hitting on me nonstop until one day, he could no longer resist me. My mama caught him touching all over me and forcefully trying to remove my clothes. He was able to convince my mama that I was the one that had come on to him. He said that I was always tempting him by wearing my jeans too tight or my shorts too short. He convinced her that I was a fast-ass little girl that was too eager to get some dick and that she should keep a better eye on me.
That was the day I found out that some bitches ain’t shit. My mama didn’t even ask me or care to know my side of the story; not that she needed it anyway. She took her boo’s word and threw me out on the street with the clothes I had on my back and no shoes on my feet. I went straight to Dae with everything that happened, and that was the first time I really saw how tight Dae’s bond with his brothers was. They went to my crib and fucked my mama’s boyfriend up, and then grabbed up everything they could that belonged to me.
Dae convinced his mother and grandmother to let me stay with them. They were apprehensive at first. Dae told them that if I was going to have to live on the streets, then he was going with me, and his mama was not for nothing. They allowed me to stay, and I slept on the floor in the room with the boys every night, with Dae’s arms wrapped around me. I guess Dae’s mother and grandmother knew what would happen if they allowed me to stay, because not even six months later, I was pregnant, and then later gave birth to our son, Daelan Jr. two days after my fifteenth birthday. D.J. was now five years old.
Dae was love. He was everything that love represented, but that was all back when we were younger. Over the past few years of Dae ripping and running these dirty streets, he had completely done a 360 from the tall, lanky boy that I met in high school. He was no longer soft and serene when it came to how he treated me. Most times that I looked in the eyes of the man that I loved so much, I didn’t even know who he was, and I didn’t even know if he knew himself.
“Babe . . . babe,” I said as I flipped on the bedroom light and made my way toward the bed. Dae’s sexy body was on display, showing damn near every inch of his caramel skin besides what was covered by the briefs. His stomach was ripped with a firm eight pack, and his huge biceps showed how much he took care of his body. I knew the ladies loved my man; they always had. He was a dreadhead, unlike the rest of his brothers, and I made sure that they were always neatly tamed. Dae had these sexy hazel eyes that seemed to turn dark whenever he was angry and lighten up whenever he was in a good mood or happy. As of late, they always stayed dark—at least whenever he was in my presence.
“Babe,” I called out again just as D.J. came bolting into the room and jumped on the bed all over his father. He should’ve been at school, but Dae’s paranoia wouldn’t allow me to drop him off this morning. He was afraid that whoever hit them last week was probably not finished, and God forbid that anything happened to D.J. in the process. I was cool with my little man being home, though. I would rather he be right there with me where I could watch him at all times anyway. Maybe since all this had happened, I could talk Dae into allowing me to homeschool D.J. like I had wanted to do in the beginning.
“Daddy! Daddy! I waited for you last night,” D.J. said to his father, and finally Dae came to. He opened one eye, yawned, and stretched before completely opening the other one. I smiled as I watched the two of them interacting with each other. No matter how much of an asshole Dae could be sometimes, he never let it show with D.J.
“This food is gonna get cold if you don’t eat it soon. And D.J., did you finish your breakfast?” I said as I moved closer to the side of the bed.
“Just sit the shit down,” Dae said as he stared at D.J. strangely before he continued to tickle him. I went to place the tray of food down onto the nightstand when I noticed the reddish marks that were on Dae’s chest, with a few around his neck area. My breath caught in my throat, and my hands became shaky, causing the
food and drinks to spill from the tray.
“Ahhhhh!” D.J. screamed as he reached for his leg that had been hanging over the bed. “That was hot!”
I quickly set the tray down and tried to go to D.J.’s aid, but Dae grabbed me by my hair and pushed me back. I tumbled backward and threw my hands back to catch my fall.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Amber?” Dae yelled as he quickly sat up in the bed to examine D.J.’s leg.
D.J. had tears running down his face as he dramatically ran his hand up and down his leg. I could see that he was a little red, and I assumed that some of the coffee had fallen onto his skin. I immediately felt bad, but I damn sure didn’t do the shit on purpose like Dae was acting. That was my baby, and I would never do anything to hurt him. The blatant disrespect that Dae was continuing to show was really starting to get to me. It’s not like I didn’t know that he was cheating on me, because he always had, almost from the beginning of time. I was always having to fight some chick over Dae.
There was a time when he used to do his best to hide his infidelities, but now, he just didn’t give a damn anymore. I don’t know how many times I’d gone through his clothes to do laundry only to find the scent of perfume or makeup stains. Condom wrappers and sometimes even used condoms would pop up all over the damn place. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve the things that Dae had started doing to me over the years. It was like he no longer loved me, and I had threatened to leave several times when I thought I reached my breaking point, but Dae would always guilt trip me into staying. He would even use D.J. against me and tell me that I couldn’t take him if I ever left, and of course, I wasn’t leaving my son behind.
“I didn’t do the shit on purpose, Dae, damn,” I finally said as I jumped up from the floor and ran into the bathroom.
I grabbed a rag from the cabinet and wet it with some cold water, and then grabbed a tube of Neosporin from the medicine cabinet. When I turned around, Dae was standing directly behind me. His eyes were so fuckin’ dark that they scared me. I couldn’t help but glance at the marks on his chest again. I wondered how, if he was so fuckin’ hurt about his people being killed, was he able to gather up the strength to get some pussy? And why not get it from his girlfriend? I couldn’t even remember the last time we had sex, but I really didn’t even know if I cared. He always made it like it was something that he was forced to do whenever we were intimate. In order to save myself the embarrassment, I hardly ever asked, and he never attempted.
“You did do that shit on purpose,” Dae barked, causing me to jump back a couple of inches.
“No, I didn’t! Why would I purposely try to burn my son?” I asked, and when I attempted to go around him, he pushed me back.
“The fuck you mean? Bitch, you know why! Every time me and that nigga bonding, you always gotta step in like that shit kills you or something.”
“Your ass is craz—”
Whap!
“My ass is what?” Dae asked after slapping me across the face. I brought my hand up to my lip, and I felt it beginning to swell. Holding back my tears, I looked up at Dae. His six-foot-one, muscularly-built frame seemed to tower over me as it always did whenever he was angry with me. He hated when I talked back to him, but hell, he wasn’t my father, and shit, he was crazy. To think that I tried to burn my son was the dumbest shit in the world, and only a crazy person would even think some shit like that about me.
“Look, I ain’t trying to fight with you!” I yelled to Dae as I held my hands up in surrender. I could see that he was burning with anger, and usually when he got like that, it was nothing that I could do to get him off of me. I wasn’t trying to go there with him. Not that day. Hell, not any day, but especially not that day. Not while D.J. was just feet away in the other room.
Dae made one move toward me, and I tried my best to dodge him, but he grabbed me by the back of my hair and pulled me into his chest. His big, bulky hand wrapped around my throat, and he squeezed tightly as he ran his nose down the side of my neck as if he was smelling me or something. He then brought his lips up to my ear and began to whisper.
“She was a pretty, dark-skinned bitch with a fat ass, in case you was wondering,” he said, and the tears began to slide down my face. “You better learn how to keep your emotions in check when my son is around. You understand me?”
I nodded my head and tightly shut my eyes. Just as Dae went to let me go, there was a light knock at the door. I rushed over to the sink to wet the towel again. I turned on the cold water, placed the towel underneath, and then wrung out the excess. I placed the towel to my lip, hoping I could keep some of the swelling down. D.J. was a smart boy, and I didn’t want him to think that it was ever okay to hit a woman. He looked up to Dae and wanted to be just like him, and normally, that would be okay, but not this time and not in our situation.
“Amber, are you okay?” I heard Deonna say from the other side of the door. I had completely forgotten that she was here. I picked my head up and looked through the mirror at Dae. He looked back at me with a smirk on his face before he turned around to pull the door open.
“What the fuck do you mean is she okay? Bitch, are you okay? My brother still hadn’t gone upside your head yet? Let you had played me like that, I would’ve had your muthafuckin’ face in the dirt, scandalous-ass bitch.”
“Dae!” I yelled at him to stop. Deonna had been staying with us since a couple of days after her arrest. She needed a place to lay her head and didn’t have access to any money to get a hotel.
Apparently, she had gotten into some legal drama that she didn’t really go into details about. KaeDee bailed her out, but by the time she made it home, he’d had the locks changed and wasn’t answering any of her calls. All of her belongings, including her wallet that held her ID and credit cards, were inside of her office, which KaeDee had made sure to deny her entry to as well. It had been damn near a week since she was released, and KaeDee had yet to contact her.
She could stay with us as long as she liked, and I told her so without even thinking to check with Dae, because I didn’t think I had to. We were family, and I knew that if I had been in a similar situation, Deonna would do the same for me.
“Nigga, don’t flex, okay? Just because you go around here putting your hands on Amber like that makes you some big, bad-ass man, don’t think that you can do the same to me. I fight men too.” Deonna rolled her neck and smiled almost like she was testing Dae.
Deonna was a pretty girl. She had some radiant brown skin, sleek brown eyes, and a figure to die for. All her curves were home grown and fit her five-foot seven frame perfectly. She loved to work out and took great care of her body. She rocked a short cut that fell chin length that she always kept laid. I admired her so much. She was a businesswoman, her husband’s partner and confidant, and I hoped that whatever she and KaeDee were going through could be fixed. They were the type of couple that I wanted Dae and me to be.
Deonna stood there with her arms folded across her chest and just stared Dae down. I could feel things about to take a turn for the worse when Dae bucked at her like he was going to hit her, and Deonna brought her hand back to slap the shit out of him. He punched her in the face, causing her to stumble back and trip over the thick carpeting in our bedroom. I ran to them and pulled at Dae’s arms when I felt like he was about to hit Deonna again. He pushed me off of him and stood over Deonna as she tried to pick herself up off the floor. I could see that she was dazed, and I felt so fuckin’ bad.
Yes, everyone knew that Dae was a hothead and that he had an anger problem, but I didn’t believe that they knew just how bad it was. I didn’t want people to see this side of him, because I knew that it was just a phase he was going through. Whatever demons Dae was facing out there in them streets was really fucking with him, and he hadn’t yet figured out how to cope with it. That was part of the reason why it was so easy for him to convince me to stay when at times I so badly wanted to leave. I didn’t want to neglect my man in his time of need and then be accu
sed of not riding for him when things got bad.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Dae?” I screamed as tears poured from my eyes. I slowly moved over to help Deonna in fear that he would attack me again. “Just leave. Just fuckin’ leave!”
“You’re what’s wrong with me! Every time I try to be happy with your ass, you come along and fuck it up and make me act like this!” Dae threw out, and I shook my head repeatedly. I refused to let him do this to me that day. This was how it was every time when he realized he’d gone too far. He would toss it all back on me and really have me wondering if I truly was the reason for everything he did. Usually, I would fall for it, but not this time. I woke up in a great mood, ready to cater to his every need, but his blatant disregard for my feelings had brought us to this point.
“I don’t care, Dae. Just whatever . . . just go!” I said, and finally, he walked away. He got dressed in a T-shirt and jogging pants, threw some Jordans on his feet, and bolted out the door.
As soon as he was gone, I ran to grab my cell phone to call Khi. He picked up on the third ring.
“What up, sis?” Khi answered.
“It’s Dae. I can’t hide this shit anymore. He’s been hitting on me, been doing it for years, but this time he’s hit Deonna too. I don’t know what to do anymore, Khi,” I told him, and all I could hear was his light, then heavy breathing before the line went dead.
Chapter 7
Cuba
I pulled up to the address that Tangie had written down for me and made a stop in front of the heavy iron gate. Looking at the numbers laid out across the gate, I double-checked that I had the right address. I went to press the button on the keypad, but before I could, the gate started to open. I drove through once it was fully open and went down the long driveway until I came to a stop behind a cocaine white Maserati.
