by Kia
“Divine, please!” I yelled, trying to run after her and explain but she had already burnt off.
“Get the fuck away from here!” Lu Lu yelled at everyone who was recording. No one moved.
Then Kipp pulled out his gun and shot in the air. They all ran. “Betta act like y’all know,” he said as he got a rise off the fear from everyone.
“What the fuck just happened?” I asked as I pulled my door open and wiped the glass from my seat.
“Shit, she fed up. You surprised?” Glory asked as he walked up behind us laughing. Pinky was walking right behind him, looking lost as fuck.
“Chill out, Glory,” Lu Lu said as he took his shirt off and held it against the blood that was freely leaking from my lip.
“What the fuck you do? That bitch just tried to kill yo’ ass,” Kipp said as he examined my face.
“Yo, you got the stuff?” Glory asked Lu Lu.
“Yeah, in the house.”
“Come on,” Glory said to Pinky.
She tried her hardest not to look at me as they walked by but she couldn’t help it.
“I’m just saying. What—”
“Shut the fuck up, Kipp!” I yelled, cutting him off.
He was steady trying to make jokes, and I wasn’t laughing. Nobody was.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Divine
I was furious as I sped off. I saw that hoe tryna explain, and I wasn’t tryna hear it. Fuck her. This was her last time crossing any of us. Never again would I come to her defense or rescue. She had stooped to a whole new low. As I made a sharp left, my phone started to ring. It was Milo.
“Yo?”
“Bitch, I love my job! Oh my gosh! Ali so cool, man,” she said excitedly.
“You must be on break?” I asked, looking at the clock.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with you? You sound real stiff right now,” she said.
“Just beat Malina’s ass,” I said dryly.
“She been past due for an ass whooping,” Milo said.
“I know, man. It really just hit me this morning that Neiman was raped. I don’t know.”
“You snapped. That’s all.”
“I guess so,” I said, starting to feel bad.
No matter what, we were family, and that was that. But Malina had that ass whooping coming. Maybe I could be cool now since I had beat her ass like I wanted. But I still felt betrayed.
“But let me tell you about your man. So he real cool and run a nice lil’ ol’ business. It was poppin’ all day today. Sales were up through the roof.”
“Was he nice to you?” I asked, knowing how niggas could change when they got into the corporate setting.
“Actually, he was very nice. It’s not a hostile work environment at all. And he even invited me to enroll in his tuition reimbursement program.”
“What’s that?” I asked, stopping at the light.
“I can go to school and his program will reimburse me for the cost.”
“Really? That’s what’s up, Milo. What you gonna do?” I asked, hoping she agreed to continue schooling.
“What you mean? I’m taking my ass to school and taking advantage of all this shit. Feel me? Bitch lucked up for real,” she said. Then she went on and on about her new coworkers and the plans she had in store for her new beginning.
“So, how long are your lunch breaks?” I asked as I finally pulled up to the condo to apologize to Neiman for what happened to her.
I knew Malina wouldn’t, and I just wanted her to know that I was here if she needed me. If she was turning to drugs, then she was unhappy about something, and I wanted to know what it was.
“An hour. You know I’m happy.”
“Yeah? So what kinda customers y’all be getting?” I asked as I rushed inside the building because I wasn’t trying to showcase my busted lip to everyone.
“A bunch of white men and Indian men. Crazy right?” she asked.
“Hell yeah.” I was now on the elevator.
“Man, I ain’t ever going back to what I used to do,” she said.
The happiness in her voice made me want to leave the game so I could be that happy again. My life was turning into a damn circus.
“Must be nice.”
Ding!
“What’s that?” she asked.
“The elevator.”
“Oh, you must be at the condo?”
“Yeah, just wanna have a sit down with Neiman. You know?”
“I understand that’s your family, Divine, but why do you care so much?” she asked.
“You said it. That’s my blood. Besides, Neiman ain’t really ever did shit to me but act dumb as fuck,” I said as I pulled my key out and opened the door.
“But still, it’s just a matter of time,” Milo said.
Then she started talking about her new nail tech and how bomb her nails were. I wasn’t really paying attention because I saw Neiman’s car outside, but she wasn’t in there. The radio was loud and blasting Future’s hit song “Fly Shit Only.”
“Neiman!” I yelled, but got no response. I walked over to the couch and saw her panties and some man draws on the floor. It couldn’t have been Kipp because he was just at Lu Lu’s place.
“Everything good?” Milo asked.
“Yeah, she just in heregetting some d—”
I cut myself off when I cracked her door open and saw her bent over the bed. I had to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. That couldn’t have been AJ hitting Neiman from the back. And she was enjoying it. I could tell by the way she was allowing him to pull her hair and grip her ass. The way she bit her lip let me know that this was really happening. She was really letting this happen to her.
“Ummmm, Adrian,” she moaned as she looked back at him.
“Divine!” Milo yelled.
I put the phone in my bra and contemplated going in here and killing them both. What was really going on? Shit was getting mad awkward ’round this bitch. I took a deep breath and decided against going inside and ending her life. AJ? Bishop’s brother? What the fuck? How he got out was a mystery to me.
I closed the door back, put my head down and walked out.
“Hello?” I said as I picked up the phone. I couldn’t have gotten to that elevator fast enough.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Nothing. Let me call you back.” I hung up the phone before she could even respond.
When I got to my car, I sat there in a daze. I had so many questions that needed to be answered. From where I was standing, everyone was turning against me.
Fuck family. I was on my own.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Milo
“Damn,” I said as I looked at the phone and saw that Divine had hung up in my face. My break was about over anyway, so it was all good.
I walked back into Trudy’s office to wait on her so we could finish going over more papers about the business. We also had other cars, but most of them were Porches though.
I can’t even lie, it felt funny actually working a real business job and having to be trained. Authority had always been a problem with me but I would have to get over it, I guess. You know… Divine was actually pretty cool, but I had some strong feelings about Malina and Neiman. To me, it just seemed like they didn’t care enough about her.
As I sat in deep thought, an idea popped up in my head. I wanted to plan a special evening all for her, and I wanted Ali to be a part of it. So I headed to Ali’s office, but it was locked, so I waited.
I heard someone talking, so my nosey ass put my ear to the door. It was Ali talking to Trudy.
“You do that again, and you’ll have to find another place of employment. What’s wrong with you?” Ali asked.
“Come on, Ali. You can’t tell me that you have no feelings for me,” Trudy said.
He laughed. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”
“Because after you broke up with me, you continued to let me work here. Come on, stop playi
ng. We can be really quick.”
“Get up,” Ali said. “I let you stay here because I care, and I don’t want you broke out here. We’ve been broken up for a whole year now. You can’t possibly think I still want to be with you. If I wanted to, I could have and you know that. Exit my office please, and pull yourself together.”
“Who is she?”
“Who is who?” Ali asked, getting frustrated.
“Who is this woman that got you so pressed all of a sudden? I know it’s someone.”
Trudy was getting extremely upset; I could hear it in her voice.
“It’s my business, Trudy. I have to go.”
Slap!
“Listen!” I heard her yell. Then I heard something knock to the ground.
“I’m going to do us both a favor and forget you did that. Okay? Now I will not say it again. Get the hell out of my office and don’t let this happen again.”
When he said that, I hurried and ran back to Trudy’s office and sat down. What the fuck was going on? What? Trudy used to fuck with Ali and now she wanted him back? That’s what I got from that lil’ get down. I couldn’t wait to tell Divine.
I looked up and saw Trudy storming down the hall. When she finally got to her office, she yanked the door open and slammed it shut.
“I need a minute before we start back,” she said with an attitude as she grabbed some Aleves, popped two, and chased it with some water. Then she sat back in her chair and took a deep breath.
“Everything okay?” I asked. She looked to be in a daze because she couldn’t have heard a damned thing I said. So I asked again. “Trudy?”
“Huh? Uhh, yeah. Everything is good. Ready?” she asked.
“Sure.”
I put my phone into her drawer and followed her to the front. This nigga Ali must have had been the truth.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Neiman
The next night…
“Okay, I’ll be waiting,” I said to AJ then hung up the phone.
He was telling me that he was on his way over again. I said cool because neither Divine nor Malina had been here lately, so I figured they weren’t coming back. All Divine’s shit was gone. I started to call Malina, but thought against it. Shit was so weird. Did they know about AJ? Nah, couldn’t have. They would’ve said something.
As I was watching TV, the front door flew open. It was Malina. She walked straight over to me and got on my ass.
“Are you stupid? Or are you fucking dumb?” she asked with her finger pointed in my face.
“What you mean?” I asked with an attitude, looking at her swollen lip.
“You fuckin’ AJ?” she asked.
This was the moment I had been waiting for. I smirked then frowned. “Don’t go there. Wasn’t you the one who sent him here? Yeah, he told me.”
“I didn’t do it for you to go off and start fucking him! This was to get back at Divine!”
I paused to let her hear how dumb she sounded. Then I spoke. “So why is what I’m doing any worse?”
“You just don’t get it,” she said.
“No, you don’t get it!” I yelled as I stood up.
She didn’t budge. The way I was feeling, we were ’bout to go toe to toe.
She shook her head. “Them drugs got you trippin’.”
“How? Huh?” I asked as I followed her to the back room. She grabbed a suit case and started throwing shit inside. “Malina!”
“What?”
“How am I trippin’?”
She yanked her head around. “Do you understand that AJ is working with Percy? I didn’t fucking know this until recently, but he’s working with that nigga. They want Divine… not you! And I won’t stay around to be a sitting duck with you, Neiman.”
“Sitting duck?”
She threw her hands up and waved them in a circle. “Look around, Neiman. Ain’t nobody been here but you! If you think AJ give a damn about you, then you sleep walking. Once he gets what he came for, he’s gonna kill you. If he don’t, Percy will. Why don’t you get it?” she asked.
Now tears were falling from her face. For the first time in a long time, I felt like Malina was actually giving a fuck about me.
“It’s not like you care,” I said, putting my head down.
“We all care, Neiman! AJ don’t care! That’s who don’t care. And you wanna learn the hard way. Right?”
“Wait, where are you going?” I asked as she put the last shirt into her bag and stormed toward the door.
“I’m leaving,” she said.
As soon as she opened the door, AJ was standing right there. She didn’t even look surprised. All she did was roll her eyes and shake her head at him. Then she walked down the hall and got onto the elevator. I rushed over to the couch, pulled up the cushion and grabbed a pill to numb the pain.
“Stop,” AJ said. I wasn’t trying to hear him. He grabbed the pill from me and threw it. “Stop!”
“Why do you care?!” I yelled as tears fell. I didn’t know if I was emotional as fuck or having withdrawals.
“What happened to you, Neiman?” he asked as he stood over me and shook his head.
“Oh, great. The bad guy wants to judge me now. Unbelievable,” I said as I plopped onto the couch.
“You have to get out of here,” he said.
“Huh? Why?” I asked when I saw the look of urgency on his face.
“You have to go.” He grabbed me and pushed me toward the door.
“Wait… hold up… stop.” I was trying to turn back around, but he was persistent in getting me out the front door. I didn’t even have shoes on, and he didn’t care.
“If I don’t get you out of here within the next fifteen minutes, you’re going to be held for ransom and killed.”
“By Percy, huh? Why didn’t I see this coming?” I asked in disbelief.
“We can discuss this later. But I have to get you away from here.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
AJ
“Man, ain’t nobody in that bitch,” Percy said to me over the phone.
A few hours had passed since I’d gotten Neiman out of there. I even got a new motel so that nigga wouldn’t pop up. My head was gone just like Neiman’s. I was just seeing shit differently now. I can’t explain.
“Damn, for real?” I asked, pretending to be in disbelief.
“For real. I even stayed for like an hour just waiting. No one came, so we just said fuck it and left. Damn. You think them hoes on to us?” he asked.
“Nigga, we got caught running a train on Neiman and shot at by her nigga. Hell yeah they know something is up.”
“Where else could they be?” he asked.
“Shit, I don’t even know,” I said, trying not to moan as I used my hand to guide Neiman’s head up and down on my dick.
“Was that Percy?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“What he say?” She stopped the motion.
“Finish sucking me off and I’ll tell you later,” I said, pushing her head back down.
Neiman was acting so damn stupid that I was starting to believe that she was the one setting me up. One bitch just couldn’t be this damn retarded to be sucking the dick of the enemy. Didn’t she know that it wouldn’t be no happy ending for us? But then again, if I didn’t care so much, why didn’t I let her get kidnapped and held for ransom? Why did I save her? What was wrong with me? I had the answers all inside the plans that I had.
“All done,” she said after slurping my cum like it was some sort of magic potion.
She sucked dick even better than her sister. Sometimes I sit and wonder if that hoe went to heaven the way she was out there playing niggas.
“But yeah, that nigga just said he left the condo, and no one was there. Don’t worry, he has no idea where you at,” I said as I stood up and zipped my pants.
“So, what now?” she asked.
“Now, we go a different route. This plan was Bishop’s original plan. But we doing shit my way now,” I said.
“Percy knows that?”
I looked down at her and twisted my lip like I was the basketball player Russell Westbrook. “Fuck how that nigga feel. I’m a grown as man, I don’t have to check with that nigga. Say, you really ’bout to piss me off,” I said as I went to take a piss.
“Nah, for real though,” she said as she followed close behind me.
“What?”
“What’s the new plan?” she asked.
“You don’t need to worry ’bout that. I got this.”
“Why not?” she asked.
I yanked my head around with my dick in my hands. “Damn, Neiman, let a nigga piss in peace without you all in my ear ’bout some shit that you don’t need to know l’bout.”
“Fine.”
She finally walked away. Her ass was starting to annoy the last fuck out of me. I was starting to see why that Nel nigga did her the way he did. Bitch was aggy for no reason.
After I pissed, I washed my hands and walked back over to where she was. “I have money, you know,” she said.
“Not enough for me,” I assured her as I pulled out a sack and proceeded to roll my blunt.
“Divine pays Malina and I for small shit that we do for her, and she pays us well. Just to let you know.”
“How much you got on you right now?” I asked.
“I have ten stacks.”
My eyes lit up. “Word? Where at?”
“You literally pushed me out the crib and didn’t let me grab anything. It’s at the crib.”
“Man, fuck!” I yelled as I got mad. But I was to blame for that ’cause I was the one that hauled her out that bitch against her will.
“Yep.”
“I just need a few stacks ’cause I’m broke right now,” I said.
She stood up and rubbed her hands together. “You help me. I help you. We can do this,” she said.
“Huh?”
“You don’t need to get shit from Divine. Just tell me your plan and I’ll turn you on to mine. We can really turn up one time. On my life,” she said, putting her hands up.
“Yeah? What you got?” I asked.
Chapter Forty
