by Shan
I grabbed my cell phone and went through my contacts until I came across Mr. Portman's number. We had gone out on a few dates here and there and every now and then we would check up on each other through text. I had yet to have sex with him and blamed it on the fact that I didn't feel comfortable doing so while I was pregnant with another man's child. That way he wouldn't think that I was brushing him off and I could hold onto him for a while longer while I played my hand with Taron.
Seeing as how things aren’t going to work out in my favor, maybe it was time to go ahead and give Mr. Portman some of this pussy. I'm sure after he had a taste of it, he would be more than willing to do whatever I needed him to do.
"Hey," I said to him the moment he answered.
"Latoya, what do I owe the pleasure of this call from a beautiful woman such as you?" he asked in that deep baritone of his.
"I really don't want to be by myself tonight and all day long I've been trying not to call you, but I couldn't seem to get you off my mind and gave in. I thought about what we talked about the last time we spoke and I think I'm ready for that."
"Really? Wow, you just don't know how happy I am to hear that. And I would love to be in your company tonight. What would you like to do? Dinner, movie?"
"A movie sounds great, but if there is any way possible we can do it at your house or maybe get a room if you don't feel comfortable with me coming to your house. I just really need to—"
He cut me off. "No, I don't have a problem with you coming to my house at all. I would very much welcome you and I'm sure I will enjoy you being around. I'll make it home around eight, so let's say you come through around nine."
"I'll be there."
"Great see you then. I'll text you the address as soon as we hang up."
"Okay cool. See you later."
I hung up with Mr. Portman and quickly shot my mom a text message that I needed her to watch Keymani for me tonight. I rushed to find something sexy to put on that would fit over this stomach of mine and then grabbed an overnight bag.
Soon as I was done putting it on Mr. Portman, I would cry on his shoulder, make up some type of lie about Taron hitting me, or hitting Keymani and then have him promise me that he wouldn't contact Taron concerning his court date next week. Hell I'm sure after he finds out that Taron plans to fire him and get someone else, he wouldn’t mind doing the shit anyway.
I hated to result to evil shit like this, but I wasn't with no nigga trying to use me. Fuck Taron, he could take his ass back to prison and have his bitch ass brother help him out that shit. I had plenty of paper and I didn't need him to take care neither one of my damn kids. I was good.
Chapter 17
Tamar
Gutta Bitch
Look hop in my ride
Stash this,
Hold that,
Be cool turn
The sound up and roll that
Now you my gutta bitch
~Webbie~
"What kind of car is he driving?" I asked Black referring to that nigga Jamir.
"I don't know, but my man's said that he was up this way. He said that in order for him to keep custody of his lil' girl he had to come to the family services office and show that he's taking good care of the child or some shit like that. I don't know, but he said that he would be here for sure. He saw it on the books," Black told me as he looked around the parking lot. .
"Yea that nigga need to show up. Can't have him thinking he got away with fucking me over. I put bread in that nigga's pockets, and he paid me back by using my wife. Really got me messed up if he thinks I'm a let that shit slide."
"I always thought he was a hoe."
"Hoe ain't even the word for that ass."
"Look, there he go right there. But damn he got that baby with him."
I shook my head as I watched Jamir crossed the parking lot with a baby carrier in his hand. I wanted that nigga bad as fuck. The type of shit he did was a whole other level of disrespect, and everybody knew that when he came to me, it was a couple of things that I didn't have a tolerance for; fucking with my family and fucking with my money. Jamir had done both.
"I'm a just follow him and see where he goes. I wanna get him away from that baby and murk his bitch ass."
Black followed Jamir out of the parking lot staying at least two cars behind him. I hated to do this shit while he had his shorty with him, and something kept telling me to fallback and catch him another time, but I felt like there would be no other time. I didn't even know where he had relocated to, and had no idea when he would be back in Dallas if ever. Black hit my line the moment I picked up my kids this morning, and I skipped spending time with them to handle this knowing I was on a plane and out of here tomorrow afternoon. This situation was cutting into my time with them.
Fallback or take this cat out now? Fallback, fallback, fallback. Nah, fuck it. Nigga cruising the streets in a fuckin' Ferarri. I know that's my damn money. How the fuck he think it's cool to come up on another nigga's hard work and paper? Fuck outta here. Payback, payback, payback!
I shook my head because when I had revenge on my mind, my rage level was always at an all-time high. It was hard for me to talk myself out of doing something that I knew I shouldn't do. I wouldn't want a nigga to fuck with me when I had my youngn's with me, but I knew that if they wanted me as bad as I wanted Jamir, they wouldn't even give a damn.
"I hate doing shit when kids are around," I admitted to Black.
"I do too, but at least she a baby. She won't even know what happened."
"I know, but damn maybe because I got shorties at home I feel some type of way about this shit. Damn kids making me soft," I laughed.
"You wanna get out and let me handle it or we just get up with him another time?"
"Nah, I got a feeling he gonna disappear on me for good. He not smart enough to take that type of work and build something with it. I'm pretty sure he got rid of it, cashed out and got his weak ass ducked off somewhere. Fuck it, we gonna do it now. Just know I ain't feeling it though."
"You know I'm down with whatever. I don't give a damn."
"This fool bought a damn Ferarri bruh. He ain't even trying to hide the fact that he came into some money. Nigga just dumb and just straight up disrespectful. I ain't about to let this shit slide."
It took about thirty minutes before Jamir finally exited off the freeway deep into the North part of Dallas, a little into McKinney. I guess he figured he was safe way out here. We followed him as he pulled into a Chevron gas station and drove up to a pump.
"Hurry up and catch his ass before he get out," I told Black.
He hurried and jumped out and rushed over to the passenger's side of Jamir's car. I watched as Jamir's door came open the moment Black opened the other side and hopped in. Jamir stopped in his tracks and looked down inside the Ferarri. He hiked his pants up a couple of inches and then regretfully sat back inside. He knew exactly what time it was. The lights on the back of the car lit up, followed by the brake lights. He backed out and then quickly drove out of the gas station lot with me on his ass.
I sat back in my seat, turned the volume up on the stereo and thought about last night with Rozalyn. As always, sex with her blew my fuckin' mind. She was still my wife, but I was serious about us splitting up. All this madness and crazy shit had been going on from the day we met, and it just couldn't continue this way. At the end of the day, I had to step up and be a man do what's right for my family and to me this was the best thing to do. Rozalyn couldn't stop cheating and each time I thought about her being with another nigga, I flipped the fuck out.
This last time for me was the final straw. Whether she had fucked Rico or not didn’t even matter to me. It was the possibility that something could've gone down if Rico wanted it to and that's what pissed me off. I just felt betrayed in so many ways. I was sick of looking at her knowing that she had no respect for me to keep it at home. It fucked with me on a daily basis. My ego felt like it was being toyed. The shit was driving me crazy. For
the life of me, I just ain't understand this shit. Mad bitches would break they neck to be where Rozalyn is and wouldn't do one single thing to fuck it up, but yet she was constantly stepping out on a nigga. In the end, it left me wondering what was wrong with me. Fuck it. That bitch wanna run the streets with every nigga she meet that she think got money then I'm a let her; I thought to myself as I pulled in behind Black.
He pulled inside of an empty lot that used to be a Target. I really didn't give a fuck where we went and was ready to get this shit over with. I parked right behind Jamir in Black, placed the car in park and got out. Pulling my nine from my back, I walked over to Black's side and waited for him to get out. He had the baby in his arms and cradled her as he made his way over to my ride. I took his place in the Ferarri and closed the door was I was settled in.
"What up?" I asked and fired up one of his cigarettes.
"Can you just make sure my daughter makes it back to somebody in my family?" Jamir asked as he stared straight ahead.
"You don't have anything to say. You don't have an apology or you ain't gonna make up some kinda whack ass excuse as to why you fucked over a real nigga who brought your bitch ass out them funky ass projects!" I yelled getting heated by the minute. Niggas like him made me sick to my fuckin' stomach. Dude could've had anything he wanted from me. Only thing I required from him was loyalty and hard work, and it was nothing. I would've made sure that he forever ate. Muthafuckin' family wouldn't have had to worry about a damn thing. "Weak ass nigga."
"I ain't got shit to say. You tried to have my baby mama killed, so I did what the fuck I had to do. Nothing personal until you made it that way."
"Fuck your baby mama! That bitch running her mouth. She snitched on your own fuckin brother, and you think that hoe should live my nigga? Really? That bitch would snitch on you if meant her life over yours. Hell yea, I wanted that bitch dead. Better be lucky I got a soft spot for kids or otherwise that bitch would've been dead before she made it inside the police station."
"Yea whatever man, you better not---"
WHAM!
I slammed my fist into the side of Jamir's face and then shoved the pistol into his temple. I watched as his face was immediately covered in sweat and as his lip trembled uncontrollably. I could sit here and play with him a little longer, stretch it out, and have him sitting here shitting on himself, but I needed to get back to my kids and chill with them before I left. With barely any weight on the trigger, a bullet left the chamber, burning the side of Jamir's head as it entered his skull. Blood splattered onto the window, and his head dropped to the side of him. I removed my shirt and wiped down anything that me, or Black might have touched while inside of the car and then slowly got out and headed back to my ride.
"Fuck I'm a do with this damn baby?" I said to myself before getting inside the car and quickly pulling out of the lot.
***
"What's good ma'?" I asked Keysha upon opening the door to my hotel room.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I noticed how she eyed my bare chest and moved her eyes all the way down to where my jogging pants hung loosely around my hips. Ever since I left the hospital, I found myself hitting pushups every chance I'd gotten, doing pull ups in any place I could find, and before going to sleep at night, I did at least a thousand sit-ups. With me eating around the clock all day along, I was quickly adding the pounds back on. I still had a long ways to go, but by the look in Keysha's eyes, I could see that the little bit of work was paying off.
"You a'ight?" I asked with a smirk.
"Yea, I just wasn't expecting you to come to the door like this," she said as she stepped into my room. I closed the door behind her and continued to wipe the excess water off of my neck and back. I held my finger up to Keysha and went inside of the bathroom to get dressed. My phone vibrated against the bathroom's countertop and almost slid to the floor when I reached out and caught it. It was Rozalyn. I slid the bar on the bottom of the phone across the screen and then brought the phone up to my ear.
"What's up?" I said to her.
"You sent me flowers and this Gucci bracelet. It's not my birthday, Mother's Day, or Valentines…so what is it for?" Rozalyn said, and I reached down and grabbed hold of my dick. I shook my head and bit down on my bottom lip. Sad that I could hate this woman in one minute and hated the sight of her, but in the next her voice alone gave me a hard on.
"I felt bad for putting my hands on you the other day. I promised I wasn't gonna ever do that shit again, and I slipped up. I don't give a fuck how mad I am about what happened; I shouldn't have hit you."
"Tae nothing happened. Rico is lying to you. He tried to get me—"
"I don’t wanna talk about it, Roz. Every time I think about it, it pisses me off."
"But—"
I cut her off again, "But nothing. Kiss the kids for me. Let them know I love them, and I'll be through to see them as soon as I can."
"Where are you?" she asked, but I quickly hung up the phone. I sighed and placed the phone back down on the counter. I placed my hands on the edge of the countertop and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I just had to stay away from her for a little while. Ignore her like I always did when I got mad and eventually I would stop thinking about her completely. I didn't want to feel guilty about leaving her.
I've lost too much over this girl. Shit I just had to kill a nigga in an abandoned Target lot, and have his fuckin' daughter dropped off at a damn fire station. Now, I here I am spending time with this bitch Keysha, making her believe she was on her boss shit just so I could get my hands on her fuckin' supplier. I refused to be forced out of the game. When I was ready to leave then I would leave on my own fuckin' terms and I knew too many people wish that I would walk away and never show my face again, but I couldn't do that. If I couldn't be a hustler, then I didn't want to live.
That's how deep that shit was for me. I loved my money, but nothing about the cash attracted me anymore. I had so much dough put away that I honestly stopped counting it a couple of years ago. Now, it was all about the power and the allure of the street life. I loved how when a nigga or a bitch saw me that practically bowed down on their knees knowing that I was responsible for their next meal. Or they knew that if they fucked with me that I had no problems putting in that work on their ass.
After getting dressed, I stepped out of the bathroom to find Keysha staring at the window of my hotel room. I glanced over her gorgeous voluptuous body and smirked at the heart shape of her ass. She belonged at home, taking care of some kids, and playing the wife of a hustler—not doing the shit herself. I know people didn't agree with my views, but a woman's place was at home. It was a man's responsibility to see to it that his wife never had to lift a finger. I believed in that shit wholeheartedly. A woman should be taking care of the kids, cooking, cleaning, and fucking enjoying the amenities of the hard work that her husband put in. Keysha could never be my woman, which is why I would never even take it there with her.
That had been another consistent problem between Rozalyn and I, and although I hated to compromise on my belief, I did it for her happiness. She wanted to be a lawyer, wanted to run a beauty shop, and have this clothing store and all I wanted was for her to just take care of our children, and be that wife I needed when I came home.
Rozalyn was set for the rest of her life. She had no idea, but if and when I was finally put six feet under, there was an account set up with her name on it that had an unlimited amount of zeros. She was straight, but I would never tell her that.
Her ass would probably fuck around and kill me or have me killed just to get her hands on that money. I was convinced that Rozalyn had a thirst for power just like I did. Maybe it was because she had been around me for so long that I done rubbed off on her, but I could tell that she loved the shit just as much as I did.
"What are you thinking about?" Keysha asked as she walked over to me.
My wife; I thought to say, but wasn’t ready to divulge that type of information to her ju
st yet. "Nothing, was just making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. You ready?" I asked.
"Yep, handsome. Ready when you are."
"A'ight, let's go."
Keysha and I left my hotel room, and I drove around parts of Atlanta showing her how things would go if I ran her product through the streets. I had done this shit with ease back when I lived here and had it going strong up until my recent incident. It hadn't been as deep as it was back in the day because the product wasn't as good, but was still getting money.
Typically if a nigga tried to move in on my organization by trying to take over my territory, I would have them murked with no questions asked. Keysha had been an exception especially after witnessing with my own eyes what the weight she was holding onto would do to a muthafucka. She had that fish scale times ten and that I couldn't let get away.
"Wow, in just thirty minutes I've learned so damn much. I had no idea I was missing out on so much money. This shit sounds so movie-ish. You got me feeling like I'm about to be part of some type of mob around this bitch," Keysha cracked as she downed her window a couple of inches. She went into her Prada bag and pulled out a pre-rolled blunt and fired it up.
"Your daddy didn't teach you nothing before he let you loose on the streets girl?" I asked out of curiosity. I don't know about nobody else, but I always had a certain way of doing things and it always had to go in order and nothing was ever done outside of that order. The only thing done differently every day was the location of where everybody worked from; not speaking of the niggas on the block.
Keysha sighed, "No, he just handed me the number to his guy in Jamaica, had me meet with them and had them start growing the coca leaves and producing the heroin. He put my guy Nino on me that you met the other day and asked his nephew Quan to show me the ropes, but that was it. Quan's way of doing things was so cut and dry that it only took him a day to run it all down to me. I'm new to this, but it's in my blood to do this. My daddy ran an entire empire by himself and had hopes of passing it down to one of his sons, but he never had one. When he got out, he told me that I could either allow someone else to run it or do it myself."
