by Aya De León
“My auntie used to tell us not to use it,” Tyesha said. “But sometimes I’d hear her talking to my mama late at night, talking bout ‘these niggas driving me crazy.’”
Woof laughed. “Yes, just like that. I remember that night, with that girl. I was like, Tyesha would understand this. I wouldn’t have to explain. She would already know.”
“You saying you tryna be my nigga,” Tyesha asked.
“Hell, yeah.”
“Well, then, come over here and show me, my nigga,” she said.
Woof tilted his head to the side. “You sure you can handle it?”
“Try me,” she said.
Woof walked over to the stereo and put something on. He had walked halfway back across the room when Tyesha heard the opening guitar lick from a song that had come out when she was in high school.
It was a female rapper named SoSleek, a one-album wonder. She was as unapologetically plus-sized as she was sexy, and she distinguished herself from the crowd of female emcees by rapping about what she liked in bed and getting men to please her, instead of the other way around. She had recently had a career revival on the reality TV show Badass Femcee Battle.
Tyesha threw back her head and laughed. “No, you didn’t,” she said.
“Oh, yes,” Woof said, sliding his hands around her hips. “I definitely did.”
SoSleek opened with the song’s hook:
That nigga got me sprung
Does magic wit his tongue
Woof pulled Tyesha into a kiss and undid the back of her skirt and licked his finger. Then he slid his hand down into her underwear.
Tyesha moaned and pressed herself against him.
With Woof’s other hand, he unbuttoned her blouse. Fortunately, her bra hooked in the front, and he undid it.
He pressed her up against the back of the sofa and began to hungrily lick one of her breasts while caressing the other. His other hand pressed between her lips, his middle finger stroking insistently.
Tyesha squirmed with pleasure, the back of the couch making escape impossible.
Woof pulled up from licking her nipple and devoured her in a kiss.
Tyesha could barely breathe, her knees threatening to buckle.
Woof pulled his face back and surveyed her. Head thrown back, eyes half closed, mouth spilling moans. She gripped his shoulders with her hands to stay up, her nails nearly breaking the skin.
“Are you close?” he asked.
Tyesha couldn’t speak—only gave a slight whimper in the affirmative.
A slow grin spread over Woof’s face, and he pulled his hand from her underwear and flipped her over the back of the couch.
Before Tyesha knew what was happening, he had come around and was pulling off her underwear and hiking up her skirt.
While his finger had been insistent, his tongue was merciless. She came right away, but he wouldn’t stop. He grabbed her ass with both hands to keep her in place and balanced himself on his elbows, using his tongue, his lips, and even an occasional gentle nip until she came again.
Only then did he take off his jeans and roll on a condom. When he slid inside, she was liquid and felt nearly boneless.
“Damn, girl, you feel soo good.”
After holding back, he stroked furiously for a moment.
Tyesha’s eyes flew wide.
“Like that?” he asked. “Can I make you come again like that?”
“Yes,” she gasped, and she came. Then he did.
A few moments later, she woke up from having dozed off for a moment. Her arm had fallen asleep, pinned under Woof’s shoulder.
“I don’t think I can move,” she said with a laugh.
Woof roused himself. “Lemme get this condom,” he said.
As he pulled out and went to dispose of it, Tyesha realized he had left the song on loop. SoSleek continued to declare:
That nigga got me sprung
Does magic with his tongue.
In the morning, she woke up in his bed, not quite recalling if she’d walked there or been half carried.
She leaned over and woke him with a kiss.
“I need to get going,” she said. “Is it still a walk of shame if I’m not ashamed?”
“Don’t go home,” he said. “Stay.”
“Some family business I gotta handle,” she said.
“Can’t you handle it tomorrow?” he asked.
“I guess I could,” she said. “But I can’t go back to the office wearing the same clothes, with my hair uncombed.”
“Just tell me what you need,” Woof said. “I’ll get it for you.”
“I’m not talking about a toothbrush Woof,” she said. “I need a business suit.”
He leaned over and picked up his smart phone. “What size?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No,” he said, tapping on his phone’s screen. “You like Dilani Mara, right? What about this suit?” He indicated a magenta silk suit with a classic rounded collar. It was cut with the designer’s signature hourglass proportions.
He ran his hands down the side of her body from her shoulder to her knee. “You probably wouldn’t even need to get it tailored. My personal shopper could pick it up for you and drop it here in the morning. Along with a toothbrush. And somebody to do your hair.”
Tyesha’s eyes widened. “That suit is fucking gorgeous, but I don’t—I mean—”
“Maybe this is the part of the date that’s a little less Melvyn and a little more rap video,” he said. “So what do you say?”
“I say I’m a size twelve,” she said. “And this is much better than a yacht.” She rolled over to kiss him again.
* * *
The next day, Tyesha wore her Dilani Mara suit to the meeting with Teddy and Etta Hughes. It was hot and muggy, so she didn’t want to meet on the docks. She’d be sweating in five minutes, even with the lightweight fabric.
Instead, they met in Penn Station. Marisol and Tyesha stood around in the Long Island Railroad terminal. They had waited about twenty minutes when Teddy and Etta came in and stood next to them. Tyesha pulled out her phone and pretended to dial, then began talking.
“So,” she said briskly, “we’ve done the initial assessment and will need an additional seven to ten thousand for equipment. I know this is above what we had originally discussed, but the client has a totally antiquated system, and this is what’s needed to get things into the twenty-first century.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Teddy asked, abandoning the ruse of the phone and glowering at Tyesha.
Tyesha put a finger in her ear and turned her back to him. “This is a professional operation,” she said. “I’m not working with a bunch of fucking amateurs. I have no problem walking away. You need this much more than we do.” She tapped the screen of her phone and turned back to Marisol.
“There’s one client that’ll be spending time in jail,” Tyesha said pointedly. “No need for that trip upstate now.”
Tyesha picked up her briefcase, and the two women began walking out.
Before she hit the door, Marisol’s phone rang.
“If those motherfuckers are calling from their cell, it’ll be Etta’s ass,” Marisol murmured, rummaging through her bag. “I told them clearly no cell communication.”
But instead, the call was from a 212 number.
Marisol picked up her cell, and Tyesha looked over her shoulder to find Etta standing at a nearby pay phone.
“Why don’t the two of you go to the coffee spot behind you,” Etta suggested. “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”
Tyesha and Marisol walked over and stood in line behind a woman ordering several iced frappuccinos. Tyesha and Marisol could see the couple arguing. At first, Teddy was heated, but Etta began to cry and then jabbed him in the chest several times. He moved in close and hissed something at her, then pushed her away and stormed off.
Etta walked over to the coffee franchise and took a couple of napkins to wipe her eyes.
“T
en thousand,” she murmured to Tyesha and Marisol. “I can have cash by tomorrow morning.”
“Well done,” Tyesha said, and she and Marisol headed down to the subway.
* * *
The following night, the team sat around in Tyesha’s office, preparing for the next phase of the plan.
Jody picked up her burner phone and called Ivan, the mobster’s nephew. She put him on speaker.
“I’m bored,” Jody said. “Say something interesting or I’m hanging up.”
“Heidi?” Ivan asked.
“How is my own name supposed to be interesting to me?”
“First of all, I’m sorry I insulted you with that cocaine,” he said. “How about you come over for some limited-edition vodka?”
“I’m busy later,” she said. “I was just bored.”
“Well, soon my uncle’s going out of town for a week,” he said. “We could have the place to ourselves. And I got this vodka, just hoping you might call.”
“I guess I’ll consider it,” Jody said. “Assuming I don’t get a better offer. I’ll text you tomorrow night if I’m coming,” she said. “How will I get in?”
“I’ll text you the gate code.”
* * *
The next day after work, Tyesha stopped by her place to pick up a few things before going back to Woof’s. Both girls were out of the apartment. Which was good, because she didn’t want to have to explain to Deza that Woof was buying her three-thousand-dollar suits.
After changing into sweats, she watered the orchid and set it out in the window box. Then packed an overnight bag with her own business clothes for the next day.
She grabbed her toiletries and stood in the bathroom looking at the hairbrush. She still hadn’t sent off the sample for the DNA test kit. The hair in the brush was mostly brown with rainbow strands. Clearly both of the girls had been using her brush.
She pulled out a few strands. Amaru had medium-short, natural hair. Tyesha had a press instead of a perm, so some of the kinky hairs could have been hers from the day she came home with her hair soaked and turned back. Deza’s hair was permed and pressed with streaks of different colors.
She called Deza’s phone. “How do I sort out all this hair?” she asked. “We can’t just send all this to the lab.”
“Why not?” Deza asked. “Zeus is paying for it. Let the lab sort it out. It’s just mine, yours, and Amaru’s in there.”
“What about all the fake hair?” Tyesha asked. “Isn’t it mine, yours, hers, and a hundred different women from India?”
Deza laughed. “Maybe last month, but all my fake hair is plastic right now.”
“I’ll see what they say,” Tyesha said.
When she got through to the lab again, they said that for an additional fee, they could sort through and test all the hair with bulb roots. They could easily test whether or not they were full siblings, and could also test whether or not they were daughters based on Zeus’s saliva sample.
Tyesha went back to the bathroom and tugged at the ball of hair. The bristles had balls on the end, so it was tough. Finally, with a hard tug, the ball came free. Her hand swung back from the effort and she burned herself on the flatiron that Deza had left on again.
“Goddammit!” she yelled, running her burned hand under cold water.
She called Deza to read her the riot act, but got voice mail. She couldn’t kick them out now that she’d promised they could stay. But would these girls really end up burning her apartment down?
Seething, Tyesha unplugged the pressing iron and left an angry note. She dropped the rainbow-streaked ball of hair into the test kit and took the hairbrush with her to Woof’s. They could get their own damn brush.
* * *
A couple nights later, Jody and Tyesha rolled up to the mobster’s house in the limo. There was no one in the guardhouse. Tyesha punched in the code that Ivan had given Jody.
They drove up to the front door, and Jody stepped out of the car in a slinky purple dress and ankle boots. Inside her ear was a communicator that kept her in touch with all the rest of the team.
The front door opened, and Ivan came out to meet her.
“My uncle’s gone for the next three days,” he said.
Jody shrugged. “Let’s see if this vodka was worth my time.”
Again, the team in the car watched as he led her into the large living room.
He walked across the gleaming marble floor to the large liquor cabinet between a pair of bay windows. The bottle was violet-colored and shaped like a stalagmite. He began to unscrew the cap.
“There’s no ambience in here,” she complained. “Let’s go back to that office room I saw last time. This place feels like we’re early for ballroom dancing lessons or something. It’s more cozy in there. More . . . masculine.”
“Sure,” Ivan agreed, snatching up the bottle and two shot glasses.
The two of them walked down the corridor to the office. This time Jody let him keep his hand on her back.
He opened the office door, and she walked right in and sat on the desk.
She watched carefully as he poured the shots and made sure he drank first.
“Wow,” she said. “That is good vodka. Not to mention that it heated me right up. Can we open a window?”
He scurried over to do as she requested. A lukewarm evening breeze wafted in.
She patted the desk next to her. “Come sit by me,” she said. “You’re kind of cute when you’re obedient. In a sort of puppy dog way.”
When he sat down, she grabbed him and gave him an aggressive kiss. He reciprocated and reached for her breast, but she slapped his hand. He reared back, eyebrows up in surprise.
“I call the shots,” she said.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Let’s go to your bedroom,” she said.
He readily agreed, and on the way out of the office, she carefully slid a piece of linoleum in place to keep the door from closing.
In his bedroom, she pulled a flask out of her purse. “My favorite vodka cocktail,” she said, taking a long pull. “An original recipe. I call it crazy ice.”
“Let me taste it,” he asked.
She leaned forward and kissed him hard as she dropped something into the flask. Pulling out of the kiss, she handed it to him. “Swirl this around under your tongue to get the full sensation.” He took a drink and swirled it for a moment.
“You like that?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Then take it all,” she said with a grin.
He emptied the flask, and she pulled him down onto the bed. After several minutes of kissing, she started to unbuckle his belt. She pulled down his pants and underwear. He looked down at his raging erection and gave her a lopsided grin. She pulled a packet of lube from where she had tucked it in her bra. His head began to droop. Before he could nod off, she squirted the lube onto him and gave him a quick hand job. Then she texted the team that he was knocked out.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Kim drove up to the security checkpoint in a concierge medical van and punched in the code.
By the time she knocked on the door, the security was in high alert. But they calmed down when they saw that the visitor was an attractive Asian woman in a cocktail dress.
“He didn’t say he was expecting two girls,” one of the guards said.
Jody swept into the foyer. “Dr. Chen,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“I’m sorry, miss,” the guard said. “Your friend isn’t authorized to be here.”
“Friend?” Kim said, outraged. “I’m not her friend, I’m her doctor.”
“And if you must know,” Jody said, “the condom broke and she’s bringing me emergency birth control.”
“I’m sorry, but you’ll need to arrange to see your doctor on your own time,” the guard said.
“Are you kidding me?” Kim said. “I was on my way to a banquet with the governor.”
As Jody and Kim argued with the guards,
Serena and Marisol slipped out of the limo.
Both had on black clothes and dark wool caps. Marisol also had on a costume bodysuit that made the silhouette of her upper body look like a man’s. The pair of them crept up to the security box on the side of the house.
Marisol pulled out the lock picks and began to tinker with the lock. Serena found the company name on the box and looked up specs on the company’s website.
A moment later, Marisol had the box unlocked. Serena opened her toolkit and Marisol held the flashlight while Serena cut and spliced various wires.
Five minutes later, Marisol closed and relocked the box, then hunkered down in some shrubs beside the house.
Serena climbed into Kim’s medical van and opened her laptop. She pressed the code to activate the security hack. A moment later, all twelve cameras came online.
Inside the mansion, Kim handed Jody a package.
“Listen, Heidi,” Kim said. “This is the last time I’m doing this. It’s not an emergency, it’s become a lifestyle. Come see me in my office and we’ll give you the birth control shot.”
Kim strode back to the van and drove back down the driveway, with Serena in tow. They parked just outside the property.
Inside the fake medical van, they were able to see and record everything on the real security feed. Meanwhile Serena went to work. After a half hour, she had rigged the monitors to show the security guards a loop of nothing happening in the office.
“All clear,” Serena said into her communicator.
Jody crept down the stairs and into the mobster’s office. She slid the window all the way open and reached down to pull Marisol up into the study.
“We need to move that camera,” Serena’s voice came through on the communicators. “I can’t see the safe.”
Marisol couldn’t quite reach it, but Jody had the height.
