by Shan
“You ain’t hear me blowing for your ass twenty minutes ago?” I said as I pulled out of the driveway and sped down the street, causing Dae to waste a little of his drank on his shirt. He looked over at me, and I blew a cloud of smoke into his face, smirking at the few drops that had made small stains.
“Bitch,” he said, and I laughed.
“I don’t know what that nigga did, though. He told me he didn’t wanna talk about it when I talked to him yesterday. All he wanted to know was where was Deonna’s ass at.”
“Pussy-whipped-ass nigga. I betcha all this shit has something to do with why that bitch caught them charges. I knew I couldn’t trust a ho with no hair. Baldheaded ass.” Dae shook his head and moved his dreads out of his face.
“Fuck is you talking about, nigga?” I laughed and pulled onto the highway. “Anyway, bruh, since you want to duck and dodge a nigga’s conversation and shit, we about to talk about this shit now since you ain’t got nowhere to go.”
Dae sighed. “Damn, told you it ain’t shit wrong with me, bro. Why the fuck something gotta be wrong?” Dae asked and sat back in his seat, looking defeated.
“What you mean why something gotta be wrong? When the fuck has it been normal to snap out on everybody the way you’ve been doing? Then you over there beating on my sis like some ho-ass nigga. . . .”
“Man, don’t act like you ain’t never hit on no bitch before. I done seen you choke Briana’s ass out a few times.”
“Man, don’t try and twist this shit around, Dae. But yeah, I have put my hands on Briana and Selena, and it’s fucked up no matter if I felt like they deserved the shit or not. We not them type of niggas, though. Come on, fam, we don’t beat on women.”
“What I do with my girl is my business. I don’t dictate how you run your bitches, so don’t try and dictate how I run mine.”
“I ain’t trying to dictate shit, Dae. I’m just telling you, you looking like a real ho-ass nigga for that shit. You beating on Amber, bruh. Beating on her like she another nigga.”
“Fuck that ho. I don’t even know why I’m still with that bitch.”
“Really? That’s how you feel? Shorty that done held you down through all the fucked-up shit you be out here doing, you feeling like that? Man, what the hell is wrong with you? Please talk to me. I’m begging you, bruh.”
“Look, I don’t wanna fuckin’ talk about this shit, a’ight? Man, leave me the fuck alone. I’m good!”
“Straight up, youngin’. You got that. Long as you know it won’t be no more talking and straight action coming from me.”
“Yeah, and like you scare me, ho-ass nigga.”
“We gon’ see, you bitch. You pussy-ass bitch.”
“Man, what’s up with that broad, though, that was at your house the other day?” Dae asked, changing the subject.
I was dead-ass for real with his ass, though. It wasn’t going to be no more talking from me, and every time Dae fucked up, I was coming straight for his head. KaeDee was already fed up with him, and I was the one that kept giving him all the chances. I couldn’t have him out there making me look bad just because I wanted to spare that nigga’s feelings.
“You tell me. You fucked?” I asked him, referring to Cuba. I had peeped how he was checking shorty out like he knew her the other day when he came by, but I never got a chance to ask him what it was all about since he ran out on me the minute I asked him what was going on with him.
“Nah, she just look familiar; that’s all. Maybe she went to school with a nigga or just used to be around the way in the hood. She just look like somebody I know, but I know I ain’t fuck.”
“Like you would remember,” I joked.
“Nigga, you might be right about that, but shit, I don’t think I fucked.”
“Shit, I hope not, ’cause I’m definitely tryna see what that box like.”
Dae laughed and snatched the blunt out of my hand. He took in a long pull and blew the smoke out before he looked over at me. “She might be what you need, though. I knew from jump that Briana and Selena wasn’t ’bout shit, but I couldn’t tell you that.”
“I was wrong about Briana, but Selena was some shit that really went too far, and I tried to make it work for the sake of me not letting her go before she fell in love, and then my dumb ass went and got her pregnant.”
“Yeah, you is dumb for that shit. I could tell that li’l ho low-key crazy, bruh, so I know you got your hands full with that one.”
“I really do care about Selena a lot. I just never been in love with her. I should’ve never dragged her along like that.”
“So, you think little mama is what it is? She look like she ain’t shit but sixteen years old. You check her ID?”
I laughed. “Cuba don’t even know what I’m about to do in her life. It’s been so long before I went hard behind a woman, but I could feel like this won’t be a mistake. I’m all in on this one.”
“What? And you haven’t even had the box yet? Nigga, is you for real?”
“It’s them eyes, bruh,” I said, and Dae laughed before pulling his dreads from his face.
“You and KaeDee with that eye shit Mama used to talk about. Fuck that. I don’t believe in that shit. That’s why I never listened to her when she started talking about it. If that shit was so accurate, then why the fuck you got it wrong?”
“Nigga, I was only nineteen when I met Briana, and if you did listen, you’d know Mama always told us that we may get it wrong a few times before we get it right. I believe in that shit, because Mama said that Daddy taught it to her. She said that he knew that she was the one for him when he first laid eyes on her. She gave him five boys, and when he got locked up and left her to raise us alone, she still held that nigga down, and still fucking do so after him being gone for eleven years.”
“That’s because she just that thorough. She a rider, but that ain’t got shit to do with her fuckin’ eyes. I wish you stop telling people that shit too. You and KaeDee sound real fuckin’ stupid.”
I shook my head and sighed. “You just a lost cause, my nigga. A lost fuckin’ cause.”
I pulled into downtown Dallas and drove down Industrial Boulevard until I made it to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center parking lot that sat right across the street. I parked as close as I could to the front, and Dae and I hopped out and made our way to the jail. KaeDee stuck out like sore thumb as he paced back and forth, puffing on a cancer stick. I knew my brother had to be stressing if he had resorted to the nicotine.
“Aye,” I called out, and KaeDee looked over at us and tossed the cigarette to the ground. He walked toward us, and with every step he took, I swear to God I could see the ground shaking. This nigga was heated, and I knew that if KaeDee was pissed about anything, it had to be something serious.
“I need a fuckin’ drink,” he said as he walked past Dae and me and headed across the street to the parking lot.
We all got in the Mazi, and I peeled off, waiting on KaeDee to grace us with the details that had led to him being locked up over the weekend. I thought it was kinda funny that we hadn’t heard from Deonna, but I guess that was enough for me to know that all this shit had to do with her.
“Bruh, I don’t know why you ain’t just kill that ho and that nigga. I already know this shit is about her. I’m just glad that it’s not me in trouble this time, though. I’m happy as fuck it’s not me that y’all picking up from county,” Dae said before sipping on the lean from his cup.
“Shut the fuck up, Daelan,” KaeDee snapped, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“A’ight. I’m just saying that y’all niggas always got something to say about me getting in trouble and shit. I’m just glad I ain’t do—”
“I oughta snap your muthafuckin’ neck right now,” KaeDee said as he wrapped his big-ass arm around Dae’s neck and squeezed as hard as he could. Dae’s drink fell out of his hand and into his lap, and he brought his hand up to try to pull KaeDee off of him. I shook my head and kept driving like I ain’t even see the shit.
I knew it had to be a reason KaeDee opted for the back seat rather than sitting up front where there was more leg room.
“Keep talking that shit. Your ass is always running your muthafuckin’ mouth, and I’m getting sick of it. Shut the fuck up some got-damn times and listen, nigga! Listen! You gonna fuck around and get your ass into some trouble that Khi can’t get your bitch ass out of. Notice I fucking said Khi and not we. I refuse to come to your rescue any fuckin’ more. You put your hands on my wife, and because of that, I want to fuckin’ kill you, but I know it would cause my mama some pain, so because of that, I’m going to spare you. But if you ever . . . in your muthafuckin’ life . . . touch my wife, I will hang your ass by your muthafuckin’ balls, nigga, and I mean that literally. You know how I give it up, so don’t fuck with me, Daelan Prince. You giving us a bad name out here, nigga. Get your shit together or go the fuck away!”
KaeDee released Dae, causing him to take a sharp and deep breath as he fought to fill his lungs with oxygen. He began to cough, and I glanced over at him to see tears falling down his face. Nobody said anything after that. We all rode in silence all the way to KaeDee’s side of town. Once I pulled into the gated community where KaeDee lived, I drove four blocks down the street to his home. It was only four houses on his block, his being the biggest one. He lived in an eight-bedroom mansion that he had built at the same time he opened his law firm.
As soon as I pulled up to the gate and placed the car in park, Dae angrily hopped out and slammed the door behind him. I watched as he paced back and forth with his dreads hanging as he looked toward the ground.
“Let me tell you something. Dae is gonna fuck this shit up for us. I’m telling you right now, Khi, to take care of him. You always talking about you’ll never let anyone fuck up the business, but I guess Dae is the exception. Give him something else to do and stop fuckin’ playing before we don’t have shit left,” KaeDee said, and I sighed.
“A’ight, I hear you. I heard you the last time.”
“Come on, bruh. You know I know what the fuck I’m talking about. Cass will be home in a few months. How the fuck you think he gonna feel if he comes home to us having no connect, or in the middle of a war? You saw the look on Tamar’s face when that nigga yawned in the middle of the damn meeting. He’s too disrespectful, too hot, and too damn dumb to be in this shit.”
“We not gonna lose the connect, and Cass ain’t got shit to worry about. I’ll never let that happen. I worked too damn hard to get it going in the first place, and I’m not about to let Dae fuck up nothing for us.”
“I can’t tell, bruh. Look at this nigga, bruh. Look at him,” KaeDee said, pointing out the window at Dae.
I looked at him, and all I could see was that at some point, I had lost my brother, and I didn’t know where and to what. This wasn’t the Dae that any of us was familiar with. Something had happened, and I just wanted to know what so that I could do what I needed to help him out of this state.
“What happened with Deonna?” I asked, changing the subject, and KaeDee began telling me everything that took place, from the time the FBI came rolling into his office to him being seconds away from killing that bitch-ass nigga Tyrin Walker from out of Miami, and to him almost being killed by the cops. I shook my head the whole damn time, not believing that my sis even got down like that. She didn’t seem like the type, but nowadays, you couldn’t really tell the hoes from the good girls anyway.
I felt bad for my brother, because he really loved his wife. I remembered when he first called me and Cass from D.C. while attending school, telling us how he felt that he had met the one. I had never heard that nigga sound so happy in my life. As soon as he had graduated college, he came home and got this house built, bought Deonna an engagement ring, and had her move here as soon as the house was done. Deonna and KaeDee were what I wanted, but now I wasn’t so sure about that.
KaeDee said that he was going to check into this Tyrin cat, because he didn’t trust him, and he was going to do some digging into Deonna, too, because he felt like he no longer knew her. Shit, I felt the same way. That bitch had fooled us all. He wanted me to take him to get his car out the pound in the morning, but that night, he said, he just needed to think and get his head straight, and I understood.
Once we were done talking, KaeDee stepped out of the car, and then entered the code that he needed to get inside the gate. Dae’s ass wouldn’t even get back in the car until KaeDee was out of sight. He went to say something, but I hushed his ass by turning up the music on him. I needed to fuckin’ think as well.
* * *
When I made it back to the house, the first thing I did was head up to Skylarr’s room. It was going on two weeks since I took her from her mama, and I knew there was no way I was ever going to give her back. I loved having my daughter right up under me, and little girls needed their daddies more than anything. I hadn’t seen or heard from Briana since the night she had come asking for my help. I was a little worried about her, and I felt a little bad about turning her away, but this was what she had done to herself. She only got clean the last time because I forced her to for the sake of our daughter, and this time I wanted it to be something she wanted to do on her own. I didn’t feel like her getting clean was something she wanted to do right now, otherwise she would’ve never gone back on that shit. Knowing her, she only came to me asking for help so that she could please me. That was why I was so hard on her and told her what it was straight up. I wanted to make sure she knew that it was never going to be me and her again, so if she was going to clean herself up, she needed to take me out of the equation.
As soon as I made it to the top step, I could hear Cuba and Skylarr singing nursery rhymes and shit. That brought a smile to my face, especially when I peeked into the bathroom and saw them dancing on the ABC carpet that I had laid out in the middle of the room. She usually didn’t get there until after six most evenings, but I had Tangie let her have the day off since I had to pick up KaeDee from the jail.
“Where is Skylarr, where is Skylarr?” Cuba sang as she held on to Skylarr’s little hands.
“Here I amm, here I amm!” Skylarr responded to her.
“How are you today, little girl?”
“Vewy well, thank you.”
“Run away, run away,” Cuba told her, and Skylarr ran around the room. She started spinning around in circles, and that was when she noticed me. She took off running toward me and hugged my leg like she always did when she saw me.
“Hey, you’re back. I didn’t think you would get back so early or I would’ve had dinner ready,” Cuba said, seeming embarrassed. If she had only known how much I fuckin’ admired that shit....
“It’s cool. I can order some pizza or something. I’m in for tonight, so you can chill out,” I told her as I looked her over. I noticed that she had finally taken the time out to do something to her hair, and that let me know that I was making progress with her ass. She wore her natural hair and had straightened it out to have it fall down both sides of her full, round face.
Cuba’s job was to take care of the house and take care of Skylarr, but she made sure to take care of me too. Every day that she cooked, Cuba was sure to make something for me too. I hadn’t had a homecooked meal by a woman other than my mama since me and Briana were together, since Selena’s ass didn’t know how to cook besides making hot dogs, tacos, and spaghetti, which I refused to eat. She didn’t even try to learn, either. My moms would even call her up to come get some lessons on the shit that she knew I loved to eat, but Selena figured her pussy and her good looks was enough to get her down the aisle.
“Okay, I’m gonna go use the phone to call me a cab and wait outside then. I will see you all tomorrow after I leave the shop,” Cuba said.
I put both of my hands up to block her exit. I stood in the doorway and stared at her as I wondered what her last nigga had done to her to make her shy away so much from affection. I could tell her ducking and dodging me like I had the plague wasn’t nothing but a defense
mechanism. She wanted the kid, but some bitch-ass nigga had her scared to enjoy her muthafuckin’ life.
“Nah, stay,” I told her.
“That’s okay,” she said as she quickly shook her head and shot her stare down to Skylarr. She tried to kneel down and play with my daughter to keep from having to deal with me, but I gently grabbed her by her throat and forced her to look up at me. I leaned over and pressed my lips against hers before pulling her bottom lip into my mouth.
“I said stay, a’ight.” I let her go, picked up Skylarr, and turned around and walked out of the room.
Chapter 11
Cuba
My eyes shot open, and I looked around the room until my eyes landed on the digital clock on the nightstand. It was going on one in the morning, and I wondered how long I had been asleep. I was still holding on to an old iPad that I had found tucked away in one of Khi’s guestroom’s downstairs. Not only had I developed a love of interior design while locked up, but I had also fallen in love with urban fiction books when my cellmate, Tiffany, had given me a book called The Coldest Winter Ever to read. I could relate so much to Winter Santiaga by the end of the story that it had me wanting to read more and more.
When Khi told me to stay, I ended up making him dinner, and then hid in one of his guestrooms. That fuckin’ kiss he gave me had me so fuckin’ wet that I didn’t want to be anywhere near him for fear that I would end up with his dick inside of me. I grabbed the iPad from the closet, lay in bed, and started reading Chi-Town Hood Affairs by Nicole Black until I guess I fell asleep. A smiled cracked my face when I thought about Jay’s crazy ass, but it was quickly wiped away when I heard yelling coming from another part of the house.
I sat up in bed and made my way over to the door. I pulled it open slowly, careful not to make a sound. When I stepped out of the room, the yelling was louder, and I could make out Khi’s voice, along with some female. I stood in the hallway, where I was able to have a clear view to the kitchen in which they both stood face-to-face. The chick had her back to me while she rolled her neck and pointed her finger into Khi’s face. She was about five foot eight, with long, pretty brown hair, and she had light brown skin. I had never seen her since I had been working for Khi, but I figured she was probably Skylarr’s mom.
